While he meant no harm by the tweet, he seems to not fully understand that mental health problems can be caused by chemical imbalances in the brain and body. While the activities he listed can help to elevate some symptoms from clinical depression and anxiety, they should not be used as a "cure." It works due to the body producing and releasing endorphins in the body when you are doing physical activity. To the body, these endorphins are like a drug, since they bind to opioid receptors and can help to alleviate the feeling of pain and increase one's mood. It is not uncommon for a therapist or a psychologist to recommend exercising and a healthier living to those with diagnosed clinical depression and anxiety due to the increase of endorphin production. Though they still recommend continuing with therapy and may still prescribe medications to help those along their journey.
Now, let's talk about hormones in mental health.
Our body functions are primarily controlled by our brain and the hormones released from different endocrine organs. The main one we are focusing on is the pituitary gland.
This gland can be found near the hypothalamus. It is broken up into two parts: the anterior pituitary gland and the posterior pituitary gland. The anterior pituitary gland creates hormones and communicates through the blood vessels. The posterior pituitary gland stores specific hormones and will use neural signaling to tell other glands to produce a specific hormone. This gland produces many different hormones that will eventually affect the downregulation of other hormones.
While studies are still new and are continues being researched, some are finding a connection between hormone imbalances in the pituitary gland and mental health. this is most likely due to the hormones prolactin and cortisol and how they interact with the brain. Some studies have found that those who have higher levels of prolactin production tend to have higher anxiety levels. Also, other studies have found those mental health issues tend to have higher levels of cortisol. The more that researchers are able to understand and test new ways to catch earlier signs of mental health disorders can lead to new ways of diagnosis.
Next, a quick discussion in genetics and mental health.
Mental health disorders can be genetic (along with environmental factors that can come into play)! The hormones mentioned above are essentially regulated by your genes. Any mutations in the genes that code for those hormones can cause an imbalance. Many studies have linked different mental health disorders to genetics such as ADHD, bipolar disorder, depression, and others. Remember though, just because your parent may have the disorder, it does not mean you automatically get it, but it does put you at a greater risk then whose parents do not have a mental health disorder.
The world of genetics is an extremely new field (with the genetic code only being cracked just over 50 years ago), with new techniques being created every year researchers are getting closer and closer to learning more about the genetics of mental health.
Everyone's mental health is different. One person's anxiety and depression are not comparable to another person's anxiety and depression. One may find aid and help in what Cole mentioned, others may require more clinical help, and that is okay. Never treat mental health as if it is something that is insignificant that can always be treated with me-days and self-care. For many, it is biological along with environmental. So, yes, anxiety and depression CAN be a result of chemical imbalances in the brain and body, but it does not make you any less of a person. You are loved and your mental health is valid.
YouTube Disabled Comments On Any Videos With Kids In Them And Their Creators Are Upset
What new 'rule' will YouTube institute next
Throughout the years, YouTube has changed its rules and conditions to benefit their creators, but in recent years with all of the controversy over ads and demonetization, their creators are feeling more helpless. The newest situation to arise from the media company is that they disabled the ability to comment on any video that has children in them. There are a lot of family vloggers/ channels on YouTube and this has caused a huge uproar in the community.
Youtube's whole point of this action is that "videos of young children doing activities like gymnastics were being targeted by commenters making sexual comments, or inviting the children to talk" (The Verge). No YouTube is saying that they are doing this to keep pedophiles out of the comments of these family videos, but for the rest of the community on that channel, YouTube has destroyed it. This is definitely a good motive, but bad execution kind of situation. From what I have seen a lot of these family channels are really upset about this, not necessarily because of the reasoning, but the fact that they will not be able to interact with their community. Here are just a few examples:
"Dear anyone who may watch our YouTube videos: Youtube has disabled commenting on all videos that may have kids in them due to pedophiles commenting inappropriate things. I'm sorry for the 99.9% of you who aren't pedophiles. Love you guys & thanks always for the support" -Cole LaBrant
"I double dog dare you to go to http://youtube.com/gilroyvlogs and try and comment on one of my videos! **Spoiler** YOU CAN'T Why are my comments disabled @TeamYouTube and how is it other channels, just like mine, still have comments enabled?!?! Like really?" -Chase Gilroy
"YouTube just disabled all of our comments. Including the videos with no kids in them at all, like Christopher's Valentine's Day video to me. I love you guys so much and I am so sad to see all of your sweet messages just gone" -Jessica Ballinger
One of the main ways that YouTuber's interact with their communities is through the comment section on their videos. Now I think it's great that YouTube was trying to make it a safe space, but they went about this in completely the wrong way. Not only has this change affected the family channels, but it is also starting to affect some of the other channels as well. A prime example comes from Colleen Ballinger a.k.a. Miranda Sings:
"Here's the issue. This doesn't just affect family vloggers who are featuring their children doing gymnastics. All of the comments on my vlog channel were just disabled and I am not a family vlogging channel. 90% of my vlogs are just of me. This affects all YouTube creators!" -Colleen Ballinger
This decision has thrown the whole of the YouTube community for a loop, from the creators to the viewers. Youtube has even said that due to the nature of some comments, the videos will not receive ads:
"With regard to the actions that we've taken, even if your video is suitable for advertisers, inappropriate comments could result in your video receiving limited or no ads (yellow icon). Let us know if you have any questions" -TeamYouTube
YouTube has changed a lot over the years, but this might have been one that was a little bit of an overstep. In the end, the original intention was good, but the outcome has been received very poorly. I don't agree with the way YouTube has gone about this, but what do you think?