The study aims to educate and raise awareness about the prevalence of various addictions in Japan, drug abuse, evolution and trends. In addition, there is an aim to understand the cultural and social stigma around addiction, designer drugs and their emergence, in addition to the impact on Japan’s youth.

Keywords

Addiction, Substance abuse, Mental health, Japan, Intervention.

Bio

As the Founder of the Grace Center for Healing, Dr. Angelica Wagner has been a pioneer and global leader in creating profound life transformations of traumatic brain injury patients since 2009, when she almost lost her own vision due to a traumatic brain injury. Dr. Wagner incorporates cutting edge non drug brain techniques utilizing hertz frequencies of light, sound, orthomolecular nutrition, and essential oils to regenerate the brain. She holds a Diplomate Award in Addictionology, as a Doctor of Integrative Medicine, Bodytalk Pa Rama Practitioner, Eastern Medicine Practitioner and Access Consciousness Facilitator. Dr. Wagner has been awarded the top global neuroscientist in the world and is a top 100 Global Doctor. Angelica is the author of five books, including the best selling series “ Are You Ready for a Miracle ?” () and “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” (). Dr. Wagner has transformed lives in environments of schools, with veterans, with athletes, with the handicapped, in corporations, and in populations of incarcerated institutions. She has dedicated her life to healing, teaching and speaking on international stages to inspire, empower and educate for the highest potential of a society struggling with the invisible wounds of mental health.

Abstract

This study examines trends in addiction, focusing on the escalating rates of substance abuse and behavioural addictions, particularly in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic data highlights a concerning prevalence of antidepressant usage among the world’s children. Post-pandemic projections suggest a significant rise in mental health issues and addiction- related challenges, especially among children. In a specific case study of Japan, the research sheds light on the pervasive addiction issues present, including drug, alcohol, and technology addictions. The study delves into the changing landscape of drug abuse, with a shift from traditional substances to unregulated designer drugs like “dappou herb” and the concerning rise in technology addictions among the youth. The research underscores the need for effective intervention and treatment strategies to address these evolving addiction patterns.

The study aims to educate and raise awareness about the prevalence of various addictions in Japan, drug abuse, evolution and trends. In addition, there is an aim to understand the cultural and social stigma around addiction, designer drugs and their emergence, in addition to the impact on Japan’s youth. In conclusion, the study underscores the urgent need for comprehensive public health initiatives and clinical trials to address addiction’s multifaceted challenges, offering potential solutions to alleviate the burden of addiction in societies worldwide, particularly in countries like Japan facing unique cultural and societal pressures.

Introduction

The Covid-19 pandemic has left an indelible mark on the global populace, impacting not just physical health but also mental well-being. As the world grapples with the immediate and direct consequences of the virus, another crisis looms on the horizon: a surge in mental health issues post-pandemic. The multifaceted repercussions of the pandemic are expected to have lasting effects on mental health, necessitating an urgent and proactive response from healthcare systems and society at large.

The prolonged period of uncertainty and fear during the pandemic has heightened stress and anxiety levels for millions of individuals (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020). Factors such as the loss of loved ones, economic strain, social isolation due to lockdowns, and the constant barrage of pandemic-related information have significantly impacted mental health. Even those without pre-existing mental health conditions have reported feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress (Pierce et al., 2020).

The aftermath of the pandemic is anticipated to bring a surge in mental health issues, including but not limited to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety disorders, and complicated grief (Holmes et al., 2020). This is influenced by several factors, including the lingering effects of the trauma experienced during the pandemic, the loss of livelihoods, financial instability, and the grieving process due to loss of family and friends.

The mental health impact of the pandemic is not limited to adults; children and adolescents are also susceptible. Disruption in education, social isolation, and the overall upheaval in daily routines have taken a toll on their mental well- being (Fegert et al., 2020). The repercussions on this demographic can be long-term, affecting their development, academic performance, and social integration.

Addiction Trends in Japan

Japan, a country renowned for its technological advancements and cultural heritage, is not immune to the global challenge of addiction. Over the years, addiction trends in Japan have evolved, presenting unique societal and public health concerns. Understanding these trends is crucial to implement targeted interventions and policies to address the issue effectively.

One significant addiction concern in Japan is related to substances. Historically, Japan has grappled with drug abuse, with methamphetamine being a prominent issue (Yoshida et al., 2009). The country experienced three waves of methamphetamine abuse, leaving a trail of destruction. In recent times, emerging trends include the use of “dappou herb,” a dangerous concoction of herbs mixed with synthetic cannabinoids, often considered a new recreational drug (Suzuki et al., 2019). This unregulated substance poses significant health risks, especially among the youth.

Technology addiction, particularly gaming and internet addiction, is another escalating problem in Japan. The country, known for its technological advancements, faces a paradox wherein its population is increasingly becoming addicted to the very technology it has pioneered (Tateno et al., 2019). The pervasive nature of technology and its easy accessibility have contributed to this rising addiction, especially among the younger demographic. Figure 1 highlights the percentage of people struggling to take a break from technology.

Fig 1. (Susic, 2023)

Furthermore,  alcohol  remains a concerning addiction in Japan. The cultural acceptance of alcohol consumption, especially in work- related settings, has led to prevalent binge drinking and subsequent addiction (Yoshimoto et al., 2018). The stress-inducing work culture prevalent in Japan may contribute to the high rates of alcohol abuse observed.

A unique aspect of addiction in Japan is the strong stigma associated with it. Cultural norms often discourage individuals from acknowledging addiction due to the fear of shame and social ostracization (Saito et al., 2018). This stigma poses a barrier to seeking help and appropriate treatment, perpetuating the cycle of addiction.

Historical Context of Addiction in Japan

The issue of addiction is not a modern phenomenon in Japan; it has deep historical roots that have evolved over time, shaping the cultural, social, and medical understanding of addiction within the country. Understanding this historical context is crucial for developing effective strategies to combat addiction in Japan.

Historically, Japan had limited exposure to addictive substances. The Edo period (1603-1868) saw the prohibition of certain substances, such as tobacco and opium, although their use was not entirely eradicated (Berridge, 1999). It wasn’t until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with increased contact with the West, that the use of addictive substances like opium and cocaine gained popularity (Berridge, 1999). This marked the beginning of a shift in attitudes towards addiction.

Post-World War II, Japan faced significant challenges, including the devastation of war and its aftermath. During the reconstruction period, the availability and misuse of methamphetamine, known as “shabu,” surged dramatically (Makimoto & Iwane, 1998). This marked the onset of Japan’s struggle with substance abuse, a struggle that has persisted and evolved over the years.

In the late 20th century and early 21st century, Japan witnessed a rise in behavioral addictions, notably internet and gaming addiction (Tateno et al., 2019). The advancement of technology, particularly in gaming and internet access, has contributed to the prevalence of these addictions, especially among the youth.

Throughout this historical timeline, Japan has grappled with addressing addiction from both a legal and societal perspective. Laws and regulations have been established to control the use and distribution of addictive substances, yet societal attitudes, cultural norms, and stigma have presented significant barriers to acknowledging and addressing addiction openly (Tateno et al., 2019).

Aims of the Study

The study aims to educate and raise awareness about the prevalence of various addictions in Japan, drug abuse, evolution and trends. In addition, there is an aim to understand the cultural and social stigma around addiction, designer drugs and their emergence.

Methods and Materials

This study employs a comprehensive approach to investigate the complex landscape of addiction in Japan, drawing upon insights gathered from a thorough literature review of existing research. The methodological foundation of this study relies on a review of published studies, articles, government reports, and academic papers pertaining to addiction in Japan. The utilisation of the literature review method allows for the integration of current research findings into a cohesive narrative that contributes to the comprehensive understanding of addiction in Japan. Furthermore, this approach facilitates the identification of gaps in existing literature, paving the way for future research directions and targeted interventions in addressing addiction within the Japanese population.

Results and Discussion

Prevalence of Various Ad- dictions in Japan

Japan, a country known for its rich culture and technological advancements, is not immune to the global issue of addiction. Various forms of addiction present significant challenges to the society and public health of Japan. Understanding the prevalence of these addictions is crucial for developing effective strategies to combat their impact.

One prevalent form of addiction in Japan is alcoholism. The cultural acceptance of alcohol consumption and its integral role in social and business settings contribute to its widespread use. Drinking parties, known as “nomikai,” are common in the workplace, and excessive alcohol consumption is often seen as a way to cope with stress and to build social bonds. Consequently, alcohol addiction is a major concern in Japan, affecting both the individual and society at large (Yoshimoto et al., 2018).

Another growing concern is internet and gaming addiction. Japan, being a hub of technological innovation, has a population deeply engaged with the internet and video games. The immersive gaming culture, combined with the prevalence of smartphones and easy access to the internet, has led to a significant rise in internet addiction, particularly among the youth (Tateno et al., 2019). The compulsive use of the internet and excessive gaming can have detrimental effects on mental health and overall well-being.

Furthermore, Japan faces challenges related to substance abuse. Although drug abuse rates are relatively low compared to some other countries, methamphetamine, also known as “shabu,” has been a persistent issue. Synthetic cannabinoids, often referred to as “dappou herb,” have also gained popularity, presenting a concerning trend due to their potential health.

Tobacco addiction remains another significant public health concern. Despite efforts to curb smoking through anti-smoking campaigns and regulations, tobacco addiction continues to be a prevalent issue, with a notable portion of the population addicted to nicotine.

Drug Abuse in Japan

Drug abuse in Japan has emerged as a significant concern, posing challenges to public health, social stability, and law enforcement efforts. Despite Japan’s relatively low rates of drug abuse compared to other nations, it is not immune to this global issue. Understanding the patterns, factors, and consequences of drug abuse in Japan is essential to develop effective strategies for prevention and intervention. Historically, Japan faced waves of drug abuse epidemics. After World War II, methamphetamine abuse surged, followed by a period of solvent abuse, leading to brain damage in many cases (Makimoto & Iwane, 1998). Over the years, drug abuse patterns have shifted, witnessing an increase in the consumption of designer drugs like “spice” and the emergence of the “dappou herb” (Suzuki et al., 2019). The dappou herb, a blend of herbs with synthetic cannabinoids, has gained popularity among Japanese youth, highlighting the adaptability and evolving nature of drug abuse in the country.

One of the major challenges in combating drug abuse in Japan is the deeply ingrained cultural stigma associated with addiction. Admitting to drug use carries significant shame and social repercussions, which often discourages individuals from seeking help (Suzuki et al., 2019). This stigma is deeply rooted in historical and societal norms, making it imperative to address not only the addiction itself but also the cultural attitudes surrounding it.

Japan has implemented strict laws and regulations to curb drug abuse. The country prohibits the use and possession of stimulant drugs, cannabis, and other controlled substances (Suzuki et al., 2019). However, these legal measures alone are not sufficient to address the complex issue of drug abuse. For example it is estimated that cannabis will reach sales as high as JPY103 billion by 2027 as stated in figure 2.

