Depression and anxiety rates are on the rise, especially among the youth. One way people can overcome this debilitating disorder is through cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps to recognize and reshape negative thoughts to bring joy back into depressed people’s lives.
However, CBT might not always address patients’ need for social connections, which are essential for mental health and can also alleviate anxiety and depression.
To determine the best way that people with depression and anxiety can benefit from social connections, a group of researchers at The Ohio State University randomly assigned participants 1 of 3 tasks.
The first group was asked to perform three random acts of kindness for a stranger, such as buying them a coffee or offering to shovel snow off their driveway. The second group of participants was asked to plan a social activity on two days of the week. These were defined as “big or small activities you intentionally plan with other people for the purpose of enjoyment.”
The third was asked to fill out a workbook twice a week to identify distressing thoughts to make them less of a problem.
The results showed that after five weeks, all three groups were less depressed and anxious. But the group that had the greatest reduction in depression and anxiety were those who practiced random acts of kindness, and the benefits lasted up to five weeks.
“We did think that, if there was going to be an advantage of one group over another, it might be the thoughts record group, since that’s such a tried-and-true way of addressing depressive [and anxiety] symptoms,” Jennifer Cheavens of The Ohio State University told Greater Good. “But the kindness group did as well or better, and that group also had increases in social connection that didn’t happen in the other two groups.”
Larissa Gummy was first introduced to the work of the Peace Corps in high school. All it took was seeing a few photos shared by her ninth-grade teacher, a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, to know that one day, she would follow in those footsteps.
This inspiration eventually led Larissa away from her home in Minnesota to Rwanda in East Africa, to give back to her family’s country of origin and pursue her passion for international development. Though her decision confused her parents at first, they’re now proud and excited to see what their daughter has accomplished through her volunteer work.
And just what was that work? Well, it changed from day to day, but it all had to do with health.
Mostly, Larissa worked for Rwanda’s First 1,000 Days Health project, which aims to improve the conditions that affect the mortality rate of kids within the first 1,000 days of being born (or almost three years old). These conditions include hygiene, nutrition, and prevention of childhood diseases like malaria and acute respiratory infections (ARI). Addressing malnutrition was a particular focus, as it continues to cause stunted growth in 33% of Rwandan children under the age of five.
In partnership with the local health center, Larissa helped with vaccination education, led nutrition classes, offered prenatal care to expecting mothers, and helped support health education in surrounding communities. Needless to say—she stayed busy with a variety of tasks.
But what she also liked to focus on was her personal project: one that aimed to help mothers find ways to provide their kids with proper nutrition. One idea she worked on was to start a savings fund that would allow mothers to buy chickens, which in turn would continuously provide a source of much-needed protein through eggs.
She fell in love with the beauty of Rwanda from the warm interactions she shared with its people. Not least of which being Marcella, aka Mama Kuku, Larissa’s “counterpart,” a local community member who worked alongside her as a cultural liaison. But after welcoming Larissa into her home, teaching her to cook, celebrating multiple holidays…Mama Kuku truly became an extended family member.
“She’s literally my favorite person,” Larissa gushed.
And while Larissa had dedicated a lot of time to nutritional education, she learned a few invaluable lessons herself.
“The Peace Corps has taught me that I am a lot stronger than I think I am,” she shared.
Larissa also added how traveling helped her, and can help anyone, get to know a different part of themselves and expand their worldview. All pretty handy skills, if you ask us.
“If you're thinking about [joining the Peace Corps] you should do it. Challenge yourself. It'll be worth it.”
Does reading this generate a little buzz of excitement, or pique your curiosity? The Peace Corps has immersive and fulfilling opportunities in over 60 countries. Learn more about becoming a Volunteer here.
Conan O'Brien speaks with Danny Masterson in 2004.
Danny Masterson, best known for playing Steven Hyde on “That ‘70s Show” from 1998 to 2006, was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Thursday, September 7, for raping two women during the height of his fame. Throughout the trial, prosecutors argued that the Church of Scientology helped cover up the assaults—an allegation the organization denied.
After Masterson’s sentencing, footage of an uncomfortable 2004 exchange with former late-night host Conan O’Brien went viral on X, formerly Twitter. During the exchange, O’Brien tells Masterson that he will pay for his behavior one day.
