9 πράγματα που θέλουν οι έφηβοι να ξέρουν οι γονείς τους (αλλά σπάνια λένε)

Αγγελική Λάλου
18 Μαρτίου 2026




Η εφηβεία είναι μια περίοδος γεμάτη αντιφάσεις—ελευθερία και ανάγκη για στήριξη—και αυτά είναι τα εννέα μηνύματα που πολλοί έφηβοι θα ήθελαν να εκφράσουν στους γονείς τους, αλλά δυσκολεύονται να πουν δυνατά.


Ηεφηβεία μοιάζει με πέρασμα πάνω από μια γέφυρα: πίσω μένει η παιδική ηλικία και μπροστά ανοίγεται η ενήλικη ζωή. Είναι μια φάση γεμάτη ενθουσιασμό, σύγχυση, μοναξιά και αλλαγή, συχνά όλα ταυτόχρονα.



Οι έφηβοι ζητούν ελευθερία, αλλά εξακολουθούν να χρειάζονται όρια. Διεκδικούν ανεξαρτησία, όμως πολλές φορές αναζητούν σιωπηλά επιβεβαίωση και στήριξη. Κι όταν οι γονείς αισθάνονται ότι αποκλείονται από τον εσωτερικό τους κόσμο, αυτό δεν σημαίνει ότι το παιδί «δεν έχει τίποτα να πει».

Στην πραγματικότητα, υπάρχουν πολλά που θα ήθελαν να εκφράσουν, αλλά δεν βρίσκουν τρόπο. Ο φόβος, η αμηχανία, η περηφάνια ή η δυσκολία να βάλουν σε λέξεις τα σύνθετα συναισθήματά τους τους κρατούν πίσω.


Αναζητώ τον εαυτό μου και αλλάζω συνεχώς

Στα εφηβικά χρόνια η ταυτότητα χτίζεται μέρα με τη μέρα. Αλλάζουν ενδιαφέροντα, φιλίες, στυλ, ακόμα και απόψεις, όχι για να προκαλέσουν, αλλά για να δοκιμάσουν τι τους ταιριάζει.

Από έξω αυτό μπορεί να μοιάζει ασυνέπεια ή «αντίδραση». Για τους ίδιους, όμως, είναι διαδικασία εξερεύνησης.


Η υπομονή και η αποδοχή από την πλευρά των γονιών τους δίνουν ασφάλεια. Όταν νιώθουν ότι κάθε λάθος θα κριθεί ή θα τους κολλήσει μια ταμπέλα, είναι πιο πιθανό να κλειστούν και να απομακρυνθούν.
Μερικές φορές χρειάζομαι ακρόαση, όχι λύσεις

Όταν ένας έφηβος ανοίγεται, κάνει ένα μεγάλο βήμα. Συχνά, όμως, νιώθει ότι «κόβεται» όταν η συζήτηση μετατρέπεται αμέσως σε μάθημα, συμβουλές ή διόρθωση.



Σε δύσκολες εξομολογήσεις, η πιο χρήσιμη στάση μπορεί να είναι απλή: ακούστε μέχρι το τέλος. Δείξτε ότι καταλάβατε το συναίσθημα, πριν ψάξετε την απάντηση.

Μια ήρεμη φράση όπως «αυτό ακούγεται πολύ πιεστικό» ή «σε δυσκόλεψε» βοηθά περισσότερο από μια γρήγορη λύση. Η επίλυση προβλήματος μπορεί να έρθει αργότερα, και μόνο αν τη ζητήσουν.


Με επηρεάζει η γνώμη σου, ακόμα κι αν κάνω ότι δεν με νοιάζει

Πολλοί έφηβοι έχουν «άμυνες» για να μη δείχνουν ευάλωτοι. Μπορεί να απαντούν κοφτά, να ειρωνεύονται ή να δείχνουν ότι αδιαφορούν.

Παρόλα αυτά, η επιδοκιμασία, η απογοήτευση ή ο έπαινος των γονιών τους μετράει περισσότερο απ’ όσο φαίνεται. Παρακολουθούν τις αντιδράσεις σας για να καταλάβουν αν τους βλέπετε και αν παραμένουν αποδεκτοί.

Ακόμη και σε επιλογές που μοιάζουν «επαναστατικές», ένα κομμάτι τους δοκιμάζει αν η αγάπη σας κρατά σταθερά. Αυτό δεν σημαίνει ότι πρέπει να συμφωνείτε με όλα, αλλά ότι βοηθά να ξεχωρίζετε τη συμπεριφορά από την αξία τους ως άτομα.
Η ψυχική μου αντοχή μπορεί να είναι πιο εύθραυστη απ’ όσο δείχνει

Η πίεση στην εφηβεία είναι συχνά έντονη: σχολικές απαιτήσεις, κοινωνικές σχέσεις, προσδοκίες και συνεχής έκθεση σε εικόνες «τελειότητας». Κάποιοι κρύβουν άγχος ή λύπη πίσω από χιούμορ, θυμό ή απόσυρση.

Πολλές φορές δεν θα πουν ξεκάθαρα «δυσκολεύομαι». Μπορεί να φοβούνται ότι θα παρεξηγηθούν, θα υποτιμηθούν ή ότι η αλήθεια τους θα οδηγήσει σε τιμωρία αντί για κατανόηση.

Βοηθά να γίνεται η συζήτηση για τα συναισθήματα κάτι φυσιολογικό στο σπίτι, χωρίς στίγμα. Όσο πιο ασφαλές είναι το κλίμα, τόσο πιο πιθανό είναι να ζητήσουν βοήθεια όταν τη χρειαστούν.
Θέλω ανεξαρτησία, αλλά δεν θέλω να νιώσω ότι μένω μόνος/η

Η εφηβεία έχει ένα παράδοξο: θέλουν να αποφασίζουν μόνοι τους, αλλά παράλληλα χρειάζονται ένα σταθερό σημείο αναφοράς. Η ελευθερία για εκείνους δεν σημαίνει εγκατάλειψη.

Οι κανόνες που εξηγούνται και προσαρμόζονται με την ηλικία λειτουργούν καλύτερα από τον απόλυτο έλεγχο. Επίσης, η καθοδήγηση δεν χρειάζεται να μοιάζει με επιβολή.

Όταν μοιράζεστε εμπειρίες, συζητάτε συνέπειες και αφήνετε χώρο για επιλογές, διατηρείται η σύνδεση. Έτσι νιώθουν ότι τους εμπιστεύεστε, χωρίς να τους αφήνετε ακάλυπτους.


Συγκρίνομαι συνεχώς και αυτό με εξαντλεί

Η σύγκριση είναι σχεδόν παντού: στην τάξη, στις παρέες, στο διαδίκτυο. Οι εικόνες επιτυχίας, ομορφιάς και «τέλειας ζωής» δημιουργούν την αίσθηση ότι πάντα υστερούν σε κάτι.

Πολλοί δεν το παραδέχονται, αλλά η αυτοεκτίμησή τους μπορεί να δέχεται καθημερινά μικρά χτυπήματα. Νιώθουν ότι δεν είναι αρκετά έξυπνοι, αρκετά ελκυστικοί, αρκετά δημοφιλείς ή αρκετά ικανοί.

Οι γονείς μπορούν να αντισταθμίσουν αυτή την πίεση όταν αναγνωρίζουν την προσπάθεια και την πρόοδο, όχι μόνο το αποτέλεσμα. Η σταθερή επιβεβαίωση ότι αξίζουν ως άνθρωποι, πέρα από επιδόσεις, έχει πραγματικό βάρος.
Όταν υψώνεις τη φωνή, κλείνομαι, ακόμη κι αν έχεις δίκιο

Οι εντάσεις συμβαίνουν, αλλά ο τόνος καθορίζει αν θα υπάρξει διάλογος. Όταν οι φωνές ανεβαίνουν, πολλοί έφηβοι μπαίνουν σε άμυνα ή «σβήνουν» για να προστατευτούν.



Τότε, το μήνυμα χάνεται και μένει μόνο η σύγκρουση. Οι ήρεμες, σταθερές κουβέντες έχουν περισσότερες πιθανότητες να φτάσουν στον στόχο τους.

Αν κάτι είναι σημαντικό, αξίζει να ειπωθεί με τρόπο που αφήνει χώρο να απαντήσουν. Ο σεβασμός, ακόμα και μέσα στη διαφωνία, τους βοηθά να μάθουν να συζητούν χωρίς φόβο.
Βλέπω περισσότερα απ’ όσα νομίζεις

Οι έφηβοι παρατηρούν το κλίμα στο σπίτι, τους υπαινιγμούς, τις σιωπές, το πώς μιλάτε για τον εαυτό σας και πώς διαχειρίζεστε το άγχος. Απορροφούν τη συμπεριφορά πιο εύκολα από τις συμβουλές.

Αν στο σπίτι κυριαρχεί συνεχής ένταση, μπορεί να νιώσουν βάρος ή ευθύνη που δεν τους αναλογεί. Αν η τρυφερότητα εκφράζεται σπάνια, ίσως συμπεράνουν ότι η αγάπη «κερδίζεται».

Τα λόγια έχουν σημασία, αλλά το ίδιο ισχύει και για τον τρόπο, τις εκφράσεις και τη συνέπεια. Ένα σταθερό, προβλέψιμο περιβάλλον είναι συχνά πιο καθησυχαστικό από τις μεγάλες συζητήσεις.


Σ’ αγαπάω, ακόμη κι αν δεν στο λέω εύκολα

Η έκφραση αγάπης στην εφηβεία μπορεί να μοιάζει ριψοκίνδυνη. Η ευαλωτότητα τους δυσκολεύει, και πολλές φορές προτιμούν να την κρύβουν.

Αν δεν λένε «σ’ αγαπώ» ή αν δεν αγκαλιάζουν όπως παλιά, αυτό δεν σημαίνει ότι δεν νιώθουν. Μπορεί να το δείχνουν αλλιώς: ζητώντας τη γνώμη σας, μένοντας κοντά σας σε μια ήσυχη στιγμή, ή κάνοντας μικρές κινήσεις φροντίδας.

Αυτές οι πράξεις είναι συχνά «κωδικοποιημένα» σημάδια σύνδεσης. Και για πολλούς γονείς, αξίζει να τα αναγνωρίζουν ως τέτοια.
Κράτησε ανοιχτή την πόρτα της επικοινωνίας

Η ανατροφή ενός εφήβου μπορεί να μοιάζει σαν ισορροπία σε τεντωμένο σχοινί. Ακόμη κι όταν δείχνουν απόμακροι ή ευέξαπτοι, οι περισσότεροι δεν σταματούν να θέλουν επαφή—απλώς δεν ξέρουν πάντα πώς να τη ζητήσουν.

Το πιο σταθερό μήνυμα που μπορείτε να δώσετε είναι η διαθεσιμότητα. Να είστε παρόντες, να ρωτάτε χωρίς ανάκριση και να ακούτε χωρίς να μειώνετε αυτά που τους συμβαίνουν.

Δεν χρειάζονται τέλειους γονείς. Χρειάζονται αληθινούς ανθρώπους που προσπαθούν, μαθαίνουν, ζητούν συγγνώμη όταν χρειάζεται και αγαπούν με συνέπεια.

