“It’s a part of normal life. It’s not something that we should run away from, but we do need to be aware of the difference between healthy or productive stress and unhealthy stress,” Dr. Tim Fowles said, a clinical psychologist and the Health Services Research Director at Intermountain’s Healthcare Delivery Institute. “If you’re in traffic or you have a meeting with your boss or you have a blind date, these are all normal places where you experience some stress, and that’s okay. It’s a problem when it becomes overwhelming or chronic.”

According to The American Institute of Stress, 77% of people regularly experience physical symptoms caused by stress, including headaches, dizziness, gut issues and fatigue. If left unchecked, stress can lead to more serious complications.

“Some people, unfortunately, find themselves in that environment of chronic stress, and it can lead to heart disease, anxiety, depression, a host of health problems,” Fowles said.

While scrolling on social media or indulging in a sweet treat might provide temporary stress relief, Fowles said it’s more effective to prioritize a healthy routine, like exercising, eating right and getting quality sleep.

“Exercise doesn’t feel as good as chocolate in the short term, but if you stick with it, it pays big dividends,” he said.

Also, Fowles adds, spend time connecting and socializing with others, practice mindfulness and find creative outlets.

“All of those things help you to kind of balance your life in a way that actually helps your stress response when you need it,” Fowles said.

Check in with yourself and your stress levels often. If your coping mechanisms aren’t working, it may be time to seek additional support. Fowles suggests talking to your healthcare provider about any mental well-being concerns.

• If you or a loved one is experiencing a crisis, call or text 988 to reach the free Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Trained crisis counselors are available 24/7, 365 days a year. 
• The free Intermountain Behavioral Health Navigation Line is available seven days a week at 833-442-2211.
• You can also utilize the free CredibleMind website to help with managing mental well-being needs: https://intermountainhealth.crediblemind.com/
• The American Institute of Stress

BY EMMA BENSON for KSLTV

Romantic attachment and sexual satisfaction are closely interconnected, with attachment security fostering intimacy and satisfaction, while attachment insecurity (anxiety or avoidance) undermines these outcomes. Parenting stress, a chronic stressor tied to the demands of child-rearing, often results in decreased attention to romantic relationships. Mariève Vandervoort and colleagues examined parents with school-aged children to explore how parenting stress moderates the link between attachment orientations and sexual satisfaction.

This study included 103 mixed-sex couples from two Canadian provinces, all of whom had at least one child between the ages of 6-11 years. Participants were recruited through community advertisements, and data were collected during a home visit, where both parents completed self-report questionnaires independently. The study drew on data from the second wave of a longitudinal project, conducted approximately 4.5 years after the first wave.

Romantic attachment was assessed using the short-form Experiences in Close Relationships scale (ECR-12), which measures attachment anxiety (e.g., fear of rejection, excessive reassurance-seeking) and attachment avoidance (e.g., reluctance to depend on others, emotional withdrawal). Sexual satisfaction was measured using the Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction (GMSEX), which evaluates the overall quality of sexual experiences on dimensions such as pleasure, fulfillment, and positivity.

Parenting stress was assessed with the Parenting Stress Index (PSI), which measures stress related to parenting responsibilities, including perceived difficulty in managing child-related demands. By analyzing responses from both partners, the study examined how each parent’s attachment style and stress levels influenced their own and their partner’s sexual satisfaction.

Higher attachment avoidance in both mothers and fathers was linked to lower sexual satisfaction in themselves. Fathers’ attachment avoidance also negatively affected mothers’ sexual satisfaction, suggesting that emotional withdrawal may undermine intimacy and fulfillment for their partners. However, attachment anxiety in either parent was not significantly associated with sexual satisfaction, contrasting with some previous research findings.

A key finding was that fathers’ parenting stress moderated the link between their attachment avoidance and their partner’s sexual satisfaction. Surprisingly, as fathers’ parenting stress increased, the negative effect of their attachment avoidance on mothers’ sexual satisfaction weakened. This suggests that, in higher-stress situations, fathers’ avoidant tendencies may become less relevant, either because stress elicits greater empathy from their partners or because parenting demands overshadow the influence of attachment styles.

