Depression? Don't believe it

Depression ... often considered a "women's ailment". Photo: Aurora Daniels

In 2000 the World Health Organisation named depression as the fourth leading contributor to the global burden of disease and predicted that by 2020 it would rise to second place. I suppose WHO didn’t mean it to sound like a target to be aimed for, but we seem to be rising to the challenge in any case.
A new survey from the European College of Psychopharmacology, a meta-analysis of a mass of research, reports that a staggering 164.8 million Europeans - 38.2 per cent of the population - suffer from a mental disorder in any year.
As well as depression, this includes neural disorders such as dementia and Parkinson’s; childhood problems from ADHD to "conduct disorder"; and the leading anxiety disorders - everything from panic attacks to obsessive-compulsive disorder to shyness. The latest figures for Australia, from 2007, indicate that more than one in five people - 3.2 million - had suffered from anxiety, a mood disorder or substance abuse in the preceding 12 months; 2-3 per cent more were estimated to have been affected by other mental illnesses.

Confronting your lover's lover

Is it a good idea to confront your partner's other lover?

Cheaters. Hot topic. Just ask Gwyneth. But if you caught someone cheating on you, is it wise to confront the third party?
When I was at university, I found myself involved with a guy who later turned out to be married.
He also turned out to be an Evangelical Christian (whole other kettle of Ichthys).

 Long story short, it all came to a head when I, confused and bruised, decided that I couldn’t let the relationship continue, and so ended it, despite his protestations.

Real bodies to reap rewards

Plus size supermodel Robyn Lawley.

BRING on the ''real women'' photo spreads: Australia's glossiest images can now vie for the federal government's Positive Body Image Awards.
In an echo of the Australian Heart Foundation's tick campaign, winners of the new awards will be able to use a Body Image Award Winner symbol on their products such as magazines, websites and advertising campaigns.
''I certainly believe that companies would want that symbol,'' said Australian Women's Weekly editor Helen McCabe, who will chair the award panel. ''Women are now very aware of pictures that have been overly Photoshopped or digitally altered.''

Why lazy parents make happy families

Relax ... to raise happier, more resourceful children, says Idle Parent author.

Children need time and space just to play and to be - if not they'll end up psychologically damaged and useless, says a British parenting writer and philosopher.
Tom Hodgkinson is author of The Idle Parent, a book that encourages parents to adopt a hands-off approach so that their children become more self-reliant and capable.
Such advice could be something Australian parents need to hear. A new survey of more than 400 Aussie parents with kids between the ages of five and 12 shows almost half (47 per cent) are suffering from "family fatigue". And the culprits? A lack of time, too many extracurricular activities, too much homework and too many hours spent in front of a television or computer screen.

The sweet life - with less sugar

The good (sugar-free) life ... chef and Blood Sugar author Michael Moore.

When chef Michael Moore was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, his endocrinologist was as surprised as he was. Fit, active and only 35, Moore, now the chef and owner of Sydney’s Summit restaurant, wasn’t a typical candidate for a disease linked to being overweight and over 45.  But if his high blood sugar level of 29 was a shock (normal is 4 to 6) there was a bigger one to come. Ten years later - and still committed to regular running and cycling - he was at a family lunch when he had a stroke, a problem for which diabetes is a risk factor.
"Up until then my blood sugar control was good but it wasn’t perfect. What the stroke did was to sharpen my focus on all the elements of my life and now I look more carefully at what I eat,” says Moore whose diet is less sweet than it used to be.

Confess your pre-date rituals

Are the ridiculous things we do to prepare for dates really that ridiculous?
When it comes to dating, I’d thought I’d seen, heard and done it all.
But late last week I perused a certain ladies' lifestyle magazine while waiting at the supermarket checkout, as is my guilty habit, and I encountered a pre-date preparation story that caught my eye.

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Forget stomach-sucking stockings, sex-ready bed-hair, or lipstick in shades of scarlet fertility, this glossy rag for cosmopolitan young ladies expertly advised there was one thing, and one thing only that counted come date night.
Your knickers! (I read, mildly interested). Don’t wear them!
Instead, let the sweet perfume of your lady bits flirt for you!
(Interested!)
While the science behind this ‘expert’ article wasn’t anything particularly new – the so-called irresistible magic of fragrant sex pheromones has been used to flog products, including magazines, for yonks – but the notion of going commando for reasons other than the obvious was something a little out of the ordinary.
Thus prompted to consider the other less than ordinary things we funny creatures do as part of the elegant dance of courtship, and wonder whether there really are some pre-show strategies that do work wonders.
For inspiration, I turned to the animal kingdom. This move proved largely unhelpful but extremely interesting. For instance: a male hippo attracts a female by using his tail to spray her with his faeces; while male porcupines shower their lady friends with long streams of urine. Perhaps not recommendable practices for the human world, but a handy metaphor for sexual diversity nonetheless.

A baby at any cost?

 

In the six years she was treated at a private fertility clinic, Colleen Aitken had her husband’s specially prepared sperm inserted directly in her uterus on more than 20 occasions, with powerful drugs administered each time to stimulate her ovaries. She gave birth twice, but says the pregnancies the couple so fervently wanted came at a steep cost.
The number of so-called “intra-uterine insemination” (IUI) treatments and the associated drug use well exceeded what many fertility experts describe as the norm in the field and, according to doctors who ended up helping her later, caused dangerous internal damage.
Ms. Aitken eventually received emergency surgery to remove her ovaries and staunch internal bleeding, leaving the resident of St. Thomas, Ont., unable to conceive, on hormone-replacement therapy and, according to Ms. Aitken, forced to abandon her public-health nurse job because of ongoing pain and other symptoms.
“There is just so much anger,” she said of her ordeal. “I wish I could go and take back what happened to me. … It has had a tremendous impact on my life.”