Mental Health

Bolder Buffs

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Bolder Buffs Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/06/2023 - 00:00

Andrew Daigle

Whether it’s social media, the transfer portal, coach turnover or name, image and likeness (NIL), NCAA student-athletes confront increasing pressure and uncertainty on and off the playing field. It’s anything but a “free ride.”

Bolder Buffs, CU Athletics’ peer advocacy program, has been bringing student-athletes’ psychological health concerns into the open since 2018. It’s a collaborative space to meet once a month, share personal challenges and learn to help peers.

“Bolder Buffs showed me that I wasn’t alone with my struggles,” said Issy Simpson (NeuroSci, Psych’23), a CU golfer.

CU Athletics’ Psychological Health and Performance (PHP) program provides clinical guidance for Bolder Buffs. Erin Rubenking (Fin’10; MPsych’14), PHP associate director and Bolder Buffs clinical advisor, started in 2018 as one of two full-time staff members. PHP’s full-time staff has since doubled, and there are several counseling trainees as well.

Soon after Rubenking’s arrival, soccer’s J.J. Tompkins (Psych’19) and women’s basketball’s Kennedy Leonard (Comm’19) founded Bolder Buffs with involvement from PHP.

“They saw a need for a place for student-athletes to discuss mental health, to figure out how to support teammates because they’re not therapists, they’re student-athletes,” said Rubenking.

Bolder Buffs trains student-athletes on three Rs: recognize, respond, refer. Bolder Buffs are not one-stop resources. They train to recognize if someone is struggling, respond supportively and connect them to appropriate resources.

In addition to direct advocacy, Bolder Buffs initiates change in PHP. “A lot of what we’re doing is informed by Bolder Buffs. If they’re struggling with something, I take that back to my team, and we can design a group, a staff training or something else,” said Rubenking.

Student-athlete-focused outcomes include 24/7 support through the Buffs Helpline (303-735-7182), a new Athletic Department policy giving them more control over collection and sharing of their body composition data, and training to help manage performance anxiety.

“Bolder Buffs has become part of my self-care routine. Plus, I can help others through what I’ve learned,” said Simpson.

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Photo courtesy CU Athletics

Student-athlete peer advocates discuss psychological health concerns and train with clinical counseling staff, while aiming to destigmatize mental health in Athletics.

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Editor’s Note — Fall 2022

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Editor’s Note — Fall 2022 Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/07/2022 - 00:00

Maria Kuntz

The buzz around Boulder is seeming more and more like years past. But there are changes — some I’m glad to witness.

The pandemic lifted a veil previously obscuring conversations about mental health and wellness that were shrouded by cultural taboo. In this issue, we’re featuring ��ƷSM��ӰƬ geneticists, neuroscientists and psychologists who are exploring new methods to diagnose and treat mental illness.

The use of biomarkers and brain scans can contribute to our understanding of interrelated health issues and earlier mental illness identification, while new ways of providing treatment will support the entire person, rather than isolated symptoms.

There are also stories about Colorado’s snowpack, the 75th anniversary of the CU-affiliated Rocky Mountain Rescue Group and, in honor of Veteran’s Day, a story about CU’s Vetsville and an early-1940s photo that may be from an ROTC band. Can you help our archivists learn more about its origins?

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The buzz around Boulder is seeming more and more like years past. But, there are changes — some I’m glad to witness.

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From the Chancellor: The New Foundations for Student Success

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

From the Chancellor: The New Foundations for Student Success Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/07/2022 - 00:00

Philip P. DiStefano

A student’s time on a university campus is an opportunity for academic and social exploration and growth. But it can also be a time of significant stress and tension that reflects the world in which we live.

��ƷSM��ӰƬ is not immune to real-world issues such as food insecurity, affordable housing and the rising costs of daily living. This fall we launched a Basic Needs Center on campus to connect students struggling with basic essentials.

The topic of how students are faring in their mental health and well-being is also one that we, as educators, are focusing on with increasing frequency and depth.

These fundamental needs underpin every other measure of success that the university helps students to achieve. Unfortunately, recent student polling shows the needs are great. In a survey of 2,000 undergraduates conducted in March 2022, students were over twice as likely to rate their overall mental health as poor (22%) than excellent (9%), with 56% responding “fair” or “poor.”

