Pushy Parents are told to Slow down and let children thrive

Eton Master warns pressure can be damaging

Greg Hurst Education Editor. The Times Saturday October 13^th 2012

Pushy parents, “tiger” mothers, turbo charged fathers- prepare to meet your nemesis. Eton College is in the vanguard of a new movement seeking to tell teachers, teenagers and especially their parents to slow down, even to embrace a little idleness.

The message is aimed at families so preoccupied with theirs child’s development that they micromanage free time, ferrying them from super selective schools to tutors, music teachers and sports clubs. Yet the result, says Mike Grenier, a house master at Eton, may be to demotivate a child and even cause psychological damage. Such “hyper parenting is at its most extreme in London, where a rise in the birth-rate has heightened competition for places at private pre prep schools.

Mr Grenier say: “We know that for a lot of pre schools in some of the more affluent areas- Knightsbridge, Kensington, Battersea- the perception is that there are not enough places and that is it is only in a private school that you are going to get the quality starting from the age of 3 or 4 that will see you pass to the next stage through the private sector. So the reality is that there are children who are being given interview coaching at the age of 3 or 4”. He has heard worse from New York: children doing an hour or more music practice or tutoring before school, two or three hours of one to one tuition afterwards then a physically demanding activity such as swimming or ballet.

Ironically, Mr Grenier says, such parents may be holding their children back by not allowing them to take risks, make mistakes and learn from them. “Not only are they in danger of demotivating children because they feel they are a passive project being constructed rather against their will but it could lead people to feel very anxious when confronted by new difficulties.”

Moreover, he says, parents ought to be role models for their children, and living with pressure and anxiety is not a good example. Mr Grenier is an advocate of how slow education, a concept adapted from a culinary movement begun in Italy as an antidote to fast food.

With other teachers, in private and state schools, he is spearheading a campaign to infuse this approach into education, and will speak at the London Festival of Education next month. But isn’t Eaton itself a hothouse? There is a tremendous amount of pressure, he concedes: working hard is the norm here. “Peer group pressure is important and in some ways is a tremendously positive and motivating force. The boys want to do well, they want to keep up and boys are competitive.”

He identifies three spheres for learning at Eaton. First is the curriculum, in which, slow, schooling means more independent research, project work, collaboration, reflection. Second come its many extracurricular activities: the housemaster’s sitting room looks out on playing fields where Eaton’s first XV rugby team is practicing drills in the rain. Third area is activity lead by the boys themselves. “The experience there is so successful, in particular with teenagers because so much of it is self-motivated.” He says. “Boys are choosing to direct their own plays, to enter creative pries, volunteer for mentoring programmes.”

The role of a teacher or parent, he says, is to provide a safety net as a child walks a tightrope, and to raise or lower it. “The danger of hyper- parenting,”Mr Grenier says, “Is that it is intrusive and they don’t even let them get on the high rope at all.”

Gerry Gajadharsingh writes:

It’s great to see top schools like Eaton realising that over stimulation of children is often not helpful in their overall development. We seem in such a rush to pack so many things into our children’s lives that we often fail to understand that “less is sometimes more”. Giving time and space i.e. “slowing down” allows certain parts of the brain to develop properly and minimises the risk of turning our children into “stressed” individuals, which may come back to haunt them in adult life. Don’t forget that 95% of our brain activity is subconscious and it’s our subconscious brain that allows our bodies to run smoothly in the background without having to think too much about it. Time and space allows ideas to happen and helps with our creativity.

Some of the best athletes have asthma-it shouldn’t hold you back

Dr Mark Porter The Times Tuesday August 14^th 2012

London 2012 is over, and the nation is basking in the reflected glory of team GB’s medal haul- a feat made by the fact that a quarter of our athletics squad has asthma. The discovery that these Olympians are three times as likely to have asthma than the rest of us could have major implications for the other five million people with the condition in the UK.

There are a number of theories as to why athletes are more prone to cough and wheeze but by far the most important factor is the way that they breathe. Hours of intensive training a day where they push themselves to the limit mean runners, rowers, cyclists and boxers all breathe heavily, and breathe through their mouths, a combination known to trigger asthma symptoms.

Large volumes of cold dry air taken in through the mouth (nose breathing humidifies and warms the air) irritate the delicate lining of the airways causing the muscular walls to spasm (bronchconstriction), triggering asthma. It also exposes the lungs to greater volumes of other triggers such as environmental irritants (like pollutants) and allergens.

So it should come as no surprise that exercise induced wheeze is a particular problem in endurance athletes who train in cold, dry conditions such as cross country skiers, and also in swimmers, who are exposed to chlorine and other chemicals in the water. But how does this help the rest of you?

