A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
The fundamental role of a teacher is not to deliver information but to make kids feel like they are important, and have an adult who will never give up on them. When my first child was born, I didn’t realise I was signing up for Mission Impossible. Even as my daughter grew into a toddler [...]
Depression is now the leading cause of disability across the globe, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed. More than 4% of the world’s population lives with depression - with young people, pregnant or post-partum women, and the elderly being most affected. According to the United Nations (UN), the mental illness costs more than $1 trillion [...]
For much of her life Anne Dalton battled depression. She seldom spoke with people. She stayed home a lot. The days dragged on with a sense of “why bother?” for the 61-year-old from New Jersey who used to work at a Wall Street investment firm. After trying more than a dozen combinations of antidepressant drugs [...]
“I've been dealing with anxiety for as long as I can remember,” says Sow Ay, an illustrator who sketches brutally honest cartoons about his ongoing struggle with mental illness. “A few days ago I was diagnosed with panic disorder. It took a lot of time because I was scared to talk about it. But I [...]
If you’ve ever felt depressed, someone’s probably told you to get outdoors and soak up some tasty vitamin D. Because how could you possibly feel sad while sunbaking on the beach? According to research from the Royal Women’s Hospital, Royal Melbourne Hospital and University of Melbourne, that advice is essentially useless for young Australian women with [...]
Mental health problems continue to carry a heavy stigma. People who experience them are often feared, excluded, shamed and discriminated against. Overcoming that stigma is a high priority, not least because it’s a barrier to engaging people in treatments that might help them. People suffering from mental health problems are not the only ones to [...]
Psychological distress in women aged 16-24 is at an all-time high, with record numbers admitting to harming themselves to relieve their distress, according to an alarming study. Experts say young women are now a “high-risk group” and point to links between mental illness and violence or sexual abuse, and possible pressures from the rise of [...]
The Mediterranean diet is well known for its physical health benefits and it is now being hailed as the latest weapon in tackling mental health problems. Researchers at Deakin University have found the diet can help those suffering from severe depression. Professor Felice Jacka, director of Deakin University's Food and Mood Centre, said the Mediterranean [...]
If you can change the way you think, you can change your brain. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which finds that challenging unhealthy thought patterns with the help of a therapist can lead to measurable changes in brain activity. In the study, psychologists at King’s College London show that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy strengthens certain [...]
Depression is associated with widespread changes in brain structure and function. Here are a few examples: 1. A strong body of research shows that people with depression often have a smaller hippocampus [1]. The hippocampus is well known to be important in memory as it processes memories for long term storage. The hippocampus, however, also connects [...]
