Mushrooms, Mental Health, and Multi-Gen Living
The Walrus
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A Scotiabank poll reveals that more Canadians aged eighteen to thirty-four are living with family, with 29 percent now reporting they do—up nine percentage points from three years ago. Living with family as an adult is no walk in the park, as Kevin Chong found in his feature on multi-generational living:
My wife and I are covering the mortgage for a house on which my mother placed a seven-figure down payment, while I’m taking my mother to appointments, hauling out her garbage, and doing her internet troubleshooting. In exchange, we’re living in a space and a long-gentrified neighbourhood we love, one we couldn’t otherwise afford. We also get free child care that consists of trips for dim sum and lightly supervised iPad time for my eight-year-old daughter. And yet that narrative still gets steamrolled by the stigma. [Read more]
Switzerland is cracking down on fungi fanatics. The country is tightening rules around mushroom foraging—mainly because of biodiversity concerns. The craze started amid COVID-19, the same time Amy van den Berg went “Foraging for Mushrooms on Zoom”:
Lori McCarthy covers some foraging basics: pick only what you expect to use and never forage near beaches or rivers whose waters feed out of contaminated zones. “The beauty now is that you can just open up Google Maps and track a river for as long as you want,” she says. She also tells her guests to first find the Latin name of a plant they want to pick so they can look it up on the internet. Once it’s positively identified, then it’s just a matter of knowing what to do with it. Traditionally, the island’s older generations would collect dandelions in the spring, followed by partridge berries, bakeapples, and blueberries before the snows came. Foraging, McCarthy says, is deeply ingrained in Newfoundland culture, but modern knowledge has expanded the breadth of species available to the picker. [Read more]
The US Food and Drug Administration has given its stamp of approval for treating major depressive disorder with the app Rejoyn—a first. Jodie Shupac explored how these types of apps can radically transform mental health, as well as their pitfalls:
Peter Cornish , a psychologist, professor, and director of the Student Wellness and Counselling Centre at Memorial University of Newfoundland, cites a 2012 paper that looks at dropout rates for “computer-based psychological treatments for depression” that are accompanied by varying levels of support. The study found that the presence of human support reduced treatment dropout by 30 to 40 percent. A big part of what predicts successful mental-health programs, says Cornish, is having a caring person who understands you. Regarding apps, he notes, “Without some sort of expert guidance, users may waste time trying to find the right app, figuring out how to use it, and when to stop or try something else.” [Read more]
The Walrus has been closely watching political shifts south of the border. In the lead-up to the US election, check out these essential reads:
New season, new look. The Conversation Piece is back and better than ever.
Listen to our latest episode featuring Janet Ko , president and co-founder of the Menopause Foundation of Canada , who spoke at The Walrus Talks Menopause, supported by Shoppers Foundation for Women’s Health.
Check out our new podcast, What Happened Next, hosted by Nathan Whitlock . This week’s Halloween-themed conversation is with Ainslie H. , about her novel Normal Women, published in 2023.
Read a poem by Bertrand Bickersteth : “Woody Strode, Black Cowboy”
Read a short story by Marlowe Granados: “The Last Vacation”
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