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a1000shadesofhurt

a1000shadesofhurt

Monthly Archives: April 2012

Many young cancer patients fail to get early diagnosis, survey reveals

30 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by a1000shadesofhurt in Cancer, Young People

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Teens, Young adults

Many young cancer patients fail to get early diagnosis, survey reveals

A quarter of young people with cancer visited GPs four times or more before their symptoms were taken seriously and they were referred to a specialist, according to research.

A survey at a Teenage Cancer Trust conference for 300 young cancer patients asked for the experiences of 13- to 24-year-olds after they first experienced symptoms.

The researchers said their findings highlighted “the serious issue of delayed diagnosis” in the age group. Many patients said GPs told them they had an infection or virus, sports injury or stress, or told them to take painkillers. Three patients said they were told specifically they did not have cancer.

More than a third (said they believed learning about cancer at school would have helped them identify their symptoms sooner, and 59% wanted to see it included in the national curriculum.

The trust is launching the first teenage cancer awareness week, running until 4 May, and has produced a schools pack to help teachers talk about cancer in the classroom.

Professor Sir Mike Richards, national clinical director for cancer, said: “Early diagnosis is best achieved through the education of young people to increase their confidence in talking to doctors and helping everyone recognise the signs and symptoms of cancer in this age group.

“This is a major programme of work and something which we are working closely with Teenage Cancer Trust to achieve.”

Simon Davies, the trust’s chief executive, said: “We have been urging for cancer to be on the national curriculum for many years. We’re still waiting. That’s why we’ve developed our own education team to help teachers tackle this difficult topic and created teenage cancer awareness week to help raise awareness of the five most common signs of cancer.

“Young people need GPs to take a ‘three strikes’ approach. If a young person presents with the same symptoms three times, GPs should automatically refer them for further investigation. The two-week referral for suspected cancer is a major breakthrough but young people won’t benefit until GPs think cancer quicker.”

Five of the most common symptoms and warning signs in young people are: unexplained and persistent pain; a lump, bump or swelling; extreme tiredness; significant weight loss; and changes in a mole.

Judge slams ‘Hello magazine approach’ to marriage

30 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by a1000shadesofhurt in Relationships

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Divorce, Marriage

Judge slams ‘Hello magazine approach’ to marriage

A High Court judge has hit out at the “Hello magazine approach” to marriage which he said has led to a dramatic increase in divorce and family breakdown.

Sir Paul Coleridge, who sits in the Family Division, said he felt compelled to speak out because of the unprecedented scale of the problem.

He is now taking the unusual step for a serving judge to launch the Marriage Foundation to make the case that stable, long-term marriages are best for individuals, for families and for society.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There comes a time when sometimes you have to speak out in circumstances where you feel you know more than anybody involved in the debate.

“I happen to think that the family judiciary have a contribution to make to this debate. Most of us have watched as the situation has gradually got more and more and more appalling and out of control and there comes a time when it is, I think, irresponsible to remain quiet.

“In terms of the impact that family breakdown is having on society, nobody – and I emphasise that – nobody has the experience that the family judiciary have.

“If we remain quiet, it is like doctors who see epidemics going through their surgeries and say ‘We can’t make a comment on that because it might be said to be commenting on the way people are living’.

“This is now happening across Britain – and indeed Europe and North America – on a scale we have never seen before and the impact it has on the whole of society is very, very real and dramatic and we need to highlight it and do something about it.”

Sir Paul insisted that he was not mounting a moral campaign but simply wanted to set out the facts in a “non-preachy, non-didactic way”.

He said that celebrity magazines such as Hello promote unrealistic expectations about marriage and people need to understand the importance of working at relationships to make them work.

“I normally find the people who are in there (Hello) are in my court within about a year or two,” he said.

“What I criticise – what I call the Hello magazine, Hollywood approach to this whole business – is that there is still, or maybe more than there was, a completely unrealistic expectation about long-term relationships and marriage in particular, that if you find the right ideal partner that’s all that matters and things will just carry on from there on and you will be divinely happy.