Evolution of Drug Abuse Trends

The landscape of drug abuse has continually evolved, influenced by various factors such as societal changes, advances in technology, economic shifts, and the emergence of new substances. Understanding the evolution of drug abuse trends is crucial for developing effective strategies to address this persistent global issue. In the mid-20th century, drug abuse primarily revolved around traditional substances like alcohol, tobacco, and certain prescription drugs. However, the counterculture movements of the 1960s and 1970s brought about a significant shift, popularising hallucinogens, marijuana, and later, cocaine and heroin (Hart & Ksir, 2015). This era marked a turning point in drug use patterns, highlighting the impact of social movements and cultural shifts on drug preferences.

The late 20th century witnessed the advent of crack cocaine and a surge in its abuse, particularly within impoverished urban areas. The 1980s and 1990s also saw a rapid rise in the abuse of prescription opioids, primarily due to pharmaceutical companies’ aggressive marketing and misinformation regarding their addictive potential (Cicero et al., 2014). The opioid crisis that ensued revealed the detrimental consequences of overprescribing and the subsequent illicit production and distribution of these drugs.

In recent years, a concerning trend has been the rise of synthetic and designer drugs. These substances, designed to mimic the effects of traditional drugs, pose unique challenges to law enforcement and health authorities due to their constantly changing compositions (Vardakou et al., 2010). Additionally, the emergence of e-cigarettes and vaping has given rise to concerns about youth using nicotine and other substances through these devices (Chadi et al., 2019).

The internet and advancements in technology have significantly impacted drug abuse trends. Online platforms provide easy access to information, enabling individuals to learn about, purchase, and misuse various substances. The dark web and cryptocurrencies further facilitate illegal drug transactions, making it challenging for law enforcement to track and regulate drug distribution (Barratt et al., 2016).

Drug abuse trends have evolved over the decades, shaped by changes in societal attitudes, cultural movements, advancements in technology, and the availability of new substances. Adapting prevention and intervention strategies to stay ahead of these evolving trends is crucial to effectively address drug abuse in contemporary society.

Cultural and Social Stig- ma around Addiction

Addiction is a complex and pervasive issue that affects individuals, families, and communities globally. One significant barrier to effectively addressing addiction is the cultural and social stigma associated with it. Stigma, deeply ingrained in societies, adds an extra layer of challenge for individuals seeking help and support.

In many cultures, addiction is often viewed through a moral lens rather than a medical one. The perception that addiction is a result of personal weakness or a lack of willpower perpetuates stigma (Corrigan, 2004). This misconception exacerbates the shame and guilt felt by individuals struggling with addiction and hinders their willingness to seek help. In cultures where family honour and reputation hold great importance, the stigma of addiction can be particularly intense. Socially, individuals with addiction often face discrimination and marginalisation. They may encounter challenges in finding employment, maintaining relationships, or accessing healthcare services (Livingston & Boyd, 2010). This marginalization further isolates them, making it even more challenging to break free from the cycle of addiction.

The media also plays a significant role in perpetuating stereotypes and stigmatising those with addiction. Portrayals of individuals with substance use disorders often emphasise their struggles rather than highlighting the potential for recovery and resilience. These negative portrayals contribute to societal misconceptions and deepen the stigma associated with addiction (Barry et al., 2014).

Designer Drugs and their Emergence

Designer drugs, also known as synthetic drugs or novel psychoactive substances (NPS), represent a continually evolving class of substances created to mimic the effects of controlled drugs (EMCDDA, 2019). These compounds are designed by modifying the chemical structure of existing drugs or creating entirely new substances to achieve similar psychoactive effects. The emergence of designer drugs is a result of the interplay between advances in chemistry, attempts to circumvent legal restrictions, and changing consumer preferences.

The origins of designer drugs can be traced back to the mid-20th century, with the development of compounds initially intended for medicinal purposes. However, as regulations around controlled substances tightened, clandestine chemists began modifying these compounds to produce analogues that were not yet classified as illegal (EMCDDA, 2019). The rise of the internet further facilitated the dissemination of recipes and methodologies for producing these substances, contributing to their proliferation.

The appeal of designer drugs lies in their ability to evade legal scrutiny temporarily. By altering the molecular structure, manufacturers create substances that may not be explicitly classified as controlled substances, allowing for their sale and distribution until legislation catches up. The unregulated nature of designer drugs poses significant risks to users, as their potency, purity, and potential side effects remain unknown and can lead to adverse health outcomes (EMCDDA, 2019).

Addressing the challenges posed by designer drugs necessitates a comprehensive approach involving international cooperation, stringent legislation, public education, and proactive detection methods. Law enforcement and healthcare professionals need to stay updated on emerging substances and their effects to effectively respond to this constantly evolving issue.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the landscape of addiction in Japan is profoundly influenced by socio-cultural factors. The stringent cultural expectations and societal pressures, deeply ingrained in the fabric of Japanese society, significantly contribute to the prevalence of addiction (Smith, 2017). The emphasis on perfection, academic excellence, and conforming to societal norms places immense stress on individuals, often pushing them towards various forms of escapism, including substance abuse and excessive gaming (Tanaka, 2019). The stigma associated with addiction further exacerbates the issue, hindering individuals from seeking help openly (Yamamoto et al., 2020). To comprehensively address addiction in Japan, it is imperative to recognise and understand the intricate interplay of cultural expectations and societal dynamics in fuelling addiction.

Addressing Addiction through Comprehensive Interventions

Addressing addiction in Japan necessitates a multifaceted approach that encompasses not only the treatment of addictive behaviours but also the prevention and education surrounding the issue. Comprehensive interventions should focus on providing accessible and stigma-free mental health services (Kawakami et al., 2018), promoting awareness campaigns to educate the public about the risks of addiction (Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, 2021), and integrating addiction education into school curricula (Sakurai et al., 2019). Additionally, tailored interventions that account for the unique socio- cultural landscape of Japan are vital.

Urgent Need for Public Awareness and Clinical Trials

There is an urgent need to enhance public awareness of addiction and its implications in Japan. Public health campaigns should aim to dispel myths and reduce the stigma associated with addiction, encouraging open dialogue and seeking help (National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 2020). Furthermore, conducting extensive clinical trials focusing on addiction in Japan is crucial. These trials can help understand the efficacy of different treatments and interventions within the Japanese context (Ogai et al., 2017). By fostering collaboration between researchers, healthcare professionals, and the community, Japan can pave the way for evidence- based interventions that effectively prevent, treat, and manage addiction.

In summary, the battle against addiction in Japan requires a holistic approach that takes into account the intricate socio-cultural factors, implements comprehensive interventions, and emphasises the importance of public awareness and clinical trials. By addressing addiction in this multifaceted manner, Japan can aspire to create a society where individuals are empowered to overcome addiction and lead healthier, more fulfilling lives.

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The post The Psychology Of Addiction In Japan appeared first on GRJ.

To respond to contemporary challenges that stem from technological advances and have significant psychological consequences by ad- dressing them from the developmental and cross-cultural perspective.

Keywords

Digital, Technology, Psychology, Brain, Mental Health.

Bio

Prof. Dr. Parin Somani

Prof. Dr. Parin Somani, Director of LOSD, is a distinguished Academic Scholar, TEDx Speaker, and Author, honoured the title of Mrs Universe 2022 and crowned by Bollywood Actress Mahek Chahal. With 2 Academic and 6 Honorary Doctorates, she’s a multi- award-winner and humanitarian. She is a prolific author of 19 books, and a record-breaker recognised in Guinness World Records and multiple prestigious record books. She was invited to deliver a Keynote Speech at Harvard University, Cambridge University and many more. In her global travels to 127 countries, Prof. Dr. Parin Somani tirelessly contributes to education, women empowerment, and youth development.

Roxanne Boodhoo

Roxanne Boodhoo is an accomplished professional with a diverse and versatile background. Her extensive academic training has equipped her with a wide range of skills and knowledge, enabling her to excel in various roles. Roxanne is known for her strong work ethic, diligence, and commitment to undertaking any responsibilities assigned to her. She is deeply passionate about helping and supporting others, making her a compassionate and empathetic individual. Throughout her career, Roxanne has consistently demonstrated a dedication to making a positive impact, whether through her professional work or community involvement, striving to uplift those around her.

Abstract

The study of the impact of digital technology on psychological processes has been discussed by various scientific disciplines, including neuroscience, cognitive psychology, sociology, and psychiatry. Technological advancements are increasing at a pace unimagined. The consequent changes in lifestyles are inevitable. These underlying changes in day-to-day routine have been going on over the past 20–30 years or so, but they did not become as apparent as during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today a large portion of our everyday lives, work, play and social activities are channelled for virtual strata of different experiences. Overall digital life is becoming a dominant part of our personalities and ways of living.

The overall aim of this study is to bring together some of the latest research that examines the impact of technology on the human brain and the cognitive processes directly linked to the human brain. Via pro- viding up-to-date research approaches, it allows us to better understand how technology can impact our mental states and what we can do to keep our mental health in the digital era.

In just one generation, digital technology has transformed human life. People are now connected not only to each other but also to a digitized world. As a result, by becoming a part of the digital age, our brains are used as rarely before, and researchers have begun to investigate how our brains and cognitive functions are changing as we become ever more immersed in the digital age.

Introduction

In current times, technological advancements are increasing at a pace unimagined (Jusup et al.,2021). The consequent changes in lifestyles are inevitable. These underlying changes in day-to-day routine have been going on over the past 20–30 years or so, but they did not become as apparent as during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today a large portion of our everyday lives, work, play and social activities are channeled for virtual strata of different experiences. Overall digital life is becoming a dominant part of our personalities and ways of living. The article discusses the psychological implications of these shifts. The impacts of absorption of new communication technologies, such as the internet and mobile phones, and online interactions, such as cyberbullying, sexting, and digital addictions, on psychological processes and well-being will be presented.

During the COVID-19 pan- demic, the introduced long-term isolation, and hybrid systems of education and workplace operations produced new ways of operating, struggling, and creating requirements. What appeared to be temporary solutions for many, quickly started to flip the way normality and virtual reality began to oscillate between each other. The isolation and loneliness imposed by long-lasting quarantine and restrictions showed the importance of understanding not only the effects, but also devel- oping earlier on adequate supporting strategies for individuals and families (Horan, 2023).

(Mohammed, 2023) Parallelly to the scientific developments and the acceptance of e-learning and telemedicine, the question of distancing and isolation, as well as issues of support and coping strategies moved into the focal point of global society together with its virtual environments. In this regard, universities and academic institutions should have had a substantial role in the production of new fields of research and strategies, and in the reconstruction of the curriculum in a transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary way. Such responsible institutional use and re-direction of knowledge should have been capable of preparing students for the challenges waiting for them in the future and introduced ways of eating healthy, living in a responsible way, coping with stress, and organising their everyday lives and work more consciously. For this, it was necessary to have educational programs and to support research projects that focus both on technology and on the required protective behaviours in health and safety.

Aim

In a dynamic, high-speed, competitive lifestyle, technology plays an important role in the operations of society, economics, and cultures. At the same time, buildings, transportation systems, cities, factories, and homes have become smart and technologically embedded. Along with all this technological advancement, there is a disconnection from social lives and family domains due to such factors as social media, technological tools, the saturation of internet use, and other screen-based virtual representations of realities.

