Global Mental Health Unboxed #20
Your monthly newsletter on all things global mental health
3 March 2025
Tanya Mutseura
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3d
Glad to have you back. As always thank you for the information.
Best Mental Health Articles
Why Are People Wearing Masks in 2025?
A Mental Health Professional’s Perspective
This piece has been brewing in my head over the last few years as I’ve watched a dramatic shift happen. In a very generous framing of this dynamic, a growing number of people are questioning: what possesses someone to still wear a mask, aren’t they just anxious and paranoid?! This has created tension in…
A quick note about the comments section: I want to keep it open, and I welcome dialogue, questions, and sharing of information. As someone whose own understanding of the world, values, and discernment have evolved dramatically over the course of my life, I know that none of us is inherently correct about everything. Exposure to new information and wrestling with it is a valuable part of growth and improvement, and it’s part of how people develop the ability to recognize misinformation, which is going to be increasingly needed.
Name calling is a form of ad hominem logical fallacy, and attacking a person is what people resort to when they have no better case to make against the actual facts or argument. I can tolerate it when it’s directed at me, up to a point. I will not tolerate it directed at others.
I’ve attempted to engage with someone in good faith with a stance of curiosity and genuine interest. I expressed wanting to continue the dialogue but gave them a warning that I would not tolerate attacks on others, and they doubled down. They are now blocked and their hateful and ableist comments have been deleted.
Come curious and kind, or keep your comments to yourself.
I had really wanted to keep these comments open, but I’m going to close them because some people cannot be respectful and I do not have the capacity to moderate them. Thank you to the many folks who have been respectful, kind, and curious.
Mental(izing) Health: How Do You Feel about Emotions?
Newsletter, #62
Mental(izing) Health is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
My oldest son attended a K-5 public school in Harlem for one year when he was in third grade. Just last week I found a number of projects from that year that he had brought home. Almost all of them were about emotional intelligence & mindfulness. I accept that you can learn another subject, for example English or art, and write about mindfulness, but the work was kind of incredible to me. Even at the time he attended the school I observed that they appeared to spend half the day on EI topics. This school was 98% Black students and my son fell behind that year on math and ELA. I think it's more complicated than focusing on emotions instead of material reality, but I also don't think it's an accident that this was the coursework in a segregated school full of students of color.
This is great! So thoughtful and considerate.
The Future of Mental Health
How to be more flexible, local, and built for impact
In a recent Atlantic piece, Rogé Karma looked at Walmart’s impact on local economies, revealing a paradox many of us have assumed was the case: low prices may seem beneficial, but they ultimately leave communities poorer by suppressing wages, eliminating local businesses, and concentrating market power.
Ben - thank you for your continued incisive thinking and writing. In this article you mentioned "top down" solutions. In my view that is what has led us where we are and keeps us stuck there. Albert Einstein (a close personal friend of mine ...) said "We cannot hope to solve our problems by using the same thinking we used to create the." I'd like to invite you and others to view the "bottom up" thinking that governs our solution at www.thirdrail.info, and to comment. Thank you.
Ben, my new book--HAS MEDICINE LOST ITS MIND?--is out. If you'd like a copy, please send me your mailing address to my email: smithrr@msu.edu
Mental Health Doctor Reacts to RFK & Antidepressants
Let's address the elephant in the room...
My DMs Have Been Flooded This Week…
Magnets, Mushrooms & Mood—Breakthroughs in Mental Health
plus, we are officially moving to...
The Future of Mental Health Care is Here
I am doing a clinical trial for psilocybin in 2 weeks. Hopefully I get an active dose and not the placebo. I had to come off my meds to do this. I thought it wouldn't be bad because they weren't doing much, hence the reason for doing the trial, but it has been very hard. Hope it is worth it, and hope it advances the science.
Congratulations on your new home - you will love SD!
Calling Out Mental Health Stigma in Real Time
If not you, who?
