Our body is the only one we'll ever know, for better or worse. And for those suffering from Body Integrity Dysphoria, they feel like one or more of their limbs doesn't belong. Many of them resort to drastic measures like self-amputation to achieve their ideal body. But researchers are still trying to figure out why.

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Today, one in four homeless Americans are living with a mental health condition. Many are unable to turn to shelters out of fear that it will worsen symptoms and the prison system has subsequently taken on the role of asylums. But understanding foreign cultures may hold the key to a cure.

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In the late 1800s, Dr. Emil Kraepelin identified schizophrenia as its own mental health condition. But this new revelation also increased the stigma surrounding the disorder. Over the course of the next century, people living with schizophrenia became a target in the eugenics movement, both in America and overseas.

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When a young Quaker woman died in an asylum in 1790, William Tuke resolved to found a new facility focused on treatment—not incarceration. But mental health conditions were poorly understood, and many of the early expiramental treatments could be better described as torture.

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Socrates was one of the greatest philosophers of all time—and he heard voices. Pheidippides invented the marathon—and experienced hallucinations. Were these symptoms of mental health conditions, or signs of divine intervention? And how could ancient Greek doctors treat their delusional patients?

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Welcome to our special five-part series, Beating the Odds. Every day this week we’re telling the true tales of medical miracles that shocked the world: Today we’re discussing Reshma Begum, a seamstress in Bangladesh who was pulled out alive from the wreckage of a building…17 days after it collapsed.

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Welcome to our special five-part series, Beating the Odds. Every day this week we’re telling the true tales of medical miracles that shocked the world: Today we’re discussing Michael Benson, a cameraman who survived a helicopter crash, only to find himself stuck inside a volcano’s crater…for two days.

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Welcome to our special five-part series, Beating the Odds. Every day this week we’re telling the true tales of medical miracles that shocked the world: Today we’re discussing José Salvador Alvarenga, a Salvadoran fisherman who spent over 13 months adrift at sea…and survived.

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In 2014, the “Ice Bucket Challenge” went viral across the internet. Hundreds of thousands of people from across the globe participated in videos hoping to help bring an end to ALS. 

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