But thanks to innovative research and treatments being developed on campus, ��ƷSM��ӰƬ is making real progress toward understanding and addressing the mental health of children, youth and young adults.

The research happening at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ considers multiple elements of mental health, from better understanding the biological and environmental influences on developing brains to testing new methods to diagnose and treat mental illness. Importantly, our campus is developing student-focused, holistic preventive measures — “mental hygiene” as it’s sometimes called — that can help prepare teens and young adults to better handle life’s inevitable challenges.

What particularly delights me about the work happening on campus is how students are driving and participating in the effort. At the Renée Crown Wellness Institute, students co-design research projects, working alongside top scientists, families, teachers and community members while providing real-world insights drawn from their own life experiences.

Students who work with the Crown Institute — and in labs across campus — will graduate prepared to impact residents of Colorado and beyond as researchers and practitioners in the field of mental health. And they’ll gain the satisfaction of creating tangible solutions that improve emotional well-being for themselves and their peers.

Perhaps the most difficult thing about addressing mental health is that individual needs are highly variable and the efforts largely internal. But in a university community, we witness the positive outcomes that occur as young people find support, agency and meaning in their lives. We see it in strengthened relationships, greater resilience and emotional stability that propel their lives and all of humanity forward.

Is there any greater measure of student success than that?

Philip P. DiStefano is the 11th chancellor of ��ƷSM��ӰƬ. He is the Quigg and Virginia S. Newton Endowed Chair in Leadership, overseeing ��ƷSM��ӰƬ’s Leadership Programs.

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Photo by Patrick Campbell

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Students, Faculty Forge a Thoughtful Path to a Mindful Future

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Students, Faculty Forge a Thoughtful Path to a Mindful Future Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/07/2022 - 00:00

Clint Talbott

Students, staff and faculty sit on meditation cushions learning a compassion practice. They inhale, breathing in the suffering of others, then exhale, giving compassion and healing to themselves and others.

This exercise is part of the Mindful Campus Program, an eight-week mindfulness series that the Renée Crown Wellness Institute began developing in 2019 and launched in spring 2021 to improve the well-being of students. Designed, in part, by students, the series strives to help participants live more fully in the moment, improve participants’ mental health and wellness and boost their ability to confront big societal issues.

Students, faculty and mindfulness experts designed the program. Using data from the 2021 series, which was also the focus of a research study — which drew about 150 student participants — the team aims to analyze and hone the eight-week program.

Kourtney Kelley (Psych’20), senior project manager and professional research assistant for the Crown Institute, helped design the Mindful Campus series using Youth Participatory Action Research, a method in which young people are trained to conduct systematic research to improve their lives, their communities and the institutions intended to serve them.

As she noted, “It’s not just research about students and what students are going through. Students are involved.”

This method of research “allows the voices of young people to be central and guiding within the research process,” said Sona Dimidjian, director of the Crown Institute and a professor of psychology and neuroscience.

“The whole tenet is that, as a researcher, I don’t know what the community needs, and I need to learn in partnership with students and campus partners from the ground up,” added Caitlin McKimmy (MPsych’20), a graduate research assistant in Dimidjian’s laboratory.

Natalie Avalos, assistant professor of ethnic studies, noted the series includes instruction, idea-sharing and practice.

One goal is to help participants see how they might use mindfulness and compassion practices to support anti-racism and social justice, “explicitly linking them and then going on from there,” Avalos said.

Avalos added that students assume teaching and co-mentorship roles in the Mindful Campus Program: “Hierarchies of power shifted, and I think students really responded to that and really appreciated that.”

McKimmy concurred: “At the heart of this project — and this is really an important part of the Crown Institute — is having undergrads at the table where their voices are central.”

Another team is working to adapt the Mindful Campus series into a for-credit class at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ and to make that curriculum available to students from any CU campus and other campuses, as well as community members.

Cody Moxam (Psych’23), an honors student in psychology and neuroscience, completed the series and is now part of an interdisciplinary team of students and faculty co-designing the for-credit course. He said students and faculty “set aside our personal agendas to truly work on a course designed for the well-being of its participants.”

