Hello and welcome to yet another edition of our weekly wellness roundup. Every Saturday, we bring you a selection of the best fitness stories that we published throughout the week, so you never need to worry about missing out on information about mental health, wellbeing, nutrition and fitness.
This week our favourite stories focus on mental health. Whether it is fixing emotional eating in children, the way mental health has been portrayed on Stranger Things or the rise of Instagram therapists, we've got you covered.
Read on to know more.
What Stranger Things teaches us about mental health
The fourth season of the horror sci-fi show Stranger Things isn't just a creepy show with too many people unexpectedly dying. It also offers some interesting insights about mental health, writes therapist Divya Naik."A single theme that has been highlighted throughout all episodes is how trauma shapes some of the central characters in the show, impacting the overall narrative," writes Naik, who goes on to talk about the complexity of trauma, guilt, anger and mental health. She ends on a positive note, pointing out that humour and art, both in the series and in real life, can defuse tension and build psychological resilience.
Yes, Instagram is bad for your therapist too
Ruchi Shahagadkar points out that the pandemic has brought conversations around mental health to the forefront, one deepened--in no small measure by the advent of social media and an exponential rise in users during the pandemic. As a result, social media influencers or content creators have taken centre stage in conversations about various niches online; mental health is one such conversation. "The social media community has seen an increase in the number of creators talking about mental health and the number of mental health professionals taking to social media to educate and offer help. These influencers and therapists have created safe spaces to guide and support their followers," she writes, before delving into the challenges that these mental health influencers face and how they deal with them.
When children's food choices are linked to their mood
Raiding the freezer for ice cream after a bad day? Grief-eating chocolates and fried food? Drowning your sorrow in carbohydrates? Sounds familiar? Turns out that adults aren't the only ones who seek solace in food; children do too. A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, has discovered that children are more likely to consume unhealthy foods on weekends when meals and snacks are less structured and supervised than on school days. The conclusion? There is now a need to consider mood and emotions while planning nutritional interventions for children, just like we do for adults.