Nowadays, we have initials like ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’ due to their approaches towards technological factors (Timea Fülöp et al., 2022). Technology is thus considered a double-edged sword that cuts unconstructively both in personal and private lives, as well as in societal disciplines. Germany, whose Ministry of Innovation descriptively and markedly referred to “the age of a digital society”, in 2018 published a report and risk analysis while pointing out that in today’s “technology-saturated society” factors such as “stress, anxiety, sense of lost, risk of addiction, (emotional and psychological) distancing, and intergenerational separation” have become present risk factors.

The aim of this study is to respond to contemporary challenges that stem from technological advances and have significant psychological consequences by addressing them from the developmental and cross-cultural perspective. It draws attention to technological issues, such as internet addiction, cyber- bullying, and the use of new technologies in health, a s well as problems connected with an illness as a new way of experiencing matter and a unit of the family system. (Caponnetto & Milazzo, 2019) Alongside the potential threats associated with the use of new technologies, it shows the developmental and cross-cultural perspectives that change the perception of the world and ourselves. E-health is much more than a new way of treating. It is also a completely new model of subject–environment relationships, giving everyone a sense of agency in their health preservation and provides new means of empowerment.

2.0 Methodology

A mixed-method study was employed to explore the feasibility and acceptability of using online and mobile technology to deliver expanded treatments for mental health compared to standard treatments, frequent barriers to use, facilitators, and barriers to use (Mohammed, 2023). The primary aims explored young males attitudes towards seeking professional mental health services, and towards using online and mobile technology to address mental health issues. In addition, extensive literature searches have been carried out to examine literature within books, journals and credible literature sources. The outcomes of this study will inform future interventions, novel strategies for increasing treatment use among this group, and service provision for young men with mental health problems.

3.0 Results

Cyber Health Psychology: A technological progress has profoundly influenced the rapidity of change and revolutionised communication and relationships (Caponnetto & Milazzo, 2019). The impact of the digital age has impacted on every sector, including the health and wellness sector. This process has also had a major influence on mental health and well-being. It is there- fore extremely difficult to study the psychological processes of individuals within this cyber-social or cyber-physical space, as the origin of these comes from the impact of technology. Figure 1 illustrates the number of studies categorised by mental health issues and technology interventions. The findings indicate that apps are the most prevalent form of digital technology, particularly for addressing depression and anxiety. Telemedicine services also rank highly in terms of utilisation. In contrast, there are comparatively fewer instances of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), chatbots, and serious games. The following sections delve into the specifics of digital technology applications and their unique affordances, tailored to distinct mental health issues.

Fig. 1 (Chen, T,. et al, 2024)

Cyberpsychology

therefore, becomes an essential form of study for understanding these phenomena and the psychological adaptations occurring with digital communication, emphasising also health and illness repercussions. The ability to adapt to changes in the context of the phenomenon is crucial in the definition of polymedia literacy.

Book Review: The mental health and well-being approaches are a new form of awareness that guides public policies and requiring many professional and personal skills in the management of intrapsychic criticalities (Zsila, 2016). This study explores the modernity of digital health and psychotherapy that enable people and professionals to better manage the meaning of these processes. Given the future scene, the volume is capable of providing new support to address a multi-method study on the efficacy and convenience of psycho- logical approaches in the digital era. Modern and quantitative results on the fusion of clinical and digital interventions are import- ant for new philosophy.

Behavioural interventions: are crucial for a range of mental health problems and CFHI can play a major role in this area of research interest as its clients have a high prevalence of co-occurring substance use disorder, which can be difficult to treat using traditional face-to-face mental health interventions. Other metanalysis also demonstrated similar outcome effect. However, previous results from the meta-ethnography highlighted how potentially negative, as well as potential positive outcomes, can result from technology use in relation to mental health. This focus of these meta-ethnography on users of technology (carers and healthcare professionals) suffered from the drawback of excluding the views of the technology users themselves, recognising the importance of digital technology in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Digital technology and well-being: are interconnected, influencing each other (Ros Bangun et al., 2021). Digital technology has had a significant and direct impact on people’s sense of well-being as it influences people’s activities, either personally or professionally, during the contemporary era (Kroenke, 2002). With inter- net penetration, use of digital technology prevalence has increased around the world and thus society spending more time in the digital environment.

There has been an increased interest in as well as professional focus on the relationship between people, technology, and their well-being. Today’s digital world has broadened the statistics with prolific professionals interested in computers, smartphones, and especially the internet in business and education. Like other professionals, lecturers have studied the impact of technology on their careers and the significance of these technologies. S. Ticha examined 194 lecturers in universities and universities of advanced technology in Poland to find that digital technology is of utmost significance to academia.

Digital communication, digital technology and its services: have witnessed significant improvements under the COVID-19 pan- demic. Lockdown situation, and a lack of connectively on the ground have helped promote digital platforms and services. Therefore, institutes have no option but to replace conventional way with digital technology to distribute knowledge and to be in touch with the instructed.

Digital service usage has proven to be dynamic. There are pre-requisites to fulfill and challenges for computer users because of a domination of digital technology. For instance, the knowledge of the hardware, software, net- work and programming languages is necessary for the job market. Therefore, they have made a special place of professions that deal with information technologies in themselves practicalities.

Technology has the potential of altering psychological processes of individuals. Affective and cognitive susceptibility is common among the young population under the exposure of technological means. If not managed well, the free access of technology can distract its users’ attention and hinder with cognitive processes (Pitt et al., 2021).

This research supports earlier findings, which have confirmed the importance of cognitive aspects with the direct or indirect influence of attitude and a short form of emotional intelligence. Digital naïve individuals were directly linked with information literacy, digital communication and digital technology service usage. It has been postulated that while technology gives an opportune moment to individuals to convincingly present their insights, it also offers a behavioural platform to sarcastic behaviour.

Empathy has depth and an astonishing influence on understanding employer behaviour. It has an impact on self-identification with one’s own behaviour and motivation among the professional in their work environment (Ros Bangun et al., 2021).

Discussion

Emotional continually coping behaviours are a fixed link which can be directly interpreted as individual’s somatic reactions or ideosomatic behaviour.

Results show that the adoption of digital technology has become the main source of increased screen time. Excessive screen time has been frequently associated with negative emotional state: anxiety and depression.

Those impacts on individuals readiness and willingness to adopt digitised technology as a side present a dangerous trend of mental health recommendation. Immunity seems to decrease, while at the same time the trust in science and technology seems to degrade. The back reaction is individual avert and emotional resistance, when affective well-being is affected, and adjusting to the situation is hindered, by affecting cognitive and emotional factors, screen time solidifies into negative mental health effects (Ienca & Malgieri, 2022).

The discussion will overview and summarise the implications of psychological research for several central themes, key questions, and potential future opportunities. Several issues associated with mind digitalisation are addressed in the current review. We consider first the toll that increased screen time takes regarding children and adolescents and consider how it impacts attention, mental health, and academic performance (Cardoso-Leite et al., 2021). Among children between the ages of 3 and 5, screen time of two hours daily significantly predicts externalising problems by first grade. Similar associations are found in adolescents, where television viewing and video gaming is related to behavioral and emotional problems. A meta-analysis also shows the detrimental effects of problematic screen time on academic achievement.

Conclusion

Digital technology has invaded social, professional, and family life (Butler, 2024). This has contributed to an acceleration of learning processes by increasing the possibilities of access to the most varied contents and knowledge. A variable that significantly recurs in virtual reality, and devices offers a glimpse of the great potential which, in the future they could reach in this sense especially if we think of the forth- coming times when 5G connections will spread. It would be right, to this aim, to affront the problems, perhaps still very remote, raised by the constitution of what will be called a sort of “Digital Afterlife” , which concerns the problem of the dissipative nature of the computation that could not be neglected if a not directly connected process neither to a specific physical support nor to the one operating in the limits of the traditional quantum mechanics. whose presence is lacking in the real/physical world, concerns the self-tracking: thanks to the many apps present, through the digital mediation, it is possible both to monitor and to improve the personal health. It is quite evident that beyond technological evolution there has been a profound impact, and still on-going conventional (in a certain sense) social evolution: the modern digital world we are living in, the so-called “meta-moiety” in fact, offers both objective and subjective changes in the environment where inhabitants share their lives (Cebo, 2021). It is necessary to think a future where digital information carriers become “immutable” throughout “genetic inheritance”. The personal identity in the digital environment will be part of the genetic identity, changing the notion of “bio-identity” to a radically different concept which we call Global Identity. Modern technological potential has been directed to offer such devices to the self-centred imitators as to be provided with technological artifacts able to delude the interlocutor on their own biological nature (Mohammed, 2023). The recent dissemination of the most varied smart.

References

Butler, T. (2024). A Critical Review of Digital Technology in Education: A Pause for Thought in 2024. osf.io

Caponnetto, P. & Milazzo, M (2019). Cyber Health Psychology: The use of new technologies at the service of psychologycal well being and health empowerment. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Cardoso-Leite, P., Buchard, A., Tissieres, I., Mussack, D., & Bavelier, D. (2021). Media use, attention, mental health and academic performance among 8 to 12 year old children. ncbi.nlm. nih.gov

Cebo, D. (2021). Scientific Relevance and Future of Digital Immortality and Virtual Humans. [PDF]

Chen, T., Ou, J., Li, G., & Luo, H. (2024). Promoting mental health in children and adolescents through digital technology: a systematic review and meta-analysis. ncbi.nlm. nih.gov

Horan, T. (2023). The Effects of Urbanization and Social Media Use on Individuals’ Perceived Social Isolation. osf.io

Ienca, M. & Malgieri, G. (2022). Mental data protec- tion and the GDPR. ncbi. nlm.nih.gov

Jusup, M., Holme, P., Kanazawa, K., Takayasu, M.,  Romic, I., Wang, Z., Gecek, S., Lipic, T., Podobnik, B., Wang, L., Luo, W., Klanjscek, T., Fan, J., Boccaletti, S., & Perc, M. (2021). Social physics. [PDF]

Mohammed, H. (2023). Technology in Association With Mental Health: Meta- ethnography. [PDF]

Pitt, C., Hock, A., Zelnick, L., & Davis, K. (2021). The Kids Are / Not / Sort of All Right. [PDF]

R. Hoehe, M. & Thibaut, F. (2020). Going digital: how technology use may influ- ence human brains and behavior. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Ros Bangun, Y., Pritasari, A., Budyanto Widjaja, F., Wirawan, C., Wisesa, A., & Ginting, H. (2021). Role of Happiness: Mediating Digital Technology and Job Performance Among Lecturers. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Timea Fülöp, M., Odett Breaz, T., He, X., Aurelian Ionescu, C., Silviu Cordoş, G., & Geanina Stanescu, S. (2022). The role of uni- versities’ sustainability, teachers’ wellbeing, and attitudes toward e-learn- ing during COVID-19. ncbi. nlm.nih.gov

Zsila, Ágnes (2016). Book Review. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The post Digital Minds: The Impact Of Technology On Psychological Processes In The Modern Age appeared first on GRJ.

Understand the growing issues of anxiety and substance addiction among today’s youth. Examines the impact of these problems on young lives, it underscores the urgency of addressing them. Reviews current prevention and intervention methods to provide a clear understanding of how to support youth struggling with these issues.

