The number of suicides in the United States has been on the rise since 1999 in everyone between the ages of 10 and 74, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics looked at data on cause of death for Americans 10 and older from 1999 to 2014. They also included information on age and race from death certificates. “The increase is broad-based,” said Sally C. Curtin, a statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics and lead author of the new report, which was released Thursday. Such an increase in suicides could also make prevention efforts more difficult. “If it were just one particular group, you could say ‘that is where we need to focus,’ ” Curtin said. The report is the first since 1999 to look at suicide rates among all age groups, she said. The number of suicides increased among all racial groups except for black males, who saw an 8% decline in suicide rate from 10.5 to 9.7 per 100,000 between 1999 and 2014, respectively. The largest increases were among American Indians and Alaska Natives; in this group, the suicide rate climbed by 89% among women and 38% among men. Suicide rates among white women and white men increased by 60% and 28%, respectively.
Almost half of the asylum seeker children returned to Australia from Nauru’s detention centre – the public focus of the Let Them Stay campaign – have been diagnosed with a mental illness, the government has told parliament.
Fifty-four children returned to Australia from Nauru were part of the 267 asylum seekers and refugees who were the focus of a nationwide Let Them Stay campaign.
In answer to a February question on notice specifically about that 267 cohort, a Department of Immigration and Border Protection official has told the Senate: “as at 8 February 2016, there were 25 minors from Nauru who were in Australia with a clinically diagnosed mental health condition including depression and anxiety”.
“Additionally, there were five minors in Australia for other long-term medical issues.”
Last night, I watched Carrie Fisher receive the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism from Harvard’s Humanist Hub. The event was … not what I expected. I loved it. But it was also completely bizarre. Let me take you on this journey. I found out about the event at the last minute yesterday from a friend; I had never heard about Harvard’s Humanist Hub before, but they give out this award to celebrities who’ve been open about being atheist or agnostic. Harvard’s event description made the event sound like it would be a relatively understated affair, and that Fisher would most likely discuss her own relationship with spirituality, and well as her own perspectives on mental illness and perhaps her career in Hollywood a bit. That isindeed what Carrie Fisher talked about once she took the stage, but before that point, the event was an emotional whirlwind of Star Wars fandom. As soon as I got to the Memorial Church, I saw multiple lines stretching out the front door, down the steps, and across the sidewalk. Amidst those lines, I saw a Rey cosplayer swirling a lightsaber. Meanwhile, a group of three other cosplayers–Leia, Han Solo, and Chewie–stood on the front steps, posing for pictures. All of these cosplayers were part of the 501st Legion, which is a group of professional Star Wars cosplayers who often get tapped for promotional Star Wars events. I soon saw that there were also several Storm Troopers, a Darth Vader, and many other 501st official cosplayers in attendance. There were also multiple cosplayers who weren’t there in a professional capacity, but were there simply to express their Star Warsfandom among like-minded folks. I didn’t expect any of this, because this event isn’t, y’know, an official Star Wars event. But I guess any event that Carrie Fisher does might become a Star Wars event. And it didn’t just stop at cosplay! When I got inside, I saw that the entire Harvard Pops orchestra had set up in the front of the church, with the brass section in the balcony. I could tell from their warm-up that they were going to play a Star Wars song.
Written by Holistic Recovery Center / Holistic Recovery Center
Pet therapy may include several kinds of therapies involving animals, from animal-assisted therapy to animal-assisted activities. Animal-assisted therapy tends to use dogs or other animals to help people recover from health problems or to cope with mental stresses. Animal-assisted activities allow individuals to interact with animals. These animals may provide comfort during the activity or be used to provide interaction. Animal-assisted therapies work in several ways. For instance, if you attend your drug addiction programand are asked if you want to be part of the program, you can say yes and learn more. If everything is agreeable to you, you’ll seen have an assistance animal, whether it’s a horse, dog, cat, or other animal, come to you. In some cases, the animal stays for longer, but most visits are between 10 to 15 minutes. You can interact with the animal and talk to the handler. Typically, this improves a person’s mood, which is helpful to the healing process.
I used to joke that only men with depression were attracted to me. It was the only experience I’d had, every long-term boyfriend and even the short-term flings. I’d never dated anyone who hadn’t been on antidepressants, or spent time in a psychiatrist’s office. That dark, brooding, introspective type: It draws me in.
