Why the ignorant think they’re experts(The Dunning-Kruger effect)

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool,” wrote Shakespeare in As You Like It. Little did he know, but this line perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a type of cognitive bias in which people believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are. Essentially, low ability people do not possess the skills needed to recognize their own incompetence. The combination of poor self-awareness and low cognitive ability leads them to overestimate their own capabilities.

The term lends a scientific name and explanation to a problem that many people immediately recognize—that fools are blind to their own foolishness. As Charles Darwin wrote in his book The Descent of Man, "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."

An Overview of the Dunning-Kruger Effect

This phenomenon is something you have likely experienced in real life, perhaps around the dinner table at a holiday family gathering. Throughout the course of the meal, a member of your extended family begins spouting off on a topic at length, boldly proclaiming that he is correct and that everyone else's opinion is stupid, uninformed, and just plain wrong. It maybe plainly evident to everyone in the room that this person has no idea what he is talking about, yet he prattles on, blithely oblivious to his own ignorance.

The effect is named after researchers David Dunning and Justin Kruger, the two social psychologists who first described it. In their original study on this psychological phenomenon, they performed a series of four investigations.

People who scored in the lowest percentiles on tests of grammar, humour, and logic also tended to dramatically overestimate how well they had performed (their actual test scores placed them in the 12th percentile, but they estimated that their performance placed them in the 62nd percentile).

The Research

In one experiment, for example, Dunning and Kruger asked their 65 participants to rate how funny different jokes were. Some of the participants were exceptionally poor at determining what other people would find funny—yet these same subjects described themselves as excellent judges of humour.

Incompetent people, the researchers found, are not only poor performers, but they are also unable to accurately assess and recognize the quality of their own work. This is the reason why students who earn failing scores on exams sometimes feel that they deserved a much higher score. They overestimate their own knowledge and ability and are incapable of seeing the poorness of their performance.

Low performers are unable to recognize the skill and competence levels of other people, which is part of the reason why they consistently view themselves as better, more capable, and more knowledgeable than others.

"In many cases, incompetence does not leave people disoriented, perplexed, or cautious," wrote David Dunning in an article for Pacific Standard. "Instead, the incompetent are often blessed with an inappropriate confidence, buoyed by something that feels to them like knowledge."

This effect can have a profound impact on what people believe, the decisions they make, and the actions they take. In one study, Dunning and Ehrlinger found that women performed equally to men on a science quiz, and yet women underestimated their performance because they believed they had less scientific reasoning ability than men. The researchers also found that as a result of this belief, these women were more likely to refuse to enter a science competition.

Dunning and his colleagues have also performed experiments in which they ask respondents if they are familiar with a variety of terms related to subjects including politics, biology, physics, and geography. Along with genuine subject-relevant concepts, they interjected completely made-up terms.

In one such study, approximately 90 per cent of respondents claimed that they had at least some knowledge of the made-up terms. Consistent with other findings related to the Dunning-Kruger effect, the more familiar participants claimed that they were with a topic, the more likely they were to also claim they were familiar with the meaningless terms. As Dunning has suggested, the very trouble with ignorance is that it can feel just like expertise.

Causes of the Dunning-Kruger Effect

So what explains this psychological effect? Are some people simply too dense, to be blunt, to know how dim-witted they are? Dunning and Kruger suggests that this phenomenon stems from what they refer to as a "dual burden." People are not only incompetent; their incompetence robs them of the mental ability to realize just how inept they are.

Incompetent people tend to:

Overestimate their own skill levels

Fail to recognize the genuine skill and expertise of other people

Fail to recognize their own mistakes and lack of skill

Dunning has pointed out that the very knowledge and skills necessary to be good at a task are the exact same qualities that a person needs to recognize that they are not good at that task. So if a person lacks those abilities, they remain not only bad at that task but ignorant to their own inability.

An Inability to Recognize Lack of Skill and Mistakes

Dunning suggests that deficits in skill and expertise create a two-pronged problem. First, these deficits cause people to perform poorly in the domain in which they are incompetent. Secondly, their erroneous and deficient knowledge makes them unable to recognize their mistakes.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is as follows: "People with low skill levels draw wrong conclusions and make wrong decisions, but are unable to make mistakes because of their low skill levels".

