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We use the term ‘comfort food’ for a reason. It can help alleviate stress, anxiety, and depression. So it may be that people with depression are turning to [fast food] for relief.Dr. David Katz, the director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center • Discussing how fast food might be a sign of depression among people who eat eat. Researchers in Spain recently found that people who ate lots of fast food were 51 percent more likely to be depressed. Anyone else surprised by that finding?
Allie Brosh is back, guys! After a six-month hiatus, beloved webcomic “Hyperbole and a Half” (a popular MS Paint specialty with a huge fanbase) returned with a fresh update. In it, Brosh talks about why it’s been so long since the last post: A case of depression. Give it a read, folks, and send some love her way. Welcome back, Allie! source
» That’s the highest level ever. While the poll question (from a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll) had a slight majority — 51 percent — saying we probably won’t have one, a possible double-dip recession has many folks a little concerned. Obama promises that’s not going to happen. He better hope he’s right — 51 percent of people also said that the economy is extremely important in determining who they’ll vote for.
Examining doctor Takeshi Tanigawa says the workers could risk death. The doctor, who checked the beleaguered workers recently, has said the personal responsibility they feel to halt the crisis, along with terrible sanitation, little food, little sleep, and pressure from their families not to continue is causing extreme levels of stress, and could lead to depression or death from overwork. That’s all without mentioning the high level of radiation, which is extremely deleterious to health on its own. Tanigawa says TEPCO should mobilize all their employees and give these most dedicated workers a break: “Employees engaged in the dangerous work have human rights and wives and children just like others. We should not treat their lives without due respect.” source
Our evolutionary past prepared us to act on information, but the daily repetition of news about things we can’t act upon makes us passive. It saps our energy. It grinds us down until we adopt a worldview that is pessimistic, desensitized, sarcastic and fatalistic. If the human brain encounters a barrage of ambiguous information without being able to act upon that information, it can react with passivity and a sense of victimhood. The scientific term is learned helplessness. It’s a bit of a stretch, but I would not be surprised if news consumption at least partially contributes to the widespread disease of depression. Viewed on a timeline, the spread of depression coincides almost perfectly with the growth and maturity of the mass media. Maybe it’s a coincidence, or maybe the constant onslaught of fire, famine, flood and failure adds to depression, even if these sad reports come from far away.Dobelli can haz serious issues.
Not doing this.
“Dear residents of Rockford, Illinois: This is The New York Times. We’re doing a photo feature on why your town is so depressed and lacking in jobs. (16 percent unemployment?! We need to do this story, stat!) We need to take photos of your citizens. None of you are allowed to smile. If you smile, we’re going to find someone else who looks plainer than you. OK? Thanks. We’ll send a photog from Manhattan to the Rust Belt on a private jet sometime next week. Remember. Plain. No smiles. Optimism is dead. Thanks.” source