ΠΗΓΗ:

https://childit.gr/108140/9-%cf%80%cf%81%ce%ac%ce%b3%ce%bc%ce%b1%cf%84%ce%b1-%cf%80%ce%bf%cf%85-%ce%b8%ce%ad%ce%bb%ce%bf%cf%85%ce%bd-%ce%bf%ce%b9-%ce%ad%cf%86%ce%b7%ce%b2%ce%bf%ce%b9-%ce%bd%ce%b1-%ce%be%ce%ad%cf%81%ce%bf%cf%85/(accessed 28.3.26)

An algorithmic mirror: The psychological costs of ‘Looksmaxxing’

Shaween Amin gives a professional and personal perspective on a potential male body dysmorphia crisis.

20 March 2026


Working as a Sport and Exercise Psychologist has opened my eyes to a pressure that young men are facing – to look objectively 'perfect' in a new digital age. It's a pressure that feels darker and less controllable than those I've encountered before, such as those experienced by young male athletes in sport. The presenting issues I am faced with now are increasingly extending beyond my scope of my practice and into the clinical space.

The trend known as 'looksmaxxing' is the systematic, often obsessive pursuit of physical appearance optimisation – primarily by young men – driven by the belief that one's appearance is the primary determining factor of social and romantic worth. It is rooted in the self-improvement movement which encourages sensible habits like going to the gym, eating healthily or getting regular haircuts (often called 'softmaxxing' in online spaces). However, 'looksmaxxers' of the internet go several steps further, calling for more extreme measures such as limb-lengthening surgery, the injecting of performance-enhancing drugs, or 'bonesmashing' (the act of repeatedly striking a bone, typically the cheekbone, with a blunt instrument with the intention of growing it). These fall under the definition of 'hardmaxxing' due to their invasive and often irreversible nature.

Unrealistic body standards, and the mental health issues that stem from them, are not a new occurrence. Women have historically felt the greatest weight of this – decades of clinical research, cultural criticism, and hard-won public awareness have documented the damage that unattainable beauty ideals inflict on female psychology. That conversation remains vital, and it is ongoing. This article, however, concerns a crisis happening around young men, that is largely unexamined and underreported. What makes the modern male experience distinct is not merely that the pressure exists, but the form it has taken.
A degradation machine

Within looksmaxxing communities, users submit photos of themselves to be rated on a scale. This is a numerical system, developed across online forums, that claims to measure physical attractiveness with clinical objectivity. Men are not simply told they are unattractive. They are told they have failed and to seek surgical intervention. Fix the mandible. Fix the midface ratio. Fix the canthal tilt. Fix the orbital rim.

Research into these communities finds that in every single rating thread analysed, users were insulted, unfavourably compared to other men, or encouraged to harm themselves by at least one other user (Haplin et al., 2025). This is what looksmaxxing communities have built in place of self-improvement: a degradation machine with a numerical readout. Unfortunately, it does not feel like that from the inside. From the inside, it feels like the one honest system in an otherwise uncontrollable world.

From what I can understand, a combination of three factors has given rise to this. First, young men in the West are, by measurable data, the loneliest they have ever been (Department for Culture, Media & Sport, 2024; Kamal, 2024). Second, dating has migrated almost entirely online. Therefore, the first impression between two people, once equal parts personality, humour, and physical attraction, is now a static photograph – making physical attraction the only possible 'foot in the door' for many of those searching for love. Third, social media algorithms have made the circulation of extreme and unattainable physical ideals inevitable.

Over the last decade, gym membership in the West has risen sharply. To be fair, social media deserves some of the credit for this. Fitness content is among the most widely consumed on every major platform, and for many young men, seeing an idealised body online is the push they need to start looking after themselves. On balance, this is a good thing. But the problem is that the pipeline does not stop there. The same algorithm that serves a 17-year-old his first motivational gym video will, over weeks and months, walk him incrementally, invisibly, towards content that is progressively more extreme. Better nutrition becomes strict calorie counting. Calorie counting becomes a steroid cycle.

This pipeline is, of course, an extreme example that many of us cannot imagine falling victim to. However, crucially, most of us did not have our formative years hijacked by an algorithm designed to steal our attention and dictate our choices. The desire to be fit can become the compulsion to be optimal. There is no clear moment where self-improvement becomes self-destruction. That is precisely what makes it so difficult to identify, and so easy to fall into. For practitioners, parents or people generally who are interested in identifying possible 'red flags' concerned with looksmaxxing, they may watch out for things like: obsession over tiny 'flaws', excessive comparisons, and/or a heavy influence from online communities. When these preoccupations interfere with normal life functioning, or cause distress or overwhelm, it may help to seek professional support.
Keep watching…

Young men have not suddenly become more insecure than previous generations. What is different is the exposure to social media algorithms. Research has found that the association between social media use and body dysmorphic symptoms is specific to image-based platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, rather than text-based ones (Gupta et al., 2023). This is a meaningful distinction. Short-form video does not merely occasionally expose a young man to idealised bodies. It exposes him to thousands of them, in rapid succession, selected and ranked by an algorithm with one objective: keep him watching. The algorithm does not know it is curating a dysmorphic mirror. It only knows that this content performs. Men with large platforms now reel off advice on how to achieve the ideal masculine body to audiences of millions, and the algorithm surfaces the most extreme versions of that content because extreme content holds attention longest.

The result is a generation of many young men holding a belief that they are less than, feeling unworthy and unhappy. Worryingly, where social media is concerned, what begins with a gym membership can end with a teenage boy hitting his own face with a blunt object, on camera, for an audience that encourages him. At the extreme end of this world, research has found forums where users are routinely told their lives are 'over', that they are beyond saving, that no intervention will ever be enough. These comments are commonplace, unmoderated, and directed at teenage boys and young men. The pipeline has an endpoint, and it is not self-improvement.
The problem is the pipeline

Of course, looksmaxxing is not the whole story of young men and social media. For every forum thread telling a teenager his life is over, there are thousands of young men who found a gym, a routine, and a sense of discipline through the same platforms this article has been critical of. Social media did not invent male insecurity, and it did not invent the pressure to be physically attractive. It inherited both, and in many cases, it has given young men communities, structure, and a vocabulary for self-improvement that previous generations did not have access to. That is worth acknowledging.

The problem is not the starting point. The problem is the pipeline. A specific combination of conditions – measurable loneliness, a dating market that reduces first impressions to a photograph, and algorithms optimised for engagement rather than wellbeing – have produced an environment in which normal male insecurity can harden into something clinical. Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Muscle Dysmorphia. Non-suicidal self-injury dressed up as a self-improvement practice. These are not the inevitable outcomes of wanting to look better. They are the outcomes of a system that profits from ensuring that looking better is never quite enough.
The scripts for male suffering

The young man at the centre of this crisis is not, for the most part, being radicalised by malicious actors with a deliberate agenda. He is being processed by an indifferent one. The algorithm does not hate him. It does not know he exists. It simply keeps serving him content that keeps him watching, and the content that keeps him watching is the content that makes him feel most acutely that he is not enough. That is the mechanism. It is mundane, and it is causing serious harm. But there are individuals designing these algorithms, and I believe ethical considerations should be addressed around the consumption for profit at the expense of vulnerable individuals.

What this moment asks of clinicians, of platform designers, and of anyone working with or raising young men, is simple in principle and difficult in practice: seek to recognise and understand this better. The diagnostic frameworks that exist for body image disorders were largely built around female patients. The scripts we have for male suffering do not easily accommodate a teenage boy who is distressed about his midface ratio. The gap between the suffering that exists and the language we have for it, is where this crisis lives. Closing it will not fix the algorithm. But it might mean that the boy who saves the video does not have to find his way out alone.

And if you reading this having been led onto, and influenced by, these platforms, what I want to say to you is: what you're seeing online isn't real, you are not going through this alone. Help is there if you need it, and you are enough and worthy exactly as you are.

And a perfect jawline never made anybody laugh. Shaween Amin is a Chartered Psychologist, and HCPC registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist.
References

Department for Culture, Media and Sport. (2024, December 4). Community Life Survey 2023/24: Loneliness and support networks. GOV.UK.

Gupta, M., Jassi, A., Krebs, G. (2023). The association between social media use and body dysmorphic symptoms in young people. Frontiers in Psychology. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1231801

Halpin, M., Gosse, M., Yeo, K., Handlovsky, I., Maguire, F. (2025) 'When help is harm: Health, Lookism and self‐improvement in the Manosphere', Sociology of Health & amp; Illness, 47(3). doi:10.1111/14679566.70015.

Kamal, J. (2025, Jan 24). Digital & social trends, charts, consumer data & statistics – GWI Blog.

SOURCE:

https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/algorithmic-mirror-psychological-costs-looksmaxxing(accessed 28.3.26)

‘The more who die, the less we care’

Our editor Jon Sutton on Professor Paul Slovic’s keynote at the British Psychological Society’s online conference.

03 July 2020

There are, said Professor Paul Slovic (Decision Research and the University of Oregon), enormous human and environmental challenges as we face the changing landscapes of the future. 'I have to warn you the talk is quite distressing. It's not a pleasant menu' – climate change, Covid-19, genocide, nuclear war – 'the positive side of it is maybe we can overcome the obstacles to managing them better.'

So in 'confronting the deadly arithmetic of compassion', Slovic also had 'hope for better times in this age of unprecedented risk' – 'I always like to have two titles, in case the first one doesn't work'. His talk centred around the concepts that Daniel Kahneman put forward in Thinking Fast and Slow. – of fast, feeling based thinking, and a slow analytical style. Fast is easy, feels right, and usually works; but it is innumerate and can lead to serious mistakes. Slow thinking can deceive us too.

In terms of that innumeracy, consider what Covid-19 teaches us about climate change – 'act now before it is too late', Slovic said. His native United States, he said, is not only not controlling coronavirus, but is actually going in the opposite direction. He attributed this at least in part to a failure to understand exponential growth, even in the early stages of the outbreak. Climate change and its damages also happen exponentially. Antarctica has lost nearly three trillion tons of ice since 1992, and oceans are rising at the fastest rate in past 28 centuries.

What's to be done? We don't do as well with numbers as we do with visual imagery, so show the impact on Donald Trump's Mar-a-lago complex (or, alternatively, somewhere the wider population might care about) of a 7ft rise in sea levels. Pay attention to experts who think slowly and scientifically. Don't expect people to give up the comforts and conveniences of a climate harmful lifestyle; government and industry must work to develop new ways to meet our needs with less damage. But Slovic doesn't seem to be a fan of a 'softly softly' approach, saying 'We don't need nudges to behave better, we need shoves'.

Confronting that 'arithmetic of compassion', Slovic argued that we are incoherent in our valuation of human life. 'We value individual lives greatly, but those lives lose their value in the face of greater threats.' We've known this for a long time; it's a sentiment encapsulated in the quote, often attributed to Stalin, 'One man's death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic'; in the saying 'Statistics are human beings with the tears dried off'; and in Albert Szent-Györgyi's 'I am unable to multiply one man's suffering by a hundred million'.

