Time And Money – The Biggest Hurdles To Healthy Eating

Posted on May 16, 2022 by Guest Contribution

“Time and money – the biggest hurdles to healthy eating” by Tiff-Annie Kenny, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Philippe Couillard, the freshly defeated Quebec premier, made headlines during the election campaign when he suggested a family of three — comprised of one adult and two adolescents — could feed themselves for $75 a week.

While Couillard eventually conceded that it “would not be a varied menu,” would require strict bargain-hunting, supplementing with food banks and would be “almost a full-time job,” he stood by his statement. That figure is less than half the minimum cost (between $168 to $207) of a nutritionally adequate diet for a family of this size, according to the Montreal Diet Dispensary.

Diet Quality, Health Linked To Social Status

Research shows that in developed countries, more affluent and educated people tend to consume higher-quality diets — including more fruits and vegetables, fish and whole grains.

Conversely, socioeconomically disadvantaged people report diets that are nutrient-poor and energy-dense, replete with foods like pasta, potatoes, table sugar, fried foods and processed meats. They are less likely to have food-purchasing habits that conform to public health recommendations.

These dietary disparities are often accompanied by higher rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease — conditions linked to diet — among lower-income people.

This inverse relationship between social class and diet quality and health is extensively documented. However, the research does not explain why this is the case — a question that has significant implications for designing effective policies and initiatives to improve diets and prevent chronic disease.

Public Health & Prejudice

Public-health initiatives to promote healthy diets often focus on providing nutrition education and recipes. These approaches, however, often presume less food literacy (i.e. food knowledge and skills) among low-income people. Are unhealthy diets really the result of poor choices, limited food skills and knowledge?

It’s a myth that low-income people don’t know how to prepare food or cook with healthy ingredients.

Research suggests that, in fact, adults in food-insecure households are just as likely as those in food-secure households to adjust recipes to make them more healthy. They are also just as proficient in food preparation and cooking skills. There is no indication that increasing food skills or budgeting skills will reduce food insecurity.

Instead, disadvantaged groups are constrained by their economic, material and social circumstances.

Higher-Quality Diets Are Costlier

It’s well-established that food prices are an important determinant of food choice, particularly among low-income consumers. Low-income households report that they find it difficult to adopt dietary guidelines because food prices are a barrier to improving their diets.

When researchers estimate the cost of diets people actually eat, higher-quality diets are typically more costly. Some research suggests healthier diets cost, on average, approximately $1.50 a day more than less healthy choices. For low-income consumers, the cost of substituting healthier foods can represent up to 35 to 40 per cent of their food budget.

While this may be so, it does not, in itself, prove that healthy diets are necessarily more expensive or cost-prohibitive. After all, not all socioeconomically disadvantaged people consume poor diets.

We can easily think of a number of foods and recipes that are both inexpensive and nutritious. The internet is full of recipes for “eating well on a budget.” Indeed, for many costly healthy food items like fresh salmon, a lower-cost alternative exists, like tinned salmon.

Some have even suggested that the higher relative cost of healthy foods is a myth and a problem that can be solved by healthy, low-cost meals.

Others maintain that a poor diet is the result of poverty, not lack of education.

This begs the question: Do healthy foods really cost more?

‘Apples To Oranges’ Drives Researchers Bananas

Foods contain calories and a whole array of nutrients in different quantities that we require at different life stages in different amounts. At the same time, some ingredients must be limited, like sugar, sodium and saturated fat.

Researchers have developed indices like the Nutrient Rich Food Index to rank foods based on their composite nutrient profile, taking into account both the good and bad.

Food comparisons also require a standard unit of comparison and to this day, researchers are still debating — how do we effectively compare apples to oranges?

And when we add food price to the equation, how can we be sure we are getting the biggest nutritional bang for our buck?

When food prices are compared on the basis of the average portion (like one apple versus one orange) or edible weight (like 100 grams), healthful foods can be cheaper for the consumer.

Calories Cheap, Nutrients Expensive

However, when foods are compared based on their energy cost (amount of money per calorie), energy-dense foods like grains, fats and sweets represent the lowest-cost option. These cheap calories also tend to be the least nutritious.

High-carb and sugary foods are cheaper when based on their energy cost.
Unsplash

While some researchers have argued that consumers don’t purchase foods based on the cost of energy, others have shown that this metric best matches the actual consumption patterns of low-income people.

The fact that low-cost, energy-dense foods of low nutritional content are heavily relied upon by low-income consumers means we can’t ignore this metric.

Healthy Eating: Not Enough Money, Or Time

Although nutritious, inexpensive food options do theoretically exist, whether they’re accessible and feasible, particularly among the most socially disadvantaged consumers, has long evaded both nutrition researchers and politicians.

As Couillard admitted, his food budget would have demanded significant time and planning commitments.

The “time cost” to prepare raw food items relative to prepared or convenience products may lead to differing conclusions about relative prices of food — despite the higher price tag of prepared foods.

In fact, research suggests that time is more constraining than money in following nutritious food plans.

Access to a healthful diet is not just about food prices, which have been rising across the country for several years; it’s also about income and purchasing power. Low income is the strongest predictor of food insecurity in Canada, where one in eight households experience insufficient access to nutritious foods.

Modest improvements in income through policy instruments such as a basic income guarantee have been shown to be effective in reducing the probability of food insecurity among the poorest households. Such programs and policies, however, are left to the government of the day and a change in politics can signal the cancellation of such initiatives.