This means: a lack of understanding of mistakes made leads to a belief in one's own correctness and, consequently, to increased confidence in one's own decisions and in oneself, as well as to an awareness of one's own superiority.

Thus, the Dunning-Kruger effect is a psychological paradox that we all often face in life: less competent people see themselves as professionals, while more competent people tend to doubt themselves and their abilities. The lower the skill level, the higher the self-confidence.
At beginning of their research, Dunning and Kruger called Charles Darwin's famous statement:
"Ignorance breeds confidence more often than knowledge" and Bertrand Russell: "It is one of the unfortunate things of our time that those who are confident are stupid, and those who have imagination or understanding are full of doubt and indecision

A Lack of Metacognition

The Dunning-Kruger effect is also related to difficulties with metacognition, or the ability to step back and look at one's own behaviour and abilities from outside of oneself. People can often only evaluate themselves from their own limited and highly subjective point of view. From this limited perspective, they seem highly skilled, knowledgeable, and superior to others. Because of this, people sometimes struggle to have a more realistic view of their abilities.

A Little Knowledge Can Lead to Overconfidence

Another contributing factor is that sometimes a tiny bit of knowledge on a subject can lead people to mistakenly believe that they know everything about it. As the old saying goes, a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. A person might have the slimmest bit of awareness about a subject, yet thanks to the Dunning-Kruger effect, believe that he or she is an expert.

Other factors that can contribute to the effect include our use of heuristics, mental shortcuts that allow us to make decisions quickly, and our tendency to seek out patterns even where none exist. Our minds are primed to try to make sense of the disparate array of information we deal with on a daily basis. As we try to cut through the confusion and interpret our own abilities and performance within our individual worlds, it is perhaps not surprising that we sometimes fail so completely to accurately judge how well we do.

Who Is Affected by the Dunning-Kruger Effect?

So who is affected by the Dunning-Kruger effect? Unfortunately, we all are. This is because no matter how informed or experienced we are, everyone has areas in which they are uninformed and incompetent. You might be smart and skilled in many areas, but no one is an expert at everything.

The reality is that everyone is susceptible to this phenomenon, and most of us experience it with surprising regularity. People who are genuine experts in one area may mistakenly believe that their intelligence and knowledge carry over into other areas in which they are less familiar. A brilliant scientist, for example, might be a very poor writer. For scientists to recognise their lack of skill, they need to possess a good working knowledge of things such as grammar and composition. Because those are lacking, the scientist in this example cannot also recognize their own poor performance.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is not synonymous with low IQ. As awareness of the term has increased, its misapplication as a synonym for "stupid" has also grown. It is, after all, easy to judge others and believe that such things simply do not apply to you.

So if the incompetent tend to think they are experts, what do genuine experts think of their own abilities? Dunning and Kruger found that those at the high end of the competence spectrum held more realistic views of their knowledge and capabilities. However, these experts tended to underestimate their abilities relative to how others did.

Essentially, these top-scoring individuals know that they are better than the average, but they are not convinced of how superior their performance is compared to others. The problem, in this case, is not that experts don't know how well-informed they are; they tend to believe that everyone else is also knowledgeable.

Is There Any Way to Overcome the Dunning-Kruger Effect?

So is there anything that can minimize this phenomenon? Is there a point at which the incompetent actually recognize their own ineptitude? "We are all engines of misbelief," Dunning has suggested. While we are all prone to experiencing the Dunning-Kruger effect, learning more about how the mind works and the mistakes we are all susceptible to might be one step toward correcting such patterns.

Dunning and Kruger suggest that as experience with a subject increases, confidence typically declines to more realistic levels. As people learn more about the topic of interest, they recognise their lack of knowledge and ability. Then as people gain more information and become experts on a topic, their confidence levels begin to improve again.

So what can you do to gain a more realistic assessment of your abilities in a particular area if you are not sure you can trust your self-assessment?

Keep learning and practising. Instead of assuming you know all there is to know about a subject, keep digging deeper. Once you gain greater knowledge of a topic, you will more likely recognize how much there is still to learn. This can combat the tendency to assume you’re an expert, even if you're not.

Ask other people how you're doing. Another effective strategy involves asking others for constructive criticism. While it can sometimes be difficult to hear, such feedback can provide valuable insights into how others perceive your abilities.

