It’s often said that brain science (neuroscience) is the moving frontier of the twenty-first century. The field of modern psychology took shape in the twentieth century. The output of the intersection of these types of study is still taking place, but TIME magazine’s focus on mental health could not take place at a more opportune time.

One in five Americans have dealt with one form of mental illness in their personal health. The annual spending on mental healthcare dwarfs even common ailments like diabetes. And yet the stigma around mental health persists, and discussion about it is often awkward. Too many forego seeking help for their ailments because they believe mental health to be a failure of personal character.

TIME Magazine has rightly pounced on this issue and produced a collection of articles on issues pertaining to mental health. Each article is short, to the point, and interesting. Topics include college, how to help loved ones, specific medications, the opioid epidemic, and how mental health is disregarded particularly by the American medical system.

I hope that the production of this piece by a journalist magazine as prominent as TIME will have an impact as great as other special magazines in the past. This issue needs open discussion more. The issue is often relegated to the margins of social discourse at certain events like school shootings. Unfortunately, few probe beneath the surface to see how this issue works. Science has provided us with more of an understanding in the last seventy-five years, and the public is still catching up.

If you deal with people in any activity – whether managing them, teaching them, raising them, or befriending them – this issue will tell you how better to deal with their issues. It might even help you deal with you. There’s a lot beneath the surface that people aren’t aware of yet. Magazines like this one allow a little light to shine on this topic. Bravo to TIME for identifying this topic and executing its investigation well! ( )