On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled in Chiles v. Salazar. The basic concept of the Supreme Court ruling was that the state of Colorado was wrong to ban what is called conversion therapy. 
The 2019 Colorado law prohibited licensed mental health professionals from engaging in conversion therapy with patients under 18 years of age. They defined conversion therapy to include any practice or treatment that attempts to change an individual&#8217;s sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as any effort to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions toward individuals of the same sex.
That same law allowed counselors to provide “acceptance, support, and understanding for identity exploration and development,” and to assist persons “undergoing gender transition.”
In other words, the Colorado law said that if a kid comes to you with gender confusion, you are not allowed to say, “Boys are boys and girls are girls. Let&#8217;s help you be more comfortable in your body.”
If a boy says, “I&#8217;m a girl, “you have to affirm him. And if you don&#8217;t affirm him, you&#8217;re engaged in conversion therapy, and you can be prosecuted under the law in the state of Colorado.
If a kid comes to you and says, “Listen, I&#8217;m confused about my feelings of sexual attraction,” you&#8217;re not allowed to talk that through and say, “You know what? You&#8217;re 14 years old. A lot of people are confused about sexual attraction at 14 years old. You&#8217;re being hit by hormones that you&#8217;ve never experienced before, and you really don&#8217;t have any sort of clear line as to how to live your life, so let&#8217;s talk this thing through.”
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That might be conversion therapy, because that could be construed as an attempt to change behavior, or eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction toward individuals of the same sex.
Instead, you&#8217;re supposed to just give that kid a Pride flag and tell them to get out there and march.
The plaintiff in this case, Kelly Chiles, holds a master&#8217;s degree in clinical mental health and a state counseling license in Colorado.
According to the Supreme Court, Chiles doesn&#8217;t start counseling with any predetermined goals. Instead, she sits down with clients, discusses their goals, and then formulates methods of counseling that will most benefit them, seeking throughout to respect their client&#8217;s fundamental right of self-determination, matters of sexuality and gender. The clients sometimes have different agendas, according to the Supreme Court; some are perfectly happy being gay or lesbian or transgender identifying, and others want to reduce or eliminate unwanted sexual attractions, or change sexual behaviors, or grow in the experience of harmony with their bodies.
Under Colorado law, those last people are just plumb out of luck. There&#8217;s nothing they can do. Because if you, for example, are a person who has a fetish and you don&#8217;t want to have that fetish anymore, according to Colorado law, you are not allowed as a therapist to try to change an individual&#8217;s behaviors regarding sexual or romantic attraction.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who is not a strict textualist when it comes to these matters, wrote the opinion, and his basic opinion is pretty simple: The First Amendment allows therapists to say what they want to say during therapy. 
The only person who voted in dissent was, of course — wait for it — Ketanji Brown Jackson, the dumbest person on the Supreme Court.
This is saying a lot because Sonia Sotomayor is also on the Supreme Court.
Gorsuch wrote:
<blockquote>Consistent with the First Amendment’s jealous protections for the individual’s right to think and speak freely, this Court has long held that laws regulating speech based on its subject matter or “communicative content” are “presumptively unconstitutional.” &#8230; We have recognized, as well, the even greater dangers associated with regulations that discriminate based on the speaker’s point of view.</blockquote>
In other words, the big problem here is that it&#8217;s not just that Colorado is putting regulations on speech; those regulations on speech are content-dependent. Colorado says you can say these things that we agree with, but you cannot say these things with which we disagree.
Gorsuch continued:
<blockquote>While the First Amendment protects many and varied forms of expression, the spoken word is perhaps the quintessential form of protected speech. And that is exactly the kind of expression in which Ms. Chiles seeks to engage. As a talk therapist, all Ms. Chiles does is speak with clients; she does not prescribe medication, use medical devices, or employ any physical methods. &#8230;
Consider, too, where the State and dissent’s logic leads. Not long ago, many medical experts and organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, considered homosexuality a mental disorder. On the view Colorado and the dissent advance, a law adopted during that era prohibiting counselors from engaging in the “substandard care” of affirming their clients’ homosexuality would have been subject to only rational-basis or intermediate-scrutiny review—and likely upheld. Today, tomorrow, and forever, too, any professional speech that deviates from “current beliefs about the safety and efficacy of various medical treatments” could be silenced with relative ease.</blockquote>
In other words, the court is saying, “If Colorado is suggesting that a state can determine what is the best course of care with regard to opinions on open matters of gender and sexuality, and then mandate that sort of stuff on subject matter basis, that is violation of free speech.”
The court goes out of its way to really slap Jackson. That last statement — “Today, tomorrow, and forever, too, any professional speech that deviates from ‘current beliefs about the safety and efficacy of various medical treatments’ could be silenced with relative ease,” is followed by this: “It is a consequence Colorado freely acknowledges. And one the dissent embraces.”
The opinion then cites Buck v. Bell. That is a scathing rebuttal to Jackson, because Buck v. Bell was the case that suggested that you had the ability under the law to sexually sterilize inmates of institutions, because that was the prevailing science of the time. Jackson has said that she liked that law.
Jackson said in the Chiles case that Colorado was simply “restricting a dangerous therapy modality,” adding that the court&#8217;s opinion was “unprincipled and unworkable.” She followed with a long statement about how wonderful the gender orientation of left-wing philosophy is.
Ketanji Brown Jackson&#8217;s dissent is a reminder that if the Left had complete control over the mechanisms of government, it would simply regulate into law all of the most specious and idiotic views about science.
Without President Trump as president, we were super-close to that world, because President Trump is responsible for several selections on the Supreme Court. In this case, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor ruled with the majority. 
But if there were a bunch of Democratic appointees on the court, is that how this would have gone?

Blue Hour, United States Supreme Court Building, Washington DC, America

Supreme Court Ends Colorado’s War On Reality

Ben Shapiro

Colorado

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Mental Health

Opinion

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Teenagers

Gen Z gets to have its Lucky Strike moment, living amidst a social behavior so widely accepted that we hardly notice its near-complete ubiquitousness and carry on a seemingly innocuous yet encompassing habit without a second thought.
Today&#8217;s addictive product isn’t rolled in paper and sold at gas stations. It lives in our back pockets. And this week, for the first time, a jury suggested it might be just as dangerous — and just as liable.
Cigarettes were everywhere in America in the 1950s through the 1980s, and they were cool. You saw them in every movie and TV show and on every billboard. More than 40 percent of adults smoked. It was normalized, glamorous, and quietly killing people.  
 