“We were able to integrate our experience as students — and as people — with the research literature to thread together an experience that would change students’ lives for the better,” Moxam said. “Values of community, social justice and mindfulness were imbued in our team interactions from the very start.”

Michele D. Simpson, a Crown Institute faculty affiliate, research associate and associate teaching professor, underscored that point, saying that her motivation in joining the Mindful Campus Program was not to simply boost mindfulness on campus, but also to expand it into different communities on and potentially off campus.

Voicing a guiding vision for the Mindful Campus Program, Simpson said, “Mindfulness belongs to everyone. Wellness is a right of everyone.”

Illustration by Keith Negley

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The Mindful Campus Program, designed by students and faculty, aims to help students improve their own wellness and that of the community

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A Vision for Mental Health and Wellness

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

A Vision for Mental Health and Wellness Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/07/2022 - 00:00

Emily Heninger

As director of the Renée Crown Wellness Institute, Sona Dimidjian is helping ��ƷSM��ӰƬ create a healthier future for the next generation of student leaders. Established in 2019, the institute is dedicated to research and practices that support mental, social and emotional wellness for children and young people, as well as the adults and systems that support them. Here Dimidjian discusses how the Crown Institute is taking action to support these communities.

What does the landscape of mental health look like right now for young people?

Challenges with mental health and wellness among kids and young people are not new. In particular, the lack of access to resources that promote and protect their mental health and wellness has been a problem for decades.

This has been amplified during the pandemic, particularly with an awareness that individual mental health and wellness intersect with contemporary and historical realities of injustice, inequality and racism. The stressors that young people experience and the challenges to accessing support have become increasingly evident and visible over the past two and a half years.

What are some of the challenges that students on college campuses are facing?

For students who have been in college during the past few years, cultivating a sense of place, purpose and belonging has become really important. There have been clear increases in the need for mental health services and an interest in learning skills and knowledge that are relevant to coping with these very real, everyday challenges. The university has a clear role in this regard.

What’s important now is recognizing the incredible creativity and vision that young people hold — and their capacity to be critical and instrumental partners in addressing the challenges that are present in their lives and our world.

What is the vision of the Renée Crown Wellness Institute?

The Crown Institute is dedicated to building a world where every young person thrives. That means being supported by both caring relationships and inner resources. It also means advancing work that’s focused on the mental health and wellness of kids and young people, as well as the adults and systems in their lives.

The Crown Institute is dedicated to building a world where every young person thrives.

How is the institute addressing these challenges to mental health and wellness?

The institute has three primary strands of research, defined by our research partnerships: One strand involves partnering with kids and young people as members of our research teams, facilitators of programs and more. The second strand focuses on partnerships with parents and community members, and the third focuses on partnerships with educators and schools.

This year, the Crown Institute is also launching more outreach and education efforts — we are actively focusing on ways we can bring the learning, programs and practices from our research studies more broadly into the world. Those include the delivery of programs, interdisciplinary collaborations on campus and public-facing speakers and events.

One of the central tenets of the Crown Institute is its focus on research-practice partnerships. Tell us about that.

Research-practice partnerships are built on a model where researchers, families, educators, young people and community members work together as equal partners. Establishing partnerships with the intention of creating an enduring relationship is a recognition that these challenges deserve time to address comprehensively and effectively.

For the work we’re doing to truly have meaningful benefit in people’s lives, it needs to be collaborative from the very beginning to the very end. That’s what we mean by partnership: mutual benefit and reciprocity, shared decision-making and understanding.

Perhaps most importantly, no one person or entity holds all of the knowledge or expertise that is required to provide lasting or transformative benefit. It requires multiple perspectives working together.

Who are some of your key community partners in this work?

We have active studies with Boulder Valley School District, Roaring Fork School District and Denver Public Schools. We also have a long-standing partnership with El Centro AMISTAD — an organization promoting health equity, education and quality of life for Latino communities in Boulder County — and we’ve worked in different ways with Valley Settlement in the Roaring Fork Valley, a nonprofit organization serving immigrant families. Of course, we also partner with many departments and units across the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ campus.

Students ask the hard questions, the big questions, the important questions. They’re open to hearing multiple perspectives and engaging with those in ways that are both critical and creative.

What’s it like conducting research alongside students?

