Some people in the West describe Hamas as a resistance movement fighting oppression. Hamas has deliberately attacked civilians and taken hostages. Its ideology sits uneasily with many of the values professed by people who defend it.

How do people end up defending a political movement whose beliefs and actions they would reject in their own society?

Once we identify with a particular cause, questioning it gets harder, especially when our friends share the same views. Nobody wants to be the person who asks an awkward question and gets treated like an idiot for it!

Young people hear strong political opinions everywhere. Social media, school, university and their friendship groups. They can feel pressure to pick a side before they've had much chance to work out what they think.

For an anxious teenager, there's an added problem. They're already worrying about getting things wrong. Now they have to worry about what their friends will think if they disagree.

The appeal of certainty

Anxi...

The Lindsay Clancy case raises an interesting question about how we judge clinical decisions after we know the outcome. It is also relevant to how parents make sense of their children's behaviour. How?

In both situations, we are trying to make decisions with incomplete information. We form an explanation for what we are seeing, act on that explanation, and then receive more information. The difficulty is that once we know what happened, it becomes much easier to believe that we could have predicted it.

That is where hindsight bias becomes important. And I do a version of this work in forensic psychiatry. When reviewing a case after something has happened, part of the task is to establish what was known at each point in time. What information was available to the clinician? What had the patient reported? What did other people know? What could reasonably have been concluded from that information?

You then have to separate all of that from what became known later. THis can be surpri...

Here’s a common scenario that many of you will be familiar with.

A child is nervous about giving a presentation at school.

They tell their parents they are worried.

The parents start thinking about how to make the situation easier.

Could they present only to the teacher?

Could they record it at home?

Could they avoid the presentation?

The child might feel better.

Perhaps the anxiety settles.

Then, a few months later, another presentation comes up.

And the same worry returns.

This pattern appears often.

Parents want to help. They are watching their child experience something uncomfortable and they want to reduce that discomfort.

The difficulty is that children learn from these moments.

When a child feels anxious and completes the presentation, they discover that anxiety can be present while they continue with the task.

They may notice that the feeling changes.

They may learn that they can cope.

This is how confidence grows.

When anxiety leads to avoiding the situati...

It's been 1 week since my family and I returned from France.

Six weeks of 24/7 togetherness, wandering through places that felt like stepping into a dream. 

*That photo at the top there: Mont St Michel rising out of the mist was just surreal. 

 When I walked back into my office this week, something felt off. Not the usual post-holiday blues or the lingering wish to be back sipping coffee in a French café (though I do think I'll retire there someday). No, this was something deeper. Something I recognised immediately.

Slow coffee today in Annecy

 The familiar tension had returned to my chest. That uneasy feeling I wake up with most mornings. My old companion: anxiety.

 As a psychiatrist, I see anxiety every day.

In the children and adults who sit across from me, fidgeting with worry that feels too big for their small bodies. In the parents who bring them, carrying their own invisible loads of fear about getting it all wrong. I understand them because I am them.

I've alway...

A recent article in The Lancet highlights the alarming prevalence of multimorbidity among individuals with severe mental illness, underscoring the need for comprehensive care. These are things we already knew but have now been tactfully validated by the good authors of this paper.

But to me… here’s the crux:

Prevention MUST start at home. 🏠

When children are well-connected with their families, they are less likely to fall into the traps of phone addiction, substance abuse, and youth crime.

Some Key Takeaways from The Lancet Article🗝️

• Prevalence of Multimorbidity: People with severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia-spectrum disorder and bipolar disorder, face higher rates of both physical and psychiatric multimorbidity compared to those without severe mental illness. [Go figure!]
• Impact on Health Outcomes: The presence of multiple chronic conditions significantly worsens health outcomes for individuals with severe mental illness.
• Younger Populations at Higher Risk: Younger
...

In today's digital age, managing screen time for children is a challenge many parents face, especially when hosting kids who are not their own. Here's a guide to help you set screen time rules in your home that respect your values while being mindful of other children's habits.

Understanding the Importance of Screen Time Rules

Excessive screen time can lead to various issues in children, such as reduced physical activity, less face-to-face interaction, and potential impacts on psychological well-being¹. It's crucial to establish clear guidelines to ensure that screen time doesn't overshadow other valuable activities.

Establishing Clear Guidelines

1. Communicate with Parents: Before the playdate, discuss screen time preferences with the other children's parents to understand their rules and expectations.

2. Set Expectations Early: Let the children know the screen time rules as soon as they arrive, so they're aware of the boundaries.

3. Create a Balanced Schedule: Plan a mix ...

I want to share a deeply personal story with you, a story that changed my life forever. As a child and forensic psychiatrist, I always believed I was emotionally stable and calm. But one day, I discovered I had my own demons to face.

Several years ago, I experienced a day that still haunts me - the worst day of my parenting life, perhaps even my entire life. It was a day that shook me to my core and made me realize that I needed to change.

Imagine this: A young child, my child, left distraught, anxious, and crying in a bustling school car park as I drove away in a fit of anger. The image of her tear-streaked face in my rearview mirror, her hand reaching out, pleading ‘daddy please,’ is etched in my memory. I could see other children nearby, wondering who the heartless man in the car was. Yes, that was me.

That morning, I was anxious about an important meeting. My daughter, sensing my anxiety, began showing signs of not wanting to go to school. I was torn between my professional comm...