Thread by @techreview

The pandemic messed with our brains. This is a thread about how we can help them bounce back. 👇
trib.al/45IpzMz

There’s a lot of trauma to process from the pandemic, @SmithDanaG writes. It’s not just our families, our communities, and our jobs that have changed; our brains have changed too. We’re not the same people we were 18 months ago.

Every experience changes your brain, either helping you to gain new synapses—the connections between brain cells—or causing you to lose them. But stress can not only destroy existing synapses but also inhibit the growth of new ones.

Scientists haven’t been able to directly study physical brain changes during the pandemic, but they can make inferences from mental health surveys conducted over the last 18 months and what they know about stress and the brain from previous research. nature.com/articles/s4138…

So that’s the bad news. The pandemic hit our brains hard. Here’s what you can do to mend your broken pandemic brain. Help your brain help itself. While everyone’s brain is different, try the following activities to give your brain the best chance of recovering from the pandemic.

Get out and socialize. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Try working out.

Talk to a therapist.

Enrich your environment.

Take some drugs—but make sure they’re prescribed.

Strengthen your prefrontal cortex by exercising your self-control.

For more on how our brains can change and how we can help them do that, read @SmithDanaG’s story. technologyreview.com/2021/07/16/102…

This is a subscriber exclusive. Not yet a subscriber? For $50 per year, you’ll get unlimited access to our journalism and our Webby-nominated newsletter on AI, The Algorithm. Your support also helps sustain our mission-driven journalism.
forms.technologyreview.com/subscriptions/…