Question what you know. Even as you learn more and get feedback, it can be easy to only pay attention to things that confirm what you think you already know. This is another type of psychological bias known as confirmation bias. To minimize this tendency, keep challenging your beliefs and expectations. Seek out information that challenges your ideas.

The genetic origins of schizophrenia

An introduction to Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disease, a group of psychotic disorders that interfere with thinking and responsiveness. It is a disease of the brain, like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. A person with schizophrenia has deteriorated occupational, interpersonal, and self-supportive abilities. Schizophrenia is known as one of the most disabling and emotionally devastating illnesses among mankind. But this disease has been misunderstood for so long that it has received relatively little attention and its victims have been undeservingly stigmatized. Schizophrenia is not a split personality, a common idea about what schizophrenia is, but it is a rare and very different disorder usually common among young people.

The word schizophrenia comes from Greek origins “schizein” and “frenos” meaning split mind. (Wikipedia contributors. “Schizophrenia.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.)

Studies on the genetics of schizophrenia show that schizophrenia has a genetic component. While in general population its lifetime prevalence is %1, the risk of schizophrenia is higher in relatives of schizophrenic patients. Third-degree relatives (e.g. cousins) share their %12.5 genes and carry a %2 risk for schizophrenia. Second-degree relatives (e.g. half brothers) share their %25 genes and carry %6 risk for schizophrenia. Many First degree relatives (e.g. siblings, fraternal twins) share their %50 and carry %9 risk for disease.

But schizophrenia does not imply a split minded personality instead it describes a person who believes two different reality at the same time. While a normal person can only be able to believe in one reality, a schizophrenic person can adopt a second reality which can not be understood by a man in mental health. Genetics constitute a crucial risk factor to schizophrenia. In the last decade, molecular genetic research has produced novel findings, infusing optimism about discovering the biological roots of schizophrenia. However, the complexity of the object of inquiry makes it almost impossible for non-specialists in genetics (e.g., many clinicians and researchers) to get a proper understanding and appreciation of the genetic findings and their limitations. This study aims at facilitating such an understanding by providing a brief overview of some of the central methods and findings in schizophrenia genetics, from its historical origins to its current status, and also by addressing some limitations and challenges that confront this field of research. In short, the genetic architecture of schizophrenia has proven to be highly complex, heterogeneous and polygenic. The disease risk is constituted by numerous common genetic variants of only very small individual effect and by rare, highly penetrant genetic variants of larger effects. In spite of recent advances in molecular genetics, our knowledge of the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia and the genotype-environment interactions remain limited.

The first genetic analysis of schizophrenia in an ancestral African population, the South African Xhosa, appears in the journal Science. The study was carried out in the Xhosa population because Africa is the birthplace of all humans, yet ancestral African populations have rarely been the focus of genetics research (There is no evidence that the Xhosa have an unusually high risk of schizophrenia).

The researchers analyzed blood samples collected from 909 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and 917 controls living in South Africa. Their study revealed that participants with schizophrenia are significantly more likely to carry rare, damaging genetic mutations compared to participants without schizophrenia.

These rare mutations were also more likely to affect the brain and synaptic function. Synapses coordinate the communication between brain nerve cells called neurons; the organization and firing of neuronal synapses are ultimately responsible for learning, memory, and brain function.

http://sciencemission.com/site/index.php…

Human Trafficking : Myths and Truths

Anti-slavery organisation International Justice Mission (IJM) busts five myths about human trafficking — and explains what we can all do to help put an end to trafficking and modern slavery for good. 

1. 'Most of the time, human trafficking victims choose their fate out of desperation.'

It's surprising how many people believe that victims go willingly with traffickers for "easy money," or out of desperate poverty.

The reality is that trafficking is a violent crime. It's not a choice. Traffickers are experts in using lies, coercion, and deception. They promise a better life, a good job, an education. And by the time people realise they have been tricked, it is already too late.

Nalini (not her real name), is one of these. She was offered a job in the film industry, but when she arrived for her audition she was horrified to realise that it wasn't a film set but a brothel. She was trapped, violently beaten, and raped daily until she was rescued by IJM and local police.

2. 'Trafficking is always about forcing women into the sex trade.'

