The spiritual teacher Ram Dass often confronts the topic of suffering in his talks and in his writings. In this BBC interview from 1981, he addresses anyone who might be suffering from depression and offers a different way of approaching the condition. The default or commonly adopted response to depression – and towards mental states in…
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There are two kinds of stigma when it comes to mental illness. There is the public stigma, which is the negative reaction of the general public to people with mental health issues, and there is self-stigma: the shame, disapproval, and disgrace that people with a condition feel towards themselves for having that condition. A great…
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Recent news that autistic adults ‘fear abuse’, according to the National Autistic Society (NAS), further highlights the fact that mental health stigma is still a major issue in this country. Half of the 1,300 sufferers questioned by the NAS said they had been abused by a so-called ‘friend’, 37% said they had been manipulated to…
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There’s a reason why winters in the UK are so miserable, beyond the fact that there is more rain, more biting coldness, shorter days and greyer skies. One factor contributing to miserable winters is a vitamin D deficiency. This isn’t some ploy to boost sales in vitamin D supplements – it has been suggested in…
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You wouldn’t think that an antidepressant, a medication which is supposed to alleviate depression, would cause someone to want to end their life. However, since antidepressants have been on the market, we have seen a marked increase in self-harm, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and completed suicides associated with their use. This mostly applies to SSRIs…
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