13% of Americans have a disability—what this means during the job application process

By Isabel Engel: Complete Post through this link…

For more than 40 million Americans, job applications may pose a challenging question: Do you have a disability? 

Roughly 13% of the U.S. population identifies as having a disability, according to the Pew Research Center. But this percentage is likely an undercount, Mia Ives-Rublee, disability justice initiative director at the Center for American Progress, tells CNBC Make It. 

“While we continuously talk about how many disabled people are working, how many disabled people there are in the United States, in the world, it’s always an undercount because of the fact that there is such a stigma around identifying with the disability,” Ives-Rublee says. 

Many job applicants who identify as having a disability grapple with whether or not to self-identify and which option to select, Ives-Rublee says. The voluntary question on some job applications encourages prospective employees to select one of three options when asked about their disability status:

  1. Yes, I have a disability, or have had one in the past.
  2. No, I do not have a disability and have not had one in the past.
  3. I do not want to answer.

When applying for a job, “you want to p

Insomnia: The Multibillion-Dollar Problem Sapping World Productivity

From RAND: Complete Post through this link…

Hallie Levine learned a hard truth on those bleary mornings when she dragged herself to work after a night of insomnia: “Caffeine is temporary.”

Nearly a quarter of all adults in the United States have experienced the tossing-turning frustration of clinical insomnia symptoms. Levine, a freelance writer in Connecticut, describes her existence on the days that follow as “death on wheels.” Yet from the doctor’s office to the corner office, good sleep is often overlooked as a key part of well-being.

We pay for that. Researchers at RAND and RAND Europe estimate that chronic insomnia pulls down the U.S. economy by more than $200 billion every year. Other major economies also forgo tens of billions of dollars in lost productivity. The condition is so debilitating, researchers found, that sufferers would pay 14 percent of their income to get better sleep.

“We encourage this as a society,” said Levine, who documented her life with insomnia in a 2017 article for Prevention magazine. “Someone is always emailing, and then you respond and you get sucked down the rabbit hole, and then it’s 11 o’clock at night. We normalize it. There’s this idea that it’s good to be sleep-deprived, that you’re up and you’re busy.”

Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder in the world. It blurs thinking, dulls concentration, and drives up the risk of workplace accidents. Some evidence suggests its prevalence has been on the rise since COVID scrambled routines and gave people something new to worry about at 2 a.m. One 2021 Canadian study found a fourfold increase in new case rates of insomnia during the early months of the pandemic.

Deaf Students and Educators Face Harrowing Conditions in Hearing Schools

By Eleanor J. Bader: Complete Post through this link…

Deaf educator Rachel Zemach calls language “the ultimate gift.” Whether we have the ability to communicate through speech, sign language, typing or writing, having a way to convey our opinions and thoughts — and ask questions — connects us to information, companionship, friendship and community.

But these tools are not always available to Deaf students. In fact, when Zemach became an elementary school teacher in a California public school in 2003 (a position she held until 2013), she discovered that her Deaf special education students had not been taught American Sign Language (ASL). They also lacked the ability to read and write.

She blames this on audism, which she defines in her recently released memoir, The Butterfly Cage, as “a discriminatory attitude toward deafness, created by discriminatory attitudes toward disability, fear of the unfamiliar, and simple ignorance.”

The impact of audism, she explains, is devastating. Likewise, the systemic failure to educate Deaf kids. This, she writes, leads to extremely high dropout rates, social isolation and subsequent unemployment.

Especially maddening, she explains, is that it does not have to be this way.

Smart Ass Cripple: So Sue Me

BY MIKE ERVIN: Complete Post through this link…

Thirty-three years ago, on July 26, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. But even today, stories abound of disabled folks being forced to assert the power of the ADA to fight inaccessibility problems that should have been addressed a long time ago. Sometimes government entities are the most blatant violators. 

When it comes to living up to their responsibilities under the ADA, these agencies seem to have a “so sue me” attitude. Rather than at least try to comply with the ADA because it’s the right thing to do, they’ll wait around to be sued before paying much attention. Thus, decades have passed—and even more decades will pass—with a lot of the exclusionary barriers the ADA was supposed to obliterate still rearing their ugly heads.

There are so many examples of government entities adopting a “so sue me” ADA strategy that trying to keep up with them would make you dizzy.

Scientists Unveil Cheaper and More Effective Depression Treatment

From University of Exeter: Complete Post through this link…

A promising new therapy for depression has demonstrated initial results that suggest it may be both more effective and cost-efficient than the current gold standard, CBT.

A promising new therapeutic approach for depression appears to be more cost-effective and potentially more effective than the existing gold standard of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

A pilot trial conducted by the University of Exeter and supported by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) revealed that Augmented Depression Therapy (ADepT) might represent a major leap forward in treating depression. The findings were recently published in the journal EClinical Medicine.

A core feature of depression is anhedonia (reduced interest or pleasure) and well-being deficits, but current depression psychotherapies like CBT fail to adequately target these components. ADepT has been developed to pay just as much attention to building well-being as it does to reducing depressive symptoms.

Fentanyl-laced stimulants driving ‘fourth wave’ in overdose deaths

By Lois M. Collins: Complete Post through this link…

Meth and cocaine among growing number of substances laced with the synthetic opioid.

A “fourth wave” of overdose deaths in the U.S. has been largely driven by mixing stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine with fentanyl, creating a 50-fold increase in related deaths since 2010.

That finding in a study just published in the journal Addiction shows the public health challenge and deadly risk posed as first opioids and now stimulants are increasingly laced with the illicitly made synthetic opioid fentanyl, according to researchers from the University of California Los Angeles.