“We all know, all of us who have been in relationships – whether married or unmarried – for a long time is that the only way that they are made to work and the only way that they become really qualitatively good is by absolutely grinding away at it.

“That’s when people find that, actually, if they get through the difficulties and do get the help, they will in fact end up with a product that is really worth having.”

‘It’s like living in a storage facility’

27 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by a1000shadesofhurt in Hoarding

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deprivation hoarders, hoarding, obsessive compulsive hoarders, sentimental hoarders

‘It’s like living in a storage facility’

Jasmine Harman loves her mother – but for quite a while, she didn’t go to visit her. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see her,” she says. “It was that I literally couldn’t get into her house. There was so much stuff in the hall that the front door wouldn’t open properly and then, if you did manage to squeeze yourself in through the tiny gap, the whole place was piled high with junk. You could barely stand upright and most of the rooms were completely inaccessible.”

Vasoulla, Jasmine’s mother, is a hoarder of pathological proportions. Her five-bedroomed house in north London is crammed with belongings and furniture; clothes, toys, books, pictures, family memorabilia, bric-a-brac of all kinds cover every surface; some of the rooms are stacked floor to ceiling, like an unkempt corner of a warehouse. “It’s like living in a storage facility,” says Jasmine, 36. “And that’s no life at all.”

Vasoulla, 57, was always a hoarder. Jasmine remembers all too clearly the heart-stopping fear when she was growing up that her friends would find out how messy her house was. “I remember a boyfriend taking me home and asking if he could come in and use the loo, and me thinking, oh my God, of course he can’t use the loo … he won’t even be able to get into the loo.”

When they were younger, she and her sister and three brothers occasionally tried to clear everything out. “We’d spend hours trying to sort things out and cleaning because we would be desperate for our house to be like our friends’ houses,” she says.

Other mothers might have been thrilled with their teenagers’ efforts, but not Vasoulla. “When she came home and found what we’d done, she’d scream at us,” says Jasmine. “It was a weird way to grow up.”

As the children grew older, Vasoulla’s hoarding worsened. “It dominated our lives. It was the only topic of conversation between me and my siblings. Meanwhile, the house was piled higher and higher with stuff because, as well as never throwing anything away, my mum was always at the shops buying more,” she says. “My youngest brother Cameron [now 14] was much younger than the rest of us, and eventually three years ago things got so bad he couldn’t carry on living there and had to move out – he went to live with my sister. Like most teenagers he was pretty messy, but my mum was way out of his league.”

Jasmine was perplexed by her mother’s hoarding habit and desperate to get professional recognition – one of her bugbears is that hoarding disorder is not officially classified as a mental illness, which means research into its causes and treatments has been scant. A television presenter who fronts the Channel 4 property show A Place in the Sun, she made a documentary about her motherlast year. “I had thought it was a pretty rare problem – you feel so alone, like yours is the only family affected by it,” she says. “But after the programme went out, I got about 2,000 emails and messages, many of them from people saying, ‘I know what it’s like – we’ve got a hoarder in our family too.'”

She set up helpforhoarders.co.uk, a website to offer mutual support. It brought more stories (one woman posted to say that her dad is such a hoarder that her mum has had to move out; another says her brother’s house is so full of belongings that he is living in squalor). Now Jasmine has made a second documentary, which deals less with the overwhelming symptoms of hoarding and more with the fundamental question of why people become hoarders.

According to Paul Salkovskis, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Bath and an expert in obsessional problems, about 1% of the population have hoarding issues so great that they are life-dominating; and many more have problems with holding on to stuff. So how do you judge how severely affected a family member is?

“What you have to ask yourself is, does the acquisition and retention of items render the living space in the house unusable?” he explains. “Typically, the hoarder isn’t the person who complains about the problem – it’s the people who live with the hoarder. It’s not that the hoarder doesn’t think there’s an issue: it’s that the issue is something they don’t want to have to confront.”

