mental health

age. They’ re also more likely to have cardiovascular disease and prediabetes.” The answer, experts say, is not to stress over being stressed, but to learn how to catch yourself in the act of becoming anxious, and to bring yourself back to acomfortable feeling of calm.“ There’ sarepertoire of things wecan do to take ownership again over the things our minds are engaged in, and to reset and recenter,” says Kera. As with everything important, the more we practice these activities, the better we get at doing them.

The first step in fixing aproblem, of course, isidentifying it. Dr. Joe Galasso, aclinical psychologist at Baker Street

Behavioral Health in Paramus, says hesees signs that awareness

GALASSO

of mental health issues is growing— specifically, that agrowing number of teenagers are taking the initiative to ask to be seen by his practice.“ It’ sunusual,” he says,“ because in the past, they were dragged in by their parents.”

To determine whether what you’ re experiencing is the ongoing condition of anxiety and / or depression, consider whether your recent behavior has changed.“ You may have been emotional before and now feel closed off and feeling nothing, orused to enjoy playing tennis on Saturdays and don’ t want to go anymore,” says Galasso.“ Youcould be eating all the time or not at all, when you used to do the opposite.” Inability to sleep isalso asign, he says. Another red flag: If you’ re experiencing feelings of impending doom or fear that make the heart race and breath short.

Problems with digestion can indicate

stress overload, too.“( The medical community) is recognizing anew category called Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction, or DGBI, that includes irritable bowel syndrome and reflux hypersensitivity,” says Dr. Nilesh Shukla, agastroenterologist at Holy Name Medical Center.“ We find that stress, anxiety and depression can cause an excess of inflammatory cells that can leak into the gut and make its nerves more sensitive, and that this can result in symptoms like abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, bloating or belching.“ It goes both ways,” says Shukla.“ The brain affects the gut, and the gut responds to the

brain.” Inthese cases, he says, patients who treat their underlying

SHUKLA

anxiety and depression can reduce the stress chemicals making them feel ill.

STOPPING STRESS IN ITS TRACKS

If you’ re feeling overwhelmed by stress, it’ sgood to get input from ahealth care professional who may recommend therapy, perhaps combined with medication. Even ashort course of help can make a difference; Hackensack’ s Tossounian says that people who see aprimary care doctor through Hackensack Meridian Health can access abrief, free telehealth course in cognitive behavioral therapy conducted by asocial worker.

But there’ salot you can do on your own to create the conditions for astate of mental wellness, and to keep yourself from drifting away from it when pushed and pulled by uncontrollable events.

Because breathing is both automatic and voluntary, controlling its rhythms and depth iskey to how you manage stress. When you slow your breathing, you also slow down your racing heart, lower your blood pressure and reduce muscle tension. Breathing deeply from the belly also stimulates the vagus nerve, and produces asense ofcalm.

MEDITATE. Meditating for even afew minutes aday can produce this sense of stillness and wellbeing. Practitioners sit or lie down in aquiet place and focus on their breathing, guided visualization and other techniques for emptying their busy minds. They can do this in person with an instructor, orsolo at times GOUVEIA of their choosing; avariety ofapps aide in this process( see the sidebar).

BE MINDFUL. Mindfulness, orthe practice of being completely present in the moment, is another helpful skill that feels more natural the more you train yourself to do it.

“ Usually, we’ re onautopilot, ruminating or checking out,” says Sarah Gouveia, aWaldwick-based MBSR( mindfulness-based stress reduction) teacher.“ Mindfulness trains the mind to pause so we’ re more aware.”

MBSR, which has been proven through numerous studies toreduce stress and anxiety, was conceived in the 1970s by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn as an eight-week course, but you can practice it wherever you are, whatever you’ re doing.“ Chores are mundane, but if you’ re fully focused onthe task at hand, they can be pleasurable,” says Gouveia.

GALASSO: PROVIDED BY ANTHONY GALASSO; SHUKLA: PROVIDED BY ALEX COLLINS; GOUVEIA: PROVIDED BY JASON PLOSHNICK

The experts in this story recommend these:

SCREENZEN-SCREEN TIME CONTROL

“ You canset it to certainappsso they’ ll be grayed out,” says Hannah Marcus a therapist at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center.“ It asks,‘ Areyou sure you want to do this and not play Wordle instead, or wait a few seconds?’ It’ s free and customizable.” The app can block usage when you’ ve reached your preset time limit, and can be configured for different days and times.

24 2025 EDITION( 201) HEALTH

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