In response to a worrying survey which found half of 16 – 21 year old girls consider cosmetic surgery, the Girl Guides are petitioning the government to bring in new laws with regards to airbrushed pictures carrying a warning. Liz Burnley of Girlguiding UK believes young girls are now under a huge amount of pressure read more »

A recent study from the University of Alabama has confirmed there is a relationship between depression and abdominal obesity. The researchers found that during a 15 year period, young adults with depression experienced a faster rate of weight gain than the others in the study, but those starting overweight did not experience changes in depression. read more »

Evidence suggests that the types of food we eat can have a huge effect on our risk of dementia. BBC News reports. Recent research has shown that those eating a ‘mediterranean’ style diet rich in foods such as nuts, fish and vegetables, stand a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Health experts have always cautioned read more »

The Royal College of Psychiatrists (The RCPsych) is calling for warning symbols to be placed on images that have been digitally altered or enhanced and for underweight models to be banned altogether. Children are now frequently exposed to airbrushed imaged of underweight models, leading them to believe that this is the natural body type they read more »

A recent report featured on BBC News has suggested that half of young people suffering with eating disorders believe their illness was caused by bullying. Researchers interviewed more than 600 16-25 year gold’s suffering from anorexia, bulimia or over eating. Of those questioned, 91% said they had experienced bullying with 46% of them believing that read more »

A recent report in The Times has highlighted the shockingly low self esteem of Britain’ s teenage girls. Mother’s consider this a warning, because after reading this you will probably want to take your precious daughter and ship her off to a far corner of the world where plastic surgery isn’t on the Christmas list read more »

It has been found that women who participate in adventure therapy often walk away with higher levels of self-confidence and motivation. This research was conducted by Dr Kaye Richards and was presented at the 5th International Adventure Therapy Conference. It examined practical ways of working therapeutically outdoors with women who suffer from eating disorders. The read more »

The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RC Psych) is calling for urgent action to address the dangers of pro-eating disorder websites, and wants the government’s Child Internet Safety Council (UKCCIS) to mark these websites as harmful. The RC Psych has called on UKCCIS to expand its definition of harmful web content to include pro-ana (anorexia) and read more »

Times online have recently created a number of questionnaires to help you determine if you might have a mental illness. If you are worried that your winter blues might be something a little more serious then find out if you need to seek help. We are all guilty of using the terms stressed and depressed read more »

Research shows that children whose fathers suffer from mental health problems are more likely to suffer themselves, reports the BBC. Reviewing previous research, the team from Oxford University said too much emphasis had been placed on mothers’ mental health rather than fathers, as mothers are considered to provide the most childcare. However, with shifting roles read more »