I guess having struggled with my own anxiety, and bouts of depression, I’ve always been able to empathize. Then there’s the carer aspect of my personality; I like to look after people, I like to try and fix situations, connect people to services that will help them. I’m studying to become a social worker.
I don’t want to compare my experience as a partner of someone with depression to the struggles of someone who is actually depressed. But years of loving people who could probably not love me back in the same way, it’s taught me coping techniques that I think could be helpful. I am just one of the many, many partners who’ve sat in silence with their loved one, watching them eat for the first time in two days because their brain has been a fog and their muscles hurt and their bed is the only safe space for them to hide in.
Written by Kwame Anthony Appiah / New York Times Magazine
I have struggled with mental illness, off and on, for most of my life. It can be debilitating and has resulted in numerous hospitalizations. I also have extensive scarring on my arms from self-harm episodes. But I have a successful career and fully support myself; most people who know me have no idea that I am mentally ill. After ending a decade-long relationship, I am now thinking of dating again. My question is: At what point do I disclose my mental illness, its history and its effects? At what point do I “explain” my scars? Do I have an obligation to reveal this information on the first or second date, before any attachment forms, so that any potential partner can “opt out”?
Beverley Callard looked at the sexy black PVC outfit in the corner of her dressing room and broke down in despair. She was feeling so low that the very idea she would have to dress up as Coronation Street barmaid Liz McDonald – let alone muster the energy to play her extrovert personality – filled her with horror. She had sunk into such a deep depression that she’d lost all her confidence. “At first no one knew I was struggling,” says Beverley, 59. “I wanted to keep it a secret. “But I was getting worse and worse each day. I was getting ready in my dressing room and I couldn’t take it any more. Liz had to be dressed up for a certain scene – she had to wear a PVC outfit. “Fear took over and I started to cry. I thought, ‘I’m not confident enough to put this on. I can’t do it’.”
A film that aims to change the way communities look at mental illness will make its debut at Yale University’s Davies Auditorium at 5 p.m. April 29. Judy Murray, an East Haven resident and founder of Dignity and Advocacy Network (D.A.N.), will be presenting at the event. She lost her son to suicide in 2014 after his long battle with what doctors diagnosed as Bipolar 1 Disorder and believes he was failed by the “medical model” mental health system. “It’s the whole approach that were using that isn’t working.” Murray said. “My son, he heard voices, he had visions, he was told that he had an illness and that he would have to ignore it, suppress it.” Murray said that while her son told her he did not think or feel he was ill, being told that he was over and over made him fall into invalidating his own experience.
While I always recommend making time for relaxation, there’s one facet to having time on your hands that I must caution about. All too often people with mental illness are left with idle time, myself included, which can lead to trouble. Spare time means more opportunity to worry and overanalyze things that happen. This is common among anxiety sufferers, but it can be even more of a problem for people in my situation, namely people who are living with schizophrenia. Sometimes, when we have too much time on our hands, our minds go to places that are intense and scary. Troubling ideas can manifest themselves in any number of ways. Whether it’s paranoia or delusions, depression or hallucinations, our minds are all too susceptible to spiraling out of control. That’s why I think it’s important that we have something to do. I’ve talked about creative flow before. You find your flow when you engage in a creative activity that’s so engrossing you lose track of time. Creative hobbies are important because they keep us occupied and focused on something other than our worries. It can be drawing, painting, woodcarving, writing, working at an easy job or really anything that allows you to flow. For me, writing is where I find my flow. If not there, then in photography and walking or hiking. These seemingly nominal tasks are incredibly important for maintaining my stability and, while I don’t do them as often as I should, I’m well aware of what can happen when I have too much free time.
Mira Aztil, a clinical psychologist with the Israeli NGO IsraAid, recalls the traumatic stories she’s heard from her refugee patients in Lesbos, Greece: One Iraqi woman described how she had suffered through an encounter with “The Biter,” a spiked metal tool used by the Islamic State to clip off the flesh of women deemed to be immodestly dressed. Another woman, a Syrian mother of four, had been racked with guilt since her husband died on the trek across the snow-laden Syrian-Turkish border. She was convinced that her urgency to get the family to safety quickly had caused his heart to fail.
Severe trauma cases are seen on a daily basis on Lesbos, the pastoral Greek island currently serving as the front line to Europe’s largest wave of forced migration since the Second World War. Since January, 2015, 1.2 million refugees have entered Europe, almost half of whom (48 percent) are from Syria, according to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The Guardian recently reported that nearly 450,000 of them have come through Lesbos.