Men find that platonic friendships with other men 'emotionally rival' their romantic relationships with women, according to a study in Men and Masculinities.

Those surveyed said 'the lack of boundaries and judgment' in their friendships with other men resulted in 'elevated emotional stability, enhanced emotional disclosure, social fulfilment, and better conflict resolution, compared to the emotional lives they shared with girlfriends'.

Most of the participants answers to the survey also made reference to the fact they felt more like they could be their real self with their bros.

As one respondent said: "Tim knows I love listening to Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, but I keep that quiet [around my girlfriend] because she would judge me. I feel like I have to be more manly around her."

I’m a college student who’s a little chubby and doesn’t have perfect skin, but I’m able to look in the mirror and smile. Unfortunately, my mother doesn’t feel the same way about me. When I became a teenager she started telling me about the benefits of plastic surgery. I simply don’t want to do it. I have tried explaining this, from polite statements, to tantrums, to cold indifference, with no effect. Once, when I was in high school, she told me she wanted me to come with her to visit my grandmother, but she pulled up to a plastic surgeon’s office, where it turned out she had set up an appointment. It took my tears to convince the doctor that we were there without my consent. After we left, she refused to talk to me for a month. Now she constantly insists that men will not be interested in me because of my nose or other things. I’m going to a therapist, and it helps emotionally, but the therapist also doesn’t see a way out. My father doesn’t get involved in family issues and usually ends up saying if my mom wants something for me, it’s for my benefit. I’m going back home this summer. Next term, my face might not look how it does now! What can I do?

We know that women make less than men during the best of times—in 2018 women’s weekly wages were 81.1% that of men, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. During this recession not only were sectors with higher proportions of female employees disproportionately affected, but female employees have been disproportionately more likely to be laid off than their male counterparts. Women-owned businesses are also more likely to be in the healthcare, education, or retail sectors that have been so hard hit during COVID-19. Partially due to lower income overall, women also tend to have less buffer to weather financial storms.

This paints a dire picture for women’s mental health. We can readily empathize with financial strain, the fear that accompanies it and the catastrophic negative impact it can have on mental health. We may also appreciate that despite the reluctance we might frequently feel to get out of bed and go to work on a Monday morning, there is a well-established link between employment and mental health. We know that becoming unemployed is associated with depression and suicidality, and that gaining employment is associated with an improvement in mental health. Furthermore, in a socially distanced world in which women are substantially less able to receive household help or have contact with females outside their immediate household, there is a greater burden on the support that partners provide. Unfortunately, we know that within relationships, financial concerns are a major driver of conflict between partners, jeopardizing the support available to struggling mothers.

There are many ways to have an orgasm, and not all of them have to involve using your hands. Yes, hands-free orgasms are a thing. Here are a bunch of techniques you can experiment with if you're curious.

What is a hands-free orgasm?

"A hands-free orgasm is any type of sexual climax that does not involve the use of hands or digits of the person experiencing the orgasm," says adult performer and licensed psychotherapist Jet Setting Jasmine. There's more emphasis on how the other parts of your body aid in your sexual pleasure.

There's no one way to define what counts as "hands-free." If you aren't using your hands to stimulate your body, then you can consider it hands-free. It may involve using toys, energies, breathwork, household items, other parts of the body, or just the mind. If you want a truly hands-free experience, you can opt for a technique that doesn't include anyone else's hands either or even a technique that's totally touch-free.

At this point in the coronavirus pandemic, there is plenty of evidence that it’s taken a toll on children’s mental health.

Mental health experts who work with kids say that, anecdotally at least, all of this on the rise. So if your child is regressing during the pandemic, they’re in good company. Here’s what parents need to know.

Children (and adults!) go through regressive episodes because they’re feeling anxious, unsure, and because they’re looking for a bit of reassurance and comfort. In some ways, these momentary behavioral regressions are a typical part of childhood development: Kids grow and change, they maybe get a bit rattled, and they retreat for a bit.

Other times, like during an ongoing global pandemic, regressions are a clear response to a particular stressor.

