PSYCHE - June 2022

Depression and low mood are not separate from the rest of your bodily health: the right diet can help reduce your risk

BBC Science Focus Magazine - March 2022

In prison, suicides, self-harm and assaults on officers are on the rise. But studies suggest there is a cheap, low-risk way to improve inmate behaviour and mental health, making the facilities safer for both staff and prisoners.

BBC Science Focus Magazine - January 2022

Your brain is hungry. In fact, it is the hungriest organ in your body. Despite making up only around 2 per cent of your overall body weight, your brain consumes about 20 per cent of your body’s total energy requirement. But it is a mistake to think that it’s only energy that the brain needs to function well.

Vogue - March 2021

It’s been a good year for cancelling. There’s the pandemic, of course, which crushed all of our plans and some hopes and dreams along the way. But there were also more specific cancellations.

The British Psychological Society

This kind of ‘show me, tell me’ vehicle safety question will be familiar to anyone who has taken a driving test in the last 10 years.

To answer them learners must acquire the bare minimum of car maintenance knowledge to ensure driver safety.

The British Psychological Society

Depression is a psychological illness with physiological correlates, sharing some of its disease process with other physical illnesses such as heart disease. And one consistent biological feature of depression is an elevated immune response called inflammation.

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‘Trigger warnings’ – messages indicating that upcoming information may be emotionally distressing - are increasing regular features of social media and, so I hear, teaching environments.

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Telling people that you are a psychologist (or even a psychology student) tends to evoke two responses in others: curiosity or hostility.

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I retweeted a quote this morning by Carl Jung. A contemporary of Freud, he was full of interesting and inspirational nuggets like:

“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

But this morning it was:

“Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.”

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I was talking to somebody last week who told me that, as a child, they were warned off pointing at the stars ‘because it gives you warts.’ An old wives’ superstition that was funny in its randomness (and in the complete lack of respect for the germ theory of disease). But it irritated me in its function; in curbing an inquisitive child.

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We’re really in a bad place with the collective attitude towards the body. We accept that the brain or, more precisely, the mind has intrinsic value, right? You’re not (generally) allowed to criticise my thoughts, my beliefs, my personality.

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While I’m no particular fan of many of the doctrines of traditional religion, I’m always open and curious to why certain faiths have enjoyed such longevity. In part, I think, is in the role of religion to foster a sense of shared identity and, subsequently, community cohesion and cooperation.

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I know, I know, it’s not what you’re used to hearing, especially on Instagram. But, psychologically, it’s quite an important (i.e. healthy) place to get to. The point in your life when you realise, ‘I don’t have to be shiny, bright and impressive’. Or, ‘I’m not the first person to have this experience, and I won’t be the last’. ⁣

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In the previous post in this series I offered some suggestions of how we make the general conditions safer and more conducive for other people to Think in Public (from which we all benefit). But what about our own interactions?

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The Sunk Cost Fallacy is a Behavioural Economics term to describe a type of irrational decision-making. It describes a situation where someone is more likely to continue putting resources into a failing business or investment *BECAUSE* of the previous amount of time or money they have spent on it.

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As well as looking after yourself in the moment, self-care is about making life easier for your *future self*.