Then came the lawsuits. States sued Big Tobacco for hiding what they knew about addiction. Internal documents proved companies had engineered dependence and targeted children. The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement forced the four biggest tobacco companies to pay states more than $206 billion, ban cartoon ads, and fund anti-smoking campaigns. The once romanticized and ubiquitous habit fell out of favor: Between 1998 and 2018, overall cigarette consumption fell more than 50 percent, and youth smoking dropped from 36 to 6 percent. 
 
Fast forward to the present, and a now-20-year-old woman named Kaley — identified in court papers as K.G.M. — filed a lawsuit against the corporate behemoths of our time, Meta and Google, when she was 17. She began using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 9, sometimes scrolling for 16 hours a day. She argues that the apps&#8217; design, with endless scrolling, Pavlovian notifications, and calculated recommendation algorithms, prompted endless scrolling, causing her serious depression, anxiety, body image issues, and suicidal thoughts. 
 
Her lawyers&#8217; arguments echoed those against the big cigarette companies decades earlier. They argued product liability: the apps are defectively designed, the companies knew it, and they launched them anyway. The jury agreed, finding both Meta and Google negligent in how they designed their platforms and in failing to warn users. Kaley was awarded $6 million. One day earlier, a separate New Mexico jury hit Meta with a $375 million verdict for similar conduct.
These are the first jury verdicts to hold that social media’s business model itself can constitute a defective product. This is a watershed moment — not just for Kaley, but for the 2,400 similar lawsuits waiting in federal court and hundreds more in California. And New Mexico&#8217;s case has a second phase in May that could compel Meta to actually change its apps nationwide: stronger age verification, safer algorithms, meaningful oversight.
Meta knew what it was doing. Its own internal 2020 “Project Mercury” study found that deactivating Instagram reduced depression and anxiety in users. The company buried the findings and shut down the study.
But parents should resist the urge to treat this verdict as someone else finishing the job for them. 
 
Fifty-one percent of parents say they regularly check their children’s social media accounts. Many don’t know which apps their kids are using and abusing at all. Meanwhile, 60% of young people self-report feeling addicted to social media. 45% say they spend “too much time” on it, and 48% of teens say it has a mostly negative effect on people their age. These kids know something is wrong. They cannot fix it alone — the apps are engineered to make quitting feel impossible — and a courtroom in California cannot reach into a bedroom at midnight and take the phone off the nightstand. Parents have to do that. 

There are more lessons from the tobacco lawsuits to be heeded. The 1998 settlement was historic on paper, but it only changed behavior because prices rose, culture shifted, and parents got involved. States spend most of the settlement money on things other than prevention. Tobacco companies pivoted overseas and kept selling. A legal victory is only as durable as what follows it. 
Congress isn’t helping. The Kids Online Safety Act passed the Senate in 2024, stalled again in 2025, and remains stuck in the House. COPPA 2.0 passed the Senate unanimously — twice —and died both times. This is the fourth major legislative attempt since 2022. At some point, passing a law that bans social media for those under 19 has to be easier than explaining to constituents why you didn’t. 
 
There is also a real tension at play: the same companies now being sued are also building AI tools with genuine potential — in medicine, education, and mental health. Heavy-handed regulation designed to punish Meta could inadvertently slow innovation that actually helps kids. Any serious legislative solution has to thread that needle: protect children online without strangling the technology that may one day serve them. 
 
These verdicts are a genuine first step. The jury got it right: these products were defectively designed, and the companies that built them knew the harm they were causing. But the work doesn’t end in a courtroom. It continues at home, in the living room, when a parent decides to actually look at what their kid is doing online. It continues in Congress when lawmakers stop treating children’s mental health as a bargaining chip. The jury started something this week. Now everyone else has to finish it — we can all start by touching some grass.

Zuckerberg leaves Los Angeles courthouse after social media addiction trial defense

Is This The Beginning Of The End Of Big Social Media?

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This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute&#8217;s world-class team of scholars.
In this piece, Manhattan Institute Fellow Carolyn Gorman urges conservative education reformers to tackle school-based mental health programs. As Gorman explains, these initiatives have done little to improve students&#8217; mental health, but have contributed to falling outcomes — and cost taxpayers a pretty penny. — Tim Rice
***
American public education is at a crossroads.
Conservative education reformers have made real gains in recent years, on school choice — now universal in <a href="https://www.heritage.org/religious-liberty/commentary/school-choice-about-religious-liberty-not-just-better-test-scores">18 states</a> — <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/divided-court-sides-with-parents-in-dispute-over-california-policies-on-transgender-students/">parental rights</a>, <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/dismantle-department-of-education-trump-elon-musk">ideology</a> and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/linda-mcmahon-my-vision-eliminating-department-education">bureaucracy</a>. As a result, we&#8217;re barreling towards what the American Enterprise Institute&#8217;s Robert Pondiscio <a href="https://www.aei.org/articles/the-last-days-of-public-school/">predicts</a> will be an “unprecedented crack-up” of public education.
If the old education model is to enter its last days — if, as Pondiscio says, “we’ve hit and passed ‘peak public school’&#8221; — conservative reformers need to set their sights on their next goal. And that goal should be fighting school-based mental health treatment — another woke, wasteful, ineffective idea that’s reduced accountability in schools.
These programs date back to the early 20th century, when progressive <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2408392/">reformers</a> urged schools to promote mental health, train teachers to recognize signs of distress, and locate health clinics in schools. If schools could identify problems early and deliver treatment widely, reformers promised, mental illnesses could be prevented; academic and behavioral problems <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lois-Flaherty/publication/226535892_History_of_School-Based_Mental_Health_Services_in_the_United_States/links/5703061708aedbac126f4241/History-of-School-Based-Mental-Health-Services-in-the-United-States.pdf">might improve</a>, too. 
In the ensuing century, periodic <a href="https://www.aei.org/articles/the-mental-health-crisis-that-wasnt/">proclamations</a> of <a href="https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/mentalhealthcommission/reports/FinalReport/FullReport-1.htm">looming</a> mental health <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/school-based-mental-health-initiatives-challenges-and-considerations-for-policymakers#:~:text=In%20recent%20years%2C%20troubling%20increases%20in%20the%20prevalence%20of%20school%20violence%20and%20youth%20emotional%20distress%20have%20prompted%20a%20sense%20of%20urgency%20among%20policymakers%2C%20leading%20to%20the%20bipartisan%20action%20of%20committing%20billions%20of%20dollars%20annually%20in%20federal%20funding%20to%20bolster%20these%20programs.">crises</a>, tragedies like <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/node/193271">school shootings</a>, and expensive, bipartisan <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/school-based-mental-health-initiatives-challenges-and-considerations-for-policymakers#:~:text=In%20education%20policy,being%20in%20schools.">spending efforts</a> have caused school mental health programs to explode. Today, nearly all public schools — <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/learn/press-release/over-half-public-schools-report-staffing-and-funding-limit-their-efforts-effectively-provide-mental#:~:text=All%20data%20released%20today%20can,/spp/results.asp.&amp;text=Nearly%20all%20public%20schools%20provide,%2D22%20%5B25%20percent%5D).">97 percent</a> — offer some form of <a href="https://www.kff.org/mental-health/the-landscape-of-school-based-mental-health-services/">mental health services</a>, like counseling and talk therapy, universal screening, wellness programming, referrals, or telehealth. The number of <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/school-and-career-counselors.htm">school counselors</a> and <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes193034.htm">school psychologists</a> is more than four times the number of <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes193033.htm">clinical psychologists</a> and <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes291223.htm">psychiatrists</a> in a given community.
Over <a href="https://effectiveschoolsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Mental-Health-Funding_Trends_FINAL_10_3_24.pdf">$130 billion</a> in federal and state funding has gone to school mental health in the past decade or so alone. Medicaid pays <a href="https://www.ed.gov/sites/ed/files/about/offices/list/osers/docs/medicaid-funding-for-school-based-services-03-08-2024.pdf">$4 to 6 billion</a> annually for school districts to provide physical, mental, and behavioral health services, and states <a href="https://www.medicaid.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/sbs-guide-medicaid-services-administrative-claiming-ud.pdf#page=9">can pay</a> higher Medicaid rates for services in schools than in community healthcare settings.
None of this has produced results. Decades of evaluations show school-based <a href="https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/Gorman-Mental-Health-First-Aid.pdf">mental health awareness training</a>, <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2682225/">mental health screening</a>, universal and targeted <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31734106/">prevention programs</a>, and even <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/1054139X9500236L">school-based health centers</a> have not improved outcomes relative to the absence of these services.
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Aggregate youth mental health outcomes have declined as school-based mental health services have expanded. Between 2016 and 2023, the prevalence of adolescent-diagnosed mental or behavioral health conditions <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK608531/#:~:text=Between%202016%20and,problems%20was%20stable.">increased</a> by 35%. In 2016, 4.1% of youth <a href="https://www.childhealthdata.org/browse/survey/archive2021/results?q=4992&amp;r=1">reportedly</a> had ADD or ADHD and received treatment for it. That rate has grown nearly three times as high. At least some of this has been documented as <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ritalin-generation-1473630453">overdiagnosis</a> <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/school-based-mental-health-initiatives-challenges-and-considerations-for-policymakers#:~:text=Federal%20guidance%20in,in%20decades%20prior.">driven by schools</a>. The youngest students in a given grade are disproportionately flagged by teachers and school staff as potentially having ADHD, then get diagnosed and medicated.
But school-based mental health has not simply had a poor return on investment. It also seriously undermines accountability for all parties. By confusing roles and responsibilities across the education and mental health systems, these programs give everyone involved — parents and teachers, students and school administrators — an excuse to point the finger elsewhere when grades, behavior, or student safety falls short of goals.  
Schools are not meant to provide mental health services. They&#8217;re meant to educate kids. Some die-hard proponents will debate that, suggesting schools are well-positioned to address mental health because it&#8217;s where kids spend most of their time, but that&#8217;s a weak argument: adults spend most of their time at work, but no one expects offices to offer psychotherapy or prescription refills.
Just as workplaces are meant for working, class time is meant for learning. Yet students are <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/schoolcounseling/comments/18cmp90/students_are_constantly_being_pulled_out_of_my/">routinely</a> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/1gdsoa1/behavioral_health_pulling_students_out_of_class/">pulled</a> from instruction for counseling or “emotional support.” When you consider that many school therapists think they can boost students&#8217; mental health by talking about <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pits.22606">racism</a> and <a href="https://www.portlandmh.com/decolonizing-mental-healthcare-and-mental-health-leadership-a-reflection-on-the-work-of-pavna-k-sodhi-edd/#:~:text=Colonialism%20has%20left,and%20social%20marginalization.">colonialist oppression,</a> it&#8217;s no wonder these efforts are failing while reading and math scores <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/09/09/nx-s1-5526918/nations-report-card-scores-reading-math-science-education-cuts">plummet.</a>
The best way for schools to help students&#8217; mental health is to simply be schools and be safe. Education has protective effects against poor mental health. ​Disorderly classrooms and violent hallways cause distress. Schools should clearly communicate and fairly enforce school discipline policies so that students know what behavior is expected and what happens when expectations aren&#8217;t met. Disruptive or violent students then learn consequences, and other students who&#8217;d otherwise be harmed know they&#8217;re protected.
When public schools aren’t doing what works, we know better than ever that there are alternatives to simply doubling down. 
***
Carolyn D. Gorman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Sad teenage boy sitting by male counselor discussing in school office