“It’s not limited to early developmental stages,” said Julie Ross, executive director of Parenting Horizons and author of “Practical Parenting for the 21st Century.” “You might have a kid who is 13, 14 coming into mom and dad’s bed every night. They’re returning to an earlier time when they felt safe in the ‘cocoon’ of mom and dad.”

Hundreds of thousands of people with mental health conditions in 60 countries are still being chained, according to a comprehensive and damning new study.

Human Rights Watch says that men, women and children – some as young as 10 – are regularly shackled or locked in confined spaces for weeks, months, and even years, across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas.

The report, Living in Chains: Shackling of People with Psychosocial Disabilities Worldwide, examines how people with mental health conditions are often shackled against their will by families in their own homes or in overcrowded and unsanitary institutions because of widespread stigma and a lack of mental health services.

A study published in Psychological Science revealed a possible neurological explanation for why children from disadvantaged backgrounds are at risk for psychiatric problems. Children from disadvantaged neighborhoods showed blunted dorsal striatal activation — an area of the brain related to reward-motivation — during a task involving reward anticipation.

As study authors Teagan Mullins and associates say, the scientific literature points to a link between socioeconomic disadvantage and problematic mental health, yet few studies have directly looked at how neighborhood deprivation relates to brain function.

“Given the established link between socioeconomic disadvantage and psychopathology, it is critical to better understand the neurodevelopmental mechanisms driving this association,” Mullins and team say.

Tao is looking on the bright side thanks to his sunny pal.

According to Daily Mail, the 11-year-old golden retriever lost his eyesight last year to glaucoma, and eventually had both of his eyes removed because of the condition. Tao impressed everyone by quickly adjusting to life as a blind dog, learning his way around the house in just a few days, but his owner found that Tao was missing some of the playful energy he had prior to losing his eyesight.

In an effort to give Tao the best quality of life, the dog's owner, Melanie Jackson of Somerset, England, got Tao a puppy friend in hopes the little dog would help her senior pooch feel better and have more fun.

It’s the season for all things spooky, and you know what people in my line of work think is really scary? A COVID-19 superspreader at a crowded costume party! Boo!

While many epidemiologists like me are currently living out a horror movie version of their careers, we’re also trying to figure out how to make normal life work in a world that seems upside-down. I am also a mom, and Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love the creativity. I love that I can be anything I want for a day with no risk and no commitment. In years past, I have dressed up as the Wicked Witch of the West, the worm from Labyrinth, Luna Girl from PJ Masks, and queen of the zombie prom. So I’m here with good news: Halloween is not canceled.

One in three parents doesn't intend to have their child vaccinated for the flu this season, according to a new poll, despite the potential threat of a second wave of COVID-19 cases.

Health officials have increasingly emphasized the importance of vaccinations this year, in part to limit stress on the health care system during the coronavirus pandemic. If the flu is not controlled, officials say hospitals may become overwhelmed by dealing with both.

Despite this, 32% of parents say their child is "unlikely" to get a flu vaccine, according to the recent National Poll on Children's Health.

Dear Prudence,

I come from a state where people are generally kind and not very confrontational. I’ve also lived in cities where people are far more gruff and are very boisterous when they think someone is trying to take advantage of them. Because of this, I’ve developed a much thicker skin than most people back home. I’ve been confronting people not wearing their masks correctly in stores (masks are mandatory in my city). It stresses me out so much and has me wondering if I’m being a “Karen.” I ask to speak to managers and write strongly worded letters somewhat frequently. It got to the point recently where I realized I act like the world owes me. I’ve never yelled at a manager over store policy, but I’ve always tried to “get stuff” when things haven’t gone my way. I don’t want to be like this, but I can’t shake the very negative feelings I’ve developed when I feel like I’ve been taken advantage of. I saw so many other people letting people know when they made the smallest mistake. Sometimes people seemed genuinely sorry for what they did or were a bit oblivious. Sometimes they got really hostile. Should I always be trying to make sure that people correct their mistakes, or should I let small things go? Is it a Karen move to always ask people to correct their mistakes?

—Always Disgusted in Tunbridge Wells

The two-part assignment was given to seniors in an English class at W.T. White High School, the Dallas Independent School District (ISD) confirmed to CNN.

