tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37005661.post5700495449296968705..comments2021-02-15T17:17:32.996-08:00Comments on Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma: Childhood depression, grasping the nettle and sex on the brain.Martynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17678628763585554800noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37005661.post-86776953161427451132006-11-20T04:48:00.000-08:002006-11-20T04:48:00.000-08:00Hi Pat
I come in just on the female side of the s...Hi Pat<br /><br />I come in just on the female side of the scale. My brain is quite androgynous by all accounts.<br /><br />I really don't get on with flat-pack furniture, but can read moods pretty well !Martynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17678628763585554800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37005661.post-79936069868485539022006-11-19T13:38:00.000-08:002006-11-19T13:38:00.000-08:00Hi Martyn, tried the test and came out halfway to ...Hi Martyn, tried the test and came out halfway to the average for females, not that that particularly worried me. After all, I did score 2/20 for empathy! Wife is reassuringly average female.<br />Fascinating thing is, since blogging the test, I've been being visited by sweaty-palmed arabs all day looking for naughtiness - beware of using the word s*x in your blog.<br />The low empathy score enables me to avoid commenting on anything else you said on your post, apart from acknowledging an excellent essay on the issues.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37005661.post-23512533634785246382006-11-16T07:08:00.000-08:002006-11-16T07:08:00.000-08:00Me and Rach often have discussions about this, wit...Me and Rach often have discussions about this, with her working in the field. I've always tried to steer clear of anything chemical and used to be quite fundamentalist about it, she regularly works with people who need the stabilising effect of SSRI's before they can make any progress. I've accepted her point now and we're both agreed on the value of talking therapies over an extended period to help get to the bottom of deep rooted patterns of behaviour. Problem is the NHS services of this kind are heavily oversubscribed with massive waiting lists. Private counselling and therapy can be excellent but even at the cheaper end (£25 an hour) is out of the reach of many people. There is loads of government commissioned research knocking around Whitehall pointing out that a massive growth in the number of counsellors, psychotherapists and counselling psychologists, with drop-in centres being in every medium sized town, would help no end. In terms of economic productivity if nothing else it would save us millions in sick pay and lost time at the workplace. With even Cameron's Tories talking up this kind of thing now hopefully a political consensus can be reached. Mental health is too often seen as an emergency service and nothing else and until that attitude changes then I don't think we'll see much progress.Martynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17678628763585554800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37005661.post-40110188783719647312006-11-15T08:41:00.000-08:002006-11-15T08:41:00.000-08:00A fascinating post - although I'm quite aware of t...A fascinating post - although I'm quite aware of the debilitating effects of depression, i wasn't really aware of it in such young children. Problem is that SSRI's are such good masking tools that the underlying causes tend to be ignored. A more holistic approach costs more (financially) to administer but I feel it would be of much more long-term benefit.Malcolmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06689748152958264110noreply@blogger.com