Meanwhile, emergency food relief programs, like food banks and soup kitchens, are left to charitable and private organizations, which some have argued permit the government to neglect social welfare obligations.

So, can the most socioeconomically disadvantaged people afford nutritious diets? Are healthy foods really more expensive?

Maybe we’re asking the wrong questions about the true cost of food. As the UN special rapporteur on the right to food said of his 2012 mission to Canada: “The question of hunger is not a technical question, it’s a political question.”
The Conversation

Credits

Tiff-Annie Kenny, Postdoctoral Fellow, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Childhood Adversity Is A ‘Cause Of Causes’ Of Adult Illnesses And Mental Health Problems

Posted on May 11, 2022 by Guest Contribution

“Childhood adversity is a ‘cause of causes’ of adult illnesses and mental health problems” by Robert Maunder, University of Toronto and Jon Hunter, University of Toronto

Every day we are exposed to things like pollution and ultraviolet light which increase our risk of illness. Many people take on additional risks — due to tobacco smoke, fast food or alcohol, for example.

But there is a less-recognized exposure that is even more common than smoking and increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, chronic lung diseases, sexually transmitted infections, chronic pain, and mental illness and reduces one’s life by as much as 20 years.

This public health hazard that hides in plain sight is childhood adversity: experiences like physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect.

Childhood Adversity Is Common

childhoodIn Canada, one child in three is physically or sexually abused or witnesses violence between adults in their home. Other adversities such as emotional neglect, living in an unsafe neighbourhood or experiencing prejudice and bullying are even more common. Studies in the United States show about 60 per cent of children and teenagers have these adverse childhood experiences or ACEs. The more severe the exposure, the greater the health risk.

The reason that ACEs contribute to so many diseases is that they are associated with many things that trigger other causes of disease. Think of ACEs as a “cause of causes.”

Health Risk Behaviours And Physiological Changes

As kids who have had adverse experiences grow up, they are more likely to smoke, drink excessively and use nonprescription drugs. They are more likely to engage in risky sexual activities and to become obese. Not all kids with ACEs take on risky activities, of course, but enough to contribute to ACEs’ health consequences.

Growing up in conditions that are consistently frightening or stressful affects the biology of developing bodies, especially the development of the systems that regulate our reactions to threats, from predators to viruses. ACEs are even associated with changes in our chromosomes that are linked to early mortality.

Interpersonal And Psychological Effects

As psychiatrists for adults who experience physical and mental illness in combination, our patients often tell us about the personal impact of ACEs. One man said he did not “have even the slightest shadow of a doubt that a loss of human connection is the most substantial negative impact” of these experiences. The health costs of human disconnection are profound. Indeed, lacking interpersonal support may hasten mortality as much or more than smoking, excessive drinking, inactivity, obesity or untreated high blood pressure.

The psychological effects of ACEs may be more obvious and can include fearful expectations, a conviction that one is unworthy of love or protection, unregulated anger or shame and discombobulating memories of bad events.

It greatly increases the risk of depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and addictions. One in three adults who experienced childhood sexual or physical abuse or witnessed interpersonal violence at home have at least twice the incidence of these disorders compared to others.

And then the dominoes fall: mental illness greatly increases the likelihood, burden and consequences of physical illness. To give just one example, in the months after experiencing a heart attack, those who are depressed are several times more likely to die.

So, we see that ACEs don’t only lead to one kind of trouble, but to many.

childhoodSocial Determinants Of Health

Finally, the burden of illness is not distributed fairly. Maintaining health is more challenging for those who are disadvantaged by poverty, lack of education, language barriers, discrimination and living with the continuing systemic harms of colonization and multi-generational trauma.

For example, childhood trauma is strongly associated with behaviours that increase the risk of sexually transmitted infections. About half of the people living with HIV have experienced childhood abuse. HIV is also more common in groups that face discrimination, including men who have sex with men, people who use injectable drugs, Indigenous people and immigrants from countries in which HIV is endemic. Childhood trauma has a complex relationship with these social determinants of health. On one hand, ACEs are not unique to marginalized groups and can occur across all strata of society. On the other hand, the risk of experiencing ACEs may be greater in some groups and the consequences of ACEs may multiply as social forces interact.

Intersecting components of personal experience and identity attract stigma and discrimination, which in turn influences mental health, self-care and one’s ability to navigate a healthcare system that has multiple barriers and gaps. It is a complex web and ACEs contribute to this complexity.

A Cause Of Causes

Events that occur in childhood may contribute to cascading health risks over one’s lifetime. There are so many paths to illness interacting with one another over decades and compromising health in so many ways, that it should be no surprise that childhood adversity is a profound public health problem.

It is time that we, as a society, recognized ACEs as the malignant force that they are. Those affected need to be treated with compassion and also with an awareness of the long-lasting effects of early adversity on health. Research that helps us understand the lifelong impact of ACEs could help guide the prevention of chronic illnesses and mental health issues in the many people who experience adversity during childhood.The Conversation

Credits

Robert Maunder, Professor of Psychiatry, the University of Toronto and Jon Hunter, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The Truth Behind Spanking: Is It Discipline Or Punishment

Posted on May 10, 2022 by Clara Brown

Spanking – is it something you do?

“Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.” Proverb 13:24 (ESV)

Most of us over 40 years old grew up in an era where ‘spoiling the child’ was never an option. That was the case in my neck of the woods, Gibraltar in the parish of St. Ann, Jamaica where I grew up. As long as you were an adult in our small community, you had the right to discipline any child who may have done ‘wrong’. This was the expectation of all persons in authority, particularly teachers.

