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Report: More Conservatives Than Liberals Say They Have ‘Excellent’ Mental Health

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Conservatives are apparently doing well when it comes to their mental health compared to people who vote liberal, according to a blog post from election pollster Nate Silver.

Turning Point USA Founder and CEO Charlie Kirk shared a screenshot of the percentage table on Monday which showed the differences in numbers.

The post showed 51 percent of conservatives reported having “excellent” mental health, while only 20 percent of liberals reported experiencing “excellent” mental health:

“Democrats have turned themselves into the party of the neurotic, the unstable, and the miserable. If you’re happy and well-adjusted, vote Republican,” Kirk wrote in his post.

In his post that included the screenshot, Silver also touched on how the Democrat Party is losing young male voters:

(Read more from “Report: More Conservatives Than Liberals Say They Have ‘Excellent’ Mental Health” HERE)

Therapist Pleads Guilty to Abusing Children Alongside Disgraced YouTube Mom (VIDEO)

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The mental health counselor from Utah who worked with parenting blogger Ruby Franke pleaded guilty this week to four separate counts of aggravated child abuse. The woman admitted to physically and emotionally abusing Franke’s children.

Jodi Hildebrandt was apparently a business partner with Franke — a parenting advice blogger who had six children and previously had a popular YouTube channel called “8 Passengers,” where she documented the day-to-day experience of taking care of her children, according to the Associated Press.

Hildebrandt and Franke worked together at the former’s counseling company called ConneXions Classroom. The company offered various parenting classes, published content on its shared Instagram account, “Moms of Truth,” and even started a new YouTube channel.

Through recent revelations, it was discovered that these two women had apparently provided parenting advice and promoted lifestyles that did not accurately reflect the kind of life they were leading.

The two women’s facade began crumbling after Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped from Hildebrandt’s house on August 30 and asked a neighbor to call the police. The boy was discovered to be very thin, with duct tape wrapped around his ankles and wrists, according to a previous report from Blaze News.

(Read more from “Therapist Pleads Guilty to Abusing Children Alongside Disgraced YouTube Mom” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Study Confirms Body Mutilations Are ‘No Cure’ for Mental Health Issues

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A new study shows that people who experience gender dysphoria cannot expect various mental health issues to disappear by having gender reassignment surgery, according to a report in the Washington Stand. . .

The study noted that those with gender dysphoria “present with many more common psychiatric needs” than a population in general, “even when medical GR [gender-reassignment] interventions are carried out.” . . .

The study reviewed cases of more than 3,600 people who reached out to “nationally centralized gender identity services” in Finland from 1996 to 2019, and found 38.4% got cross-sex hormones or surgical “reassignment.”

Then researchers lined up eight other people “of the same sex, age, and place birth,” resulting in a control population of nearly 30,000.

Comparing the groups, the authors found “a much higher risk that a person with gender dysphoria will need ‘specialist-level psychiatric treatment’ (most often for mood disorders and anxiety) than their age-matched controls, and that they will receive more care after entering the system,” the report noted. (Read more from “Study Confirms Body Mutilations Are ‘No Cure’ for Mental Health Issues” HERE)

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Surprise, Surprise: Poll Finds Children Who Have Liberal Parents More Likely to Have Poor Mental Health

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In a groundbreaking study conducted by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) and Gallup, the influence of parental political ideology on adolescent mental health has taken center stage. Published in a recent research brief, the findings suggest that children of conservative parents tend to exhibit better mental health outcomes compared to their counterparts raised in liberal households.

Over the course of the summer, Jonathan Rothwell, the Principal Economist at Gallup, and his colleagues explored the nuances of parent-adolescent relationships and their potential impact on youth mental health. The study involved a comprehensive survey of 6,643 parents, including 2,956 who cohabitate with an adolescent, and interviews with 1,580 of those adolescents.

One of the standout conclusions from the research is the significant role political ideology plays in shaping a child’s mental health. Rothwell notes that being raised by liberal parents appears to be a more substantial risk factor for mental health problems during adolescence than factors such as low-income households or parental education.

The study identifies conservative parents as more likely to adopt parenting practices associated with positive adolescent mental health. This includes effective discipline, displays of affection, and responsiveness to their children’s needs. Conversely, liberal parents scored lower, particularly in successfully disciplining their children.

The quality of parent-child relationships also showed a stark contrast, with conservative parents reporting fewer arguments, more warmth, and stronger bonds with their children. Very conservative parents stood out as the highest performers in relationship quality, closely followed by very liberal parents, but still with a notable gap in favor of conservatives.

