Mental health suffers from a major image problem. One in every four people experiences mental health issues -- yet more than 40 percent of countries worldwide have no mental health policy. Across the board it seems like we have no idea how to talk about it respectfully and responsibly. Stigma and discrimination are the two biggest obstacles t...

A vast gulf in care Vikram Patel asks us to imagine two men who live in the same town. They have the same education, the same jobs, and everything else the same. Both present at a hospital with chest pains -- but one is treated and one is not. Why? The second one has a mental illness. That is one of the biggest reasons people with ment...

In the past 30 years, major advances have been made when it comes to treating several serious diseases. Today, there are 85% fewer deaths from leukemia and 63% fewer fatalities from heart disease than there were then. Meanwhile, while AIDS was once considered a death sentence, people with the disease can now live to old age. Not to mention that ...

On the TEDGlobal 2012 stage this summer, guest curator Sarah Caddick hosted the session “Misbehaving Beautifully,” a deep dive into a near-taboo subject: mental health and mental illness. Today, Oct. 10, happens to be World Mental Health Day, and TED.com is premiering the final talk Sarah curated for the stage, Ruby Wax’s “What’s so funny ab...

We spend about a third of our lives asleep -- a figure that may make all that time spent in bed seem like a waste. But according to neuroscientist Russell Foster, it is quite the opposite. In today’s talk, given at TEDGlobal 2013, Foster explores why we sleep, a question which no one has been able to definitively answer. We know that it is vi...

Getting treatment for a mental illness when you live in the developing world is hardly as easy as making an appointment with a therapist or psychiatrist. Mental illness is often not treated with the same sense of urgency as physical illness, and resources to provide care are simply not available in many areas. In this moving talk at TEDGl...

TED Talks often get 100 or more comments -- a mixed bag of kudos, critiques and questions. Looking back on the year, here are a few comments that wowed us. Every video on TED.com is carefully selected, but not every TEDster will like every talk. Disagree with a speaker’s logic, methods or sources? We want to hear why. This comment begs t...

Click to watch the session-opening animation We're going through a revolution is neuroscience and psychology, gaining new insights into how the brain works, and what happens when parts go wrong. All that insight is producing applications in a crucial area: understanding mental illness. And that understanding is one that holds the promise of...

Eleanor Longden’s riveting story -- featured in today's talk and more in depth in the new TED Book, Learning from the Voices in My Head -- raises many provocative questions. Longden talks about her recovery after a diagnosis of schizophrenia, in the process calling into question the attitudes of traditional psychiatry, the role of drug manufac...

If you think your contraception is making you anxious or depressed, you’re not imagining things. Evolutionary psychologist Sarah E. Hill explains what happens to your brain on birth control. Most women know at least one or two other women who have had a bad reaction to the pill. In fact, the question that many of us have about the pill: “Why do...

The mad race to hook up a billion of India's people to the internet sounds daunting -- but it may well make it better for everyone. Politicians often talk about big plans. But rarely do they deliver on even a fraction of plans as huge and ambitious as Digital India, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July 2015. The nine-pillared progra...

The TED community has been very busy over the past few weeks. Below, some newsy highlights. 121 years of celebrating art. Originally an art exhibition, the Venice Biennale is a tradition stretching back to 1895 and has expanded over the years to include events for music, theater, film, dance and architecture. Opening on May 28, the 15th I...

TED Radio Hour started in 2013, and while I’ve only been working on the show for about a year, it’s one of my favorite parts of my job. We work with an incredibly creative team over at NPR, and helping them weave different ideas into a narrative each week adds a whole new dimension to the talks. On Friday, the podcast published its 100th...

One morning when she woke up, Jill Bolte Taylor felt pain behind her left eye similar to what she’d felt biting into an ice cream cone. Soon, her own appearance -- from her hands to her reflection -- felt utterly bizarre to her. Next she lost her balance and then her internal chatter simply stopped -- years of thinking dissolving into silenc...

Cities, traditionally, have not been the healthiest of places. The spread of diseases, sanitation issues, pollution -- these things accelerate with large masses of people living in close quarters. But is that the way it needs to be? Could the cities of the future also be places where all people get top-notch healthcare, and where people coll...