It was commonplace to hear a parent/guardian telling the teacher to spank a child, “Just save the eyes.”  Corporal punishment was the norm in the educational system. Spanking was an integral part of the discipline in all schools.  In fact, the canes used for this purpose were sold in the book stores.

In addition to distributing the chalk/crayons and books, each teacher received a cane with their standard supplies.  I vividly recall there was a particular male teacher who would utilize at least two to three canes in any given school year.

Spanking Today

Today, that teacher would be charged with child abuse or some other offence.

Spanking and in the more extreme cases, the beating of children extends to the home. Sometimes, parents spank their children out of desperation. When the kids frequently misbehave, parents may feel they are at the end of their ropes and are not sure what else to do. Often you will hear the cry, “Nothing else seems to work.” Parents also resort to spanking when exasperation sets in. It becomes the first line of defence, with the parent reacting out of anger or fear. This serves neither the child nor the parent.

As a parent, I seldom disciplined my child by spanking him. I tried other methods and they were effective. However, on the rare occasion when I was forced to spank my son, I never do so out of anger.  It is a running joke in my household that when I made a ‘promise to spank/smack, more often than not, it never happened or I forget why I contemplated it in the first place!

spankingChildren Are More Aggressive Due To Spanking

Researchers have found that children who are spanked show higher rates of aggression and delinquency in childhood than those who were not. As adults, they are more prone to depression, feelings of alienation, use of violence toward a spouse and lower economic and professional achievement.  Surely, none of this is what we want for our children.

“If we are ever to turn toward a kindlier society and a safe world, a revulsion against the physical punishment of children would be a good place to start.” Dr.Benjamin Spock

Caning or spanking in schools is outlawed in most jurisdictions, as I know it. What led to this I am not sure but it was a necessary move.  I believe that school is a place to learn not to be hit. Spanking children will not cause better behaviour and greater respect for teachers.  In my view, the opposite is true. Caning in schools only causes fear and discourages full participation, possibly encouraging absenteeism.

My aim is not to promote indiscipline in schools or even in homes. It is important, however,  to make a distinction between punishment and discipline.  The goal of discipline ought to be teaching children skills geared towards proper socialization. Spanking does not provide the child with any such social skills and is merely punitive.

The next time you are faced with a challenging, even difficult, child, pause to consider what intervention best serves your purpose. Are you disciplining or punishing? What is the payoff of your choice? Would your child have gained any better social skills from your intervention?

Do drop us a line or leave a comment on this topic or any other of our articles that you found interesting and/or would like to share your views.

Clara

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Daughters Are More Willing To Sacrifice For Their Mothers

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Guest Contribution

“Daughters are more willing to sacrifice for their mothers than for their romantic partners” by Beverley Fehr, University of Winnipeg

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, it seems timely to think about the kinds of relationships that mothers have with their children and, conversely, the kinds of relationships that children have with their mothers.

In 2006, the journal Sociological Perspectives published an article that began: “Throughout western history, the mother-daughter bond has been viewed as the strongest of human ties.” The researchers, sociologists J. Jill Suitor and Karl Pillemer, had gathered extensive data from 424 mothers who had at least one adult son and adult daughter for a total of 1,500 children.

The researchers noted that when mothers are asked to rate how close they are to their children, they are reluctant to rate one child higher than another. So the researchers presented the mothers with forced-choice questions: “with which child are you most likely to discuss a personal problem?” and “which child would you choose to help you if you became ill or disabled?”

Mothers Favour Daughters

They found that mothers overwhelmingly favoured daughters over sons: 80 per cent of mothers preferred to talk about a personal problem with a daughter, while only 20 per cent preferred a son. If a mother became ill or disabled, 87 per cent would turn to a daughter, and two-thirds of the mothers selected a daughter when asked to choose the child they felt emotionally closest to.

As a social psychologist who has focused on research on friendships and dating and marital relationships, the declaration that the mother-daughter relationship was the closest human bond came as a surprise.

But these findings are not unique. In research conducted with mothers and their adolescent children, the researchers found that mother-daughter pairs had more harmonious relationships, including fewer conflicts, than did mother-son pairs.

Turning to even younger children, there is evidence that although fathers have become increasingly more involved in child care, mothers are still primary caregivers for infants and children.

parentsHow Parents Care For Children

I embarked on a series of studies on familial relationships, with a focus on mother-daughter relationships. More specifically, I assessed compassionate love, generally defined as giving oneself for the good of another, and various measurements of caring for others, including making sacrifices and caregiving.

I found that in the context of parents’ relationships with their young children, both mothers and fathers reported very high levels of compassionate love for their children. They were also willing to make sacrifices, provide competent care to their child and so on. However, fathers reported being more motivated by feelings of obligation than did mothers.

I examined the relationships between parents and their adult children. The findings were very similar to the first study. Mothers’ and fathers’ ratings of compassionate love for their adult children were very high, although slightly lower than in the study with young children. Both parents were willing to provide emotional and practical support to their children. In this study, fathers reported a greater willingness to sacrifice for their adult children than did mothers.

However, fathers reported more caregiving motivated by obligation than did mothers. They also scored higher than mothers on an exploitable dependency scale, which measures actions like worrying about having offended the child and excessive apologizing. Generally, the findings did not differ regardless of whether the parents were reporting on sons or daughters.

