A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Recovering pokie machine addict Sharon Hollamby. ABC: Ka-Ching! Pokie Nation Science backs up Ms Hollamby's feeling of being "hypnotised" or "hijacked" by pokie machines. Like Pavlov's dog, who learned to salivate at the sound of a bell, pokie machine players learn to associate reward with the sound of the machines, gambling researcher Dr [...]
By now, most of us have seen the shocking before and after pics of people addicted to methamphetamines. Exactly what is happening inside each cell to cause such striking changes to a person’s face and body? Meth, scientists from the Italian Institute of Technology and UC Irvine say, causes abnormalities in the fat metabolism of [...]
The number of people at risk for psychological damage from Facebook is in the hundreds of millions, in North America alone (with hundreds of millions more at risk, around the globe). And, I would argue, there is now plenty of evidence that people should be warned by the nation’s most prominent public health official that, [...]
97% of children play video games* 2% are addicted The recent story of an Adelaide mother who is struggling with her 17 year old son’s addiction to the online fantasy game Runescape probably rang alarm bells with many parents who suspect or know their teenager is in front of a screen far too often and [...]
70% of smokers say they want to quit. Most smokers start when they are teenagers. Tobacco is addictive, out of the 3 million smokers in Australia, 70% want to quite but find the habit very hard to kick even though they are aware of the health risks. Saturday 1 December 2012, saw a new turning [...]
90% of children play computer games. 10% of them are addicted. The dangers of computers games have been in the news again recently with the death of a teenager in Taiwan after playing for 40 hours straight without refreshments or leaving the computer. Internet computer games have and addictive dimension to them that some young [...]
Despite the fact that nearly a year has passed since the Australian and New Zealand Food and Health Ministers recommended that the alcohol industry be given two years to voluntarily implement alcohol warning labels, less than 16%* of alcoholic products carry a consumer information message. Of those that do, 98% take up less than 5% [...]
Dry July is a non-profit organisation determined to improve the lives of adults living with cancer through an online social community giving up booze for the month of July. Dry July is also a chance to raise awareness of individual drinking habits, the value of a balanced healthy lifestyle, a personal challenge, encourage positive change [...]
Paul Dillon, author of "Teenagers, Alcohol and Drugs"and Generation Next speaker says that in today's society children are introduced to drugs from an early age; if they have a cough we give then ‘medicine’ for it. So there is no reason why we can’t introduce the idea of drugs at an early age and build [...]
