Why can’t we put down our smart phones?
A former Google product manager, Tristram Harris, dishes the dirt on how smart phones are specifically designed be habit forming.
He compares smartphones to ‘slot machines’ because, he says, “Every time I check my phone, I’m playing the slot machine to see, ‘What did I get?’” Read the article or watch him tell it as it is on ’60 Minutes’.
Multiple chemical and electro sensitivities
‘Contrary to a common medical practice worldwide, one of Canada’s few experts in environmental medicine says avoiding pollutants and detoxifying the body are the best ways of reducing symptoms of environmental sensitivities – and that use of neuroactive drugs is a risky last resort.’
A long but interesting article from 2012 by Dr Roy Fox – ‘a gastroenterologist by training…….. who was among more than 600 people who became ill in 1990-1, developing Multiple Chemica Sensitivities, as a result of indoor air quality problems at Camp Hill Medical Centre, near Halifax. The major cause of their illness was thought to be neurotoxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs), specifically mixtures of amines added to the boiler for their anticorrosive properties, accidentally introduced into the hospital’s environment for humidification purposes.’
And finally the Lions Barber Collective
This is Tom Chapman and Tom is a barber. But a barber with a difference. Because Tom is the barber behind the Lions Barber Collective, a group of barbers who, shocked by the ever rising numbers of suicides among young men, are using the intimate relationship that they develop with their customers to talk about mental health issues. They hope to be able to help destroy some of the stigma around mental ill health which can lead to suicide.
You can read a really interesting interview with Tom about their work in the #MentalMovementMagazine here. Or check in to the Lions’ website here.
For more on other efforts to combat mental all health in young people see my Anxiety Epidemic blog here.