Adult Children And Their Parents

Next, I also studied the relationship that adult children have with their parents. I found that adult daughters of all ages reported high levels of compassionate love for their mothers. The greater the compassionate love, the greater the willingness to make sacrifices for their mother and to provide emotional and instrumental support to her. Compassionate love also was associated with a healthy attachment to the mother.

I also compared young adults’ compassionate love toward their mothers and their romantic partners. Sons reported higher levels of compassionate love and greater willingness to make sacrifices for their dating partner than for their mother. Daughters’ compassionate love and sacrifice did not differ significantly when reporting on their mothers versus their partners.

In terms of caregiving motivated by feelings of obligation, daughters felt more obligated to provide care for their mothers than for their partners, whereas sons’ obligations did not differ, depending on whether they were responding with respect to their mother or partner.

In a final study, I examined adult sons’ and daughters’ compassionate love and beneficence toward their mothers and fathers. Both sons and daughters reported higher levels of compassionate love — a selfless, caring kind of love — for their mothers than for their fathers.

Sons reported a greater willingness to sacrifice for their parents than did daughters. Daughters reported somewhat more obligation to care for their mother than their father. Both sons and daughters reported providing more emotional and practical support to their mother than to their father.

When adult children were asked to rate the emotional and practical support that they received from their parents, both sons and daughters reported receiving more support from their mother than their father.

mothersNot Enough Evidence

So, is the mother-daughter relationship the closest human bond? In my studies examining parents’ relationships with their children, there were few differences between mothers and fathers in their reports of compassionate love and beneficence toward sons and daughters.

Put another way, there was little evidence for the supremacy of the mother-daughter bond.

A somewhat different picture emerged when the participants were children, rather than parents. For adult sons and daughters, the relationship with their mother figured more prominently than the relationship with their father in terms of compassionate love and both providing and receiving emotional and practical support.

However, when it came to their romantic relationships, daughters’ partners — unlike sons — did not take precedence over the mother in terms of compassionate love and willingness to sacrifice. Daughters also reported more obligation to care for their mother than for their partner, and somewhat more obligation to care for their mother than for their father.

And so while there is some evidence of the primacy of the daughter-mother relationship, the evidence is not sufficient to allow sweeping proclamations about the superiority of the mother-daughter bond.
The Conversation

Credits

Beverley Fehr, Professor, Social Psychology, University of Winnipeg

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The Fallout From Mental Health Stigma

Posted on May 4, 2022 by Guest Contribution

 

“The Fallout From Mental Health Stigma” by Sonia Devine

What is Stigma?

Stigma is the use of stereotypes and labels when describing someone, and it is often attached to people who suffer from mental health issues. We don’t fully understand how the brain works yet, but one thing we DO know is that it is an organ. Yet our society doesn’t readily accept brain disorders the way we accept other organ disorders. Why is this so?

Stigma is a harsh reality for people who have mental health problems because it prevents them from enjoying a normal and productive life. So many people today feel uncomfortable about mental health issues, despite the fact that there is growing evidence that more and more people are developing these problems. In fact, many people are so uncomfortable with the stigma that they would rather suffer in silence than get the help they need.

Here are a few of the most common misconceptions about mental health problems:

  • Mentally ill people have a weak character
  • Mentally ill people are potentially dangerous.
  • People with mental illness should just “snap out of it”
  • Mentally ill people are violent

The media has only further fuelled our distorted beliefs about mental health issues. Frequently, characters on television and in the movies that have ental illnesses are depicted as dangerous, unpredictable and violent.

What Are the Effects of Stigma?

If you became ill you would go to a doctor. Once you got better, you would expect to get on with life as usual.

But it’s not that easy for people who suffer from mental illness. Often, they can suffer from persistent rejections and exclusions by ill-informed members of the community. Some people have been denied loans, health insurance and jobs because of their history of mental health issues. Consequently, these people lose their self-confidence and may develop further anxiety or depression, on top of the issues they are already facing.

I witnessed this first-hand many years ago when my brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The majority of his friends deserted him; they weren’t able to comprehend or cope with his altered personality and erratic behaviour. Within months he went from being a popular, vivacious and outgoing young man to a shattered, isolated loner. Over the following months, I watched my brother sink deeper into a debilitating depression, which ultimately became so unbearable that he took his own life.

What Can We Do?

All of us have times when we feel depressed, anxious or angry. We might even have a series of bad days, where we think that nothing will ever go right for us and the world is against us. For a mentally ill person, these feelings do not go away.

So the answer lies in education and understanding. If you know someone who seems very emotional, down or upset, then lead by example; show compassion and understanding, and encourage them to seek help. And if you’re suffering silently yourself, take comfort in the fact that you’re not alone and that there is hope.

Credits

Author Bio
Sonia Devine is a qualified professional hypnotherapist and success coach with a caring and committed approach to healing, who lives in Melbourne, Australia. You can find more of her information on mental health, self-image, love, relationships, phobias and much more on her website Manifest Your Success

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com – Free Website Content

 

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“Instagram Therapy” And How Women Use Social Media For Mental Health Support, Solidarity

Posted on May 3, 2022 by Guest Contribution

“Instagram therapy” and how women use social media for mental health support, solidarity by Fanny Gravel-Patry, Concordia University

Women make up the majority of people living with mood disorders in Canada. However, treatments and resources that are adapted to their needs are still lacking. Looking for ways to feel better, many women are turning to social media platforms like Instagram.

To make sense of the phenomenon called “Instagram therapy,” I interviewed more than 20 women in 2020 who use Instagram for mental health care. I found that women turn to the image-sharing platform to counter the lack of available resources. Instagram allows them to tackle issues related to their gender identity, connect to others with similar experiences and, ultimately, feel less alone.

