Tag: Psychology

Fatigue: the problem most people don’t understand

If you’ve never experienced extreme fatigue, then it’s difficult to appreciate. It’s all too easy to say that someone is “lazy” if they complain of no energy or go for a lie down at two in the afternoon. For a long time, many doctors haven’t understood it. For people who are constantly exhausted, us doctors would scrawled ‘TATT’ in the medical notes when someone said they were ‘tired all the time’. They are letters I had often scribbled, but until I felt real fatigue after brain tumour surgery nine years ago, I didn’t truly understand it. Read more

The vaccine controversy that isn’t controversial

Polio is a disease that should be long dead by now. Some readers will be old enough to remember rooms full of ‘iron lungs’ – grotesque life-support machines that did the breathing for children left paralysed by this deadly infection. With their small heads poking out through a tight rubber seal, steam engine-like contraptions sucked and pressed on the child’s chest in the hope that their strength would recover. Polio infection was also called ‘infantile paralysis’ and it struck terror into the hearts of parents everywhere. The viral disease starts out like a mild flu then attacks the brain and spinal cord. A blight on humankind, children who survived could be left with monstrous deformities. Read more

The Science of the Midlife Crisis – a modern myth?

They say that life begins at 40. If that is true, then I have four and half years coddled up in the womb of young adulthood before I am birthed into the cold harshness of ‘middle age’. We tend not to think too much of being ‘middle aged’, and we all know someone who has gone through (or is going through) the dreaded ‘midlife crisis’. About a quarter of adults aged over 40 say that they have had such an episode and the story usually goes something like: a 40- or 50-something man splashes his lifesavings on a flashy sportscar or noisy motorbike, starts a rock band, and/or quits his job to swan off with a younger woman. What on Earth could possibly possess a responsible grownup show such sudden reckless abandon? Read more

What’s going on in the mind of a spree killer?

MindA couple of weekends ago, I was invited onto BBC Breakfast News to review the Sunday papers. Arriving at the studio in Salford, Manchester, at 6am, the producer presented me with a foot-high pile of the day’s newspapers and instructed me to pick five stories to talk about on air. All should be from different papers, none could be from the front page, and two needed to be ‘serious’. The Munich shootings had happened just two days before, when 18-year-old Ali David Sonboly lured victims to a McDonald’s restaurant before going on a killing spree that left nine dead and 35 injured. It was a horrific news event that simply couldn’t be ignored. Taking a deep breath, I sat down on the red sofa and flicked open a copy of The Observer to discuss this baby-faced teenager’s murderous acts. It’s not the sort of thing any of us want to talk about, let alone in front of 2 million people, but trying to understand the mind of the young killer could actually help prevent such tragedies happening again. Read more

The time I saw demons: let’s remove the stigma of mental health

Paul Hollywood‘The witch’ first started speaking evil thoughts into my mind when I was working in a hospital in Gambia, West Africa. To everyone else she was a concerned-looking 50-something woman crouching over a feverish relative. My supernatural sensitivities told me otherwise. Utterly oblivious, I was suffering the horrifying symptoms of schizophrenia and was utterly convinced these hallucinations were real.

It was several weeks later, after returning to the UK, that reality slowly returned and I stopped hearing voices*. It took me years to gain the courage to tell anyone about my experiences – and even longer to write about it. For this is the nature of mental health illnesses: few people want to talk about them, it is shameful to suffer them and – even in 2015 – those affected are often branded ‘mad’ or ‘weak’.
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Mario turns 30! How playing video games can be good for us (sometimes)

Super MarioHappy Birthday Mario! The large-nosed plumber, famous as Nintendo video game character who jumps down pipes and collects mushrooms, has just turned just turned thirty*. And he now the iconic video game star has a real reason to jump for joy. Research is increasingly showing us that video games could be good for us, which means all of us could benefit from a bit of Mario-time every once in a while.

Originally a tiny 130 pixel graphic, the mustachioed 1985 superhero went on to spawn a franchise worth over $10 million and in 1993 inspired the first Hollywood movie to feature a video game. (Called Mario Bros. it stared Bob Hoskins, but was awful.) Today’s photorealistic games are a far cry from these early days and are no longer the preserve of closeted teenage boys. People of all ages play computer games in their front rooms, often together. This hasn’t stopped parents and doctors being concerned, however, and photorealistic action games tend to cause the most controversy. Read more

Don’t forget to vote: it’s good for body and mind

Voting is importantWaiting for the general election has been a bit like waiting for Christmas. The hype keeps building but the big day never seems to arrive. Rather than greetings cards, however, ‘vote for me’ flyers have been piling up on the door mat. And instead of wall-to-wall seasonal specials, television viewing has been nonstop politics. Come May 7th, few of us will expect to be unwrapping gifts and digging into turkey, however. But taking a visit to the polling station could be just the thing for leaving you feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Read more

Is owning a dog is good for you? Separating howling myths from tail-wagging truths

Good doggyThere are some things in life no one ever teaches you. Like the etiquette of dog walking. As a reluctant dog owner of two years, the strange world of dog walkers still mystifies me. Should I let my dog sniff another dog’s crotch? Should I apologise when my dog barks at a stranger? Will the 6 foot, burly man with tattoos thump me if I ask him why he owns a dog as small as a hamster? Read more

The health benefits of generosity – it really is better to give than receive

Shoebox appeal 2014Christmas is a time for giving. This week, we will give more to charity than at any other time of the year. For, all the fundraising carol singers, shopping-bag-packing Brownies, and charity tin-shakers make it hard for even the stingiest of scrooges to keep their wallets buckled shut. But a couple of weeks ago, I witnessed thousands of acts of kindness that would make Father Christmas proud.

Every year, the ‘Operation Christmas Child’ initiative invites members of the public to fill empty shoeboxes with Christmas presents to send to countries in the developing world. Individually wrapped and purposed for a boy or a girl, boxes are shipped to underprivileged youngsters in Africa, Eastern Europe and worn-torn countries such as Iraq. The appeal has been running for over twenty years and for many children, that solitary shoebox of gifts will be the only thing they receive this Christmas. Read more

Holy Frijoles! Swearing is a natural pain-killer

'Pirates'Stubbing your toe has to rank as one of the most painful experiences ever. Beaten only, perhaps, by a bonnet lid falling on your head or trying to pass a kidney stone. Such agonies momentarily wrack the senses, making us see red while focusing our entire being on our toe – or head – or loin . Hoping on one foot or head rubbing invariably follows, accompanied by the expulsion of an expletive or two. Of course, bellowing vulgarities in public isn never a good idea and usually results in a severe reprimanding from our nearest and dearest, should they be within earshot. Yet according to research from Keele University, the odd swearword here and there mightn’t be all that bad – and could even be effective for numbing life’s worst pains. Read more