Of note is that the sample consisted primarily of well-functioning, high-income, heterosexual couples, limiting generalizability to diverse populations.

The study, “The moderating role of parenting stress when it comes to romantic attachment and sexual satisfaction,” was authored by Mariève Vandervoort, Michelle Lonergan, Marie-France Lafontaine, and Jean-François Bureau.

To learn more about stress, go to stress.org

Common stressors during the holidays can be related to:

• Changes in routine
• Traveling
• Missing family members and loved one
• Pressures to create meaningful experiences
• Family dynamics
• Holiday shopping and gift giving

So what can parents do? How can we help our children process pressures to protect their mental health and emotional well-being?

Communicate Expectations
Planning ahead and explaining arrangements can help prepare kids for traveling, adjusting routines, meeting new people and more.

“Kids love to know what to expect,” Ashley Pagenkopf, MS, CCLS, child life specialist in Cook Children’s Emergency Department, said. “Establishing realistic expectations is the most practical tip I would offer to families. Kids thrive with boundaries and expectations.”

When visiting family and friends or even hosting a holiday reunion at home, communicating with kids about who they may meet is important.

“A huge help for kids is to have video chats with family members and friends they will see in advance,” Lisa Elliott, Ph.D., psychologist and manager of Cook Children’s Behavioral Health Clinic in Denton, suggests. “For littles, even reading books to them over video chat is a great way to engage them.”

Let your children know that feeling anxious around unfamiliar people is normal. Staying together as a family can help kids feel safe, and it’s important to remind them they can speak up if they feel uncomfortable or need a break from social gatherings.

Practice Self-Care
Managing family anxiety often begins with parents addressing their own stress.

“Kids are very good at reading adult emotions even if they are not verbally expressed, so if you are stressed out, it’s likely your child is anxious as well,” Cook Children’s psychiatrist Akemi Watkins, M.D., said. “It’s like the safety message on airplanes where you have to put the oxygen mask on yourself first before your child.”

Simple self-care practices can significantly enhance parents’ well-being. Prioritizing sleep, nutritious meals and regular exercise can make a big difference. For more information about self-care for parents, Cook Children’s has a guide of resources listed here.

Focus on Connection
One of the best ways to reduce holiday stress is to focus on connection. Finding ways to bring family and friends together can be fun and meaningful.

“I’ve had multiple kids share their favorite family traditions,” Dr. Elliot said. “Experiences like taking baked goods, lotions or other treats to a nursing home, helping in a soup kitchen serving holiday meals and even adopting a family and going shopping together for them.”

The holiday season presents an opportunity to teach children about generosity – a concept that studies show actually improves mental health. Doing things for others makes you feel good – emotionally and physically.

It also promotes empathy and resilience, which are important building blocks to emotional and mental strength and coping skills that help children deal with challenges.

To learn more about stress-related issues go to stress.org

Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva

OP-

Stress can lead to more than just a stiff neck or a racing heart. In extreme cases, it can influence our brain to create and retrieve memories in strange and unusual ways.

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) have made fascinating discoveries about the relationship between stress, memory, and our brains’ biological processes.

Stress and memory: Unsettling connection

Perhaps you’ve given a presentation that didn’t go as planned. The next time you’re due to present, you might feel stressed because your brain has linked this new presentation to the memory of the previous unsatisfactory experience. This is a type of stress tied to one memory.

However, stress from traumatic events, like witnessing violence or suffering from generalized anxiety disorder, can have a far-reaching impact. It can cause what is known as stress-induced aversive memory generalization.

Here, unrelated stimuli can trigger frightening memories that seemingly have no connection to the original traumatic event. This phenomenon can have severe consequences for individuals who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Memories after stress

Dr. Sheena Josselyn and Dr. Paul Frankland, experts in the Neurosciences & Mental Health program at SickKids, have identified the biological processes that result in stress-induced aversive memory generalization.

The experts have also found a potential intervention that could help restore the specificity of memory in individuals with PTSD.

