In this episode, we discuss

Karen Tang on the correlation between addiction and mental health, and developing mindfulness and self-compassion.

Highlights include:

1. What is your background? How did you become interested in researching co-morbid disorders? (1:38)
2. Who are the students or people, in general, most at risk for developing co-occurring disorders, and is there any way to prevent it? (2:24)
3. How does college life mask mental illness and how do we identify those students? (5:48)
4. How do we notice and mitigate burnout? (9:52)
5. How do we create a self-care toolkit? (11:28)
6. How can we design classes so that we as instructors help to minimize burnout? (12:55)
7. What is mindfulness and why is it important for self-compassion? (15:27)
8. What is meditation and how do we practice it? (22:27)
9. How can mindfulness and meditation lead to better engagement and studying and working within the academy? (24:56)
10. Do you have self-care tips and advice for people or for students who say that they don’t have time? (27:35)

Resources Mentioned

• Headspace: Mindfulness for Everyday Life: https://www.headspace.com/

About Karen Tang

Karen Tang completed her BA (Honours) in Psychology degree at the University of Calgary and is currently in the PhD Clinical Psychology program at Dalhousie University. In her research on addiction, Karen is primarily interested in examining co-morbid disorders, specifically behavioral addictions and mental health correlates (e.g., gambling disorder and depression)—which she recently published a paper on. In the realm of health psychology, Karen is actively involved in research on chronic health conditions and the role of mindfulness and self-compassion. She hopes to combine both research interests in an upcoming study on addiction, mental health, and self-compassion. In her spare time, Karen enjoys volunteering and traveling.

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