The New York Times regularly reports on topics related to mental health and wellbeing. You can easily access stories like the ones below from the Times free with a library card. Below you'll find some articles recommended by members of the Synapse Team.
You can access The New York Times FOR FREE either inside or outside the library. Get complimentary online access to the New York Times Digital Edition, which provides current and historical articles dating back to 1851!
Be sure to check back on this blog post as we'll be adding new articles as we find them.
Perfectionism Is a Trap: Here's How to Escape
by Christina Caron
Excerpt
But perfectionism isn’t about being the best at any given pursuit, Dr. Sun said, “it’s the feeling of never arriving to that place, never feeling good enough, never feeling adequate.” And that can make for a harsh internal voice that belittles and chastises us.
How are you, really?
by Dana Smith
Excerpt
We know we should get a physical exam every year; we have annual reviews at work; some couples even do periodic relationship audits. And yet many of us don’t regularly check in with our emotional health — though it is arguably the most important contributor to overall well-being.
Hope for Suicide Prevention
by Ellen Barry
Excerpt
The bridge is sealed up.” Last month, with those words, the general manager of the Golden Gate Bridge announced the completion of a suicide barrier — stainless steel netting that extends about 20 feet out from the walkway for the length of the bridge, making a jump into the water below extraordinarily difficult.
I want to work out more, but...
by Danielle Friedman
Excerpt
We’ve all been there. You set a goal to exercise regularly, but when the moment comes to get moving, your mind unleashes a torrent of excuses: I’m tired. It’s cold outside. I don’t want to spend money on a class.
These mental blocks may explain why it’s so hard to keep a New Year’s resolution for longer than four months. So how do you cut through them?
10 Ways to Support Your Mental Health
by Christina Caron and Dana G. Smith
Excerpt
Since the height of the pandemic, there has been a cultural shift in the way we talk about mental health. It’s as though the years of isolation and uncertainty helped us understand how vital our emotional needs were to our overall well-being.
That lingering 'meh' feeling has a name
by Christina Caron
Excerpt
Persistent depressive disorder is chronic depression that lasts for at least two years in adults. As with many types of mental illness, there are different levels of severity.
What Does It Really Mean to Dissociate?
by Christina Caron
Excerpt
Although dissociation can help a person mentally escape during a threat, it can interfere with daily life when people continue to dissociate during benign situations. Some people might find themselves in a new location without knowing how they got there, for example.
This simple fix could help anxious kids
by Camilo Ortiz and Lenore Skenazy
Excerpt
And as the years went by, parents growing wary of a winner-take-all economy focused ever harder on getting their kids into college. They sprang for things like tutors and travel teams, giving kids a more curated, less autonomous childhood.
How the arts can benefit your mental health (no talent required)
by Christina Caron
Excerpt
There’s a “really robust body of evidence” that suggests that creating art, as well as activities like attending a concert or visiting a museum, can benefit mental health, said Jill Sonke, research director of the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine.
We Know the Cure for Loneliness. So Why Do We Suffer?
by Nicholas Kristof
Excerpt
“We’re not meant to be lonely as a species,” said Paul Dolan, a professor of behavioral sciences at the London School of Economics who attended the Brighton event. “If you were to think of the most significant interventions to improve life expectancy, after quitting smoking, it’s: Don’t be lonely.”
Small Steps to Improve Your Mental Health
by Hannah Seo
Excerpt
This year may not have been the sea of calm you had hoped for after the tumult of 2020 and 2021. The pandemic continued; war broke out in Europe; we experienced natural disasters and troubling shortages; and more viruses stoked fears. But 2022 was also a year of learning and discovery.
I Answer the Phone at a Mental Health Hotline: Here's What I've Learned
by Benedict Carey
Excerpt
“Oh my, you picked up the phone.”
The caller sounded genuinely surprised and held her breath for a moment before telling her story. For more than a year, she and her husband had been largely trapped in their home by their 25-year-old son, who suffered from psychotic episodes. He refused any treatment, he had been making threats, and most nights he holed up in his room doing drugs while his parents tried to sleep behind their double-locked bedroom door.
“Is there someone who can come out to help us?” she said. “I mean, what do we do?”
I didn’t have a quick answer. It was my first call at a brand-new volunteer job.
How Parents Can Help Struggling Teens
by Melinda Wenner Moyer
Excerpt
For over 25 years, the psychologist Lisa Damour has been helping teens and their families navigate adolescence in her clinical practice, in her research and in best-selling books like Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions Into Adulthood.
This moment in time, she says, is like no other.
The Phone in the Room
by David Leonhardt
Excerpt
Digital technology has caused the biggest changes to teenage life in many decades. Typical American teenagers spend about half of their waking hours on their smartphones. They are on the phones when they are alone at home and when they are hanging out with friends.
When I compare my own teenage years in the 1980s with those of my parents in the 1950s and ’60s, I realize how much more rapidly habits have changed in the past 15 years than in the previous 50 years. My teenage experiences and those of my parents weren’t all that different. We talked on the telephone, drove cars, watched movies, went to parties and so on. My children’s social rhythms look much different.
How to Help Teens Struggling with Mental Health
by Matt Richtel
Excerpt
Health risks in adolescence are undergoing a major shift. Three decades ago, the biggest health threats to teenagers were binge drinking, drunken driving, teenage pregnancy, cigarettes and illicit drugs. Today, they are anxiety, depression, suicide, self-harm and other serious mental health disorders.
From 2001 to 2019, the suicide rate for American youngsters from ages 10 to 19 jumped 40 percent, and emergency room visits for self-harm rose 88 percent.
Surgeon General Warns that Social Media May Harm Children and Adolescents
by Matt Richtel, Catherine Pearson, and Michael Levenson
Excerpt
The nation’s top health official issued an extraordinary public warning on Tuesday about the risks of social media to young people, urging a push to fully understand the possible “harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”
For the first time, there's a pill for postpartum depression
by Pam Belluck
Excerpt
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first pill for postpartum, opens a new window depression, a milestone considered likely to increase recognition and treatment of a debilitating condition that afflicts about a half-million women in the United States every year.