Some 29% of trafficking victims globally are men and boys and — shockingly — children make up almost one-third of all trafficked people. 

While sex trafficking of women is a major problem, trafficking doesn’t have to be about sex — people can be trafficked for labour, for their organs, as soldiers, for begging, or marriage. Most victims of forced labour trafficking are men. 

There is no one typical victim of trafficking and no country where trafficking does not exist.

3. 'Abuse is always face-to-face.'

It is easy to understand how people are being exploited in brothels, factories, or quarries. But a new and devastating form of trafficking is becoming increasingly dangerous: cybersex trafficking.

This dark crime sees Western abusers Livestream the sexual abuse of children over the internet.

Online predators pay to direct the abuse from faraway in the UK, the US, the Netherlands, and Australia. Fifty-four per cent of the victims rescued by IJM in the Philippines are under 12 years old — and the youngest was just 2 months old.

Unlike bars or brothels, cybersex trafficking is easy to hide and shrouded in anonymity. Victims can be exploited in any location with the internet and a webcam, or even just a mobile phone. 

For criminals, it's relatively low-risk, easy to do, with high financial rewards. And the Philippines authorities are receiving thousands of cybersex trafficking referrals a month. 

4. 'Pimps are always men.'

In fact, 37% of people convicted for trafficking crimes are women.

IJM's lawyers in India have worked to prosecute many female pimps and brothel owners, who used violence and threats to keep women trapped in some of the darkest corners of Mumbai's red-light district – some forced into sex with up to 150 men a week. 

When she was rescued, Nalini* told IJM staff that her brothel madam rubbed spicy chilli oil onto her wounds after beatings, to make the pain worse. 

In cybersex trafficking cases, it is often the mothers and fathers of children who are the ones abusing them on camera. 

5. 'Survivors just return to being trafficked — there's no hope for them.'

Many survivors around the world are playing a vital part in the fight to end trafficking. 

Thousands are choosing to bravely testify in court to see their abusers put behind bars. They know firsthand that the only way to stop this abuse is to see criminals held to account. Many survivors of trafficking show extraordinary courage and a determination to protect others. One survivor, Sani, was raped 25 times a day. Yet, just three months after being rescued, she insisted on taking police back to the same brothel to find the other girls. Thanks to her, they found a girl who had been hidden in a tiny hiding place in the wall. It was so hard to breathe, she would not have survived another 30 minutes. 

Sani and the six girls she helped rescue are now safe and rebuilding their lives. They are not victims, they are real people with real dreams. And now they have the freedom to live them.

6. 'The problem is too huge — there's nothing I can do.'

About 40 million people are in slavery globally, many of them victims of trafficking. It's easy to forget that behind the statistics are real stories of real people living a daily nightmare. It's even easier to suffocate the stories beneath the popular lie: Nothing can be done. As long as we believe this, those who profit from trafficking and exploitation have already won.

The good news is that there's hope. Slavery is vaster than ever, but also more stoppable than ever. 

A global movement of people, organisations, and governments is starting to say no to trafficking. The pressure on police and law courts to do more against trafficking is driving real systemic change.

Just last week IJM partnered with Ghanaian authorities to rescue four children who had been trafficked into slavery in the fishing industry. The youngest was just 7 years old. More rescues are happening every day, but the fight has just begun.

So what can I do?

Raise your voice.  Sharing stories is powerful: The more people who know that trafficking exists, the more people who can choose to help stop it. Get on social media and make some noise. July 30 is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons — what better day to begin?

Be a conscious consumer. Many everyday products we buy in the UK and US are being produced using forced labour from victims of trafficking. By championing ethical brands and fighting for transparency in supply chains you can help stop trafficking.

Be part of the movement. Support anti-slavery organisations like IJM as they fight to stop slavery, for good. You can find out more about the International Justice Mission and its work here.

International Justice Mission is the largest international anti-slavery organisation in the world. Its team of investigators, social workers and lawyers partner with local authorities to rescue victims, prosecute traffickers, and strengthen justice systems to see more people protected. 
Thanks https://www.globalcitizen.org

Emotions May Harm You

 "Anger and sadness are an important part of life, and new research shows that experiencing and accepting such emotions are vital to our mental health. Attempting to suppress thoughts can backfire and even diminish our sense of contentment. Acknowledging the complexity of life may be an especially fruitful path to psychological well-being."

