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Welcome to The Mental Minute where our goal is to make mental health an everyday conversation. Take a few minutes to enjoy today’s news, tips, key resources and product reviews.

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At the 2026 ACM Awards, Lauren Alaina broke down in tears while delivering a powerful Mental Health Awareness Month message, telling the audience "if you are secretly suffering, you are not alone" before introducing Dan + Shay's debut performance of "Say So" — a song inspired by the 2025 suicide of their beloved mentor, Warner Chappell Nashville president Ben Vaughn.

Read More: Country Star Tearfully Breaks Down During Major Awards Show While Sharing a Powerful Message on Mental Health (Parade)

What started as a niche trend among bodybuilders has now hit high schools, with teens — driven by body insecurities and social media tutorials — self-injecting unregulated black-market peptides like retatrutide and melanotan, sourced from overseas suppliers with zero quality control or FDA oversight.

Doctors warn that products sold online as "for research purposes only" often arrive from overseas with unverified purity, risking infections, dangerous dosing errors, and unknown long-term effects including potential cancer risks from growth hormone peptides. Teens are in so much pain about their bodies that they're willing to inject unknown substances just to feel acceptable, and that is a mental health crisis we cannot ignore.

Read More: Inside The Alarming Rise Of Teens Injecting Black Market Peptides As An ‘Easy’ Way To Lose Weight And Get Tan (New York Post)

Project Health Minds is a millennial and Gen Z-driven mental health nonprofit dedicated to closing the treatment gap and ending the stigma surrounding mental health. Founded by Phil Schermer, the organization aims to close the treatment gap by addressing three primary barriers: stigma, navigating access to care, and affordability.

They built a free, consumer-friendly discovery platform (often compared to travel sites like Kayak or Expedia for mental health) that helps users quickly find therapists, psychiatrists, and digital self-care tools. Users can filter support options by mental health challenge, price, location, and insurance.

They also partners with culture-makers, public figures, musicians, and actors to destigmatize mental health and shift public attitudes through anti-stigma campaigns.

Read More: Project Health Minds | Find Support | Text HOME to 741741 (US Only)

The people around you might be silently drowning — and their words are giving it away! With nearly half of Americans experiencing significant daily stress, researchers and clinicians have identified 11 telltale phrases that reveal someone is overwhelmed — from "I can't think straight" and "I didn't sleep much" to "I'm behind on everything" and "I don't want to think about it" — phrases that sound casual but are actually quiet cries for help.

Let’s read this list twice — once for the people in our lives, and once for ourselves — because sometimes the most important thing we can do is simply notice, and then ask, "Hey, are you really okay?"

Read More: You Can Usually Tell How Stressed Someone Is By These 11 Phrases They Say In Casual Conversation (YourTango)

MYTH: If you have a mental illness, it will be harder to get an apartment or house once you grow up and you won't be able to live on your own.

FACT: All mental illnesses are different, but being diagnosed with one will not keep you from being able to grow up, learn how to take care of yourself, and get an apartment or house like everyone else.

The Mental Minute is your #1 source for the latest mental health news, tips, key resources and product reviews. Our goal is to make mental health an everyday conversation.

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Thanks, and Be Well.

— The Mental Minute