Mental Health Perspectives: Featuring Dr. John Huber & Kristin Walker

Six Dangerous Social Media Challenges Killing & Injuring America’s Youth 

Internet challenges can be fascinating to teens, who can be both impulsive and drawn to behavior that draws attention, especially in social media. Some challenges, like the ALS ice bucket challenge or the mannequin challenge, can be fun and positive activities. But other challenges that pop up on the internet are dangerous and can lead to permanent harm.

Six Dangerous Social Media Challenges 

From: https://www.providr.com/most-dangerous-social-media-challenges 

The Fire Challenge. 

This is when you spray or pour a flammable liquid on your body and light yourself on fire.

The Hot Water Challenge 

You either pour hot water on yourself or another person, or you drink it through a straw. And then, unsurprisingly, you get seriously injured.

The Choking Game 

Where participants get choked in order to get a temporary ‘high’.There have been many cases where kids have died after playing the Choking Game. 

The Condom Snorting Challenge 

People snort condoms through their noses and pull it out through their mouths. There is a possibility that you could potentially get the condom stuck in your windpipe or lungs.

The Salt and Ice Challenge 

When participants pour ice on a part of their body and then place ice on the salt. This creates an extreme burning sensation. Participants see how long they can withstand the burn. It can lead frostbite and third degree injuries.

The Eraser Challenge

Where you erase your skin while saying the alphabet and coming up with a word for each letter. Once you get to Z you stop and compare your skin with your friends.

Four Reasons Why Mike Judge’s 2006 Film “Idiocracy” Correctly Prophesized Life In America Today

Dumbing down of English language

As a culture many of our citizens no longer speak in clear, concise sentences. Communication is often done through social media or text messaging and the English language is plummeting in eloquence. Words like: Fam, Bruh, FOMO, eats, and others can be heard on a daily basis from our populace.

Instant gratification & the collapse of critical thinking 

“Idiocracy” depicted a nation incapable of formulating ideas or solutions to anything beyond their focus of attention in the present moment. Sadly, we are seeing this all across modern day America as countless people chase after “what feels good” for that moment. Analyzing how thoughts and actions in the present can impact the future doesn’t seem to be “hip” right now.

Popular TV show are scarily identical

In “Idiocracy” the number one show on television is called “Ow! My Balls!.” Can you believe that there an iPhone game called “Ow my balls!” which boasts over 1.3 million downloads? MTV’s “Ridiculousness” and ABC’s “Wipeout” are two incredibly popular shows that are siblings of the program depicted in “Idiocracy.”

Ads appear everywhere 

Just like in “Idiocracy” American’s today see ads on the phones, computers, sidewalks, cars, and even other people (renting ad space on their foreheads). Corporations will spare no expense or venue to get their message across. 

 

 

University of Texas to Treat Masculinity as a ‘Mental Health’ Issue 

The Counseling and Mental Health Center at the University of Texas at Austin recently launched a new program to help male students “take control over their gender identity and develop a healthy sense of masculinity.” Treating masculinity as if it were a mental health crisis, “MasculinUT” is organized by the school’s counseling staff and most recently organized a poster series encouraging students to develop a “healthy model of masculinity.”

The program is predicated on a critique of so-called “restrictive masculinity.” Men, the program argues, suffer when they are told to “act like a man” or when they are encouraged to fulfill traditional gender roles, such as being “successful” or “the breadwinner.”

Questions 

Do you think that masculinity is a mental health disorder?

What are some examples of healthy, mature masculinity and healthy, mature femininity? 

 

As the outcry grows against the new security screenings at US airports, one population may face a special burden at TSA checkpoints: victims of rape or sexual assault who are now confronted with a procedure that they feel explicitly strips them of control over their bodies.

The experience “can be extremely re-traumatizing to someone who has already experienced an invasion of their privacy and their body,” says Amy Menna, a counselor and professor at the University of South Florida who has a decade’s experience researching and treating rape survivors.

Nationwide, an estimated 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men have been the victim of an attempted or completed rape, according to a consensus of figures compiled by the Department of Justice, FBI, and Centers for Disease control. About a quarter of a million people each year report a sexual assault.

As the school year concludes, millions of Americans will engage in a number of activities this Summer – some of which may include seasonal employment. What summer jobs can likely have the most positive or negative impact on your mental health?

Summer Jobs That Can Be Helpful To Your Mental Health

Camp Counselor

Your daily activities are subject to constant change and you have the opportunity to be a leader / adviser to others.  There is a healthy amount of responsibility here and this type of job can help a person mentally mature. 

Lifeguard

This can mentally fulfilling job with a great deal of responsibility (saving someone’s life). Lifeguards are often in good physical condition which can have a positive impact on mental health. Also, because there can be significant downtime, it allows an individual the opportunity for personal reflection.

Summer Jobs That Can Be Harmful To Your Mental Health

Theme Park Mascot 

In addition to being regularly overheated, you may be constantly pulled in different directions and risk mistreatment from kids, parents, and your employer. For people who don’t have patience or a sense of humor, this is an awful summer job to have.

Cemetery Grounds Keeper

Being surrounded by reminders of death for prolonged periods of time could harm your mental wellbeing especially if you’re a sensitive individual. 

Over Night Shift (anywhere)

Working when it’s dark and sleeping when the sun is up can affect your moods negatively because of a lack of vitamin D. 

Landscaping

If you’re accustomed to a life of comfort and repeatedly checking your phone, landscaping will probably be a nightmare summer job for you. Getting up in the early hours to do laborious work can test a person’s patience, dedication, and self motivation.

Mental Health Perspectives: What separation from parents does to children

Featuring: Dr. John Huber & Krisin Walker

More than 2,300 children have been separated from their parents since May after crossing the southern U.S. border, according to the Department of Homeland Security. And Dr. Colleen Kraft, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, says the effects of such separation could impact the children for a long time.

“The longer the time of separation from that parent and the younger the child is, the more devastating it is,” Kraft tells PEOPLE, noting that such stressful circumstances can lead to poor brain development. “They go on not to develop their speech, not to be able to learn or bond socially or emotionally with another human being.”

She continues: “For young children to be without their parents and to be continuing to keep on red alert with these stress hormones, and to know this is going to inhibit their development and disrupt their lives, to me that is child abuse.”

Why do so many powerful men behave like Harvey Weinstein? This psychologist has some theories.

Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. (Courtesy Dacher Keltner)

Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein is not an anomaly. He is just another man who attained great power. And as Lord Acton famously said, power corrupts. In Weinstein’s case, that corruption took the form of preying on women. Power also distorts and blinds some who hold it to the real feelings of those around them.

So goes the argument put forward in the latest online edition of the Harvard Business Review, the nation’s premier journal of corporate wisdom and theory. In an essay titled “Sex, Power and the Systems That Enable Men Like Harvey Weinstein,” psychologist Dacher Keltner explains:

Powerful men, studies show, overestimate the sexual interest of others and erroneously believe that the women around them are more attracted to them than is actually the case. Powerful men also sexualize their work, looking for opportunities for sexual trysts and affairs, and along the way leer inappropriately, stand too close, and touch for too long on a daily basis, thus crossing the lines of decorum — and worse.

At a recent quarter earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said “These questions are so dry. They’re killing me.”

The Outer Limits of Inner Truth radio show doesn’t not wish to Elon Musk dead so we have come up with questions that we would ask him

if he agrees to appear on our show. Mr. Musk can reach us directly here: Ryan@outerlimitsradio.com