In the News
The potentially harmful effects of loneliness and social isolation on health and longevity, especially among older adults, are well established.
A lot of us must be wondering if we're hooked on our tech: Searches for "phone addiction" have risen steadily in the past five years, according to Google Trends, and "social media addiction" trails it closely.
Many of Ron Fleming's fellow soldiers have spent the past five decades trying to forget what they saw — and did — in Vietnam.
But Fleming, now 74, has spent most of that time trying to hold on to it. He's never been as proud as he was when he was 21.
Ten years have come and gone since the federal Mental Health Parity and Addictions Equity Act was passed. National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) fought long and hard for the rights outlined in this landmark legislation — covering mental health and addiction care at the same level as other health care.
Federal lawmakers on Wednesday said their legislative attempts to improve the nation's mental health care system is unfulfilled because of a lack of of funding.
Alex Crotty was just 11 when things started feeling wrong.
It wasn't just a matter of being unhappy. She always felt empty and miserable — never content or connected to other children. For years, she suffered alone, filled with shame. She switched schools, but that didn't help.
Many of the nearly 300 people who will die today from drug overdoses and suicides, have private insurance plans that failed them. Someone from your family, social group, place of worship, or workplace could very easily fall victim to our broken system.
Anguished mothers with mentally ill children have sought out Liza Long for help ever since she wrote an essay, "I am Adam Lanza's Mother," comparing experiences with her son to the emotionally troubled 20-year-old who carried out the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
It took an explosion and 13 pounds of iron to usher in the modern era of neuroscience.
In 1848, a 25-year-old railroad worker named Phineas Gage was blowing up rocks to clear the way for a new rail line in Cavendish, Vt. He would drill a hole, place an explosive charge, then pack in sand using a 13-pound metal bar known as a tamping iron.
Each night before "Greg" goes to bed he brushes and flosses his teeth. Then he double-checks the instructions on the dark brown bottle his nurse gave him before he unscrews the cap and tips five drops of a light-amber, oily liquid onto a spoon. The brew, glistening from the light of the bathroom fixture, is tasteless and has no odor he can detect. But it's chock-full of bacteria.
He sloshes the substance around in his mouth and swallows.