After each genocide, Slovic said, we say 'never again'. And then repeat, again and again. In 1994, 800,000 people were murdered in 100 days in Rwanda, while the world watched and did nothing. State-led mass killings have taken place recently in Congo, Myanmar/Burma, Nigeria and many other countries. Why do we rarely intervene? Slovic pointed to various factors: it's dangerous, costly, difficult; there's racism; distance is involved, and a diffusion of responsibility combined with the dominance of protecting national security over protecting foreign lives. But in terms of experimental evidence, he focused on 'psychic numbing', with information failing to convey affect and emotion. We should see every human life as of equal value, or at least think that large losses threaten the viability of the group or society. But our actions don't follow either of these. Our feelings override our analytic judgements; we experience diminished sensitivity as 'n' grows large. 'The feeling system can't count!', Slovic concluded. People report, for example, being more willing to send clean water to a refugee camp in order to save 4500 of 11,000 lives than 4500 of 250,000.

What can we do about it? Slovic pointed to the research of Tehila Kogut and Ilana Ritov on the 'identified victim' – donations are twice as high with a single victim. Unfortunately, we have a short attention span for this stuff. There may have been a spike in web searches around 'Syria' and 'refugees' after the media published the tragic photo of the drowned three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, and a study showed a surge in donations to the Swedish Red Cross on behalf of Syrian refugees. But they quickly returned to base level. 'An image can wake us up, but then there's a window of opportunity when you're emotionally connected,' Slovic said. 'We start to think "What else can I do?" – if it feels like the answers is nothing, then it dampens out.'

Slovic ended with a stark warning around how the 'prominence effect' can cause a disconnect between values and actions, and the implications of this in the nuclear age. 'Prominence is like an attentional spotlight – lives not in the spotlight are ignored no matter their number.' The existence of nuclear weapons may have become taken for granted, but Slovic is clearly worried about 'the caveman and the bomb in the digital age'. 'People say they're not used, but actually that's not true, and in any case is a pointed gun not being used?' As Bruce Blair wrote in 2016, 'The city of Moscow alone lies in the bore sights of more than 100 nuclear weapons.'

Bringing his talk back round to the deadly arithmetic of compassion, Slovic referred to Roger Fisher, Professor of Law at Harvard University, who in 1981 suggested that the secret code the President needs to initiate a nuclear attack should be implanted near the heart of the person who would need to be sacrificed in order to start a nuclear attack.

In conclusion, Slovic urged us to 'understand the strengths and weaknesses of fast and slow thinking as a necessary first step towards valuing lives humanely and improving decisions'. Find out more at https://www.arithmeticofcompassion.org

SOURCE:

https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/more-who-die-less-we-care(accessed 16.3.26)

The precise meaning of emotion words is different around the world

A new study has examined how we experience emotions based on the culture and language we are brought up in.


By Emily Reynolds



When you can't quite put your finger on how you're feeling, don't worry — there may be a non-English word that can help you out. There are hundreds of words across the world for emotional states and concepts, from the Spanish word for the desire to eat simply for the taste (gula) to the Sanskrit for revelling in someone else's joy (mudita).

But what about those words that exist across many languages — "anger", for example, or "happiness"? Do they mean the same thing in every language, or do we experience emotions differently based on the culture we are brought up in? Is the experience we call "love" in English emotionally analogous with its direct translation into Hungarian, "szerelem", for example?

In a new paper in Science, Joshua Conrad Jackson from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues looked at 2,439 distinct concepts (including 24 relating to emotion) from 2,474 languages. The team analysed the similarities and differences between languages based on patterns of "colexification": instances in which multiple concepts are expressed by the same word form.

In Persian, to use the team's example, the word ænduh can be used to express both grief and regret; in the Dargwa dialect, spoken in Dagestan in Russia, dard means grief and anxiety. It follows, therefore, that Persian speakers may understand grief as closer to regret, and Dargwa speakers closer to anxiety.

The analysis allowed the researchers to create networks of concepts that showed, for each language family, how closely different emotional concepts related to each other. These revealed wide variation between language families. For instance, in Tad-Kadai languages, which can be found in Southeast Asia, southern China, and Northeast India, "anxiety" was related to "fear"; in Austroasiatic languages, anxiety was closer to "grief" or "regret". In Nakh Daghestanian languages spoken mainly in parts of Russia, on the other hand, "anger" was related to "envy", but in Austronesian languages it was related to "hate", "bad", and "proud".

But there were some similarities. Words with the same emotional valence — i.e. that were positive or negative — tended to be associated only with other words of the same valence, in all language families across the world. Happiness, for example, was linked to other positive emotions, even if the specific associations were slightly different depending on the language family. (This wasn't always the case though: in some Austronesian languages, "pity" and "love" were associated, suggesting pity may be more positive or love more negative than in other languages). Similarly, low-arousal emotions like sadness were also unlikely to be compared to high-arousal emotions like anger.

And geography also seemed to matter: language families that were geographically closer tended to share more similar associations than those that were far away.

The study's findings suggest that emotional concepts do vary between languages up to a point, raising the question of just how similar supposedly universal experiences are.

Of course, it's impossible to know exactly how somebody else is experiencing the world, and language can often be woefully inadequate when it comes to expressing our internal life.

And while the research suggests that those emotional experiences may vary in subtle ways across the world, deep down it seems we're not so dissimilar at all.

SOURCE:

https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/precise-meaning-emotion-words-different-around-world(accessed 13.3.26)

Σεξουαλικά προβλήματα

Υπάρχουν αποδείξεις ότι το σημερινό πορνό μπορεί να βλάψει τη σεξουαλική απόδοση. Αυτό ισχύει για τη στυτική δυσλειτουργία (ED), την καθυστερημένη εκσπερμάτωση (DE), την πρόωρη εκσπερμάτωση (PE), τη χαμηλή λίμπιντο και την ανωνυμία. Επίσκεψη Σεξουαλικές δυσλειτουργίες που προκαλούνται από πορνό των υλικό που σχετίζεται με την πορνογραφική χρήση και τα σεξουαλικά προβλήματα Για να ξεκινήσετε την ανάρρωσή σας από στυτική δυσλειτουργία που σχετίζεται με την πορνογραφία, διαβάστε αυτό το εισαγωγικό άρθρο - Δηλητηριωμένη ED (ΠΑΡΔΑΛΟΣ).

Περιηγηθείτε σε χιλιάδες αναφορές αυτοαξιολόγησης για να μάθετε τι είναι εκείνοι που έχουν ανακτηθεί από τις σεξουαλικές δυσλειτουργίες που προκλήθηκαν από πορνογραφικές δοκιμασίες: Επανεκκίνηση σελίδας λογαριασμών 1, Επανεκκίνηση σελίδας λογαριασμών 2 και Επανεκκίνηση σελίδας λογαριασμών 3. Επιπλέον, οι ακόλουθες οκτώ σελίδες περιέχουν πιο σύντομες ιστορίες που περιγράφουν ανάκτηση από σεξουαλικές δυσλειτουργίες που προκαλούνται από πορνογραφίες: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Διαβάστε μια περίληψη της σχετικής έρευνας στο Η έρευνα επιβεβαιώνει την απότομη αύξηση των νεαρών σεξουαλικών δυσλειτουργιών, καθώς και 150 άρθρα ειδήσεων και συνεντεύξεις με εμπειρογνώμονες και θεραπευτές που προειδοποιούν για τις επιπτώσεις του πορνό στη σεξουαλική απόδοση Ειδικοί που αναγνωρίζουν και αντιμετωπίζουν σεξουαλικές δυσλειτουργίες που προκαλούνται από πορνό.

Δυστυχώς, η άγνοια των πορνο-προκαλούμενων σεξουαλικών δυσλειτουργιών εξακολουθεί να είναι συχνή. Βλέπω Τι εμπειρογνώμονες λένε στους πάσχοντες του PIED (το καλό και το κακό).
Έρευνα

Τι γίνεται με τις σπουδές; Αυτή η λίστα περιέχει πάνω από τις μελέτες 50 που συνδέουν την πορνογραφική χρήση / τον εθισμό με πορνό σε σεξουαλικά προβλήματα και τη χαμηλότερη διέγερση σε σεξουαλικά ερεθίσματα. ο πρώτες μελέτες 7 στον κατάλογο αποδεικνύουν αιτία, καθώς οι συμμετέχοντες απομάκρυναν την πορνογραφική χρήση και θεραπεύονταν χρόνιες σεξουαλικές δυσλειτουργίες.

Οι μελέτες 80 συνδέουν τη χρήση πορνό με λιγότερο σεξουαλική ικανοποίηση και σχέση ικανοποίησης. Οι μελέτες που αφορούν σε αρσενικά έχουν αναφερθεί σε σχέση με την πορνογραφική χρήση φτωχότερες σεξουαλική ή ικανοποίηση σχέσεων. Όσο γνωρίζουμε, αυτό ισχύει όλοι 80 μελέτες. Ενώ μερικές μελέτες συσχετίζουν τη μεγαλύτερη χρήση πορνό σε γυναίκες με την καλύτερη (ή ουδέτερη) σεξουαλική ικανοποίηση, οι περισσότερες δεν έχουν (δείτε αυτήν τη λίστα - Porn μελέτες που αφορούν τα θηλυκά θέματα: Αρνητικές επιδράσεις στην διέγερση, τη σεξουαλική ικανοποίηση, και τις σχέσεις).

Οι φωνητικοί κριτικοί του πορνογραφικού εθισμού ισχυρίζονται ψευδώς ότι η «υψηλή σεξουαλική επιθυμία» εξηγεί τον εχθρικό εθισμό του πορνό. Στην πραγματικότητα, πάνω από 25 μελέτες ψεύδουν τον ισχυρισμό ότι οι σεξουαλικοί και οι τοξικομανείς «έχουν μόνο υψηλή σεξουαλική επιθυμία».

ΠΗΓΗ:

https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/el/sexual-problems/(accessed 10.3.26)

What's it like to live with alopecia?

A new paper takes a bird's-eye view on research into lived experiences of hair loss.

03 March 2026

By Emma Young



Alopecia is a term that covers several types of hair loss, which range in appearance from patchiness to complete bodily baldness. Many people with the condition find it distressing, and it's known to increase the risk of depression and anxiety as well as impair quality of life. Despite how closely linked appearance can be with mental health, a comprehensive understanding of how affected people feel about the condition and how they cope with it has been lacking.

In a bid to address this gap, Zoe Hurrell at Cardiff University and colleagues pored through 22 studies on a total of 990 people living with alopecia, looking for over-arching themes in their lived experience. In their paper, published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, the team reports finding five such themes.

The first theme was: who am I without hair? Participants across the studies described the loss of their hair as deeply traumatic, even akin to losing a limb. There also felt their hair loss dehumanised them, and made them feel unattractive and stigmatised. There were physical challenges, too: people who had lost eyelashes and eyebrows reported more sweat and dust getting into their eyes, causing irritation, and even leading them to avoid exercise.

Participants also talked about what the team characterise as a 'difficult journey to acceptance'. Many reported feeling shocked or fearful at first and they tried different ways to cope, with some seeking support and others hiding themselves away. With greater acceptance of their condition, though, some said they felt a sense of personal growth, and a new awareness of their strengths.

The way that society helped or hindered people with alopecia was another major theme that emerged from the analysis. Support from loved ones was crucial for some, while for those who didn't get this, support groups often helped. A general lack of public awareness of the condition contributed to feelings of shame and alienation however, and, the team reports, participants across the studies feared judgement and experienced negative reactions, including staring, jokes, bullying, and even physical abuse.

