More consensual touch helps ease or buffer against mental and physical complaints, meta-analysis shows Whether it is a hug from a friend or the caress of a weighted blanket, the sensation of touch appears to bring benefits for the body and mind, researchers say. The sense of touch is the first to develop in babies and is crucial in allowing us to experience the environment around us as well as communicate. Indeed, the loss of touch from others during the Covid pandemic hit many hard ..read more

Those born after 1995, argues Jonathan Haidt in his new book, were the first people in history to go through puberty with a portal to an alternative universe in their pockets – and the toll this has taken on their wellbeing has been devastating Suppose that when your first child turned nine, a visionary billionaire whom you’d never met chose her to join the first permanent human settlement on Mars. Unbeknown to you, she had signed herself up for the mission because she loves outer space, and, besides, all of her friends have signed up. She begs you to let her go. You hear her desire, so before ..read more

Resolution Foundation report calls for action as number of young people experiencing poor mental health increases Young people are more likely to be out of work because of ill health than people in their early 40s, a report calling for action on Britain’s mental wellbeing crisis has found. People in their early 20s with mental health problems may have not had access to a steady education and can end up out of work or in low-paid jobs, the Resolution Foundation research revealed ..read more

Inquest into death of Ellie Woolnough, 27, is one of many that have occurred with grim regularity for people under trust’s care Ellie Woolnough had the word “hope” tattooed on her arm. “It was all about hope,” Lisa, her mother, recalled at the end of an inquest into the suicide of her 27-year-old daughter. Ellie, from Ipswich, had suffered from anxiety since she was a child and was later diagnosed with emotionally unstable personality disorder. When she tried to take her own life in May 2022, her parents were desperate to find her treatment. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted o ..read more

Exclusive: Esther Ghey says she believes social media use left her daughter vulnerable, while killers were able to access violent content online ‘I want to make things better’: Esther Ghey on her hopes for online reform The mother of Brianna Ghey has called for her murder to be a “tipping point” in how society views “the mess” of the internet, warning that a generation of anxious young people will grow up lacking resilience. Esther Ghey said technology companies had a “moral responsibility” to restrict access to harmful online content. She supports a total ban on social media access for unde ..read more

I arrived feeling soul sick and lost, but the simple acts of putting away my phone and sitting in the woods for a few days turned into something profoundly transformational It is November and I am on a train, halfway through my journey towards Danny Shmulevitch’s Walking Your Promise retreat in Gloucester, when I realise that I am having a panic attack. I had booked the retreat a few months earlier when I was struggling to recover from Covid, crawling through my days in a fog of anxiety and exhaustion, then spending my nights in the claws of insomnia ..read more

Prof Diane Reay writes that absenteeism is linked to lack of social support, while Prof Priscilla Alderson says children are being blamed for systemic faults and Dr Lorna Chessum blames draconian school rules and a rigid curriculum Persistent absenteeism in schools has become an area of increasing concern in education (Nearly a third of UK secondary pupils avoid school due to anxiety, survey finds, 2 February). The response to that absenteeism is still focused on children and young people changing their attitudes and behaviour in order to fit in better into the educational system, with cogniti ..read more

Youth charity stem4 calls for more mental health support for under-18s to stem high absenteeism Almost three in 10 secondary pupils are avoiding going to school because doing so would make them anxious, a new survey has found. Across the UK, 28% of 12 to 18-year-olds have not attended school over the last year for that reason, with experts warning that many stayed away because they would have felt unable to cope ..read more

A psychologist offers practical advice for dealing with life’s ups and downs It is refreshing to read a psychology book intended for mainstream audiences that isn’t trying to push you towards a particular goal; to achieve more, to work harder. Thanks to the rapid societal and technological changes of the past century, self-actualisation is now possible for more of us than ever before. As welcome as this might seem, self-actualising is hard work, and possibilities can quickly become standards that we fail to live up to. Consciously or unconsciously, our unlived potential can haunt us and provok ..read more

The Sesame Street monster was just being friendly on X. Now, he’s drowning in election anxiety, relationship troubles and existential dread Name: Elmo. Age: Three and a half. His birthday is on 3 February ..read more