It’s Time For Schools To Get Out Of The Mental Health Business

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Germany&#8217;s ruling conservatives on Saturday passed a motion to ban social media use for under 14s and introduce more stringent digital verification checks for teenagers, building momentum for such limits in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
At a party conference in the city of Stuttgart, Chancellor Friedrich Merz&#8217;s Christian Democratic Union also called for fines for online platforms that failed to enforce such limits, and European Union-wide harmonisation of age standards.
A growing number of countries, including Spain, Greece, France and Britain, are looking at similar social media bans or restrictions on accessing platforms like TikTok or Instagram.
It follows the example of Australia, which last year became the first country to force platforms to cut off access for children.
European nations are more broadly ratcheting up pressure on social media companies, risking a backlash from the United States. President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs and sanctions if EU countries impose new tech taxes or online regulations that hit U.S. firms.
&#8220;We call on the federal government to introduce a legal age limit of 14 for the use of social networks and to address the special need for protection in the digital sphere up to the age of 16,&#8221; said the motion that passed on Saturday.
Merz&#8217;s coalition partners the Social Democrats have also backed social media curbs for children. Pressure from both parties in the coalition makes it increasingly likely that the federal government will push for restrictions.
However, under Germany&#8217;s federal system, media regulation is a state‑level responsibility and states must negotiate with each other to agree consistent nationwide rules.
The ban could affect children like those at the Cardinal Frings Gymnasium in the city of Bonn, several of whom a day earlier were scrolling on their phones in the school grounds.
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s fair, but I think it should be up to the parents to decide whether to forbid it, not the state,&#8221; said 13-year-old Moritz, who says he only watches YouTube.
&#8220;For children under 12 it should be forbidden, but from age 12 onwards I think children can already distinguish between what is fake news and what is not.&#8221;
His classmate Emma, 13, almost exclusively uses Snapchat, but has a time limit on her phone.
A ban would be &#8220;kind of unusual, because you get used to sending your snap in the morning before school, or what my friends do, like just scrolling through Instagram or TikTok for a bit,&#8221; she said.
Ella, 12, scrolls through social media several times a day.
&#8220;So I have TikTok and Instagram myself, but I understand that it&#8217;s all addictive, and the more you scroll, the more you want to see.&#8221;
Teacher Till Franke said that for many of the children, &#8220;it would be a shock at first, because of this daily use of social media.&#8221;
But eventually, the students would get used to it, he said, &#8220;because they would find other niches where they could communicate with each other.&#8221;
(Andreas Rinke, Stephane Nitschke and Petra Wischgoll; Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Jan Harvey)

Top Social Media Platforms

Germany’s Ruling Party Backs Social Media Curbs For Children

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A viral story about former Nickelodeon child star Tylor Chase, who is now homeless, has taken a turn as his former co-star says he trashed a hotel room he was gifted.
Chase, now 36, captured the attention of the internet when a fan posted a video of him looking unkempt and seemingly living on the streets in Riverside, California. Chase was best known for his role as Martin Qwerly in the Nickelodeon series “Ned&#8217;s Declassified School Survival Guide” in the early 2000s. 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Tylor Chase &amp; Cookie reunite. Long term treatment needed #nedsdeclassified #danielcurtislee #tylor" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WmPagJMhjxw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
His former co-star Daniel Curtis Lee <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DSoC8cQgZBl/?hl=en">posted a video</a> of him reconnecting with Chase, buying him a meal, and getting him a hotel room. But then Lee posted an update saying Chase destroyed that room and fled.
“[The motel staff was] upset. The door&#8217;s left open. Why is there a microwave in the tub? The refrigerator&#8217;s turned over,&#8221; Lee <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@danielcurtislee/video/7587848053609090359?lang=en">shared</a> in a TikTok update. &#8220;I feel so devastated. I am at a loss.&#8221;
Lee went on to lament how there’s no way to get help for people who are addicted or mentally unwell despite there being “systems” in place.
When the original video of Chase started gaining traction, a fan started a GoFundMe campaign that was quickly shut down by the former child star’s mother, who said giving him cash would just make the situation worse, The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/12/25/entertainment/neds-declassified-alum-tylor-chase-trashed-motel-room-paid-for-by-daniel-curtis-lee/">reported</a>.
Chase’s father was interviewed by the Daily Mail, which shed more light on the family’s effort to help him find treatment for mental health issues and drug addiction.
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“He’s a wonderful person when he’s Tylor,” Joseph Mendez Jr. <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15410309/tylor-chase-father-Nickelodeon-homeless-addiction-schizophrenia.html">told</a> the Mail. “For over a decade, the family has sought treatment options for Tylor, including support for substance use as well as mental health care,” he said.
He said Chase has been struggling with addiction since he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in 2015.
“He … chose to discontinue medication and resumed substance use,” Mendez said. “His family has been trying for many years to get him the support he needs, but ultimately, he must be willing to accept help,” Mendez said.
Social media commenters noted how the situation highlights the complexities of drug use, mental illness, and homelessness, saying it proves that giving homes to the homeless would not solve the issue in most cases.
“Because you can’t just stick someone homeless in a hotel room and BOOM they’re cured. He needs professional help,” one person <a href="https://x.com/Romanazswb/status/2004346821649613197">wrote</a>, echoing what many others were saying.
The latest update from influencer Jacob ‘Jake’ Harris was that Chase checked into a detox facility on Christmas Day. 
“We finally got Tylor the help he needed,” he <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DStWjRkEUre/">shared</a> in an Instagram update. “He’s currently receiving medical attention to get him healthy, to get him all better.”

Tylor Chase

Former Child Star Tries To Help Homeless Co-Star. It Does Not Go Well.

