Posted by: Uticopa in Untagged on
Jun 01, 2009
Our body's ability to metabolise food is complex and not widely-understood. There are as many different types of metabolic-rate as there are, say, types of facial features. If someone has inherited a poor bodily metabolic rate and then, foolishly, overeats to a marked extent as well - then we get the sort of extreme obesity levels one sees in places like the USA. There's one particular family I know where the wife is obese, the husband skinny, the one son following the mother's shape, the other the father's.
Yet, they all eat the same amount and type of food!
Every day there seem to be yet more doctors telling us that what we eat is bad for us. Most related studies have in the past concentrated on how obesity and poor choice of food give undoubted risk to our cardiovascular system, leading to strokes and cancer. However, a new Australian study has now shown a link between Western-style diets and mental health problems in teenagers.
Posted by: Uticopa in Untagged on
May 27, 2009
As the recession deepens, many couples are struggling - financially, in their relationships and in their own inner mental states.
A typical scenario
Where once the joint monthly income was easily enough to cover outgoings, now that one partner has lost their job, their very financial credibility is at stake. Their arguments become ever more rancorous over how to spend their limited resources; they criticize and blame each other for their current financial woes and then retreat from each other in silence or anger.
Posted by: Uticopa in Untagged on
May 27, 2009
It's now out in the open. Unemployment causes depression causes physical symptoms. We all know that the main reason for working is to gain money to feed ourselves and our families, together with fuelling our ever-increasing lifestyles. However, it seems it's more subtle than that - and this is historically significant for men in particular. To work, and indeed the type of work, is a significant source of a person's sense of self-worth and self-esteem.
How many of us recall TV sitcoms of old, like Reggie Perrin and its ilk, whereby men would often still leave for work in the morning - complete with briefcase and pinstripe suit - months after losing their jobs. The stigma attached to disclosing their misfortune was just too much to bear - even to their wives and family - so the familiar, comforting charade of a normal working routine was continued. But what of the bottling-up of anxieties inside, together with the increasing likelihood of more illnesses to come?
It's a known fact that a high percentage of people develop a depressive illness within six months of becoming unemployed. In fact, after relationship difficulties, unemployment is the most likely thing to force you into a bad depression. With the loss of your job, even through no fault of your own, comes the risk of moving from a position of feeling in reasonable control of your life to facing an uncertain future and suffering from an eroded sense of self-confidence - especially if it takes a long time to find another job.
Posted by: Uticopa in Untagged on
May 16, 2009
For men with mental health issues, is life any easier in Scotland? Is NHS provision better in the north than in England and Wales? And what about costs and waiting times?
I thought I'd better find out.
However, before you get your hopes up too much, it seems that information gathered by a spending watchdog has highlighted a mixed picture on the provision of mental health services in Scotland.
Posted by: Uticopa in Untagged on
May 16, 2009
In the days of yesteryear, WW1 soldiers returned from the fields of battle with all kinds of undiagnosed mental health injuries. But what of the soldiers in today's battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan? A recent investigation puts the spotlight on whether adequate care is offered to them.
In Baghdad, the U.S. military command recently launched an investigation into whether it offers adequate mental health care to its soldiers. This followed a tragic incident where a sergeant allegedly shot and killed five comrades at a clinic on a U.S. base.
Sgt. John M. Russell, from Texas, was taken into custody outside a mental health clinic following the recent shooting and was charged with five counts of murder and one of aggravated assault. The case, which is the deadliest of the war so far involving soldier-to-soldier violence, highlighted combat stress and the emotional problems resulting from fighting in the battle zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Uticopa in stigma on
Apr 24, 2009
A few years ago, during an otherwise normal working week, businessman Jonathan Naess was very publicly sectioned under the Mental Health Act. It was a humiliating experience. Naess was a successful corporate financier with a long career in the City.
He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (manic depression) and placed in a locked ward in a psychiatric hospital.
While hospitalised, he had an interesting discussion with a psychiatrist about how prevalent it was for businessmen to suffer from a mental illness. It was this discussion which prompted him to ‘come out' as mentally ill to his employer - a risky decision in the competitive world of finance - and to carve out an unlikely role for himself as a mental health campaigner.
Posted by: Uticopa in Untagged on
Apr 24, 2009
There is new pressure for psychiatric 'assistance dogs' to have the same rights and status as those used by blind or deaf people
A dog is man's best friend. It's a heartening sight, throughout the world, to see blind and deaf people with specially-trained dogs at their side. More recently, it's now recognised that dogs have an important role to play in care homes and hospital wards, where patients are encouraged to stroke the dogs in an attempt to bring down patient heart-rate and high blood pressure.
But, until now, mental health sufferers were forgotten.
No longer!
Posted by: Uticopa in Untagged on
Apr 22, 2009
The Daily Mail recently discussed the notorious issue of whether men's mental health was better than women's. I say ‘notorious' because ever since the beginning of time men have claimed ‘superior' mental skills. After all, if their brains are bigger and better, as they claim, then their mental state is bound to be healthier too, isn't it?
Let's divide the issue up into Brain, Sleep, Depression and Stress.
Brain
It is indeed true that men's brains are larger than women's. However, women's brains, though smaller, are more tightly packed with cells in the area that controls mental processes such as judgement, personality and memory.
Posted by: Uticopa in Alzheimers on
Apr 20, 2009
Scientists are now saying that some of us will develop Alzheimer's disease in old age because our brains worked too hard when we were younger.
A study has found that in young people genetically predisposed to the degenerative disease, the brain's memory hub is hyperactive. This raises the possibility that some develop Alzheimer's because their memory is simply worn out.
The brain activity of young people with the common gene APOE4 - that can greatly increase the odds of Alzheimer's - was compared with to those without the APOE4 gene. The young volunteers did equally well on tasks which tested their general mental skills, but subsequent scans revealed the brains of those with the APOE4 gene worked harder when set a memory task, and also when at rest.
Posted by: Uticopa in anger management on
Apr 15, 2009
How do we show our anger?
Here are two people arguing during a political protest. Both protesters became angry and aggressive, as evidenced by their body language and facial expressions. Their faces are flushed, the brow muscles have moved inward and downward, fixing a hard stare on the target. The nostrils have flared and the jaw muscles tend toward clenching. Also, raising of the arms and adopting a squared-off stance are early actions for attack and defense. The muscle tension provides a sense of strength and self-assurance. An impulse to strike out accompanies this subjective feeling of potency.
People use a variety of both conscious and unconscious processes to deal with their angry feelings. The three main approaches are:
