Reading List – On Mental Health and Human Flourishing

Ayishat Akanbi: “We need a broader understanding of mental health issues”

I understand why some people do not reach out in their darkest hours. Society spells out exactly what makes a good person. To those who are afraid of falling short of people’s moral standards, it might seem more attractive to disappear than get over the fear of reaching out and suffering criticism. Who would be confident to share a narcissistic personality or psychopathy diagnosis? I imagine very few people would.

Rates of functional mental illness are high in open societies and low in authoritarian ones.

The claim that depression is purely a result of lowered serotonin levels is indeed one that can and should be challenged. Antidepressant use isn’t effective for everyone, and even if you’re taking them the problem they’re supposed to be addressing can often return or eventually get worse. External factors in your life can be a big part, if not the main part, of an eventual depression diagnosis. This is all true.

Rates of functional mental illness are high in open societies and low in authoritarian ones.

Rates of functional mental illness are high in open societies and low in authoritarian ones.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

5 Problems with the Self-Help Industry

Nigeria: People With Mental Health Conditions Chained, Abused

A humble assessment of serotonin and what it says about psychiatry

Debunking the Two Chemical Imbalance Myths, Again

Sexual violence is underrated

The point of caution about antidepressants

Marianne Williamson Said Antidepressants Are Overprescribed For “Normal Human Despair”

Bias and noise do not cover the universe. There are other categories.

Mindfulness meditation: ten minutes a day improves cognitive function

Key to lifelong good mental health – learn resilience in childhood

Sleep Well, Lead Better

The Difference Between Sadness and Depression

When science meets mindfulness

Do antidepressants work?

What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It)

Loneliness can be as harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes a day

Psychological needs have become as pressing as material ones: the risk of loneliness and isolation; the risk of mental illness; the risk of being left behind

In case you think emotional intelligence skills aren’t for African communities

How social media may ward off depression in older adults

Why Doesn’t Ancient Fiction Talk About Feelings?

How to Harness Your Anxiety

What People Think Of Anxiety VS. What Anxiety Really Is

How Complaining Rewires Your Brain for Negativity

Understanding anxiety and panic attacks

To Cope with Stress, Try Learning Something New

How to help an employee with postpartum depression

Suicide Warning Signs

Six Years With a Distraction-Free iPhone

Loneliness, living alone may lead to a shorter lifespan

What companies can do to help employees address mental health issues

Mental illness and childhood infections are related

Paying the sleep debt

Physical activity can prevent depression: Yes or No

I Am Slowly Going Crazy: My Experience of a 10-Day Silent Vipassana Meditation Course

Your brain wants congruence, not accuracy

How to deal with your story

How your amygdala controls you

How society forgets

Brene Brown gets it – it’s all about spirit

Summarizing Brene Brown’s work 

Memory is constructed and reconstructed.

Loneliness matters

First Principle Thinking

Wow

First-principles thinking clears the clutter of what we’ve told ourselves and allows us to rebuild from the ground up

A sensible guide to non-attachment

Don’t think about it is bad advice

When the urge comes to do the counterproductive thing, don’t resist. Instead, replace.

Schedule nothing

What you read is so crucial

If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts.

The stresses of an era can’t be wished away; the truest intellectual training could be how to stay calm, and keep thinking clearly, in the high-strung culture in which students need to make their lives.