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This U.S. presidential election cycle has been filled with anger. Fist-fights in Chicago. Protesters plucked out of rallies by police officers. Hurled accusations : Mexican immigrants as “rapists,” war-tattered refugees as agents of ISIS. Much of the hostility is a function of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who has encouraged violence among his supporters and seems to exhale insults and epithets with every breath. There have been as many explanations given for...

Sure, if I were in charge at Red Mountain High School in Mesa, Arizona, I would’ve been angry at Hunter Osborn, a football player who decided, on a teammate’s dare, to expose himself. He did it during a team photo as dozens of teammates lined up in the bleachers. True, he was only 18 at the time, the knucklehead. And no, the photo isn’t all that graphic. The penis partly peeking out the top of number 42’s waistband is less noticeable than Waldo in one of his illustrated spreads. But that’s...

Has anyone heard of a state psychiatric hospital that is screening for ACEs or employing trauma-informed practices? Thanks!

Evidence is mounting that opioid pain medication may have played a role in the death of pop legend Prince. While the medical examiner hasn’t yet released the results of the autopsy and toxicology tests in this case, opioid overdose in middle age is all too common . In 2013 and 2014, according to the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people ages 45 to 64 accounted for more than 40 percent of all deaths from drug overdose. Prince died on April 21 at his home and music studio...

The primary method that doctors and hospitals use to track patient health history is failing to capture critical behavior and mental health data. A study released in April by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute compared the electronic health records (EHRs) to the insurance claims of some 5,500 patients. The focus of the study was on patients with depression or bipolar disorder who received care from Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, part of Atrius Health. The research is a...

I don’t know how to talk about mental health in a short, sweet and all-encompassing way. On the topic, my mind is a Powerball drawing of sorts. The first ball up is MarShawn McCarrel , the brilliant Black Lives Matter activist who tragically took his own life earlier this year. Then I think of the artist formerly known as Ron Artest excitedly giving a shoutout to his psychiatrist after the Los Angeles Lakers won the 2010 NBA Finals. I think about the lady who was loudly arguing with herself...

There’s a funny print cartoon that shows a man and woman sitting on the couch staring at a TV screen, and the caption reads, “It’s 12 o’clock, do you know where your mind is?” As time goes on and we grow from children to adolescents to adults, for many of us, somewhere along the way life begins to become routine. Day in and day out, whether we’re walking, driving, talking, eating, going to the grocery store, or spending time with our families, our minds get kicked into auto-pilot and...

On a presidential campaign trail paved with discussions of border walls, Supreme Court nominees and terrorism fears, candidates have hardly mentioned cities beyond, perhaps, a remark about “New York values.” Yet a national agenda in this century must be an urban one. Two-thirds of the population now lives in the nation’s largest 100 metropolitan areas, and nearly 100 million more people are projected to live in American cities by 2050—swelled by the ambitious who move to them and those lucky...

These days, American colleges are eager to boast about their number of women enrollees, their percentage of ethnic minorities, even their ratio of low-income students. They’re very proud of their inclusiveness and outreach. But many colleges are mum when it comes to the students on their campuses with criminal records. To be fair, it’s a very delicate issue, one that requires reassuring students and parents that safety has not been compromised while also ensuring that some students with...

[Photo by Bryan Jones ] The human brain begins as a neural tube that develops five weeks after conception. Years later, it is fully formed. On Tuesday, experts in neuroscience, genetics and social work met in Manhattan to talk about what can happen to it along the way, and what emerging research tells us about how children who seem broken can be made whole. Officially, the meeting was called Poverty, the Brain and Mental Health. It could have been called This Is Your Brain on Poverty. Or:...

Healthy Auburn for Life. That’s the vision of the new Blue Ribbon Committee of Auburn assigned to making Auburn the healthiest city in Washington by 2020. Alarmed by a recent King County report that gave Auburn a poor checkup, City officials have called for a plan of action. A committee has been formed with representatives from all sectors of the city and given this goal: make Auburn the Healthiest City in Washington by 2020. Its mission is to optimize the health and well being of all...

From sexism to sexual abuse , the media has dredged up some of the music industry’s most shameful truths in the last few months alone, but there’s still far more work to be done. While these issues are incredibly important and shouldn’t be discounted, mental illness continues to be stigmatized within the music community. Opening up about mental illness isn’t easy—it can be an overwhelming, emotionally draining struggle. But more often than not it’s also cathartic. An opportunity to...