 

Positive vs. Negative Emotions

Emotions (feelings) are a normal and important part of our lives.

Some emotions are positive. Think of happiness, joy, interest, curiosity, excitement, gratitude, love, and contentment. These positive emotions feel good. Negative emotions — like sadness, anger, loneliness, jealousy, self-criticism, fear, or rejection — can be difficult, even painful at times.

That's especially true when we feel a negative emotion too often, too strongly, or we dwell on it too long.

Negative emotions are impossible to avoid, though. Everyone feels them from time to time. They may be difficult, but we can learn to handle them.

Here are three steps that can help you handle negative emotions.

Step 1: Identify the Emotion

Learning to notice and identify your feelings takes practice. In addition to focusing on your feelings, check in with your body, too. You may feel body sensations with certain emotions — perhaps your face gets hot, for example, or your muscles tense.

• Be aware of how you feel. When you have a negative emotion, such as anger, try to name what you're feeling.
  For example: That guy Ian in my study group makes me so mad! I get so jealous when I see that girl/guy with my ex. I feel afraid whenever I have to walk past those bullies.
• Don't hide how you feel from yourself. You might not want to broadcast your feelings to other people (like your ex, for example, or that guy in your study group who is making you mad). But don't suppress your feelings entirely. Simply naming the feeling is a lot better than pretending not to have it — or exploding without thinking.
• Know why you feel the way you do. Figure out what happened that got you feeling the way you do.
  For example: Whenever we do group projects, Ian finds a way to take all the credit for other people's work. Our teacher thinks Ian's the star of the team, even though he never has his own ideas. When I see my ex flirting with other people, it reminds me that I still have feelings for him/her. Even though the bullies don't pick on me, I see what they do to other people and it worries me.
• Don't blame. Being able to recognize and explain your emotions isn't the same as blaming someone or something for the way you feel. Your ex probably isn't seeing someone new as a way to get back at you, and the guy who takes credit for your work might not even realize what he is doing. How you feel when these things happen comes from inside you. Your feelings are there for a reason — to help you make sense of what's going on.
• Accept all your emotions as natural and understandable. Don't judge yourself for the emotions you feel. It's normal to feel them. Acknowledging how you feel can help you move on, so don't be hard on yourself.

Step 2: Take Action

Once you've processed what you're feeling, you can decide if you need to express your emotion. Sometimes it's enough to just realize how you feel, but other times you'll want to do something to feel better.

• Think about the best way to express your emotion. Is this a time when you need to gently confront someone else? Talk over what you're feeling with a friend? Or work off the feeling by going for a run?
  For example: It won't solve anything to show my anger to Ian — it may even make him feel more superior! But my feelings tell me that I need to avoid getting in another situation where he takes control over a project. I'll hold my head high around my ex, then I'll put on some sad songs and have a good cry in my room to help me release my feelings and eventually let go. My fear of being around those bullies is a sign that they have gone too far. Perhaps I should talk about what's going on with a school counselor.
• Learn how to change your mood. At a certain point, you'll want to shift from a negative mood into a positive one. Otherwise your thinking may get stuck on how bad things are, and that can drag you down into feeling worse. Try doing things that make you happy, even if you don't feel like it at the time. For example, you might not be in the mood to go out after a breakup, but going for a walk or watching a funny movie with friends can lift you out of that negative space.
• Build positive emotions. Positive feelings create a sense of happiness and well being. Make it a habit to notice and focus on what's good in your life — even the little things, like the praise your dad gave you for fixing his bookshelves or how great the salad you made for lunch tastes. Noticing the good things even when you're feeling bad can help you shift the emotional balance from negative to positive.
• Seek support. Talk about how you're feeling with a parent, trusted adult, or a friend. They can help you explore your emotions and give you a fresh way of thinking about things. And nothing helps you feel more understood and cared for than the support of someone who loves you for who you are.
• Exercise. Physical activity helps the brain produce natural chemicals that promote a positive mood. Exercise also can release stress buildup and help you from staying stuck on negative feelings.

Step 3: Get Help With Difficult Emotions

Sometimes, no matter what you do, you can't shake a tough emotion. If you find yourself stuck in feelings of sadness or worry for more than a couple of weeks, or if you feel so upset that you think you might hurt yourself or other people, you may need extra help.

