A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
It’s perfectly normal for someone to feel anxious or depressed after receiving a diagnosis of a serious illness. But what if the reverse occurs and symptoms of anxiety or depression masquerade as an as-yet undiagnosed physical disorder? Or what if someone’s physical symptoms stem from a psychological problem? How long might it take before the [...]
Parents play a key role in helping children develop good mental health. It is important that parents support and encourage positive mental health habits in children from an early age, and continue encouraging positive mental health behaviours during adolescence. These positive habits will support young people’s health and wellbeing in all life domains into the [...]
It's freezing in the morning when I trudge to work and dark in the evening when I plod home. But while drizzling showers, occasional thunderstorms, and the bitter wind is making me grumpy and irritable - I'm not struggling as much as some of my patients. For some people, winter months herald the start of [...]
With around half of the Australian population logging into Facebook on a daily basis (yes, that's 12.2 million of us), it's safe to say social media plays a large role in many of our everyday lives. Of course, while there are numerous benefits to social media use, what you get out of it corresponds rather [...]
New research has found growing up in a disadvantaged neighbourhood may have negative effects on children’s brain development. But for males, at least, positive parenting negated these negative effects, providing some good lessons for parents. Living in a disadvantaged neighbourhood (where there are more people who have low income jobs or are unemployed, are less [...]
The term demoralization was originally coined in the 1970s by a psychiatrist who was seeing patients that didn’t quite meet full criteria for major depression. Nonetheless, they were suffering – in a shared state of emotional distress and sense of incompetence. For many Americans, we are experiencing this now. Events such as the recent terrorist [...]
Higher than average levels of impulsiveness, sensitivity to anxiety, sensation seeking and hopelessness. These four personality traits have been shown by researchers to predict those teenagers at high risk of becoming binge drinkers with 90 per cent accuracy. In the first Australian trial, a program targeting 438 year 8 students with one of these traits [...]
If Australia is to be genuinely committed to reducing rates of suicide, problematic substance use, and aggression and violence (including alcohol related and family violence), then we must have a coordinated plan for young men's mental health. Only a small proportion of young men who have a need for care access services receive appropriate treatment [...]
Remember a world before smart phones, when you actually knew dozens of numbers off by heart and would physically dial them into a handset to make a phone call? Chances are you now outsource that knowledge to your contacts list and rarely, if ever, take the time to learn a number by rote. While this [...]
Depression is usually considered an issue parents have to watch out for starting in the turbulent teenage years. The CW channel, full of characters with existential angst about school, friends and young love, tells us so, as do the countless parenting books about the adolescent years in every guidance counselor's office. But what if by that time it's already too late? A [...]