The past few weeks have been a good reminder that stigmatizing language and misinformation about mental health shows up in mainstream conversations, public policy debates, and even Senate hearings. And every time they go unchallenged, they reinforce dangerous myths that keep people from seeking help, deepen shame, and fuel harmful narratives about menta…
As someone who has both been on and come off antidepressants / SSRIs, it often feels to me like the problem is that there is not a shared mainstream point of view on the nuances of them -- particularly the challenges of coming off of them. The paragraph in the USA Today piece, for example, reads: "Withdrawal symptoms usually start within 5 days of stopping the medicine and last 1 to 2 weeks, and are typically mild, according to the NHS and American Academy of Family Physicians. However, some people have severe withdrawal symptoms that last for several months or more. One study showed that these symptoms can last up to one year, but according to the Cleveland Clinic, another study showed that 2% of people who experienced discontinuation symptoms had lasting symptoms for three or more years." Sounds simple, right? But obviously those of us who are deeper into the science knows it's often much more complex than that (https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/going-off-antidepressants), and many doctors seem to be unaware of the importance of very slow titration. This is where the trust gets broken between news orgs / institutions and average people. Until we start to learn to explain how these things actually work in a consistent way, I suspect we will continue to see these kinds of inflamed exchanges.
Thanks for writing this. I didn’t see the exchange you mention but will read it.
mental health break!
we interrupt this broadcast...
hey folks — I’ve got an early-morning appointment today that couldn’t be rescheduled and can’t be avoided. (don’t worry, it’s nothing awful.) rather than trying to rush out a substandard post, I’ve decided to call a Mental Health Day. I’ve needed one for a while now
I promise that when I return home later this morning, I'll post a comment explaining what the appointment was all about. probably.
Good for you. My wife and I are going to the beach today and sitting on our asses for the day. Hope to finish reading "Admirals", by Walter Borneman. It's a great read about the USN prior to and including WWII and command of the seas during that war. Having served in the USN I am enjoying the book and have reflected a lot on the thought of if the Orange Lunatic had been in charge instead of FDR. We would probably all be dead. Keep your money in your pocket today!
Frontiers in Mental Health
Introduction to OTI's new publication
The vision for this journal and the future of mental health care
The Dance of Resistance
choosing joy in the gathering storm
1940, Zeist, the Netherlands. A tall, blond man, twenty years old, dances cheek to cheek with a seventeen-year-old brunette, her hair tucked demurely behind her ear as his lips move softly millimeters away. At the perimeter of the room stand foreign officers, unsmiling, their hands resting on pistols, red patches on their sleeves showing the four-angled…
@Dr Deborah Vinall - "I am born of defiant blood. I will not close my eyes to injustice. I will not look away. I will not stand inert to oppression. I don’t know how my grandparents fostered theirs, (in many ways it seems you do in the repetition) but I know what I am doing for my own. We must fortify ourselves and one another for the days and years ahead. I’m practicing this every day, my strong but still act of resistance. Fighting hatred with peace.
And, I’m beginning to dance (who has danced and who dances). And I questioned myself: with all that is going on, what meaning is there in so silly a pursuit as learning to dance at my age? Let us strategically embrace joy and bathe in art with a passion that invites others to dance along."
Life, as art itself, is a series of repetitions, conscious or otherwise, and understanding the history of the repetiton becomes paramount to change and liberation. The human struggle, within and without, and the ubiquitous art of living that is saught, so poignantly wrapped in defiance and yet with higher purpose in mind and body, is wonderfully beautifully heartfeltfully thoughtfully portrayed herewithin. This is your right and I honor your path for the alternative is no way of living❤️🔥
Never let the darkness of doubt overshadow the light of your conviction. Keep pushing forward, even when the path seems uncertain, for it is in the pursuit of truth that we find our greatest strength. Every step we take, every voice we raise and every challenge we overcome brings us closer to a brighter tomorrow. So stand tall,hold firm ,keep dancing and never quit fighting for what's right.
Respect to ya and your family for being an inspiration for others to never quit and keep going ✨💯.
Thanks for sharing 👍
DARVO in the Oval
reflections on abuse tactics in the home and on the international stage
Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about! she threatened, even as she rained down blows on my tender backside. Gaslighting away the reality that I was experiencing anything worthy of tears. I’ll stop when you stop crying.
Proud of you ❣️.
Night Owl Habit Undermines Mental Health
Ignoring this one routine could silently sabotage your mood and resilience.
Courage and Agency in Mental Health
Building habits of endurance
At the end of On Getting Out of Bed, I claim that “while we may hesitate to call getting out of bed ‘courageous,’ it is undeniably true that day-to-day life demands a great deal of courage.” I think anyone who has suffered from a mental affliction can resonate with this sense of the courage needed to live. Sometimes it …
I don't have any issues getting out of bed. But sometimes, I get to the end of the day, and I need the courage to go to bed. To give up on the day. I get to the end of the day, and think, what did I do? I didn't get anything done. What's wrong with me? I have to calm those voices down. Sometimes I have to say to myself, "I did the dishes. I did the laundry. I took care of my husband. Today was a tough day. It's okay."