Put crudely, says Salkovskis, hoarders fall into one of three categories. The first group, around 25% of the total, are people with what might be termed “obsessive compulsive hoarding”: their problem is harm avoidance, because they fear things could be contaminated and worry about contaminating others if they get rid of them. The second group, who make up about half of all those affected, are deprivation hoarders: they have been through a period of massive deprivation (for example, war, displacement or another sort of loss) and they hoard because, having lost so much once, they feel a need to hold on to possessions in case catastrophe strikes again. The third group – and these people, says Salkovskis, are the hardest to treat – are sentimental hoarders. They have been damaged by unpredictability and possibly even neglect during childhood: for them, possessions have become more reliable than people and they invest in them accordingly.

For Vasoulla, says Jasmine, hoarding has been closely linked to various experiences of loss. “My mum was born in Cyprus, and her father died there, at a time of political unrest, when she was four. After that my grandmother brought her children to live in England: and for my mother that meant losing her grandparents, her friends and all her treasured possessions. She went back to Cyprus when she was about eight: but then, after a while, the family decided to return to England, so my mother lost everything yet again. I think the fact that she kept losing loved ones and friends meant she started to lavish her love on possessions instead.”

There is some evidence, says Jasmine, that hoarding runs in families – and her grandmother was also a hoarder, though she was not as bad as Vasoulla. “Maybe my mum had a tendency to hoarding, and it was made worse by her suffering all these losses,” says Jasmine. When her parents’ relationship broke up, and again when Jasmine and her older siblings left home, Vasoulla’s hoarding increased. “The biggest irony is that by collecting so much stuff, my mother is literally shutting us out – the people she really loves, and longs to be closer to – because we can’t get into her life because of all these possessions,” says Jasmine. “That’s what makes the condition so heartbreaking.”

One thing that is certain, says Jasmine, is that simply chucking a hoarder’s stuff out doesn’t solve the problem. “People so often say, why don’t you just get a skip and get rid of everything,” she says. “Don’t they think we’ve tried that? It’s not the answer. Unless you address the deeper issues, the hoarder just goes out and buys a whole lot more stuff to replace what has gone.”

The good news – though Jasmine says she is loth to hope for too much, too soon – is that Vasoulla is currently undergoing a form of therapy called emotional freedom technique to help her face up to, and deal with, her difficult memories. So far, the results are encouraging. “About an hour after one session, Mum turned to me and said: ‘The books can go.’

“That was a huge breakthrough: she has thousands of books, enough to run a bookshop. But whatever had happened in that session, she felt she could move on from the books, and that was a big turning point,” says Jasmine.

Hoarder in the Family will be screened on BBC1 soon

New fathers’ depression is not narcissism

27 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by a1000shadesofhurt in Depression

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Children, Depression, fathers

New fathers’ depression is not narcissism

What is your response to learning that there is a treatable but often undiagnosed medical condition that could mean that a baby is significantly more likely to require medical intervention for speech and language development? What if research had found the same condition led to the child being vastly more likely to develop behavioural problems and peer relationship problems? What if it could be affecting one in 30 newborn babies, or about 25,000 children every year in the UK alone, while minimal efforts are made to intervene?

If you’re a compassionate, empathic human being you probably feel a twinge of concern, maybe think more should be done to investigate, identify and treat the problem at the earliest stage. If you’re a national newspaper columnist, you might feel differently.

Harsh? Not if the condition we are discussing is paternal depression. It was the Daily Mail’s resident GP Robert Lefever who set the tone last week, reporting on a small study by Oxford University scientists that compared the communications of depressed and non-depressed fathers with their newborns. Lefever misreported the study’s findings as being that 5% of fathers develop post-natal depression. He went on to sarcastically ask whether men would get pre-menstrual tension next, and revealed his true colours by worrying that “politicians, of the bleeding heart tendency, will say that these men should be treated sympathetically – at the expense of their employers”.

Not to be outdone, Barbara Ellen of the Observer chipped in with a piece of almost breathtaking heartlessness. “I would have been more concerned that the mothers in question were having to put up with such exhausting narcissists as partners,” she opined, “men incapable of hiding their sulky self-absorption, even while being watched by researchers for a period of, wait for it, three minutes. Even serial killer Ted Bundy managed to look ‘normal’ for longer than that.”