On Monday, June 25, the curtain rises on TEDGlobal 2012: Radical Openness. More than 70 speakers -- scientists, artists, technologists, students and visionaries -- will take the TED stage over four days in Edinburgh, Scotland, to explore the intriguing theme of openness of all kinds, in politics, science, art, private life ... We'll be...

Inspired by JD Schramm’s powerful TEDTalk on surviving a suicide attempt, this list of resources has been updated to help you widen your understanding of mental health, depression, suicide and suicide prevention. Whether you’re an attempt survivor, a concerned family member or friend, or struggling with suicidal thoughts yourself, this list offe...

Today, we're thrilled to announce the TEDGlobal 2012 speaker lineup -- exploring the theme "Radical Openness." As the world becomes ever more interconnected, the ways we relate, the means by which we learn about one another and develop mutual understanding, and the rules about what we hide and what we share are changing. That's the inspir...

Charles Eugster may be 93, but he has no less spring in his step than he did as a young man. In this talk from TEDxZurich, he brings us a powerful statistic: 92% of Americans over the age of 65 have one or more chronic diseases. While many clearly cannot be avoided, Eugster points out that inactivity is to blame for many of the diseases thos...

As we perused the Time 100 today, the magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people of the year, we couldn't help but notice many familiar faces. Among those included for 2015: investment expert Mellody Hobson, public interest lawyer Bryan Stevenson, novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, political scientist Samantha Power, economist Tho...

Toby Eccles, whose talk about Social Impact Bonds was published yesterday, has been busy since he gave his talk at TEDGlobal in June. Eccles, founder of the nonprofit Social Finance, now spends about half his time on Development Impact Bonds, a spinoff of his original idea. Where SIBs seek private funders to invest in social causes, with pay...

Surgeon, author and speaker Sherwin Nuland died on March 3, 2014, at age 83. The author of a dozen books -- including the award-winning How We Die, a clear-eyed look at life's last chapter -- Nuland came to TED in 2001 to tell a story he'd never told before. The world-renowned surgeon, clinical professor of surgery at Yale and best-sellin...

Some heartfelt advice from writer Bill Bernat, who’s been there When I lived with severe depression and social anxiety, I found it extremely difficult to talk to strangers. Yet the one conversation that uplifted me more than any other occurred in the dining hall of the mental health wing of a mountain-town hospital. I met a woman who told me th...

Eleanor Longden did well at school, and gleefully entered student life at university in England. By all appearances, she was a happy, typical student ... but it wasn't true. Underneath it all, Longden was "fundamentally frightened," and while she did a good job of concealing her fear, she was about to come undone. She started to hear the voi...

World-changing ideas that unearth solutions and ignite progress can come from anywhere. With that spirit in mind at TED@WellsFargo, thirteen speakers showcased how human empathy and problem-solving can combine with technology to transform lives (and banking) for the better. The event: TED@WellsFargo, a day of thought-provoking talks on to...

Welcome to "Dear Guy," TED's advice column from psychologist Guy Winch. Twice a month, he'll answer your questions about life -- about your relationships, your job (or jobs), your family (or families), your passions, fears and more. Please send your questions to dearguy@ted.com; to read his previous columns, go here. Dear Guy, I am an intern...

Yana Buhrer Tavanier, speaking at the TEDGlobal 2011 TED Fellows Talks, Monday, July 11, 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED Somi, singer + cultural activist: Raised in Zambia, living in New York, vocalist and songwriter Somi and her ensemble wake the TED Fellows Talks session into the rhythm of the day with ...

A powerful bitter sweet As race continues to dominate the news, it seems like perfect timing for artist Kara Walker’s latest piece, her first large-scale installation, housed in the shell of the old Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Shown above, the piece has a grand title: At the behest of Creative Time Kara E. Walker has conf...

Each week, TEDx chooses four of our favorite talks, highlighting just a few of the great speakers from the TEDx community and its diverse constellation of ideas worth spreading. Below, give this week’s talks a listen. Let’s find the strength to change our slums: Boniface Mwangi at TEDxKibera While working as a photographer for a Kenyan news...

Neuroscientist Russell Foster opens a session of TEDGlobal all about ... us, asking the question: Why do we sleep? Thirty-six percent of our lives are spent asleep, which means, if you live to 90, you'll have slept for 32 years. But we don't appreciate sleep enough, says Foster. He quotes Thomas Edison -- "Sleep is a criminal waste of time, ...