#mental health

#mental health

Before I've poured my first morning coffee I've already watched the lives of strangers unfold on Instagram, checked the headlines, responded to texts, swiped through some matches on a dating app, and refreshed my emails, twice. I check Apple Maps for my quickest route to work. I've usually left it too late to get the bus, so I rent a Lime bike using the app.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to exercise - doing a variety of different physical activities every week is the key to boosting your health and living longer, a study suggests. After tracking the weekly exercise habits of 110,000 men and women in the US for 30 years, researchers found active people who did the greatest variety of exercise were 19% less likely to die during that time than those who focused on one activity. That effect was greater than for individual sports like walking, tennis, rowing and jogging. The total amount of exercise you do is still key, experts say, but doing a range of activities you enjoy can bring lots of benefits.

Even as new GLP-1 agonists with brand names like Wegovy and Zepbound make it easier to achieve weight loss, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( SSRIs) like Prozac and Zoloft provide a hedge against depression, there is growing interest in an old idea: psychedelics. The drugs are not being researched as a diversion from life, but instead as a therapeutic intervention to help us handle life's challenges in more creative ways.

Healthcare spending in the United States continues its upward climb, approaching $5 trillion annually in 2023. Employer-sponsored family plans now average $27,000 per year, placing mounting pressure on households and businesses. Yet despite this spending, the country's health outcomes remain far from world-leading. The latest OECD data show U.S. per-person spending is roughly twice the OECD average, with Switzerland and Germany trailing behind as the next highest spenders.

I don't look at much of anything the night before, because I feel quite strongly that there could be something that happens at 3 AM that throws everything into complete chaos. Maybe I'm a moron for doing it this way, but I feel like it's not really until the next morning that you can say, "Okay, here's what's happened, and here's what people are probably going to be thinking about."

One of the things I enjoyed most about this past holiday season was my mother's absence. From my childhood until I severed ties with her in my forties, Christmas with her was a torment. She had always excelled at humiliation, gaslighting, tirades, and other forms of emotional abuse. But these hardships felt even more acute during a season which extols the supportive family bonds my siblings and I never knew.

"For the last year, I lost my mind trying to focus on the things I can do," Allen told UFC.com. "My life is very career-driven, and I love my career - I want to give it that push and achieve my goals - so I'd be a liar if I didn't admit I was pissed off in that sense, and I'd also be a liar if I didn't say it trickles into my personal life sometimes."

I like it because the week before my birthday I swiftly declined a business opportunity that I knew was not a good fit for me. The conversation went like this: The woman on the phone said, "Take a few weeks to mull it over." I replied, "I am most appreciative of your time and don't want to waste it. I will pass on the opportunity. Thank you."

We had been talking about his most recent visit with his mother, one he had begun with cautious optimism, hoping that if he explained himself just a little more clearly this time, she might finally understand how her comments affect him. Instead, the interaction followed a familiar pattern. She minimized his feelings, and immediately redirected the conversation to her own stress. When he tried to point this out, she ended by accusing him of being "too sensitive. Must be from your father's side."

Clothes, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, a teddy Although it should be two teddies, she re-evaluates, quickly. I can hear her trying to quell her panic. A diehard survivalist preparing for catastrophe? Actually, a beleaguered 44-year-old mother recovering from scabies an itchy rash caused by microscopic mites that burrow under human skin. Far-fetched as it sounds, emergency evacuation is exactly what she, her partner and children (six and four) resorted to in November in a desperate bid to beat the bugs.

Clare McKenna's new book Would You Be Well? is timely - both in terms of a January release and also, on a macro level, as a guide through the increasingly complex world of 'wellness'. The book is a very detailed look at the many aspects of health - physical, emotional, psychological, as well as the delicate balance between these - and is clever about breaking down the sometimes-intimidating advice out there into small, manageable actions.

My before' was trying to make myself as small as possible in every conceivable way: my body, voice, emotions, opinions, she says. My after' is allowing myself to be my biggest self, however that looks.

"No matter how bad things get in the world, it's a comfort to know we're always going to have more gay s**t to watch," he said.

Nick Reiner, who's charged with the murder of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, was previously under a yearlong conservatorship in 2020, according to the New York Times. Licensed fiduciary Steven Baer, who was appointed as the conservator for Nick, said to the Times that mental illness "is an epidemic that is widely misunderstood, and this is a horrible tragedy."

My first reaction was: 'I'm going home, I'm going to be with my family in Argentina. Enough, I don't want to suffer anymore, I want to be well, I want to enjoy life.' But when you are unbalanced, you can say anything because you aren't connected with yourself. I obviously accepted those three weeks of mourning, where I wasn't myself.

It is no longer just about changing your passwords or clearing your browser cookies. In this hyper-connected era, where AI-curated feeds and constant notifications are the norm, digital hygiene has become a vital practice for protecting our cognitive focus and emotional well-being. Most of us wouldn't go a day without brushing our teeth or washing our hands, yet we often allow our digital lives to become cluttered, chaotic, and intrusive. This lack of boundaries has a documented impact on our internal state.

Somewhere along the way, I started wearing burnout like a badge of honour. In weekly lab check-ins, I make sure to mention I was in the lab over the weekend - slipping in a quiet signal that I was going above and beyond. I've made sure to send e-mails early in the morning or late at night to demonstrate I was working long hours.

Medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro have become almost impossible to avoid - in ads, on TikTok, in celebrity interviews, and even in group chats. For many people, GLP-1s have been genuinely life-changing, helping with blood sugar control, appetite regulation, and weight loss. But while the benefits get talked about a lot, the side effects? Not so much. Some are physical. Some are emotional. Some are things you didn't expect until you were already on them.

Human development is a lifelong, cumulative process. Midlife, however, is largely overlooked and misunderstood. When exactly is midlife? The general consensus is that midlife encompasses the years between 40 and 60, give or take. In a 2015 poll, people expressed the belief that midlife begins at age 44 and ends at age 59, however the roles and life circumstances that surround middle adulthood are perhaps more defining of this era than a specific age.

Few experiences are more emotionally and psychologically taxing than feeling that you don't matter. You might sense it when you're talked over in a meeting, when no one asks for your opinion, when you work hard, but your efforts aren't acknowledged, when your teenage child no longer wants to spend time with you, or upon retirement, when that inevitable question sneaks in: Does anyone need me?

The Trump administration has reportedly slashed U.S. federal funding for mental health and addition programs, a move that experts say will exacerbate the country's already acute drug crisis. The loss could total some $2 billion in grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), NPR reported, citing unnamed sources. But the extent of the cuts has not been verified. The number of grants canceled could be as high as 2,800, according to STAT.

Our culture, and often our upbringing, teaches us that emotional strength equals control; rather than working through or processing difficult emotions, like anger, grief, shame, and fear, we learn to push feelings aside and 'get over it'. Don't dwell. Don't fall apart. Be positive. Get a grip. We learn to project an image of unrealistic stability and strength, while ignoring our actual mental state.

I want him to get the most robust defense that he possibly can get. I know he will, in the hands of the public defender's office, said Jackson. There's very little in the law that's indefensible. I never approach a case like I'm just defending an individual. We're defending the Constitution. Jackson said his line of work, which has included clients such as Karen Read, Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, is defending an idea.

One in four teenagers in care have attempted to end their own life, and are four times more likely to do so than their peers with no care experience, according to a landmark study. The research analysed data from the millennium cohort study, which follows the lives of 19,000 people born in the UK between 2000 and 2002, and considered how out of home care, including foster, residential and kinship care, affected the social and mental health outcomes of the participants.