WELL-BEING FIRST: THINKING HEALTHY IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged abuse, action, apathy, Boris Johnson, Brexit, conservative, coronavirus, covid, covid19, crisis, featured, health, Infection Control Today, jeremy corbyn, Joseph Stiglitz, left, liberal, media, mental health, MSM, NHS, NPD, PPE, psychology, Tory, Trump, uk, well-being, wellbeing.

by Sunetra Senior

A couple of weeks ago we were told of the extent of the Tory government’s negligence during a time of intense international crisis. They disregarded important information provided by advisory committees at critical moments as well as the crucial COBRA Meetings themselves, which are specifically held to ensure strong leadership at times of national emergency. According to the article in The Times, Boris’ earlier inaction has resulted in the number of deaths reaching six figures with the estimated mortality predicted to be 400,000. Of course, in addition to patently disregarding hundreds of thousands of lives, Johnson’s administration has also put the physical health of millions at risk with the virus running uncontrolled throughout the population for a whole month between 24th Feb when the recorded number of deaths skyrocketed, and the announcement of effective lockdown measures in mid-March.Continue Reading

“TOO COLD TO CONCENTRATE” – THE STATE OF STUDENT HOMES IN 2018

Posted on February 4, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged ACORN renters' union, bills, class, cold, direct action, electricity, featured, fuel poverty, gas, Homes Fit For Study, mental health, NACHoS, NUS, prepaid meters, private landlords, property, rent strike, report, statistics, student accommodation, student housing co-ops, students, utilities, wellbeing.

by Robyn Banks

Last week, NUS released the 2018 edition of their ‘Homes Fit For Study’ report on the state of student housing in the UK. Whilst the findings aren’t overly surprisingly, they still present the stark realities of the standard of housing that students have to face. The report demonstrates the effect that poor housing can have on mental health and wellbeing – one student reported that “Sometimes in bed when it’s bitterly cold we all feel like crying…” and another even said that her housing was so cold she caught pneumonia. In a society where the focus is on growing private capital, the health of tenants often comes second.

YOU’RE HAVING A LAUGH

Posted on January 20, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged comedy, depression, eds, endorphin, featured, happy, joke, knowledge, laugh, laughter, medication, mental health, mental illness, news, parody, process, propaganda, satire, self care, spoof, wellbeing.

by Alice Thomson

Life is hard. For everyone. We’re all trying to find some meaning to our lives, trying to figure out where we belong and what our purpose is. Amongst that, we see what is going on the world, either connected to us or globally. Our environment can be tough to digest.

My last article was about the cuts the government is in the process of implementing to benefits for disabled people. I spent a lot of time researching the article and it really brought me down. I already knew it was a problem and needed to be spoken about, bknowledge,ut to learn the extent of the issue and read personal experiences, made me feel hopeless. The news can easily do that. Making it difficult, not only to take control and make positive changes to our environment, but to make those changes for ourselves. It’s a trick that’s as old as the book. Since the time people were able to establish a hierarchy, those on top kept everyone else in the dark to keep them in their place. Knowledge is power. Muddy the water of knowledge, and we disengage and disenfranchise the masses.Continue Reading

WEEKENDS MATTER – WORK-LIFE BALANCE IN ACADEMIA

Posted on November 9, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academics, email, higher education, KEF, mental health, postgraduate, REF, research, students, tef, weekend, wellbeing, work, work-life balance, working conditions, working life, workload.

by Alex Powell

From the outside, it may appear that students and academics have pretty comfortable lives. We can largely work how and when we want. I frequently lie in past 10am and often come back home after just a 6-hour working day. But despite appearances, this doesn’t mean that we have it super easy. As I am finding more and more, maintaining a good work-life balance can be a real struggle – a struggle that academics and students around the world are all too familiar with.

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES. ‘AT LEAST IT CAN’T GET ANY WORSE, RIGHT?’

Posted on September 20, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged conservative party, cuts, depression, medication, mental health, NHS, waiting lists, wellbeing.

By Zoe Harding

Content warning: mental health, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorder, suicide.

This article is not written in the Radical’s usual style, with all the froth and fury about parts of society that might be ‘broken’ or ‘harmful’ or ‘dog-fucked beyond human comprehension by a swarm of grey-suited sociopaths inexplicably elected by a suicidal electorate’. There will be no solutions, no imprecations, no lights shone into dark places because everything’s fine.Continue Reading

MENTAL HEALTH – THE GOVERNMENT’S MYTH

Posted on May 14, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives, Student and tagged art therapy, cbt, counseling, education, expectations, external, funding, generations, good mental health, government, group therapy, headspace, information, institutions, media, mental health, mental wellbeing, Mind, mindfullness, society, student, wellbeing, work.

by Nicholl Hardwick

Content warning: article discusses mental health, depression and anxiety.