“A little bit of stress is good, it’s what gets you up in the morning when your alarm goes off, but too much stress can be debilitating,” said Dr. Josselyn.

“We know that people with PTSD show fearful responses to safe situations or environments, and have found a way to limit this fearful response to specific situations and potentially reduce the harmful effects of PTSD.”

Understanding the mechanics

In a collaborative effort with Dr. Matthew Hill from the University of Calgary Hotchkiss Brain Institute, the research team was able to limit stress-induced aversive memory generalization to the specific, appropriate memory. This was achieved by blocking endocannabinoid receptors on interneurons.

To understand this process better, the team set up a preclinical model. They exposed subjects to a small amount of stress before a distressing event. This created a generalized fearful memory that could be triggered by unrelated safe situations, mirroring how PTSD manifests in humans.

Upon inspecting the subjects’ memory engrams (the physical representations of a memory), the research team made an interesting discovery. Typically, engrams involve only a small number of neurons. However, the stress-induced memory engrams involved a significantly larger number of neurons.

When they examined these larger engrams more closely, the team found that stress resulted in increased endocannabinoid release in the brain, which disrupted the function of interneurons.

Formation of fearful memories

A significant bit of the puzzle lies in a previously overlooked area – the endocannabinoid system. This system plays a key role in forming memories and associating experiences with specific behavioral outcomes.

Special “gatekeeper” interneurons in the amygdala, the emotional processing center of the brain, help constrain the size of the engram and, therefore, the specificity of the memory.

When too many endocannabinoids are released, these gatekeeper interneurons cannot function properly, leading to an increase in the size of the engram.

“Endocannabinoid receptors function like a velvet rope at an exclusive club. When stress induces the release of too many endocannabinoids, the velvet rope falls, causing more generalized aversive fearful memories to form,” explained Dr. Josselyn.

“By blocking these endocannabinoid receptors just on these specific interneurons, we could essentially prevent one of the most debilitating symptoms of PTSD.”

Stress-induced memory engrams

In 2023, previous research published in the journal Science identified larger, more generalized memory engrams in the developing brain than in the adult brain, similar to stress-induced memory engrams.

As the experts continue to explore this unexpected connection between engram size, stress, and age, they also aim to understand how daily stressors might affect positive memories.

“The many biological functions and processes that make up the complexity of human memory are still being uncovered,” said Dr. Frankland.

“We hope that as we better understand human memory, we can inform real-world therapies for those with various psychiatric and other brain disorders throughout their lifespan.”

Indeed, as our understanding of the human brain continues to expand, so too do our hopes for revolutionary treatments and therapies. Through the diligent work of these researchers and others in the field, we may be able to fully unravel the mysteries of the brain, stress, and memory.

The study is published in the journal Cell.

For more information about STRESS-RELATED issues go to stress.org

OP-earth.com

By Linda Penkala, LMT 

As a tightly woven unit or loosely gathered group of relatives, the family is our foundational place for lessons to be learned and where loving relationships begin. The stability of parents, grandparents, and extended family offers a solid ground of stability and connections. In some families, the parent’s rocky road of separation or divorce may have been traveled, but it does not have to define who the person is for life, as love and connection still can be present. Nurturing bonds can prevail, whether intrinsically from within the family unit or extrinsically from other caring souls that pour into children and adults for their health and wellness. 

The consequences and results of the pandemic on the family unit were shaken and redesigned from 2020 to the present. There were no Pandemic 101 crash courses to take in preparation for, or even during this massive disruption within a family’s lives as we knew it. Many social and economic aspects may still be a part of many family dynamics, not to forget the state of trauma, shock, and grief if a family lost a loved one or a family friend. 

On a personal and professional level, there was much to witness in this newly defined way of living during the shutdown, apart from family, work, friends, houses of worship, and normalcy as we knew it. From the overload of information about the spreading of the virus to the incredible onslaught of social unrest and political upheaval, the impact of sensory overload was creeping in. Depressive symptoms ensued as the processing ability became overwhelmed by too much incoming television information or social media and information communication overload.1 The central nervous system via the sympathetic nervous system needed a reset to regain balance from the onslaught of negativity while dealing with a new state of fear of the unknown our society had to cope with. Hope is on the horizon, as the family unit is part of the solution to regain and maintain balance through laughter, joy, and time together. 

