Month of May looks at serious health risks
May is Mental Health Awareness Month as well as Military Appreciation Month. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, May is a time to take action and change the conversation around mental health. May has been celebrated as Mental Health Awareness Month since 1949, and has been a driving force in facing the challenges millions of Americans with mental health conditions struggle with.
One of these groups that deals with mental health conditions is military veterans. According to the 2024 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, in 2022, 17.6 veterans committed suicide per day. The report also shows that in 2022, veteran suicides compared with 34.7 suicides per 100,000 people versus non-veterans at 17.1 per 100,000. The number has risen by 11.4 people over the 21 years the report has been going.
Another thing May is known for is American Stroke Month. According to the American Stroke Association, 800,000 people have a stroke per year, though as many as 80% are preventable. The American Stroke Association lists these as warning signs to watch for stroke using the FAST technique:
Face Drooping – Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Ask the person to smile. Is the person's smile uneven?
Arm Weakness – Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
Speech Difficulty – Is speech slurred or hard to understand? Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence, like 'The sky is blue.'
Time to Call 911 – If you notice any of these symptoms, even if they go away, call 911 and get to a hospital immediately. Quick action can save a life.
The American Stroke Association also states that you can prevent strokes by managing your blood pressure, living a healthy lifestyle such as eating better and staying active, and monitoring health conditions like AFib and diabetes.
Lastly, May is also known for the weekend of May 3 and 4, which is National Firefighter Memorial Weekend, and the week of May 5-11 is Lung Cancer Action Week.
'In 2025 alone, it is estimated that 6,120 Hoosiers will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year. But there is hope,' said Tiffany Nichols, Director of Advocacy for the American Lung Association. 'Thanks to advancements in early detection, treatment, and research, the five-year survival rate has improved by 44% over the past decade. Raising awareness and funds for lung cancer research is more important than ever, and we encourage our community to get involved in Turquoise Takeover.'
The Firefighter Cancer Support Network states that in 2013, the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) did a study that found firefighters had a 9% higher risk of getting cancer and a 14% higher risk of dying from it. Mesothelioma is a type of lung cancer, and the study found that firefighters are twice as likely as others to get such a cancer.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Time Magazine
4 days ago
- Time Magazine
The Connection Between Spirituality and Mental Health
Today, there are between 10,000 and 20,000 mental health apps. In the U.S. alone, there are 1.2 million mental health providers. And Mental Health Awareness Month began 75 years ago. It's safe to say we've never been more aware of mental health. And yet, some fear that as awareness of mental health has gone up, the state of our mental health has gone down. A 2023 study found that one out of every two people in the world will develop a mental health disorder in their lifetime. The situation with young people is even worse. 'The youth mental health crisis is very real,' Dr. Harold Koplewicz, founding President and Medical Director of the Child Mind Institute, tells me. 'The most common disorders of childhood and adolescence are not infectious diseases but mental health disorders. Every 30 seconds a child or adolescent with suicidal ideation or an attempt comes to an ER.' There are many reasons why these are particularly challenging times: Natural disasters are intensifying, chronic diseases continue to climb, and AI is driving fear and anxiety about all aspects of life. People are afraid they will lose their jobs to AI, that their kids will be negatively impacted by AI, and that AI's constantly accelerating development will evolve beyond human control. But beyond the circumstances of the times we're living in lies a more complicated existential crisis. As the French priest and philosopher Teilhard de Chardin once said, 'we are spiritual beings having a human experience.' When we give up on the spiritual part of human nature, we also give up on a supportive framework which can help us handle the anxieties of this historic moment of disruption. Many answer this need for spirituality through organized religion, but as Columbia psychology professor Lisa Miller explains, there are many ways for people to embrace their spirituality. 'The moments of intense spiritual awareness were biologically identical whether or not they were explicitly religious, physiologically the same whether the experience occurred in a house of worship or on a forest hike in the 'cathedral of nature,'' she writes. 