Even though awareness about mental health has increased, especially during the pandemic, gender-based stigmas, biases and expectations continue to affect women’s well-being at a growing rate.

Hysterical Histories

These issues date back to 19th-century psychiatry. Women were portrayed as hysterical or “crazy,” and over-represented among the mentally ill, entertaining the idea that insanity is inherent to women’s nature.

Consequently, women are not only more susceptible to being labelled as mad, but traditional psychology also tends to generalize their experiences, not taking into consideration that gender is lived differently depending on race, sexual identity and other social determinants. Today, even though years of research have challenged the association between women and madness, gender norms continue to affect women’s well-being and accessibility to adequate care.

An etching of a man holding on to a woman who has fainted as he addresses a room full of male students
An 1888 etching of Jean-Martin Charcot demonstrates hysteria in a hypnotized patient.
(A. Lurat/Wellcome Collection)

Instagram: Validation And Community

For the women I interviewed, Instagram acts as a tool to tackle these norms as well as seek validation and community. While Instagram therapy has been called dangerous, my research reveals that Instagram actually helps women progress in their recovery because they can access information and make connections that are not possible otherwise.

Cécile, a philosophy student, decided to seek help for her eating disorder right before the pandemic. When the lockdown started, she recalls her Instagram feed is full of memes about weight gain during quarantine, something that was particularly triggering. Instead of leaving Instagram, one of the few places where she could still connect with people, she decided to start following hashtags like #bodypositivemovement and share her recovery journey in her Instagram stories.

Cécile uses her stories to change the conversation around dieting and add links to existing resources. For her, doing this work really “helps women to feel less alone, it creates a feeling of solidarity.”

Émilie, a biracial woman living with generalized anxiety, doesn’t share her personal journey on Instagram, but actively uses the content of accounts such as @browngirltherapy and @letterstoblackwomen in her recovery process. Her mental health, she tells me during our interview, cannot be dissociated from the everyday racism she experiences as a Black woman — the content she follows on Instagram allows her to address this dimension.

“It provides validation for things that are not necessarily addressed in therapy or that I feel I can’t talk about with the people around me.”

For example, it is thanks to these accounts that Émilie became aware of many micro-aggressions she was experiencing but didn’t know had an effect on her well-being.

instagramChallenging The Gender Gap

But to think that Instagram could challenge the gender gap in mental health is not what automatically comes to mind when mental illness and social media are coupled together. Indeed, social media researchers have demonstrated that Instagram can be empowering, but also harmful in perpetuating unrealistic gender expectations.

Instagram’s algorithm structures our networked interactions in ways that push forward certain content and shadow others, encouraging standardized definitions of femininity and self-care to endure.

For example, Instagram promotes esthetically pleasing models of recovery such as bubble baths and scented candles that continue to put the responsibility of well-being in the hands of women instead of social infrastructures. Women are therefore not only compelled to use Instagram to address the lack of mental health resources but also for the self-realization, empowerment and transformation that it promises.

Reframing The Conversation

But however diverse social media’s impact on mental health can be, my participants’ stories shed light on the necessity to reframe the discourse around social media and mental health. While there is a tendency to focus on how Instagram aggravates women’s mental health, there is a pressing need to acknowledge that women also turn to the platform to consult information related to their health and find recognition.

This is especially important because Instagram currently polices mental illness-related content in ways that are harmful to these communities. We must recognize that Instagram is not always bad for mental health in order to hold the app accountable for further stigmatizing women. Actually, it should be the responsibility of Instagram to assure that women can continue to create and access vital information and communities without being censored.

Finally, content posted online represents an important body of knowledge that must be taken seriously if we ever want to create resources that are better tailored to women’s needs. Attending to the complexity of women’s Instagram use allows us to better understand the limits and possibilities of digital care when our health is increasingly tied to mobile apps.

The government of Canada is developing a virtual care platform to help Canadians navigate mental health issues. The digital tools will be designed to help users connect to mental health providers and find reliable information while reducing the pressure on the healthcare system.

Looking at how women are using available platforms and networks like Instagram can help adapt these technologies to their needs and potentially reduce the gender gap.
The Conversation

Credits

Fanny Gravel-Patry, PhD. Candidate and Public Scholar, Communication Studies, Concordia University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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‘Do What You Love’ Could Be Contributing To The Great Resignation

Posted on May 2, 2022 by Guest Contribution

“Great Resignation: ‘Do what you love’ could be contributing” by Galen Watts, KU Leuven

“Do what you love,” is no longer just advice.

High school students learn early on that their future careers should be passion-driven. Self-help books counsel job searchers to start with a reflection on what they love. And Hollywood films teach people, in a romantic fashion, to aspire to work that is intrinsically satisfying and expresses our authentic selves.

Researchers call this way of thinking about work the passion paradigm, and studies show it has become pervasive in modern societies.

The passion paradigm emerged in the 1960s. During this time, there was widespread questioning of social and cultural norms — especially among youth — which helped develop a new way of thinking about the role of work in human life.

This trend was spearheaded by the scholarship of humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow, who applied his theory of the “hierarchy of needs” to the modern workplace. In Eupsychian Management, Maslow argues that work should be thought of as a key source of personal growth and self-actualization.

Maslow envisioned a world where individuals derive deep satisfaction from their working lives, and who treat their work as a sacred activity.