The value of social connections is evolving as a significant public health priority to address the relationship between social support, mental health, and depression.2 Within this framework, family well-being through traditions and gatherings offers hopeful remedies to embrace with intentional actions. The physiological benefits of reconnecting with family members run deep to nourish and lessen stimulation from devices, television, tablets, and the like. 

The many lessons learned while crafting newly designed relationships over the last several years have paid off with a more profound sense of gratitude and appreciation for our families. Tools we may never have utilized to lessen stress and anxiety, like exercise, breath work, meditation, mindfulness, or massage, may now be the norm. More than ever, we need to foster family moments that enhance family resilience to strengthen individual and family bonds following a shared trauma. We tap into the past to come together for family traditions and create new ones as each family member—parents, siblings, grandchildren, and cousins—ages through the years.  

Hopeful Family Options to Foster Unity and Love: 

Family Trips and Reunions – Over the years, while raising our four kids, we went on a week’s summer vacation or local trips to continue a spirit of adventure my dad downloaded into our family. Whether to Hilton Head on the beach or Maine with my mom with two cars, to Duck, North Carolina in 1999, the last week when the cyber world was going to implode, or to Luray Caverns in Virginia to see the depths of the earth’s beauty, they all offered lasting memories for each of us. One stellar memory was returning by flight at night from a Texas family reunion on July 4th, our son Lance’s birthday. Not only did the entire plane sing Happy Birthday, but we were also gifted with the country’s fireworks below! How can you top that family souvenir? 

Family Traditions – Whether religious, spiritual or passed down through the generations, traditions matter as they anchor and ground our souls together. They offer a significant and meaningful moment to look forward to over the years. Shared beliefs help foster coherence and confidence, enabling each member to enhance coping skills and build resilience. These family values can strengthen family hardiness by helping to get through a significant crisis or stressful time via positivity and hopeful prayers or rituals. 

Family Feasts – A tradition my husband and I try to continue with our six grandkids, ages eleven to five is to come around the dining room table for taco night. When their parents were kids, we would sit there for at least an hour or more, eating and heating those taco shells and getting the yummy tomatoes, meat, cheese, and sour cream from my decades-old taco tray. Another traditional Maryland family moment is a crab feast. We gather outside, around a table, with dozens of crabs, small wooden hammers, salad, and melted butter. We sit, maybe with adult beverages/iced tea, and teach the kiddos how to master getting to that delicious crabmeat. That continues for hours, but it is one crabby tradition that out-of-state families can love to be part of, too. 

Family Volunteering & Service Projects – Volunteering helps decrease stress by improving positive, relaxed feelings by releasing dopamine. Coming together for a good cause helps a family’s purpose, as aligned with their value system and skills. If any are crafters, sewers, or knitters, they could make a prayer shawl to bless another. Volunteering over 65 years of age helps decrease depression and anxiety, resulting in a higher state of life satisfaction. Every community has needs far beyond the capacity of the local social services. Some family community projects involve helping out at a food bank, buying school supplies for a backpack, baking cookies or cake for a lonely neighbor, donating clothes that are no longer worn, or signing up for a cause like Alzheimer’s and raising money together before going on their walk as a family. 

Family Games – As kids, we played Monopoly, the card game Pinochle, and Scrabble. Wanting to share this new introduction to games, I have taught my grandkids how to play the former and latter. Seeing how they become competitive and learn to count, amass, and use money to further their game is a joy. Teaching them along the way about selling properties and buying hotels is an immersive lesson in timing. Eventually, they will learn to count cards with one of my favorite card games – Pinochle. Feeding them while playing is important, too. 