'Every single one of us has a spiritual part of the brain that we can engage anywhere, at any time.' The exact practices we engage in that lead to spiritual states of mystery, awe, grace, and wonder doesn't matter. What does matter is that we don't amputate them from our lives. The famed psychologist Abraham Maslow placed self-actualization at the top of his hierarchy of needs—above physiological needs, safety, and belonging. But in the last years of his life, he realized that self-actualization did not fully encompass what it means to be human and added 'transcendence' to the top of the pyramid. As Maslow put it, 'The spiritual life is part of the human essence. It is a defining characteristic of human nature, without which human nature is not fully human.' It's this drive for spirituality that takes us beyond self-centeredness and allows us to resist despair and meaninglessness. This ability to find meaning in our struggles has helped humans navigate times of stress, turmoil, and crisis throughout history—and it is now validated by the latest science. 'When it comes to finding ways to help people deal with issues surrounding birth and death, morality and meaning, grief and loss, it would be strange if thousands of years of religious thought didn't have something to offer,' writes David DeSteno, author of How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion. Spirituality can help us not just weather times of crisis but even emerge stronger than before. A 2024 study on frontline healthcare workers in Poland during the pandemic found that higher levels of spirituality were connected to positive psychological change as the result of struggling with life challenges, known as post-traumatic growth. According to Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist at Thomas Jefferson University, the focused attention which occurs during spiritual practices like meditation and prayer can increase frontal lobe function, which governs executive control, and down-regulates the limbic system, which is linked to fear and the fight-or-flight response. 'When it comes to broader aspects of health, the improvements in brain function associated with spiritual practices that lead to reduced stress and anxiety ultimately can lead to benefits in physical health as well,' Newberg says. 'The practice of religion, as opposed to its theological underpinnings, offers an impressive, time-tested array of psychological technologies that augment our biology,' writes DeSteno. 'To ignore that body of knowledge is to slow the progress of science itself and limit its potential benefit to humanity.' He describes religion first as working similar to how a a vaccine works, 'boosting the body's and the mind's resilience so that they can better confront whatever health challenges come their way.' And second, he uses the metaphor of medicine, healing the body and mind when sickness does hit. He cites a Mayo Clinic review of hundreds of studies in which a clear pattern emerged: 'people who regularly took part in religious activities were objectively healthier.' Even more evidence has been provided by Miller through her work on MRI scans. 'The high-spiritual brain was healthier and more robust than the low-spiritual brain,' she writes. 'For spiritually aware people across faith traditions, the brain appeared able to protect itself from the long-standing neurological structures of depression.' In what Miller calls our 'achieving awareness,' we're focused on organizing our lives, thinking about what we want and how to get it. This is how we build careers and get things done. But a life solely defined by achieving is an unballenced life. In our spiritual or 'awakened awareness,' our perception expands. We see ourselves not just as individual achievers but as connected to others. We seek and experience meaning and purpose. This is really the distinction between Maslow's self-actualization and self-transcendence. In today's culture, many see therapy as the only answer to the mental and emotional struggles of modern life. As psychiatrist Dr. Samantha Boardman writes: 'I am not anti-therapy. I am anti-therapy culture. I believe therapy works best when it is targeted and purposeful.' She is echoed by Dr. Richard Friedman, a psychiatrist at Weill Cornell Medicine, who wrote that 'excessive self-focus… can increase your anxiety, especially when it substitutes for tangible actions.' Excessive self-focus is exactly the sort of thing that can be mitigated in spiritual experiences connecting to something larger than ourselves. The everyday behaviors Boardman cites that improve our mental well-being include practicing spirituality, spending time in nature, volunteering, and helping others. A spiritual element, and an emphasis on helping others, have proven essential to the success of Alcoholics Anonymous. In co-founder Bill Wilson's book, Alcoholics Anonymous, published in 1939, he wrote that 'deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there.' Today, many people are hungry for a sense of spirituality. While religious affiliation has been dropping for decades, the spiritual impulse hasn't. A recent U.S. Gallup poll found that 82% consider themselves religious, spiritual, or both. People have had valid reasons for leaving organized religion, but when we reject our innate predisposition for spirituality along with that, we deny ourselves the full, expansive possibilities of our humanity—as well as the tools to navigate the labyrinths of our lives.
