BDD is fairly common – it's estimated that up to one in 50 people are suffering to varying degrees.
The companies are suffering to a large degree because variable annuities and variable life insurance -- two products tied to the stock market and aggressively marketed in the 1990's -- have plummeted in value and in popularity.
Professor Stephen Hawking, who once said he thought assisted dying was "a great mistake", has changed his stance to support the right of terminally ill people who are suffering to end their lives.
I try to comfort those who are suffering, to let them know I will not allow them to be forgotten, that their voice can carry and humanity can hear them.
We see the consequences in the senseless attacks on programs like Medicare and Social Security, and the cynical refusal, at a time when so many are suffering, to repeal tax cuts for the rich.
"The culture is obsessed with the idea that if you go through a crisis, you're going to come out of it a better person," Daum says, explaining her frustration with "the pressure we put on people who are suffering, to have epiphanies where suddenly it all makes sense".
