When Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field in the middle of the “Monday Night Football” game in Cincinnati on Jan. 2, Carrie Hastings, half a continent away, understood what she needed to do — and right away.
 

“I had a few guys that I sort of immediately knew I should check in on,” said Hastings, the Los Angeles Rams’ sports psychologist and mental health clinician. “A couple of spouses and significant others, too.”

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Psychology is thinking bigger, as a growing number of psychological scientists and clinicians seek to “rebrand” the field. Experts are finding innovative new ways to reach more people and take a more preventive approach by shifting away from the perception of psychology as the practice of diagnosing and treating mental health disorders and broadening the lens of behavioral health.

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My average screentime is eight hours and 44 minutes a day. Meaning, I spend more time on my phone using apps like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter than I do sleeping (my nightly sleep time is around seven hours.) Technically, I fit into the category of being “chronically online,” defined as someone whose entire existence revolves around being on the internet. 

I like to tell myself I’m not the only one on my phone for more than I should be. So what, exactly, is the ideal amount of time to spend on your phone? The tricky part is that there aren’t any solid guidelines. 

In one 2018 study in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, researchers found that college students who cut back to no more than 30 minutes per day on social media had improved well-being compared to those who didn't, including decreased symptoms of depression and loneliness.

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As darkness and depression engulfed Ali, help seemed out of reach; she couldn't find an available therapist, nor could she get there without a car, or pay for it. She had no health insurance, after having to shut down her bakery.

So her orthopedist suggested a mental-health app called Wysa. Its chatbot-only service is free, though it also offers teletherapy services with a human for a fee ranging from $15 to $30 a week; that fee is sometimes covered by insurance. The chatbot, which Wysa co-founder Ramakant Vempati describes as a "friendly" and "empathetic" tool, asks questions like, "How are you feeling?" or "What's bothering you?" The computer then analyzes the words and phrases in the answers to deliver supportive messages, or advice about managing chronic pain, for example, or grief — all served up from a database of responses that have been prewritten by a psychologist trained in cognitive behavioral therapy.

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