Throughout my life I’ve suffered from a terrible affliction experts call onychophagy. The disorder can cause deleterious effects on my fingers, my mouth and even my stomach. More commonly, the affliction is known as nail biting. I’m a stress-induced nail biter and right now it’s not the menacing bacteria lurking under my nubby nails that I’m worried about. It’s the fact that my nail-nawing habit is a sign that all is not well in my mind and body. Indeed, the fact that I’m biting my nails again is just one sign that I’m not handling my stress very well. You... Read full article »

In 2007, a 27-year old man known as ‘Mr A’ collapsed on the floor of a hospital emergency department after taking a drug overdose. His blood pressure was crashing, he was hyperventilating and shaking, and nurses sprang into action to insert an intravenous line into his arm to try and flush his system and save his life. The man had been taking part in an antidepressant drug trail. Although he said his mood had improved significantly in the first month, in the second month he had an argument with his ex-girlfriend and became suicidal. He took his remaining 29 pills... Read full article »

I was standing at my kitchen sink, locked in battle with a determined frying pan unwilling to part with the remnants of the evening’s scorched rice paella. It was 9pm and I was exhausted, having been up since 5:30am, then worked a full day, only to face “witching hour” with my 4-year-old and 9-month-old sons while my husband was out at an evening work event. I noticed that my shoulders were tense, my jaw was tight, and my mind was catastrophising thoughts of pending grant applications and unmet work deadlines. All I wanted was a hot bath and to fall... Read full article »

There’s no doubt that meditation is the cool thing to do at the moment. TIME Magazine has hailed the “Mindful Revolution,” Google has an in-house mindfulness program, and lists of "outrageously successful" people who meditate regularly make the rounds on my social media feed, including Huffington Post and Thrive Global founder Arianna Huffington who champions its use in the workplace for boosting productivity and the corporate bottom line. There’s also increased interest in mindfulness in scientific circles. Everything from mindfulness for binge-eating, to mindfulness for post traumatic stress is being put to the test and the results are promising. Researchers... Read full article »

Like most people, I’ve experienced some pretty challenging times in my life (reporting in the aftermath of natural disasters, live broadcasting, and jumping into an open ocean in front of a 30,000 kilogram whale immediately spring to mind) but by far the most difficult thing I’ve ever done is be a parent. It’s an unrelenting occupation involving sleepless nights, tantrums, childcare juggling, meal planning, sibling rivalry, constant vigilance, potty training, endless cleaning, and schedule management – all of which are things that occur multiple times a day, on a good day. It is, of course, all worth it, but in... Read full article »

I wish I had a time machine so I could go back 11 years ago when I was first diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. I wish I could bump into that 24-year-old version of me who was leaving a rheumatologists office in tears, having just been told she “probably has lupus,” that her immune system was attacking her own body, that there was no known cause and no known cure, that she had bad genes, and that she may end up in a wheelchair, with organ failure, or infertility. I wish I could tell her about this moment right now,... Read full article »