Talk to a school counselor, parent, trusted adult, or therapist. Counselors and therapists are trained to teach people how to break out of negative emotions. They can provide lots of tips and ideas that will help you feel better.

Laser holograms stimulate mind cells in mice to probe roots of notion and hallucination

Cecile G. Tamura

Behavioural evidence suggests that targeting just 20 neurons prompted animals to ‘see’ an image.

In new research, scientists used light to precisely activate cells in a mouse's visual cortex, re-creating the brain activity involved in seeing specific patterns.

That observation might help explain why disordered states—hallucinations, unwanted thoughts, and harmful actions—arise so readily in the brain. And single-neuron optogenetics may someday point researchers toward highly targeted ways of stamping out these states and treating symptoms of brain diseases.

"Imagine every neuron in the brain like a key on the piano, You can literally choose which neurons to turn on."

 “We don’t know how many cells it might take to trigger a more elaborate thought, sensory experience, or emotion in a person,” says Karl Deisseroth, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist at Stanford College in Palo Alto, California, who led one of many new research, revealed on-line this week in Science, “but it’s likely to be a surprisingly small number, given what we’re seeing in the mouse.”
 https://www.sciencemag.org
 http://fooshya.com/

People have lower levels of activity in brain in areas related to cognitive control and reasoning when they are focusing on sacred values.

"An international team of researchers has found that people have lower levels of activity in brain in areas related to cognitive control and reasoning when they are focusing on sacred values. In their paper published in Royal Society Open Science, the group describes their study involving brain scans of terrorist sympathizers and what they found.

Prior research and anecdotal evidence have shown that once a person develops sacred values regarding a particular topic, it is difficult to get them to change their minds. Prior research has also shown that people who have certain sacred values are often more willing to fight and die for a cause than others. In this new effort, the researchers sought to learn more about what goes on in the minds of people who have expressed a willingness to die for a cause that is based on sacred values—in this case, sympathizers of an Al-Qaeda offshoot called Lashkar-et Taiba."

Anthropologist Scott Atran, one of the study authors, has been investigating the motivation behind the "will to fight" for several years. He noted that in 2016, former President Barack Obama said one of the mistakes made in the war with Iraq was to underestimate militant extremists' will to fight. Understanding why and to what extent people will fight for causes could be linked to the level of their sacred values.

Over the last few years, research has suggested people with sacred values are more willing to fight and die, but that peer pressure could reduce that desire. But understanding the social motivation is difficult, with the problem of posturing—where participants could behave in a way that is misleading—potentially skewing results.

"The neuroimaging studies were meant to rule out posturing—you can't consciously control these brain processes—and to show that the behavioral results of willingness to sacrifice for sacred values is truly rooted as deep-down as it goes in human cognition and brain processes," Atran told Newsweek.

The study was organized by Artis International and published in the Royal Society Open Science. Behavioral and neuroscientists designed studies that radicalized people would eventually be willing to voluntarily enter an fMRI machine.

While in the machines, participants were asked about their willingness to fight and die for their sacred values, and values not held sacred to them. Findings showed that when discussing their sacred values, there was a lower level of activity in the area of the brain related to cognitive control and reasoning—"regions that have previously been implicated in calculating costs and consequences," they wrote.

Researchers also found that when participants were told their peers were less willing to fight and die, their own willingness dropped.

The findings indicate there are distinct processes that take place in the brains of people who have an extreme commitment towards sacred values. It does not, however, suggest extremists are more prone to radical behavior because of their brain wiring.

The long term impact of veteran's experiences on their families

Military life can also involve difficulties for families, particularly in managing the expectations of military and civilian cultures. Values that may be important in a military context such as discipline and obedience to authority may not always mesh with civilian behaviours and values, such as negotiation and compromise.

Mental health issues can impact on a person’s ability to parent effectively. For example, a parent with depression may find he or she has little motivation or energy, and therefore struggles to interact with the children; he or she may become irritable and less patient with children or may lack the confidence to set limits.