The fourth major theme to emerge was the complexity of concealing hair loss. "Participants described alopecia as a private issue that they felt compelled to conceal," the team writes. Many used wigs, or scarves, or hats or make-up, and talked about feeling more self-confident when their hair loss had been concealed.

The fifth theme focused on unmet needs. Participants felt that health care providers prioritised their medical treatment (though the team also notes that effective treatments for alopecia are lacking) over addressing the emotional toll of the condition, the researchers report. "There was a narrative across studies that people felt dismissed and let down by health care providers," they write.

Overall, the work reveals that alopecia has a profound impact on people's lives. It also suggests that there's a real need for effective psychological interventions to help anyone who is affected to cope better, the team writes, as well as to help them to accept what many people in these studies felt to be the forging a new personal identity — ideally while also experiencing feelings of personal growth.

Read the paper in full:
Hurrel, Z. et al. (2026). A systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies of alopecia: Managing identity and appearance changes. British Journal of Health Psychology, 31(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.70048

SOURCE:

https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/whats-it-live-alopecia(accessed 9.3.26)

Η αγάπη κάνει την οικογένεια. Καμπάνια του Ιδρύματος Ωνάση.

Χωρίς ντροπή. Xωρίς στίγμα. Μόνο αγάπη.



Την Τετάρτη 29 Νοεμβρίου το “I’m Positive” επέστρεψε στην Κεντρική Σκηνή της Στέγης με μια επετειακή και τελευταία βραδιά, η οποία συμπύκνωσε μέσα της ανθρώπινες ιστορίες που ακούγονται δυνατά, προσωπικές αφηγήσεις που εμπνέουν και γίνονται παράδειγμα ενάντια στο στίγμα και την προκατάληψη. Γιατί οι θετικές φωνές ακούγονται δυνατότερα. 40 χρόνια μετά το πρώτο θύμα του HIV στην Ελλάδα, μαζευτήκαμε ξανά και ενώσαμε τις φωνές μας για όσα δεν πρέπει να ξεχαστούν ώστε να μην επαναληφθούν, για όσα ενώνουν τους ανθρώπους, για εκείνα που μας κάνουν να νιώθουμε και να είμαστε ασφαλείς, για όλα αυτά που μας επιτρέπουν να ζούμε τον έρωτα, αλλά και για όσα πρώτα μας κάνουν να αποδεχόμαστε εμείς τον εαυτό μας και ύστερα μας δίνουν τη δύναμη να διεκδικούμε ορατότητα και συμπερίληψη για όλες, όλους, όλα.

Με τη συνεργασία του Συλλόγου Οροθετικών Ελλάδος «Θετική Φωνή», την Τετάρτη 29 Νοεμβρίου δώσαμε βήμα σε ανθρώπους και ιστορίες που πρέπει να ακουστούν, ώστε να μην υποφέρει κανένα άτομο πλέον από τα ταμπού, την άγνοια και τις ανισότητες. Η επιστήμη έχει προχωρήσει. Ας ακολουθήσει και η κοινωνία.

Μαζί, στην Κεντρική Σκηνή της Στέγης, μετρώντας περισσότερες από 30 ιστορίες ανθρώπων που μοιράστηκαν στιγμές της ζωής τους, συναντηθήκαμε και πάλι σαν μια οικογένεια που κάθε χρόνο μεγαλώνει, με μια υπόσχεση: Να συνεχίσουμε να μιλάμε ανοιχτά ξανά και ξανά, μέχρι τα αυτονόητα να γίνουν πραγματικότητα για κάθε άτομο. Τη συζήτηση συντόνισαν η Λυδία Παπαϊωάννου και η Katherine Reilly.





Το 2022 μεταφέραμε ένα μήνυμα για τα δικαιώματα των ομόφυλων οικογενειών στην Ελλάδα. H καμπάνια αγκαλιάστηκε από πολλά άτομα κάθε ηλικίας, όμως δέχτηκε και αρνητικά σχόλια. «Η μαμά πού είναι;», «Βρες μάνα τότε.», «Η οικογένεια κάνει την οικογένεια και αυτό που διαφημίζετε δεν είναι οικογένεια.», «Οικογένεια είναι ΜΠΑΜΠΑΣ ΜΑΜΑ ΠΑΙΔΙΑ. Όλα τα υπόλοιπα είναι ΑΝΩΜΑΛΙΕΣ.». Aυτά ήταν ενδεικτικά κάποια από τα σχόλια χρηστών, που δείχνουν πως χρειάζεται να επιμένουμε για τα αυτονόητα.

Έναν χρόνο μετά, η Στέγη του Ιδρύματος Ωνάση μαζί με τις Οικογένειες Ουράνιο Τόξο και την Google, ενώνουν τις δυνάμεις τους για να γίνει ο δεσμός «θεσμός». Η καμπάνια αγάπης και συμπερίληψης που παρουσιάστηκε το 2022, βγαίνει αυτούσια. Καμία λέξη δεν θα αλλάξει, μέχρι να αλλάξει όλη η κοινωνία. Όσες φορές χρειαστεί, μέχρι να γίνει πραγματικότητα. Η αγάπη από μόνη της έχει τη δύναμη να ταρακουνήσει, να αναθεωρήσει, να εξημερώσει και να εξελίξει. Η αγάπη κάνει την οικογένεια.

https://youtu.be/Q91sxBYmYno

ΠΗΓΗ:

https://www.onassis.org/el/initiatives/lgbtqia/(accessed 6.3.26)

Γάμοι ανηλίκων δίπλα στην Αθήνα

Παρά τη σχετική νομοθεσία, νέα έρευνα δείχνει ότι οι πρόωροι γάμοι και οι εγκυμοσύνες δεν έχουν εκλείψει σε κοινότητες Ρομά της Αττικής, ξεκινώντας ακόμα και από την ηλικία των 12 ετών
4' 33" χρόνος ανάγνωσης

«Πολλοί γονείς εντός των κοινοτήτων λογοδίνουν ακόμη και σήμερα τα παιδιά στην ηλικία των 10 ετών και ο γάμος έχει πραγματοποιηθεί μέχρι τα 15», αναφέρει η Δήμητρα Πινότση, Υπεύθυνη Στατιστικής Ανάλυσης του Ινστιτούτου Prolepsis.



Γάμοι μεταξύ ανηλίκων Ρομά εξακολουθούν να καταγράφονται σε κοινότητες γύρω από την Αττική, σύμφωνα με νέα έρευνα που πραγματοποιήθηκε στο πλαίσιο του έργου Roma Child VOICE, με τη συμμετοχή ανδρών και γυναικών από τον Ασπρόπυργο, τον Δήμο Αρτέμιδος, τα Σπάτα και τον Δήμο Αχαρνών.

Τα ευρήματα δείχνουν ότι το φαινόμενο των πρόωρων γάμων στις συγκεκριμένες κοινότητες δεν έχει εκλείψει. Παραμένει παρόν και, σε σημαντικό βαθμό, κοινωνικά ανεκτό.

«Ημουν ο μοναδικός τσιγγάνος που πέρασε στο Μετσόβιο»
Μητέρες 13 ετών

Τα ευρήματα που παρουσιάζει η «Κ» καταγράφουν ότι, στο εξεταζόμενο δείγμα των συγκεκριμένων κοινοτήτων, η ηλικία γάμου για τις γυναίκες κυμαινόταν από 12 έως 27 ετών και για τους άνδρες από 12 έως 28 ετών.


Αντίστοιχα, η ηλικία απόκτησης πρώτου παιδιού για τις γυναίκες κυμαινόταν από 13 έως 28 ετών, ενώ για τους άνδρες από 14 έως 28 ετών.

«Πολλοί γονείς εντός των κοινοτήτων λογοδίνουν ακόμη και σήμερα τα παιδιά στην ηλικία των 10 ετών και ο γάμος έχει πραγματοποιηθεί μέχρι τα 15. Για τις κοινότητες Ρομά ο γάμος ανηλίκων είναι μία φυσική και αναμενόμενη εξέλιξη, ενώ για τη γυναίκα θεωρείται τιμή μία τέτοια ένωση», ανέφερε κατά την παρουσίαση των αποτελεσμάτων της έρευνας η Δήμητρα Πινότση, Υπεύθυνη Στατιστικής Ανάλυσης του Ινστιτούτου Prolepsis, φορέα υλοποίησης του έργου, με εταίρο την Ενωση Ελλήνων Ρομά Διαμεσολαβητών και Συνεργατών τους, υπό την ομπρέλα του προγράμματος PREVENT το οποίο συντονίζεται στην Ελλάδα από το Ίδρυμα Μποδοσάκη.

Ποια είναι η καταλληλότερη ηλικία για γάμο;

Ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον παρουσιάζουν τα ευρήματα των συμμετεχόντων που κλήθηκαν να απαντήσουν σε ποια ηλικία πρέπει να παντρεύεται ένας άνδρας και σε ποια μια γυναίκα.

– Για τις γυναίκες, το 42% των γυναικών ερωτηθέντων θεωρεί κατάλληλη ηλικία τα 18 έως 20 έτη, ενώ το 39% των ανδρών ερωτηθέντων θεωρεί καταλληλότερη την ηλικία από 21 έως 24 ετών. Μικρότερα ποσοστά επιλέγουν την ηλικία 25 έως 29 και ελάχιστες απαντήσεις αφορούν ηλικίες κάτω των 18 ή άνω των 30.

– Για τους άνδρες, το υψηλότερο ποσοστό, το 40%, τοποθετεί την κατάλληλη ηλικία γάμου στα 18 έως 20 έτη, ενώ ακολουθούν οι ηλικίες 21 έως 24 και 25 έως 29. Γενικά, πάντως, η ηλικία 18 έως 24 ετών εμφανίζεται ως η επικρατέστερη τόσο για άνδρες όσο και για γυναίκες.

Δεδομένου πως οι γάμοι μεταξύ ανηλίκων είναι ουσιαστικά άτυπες ενώσεις, χωρίς νομική αναγνώριση, καθώς το άρθρο 1350 παρ. 2 εδ. α’ του Αστικού Κώδικα ορίζει ότι οι μελλόνυμφοι πρέπει να έχουν συμπληρώσει το 18ο έτος της ηλικίας τους για να νυμφευθούν, παραμένει δύσκολη η αναλυτική καταγραφή αυτών αλλά και η παραδοχή τους. «Στην Ελλάδα το φαινόμενο του γάμου ανηλίκων παρατηρείται σε κοινότητες όπου συνυπάρχουν η φτώχεια, τα πατριαρχικά πρότυπα, η ελλιπής πρόσβαση σε υπηρεσίες αλλά και η θεσμική αδράνεια», αναφέρει απο την πλευρά της η Ευαγγελία Ζιώγα, υπεύθυνη του έργου Roma Child VOICE
Κίνδυνοι

Οπως σημείωσε και η Ελένη Τσετσέκου, επικεφαλής του Τμήματος Ρομά και Ταξιδευτών/Τομέας κατά των Διακρίσεων στο Συμβούλιο της Ευρώπης, στις κοινότητες, γενικά, οι πρόωροι γάμοι δεν θεωρούνται παραβίαση ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων των παιδιών αλλά έθιμο, αυτό όμως δεν αναιρεί το γεγονός ότι συχνά οδηγούν σε εγκυμοσύνη σε πολύ μικρή ηλικία, η οποία ενέχει σοβαρούς κινδύνους για την υγεία της ανήλικης κοπέλας.