Really good, thank you.
I believe Aquinas was right. As a military vet I have been fascinated (and deeply saddened) by men that were beasts in attack situations only to be undone (suicide in some cases) by the endurance required for civilian life.
I also sympathize with the flack you have received from folks who may be caught in more severe mental illness. It seems symptomatic of our times and an error in logic to think that, because something doesn't apply to me, it can't be true for anyone. Your calls for a liberal arts education are related. We seem to have lost our ability to think and reason. If I had one word to describe the last 10 years I believe it would be - shrill. The internet has not helped this.
Yet, there are glimmers. My 27 year old son made a point today to share that he is beginning to read "Lord of the Rings"! Perhaps I'll be thought silly but I thanked God for that. I deeply believe that our imaginations are one of our greatest hopes. I live in the Psalms. Taken at face value they don't seem to make much sense, at least in an Enlightenment, scientific-method kind of way. But man, when we begin to conceive of what the Psalmist is conceiving (imagining!) - what power!
If you made it this far, thanks.
Shalom!
“Mental health & the power of diagnosis…”
3 people. 3 voices. 3 examples of how diagnosis can be vital in supporting good mental health.
In response to the mental health and burnout study, of 1,153 respondents, over 477 chose to share deeply personal stories, feelings, and experiences. Today I’d like to touch on the positive benefit o…
The grief for what could have been is very real and very heavy. But you also wouldn’t be where you are now, and I imagine there’s a lot where you are now that you wouldn’t want to give up. Not to mention the fuel you have to help others because of it. You are doing a wonderful thing, and it’s worth what it took to get here. I also highly doubt you’ve lost your sense of humor. It’s one of our most potent survival mechanisms!! Maybe it just felt like after all this time it could finally take a little break.
The term for grieving the life you may have had is disenfranchised grief. I am trying to let go of the life I might have had If I accepted my sensitivity/autism sooner. I truly feel like I was robbed of the opportunity to flourish and maximize my potential and to have a family. I feel sad for 27-year-old me who left teaching. This was in the late 1990s before all the school shootings started taking place. I was supposed to teach a student who threatened to kill me. Bless the counselor who suggested I see a psychiatrist so that I could be excused from finishing the 2 weeks remaining in the school year. Within 10 minutes the psychiatrist said I had an adjustment disorder and made some adjustments to my meds. I began taking antidepressants during my first year of teaching 6th graders. Then, I was given anti-anxiety meds. My primary care doctor suggested doubling the dose, but I refused. When, I was excused from finishing the year all my mom wanted to know was if I would be put in a psychiatric hospital. God forbid a member of the family having that kind of problem!
The most significant event was my mom telling 21-year-old me that if my college sweetheart and I married she would not support me. I never thought my mom liked my boyfriend (or any man to be honest) but if she was so concerned why didn't she talk to me?!?! She was very strategic; she told me this when she had me cornered in the house and when I needed a ride to work. I am bothered that my Dad never talked to me about this, but I forgive him because my mom wore the pants in the family. A few years ago, my brother told me that he told our mom she was too hard on me.
This if why I am here in hopes by sharing this someone else will realize their mom has a problem and get as far away from her as possible. On a brighter note, I am finding happiness and expect there if more coming my way.
Be gentle with yourself; moods definitely fluctuate!
Enhancing Mental Health Through Lifestyle Changes
In this episode of Prevention Over Prescription with Dr. K, Dr. K explores practical strategies to improve mental health by focusing on exercise, nutrition, sleep, mindfulness, and self-care. He shares personal insights and evidence-based recommendations to enhance listeners' overall well-being, emphasizing the importance of aligning daily habits with p…
YMHC March 2025 Newsletter
Youth Mental Health Canada March 2025 Newsletter
Thank you for subscribing to the YMHC newsletter. This volume contains information on YMHC events and activities.
Breaking: All Planes Everywhere Have Crashed
DEI suspected as culprit in literally every incident.
I have three general certificates - a BA in Sociology, an (well we're still waiting for the paperwork) MA in clinical psychology, and for some reason a Cambridge CELTA degree. I hate teaching English grammar.
Janeen Martin: When Faith Heals—and When it Hurts
Religion and Mental Health
This week, Tim and Aubrey had a fascinating conversation with therapist and researcher Janeen Martin about the complex and deeply personal ways that religion and mental health intersect.
