Take Those Things Out of Your Ears

Rain. Rain. Go Away. We needed here in Oklahoma. Boy, do we get it. It was a soggy Easter weekend. As usual, my group was gathered at our cabin on the river and it got to be pretty close quarters. Three generations of us watched the Thunder game in between vanishing satellite signals as the Easter Bunny made sure his magic happened. Eggs and chocolate were scattered between sprawling uncles and lightening strikes. The bunny did have to get a little stern. After all, eggs layed are eggs played......anything chocolate seemed to be a yummy addition to the OKC Thunder watching.

With all the water, I have had a chance to catch up on my reading. The piles of books, magazines and correspondence are finally getting attended to. It was time.

I did find one article to share with you in The Week. The Week is a fast read that covers the best of US and International media for, yes, the week. In the Health and Science section, "The lure of music for depressed teenagers" argues that teens who feel blue listen to music more.

Teens who spend a lot of time listening to music are more likely to be depressed, a new study has found, while those who read are considerably less so. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh closely monitored the activity of 106 teenagers, half of whom had been diagnosed with clinical depression, over the course of eight weeks. Surprisingly, they found that the amount of time the subjects spent on TV, movies, video games and Facebook had no correlation with their mental health. But music did.

Those who listened for five or more hours per day were eight times more likely to be depressed that those who didn't listen often. And though only a tiny fraction of the volunteers spent much time reading, avid readers were 90 per cent less likely to be depressed than those who rarely cracked a book or magazine. The study doesn't prove that music causes depression, lead author Brian Primack tells NPR.org. But it does suggest that listening to music appeals to teens who "don't have a lot of energy" which is a warning side of depression. To read, on the other hand, "you really have to engage a lot of your brain" something that is harder for depressed teens to muster the energy to do.

It is emotionally healthier for teenagers to read? What do you know.

It's raining here again. Goody. chrissie