The mind has been described as ‘the element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel; the faculty of consciousness and thought’ The mind controls the ways in which we relate to the world outside of our own heads, or in other words, the way we connect with reality

A state of ‘good mental health’ is when an individual is able to not only psychologically manage, but also thrive in the world around them. We live in an increasingly complex society with unique pressures, therefore, good mental health means that an individual is able to understand society cognitively and respond appropriately to everyday situations with the expected level of emotion, concentration and understanding.

However, this is where it becomes tricky. What society expects from us and what society tells us are two very different things.Continue Reading

THE RIGHT TO ENVY

Posted on August 15, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged anti-capitalism, capitalism, classism, CLP, corbyn, dignity, Ed Miliband, egoism, entryism, envy, establishment, extreme poverty, jeremy corbyn, Labour, labour party, left wing, meltdown, outlier, owen smith, Oxfam, Parliament, parliamentarianism, PLP, politics, poverty, state, tom watson, Trotskyism, uk, wellbeing, witch hunt.

by George Laver

If, over the last year or so, anybody has been monitoring political discourse, it should have come as no surprise that the Labour Party has collapsed into meltdown. From an anti-electoral onlooker’s perspective, it is over trivial matters; but to the dedicated parliamentarian, it is a cause for some concern. In particular, there are the issues surrounding supposed “entryists” and “Trotskyists” amongst the rank-and-file of pro-Corbyn Labourites. A bitter repeat of the witch hunts against members of the “militant tendency” in the 1980s, this too would be no surprise to those who had the foresight to expect it.

Whilst I am not writing this to defend Trotskyism – or even to defend entryists tactics, parliamentarianism, and so on – I am writing in defence of those who hold viewpoints that are considered outliers to the common political discourse; and in spite of the fact that left-wingers are brandished with the label of “the politics of envy,” there is a perfect justification for envy. It is not a label from which we should blush and shy away.Continue Reading

THE CAKE IS NOT A LIE — NERDSPHERE AND FITNESS

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged Andrew Deutsch, bodies, body issue, body issues, body shaming, bodyshaming, comics, Community, D&D, Darebee, dork, Dorkly, exercise, fatshaming, fitness, fitspo, geek, gym, health, healthy, Huffington Post, Justin Hall, masculinity, Neila Rey, nerd, Nerdstrong, outdoors, PokemonGO, robots, support, Transformers, Tyler Kingkade, wellbeing, workout.

by Alex Valente

Content Warning: body issues, body shaming

In recent weeks, people with access to the internet on a regular basis have probably not been able to avoid reading news about a new application for smart phones, featuring a trendy geek icon that never really went away: Pokémon GO. As revealed in a totally legit super serious study by artist Justin Hall on Dorkly, the Niantic game is, in fact, part of a ploy to create superstrong, superbuff supernerds. True story.

To actually stray on the side of serious, though, the application has indeed helped some players (we will be discussing this in terms of people with disabilities, looking at positives and negatives — such as the gaping flaws for physical disabilities, or Playing While Black — in an article soon) to engage with others, and spend time outdoors (plus, this). Both results, in the most generalised way possible, are healthy habits and attitudes, and being hailed as the best thing to happen to nerds since Dungeons & Dragons.

THE MALE GAZE WON’T CURE EATING DISORDERS

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged anorexia, body, bulimia, eating disorder, education, female body, feminism, feminist theory, Hollywood, in theory, male gaze, male privilege, media, privilege, self-esteem, street harassment, trigger warning, TW, wellbeing, woman, women.

by Robyn Banks

Eating disorders and low self-esteem in women and girls have been making headlines in both feminist discourse and the mainstream press for years, usually being linked in a variety of ways to the media, be it advertising or the homogenous representation of women. 1.6 million people in the UK suffer from some form of eating disorder, of which 89% are female, and anorexia nervosa has been reported in girls as young as six.

The issue has resurfaced again recently after Dr Aric Sigman, a professor in child psychology, has said that boys are an ‘untapped army’ who can prevent girls’ diet disorders by telling them how attractive they find ‘curvy’ women. At the same time, France unveiled a plan to ban models deemed too skinny from the catwalk. Both of these prevention measures are well meaning, but both are rooted in a profound misunderstanding of eating disorders that could do more harm than good.

wellbeing

WELL-BEING FIRST: THINKING HEALTHY IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

“TOO COLD TO CONCENTRATE” – THE STATE OF STUDENT HOMES IN 2018

YOU’RE HAVING A LAUGH

WEEKENDS MATTER – WORK-LIFE BALANCE IN ACADEMIA

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES. ‘AT LEAST IT CAN’T GET ANY WORSE, RIGHT?’

THE RIGHT TO ENVY

THE CAKE IS NOT A LIE — NERDSPHERE AND FITNESS

THE MALE GAZE WON’T CURE EATING DISORDERS

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