Mental Health

In Australia, it is estimated that 45%of people will experience a mental health condition in their lifetime. In any one year, around 1 million Australian adults have depression and over 2 million have anxiety (Beyond Blue). Anxiety is the most common...

Stress is a normal human response to challenging or dangerous situations. It is a part of life and a small amount of stress can actually be helpful as it can lead to increased alertness, energy and productivity. A complete lack of stress can lead to reduced motivation...

Loneliness is an unpleasant emotional response to isolation and lack of companionship. This also includes anxious feelings about a lack of connection and communication with other people. Therefore loneliness can be felt even when you are surrounded with other...

What is the meaning of life? It is a difficult question as it seems that life has no meaning as everyone who is born will die sooner or later. Whatever we achieve with great difficulty and hardship in life, we have to leave them all at the end...

Quantum physics explain the nature and behaviour of matters, energy on the atomic and subatomic level and many of the features of our universe. There are many applications of Quantum theory in electronics, in laser, transistors, computers and telecommunication devices and medical research such as Magnetic Resonance imaging MRI…

Life is not going to be easy. Adversity can strike anytime to anyone young or old, rich or poor. It could be an accident, a loss of loved ones, a breakdown of relationship, a serious illness, a loss of job, a business failure, a bankruptcy….

A happy relationship will give a good quality for the life you live. The rate of divorce in Australia is about 50% so breakups cause immense stress for both partners and their children. People need a relationship to fulfil different types of needs such as physical, psychological, financial, social…

Psychosomatic means mind (psyche) and body (soma). It is an illness that connects the mind and the body and it occurs when the physiological functioning of the body is affected by the psychological tension resulting in the development of a disease or the worsening of a pre-existing disease in a person...

Mindfulness is awareness of the present moment without mental commentary. The human mind is constantly thinking so to observe without our personal interpretation from past experience is very difficult and needs a lot of training. So if we see and judge the present through the eyes of the past we get a totally distorted view of it. We therefore cannot see the reality as it is but we are often deluded by our own thoughts giving rise to sufferings...

Fear and anxiety are negative reactions to something that might happen in the future. Fear is a reaction triggered by the presence of a dangerous situation or stimuli, real or perceived whereas anxiety is triggered by uncertainty about the future with no real threat at the present.

What is Karma? Karma in Buddhism refers to action driven by intention which leads to future consequences. This is the law of cause and effect. Any kind of intentional action whether mental, verbal or physical is regarded as Karma. Involuntary, unintentional or unconscious actions do not constitute Karma because volition, the most important factor in determining Karma is absent...

It is true that our life is much easier today than it was 50 years ago but mental illness seems to be on the increase especially with anxiety and depression and suicide risk in the younger generation. I would like to present my own ideas about the problem through my observation working as a general practitioner...

Freud often used the iceberg to describe the mind. The tip of the iceberg above the water represents the Conscious Mind. Beneath the water is the much larger bulk of the iceberg which represents the subconscious and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind is about 10%, the subconscious 50-60% and the unconscious 30-40%...

When you think you cause harm to another person, guilt is a natural emotional response. You may feel guilty for your actions but you may feel guilty for your thoughts or for feelings as well. For example, if you wish someone to have misfortune, hardship, pain, illness or even death or you may feel anger, greed, lust, or not reciprocating love for someone who loves you...

A relationship can be an exciting path of discovery of the unknown. When you both met, there is a strong magnetic physical attraction that can be described as magical but in reality the majority of relationships will fail in time. Every person comes into our life for a particular reason or for a special purpose. Some will teach us love, some will teach us how to feel pain, how to be strong and recover…

Adaptation is the ability to adjust to new information, experiences and environment. Life is ever-changing and those who can adapt successfully to changes will succeed and survive...

Laziness is the desire to do nothing, to be idle and to postpone doing things and letting things to stay as they are. Physical inactivity is associated with overweight problems, diabetes and significant morbidity and mortality...

Motivation is the drive to achieve your goals or needs. Most people want to change at least one thing in their life, but it can be challenging to have the motivation to make a start. It is difficult for most people, but it is especially harder for people who have mental health issues such as depression or anxiety...

Belief perseverance is maintaining a belief despite new information that firmly contradicts it. People with belief perseverance do not need to use information to confirm a belief but they reject any information that could disprove it. Such beliefs may even be strengthened when others attempt to give evidence to the contrary, a phenomenon known as the backfire effect...

Confirmation bias is a type of Cognitive bias that involves the tendency to search for information that confirms one’s prior existing beliefs or values. It differs from Belief perseverance as the latter does not need to gather information...

Most people have experienced the loss of a loved one in a lifetime and the pain is more intense depending on the degree of attachment toward the deceased or the unexpectedness of the loss such as sudden death. High grief death is from a violent death...

At birth a baby’s brain contains 100 billions neurons roughly as many nerve cells as there are stars in the Milky Way. The brain starts to form about 3 weeks after conception. As the neuron matures, more and more synapses are made. A foetus brain contains roughly twice as many neurons that it needs. As a normal part of brain development, any connections that are seldom or never used will be eliminated. Circuits that are often used will become permanent...

Depression is a state of low mood, of feeling sad that can affect a person’s thoughts and behaviour. Everyone can feel sad and low for a period of time facing with adverse events in life but with some people it can last for months, years...

Anger is a common normal human emotion as everyone gets angry sometimes. However, if anger is uncontrolled, it can lead to heated arguments and violence or if it persists over a long period of time it can cause relationship problems at home and at work.

Everybody has suspicious, unfounded mistrust or irrational thoughts from time to time but when they are persistent and excessive that they become a problem. Paranoia is an unfounded...

Everyone in their life has experienced hurt caused by another person. It could be something small like being teased or being lied to by a friend or something more substantial like having a cheating spouse....

Death is a subject that society tends to avoid but it is inevitable and the simple truth is being/nonbeing goes hand in hand. Death will come sooner...

A little stress is normal in our daily life which can be good, as overcoming stress can make us more resilient. But when stress is severe or chronic such as breakdown of relationship, death in the family, domestic violence…, it can cause deleterious physical and psychological consequences on the body...