Tag: mental health

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Science shows that schools should start later, so why hasn’t the penny dropped?

Alarm Clock (Public Domain image)The sun is shining, the birds are singing and it’s the start of a brand new day. Like many people, I love the mornings and consider myself an ‘early bird’ (after the first coffee, that is). It wasn’t always that way, however. During my teenage years, getting out of bed before 9 am was so difficult that the bed clothes might just as well have been made out of lead. Such slothful adolescent behaviour is common and the cause of endless parental exasperation. Youngsters may not be just being lazy, however, as something strange is happening in their brain. From around the age of 14, the childhood brain rapidly rewires as it matures and develops an adult mind. Throughout this turbulent time of mood swings and emotional angst the teenage body clock also steps back two time zones. Read more

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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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Life with autism: it’s not what you think

Autism: a spectrumImagine a world where the clink of a coffee cup chimed louder than Big Ben. Imagine what it would be like if a muttering crowd sounded louder than a World Cup roar. Envisage a desk lamp that burned brighter than the sun; or suppose a whiff of rotten fish lingered with you all day long. This is the world of sensory overload. Welcome to the world of autism. Read more

Forget a ‘broken society’ – did Boredom cause the London Riots?

Albert Nerenbert- the man who claims boredom was the cause of the UK's summer riots. (Source: AlbertNerenberg.com)

The official report on the reasons behind last year’s riots in the UK will be published tomorrow. It concludes that half a million families in the UK aren’t getting the support they need. It also points the finger at poor parenting, and materialism brought on by advertising. But perhaps there is a more basic, scientific and primitive urge that triggered the rioting? One man thinks that boredom may have been the cause. And he’s not the only one – and has some compelling science to back up his claims.

It sounds an outrageous proposition, but the notion that being ‘fed up’ causes rioting is the put forward in a forthcoming documentary by Canadian film producers, Elevator Films (for release May 2012).  The documentary, led by director/producer Albert Nerenberg (of ‘Laughology’ fame), explores the idea that widespread boredom across the UK (through unemployment and poor-schooling) was a key factor in the wide-spread looting of otherwise ‘normal’ English men and women. The film travels the globe, interviewing some of the world’s top thinkers on boredom research. They also asked me to give an opinion. Read more

Behind the Headlines: ‘9/11 Counselling Drives People Mad’ – Is this Tabloid Journalism at its Worst?

September 11, 2001Where were you when the Twin Towers came down? Most of us can remember.

The terrorist attacks of September 11 stirred nations to war; triggered a decade of ‘Islamophobia’– and some even say – unified the people of USA. It has been the most televised and reported event in modern history.

In the hours and days following 9/11, thousands of counsellors travelled to New York to offer support for the traumatised. Although well-intentioned, were these psychologists actually doing more harm than good?

The Daily Mail recently reported that ‘[post trauma] therapy can drive you mad’. You can read their article here. Most people won’t be able to access the 7,000 word research paper they claim to report (without paying twelve bucks). So, if you’d like to know the truth behind the headline, read on… Needless to say, this is tabloid spin at its finest… Read more