Let’s clear up a few misconceptions. Postpartum or postnatal depression (PND), as clinically understood, is a complex and extremely serious mental health condition affecting somewhere between 10% and 30% of new mothers. Although it has some social factors, the primary causes are widely believed to be physiological, notably hormonal fluctuations triggered by pregnancy, childbirth and lactation. Men do not get PND by that definition, and that is why the scientists working in the field rarely, if ever, use the term. Instead they talk about “depression in the postnatal period” “paternal depression” or in the case of the latest study, “background depression in men”. The assertion that these men are suffering from PND, directly equivalent to maternal PND, seems to be the invention of journalists, not scientists, and certainly not the men themselves.

Can fathers of new children be depressed? Of course they can. Some may have been living with the illness long before the birth or pregnancy, others may slip into depression as a consequence of the stress and lifestyle changes brought about by the new arrival. Nobody with the faintest awareness of mental health should be surprised by this, and nobody with understanding of depressive illness should be glibly dismissive of the possible consequences.

Both Lefever and Ellen strongly imply that paternal depression is little more than whiny men wishing to jump aboard the PND bandwagon. Their prescription would appear to be: man up and suck it up. The reality emerging from medical and psychological research is precisely the opposite. Again and again, researchers point out that the biggest problem is that many men will not admit to depression and will not seek help when needed. The results are not only huge developmental risks to children, but also unnecessary suffering to the individual and raised risks of physical illness, self-destructive behaviour, loss of employment and in severe cases suicide or even murder-suicide. Researchers like Sethna, Ramchandani and Nazareth are pressing for greater diligence and awareness of these issues among health workers, precisely because of the tendency of fathers, and men more generally, to simply “man up”, often with disastrous consequences for everyone.

With a heavy heart, I’ve come to accept that there is a significant minority of both women and men who simply do not care about men’s health and welfare beyond its impacts on the female partners who might have to “put up with such exhausting narcissists” or the poor employers who might have to fork out sick pay for seriously ill employees. Those who genuinely feel like that can wrestle it out with their own consciences. But when such people use national newspaper columns to disparage and undermine medical research that strives to address tragic impacts upon tens of thousands of children, the rest of us should surely unite in revulsion.

Bullied Children ‘Three Times More Likely’ To Self-Harm

27 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by a1000shadesofhurt in Bullying, Young People

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Bullying, Children, mental health issues, self-harm, suicide

Bullied Children ‘Three Times More Likely’ To Self-Harm

Children bullied during their early years are up to three times more likely to self harm than their class-mates when they reach adolescence, a study has revealed.

According to its findings, around half of 12-year-olds who subject themselves to deliberate injury were frequently picked on.

The research also showed victimised children with mental health difficulties and those from troubled families were at greater risk of resorting to destructive behaviour which could have serious long-term effects in later life.

The study’s authors have now called for more effective programmes to prevent bullying in schools.

In a paper, published by the British Medical Journal, they suggest efforts should focus on improving the ways in which children cope with emotional distress.

“Bullying by peers is a major problem during the early school years,” they said.

“This study found that before 12 years of age a small proportion of children frequently exposed to this form of victimisation already deliberately harmed themselves and in some cases attempted to take their own lives.

“Frequent victimisation by peers increased the risk of self harm,”

The researchers also raised fears over the long-term implications of bullying which, they said, could result in psychological issues, serious injury or death.

“This study adds to the growing literature showing that bullying during the early years of school can have extremely detrimental consequences for some children by the time they reach adolescence,” they wrote.

“This finding is even more concerning given that studies have suggested that early patterns of self harm can persist through adolescence into adulthood and increase the risk of later psychological problems.

“Therefore, such maladaptive coping strategies need to be tackled in childhood and early adolescence before they become a persistent problem or lead to serious injury or death.”