Keywords

Mental Health, Adolescents, Anxiety, Depression, Addiction.

Bio

Rituu Guptaa, born and raised in the scenic valleys of Dehradun, India, is a passionate advocate for justice and empowerment. With a career spanning over 25 years as a clinical psychologist and counsellor, she has been a guiding light for many in overcoming life’s challenges. Rituu firmly believes in the inherent resilience and strength within each individual, empowering her clients to navigate through adversity with courage and determination. She epitomizes the adage “Be the change you want to see,” inspiring others to tap into their inner resources and embark on a journey of self-discovery and transformation.

Bio

Uddayvir Singh is a dedicated student with a clear ambition to pursue a career in medicine. Currently, he is rigorously studying a diverse range of subjects including Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Psychology, and Mathematics, laying a robust foundation for his future medical studies. His academic journey began with a strong performance in his I/GCSEs, where he developed a keen interest in the sciences and an understanding of the intricate workings of the human body. With a passion for learning and a commitment to excellence, Uddayvir is keen to make significant contributions to the field of medicine in the future.

Abstract

The prevalence of mental and psychological disorders among younger generations has significantly increased in recent years, raising critical public health concerns. This literature review examines the factors contributing to this rise and explores various disorders affecting today’s youth. Using a systematic search and analysis of scholarly articles from databases such as PubMed, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar, the review identifies key studies on the prevalence, correlation, and determinants of depression, anxiety, substance addiction, among adolescents and young adults, with a specific focus on anxiety and substance addiction.

A critical appraisal framework evaluates the methodological rigor and quality of included studies, ensuring reliable and valid findings. By synthesising current research, the review elucidates the complex interplay of genetic, environmental, social, and cultural factors influencing the mental health landscape of younger generations.

This understanding is essential for developing targeted interventions and promoting resilience among youth facing mental health challenges. The review also highlights the impact of technology, social media, academic pressures, family dynamics, and socio-economic disparities on mental health outcomes. By critically evaluating existing literature, the review offers insights into potential research avenues and underscores the need for comprehensive, evidence-based approaches to address the growing crisis of mental health disorders among younger populations.

Introduction

Many studies have reported an increase of anxiety related symptoms within the past decade, but the exact prevalence remains unknown. Anxiety disorders are complex and often under-diagnosed because they can manifest a variety of physical and psychological symptoms (Back, Waldrop, & Brady, 2070). Anxiety is commonly identified as a sense of dread or apprehension, which is often accompanied by physical complaints such as headache, stomach-ache, muscle tension, shortness of breath, shakiness, and dizziness. Sudden and intense anxiety for no apparent reason is referred to as a panic attack (Marks, 7987). Though not life threatening, anxiety disorders often impair functioning and quality of life. It is a main contributor to mental health diagnoses and can often be an offshoot or precursor to additional psychiatric disorders such as depression or further anxiety conditions. The social and academic pressures on today’s youth, in addition to an uncertain economic and political climate also contributing to loss of identity, have been presumed as an attributing factor to anxiety prevalence (Baumeister & Muraven, 7996) (Baumeister & Muraven, 7996). These factors are expected to increase competition in the job market and thus increase the requirements for higher education and standard of living. This, in turn, brings higher expectations upon our youth and a scarce job market for unskilled workers The recent shift towards a global community has proposed increased opportunities for travel and a wider and more competitive job market on a world scale. This has created a mindset of necessity for today’s youth to achieve and be successful on an international platform. Failure to meet those more rigid standards could contribute to a sense of inadequacy and additional pressures high in causative factors for anxiety conditions.

With the steady dominance of mental and psychological disorders among today’s youth, researchers aim to decipher the primary catalysts and aid pathways to potential solutions. A media storm of technological  advancements, social networking, and added pressures such as academic targets and financial uncertainties have all played a supportive role in the accelerated prevalence of mental disorders within the millennial and post- millennial generations. Anxiety and substance addiction are the primary focus due to noting the substantial rise of diagnoses within these specific areas and the dire negative implications they pose to a person’s mental health and future outcomes. This research study will seek to comprehensively understand the surge of mental and psychological disorders among today’s youth, specifically anxiety and substance addiction. By synthesising quantitative and qualitative data over a multi-disciplinary arena, we hope to identify the causative factors that have contributed to the escalation of these conditions, attempt to quantify the severity of these issues, and explore potential preventative and intervention measures.

Aim

This literature review aims to understand and discuss the following:

-Growing issues of anxiety and substance addiction among today’s youth.

-Examines the impact of these problems on young lives, it underscores the urgency of addressing them.

-Reviews current prevention and intervention methods to provide a clear understanding of how to support youth struggling with these issues.

Methodology

This review examined literature on the rise and causation of mental and psychological disorders among today’s youth, focusing on anxiety and substance addiction. Despite the increasing number of studies on the prevalence of these disorders, understanding why this increase is occurring remains crucial. By identifying the causes, prevention strategies can be developed to avoid a lifetime of coping. The review included literature from journals and various youth samples, ranging from clinical populations to college students. Although the severity of anxiety and some substance disorders varied, the issue is relevant to all youth, especially those facing the stresses of higher education. The review explored the various causes and issues surrounding diagnosable anxiety disorders, noting similarities to substance addiction issues.

In the National Health Interview Survey, 6.8% of Americans (about 77 million people) had at least one depressive episode in the year prior to being surveyed. Of these, 80% reported some level of functional impairment in doing work, school, or housework, or in their interpersonal relationships. In the United States, the leading cause of dropout in high schools is depression related (Rones & Hoagwood, 2007). Figures for other anxiety disorders are not easy to split from figures for behaviour disorders, but one UK study found that 3.3% of children aged 4-76 had an anxiety disorder (Ford, Goodman, & Meltzer, 2003). In an Australian survey, it was found that 74.4% of 4-77-year-olds, and 27% of 78-24-year-olds were assessed as having either a “high” or “very high” level of psychological distress (based on K-70 scores) (AIHW, 2027). In twelve months prior to the survey, 7.7% or around 300,000 young Australians had experienced an anxiety disorder, while the rate of affective disorders for the same period was 5.7%. With the growing realisation of the seriousness of anxiety disorders and their grave outcomes on life impairment, it is important that they are not ignored in research and people continue to try to understand them. Figure 7 illustrates Psychological Distress Levels Among 11-17 Year Olds, Categorised by Age Group and Gender, 2013-2014. An understanding of this is needed to persuade funding bodies to support further research into anxiety disorders. High prevalence rates and serious outcomes in younger people may potentially affect the future productivity of youths and have implications for future generations.

3.1 The Interplay Between Anxiety and Substance Addiction

The enhanced predisposition of those with anxiety toward consuming addictive substances is well documented. Anxiety was positively associated with a wide range of lifetime substance use:

ten of the eleven substances studied (cannabis, inhalants, cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin, ecstasy, prescription medications, alcohol, and nicotine) showed positive associations with anxiety (Conrod, Castellanos-Ryan, & Mackie, 2077) Though among specific anxiety disorders, only social anxiety has been consistently associated with substance use and abuse, the data is more robust for alcohol abuse, especially among male subjects. A possible explanation is that those with social anxiety utilise alcohol to ameliorate the negative emotions associated with the disorder (Vasey, 7995).

There are functional ramifications of the relationship between anxiety disorders and substance abuse. Following exposure to anxiogenic stress, individuals with anxiety disorders have been shown to be more vulnerable to developing an addiction to an abused substance. The seeking of intoxication and subsequent chronic abuse of a substance can be seen as a method of self-medication to reduce the negative affect and emotional suffering associated with the anxiety disorder (Cisler, Olatunji, Feldner, & Forsyth, 2009).

Figure 1. (AIHW, 2021)

The acute intake of an abused substance has an immediate effect on the brain and neurotransmissions, potentially causing a rapid psychological shift from negative affect to relief. This shift can serve as positive reinforcement for continued substance use and in the gradual formation of an addiction. High comorbidity rates are seen in the more severe anxiety disorders, with ten of the eleven substances studied (cannabis, inhalants, cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin, ecstasy, prescription medications, alcohol, and nicotine) showed positive associations with anxiety (Conrod, Castellanos-Ryan, & Mackie, 2011) Though among specific anxiety disorders, only social anxiety has been consistently associated with substance use and abuse, the data is more robust for alcohol abuse, especially among male subjects. A possible explanation is that those with social anxiety utilise alcohol to ameliorate the negative emotions associated with the disorder (Vasey, 1995).

There are functional ramifications of the relationship between anxiety disorders and substance abuse. Following exposure to anxiogenic stress, individuals with anxiety disorders have been shown to be more vulnerable to developing an addiction to an abused substance. The seeking of intoxication and subsequent chronic abuse of a substance can be seen as a method of self-medication to reduce the negative affect and emotional suffering associated with the anxiety disorder (Cisler, Olatunji, Feldner, & Forsyth, 2009). The acute intake of an abused substance has an immediate effect on the brain and neurotransmissions, potentially causing a rapid psychological shift from negative affect to relief. This shift can serve as positive reinforcement for continued substance use and in the gradual formation of an addiction. High comorbidity rates are seen in the more severe anxiety disorders, with addicts making up as much as 20% of those with social anxiety disorder and panic disorder. This represents a near doubling in the odds of being addicted to alcohol and a 4- 5-fold increase in the odds of addiction to another drug. Time constraints and participants means having the presented literature has been focused on adults, and it is important to consider further the link between anxiety disorders and substance abuse in adolescents. Numerous studies have found strong associations between psychiatric conditions, both treated and untreated, and subsequent academic achievement (Rones & Hoagwood, 2001).

A British birth cohort study found that parental report of ’emotional disturbance’ at age 16 was associated with reduced occupational attainment at age 26. Those who met criteria for depression at ages 15 and 16 in another study were found to have lower grade point averages, educational attainment, and occupational functioning ten years later, as compared with their non-depressed counterparts. Although it is difficult to dissociate the effects of comorbidity, substance abuse, medication, and the underlying disorder itself, the clear impact on educational functioning is compelling (Fergusson & Lynskey, 1998).

3.2 Treatment Approaches and Modalities

Treatment types in general practice the recommended approach for choosing the right treatment for each specific problem should involve considering recent advancements. While primary care is typically sufficient for managing mental health issues in young individuals, it may not always be the ideal option. Psychological therapies can be administered in primary care, but specialists may be required to provide more specialised assistance or guidance. When selecting the most suitable form of treatment, factors such as the problem’s severity, persistence, associated functional impairment, and the specific preferences of the child or young individual and their family should be taken into account. It is crucial to recognise that early intervention at the least severe level is often the most effective approach in addressing most mental health problems.

