Talk therapy can help those with chronic gastrointestinal conditions
It’s widely recognised that emotions can directly affect stomach function. As early as 1915, influential physiologist Walter Cannon noted that stomach functions are changed in animals when frightened. The same is true for humans. Those who stress a lot often report diarrhoea or stomach pain.

We now know this is because the brain communicates with the gastrointestinal system. A whole ecosystem comprising 100 trillion bacteria living in our bowels is an active participant in this brain-gut chat.

Recent discoveries around this relationship have made us consider using talk therapy and antidepressants as possible treatments for symptoms of chronic gut problems. The aim is to interfere with the conversation between the two organs by telling the brain to repair the faulty bowel.
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Our research found talk therapy can improve depression and the quality of life of patients with gastrointestinal conditions. Antidepressants may also have a beneficial effect on both the course of a bowel disease and accompanying anxiety and depression.

Unhelpful stereotypes that disguise the true extent of eating disorders are present in the Netflix series
To the Bone – a film about a turning point in a young woman’s battle with anorexia nervosa – has attracted comment from mental health professionals and advocates. Critics have concerns it could cause or worsen eating disorder symptoms.
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The writer-director of To the Bone assured audiences she wished to dispel myths, not do harm. So which aspects of the new film might do harm, and which might educate the audience in a positive way?

How might the film cause harm?​

Striving for precision may seem like a desirable trait, but research suggests extreme perfectionism is a risk factor for depression, anxiety and eating disorders.

We live in a world dominated by the pursuit of perfection. From how we perform at school and in the workplace, to whether we win a social game of tennis and even how we choose romantic partners and raise our kids, achieving top marks or the best possible outcome has come to define our understanding of success.
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There’s no doubt that setting goals and having high expectations is a healthy pattern of behaviour, but when these habits are taken to an extreme level it can increase the risk of some of our most common mental health problems.

You haven’t showered in a few days, and you haven’t brushed your teeth yet this morning.

But, your baby is one month old today! You picked out the perfect outfit and made sure the lighting was just right for the perfect photo. You posted the best one on Facebook this morning, and you keep checking to see if anyone has “liked” the picture.

But, after scrolling through the “likes” and comments, you notice that your mother-in-law, who is always online, hasn’t responded to the picture of her darling grandbaby yet.

Why not? What gives? Perhaps she didn’t see it yet…or maybe she doesn’t like the baby’s outfit. Maybe she thinks you’re not a good mother.

And what about that friend of yours from high school? You always “like” and comment on the photos of her kids…why hasn’t she acknowledged your baby’s photo? Perhaps you aren’t such a good mother after all.

To some, this scenario might sound ridiculous, but it is a real and frequent consequence of being a new mother and sharing on Facebook.
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So, when one of my graduate students approached me about creating and including a survey about new parents’ social networking in my latest parenting study, the New Parents Project, I jumped at the chance. I was interested in how often new parents used social networking sites, why some used them more than others, and what the impact might be on new parents’ mental health. Here are some things we found.

Social media can offer many benefits to adolescents, connecting them with friends.

We often hear or read about the dangers of young people logging on to social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, and other online spaces where they can socially interact, including Youtube, virtual worlds and gaming sites. In the online world, we know adolescents can be exposed to cyberbullying, harassment, sexting, privacy breaches and sexual predators.

Despite these negatives, many parents are surprised to discover there are also many real advantages for adolescents in connecting through social media. Research tells us that social media networking can play a vital and positive role in the development of young people and their lives.
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As children progress into their adolescent years, the way they interact with their family, friends and the wider world changes. These developmental changes also influence how they use social media.

What are our screens and devices doing to us?
Psychologist Adam Alter studies how much time screens steal from us and how they’re getting away with it.
He shares why all those hours you spend staring at your smartphone, tablet or computer might be making you miserable – and what you can do about it.

In our modern world, the internet has become an integral part of our daily lives, enabling us to be more connected and efficient than ever before.

But our move online has also resulted in the serious and growing global phenomenon of internet addiction.

What is internet addiction?
Internet addiction manifests when excessive internet use starts to affect someone’s life, causing impairment or distress. There are various types of internet addiction, from social networking and gambling to pornography and gaming.

Internet gaming addiction, also known as Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), is now recognised as a mental health condition that can have major consequences for an individual’s wellbeing.
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Dr Vasileios Stavropoulos, a senior lecturer in clinical psychology and coordinator of the Gaming Research Group at Federation University Australia, says six criteria must be met in order for excessive internet gaming to be classed as an addiction.

Viral hoaxes are a way for us to make sense of the turbulent world and manage threat in a safe environment.

Have you heard the one about the guy who went on holiday to Bolivia? You know, he went on a night out and randomly woke up in an ice-filled bathtub after someone had removed his kidney and harvested it for sale.

You probably have – it is a popular urban legend. Also known as urban myths or contemporary legends, urban legends refer to widely disseminated, unproven stories of unusual or peculiar events that typically convey cautionary advisement or warnings. They often evoke strong emotional reactions such as horror, shock, revulsion and humour. But how is it that we still buy these tales in the 21st century?
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The retelling of urban legends over time ensures that they become part of public record and explains why they are so well known. Common examples include “Bloody Mary” – a woman who was once supposedly executed for being a witch and who will show her face in the mirror if you call on her. Hookman, which tells the story of a killer with a hook for a hand attacking a couple in a parked car, and the Vanishing Hitchhiker are also well known legends.

In 2003 a landmark study revealed what psychologists had long suspected: that people who experience positive emotions are at a reduced risk of disease.
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Researchers assessed a group of 334 people aged 18 to 54 for their tendency to experience positive emotions like happiness, pleasure and relaxation along with negative emotions like anxiety, hostility and depression. Participants were then injected with nasal drops containing the common cold.
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People who expressed more positive emotions were less likely to develop the common cold, and the relationship was so strong that it held across age, gender, education, race, body mass and even season.
Since then, psychologists have continued to probe the link between feeling good and being well in a new field of research called ‘positive psychology’. Importantly, this new discipline extends beyond disease models of health such as whether we have a cold and seeks to define what it means to be healthy in positive terms.