Family Cooking – Making a fun meal with a few grandkids like lasagna or banana bread, which requires mashing bananas, always offers some giggles, directions, and a nice big mess. The best part is when they feel proud that they made this meal and that it tasted fantastic. Along the way, I ask who we could share this with, cutting off a piece for a loved one. 

Family Fun – Finding and securing an agreed-upon fun family moment creates memories that are etched in the minds of the entire family. Whether going to an amusement park, Disneyland, a water park, an arcade, mountain climbing, skiing, or the beach, such joy and positive emotions secure family resilience.3 

Family Relaxation – Our family loves the water as I do, so we have a ton of fun in the pool, at the beach, in a lake, or playing with water balloons. Having football catches while in the water, jumping into a ring from the side, or teaching each grandchild how to swim is pure joy in the summer. Another relaxing moment is giving them a quick massage on my massage table or simply giving a foot or neck massage sitting on the couch, as they all love to be touched in a safe, caring, and loving space. This may be the greatest gift I can give them, to connect with their precious bodies and begin to pay attention to how their posture impacts their neck when looking down at a device. There are many times we have device-free family times to connect and not watch them stare at a screen. Each of us within our families can continue a wedge between people or build a bridge of connection, solidifying the bond, love, and blessings a family offers if we take the time and energy to continue our legacy. Hearts secured and united in love help serve humanity and each other. 

Quotes: 

“If the family were a boat, it would be a canoe that makes no progress unless everyone paddles.” – Letty Cottin Pogrebin 

“The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, lies in its loyalty to each other.” – Mario Puzo 

“In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.” – Friedrich Nietzsche 

“You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.” – Desmond Tutu 

To learn more about stress go to STRESS.ORG

References 

1. Lipowski ZJ. Sensory and information inputs overload: behavioral effects. Compr Psychiatry. 1975; 16(3):199–221. 
2. Holt-Lunstad J, Robles TF and Sbarra DA. Advancing social connection as a public health priority in the United States. Am. Psychol. 2017; 72, 517–530. 
3. Cohn, MA, et al. Happiness unpacked: Positive emotions increase life satisfaction by building resilience. Emotion. 2009; 9(3), 361-368. 

Q&A

Happy Halloween! While this holiday can be filled with tricks and treats, it can also be difficult for patients with anxiety or a history of trauma. How can you as a clinician guide them towards enjoyment rather than fear?

PT: How do you think Halloween impacts patients with high anxiety/stress levels?

Anderson: For many, kids and adults alike, Halloween is an exciting, fun-filled time of the year. It is accompanied by parties, candy, cakes, drinks, and scary movies. Dressing up in costumes allows individuals to try on another persona or become their favorite character for the day.

However, for many with anxiety, stress, or trauma, this holiday can be a nightmare. Those who suffer from panic or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (intrusive images, increased anxiety, an exaggerated startle response, increased heart rate and breathing, alternating with numbness, avoidance, disconnection, and dissociation), can find Halloween grueling and intolerable to partake in. Being spooked or intentionally scared can be terrifying for someone with a trauma history, it can trigger panic attacks, cause increased heart rate, and activate traumatic memories from the past.

PT: Should patients with past trauma avoid scary movies/haunted houses? Why?

Anderson: My suggestion for those struggling with anxiety or have a history of trauma is to avoid scary movies and haunted houses all together. They can activate symptoms of panic, PTSD, and cause traumatic memories from the past to resurface. Reliving traumatic experiences re-enforces trauma neural networks in the brain and can be taxing on one’s physical and mental health. It causes distress, fear, isolation, numbness, a lack of feeling safe, and even can trigger suicidal feelings.

PT: Research shows that women are more likely than men to be interested in consuming true crime stories.¹ Some suggest this is because women experience catharsis from content like this. Do you think that is true? How much true crime is too much?

Anderson: It is important to be aware that this research presents one such perspective as to why women read true crime stories. Many women avoid reading them altogether because they are too activating for them. One possible explanation for this desire, however, is that there is an element of mastery for those women who choose to consume true crime movies. Some of the stories are solved or resolve favorably in the end. This could bring hope or justice or a sense of control to an otherwise difficult and hopeless situation. Watching or reading about someone else’s experience without going through it directly, could bring a sense of comradery or belonging for some women who feel alone in their experience.

