wellbeing

Prescription drug misuse

Younger people carry little or no stigma about using medications casually to solve their problems. This is further borne out by a 2011 Canadian study that found for people under 25, prescription drugs are the third most popular form of drug use, after alcohol and marijuana. via Plague of dodgy prescriptions puts illicit drugs in [...]

How to age well: Let go of regrets

The poem “Maud Muller” by John Greenleaf Whittier aptly ends with the line, “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’” What if you had gone for the risky investment that you later found out made someone else rich, or if you had had the guts [...]

The decline of the West

It is easy and natural to think of the woes of the West's main powers as an economic problem. Because that's the way it is presented to us. And it is economic - at least, superficially. But if you take a step back, what we're really living through is the decline of the West.It's not [...]

The pressures of kindergarten

I read an article a week ago in Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph that really hit a nerve. The article reported that ‘Fearful parents are unnecessarily sending pre-schoolers to early learning classes to give them an academic edge,’ and that ‘Some schools and teachers are also contributing to a sense that children are "failing" kindergarten, and becoming [...]

Kids and Tech: Parenting Tips for the Digital Age

Parents had enough to worry about before their children could bully each other online, meet dangerous strangers without leaving the house, and switch between tasks at a rapid-fire pace. Some parents have even questioned whether their children will ever be able to concentrate. In a world where, according to one survey, 81% of toddlers have [...]

A Facebook crime every 40 minutes

A crime linked to Facebook is reported to police every 40 minutes.Last year, officers logged 12,300 alleged offences involving the vastly popular social networking site.Facebook was referenced in investigations of murder, rape, child sex offences, assault, kidnap, death threats, witness intimidation and fraud. via A Facebook crime every 40 minutes: 12,300 cases are linked to [...]

Premature babies twice as prone to mental disorders

Babies born at 36 weeks gestation or earlier had double the chance of being admitted to hospital for mental disorders as those born on term, while those born at 32 weeks or earlier had three times the risk, a study found. Previous research had indicated preterm babies were more likely to have behavioural problems at [...]

Why Family and Friends Miss Signs of Suicidal Depression

Dominique Browning discusses the reactions of friends and family to the recent suicide of Mary Richardson Kennedy and some of the common misconceptions about suicidal depression.In particular, she focuses on the sense of surprise some people feel when a loved one commits suicide. In her insightful article, she asks: “Is it possible that friends can [...]

Scientists Find Learning Is Not ‘Hard-Wired’

Neuroscience exploded into the education conversation more than 20 years ago, in step with the evolution of personal computers and the rise of the Internet, and policymakers hoped medical discoveries could likewise help doctors and teachers understand the "hard wiring" of the brain. That conception of how the brain works, exacerbated by the difficulty in [...]

Go to Top