The numerical insights reveal a substantial difference in mental health outcomes. Adolescents with very conservative parents are reported to be 16-17 percentage points more likely to report good or excellent mental health compared to their very liberal counterparts. The study found that only 55% of adolescents with liberal parents reported good or excellent mental health, whereas 77% of those with conservative or very conservative parents did.

The research also touched upon the influence of marriage attitudes on parenting practices. Those with more pro-marriage attitudes were found to be more likely to engage in best-practice parenting.

Photo credit: Flickr

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Florida University Prevents White Student From Attending Mental Health Meeting Because of His Race

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A Florida university has been accused of preventing a white student from attending a mental health meeting on campus last fall because of his race.

According to an exclusive report from Campus Reform, officials at the University of South Florida prevented Andrew Davis, a white male USF student, from attending one of the “Understanding Self and Others” meetings last October because it had been designated for BIPOC — or, black, indigenous, and people of color — students only.

On October 3, Davis emailed the USF Counseling Center to inquire about attending the BIPOC-only meeting since the other meetings conflicted with his schedule. “I am interested in attending a USO group meeting after completing the pre-group appointment but the only day/time that works for me is Wednesdays during the BIPOC students-only group,” Davis wrote. “I am not a BIPOC student but was wondering if I would still be able to attend?”

The Counseling Center replied that he could not. “Unfortunately, we do need to keep this space specific to BIPOC folks, as the topics that come up are going to be unique to those identities,” the reply email stated. “Hopefully, you’ll be able to catch another one either during Winter break and/or next semester.” (Read more from “Florida University Prevents White Student From Attending Mental Health Meeting Because of His Race” HERE)

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Studies Show Federal Mental Health Programs Make Students Worse

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The recent shootings in Uvalde, Texas; Buffalo, New York; and Highland Park, Illinois, led to discussions in Congress about whether to increase gun control. While the left would like to increase restrictions on buying a firearm, many on the right are hesitant to put tighter restrictions, such as red-flag laws, in place.

Aside from the recently passed Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Republicans and Democrats will continue to struggle to compromise on this issue, but both concede a serious mental health crisis is driving many mass shootings. In response, Congress will most likely pass bills designating money to programs addressing mental-health disorders through established mental-health programs, like the federal Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) program implemented in American schools to improve student mental health. But should they? . . .

In 2014, President Obama launched the Now Is the Time Initiative, which focused on mental health. According to The Mental Health First Aid website, the program received $15 million in federal grants to launch Mental Health First Aid programs in classrooms. One year later, Obama gave the organization another $15 million and a commitment to annually fund the program. . .

In a report by the Manhattan Institute, MHFA studies’ results were collected and put into a table showing the program’s ineffectiveness. Out of 46 published reviews, 13 impact case studies were from the official MHFA website, 14 used a randomized control trial design, 7 examined the beneficiary outcomes of the program, and 16 were completed by an MHFA program creator. The results varied between cases, but all of them showed detrimental results as a consequence of MHFA programs.

Some case studies looked at MHFA programs on different college campuses. In one experiment, one-half of the colleges’ resident advisors were given MHFA training while the other half received no instruction. Surprisingly, there was not merely a lack of evidence suggesting MHFA improved students’ mental health in the trained resident advisor’s halls, but evidence indicated that resident advisors with the training had worse results than did resident advisors with none. (Read more from “Studies Show Federal Mental Health Programs Make Students Worse” HERE)

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America Collapsing: Epidemic Mental Health Crisis, Nationwide

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The United States is experiencing an extreme teenage mental-health crisis. From 2009 to 2021, the share of American high-school students who say they feel “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” rose from 26 percent to 44 percent, according to a new CDC study. This is the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded.

The government survey of almost 8,000 high-school students, which was conducted in the first six months of 2021, found a great deal of variation in mental health among different groups. More than one in four girls reported that they had seriously contemplated attempting suicide during the pandemic, which was twice the rate of boys. Nearly half of LGBTQ teens said they had contemplated suicide during the pandemic, compared with 14 percent of their heterosexual peers. Sadness among white teens seems to be rising faster than among other groups. . .

Five years ago, the psychologist Jean Twenge wrote an influential and controversial feature in The Atlantic titled “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” based on her book iGen. Around 2012, Twenge wrote, she had noticed that teen sadness and anxiety began to steadily rise in the U.S. and other rich developed countries. She looked for explanations and realized that 2012 was precisely when the share of Americans who owned a smartphone surpassed 50 percent and mobile social-media use spiked. . .

