Every few weeks, we hear news of tragedy striking somewhere in the world. Between school shootings, terrorist attacks, suicide bombers and other acts of violence, some who are not directly impacted still find themselves reeling in fear.
Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder and weapons charges in a 2013 killing for which PCP use allegedly played a role. Hernandez, who’d pleaded not guilty to the execution-style slaying, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
For as long as I could remember, my father had abused me. My mother had abandoned me when I was 3 and this allowed him to take out his misogynistic tendencies on me whenever he chose. The one thing that I knew for certain was that he pretended to like women when in fact he…
Adults who were the victims of child abuse have increased chances of developing substance use disorders as adults, research has shown. In addition, adults with such a history are known to have increased risks for developing a mental illness unrelated to substance use. In a study scheduled for publication in October 2014 in the journal…
Adult children of alcoholics are people who grew up in a household with at least one parent affected by alcoholism. A significant minority of all U.S. adults come from such a background. In a study published in January 2014 in the journal Addictive Behaviors, a team of American researchers assessed the chances that young adult…
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has released a report warning healthcare professionals about the dangers of “caregiver-fabricated illness” in children, giving a new name to the condition and emphasizing the harm it can do to kids. As a result of the rarity of the condition, it is often overlooked, and the AAP is urging…
Researchers and mental health professionals have known for a long time that men and boys have elevated chances of dying from suicide, even though they make suicide attempts far less often than women and girls. Researchers and doctors have also identified many of the risk factors that increase the likelihood of suicide. According to the…
Domestic violence is the collective term for a range of behaviors designed to assert or maintain control over a partner in an intimate relationship. While men and women can both become targets of this type of violence, women remain far more susceptible than men. Doctors and mental health researchers already know that exposure to domestic…
There was once a time when corporal punishment was so acceptable it was even allowed in schools. Today, spanking, slapping, or otherwise punishing a child in a physical manner is not completely absent, but it is no longer the widely-accepted practice of a few decades ago. Now parents are more likely to try different types…
On a cold, moonless night in January 2008, I woke up to the piercing of my cell phone’s ringtone. A call at that hour could only be an emergency. On the other end was my mother, but it wasn’t her voice I heard. She sounded like a crying child – a shrieking, frightened child. Suddenly…