A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
No dairy, no gluten, no meat and no sugar. In fact, Ashlee Thomas would allow herself so little food, her parents were forced to do the unthinkable. Force feed their daughter, with a tube, all because she refused to eat. Appearing on Channel 9’s 60 Minutes program on Sunday, the teenager revealed she became so [...]
Eating disorders are difficult to diagnose and have the highest death rate of all mental disorders. According to Eating Disorder Hope, eating disorders do not discriminate. These disorders are complex mental afflictions that can affect anyone, regardless of age, sex or race. While this is true, globally there is a high prevalence of eating disorders among young children [...]
Want to feel better about yourself? Stop following people on social media who make you feel insecure, fat or ugly - it’s probably a very long list. In this age of filters and fakery, there are too many perfect people with perfect lives. Even Selena Gomez, said to be the most followed Instagrammer on the [...]
Not all silence on mental health problems is down to stigma. Sometimes it’s difficult to articulate what’s wrong. You can’t talk about mental health without talking about stigma. Personally, I don’t like talking about stigma – the more you talk about something, the more you entrench it. People often cite fear of stigma as the [...]
Rebecca Gallagher was less than six months into her first semester when she was found dead inside her University of Sydney college dormitory. She had been inactive for a day on Facebook messenger, her classmates say, which was unusual for the vivacious former Kincoppal-Rose Bay pupil who had a habit of collecting friends. The last day of [...]
Even after weeks of treatment and considerable weight gain, the brains of adolescent patients with anorexia nervosa remain altered, putting them at risk for possible relapse. The study, published last week in the American Journal of Psychiatry, examined 21 female adolescents before and after treatment for anorexia and found that their brains still had an [...]
People all over the world will be forming goals for the new year through the rest of December, seeking to improve themselves once the clock strikes 2017. Some of the most popular resolutions are health-oriented, including going to the gym more often and eating better, which can spell trouble for people struggling to overcome eating [...]
Flickr Images "You're overweight, borderline obese." This was what Christopher was told when he attended his corporate health check. The person conducting the check went on to suggest that he take a look at his diet and perhaps think about healthy options. While they didn't come out and say "you need to lose [...]
Pixabay Images Puberty had hit me hard. My body wasn't changing, it had changed – I just woke up one morning to find stretch marks and curves. I no longer looked like my friends, in fact I stuck out like a sore thumb. Once my mum found me crying. I hated my body. I [...]
Hugh Johnson for the Guardian The siblings of those with anorexia or other eating disorders are often overlooked. The UK’s leading eating disorder charity, Beat, has described siblings as the “forgotten victims”. In one report on the charity’s website, eight teenagers with anorexic sisters were interviewed about their experiences. All were negatively affected, [...]
