Evolution, Schedules, and the Quiet Cost to Mental Health
For much of our existence, clocks and calendars did not exist to mark time. Instead, we lived according to the cycle of day and night. Weather, hunger, or seasons dictated when we ate, slept, and moved season to season continuing to survive. As humans, we have always lived spontaneously, in tune with natural rhythms, not […]
Can Teaching Self-Compassion Improve Teen Mental Health?
Suicide. It’s not something we like to talk about—especially when we’re talking about our kids. Yet it’s a painful reality in our world today. Unfortunately, most of us know someone in our community whose child has died by suicide. There’s good news and bad news on teen suicide rates. Let’s have the good news first. […]
We’re Missing the Good News About Youth Mental Health
Let’s play a word-association game. If I say “youth Mental health,” what’s the next word that comes to mind? It’s probably “crisis.” For over a decade, researchers, policymakers, teachers, parents, and the media have been raising the alarm about the rising prevalence of anxiety, depression, and emotional distress among young people. Most alarmingly, the suicide […]
Mental Health After Hurricane Melissa
As a daughter of Black River, Jamaica, the four weeks after Hurricane Melissa made landfall on October 28, 2025 have been so so hard. I went to Black River Primary School and my cousin was the principal during much of that time. My dad worked at the courthouse and my mom worked at the only […]
Why Baby Sleep Books Can Harm Maternal Mental Health
When I was seven months pregnant, someone handed me a copy of Twelve Hours by Twelve Weeks, a bestselling baby sleep manual. I devoured it like scripture. Everyone had warned me that the sleep deprivation would be brutal. This book promised salvation, if I just followed the rules: stretch feedings, track ounces, ignore midnight cries. […]
How Immigration Policies Are Harming Mental Health
By Srishti Katuri, MA, and Cynthia J. Najdowski, PhD, University at Albany. On March 15, 2025, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act—historically employed only during wartime—so that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could immediately remove Venezuelan citizens alleged to be terrorists from the United States. That same day, ICE deported Kilmar […]
Why Body Temperature, Health, and Well-Being Are Related
Throughout history, people have had to find ways to cope with varying environmental conditions. Whether they lived in a hot or cold climate or had access to plentiful or limited water, they adapted their clothing and their homes to the conditions around them. With the advent of technology, we gained the ability to heat and […]
How Does Retirement Affect Our Health and Happiness?
While becoming unemployed can be a huge Mental health challenge, many of us assume that retirement—which also involves stopping or at least reducing work—will be the opposite. It’s pictured as a well-deserved time of leisure and relaxation, when we’ll get to do all the things we always wished we had time for. But is retirement […]
The Psychology of Mental Health Memes
Memes are a form of digital storytelling, except instead of hunting scenes, it’s a sloth giving side-eye with the caption: “If I delete my Instagram, my social anxiety will delete itself too.” And it spreads, because it’s a blunt snippet that somehow captures our collective anxiety in one post. What Are Memes? Memes are Gen […]
When Mental Health Is Medical: The Cost of Missed Diagnosis
As therapists, we’re trained to explore the psychological roots of emotional distress. We dig into trauma histories, family systems, attachment wounds, and patterns of regulation and dysregulation. We learn to validate complexity, especially with clients navigating dissociative identity disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder. And yet, the Mental health field still struggles to address these conditions […]