A number of recent studies have shown that teaching people with asthma to breathe in a controlled manner- whether through buteyko exercises, yoga, physiotherapy or even playing the clarinet- can help to alleviate asthma symptoms. Over the past five years a number of researchers have published evidence showing that specific breathing exercises can reduce symptoms. And it can also reduce dependence on reliever medication (such as ventolin) – by about half in most cases, and more than 80% in one Australian study. Unfortunately there is no good evidence so far that it has any significant impact on the underlying inflammatory processes associated with asthma or that it has much impact on the need for long term preventative medicine ( typically, steroid inhalers). One way to ascertain whether hyperventilation and mouth breathing is a factor in someone’s asthma is to get them to try breathing exercises. They should be encouraged to breathe through their nose, to use their diaphragm and abdomen rather than the muscles of the upper chest, and to try and control their rate of respiration to eight to ten breaths a minute at rest.

Gerry Gajadharsingh writes:

It’s great to see an article on breathing retraining in the popular press. What Dr Porter has missed is the fact that the ratio of breathing in to breathing out is critical. Whilst breathing in allows O2 to enter the lungs and O2 is one of our major metabolic fuels, the delivery of O2 to cells is dependant in the body retaining adequate levels of CO2. Research has shown that about 70% of people do not breath correctly, (Courtney et Al, Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies (2011), 15, 24-34), athletes are no exception. There is no doubt that asthma can also be inflammatory mediated but instead of the usual steroid inhalers it is sometimes worthwhile looking at dietary factors that cause inflammation. I am also asthmatic, allergic to animals such as cats, dogs and horses. What is interesting is that there are co allergens. We have 2 dogs (blame the wife and children!), if I have wine too high in sulphates and chocolate my asthma and allergic rhinitis flares up. If I have no chocolate I can cope with the wine and dogs! Life is amazing. Having good breathing technique is definitely helpful as is a good understanding as so what provokes my particular inflammatory process.

A Nation of pill poppers: sharp rise in number who are taking antidepressants

Martin Barrow Wednesday August 1^st 2012 The Times

An anxious nation has been turning to the doctor in greater numbers than ever, prompting another increase in the number of prescriptions for anti- depressants and sleeping pills.

Just under 46.7 million prescriptions for antidepressants were dispensed in the community in England last year, an increase of 9.1 % over the previous 12 months, according to the NHS’s Health and Social care information centre. The number equates to almost one prescription for every person in the country. It is the largest rise of any of the 200 sections within the British National Formulary, which categorises all prescribed drugs in England, and comes despite an appeal to GP’s to make greater use of so called talking services such as counselling.

There was a 0.3 % increase in the number of prescriptions for hypnotics and anxiolytics, which are given to help people to sleep or to cope with anxiety and stress and include some of the most addictive pills. Prescriptions for disorders relating to the central nervous system, which includes antidepressants and medication for mental health and neurological conditions, were up 5.4% to 172.4 million items, and now cost almost £2 billion a year.

 Paul Farmer, the chief executive of mental health charity mind, said: “We have seen a similar increase in anti-depressant prescriptions for several years now and, while there are possible explanations for this, it is concerning that the increase is so significant and so consistent.”

“I think we are beginning to see the scale of unmet need as more and more people are coming forward to seek help for their depression. “Antidepressants can be very effective in helping some people to manage their mental health problems but they are not the solution for everyone and should not be used as a first line treatment for mild depression.”

The total number of prescriptions dispensed in the community in England rose 3.8 % to 961.5 million, the equivalent of 18.3 items per head of population. However the cost fell 0.3% to £8.8 billion reflecting the purchase of cheaper generic medicines rather than branded products.

Tim Straughn, chief executive of the Information centre, said that the rise in prescription items “may well reflect the evolving demands of our aging population, prescribing practices and the availability of more treatments”.

The three most frequently dispensed drugs accounted for 10.2% of all the items prescribed. They are simvastatin, used for lowering blood cholesterol: aspirin, which has a wide range of uses: and levothyroxine sodium which treats a thyroid hormone deficiency. Dr Andrew McCulloch, chief exec of the Mental Health Foundation, Said: “ Doctors may just be relying on antidepressant prescribing rather than offering patients alternative evidence- based interventions such as psychological therapies or exercise prescriptions. “We must make sure that options like these are widely available in every part of the country.”

Gerry Gajadharsingh writes:

It is good to know that the experts agree that for mild/moderate depression other modalities of treatment should be tried not just resorting to antidepressants. Even NICE now recommends mindfulness (breathing and meditation) as  a recognised treatment for anxiety and depression.

June 12, 2012 (Boston, Massachusetts) — Some adults with insomnia may actually be afraid of the dark, a small pilot study of college students hints.

