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Jesse Ewell

Kelley Paystrup

English 2010

Aug 30, 2023

Annotated Works Cited

1. What is mental Health?, Find Help, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services

Administration, last updated 24 September 2023.

This article simply defines what mental health really is and how it’s important to the

individual person as well as our interactions with others. It then goes into the mental health

conditions to study. It also covers signs and symptoms of mental illness making a substantial list

of helpful information. After that it covers “Tips for Living Well with a Mental Health condition.

Compared to the rest of the resources, the only really useful information in this article is

the definition of what mental health really is. While everything else is important, it can be better

explained in the other sources listed on this document. The only other information that may be

helpful to me in this source is some of the tips that are listed at the end. I believe however that

this source provides me with exactly what I need to research my topic.

2. Aditya Mahindru, Role of Physical Activity on Mental Health and Well-being: A

Review, Pradeep Patil and Varun Agrawal, Cureus, 7 January 2023.

This is a long article but it has a lot of good information. The authors start off by

discussing how different types of physical activity like yoga have been parts of ancient

civilizations. They then name benefits of physical activity that we have been able to observe
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from the past and present such as improving our motor abilities, preventing physical illness, and

various mental illnesses as well as substance abuse. Moving onto the next heading, they continue

to describe the effect of physical activity on mental illness. It continues to talk about how it has

been studied in relation to various mental health subjects and talks about the results. She talks

about how it improves mood and self-image and lowers stress but states there are limits to what

physical activity can really do. The authors post a visual aid that actually goes into the biological

reaction that we have to physical activity. They continue to talk about the hormones involved

that they have reviewed in a study in India and they take the chance to bring up yoga since it was

also in the study. They talk about the individual benefits of yoga as a physical activity. The

authors then go into detail about how physical activity affects schizophrenia, alcohol dependence

syndrome, sleep, and depressive and anxiety disorders. They finish up with a conclusion stating

that physical activity/yoga are helpful compared to no intervention. They continue to review

everything they talked about in the rest of the article and wrap it up.

There are definitely some limitations of this article. It is reviewing studies on a subject

that can be relative to each individual and mental health topic. However I can use the

information and concepts that they discuss to support my research and do what I need. This

article is good because it explains the connection between our body moving and the effect on our

minds. The fact that it discusses physical activity and yoga as different but similar subjects gives

me more information to work with and helps me understand more about the body, mind

correlations that we have. I believe that this will be very helpful for my overall research.

3. “Stress-Proof”, Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, Created by Darren Aronofsky and Ari

Handel, Performance by Chris Hemsworth, Appearance by Modupe Akinola, Nutopia

and Wild State, 2022.

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This episode talks about the effects of stress both short and long term. It talks about what

stress is and how it affects both the mind and body. It dives deep into the chemical reactions and

hormone pathways. It starts off talking about the life of Chris Hemsworth and the stress he feels

from work, family, and otherwise. It goes on to explain how long lasting chronic stress affects

one’s physical health. and Modupe Ainola gives him a goal. Throughout the episode they test his

reaction to stress and help him train to have a more controlled reaction to it through strategy and

exposure. These strategies are proven to help deal with chronic stress as well as intense

temporary stress. I see all of this as being very helpful for my research.

I like the set up behind this episode because it has two sources of information. I could use

the information provided by Chris for both popular and scholarly audiences and the information

from Dr. Akinola for my scholarly audience. The problem I see from using this source is that a

lot of the information that is provided by Dr. Akinola is about Chris so I need to be careful that

I’m not using his personal information as a representation for public evidence. This source is

nice though because It has more of a simpler dive into the science behind the body and how it

reacts to stress and different types of therapy. The overall purpose of this source is for me to be

able to provide evidence from research about the more physical and systematic causes/effects of

mental illness and ways to help fight it.

4. “Memory”, Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, Created by Darren Aronofsky and Ari

Handel, Performance by Chris Hemsworth, Appearance by Dr. Sharon Sha, Nutopia and

Wild State, 2022.

The contents of this episode are relating strictly to the strengthening of one’s brain. At the

start Chris Hemsworth is told that he has 8 times the likelihood of anyone else getting
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alzheimers. In order to fix this, Dr. Sharon Sha works with him in developing stronger

connections and pathways in his brain. In other words, she is helping Chris strengthen his

neuroplasticity.

Throughout the episode, he goes through various challenges navigating his way through

miles of land. As he spends time in nature he comments on the feelings of calmness that he gets.

Dr. Sha comments on this saying that we can strengthen our mental health and reset our minds

easiest when we spend time in nature. Along with nature, she transitions to take note of the

importance of spending time with others. She says when we’re isolated, our risk of developing

dementia is 50% higher. I believe that I could pull up more statistics on isolation with mental

health in order to strengthen and add to my research.

