Category: mental illness

Man Pleads Guilty to Killing Five in Norway Stabbing, Bow-and-Arrow Attacks

OSLO—A man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to stabbing five people to death and attempting to murder 11 with a bow and arrow, attacks that spread fear across a small town in Norway in October last year. The rampage through Kongsberg, 40 miles west of the capital Oslo, lasted more than half an hour, as the…


Police Investigating Medically Assisted Death of BC Woman

Police in Abbotsford, B.C., are investigating the medically assisted death of a woman whose daughters are raising questions as to why the procedure was approved when their mother’s mental health wasn’t in an adequate state to make that kind of decision. Donna Duncan, a long-time psychiatric nurse, died on Oct. 29, 2021, after she was…


Police Investigating After BC Woman Dies By Assisted Suicide

Police in Abbotsford, B.C., are investigating the medically assisted death of a woman whose daughters are raising questions as to why the procedure was approved when their mother’s mental health wasn’t in an adequate state to make that kind of decision. Donna Duncan, a long-time psychiatric nurse, died on Oct. 29, 2021, after she was…


Abnormal Behavior or Mental Illness? Context Is Everything

Commentary In the first scene of “Hitchcock Loves Bikinis,” a young mum is happily playing with her baby. Next comes a close-up shot of Alfred Hitchcock, the late movie director, smiling. Clearly, he is a man whose heart is warmed by this sweet glimpse of maternal love. In the next scene, we see a bikini-clad…


Tourism in Los Angeles Results in Increased LAPD Presence in Venice Beach

VENICE BEACH, Calif.—Amid an uptick in both citywide and countywide crime, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Pacific Division is increasing its presence temporarily in Venice Beach as tourists are expected to flock to the beach during the summer months. Residents in the area say the uptick in crime is largely due to homeless people…


Lockdowns Found to Double Risk of Mental Health Symptoms

A group of researchers have conducted an overview of 33 mental health studies of 132,000 people during the first year of the pandemic and found that lockdowns doubled people’s odds of experiencing mental health symptoms. Many studies on mental health have been undertaken but the speed with which they were conducted meant that the research…


Up From Rock Bottom: Recovery From a National Overdose Epidemic

Commentary WILLS, Pennsylvania—Andrew Ayers is busy working on loading and unloading several machines at Guy Chemical—a massive, 30,000-square-foot industrial facility that sits tucked along the border of a tiny unincorporated town in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. People call Ayers one of the lucky ones for surviving his addiction to both heroin and methamphetamine, but he says…


CDC Survey: 44 Percent of US High School Students Felt Persistently ‘Sad or Hopeless’ in 2021

More than four in ten U.S. high school students felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, according to a CDC field survey released late last week. The number of high school students with persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness has grown steadily from 26.1 percent in 2009, to 36.7 percent in 2019, according to CDC…


Internet Forums Increase Self-Harm Among Teens

Dean, a 14-year-old girl, has a 3-inch by 8-inch scar on her hip. It’s usually numb with nerve damage but when pressed, it sometimes flares up with shooting pain. Every time the weather gets warm enough to go to the beach, it makes her feel embarrassed. Dean made this scar, one small act at a…


What Can the Stanford Prison Experiment Tell Us About Life in the Pandemic Era?

Commentary Late in the summer of 1971, a young man was taken from his home in Palo Alto, California. Then another. And another. Nine in all, they were each spirited away. Eventually brought to a place with no windows and no clocks, they were stripped and they were chained. They were costumed in dress-like gowns….