Your daily walk helps, but research suggests it may not be the whole story for mental health.
Recovering from depression is only step one. Discover 10 evidence-based insights on therapy, medication and habits to protect long-term health.
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Simple behaviours you barely notice could play a bigger role in mood than expected.
One of the most novel approaches to treating depression tried in years.
Around 25% of Americans experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.
Around 25% of Americans experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.
Being neurotic is the strongest risk factor for depression and anxiety.
Neuroticism is a tendency to experience negative emotions like fear, guilt, shame, sadness and anger.
People who are neurotic tend to startle easily and can be nervous even when there is nothing to be nervous about, the study showed.
The good news is that a depressive personality can be changed, contrary to what many people think.
Also, being high in conscientiousness and extraversion together has a protective effect on people who are highly neurotic.
The conclusions come from a study of 132 adolescents who were told they would receive mild electric shocks at specific moments.
The results showed that neurotic people were more nervous even when they knew there was no shock coming.
Professor Michelle Craske, the study’s first author, said:
“…these findings suggest that persons with high neuroticism would respond with appropriate fear to actual threatening events, but with additional unnecessary anxiety to surrounding conditions.
This type of responding may explain why neuroticism contributes to the development of pervasive anxiety.”
Professor Craske explained that her goal is to see what separates depression from anxiety and what unites them:
“Anxiety and depression often go hand in hand; we’re trying to learn what factors place adolescents at risk for the development of anxiety and depression, what is common between anxiety and depression, and what is unique to each.
We chose this age group because 16-to-19 is when anxiety and mood disorders tend to surge in prevalence.”
Many of the participants were already experiencing anxiety and depression before the study started, Professor Craske said:
“We assumed most would not be currently anxious or depressed and we would see who develops disorders over time.
We were surprised to see that more than 20 percent had a current or past anxiety disorder, and 30 percent had a current or past mood disorder at the start of the study.”
The study was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry (Craske et al., 2009).
Nature needs to be brought as close to people’s daily lives as possible, even in the city.
Nature needs to be brought as close to people’s daily lives as possible, even in the city.
Living near trees may reduce the need for antidepressants.
Urban trees within 100 metres of people’s homes are particularly beneficial for the mental health of people on lower incomes.
The species of tree did not appear to matter, as all trees were linked to lower antidepressant prescription rates among nearby residents.
Other research has also suggested that along with trees, more birds and shrubs in an area are linked to lower levels of depression.
Dr Melissa Marselle, the study’s first author, said:
“Our finding suggests that street trees — a small scale, publicly accessible form of urban greenspace — can help close the gap in health inequalities between economically different social groups,.
This is good news because street trees are relatively easy to achieve and their number can be increased without much planning effort.
Street trees should be planted equally in residential areas to ensure those who are socially disadvantaged have equal access to receive its health benefits.”
The findings suggest that nature should be brought as close as possible to people’s everyday lives, even in urban environments.
Dr Diana Bowler, study co-author, said:
“Our study shows that everyday nature close to home — the biodiversity you see out of the window or when walking or driving to work, school or shopping — is important for mental health.”
Professor Aletta Bonn, a co-author of the study, said that while large parks are valuable, smaller-scale nature can be just as beneficial:
“We propose that adding street trees in residential urban areas is a nature-based solution that may not only promote mental health, but can also contribute to climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation.
To create these synergy effects, you don’t even need large-scale expensive parks: more trees along the streets will do the trick.
And that’s a relatively inexpensive measure.”
The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports (Marselle et al., 2020).
Elevate mood by adding a glass of this drink to your 5-a-day goal.
Reward — not just relief — could be the key to better mental health outcomes.
How to reduce the damage done by this depressive personality trait.
How to reduce the damage done by this depressive personality trait.
The personality trait of perfectionism is linked to higher depression risk, a review of ten different studies finds.
Perfectionists are often worried about making mistakes and tend to be highly self-critical.
Feeling societal pressure to perform to a high standard, they often believe others are continually judging them.
When perfectionists fail to meet their lofty standards, they tend to get depressed.
Practising self-acceptance or self-compassion is one of the best ways of dealing with perfectionistic tendencies.
The conclusions come from analysing the results of 10 separate studies including 1,758 people.
The results showed that neuroticism, or ‘negative emotionality’, is the personality trait most strongly linked to depression.
However, being a perfectionist is associated with an additional risk.
The authors explain their results:
“In our meta-analysis of 10 longitudinal studies composed of undergraduate, community member, psychiatric patient, outpatient and medical student samples, neuroticism was the strongest predictor of change in depressive symptoms.
Even so, all seven perfectionism dimensions still predicted change in depressive symptoms beyond neuroticism.”
One aspect of perfectionism is feeling societal pressure.
The authors write:
“…socially prescribed perfectionism, concern over mistakes, doubts about actions, self-criticism, and perfectionistic attitudes add incrementally to understanding change in depressive symptoms beyond neuroticism.”
Perfectionism is problematic because high standards are so hard to reach consistently.
The authors write:
“…people high in perfectionistic concerns appear to think, feel and behave in ways that have depressogenic consequences [causing depression].
Such people believe others hold lofty expectations for them, and often feel incapable of living up to the perfection they perceive others demand.
They may agonize about perceived failures and have doubts about performance abilities because they experience their social world as judgmental, pressure-filled and unyielding.”
The study was published in the European Journal of Personality (Smith et al., 2016).
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