Homeless Former Child Star Trashes Hotel Room Gifted By Former Co-Star 

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Each year, as the holidays approach, countless Americans find themselves facing a very different kind of season, one marked not by joy, but by grief. This time of year brings up memories of someone they’ve lost, a relationship that has changed, or a chapter of life that will never look the same again. And while the world tells us to celebrate, the brain tells a different story. Grief changes your mood, your thinking, your energy, and your sense of peace. This is why navigating grief around the holidays requires intention, compassion, and care for your brain.
In our culture, we often feel pressure to “be okay,” especially in December. But grief doesn’t follow a calendar. It shows up in waves, some small, some overwhelming, and holidays tend to magnify everything we feel. The truth is, grief is not just emotional. It is biological. It activates the brain’s alarm system, disrupts sleep, increases stress hormones, and alters the circuits involved in focus and motivation. You’re not imagining the heaviness. Your brain is responding to loss.
When we understand this, we can respond in ways that help calm the chaos inside us instead of making it worse.
One of the most important places to begin is with routine. In seasons of grief, the basics fall apart, sleep becomes irregular, meals become inconsistent, and movement becomes optional. But the brain thrives on rhythm. Foundational habits like sleep, healthy eating, and exercise support healthy brain function and improved mental health. <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6378489/">Research</a> shows that consistent routines calm the brain’s anxiety centers and strengthen the frontal cortex, which helps with decision-making and emotional balance. These small anchors don’t remove grief, but they give the brain a steadier foundation to handle it.
Light is another powerful tool. During fall and winter, sunlight drops and indoor time increases. Low vitamin D levels are <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12991-022-00406-1">linked to depression</a>, and reduced sunlight disrupts melatonin and serotonin, two key regulators of mood. For someone already carrying sadness, this shift can intensify symptoms. Ten or fifteen minutes of morning sunlight on your skin can help stabilize your brain chemistry. When sunlight isn’t possible, bright light therapy offers an effective alternative.
When grief is present, cravings often increase, not just for food or alcohol, but the urge for escape. But numbing behaviors intensify the very feelings we’re trying to avoid. Sugar causes blood sugar spikes and crashes that worsen irritation, fatigue, and mood swings. Alcohol temporarily boosts dopamine, but leaves serotonin depleted, <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10851576/">leading to a deeper</a> emotional crash. When your heart is hurting, your brain needs stability, not substances that destabilize it. Nourish yourself with balanced meals, water, and movement, and you’ll feel the difference.
Connection also plays a crucial role in healing. When people are grieving, they often isolate. It feels easier, safer, less demanding. But isolation heightens sadness. Social isolation is a risk factor for worsening anxiety and depression. You don’t need large gatherings or forced cheer. You need a safe person, someone who can sit with you and let you be exactly where you are.
Finally, there’s the mind itself. &#8220;Grief brain&#8221; is a term used to describe the neurological effects of loss on the brain. After an extreme loss, the body triggers the release of neurochemicals similar to those involved in the fight-flight-or-freeze response. In the following days, weeks, and months, reminders of the loss can re-ignite this chemical reaction. This grief response can rewire the brain in negative ways, changing it in several key regions.
The first of which is the prefrontal cortex. The part of the brain responsible for executive functions, like planning, judgment, impulse control, problem-solving, and decision-making. Grief effectively takes this region offline, suppressing your ability to think clearly and accomplish complex tasks.
Additionally, the limbic system, the emotional center of the brain, shifts into overdrive in times of grief, amplifying emotions like sadness, fear, and anxiety.
In the healthy brain, the limbic system provides the motivation you need to get things done, and the prefrontal cortex gives you the mental horsepower to complete important projects. Yet, in the grieving brain, this system is turned upside down, robbing you of mental clarity while heightening emotions. Grief brings thoughts that are often harsh, heavy, or untrue, and every negative thought releases chemicals that influence how you feel. It is crucial to learn how to reframe those thoughts to help reduce depressive symptoms and rewire the brain toward healthier patterns.
But perhaps the most important thing to remember is this: it’s okay to feel what you feel. The holidays are a mix of joy and pain for many people. You don’t have to pretend. Let your feelings come; they are part of healing. Suppressing emotions activates the brain’s stress circuits. Allowing them begins to release the pressure inside you.
Grief also touches the spiritual parts of us. Loss raises deep questions — about meaning, purpose, and what truly matters. Scripture reminds us in Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (NIV). Choosing hope doesn’t mean ignoring pain; it means anchoring your mind in something steady when everything else feels unstable.
Grief may be part of your holiday, but it doesn’t have to define it. With a steady routine, connection, and compassion for yourself, your brain can find its way back to balance. And over time, you can discover moments of peace again.
Your grief is real. But so is your ability to heal.
* * *
Dr. Daniel Amen, MD, is a double board-certified psychiatrist and founder of Amen Clinics, a mental health practice specializing in brain-based approaches to diagnosis and treatment, and author of &#8220;Change Your Brain, Change Your Pain.&#8221;
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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What Your Brain Needs Most When Grief Hits During The Holidays

