ROBERT WALDINGER: I started out as an intern in pediatrics and I would see one ear infection after another, and the kids were adorable, but one ear infection is pretty much the same as every other. Whereas when you talk to people about their lives, it's never the same. And I knew that that would keep me interested for my whole career, which it has.
I get a lot of calls for that topic at this time of year. Sadly, whichever way you cut the demographic mustard-men, women, younger, older, LGBTQ, BAME/BIPOC, neurodivergent, disabled-more and more people report feeling lonely some or most of the time. Sadly, those feelings can be compounded by Christmas, making the festive period difficult for many, for a variety of reasons. The solution lies in being more than a little self-indulgent. It's a call to be selfish, but with good reason.
The questions were part of annual research carried out in the summer by pollster YouGov with 7,340 adults of all ages for Ofcom's Annual Online Nation report. Despite their increasing negativity, young adults in the UK spend significantly more time online than older age groups, averaging six hours and 20 minutes a day on personal (rather than work) devices, up ten minutes over the prior 12 months and much higher than the four hours and 30 minutes for all adults.
Recently, I came across this post on the popular Ask Reddit page from user ViolatingBadgers that I thought was too cute not to share. In it, they asked people "who grew up in emotionally healthy families" to share "something you thought was normal growing up that you now realize was actually very special." The results were so wholesome and such a positive read that I thought they had to be shared. So, here are some of the best:
Coming of age alongside smartphones, however, has been linked to high rates of mental health concerns among Gen Z. A 2024 brief by the National Center for Health Statistics found that half of teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 spent four or more hours on screens per day, and those teens were more likely to experience anxiety or depression symptoms.
After that show, without notice to Perry, we unilaterally determined it would be best to not continue the tour and made inaccurate statements about Perry's mental health which we regret. One of the statements being referred to may have been that which was posted by Navarro on Instagram following the altercation, which was signed by himself, Avery and Perkins. Due to a continuing pattern of behaviour and the mental health difficulties of our singer Perry Farrell,
Claney (2025) describes autistic masking as "a complex phenomenon in which autistic individuals consciously or unconsciously hide or modify their behaviors and traits to fit within societal expectations." Masking, Claney argues, takes a massive emotional toll on autistic adults and can be devastating to mental health. A substantial body of research supports these findings, with the entire neuroaffirmative movement as evidence of the psychological and physical costs of long‑term masking.
Jennifer Breheny Wallace: I shudder when I hear people bragging about perfectionism or saying perfectionism can be good; healthy striving, striving for excellence is good. Perfectionism? I just don't see any good that comes of it. Samantha Laine Perfas: Many people hold themselves to extremely high standards, but when the scales tip to the pursuit of perfection, it can result in anxiety, depression, and other serious mental health issues. So how do we know when we've gone too far in trying to do our best?
The topic of mental health is a crucial one, as security team burnout is a top challenge for many organizations. Those in the industry know stressors can be abundant when working security roles, and without proper mental health practices in place, many professionals can burn out. And when one team member burns out, it's possible that more will follow. "We're pretty much [on] 24/7, being security professionals," says Rodriguez.
A lot of the research that's been done on mental health relies on self-report: Young people are asked to guesstimate how many hours they had on different platforms over weeks or months. They're also asked to estimate the impact of that screen use on their social relationships, their sleep, their exercise, their patterns. If you asked me, "John, what was your screen time for the last two weeks and what were your sleep patterns?," I wouldn't know.
Over the past year, I started practicing breathwork to help with my mental health. Slowing my breath and breathing deep into my diaphragm has helped bring me calm and perspective, and longer sessions have helped me work through negative thought patterns. Breathwork, I have found, is an important adjunct to other components of a healthy life, such as nutrition, physical exercise, sleep, and social connection.
The Washington Post analyzed TikTok usage, finding what topics the algorithm nudges users towards more: TikTok's algorithm favors mental health content over many other topics, including politics, cats and Taylor Swift, according to a Washington Post analysis of nearly 900 U.S. TikTok users who shared their viewing histories. The analysis found that mental health content is stickier than many other videos: It's easier to spawn more of it after watching with a video, and harder to get it out of your feed afterward.
On the surface, Omar Bogle's career is that of your typical EFL striker. The Crewe Alexandra forward has played in every division from the Championship down to the National League North, scoring well over 150 goals across all competitions. Bogle's CV includes the highs of promotion to League Two and the Premier League, with Grimsby Town and Cardiff City respectively, as well as 2018/19 EFL Trophy glory with Portsmouth, but those on-pitch achievements have been put into perspective in the past 18 months.
