Few would argue against the fact that young people throughout the Western world are experiencing a mental health crisis. From my vantage point in general practice, levels of unhappiness, anxiety and self-harm in this age group seem to be sky rocketing. Secondary care services for mental health in children and teenagers are completely overwhelmed and this is despite the fact that they only deal with the sickest tip of a very big iceberg.
The World Health Organisation has just published a study looking at the health effects of working long hours and concluded that in 2016 745,000 extra people worldwide died from heart disease or strokes as a result of long working hours. The risk of stroke was 35% higher amongst those who had habitually worked 55 hours or more per week compared to those with a working week of between 35 to 40 hours.
The fact that lower intelligence equates with belief in conspiracy theories intuitively makes sense. The world is incredibly complex and is difficult to understand. It is however much easier to understand if you boil everything down to the belief that some arch-villain is orchestrating all the bad things.
The NHS is under enormous pressure. We knew this would be the case from the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. For this reason, one of the first steps we took was to inform the public that there was no treatment for covid-19 and they would have to look after themselves at home.
It is remarkable how quickly the British public took this message on board. Tens of thousands of people simply stayed at home - coughing, feverish and breathless - and looked after themselves with a potentially fatal illness. This was achieved in a matter of weeks despite the fact that this was an entirely new and entirely terrifying illness.
There is an interesting psychological hypothesis known as the Dunning-Kruger effect which describes the often seen phenomenon of incompetent people being unaware of their own incompetence and so wildly overestimating their abilities. This effect is demonstrated par excellence by the anti-vaxxers who believe that, having mastered the pronunciation of a couple so sciencey- sounding words, they have the ability to refute centuries of scientific research and evidence.
Data released today showed that one in six people in the UK were prescribed antidepressants before the first coronavirus lockdown and prescriptions for these medications have increased throughout the course of the pandemic. This comes as no surprise to me - I have spent much of my working life over the last year speaking to people who are extremely unhappy as a result of the current situation. Never the less, these figures are astonishing. Setting coronavirus aside for a moment, even before this crisis, one in every six of us were so unhappy that we felt the need to take medication to remedy this.
What does this say about the way we lead our lives? How have we developed a way of living where mental ill-health is so widespread?
When I talk to people about their mental health I always like to discuss self-help measures and, as part of this, I usually ask what people do to help themselves relax and de-stress. It is surprising how few people can give an answer to this.
The term hobby feels a bit fuddy-duddy. It conjures up images of old men pasting stamps into albums or putting little wooden ships into bottles. But a hobby is really just a means of spending time in what feels like a meaningful and productive way.
Practical General Practice is a highly practical manual, specifically designed for use during the consultation process. Containing over 1000 conditions, the unique underlying structure of the book allows the GP to see immediately what treatment is recommended and why. All recommendations are highly specific - giving a firm guide to the GP during the consultation process rather than a list of possibilities that the GP might wish to consider
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