This year alone, 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health problem, that’s a staggering 12 million people in the U.K. The institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London and the Mental Health Foundation are working together to promote the importance of mental health research in the UK. They are hoping that increased investment will change our understanding of mental illness and our ability to prevent and treat it and with the proper research, they believe breakthroughs for new treatments could be made in as little as the next 20 years.
As part of the Research Mental Health initiative, leading scientists and public figures including Alistair Campbell, Jo Brand, Ruby Wax, Tracey Emin, Stephen Fry, Melanie C and Mercury award winner Speech Debelle, have signed a declaration that is calling for more investment in mental health research.
The Mental Health Foundation are calling for a trebling of investment. Mental illness makes up 15 percent of the countries disease yet...
A article featured in the Telegraph has reported that children who watch T.V late into the night are more likely to develop depression.
Researchers have found that the situations in which children watch T.V in late into the night could actually lead to depression. Artificial light from room lights and blue light from the T.V screen can alter mood and cause similar symptoms to depression such as lack of energy and enthusiasm.
According to scientists, the blue light from televisions could be especially disruptive and the rise in depression seems to correlate with the rise in use of electric lights. Suggesting that more research is needed on how artificial lighting affects emotional health in humans.
We are all aware the sunlight is good for us, especially in these winter months when there is a plethora of information about how to beat the winter blues. Sun light seems to equal happy healthy people and murky weather and artificial light seems to equal gloomy...
Talking therapy unfortunately seems to come with a stigma of being self indulgent. However, the people that label it as the above tend to be those who have never had enough emotional turmoil to really need it. Hopefully, the imminent arrival of HBO’s new drama ‘In Treatment’ will go a little way in opening the eyes of the masses and the ball will suddenly drop about not having to cope with our problems on our own.
Friends are great, but the trouble with friends is that in difficult situations a friend will always attempt to comfort you, not tell you uncomfortable truths. What you really need to hear is advice from someone who is emotionally unattached and objective and though therapy can certainly make you feel a little out of your comfort zone, it is sure to provide you with emotional honesty and a willingness to take responsibility for your own behavior.
Not all therapy is going to work for you. What might work miracles for one person, might make...
Sleepless nights are a given when a baby is born, but overtiredness and anxiety can often lead to more serious long term sleep disorders that can have a detrimental effect on the other aspects of your life and can eventually lead to postnatal depression if ignored.
It would be delusional for new parents to expect an unbroken nights sleep, but post natal insomnia comes into play when you are unable to fall back asleep after those midnight bottle feeds and two in the morning nappy changes. Recent research has shown that new mothers spend around 20% more time awake during the first six weeks after childbirth than is the average. In addition to this, portpartum women have less dream sleep and wake more frequently than non-postpartum. Jenny Smith is a senior NHS midwife and author of Your Body, Your Baby, Your Birth, and she explains how if the lack of sleep becomes constant it can lead to postnatal depression.
Most women are able to return to...
The Fifty Cents for Your Soul film season aims to put the spotlight on women’s mental health since the golden age of Hollywood.
The idea of the film festival is to challenge perceptions of mental health and also to stimulate debate between the arts and the mental health professions.
Often there is a stigma attached to mental health and the festival directors hope to address these problems with the public as a whole.
When the festival was first in the pipe line the organisers ( Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival )were planning it on a fairly small scale, with just films in and around Glasgow over the space of a weekend. Three years later and it has grown into the world’s largest festival of it’s kind with more than 200 events up and down the country, from music to dance and film, comedy and theatre.
On top of the exploration of gender and mental health, the festival also broaches subjects and themes such as community cohesion,...
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