In working alongside CU students, I’ve found that they ask the hard questions, the big questions, the important questions. They’re open to hearing multiple perspectives and engaging with those in ways that are both critical and creative. And they have an incredible passion and energy for this work, and a willingness to not look away from the challenges — while also holding optimism for the future and what’s possible. Engaging with students is critical to ensuring our work is relevant, actionable and impactful.

Why do you choose to do this work?

I have always been committed to doing work that will benefit others. I think there’s an ethical imperative as part of the scientific endeavor, and I believe part of being a public institution is being truly dedicated to the welfare of the public good and to the health and wellness of our communities — both here on campus and more broadly in our region and our state. I think the learning that can come from this work has far-reaching implications for our country and world. I do this work because I love it and because I have a deep sense of purpose about its importance. We each have a short time on this planet! I believe in using that time to make the world a better place.

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Photo by Patrick Campbell

As director of the Renée Crown Wellness Institute, Sona Dimidjian is helping ��ƷSM��ӰƬ create a healthier future for the next generation of student leaders.

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CU Researchers Rethink Mental Illness

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

CU Researchers Rethink Mental Illness Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/07/2022 - 00:00

Lisa Marshall

In the dream clinic of the future, patients struggling with mental illness might — in addition to sharing their feelings with a therapist — have their brain scanned to pinpoint regions that may be misfiring.

Instead of prescribing multiple drugs to treat myriad symptoms, a doctor could recommend one therapy targeted squarely at genetic culprits underlying them all.

And thanks to telemedicine and support from trained peers, anyone who needs treatment would receive it, regardless of their location or income.

Such a dream is within reach, say ��ƷSM��ӰƬ geneticists, neuroscientists and psychologists who are joining forces to imagine new ways of diagnosing and treating mental illness.

Their work comes as 1 in 6 children and 1 in 5 adults experience a diagnosable mental illness each year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). More than half will be diagnosed with a second or third in their lifetime, and about a third will have four or more.

Most will take multiple medications — some that work, some that don’t, many of which have unpleasant side effects.

Well over half will get no care at all.

“We definitely have a mental health crisis on our hands,” said June Gruber, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience who co-authored a “call to action” in American Psychologist in 2021 proposing how the crisis could be addressed. “But we are also on the cusp of big changes in the way we understand mental illness … moving away from one-size-fits-all labels to something more personalized and accessible.”

Early Diagnosis Through Brain Imaging

About half of people with mental illnesses begin to show some signs before age 14, and 75% show signs before age 24, according to NAMI.

Yet most patients wait until a crisis occurs before seeking help.

“It’s critical to get the right diagnosis and the right treatment to the right person at the right time,” said clinical neuroscientist and psychologist Roselinde Kaiser (MPsych’08; PhDNeuroSci, Psych’13), assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. “But we tend to wait until folks are in urgent need before we do anything … and the way we treat them often has more to do with what has the least side effects rather than what’s going to be the most effective.”

Kaiser envisions a day when everyone undergoes a mental health check-up every six months, much like we do for dental health. Clinicians would start with low-tech surveys, cognitive exams and the use of tests to measure heart rate, perspiration and other physiological responses to stress.

When serious red flags arise, just as a patient with a bad back undergoes imaging to get a reliable diagnosis, someone might have a brain scan to confirm their risk of mental illness — and what kind.

“We have really good biomarkers for lots of other complicated medical illnesses, but we don’t have anything for psychiatric disorders at this point,” said Kaiser.

To help identify patterns in the brain that could serve as biomarkers, or measurable signs, she launched a study following 140 adolescents for two years. Each participant laid back inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine and played a video game in which they gambled. Meanwhile, the fMRI measured blood flow to regions of the brain associated with reward and “executive function,” or self control.

In subsequent months, the teens filled out daily mental health surveys on their phones and had their movement tracked via GPS.

Previous studies show that people with poor executive function — the ability to plan, self-regulate and organize thoughts — are more likely to experience mental illness.

“But what has been really hard has been determining what kind of mental illness a person is experiencing or will experience,” Kaiser said.

She found that youth whose brain scans showed heightened sensitivity in the nucleus accumbens — a brain region associated with reward — along with poor executive function were far more likely to experience bipolar symptoms (depression along with mania) in the coming months. Meanwhile, those with blunted reward sensitivity along with poor self-regulation were more likely to experience unipolar depression, or depression without mania.

