The Psychology of Rock Bands, In-Patient Care, and Summertime Blues. AND CHAPPELL ROAN.
Also, possible breakthrough in chemical roots of anorexia
Psych units and band therapy
It’s a two-part episode of the podcast this week. First, I talk with Alexandra Shiva and Lindsay Megrue, filmmakers behind the HBO documentary One South: Portrait of a Psych Unit. They went inside Zucker Hillside Hospital and a psych unit there to provide a glimpse of what happens behind the doors of in-patient care, which is normally only depicted in works of fiction that tend to be pretty scary. The unit, One South, specializes in treating college age patients and those patients benefit by being among a cohort that they can relate to.
I had an interesting experience with this one in that the unit profiled really focuses on dialectical behavioral therapy, which is a modality that I’ve found a lot of people endorse but few people can succinctly define. Thus, it’s hard to work it into conversation and have the listener really track what you’re saying. So I had to build the definition into my narration:
DBT is a form of talk therapy designed for people who experience very intense emotions. I like this description from the Cleveland Clinic, “‘Dialectical’ means combining opposite ideas. DBT focuses on helping people accept the reality of their lives and their behaviors, as well as helping them learn to change their lives, including their unhelpful behaviors.”
DBT was originally developed to help patients with borderline personality disorder but has been effective in treating depression, anxiety, suicidality, PTSD, eating disorders, and substance use disorder.
Then we turn our attention to therapist Sarah Souder Johnson, who has been offering therapy for bands in her Saint Paul office. We learn what the group dynamics are in those situations and how similar they are to groups like coworkers and families. So I think there are lessons in how Sarah helps them navigate.
Seasonal affective disorder isn’t just for winter
It’s kind of surprising how little attention is paid to people who deal with seasonal affective disorder in the summer. I guess it’s understandable because it seems intuitive to feel rotten when it’s gray and cold but less so when it’s sunny and hot. Still, there hasn’t been much research done on summer SAD even when listener/readers have told me over and over that it’s a real thing that they experience. There was research done but it was over 30 years ago.
Participants in the winter group “were very lethargic” and compared themselves to hibernating animals, says Rosenthal, who is now a professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. In contrast, the summer group was more “irritable” and “restless,” he adds. The winter cohort more frequently slept, overate and experienced weight gain, whereas the summer cohort reported higher incidences of insomnia, reduced appetite and more frequent weight loss.
The prevalence of summer SAD “would be a complete guess” because of limited data, Rosenthal says. Based on his interactions with people who do have the condition, Wehr believes it may be more common in warmer and more humid locations and in regions with limited access to air-conditioning. But Rosenthal and Wehr say much more work is needed to truly understand how common summer SAD is and where it most frequently occurs.
Psychology Today has some coverage of the issue and what you can do about it.
Longer days and increased sunlight can disrupt your sleep patterns, leading to insomnia and mood disturbances, and poor sleep quality is strongly linked to increased sensitivity to pain and depressive symptoms (Irwin et al., 2023).
Relax in Low-Light Environments: Use blackout curtains or drawn shades to create a dark environment in your bedroom for better sleep.
Establish a Consistent Sleep Schedule: Limit screen exposure before bed and try to regulate sleep times to help stabilize your circadian rhythm.
Wear a Sleep Mask: Wearing a sleep mask can help block daylight out, particularly if sleep trouble is due to early and bright daylight.
Possible break through in identifying cause of anorexia
Researchers say they may have tied the development of the disorder to the blunted release of a chemical in the brain.
Anorexia nervosa is a gut-wrenching eating disorder that may be linked to the 'blunted' release of a particular chemical in the brain, an animal study suggests.
Male mice engineered to harbor a rare genetic variant found in some people with eating disorders (and substance use disorders too) were found to be deficient in a neurotransmitter, called acetylcholine, in a part of the brain, the striatum, involved in learned behaviors, cravings, and reward.
Chappell Roan! Look search engine optimization, CHAPPELL ROAN!
I certainly had the sense that Chappell Roan, the huge pop star, came out of nowhere. Just boom, top of the zeitgeist. An article in Vox details exactly how long it sometimes takes an “overnight sensation” to emerge.
Roan has been a working pop artist for years. Now 26, she signed her first record deal with Atlantic Records at 17 and has been putting out songs ever since — but for a long time, none of them seemed to quite hit. Last September, though, Roan released her first full album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, and set off on tour as Olivia Rodrigo’s opener. In March, her appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series went surprisingly viral (3.4 million views and counting), sending her Spotify monthly listeners count rocketing up by 500 percent. In April, she became one of the biggest stories out of Coachella. In June, she was the story of the Governor’s Ball. She’s been on Jimmy Fallon. She’s performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She is currently in the process of crossing the border that separates “working pop artist” and “pop star.”
Staying in house for Sleeping with Celebrities
My guest on Sleeping this week is champion crop artist Jill Moe, who happens to be my wife.
This week, we travel all the way inside the Moe household as host John interviews his wife Jill. She is a bona fide celebrity within the narrow, odd, and passionate world of crop art. It’s what it sounds like: art made out of seeds, leaves, anything that grows. The world capital of crop art is in Saint Paul, home of the Minnesota State Fair and home of the Moe family. Jill describes some of her favorite pieces as well as her techniques, her palette of crop materials, and the rules of the competition. You will sleep happily and croppily.