The authors, from King’s College London, looked at more than 1,000 pairs of twins – born between 1994-1995 in England and Wales – at five, seven, 10 and 12-years-old.

The children were assessed on the risks of self-harming in the six months prior to their 12th birthdays.

Data available for 2,141 individuals showed 237 children were victims of frequent bullying and, of that number, 18 (around 8%) self harmed. This involved cutting or biting arms, pulling out clumps of hair, a child banging its head against walls or attempting suicide.

Of 1,904 children who were not bullied, 44 (2%) self harmed.

The research found marginally more girls (52%) than boys resorted to wounding themselves.

It also showed bullied children with a family member who had either attempted or committed suicide were more likely to self harm than others.

“If bullying could have been eradicated (and everything else remained the same), a sizeable proportion of the cases of self harm could potentially have been prevented,” the authors concluded.

“Although only a small proportion of bullied children in this sample engaged in self harm, this is clearly too many and victims need to be provided with alternative coping strategies from a young age.”

They added: “Prevention of non-suicidal self injury in young adolescents should focus on helping bullied children to cope more appropriately with their distress.

“Programmes should target children who have additional mental health problems, have a family history of attempted/completed suicide, or have been maltreated by an adult.”

Bullying Linked To 65% Of Eating Disorders, Report Reveals

27 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by a1000shadesofhurt in Eating Disorders

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Bullying, Self-esteem

Bullying Linked To 65% Of Eating Disorders, Report Reveals

As many as 65% of people with eating disorders say bullying has contributed to their condition, according to a new report by UK eating disorder charity, Beat. This is a 41% increase on a similar survey carried out by the same organisation in 2009.

The survey also found that 49% were less than 10 years old when the bullying started and many stated that the effects had stayed with them into their 40s and 50s.

Worryingly, only 22% actually received any help from someone to overcome their bullying.

Cathy, a 46 year old from Derbyshire, who was bullied from the age of 12 by a teacher as well as her peers, told the charity: “The bullying made me lose my once bubbly personality and my confidence and my self-esteem was at an all-time low. I was too frightened to go out and felt incredibly isolated. It was a traumatic experience as the bullies were once my best friends – I will never forget the feelings of despair and loneliness.”

Beat Chief Executive, Susan Ringwood, told The Huffington Post: “All bullying lowers self-esteem, and low self-esteem is proven to raise the risk of eating disorders. Bullying about size, weight and shape – the innocuous sounding ‘fat teasing’ – is particularly toxic. Size, weight and shape is the last personal domain where stigmatising behaviour goes unchallenged and where pejorative comments go unremarked.

“We are calling for fat teasing to become as socially unacceptable as negative comments about race, ethnicity, sexuality or religion.

All schools should have anti-bullying polices. They should apply them and play their part in making a generation of young people both more resilient and respectful.”

MPs to debate the growing problem of young girls being pressurised into ‘sexting’

25 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by a1000shadesofhurt in Bullying, Young People

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sexting

MPs to debate the growing problem of young girls being pressurised into ‘sexting’

A teenage girl sends a naked image of herself to her boyfriend’s mobile phone. It’s not something she makes a habit of doing, but she wants to express the young couple’s intimacy. They split up, and she soon discovers that he has circulated that private message to all his friends – even to her parents – with a few button clicks.

Her story, told by Richard Piggin, deputy chief executive of charity Beatbullying, is one of many.

“Sexting” – the peer-to-peer sharing of explicit images – is increasingly common among young people, but can be anything but harmless fun. Amid growing concern from parents and campaigners, one MP will today demand that mobile phone companies do more to educate them about the potential dangers of this most modern method of flirting.

Ann Coffey, the Labour MP for Stockport, has tabled a motion set to be heard this morning. Drawing parallels with alcohol and gambling industry-funded advertising campaigns about the safe use of their products, she will demand that companies fund advice for teenagers.

She is pushing for “sexting” information leaflets to be provided with new mobile phones and wants the industry to pay for TV and press advertising, and to promote ChildLine. Mrs Coffey will say that the leaflet should “explain how, at the click of a button an image intended for private use, can lead to public humiliation and even fall into the hands of sophisticated sexual predators”.

