Li Fan, a 21-year-old student, attempted suicide after posting a brief message on the Chinese Twitter-like platform Weibo just after Valentine's Day. "I can't go on anymore. I'm going to give up," he wrote. Soon after, he lost consciousness. He was in debt, had fallen out with his mother and was suffering from severe depression.

The thought of dying was killing Kerry Pappas. Then the cancer patient took a trip on psilocybin – the active agent in "magic mushrooms." Ever since, she says she is perfectly comfortable with her life.

New research led by Sarah Coyne, a professor of family life at Brigham Young University, found that the amount of time spent on social media is not directly increasing anxiety or depression in teenagers.

In the last few years, evidence has been emerging that several psychedelics seem to alleviate the symptoms of depression. Now scientists have tested a new compound - and early trials indicate that it, too, has potential.

One person’s hallucinogenic drug is another person’s antidepressant. Scientists at Miami University discovered a way to genetically engineer bacteria from the psilocybin (or “magic”) mushroom to help treat depression. If ingested, the fungus breaks down to produce psilocin, which has mind-altering effects similar to LSD, mescaline, and DMT.

Physicians have been taught to look for signs of hopelessness, sadness and lack of motivation to help them diagnose depression. But anger as a depression symptom is less often noticed or addressed.

Today, young people are more likely to suffer from depression and self-harm than they were 10 years ago, even as substance abuse and anti-social behavior continue to fall, a new study says. Depression levels rose to nearly 15 percent among people born between the early 1990s to 2000, while self-harm rates increased to 14 percent, research published Thursday in the International Journal of Epidemiology shows.

We’ve all seen the memes and social media posts. While variations exist, they’re basically the same idea: First, a picture of a forest, a field, or a garden with text that reads, “This is an antidepressant.” Below will be a photo of some pile of anonymous, colorful pills, with text saying, “This is shit.” The point these memes are trying to make, of course, is that going outdoors and enjoying fresh air is a “natural” antidepressant, whereas taking a pill—a chemical, a drug—pollutes your brain and body. It’s shit.

Courtney Barnett

By Christian Jarrett. The findings challenge the idea that depressed people are seeking to perpetuate their low mood.

Even on my worst days, putting on clean, cozy clothes always made me feel a little bit less bad, a little bit more human. By Rachel Miller.

People with depression listen to sad music because it makes them feel better, according to a small study that is one of the first to investigate why people turn to tearjerkers when they’re already down. The first part of the study, published recently in the journal Emotion, tried to repeat the findings of a 2015 study that showed that depressed people preferred listening to sad music.

It wasn’t long ago that millions of people knew every detail of Heather Armstrong’s life. Armstrong rose to fame after she started the blog Dooce.com in 2001. It amassed a cult following for its sharp, witty, and unapologetic look at motherhood’s tribulations, from breastfeeding and diaper changing to the mountains of homework and carpool runs. She opened up about the unspeakable, like which parts of parenthood she despised and why she had left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church). Dooce also extensively covered mental health, with Armstrong chronicling her ongoing struggle with depression.

A recent study examines critical points of depressive symptom trajectories.

Learn more about Depression and anxiety might affect susceptibility to certain allergies, according to new study

An innovative new study suggests that the benefits of employment should be shared widely, even in a future where jobs are scarce.

Summary: Researchers argue humans did not evolve to be consistently happy but primarily survive and reproduce.

It’s possible that a lock of hair could one day aid in the diagnosis of depression and in efforts to monitor the effects of treatment, said the author of a new study examining cortisol levels in the hair of teens. Researchers looked for potential relationships between the concentration of the stress hormone cortisol in the hair and adolescents’ depression symptoms and found a surprising connection. Not only did high cortisol levels correspond to a higher likelihood of depression, but there was also a connection between low cortisol levels and mental health struggles.

Social media, but not video games, linked to depression in teens, according to Montreal study

​If you suffer from depression, you've likely been advised to get plenty of exercise. Scientists have now gained a fresh understanding of how being active helps alleviate the condition, and they believe that their findings could lead to better treatments.