This matters because the drugs and interventions prescribed for each are very different. Yet because each person’s experience is unique, making such distinctions via talk therapy alone can be difficult.

“Neuroimaging may be a really useful tool for looking under the hood to see what is going on now and predict what could be coming in the future,” said Kaiser.

Precision Medicine Through Genetics

Andrew Grotzinger, an assistant professor of clinical psychology and researcher with the Institute for Behavioral Genetics, notes that when it comes to mental illness, multiple diagnoses are the norm, rather than the exception.

This can leave patients feeling unlucky and discouraged and taking multiple medications with serious side effects. Research shows more than 60% of people who go to the doctor for mental health reasons receive prescriptions for two or more medications, and more than a third receive three or more.

“If you had a cold, you wouldn’t want to be diagnosed with coughing disorder, sneezing disorder and aching joints disorder,” he said. “There has to be a better way.”

Genetics, he believes, could pave the way for a more precise system of diagnosis that accounts for the underlying genes different disorders have in common.

“By identifying what is shared across these issues, we can hopefully come up with ways to target them in a way that doesn’t require four separate pills,” he said.

His lab is making progress.

In a spring 2022 study, Grotzinger and his colleagues analyzed publicly available data from hundreds of thousands of people who submitted their genetic material. He looked at genes associated with 11 disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, anorexia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, problematic alcohol use, ADHD and autism.

While there is, he stressed, no gene or set of genes underlying risk for all of them, his team did find that subsets of disorders share a common genetic architecture.

For instance, 70% of the genetic signal associated with schizophrenia is also associated with bipolar disorder. Anorexia nervosa and obsessive-compulsive disorder have a strong, shared genetic basis. And anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder share many underlying genes.

Instead of prescribing multiple drugs to treat myriad symptoms, a doctor could recommend one therapy targeted squarely at genetic culprits underlying them all.

They also found that people with internalizing disorders, such as depression, tend to have genes associated with low physical movement throughout the day, while compulsive disorders such as OCD and anorexia tend to correlate with genes associated with higher movement.

“When you think about it, it makes sense,” said Grotzinger, noting that depressed individuals often present as fatigued, while those with compulsive disorders can have difficulty sitting still.

In all, the study identified 152 genetic variants shared across multiple disorders, including those already known to influence certain types of brain cells. A follow-up study, expanding the work to include three additional substance abuse disorders, is underway.

Future research, informed in part by brain imaging research, could ultimately help determine what those genes do and lead to new treatments that target those upstream processes.

It’s years away, but in the future Grotzinger and Kaiser imagine patients also having their DNA tested to help find their ideal treatment.

“My hope is that we can not only start to reduce polypharmacy but also identify new interventions for the many people who aren’t currently responding to standard practices,” Grotzinger said.

Increasing Access

Dream clinic of the future aside, Gruber stresses that existing medications and therapies do already work for many people.

“The problem is, we are ineffective in providing them to the people who need them most,” she said, noting that people of color or low-income people are often underserved. “It’s a real tragedy.”

Pre-COVID-19, 67% of adults and up to 80% of youth with mental health needs went without services each year, either because they couldn’t afford it or lived in a place where there were no counselors.

“Neuroimaging may be a really useful tool for looking under the hood to see what is going on now and predict what could be coming in the future.”

With in-person offices shut down, the COVID-19 pandemic, with all its tragic consequences, forced the field to think outside the box, bringing telemedicine from the fringes into the spotlight.

“We are moving toward a time when no longer does someone have to overcome the insurmountable obstacle of making an appointment and getting to it — where we can rapidly provide telehealth to all people across state boundaries,” said Gruber.

She believes that going forward, “lay counselors” will also play a critical role in filling the gap at a time when 77% of counties in the U.S. have a shortage of mental healthcare providers.

Lay providers have no formal mental health training but often share a cultural background or similar mental health challenges. They can serve as a bridge between people in need and clinicians or even provide support themselves.

One international study co-authored by ��ƷSM��ӰƬ psychology professor Sona Dimidjian, director of the Renée Crown Wellness Institute, found that community members who got three weeks of intensive training, plus follow-up supervision, could effectively counsel people with depression with measurable and lasting results.

