“Do you do hypnotherapy for checking things too much? I need to check things for work, but I think it’s got a bit silly lately”. That’s how Jason* introduced himself – and, as he’d say later “with a bit of an understatement”.
41 years have passed since the deaths of members of the Baader Meinhof gang in Stammheim. Whilst you may not have heard of them lately, or at all, you will have experienced the Baader Meinhof phenomenon.
It’s not often that people ask me about something I’ve never heard of before -whether that’s sympathetic pregnancy in men, or people waking up with foreign accents. But although I’d heard before of what was affecting Adam* I’d never heard of it affecting someone the way it was him.
Pheromones have been called ‘the pack animals of desire’. They’re chemical messengers that use our sense of smell as a vital route of communication between everything from couples to pigs and truffles.
Smell and memory are inextricably linked – but smell is actually our quickest route to old and forgotten memories.
Loss of smell as a sense (anosmia) might not seem like such a big deal. But for those affected the results can be devastating – depression, isolation, and even the breakdown of relationships.
The link between sleep and obesity has already been recognised for some time. However, new research shows that it’s potentially much more complicated than was previously thought.
It’s common knowledge that teenagers’ behaviour and mood swings are down to hormones and puberty. It’s also wrong – in fact the teenage brain is much different than we understood even 10 years ago.
One question I’m often asked by concerned parents is around their childrens’ behaviour. “They’re acting out of character and getting moody and angry – are they ill or a teenager behaving normally?”
When you want to help your teen – to try to find out what is affecting their mood or behaviour – then you’re going to have to talk to them. Talking to teens isn’t always easy, and talking to people about their mental health isn’t easy, so talking to teens about their mental health is right in the middle of the difficulty Venn diagram.
