Blog Entries - January 2009

Asperger's Syndrome - recognising the signs

editor@uticopa.com — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Alan, 36, is a software programmer who met and fell in love with his girlfriend Lisa via an internet matchmaking site. They emailed for a few months before meeting face to face on their first date. At first Lisa was surprised that he didn't seem that interested and, at the end of the night, he kissed her on the cheek and asked to see her again. However, the more she saw of him, the more she relished his offbeat, quirky company. Also, she really appreciated his old-fashioned manner of [...]

Alzheimer's: the cruelest disease

editor@uticopa.com — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

When actor Kevin Whately proudly posed with his mother Mary for his graduation ceremony back in 1996, he couldn't have known the highs and lows of what the future held. Not only would he lose his screen partner, John Thaw, but witness the agonising years of his mother's decline through Alzheimer's.

The actor, best known for his role in the ITV drama Inspector Morse, and its spin-off series, Lewis, has recently revealed the harsh reality of caring for a loved one who is suffer [...]

Obama: a dream for man

editor@uticopa.com — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

As Barack Obama is sworn in as 44th President of the United States, he has already changed the perceptions of the world. Not only is he the first black man to hold the office, not only has he altered our views of what a middle-aged man can look like, but crucially he has already changed the way men of the world feel about themselves and their image in the world.

Ever since Martin Luther King uttered those immortal words -

‘I have a dream, brothers and sisters....Let u [...]

Coded messages: What does making a 'to do list' say about you?

editor@uticopa.com — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

We live in a world where today's women are expected to juggle so many roles. I'm reminded of that circus act where someone tries to keep twelve plates spinning at one time, constantly needing to race back each time another plate starts to weaken. But for men too, life can be exasperating in its demands.

Today's man needs to fulfil far different roles than yesteryear - whether it be the need to take paternity leave, or that ever-demanding IT job and the stress of failure. In m [...]

Bipolar disorder

editor@uticopa.com — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

At a recent seminar on bipolar disorder at St. Andrew's University, the personality Stephen Fry discussed his condition with psychiatric students and practitioners. He has also made a series of programmes for the BBC about his condition and how it famously manifested itself in 1995 when he walked out of the West End play Cellmates.

Other celebrities who also suffer from bipolar include Hollywood actors Richard Dreyfus and Carrie Fisher, and British comedians Tony Slattery and Jo Br [...]

Time to Stop & Stare

editor@uticopa.com — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

What is this life if full of care

We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep, or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

Time Travel

editor@uticopa.com — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

If Spock were here, he and Bones - the good doctor from the Starship Enterprise - would cure all our ills. How simple it would be if only we could go back in time to fix all those ‘if only' situations, then zoom forward at warp speed to ensure a perfect future.

Despite the fact that this is the real world, modern technology has actually come up with some innovative ideas to help. There is a free website www.futureme.org which lets you send an email to yourself up to 30 years [...]

Post-Natal Awareness Kit

editor@uticopa.com — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Rather like home pregnancy-detector kits, a new on-line PND awareness kit has been developed, based on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, first published in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 1987. So, there's now a way for you to find out whether what you are experiencing are actual PND symptoms - and in the comfort of your own home.

The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale is a set of questions designed to see if a new mother may have depression. The answers will not prov [...]

New Year resolutions: Yes we can!

editor@uticopa.com — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

As Big Ben made its first chimes in the icy chill that heralded the New Year, many were those who decided to make a new year's resolution for the first time in their lives. After all the economic disasters of last year, it was perhaps inevitable there would be a collective inner wish for a better life in 2009. But are our resolutions doomed to failure as soon as life intrudes? Furthermore, do men make different New Year resolutions from women, and what can we learn from psychologists on how [...]

Let's face the music and dance

editor@uticopa.com — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

As Irving Berlin put it, there are times when we just have to face the music of our personal problems and learn to dance anyway. Certainly, after extraordinary turmoil in the economy last year, just about everyone has something to worry about. But sometimes change is not always for the worse. The trick is to, first, adjust by facing our problems.

Let's face the music......

If your life is becoming too much to bear for you, your GP is a good first port of call.

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 [...]