PT: Is there any truth behind the concept of “facing our fears”?

Anderson: Most of the research that supports “facing one’s fears,” is conducted when subjects are feeling in control of their situation, and does not incorporate the element of surprise. It is never forced upon someone and ensures that individuals feel agency about the pace and intensity of the exposure to the overwhelming situation in question. Those who watch crime stories repeatedly sometimes use it to access repressed or dissociated feelings they normally do not have access to. This, however, is not generally recommended by professionals as a useful method of working through one’s traumatic past.

PT: How can patients enjoy Halloween without triggering memories of past traumas?

Anderson: The best way to enjoy Halloween is to be in control of the exposure to scary, deceptive, or frightening events. Many trauma survivors dislike the holiday all together and choose to not participate in it because it commonly brings forth unwanted symptoms from their past. One way to move through the holiday with more ease and levity is to experience it through the eyes of children. Focus on the fun, the innocence, the joy of the holiday, compared to what adults tend to focus on: the horror, the deception, and the jump scares. Halloween can be enjoyable when it does not reflect or trigger one’s trauma or anxiety from the past.

To learn more about stress go to STRESS.ORG

Photo by Rahul Pandit

Dr Anderson is a psychiatrist, trauma specialist, and author of the upcoming memoir To Be Loved: A Story of Truth, Trauma, and Transformation (PESI, May 7, 2024).

OP-Psychiatric Times

By Author(s): Leah Kuntz and   Frank G. Anderson, MD

Reference

1. Vicary AM, Fraley RC. Captured by true crime: why are women drawn to tales of rape, murder, and serial killers? Social Psychological and Personality Science. 2010;1(1):81-86.

Maybe you’re running late for an appointment and missing every light. Or need to pick up a prescription on the fly but find six people already in line when you get to the pharmacy. How can you keep your blood pressure from soaring and get yourself back on track?

Behavioral care manager Charissa Reynolds, MSW, at Health First Medical Group, says there are proven ways to deflate stress that you can do anywhere. “I love these because they’re completely portable,” she says, “and you don’t need any equipment except yourself.”

It’s important to learn how to manage stress before it becomes chronic, which can harm your health, taking a toll on your body both physically and mentally. Chronic stress can lead to symptoms such as low energy and headaches, or eventually contribute to more serious conditions such as autoimmune diseases, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity.

Reynolds says that some of these techniques may feel like little things, but little things help make big things that can contribute to better overall wellbeing. She shares five quick stress-busting techniques that can help you in the moment and allow you to calm down, refocus, and go about your day.

1. Take a few deep breaths

The reduction of stress and anxiety is one of the major benefits of deep breathing exercises, according to University Hospitals, a nonprofit academic medical center and community hospital network in Ohio.

Reynolds says you don’t have to breathe deeply for long, but the rhythm is important. “I usually suggest a 4-4-6 rhythm (inhale for four seconds, hold the breath for four seconds, exhale for six seconds). Your time segments can be different than mine, but they need to be consistent. Even if you’re not in a specific stressful situation, you should try to do these twice daily, each time for at least one minute each.”

At first, it may feel unnatural to breathe deeply, but practice comes with numerous benefits. Deep breaths are more efficient, allowing your body to fully exchange incoming oxygen with outgoing carbon dioxide. Deep breathing is fully proven to beneficially affect your mind, emotions and mood by changing your brain chemistry.

2. Play

“Think outside the box,” suggests Reynolds. “Get creative. Explore new ideas. Get outside of yourself.

“Allow yourself to escape in time and then come back to today’s life gradually.”

You can do something as simple as play with a stress ball, suggests The American Institute of Stress. Picking up a stress ball and giving it a few hard squeezes can break a stressful train of thought.

While play may seem frivolous or even silly when we’re adults, especially if we are feeling stressed, it is actually vital to our well-being. University of Wisconsin Health psychologist Shilagh Mirgain, Ph.D., explains that play helps relieve stress, boosts creativity, improves our mood and outlook, and keeps our minds sharp. It also improves our relationships with others.