3.3 Cognitive- Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

The focus in CBT is to redefine irrational beliefs that may lead to emotionally distressing events, by a series of teaching a client to monitor and identify their thoughts and attitudes. With CBT, the patient is thought to be equipped to alter those thoughts and this, in turn, will change their reaction to those events (Jones & Pulos, 1993). Once the patient has mastered the reconstruction of events to outcomes that can relieve emotional distress, a clear plan of gradual exposure to the distressing events can now be tackled with a defined cognitive and behavioural formula that will not cause distress (David & Szentagotai, 2006). This is a process that can be seen in the treatment of anxiety disorders where people will often avoid certain situations and events and thereby deny themselves the opportunity to alter an outcome to less distressing or treat a fear which in reality is not threatening. The end of treatment with CBT is always termination with a conscious use of the coping methods learned by the patient and with a reinforcement of the new methods as a way of life. Szasz, 1960 and Scheff, 1966, and many other sociologists of the labelling theory within mental illness, have had a pivotal view in the criticism of psychological treatments (Krohn, Lizotte, & Hall, 2009). They have researchable evidence that shows the process of how a patient of a mental illness being subjected to a certain therapy or medical treatment is, in fact, conforming to the label of their illness and in many cases getting worse or prolonging the illness. This is due to the social construction of the label; the patient is stigmatised to being who has a mental illness and the only way they can escape the label is to consider themselves as cured and that the treatment failed to remove the irrational belief that led to the distressing events. This view of CBT can be seen as somewhat positive, in the case that there is the variability for individual or group therapy and that the treatment is a focused attempt at changing specific symptoms. The different techniques and methods used in CBT show that it is a viable treatment option for many common mental disorders and its direct and problem-based approach make it favourable in the medical community in today’s age.

3.4 Medication Management

In particular, anxiety medications play a role in the self-medication of anxiety conditions. A recent study with over 1000 college students showed that 9 out of 10 of these individuals sought out various medications, both legal and illegal, to get them through their anxiety problems. Hence, the opportunity for a student to abuse anxiety medications is very high. Tolerance can develop for anxiety medications, causing an individual to need more and more of this drug to calm down.There are various types of medications used to treat anxiety. Acute treatment for anxiety is usually a prescription for a type of benzodiazepine. Benzodiazepines are a class of compounds that are widely used for the treatment of anxiety and insomnia. These types of medications are known to be effective and fast-acting for relief of anxiety symptoms; however, the long-term use of these medications is not recommended and can be habit-forming. Long-term maintenance medications include certain SSRIs and buspirone, which are safer compared to benzodiazepines and do not induce a dependency. Beta- blockers are also used on an as-needed basis for control of performance anxiety. Any of these medications should be utilised while combined with psychotherapy for the best effectiveness and long- term results.

3.5 Holistic and Alternative Therapies

Holistic treatment looks at the situation as a whole and tries to decide what elements of life are causing the individual distress. Alternative treatments may include activities such as yoga, Tai Chi, or meditation. It is possible that alternative treatment may be mixed with herbal medicine, for example taking herbal supplements to relieve anxiety symptoms. Yoga and meditation have been scientifically proven to decrease anxiety and stress levels. Tai Chi has the same effect, although it is not as well researched; recent studies have proven that herbal supplements are just as effective as prescription medication, and patients view them more positively. Many patients never return to herbal medicine once they have been prescribed psychiatric drugs, and it is likely that there are differences in people seeking herbal treatments and prescription drugs. Mixing the two treatments is ill-advised and it can be dangerous, patients should seek advice from an herbal practitioner or homeopathic doctor, who is likely to be critical about mixing alternative and prescription remedies. Engaging in physical exercise increases the serotonin in the brain, which leads to improved mood and decreased anxiety. This may be anything from going for a run, to taking a dog for a walk in the park. There are a vast number of activities which people can undertake to increase their fitness, and it is up to the individual to find something that they will enjoy and will maintain. The exercise recommended to combat anxiety would be that which gets the heart pumping, as this is what is required to increase serotonin. Nutrition is also important, and maintaining a healthy diet will improve an individual’s general health and resistance to illness. Step one is avoiding junk food, which is high in sugar and fat. High levels of sugar cause hyperactivity and elation due to increased blood sugar, however this is followed by fatigue and depression when it drops. A good diet does not simply mean not eating bad food, and it is important that people eat sufficient amounts of good, nutritious food. It may involve some research and many people are unaware of the nutrients that they are supposed to be taking. It may be necessary to see a professional nutritionist who can advise on meal plans and diets; this is a long-term investment which will lead to improved mood, self-esteem, and confidence. The overall effect of alternative therapies is a positive one, and successfully removing an anxiety sufferer from their problem. At this stage a person would no longer be classified as mentally ill and would have achieved a high level of mental health. This is different to the aim of removing a person from severe depression to a state of nothingness, and it is difficult to weigh up the cost efficiency of the two as the effect of removing depression is an increased suicide risk.

3.6 Support Groups and Peer Counselling

An effective intervention for youth mental health is support groups that focus on social skill building and self-esteem activities. These groups help normalise experiences, as shown in an anxiety study where clients felt relief discovering others shared similar issues (Durlak & Wells, 1997).

The social context of groups can harness peer pressure positively. According to Bandura’s social learning theory, youth learn coping behaviours by modelling others (Koutroubas & Galanakis, 2022). Support groups provide a setting that teaches healthy coping habits, especially beneficial for socially anxious youth. They offer exposure therapy and help generalise coping skills through homework tasks. While group CBT can treat adolescent depression, research favours individual therapy for severe cases, self- harm, and complex depression, as recommended by NICE guidelines (NICE, 2022). Despite their accessibility and cost-effectiveness, research on support groups for youth anxiety and depression is limited, even though they are effective for adults (Gibbons, et al., 2010). Prioritising the development and research of group-based interventions is essential for improving youth mental health.

3.7 Future Directions and Research Implications

Results have highlighted an increase in youth mental health problems and drug use as a temporary escape. Explanations focused on adolescent experiences, and while predictions were not tested within problem behaviour theory, future research could validate these hypotheses. Reassessing future generations’ mental health will be crucial. Today’s youth benefit from technological  advancements, with new media and computers standard in developed countries. Technology has educational benefits, but its impact on mental health is mixed, potentially leading to issues like internet addiction. Conversely, technology can aid in prevention through educational resources.

Longitudinal studies following current youth to evaluate these theories would be valuable. The overlap between mental health and drug abuse, such as self-medication in depressed adolescents using prescribed antidepressants, suggests these fields may merge. It’s not a question of whether youth face problems but what will come next. Anxiety disorders often lead to other issues, including depression.

Understanding these sequences in adolescence requires ongoing research and integration with existing explanations.

3.8 Identifying Protective Factors and Resilience

Other than targeting the risk factors, identifying, and building on the protective factors and resilience of the youth is also an important means of preventing youth mental disorders. Protective factors are influences that reduce the impact of early stressful life events and act as a shield against the progression from stress to mental disorder. It was found in a cross-sectional study in Victoria, Australia that the common protective factors amongst young people with high levels of mental wellbeing were the possession of good life skills (including social, personal, and study skills, and skills related to future employability) and participation in structured and prosocial (including voluntary) activities. These factors were associated with mental wellbeing in youth across the range of socio-emotional problems and levels of functioning. On the other hand, poor mental wellbeing was strongly linked with the young person not being in education and employment. Although the presence of good life skills and the engagement in structured and prosocial activities are considered protective, a recent study found that the intrinsic belief in the value of the future of these young people was the most important factor in determining whether the skills and activities act protectively. This profound finding presents a potential intervention point for enhancing mental wellbeing amongst Australian youth.

Risky behaviors and poor physical health are common in young people with mental disorders and have been described as markers of an underlying continuum of social and emotional problems (Salkovskis, 1991). There is a bidirectional relationship between poor physical health and mental disorders, and it is likely that a strong focus on improving the physical health of individuals with mental disorders will reap its own benefits in terms of improved mental wellbeing. Development of interventions targeting health behaviours and early medical treatment of youth mental disorders may be a further investment in the mental health continuum of future generations (Côté, 2009). . A recent study has shown that for those individuals at the severe end of the continuum, premature death or decreased life expectancy is likely and represents a major public health issue. Suicide is the leading cause of death in people aged 24 years or younger in Australia and New Zealand, and for these reasons, it is important to enhance the continuum of care for young people with mental disorders until their general health and life expectancy more closely resembles that of people without mental disorders. This might also be considered for at-risk populations of youth showing socio-emotional problems before the point of diagnostic  mental  disorder in order to reduce the prevalence and burden of these problems.

One of the most potentially modifiable factors of mental disorders in youth is a family history of mental and substance use disorders. It is well known that there is both a strong genetic and environmental risk from parental mental illness, and a recent study has estimated that 15-20% of children are at risk of developing a mental disorder due to a parental history. This has been linked to poor parent mental health and disturbances in parenting practices, which can result in the exposure of these children to a range of socio-emotional problems. The negative effects of parental disorders are particularly concerning given the potential to prevent disorders in both the parents and children and in terms of the high human and economic burden from disorders across the lifespan. As such, there is great potential to prevent the development of mental disorders in these children through the improvement of parent mental health and parenting practices, and this may also serve to protect against disorders developing in subsequent generations.

3.9 Addressing Cultural and Socioeconomic Disparities

There are particularly important issues to consider in the context of anxiety and substance addictions in the young, and that is of culture and socioeconomic status. Studies have shown that members of ethnic and racial minority groups in the United States are less likely to receive diagnosis and treatment for their mental illness, have fewer positive attitudes toward mental health, and are more likely to use emergency mental health care or general medical services rather than mental health specialists (Stephens, Bohanna, & Graham, 2017).

Research also indicates that even when minorities are diagnosed with mood, anxiety, or substance abuse disorders, they are still less likely than the white majority population to receive any treatment (McHugh, Hearon, & Otto, 2010). It is believed that the disparities occur because ethnic and racial minorities have less access to mental health services, are less likely to seek help, and are more likely to receive poor quality care. This is especially problematic as rates of anxiety, depression, and substance misuse are often the same or sometimes higher for minority groups than the white majority population. This section aims to discuss some potential reasons for these disparities and how they can be addressed to provide better quality care for those affected by anxiety and substance addictions.

The surge of mental and psychological disorders among today’s youth has become a growing area of interest for researchers, clinicians, educators, and parents. Given that mental disorders usually have their onset in childhood and adolescence, it is of vital importance to understand why this disturbing trend is occurring, what are the consequences in terms of youths’ well-being, and what can be done to prevent it. In this paper, we have reviewed the evidence of the past 50 years and have seen a dramatic increase in rates of a variety of mental disorders among children and adolescents. This has been shown for different types of disorders, in different countries, and by many measures of mental disorder. The review covered the prevalence of youth mental disorders and their impact; the changing rates of disorders; the significant link between mental disorders and mental health services use; and clinical severity/detection of disorders.

The evidence points to a complex and as yet not fully understood mix of contributing factors to the increase in youth mental disorders that is almost certainly multi-determined. Pressing areas for further research exist. This includes the reasons for the wide variation in rates of disorder across developed countries, and why youth today appear to be so much more distressed than those of the past. For the sake of today’s youth and of future generations, it is hoped that research that seeks to understand the origins of this trend will continue to be prioritised. . In particular, a greater focus on prevention rather than cure is needed. Given the clear evidence of the potential for adverse impacts of mental disorders of youth well into adult life, every effort should be made to reduce the prevalence of these disorders among young people today.