The move follows the report by an independent parliamentary inquiry into online child protection, published last week, in which MPs wrote that “sexting” was of “great concern” to parents.

The problem is growing, according to Beatbullying, which carried out a survey in 2009 that showed 38 per cent of children aged 11-18 had received a sexually explicit or distressing text or email.

“The research back in 2009 uncovered for the first time the sorts of things young people were doing and the worrying nature of it,” said Mr Piggin, “but it is concerning that young people are finding it increasingly normal”.

This view is backed by research at Plymouth University which found that 40 per cent of 14 to 16-year-olds said their friends engaged in “sexting”. Research by Andy Phippen, professor of social responsibility in IT, found that 40 per cent of teenagers saw nothing wrong with a topless image and 15 per cent had no problem with naked images.

All organisations agree that criminalising those involved is not viable, but that education is the only path. A majority of teachers are aware of the problem, said Jon Baggaley, of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, but the young people “didn’t realise that adults knew this was going on” and they were able to discuss this.

Sexting by numbers

38 per cent The number of teenagers who have received a sexually explicit text or email.

27 per cent The percentage of young people who said sexting happens regularly or all the time.

1 in 4 Teenagers have received an offensive sexual image.

Figures from Beatbullying and Plymouth University

Robert Fisk: The Children of Fallujah – Sayef’s story

25 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by a1000shadesofhurt in War Crimes, Young People

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congenital birth defects, Fallujah, phosphorous shells

Robert Fisk: The Children of Fallujah – Sayef’s story

For little Sayef, there will be no Arab Spring. He lies, just 14 months old, on a small red blanket cushioned by a cheap mattress on the floor, occasionally crying, his head twice the size it should be, blind and paralysed. Sayeffedin Abdulaziz Mohamed – his full name – has a kind face in his outsized head and they say he smiles when other children visit and when Iraqi families and neighbours come into the room.

But he will never know the history of the world around him, never enjoy the freedoms of a new Middle East. He can move only his hands and take only bottled milk because he cannot swallow. He is already almost too heavy for his father to carry. He lives in a prison whose doors will remain forever closed.

It’s as difficult to write this kind of report as it is to understand the courage of his family. Many of the Fallujah families whose children have been born with what doctors call “congenital birth anomalies” prefer to keep their doors closed to strangers, regarding their children as a mark of personal shame rather than possible proof that something terrible took place here after the two great American battles against insurgents in the city in 2004, and another conflict in 2007.

After at first denying the use of phosphorous shells during the second battle of Fallujah, US forces later admitted that they had fired the munitions against buildings in the city. Independent reports have spoken of a birth-defect rate in Fallujah far higher than other areas of Iraq, let alone other Arab countries. No one, of course, can produce cast-iron evidence that American munitions have caused the tragedy of Fallujah’s children.

Sayef lives – the word is used advisedly, perhaps – in the al-Shahada district of Fallujah, in one of the more dangerous streets in the city. The cops – like the citizens of Fallujah, they are all Sunni Muslims – stand with their automatic weapons at the door of Sayef’s home when we visit, but two of these armed, blue-unformed men come inside with us and are visibly moved by the helpless baby on the floor, shaking their heads in disbelief and with a hopelessness which his father, Mohamed, refuses to betray.

“I think all this is because of the use by the Americans of phosphorous in the two big battles,” he says. “I have heard of so many cases of congenital birth defects in children. There has to be a reason. When my child first went to the hospital, I saw families there with exactly the same problems.”

Studies since the 2004 Fallujah battles have recorded profound increases in infant mortality and cancer in Fallujah; the latest report, whose authors include a doctor at Fallujah General Hospital, says that congenital malformations account for 15 per cent of all births in Fallujah.