Η έρευνα έδειξε πως βασικότεροι κίνδυνοι από εγκυμοσύνη σε μικρή ηλικία είναι οι πρόωροι τοκετοί, ο κίνδυνος προεκλαμψίας, η ανάπτυξη λοιμώξεων, η αιμορραγία και η κατάθλιψη.

«Ενα κορίτσι 18 ετών που έχει τρία παιδιά αντιλαμβάνεστε πόσα ψυχικά τραύματα έχει και τι είδους βοήθεια θα χρειαστεί στο μέλλον. Οι γάμοι ανηλίκων είναι παραβίαση στα δικαιώματα του παιδιού. Σε καμία περίπτωση δεν είναι έθιμο. Κι όμως συμβαίνουν, και μάλιστα δίπλα στην Αθήνα», σχολίασε ο Γιώργος Σταμάτης, γενικός εισηγητής για τους Ρομά στο Συμβούλιο της Ευρώπης.

«Καμία να μην μείνει στο περιθώριο» – Οταν τσιγγάνες διδάσκουν τσιγγάνες
Εξι αποβολές για να μη χαλάσει ο γάμος

Πέρα από τις παραδοσιακές αντιλήψεις γύρω από την τιμή της οικογένειας, οι πρώροι γάμοι οδηγούν και στην καταπίεση των νεαρών γυναικών να τεκνοποιήσουν. Χαρακτηριστικό των ριζωμένων αντιλήψεων είναι η εξομολόγηση γυναίκας Ρομά στον καταυλισμό της Αρτέμιδας. «Εκανα έξι αποβολές μέχρι να κάνω το πρώτο μου παιδί. Δεν το βάλαμε κάτω. Επέμενα και εγώ παρότι ταλαιπωρήθηκα, αλλά αν δεν έκανα παιδί θα χάλαγε ο γάμος, και τι θα έκανα μετά;», ανέφερε χαρακτηριστικά στην ομάδα που διεξήγαγε την έρευνα.

Στα θετικά, σύμφωνα με την κ. Πινότση, είναι πως αναγνωρίστηκαν κάποιες πρώιμες ενδείξεις μεταστροφής των απόψεων για τους πρώιμους γάμους εντός των κοινοτήτων, κυρίως από οικογένειες στις οποίες εργάζονται και οι δύο γονείς και έχουν ολοκληρώσει την εκπαίδευσή τους στο σχολείο. Στα θετικά συμπεριλαμβάνεται το γεγονός πως αρκετοί συμμετέχοντες φάνηκαν να αναγνωρίζουν τους κινδύνους και τις δυσκολίες που συνεπάγονται οι εγκυμοσύνες σε μικρή ηλικία. «Τα παιδιά δεν πρέπει να γεννούν παιδιά, μας είπε ένας πατέρας στον Ασπρόπυργο», σχολίασε η κ. Ζιώγα.
Προτάσεις

Η ερευνητική ομάδα που βρέθηκε στους καταυλισμούς προτείνει συγκεκριμένες πολιτικές για τον περιορισμό των πρώιμων γάμων και της εφηβικής εγκυμοσύνης. Ειδικό βάρος αποδίδεται στην ενίσχυση της σχολικής φοίτησης και στην αποτροπή της σχολικής διαρροής, ιδίως των κοριτσιών, καθώς και στην παροχή συστηματικής ενημέρωσης για τη σεξουαλική και αναπαραγωγική υγεία μέσα στις κοινότητες. Εμφαση δίνεται επίσης στην ενδυνάμωση των Κέντρων Κοινότητας με Παράρτημα Ρομά, στη βελτίωση των συνθηκών διαβίωσης και στην εφαρμογή της νομοθεσίας που απαγορεύει τους γάμους ανηλίκων, με τρόπο που να στηρίζει τις οικογένειες στη μετάβαση και όχι να λειτουργεί αποκλειστικά τιμωρητικά.



*Το έργο Roma Child VOICE υλοποιείται στο πλαίσιο του προγράμματος PREVENT, με φορέα υλοποίησης το Ινστιτούτο Prolepsis και εταίρο την Ένωση Ελλήνων Ρομά Διαμεσολαβητών και Συνεργατών τους. Το PREVENT συγχρηματοδοτείται από την Ευρωπαϊκή ‘Ενωση, μέσω του προγράμματος Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV), το Ίδρυμα Μποδοσάκη και το Κέντρο Στήριξης ΜΚΟ, με συνολικό ποσό επιχορήγησης €2,3 εκ.



Σοφία Χρήστου

Η Σοφία Χρήστου γεννήθηκε το 1995 στην Αθήνα. Σπούδασε Δημοσιογράφια στο Πάντειο Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών και έκανε μεταπτυχιακές σπουδές στην Πολιτική Επικοινωνία στο ΕΚΠΑ. Ξεκίνησε να εργάζεται σε online εφημερίδες το 2014. Από το 2022 είναι δημοσιογράφος στην Καθημερινή.

ΠΗΓΗ:

https://www.kathimerini.gr/society/564105694/gamoi-anilikon-dipla-stin-athina/(accessed 6.3.26)

‘Many people assume that psychologists in palliative care will force difficult end-of-life conversations. That’s not how I work.’

British Psychological Society Student Ambassador Jack Wood speaks to Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Hypnotherapist Shradha Lakhani about what it means to work with people living with cancer and palliative illness.

25 February 2026



What initially drew you to work in psycho-oncology and palliative care?

It's really odd – in many ways, the job found me rather than me finding it. I didn't set out with a clear plan to work in cancer and palliative care. After my undergraduate degree at Aston and my DClinPsy at Birmingham, I worked in a range of services, including adult mental health. Then I had a brief stint in children's services, which I quickly realised wasn't the right fit for me.

I then saw an opening to work in oncology and palliative care, this was almost at the exact same time as my mother-in-law was diagnosed as being palliative, so it just felt right, almost like the job found me. More than 26 years later, it remains my 'bread and butter' role. Over time, I've developed a way of working that centres on being present with people, tolerating discomfort, and feeling privileged to walk alongside them rather than trying to fix anything.

In your experience, what are the most common psychological challenges faced by people living with cancer?

Uncertainty – particularly around fear of recurrence – comes up time and time again. Even when people are given an 'all clear' or are in remission, the anxiety rarely disappears completely. Instead, it shifts into a different question, usually: 'but what if it does come back?'

There's something very human about feeling like this. The brain doesn't easily hold living and dying together. We celebrate birthdays and plan for the future, yet each day technically brings us closer to death. Cancer simply makes that tension explicit. My role isn't to remove fear, but to help people decide where to place their focus – on what they can control and find meaningful, rather than what they can't.

You've described cancer treatment as 'hijacking' people's lives – can you say more about what you mean by that?

A diagnosis doesn't just affect physical health; it restructures our everyday life. Suddenly, people's calendars are dominated by appointments, scans, blood tests, and side effects. Life becomes organised around hospital visits. Identities shift from being an employee or a parent or spouse etc to being a patient. And it's the patient role that dominates the diagnosis.

Interestingly, although many people resent hospital visits at the start of treatment, by the end they can feel quite anxious about being discharged. The hospital becomes a safety net for them – a place where someone is constantly checking in on them. This is why the end of treatment can very difficult psychologically, often bringing heightened anxiety and fears of abandonment.

How does distress in oncology differ from other mental health presentations?

Many oncology patients have little or no prior history of mental health difficulties. They may have coped well with life until cancer suddenly arrives in their lives. That makes the anxiety or low mood that follows feel particularly shocking and destabilising.

Treatment itself can also also play a part in mental health. Chemotherapy, immunotherapies and radiotherapy can induce what I call 'chemical depression' – profound fatigue, emotional flattening, and withdrawal. Patients can mistakenly interpret this as personal failure rather than a physiological response. So, psychological distress in cancer is often a normal reaction to extreme circumstances rather than a pre-existing vulnerability.

What are common misconceptions about psychological care in palliative settings?

Many people assume that psychologists in palliative care will force difficult end-of-life conversations. That's not how I work.

My role is to walk alongside people at their own pace. Some may want to talk about legacy, memory-making, or planning; others may just need space to breathe. Sometimes that space is silent. Therapy isn't about pushing people - it's about being with them and holding whatever they bring.

You are also trained in clinical hypnotherapy – how do you use this in your work?

Clinical hypnotherapy is very different from stage hypnosis. I don't see it as a standalone treatment, but as an adjunct to therapy. It involves guiding someone into a deeply relaxed state where they can access inner resources, process emotions, and shift their relationship with distress.

In oncology, it can be particularly helpful for anxiety, sleep difficulties, confidence post treatments and pain management. Importantly, the person remains fully in control throughout – it's collaborative and grounded in psychological principles and used as a tool alongside other therapies.

How do you work with health anxiety, particularly in medical settings like MRI scans?

Health anxiety is fundamentally our fear of uncertainty. Rather than trying to eliminate anxiety, I help people build distress tolerance - the ability to sit with uncomfortable feelings without immediately trying to escape them.

I often use imagery. If anxiety feels like a huge, suffocating cloak, it can overwhelm us. But if we can imagine reducing it to something you can hold in the palm of your hand – a stone or pebble for example – it becomes more manageable. Anxiety is a survival mechanism; it's meant to be there. The goal is to relearn how to live alongside it, not be ruled by it.

What impact does working in oncology and palliative care have on healthcare professionals?

The emotional toll on oncology and palliative staff can be significant. Regular, structured supervision should be standard – this is aligned with Level 4 NICE (2004) guidance and remains best practice.

I also talk about 'hooks' – moments when a patient or their circumstance resonates personally with a clinician, reminding them of a family member for example. Recognising these triggers is essential to avoid burnout.

I encourage small rituals of closure when a patient dies – writing a reflective note in clinical documents, taking a quiet moment, or even a symbolic gesture like moving a stone. These rituals help clinicians acknowledge and process grief rather than suppress it.

What should students or early-career psychologists prioritise if they want to work in psycho-oncology?

I would say it's less about technical skills and more about your personal qualities. Qualities such as being able to tolerate distress, being comfortable with silence, strong listening and empathetic skills as well as a willingness to 'be with' people rather than trying to fix them.

I also think the relationship is central to therapy – arguably accounting for a significant proportion of outcomes. You don't need to be distant and rigidly boundaried to be professional; you need to be human.

Teamwork is equally vital. Psychologists must avoid working from 'ivory towers' and instead collaborate closely with nurses, doctors, and allied health professionals.

If you had to sum up the work of psycho-oncology, what would you say?

It's learning to live alongside uncertainty. Cancer forces people to confront what none of us can truly control. Psycho-oncology doesn't promise certainty – but it offers companionship, understanding, and the ability to live meaningfully despite fear. It's about learning to flow with what cannot be controlled and taking it a day at a time.Dr Shradha Lakhani is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Hypnotherapist with extensive experience in oncology and palliative care. She now works in independent practice at Compassionate Minds, alongside locum roles in private healthcare.
Jack Wood is a BSc (Hons) Psychology student at Birmingham Newman University, Co-Editor of the BPS West Midlands Branch newsletter, and a BPS Student Ambassador Liaison Link. He volunteers with Deafblind UK and has interests in clinical and health psychology.

