Eye colour is inherited from ones parents in a completely predictable way and so are a number of so-called genetic illnesses. This is not the case for any mental illnesses. For some mental illnesses it does matter who your parents are but you cannot predict in the same way as eye colour what effect this… Read more »
Insomnia means literally not being able to sleep but the term includes a whole range of difficulties associated with sleep. For most people having a bad night’s sleep is not the end of the world but some people seem to ‘need their sleep’ more than others. The body usually adapts to a single bad night… Read more »
St. John’s Wort or Hypericum Perforatum is an herb that has been used for many centuries as a treatment for depression. It is very popular in Germany and in recent years people have done trials looking at whether it actually helps people who are depressed. People who are depressed in the clinical sense are generally… Read more »
There was a time when it was considered macho to drink as much as possible before driving, and hope that you were not stopped by the police. These days this type of behaviour is considered both foolish, and dangerous, and there is an understanding that drinking and driving don’t mix. Up until recently the standard… Read more »
Bulimia has its origins in the same mind-set as anorexia and is not that uncommon particularly in young women. As with anorexia it is based on a fear of fatness but the affected person tends to be of normal weight. This is because the person alternates over-eating (sometimes called binge-eating) with a method of shedding… Read more »
We go about our everyday lives in two domains: the emotional and the logical. So, for example, we fall in love (emotional) and then decide to live with or marry the perosn (logical). When a relative dies we feel many emotions but manage to cope with this by allowing ourselves gradually to accept it. Logically… Read more »
Some people develop a condition where they feel compelled to check and recheck things many times over – sometimes to the extent where they are unable to get on with normal daily activities. Sufferers may have long and complex rituals which they feel compelled to carry out and if they deviate even marginally they feel… Read more »
There is a common myth about mental illness, which goes something like this: ‘unless a person wants to change they cannot be helped’. Like all myths there is a grain of truth in it but it is primarily true only for personal and psychological problems, drug and alcohol related problems and mild degrees of mental… Read more »
The short answer is that the vast majority of people who suffer from schizophrenia pose absolutely no danger to anyone. However, as we all know from reading the papers, the very few who do harm people get huge amounts of publicity. So why do people with schizophrenia sometimes harm others (or indeed themselves)? Very often… Read more »
On the face of it, the government’s announcement on 13th December 2012, about giving patients a choice of consultant psychiatrist is a great idea, some may say long overdue. However my prediction is that for many Trusts, up and down the country this will cause enormous headaches and they will struggle to comply. Why? Simply… Read more »