The heat waves are rising all over the world and causing a lot of damage. While there are issues of dehydration and heat strokes, studies are suggesting that it might also be responsible for declining mental health, the heat among other things is not only affecting the physicality of human beings but is also having adverse mental health.

Emotional distress: The heat can trigger mood swings, making you feel irritable, anxious, depressed, or even aggressive. You may not be able to predict your reaction, you may be good one moment and then any minor inconvenience will make you angry or sad. Heat often triggers that helplessness in people.

Scattered Focus: Concentrating on tasks becomes a struggle when it's hot. Simple things feel overwhelming, and staying focused is a challenge. While you may be in the zone working on completing something, the heat and sweating will disrupt your flow and then you will not be able to focus on anything other than the heat.

Sleepless Nights: High temperatures, especially at night, disrupt your sleep. This lack of rest can leave you feeling tired, and grumpy, and worsen existing mental health issues. All humans require a comfortable temperature to sleep in, if your body is too wound up or heated up, it will not be able to relax and sleep.

Feeling the Pressure: The heat can pile on stress and make you feel overwhelmed. Concerns about the heat itself or its impact on other aspects of your life can contribute to this feeling. You will feel overwhelmed and unable to work on anything else. The heat makes you feel a certain helplessness, as you cannot stop the sun or turn down the heat.

Body Blues: The heat can cause physical symptoms that affect your mental well-being. Headaches, fatigue, dizziness, and nausea can all contribute to anxiety and low mood. When your body is already fatigued, the urge to do anything else disappears. Your body is drained of energy to function at all and will seek rest and sleep.

Behavioural Shifts: The heat can influence your behaviour. You might act impulsively or have difficulty managing anger. It's like the heat turns up your emotional thermostat. When your body and brain are overheating, it is difficult to think straight and you will grasp at straws to release this energy and pressure off of you.

Some other side effects of the heat are.

• Mental Health Flare-Ups: If you already have a mental health condition, hot weather can worsen your symptoms. Existing depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia might feel more intense.
• Heat and Suicide Risk: Studies show a disturbing link between hot weather and increased suicide rates, particularly among men and older adults. Hot weather can be a tipping point for those already struggling.
• Heatwave Hospitalizations: When temperatures soar, people with existing mental health issues may require increased hospitalization. This highlights the need for healthcare systems to be prepared for heat waves.
• Climate Change and Mental Health: Climate change is leading to more frequent heatwaves. Research suggests this could lead to a rise in mental health problems and suicides. Taking action against climate change is crucial for protecting mental well-being.

Selena Gomez recently opened up about being wrongly diagnosed for her mental health issues. The 33-year-old singer said that she was "misdiagnosed" before she ultimately received her bipolar disorder diagnosis.

She, along with her husband appeared on the podcast Friends Keep Secret, and said that she knew something was wrong with her. "I knew something was wrong, but I think I was misdiagnosed," Gomez said. "People were just assuming, and I would try multiple therapists. And that’s why it’s hard. It’s actually really hard when we’re talking about these things. And for me to go get a therapist, all of it is so f***ing complicated."

Going on to explain that finding the right diagnosis and treatments took going through "multiple different people," Gomez emphasized how important it was to remember that "you can’t just give up." Gomez also said she underwent therapies at four different rehabs, which helped her understand her diagnosis - a chronic mental health condition characterized by severe mood swings, alternating between extreme emotional highs and lows.

Therapy Should Not Be Shamed, Says Gomez

Gomez also slammed people who shame the idea of therapy. She said those people are hypocrites. "That's the problem with misconceptions," she said. "The whole hypocrisy of shaming people for therapy or people not understanding it is that it’s just not for you. That’s completely fine, but for me, it finally allowed me to go, ‘Oh, that’s why I handled things the way I handled them. That’s why all the other people were able to get over things so quickly, and I wasn’t.'”

“I would act out of fear, I would act out of love, I would act out of passion,” she added.

What Is Bipolar Disorder?

As per the American Psychiatric Association (APA), bipolar disorders are mental health conditions characterized by periodic, intense emotional states affecting a person's mood, energy and ability to function. APA notes that these periods, lasting from days to weeks, are called mood episodes.