Lorraine Evanoff: New Orleans is one of the grandest centers of great culture, especially Heritage Jazz -- the great Marsalis family -- and the feuding, wonderful Brennan families of restaurants.
Why not do both?
Why not live in the Jazz World of great Weimar while at the same time resisting the neo-Nazism of Brownshirts Musk (Hail Caesar!), JD Vance (the Yale-Law Grad who stupidly repeats the Mediaeval Blood Libel (Jews steal babies and eat the boys and girls in blood rituals -- the POISONOUS RACE-BAITING that launched deadly pogroms -- turning the Blood Libel absurdly on Haitian immigrants -- "They steal your housepets, Oh, My! -- and they eat the kitties and puppies in Blood Voodoo rituals, Oh, My! -- You mainstream media (says Vance) won't print it!! -- Oh, my!!), and the Orange-Coward-KKK-"King" who shamefully betrays like Judas the brave, valiant Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
EUROPE IS PAYING ATTENTION: Macron and the Chief of Staff of the Army, Pierre Schill, promised short term France could send 60,000 troops to the Ukraine Front, and longterm 120,000.
Keir Starmer and Emanuelle Macron are working closely to bolster Ukraine.
CellyBlue -- "I do know this" -- republished promises of Finland's President, Alexander Stubb, to provide stalwart support to Ukraine.
The ONLY success of Trump is this: Trump wants to be an isolationist -- and Europe is ISOLATING TRUMP.
Congratulations, Trump.
So, Lorraine Evanoff, your lifestyle with dear friends having a blast in New Orleans -- Nancy and I lived near New Orleans for 32 years -- that is part and parcel of your personal integrity and together, in culture, even in outrage, we can snub Trump and resist SMARTLY.
My cause is the innocent immigrants that neo-Fascists Vance/Tramp/and sadist Thomas Homan oppresses.
Vivé LULAC! (The League of United Latin Ameican Citizens -- founded 1929 -- to resist aggressions against Latinos.)
The most outrageous artists in cultured, outrageous Weimar and Alexanderplatz (Berlin), were ones best placed to RESIST.
Culture -- including outrageous fun -- is part of the backbone of persons who resist.
It is the Brownshirts -- Orange TRAMP etc -- who are self-loathing and need both hyperbolic praise bordering on worship, and whose self-hatred puts them on the rampage against freedom fighters like Zelenskyy and against minorities.
Please, keep sending these wonderful pictures of you and loved ones in one of America's truly great, internationally renowned cities.
We are your friends and we are with YOU!
love me some beignet!
Is running in your mental health toolkit?
For Enter Shikari singer Rou Reynolds, it's an essential part, so he's running the London Marathon to help raise money for mental health. Also: how slow is too slow??
The chart-topping rock star running a marathon for mental health
At my wife’s running club, which I help at, we try and flip the situation.
Everyone runs at the pace of the ‘fun bus’ at the back and shooting ahead is stigmatised - if you have to do that, you must regroup.
It possibly means we get less ‘speedy’ runners coming along, but then again that’s not who the group is for!
Hope you had a good birthday!
It is certainly in the tool kit but it isn't the only tool.
What I have found out through running is that I am more capable of talking about my mental health (struggles and all) because I have learned I can do hard things.
Connecting with people, like yourself, allows for the free flow of a conversation in which there is a trust built based on going through those hard times together.
This brings out emotions that in the past, would have been stuffed down and not allowed to see the light of day.
Oh....and Happy Birthday!
Takeaways from the Trevor Project's 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People
cw: mental health, suicide
At a time when the US federal government is actively censoring science around queer and trans people, trustworthy data from non-governmental services become critical to our community. This week, one trusted source, the Trevor Project, released its 2024 survey data on the mental health of queer youth.
A Better road to AI for Mental Health
Are Companies Building Mental Health Tools for Healing or Hooks for Engagement?
Your Neuralink alert flashes red: 'Elevated cortisol detected. Initializing mood stabilization.' Within seconds, your anxiety about the upcoming presentation melts away - not because you've processed it, but because an algorithm decided you shouldn't feel it. The moment your neurochemistry shifts, the chip releases its perfect cocktail of molecules to r…
mental health in the music industry, part 1
2/03/25
Blue Bucket Of Gold is a free weekly newsletter from me, the musician Catrin Vincent. If you pay, I also offer long-form content, like interviews with your favourite artists, new music and songwriting prompts. This newsletter is a passion project; a deep-dive into the human psyche from someone whose life was transformed by discovering how art can heal. …
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