“In play we find the freedom to color outside the lines of our life. There is a learning that comes from this unstructured time. It allows us to tap into our imagination, try different things and not be afraid to fail along the way,” she said.

3. Cue up a meditation app

“There’s a wide range of apps and YouTube videos that can help you relax, and they range in length from five to 30 minutes,” says Reynolds, “and they’re so easy to watch.

“Calm and Headspace are great apps, and I also like guided meditation apps. My family practices guided meditation together.”

The Mindfulness App provides more than 300 options for learning and practicing meditation, from beginning to advanced. You can choose a meditation from 3 to 99 minutes in duration, meditations of many diverse types, mindfulness notices, meditation soundtracks, and more.

The scientifically proven benefits of meditation are extensive at this point and most major spiritual traditions extoll the practice as a means to greater happiness and mental clarity.

Mayo Clinic says that meditation can help you relax deeply and calm your mind. During meditation, you focus on one thing. You gradually let go of the distracting stream of thoughts crowding your mind and causing stress. This process can lead to better physical and emotional well-being.

4. Make a list

Having a lot to do can, in and of itself, cause stress. For some people, keeping a to-do list can be a big help. “But you have to give yourself permission to NOT finish the list,” says Reynolds. “You need to learn to give yourself grace on those days when you just don’t get it all done.”

An article in Harvard Business Review says that when we write down information, we feel relieved from the need to hold onto it mentally. With the number of tasks we have to do each day, we can’t solely rely on our ability to remember them. To-do lists serve as a reminder for what you need to accomplish. When we check things off, it’s proof that we were able to get stuff done and that makes us feel good.

5. Step outside

Spending time in nature is a powerful way to relieve stress and anxiety, improve your mood and boost feelings of happiness and well-being, says Reynolds.

Just 20 minutes connecting with nature can help lower stress hormone levels, according to Frontiers in Psychology. An article on the UC Davis website noted that nature can help improve thinking, reasoning, and other mental abilities, physical wellness and mental health.

If you are stressed while commuting home in rush hour traffic, try getting off the road and stopping in a park or other greenspace to meditate for a few minutes or take a short walk while traffic dies down. Any of these stressbusters will help you relax, says Reynolds, which will, in turn, benefit your overall well-being and mental health.

Charissa Reynolds is a Health First Medical Group (HFMG) behavioral care manager. facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin

Written by: Jackie Holfelder  for VeroNews.com

To learn more about stress-related issues visit The American Institute of Stress

Murthy — who in the past has issued advisories related to gun violence, social media use and a youth mental health crisis tied to an “epidemic of loneliness” across the country — called for changes to national attitudes toward parenting and caregiving in the advisory, titled “Parents Under Pressure.”

“The work of parenting is essential not only for the health of children but also for the health of society. Additionally, we know that the well-being of parents and caregivers is directly linked to the well-being of their children,” wrote Murthy in the advisory, highlighting his own experience raising children.

“The stresses parents and caregivers have today are being passed to children in direct and indirect ways, impacting families and communities across America,” he continued. “Yet in modern society, parenting is often portrayed as a less important, less valued pursuit. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Surgeon general advisories are public statements that draw attention to “an urgent public health issue” — in this case, “the importance of parental stress, mental health and well-being, stressors unique to parenting, and the bidirectional relationship between parental mental health and child outcomes.”

Murthy said a cultural shift is necessary to support 63 million parents with children younger than 18 who live in the U.S., as well as an estimated several million additional adults who serve as a child’s primary caregiver. He noted the importance of extending that support to diverse families, like LGBTQ+ parents, foster parents and parents who are single.

Wednesday’s advisory also outlined tangible policy shifts to reduce the burden on parents and caregivers — especially those dealing with financial instability, which is singled out as one of the most significant root causes of parental wellness on the decline.

