In the News
Many years ago, I had to take some time off work for depression. I had a sick note from the doctor, and had disclosed that it was mental health–related. After two weeks, when I was just starting to feel like I could cope again, my colleagues invited me out for the evening. I wanted to remain welded to my sofa, but I decided to go as a way of easing myself back into my routine.
I returned to work the following day, and my office manager dressed me down in front of the entire office because I had been seen out while off sick.
When Ann Vandervelde visited her primary care doctor in August, he had something new to show her.
Dr. Barak Gaster, an internist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, had spent three years working with specialists in geriatrics, neurology, palliative care and psychiatry to come up with a five-page document that he calls a dementia-specific advance directive.
Do you have a best friend or partner—someone you can talk to about anything?
That might not be enough.
Research into "emotionships"—the relationships we have with others that help us manage our moods—shows that we function best mentally when we create a village, or portfolio, of supportive people who have varied emotional skills. One person can't help us with every mood, and not everyone is adept at handling every emotion.
College students who experience suicidal thoughts are less likely to seek treatment if they go to school where there is a high level of stigma around mental health issues, a UCLA-led study found.
Whenever a friend tells me they're considering undergoing hypnosis to quit X bad habit (and in Brooklyn I hear it a lot), I think about the hypnotist my college hired at the beginning of every year to humiliate my classmates in front of each other. It was the high point of every homecoming: A guy wearing a Britney Spears–style hands-free microphone would invite a few of the bravest and most annoying students onstage, put them to "sleep," and ask them to do something embarrassing, like gyrating along to a recording of a nursery rhyme, or shouting the name of the person they had a crush on.
President Trump recently had his annual physical exam, and though he did undergo (and pass) cognitive screening tests to detect memory issues and dementia, there's no evidence that he received a full mental health evaluation. Some medical experts argue that a psychological workup is in order for Trump — but let's put the Commander in Chief aside for a minute and ask: What about the rest of us?
Teens who were severely bullied as children are at increased risk for mental health problems and suicide attempts, a Canadian study finds.
The study included data on more than 1,300 children in the province of Quebec, from birth until age 15.
Although many of us are able to speak frankly about death, we still have a lot to learn about dealing wisely with its aftermath: grief, the natural reaction to loss of a loved one.
Relatively few of us know what to say or do that can be truly helpful to a relative, friend or acquaintance who is grieving. In fact, relatively few who have suffered a painful loss know how to be most helpful to themselves.
Accidental deaths in the United States rose significantly in 2016, becoming the third-leading cause of fatalities for the first time in more than a century – a trend fueled by the steep rise in opioid overdoses, the National Safety Council reports.
Accidents — defined by the council as unintentional, preventable injuries — claimed a record 161,374 lives in 2016, a 10 percent increase over 2015. They include motor vehicle crashes, falls, drowning, choking and poisoning, a category that encompasses accidental overdoses.