The eerie prediction came after Masterson used a strange example to show that his Long Island accent hadn’t disappeared. He noted that his friend, Bodhi Elfman, “always teases me, and he says, ‘Hi, my name is Danny Masterson, would you like to touch my balls?'” saying the last word with a New York accent.
— (@)
Masterson’s reply didn’t help his case.
“I mean, you got ’em, you know what I mean? Everybody should grab,” he says.
O’Brien looks slightly perturbed by Masterson’s example, pauses, and in a serious tone, says, “I’ve heard about you. And you’ll be caught soon. I know you will.”
“I will,” Masterson replies.
It’s unclear watching the exchange whether O’Brien knew of Masterson’s behavior, but interestingly, he pauses to show that he’s not joking before he tells Masterson that he will get caught. Watching the clip in 2023, it's either an example of an incredible coincidence or the fact that even though television is a big industry, when someone is a predator, word gets around.
Alan Moore, 69, is a legendary comic book writer best known for “Watchmen,” “V for Vendetta,” “The Ballad of Halo Jones,” “Swamp Thing,” "Batman: The Killing Joke” and "From Hell."
Moore is known as one of the best comic book writers in the English language, and his advice for fellow scribes is a bit counterintuitive. He believes that it’s as important to read "terrible" books as it is classic literature.
“As a prospective writer, I would urge you to not only read good books. Read terrible books as well, because they can be more inspiring than the good books,” Moore says in a clip taken from his BBC Maestro online storytelling course.
“If you are inspired by a good book, there’s always the danger of plagiarism, of doing something that is too much like that good book,” Moore says in the video. “Whereas, a genuinely helpful reaction to a piece of work that you’re reading is, ‘Jesus Christ, I could write this sh*t!’ That is immensely liberating — to find somebody who is published who is doing much, much worse than you.”
Moore also believes that being exposed to bad writing can help you learn from other writers' mistakes. Knowing why something doesn’t work can be as valuable as understanding why something succeeds.
“And by analyzing why they are doing so badly, this will immensely help your own style. You’ll find out all of the mistakes not to make,” Moore continues. “‘Why did this story offend me so much?’ Analyze that. Find out why you didn’t like it. Find out all of the examples of clumsiness or bad thinking that spoiled the story for you.”
So, next time someone judges you for reading something that some would call “terrible,” remind them that the only way to be great is to be able to understand the awful.
Participating in paternity leave offers fathers so much more than an opportunity to bond with their new kids. It also allows them to help around the house and take on domestic responsibilities that many new mothers have to face alone…while also tending to a newborn.
All in all, it enables couples to handle the daunting new chapter as a team, making it less stressful on both parties. Or at least equally stressful on both parties. Democracy!
TikTok creator and dad Caleb Remington, from the popular account @ustheremingtons, confesses that for baby number one, he wasn’t able to take a “single day of paternity leave.”
This time around, for baby number two, Remington had the privilege of taking seven weeks off (to be clear—his employer offered four weeks, and he used an additional three weeks of PTO).
The time off changed Remington’s entire outlook on parenting, and his insights are something all parents could probably use.
“It's unfortunately the end of my maternity —ahem— paternity leave,” Remington quips at the beginning of his video, via voiceover. “I only joke because my wife is truly the man of the house. And call me what you want, but I am totally okay with that.”
He then shares that after getting to spend quality time with his family to create precious memories—losing track of time to “watch ants cross the sidewalk,” for instance—he feels “guilty” about not doing so with their firstborn.
“[It] made me realize how many of those small moments I missed out the first time, but I'm looking past that guilt and grateful that I had some time to make it up,” he says.
You’ll notice that during this entire video, Remington is also doing chores. Sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, washing dishes, wiping the countertops…you get the picture.
@ustheremingtons I (caleb) am getting ready to go back into work and i am not ready. Grateful for my four weeks plus 3 weeks of PTO, but i feel like we were just getting into a groove and i was finally getting to have some 1 on 1 time with my son. Picking up the house today because we all function better with a clean space and we haven’t had time to do much of it while surviving these past 7 weeks. I do work from home and find that I have a little more flexibility in helping out here and there but i am also pretty glued and have to be zoned in during work hours. I do however have some pretty awesome and understanding coworkers and company!Shout out to @SAMBAZON Açaí 👊 Tiff is an all star: working and stay at home mom. I am dedicated in doing better to help balance more of the domestic responsibilities. #paternityleave#dadtok#dadsover30#dadlife#fyp#foryoupage#ditl#ditlvlog#maternityleave#newbornlife#newbornbaby#secondbaby#2under2#toddlerlife♬ original sound - Tiffany + Caleb
Why is he doing this? His wife, aka “the lady with the milk bags,” has been so stressed with the house being messy that Remington decided to focus on doing all the housecleaning so that she could spend time with the kids.