Dimidjian is now working on follow-up research in Colorado assessing a program in which mothers who have experienced and recovered from postpartum depression support moms in the thick of it.

“For nearly a century, the standard for treatment has been a single patient, single provider in a physical office,” said Gruber. “It’s time we throw aside some of our archaic models of what kinds of treatments work and who can deliver them.”

Through a project called Emerge, Gruber and her students collected data — via laboratory tests, smartphone apps and remote surveys — on 762 young adults before and after the beginning of the pandemic in 2019. They found that not only did many experience increased depression and anger early on, but a general decrease in life satisfaction persisted a year later, suggesting COVID may have long-term mental health implications.

But she has also witnessed an unexpected upside: Mental illness, once shunned and seldom talked about, has come out of the shadows.

“It has finally come into the mainstream as a common topic of conversation, and there is a recognition that many of us will endure some kind of mental health disorder in our lifetime,” said Gruber. “With that destigmatization comes great hope.”

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Illustrations by Keith Negley

Using brain imaging, genetics, telemedicine and collaboration, researchers at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ are finding new ways to help stem the growing crisis.

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How to Cope in a Pandemic

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 06:00:00 +0000

How to Cope in a Pandemic Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/18/2021 - 00:00

Doug McPherson

Reneé Crown Wellness Institute

The Renée Crown Wellness Institute at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ opened in 2019 to perform research and offer programs that develop healthy young people and the adults who support them. It recently unveiled the following resources on its website related to COVID-19 and mental health:

WOW Podcasts: Listen to a series of words-of-wellness (WOW) podcasts featuring faculty experts and students who explore health, society and wellness.

Wellness Practice Tools:Explore booklet and audio sessions that cover wellness practices like compassion, emotions, relationships, mindfulness and more.

Online Courses: Take a virtual class like “Health, Society and Wellness in COVID-19 Times” or "Compassion & Dignity for Educators."

Studies: Access research and studies that explore strategies for wellness such as behavioral activation skills, meditation and more.

Visit Crown Institute

CU psychology professors share tools to improve mental health amid COVID-19.

As the world plunged into the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Sona Dimidjian knew a parallel and more silent crisis was brewing in mental health.

Dimidjian, a ��ƷSM��ӰƬ psychology professor, immediately saw a trifecta of trouble: COVID-19 disrupted our basic daily routines, upended socializing and delivered a flood of uncertainty.

“People were challenged to navigate each of those issues right from the get-go, and we know they’ve led to more depression, anxiety, substance abuse, domestic violence ... a whole host of problems,” said Dimidjian, also the director of the Renée Crown Wellness Institute, which focuses on research and programs to develop healthy young adults.

The statistics back her up. A September 2020 survey from the Colorado Health Foundation found 53% of Coloradans reported anxiety, loneliness or stress related to COVID-19.

Dimidjian and her CU colleagues say there are simple, research-based strategies that can offer relief.

“Good science is our guide, and my team has been doing research on how to treat and prevent these issues for the last 20 years,” Dimidjian said. “The good news is that the lessons learned are very relevant to the challenges we face today.”

Behavioral Activation

The first coping strategy, called behavioral activation (BA), is based on the idea that you can change how you feel by changing what you do. Studies have shown it can sometimes quell depression just as well as medication. That’s why Dimidjian also calls BA “behavioral antidepressants.”

“We know that being involved in activities that give us a sense of accomplishment, enjoyment and control is critical to a positive mood,” she said.

BA invites people to research the connection between their daily habits and moods: Which activities are draining? Which ones add pleasure, enjoyment or a sense of mastery? BA participants then add at least one pleasurable and one mastery activity to their schedule every day to make them a normal part of their lives.

Dimidjian is seeing BA work — even without the aid of mental health professionals — in research at the Crown Institute, where new and expectant women suffering from perinatal depression help each other apply BA skills.

Erin Wood, research participant and mother of two from Franktown, Colorado, said she found BA helpful not only during and after pregnancy, but also as the pandemic unfolded.

“Even though I didn’t have to take a shower or get dressed, it was important to feel like I was accomplishing something,” Wood said.

