If you’ve ever gone through a difficult time (a breakup, a job loss), you’ve probably heard some of these phrases ad nauseam from friends and family. People who say them no doubt have good intentions; they’re simply trying to put a rosy filter on the tough time you’re having. “It gets better, stay optimistic,” they assure you.

But if statements like this are all you’re hearing from your friends and family, that excess of positivity can be, well, negative.

This kind of encouragement and self-talk is so common that mental health experts have a name for it: toxic positivity.

“Toxic positivity is the idea that we should focus only on positive emotions and the positive aspects of life,” said Heather Monroe, a clinical social worker and director of program development at Newport Institute. “It’s the belief that if we ignore difficult emotions and the parts of our life that aren’t working as well, we’ll be much happier.”

The problem is, toxic positivity oversimplifies the human brain and how we process emotions, and it can actually be detrimental to our mental health, Monroe said.

The problem is obvious: “gender identity” has no basis in physical reality. It is impossible for a doctor to tell from simply examining a patient what his or her (or hir or zir) “gender identity” is. A person’s “gender identity” is totally subjective and has no connection to one’s physical body.

However, health care is very much connected to the physical body. Whether one is biologically male or female makes a great deal of difference in how one ought to be treated — from finding the right medicine dosages to judging the risks of getting certain diseases. To place “gender identity” above biological sex would be to ask medical professionals to ignore their education and their training and instead operate solely on what a patient believes to be true — a dangerous idea if there ever was one.

In a time where easily sharable video provides weekly, if not daily, evidence of America’s violent racism, a constant cacophony of individual voices respond in real-time. At the beginning of this week, the conversation-provoking event was a video of a white woman, Amy Cooper, calling the police to claim her life was being threatened by Christian Cooper, a black man peacefully watching birds in Central Park. That news was followed quickly by the excruciating footage of the police killing George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. These videos have sparked protests, demands for America to address its deadly racism, and a certain kind of social media scolding, often openly addressed to “Fellow White Women.”

For as long as social media has provided a platform for activism, slactivism, and sometimes outright grandstanding, the phrase has popped up. But since the 2016 election, when white women proved to be the tipping demographic in the election of bigoted game show host Donald Trump as President of the United States, it seems to have come into heavy usage.

New York Times bestselling author Glennon Doyle is unequivocal in her opinion on modern parenting.

In her new book Untamed, she describes how parents receive a ‘terrible memo’ from society as soon as our kids are born.

This memo says that our kids are our saviours and parenting them is akin to a religion. We must give them every opportunity possible and most importantly, we must never allow anything difficult to happen to them.

According to Glennon, not only does this disastrous memo make us parents feel exhausted, neurotic and guilty; but it is also the reason why our kids suck.

Ouch.

The reason our kids suck, she says, is because we no longer allow our children to learn how to lose, or to struggle, or to be rejected.

Exercise and physical therapy often are recommended to help people who have arthritis. Both can strengthen muscle — a benefit that also can reduce joint pain. But building muscle mass and strength can take many months and be difficult in the face of joint pain from osteoarthritis, particularly for older people who are overweight. A new study in mice at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, however, suggests gene therapy one day may help those patients.

The research shows that gene therapy helped build significant muscle mass quickly and reduced the severity of osteoarthritis in the mice, even though they didn’t exercise more. The therapy also staved off obesity, even when the mice ate an extremely high-fat diet.

A 16-year-old girl sparked debate on Reddit after seeking advice about her parents, who have 12 children already and want three more.

The teenager, who wrote under the username doodlydoot, shared her story on the subreddit AmITheAsshole, where her post has since received more than 25,000 upvotes and nearly 2,000 comments.

One night, the teen said her mom asked her to put her twin 3-year-old siblings to bed while she was busy studying for a test and was met with backlash when she refused to do it.

“She said that it is my responsibility as an older child,” the 16-year-old wrote. “I lost my temper and told her that she can’t take care of her 12 kids as it is, and that she should give up her dream of 15 children because she’s depriving the younger ones of a better life.”

Redditors rushed to the girl’s defense, with a majority agreeing that her siblings were the responsibility of her parents and not her. Reactions ranged from urging her to call Child Protective Services to suggesting she move out.

The Chinese smoke. Well over half the nation's men are smokers, and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one third of the planet's cigarettes are smoked in China. But earlier this year, Konstantinos Farsalinos noticed something odd: Very few of those hospitalized for the coronavirus in the country appeared to be smokers.

Farsalinos, a cardiologist and tobacco harm-reduction specialist in Greece, has since been wondering if nicotine, the chemical substance found in tobacco, could be preventing people from getting COVID-19, or stopping the symptoms from becoming worse.

While no conclusions can yet be drawn, Farsalinos' prevailing hypothesis is essentially that nicotine has certain anti-inflammatory effects. The most severe COVID-19 symptoms seem to come from an overreaction of the body's immune system known as a "cytokine storm." During that storm, the immune system targets an infection, say in the lungs, and they can become inflamed, leading to difficulty breathing. Nicotine, Farsalinos reasons, might be able to at least lessen that intensity.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Sunday characterized his state as “God’s waiting room” for seniors during an update on COVID-19.

“Florida is ground zero for the nursing home; I mean we’re God’s waiting room,” DeSantis said at a news briefing in Orlando. “We have a huge number of facilities, a huge number of residents.”

“God’s waiting room” is a decades-old derogatory phrase about the large number of retirees in the state, noted WPLG Local 10 TV.

DeSantis commented on Florida’s vulnerable nursing home population while discussing plans to reopen the state for business. As of Sunday, Florida had recorded 31,500 cases of COVID-19 and 1,074 deaths. However, DeSantis said that parts of the state were now on “the other side” of the coronavirus outbreak.