SOURCE:

https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/many-people-assume-psychologists-palliative-care-will-force-difficult-end-life(accessed 2.3.26)

Normal People

https://megjohnandjustin.com/relationships/normal-people/


In this edition of the podcast we thoroughly unpacked the recent TV show Normal People.

For an overview of advice about sex, relationships, and ourselves – based on the show – check out Justin’s post over on BishUK.

We agreed that we felt ambivalent about the show. While it depicted some things beautifully and profoundly, it also reproduced and reinforced some normative narratives – and engaged in forms of tokenism and erasure – in ways we found problematic.

In case the embedded player isn’t showing up here’s a link to the podcast. Also just search for ‘meg-john and justin’ in a podcast app on your phone: like Pocket Casts, or Apple Podcasts. Also here’s our Zoom chat on YouTube.


Of this ambivalence, MJ reflected: “On the one hand it is the story of so many of our lives – it is utterly beautiful and understandable and devastating on searching for, finding, and losing love. On the other hand it’s this stupid, pointless, tragic normativity which takes all the characters’ time, energy and emotion. They could be loving their friends, and working on their projects, and collectively bonding together to address and support each other around real suffering, instead of putting everything into this ‘love’ they manufactured between themselves to separate them off from everyone else, to hurt themselves on, and to distract themselves from what really matters.”
The power of seeing ourselves reflected (or not) in fiction

Perhaps the main power in the show was in the way it depicts aspects of experience which we rarely see depicted. For example, it represents the heavy ongoing impact of school bullying, the ways in which the trauma of being emotionally unsafe in both school and home environments plays out in later relationships, and the conflicts involved in going to university when you’re from a working class background.

When elements of your experience are taken seriously in fiction in this way, compassion for yourself can become more possible. It may also become more possible to get a bigger perspective: for example, we see the experience of Marianne being bullied, but we also get a sense of where the bullies – and those who enable them – are coming from, as well as the wider non-consensual school systems and class/gender context this is happening within, and the ways in which everyone is seeking some sense of safety and belonging: often through hurting and rejecting others in various ways.

Of course, for all the experiences that are well-depicted in the show, many are invisible or erased, or depicted in tokenistic ways. It also has a huge impact, for example, on viewers of colour, to repeatedly see themselves only represented as very minor characters, and in unrealistic and/or negative ways (in this case a mostly silent member of the bullying group, a fascist apologist, an uncaring dom, a jealous girlfriend). Given the questions the show raises about being ‘normal people’, there is very little queerness in the show except for Peggy’s suggested threesome which is quickly rejected, and little sense of gender expressions or roles outside of restricted modes of culturally ‘attractive’ femininity and masculinity.

The kink narrative is also disappointing. Marianne is depicted as drawn to kink because she has been abused and struggles to feel connected to herself and to partners – apart from Connell – without kink. Also kink is represented as being pretty harmful for her, even a form of self-harm by proxy. While, of course, these are experiences of kink that some people do have, kinky sexualities are no more-or-less likely to be linked to trauma and abuse than other sexualities, and – like other forms of sex – they have the potential to be healing as well as harming. The problem is that these stories are pretty much the only stories we ever see about kink. This damages an already vulnerable, pathologised, criminalised community, making it even less likely that they can look closely at these issues when they do come up. It also means that those considering kink for themselves have few positive models to draw on in mainstream media, and may well receive negative responses from others who are influenced by these depictions.

Also why does everyone on the show smoke?!
What the relationship opened up and closed down

Turning to the relationship between Marianne and Connell, we reckoned it was a thoughtful depiction of intersectionality and power in a relationship dynamic. There were great reflections on the ways in which our relationships are impacted by gender, class, the level of trauma in our families, whether we fit or misfit in our surrounding world (school or college), and whether we experience ourselves as attractive or not. It was good to see moments where Connell recognised the massive impact that his minimising and enabling of school bullying – and his secrecy around their relationship – had had on Marianne, as well as moments where Marianne raised the impact of the vast difference between them on class and financial security.


However, there was certainly a sense that the romantic relationship was the big story here – as we still see across so much fiction. Other characters were treated – by the story and by the couple – as of far less value and importance. Romantic relationships are seen – by Marianne and Connell – as the place to find the kind of love, belonging, and safety that they had lacked or lost when they were younger, and they put all their energy there in ways which put the relationship under huge pressure while neglecting to build potentially helpful other sources of support and connection.

There is a helpful message in the show that the bubble of intense love feelings (connected to erotic contact and mutual understanding) can co-exist with non-consensual dynamics (such as Connell’s horrible treatment of Marianne in school). People often assume that intense connection means that the relationship as a whole is good, and it may not be so. We also see moments of massive misunderstanding between the characters because they assume that they are so connected that they must telepathically understand each others’ needs and desires. We’d have loved to get them a copy of our Relationship User Guide Zine!

At the end of the show there is a sense that perhaps a relationship can get us where we need to go in life. Perhaps they had to keep returning to each other until they got something they needed – and learnt something – and then it was ok to go their separate ways. When each character reached their ‘rock bottom’ it was telling that they had to go to themselves, and to others (friends, a therapist), rather than just to each other, to get past that.

Towards the end of the show, Marianne calls on Connell to help her escape an abusive situation. Connell says to her ‘Look at me a second… No-one is ever going to hurt you like that again. Everything’s going to be alright, trust me. Because I love you. And I’m not going to let anything like that happen to you again.’ There was something important here about opening up the private home situation – where so much abuse happens statistically – to outside scrutiny so that somebody could tell Marianne that what she was going through was not acceptable (although, sadly, it is quite ‘normal’, and certainly was normalised for her). However, going from one private home to another (nuclear family to couple) could be seen as pretty risky. We wondered what it would take to create the circumstances where Marianne had a community of support who could say such words to her, and the circumstances where she could say that to herself.

Also it was concerning to see masculine violence depicted as the only way to keep Marianne safe from abuse, and the way her mother was left in that situation unsupported. The emphasis seemed to be on Connell as an individual going from cowardice (not saving Marianne from abuse in school) to courage (saving Marianne from abuse later), rather than a recognition of the wider systems and structures which empower us – or make it virtually impossible for us – to be brave in such ways.

© Meg-John Barker and Justin Hancock, 2020

SOURCE:

https://megjohnandjustin.com/relationships/normal-people/(accessed 25.2.26)

Μερικές πρακτικές συμβουλές για παιδιά με ΔΕΠ-Υ στο σπίτι

Η Διαταρραχή Ελλειματικής Προσοχής και Υπερκινητικότητας, εν συντομία ΔΕΠ-Υ, επηρεάζει την ικανότητα ενός παιδιού στην προσοχή και την οργάνωση, χωρίς ωστόσο να καθορίζει τις δυνατότητες του. Μερικές πρακτικές συμβουλές για παιδιά με ΔΕΠ-Υ, που μπορούν να εφαρμοστούν στο σπίτι είναι: Ρουτίνα

Στην καθημερινότητα του παιδιού να υπάρχει σταθερό πρόγραμμα- αυτό συμβάλλει στην καλύτερη απόδοση, στη καλύτερη διαχείριση του χρόνου και μειώνει το άγχος. Έτσι λοιπόν καθιερώστε σταθερές ώρες για την μελέτη, το φαγητό και τον ύπνο.



Κατάλληλος χώρος

Φροντίστε ώστε ο χώρος που μελετά το παιδί να είναι καθαρός, τακτοποιημένος και αποσύρετε από το οπτικό του πεδίο οτιδήποτε μπορεί να του αποσπάσει την προσοχή.
Απλές οδηγίες/ εντολές

Όταν αναθέσετε στο παιδί να κάνει κάτι, δώστε ξεκάθαρες και όσο γίνεται πιο σύντομες οδηγίες. Αν το ζήτημα είναι πολύπλοκο, σπάστε τις οδηγίες σε μικρότερες. Θετική ενίσχυση

Εστιάστε σε αυτά που καταφέρνει το παιδί, επαινέστε την προσπάθεια και όχι μόνο το αποτέλεσμα! Η αναγνώριση και η επιβράβευση της προσπάθειας, είναι απαραίτητα για να συνεχίσει να προσπαθεί!
Οπτικοποιημένο πρόγραμμα

Φτιάξτε το καθημερινό πρόγραμμα του παιδιού, για τις εξωσχολικές δραστηριότητες αλλά και όλη τη ρουτίνα του, χρησιμοποιώντας διαφορετικά χρώματα και εικόνες. Βάλτε το σε σημείο που το παιδί να το βλέπει εύκολα όποτε χρειάζεται. Χτίστε την αυτοεκτίμηση, αποδοχή και ενσυναίσθηση

Πολύ σημαντικό το παιδί να νοιώθει αποδεκτό και να τονίζονται οι ικανότητες του και τα δυνατά του σημεία. Το παιδί με ΔΕΠ-Υ δεν έχει κακή συμπεριφορά, δεν έχει στόχο να σας κουράζει, απλά θέλει βοήθεια και καθοδήγηση. Δείξτε κατανόηση και αποδοχή των δυσκολιών και πραγματική υποστήριξη. Συχνά και μικρά διαλείμματα

Η καθημερινή μελέτη γίνεται πιο διαχειρίσιμη κάνοντας μικρά διαλείμματα αποφόρτισης. Στα διαλείμματα απαγορεύεται η χρήση οθονών! Προτιμήστε ένα σύντομο ξεμούδιασμα.
Κίνηση

Φροντίστε να υπάρχει σωματική δραστηριότητα καθημερινά: π.χ. άθληση, περπάτημα, ποδήλατο κλπ

Σοφία Τσιντσικλόγλου

Ειδική Παιδαγωγός

paidagwgos.com

ΠΗΓΗ:

https://www.infokids.gr/merikes-praktikes-symvoules-gia-paidia-me-dep-y-sto-spiti/(accessed 25.2.26)

‘I don’t care if Chat GPT isn’t a therapist, it’s helping!’

Psychologists Hedda van’t Land and Vittorio Busato explain why teens may be swayed towards using AI as therapy, and examine the potential consequences.

13 February 2026



Sam is 16. He has been struggling with anxiety for over a year, tightness in his chest, racing thoughts at night, and a persistent fear of doing something wrong. As many adolescents of his age, he is currently on a (long) waiting list for therapy. At school, he keeps himself together. At home, he scrolls on his phone. And late at night, when everything feels darker and more overwhelming, he opens ChatGPT.

Sam does not think of ChatGPT as a psychologist. He knows it is 'just a computer'. Yet he trusts it. It responds immediately. It never sounds tired or irritated. It never tells him he is overthinking. It feels like a friend. When he types, 'I think something is wrong with me', the response feels calm, understanding, and coherent – sometimes even relieving. For Sam, ChatGPT has become the safest place to talk about his mental health problems.