Acknowledgement

The second coping tool is to acknowledge how the pandemic is disrupting your life.

“It’s normal to grieve for lost experiences, to feel uncertain about the future and to be angry about the state of the world,” said Roselinde Kaiser, assistant professor in CU’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. “These emotions don’t make us weak, flawed or powerless. Understand that stress — even coronavirus-related stress — can be an opportunity for new growth.”

June Gruber, director of CU’s Positive Emotion and Psychopathology Lab, said negative emotions — fear, anger or sadness — are normal.

“Instead of suppressing or criticizing yourself for those emotions, accepting them as being valid may stave off spiraling into more clinically significant symptoms of depression or anxiety,” Gruber said.

Kaiser suggests that after acknowledging your emotions, you can reflect on and list the issues affecting your emotions and thoughts.

Then, inventory your best coping strategies and responses to stress: “Think about what’s worked well for you in the past and why it was successful,” Kaiser said.

Next, brainstorm how you might adjust your coping strategies to the pandemic. If exercise helps but your gym is closed, see if you can find a workout online.

Finally, approach it like an experiment. “You’re testing new ways of building wellness,” Kaiser said. “Some will work better than others.”

Mindfulness

Dimidjian said a third tool, mindfulness, is a way to stay grounded in the present moment. “Mindfulness helps us become aware of our thinking patterns and reorients us toward the present,” she said. “And that frees us from that sense of dread about the future.”

To become more mindful, Dimidjian suggests taking a few minutes each day to notice your breath, sensations in your body and any anxious or upsetting thoughts. Learning to pay attention to what you’re doing — whether it’s eating, walking or listening to music — and noticing when your attention wanes is what makes a mindful life, she said.

Kaiser added that even though the pandemic has led to “a profound disruption” to daily life and routines, humans can learn to cope.

“You may find that you discover new resilience-boosting skills that serve you not only during the pandemic but for years to come,” she said.

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, chat with a representative at suicidepreventionlifeline. org/chat, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.

Illustration by Brian Stauffer

Updated on April 21, 2021. A previous version of this story reported that 77% of Coloradans reported anxiety, loneliness or stress related to COVID-19.

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Transcending Depression: Quest Without a Compass

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 18:36:36 +0000

Transcending Depression: Quest Without a Compass Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/06/2020 - 12:36

by Larry Godwin (Acct'64; PhD'74)
(Amazon Books, 161 pages; 2020)

Buy the Book

The author's personal narrative represents the chronology of his mental illness over a span of 49 years, as well as his attempts to understand it and cope with it. Selected entries from his journals constitute the source and follow an authentic progression over time. In them, he relates insights about the origin of his disorder. He also describes thoughts and feelings that arose and his reactions to events that took place at various times, as influenced, for better or worse, by psychiatric medications and supplements. The primary motivation for presenting his history is to encourage others who grapple with either chronic depression or occasional bouts. He hopes his journey resonates with some, validates feelings, and sparks the thoughts "I'm not alone" and "I will feel better." This book can also help family members and friends of the mentally ill find compassion and enable them to understand the struggle. It could, as well, benefit those who care for the depressed, and interest the curious and the voyeur. The Godwin's goal is to save lives.

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Brain Health

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Brain Health Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/01/2019 - 00:00

Christie Sounart

Linda Sasser (MA’79; PhD’81) researched memory as a CU doctoral student and built a career as a national speaker helping people improve their brain health and strengthen their memory power. She lives in Peoria, Ariz. Find more brain health information and memory strategies in her book, Brain SENSE: A Guide and Workbook to Keep Your Mind and Memory Sharp.

What did your interest in memory stem from while at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ?

When I took cognitive psychology with Dr. Lyle Bourne at CU, I became fascinated with memory, since it is something we use and depend on constantly. In addition, I had been a teacher, and realized that in schools we expect students to learn a lot of information but don't always teach them strategies for remembering it! So I decided to do my dissertation research on memory.

When should people be proactive about brain health?

Since the brain is malleable and everything we do affects it, it is never too early to start developing lifestyle practices that enhance brain health. Exercise, which stimulates blood flow, is important because the blood takes oxygen and nutrients to the brain. Nutrition is also important, as there are connections between the gut microbiome and the brain.