The number of daily new cases in Florida in the last week peaked last week at 1,232, but the tally appeared to be climbing again Saturday with 823 cases, up significantly from the previous day.

Dear How to Do It,

I live in a small apartment in New York City, and I’m currently “sheltering in place”/self-isolating with my family (husband, two small kids). I was sent home from my job that I love, with no idea if or when they will ever reopen. My parents fall in the coronavirus “at risk” category of 60+ with underlying conditions. I, myself, have a rare lung condition, and I don’t know if that puts me in a higher risk group, too. So, having said all that, I’m struggling with thoughts of existential anxiety 24/7 and have zero libido. My husband, while largely in the same boat, does not have this problem and his sex drive is as high as ever. He thinks I should try to take my mind off things, and the best way to do that is with an orgasm. I think the odds of me orgasming right now are … zero. I can’t turn my brain off. Even during foreplay, I find myself worrying about my parents dying, worrying about the upcoming bills we have with only one income, worrying about going grocery shopping and contracting COVID-19, even if we take precautions. I feel guilty for denying my high-sex-drive husband sex, but I just don’t know how to relax enough to enjoy myself while we’re staying inside for the next weeks during this pandemic.

—COVID Coitus

The new paper in JAMA Pediatrics draws on data from 29 studies that reported 11,918 black teens. Sexual health interventions included, among other things, school-based health classes and community organization programs.

“We focused on black adolescents because they face greater health disparities when it comes to the risk of unplanned pregnancy and contracting sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) compared to other adolescents,” says first author Reina Evans, a PhD student at North Carolina State University.

“This disparity stems, in large part, from the context in which black teens make decisions about their health. For example, stress from racism and discrimination, as well as unequal access to health care can impact the health of black teens. We wanted to see whether sexual health interventions can be a valuable tool in addressing this disparity.”

The findings show that young people were slightly more likely to abstain from sex if they took part in one of these programs—particularly if the intervention occurred at school. The researchers also found a modest increase in condom use for adolescents who took part in an intervention.

The Redditor started his story by explaining that he loves baking, a passion that led him to ask for a stand mixer for his birthday. He ultimately got the appliance — a white model that cost around £80 ($100) — from his uncle and immediately began using it often.

Months later, the teen went to make croissants with his mixer only to find the device was missing.

“I looked everywhere for it and couldn’t find it,” he wrote. “I asked my mom where it was and she said she gave it away to charity. I WENT MENTAL.”

The 15-year-old wrote that he then confronted his mom with “a few hateful words.” His mother said that the mixer didn’t match the color scheme in the house and, as part of her kitchen, was hers to do what she wanted with.

Q. My husband’s affair partner talked to my daughter: My husband, “Ted,” had an 18-month-long affair with his co-worker “Angela.” The affair began when I was pregnant with our first child, “Lois,” and ended six months ago, when I found out. At the height of the affair Ted would take our infant daughter to the office on the weekends to give me a break. I have since learned that Angela would meet him (at the office or hotels) and they’d have sex while Lois slept in another room. I am eight months pregnant with our second child and could not have afforded to leave Ted before the pandemic began; I certainly can’t now. Ted, to his credit, has done a lot to begin to rebuild my trust in him, including being an open book. He and Angela could both lose their jobs if their employer found out about the affair, so I don’t want to expose them and lose what financial security our family has. At the same time, I made it clear Angela is to stay the hell away from Lois. She used to fawn over Lois when we visited Ted at work, and the memories make my skin crawl. I have spoken to Angela only once in the past six months, and that was all I said to her.

Ted now works from home. On Friday he had a Zoom call with his team, which includes Angela. While I was making Lois lunch she wandered into Ted’s office, and when I went to grab her, I caught Angela asking Lois questions: “How old are you? Are you excited to be a big sister?” I grabbed Lois without saying anything, gave her lunch, went to our bathroom, and burst into tears. I am livid at myself for letting Lois wander away because I can’t afford to be angry at Angela. Ted tried his best to comfort me, and he agrees Angela was out of line, but he doesn’t feel there’s anything he can do. Lois was in Ted’s office for less than two minutes:. Is it a violation of our previous agreement that Angela talked to Lois? Or was she just being a polite co-worker? I don’t know anymore.

Oprah Winfrey has warned African Americans to take the coronavirus outbreak seriously because it is 'ravaging our community' and 'taking us out'.

The TV mogul said the coronavirus outbreak continued to have a devastating impact on black communities across the United States but that people weren't getting the message about the risk of asymptomatic carriers.

Speaking to CBS This Morning on Tuesday, Winfrey said it was important for black people to understand that pre-existing conditions including diabetes and asthma put them at greater risk if they contracted the virus.

She also voiced concerns for her own health, saying she was staying indoors because she suffered from pneumonia last year and that her 'lungs never really fully cleared'.

Millions of people in America are under shelter-in-place orders requiring them to stay home whenever possible, but a growing number don’t have that luxury. Their landlords are kicking them out for not paying the rent, despite moratoriums on evictions in more than 30 states and dozens of cities.

Some landlords change the locks when tenants are out. Others cut off power or utilities, or let themselves into tenants’ apartments and throw their stuff onto the street. Landlords also take the doors off the hinges if tenants won’t leave, says George Donnelly, an attorney at The Public Interest Law Center in Philadelphia. In most cases, experts say, the evictions are illegal, since landlords are required to go through the courts to evict tenants, and most courts are not currently processing eviction orders. In addition, sheriffs or marshals, not landlords, are supposed to enforce eviction orders, including supervising removal companies to carry away a tenant’s belongings if the renter refuses to leave.