We're not here to blame young people for turning to ChatGPT. This article is about understanding why AI-systems like ChatGPT feel so attractive, particularly to adolescents, and why this appeal is rooted not primarily in technology, but in the way the human brain works.
Our brain relies heavily on shortcuts

To understand what is happening when young people like Sam prefer to talk to ChatGPT, we need to start with the human brain. Our brain did not evolve to analyse complex problems exhaustively. It evolved to act quickly under uncertainty. Every day, we make thousands of decisions, most of them without conscious deliberation. To manage this cognitive load, our brain relies heavily on heuristics: mental shortcuts that simplify decision-making.

Heuristics are not flaws. They are indispensable. Without them, we would not be able to cross a street, read a facial expression, drive a car or respond swiftly to potential danger. Heuristics allow us to function efficiently in a world that constantly demands rapid judgments.

However, heuristics come with a cost. By trading accuracy for speed, they can produce systematic errors, particularly in complex, emotionally charged, or ambiguous situations. These predictable errors are known as cognitive biases, a concept extensively described by psychologist Daniel Kahneman, for example in his worldwide bestseller Thinking, fast and slow (2011). Kahneman distinguished between two interacting modes of thinking. System 1 is fast, intuitive, emotional, and automatic. System 2 is slower, effortful, reflective, and analytical. We humans rely on System 1 most of the time and, usually, this serves us well. But when System 1 dominates situations that require nuance, uncertainty tolerance, or self-correction… then cognitive biases emerge.
Adolescence: when System 2 is still developing

Crucially, these two systems do not mature at the same pace. Adolescence is a developmental period characterised by heightened emotional reactivity, increased sensitivity to peer influence and social evaluation, and still ongoing maturation of executive functions. Neuropsychological research shows that brain regions involved in planning, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and sustained attention, the core components of System 2, continue to develop well into early adulthood (Ferguson et al., 2021) in their study on executive function across the lifespan.

This means that for adolescents, System 2 thinking is not only effortful; it is a capacity still developing. Engaging in reflective, analytical reasoning requires mental energy, emotional regulation, and tolerance of uncertainty – capacities that are still emerging in young people like Sam. Under stress, fatigue, or emotional arousal, System 2 disengages even more easily among adolescents, leaving System 1 in control.
Validation without friction

Among adolescents seeking help for anxiety or depression, turning to ChatGPT for emotional support has become increasingly common (The Guardian 2025). Even when psychologists explicitly state that ChatGPT is not a therapist, many young people dismiss the distinction: 'I don't care – I'm just talking to Chat anyway'.

When Sam types his worries into ChatGPT, he usually begins with a conclusion: 'I think I'm failing', 'I always mess things up', 'This feeling will never go away'. The chatbot responds in a way that feels validating and sensible. It reflects his emotions, acknowledges his distress, and builds a coherent explanation around what he has said. For Sam, this feels like being understood. Psychologically, however, something subtle is happening.

Humans have a natural tendency to seek and accept information that confirms existing beliefs while discounting information that contradicts them – a phenomenon known as confirmation bias. Sam's questions already contain an implicit narrative about himself. ChatGPT, designed to be helpful and coherent, tends to work within that narrative unless explicitly prompted otherwise.

From a cognitive perspective, this interaction is effortless. Sam does not need to question his assumptions, to hold competing interpretations in mind, or to tolerate ambiguity. His intuitive conclusions are met with alignment rather than friction. Affirmation can feel comforting, even empowering, and it often invites deeper disclosure.

Yet, for adolescents vulnerable to rumination, anxiety, low mood, or fragile self-esteem, affirmation without challenge can become a trap (Van der Mey-Baijens et al., 2025). And this risk is not merely theoretical. Several technology companies have acknowledged that AI chatbots may have contributed to severe psychological distress among young users, including cases involving suicidality. In California, Matthew Maria Raine has filed a lawsuit alleging that ChatGPT validated his son's suicidal thoughts without discouraging them or directing him towards professional help (Raine v. OpenAI, Wikipedia, 2024; The Daily Beast, 2024)
'Thoughts are not facts': the work of System 2

Constant affirmation is not a marker of good care; it is an IT-design choice aimed at increasing engagement. This becomes particularly clear when we consider cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), one of the most widely used evidence-based treatments for anxiety and depression.

A central principle of CBT is deceptively simple: thoughts are not facts. In therapy, distressing thoughts are not accepted at face value, however convincing or emotionally charged they may feel. Instead, therapist and client deliberately slow the process down, examining assumptions, testing alternative explanations, and asking questions that often feel uncomfortable, e.g.: 'What evidence supports this thought?' 'What evidence contradicts it?', 'What might be another way of looking at this?'

From a cognitive perspective, CBT is an explicit appeal to System 2 thinking. It requires sustained attention, cognitive flexibility, inhibition of automatic responses, and the capacity to hold multiple perspectives simultaneously. This work is mentally demanding, even for adults. For adolescents, whose System 2 capacities are still developing, it can be even more exhausting. Therapy asks them to do precisely what their brains find most difficult: slow down, question intuitive conclusions, and tolerate uncertainty.

Against this background, it is easy to understand why Sam prefers talking to ChatGPT. The chatbot operates almost entirely within System 1. It responds quickly, affirms intuitions, mirrors emotions, and constructs coherent narratives without demanding cognitive effort. What therapy asks Sam to work through, the chatbot allows him to stay with. The paradox is that what feels most supportive in the short term, may be precisely what undermines recovery in the long run.
Going over it again, again, and again….

Sam notices that talking to ChatGPT helps in the moment. When anxiety rises, he types more. He explains the situation again, slightly differently. Each time, the chatbot responds patiently. But what feels like relief can quietly turn into co-rumination. Repeated, unbounded discussion of distress – particularly in adolescents – is associated with increased anxiety and depressive symptoms.Co-rumination keeps System 1 active: rehearsing emotions, reinforcing narratives, and strengthening associative links.

Human relationships often interrupt unbounded discussion of distress. Psychologists redirect thoughts and beliefs, parents introduce alternative perspectives, or friends change the subject. Chatbots do not! On the contrary, they are always available, never fatigued, and never uncomfortable. There is no natural endpoint to the conversation. Emotional topics can be revisited endlessly, each time with fresh wording. For Sam, distress is not interrupted – it is rehearsed over and over again, within an interaction optimised for engagement rather than psychological recovery.
What you see is all there is

Another of Daniel Kahneman's key insights is captured in the phrase What You See Is All There Is (WYSIATI). When people make judgments, they focus on the information immediately available to them and neglect the possibility that relevant information is missing. ChatGPT's responses are fluent, structured, and internally consistent. They present a single narrative based solely on the information provided, and this narrative feels complete. For adolescents, whose capacity to actively search for missing information is still developing (system 2), this sense of completeness is particularly attractive and persuasive.

In CBT, by contrast, incompleteness is made explicit. A psychologist may say, 'There may be other explanations' or 'We don't know for sure'. Such moments are cognitively more demanding and often resisted, especially by young people whose System 2 capacities are still developing.
'It just feels right'

Sam often says that ChatGPT's responses feel right. This reflects the effect heuristic: the tendency to judge information based on emotional resonance rather than evidence. Chatbots excel at emotional mirroring. They feel calm, empathic, and non-judgemental. For adolescents under emotional strain, this smoothness increases acceptance. CBT, by contrast, often feels emotionally more challenging.

However, recovery rarely arrives wrapped in reassurance alone. In therapy, thoughts are not merely validated; they are examined, challenged, and tested. Psychologists and client work together to replace rigid interpretations with perspectives that are more balanced, flexible, and realistic. This questioning, though not always comforting, is precisely what drives recovery.
Engagement is not emotional recovery

Chatbots like ChatGPT are trained through reinforcement learning to maximise engagement: longer conversations, positive feedback, and continued interaction. They are not rewarded for strengthening System 2 capacities of an adolescent, increasing tolerance of uncertainty, or reducing dependency. Yet these are precisely the goals of psychological treatment.

Taken together, ChatGPT is not a neutral listener. It is a psychologically active system that systematically aligns with well-known System 1 cognitive biases, while CBT deliberately, and effortfully, aims to strengthen System 2. For adolescents, whose reflective capacities are still developing, this asymmetry is particularly pronounced.
This is not a neutral development

What we are witnessing today is not a neutral development, but a fundamental structural mismatch between engagement-driven AI design and the core principles of responsible, high-quality psychological support. Systems optimised to sustain attention, affirm intuitions, and minimise cognitive effort are increasingly used by adolescents in roles that resemble psychological support, at a time when their mental health is fragile and still developing, yet without the safeguards such support requires.

Framing this solely as a question of innovation or individual choice misses the point. At its heart, this is a matter of psychological safety. We are currently allowing adolescents, knowingly and at scale, to be exposed to AI systems that systematically activate well-researched cognitive biases: the very vulnerabilities that psychological science has spent decades identifying and that evidence-based therapies actively seek to counteract.

While psychologists providing therapy are bound by strict ethical codes, professional accountability, and disciplinary frameworks, technology companies are able to experiment freely in quasi-therapeutic spaces, particularly with vulnerable young users. This asymmetry is untenable. If chatbots continue to occupy emotional and advisory roles in the lives of adolescents, they must be subject to high-quality standards informed by psychological science and developmental knowledge, rather than engagement metrics alone.

As we have argued in the Dutch newspaper Trouw, the Flemish newspaper De Morgen, and the Spanish newspaper El País (forthcoming), clinicians, educators, policymakers, and crucially national and international psychological associations must take a clear and public stance. Silence implies consent. Safeguarding developing minds against psychologically misaligned systems is not merely a technological challenge; it is a professional responsibility.

Hedda van 't Land, PhD, is a Dutch psychologist whose work centres on implementation science and the translation of evidence into practice. She has led national programmes on care standards, innovation and professional education, working at the interface of research, policy and practice.

Vittorio Busato, PhD, is a Dutch psychologist, author and journalist. His work spans psychological science, public discourse and literary non-fiction. His latest book is De minimaatschappij – in en over tbs. For more information: https://vittoriobusato.nl/
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SOURCE:

https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/i-dont-care-if-chat-gpt-isnt-therapist-its-helping(accessed 24.2.26)

When walls become wellness

Dr Luciano Magaldi Sardella and Professor Matteo Mantuano on how ‘Stramurales Participatory Street Art’ transforms urban mental health.

17 February 2026



On a sweltering afternoon in June 2018, we stood in the central square of Stornara, a small agricultural town in Puglia, Southern Italy, watching something extraordinary unfold. Local artist Lino Lombardi was facilitating a heated discussion among residents about which mural designs should adorn their town's crumbling walls. What struck us wasn't the art itself, but the transformation we witnessed in the eyes of people who, just months before, had described their hometown as a place to escape. These were individuals reclaiming their narrative, voting on their future, literally painting over decades of decline.

We are environmental and community psychologists who have spent over a decade studying how built environments shape mental health outcomes. Dr Luciano Magaldi Sardella's research focuses on participatory arts interventions in declining rural communities, while Professor Matteo Mantuano specialises in the psychological mechanisms of community empowerment and collective agency. When we first learned about the Stramurales festival in early 2018, we recognised it as a rare opportunity to observe participatory urban art as a potential tool for addressing the mental health crisis plaguing Southern Italy's depopulating towns.

