A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
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 [...]
Flickr Images Mental health experts are warning of the risks of the increasingly popular “clean eating” dietary trend, which is leaving a growing number of teenagers very thin and even at risk of dying when taken to extremes. One nutritionist said she had been contacted by a girl as young as 12 and [...]
Image: Mark Mawson/Getty Mollycoddled and cosseted or stressed and over-pressured. Energised and engaged or bored and turned off. Young people have so many labels and stereotypes slapped on them it’s a wonder these are not visible on their endless selfies. What is undeniably true is that the evidence suggests that rates of depression, [...]
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 [...]
iStock Images Social media is a strange beast. Consider the app, Facetune, which makes the application of Valencia seem like child's play. Facetune is the Photoshop of selfies; it allows you to retouch your skin, add make-up, whiten your teeth, widen your mouth, change your eye colour, change your hair and basically make [...]
Pixabay Images A new study shows a worrying rise in mental health problems among teenagers in the UK. According to the Department of Education, which spoke to 30,000 pupils aged 14-15, more than one in three teen girls suffer from anxiety or depression. It's a rise of 10 per cent in the past decade, [...]
Flickr Images Last year, in my late 40s, I was diagnosed with autism. I’ve always known I was different, and sought a formal diagnosis after the traits I’ve lived with for almost five decades became progressively more difficult to manage. I’m certainly not the only woman who has had to wait a long [...]
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, [...]
Flikr Images The universal truth of puberty and adolescence is body change, and relatively rapid body change. Teenagers have to cope with all kinds of comparisons, with their peers, with the childhood bodies they leave behind, and with the altered images used in advertising and in the self-advertising on social media. It may [...]
More than half of female university students in Australia are skipping meals before a big night out so they can save calories for alcohol, an Adelaide study has found. The study, by PhD student and researcher Alissa Knight at the University of South Australia, looks into the social phenomena dubbed "drunkorexia". Ms Knight said drunkorexia [...]