“My son cannot support himself,” Mohamed says, fondling his son’s enlarged head. “He can move only his hands. We have to bottle-feed him. He can’t swallow. Sometimes he can’t take even the milk, so we have to take him to hospital to be given fluids. He was blind when he was born. In addition, my poor little man’s kidney has shut down. He got paralysed. His legs don’t move. His blindness is due to hydrocephalus.”

Mohamed holds Sayef’s useless legs and moves them gently up and down. “After he was born, I got Sayef to Baghdad and I had the most important neurosurgeons check him. They said they could do nothing. He had a hole in his back that was closed and then a hole in his head. The first operation did not succeed. He had meningitis.”

Both Mohamed and his wife are in their mid-thirties. Unlike many tribal families in the area, neither are related and their two daughters, born before the battles of Fallujah, are in perfect health. Sayef was born on 27 January, 2011. “My two daughters like their brother very much,” Mohamed adds, “and even the doctors like him. They all take part in the care of the child. Dr Abdul-Wahab Saleh has done some amazing work on him – Sayef would not be alive without him.”

Mohamed works for an irrigation mechanics company but admits that, with a salary of only $100 a month, he receives financial help from relatives. He was outside Fallujah during the conflict but returned two months after the second battle only to find his house mined; he received funding to rebuild his home in 2006. He watches Sayef for a long time during our conversation and then lifts him in his arms.

“Every time I watch my son, I’m dying inside,” he says, tears running down his face. “I think about his destiny. He is getting heavier all the time. It’s more difficult to carry him.” So I ask whom he blames for Sayef’s little calvary. I expect a tirade of abuse against the Americans, the Iraqi government, the Health Ministry. The people of Fallujah have long been portrayed as “pro-terrorist” and “anti-Western” in the world’s press, ever since the murder and cremation of the four American mercenaries in the city in 2004 – the event which started the battles for Fallujah in which up to 2,000 Iraqis, civilians and insurgents, died, along with almost 100 US troops.

But Mohamed is silent for a few moments. He is not the only father to show his deformed child to us. “I am only asking for help from God,” he says. “I don’t expect help from any other human being.” Which proves, I guess, that Fallujah – far from being a city of terror – includes some very brave men.

Fallujah: A history

The first battle of Fallujah, in April 2004, was a month-long siege, during which US forces failed to take the city, said to be an insurgent stronghold. The second battle, in November, flattened the city. Controversy raged over claims US troops had deployed white phosphorus shells. A 2010 study said increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in Fallujah exceeded those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

More (2010):

Toxic legacy of US assault on Fallujah ‘worse than Hiroshima’

Disturbing story of Falluja’s birth defects

Would you dare to wear Lycra outside? Half of women put off exercise in public

23 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by a1000shadesofhurt in Body Image

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Exercise, Self-esteem

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/would-you-dare-to-wear-lycra-outside-half-of-women-put-off-exercise-in-public-7669143.html

It is good news for the celebrity fitness DVD industry, if no one else. More than half of the women in Britain are too embarrassed about their bodies to exercise in public, a survey suggests.

Nine out of 10 women over 30 have low self-esteem and poor body image, which forces many of them to exercise indoors or go running in the dark. The findings, by the mental health charity, Mind, are particularly unfortunate because outdoor exercise is known to be far more effective at improving mood and mental wellbeing than an indoor workout.

“We all know walking, cycling, even gardening are good for our mental health,” said Beth Murphy, the head of information at Mind. “However, for many of us, exercising outdoors can be incredibly daunting, especially if you are already feeling low and your self-confidence is at rock bottom.

“At these times you can feel like the only person in the world experiencing this, but our research highlights that far from being alone, 90 per cent of women are in exactly the same boat. It is time we start talking about how exercise makes us feel. We urge women to take the first step, invite a friend on a nature date and begin to support each other in taking care of our mental wellbeing.”

More than half of the 1,450 women surveyed said they exercised very early in the morning or late at night, solely to avoid being seen by others. Nearly two-thirds said they exercised in a location where they were unlikely to bump into anyone they knew, and a similar proportion said they wore baggy clothing to conceal their figures.