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Psychology

As history shows, nearly every civilization has progressed and evolved using some form of alcohol. But no civilization in history has ever experimented with the types of industrialized THC products Western countries are now recklessly legalizing, commercializing, and normalizing. We might pause to ask ourselves why zero Asian countries have done so and why China is so anxious <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/06/24/1238497863/chinese-marijuana-farms-new-mexico">to promote</a> this cultural suicide weapon here.
A 2023 <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01917-8/fulltext__;!!JA_k2roV-A!F0P_XFB6ND8ziqH2ovImdot2Tze_kgHA6TLYEc8Ifkn-grY-c9CqSJv-NPamf6v0PFrGk-6w--NkTAtaIIr-JHw$">global study</a> on life expectancy showed we are back to pre-pandemic levels with one notable exception: Teens and young adults in Western countries are dying at higher rates, driven largely by suicides and substance use.
Traffic fatalities continue to be a major cause of death in young adults, which is one reason The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh has been vocal about <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@mattwalsh_/video/7559991047514836237">his opposition</a> to the legalization of marijuana. In fact, a recent study of dead drivers in a major Ohio county morgue found that 42% of them tested <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/health/fatal-crash-report-finds-nearly-half-deadly-wrecks-tied-illegal-drug">positive for THC</a>. 
Pot apologists quickly jumped to their defense, noting that THC can be detected for up to a month after use. But the national past 30-day marijuana use rate <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/08/facts-about-marijuana/">is only 16%</a>, yet these drivers had average THC levels 5 to 10 times the state legal limits.
Some will argue, “Well, it&#8217;s no worse than alcohol.”
Marijuana use, however, is associated with <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6296897/#:~:text=Analyses%20revealed:%201)%20daily%20marijuana,marijuana%20use%20and%20negative%20consequences.">more alcohol</a> consumption, and marijuana users are <a href="https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/news/marijuana-smokers-five-times-more-likely-develop-alcohol-problem">five times</a> more likely to become alcoholics. It has also been reported that up to 40% of marijuana users <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/daily-marijuana-use-is-now-more-common-than-daily-alcohol-use-in-the-u-s-new-study-finds">use daily</a>, and up to <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/marijuana-use-disorder__;!!JA_k2roV-A!F0P_XFB6ND8ziqH2ovImdot2Tze_kgHA6TLYEc8Ifkn-grY-c9CqSJv-NPamf6v0PFrGk-6w--NkTAta8e51DO8$">30% meet criteria for addiction</a> — both far higher percentages than for drinkers. Using alcohol to excuse marijuana use or legalization is simply an exercise in lazy whataboutism.
Speaking of which, THC strongly induces suicidality even in patients who were not depressed to begin with, and state legalization has led to <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.pn.2025.01.1.15__;!!JA_k2roV-A!F0P_XFB6ND8ziqH2ovImdot2Tze_kgHA6TLYEc8Ifkn-grY-c9CqSJv-NPamf6v0PFrGk-6w--NkTAta6a4o0FY$">sharp increases</a> in youth suicides. Up to <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heavy-cannabis-use-linked-to-schizophrenia-especially-among-young-men/__;!!JA_k2roV-A!F0P_XFB6ND8ziqH2ovImdot2Tze_kgHA6TLYEc8Ifkn-grY-c9CqSJv-NPamf6v0PFrGk-6w--NkTAtaHeiA8hc$">30% of schizophrenia</a> cases in young men are attributable to THC use now.
Marijuana smoke is also causing the same <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/08/health/marijuana-head-and-neck-cancer-wellness/">type of cancers</a> as tobacco smoke, while also <a href="https://www.tctmd.com/news/cannabis-use-again-tied-increased-cvd-risk-young-people">dramatically increasing</a> the risk of heart attacks and strokes in younger users. Further, as the American College of Cardiology <a href="https://www.acc.org/Latest-in-Cardiology/Journal-Scans/2025/06/04/14/21/Chronic-Marijuana-Smoking">reports</a>, THC has been shown to cause damage to major blood vessels regardless of the mechanism of ingestion.
Add to this the well-known adverse effects on <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/124806/long-term-cannabis-blunt-brains-motivation-system/">motivation</a> and <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4586361/">educational</a> achievement, and the costs of the cannabis culture to government budgets are simply staggering. One study on the costs of legalization in Colorado, for example, conservatively <a href="https://centennial.ccu.edu/briefs/marijuana-costs/">estimated</a>, “For every dollar gained in tax revenue, Coloradans spent approximately $4.50 to mitigate the effects of legalization.” And that’s even at a 15% sales tax rate.
While there is simply no conservative case for the legalization of marijuana, the libertarian case suffers from serious flaws. First of all, the utopian assumption that legalization would lead to a “safe and regulated” product that would eliminate the black market has now gone 0-for-24 in our marijuana legal states. Many legal THC products are <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://viiahemp.com/collections/high-thc__;!!JA_k2roV-A!F0P_XFB6ND8ziqH2ovImdot2Tze_kgHA6TLYEc8Ifkn-grY-c9CqSJv-NPamf6v0PFrGk-6w--NkTAtaX4gqjCQ$">more potent</a> than ever before, even more than the now highly potent plant itself. The industry has defied <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VkrWO8H08Q">regulation</a>, and the black markets are <a href="https://alcoholstudies.rutgers.edu/cannabis-black-market-thrives-despite-legalization/">thriving</a>. Legalizing marijuana to eliminate the black market is like giving your dog ticks to rid it of fleas. You just double the infestation.
More importantly, substances like THC are the exception that proves the libertarian rule. Libertarianism works when people are free to act in their own best interest and, by extension, their family, community, and country. Chemicals like THC are designed to promote the opposite type of citizen. Libertarians should be the most opposed to the drug culture because it undermines the very foundation of their ideology.
The <a href="https://learnaboutsam.org/2025/06/leading-experts-warn-marijuana-rescheduling-driven-by-politics-in-stunning-jama-psychiatry-report/">politically</a> driven potential rescheduling of marijuana will only fuel this destructive industry with tax breaks and marketing privileges. Republicans should note that young male voters <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-young-men-voters-election-latinos-democrats-ff30e38698a41132cf90345fffabe579">moved to the Right</a> last November while radical Democrats were still enticing them with more weed.
Much attention has been paid to the influence of transgender ideology on the radicalization of Charlie Kirk’s assassin. But as we saw with the transgender school shooter in Minneapolis, THC may have also played a role. As discussed in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/Z1b3TYJli5A?si=vXQjsRYLTa6VQdWz&amp;t=1252">recent episode</a> of the Liz Wheeler show, a close friend of the suspected Utah assassin reported rampant drug use in his apartment and that “We’d have a mostly weekly magic night at the apartment where everyone would come drink, get high and play magic.”
Charlie Kirk gave his generation more credit than some in the GOP. Despite the criticism, he stood up to the lies of the THC industry. Republicans will never outbid Democrats in the race to the drug culture bottom. Nor should they, as <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/648821/americans-views-marijuana-effects-worsen.aspx">polls show</a> we may have already reached the bottom, with public sentiment now turning against marijuana.
Charlie knew that minds can be changed, but facts cannot. Truth and the future of this great country are worth standing for, regardless of the cost. 
Principled conservatives should do more than eulogize Charlie. They should emulate him.
* * *
Matt Poling is a physician, Medical Director of Citizens for a Safe and Healthy Texas, and Faculty Advisor for Texas A&amp;M Young Americans for Freedom. <a href="mailto:mpoling@sw.org">mpoling@sw.org</a>
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire. 
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The High Cost Of Getting High: How Legal Weed Is Destroying A Generation

Cannabis: A Cultural Suicide Weapon

Alcohol

Cancer

China

Drugs

Marijuana

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the increasing escalation of political rhetoric.
Political violence is on the rise, and more and more people are talking about intractable conflicts: Left versus Right, friend versus enemy, good versus evil.
Us versus them.
This framing gets something right: there is a conflict at hand. But it’s not about political ideology. “They” are not the other side — “they” are the deeply disturbed, the mentally ill, the radicalized, the lost.
Until we fight that war, no amount of political grandstanding will make a difference.
Consider the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The suspect, Tyler Robinson, is being held in a “special watch” unit pending mental health evaluation. Authorities have publicly noted he is under psychiatric review. Utah Governor Spencer Cox has said the suspect had embraced a “leftist ideology” and had been radicalized in obscure internet circles. Reports have shown engravings on ammunition that reflected such ideological messaging.
All of this is certainly relevant. But the overwhelming majority of ideological individuals don’t assassinate people. The mentally ill do.
Now to Michigan. In Grand Blanc, Thomas Jacob Sanford, a 40-year-old former U.S. Marine, rammed his truck through a Mormon church, shot congregants, then set the building on fire.
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Sanford had no established public political affiliations, but neighbors and acquaintances reported he had become “unhinged” in conversations about religion, particularly Mormonism. He had served in Iraq and struggled with personal issues, including drug addiction. Whether PTSD or other mental breakdowns played a role is under investigation, but the signs point to an internal crisis, not a neatly ideological campaign.
Misidentifying “Them” is dangerous. When we frame “Them” as just the ideological other side, we miss key dynamics.
We legitimize ideological martyrdom. If the assassin is “one of them,” then killing becomes another political tactic. We also ignore the root issue: mental collapse. People don’t generally shoot up churches or campuses calmly as ideological strategists. They act in crisis.
Together, that means we fail to intervene early. If we see such violence as purely political, we focus on language policing, speech bans, “cancel culture” fights — not on psychiatric screens, trauma care, intervention, de-radicalization.
We are in a war against the mentally unmoored — those whose pain has metastasized into violence.
This doesn’t mean ideology plays no role; it often provides a language for misery and victimhood. But it is secondary, not primary.
If we get the identity of “Them” wrong, our remedies will be wrong. Here’s what needs to change.
We must begin by putting a meaningful emphasis on psychopathology in threat assessment. Expand training for law enforcement, schools, and mental health agencies to flag people with escalating instability, social withdrawal, expressed violent fantasies, or mental deterioration — before they cross the threshold.
We have to bridge deradicalization and psychiatric care. Many of those who perpetrate violence have some latent level of mental illness but are radicalized online. So, we need hybrid approaches to helping them: ideological counseling plus psychiatric treatment. That means creating safe pathways for families or institutions to intervene before tragedy.
There are also changes we can make to how we talk about politics. Leaders have to de-escalate, stop demonizing opponents, and stop glamorizing violence. Celebrate mental health care, particularly for veterans and other high-risk groups. And speak out about the dangers of social media.
By speaking on all of these subjects, lawmakers and other public figures can raise public awareness and ensure Americans don’t stigmatize, but recognize warning signs. If teachers, pastors, and neighbors are on the lookout for warning signs in people from their communities, they can intervene.
That’s how we win the war against the darkness and violence haunting our country. Let’s stop seeing these things as some inevitable collateral in political warfare, and see it as a crisis of the mind and soul that demands a different kind of fight.
Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast “We The People.” Follow him on Instagram and X @GatesGarciaFL.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Memorial Service Held For Slain Conservative Activist Charlie Kirk At State Farm Stadium

