“Am I gay? ” or” am I a lesbian?  are questions that some people may find has become an intrusive thought causing them a great deal of distress and anxiety. Intrusive thoughts about one’s sexuality may be a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Although the person asking themselves the question “Am I Gay? or Am I  lesbian? …

  OVERCOMING ANXIETY, DEPRESSION & ANGER Chronic pain can lead to hopelessness, depression, anger and anxiety disorders such as panic, generalised anxiety, hypochondriasis and post traumatic stress disorder (see studies cited in Winterowd, Beck& Gruener, 2003). This is not surprising as chronic pain sufferers may have many other negative events and stressors to deal with such …

  ‘Ugliness: it’s all in the mind’ was a news heading that caught my eye this morning in ‘The Sunday Age’.   Apparently, researchers at Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology have found that a significant number of people wanting cosmetic surgery to remedy appearance flaws have brain abnormalities. These brain abnormalities are found in approx. 1-2% …

  13/08/2014 Like millions of other people, I was saddened to hear of the death of Robin Williams. As a child I watched many episodes of Mork & Mindy and I even recall his first appearance as Mork on Happy Days! I can’t say I was such a devoted fan that I watched every movie he …

  27/07/2014 This cold Sunday morning I grabbed the paper for a quick read and found that Jo Stanley had written an article “Comfortably Shy’. Jo is the co-host of Weekend Breakfast on the Today Network and has a reasonably high media profile.   It is always good to see celebrities being open about experiencing shyness …

  13/07/2014 Anxiety and depression in teens on the increase? According to an article by Amy Corderoy, in The Age newspaper Saturday July 12, 201,  a review of 19 studies in 12 countries has found that  more teenagers are getting anxiety and depression than they did approximately ten years ago.   A child and adolescent psychiatrist, Dr …

  8/7/2014 I don’t get to watch much TV so I missed seeing Megan Washington on ABC’s Australian Story program this week. She was talking about how she had a stutter from the age of 5 . Megan did a TED talk where she publicly spoke about her stuttering and how she had spent years trying …

  23/6/2014 Today I was bit surprised, but delighted to get a call from ABC 702  radio‘s  The Drive Show program hosted by Richard Glover. I was invited to participate in an on air discussion about introversion and extroversion. I hadn’t looked at the news today but apparently  there are plans for people are going to Mars. Well …

  11/6/2014 Bev Aisbett is a well known Australian author, illustrator and artist who has suffered from depression and anxiety. Bev wrote her autobiography, ‘All of It’ as well as a number of self help books looking at depression and anxiety. She is also an artist who exhibits regularly. I was contacted by Ashburton Library and …

Monday 26/5/2014 Whilst reading the Sunday papers, and indulging in a delicious raspberry muffin yesterday, I came across an article in Herald Sun’s, Body & Soul supplement May 25 2014 about fear of vomiting treatment. Kylie Stevenson has written an informative article about emetophobia. Some people fear vomiting in public, whilst others fear their own vomit or …