Gym classes are also a no-go area, it seems. Two-thirds of women said they did not think they would be able to keep up in an exercise group, that they would look silly, or that the women there would be “cliquey” and unwelcoming.

Sixty per cent were nervous about exhibiting themselves while sweaty, and were worried about their “wobbly bits”, passing wind or going red. Only 6 per cent thought they would be likely to make new friends.

Mind’s researchers found that women were acutely aware of the importance of keeping fit and active lifestyles, and therapists were increasingly prescribing outdoor exercise as a way to fight stress and depression.

But the charity said that, rather than exercising, women reported that they were more likely to spend time eating comfort food (71 per cent), listening to sad music (32 per cent), spending time social networking (57 per cent), going to bed (66 per cent) or finding a way to be alone (71 per cent).

Mind, which offers advice and support people with mental health problems, has launched a “Feel Better Outside, Feel Better Inside” campaign to encourage women to start talking about outdoor exercise, and to encourage friends to exercise outdoors together.

Case study: ‘I always felt so self-conscious and anxious’

Tracy Bell, 38, lives in Bedford and has suffered from occasional bouts of depression for 10 years

My GP prescribed me gym membership as therapy. I went to the sessions because I felt I had to, but I hated every minute and stopped as soon as I could.

I went time after time because it was my prescription, but I felt so self-conscious and anxious. The exercise environment is just so cliquey – I would never have made any friends.

Everyone there was completely different to me. They were thinner, fitter and better at exercise. To make things better, I would time my trips really carefully. I would make sure I went mid-morning, so I missed the morning rush and then the lunchtime rush, too – just to make sure I would be seen by as few people as possible.

I’ve been asked if I talked to my friends about how I felt, but there’s no way I could. They are so much thinner and more sporty than me.

A lot of my friends who live near me are a little bit younger and I just know they wouldn’t understand. I don’t know how to put it – I guess I feel like I must be the only one who feels like this.

Amish in court over haircut attacks

20 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by a1000shadesofhurt in Uncategorized

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/amish-in-court-over-haircut-attacks-7664587.html

Sixteen men and women pleaded not guilty in beard- and hair-cutting attacks against fellow Amish in the US state of Ohio.

A feud over church discipline allegedly led to attacks in which the beards and hair of men and hair of women were cut, considered deeply offensive in Amish culture.

The Amish believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry.

The defendants and their lawyers overflowed defence tables and the jury box as they entered the pleas before US District Court Judge Dan Polster in response to an updated indictment.

The latest indictment added new allegations that the suspects tried to hide or destroy evidence, including a disposable camera, shears and a bag of hair from the victims.

Members of the Amish community who were in court left through a rear enclosed walkway without speaking.

The judge said he would keep the schedule set after the first indictment – a July 30 deadline for any plea change and August 27 trial.

Joseph Dubyak, attorney Linda Schrock, daughter of alleged ringleader Samuel Mullet Sr, said the related extended families are helping each other during the busy planting season with seven defendants still held on bond.

The updated indictment also charges Mullet with lying to federal agents during their investigation by denying knowledge of an October assault.

The new defendants, Lovina Miller, Kathryn Miller, Emma Miller and Elizabeth Miller, are members of the Amish community in Bergholz in eastern Ohio near Steubenville and are married to some of Mullet’s nephews, according to the updated indictment filed in late March.

The 10-count indictment includes charges of conspiracy, assault and evidence tampering in what prosecutors said were hate crimes motivated by religious differences.

The new charges also allege defendants used a disposable camera to take pictures of the victims, then hid the camera from authorities until eventually turning it over on March 16.

Several members of the group living in Bergholz carried out the attacks in September, October and November by forcibly cutting the beards and hair of Amish men and women and then taking photos to shame them, authorities have said.

Mullet said he did not order the hair-cutting but did not stop his sons and others from carrying it out. He said the goal was to send a message to other Amish that they should be ashamed of themselves for the way they were treating Mullet and his community.

Ohio has an estimated Amish population of just under 61,000 – second only to Pennsylvania – with most living in rural counties south and east of Cleveland.

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