It’s Not Left vs. Right — It’s Us vs. Them.

Charlie Kirk

Political Violence

Former President Joe Biden had cue cards reminding him of the names of some top Democrats — some of whom even held key positions in the administration of former President Barack Obama, when Biden himself was serving as vice president.
A new <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/exclusive-unearthed-biden-note-cards-reveal-he-had-bios-photo-reminders-hillary-clinton-schumer">report</a> published by Fox News Digital on Tuesday indicated that the outlet had obtained five “palm cards” — used by politicians to keep details fresh when speaking — that had been unearthed, along with a number of other documents, by investigators digging into the Biden administration’s use of the autopen.
One of the cards, which was stamped with the words “PRESIDENT HAS SEEN,” was labeled “Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients” and included a list of names, along with their respective photos, and short biographical descriptions. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was shown on that particular card, along with her photo and a note reminding that she had served in that role as part of the Obama-Biden administration.
That same card also included a photo of actor Denzel Washington and a note reminding Biden that he was “one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.”
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Another card, also stamped with the phrase “PRESIDENT HAS SEEN,” included a photo of Biden’s longtime Senate colleague and then-Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and reminded Biden of Durbin’s home state and leadership role.
Other cards included photos and descriptions of people such as acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola, Governor JB Pritzker (D-IL), and several members of his family, as well as the name of an ABC journalist, along with a question that she might ask.
While the use of palm cards is a common practice among politicians, especially during campaigning and interacting with hundreds of people daily, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-slammed-for-using-cheat-sheet-while-answering-questions-on-putin-utterly-embarrassing">Biden’s reliance on them</a> and other <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-cheat-sheet-shows-he-knew-what-topic-reporter-would-ask-him-about">reminder notes</a> as president — even in routine press briefings — drew questions on several occasions about his mental acuity.
Members of his administration dismissed those concerns, saying that it was perfectly normal for staffers to remind the president who he would be speaking to or note potential questions he might receive from the press.

President Biden Addresses NAACP Convention In Las Vegas

Hillary Who? New Report Suggests Biden Had To Be Reminded Who Top Dems Were

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Fox News host Greg Gutfeld dismantled the &#8220;both sides&#8221; argument on political violence during a Wednesday broadcast of the panel discussion show &#8220;The Five,&#8221; arguing that the people who carry out violent acts are more often driven by leftist ideology.
Gutfeld was responding to fellow panelist Jessica Tarlov, who referenced a study that found a predominance of political violence had come from the Right, and he made it clear that he was not buying it.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨 BREAKING: Greg Gutfeled NUKES FROM ORBIT Jessica Tarlov&#8217;s rant that political violence is &#8220;both sides.&#8221; HE JUST WENT OFF.
&#8220;Your rationalization of BOTH SIDES&#8230;you come and you say, &#8216;This is a mentally ill loner.&#8217; Well, who do you think does this stuff? It&#8217;s not Ben Affleck,… <a href="https://t.co/U5ssL3gBnt">pic.twitter.com/U5ssL3gBnt</a>
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1970961979352175002?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Your rationalization of both sides —&#8221; Gutfeld began, but Tarlov interrupted.
&#8220;I&#8217;m not rationalizing anything!&#8221; she protested.
&#8220;You have to understand,&#8221; Gutfeld pushed back. &#8220;Since Kirk&#8217;s death, there is no &#8216;both sides&#8217; anymore.&#8221;
&#8220;Why did the DOJ take down the study that showed how much right-wing extremism —&#8221; Tarlov said.
&#8220;What study was that? Which one? The one in The Economist that was sponsored by a group run by a guy in Antifa!? &#8230; You&#8217;re walking down a really bad alley right now,&#8221; Gutfeld said. He went on to argue that left-leaning media was doing some of the heavy lifting when it came to pushing people toward violent actions.
&#8220;You label someone a fascist or a racist or a Nazi. It makes you free to attack them. And that has been the ideology from the start,&#8221; Gutfeld continued.
Tarlov asked about President Donald Trump&#8217;s rhetoric, claiming that he was just as bad.
&#8220;The Left calls Trump a hate monger. They&#8217;ve called me a hate monger because I ridicule the Left. I ridicule protesters. I ridicule academia, Hollywood, the news media. I make fun of the view every day. I make fun of the UN. Guess what? No one acts on the things that I say because my side doesn&#8217;t do that!&#8221; Gutfeld added, going on to note that a lot of people involved in politically motivated violence might have some mental health issues, but that the ideology pushing them to act was more likely to be from the Left.
&#8220;You come and you say, &#8216;This is a mentally ill loner.&#8217; Well, who do you think does this stuff? It&#8217;s not Ben Affleck, it&#8217;s not Tom Brady. People who do this stuff are always that way. The question is, who points them in that direction?&#8221; Gutfeld asked. &#8220;Why pick ICE? Why pick Charlie Kirk? Why put bombs under Fox trucks? Why vandalize memorials? Why kill kids in Catholic schools?&#8221;
&#8220;Two things can be true. A person can be mentally ill, and you can be guiding him to that place in his life. That is how brainwashing works,&#8221; Gutfeld concluded.