The number of overdose deaths in the U.S. crossed the 100,000 mark for the first time in 2021. That’s a terrible “first” that three-fourths of the time included the synthetic opioid. Now “polysubstance overdoses” that also involve fentanyl dominate.

New Blood Test For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Has 91% Accuracy

ByCLARE WATSON: Complete Post through this link…

It can take years for people living with chronic fatigue syndrome to receive a formal diagnosis, and they are a favored few. Experts suggest up to 91 percent of people in the US remain undiagnosed, living without medical support for a condition that robs them of energy, brain-power, and a care-free life.

But those statistics could in time improve, if a newly developed diagnostic test stands up to scrutiny.

A team of scientists led by the University of Oxford has just published their preliminary results of a blood cell-based test that can distinguish between unaffected individuals and those with chronic fatigue syndrome (also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis or ME/CFS) with 91 percent accuracy.

How to calm your nightmares

by Katy Jakle: Complete Post through this link…

Whether bad dreams stir you awake occasionally or routinely, these pre- and post-nightmare strategies can help alleviate them.

Nightmares are an almost universal experience. They can begin as young as age two and a half, and the majority of adults report having nightmares at least occasionally. While many people have infrequent, one-off nightmares, many others have repeated nightmares with a common theme or focus. As you can see in the following illustrations, there is considerable variety in the content and impact of nightmares; do any of these seem similar to your experiences?

  • Work has been very stressful for you, and you have a nightmare in which you accidentally send an important email before you were supposed to. You awaken with a pounding heart, shortness of breath and intense fear. You reassure yourself that the events in the dream aren’t real, but you spend a while thinking about whether you made any recent mistakes that might get you in trouble.
  • More than once, you’ve had a nightmare in which your sibling has died in a car accident. In the dream, you receive the call and have to console their partner and children. You feel panic, fear and deep sadness. Upon awakening, you feel upset and afraid, but also relieved that the loved one is alive. While this nightmare hasn’t been too disruptive to your sleep, you wish you never had to experience this grief again, even if its source is imaginal.
  • You wake up in a panic after a recurring nightmare that resembles a traumatic experience you’ve had in real life. Right when it’s almost unbearable, you wake up in a sweat, the images sharp in your mind. When it happens, you are upset and awake for more than an hour, sometimes the rest of the night. You dread going back to sleep. You are starting to delay your bedtime and watch TV late at night as a distraction. You’ve noticed yourself feeling fatigued and tense during the day.

Nightmares can be disruptive and draining

A nightmare is an intensely disturbing, well-remembered dream, usually involving fear or anxiety, but potentially also anger, sadness, disgust or other distressing emotions. Nightmares commonly involve threats to security, physical integrity, or survival. Most nightmares occur during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which predominates in the latter part of the sleep period. Unlike most dreams, nightmares disrupt the sleeping period, and the dreamer is alert soon after awakening. (Some night-time disturbances, such as sleep terrors, resemble nightmare awakenings but differ in important ways; I’ll discuss these in the Learn More section below.) These night-time disruptions often seep into the day. They can be associated with increases in daytime anxiety and physical complaints, as well as fatigue, sleepiness, mood and attentional problems due to interrupted, unsatisfying sleep.

How to Demobilize a Bully in 5 Steps

By Sharon Saline, Psy.D.: Complete Post through this link…

Children and teens with ADHD are often targeted by bullies who notice their impulsivity, clumsiness, or awkward social skills. Here, teach your child how to deal with a bully and become an upstander for other neurodivergent kids.

Sadly, many neurodivergent kids experience bullying, teasing, and/or taunting. Despite anti-bullying policies in schools and national efforts to raise awareness, kids with ADHD will likely find themselves as victims and/or aggressors at some point.

Yes, aggressors. Children and teens with ADHD may not realize when they’ve crossed the line from gentle ribbing into full-on bullying. Teasing is:

  • often done with humor
  • is reciprocal
  • doesn’t affect self-esteem
  • will stop when it is no longer fun

Taunting, on the other hand, involves ill will and continues or even escalates after the recipient is hurt or asks for the taunting to stop. Taunting is a form of bullying, and it is rampant in the upper elementary school grades, middle school, and early high school years.

Bullies often target individuals they perceive to be weak, vulnerable, and unable to defend themselves. It is repetitive, purposeful, and meant to cause harm or fear through the threat of further hostility. Bullying can be physical (hurting people), or it can be done through relational aggression (starting rumors, spreading gossip, and getting people to “gang up” on others).

Fentanyl plus stimulants drives ‘fourth wave’ of overdose epidemic in the U.S.

By Kaitlin Sullivan: Complete Post through this link…

The U.S. is in the throes of what researchers have deemed a “fourth wave” of the opioid crisis, a phase characterized by overdose deaths caused by the combination of stimulants and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.

Overdose deaths in the U.S. surpassed 100,000 for the first time in 2021, fueled by the rise of synthetic opioids, which accounted for 75% of those deaths. Once propelled by prescription opioids and then heroin, the decadeslong crisis was overwhelmed by synthetic opioids in the mid-2010s. 

Now it has taken on a new challenge: so-called polysubstance overdoses, which include more than one drug. 

The proportion of overdoses involving fentanyl and a stimulant — most commonly cocaine and methamphetamine — increased more than fiftyfold from 2010 to 2021, a study published Thursday in the journal Addiction found.

“The roots really did start with overprescribing prescription opioids, but now it is really characterized by stimulants and fentanyl,” said Chelsea Shover, an assistant professor-in-residence at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, who co-authored the study.