Mood episodes are categorized as manic/hypomanic episodes when the predominant mood is intensely happy or irritable, or depressive episodes, when there is an intensely sad mood or the ability to experience joy or pleasure disappears. People with bipolar disorder generally have periods of neutral mood as well. When treated, people with bipolar disorder can lead full and productive lives.

But Don't Mood Fluctuations Happen To People Without The Disorder?

APA notes that while people without bipolar disorder could also experiences mood fluctuations, they are part of commonly lived experience and typically last hours rather than days. These mood fluctuations are also not accompanied by extreme changes in behavior or changes in functioning, such as difficulties with daily routines and social interactions. Bipolar disorder could also disrupt a person's relationships with loved ones and cause difficulty in working or going to school.

What Causes Bipolar Disorder?

Bipolar disorder usually runs in families, as 80 to 90 per cent of cases come from a relative with bipolar disorder or depression.

Environmental factors such as stress, sleep disruption, and drugs and alcohol may trigger mood episodes in vulnerable people. Though the specific causes of bipolar disorder are unclear, there are both biological factors, including a family history of mood disorders, psychotic disorders, and substance misuse, and environmental factors that increase the risk for bipolar disorder. The average age of onset is in the mid-20s.

This Is Endometriosis, a 2024 intimate, expressive film by Georgie Wileman and Matt Houghton won a BAFTA Award 2026 for Best British Short Film. This 19.27 minute long film shows how Georgie was robbed of her time due to endometriosis. The film sets in present-day narrative with memories from her past.

Endometriosis is a condition, that Georgie notes is often dismissed by many doctors as just "painful periods". However, her film portrays how truly disabling this medical condition. It is a condition in which cell similar to the lining of the uterus or the endometrium, grow outside the uterus. It affects 1 in 10 born with a uterus and could cause pain, often "worse than the last stages of child labour", notes thisiseno.com, the official website of the short film. Around 190 million people worldwide are impacted by the condition, however, what the film points out is how "dangerously underfunded, under researched and misinformed" doctors continue to remain despite the condition being so widespread.

Read: A Woman Lost Her Ovary To Endometriosis Surgery After Receiving An Ultimatum From Gynecologist

A Film That Documents Personal Struggle

Georgie, while accepting the award wore a symbolic blood-red gown. She said, "It was surreal and beautiful. Knowing how much this win would mean to the [endometriosis] community made it an emotional moment."

She points out that it is more than just a "painful period" and that "It is a full body disease. It important for people to understand the severity of the pain – it’s widely considered to be worse than childbirth." What is shocking is that it takes an average of eight to 10 years to be diagnosed.

She shares being "bed-bound for three months" when she was only 13. She said it first got "really bad" and she was not believed for long time. "It took me a long time to even believe myself. I was just so angry at my body for not working."

While she had been in and out of wheelchair, she was not formally diagnosed with endometriosis until she was 26, and then at 29, she was diagnosed with its 'sister disease' adenomyosis. She has undergone seven surgeries for her endometriosis and a hysterectomy for adenomyosis.

Read: Keltie Knight Was Gaslit By Doctors For Years Before Getting A Hysterectomy

In 2020, after years of feeling dismissed by doctors and watching her condition be misunderstood in the media, she decided she had had enough. That frustration pushed her to tell the story herself.

“It began as a photography project,” Wileman says. “And it meant a lot to people because, for the first time, they felt their experiences were being shown truthfully.”

But she soon realized that still images could only go so far. “There’s only so much a photograph can capture,” she adds.

Why Does It Take So Long For An Endometriosis Diagnosis?

A study published in Obstetrics and Gynecology journal looks at the factors of what leads to such a delay in endometriosis diagnosis. Researchers identified that factors include normalization of menstrual pain, the diversity of symptoms, and a lack of training and prompt referrals among healthcare professionals lead to this delay.

At an individual level, the researchers found that many women struggled to tell the difference between “normal” period pain and something more serious. A common belief was that painful periods were simply part of being a woman and had to be endured. As a result, many relied on self-care measures and delayed seeking medical help, which likely pushed back the timeline for an endometriosis diagnosis.