 The practical realities of military life have perhaps the most significant impacts on family functioning, including long absences during training and deployments, changes in roles and responsibilities, adapting to regular relocations, and managing upheavals in partners’ careers and children’s schooling. Military families have to cope with the potential for exposure to extraordinary risks, such as the injury or death in combat of a family member. A potentially challenging period for some is the transition out of the military. Separation from Defence can involve changes in location, finances and family roles (e.g., the partner of a veteran becoming the main income earner).

The emotional and physical impact of exposure to combat, humanitarian, peacekeeping and peacemaking experiences for veterans can have long-term consequences for many families. For example, recurring depression, chronic substance abuse or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may lead to long-term conflict or disengagement within the family. Anxiety about the veteran’s mental health and taking on the role of carer can also take a toll on family members.

The difficulties encountered by military families have had varied impacts across generations and for different conflicts. For example, the Vietnam War involved conscription as well as deployment of full-time professional forces. Many families of conscripted veterans were shaped by the unexpected impact of the war and what often turned out to be well over 300 days of absence. It was not unusual for Vietnam veterans to have started a relationship or a family just before being conscripted, and to return markedly changed by their war experience. For more than half of recent veterans, their families have had to cope with multiple deployments, which can place significant strains on relationships, change parenting roles, and impact on the whole family’s social networks

Children who have a parent with a mental health issue are more likely to experience behavioural problems, difficulties in forming and maintaining relationships, poor coping skills, academic difficulties, and are more likely to develop mental health issues themselves. These issues can continue into adulthood. For example, adult children of Vietnam veterans have a higher rate of accidental death and suicide 

the findings:

• Combat trauma experiences, such as engaging directly with the enemy, were associated with more negative outcomes. But psychological trauma, such as witnessing noncombatant injuries or injuries of a comrade, and physical injuries, sometimes resulted in improved outcomes for families. Meadows explained that in some cases, the service member may have gained a greater appreciation for family and life in these cases. These findings merit more exploration, researchers noted.
• Across the deployment cycle, on the average, couples become less satisfied with their marriage. But those changes aren’t significantly different from the changes experienced by matched couples that didn’t deploy. Meadows said it’s not unusual for marital satisfaction to decline in civilian couples, too.
• For spouses, more frequent communication with the service member during deployment is associated with greater marital satisfaction after the deployment.
• There was no overall significant effect of deployment on psychological or behavioral health problems for service members or spouses. But service members who experienced deployment trauma showed an increase in depression, post-traumatic stress and anxiety symptoms, compared with their levels before deployment. When the service member was injured during the study deployment, the spouse showed increases in these symptoms, as well as in binge drinking. Researchers recommended, during that post-deployment phase for military families, that programs, services and polices should target families whose service member experienced deployment trauma.
• Leaving the military in the post-deployment period had effects on service members and spouses. For spouses, there was lower marital satisfaction; and deployed members who subsequently separated from or retired from the military showed increased levels of psychological symptoms. Addressing psychological problems around the time of separation from the military may be important for avoiding longer-term problems, the researchers noted.
• There generally was no significant effect from deployment on children and teens. But an exception was found from spouses who reported concerns following a study deployment about their children who were younger than 11. There were more difficulties, such as emotional conduct and peer problems, and more need for child mental health services, compared with these younger children in matched families who didn’t experience a deployment during the research period.
• Sometimes teens disagreed with their parents’ perceptions of how the family was adjusting after the deployment. Teens said after the deployment, family cohesion was not as good, and the relationship with the parent at home was not as good. Some said that after the deployment, the relationship with the deployed parent was not as good. Of the 425 teens who provided information, the changes the researchers saw "were enough to be statistically significant," Meadows said.
• Teens reported that their drug use increased slightly after deployment. They self-reported drug use as very low (around "never") before and during deployments, but increased afterward to just slightly more than "never."
• Service members and spouses who engaged in predeployment activities reported higher satisfaction with parenting post-deployment.
• Financial distress declined during the deployment for both the spouse and the service member.
• Communication with other military families and other military teens during the deployment was strongly associated with more positive outcomes.

https://at-ease.dva.gov.au/…/12-impact-veterans-experiences…

A Father’s War, A Son’s Toxic Inheritance https://www.propublica.org/…/a-fathers-war-a-sons-toxic-inh…
Psychological Problems in Children of War Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2525831/
 https://at-ease.dva.gov.au/professionals/client-resources/mental-health-advice-book/12-impact-veterans-experiences-their
 https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2016/04/11/study-families-experience-generally-few-long-term-effects-from-deployment/

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Suicidal ideation

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an important risk factor for and attempts, as well as death by suicide. Because little is known about the biology underlying suicide in PTSD, there are limited pharmacologic options to treat PTSD patients at high risk of suicide.

