Article Analysis: 'When Times Are Tough'

Words: 671
Pages: 3

“When Times Are Tough” is written from the Harvard Health Publications, in 2009. The author explains how positive psychology is claimed to help people struggling with mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, and it can help build resilience to situations that trigger events leading into negative mindsets or thoughts. There is preliminary evidence that positive psychology techniques such as: gratitude, strengths, savoring pleasure, flow, meaning, and mindfulness. The positive psychology techniques are claimed to help in difficult times, stress, or grief. There are therapies to help reduce episodes of anxiety, depression, suicide attempts, or any self destructing behaviors like eating disorders and self harm, which include: psychotherapy, …show more content…
What I liked best about the article is that it had various examples of how the different positive psychology techniques benefit patients with a mental health issue, physical illness, or a stressful time. The author did a good job sourcing clinical trials that showed evidence of positive psychology, and how it had a positive effect on the patients. There was a paragraph in the article that explained how a good night’s sleep made a positive difference in the day of working women, however the article didn’t talk about the lack of sleep with men, which could show a little bias. Furthermore, the article did explain that many people’s daily lifestyles is a natural depressant, being sedentary, however some people are more active and don’t follow that statistic. The majority of the author’s points are valid since they’re based off general facts and statistics, which were a part of clinical trials that were …show more content…
Some of the implications may be therapies have altered, mental health credentials could have changed since the time the article was written, in 2009. The topic of positive psychology and mental health issues are important, considering hundreds of people in the world struggle, and tons of people are left untreated because they don’t know how to go about finding help recovering. Also, there is a large stigma attached to mental health issues, and it’s good the author explained the different professionals and therapies that can be beneficial to a person struggling with their mental