It’s that time again. Summer term. Exam season. Up and down the UK. Stress City . . . It’s a perennial problem and one that can lead to innumerable issues. It might not seem scientific but to search for ‘Exam Stress’ on social media highlights the fact that children and teenagers are starting to feel...Read More

It’s an unfortunate fact, but mental health and stigma go hand in hand. Unkind comments. Uninformed opinions. Prejudice. Judgement. Ignorance. Discrimination. It’s rife. It’s wrong. Those at the sharp end bear the brunt, make no mistake, the anxious, the depressed and the unwell. But the stigma doesn’t start or end there. You see, doctors (and...Read More

Heard the one about the theatre director, the playwright, the poet and the psychiatrist? It sounds a little like the opening line in a convoluted joke. On the contrary, however, the subject matter could not be more serious. It centres on psychosis, a condition that, as all who have experienced it can attest, is nothing...Read More

This is quite a question and one that, at first glance, might appear impossible to answer. Individual. Unique. Everyone is different, after all. One man’s pleasure is another man’s pain, or at least so the saying goes. No two people are the same, that much is true. But that doesn’t mean that the question above...Read More

In the main, for most of us, being anxious isn’t a good thing. The problems that present to us here often have some deep anxiety at their heart. Young people and children are very prone to fears, but this is something that everyone encounters at one time or another in their lives. Worry. Nervousness. That...Read More

Pressure. It’s all around us. Never more so, it could be argued, than now, at Christmas time . . . Mistletoe and Wine? For some, perhaps. For others, it’s a period to dread. Mental Illness doesn’t take a break for the festive season. If anything, it intensifies. Depression. Expectation. Drugs. Debt. Drink. Bereavement. Loneliness. Painful...Read More

So first the good news . . . Bullying – in the traditional sense, at least – is said to no longer be quite the problem it once was in schools in England. This is a conclusion based upon research and figures that the Department for Education has released in recent days to coincide with...Read More

Steve Jobs – the Universal Studios biopic that is scheduled to be released in the UK this week – looks to be a fascinating film and one that we’re looking forward to watching. The most interesting aspect might not be the movie itself, however, but rather an enlightening interview that Kate Winslet, who stars alongside...Read More

There’s a viral photograph that is doing the rounds on Facebook just now . . . It shows a group of teenagers, presumably pictured on a school trip, at an art gallery. Hanging on the walls, all around them, are beautiful paintings in ornate frames. No-one is looking at the art, however, because EVERYONE in...Read More

In the UK, over the past three decades or so, there has been a tenfold increase in the number of people diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. This astonishing rise is a cause for concern, autism (and other associated conditions, Asperger’s syndrome included) having emerged from nowhere to trouble our children and threaten their...Read More