Shame is a Significant risk factor for suicidal ideation in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the results of a study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Every day, approximately 20 veterans die by suicide, and up to 14% of veterans report current suicidal ideation. Veterans suffer disproportionately from mental health disorders, including PTSD, depression, and substance abuse. Up to 15% of veterans have PTSD, and those diagnosed with this disorder have high rates of suicidal behaviour and suicide. Emotional responses to trauma have been shown to play an important role in PTSD and may increase the risk of suicidal behaviour. Given the high rate of suicide among veterans, there is a pressing need to identify risk factors for suicidal behaviour.

The way Gratitude Literally Alters The Human Heart & Molecular Structure Of The Brain

Gratitude is a funny thing. In some parts of the world, somebody who gets a clean drink of water, some food, or a worn out pair of shoes can be extremely grateful. Meanwhile, somebody else who has all the necessities they need to live can be found complaining about something. What we have today is what we once wanted before, but there is a lingering belief out there that obtaining material possessions is the key to happiness. Sure, this may be true, but that happiness is temporary. The truth is that happiness is an inside job.

It’s a matter of perspective, and in a world where we are constantly made to feel like we are lacking and always ‘wanting’ more, it can be difficult to achieve or experience actual happiness. Many of us are always looking toward external factors to experience joy and happiness when really it’s all related to internal work. This is something science is just starting to grasp as well, as shown by research coming out of UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center. According to them:

"Having an attitude of gratitude changes the molecular structure of the brain, keeps grey matter functioning and makes us healthier and happier. When you feel happiness, the central nervous system is affected. You are more peaceful, less reactive and less resistant. Now that’s a really cool way of taking care of your well-being."

"Gratitude writing can be beneficial not just for healthy, well-adjusted individuals, but also for those who struggle with mental health concerns. In fact, it seems, practising gratitude on top of receiving psychological counselling carries greater benefits than counselling alone, even when that gratitude practice is brief" We found that across the participants when people felt more grateful, their brain activity was distinct from brain activity related to guilt and the desire to help a cause. More specifically, we found that when people who are generally more grateful gave more money to a cause, they showed greater neural sensitivity in the medial prefrontal cortex, a brain area associated with learning and decision making. This suggests that people who are more grateful are also more attentive to how they express gratitude. ">Most interestingly, when we compared those who wrote the gratitude letters with those who didn’t, the gratitude letter writers showed greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex when they experienced gratitude in the fMRI scanner. This is striking as this effect was found three months after the letter writing began. This indicates that simply expressing gratitude may have lasting effects on the brain. While not conclusive, this finding suggests that practising gratitude may help train the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the line, and this could contribute to improved mental health over time.

Some Facts 

1. Gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions

2. Gratitude helps even if you don’t share it

3. Gratitude’s benefits take time

4. Gratitude has lasting effects on the brain

Heart

“Emotional information is actually coded and modulated into these fields. By learning to shift our emotions, we are changing the information coded into the magnetic fields that are radiated by the heart, and that can impact those around us. We are fundamentally and deeply connected with each other and the planet itself.” 

“One important way the heart can speak to and influence the brain is when the heart is coherent – experiencing stable, sine-wave-like pattern in its rhythms. When the heart is coherent, the body, including the brain, begins to experience all sorts of benefits, among them, are greater mental clarity and ability, including better decision making.” 

Conclusion

Every individual’s energy affects the collective field environment. The means each person’s emotions and intentions generate an energy that affects the field. A first step in diffusing societal stress in the global field is for each of us to take personal responsibility for our own energies. We can do this by increasing our personal coherence and raising our vibratory rate, which helps us become more conscious of the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes that we are feeding the field each day. We have a choice in every moment to take to heart the significance of intentionally managing our energies. This is the free will or local freedom that can create global cohesion. – Dr Deborah Rozman, the President of Quantum Intech

Thanks; https://greatergood.berkeley.edu,http://bernardalvarez.mysharebar.com