Researchers found that more students who were poor sleepers reported they are afraid of the dark, and then confirmed this finding using objective measures of anxiety in dark and light conditions.

A phobia related to darkness may bring on anxiety and a state of arousal when people turn out the lights at bedtime, in turn fueling sleep problems, the findings suggest.

“This could be an eye-opener, if we find this phobia in a range of adults with insomnia,” principal investigator Colleen Carney, PhD, from Ryerson University Sleep & Depression Laboratory in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, told Medscape Medical News.

“It means we have to start assessing for a phobia in poor sleepers, which we don’t do at the moment. The good thing is we can treat fear of the dark with systematic exposure therapy that could be done at a sleep clinic or any clinic.”

Dr. Carney reported her findings here at SLEEP 2012: Associated Professional Sleep Societies 26th Annual Meeting.

Results Interesting, Relevant

“These results are very interesting and relevant,” Geneviève Belleville, PhD, from Laval University, Quebec, Canada, who was not involved in the study, told Medscape Medical News.

“We have known for a long time that anxiety is closely related to insomnia. Insomniacs report more stress, worry more, and are more likely to suffer from anxiety disorders. However, to my humble knowledge, I think this is the first time that insomnia is directly put in relation with dark-related phobias,” she added.

In treating people with insomnia, Dr. Carney said she’s found they often have a lot of behaviors that suggest they have a phobia about the dark. For example, they may sleep with the light, computer, or TV on. “Another common scenario in insomnia is they fall asleep on the couch, they go upstairs, get into bed, turn off the light, and it’s like a switch goes off and they are wide awake,” she explained.

This prompted her to investigate fear of the dark in 93 college students (76% women; mean age, 22 years). All of them completed the Insomnia Severity Index, which classified them as good or poor sleepers, and a fear of the dark questionnaire.

“We didn’t think people were actually going to admit that they were afraid of the dark,” Dr. Carney told Medscape Medical News, “but surprisingly almost half of the patients admitted to being afraid of the dark.” And more poor sleepers (46%) than good sleepers (26%) said they had current fear of the dark (P = .05).

Fear Confirmed Objectively

The study team also assessed fear of the dark objectively by assessing the startle (eye blink) response. “We are looking at blinking, because this is one of the most robust ways to look at startle, it’s something we can’t control, and we hypothesized that the poor sleepers would startle more in the dark but not in the light,” Dr. Carney said.

To do this objective test, the researchers had participants listen to bursts of a sudden noise in headsets while in a bedroom in both light and dark conditions. “They would hear a tiny sound, not a disturbing sound, but enough that if you are tense it will make you startle,” Dr. Carney explained.

The researchers found that, in the light, the good and the poor sleepers had exactly the same startle response, but in the dark, “some interesting things happened,” Dr. Carney said.

“The poor sleepers were more easily startled. They blink right after the sound and interestingly they become more and more scared as the experiment goes on in the dark. But when we do the test in the light, this goes away; bring back the dark and they actually get more anxious as time goes on, which is something that shouldn’t happen unless you have a phobia,” she explained.

In contrast, Dr. Carney found that the good sleepers were less scared in the dark and actually became less scared in the dark as time went on, “which is what we would expect with habituation,” she said. “Even if something startles you initially you start to get use to it. So the good sleepers actually habituate but the poor sleepers actually develop anticipatory anxiety and get more anxious as the test goes on.”

Implications for Treatment

This study specifically looked at young adults, and Dr. Carney said her team would now like to test for fear of the dark in a wider range of adults who are poor sleepers.

The current findings, she said, could have “important” implications for the use of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for insomnia vs phobia.

“CBT is the gold standard for chronic insomnia and one of the things we get people to do, which is every effective, is stimulus control. We ask them to leave the bedroom whenever they are awake or upset or tense. The problem with that is that we send them to the next room, which is going to be lit and that is actually how phobia is maintained. This may be one of those cases were we have to modify CBT for insomnia.”

Dr. Belleville agrees. “If we were to confirm that an individual cannot sleep because he or she is afraid of the dark, the proposed treatment strategies would be completely opposed to those we normally offer to insomniacs. For example, we might use repeated and prolonged exposure to dark places, including the bedroom, to help the person to overcome his or her fear,” she explained.

The authors and Dr. Belleville have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

SLEEP 2012: Associated Professional Sleep Societies 26th Annual Meeting. Abstract #0666. Presented June 11, 2012.

Gerry Gajadharsingh writes:

We deal with our fair share of sleep disturbance, either as the main presenting symptom or as part of the patient’s symptoms picture, with good success. One of the key factors can be helping a person to normalize their breathing behavior as a method of relaxation, a great strategy before you go to sleep.