The increase in mental and psychological disorders is now alarmingly high and this research study has shown they are often more prevalent than other health issues. This is now the time for psychological health to stand on its pedestal and receive the recognition it deserves. High rates of anxiety and substance addiction in youth may serve as a wake-up call-in mental health recognition. It can be hoped that mental health will now start to receive more funding and research tipping towards the provided better care and options for adolescents in the future.

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The post Understanding the Surge of Mental and Psychological Disorders Among Today’s Youth, Specifically Anxiety and Substance Addiction: A Comprehensive Literature Review appeared first on GRJ.

To provide an insight into conditions for implementing synchronous digital mental health interventions) in ‘real-world’ settings, thus contributing to the feld of implementation science.

Keywords:

Mental Health, Anxiety, Technology, Wellbeing

Bio

Prof. Dr. Parin Somani, Director of LOSD, is a distinguished Academic Scholar, TEDx Speaker, and Author, honoured the title of Mrs. Universe 2022 and crowned by Bollywood Actress Mahek Chahal. With 2 Academic and 6 Honorary Doctorates, she’s a multi-award-winner and humanitarian. She is a prolific author of 19 books, and a record-breaker recognised in Guinness World Records and multiple prestigious record books. She was invited to deliver a Keynote Speech at Harvard University, Cambridge University and many more. In her global travels to 127 countries, Prof. Dr. Parin Somani tirelessly contributes to education, women empowerment, and youth development.

Roxanne Boodhoo is an accomplished professional with a diverse and versatile background. Her extensive academic training has equipped her with a wide range of skills and knowledge, enabling her to excel in various roles. Roxanne is known for her strong work ethic, diligence, and commitment to undertaking any responsibilities assigned to her. She is deeply passionate about helping and supporting others, making her a compassionate and empathetic individual. Throughout her career, Roxanne has consistently demonstrated a dedication to making a positive impact, whether through her professional work or community involvement, striving to uplift those around her.

Abstract

Effective mental health promotion and prevention of mental disorders is an important social and economic goal. Anxiety disorders, depression, bipolar affective disorder, and schizophrenia are among the most common and burdensome mental disorders globally. One in four adults and one in ten young people suffer from one or more mental health disorders in Europe in any given year, and at least one in two will develop psychological distress during their lifetime. Even if mental health care capacities were to be dramatically increased, it would still be a challenge to reduce these figures. Given this context, efforts to promote good mental health and self-relaxation are gaining increasing importance. Policy-makers and health care provider alike see the potential of digital interventions to address these increasing needs and demands for mental well-being. Social isolation in the wake of COVID-19 has had adverse effects on mental health. Many people have turned to digital interventions to help them cope, often without much evidence on how effective these interventions are among different user groups and under different conditions. Social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic has had adverse effects on mental health. In response, many have turned to digital interventions with enthusiasm. Yet, enthusiasm alone is not enough: the individual and contextual factors that infuence the effectiveness of digital mental health interventions need to be better understood.

Introduction

Mental illnesses, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), are a leading cause of global burden of diseases and economic loss, overshadowing other chronic medical illnesses (Saad et al., 2021). Within any given year, an estimated 26% of US adults, or about 1 in 4 individuals, are suffering from a mental illness. Only half of the people with a mental illness will seek help, and even if they are able to access care for behavioral health conditions, their treatment may not be evidence-based or guideline-concordant.

Therefore, there is growing pressure to find and implement evidence-based ways to combat the mental health crisis. One possible path to such evidence-based and scalable solutions might be through digital interventions, the use of technology to provide therapeutic support for mental illnesses. To provide affordable and accessible mental health interventions, there are several critical steps that stakeholders need to develop (Liu & Zhang, 2024). These solutions should be easy to use, scalable, and built using a bottom-up approach, with insights from the target users. Investigators working in collaboration with young mental health care users to develop user-centered digital tools allows for the expedited development of scalable options.

However, digital systems require incentive-based engagement and often function within complex systems characterised by public and digital architectures with competing goals. Whereas passive interventions, like educational websites, are appealing and non-invasive, but ignorable, while active, non-invasive digital interventions, like a mobile app installed on a user’s personal device, are disruptive and require high user participation. However, this also results in a demand on the user, a barrier to help-seeking, as users often need time to trust the system and assess the potential benefits.

According to the National Health Service almost 1 in 6 people in the last week encounter a common mental health issue like stress, decay, anxiety, or mental ill-health at the workplace. A daily stressor is the major symptom of difficulty in focusing and improving the patient’s well-being. If issues of well-being are not properly dealt early, they could lead to more serious mental health issues. If significant well-being treatment is offered, individuals with common mental health disorders gain from enhanced productivity and improved working and caring performance. Depression, anxiety, and insomnia are essential components of a major depressive disorder (Woodward et al., 2019). Therefore, well-being is not only an optimistic way to measure our life quality but deficiencies in well-being and illness may be a significant problem that creates factors that contribute to significant depressive and anxious problems and is also associated with numerous physical diseases. Nonetheless, it was revealed that training in mindfulness targeting anxiety showed significant changes of satisfaction with life.

The unprecedented challenges of a growing mental health crisis, exemplifed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its association with increases in mental health disorders, propelled the expansion of electronic interventions. These electronic interventions range from web-based and smartphone-based schedules to fully automated digital characters (avatars). Although there are proven efficient interventions and useful therapy delivery modes, these technological interventions have not been broadly implemented due to the demanding technological infrastructure and regular post-development research to guarantee effectiveness, as well as adherence to local mental health care regulations (Mohammed, 2023).

E-mental health interventions may implement methodologies dependent on digital components to identify and monitor mental illness tendencies, to avoid and detoxify emotional distress, to care of present mild psychiatric conditions, to support mental health disorders as a complementary approach to a weaker central therapy, or to avoid decompensating the chronic and acute psychiatric disorders with routine maintenance treatment by the acceptable mix of both digital and face-to-face therapy techniques. Therefore, it is important in this modern era to advance communications with mental health care centers to make modifications in the present psychotherapeutic interventions to develop additional ethnic treatment packages, and also to develop innovative e-therapy systems, with particular emphasis on how to envelop and monitor them in regular health practices and all that efficiently, appropriately, and ethically through the integration of tested, proof based treatment methodologies, in addition to the flexible contribution of new clinical knowledge from every current delivery form, thereby increasing the overall impact (Robinson et al., 2023).

Increasingly, agencies are looking beyond face-to-face singular treatments towards digital solutions. National Health Service (NHS) England have established the ‘Digital First’ initiative, aiming to expand digital services as a cost-effective and inherently patient-centred option for service users to access support (Easton et al., 2021). Since 2016, NHS England has aimed to increase digital services to England, with over 58 services now available. If digital solutions to reduce the demand for face-to-face services are provided centrally, the service may see need fewer appointments. Such interventions may also improve patient-clinician communication, with attractive proposals of eHealth records (EHRs).

Writing Health applications are helping to reshape the way we think about mental health treatment (Woodward et al., 2019). A change in patient expectation and the promotion of self-management in health services is tangible evidence of the effect of not only interventions in mental healthcare, but also digital and mobile technologies that have a major part to play in promoting mental well-being and accessing interventions (A. J. De Witte et al., 2021). Mobile technologies have been identified as superior for delivering such treatment or interventions for many reasons. The results from this review will be able to help users choose an effective smartphone application to improve their psychological health according to the systematic evaluation of free and fee-based smartphone applications (Santhanam et al., 2023). The issues of needing external development funding and content updating were evaluated as suboptimal. Even multiform interventions to create less professional dependence on one of the counter participants in the user-interview process were indicated. For an advanced updating of counteractive smartphone applications in an ethical and moral manner, researchers should collaborate closely with development and production units. Mobile mental health apps have seen rapid and robust development, shaping the epidemiology of mental health services (Koh et al., 2022). The increasing prevalence of mental health produces a challenging and diversified usage of such mobile applications, which need to be continuously reviewed. This study aimed to systematically review and rate smartphone applications to reduce alcohol consumption and depressive symptoms among youth (Magwood et al., 2022). The umbrella review was conducted using several databases, such as PubMed, ScienceDirect, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Google Scholar. Keywords in the umbrella review were: (1) mobile apps, (2) youth, (3) depression, (4) alcohol addiction, (5) randomized controlled trials or quasi-experimental trials, and (6) pre-post comparison studies.

The quality of the included studies in the umbrella review was assessed using relevant tools for systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled studies, and the results were presented using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.

Literature Review

Third Generation Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has garnered empirical support in treating various mental health concerns with good effect sizes. Thus, third generation CBT is regarded as the state-of the-art psychological therapy. When applying third wave CBT models, very few researchers or therapists use manualized third wave CBT treatments, in contrast to manualized CBT.

This suggests that a more adaptive, flexible, and holistic approach to understanding what specific persons want a change in is needed. Third wave CBT focuses on understanding mental challenges with a more functional perspective, emphasizing factors such as personal values, and targets experiential avoidance and psychological inflexibility in addition to matching selected strategies to actual functions of the specific mental challenge. Hence, the future of personalized third wave CBT can potentially be digital and machine learning can be used to achieve psychological personalized treatments, according to the user’s profile (Zhao et al., 2024).

Most people experience mental health challenges at some point in their lives. Modern challenges, including COVID-19, have made the demand for effective and scalable digital mental health interventions ever more salient (Somani, P., 2020). The shift to remote mental health care has accelerated the development of innovative digital mental health interventions, including those that harness machine learning techniques.

However, for these interventions to be effective, they must be grounded in a deep understanding of psychological processes and evidence-based therapies. The tension between the potential flexibility of digital interventions and the need for clear and standardized interventions from a clinical perspective will be discussed (Sage Chen et al., 2022). Digital mental health interventions have the potential to transformatively improve mental health care in ways that are likely to be unprecedented. This new and emerging field of mental health interventions primarily involves providing mental health services or self-help services via web portals, online counselling, secure e-mailing, video calls, chat rooms, health-related apps, or automated text messages. Sometimes, monitoring or interventions can be integrated in mobile interventions. Other intervention forms can contain augmented or virtual reality. Advanced interventions include decision and prediction functionalities. Digital mental health interventions can be preventive or therapeutic. They can range from education and promotion to destinations such as crisis intervention and assessment and therapy services. These therapies can represent different schools of psychotherapy, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, dialectic behavior therapy and mindfulness-based interventions. Moreover, therapies can be provided by different stakeholders such as health care professionals and clinicians to digital agents based on different machine-learning approaches. Virtually any mental disorder or symptom can be the target and any form of digitally mediated interaction between people or digital artifacts related to mental health are eligible. Topos of digital mental health interventions can span mental health literacy, wellbeing and self-help, psychoeducation, preventing, diagnosis, therapy and monitoring or assessment (Jadhakhan et al., 2022).