Since early 2021, I have conducted interviews with over 90 professionals and managers in Toronto, to learn how they think about work. Although there are exceptions, what the data shows, in general, is that Maslow’s theory has increasingly become common.

The Downsides of the Passion Paradigm

Because the rising popularity of the passion paradigm has coincided with both increasing economic inequality and a steep decline in the power of unions, it has attracted a host of criticism.

Sociologist Lindsay DePalma contends that the passion paradigm encourages workers to romanticize their work while blinding them to the unequal distributions of power that characterize their working lives.

In her book Work Won’t Love You Back, journalist Sarah Jaffe argues that loving your job is a bad idea because it is a recipe for (self)exploitation.

Derek Thompson, a staff writer at The Atlantic, maintains that the passion paradigm has fuelled a new religion — “workism” — which is responsible for causing burnout and depression even among high-wage earners.

great resignationThese commentators rightly fear that the passion paradigm can (and does) lead workers to accept harmful working conditions, poor treatment from their employers and unrealistic expectations from themselves — basically to put up with what they shouldn’t.

When people aspire to love their work, they may prioritize work at the expense of other important aspects of life — family, friends and hobbies. An overvaluation of work can lead people to see those who cannot work as lazy, stupid or undeserving of concern.

And yet, despite these evident pitfalls, the passion paradigm can also have the opposite effects. In fact, I would argue that it is one cause of what has been dubbed the “Great Resignation.”

The Great Resignation

In August 2021, 4.3 million American workers quit their jobs, the highest ever recorded. And similar waves have hit the U.K.

In Canada, it’s not clear whether the Great Resignation is taking place with equal intensity, but some studies show that Canadian workers are increasingly considering leaving or switching jobs.

There are many factors causing the Great Resignation. Among the most notable are wage subsidies which have given workers more freedom to choose the kind of work they want to do, the added work stress caused by the pandemic, the need to stay home with young children and the shift to remote work.

However, I think another reason has to do with the expectations workers have around work — expectations which derive from the passion paradigm.

The Passion Paradigm and the Great Resignation

By disrupting people’s routines, the pandemic has reawakened in many the deep-seated desire for a job they actually enjoy — a desire that has long been suppressed.

My interviews make it clear that many Canadian workers are looking at their jobs and asking themselves, “Is this really what I’m passionate about?” “Do I want to spend the majority of my waking hours doing this?” “Does my job bring me meaning?”

And this isn’t just managers. The highest number of resignations in Canada have taken place within the accommodation and foodservice industries. And as a recent article in The Atlantic put it, “this level of quitting is really an expression of optimism that says, ‘We can do better.’”

In a sense, the passion paradigm is paradoxically fuelling the demand for better, more satisfying, and more meaningful work. It is because workers expect more that they are no longer willing to put up with the status quo.

great resignationThe Passion Paradigm Requires a Strong Safety Net

Of course, none of this could have happened without the government supports that reweighed the balance of power between workers and bosses.

Since the 1980s, workers have had less and less power to negotiate. So, while the passion paradigm may have grown in popularity, it grew in economic conditions that were largely determined by employers, not employees.

But in the wake of the pandemic, this has slowly begun to change. Faced with labour shortages, employers are forced to take workers seriously when it comes to demands around pay, flexibility, autonomy and scheduling. They are receiving the message that “business as usual” is no longer acceptable — and, in some cases, they’re caving.

The crucial takeaway is that the passion paradigm can fuel demands for better, more meaningful work, but this is only possible when it’s accompanied by a strong social safety net.

Workers don’t need to stop loving their jobs. But they should ask whether their jobs are themselves loveable. And this is easier to do when you have real economic freedom.
The Conversation

Credits

Galen Watts, Banting Fellow, Centre for Sociological Research, KU Leuven

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Revolutionary Relationship Tips For 2022

Posted on April 27, 2022 by Clara Brown

“Relationship” The Miriam-Webster Dictionary defines it in part as, “the way in which two or more people, groups, countries etc., talk to, behave toward and deal with each other.”

In our daily lives, we are challenged to keep our ‘relationships’ together.  Why is it so necessary for us to protect what we value?

Being in relations suggests having oneness in spirit. A spirit that embodies sharing and reciprocity, both of which are to be managed, coerced and treasured for the benefit of maintaining the relationship.

As we go through our life’s journey, we become involved in many relationships. While it may not be my own experience, one can hazard a guess that there are persons around who have had thousands of relationships.  Some of these relationships may have been recorded as “good,” while some may record “bad” experiences.

Relationship: We Are Created For Them

We were created to co-exist, to have a relationship(s) with each other. There are some biblical guidelines that seek to foster health and God-like relationships. Some cynics will perhaps say, that having a relationship with the persons we profess to love is overrated.  In reality, it is difficult to have a relationship with even our own ‘blood relation’.  Some relationships with family members are damaged beyond repair.  Surely, the guidelines handed down via the Ten Commandments anticipate that there is none among us, humans who are infallible?

relationshipIn spite of the number of relationships that one has, there are some that are more important than others.

What are the most important relationships that you have?

On impulse, my answer to this question would perhaps be that the most important relationship I have is with my son, Jared.

Putting more thought into it, the most correct or appropriate response would be MYSELF!

“How so?” You may ask. 

Relationship With Self

Don’t judge me or jump to conclusions that I am selfish by this response as is the practice when a person answers in this way. People are frequently criticized for being selfish and for being in love with themselves.  However, my rejoinder to that is: “If one does not lather oneself with love then that person will enter a relationship with a major deficiency.”