Again I have to be careful in presenting some of the information in the episode because it

is tied to one 40 year old male while I am talking about an entire population of adolescents. I do

believe however, that I can use the information provided to help my research. The research here

is about developing habits. Even though they may not be completely useful until the brain is

completely developed, starting to practice these habits at a young age is a great way for

adolescents to begin to fight mental illness while young and old.

5. Erik Suni and Alex Dimitri, Teens and Sleep, An overview of why teens face unique

sleep challenges and tips to help them sleep better, sleep health, Sleep

Foundation, 1 march 2023.

This article talks about sleep and the importance of sleep in the life of a teenager. The

authors start by explaining the developmental benefits of sleep. It then shows a table of what the

average amount of sleep should be for different age groups. The article then goes into detail on
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how sleep affects academics, emotional health, physical health, decision making, and accidents

and injuries. After that the authors provide a physical aid showing that most teenagers are not

getting enough sleep. They then talk about why it’s hard for teens to get enough sleep listing out

reasons. They talk about school start times, time demands, use of electronics, sleep disorders,

mental health conditions, and neurodevelopmental disorders. The authors then talk about how

teenagers can help themselves get better sleep and finish by talking to parents of teenagers about

how they can help their teenagers in achieving that goal.

Now the main focus of this article is not directly related to how sleep affects mental

health. However it does talk about the two and the other sources that I use can both benefit from

and strengthen the usefulness of this source making it good enough to use. When it comes to

balance, physical health and the bodily reactions between it all, This article should be able to

help me enough. Sleep is a pretty necessary function of lots of different aspects of mental health

making it worth the research.

6. Giancarlo Luccetti, Spirituality, religiousness, and mental health: A review of the current

scientific evidence, World Journal of Clinical Cases, National Library of Medicine.

This review starts its introduction by explaining the difference between spirituality and

religiousness and states that while correlating, they do not always rely on each other. It then goes

on to explain how the subject is researched and discussed all over the world and how it’s

increased in recent decades and how research has started to show a positive impact on both

mental and physical health. The article then goes into a history of the correlation of S/R and

mental/physical health and how S/R have been more incorporated into treatments as of late.
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A list is then presented that discusses the affect of S/R on: depression, anxiety, suicide substance

use dissorder, psychotic use disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, post

traumatic stress dissorder, and eating dissorders. It then goes into detail on how S/R affect each

of them or whether some of them even do.

The limitations of this study are somewhat clear. The article itself states that the “review

of the current scientific literature… may have resulted in selection bias with regard to the

research reports that were reviewed here.” It also talks about how the review was a result of

many recent sources of the impact of S/R so there may be gaps to fill but that is also a strength

because the numerous sources help limit bias. This source covers a different kind of research

from my other sources and it covers it relatively well making it valuable to my research.

7. Hyun Jung Kim MD, Children, teens, and the safety of psychotropic medicines, Child &

Teen Health, Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School, 6 Aug 2020.

This article starts off by giving a brief description of psychotropic medications and points

out that there may be concern when it comes to adolescents and transitions to the study. It talks

about the purpose of the study was to “synthesize current evidence” and see how safe they are to

give to adolescents and at what doses in order to help clinicians set guidelines for prescriptions.

The article then breaks down the study for the parents and gives more information on the types

of medication that are used for mental illness and concerns of effects that come with each

category. They also have medications that are less likely to have those effects. It then goes on to

list out common questions that should be brought up when consulting a doctor on the use of

psychotropic medications. Finally it talks about how medicine doesn’t have to be the answer, but

it should be considered if necessary.

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In terms of limitations for use of the article, it lays out the limitations of the study done. I

should avoid using the specific medications presented in this article due to the limited research

done concerning each individual drug. However, knowing the problems that each of these

medication types can be useful in my research as well as the concerns and questions that come

with them.

8. Communication and Public Resources team, A balancing act: understanding the eight

areas of your life that affect well-being, Newsroom, Community Medical Centers, 30

July 2021.

This article starts off by stating how mental illness can be frequent in anyone. It then tells

the story of an Olympic athlete who quit due to mental illness. It then goes on to explain how the

Covid-19 pandemic proved to be overwhelming to many due to its disruptive nature. It then

transitions over to the importance of finding balance in the midst of feeling overwhelmed. It

states that focusing on what we have control over is a good way to fight our mental illness and

how we need to maintain balance in the midst of life changing events. It then gets into the

subject of a wellness wheel which is 8 areas of one's life that are important to have balance over:

emotional, spiritual, intellectual, physical, environmental, financial, occupational, social. After

defining each of these it states the importance of prioritizing mental health.

When talking about adolescents, not every part of the wellness wheel is going to be under

their control. It is very rare for adolescents to have direct control over their environmental,

financial, and occupational factors. However I believe that this article still proves to be useful

since it states that we should focus on what we can control in order to find balance in our lives.
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The other articles that I’m using dive deeper into some of these categories but this one stresses

the equal importance of each making it unique and important to my overall research.