Category: Mental Health

Increasing Awareness and Understanding for OCD and Related Disorders

Today’s blog is a guest entry from our partners at the International OCD Foundation. Imagine you woke up one day during a particularly stressful time in your life, and your mind got stuck on a single thought. Perhaps you were anxious about a project at school or work, and were worried that you had made a mistake. Imagine your mind would not let that worry go. Instead, you replayed that anxious thought over and over and over again in your head. Imagine that you could not convince yourself that it was okay, even after re-checking your work and finding no […]

Mental Health Month 2018

May has been observed as Mental Health Month since 1949 . One in five Americans are affected by a mental health condition in their lifetime—as many as 43.8 million—and everyone is impacted through family or loved ones. A main objective of mental health awareness is to fight the stigma surrounding those living with sometimes serious conditions through education and support and to improve the chance of recovery for those in need. Everyone has stress and difficult emotions on occasion, and this is completely normal. Mental illness, however, is any condition that makes it difficult to function in daily life. It […]

LGBT Health Awareness Week 2018

The last week of March has been LGBT Health Awareness Week since 2003. We have gone over some of the barriers to health care for some of the transgender community in previous blog posts, but it remains important to bring awareness to the unique healthcare needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and the health disparities that continue to beleaguer the lives of so many Americans. Experts report that LGBT people often avoid seeking out medical care or refrain from “coming out” to their healthcare provider. This compromises an entire community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals who […]

Mental Illness Awareness Week

For over 25 years, the first full week of October has been Mental Illness Awareness Week. One in five, or 20% of the population, live with some kind of mental health condition, with one in 25 living with a serious mental illness that substantially limits one’s life activities. Those living with mental illness fight stigma while trying to survive under internal duress. Awareness is important so that resources are made available to those who need them and the stigma and misconceptions surrounding mental illnesses will be reduced. Everyone has stress and difficult emotions on occasion, and this is completely normal. […]

Key West, Florida during Hurricane Dennis, 2005

Health Impacts from Natural Disasters

The Southwest United States were recently hit with the devastating Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma recently swept through the Caribbean and Southeast. In the wake of such natural disasters, we can sometimes feel lost even as the risks persist around us. Flooding, destruction from wind, and damage to the healthcare system’s infrastructure can lead to many public health concerns. For those traveling into these areas or helping those impacted by these storms, there are many hazards to be aware of.   At time of writing, Hurricane Harvey has been held responsible for 70 deaths in Texas and Hurricane Irma has […]

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Welcome to the NeedyMeds Voice! We look forward to presenting you with timely, provocative pieces on healthcare reform, patient advocacy, medication and healthcare access, and other health-related news. Our goals are to educate, enlighten, and elucidate; together, we will try to make sense of the myriad and ongoing healthcare-related changes in the U.S. today.