Putting a high value on self-love will certainly invoke a high return. In other words, when you place a high value on yourself, people will invariably value you more.  Loving and caring about yourself first means that you are confident about your worth, that you are quite aware of your value and who you are.

“When you love yourself for who you are, you turn into the one you love.  This in turn will allow you to love and care for the people who matter most to you.” Anonymous

Relationship With Back-Watchers

Another important relationship will most likely be with your ‘back-watchers’ or your Main-squeeze.  Back-watchers could range from your family, and friends to your professional colleagues. These are the people in your life who are most important to you and you to them. While you are in a relationship with them, depending on the ‘connection’, the relationship will be different for and with each person.

I have experienced (and I am sure you have too) much closer relationships with others outside of my own family.  I have also found much more caring and loving relationships with persons who are not my blood relatives.

Irrespective of the connection, one must recognize that in every relationship, there are two sides to each of us.  At times we are nice and at times we are mean. There are times we are happy and at times sad. At times we are giving and other times we are takers, generous and not too generous, supportive and not too supportive.

What is most important in being in a ‘relationship’ is to be accepting and embrace the other person.  The most loving and long-lasting relationships are those where the parties embrace both sides of the other person. As John Legend so aptly puts it, “loving your perfect imperfections.”

One Hand Cannot Clap

I remember a heated discussion with some kindred spirits during which I made the point that “one hand cannot clap.” By this, I meant that being in a one-sided relationship is futile. It is a relationship heading to No-man’s land and a reason why relationships end. Such relationships serve neither party in the short or long term.

Text messaging, Twitter and other short-form social media writing have introduced some ‘buzz terms’ to our lingua. Terms such as “bestie” or “Soulmate” or BFF (Best Friend Forever).  All of these terms, whichever you choose to describe your own relationship, connote a certain CONNECTION.

BFF or bestie, your relationships serve you in one or more ways. They could support your mission, your passion or your purpose.  Some relationships will involve a deep ‘soul connection’. For example, I have a Soulmate who thinks a lot like me. She can always predict my ‘next step’ and hers.  We often finish each other’s sentences and I have often declared how ‘afraid’ I am of the connection.  Yup, the connection is frightening at times.

Soulmates

relationshipIt is not my opinion that a soulmate is equivalent to a sexual partner. It is not necessarily a ‘romantic involvement’. The connection between ‘soulmates’ can be different and yes, one can have many ‘soulmates’ – all supporting different aspects of your existence.

What are the keys to “good” relating?

  1. Cultivating a LOVING relationship with yourself is paramount.
  2. Embracing that each person in a relationship has two (2) sides.
  3. Understand that in order for a relationship to thrive, there has to be a connecting point and it must be nurtured.

Take a look at your relationships and see if these three elements are present. If they are or are not, my advice to maintain or create great relationships is: to stay connected, love yourself, love others and appreciate all of you and the wonderful people that you come across in your life.

Let the love of self burn through your being and bring light and happiness to the relationships that you form.

Be blessed and have an awesome relating day!

Clara

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Ageing Gracefully 101: Everything You Wanted To Know

Posted on April 26, 2022 by ClaudetteE

Ageing: Are you ageing with a “bad” attitude?

That is a relative word, “bad,” and not one of my preferred. Labelling is not an activity that I like to indulge in. No situation or experience is really “good” or “bad,” they just “are.”

Growing older just is a fact of life. It is part of living. Everyone will grow older, will age and most certainly will die. Resistance is futile. To regard ageing with fear is to create a monster within oneself. Being obsessive about the effects of ageing on the body and physical appearance is maddening.

There is nothing you can do to stop ageing – accept that or go nuts!

The French Woman: Ageing Gracefully

ageingClichés such as “age is just a number,” or “it is great to be old, wise and sage,” do little to quell the fears and concerns of those who are not ageing gracefully. Are you ageing gracefully? Not sure what that entails? Let me explain my understanding.

Years ago, I read an article about French women and ageing that really impressed me. The French are often ridiculed, particularly by American comedians among others, however, their approach to life is very commendable in many ways. On this specific topic of ageing gracefully, this Huffington Post article stated that French women:

  1. Can be the sensual love interests in movies
  2. Feel that less is best when it comes to wearing make-up
  3. Consider sex to be important for women 50+
  4. Prefers having just a handful of really nice, perfectly fitting clothing over a wardrobe full of ‘junk’
  5. Rate walking as far more valuable than being an obsessed gym bunny
  6. Watch what and how much they eat, choosing smaller portions of a variety of dishes

Know What You Want

My conclusion is that aside from my name, there is more French to me than originally thought! My only addition to this list would be that ageing gracefully (successfully) also requires knowing what you want. What are the experiences, things, places, people etc that would completely open up this stage of your life?

“To age gracefully, one needs to anticipate the changes that are inevitable…people who think rigidly do not do that. As they encounter the natural changes and health status that are part of aging, these things are experienced as negative and adding a lot of stress and strain to their life. Rigid thinkers tend to get overwhelmed. They can’t manage it, and they get depressed.” Mark Frazier 

I jokingly refer to myself as maturing (like fine wine) rather than ageing. That may very well be my spontaneous reaction to the negative associations with the word “ageing.” Again years ago, I had a minor panic attack seeing that my right hair temple had gone grey. It lasted all of two minutes when no one sympathized with me.

ageingIt’s More Than Accepting The Body Changes

Ageing gracefully or successfully, if you prefer the latter word, is way more than accepting the increasing physical evidence of changes in one’s body. As with any type of “loss” or changing circumstances, it is okay to ‘mourn’, lament or freak out as I did. Let it not be, however, an immobilizing event.