Over the past seven years, we have conducted extensive fieldwork in Stornara – interviewing residents, documenting the festival's evolution, and analysing its psychological and social impacts. What we found in Stornara was something far more significant than an innovative community-led arts initiative. It was environmental psychology in action – reshaping how we understand the relationship between built environments, participatory arts, and mental health.
The crisis hiding in plain sight

Recent research reveals an alarming convergence of environmental and mental health crises that remains curiously underexamined in psychological discourse. Mental health research receives a mere 2.3 per cent of overall National Institute of Health funding. We cannot know how much of that concerns our environments – both natural and built – which fundamentally shape our psychological wellbeing. The newly proposed field of 'EnvironMental Health' emphasises that deteriorating built environments correlate significantly with elevated stress, social isolation, and worsening mental health outcomes.

Southern Italy's rural communities embody this crisis. Between 2002 and 2017, South Italy region lost approximately two million residents to migration, predominantly young adults aged 15-34. This exodus created what Johan Galtung described as 'structural violence' – systematic arrangements preventing communities from realising their potential. The mental health toll manifests not just in individual diagnoses, but in collective despair, eroded social capital, and communities watching their futures literally emigrate.

Stornara exemplified this trajectory. By 2017, this municipality of 6,000 residents faced the familiar spiral: economic contraction precipitating youth emigration, accelerating infrastructure deterioration, driving further decline. Walls crumbled. Businesses shuttered. Hope evaporated. Then something changed.
The Stramurales revolution: Democracy through design

What emerged in Stornara transcends conventional cultural tourism. The Stramurales International Street Art Festivalworks through three foundational democratic mechanisms that distinguish it from superficial beautification projects. Organised through Stornara Life APS – an open-membership association founded by Maestro Lino Lombardi – the festival prevents elite capture through voluntary property owner participation ensuring no coercion; democratic content selection through annual community voting on festival themes and mural proposals; and transparent, inclusive governance that gives all residents a voice in the festival's direction.

This participatory architecture facilitates what the World Health Organization describes as 'community empowerment' – processes enabling communities to increase control over determinants affecting their health. Recent field studies in Vienna demonstrate that urban art interventions reduce stress and anxiety while improving mood states, but Stramuralesgoes further by embedding art creation within democratic decision-making structures.

When residents voluntarily offer walls and vote on content, they perform acts of material and psychological investment. This restoration of collective agency – the belief that residents can shape their hometown's future rather than merely witnessing decline – directly addresses the structural violence that erodes mental health. Between 2020 and 2025, Stornara experienced a huge increase in tourism revenue despite pandemic disruption. New businesses opened. A Stornara-born emigrant who returned reluctantly in 2017 to provide parental care, now works as a tour guide and describes Stornara as 'the coolest town in Italy'.

These aren't just economic indicators. They're mental health outcomes.
The science behind the transformation

Contemporary research across multiple disciplines validates what Stornara residents experience viscerally. A 2024 systematic review examining 79 peer-reviewed articles identified how arts places – from permanent museums to temporary public installations – stimulate community engagement, enhance cultural identity, and foster social cohesion. Community-driven mural projects specifically strengthen local identity and pride, creating new routines for individuals to interact and build relationships.

Recent experimental research in Berlin found that sidewalk-level art exhibitions significantly altered visitors' connection to and satisfaction with their neighbourhoods, improving overall wellbeing. This aligns with emerging theories on art viewing's impact on mental health, which identifies five key mechanisms: affective processes regulating emotions and stress; cognitive processes providing sensory stimulation and learning; social processes creating shared experiences; self-transformation through reflection; and resilience building for coping with challenges.

Environmental psychology research demonstrates that built environments operate as therapeutic interventions. Studies on mental health inpatient facilities reveal that design elements affecting privacy, control, daylight access, and particularly the inclusion of artwork significantly impact patient outcomes. If hospital walls matter therapeutically, how much more do the walls we encounter daily in our communities?

The Stramurales model harnesses these mechanisms through the recent concept of 'visual health activism'. Several murals explicitly engage health and human rights themes: Alaniz Niz's 'Refuge for All Migrants' represents exploited African agricultural workers; Sabotaje al Montaje's 'Turning Our Backs on Migration' challenges exclusionary policies; Devil Art Design's 'African Child at Sunset' portrays migrant youth seeking dignified futures.

These works address social determinants of health through human rights advocacy. Migration policies denying basic rights create health vulnerabilities – including restricted healthcare access, hazardous working conditions, and psychological trauma from discrimination. The murals perform dual public health functions, in addressing residents' mental health while advocating for populations whose health rights face systematic violation.
Place attachment and community resilience

The relationship between environmental perception, cultural identity, and community resilience has received substantial scholarly attention in 2024-2025. Research in rural China demonstrates that environmental perception of public spaces influences community resilience through chain mediating effects of cultural identity and place attachment. When communities transform their physical environments through participatory processes, they simultaneously strengthen the psychological bonds that underpin resilience.

This explains why Stramurales succeeds where traditional economic development approaches falter. The festival doesn't just create economic value – though over 150 murals by international artists now attract thousands of visitors annually. It fundamentally reshapes residents' relationship with their environment, transforming narratives of decline into evidence of vitality. Each democratically selected mural becomes what resilience researchers call an 'anchor of hope' – tangible proof contradicting despair.

Contemporary resilience theory emphasises that strength resides not merely in physical infrastructure but in social cohesion. A recent analysis of resilient urban design in marginalised American neighbourhoods found that residents' message – 'We like our neighbours, we like the character of where we live' – revealed that resilience is fundamentally about people and community. Design interventions succeed when they preserve and strengthen these social bonds, rather than imposing external visions.

Stramurales embodies this principle. The democratic voting mechanisms ensure art reflects genuine community values rather than artist or curator preferences. This prevents the cultural displacement often accompanying urban regeneration, where improvements benefit newcomers while alienating existing residents. By centering resident agency, Stramuralesbuilds what researchers describe as 'critical resilience' – capacity addressing underlying inequalities rather than merely adapting to them.
The participation gap and universal access

These findings resonate profoundly with longstanding concerns about arts accessibility. The 2015 Warwick Commission documented that the wealthiest, most educated 8 per cent of the UK population accounted for 44 per cent of live music attendance and 28 per cent of visual art visits. This participation gap particularly affects communities that would benefit most from arts engagement for health and wellbeing.

But Stramurales challenges this narrative. Street art as public health infrastructure requires no admission fees, no advance booking, no cultural capital to appreciate. It exists where people live, transforming daily commutes into encounters with beauty and meaning. The democratic selection process ensures accessibility extends beyond consumption to co-creation – residents don't just view art, they determine what appears on their walls. Recent research on participatory arts and social cohesion emphasises that successful interventions share common features: delivery in local communities, non-stigmatising approaches, flexibility, promoting social engagement, involvement of exhibitions, and delivery within specific timeframes. Stramurales incorporates all these elements while adding genuine democratic governance.

This matters urgently. Mental health conditions among young people globally are rising, and traditional mental health services remain chronically underfunded. If we cannot scale clinical interventions to meet demand, we must invest in preventive public health approaches targeting social determinants.
From Stornara to the world: Implications for practice

The Stramurales model offers a replicable template requiring modest financial investment but substantial community participation. Essential elements include voluntary engagement, democratic decision-making, strategic social media use for marketing, and integration of local narratives with global artistic practices.

Several cities have implemented variations with promising results. Research on artistic interventions in urban spaces across Europe and Asia demonstrates that participatory art projects can serve as 'social prescribing', improving psychological resilience and enhancing public engagement. Tactical urbanism approaches – small-scale, low-cost interventions improving public spaces – increasingly incorporate art as core rather than supplementary elements.

The implications extend beyond individual communities. International frameworks including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enshrine rights to health and cultural participation. State obligations to conserve, develop and diffuse culture should support community-driven cultural initiatives demonstrably impacting health outcomes. As pandemic governance analyses emphasise, future health policy reforms must address not only biomedical preparedness but underlying vulnerabilities in community resilience and social cohesion. Street art operating through participatory structures directly strengthens these dimensions.
What Psychologists can do

We have roles to play at multiple levels. First, we must conduct research documenting the mental health impacts of participatory arts interventions. While promising evidence exists, methodologically rigorous studies with adequate sample sizes and long-term follow-up remain scarce. We need experimental designs, not just observational studies, examining mechanisms through which environmental transformations affect psychological outcomes.

Second, we should advocate for policy recognising arts engagement as health intervention. This means supporting public health funding for community arts initiatives, particularly in economically deprived areas where traditional development approaches have failed. We should work with urban planners, architects, and artists to integrate participatory arts into neighbourhood regeneration from inception, not as afterthoughts.

Third, we must ensure interventions embody genuine participation rather than tokenistic consultation. The Stramuralesmodel succeeds because residents hold real power. Without this, arts interventions risk replicating existing power structures and potentially accelerating gentrification that displaces the communities they ostensibly serve.

Fourth, we should employ arts-based research methods that centre community voices. Collaborative approaches like participatory theatre, photovoice, and collaborative poetics enable communities to articulate their experiences and aspirations in ways traditional psychological assessments cannot capture. These methods acknowledge that communities possess expertise about their own needs and potential solutions.

Finally, we must situate arts interventions within broader frameworks addressing social justice. Art should not function as a 'sticking plaster' masking underlying inequalities. Instead, we should harness arts' disruptive potential to promote what researchers term 'critical resilience' – capacity challenging systemic injustices rather than merely helping people adapt to them. This means addressing not just symptoms (mental distress) but causes (structural violence, economic abandonment, policy failures).
Reimagining health infrastructure

The Stramurales case compels fundamental reconsideration of what constitutes health infrastructure. We typically envision clinics, hospitals, pharmacies – biomedical institutions delivering treatments for diagnosed conditions. But what if the most effective mental health intervention for a declining community isn't a new psychiatric facility, but democratic processes enabling residents to transform their visual environment?

Walls covered with democratically selected art, created through genuine community participation, demonstrably improve community mental health while operationalising cultural rights described in international law. The modest financial investment required pales beside costs of clinical services treating preventable distress. For communities experiencing decline where traditional economic development has failed, participatory street art may offer the most cost-effective, accessible, and sustainable mental health intervention available.

This isn't about romanticising art or dismissing serious mental illness requiring clinical care. It's about acknowledging that population mental health requires addressing social determinants – and that participatory arts targeting built environments, social capital, and collective agency directly address these determinants.

The question facing psychology isn't whether art can function as health intervention – Stramurales and growing evidence demonstrate it can. Rather, the question is whether we possess imagination to rethink health infrastructure, recognising that effective mental health promotion may require democratic decision-making and community participation as much as clinical expertise.

As we watched Stornara residents voting on murals that June afternoon, we witnessed people exercising a fundamental human capacity too often denied in our field: the power to shape their own environments and, through that shaping, to heal. Perhaps that's the most vital lesson Stramurales offers psychology – that sometimes the most therapeutic intervention isn't administered by professionals, but created by communities reclaiming their agency… one democratically selected wall at a time.

Dr Luciano Magaldi Sardella holds a PhD in Cognitive Leadership at Aspire Institute, Harvard Business School.

Professor Matteo Mantuano is Professor of Social Sciences and Psychoeducational Health, Unitré University of Milan, Italy.

Photo: 'Kid trapped in a box' mural by Leticia Mandragora
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