Vivek Ramaswamy Visits “Gutfeld!”

Gutfeld Absolutely Destroys ‘Both Sides’ Argument On Political Violence

Gutfeld Absolutely Destroys 'Both Sides' Argument On Political Violence

Greg Gutfeld

Media

Violence

A young woman on Instagram holds up an armful of green blankets. Every time she feels stressed about the state of the world, she makes a leaf or moss blanket.
“As you can see,” the young woman <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMOjfJWR8nQ/?igsh=cTlvajd6bWY3aHA1">says</a>, referring to the mound in her arms, “the state of the world has not been great.&#8221;
A mother <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/06/health/climate-anxiety-therapy.html">describes</a> the wave of guilt and shame that floods her when she contemplates buying plastic-wrapped snacks at Trader Joe’s. College students in an exercise designed to help them create plans to achieve their goals <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/05/how-to-age-up-on-a-warming-planet/682762/">struggle</a> to envision anything but blankness or the apocalypse when picturing the future.
All around us, adults and children are struggling with their mental health after years of being bombarded with messages that a climate catastrophe is both inevitable and imminent. These feelings of dread and helplessness, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/02/17/gen-z-depression-anxiety-future-workforce">particularly</a> in the youngest generations, have inspired a new term: “climate” or “eco” anxiety.
Widespread climate anxiety is fueling the growth of a new specialty, with some psychologists building practices around treating the problem. Yet how to approach treatment has caused its own controversy. Mental health professionals like me are trained to keep our own views out of a counseling relationship. This would include offering any opinions about anthropogenic climate change. Other groups, such as climate activists, react poorly to viewing what they consider well-founded anxiety over climate as dysfunctional thinking.
But any thought patterns that inhibit daily functioning and contribute to depression, social withdrawal or distressing feelings need to be treated. In trying to raise awareness of a changing climate and potential implications, authority figures like teachers, topic experts and even hyperbolic climate news articles have gone too far.
Dr. Sarah Ray is the professor who <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/05/how-to-age-up-on-a-warming-planet/682762/">discovered</a> her students simply couldn’t envision a positive future. “It wasn’t just that they were living in a scary world,” she said. “It was that they were getting information about a scary world in a very particular way.”
The answer is to stop scaring people. Fear is rarely motivating. People have to feel as if they can make a change or a difference. Fear tactics only encourage feelings of helplessness and overwhelm, leading to avoidance and disconnection.
Adults must learn how to navigate these issues for their own improved mental health, as well as for effective parenting and education of the next generation. Teaching children about climate change has too often strayed from providing necessary information to dumping unfiltered fears on impressionable kids.
“It&#8217;s essential for adults to learn how to manage stress and anxiety in their own lives so we don&#8217;t pass it on to the next generation,” licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist Amy Morin said in <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/what-mentally-strong-people-dont-do/202408/10-reasons-todays-kids-are-more-anxious-than-ever">Psychology Today</a>.
This might look like building better habits, such as limiting exposure to articles about climate (stop doomscrolling).
Another technique used in cognitive behavioral therapy is redirecting attention from something distressing to something lovable as a step towards finding agency. For example, I am passionate about reducing landfill waste. When I feel afraid and angry about the size of trash piles in the ocean or how much garbage we export to other countries, I try to remember that the feelings are secondary emotions pointing to what I love. I care because I love my community and my country. I care about the world. I love my children, and I want them to inherit a planet that is healthier, not more diseased from human carelessness. I believe we are called to be good stewards.
I can’t teach my children those values by yelling at them for being wasteful or terrorizing them with scary photos, just as I can’t keep them from using drugs by enrolling them in DARE. Instead, I have to teach them to live for something beyond themselves, but also to know that while they can’t solve massive problems on their own, there is hope in performing small positive actions.
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If they are not overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem, they are better positioned to engage in the first place, individually and then in community. They will also be less vulnerable to misrepresentation of the facts if their ability to apply critical thinking is not shut down by the fear-triggered “fight, flight, or freeze” response of the amygdala in the brain. For example, instead of believing we should abandon fossil fuels, which would actually destabilize communities, they can evaluate the possibility of using technology to lessen their impact while pursuing more sustainable solutions.
Dr. Thomas Doherty has built a practice around helping people with climate anxiety. Along with coauthor Susan Clayton, they were among the first nearly 15 years ago <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2011-09485-003">to suggest</a> that climate change would have a psychological impact on people. After Portland experienced a high-pressure system called a “heat-dome” that sent temperatures soaring, one client asked Dr. Doherty if they were all doomed.
“Dr. Doherty listened quietly. Then he told her, choosing his words carefully, that the rate of climate change suggested by the data was not as swift as what she was envisioning.
‘In the future, even with worst-case scenarios, there will be good days,’ he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/06/health/climate-anxiety-therapy.html">told</a> her, according to his notes. “‘Disasters will happen in certain places. But, around the world, there will be good days. Your children will also have good days.’”
Humans won’t be able to solve the problems we are facing if, in pursuit of gaining acknowledgement of serious problems, we believe and have taught our youngest generations that there is nothing to live for. Dr. Ray may have put it best.
“We just need better thoughts,” she <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/05/how-to-age-up-on-a-warming-planet/682762/">said</a>. “It’s not about 10 things you can do to save the planet. There’s a hundred million books out there. This is like 10 things you can think about to save the planet.”
Better thoughts can be practiced. In the next encounter with a dramatic headline about climate change, try to pause. Remember first that every climate news and opinion article today has one goal: to get a reader to click. Headlines are written with that sole aim in mind. Fear sells. Don’t fall for it. I tell my clients to notice their feelings, then to redirect their thoughts to what they love and the specific things they are practicing to stay true to their values. This will energize people to continue to be part of solutions rather than perpetuating a cycle of impotent fear.
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Alysha Tagert, MSW, LICSW, is a mental health professional specializing in anxiety, depression, grief and loss, trauma and PTSD.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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