How can someone improve memory?

My acronym, PAVE, consists of strategies for improving memory. P stands for "Pay attention," because we need to do that in order to encode information in the brain. We often think we have "forgotten" something, when it is possible that we did not pay sufficient attention to it in the first place to have it enter memory. The A stands for "Associate": We need to think of or form an association or connection between something we are trying to learn and something already in our memory. The V stands for "Visualize," as the brain more easily remembers images than verbal or numerical information. Trying to form a mental picture or image can help you recall something; for example, when you meet someone and hear their name, try to see the name in writing, as if they were wearing a name tag. The E stands for "Elaborate," which means we need to process information to a deeper level in order to remember it better. For example, thinking of associations and images for someone's name, instead of just hearing it once, should improve your chances of recalling it later.

If someone made one change to improve their brain, what would it be?

Exercise. It helps keep our cardiovascular system healthy — poor CV function is correlated with Alzheimer's disease. Exercise also increases blood flow, reduces stress and stimulates the production of BDNF which is believed to promote neurogenesis, the creation of new brain cells.

What’s the biggest detriment to memory?

If there is no cognitive impairment, several factors: Chronic stress, which increases cortisol levels; insufficient or poor quality of sleep; excessive, regular alcohol intake can cause the hippocampus, a structure critical to learning and memory, to shrink.

What’s your favorite brain fact you like to share with people?

Neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections, is an exciting concept because it means that our brain can continue to change, grow and improve throughout our lives if we engage in a brain-healthy lifestyle.

A condensed version of this article appeared in the print issue of the Fall 2019 magazine.

Photos courtesy Linda Sasser

Linda Sasser researched memory as a CU doctoral student and built a career as a national speaker helping people improve their brain health and strengthen their memory power.

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What Keeps the Chancellor Up at Night?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 06:00:00 +0000

What Keeps the Chancellor Up at Night? Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/01/2019 - 00:00

Philip P. DiStefano

Q&A with Chancellor DiStefano

May I ask you a personal question? What keeps you up at night?

The mental health and wellness of our students.

I would have guessed budget, student retention, graduation rates. Why mental health and wellness?

Students are our top priority. Students today experience rapid changes in technology, social climate and global disruption — all creating stresses. The effect of these stresses is increasingly a national and global health issue.

What brought this to the forefront for you?

Demand for mental health services on college campuses is on the rise, including at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ. Since 2013, we have seen a 40 percent increase in demand for counseling services, which is in line with campuses nationwide.

What can you do about it?

We have begun to engage students about campus mental health and services from the moment they confirm their enrollment. And we have expanded our suite of services, including walk-in appointments, tele-health appointment options, unlimited workshops and group sessions, crisis intervention and one-on-one counseling and therapy depending on individual needs.

What are you doing regarding research in this area?

As a top research university, we are also approaching one of the most challenging social issues of our day from a research perspective. The new Renée Crown Wellness Institute opened last spring. Faculty in the institute are leaders and innovators in their fields and are internationally recognized for their work. This institute will help create a world where our children and young people are supported by the relationships and resources needed for a lifetime of wellness.

It seems the entire campus is involved.

On campus, each of us plays a critical role in supporting the health of our students. Supporting our students is the responsibility of us all. Education and training are being offered to faculty and staff to better understand the needs of students.

I can tell this is a heartfelt priority for you.

Our top priority is the safety and well-being of our students. We want them to succeed academically, and in every other way.

Illustration by Melinda Josie

The mental health and wellness of our students.

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Mental Health

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Editor’s Note — Fall 2022

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From the Chancellor: The New Foundations for Student Success

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Students, Faculty Forge a Thoughtful Path to a Mindful Future

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A Vision for Mental Health and Wellness

What does the landscape of mental health look like right now for young people?

What are some of the challenges that students on college campuses are facing?

What is the vision of the Renée Crown Wellness Institute?

How is the institute addressing these challenges to mental health and wellness?

One of the central tenets of the Crown Institute is its focus on research-practice partnerships. Tell us about that.

Who are some of your key community partners in this work?

What’s it like conducting research alongside students?

Why do you choose to do this work?

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What Keeps the Chancellor Up at Night?

Q&A with Chancellor DiStefano

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