In today’s Daily: Sheryl Crow sings about her mental health, creating connection with others in distress. “Meet the Press” devotes an episode to loneliness and the youth mental health crisis  – and participants say community is a key solution.

Plus: Chinese citizens who speak up are being thrown into psychiatric hospitals. The unfamiliar faces of OCD. Private equity ownership of psychiatric hospitals keeps rising. And more.But first: We’re more likely to view people who grew up with less money as worthy of our trust, compared to those whose childhoods were spent in private schools and on European vacations. A paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says the difference is largely about perceived morality.

Sheryl Crow sings about empathy and connection in a single timed for Mental Health Awareness Month

From Sheryl Crow’s new song, “I Know”:

And maybe I could hold your hand
And count the teardrops as they flow
And promise never to let go

I see the struggle in your face
The only thing that I can say is I know
I know
I know how it feels.

The nine-time Grammy winner sings over restrained guitar in this tender, empathetic ballad, released in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, Billboard reports. Crow shared her inspiration on social media. “In a recent moment when I was really struggling, I picked up my guitar and wrote a song,” she writes. “Sometimes when we’re struggling, just knowing that another soul can relate to what we’re feeling makes things a little bit better. That’s what this song is about.” (Listen to audio.)Crow is one of many musicians to open up about their mental health in recent years. Another recent Billboard story collects dozens of performers’ words on the subject, from Adele (“I had really bad postpartum depression after I had my son, and it frightened me…I felt like I’d made the worst decision of my life”) to Bruce Springsteen (“I’ve had to deal with a lot of it over the years, and I’m on a variety of medications that keep me on an even keel; otherwise I can swing rather dramatically and…the wheels can come off a little bit.”)

‘Meet the Press’ devotes an episode to loneliness and the youth mental health crisis

We’re social creatures. Loneliness, like thirst or hunger, puts our body into a state of distress. Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy explained this on NBC’s Meet the Press (video and transcript), which devoted Sunday’s show to America’s mental health crisis. “Imagine chronic stress that comes from chronic loneliness,” he said. “It starts to increase inflammation in our body, increase our risk for heart disease, and other conditions that ultimately shorten our life.” Murthy says social disconnection has the same effect on mortality as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. His watchword: “choose community.”

Former Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.) is a longtime leader on issues involving access to mental health treatment: He co-authored the Mental Health Parity Act and founded The Kennedy Forum. (Kennedy is also a member of the MindSite News Editorial Advisory Board). He agrees with Murthy’s emphasis on community, and thinks social media is the “big culprit” in young people’s declining mental health. He predicts social media giants will follow the tobacco and opioid industries in adopting the “addiction-for-profit” model.  

We need to teach our kids coping mechanisms and problem-solving skills, “and how they can emotionally regulate,” Kennedy said. “Technology’s here to stay. Stress and trauma’s here to stay.” The poor mental health of the younger generation is hurting their ability to work, he said, leaving many young people unable to focus on their job as they worry about managing intrusive thoughts. Educating young people to manage feelings can be transformative, he added, and should be “essential in the development of our children.”

Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb focused on the need for quality relationships, “even with one or two people,” and “small social interactions” IRL. We’re missing out on those, she said, because “everyone’s on their phone.” She cited research showing that even small interactions – talking to people in line or on the subway, rather than pulling out your phone – “decreases your sense of alienation and loneliness.” 

None of the panelists had solutions to the problems presented by AI, especially for kids. One particular concern: the “frictionless” relationships chatbot companions forge. “It’s going to say what you want it to say,” noted Jean Twenge, a psychology professor. “How are they going to have a relationship with a real human being?”

China using mental health law to lock up critics, activists say 

Forced hospitalization in psychiatric units remains common in China, more than a dozen years after a groundbreaking mental health law was supposed to eliminate such abuses of power, activists told The Guardian. When the law was passed in 2012, people with no need for treatment were being pushed into facilities by police, employers or family members. But today, loopholes in the law allow authorities to detain “troublemakers,” and a lack of checks and balances leaves people with little ability to defend their rights.

