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

Doctors in England are raising a red flag: many believe that normal stress and difficult life events are being turned too quickly into “mental-health diagnoses.” 

They worry that the line between everyday hardship and clinical illness is blurring — and this could lead to over-diagnosis and over-medicalization of feelings like sadness or burnout. At the same time, these same doctors admit that access to mental-health care is often too limited — which makes getting real help harder for people who genuinely need it. 

For you — that means mental health matters, but context does too. If you’re feeling off, it could be real distress… or it could be a rough patch. Either way, it can help to pause, check in with yourself, and consider what kind of support or self-care feels right.

According to The Financial Times, the CEO of Headspace recently warned that lots of people are turning to chatbots or AI tools for mental-health support — even though many of those tools aren’t built for therapy or personal care.  The big red flag: these AI systems can’t replace a real human therapist — they may not recognize warning signs, provide empathy, or handle serious emotional crises. 

If you’re feeling down, anxious, or overwhelmed, the article suggests treating AI as maybe “nice to have,” but never your go-to support system.  So yeah — tech is tempting, but human help still wins when it comes to mental health.

Anxiety an emotion characterized by apprehension and bodily symptoms of tension in which an individual anticipates impending danger, catastrophe, or misfortune. The body often mobilizes itself to meet the perceived threat: Muscles become tense, breathing is faster, and the heart beats more rapidly.

Anxiety may be distinguished from fear both conceptually and physiologically, although the two terms are often used interchangeably. Anxiety is considered a future-oriented, long-acting response broadly focused on a diffuse threat, whereas fear is an appropriate, present-oriented, and short-lived response to a clearly identifiable and specific threat.

Know someone struggling with anxiety? Experts recommend a multi-faceted approached to treatment including therapy, medications and lifestyle adjustments such as exercise, relaxation, breathing exercises and building a strong support system.

A federal appeals court rejected the attempt by Donald Trump’s administration to stop grants that fund mental-health workers in schools — meaning millions in support for counselors, therapists, and social workers are being restored for districts that desperately need help.  These grants, launched after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, were aimed especially at helping underserved and rural communities. 

For students and families juggling stress, grief, or anxiety — that’s a big win. It means more access to real human support where it counts: in schools during the day, not late at night when you’re scrolling alone. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or just need to talk, having a counselor to lean on can make a massive difference.

This ruling is a reminder that mental-health support should be part of education — and that sometimes justice actually works in favor of wellness.

Online screening is a quick and easy way to see what mental health symptoms you may be experiencing. It’s quick, free, confidential, and backed by science.

Mental health conditions are real and common.

Take the Anxiety or the Universal Mental Health Quiz

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