Mental health conditions are among the most common and widespread morbidities worldwide (Mohammed, 2023). Digital mental health services, provided through the use of mobile technologies or media, have gained increased attention and momentum in mental health care contexts, leading to significant changes in the therapeutic landscape. Mental health conditions have been long associated with social and economic costs. Further, these morbidities are associated with a higher risk of comorbidities or chronic health conditions. Moreover, with the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of mental health illness and psychological distress might have increased exponentially. It is therefore critical for societies to invest in strategies that prevent mental health conditions or reduce their effects. Researchers studying the mental health of people with chronic diseases have reported that people with a chronic disease have twice the risk of depression compared with the general population. Given that mental conditions might have a bidirectional association with physical conditions, preventing or managing mental health conditions early-on could support the prevention, amelioration or management of chronic health conditions as well. This prevention and early intervention might help in reducing wider societal implications throughout the lifespan of individuals.

Results and Discussion

Digital health care interventions such as smart phone -based apps aimed at mental health promotion are widely used, few systematic reviews have been published providing an overview of what is available. However, recently published work, primarily focused on low-cost mobile apps and web-based platforms, has nonetheless identified advancements in this area. Smartphone applications (apps) have been developed, for example, to monitor and treat mood disorders such as depression. These apps have been shown to significantly reduce self-reported depression symptoms. Limitations include the relatively small number of mental health disorders targeted by available apps and approaches mainly anchored in the principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

In another systematic review, Firth et al (2017) identified a substantial gap in apps tailored to address mental well-being proactively as opposed to providing treatment for existing symptoms. Notwithstanding these limitations, digital selfhelp interventions are recognized as having great potential for scalability and cost-effectiveness for population-level public mental health. Such adaptive digital health inter3. Results and Discussion venations suitable for broad mental well-being promotion are essential in the current scenario. Rooted in optimal human-computer interaction, they can provide real-time objective measures and timely, personalized support to the user for different contexts. There is ongoing scaling-up of the development of digital apps from a passive monitoring role primarily in the mental health/illness places to also include those that aim at addressing mental well-being and relaxation through reminders and live sessions in nonclinical and nonstandard settings (Saleem et al., 2021).

A number of digital interventions including smartphone applications (apps), wearable devices, and web-based platforms have been developed to address mental health challenges. Substantial progress has been made in the development and evaluation of digital interventions to provide real-time support, monitor symptoms, promote relaxation and enhance mindfulness (Woodward et al., 2019). The use of digital technologies for psychological interventions has been discussed extensively. In a systematic review by Firth et al (2017), apps targeting depression and/or anxiety showed greater effect sizes at postintervention than those targeting mental well-being. In a 2017 meta-analysis of 18 studies involving university students, Carey et al found a significant effect size (g=.25) for psychological intervention with mobile apps relative to waiting list control. Digital interventions for mental health include a wide range of technologies—mobile devices and wearable devices—and methods for monitoring and enhancing mental well-being such as gaming and 3D visualisation. Technologies are available for real-time monitoring of well-being with multiple indices (eg, psychophysiological, movement, and movement patterns), positive feedback, and automated (‘smart’) guidance. Smartphone and wearable devices make the collection of physiological data cost-effective and convenient. Figure 1 highlights a summary of the most popular mental health apps on the Google Play Store compared to Wellmind, an app developed by the NHS.

A growing area of research called “digital health” is aimed at understanding how technology and digital tools can be used to improve health outcomes in patients with a variety of diseases. For example, a recent review identified a reliance on stand-alone products rather than ecosystem integration (i.e., how an app contributes to the broader collection of mental health tools), proprietary systems (i.e., apps and digital health products created by one company rather than supporting interoperability with other tools), and an underrepresentation of apps focused on anxiety (Romael Haque & Rubya, 2022). If users do not continue to engage with interventions (i.e., repeated use or longer usage periods), it is unlikely that outcomes will be achieved. Several psychological theories have been developed to explain the process of why individuals continue to engage with systems and how to influence them. Digital interventions for mental health promotion continue to increase in prevalence as a way to overcome several of the barriers to mental health care (e.g., lack of resources, physical and social accessibility; (Fonseca Zuccolo et al., 2021)). Moreover, digital interventions offer completions in an innovative way that can include more tailored and real-time support. However, user engagement with digital interventions for mental health continues to be a challenge. Engaging and retaining users alternate digital interventions can promote the utilization of services, and potentially improve health outcomes and well-being ( (Saleem et al., 2021)).

Supportive strategies like reminders, gamification, and push notifications have been successful in increasing engagement with digital interventions. A digital mental health intervention that enhanced their implementation of key engagement components was able to increase the number of completed activities by over 20% compared to their standard implementation.

Proposed strategies will need to be assessed further in empirical studies in order to evaluate the benefits and risks associated with different engagement strategies.

Conclusion

Capturing the voices of service beneficiaries is crucial to developing and improving mental health services. Many service users have now experienced the recent digital turn in mental health; less is known about their experiences and needs. This study aimed to understand service users’ attitudes and experiences of accessing and engaging with digital mental health interventions, comparing these with their experiences of traditional face-to-face services. A meta-ethnographic synthesis was conducted of qualitative research comparing service users’ experiences of accessing digital interventions and traditional face-to-face mental healthcare. Included studies were those published in English about digital mental health interventions and their effectiveness on common mental disorders (CMD) in primary care. Outcomes were changes in mental health symptom severity and experts’ perspectives on implementation of digital mental health interventions. Metadata and a quality assessment of the quantitative studies were conducted. 14 quantitative studies were included with data (n > 1000). Interventions were seen as acceptable. Effects were suggested to be dependent on course and symptom severity. Digital mental health interventions require tailored, ethical and evidence-based implementation. Utilization of digital health should be naïve and encouraged to benefit people.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly threatening for the mental health of many people, with increased levels of mental distress and spiking mental health problems in certain populations (Mohammed, 2023) (Hanf et al., 2021). This situation has given a push for the development and implementation of (digital) (preventive) mental health care. Although digital interventions can bring many benefits in facilitating timely, personalized and remote support, we must be aware of potential negative side effects of digital mental health solutions.

This editorial reflects on the experiences of digital mental health interventions in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly from ongoing research programs in Specialized Mental Health Care in Dutch treatment programs. In these digital interventions we address both people with and without current mental health problems. Furthermore, digital mental health interventions are integrated in routine mental health care programs. From these experiences, we have learned a few lessons, and make recommendations to guide future implementation and development of digital mental health interventions beyond this COVID-19 period. With these recommendations we aim at avoiding stigmatization and dismantling barriers to equitable and ethical digital mental interventions. And in this way maximizing the effectiveness and applicability of digital mental health interventions for everybody.

Artifcial Intelligence therapies have been shown to have a positive impact on depression and anxiety. Wearable devices have the potential to collect continuous cardio data in the real world, which can be integrated with momentary self-report data and ecological momentary assessments for more fine-grained tailoring of (intervention) components. Most literature addressing mental health and technology is very clinical: we question whether technological solutions have to be large-scale and institutionalized, or can there be sand-boxed (prototype) or community-based solutions next to larger platforms. We would advocate that in technological design, for every problem, about as many types of solutions can also exist. The importance of having a variety of technological solutions could be to accommodate (in)formality, but also a one-size-fts-all approach may not work for all users different populations, age groups. Technological challenges in creating digital interventions for mental well-being (Gu et al., 2019). Digital and mobile interventions have demonstrated success with respect to a range of app-based and web-based interventions, others have looked at text message interventions or other types of digital interventions like sensors and smart devices. The efficacy of such interventions is also shown to depend on different factors, and understanding which digital interventions or settings are most successful is important to disseminate successful interventions.

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The post Digital Interventions For Mental Health: Harnessing Technology To Promote Well-Being appeared first on GRJ.

The paper Comprehending the Linguistic and Psychological Impact of Covid-19 discusses the common issues portraying global minds and the suffocating experiences of the masses along with the huge amount of newly discovered vocabulary the world experienced.

Keywords

Covid-19 pandemic, words, language, psychology, trauma.

Bio

Aditi B. Gaikwad is pursuing Bachelor of Arts from St. Xavier’s College Mumbai. Being 19 years old and having experienced pandemic time lockdown at home and has penned her thought about the bizzare experience during Covid in her poems and this article as well. Aditi is the Rotaract Coordinator at Navi Mumbai and also an active social worker. She is pursuing her graduation with English literature, History and Political Science.

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic had vastly disrupted the existing global routine. Neither gigantic, nor petite countries were saved from the cruel clutches of corona. The magnitude of the issue could be easily surmised from the fact that the WHO had declared the pandemic as International Public Health Emergency. Though pandemics are not novel to humans, every of their clans, teach humanity altogether new lessons. In strict adherence to this principle, we learned myriad lessons while facing COVID-19. It was observed that, along with health, finance and social life Corona pandemic had greatly impacted human languages and human psychology. To exploring this unexplored region of the COVID-19 pandemic, this qualitative research work attempted to examine vocabulary employed in articles, social media, print media, casual conversation and in digital media. Pandemic has also left an indelible mark on the human psychology and many seem to have faced troubles deep inside. This research paper endeavors to understand the impact of COVID-19 on languages, psychology and women and children.

Introduction

Covid-19 pandemic time was the most bizarre period global citizens have experienced in recent years. Though unintended, it has left the long-lasting consequences for the present and future generations. The pandemic has undoubtedly influenced almost everything of post-pandemic. Health, education, trade, international relations, social spaces, literature, interpersonal communication and even languages have been indirectly influenced by the unwelcomed guest: Covid-19. Social distancing, virtual meeting, lockdown, social norms, teaching learning and communicative strategies were radically revamped so as to suit the need of the hour as part of preventative practices. These all-sea changes have influenced the contemporary times and will continue to influence long time from hence. The communication environment during covid-19 pandemic brought in an exhaustive list of new words thereby leaving a long-lasting incidental impact.

Objectives

The objectives of this study are as follow:

• Accentuate the global impact of Covid-19 on language and language acquisition.
• To Grasp the impact of Covid-19 on and mental health psychology.
• To learn the impact of pandemic on the lives of women.
• To offer insights on social psyche towards language and psychology during emergency.

Method

The present research work uses published research papers, various reports on Covid-19 pandemic for understanding issues. For that purpose, information is collected and collated from different websites, journals and e-contents relating to impact of Covid-19 and its farreaching impacts. For this study purpose the researcher interacted with some elderly women, men and family members. Some research papers were also used and interpreted.

Linguistic Impact

While imbibing the significance of language Dottie LeBeau writes, ‘losing the language means losing the culture. We need to know who we are because it makes a difference in who our children are.’ The inherent connections between language, cultures and social lives have been underscored by Dottie in these words. It also implies the pivotal importance of language acquisition but many children seem to have issues in language acquisition during covid- 19 pandemic. “Peer talk” is a crucial component of pragmatic development; this includes conversational skills such as turn taking and understanding the implied meaning behind a speaker’s words5 but many children lost the opportunity of interaction and language learning.

As language has a close relationship with human society, it can change over time in its development. Language can change and develop because the meaning of certain phrases changes in the context of language use (Strongman, 2017). Hence languages are extremely dynamic and active. English language during covid period experienced a considerable rise in application of a single word in extremely limited time and that word ‘Covid’ dominated the entire global discourse in the last three years. The columns in the newspaper’s magazine journals and in media everyday used coins some new terms and phrases closely related to Covid-19. Usually, any such kind of addition or formation of a new word is called as neologism which was hugely found since 2019. The exhaustive list of the newly quoined terms and the terms existed but were not in use extensively became popular since 2019. The words like viruses, SARS, human- tohuman, respiratory, self- isolation, lockdown, quarantine, non- essential travel, social distancing, ventilator, PPE kit are part of everyday life. To Papernik, “neologism is a new word or a sense of a word”. But language in totality is considered as connecting link between cultures languages and individuals to transfer information.