In many ways building on programs proposed by President Biden and his administration to institute national paid family and medical leave, the surgeon general pointed to child care assistance, through tax credits and subsidies, paid family leave and paid sick time, and poverty reduction programs as the primary paths to take in efforts to improve the wellness of parents and their children.

“The Surgeon General’s Advisory calls for a shift in culture, policies, and programs to ensure all parents and caregivers can thrive,” said Murthy’s office in a news release. “The American public can do more to support parents and caregivers by shifting norms to foster a culture that values, supports, and empowers parents/caregivers and addresses stressors that can impact their mental health and well-being.”

For more stress-related information go to STRESS.ORG

By Emily Mae Czachor for CBS News

The findings, in a nutshell

This groundbreaking study from Karolinska Institutet has uncovered a fascinating interplay between our daily activities and cognitive health. Researchers have long believed that engaging in mentally stimulating activities, like going to college, tackling complex jobs, staying physically active, and maintaining a rich social life, can help build a “cognitive reserve.”

This reserve acts as a mental buffer, potentially protecting our brains from the symptoms of dementia, even when physical signs of the disease are present. However, this new research adds a critical twist to our understanding: stress. While these brain-boosting activities can enhance cognition in memory clinic patients, high or persistent stress levels can undermine these benefits.

It’s as if stress acts as a cognitive thief, robbing us of the mental resilience we’ve worked hard to build. This finding is particularly significant as stress is known to reduce social interactions, hinder our ability to engage in leisure activities, and even increase the risk of dementia.

“Different stress management strategies could be a good complement to existing lifestyle interventions in Alzheimer’s prevention,” says the study’s lead author Manasa Shanta Yerramalla, a researcher in the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society at the Karolinska Institutet, in a media release.

How did researchers make this discovery?

The journey to this discovery began in the late 1980s when researchers made a puzzling observation. Some individuals who showed no apparent symptoms of dementia during their lifetime had brain changes consistent with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. This led to a new line of dementia-related questioning: If their brains showed signs of the disease, why weren’t they experiencing symptoms?

The investigation led to the concept of “cognitive reserve” — the idea that certain life experiences and behaviors can build up a mental resilience that protects against cognitive decline. Think of it like building a strong, multi-layered fortress in your brain. Each mentally stimulating activity — whether it’s studying for a degree, solving complex problems at work, or engaging in lively discussions with friends — adds another layer of protection. Even if Alzheimer’s disease starts to breach the outer walls, the inner layers can help maintain normal cognitive function.

Fast forward to today, and researchers at Karolinska Institutet decided to dig deeper. They gathered 113 participants from the memory clinic at Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden. Their goal was to examine how cognitive reserve relates to cognition and biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. However, they added a unique twist to their study. The team also looked at how stress might affect this relationship.

Yerramalla’s team measured two types of stress: physiological stress (using cortisol levels in saliva) and psychological stress (how stressed participants felt). Cortisol is often called the “stress hormone” because its levels rise when we’re under pressure. Think of cortisol as your body’s built-in alarm system. The results show that while greater cognitive reserve did improve cognition, as expected, higher cortisol levels seemed to weaken this beneficial relationship. It’s as if stress was slowly eroding the protective layers of their mental fortress.

This discovery opens up exciting new avenues for Alzheimer’s prevention. The researchers suggest that stress-reducing techniques like mindfulness exercises and meditation, which can lower cortisol levels, might be a powerful addition to existing lifestyle interventions. Just as we build our cognitive reserve through mental workouts, we might also need to incorporate stress management to maintain our brain’s defenses.

The team notes that since stress disrupts sleep, which then disrupts cognition, this study did factor in the use of sleep medications by the participants. However, there is still more work to do to identify how exactly poor sleep damages the cognitive reserve.

“These results might have clinical implications as an expanding body of research suggests that mindfulness exercises and meditation may reduce cortisol levels and improve cognition,” Dr. Yerramalla, adds. “We will continue to study the association between stress and sleeping disorders and how it affects the cognitive reserve in memory clinic patients.”

For more information about stress, go to stress.org

Photo by Tara Winstead

By  Chris Melore

OP- Study Finds