News Above the Noise: Week of September 25, 2022
1. Most Adults Should Be Screened for Anxiety, Recommends a Government-Backed Panel
For the first time, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has recommended that primary care doctors screen all adults for anxiety. The recommendation is based on a review that began before the COVID-19 global pandemic, due to reports of a surge in mental health problems. To wit: Anxiety disorders affect about 40 percent of women and more than 1 in 4 men at some point in their lives. To read more about this new recommendation, CLICK HERE.
2. The Midlife Crisis is Very Real—and Nothing To Be Laughed At
When you think of someone having a midlife crisis, what comes to mind? A middle-aged man buying a red convertible or dating a woman half his age? While these common tropes may be funny, new research shows the midlife crisis can be very real—and isn’t something to be laughed at. “Something elemental appears to be going wrong in the middle of many of our citizens’ lives,” says a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research released this month. The authors present “new evidence that midlife is a time when people disproportionately take their own lives, have trouble sleeping, are clinically depressed, spend time thinking about suicide, feel life is not worth living, find it hard to concentrate, forget things, feel overwhelmed in their workplace, suffer from disabling headaches and become dependent on alcohol.” Interested in learning more? CLICK HERE.
3. Laziness Isn’t All Bad! Here’s When You Should Embrace Your Lazy Side
If the “quiet quitting” trend is showing us anything, it’s that American workers are burned out—and looking for ways to scale back without actually leaving their jobs. That’s why an article about the virtues of laziness at work grabbed our attention. “The most successful people manage what authors John Payne, Jim Bettman, and Eric Johnson called the ‘effort-accuracy trade-off,’” writes Art Markman for Fast Company. “That is, in general, the quality of your work gets better the more time you put in on that task. So the trick in life is to put in exactly as much effort as a given project needs to be acceptable and no more. Otherwise, you’re spending more effort on something than is needed. That’s where laziness comes in.” To read more about how, exactly, to flex your lazy bone at the office, CLICK HERE.
4. New Alzheimer’s Diagnoses Are More Common Among Seniors Who’ve Had Covid-19
We continue to learn about the potential long-lasting effects of a COVID-19 infection, and new research shows the impact on brain health could be severe: Seniors who had COVID-19 have a substantially higher risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease within a year, found a recent study of more than 6 million people age 65 and older. The scientists believe the virus could cause inflammation that may exacerbate changes already happening in the brain. To learn more about this new research and what it might mean for you and your loved ones, CLICK HERE.
5. How to Flourish When Working With Friends
We couldn’t get through our days without them—whether it’s sneaking a quick chat in the office kitchen or sending messages of encouragement over Slack: Our work friends are an invaluable part of our happiness. Yet this added element of your friendship that you share (read: work!) is one that needs to be addressed. Whether you’re planning on launching a company with your bestie or want to collaborate in a new way with a co-worker you consider your work family, there are a few steps you should take to ensure your friendship survives. Want to know what those are? CLICK HERE.
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