“I tell parents all the time that if Instagram is merely displacing TV, I’m not concerned about it,” Steinberg told me. But today’s teens spend more than five hours daily on social media, and that habit seems to be displacing quite a lot of beneficial activity. The share of high-school students who got eight or more hours of sleep declined 30 percent from 2007 to 2019. Compared with their counterparts in the 2000s, today’s teens are less likely to go out with their friends, get their driver’s license, or play youth sports.

The pandemic and the closure of schools likely exacerbated teen loneliness and sadness. A 2020 survey from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education found that loneliness spiked in the first year of the pandemic for everyone, but it rose most significantly for young people. “It’s well established that what protects teens from stress is close social relationships,” Steinberg said. “When kids can’t go to school to see their friends and peers and mentors, that social isolation could lead to sadness and depression, particularly for those predisposed to feeling sad or depressed.” (Read more from “America Collapsing: Epidemic Mental Health Crisis, Nationwide” HERE)

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‘We Are Just Guinea Pigs’: Women Describe Trauma of Transitioning as Teenagers

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The mournful post on Reddit, “My consent was not informed,” details a grim future for a woman who pulled herself out of a transgender lifestyle: weekly injections, diabetes medication, pain, lack of energy, and “who knows what else” for the rest of her life.

“I was a child, allowed to destroy my body permanently, under the assurance that I can always change my mind, and that it’s a beautiful, harmless process,” wrote Lgbtcos in February. “The informed consent model is a lie, because we are just guinea pigs to a medical experiment, my life is permanently afflicted, and I was not informed.”

The missive was on the Detrans subreddit, which currently has 23,000 members. It caught the eye of Candace Sharpe, 22, who has undergone her own hellish surgeries. She answered the post.

“NO CHILD OR TEENAGER CAN CONSENT TO THE MEDICALIZATION, STERILIZATION, AND NONREVERSIBLE EFFECTS OF TESTOSTERONE AND/OR SURGERY,” Sharpe wrote. “This is an almost unbearable loss. I’m here with you and it hurts so bad.”

Social media is filled with a neverending stream of detransitioners who are trying to undo the effects of hormone therapy and invasive surgeries such as hysterectomies and mastectomies. March 12 was designated as Detrans Awareness Day, and social media was flooded with postings from people describing their efforts to leave the transgender lifestyle.

(Read more from “‘We Are Just Guinea Pigs’: Women Describe Trauma of Transitioning as Teenagers” HERE)

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Survey Finds As American Psyche Reaches New Low, Frequent Churchgoers Fare Better Than The Rest

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American mental health ratings reached their lowest point in two decades this year. Only 34 percent of U.S. adults assess their emotional well-being as “excellent” compared to 43 percent who reported the same in 2019.

The nine-point drop comes as the American self-assessment survey conducted by Gallup showed ratings relatively stable since the polling group launched its November Health and Healthcare series in 2001.

According to Gallup, drops in mental health ratings were most prominent among Republicans, where 41 percent reported being in “excellent” condition in the Nov. 5-19 poll, a 15-point drop from 56 percent who said the same a year ago. Republicans however, still held a higher-rate of mental well-being than Democrats, 29 percent of whom rated their mental health as “excellent.”

Those with the greatest ratings of mental well-being were attendants of weekly religious services, who were the only sub-group to report a rise in their mental health from 42 percent to 46 percent reporting their psyche of being in excellent shape.

The Gallup poll surveying 1,018 Americans over the age of 18 corroborates research suggesting that a higher importance of religious spirituality in one’s life can abate the symptoms of mental distress exacerbated by isolation and uncertainty imposed pandemic lockdowns. (Read more from “Survey Finds As American Psyche Reaches New Low, Frequent Churchgoers Fare Better Than The Rest” HERE)

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Parasite From Cat Litter May Give You Personality Disorders, Schizophrenia, More

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You may want to maintain a clean space around your cat. Researchers have found that a parasite commonly found in cat litter, farm animals and undercooked meat could cause changes in the brain, leading to sudden mood disorders, seizures and schizophrenia.

The new study, published in GLIA, shows the effects of a Toxoplasma gondii parasite on the brain’s inhibitory neurons. These important neurons help regulate the flow of ions, which if disrupted could cause different brain disorders.

Researchers at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC in Virginia found that the microscopic parasites could get inside the neurons and cause signaling errors. The disrupted signaling then contributes to schizophrenia, seizures, personality and mood disorders and vision changes.

Up to 40 million people in the U.S. are exposed to the Toxoplasma parasite, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The agency said the parasitic infection commonly causes unnoticeable or flu-like symptoms in healthy people.

However, chronic infection may have serious effects. The study shows that the parasite could build microscopic cysts inside neurons in some people. (Read more from “Parasite From Cat Litter May Give You Personality Disorders, Schizophrenia, More” HERE)

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