Mental health

Mental health

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center took part in a study to find out if cancer patients would respond to music therapy. Members on the medical team were surprised to find out that it was just as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy or talk therapy. The Melody Study paired patients up with music therapists for a seven-week trial that involved activities that span from passive (listening to music) to active (creating music themselves).

Maybe it's a job you hate or that no longer gives you satisfaction. Or an intimate relationship where the emotional connection has long since frayed, and you're now living parallel lives. Or, perhaps a friendship that was once vital but has now been downgraded to an acquaintance at best, or one that's unbalanced, where only your periodic outreach keeps it alive.

A "work jerk" isn't just someone who expects perfection. It's the high achiever whose nervous system runs at lava-like temperatures, who's chronically stressed, and demonstrates urgency as a personality trait. It looks like hair-trigger impatience, micromanaging, sharp feedback, and an automatic reflex to see others as obstacles rather than partners. Work jerk behaviors teach people at work to focus their energy on managing you and your reactions instead of doing good work.

There is a particular kind of exhaustion that has nothing to do with external stressors or excessive work. It is generated by a mind prone to hostile self-interpretations. You may be familiar with the tiring labour of constantly analysing, judging, and questioning yourself, the heavy mental load of second-guessing every feeling, reaction, desire, and decision. All of that comes at a high cost.

We get it. Being the go-to person feels good. It gives you a sense of purpose and contribution. But saying "yes" at all costs, even when you're overloaded, has a real impact on your professional performance, and on you personally. The unintended consequences of being everyone's go-to person can result in workload imbalances, unspoken resentment towards your team, and even quiet cracking, which are precursors to burnout.

Many adult children aren't failing because they lack intelligence, talent, or opportunity. They are stuck because they think too much and act too little. The parents I work with often describe these children in the same way: bright, sensitive, thoughtful, and capable. Over time, this not only slows growth but also infantilizes adulthood, keeping capable young adults dependent on certainty, reassurance, and avoidance rather than action.

Rob Reiner and Tommy Lee Jones came across as loving and devoted fathers, and they appeared to use their Hollywood wealth and privilege to give their children every opportunity to be happy and successful in life. But the world has since learned that Reiner and Jones were unable to help troubled adult children whose whose mental health issues and addictions were so severe they led to tragedy.

If you had a severe case of the Sunday Scaries last weekend, you are not alone. It's a sentiment many have been sharing online. Ready or not, with it comes an influx of unread emails, meeting invites, and responsibilities-smugly pushed to the New Year in the last weeks of December-now coming back to haunt us all. Indeed, the first Monday of the year is the Monday-est Monday of all.

For the study, researchers at the University of Oregon and the State University of New York Upstate Medical University analyzed data from more than a thousand 16 to 24-year-olds in which participants reported their sleep/waking hours, including weekend catch-up sleep. While one might imagine that teens who spring out of bed early each morning - regardless of the day of the week- are more mentally sound, the opposite may be true. Interestingly, the study found that teens who slept in on weekends were significantly less likely to report symptoms of depression. The group had a 41% lower risk of depression when compared with the group who kept a more regimented sleep schedule on weekends.

The 32-year-old, who is facing life behind bars or the death penalty, had been stable on medications for schizoaffective disorder at the time of his medication change, sources told TMZ for the outlet's upcoming documentary on the case. Reiner was diagnosed with the disorder around 2020. Both the bipolar and depressive types of schizoaffective disorders, as identified by the Mayo Clinic, include some schizophrenia symptoms.

I write this post with a clear but demanding purpose. I aim to apply insights from animal behavior research to gain a deeper understanding of how humans behave, struggle, and adapt. As a clinical psychologist, much of my work centers on two closely related questions. Why do people do what they do? And why is changing what does not work for them so often more difficult than it appears?

David's story is more than just dodging a bullet it is a powerful testament to the critical importance of suicide prevention strategies that focus on encouraging temporarily limiting firearm access whether through secure storage at home or transfer away from home. Fresh approaches are desperately needed, since U.S. suicide rates have been steadily rising for two decades. To reverse this trend, we must address access to firearms, which account for 55% of all U.S. suicide deaths.

The real transformation happens when you open a fresh page, choose a handful of habits that matter to you, and commit to noticing them day after day. I recently did this with two friends over coffee, and what unfolded felt less like a productivity exercise and more like a gentle act of intention-setting. If you'd like to build your own version of that ritual, here's where to start.

One of the biggest surprises of not drinking was realizing how much social anxiety I have. And I'm a pretty social person. Back in 2022, after COVID pushed me into remote work, I noticed something: my only social life outside work usually involved drinks at a bar. Unlike school or office life, home meant being clear-headed; out meant being drunk.

Everybody knows this coworker-the one who spirals about cost-cutting layoffs when snacks vanish from the break room. The one who thinks they're getting fired because their boss hasn't been using emojis with them lately. The one who's the office Chicken Little: anxious, somewhat frantic, often misguided . . . and who can't stop talking to others about whatever it is they're anxious about.

