One of the best things about developing awareness of yourself is that you see yourself from a different perspective. Technically, this is known as “cognitive reframing”, or “cognitive restructuring” if a therapist helps, but those terms only refer to your thoughts. I like to include the ability assess your own feelings as well. You can …
Cognitive Reframing – Taking A Different Perspective Read More »
I’ve created some Instagram posts about the psychology of change and thought you may like to see them collected here… 1: Do you really want to change? Change is hard. We’re wired NOT to change. We’re wired to adapt and accept our situation unless we’re in mortal danger. Our brain wants us to be kept …
While this is definitely an over-simplification and dramatic generalisation, I do like the resonance of it. Depression can be seen as “living in the past” and ruminating over old mistakes, past transgressions, losses and perceived failures. Perhaps it’s better phrased that those *events* are in the past and they can trigger thoughts which make you …
More women report chronic illnesses than men. Why is that? “At least 9 in 10 people with SLE are female.” (source) “Fibromyalgia is characterised by chronic generalised muscle pain. The male:female ratio is 1:9.” (source) “While the percentage of women diagnosed with ME/CFS is higher than the percentage of men, ME/CFS is not a “women’s …
Why Do More Women Than Men Get Chronic Illnesses? Read More »
What is “middle age spread”? It’s when people start piling on the pounds in middle age and the measurement around their waist/hips starts to increase each year. The definition of “middle age” is vague, but that’s OK, because middle age spread happens slowly. So, we could take the ages of 40-60 as being the time …
Have you noticed that cytokines have been in the news recently, and in particular “cytokine storms”? While the news stories have been about COVID-19, I think there could be a link to mental health. Let’s look at what’s been happening… People who got COVID-19 and suffered really badly seemed to go into a cytokine storm …
“Epigenetics is probably one of the most revolutionarily exciting new discoveries in science in the 21st century”, says Dr. Pamela Peeke in the introduction to this BBC look at epigenetics. And I wouldn’t disagree. It’s incredible the reach epigenetics has if you take the broader definition of epigenetics being a change in gene expression. What …
In a recent BBC documentary, Dr Chris van Tulleken ate an 80% processed food diet for a month. He reported symptoms of headaches, constipation and a lack of satiety, unsurprisingly. He did MRI brain-scans and blood tests which showed new neuronal connections in his brain which were similar to those of people with addictions linking …