Twenty-six years ago, an out-of-control mine cart ended Zhang Po’s career as a coal miner. He’s been living off meager disability allowances since, but after he joined a protest outside his former employer’s office demanding increased benefits, he was held in a psychiatric ward, against his will, for 22 days. When he tried to resist, he said, he was tied to his bed for several hours and forced to take medicines. “I endured more than 20 days of humiliation in there,” Zhang said in an interview with Chinese media. When he finally was released, he was sentenced to eight days of administrative detention for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” 

A recent BBC investigation found that criticizing the Chinese Communist Party could be grounds for a psychiatric diagnosis. Most Chinese people who seek accountability through the courts don’t succeed and their social media posts are often censored. But after Zhang’s story was picked up by local news, officials in Huainan City said they would investigate his complaint. His story also went viral on Weibo – posts with related hashtags were viewed nearly 40 million times. One commenter wrote: “When power can arbitrarily define madness and non-madness, everyone will live in fear of disappearing!”

What to follow as President Trump’s proposed budget wends its way through the legislature

President Donald Trump released his draconian 2026 budget blueprint – not to be confused with last week’s “big, beautiful bill” – in early May, but little attention has been paid to its handling of mental health and addiction services.

Budget sausage-making is hard to follow, and the legislation that Congress eventually agrees on may not resemble Trump’s proposal. But KFF Health News suggests three areas that millions of Americans affected by mental illness or addiction should keep an eye on as the process unfolds:

1) There’s little clarity about the future of suicide prevention programs, including the 988 crisis hotline: Trump proposes to keep next year’s funding for the 988 system the same as the current fiscal year ($520 million), although a spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget told KFF Health News that the president’s budget will include an additional $95 million for other suicide prevention programs. But what that will mean is far from clear. The service relies on multiple pots of money, and some state and regional call centers have already lost theirs. “Cutting this funding is going to be disastrous,” said psychiatrist Paul Nestadt, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins.

2) The administration wants to cut certain tools used for preventing drug overdoses: Some advocates, clinicians, and researchers worry that eliminating the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control – and labeling “harm reduction” efforts as “dangerous activities” (that shouldn’t be supported with federal funds) – could reverse recent progress on overdose deaths.

3) Research cuts aimed at “DEI” could worsen disparities in suicide and overdose rates: The Trump proposal cuts nearly $18 billion from the NIH and eliminates several centers within it, including the National Institute on Minority and Health Disparities. Suicide rates have been rising faster for Black Americans than for their white counterparts, and while national overdose deaths have been falling, they have increased in many Black and Native American communities. 

In other news . . . 

OCD isn’t just compulsive hand-washing and meticulous table setting. Both the obsessions and the compulsions in obsessive-compulsive disorder are far more varied – and serious – than that, as this New York Times story notes. People on social media like to categorize and catalog various experiences – “relationship OCD,” “sexual orientation OCD,” or “emotional contamination OCD” – but they’re all ultimately the same disorder, one an estimated 2.3% of Americans suffer with at some point in their lives. Some obsess over thoughts about hurting someone; others fixate on specific aspects of their personal relationships. Comedian Maria Bamford has an umbrella term for her OCD: “unwanted thoughts syndrome.” 

Young cancer patients go on to experience significantly more depression and anxiety than those diagnosed at older ages, according to a study in JAMA Network Open. The young cohort (aged 15-39) had worse outcomes than those who never got cancer, as well as survivors who were diagnosed when they were older. The study relied on nearly 40,000 participants’ responses in an interview. Those diagnosed younger had the highest prevalence of lifetime psychiatric issues (16-38%, depending on the year they were interviewed), regular use of medication for anxiety or depression (25-34%), and major depression (13-21%), although the differences between those diagnosed younger and older became much less clear after controlling for factors like age, sex, gender and race.