Yahoo
29-07-2025
- Yahoo
'How do you function': Parents talk of the death of their son in Green Memorial Day parade
At a memorial garden dedicated to children who died, Daniel and Jennifer Schultz of North Canton talked July 29 about the loss of their 13-year-old son, Matthew Schultz. Matthew died May 26 after falling off a parade trailer during the Green Memorial Day parade. The memorial stone for Matthew at Queen of Heaven Catholic Church in Green won't tell you the tragic details of the accident, or the painful details of his family's recovery. It's a story of grief and faith, family and community, whispered by every stone engraved for a child who died far too young. In the background, the sounds of children playing on a nearby field filtered through as they spoke. Two months after Matthew fell, his parents said they are still processing, still looking for a return to a routine although things will never be the same again. "How do you survive? How do you function?" Jennifer said. One way to begin is to accept that Matthew, they said, is in a better place. "He wanted to be famous, but he also wanted to get to heaven and be with God," Daniel said. Star Wars, Legos and a smile for a friend Jennifer said Matthew was born with a condition called tetralogy of Fallot, comprised of four issues in the structure of the heart. 'He had four procedures throughout his life at the Cleveland Clinic," Daniel said. His last was Christmas Eve, five months before the parade. Prior to the procedure in December, Matthew was characteristically mischievous. "He liked to pull pranks," Daniel said. "(He was) joking around with us and his grandparents." Jennifer said Matthew loved martial arts, but was constrained in sports by his condition. Overexertion or contact sports like football were off the table. His mother said Matthew's condition also limited his stamina and he was affected by weather extremes. Still, he was a positive child who loved to play Star Wars and Legos, his father said. "If he knew a friend was having a hard day, he would reach out to his friend with a smile," he said. Matthew and his 9-year-old sister Sophia were close, and their relationship was a classic brother-sister one, Jennifer said. "They drove each other crazy, but were each other's best friends," she said. "He was a better person than me," his father said. 'I still ask God every day, "What is your will for us?" ' Daniel and Jennifer Schultz said nothing could prepare them for the event on May 26. They've had to take it step by step, relying on family, friends, their North Canton parish and the wider community for support. The Rev. David R. Durkee, pastor at Queen of Heaven, approached them early, and an anonymous donor provided for the memorial stone in the memory garden. At North Canton Middle School, Matthew's schoolmates plastered hundreds of Post-it notes, pictures and handwritten notes on his locker. A Gofundme raised more than $100,000 for the Schultz family. "It truly takes a village to raise a child, and we're fortunate to have that," Jennifer said. But the questions still come, the grief lingers. "It solidified my faith, but I still ask God every day, 'What is your will for us?' " Jennifer said. A passage from the Catholic Bible in Wisdom of Solomon, Chapter 4:12, provided some solace, Daniel said. It was read at Matthew's funeral. "But the righteous, even if they die early, will be at rest," the passage begins. 'His story is not over, yet' Two months after their world changed forever, Matthew's parents say they hope that time, counseling and memories of their son will help lay the path for a sense of normalcy. It helps that school for Matthew's sister starts in August, they said. "The new routine will start to come," Daniel said. They've been blessed with employers who permitted a leave of absence, they said. "Neither of us has been back to work yet," Daniel said. That will come with the new routine they're building day by day. That, and a sense that Matthew's presence is still with them. "His story is not over, yet," said his father. Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@ Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj or Facebook at This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Parents reflect on son, 13, who died in Green Memorial Day parade
Vogue
29-07-2025
- Vogue
How to Navigate a Trauma Anniversary
A year after I was raped at 18, I sank down on the sidewalk, unable to keep going. I closed my eyes and didn't get up until a friend found me and helped me into bed, where I didn't speak or open my eyes for hours. I felt like I was trapped in time, unable to access relief until after the day had passed. A reaction like that, I would later learn, is common among survivors of sexual assault on their trauma anniversary—including those who no longer have an active PTSD diagnosis. Sara Schmidt, a clinical psychologist and expert in dialectical behavior therapy, says that on trauma anniversaries, her clients tend to 'start isolating themselves more, and sometimes they don't even realize they're doing it.' After 15 years of working through my own trauma, I wrote a book, Tell Me What You Like: An Honest Discussion of Sex and Intimacy After Sexual Assault, to help others do the same. Through personal healing and research into how to better cope with trauma's fallout, I've learned a lot about how to navigate trauma anniversaries. Here, a little of what I've gathered: What is a trauma anniversary? Trauma anniversaries mark the day a person's traumatic experience occurred. Not all people experience them the same way, but licensed professional counselor Kim Rippy explains that the powerful response a trauma anniversary can trigger comes from the brain's mechanisms for survival. Our minds pick out 'data points present in the initial trauma' and 'encode them as red flags for future experiences,' Rippy says. Our brains and bodies tend to remember dates—as well as smells, sounds, and visual cues—linked to a traumatic event in an attempt to protect us from future harm. For those whose trauma took the form of compounded, constant oppression, its aftermath will look a bit different. 'In marginalized groups, sometimes the trauma that they experience is more related to chronic invalidation,' observes Vibh Forsythe Cox, PhD, director of the Marsha M. Linehan Dialectical Behavior Therapy Training clinic. Though these folks can also experience trauma anniversaries, other triggers (or even just other dates, such as Mother's Day or Christmas) may affect them more deeply. What to do on the day Dr. Cox points out that no matter what time of year it is, you can start preparing for a trauma anniversary by connecting with a new therapist. If you already have a therapist, you can plan for additional sessions around the day. Otherwise, seeing loved ones can help us manage trauma anniversaries; or, if you don't have a strong social network nearby, Matthew Robinson, PhD, program director of the Trauma Continuum Program at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, suggests taking advantage of Zoom, FaceTime, or even texting. 'It's helpful to be able to talk about things openly and honestly with someone who's going to get it,' he says, even if that person can't be there in person.