Doing a fair share of the domestic labor is something Remington admits to failing at their first time around. Spending seven weeks taking on more responsibilities, however, opened his eyes to the fact that what he previously saw as doing his “fair share” was actually doing “the bare minimum.”
“It has taken multiple conversations — and many ongoing ones — to truly master how to take on more of the mental load of raising children, growing our marriage and taking care of our investments like our home.”
Proof that having difficult conversations can lead to better understanding!
Lastly, Remington reflects on how the emotional turbulence of being new parents challenged his relationship, even though he and his wife were good communicators and aware of how much effort would be required.
“I honestly hated how much we fought, how much I felt misunderstood, and how much I misunderstood her…so now as second-time parents, I feel like we're a little bit more prepared. Prepared in how we talk to each other, prepared in how I balance work, life, and personal life, and prepared to just let things go,” he says.
Definitely valuable insights for anyone navigating baby number one. Or number five, for that matter.
Remington’s story stands as a great example of just how beneficial paternity leave can be. It offers priceless bonding time, an equal balance of responsibilities, and more time for much needed reflection as parents begin a pivotal new chapter in their lives.
Hank Azaria spoke with The Man Enough Podcast about his evolution with the character Apu.
Hank Azaria has starred in dozens of TV shows and movies, both as a full-bodied actor and as a voiceover artist. But the roles he's best known for are the multiple characters he has voiced on "The Simpsons."
A documentary by Indian comedian Hari Kondabolu, "The Problem with Apu," examined the issue of Apu being a racialized stereotype, no matter how beloved the character was. Kondabolu himself started of as a fan of the character. "Apu was the only Indian we had on TV at all so I was happy for any representation as a kid," he told the BBC. But that perspective changed as he got older. "He's funny, but that doesn't mean this representation is accurate or right or righteous," he said. "It gets to the insidiousness of racism, though, because you don't even notice it when it's right in front of you."
Azaria spoke to his own obliviousness and his years-long journey from defending his portrayal of Apu to co-founding an anti-bias non-profit aimed at educating people about why such portrayals are harmful on The Man Enough podcast.
"So what happened to me with Apu was that got pointed out to me," he told host Liz Plank and Jamey Heath. "It's like, your well-intentioned character that was very funny and made a lot of people laugh, and won you Emmys, and helped create an iconic, wonderful television show—and all those things are true about it—but it had some blind spots baked into it, in its groundwater that came through me and the writers and the creators, that had unintended negative consequences. And the fact that I was oblivious to it only underlined how much I needed to look at it."
That wasn't his first reaction, though. He said he got upset and "very defensive" at first, reacting in a way that many people find familiar.
"I was like, 'Well, where does this end?' And I hear now a lot of people say it today. They say it to me: 'Isn't this all silly? It's gone too far. Where does this end? Can you not do an Irish accent? Can you not do a Polish accent? You're not a policeman. How come you can play Police Chief Wiggum? I mean, where does this nonsense end?' kind of thing. And that was my first, second, and third reaction." He said to him, it was just another thing he was imitating as a voice actor. He didn't see the difference between imitating an Indian or a Black person versus a French or German person.
Taking accountability for the past 💛#growth #mindset
"Learning that difference became important to me," he said. That was the beginning of his gaining a deeper understanding of how his voicing of Apu could be problematic.
Interestingly, Azaria's experience with a 12-step recovery program helped him process the backlash he experienced in a healthy, accountable way. He pointed out that a part of recovery is denial, but once you get past that, you start owning your part in the issue.
"Even if, in the end, you decide, well, my part of this, I think, is only 10% of the whole thing, I think somebody else is maybe 90% of this…you can only really work on your end," he said.
"Step four is that inventory. What am I doing here? Who am I? Where was I at fault? Where am I to blame? What's my part? How am I accountable?" he went on. "And step nine is amends. Now how do I make this right? How do I make up for it? Sometimes that can be 20 minutes. Sometimes it can take you years to work through that."
