Those working on the front line at street level have been concerned for years about large groups of young adults creating their own parallel communities with different rules, says social reformer Camilla Batmanghelidjh. 'It costs money to care. But it also costs money to clear up riots, savagery and antisocial behaviour,' says the founder of Kids Company. 'I leave it to you to do the financial and moral sums.'
Cutting back on one’s sleep to get more done is a false economy, according to recent scientific research. Our minds become creative powerhouses while we sleep, producing new ideas and solutions to problems.
Paul McCartney said he awoke with the tune of Yesterday in his head, and Robert Louis Stevenson reported that the idea for The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde came to him in a dream!
Our consumer culture continually suggests to us that buying things will make us happier. Retail therapy might not solve our problems, but temporarily it can make us feel good.
So what would happen if we made a decision not to buy anything, not even food, for a week?
Cases of malignant melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer, are rising faster in the UK than any other form of cancer. The figures are particularly high in younger people, which experts say is due to so-called ‘binge sunbathing’.
Louise Ellis tells her story in The Daily Mail of being diagnosed with a lentigo maligna melanoma, which developed from a harmless looking freckle.
While fans find it hard to believe Amy Winehouse, a young, rich and talented singer, could fall so hard so fast, many clamour for some serious, meaningful help for wayward youngsters with this killer tendency.
Middlegate, the only teen rehab in the UK, closed in February 2010. Since then Sarah Graham, an addictions expert and campaigner, has been vocal in her mission to re-establish some form of residential treatment for the youth that cannot get better in the current system of 'help within the community'.
In an admirable move, Amy's father Mitch Winehouse wants to establish a Foundation that will open a Treatment Centre for those unable to afford expensive private treatment. That way something positive could come from Amy's death.
Repressing anger can lead to depression and relationship breakdown, but how do we get it out of our systems without running the risk of being banged up? Perhaps a visit to a Smash Shack is the answer...
‘Mandala? You mean that Yin and Yang thing?’ The familiar Taoist visual representing the complementary qualities of male and female – opposition and interdependence – may shed a tiny light on oriental thinking. But there are loads more mandalas around, writes Diane Southam.