Do you ever repeat affirmations to yourself, maybe while looking in the mirror or driving in your car? It feels weirdly powerful, especially when you say them out loud. And the ThinkUp app wants you to harness that power. Instead of listening to pre-recorded mantras from a stranger, you get to record your own very specific affirmations and play them whenever you like. The goal? To boost your mood, feel more self-assured, and maybe even manifest a few dreams.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
Chris ran a jewellery business which Ruth had also worked in. He had no previous mental health issues but as the company struggled during the Covid pandemic, eventually closing in April 2022, he began to experience delusional thoughts. He became increasingly paranoid, wrongly believing he was being listened to by his phone and computer, and terrified someone was out to get him. He became withdrawn, looked noticeably frailer and experienced suicidal thoughts.
In January, gay comedian Rosie O'Donnell pulled up stakes and moved to Ireland. She was looking to escape the mental jail in which Donald Trump locked her during his first term in office, and where he threatened to put her again in his second, along with deporting her. Now she says she's loving her life in a Georgian farmhouse near Dublin, the Washington Post reports, enjoying walks around town like a civilian,
The 39-year-old victim was stabbed in one of the store's bathrooms while she was changing her 10-month-old daughter's diaper, according to police. When officers responded to a 911 call at around 3 p.m., they found the woman with multiple stab wounds to her back and a laceration on her arm, the Globe reported. The victim's husband was standing outside the bathroom and waiting for her with their other two children, police told CBS News.
I was so panicked by the grief I might experience if my loved one died that it prevented me from giving my loved one what I needed [to]," says Lambert, 54, who lives in London. That was back in 2017. Over time, through trial and error, Lambert says, she learned she had to put her own feelings aside in the moment and focus on the person in front of her.
When Violet and I finally decided to get married, I was in the middle of a depression so deep it had developed into something more like psychosis. I felt like I was pretending to be myself. I don't mean I was playing "the role" of the husband-to-be, the good son, the whatever. I mean I was going around thinking, What would I do right now if I were Malcolm?
Ten years ago, I connected with Christi, a daughter I fathered with a woman I was in a relationship with for a short time decades ago. We split before I knew my girlfriend was pregnant. She didn't tell me until after the baby was born. By that time, she was married to a man Christi knew as her dad. Christi no longer acknowledges him as her father.
The suspect accused of stabbing a woman as she changed her child's diaper inside Macy's flagship Herald Square store on Thursday had been discharged from a local mental health hospital just hours before the violent attack, prosecutors said Friday. Kerri Aherne, 24, formerly of Tewksbury, MA, is now locked up in jail after being arraigned in New York Criminal Court on Friday night.
Jennings's article focused on people using TikTok gain a more in-depth knowledge of ADHD. "Arguably no part of mental health TikTok is as omnipresent or as fraught as ADHD TikTok," Jennings wrote - and addressed one of the biggest challenges that arose from its prominence, namely: at what point does getting advice from an app overtake getting actual medical advice?
When you stop to consider all that parents are juggling, it actually isn't so surprising anymore. There are kids' weekend and after-school schedules, spirit weeks (yet again) at their school, homework to manage, sports practices, dance events, band lessons, in addition to trying to also somewhat manage an adult life that also likely consists of work, responsibilities, relationships, plus physical health, and parental mental health needs.
Like so many technological and cultural innovations, video games went through a phase of being blamed for all manner of society's ills as they became more popular. But as all but the most committed opponents gave up on the idea that video games might cause violence, a possibly more productive question has emerged - in what ways might playing games actually be good for us?
OpenAI and its largest financial backer, Microsoft, have been sued in California state court over claims that ChatGPT, OpenAI's popular chatbot, encouraged a man with mental illnesses to kill his mother and himself. The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, said that ChatGPT fuelled 56-year-old Stein-Erik Soelberg's delusions of a vast conspiracy against him, and eventually led him to murder his 83-year-old mother, Suzanne Adams, in Connecticut in August.
The lawsuit was brought against OpenAI by the estate of Suzanne Eberson Adams, an 83-year-old woman in Greenwich, Connecticut who was murdered by her son, 56-year-old Stein-Erik Soelberg. As The Wall Street Journal first reported back in August, Soelberg, who was living with his mother at the time of the killings, was an alcoholic who had a long, troubled history of run-ins with law enforcement and had attempted suicide before.
