Month: August 2020

The mind is not isolated from the world it lives in.

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The mind is not isolated from the world it lives in.

While writing one of my last posts, ‘The Effect of Coronavirus on Mental Health‘ – I wondered how things would improve. Before the pandemic began, many of us were already struggling. We were already dealing with poor mental health – the virus just put it in a vacuum. Life seemingly ground to a halt, pushing mental health issues to the forefront.

There has been an increase in mental health awareness, with governments and organisations providing guides and online support – but it feels temporary. With the focus on returning to normal as soon as possible, it’s easy to feel like the help won’t be available when that happens.

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Photo by Jude Beck on Unsplash

The above quote is from an article in Nature by Rochelle Burgess titled: ‘COVID-19 mental-health responses neglect social realities‘. It discusses how the spotlight on mental health during the coronavirus pandemic. Burgess argues that these measures don’t take into account what people’s lives were like before and what’s been the main factor in their condition.

Continue reading “The mind is not isolated from the world it lives in.” →

the effect of COVID-19 on mental health

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Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

I wish it would just go away. 

That is a common sentiment everyone’s heard at least once this year thanks to the coronavirus, COVID-19, the global pandemic that’s taken the world by storm since early February. COVID-19 has left a huge and unprecedented impact on modern society.

An article in Brain, Behavior and Immunity states COVID-19 ‘threatens our basic need for connection’ which could have severe impacts on mental health. This is shown by a study carried out in Spain during the lockdown on 3480 people. Of the people who took part, 18% were depressive, 21.6% suffered from anxiety and 15.8% were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Additionally, many people have lost loved ones or been devastated in other ways.

This is an unsettling and unpredictable time. Life as we know it has changed and shows no signs of going back to normal soon. Continue reading “the effect of COVID-19 on mental health” →

On This Day – 12th August

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Joseph Lister

On 12th August 1865, a medical surgeon, Dr. Joseph Lister used phenol (a chemical antiseptic) for the first time during medical surgery. This took place in Glasgow, Scotland at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary where Lister encountered an 11-year-old boy called James Greenlees who’d been in a car accident.

Lister washed Greenlees’ wounds and dressed them with phenol (known as carbolic acid at the time). He continued to change the dressing, causing the wound to scab over and eventually heal. Within weeks, Greenlees was discharged from the hospital.  Continue reading “On This Day – 12th August” →