A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Join Andrew Fuller as he chats with guest Dr Karen Spielman on eating disorders in young people. Mental health and our relationship with food in a post-COVID era Raising the issue with someone you suspect has an eating disorder How to support someone who denies having the condition and is reluctant to accept help Managing [...]
Vivienne Lewis, University of Canberra Season two of the series Heartstopper on Netflix brings out an issue that is often hidden – male eating disorders. Centred on two teenage boys in love, the show helps bust the common perception that eating disorders are only seen in girls and women. In one episode of the series, [...]
Hannah Kennedy, University of Otago For many people, the term “eating disorder” will bring to mind its two most familiar forms – anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. What they may not realise, however, is that “binge eating disorder” is more common than the other two combined and can significantly reduce quality of life. More than [...]
Researchers asked the question whether realistic dolls protect body satisfaction in young girls. The study published in the journal Body Image, measured the body perceptions and ideals of thirty-one girls aged 5 to 9 years before and after a playing in pairs with an ultra-thin doll, a realistic childlike doll or a car. Play with [...]
New Australian research into body image and eating disorders in adolescents has found an alarming rise in the prevalence of chewing and spitting out food. More than one in ten of the cohort of over 5,000 11- to 19-year-olds reported having spat out food at least once per week, with 2.5% having done so four [...]
Fitness and health tracking devices are becoming increasingly popular and a huge variety of wearable tech and apps now exist. Indeed, many smartphones and smart watches now come primed and ready to track our activity, sleep and nutrition. Research has for a long time highlighted how monitoring behaviours can help to lead to positive changes [...]
Last week, federal health minister Greg Hunt announced that more than 60,000 Australians will be asked about their mental health and well-being as part of the Intergenerational Health and Mental Health Study. The mental health survey will be run in 2020, with new data on how common mental illness is due the year after. This [...]
There has been increasing awareness recently that many girls on the autism spectrum are overlooked until much later in life, which can be the source of confusion and distress for the girls themselves and those who care for them. The reason behind this has been rightfully attributed to girls with autism presenting differently to a [...]
The Fast Track to Health study is a year-long dietary trial in adolescents with obesity. Since it started in Sydney and Melbourne at the end of 2018, it has been criticised for increasing the risk of eating disorders in people who may be especially vulnerable to these conditions. Sydney-based clinical psychologist Louise Adams started up [...]
Mental health disorders may onset early in life, meaning that parents and healthcare professionals need to be able to recognize the signs and intervene appropriately. And as any epidemiologist will tell you, one of the first steps of understanding an illness or condition – and how to best treat it – is to determine how [...]
