This is Your Brain. This is Your Brain When you are Lonely.

By Jim Windell

           This holiday season is going to be different for many people. I know that in our family there won’t be the large Christmas Eve party that we’ve enjoyed for the past 25 years. There will be no family gathering on Christmas morning to open gifts. And there will be no New Year’s Eve parties.

            Of course, there will be Zoom interactions, text messages about our gifts and an exchange of photos on our phones. But for many people, for instance the people we usually visit during the holidays at care facilities and prisons, there will be a feeling of special isolation and – likely – the desolation of loneliness.

What to get That Older Child on Your Holiday Shopping List

By Jim Windell

            We all have them on our shopping list. Those sons, daughters, nieces, nephews or grandchildren -- older kids who are no longer children and much too old for Legos, dolls or stuffed animals.  There lies the dilemma -- what to to get them.

Take Your Nature Vitamin Every Day During Pandemic

By Jim Windell

            If you live in an area in which your house is surrounded by trees, shrubs and green grass, you are lucky. Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

            It has long been known through epidemiological studies that greater exposure to, or contact with, natural environments – such as parks, woodlands and beaches – is associated with better health and well-being. If your house (or office) looks out over a cement parking lot or the red brick of an apartment building, the health benefits are minimal. Contrast that with living (or working) in greener urban or suburban areas and your risks for cardiovascular disease, obesity,  diabetes, asthma hospitalization, mental distress, and, ultimately, mortality goes down.

Alcohol Use During the Coronavirus Pandemic

By Jim Windell

The Trauma of Racism may have Long-Term Impact on Health

By Jim Windell

            Racism has multiple effects on Black people, including lasting impacts on their physical and mental health.

Professor Says that Violence in Portland and Kenosha was Both Predictable and Preventable

By Jim Windell

Which Depressed Young People May Benefit from Exercise?

By Jim Windell

Driving While ADD

Jim Windell

Increasing Domestic Violence During the Pandemic

By Jim Windell

Emily Peck, a staff writer for the Huffington Post, just did a story examining what will happen to day care centers and childcare facilities as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. Although childcare centers may be more essential than ever when we’re all allowed to go back to work, many are not getting any funds or finances during the current shutdown. Therefore, it seems evident that many will just not survive.

While interviewing the owners of daycare centers, Peck also looked at data from the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the Center for American Progress. Both organizations have collected information about childcare facilities and programs. These organizations predict that about half of all available slots in licensed child care centers and homes are at risk of disappearing because of the pandemic.

Of the many ways the coronavirus pandemic has changed our lives, one of the most significant might be the way it has changed relationships.

In the U.S, and around the world, millions of couples who have led largely separate lives during the workday suddenly find themselves quarantined at home. They are stuck together all day, every day, with no end in sight.

In a story that first was reported in the New York Times in April, social distancing and stay-at-home orders have apparently fueled incidents of domestic violence in the state of New York, even if not in New York City. This despite the fact that the police are reporting a general drop in crime during the pandemic.

Statistics suggest domestic violence is down in New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., since the shutdown, even as it has risen statewide and around the world. However, fewer victims of domestic abuse have been calling the police or the New York City’s hotline in recent weeks.

Many people are wearing masks these days. Some refuse to go out without a mask. Some insist that anyone who comes to their house cover the lower part of their face with a cloth mask.

Then there are the others. Those who resist the whole concept of wearing a mask. Some of these people see it as a personal affront of they are required to wear a mask to enter a store or a business. They are not persuaded by laws and mandates compelling the wearing of masks.

This is true in the United States, but it is also observed in other countries.

Living through a pandemic, with many people quarantined in their homes, will lead to a new epidemic: Loneliness. That is a fear expressed by some. The reasons for this thinking make sense: Having to keep our distance from others; not being able to see our friends; isolated from family members; and not interacting with other people at our place of work. All of this social distancing will surely lead to severe consequences for most of us.

That might be the conventional thinking. But what is the evidence?

There’s no doubt about it. The pandemic, stretching into five months as I write this, is having an effect on adults. In his novel, “The Plague,” Albert Camus wrote about people in a fictional town shuffling numbly through life as the epidemic reached a year. We haven’t quite reached that point in America, but as the Covid-19 pandemic shows no signs of abating, tensions and anxieties for many people are increasing.

That is certainly true of parents – what with moms and dads trying to juggle children and child care, work and schooling. A recent American Psychological Association (APA) survey found that nearly of parents with children under the age of 18 say their stress levels are high. As times moves on, a greater proportion of Americans say that the economy and work is a significant source of stress for them.