Mindfully Healing

This is the closest PsyBlog gets to toilet humour. Do you hang your toilet roll with the end of the paper hanging ‘over’ or with the end hanging ‘under’? According to a survey by Dr Gilda Carle, ‘over’ people are more assertive. Assertive people are more likely to be in leadership roles and to have a take-charge attitude, says Dr Carle. Those hanging the roll ‘under’ are more likely to be submissive. Submissive people tend to be more agreeable, flexible and empathetic, says Dr Carle. To create the toilet paper

Depression is the leading cause of disability and ill health worldwide. There are over 300 million living with depression around the world. This represents an increase of 18% between 2005 and 2015, according to figures put out by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Almost 50% of people who are depressed do not get any treatment, even in high-income countries. Two important reasons are: Lack of support for people with mental health problems, and stigma. The WHO is currently running a year-long campaign called “Depression: let’s talk”. Dr Shekhar Saxena, Director

Have you ever fallen foul of the grammar police? Introverts are more likely to judge a person negatively on the basis of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, a new study finds. People who are sensitive to grammatical errors are also more likely to be less agreeable by nature. Extroverted people, though, are more likely to ignore written errors. Professor Julie Boland, one of the study’s authors, said: “This is the first study to show that the personality traits of listeners/readers have an effect on the interpretation of language. In this

Depression and anxiety risk much higher in some people using social media. Using over seven different social media platforms is linked to a tripling in depression risk, psychological research finds. The study asked about the 11 most popular social media platforms: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vine and LinkedIn. Those who used between 7 and 11 of these, had 3.1 times the depression risk. They also had 3.3 times the risk of having high levels of anxiety symptoms. Professor Brian A. Primack, who led the