Whatever your age now, start planning or identifying and participating in things that are important to you. These might include things that you did not have the time or dared to do before. Activities such as travelling, spiritual pursuits, hobbies, new social groups, lifelong learning or volunteering might be of interest, depending on how you want to experience this exciting stage of life.

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” Sophia Loren

Be Blessed and Gracefully Age,

2017

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The Agony of Defeat: How Olympians Can Deal With Failure

Posted on April 25, 2022 by Guest Contribution

“The agony of defeat: How Olympians can deal with failure” by Kent Kowalski, University of Saskatchewan and Leah Ferguson, University of Saskatchewan

It’s been said there’s nothing worse than finishing fourth at the Olympics.

There have been some amazing performances so far from the athletes who have won medals at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. But behind those who take gold, silver or bronze are stories of personal failures and setbacks for the athletes who never make it to the medal podium.

For many Olympians, coming up short at the Olympics will present some of the most difficult emotional experiences of their careers.

When athletes experience failures and setbacks, not only are they often harsh and self-critical but there can be other consequences, such as loss of funding and support systems. Even the fear of experiencing failures and setbacks can prevent athletes from delivering their best performances when they are needed the most.

Finding resources that athletes can use to help them navigate through difficult emotional experiences — whether they occur before, during or after an event like the Olympics — is essential to their success.

olympiansLearning Self-Compassion

One such resource for the athletes’ toolbox might be something called self-compassion.

Being self-compassionate means athletes recognize they are experiencing an emotionally difficult time and want to do something to help themselves through it.

Research suggests self-compassion can be a useful resource to deal with failures and setbacks if athletes can treat themselves kindly rather than be harsh and self-critical, are able to balance their thoughts and emotions and recognize that other competitors experience similar hardships.

Two other commonly used “self” terms in sport are self-confidence and self-esteem.

Self-confidence typically refers to athletes’ general beliefs that they can be successful. Self-esteem refers to an overall evaluation of self-worth. Self-confidence and self-esteem are often linked — if athletes feel competent in sport, that competence can be an important part of high self-esteem.

On the other hand, being self-compassionate does not require feelings of competence or worth. It simply requires the recognition of suffering and a desire to help yourself through that suffering.

Sport psychology researchers and practitioners are also increasingly exploring ways to teach athletes to be self-compassionate. Amber Mosewich, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta, developed a seven-day sport-specific self-compassion intervention for self-critical female athletes.

The athletes in Prof. Mosewich’s research were introduced to self-compassion at an introductory session, followed by five self-compassion writing exercises completed over the following week.

One exercise asked athletes to write a note to themselves expressing understanding, kindness and concern in the same way they would talk to a friend experiencing the same situation. Athletes who took part in the intervention reported a significant increase in self-compassion, as well as significant decreases in concerns over mistakes, rumination and self-criticism.

From our and our colleagues’ research with athletes from a range of sports and levels of competition, the types of failures and setbacks athletes often report include feeling responsible for a team loss, injury, failing to meet personal goals and expectations, making errors, social comparison and performance plateaus.

Olympians: Emotional Safety

Rather than reacting to these types of challenges with harsh self-criticism, self-compassion offers a resource that allows athletes the emotional safety and mental strength to deal with these potentially negative experiences in a healthy and effective way.

You might be wondering when self-compassion is useful for athletes — before, during or after a competition.

Intervention work with athletes has typically encouraged them to recall a setback they recently experienced in sport and to respond to that situation with self-compassion.

In our research with female athletes, they have explained it may also be useful to be self-compassionate during a setback — such as when they make mistakes in competition and in the immediate moment of realizing they are being harshly self-critical.

In our mental-skills consulting work, we work with Olympians to be self-compassionate so they have the skills to successfully manage failures and setbacks before they even occur.

The field of self-compassion has been led by Dr Kristin Neff. You can complete the Self-Compassion Scale to gain insight into your own level of self-compassion.

A number of self-compassion practices, including guided meditations, writing activities and other exercises, have been developed. Many of these practices teach people how to be kind towards themselves through increasing awareness of their current thoughts and changing inner dialogues by reframing a self-critical voice in a way that is more positive and friendly.

Beyond Self-esteem

self-esteemWhile still in its relative infancy, there is a growing body of research that shows self-compassion is clearly relevant to the lives of athletes and has benefits beyond self-esteem. Olympians with greater levels of self-compassion have greater autonomy (the freedom to make and act on one’s own choices) and body appreciation, as well as lower reported levels of fear of failure, shame and negative self-evaluation.

Self-compassion also seems to increase an athlete’s perseverance and decrease passivity when they face failures and setbacks.

Female athletes have expressed hesitation about being too self-compassionate for fear of becoming complacent or passive in the pursuit of their sporting goals. Male athletes in particular might face threats to their masculinity by taking a self-compassionate approach to the sport. One of the biggest challenges to athletes becoming more self-compassionate in the face of failures and setbacks might actually be their resistance to it.

The evidence to date, both within and outside of sport, would suggest athletes’ concerns about being self-compassionate are likely not warranted. For many athletes who will inevitably encounter failures and setbacks, embracing self-compassion might be a vital part of a positive and successful Olympic experience.

The Conversation

Credits

Kent Kowalski, Professor of Kinesiology, University of Saskatchewan and Leah Ferguson, Assistant Professor in Kinesiology, University of Saskatchewan

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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