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Hopeful News on Mental Health and Icelandic Labor Policies
There's a headline you don't see every day.
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13 Reasons for Hope in Mental Health
No guest on the podcast this week. Just me.
It's a massively stressful day in the US today. And stress can breed anxiety and it can strangle hope. As always, I can't solve these colossally huge problems but I can do what I can to help.
So the show today is a list of 13 things that are giving me hope in regard to the future of mental health and how the future might be better than the present.
Items include breakthrough research on depression, anorexia, OCD, and Tourette's. Plus the efficacy of ketamine and new ways to try it, Zimbabwean grandmothers, the benefits of classical music, better numbers for mental health among young people, and positive moves by the federal government.
I can't make today or tomorrow less terrifying but maybe this will help.
Read more:
$68 million for suicide prevention
Good news for teenager mental health
Good news for college student mental health
The Zimbabwean grandmother plan spreads overseas
Insurance companies face tougher rules on paying for mental healthcare
It’s going to be easier to see a therapist in another state
Genealogy is good for your mental health
Classical music can help synchronize your brain, helping treatment-resistant depresh
Possible biological root cause of anorexia identified
New tablet for ketamine could make it a more accessible treatment
Ketamine efficacy in treatment-resistant depression
Internet might be good for you after all
Specially designed video games are good for children’s mental health
Iceland embraced a four day work week and how did that work out? It worked out fucking great, of course
Our society has been tricked into thinking that it’s virtuous to toil for the profit of our employers. We all fell for it. And we work five, six, seven days a week.
Between 2020 and 2022, 51% of workers in the country had accepted the offer of shorter working hours, including a four-day week, two think tanks found, saying the figure is likely to be even higher today.
Last year, Iceland logged faster economic growth than most European countries and its unemployment rate is one of the lowest in Europe, noted the Autonomy Institute in the United Kingdom and Iceland’s Association for Sustainability and Democracy (Alda).
Lachy Gillespie of THE WIGGLES on Sleeping with Celebrities
If you’ve ever been lucky enough to experience the Australian musical comedy group The Wiggles (perhaps you are in preschool or have hung out with someone who is), you know that they bring loads of high-spirited energy to every performance. Lachy Gillespie, the one in purple, shifts to a much, much lower gear for our conversation about his favorite hobby, tennis. You won’t break a sweat listening to this one. You’ll be lulled by the gentle serve and volley of the conversation, tinged with that lovely Down Under accent
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