As the word formation is such a kind of lexical arrangement in which muffins acronym synonyms are used and created. With each passing day, more and more new English terms are used in this pandemic. The words like covidient means a person who follows all covid norms and covidiot is a person who does not follow the rules like social distancing. Selfquarantine, self-isolation, WFH, pandemic, Covaxin, Covishield, covid care centers, vaccine, virus, immunity, sanitizer, community spread, epidemic, incubation period, ventilator, virus, Tsunami of Covid-19, super spreader, transmission, lockdown, cause, new normal, death crisis, outbreak sanitizer, disinfect such kind of words were used in social media. It is also observed that these new words reflect society, culture, and contemporary traits.

Psychological Impact

The scale of the Corona-19 pandemic was so high that, as per WHO report, nearly 3 million, citizens of 133 countries lost their lives and many maneuvers of social isolation had to be employed. This community isolation globally caused so much of enormous personal psychological harm and were in grave need of caring of mental health. The transition from physical classes to online classes largely upset the lives of students and their families, posing a concealed risk to the mental well-being of children and citizens of all ages. The impact was so detrimental that many unusual complaints were received. The mental health of children has been affected by numerous ways affecting emotions, sports, social and interpersonal interactions and behavior. With regard to the children having existing psychiatric conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), nervousness, despair, mental disorders, and behavior disorders worsened.

The isolation during pandemic multiplied the vulnerability by affecting many with depression and feeling of anxiety, suicidal feeling and loneliness. The pandemic affected our thought process, unconscious and subconscious mind by arousing panic, paranoid, bias and exclusion, anger and ferocity. Not all were infected of COVID-19 pandemic, but all were plagued by the danger of the pandemic. The coronavirus crisis is the embodiment of “nameless dread” (Bion, 1962) brought many eccentric-and-never before things. The appallingly rising numbers of patients every day, the bombarding news reports on all news channels, the scary images of the health workers, lately declared called as Covid warriors, in PPE kits, the alarming what’s app videos of showing how the close family members too abandoned the dead bodies of their dear ones and these bodies were cremated by the health workers.

The pain of the street children, beggars, destitute and many unclaimed bodies were all the reports extremely nerve shattering when the whole world was locked down. The blasting details of information and misinformation almost had numbed the sensitive brains and infected with doubt and dismay without being harmed by the notorious virus. The shock of the dilapidated public health system, blunt   social   inequalities and cases of inhuman treatment of humans to   covid-affected-human, the way infected patient had to go to ambulance and trauma of being separated from the family members all lead to deep rooted psychological shock and concealed inner realities.

COVID-19 also came heavily on older population. older adults were recognized as a group at risk, and strict governmental restrictions were forced on them. But that could not control the mental health related issues of the elders. It amounted to loss   of   sleeping   hours,   reduction in daily physical activities thereby demanding more     understanding of this issue. It also has another dimension that the individuals particularly elderly, who   had chronic illnesses were at the more risk of covid-19. Having read such details also made the elderly worrier escalating the health issues. Though avoiding contamination was the most preferred solution but loneliness and separation from the family members turned out to be another issue.

Children, women who were pregnant, miscarrying or having any other health issues, and elderly people suffered the serious mental health issues during the covid-19 situation. Particularly those who had any existing health issues were more susceptible to risk. Apart from health, women also seem to have faced multi-layered issues such as lower pay at work places, losing job, and many women had to opt out of jobs and amounted household chores at home which all also multiplied the depression among women.

Conclusion

The impact of Covid-19 pandemic has been so encompassing that many research studies need to be taken up still. The present paper attempted to understand the impact of covid -19 with special reference to language, literature and mental health of women and children. The covid vocabulary emerged out of the pandemic time supplemented English language with many existing but not in much circulation and many which were coined newly. The article also focused on the mental health issue of the women and children. The double jeopardy of women at home, professions and at financial level are also looked at in this article.

References

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Primary Objective

To study the role of material purchasing and supply chain manage ment in Meythoma international company.

Secondary Objectives

To study the role of material purchasing techniques followed.

To measure the effectiveness of handling multiple suppliers for materials.

To understand the importance of material quality while purchasing.

To evaluate the best supplier by value analysis.

Keywords:

Leadership, Decision Making, Employees working Culture, Employee work life balance.

Bio

Dr,L.Anitha M.A,M.H.R.M, MBA, Ph.d, Asst. Professor Saveetha School of Management NSS Coordinator saveetha university city campus, 15 years experience, SIMATS

ABSTRACT

This exploration intends to explain about “A Study On Employee Job Satisfaction In IT Sector. Job is the larger part of every human being so job satisfaction has some effect on the life of humans. Employment satisfaction refers to how content a person or employee is with their job. Three different paths explain job satisfaction of the employee: they are team work and its recognition, team lead support and employee work life balance. If the employee is satisfied with their job it leads to minimal error of their work and also it will in turn increase the quality of the product output thereby loyalty of the customers increases. Job satisfaction is not only based on the perks and benefits of the company, it is also about the appreciation for the work done by the employee. The study’s goal is to determine whether the workers are content with their jobs. Data was collected from a sample of 60 workers from an assiduity and the result is presented in the paper. In this article descriptive methodology has been used.

INTRODUCTION

Leadership is a technique through which a manager may lead, guide, and influence the efforts and activities of others toward completion of certain goals in a particular circumstance. The capacity to inspire subordinates to work with vigor and confidence is what is known as leadership. The purpose of this composition is to enable you to move to an advanced platform that will impact effectiveness and growth. But, when we come to a virtual team where the employees are working from different locations in this scenario, the companies manage to maintain a leadership to get the effectiveness of work from the employees.

Decision Making is a very big problem for the companies during the work you may successfully complete numerous phases of the decision making process by using excellent decision making approaches. Information is the very important thing to make a decision. In work from home sharing information about a work process is a little issue. To solve this problem, now they are using e-mail, calls, and daily standup calls to collect the information from the employees. The working culture of the employees gets different from working from office and working from home, in working from office the employees can communication with the co-workers are high in office there can have a some funs with the co-workers. But at work from home, the communication between the workers is less. Some employees are getting stressed and depressed because of being alone at home. Work life Balance of employee is the leading concern in the public due to the increase in responsibility and commitments. It is a state of equilibrium in which the person’s job and the personal life are the same. In another word it is a push and pull between work and family commitments. It needs to be achieved by reducing the conflict among the balancing between multiple roles and tasks. It also includes employees who are not parents but have a desire for other activities like sports, study, etc. The intention of the learning is to spot the factors influencing employee job satisfaction.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Timothy A (2014), judge and two others have prepared an review paper on job satisfaction and they have discussed the history of job satisfaction and how the construct has been explicated and refined over time and they also described the various paradigms and approaches to the measurement of job satisfaction, at last they have suggested the practitioners to closely on the determinants on job satisfaction. Jitendra Kumar Singh (2013) has outlined the broad contours of various available that are responsible for employee satisfaction, and he also suggested the various ways to enhance and maximize the employee satisfaction. Muhammad Mahamuda Parvin (2011), has provided a thorough analysis of the pharmaceutical industry’s work satisfaction indexes and the factors that causes the dissatisfaction and je also suggested few ways to improve them. M M. Nurul Kabir (2013), in his article have extended the role of gender using the gender theory on job satisfaction by portraying traditional values and he also assessed the structure of work and a nation’s dominant gender ideology by combining the shape of women and men’s job satisfaction and work experience in a transitional context. Ashok Panigrahi (2015), has conducted a survey to identify what is most Important to the employees and identify where the com-pany is lacking in building a healthy relationship with its employees. Neeraj Kumari (2008), has conducted a survey to measure the satisfaction level of the employee. He found that overall job satisfaction showed people were satisfied with their current job. He concluded that still some effective measures should be taken to improve the satisfaction level further. Dr.R.Perumal (2013), in his paper he intends to identify the different factors that affect job satisfaction in pharmaceutical companies. And he concluded that the Job satisfaction is related to different socio-economic and personal factors, such as: Age, sex Incentives, Working Environment, Education, duration of work etc. R.Satyavathi (2017), has found from his research that a company’s employee’s motivation plays a critical part in determining job satisfaction by inspiring them to work hard to achieve the aims and objectives of the firm. According to D.Subhashini’s (2016) findings, there is a favorable association between job satisfaction characteristics and employee performance at both the supervisory and worker levels employed in the automobile sector. According to Abdul Raziq (2015), this paper may help people improve personally and serve society by motivating them to give more to their work. In order to accomplish the business’s goals and objectives, it is crucial for an organisation to inspire its workforce to work hard. JAMES P. CAMBELL (1983). The findings imply that the global evaluation of overall job satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5 may be a more comprehensive indicator of overall job satisfaction than the total of numerous aspect replies. According to Daniel S. Hamermesh (1999), job satisfaction is particularly responsive to unexpected increases in the returns to observable skills, less so to unexpected increases in the returns to unobservable skills, and the effects of unexpected increases in earnings on job satisfaction fade over time.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Descriptive research design was used for this research. A structured questionnaire with 10 questions was circulated among the IT company employees and was asked to answer in 5 point Likert’s scale. Around 60 responses were recorded and the data were put to various tests such as frequency analysis, mean analysis and ANOVA.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

It is inferred from the above table from 60 respondents, were the age group of 21-30years (95%) and above 60 years (5%). Gender statuses of respondents are Male (34.4%) and Female (63.9%). Considering the educational qualification are UG (67.2%), PG (29.5%)and PhD (1.6%).Experience of 0-2years (78.7%), 2-4 years (66.7%) 4-6 years (3.3%) and more than 6 years(9.8%). Based on the marital status for single it is observed that percentage rate (75.4%) and for married employees it is about (23.0%).From the designation of trainee (34.4%), team lead (19.7%), manager (3.3%) and other (41%) are observed. Finally, based on the place of living, rural (54.1%) and urban (44.3%) are observed.

From the table 2, it is inferred that the highest score includes Management of 2.40 followed by Communication (2.17), Feedback (2.12), Promotion (2.10), Work distribution (2.05), Happiness (2.00), Connection (1.97), Value (1.90), Meaningful work (1.90), Comfortable (1.87). All the mean scores lie between 1 to 2. It concludes the respondents are agreeing towards all the mentioned factors.

From the above table it is inferred that, there is a significance difference among the experience, age of the employee and weighted average of Likert’s Scale profile because its significance value is less than 0.05. Also that Since its significance value is more than 0.05, there is no statistically significant difference between the employee’s gender and the weighted average of their Likert scale profile.

Conclusion

The survey’s results and recommendations are based on them, and action should be made to further these recommendations for further growth. I get the conclusion that the job offers both the chance to use skill in the workplace and the satisfaction of a job well done from the study above. There are many employees who agree that there is occasionally a lot of freedom in coordinating with work and who are satisfied with the current regulations.

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