A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Early years settings, like preschools and kindergarten, are often the first place social difficulties are identified. Pixabay Alison M Marchbank, Charles Darwin University The rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in selected sites in 2016 signified a shift in cultural views about disability. Historical views were based on a medical model derived from [...]
A group of researchers say depression would be better treated if it was classified into 12 different disorders. There are calls for a major overhaul of the way depression is diagnosed and treated to better recognise its triggers. A group of international psychologists have challenged the classification of 'major depression' and argue it would be [...]
Here’s a phrase that psychiatrists will either love or hate: “State-space temporal analysis suggests that onset of depression may be detectable from Twitter data several months prior to diagnosis.” Indeed, a team of researchers from the University of Vermont, Stanford, and Harvard found that depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can often be detected by [...]
“Be a guide, not a guard” perfectly describes the kinds of parenting behaviors that create happy and responsible children. It’s a term I learned at a recent training session focused on reducing controlling parenting behaviors. When I ask parents “what have you tried to help change your child’s behavior?” little breaks my heart more than hearing a [...]
In the midst of my worst moments of anxiety and panic, I would focus incessantly on the physical sensation and fear that it was something serious and harmful. But, as I learned over time from several experts, my attention was directed on the wrong thing. What if I could shift my focus to something else – [...]
Raising a mentally strong kid doesn’t mean he won’t cry when he’s sad or that he won’t fail sometimes. Mental strength won’t make your child immune to hardship – but it also won’t cause him to suppress his emotions. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Mental strength is what helps kids bounce back from setbacks. It [...]
Up to 70% of autistic people experience mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety, according to some research. Unfortunately, we still don’t know why autistic people are at a higher risk for mental health problems than non-autistic people. But one important factor is whether an individual’s autism is recognised and accepted by those around them. [...]
Teenagers who abuse alcohol and marijuana are probably not going to do much with their lives, according to new research. Scientists were investigating the link between dependency on those two drugs and life achievements when they found that the young adults they were studying, who had problems with alcohol and pot, were less likely to [...]
Debunking the myths and sharing the important truths about this incredibly common mental health issue. Firstly, here's what anxiety is not: it's not worrying that your train has been cancelled or that your card won't be accepted in a restaurant. It's not being scared before a medical test. Anxiety is an inappropriate response to a real or perceived [...]
Today I walked my five-year-old daughter to her kinder class, with her little brother on my hip. My son who is two and a half has bright red hair and beautiful sky-blue eyes. When I am on semester break obviously he doesn’t attend daycare so I sometimes get the chance to take him with us [...]