On an interpersonal level, stigma played a powerful role. Menstrual problems were often seen as too private or embarrassing to talk about. At the same time, society’s tendency to normalize period pain meant that symptoms were minimized, both by those experiencing them and by people around them. This silence and normalization further contributed to delayed diagnoses.

Barriers also existed within the healthcare system itself. Some participants said their general practitioners dismissed their concerns or appeared unfamiliar with endometriosis. Healthcare professionals involved in the study acknowledged gaps in their own training and pointed out the lack of clear clinical guidelines for diagnosing the condition.

Doctors also noted that endometriosis symptoms can overlap with other disorders, making it harder to identify. Diagnosis is particularly challenging because there is no simple, noninvasive test that can confirm the condition with certainty. Delays in referrals were common. One contributing factor was the widespread belief that laparoscopic surgery is the only definitive way to diagnose endometriosis. Some healthcare providers also questioned how useful a formal diagnosis would be, which further slowed the process.

Dr Sophie Davenport, a doctor in England who conducted the research as part of her Master of Public Health dissertation, emphasized that the problem is layered and requires solutions at multiple levels.

“The key highlights of the data are that delays to diagnosis exist throughout the journey,” she explained. “We need to address these at different levels — from society understanding what ‘normal’ menstruation looks like and being open about menstrual problems, to clinicians being well educated, up to date on how endometriosis presents and diagnosed, and truly listening when patients say their periods aren’t normal.”

Squirrels could be natural hosts of the mpox virus (MPXV) -- that causes monkeypox disease -- according to a recent study by German researchers.

The team from the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH) identified the fire-footed rope squirrel (Funisciurus pyrropus) as a likely natural reservoir of the MPXV.

The study published in the journal Nature revealed that sooty mangabeys – a primate found in West Africa -- can contract mpox by eating infected squirrels. The disease may present mild lesions, but it can also cause more severe skin lesions or even be fatal.

"Identifying the animal sources of the virus and the exposure routes that lead to inter-species transmission are key steps towards understanding spillover mechanisms and developing effective prevention measures to mitigate the risk of transmission to humans," said Livia V. Patrono, one of the senior authors at HIOH.

Squirrels Suspected MPXV Hosts

While squirrels have long been suspected as potential reservoirs for MPXV, their role was confirmed after an investigation of an mpox outbreak among wild sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) in Côte d'Ivoire.

During the outbreak, reported in early 2023, nearly one-third of the primates showed clinical signs of disease, and four infants died.

The team conducted viral genome sequencing and found that the infected monkeys carried a virus that was nearly identical to an MPXV strain identified in a fire-footed rope squirrel found dead 12 weeks earlier nearby.

Further, the team analyzed fecal samples from the mangabeys. A sample collected eight weeks before the outbreak's onset contained DNA from both the virus and the rope squirrel. This provided strong evidence of interspecies transmission at that moment.

Sooty mangabeys have been previously observed catching and eating fire-footed rope squirrels, which provide a direct route for the transmission of viruses.

Mpox Continues To Spread Globally

Although mpox is no longer a public health emergency, outbreaks of clade I and clade II strains of the mpox virus are continuing in many countries around the world, especially in Africa.

Last week, Madagascar announced the country's first death from mpox, a 3-year-old girl from the island nation’s eastern city of Toamasina.

The WHO has also confirmed that two cases of the recombinant strain – combining genomic elements of clades Ib and IIb of the monkeypox virus (MPXV) – have been identified to date: one in the United Kingdom and one in India.

Mpox is an infectious disease caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV), part of the Orthopoxvirus genus, which also includes the virus that causes smallpox.

It spreads through close physical contact, including sexual contact, and in some cases through contaminated materials or respiratory droplets.

Symptoms typically include fever, swollen lymph nodes, rash, and/or lesions.

The global health body has also urged all countries to “remain alert to the possibility of MPXV genetic recombination.” It has also urged for continued epidemiological surveillance, sequencing, vaccination of at-risk groups, and infection prevention and control measures.