The DSM-5 adds the classification of Stress-related disorders to their newest version. Psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors and social workers use a tool called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders …

Most people want to be happy. It is a desire that transcends age, culture, geographical location, political belief, religion, and life experience. And it is not an irrational desire. Hundreds …

PALO ALTO, Calif. — On a recent trip to visit my parents, I opened a journal from my senior year of high school to find something surprising. In almost all …

Intense fear, terror, panic or dread my leave you feeling physically and emotionally drained to the point where even normal activities may be avoided or curtailed. You may experience a …

Don’t be too hard on yourself or others. The death of someone we love and the grief it triggers often proves to be life’s most difficult experience. It can take …

Artists, novelists, actors and directors excel at tapping into “imagination” circuits Five-year-olds invent imaginary friends, teenagers visualize what an amorous crush would be like, and adults plan for job achievements, …

For most of his career, Dr. Stephen Trzeciak was not a big believer in the “touchy-feely” side of medicine. As a specialist in intensive care and chief of medicine at …

Most research on depression focuses on the afflicted, a new paper argues, overlooking a potentially informative group: people who have recovered. A generation ago, depression was viewed as an unwanted …

“Variety doesn’t really matter to me. I would be perfectly happy to eat the same Caesar salad or peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich every day.” Vern Loomis, a retired structural draftsman in West …

Choking is a ubiquitous and extremely frustrating human weakness – as the stakes are raised, our performance usually improves, but only up to a point, beyond which the pressure gets …

New research suggests that IQ leads to greater well-being by enabling one to acquire the financial and educational means necessary to live a better life. In his classic 1923 essay, …

Research shows that we can tame anxiety to use it as a resource. Anxiety has long been one of the most feared enemies in our emotional canon. We fear its …

It is Friday evening, and I just received 30 emails from my boss. Thirty. Three-zero. He spent the past six hours on a flight with no WIFI, drafting email after …

Brains, brains, brains. One thing we’ve learned at NPR Ed is that people are fascinated by brain research. And yet it can be hard to point to places where our …

The mind can have a powerful influence on the body, and in some cases can even help the body heal. The mind can even sometimes trick you into believing that …

The next time you see a father out shopping with his kids, you might need to check your assumptions. “I’ll get the, ‘Oh, look, it’s a dad! That’s so sweet!’ …

“Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” So said Dale Carnegie in his 1936 self-improvement classic, “How to Win …

Working in a general medical practice sometimes feels like being at the greeting station of a Ferris wheel: Every few minutes another person gets off and brings a new set …

When parents wanted rules for social media, the Millennium School asked the students what they should be. Last fall, the Millennium School surveyed its parents about the most pressing issues …

It’s not the first book you’d think of recommending to someone facing a big choice – whether to marry, get divorced, have children, switch careers, that kind of thing. But …

Kate Bowler’s new memoir, Everything Happens for a Reason And Other Lies I’ve Loved, is a funny, intimate portrait of living in that nether space between life and death. In …

Distressing conditions including PTSD, depression and anxiety have something in common: a difficulty in suppressing unwanted thoughts. Negative self-judgments and re-experienced traumas directly impact mental health and make recovery harder …

Earlier this year, I suffered my first major panic attack. For days afterward, my heart would race and my mind would fill with doomsday visions as I worried about everything …

It may seem that money is a sure path to prestige and happiness. After all, many of our most well-paid citizens are held up as role models of success, leading …

Teenagers. We’ve all been one at one time or another, and we probably remember how fraught those years were. Growing up is risky, there’s no way around it. But why …

In 2014, one in 16 Americans visited the ER for home injuries that resulted from, among other things, fumbling knives (the cause of at least 249,000 injuries), ladders (at least …

David D. Burns is an adjunct professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the author of the best-selling books …

Here’s a New Year’s challenge for the mind: Make this the year that you quiet all those negative thoughts swirling around your brain. All humans have a tendency to be …