A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Image: Mark Mawson/Getty Mollycoddled and cosseted or stressed and over-pressured. Energised and engaged or bored and turned off. Young people have so many labels and stereotypes slapped on them it’s a wonder these are not visible on their endless selfies. What is undeniably true is that the evidence suggests that rates of depression, [...]
Pixabay Images Puberty had hit me hard. My body wasn't changing, it had changed – I just woke up one morning to find stretch marks and curves. I no longer looked like my friends, in fact I stuck out like a sore thumb. Once my mum found me crying. I hated my body. I [...]
iStock Images Social media is a strange beast. Consider the app, Facetune, which makes the application of Valencia seem like child's play. Facetune is the Photoshop of selfies; it allows you to retouch your skin, add make-up, whiten your teeth, widen your mouth, change your eye colour, change your hair and basically make [...]
Pixabay Images A new study shows a worrying rise in mental health problems among teenagers in the UK. According to the Department of Education, which spoke to 30,000 pupils aged 14-15, more than one in three teen girls suffer from anxiety or depression. It's a rise of 10 per cent in the past decade, [...]
Hugh Johnson for the Guardian The siblings of those with anorexia or other eating disorders are often overlooked. The UK’s leading eating disorder charity, Beat, has described siblings as the “forgotten victims”. In one report on the charity’s website, eight teenagers with anorexic sisters were interviewed about their experiences. All were negatively affected, [...]
Flikr Images The universal truth of puberty and adolescence is body change, and relatively rapid body change. Teenagers have to cope with all kinds of comparisons, with their peers, with the childhood bodies they leave behind, and with the altered images used in advertising and in the self-advertising on social media. It may [...]
More than half of female university students in Australia are skipping meals before a big night out so they can save calories for alcohol, an Adelaide study has found. The study, by PhD student and researcher Alissa Knight at the University of South Australia, looks into the social phenomena dubbed "drunkorexia". Ms Knight said drunkorexia [...]
Pexel Images When girls come in for their physical exams, one of the questions I routinely ask is “Do you get your period?” I try to ask before I expect the answer to be yes, so that if a girl doesn’t seem to know about the changes of puberty that lie ahead, I [...]
Research indicates that there are generally low levels of mental health literacy in the community. General beliefs and misunderstandings about mental health affect community responses to eating disorders. Understanding the facts about eating disorders can reduce stigma, increase awareness and consequently improve the prevention, early identification and help-seeking among sufferers. The National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC) have identified five common misconceptions about [...]
Stock Images Given current national statistics, we can safely assume there are very few young people who haven’t known someone who has deliberately injured themselves by cutting, self-battery, overdosing or intentionally participating in risky behaviour. In 2015 the Australian Child and Adolescent Survey reported that approximately 10% of 12 – 17 year olds have self-harmed, with 8% self-harming [...]