The first part of the assignment asked students to write a half-page biography for six people, among them 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse.

The others on the list were Mahatma Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, Malcolm X, George Floyd and Joseph Rosenbaum, one of the victims of the Kenosha shooting. The names of Gandhi and Malcolm X were misspelled, according to a photo of the assignment obtained by CNN affiliate KTVT.

In the second part of the assignment, students were then asked to write a one-page essay on which of those six people they believed best demonstrated the concept of a hero.

Let’s imagine we were giving an award for the worst social problem in the world today. Do you have any nominations?

Did I hear someone say international conflict? Racial prejudice maybe? Environmental destruction anyone? Millions of homeless refugees? Exploitation of women? Turns out there’s one problem that connects all of those, and it’s one you hardly ever hear politicians talk about.

Overpopulation may not be root of all evil, but it is indeed at the root of many of the world’s other miseries.

Just do the math. As a minimum, every additional person needs a certain quantity of food to eat and clean water to drink. Extra people could, in theory, live without clothes on their backs or roofs over their heads, but most of us would not wish for a world with more people, if they had to live homeless and naked against the elements. Beyond basic needs for food, water, and shelter, more people need more energy -- to light their homes and cook their food, and if that level is reached, they’ll be in the market for still more -- to power their refrigerators and washing machines. At moderate levels of economic development, people start to desire cell phones, big screen televisions, and cars to drive. And at the highest levels, they want second homes and vacations in far-away destinations, which they reach by flying on gas-guzzling airplanes.

One solution is to simply open our borders, to allow more of the world’s desperate people to come to the United States, England, the Netherlands, and Germany. That is the case Samantha Power made in her painful stories of the desperate people she encountered as a journalist and later as U.N. ambassador, which triggered the earlier open letter. The statistics seem to indicate that most immigrants are not criminals or terrorists, but are, compared to those who grow up in first world countries, actually more eager to work long and hard hours. Cafaro acknowledges the obvious -- that the opportunities in a first world country are substantially greater than those in a third world country. And if you are rich or middle class American, there are benefits from immigrants – cheaper labor and better bottom-lines on stock dividends (as large corporations have used the availability of cheaper immigrant labor to break unions, and drastically cut salaries and benefits for their employees). But Cafaro notes that those economic benefits to middle and upper-class Americans translate into severe costs for the poorest Americans. Middle-class people are generally out of touch with how those economic benefits to them translate into the hefty costs associated with unemployment or underemployment among African-Americans, poor whites, and native Hispanics. Many of these less fortunate groups have lost the union jobs that permitted their parents to live reasonably comfortable lives. This in turn leads to loss of health care benefits, and many other unpleasant downstream consequences.

Vinnie, 55, admitted he has struggled since his wife Tanya, 53, died last year from cancer.

He told the BBC Headliners podcast: “I hate this word mental health because I think it scares blokes — especially around my age because you’re a bit old school.

“I just don’t like, ‘Oh I’ve got mental health problems’.

"People stand back even now — ‘Oh really, what kind?’, ‘Well mine’s grief’, ‘That’s all right then, you’re not an axe murderer’.

"So I think that's quite a hard thing for blokes especially to say, 'I've got mental health problems, I'm seeing a psychologist'."

Many families are plagued by narcissism. I use the word plague because it feels like a disease, running through the veins of the tenuous connections between the various family members. When you're part of a narcissistic family, the effects it has are devastating. In fact, there will be times that you feel as if the life is being sucked out of you.

I choose to have people in my life who respect my boundaries. As soon as I'm involved with a narcissist, I find it very hard to defend my boundaries - even when I have a clear idea of what's right and wrong. That's because narcissists have no respect whatsoever for boundaries. They invade. The ignore your right to privacy, activities and opinions which differ from their own. Not being listened to or respected is exhausting.

Narcissists never, ever feel that enough is enough. They always want more attention. They always want to create more chaos between people around them. They want more and more from you. Make friends with a narcissist and they'll want you to be their best friend. Tell them a private secret once and they'll feel upset if you don't share every intimate aspect of your life from then on. You cannot ever satisfy a narcissist's needs - but you can keel over with exhaustion in the process of trying.