Some people can be chronically depressed, and others can be momentarily depressed. Depression can present in many ways, and your loved one may not have all of the signs or symptoms. According to Forti, you can look for observable changes in their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and physical presentation. “You may notice that your loved one, who was once a social butterfly, now cancels plans to meet for dinner, book club, or other events....

The end of a relationship is a period rife with self-doubt and self-loathing as we try to identify our own culpability, says Jesse Kahn, LCSW, CST, director and sex therapist at The Gender & Sexuality Therapy Center in NYC. “Often, people use breakups as evidence that they are unloveable.” This is of course not true—breakups are a normal part of life—but in the midst of grief, many people tend to take the loss personally....

To help you out in a pinch, mbg consulted registered dietitians and chefs to share the best coconut oil substitutes, and what type of cooking projects they work best with. “Coconut oil can be expeller-pressed (with heat) or cold-pressed (without heat),” chef and certified nutritionist Serena Poon, C.N., tells mbg. It can also be labeled as virgin or refined. “Cold-pressed and virgin are thought to best preserve the nutritional value and also maintain the coconut flavor,” Poon says....

It checks out that physically touching the earth would have this effect. Humans and nature co-evolved together, after all, so getting outside can feel like a coming home. But does it come with any more scientific health benefits? Clint Ober, one of the leaders of the grounding movement, will tell you absolutely. His company, Ultimate Longevity, is behind most of the research on how connecting with the Earth’s energy (we’re talking literal energy—as in its electromagnetic field) could help balance us out....

Often, folks will say they’ve tried to meditate but cannot stop their mind, sit still or stop thinking. That’s why it’s important to learn from someone who’s done their work—a master. Without masterful instruction, we couldn’t expect to be proficient in anything. A few months of committing to the practice twice a day, things really started to settle in. And now after over a year of regular daily practice, I’ve softened my stance on many aspects of my thinking....

I tend to get really excited about things, like new hobbies and activities, and this felt a little bit addictive, too. I’d heard people talk about addictive personalities on occasion, so I wondered: Do I have an addictive personality? “The term is used colloquially to refer to people who have tendencies that appear to lead to addiction-like behaviors,” says George Koob, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)....

We’ve come a long way on the road toward true gender equality, and yet sometimes it can feel like progress has halted completely. Women make up less than a quarter of the 535 members of the U.S. Congress, and as of last year, women held CEO positions of just 5 percent of Fortune 500 companies. The gender pay gap persists as well, the worst of it falling on the shoulders of women of color; Latina women make 54 cents for every dollar a man makes....