A common misconception is that people who remain in toxic or abusive relationships are weak, dependent, or oblivious to the harm. In reality, many people who struggle to break free from relationships that are no longer working are intelligent, capable, high-functioning, and empathic. They see the dysfunction clearly and can even articulate what is wrong, and yet they struggle to leave, get frustrated with themselves, and do not understand why that is.

The cultural narrative is familiar: Set ambitious goals, push past discomfort, and emerge transformed. For some people, this framing feels energizing and hopeful. For others, it feels out of sync—especially if their nervous systems are already working hard just to keep things steady. Before committing to New Year's resolutions, it may be worth asking a quieter, but often more clinically meaningful question: Is this a year for bold reinvention, or is it a year for gentle reflection?

Knowing grants a sense of safety and certainty. It provides us with knowledge and a degree of control-the direction we believe we need to go and the way to get there. Yet, considering the chaos, anxiety, distress, loneliness, and existential challenges that most of us live with, we continue clinging to what we were taught to believe is "the truth." And while safety and certainty are illusory, we cling to them in powerful ways.

Calling clients resistant often implies the client is intentionally blocking progress, as if they alone are the reason therapy isn't working. That framing has always troubled me, because more often than not, what gets labeled "resistance" isn't a client problem at all. I've found that it's usually a relationship problem ( between client(s) and therapist or in their interactions/dynamic), and often, it's actually a therapist problem.

To start resolving our hurt, it helps to pause and ask ourselves a different question: What kind of wound am I dealing with? Many painful experiences-rejection, disappointment, humiliation, betrayal, exclusion-do not leave traumatic injuries. They leave emotional wounds. These wounds are real and impactful, even when they do not necessarily involve threat, terror, or a nervous system focused on survival. And yet, they can linger for years, shaping how we see ourselves and others long after the event has passed.

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I have no clue how to help her because every time I say that she is beautiful, she says I'm only saying that because I'm her mother. She is surrounded by social media images, unrealistic beauty standards and constant comparisons, and I fear that these influences have shaped how she sees herself way more than I ever could. I feel helpless watching her struggle with such intense self-criticism at such a young age.

Every January, millions of us set goals that promise control: eat better, exercise more, stress less. Yet the most transformative resolution may not be about controlling life-it's about expanding our capacity to engage with it. Stress isn't something to eliminate-it's something to train for. Just as we lift weights to strengthen our bodies, we can stretch our emotional tolerance to strengthen our minds.

One common approach involves audio-recording therapy sessions so the clinician does not have to take detailed notes during the meeting. AI software can then analyze the recording and generate written documentation. Before agreeing to this practice, it is important that you understand how audio-recordings and AI-generated notes may be used, how your information will be protected, and what choices you may have.

Calls to the clinic helpline are being used to train an AI algorithm that researchers hope will eventually power a chatbot offering therapy in local African languages. One person in 10 in Africa struggles with mental health issues, but the continent has a severe shortage of mental health workers, and stigma is a huge barrier to care in many places. AI could help solve those problems wherever resources are scarce, experts believe.

A recent study published in Biological Psychiatry identified a distinct subtype of psychiatric illness marked by brain inflammation, one that cuts across traditional diagnoses and may explain why standard treatments fail for some people (Tang et al., 2025).This new brain imaging study offers an interesting clue. It turns out that across different psychiatric disorders, some people show clear signs of brain inflammation, visible on scans and confirmed through immune system tests.

The term was first coined in the 90s by psychiatrist Jonathan Shay, who defined moral injury as having three components: "Moral injury is present when (i) there has been a betrayal of what is morally right, (ii) by someone who holds legitimate authority and (iii) in a high-stakes situation." Moral injury is a form of deep psychological and emotional distress that arises when someone is subjected to actions that violate their core moral values or sense of what's right.

The mental health needs of asylum-seekers and people awaiting deportation are not being adequately met, with services "scraping the tip of the iceberg" of what is needed, according to a leading charity.

From the time it opened in 1937 to 2024, a period of more than 85 years, the Golden Gate Bridge was the number one suicide site in the world. Confirmed suicides topped 2,000; the real number is likely higher, as other deaths were left unconfirmed-often because a body wasn't recovered or it was recovered too far away to be connected with certainty to the bridge.

People often assume that if someone truly wanted help, they would seek it. But in eating disorders, lack of motivation is rarely about indifference. More often, it reflects fear, avoidance, or a neurological blind spot that is part of the illness itself. Many adults with eating disorders delay seeking care, not because they do not need it, but because the eating disorder feels protective. It may regulate emotion, reduce anxiety, or provide a sense of control or identity.

When a young child pulls their hair, picks their skin, or bites their nails to the point of injury, it's natural for the adults in their lives to want to focus on stopping the behavior. Parents want to prevent their child from experiencing harm, and clinicians want to help the child gain control and relieve their parents of worry. But with body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs), especially in young children, control is rarely the place to start.