Blog Entries - December 2008

It's never too late to change your life!

editor@uticopa.com — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

All are agreed. 2008 was a terrible year. Woolworth's has gone, stock markets have crashed, house prices have collapsed and we're all a little poorer. To pile on the agony, it's making us feel old and ever more weary. Any one of these things is enough to send us into a spiral of depression leading to the very nadir of despair.

But help is at hand.

Hot off the presses is a book called ‘Pensioners in Paradis' by Olga Swan. It relates the story of how a coupl [...]

The tree of life: how to recognise when you're close to the edge

editor@uticopa.com — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The first thing to understand is that everyone's life goes through its ups and downs. Try to visualise one of those giant sequoia trees in California. As you stand at the root base and stretch your neck backwards, the trunk proceeds straight and true. Up, up it goes in a regular fashion until suddenly, without warning, there are two forks: one pointing one way, one the other. What to do? Which direction should you take?

So it is in life. A normal patte [...]

Worrying: the bad, the good and the downright positive

editor@uticopa.com — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The bad

We all recognise the syndrome. You can't sleep and you can't get those pessimistic thoughts out of your head. All those doubts and fears deep within your mind paralyse your thinking. An invidious cycle begins whereby your anxiety levels soar sapping your emotional energy and darkening your day-to-day life with burgeoning black neuroses. Constant worrying takes a heavy toll. It keeps you up at night and makes you tense and edgy during the day. You hate feeling like a ne [...]

The ‘oy' syndrome: a case history

editor@uticopa.com — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

All my life I've been a pessimist. At least, that's what everybody tells me, so it must be true, mustn't it ? I was perplexed, therefore, to read in ‘The Times' that psychologists are at last coming round to the view that ‘constructive negativism' can be quite a good thing. Is this what I and many other people have ?

It all started with my paternal grandmother, who hailed originally from Eastern Europe. Her family, from the icy wastes of Lithuania, wer [...]

Mental health issues and the media: never the ‘twain shall meet'?

editor@uticopa.com — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

So much of the media stigmatizes mental health issues. Yet, media coverage in general has a direct impact on all our lives and even controls, subliminally, how we think. But in the field of mental health, it is clear that poor quality, essentially unbalanced, press coverage of mental health issues fuels stigma and actively reduces a sufferer's quality of life.

So, what can we do about it?

First we need to gauge its effects on mental health sufferers themselves. The me [...]

Stroke: can both medical advances and therapy combine to help victims?

editor@uticopa.com — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Doctors and researchers alike are the first to admit that the brain is the last bastion of uncharted body territory. However, by degrees, more and more is being learned and procedures developed to ‘chart' the brain, learn which areas control which physical activity, and to heal areas which have become damaged.

It is well-known that stroke is notoriously difficult to treat. Haemorrhagic strokes account for around thirty per cent of the 150,000 strokes in the UK each year [...]

CBT can help 80% of people suffering from eating disorders.

editor@uticopa.com — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Adam Bremelow, the health correspondent for BBC, have said in this morning's news program on Radio 4 that the new research from Oxford has given a ‘Pretty promising prospect for a wide array of people suffering from eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia, binge eating.'

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a form of a therapy that challenges people's behaviour by getting them to reassess their thoughts and assumptions. The treatment usually takes the form of approximatel [...]

Fear of death: how to relieve our anxiety

editor@uticopa.com — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Society is a continuous cycle, our pavements peopled by all age groups. From babies to the elderly, we are all moving through that ever-changing kaleidoscope called life. But, as we grow older, our mindsets change. In youth we understand that people die, but that is something so far off in the future, we need not worry about it. As we climb the generational ladder, we are so busy chasing that elusive career goal, we have not the time nor desire to focus on what is looming ever closer: [...]

Depression caused by trauma: how can you deal with it?

editor@uticopa.com — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Physiologically speaking, the brain as the most important part of our lives. Yes, the heart is the ticking clock that keeps our organs functioning, but the brain is the controller without which the body is thrown into a directionless trauma bereft of instructions, devoid of organisation, floundering in uncharted seas.

So, consider the two case-studies below when, as so often happens, that unexpected trauma of injury to the brain occurs.

Case study 1.

Ca [...]

Finding the right mental health specialist

editor@uticopa.com — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Someone once said that the therapist's job is to put himself out of work! It's probably true of all the caring professions: the better you are, the more self-sufficient your patient, thereby lessening the need for further treatment.

One example is the role of family therapists. Newcomers to the whole process of therapy sometimes expect the therapist to take on the role of ‘mother hen'. It is often a subconscious desire on the part of people with deprived childhood [...]

Alzheimer's - the ultimate affliction

editor@uticopa.com — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

A new claim by campaigners is gaining momentum in the media. They say that thousands of Alzheimer's patients could be suffering more than they should be. Why? In this age of more and more Britains living longer, combined with fewer of working age paying those vital N.I. contributions, has contributed to an NHS regime no longer able to afford vital services. So, cost-cutting measures are the order of the day - and it seems that dementia services are having to bear the brunt [...]

First International Hearing Voices Congress

editor@uticopa.com — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

It is time that society at large recognises that hearing voices in the head is a human variation rather than a symptom of illness. As a step in the right direction, mental health professionals are urged to attend the first international congress of its kind, specifically organised to develop awareness of this variation.

The First International Hearing Voices Congress is to be held in Maastricht in Holland from 17 - 18th September 2009. It is planned that it should be both inc [...]