Azaria also had a professional and personal choice to make. "Am I gonna keep doing this voice or not?" he asked. "It wasn't so apparent to me what to do, especially when I was so defensive at first, because on the one hand, I didn't want to just bow to what we called then 'PC pressure.' Now there are other words for it, right? I didn't want to 'fold to the woke mob' or 'give in to cancel culture,' whatever we wanna call it. But more to the point, I didn't want to just, for appearance's sake, fold, because I was afraid of criticism or looking like a bad guy. On the other hand, I certainly didn't want to continue to do harm and perpetuate a stereotype and hurt people and marginalize people I really didn't know."
Azaria shared that one reason he didn't participate in Kondabolu's documentary was that he was afraid he would misstep and say things that would hurt both himself and other people. He said he was still learning and knew he needed to keep his mouth shut and his ears open. He started reading and attending seminars and talking to people.
"And these are conversations I had never had before," he said. "I don't think I'd ever had a conversation about race with anybody before, except in college, in a class where I was mostly just taking it in as an intellectual exercise."
Through that learning, Azaria began to recognize what many would call "white privilege," but that Azaria refers to as "relative advantages."
"I realized one of the main relative advantages or privileges I enjoyed is never having to think about that stuff. Never ever once. Didn't impact me. It's why I didn't take a pause when I did the voice of Apu or others, because it didn't occur to me that there would be any kind of impact beyond either a laugh or not a laugh, a successful show or not a successful show."
The more he learned, the clearer the reality became for him and he was able to make the decision to stop voicing Apu in 2018. Since then, he has gone on to work closely with The Soul Focused Group, a Black-led organization that focuses on building connections and raising the consciousness of people to help bridge divides that keep us apart. He also partnered with the group to found The Human Solidarity Project to remove financial barriers to the services The Soul Focused Group offers.
Azaria's evolution is fascinating to hear about and a great example of how education, open-mindedness and open-heartedness can lead us to a deeper understanding of and connection to one another.
Psychiatrist lists 5 signs your depression is likely bipolar disorder.
It's not always easy to figure out what mental health condition you have, even after being diagnosed. Sometimes questions pop up after a diagnosis or new symptoms appear that may give you pause. One of the mental health conditions most questioned is bipolar disorder because it seems to contain a lot of symptoms that can overlap with other disorders, especially depression.
Bipolar disorder is characterized broadly by experiencing cycles of depression and mania. Depression symptoms can be so deep that it seems insurmountable and the mania symptoms can be so extreme that people impulsively take a cross-country trip without packing a thing. But since there's typically a much smaller swing between the two poles, some people may question if their depression is actually undiagnosed bipolar disorder.
Tracey Marks, an Atlanta-based psychiatrist, is helping people learn the difference between depression and bipolar disorder and how to tell if it's likely the latter.
In her video, Marks explains that one of the most common markers is that with bipolar disorder, your depression presents between ages 15 and 19, though you may not have a manic or hypomanic episode for years. This can cause people to be misdiagnosed with unipolar depression, otherwise known as major depressive disorder, for years before they're properly diagnosed with either bipolar 1 or bipolar 2.
"Whereas unipolar depression as we call it, where all you experience is depressive episodes, tends to occur or presents for the first time later in life," Marks says.
When depression is really bipolar disorder, anti-depressants don't work or can make things worse, according to Marks. She really helps to put things in layman's terms to break down what symptoms may actually point to bipolar disorder. You can watch the entire video below.
If any animal embodies the simple joy of our "10 things that made us smile" series, it's gotta be a Golden Retriever. This week's list includes not one but two Golden good boys being their playful, hilarious selves. We've also got a sweet floofy puppers and a story about tiny dogs that is certainly smile-worthy. (Doggos for the win!)
And babies! Gracious, do we have a couple of adorable babies this week. Wait till you see the "Oh No" dance. Serious cuteness overload.
Also, have you ever seen a duck being tossed into a kiddie pool over and over because it just can't get enough? You will, and your day will be all the better for it.
Enjoy all this and more in this week's roundup:
1. Find someone who looks at you the way this doggo looks at his stuffed animals
Lifting others up instead of tearing them down is such a simple, powerful act. We never know how much our words might mean to someone who needs to hear them.
10. Let's strive to attai the unbridled joy of this duck being tossed into a kiddie pool
Perhaps we can start by greeting each day with a "Ready, set, WHEEEE!"
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