Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2025 i Psychologies

Support for smartphone swap... I’ve just bought the October issue of Psychologies, and was interested but also disappointed and a wee bit concerned that Sally, rightly fed up with the incessant demands of smartphones, has now got herself a dumbphone, but that she keeps her smartphone for what she calls ‘emergencies’ like going into town as she needs the internet and maps etc to get around. I have never had a smartphone, and I manage perfectly well to get myself around town and get through each day without the internet on tap on my phone. I use the internet, of course, but on my laptop at home, and if I am out and about in an unfamiliar place, I will have looked at a map on my laptop before setting…

If I were to ask you what commitments you have coming up, or get you to describe all the duties you need to fulfil towards your family members, your friends or at work, you could probably reel them off without pausing for breath: meetings; school assemblies, checking in on your friend who has been having a difficult time; booking doctor’s appointments; work deadlines; laundry; the online shop; making sure the kids eat something green… If I were to ask you what you are doing for yourself, how you are meeting your own needs, you might hesitate, turn the question over in your mind before telling me that you just need to get a few things out of the way before you can focus on yourself. And therein lies the problem!…

But perhaps it wasn’t ironic at all: perhaps it was, in fact, virtually inevitable. I’ve noticed time after time that I can keep going through the hard work and stress, but as soon as I stop, you’d better pass the tissues as I’m bound to be full of cold. Apparently, I’m not the only one. A survey of 2004 adults aged 16-65 by IU International University of Applied Sciences in Germany found that more than 70% suffered extreme fatigue, headaches, poor sleep or cold symptoms on days off or during holidays. So what’s behind it all? ‘When we’re under chronic stress, our body produces cortisol to help us cope. But too much, for too long, weakens the immune system,’ says life coach, certified breathwork teacher, and public speaker, Sam Adams.…

Her warm personality and quick wit have endeared Sarah Cawood to audiences since her days presenting Top of the Pops and The Girlie Show. But in September, the 53-year-old bared a very different side to her personality when she posted a video of herself sobbing on her bed in a dressing gown. ‘I’m not normally a crier and try to feel happy with my lot in life,’ she says. ‘But that day, it was too much and I had to be honest about it. I try to be as real as possible on my social media and that means sharing not just the highs, but the lows.’ The caption to this moment of vulnerability was even more candid. Cawood admitted that while she was healthy and had a lovely family,…

A piece of my mind, or peace of mind? Calm and conflict can sometimes go hand in hand. How good are you at keeping the peace? This is a question I’ve been wrestling with recently — when is the right time to stay quiet for the sake of harmony, and when do you need to put your foot down? If, like me, you grew up being told that you were bossy and demanding, and that these were traits that other people didn’t like, you probably got the message early on that the ‘correct’ thing to do was to keep the peace no matter the cost to yourself. So many of my friends tell me they hate conflict, that it has a literal physical impact on them. I can feel the…

On the other hand, families can present significant problems. Unhealthy dynamics, power struggles, or emotional imbalances create dysfunctional environments. When a family’s emotional ecosystem becomes strained, individuals face feelings of isolation, resentment, or anxiety. At the core of many family conflicts lies the tension between individual needs and collective expectations. When a family fails to balance these dynamics, emotional turbulence follows, resulting in ruptures that are hard to heal — and never more so than when they are inhabited by an individual with a narcissistic personality. The narcissistic constellation A parent with a narcissistic personality can corrode a once-healthy family structure, causing lasting effects which truly impact children as they grow and remain in the shadows or the forefront long into adulthood. In families with a narcissistic parent, the family…

1 You find it hardest to say no when ♥ It’s something you could do well♦ People might be disappointed♣ You’d be letting someone down♠ No one else will do it 2 You’re most likely to abandon your plans when ♠ Someone else has a crisis♥ You feel the need to finish something ‘more important’♦ Someone suggests doing something else♣ You convince yourself they weren’t that important anyway 3 When you do prioritise yourself, you wonder whether ♣ You’re prioritising the wrong things♠ You won’t get through your to-do list♥ You’re missing out on something more important♦ You’ll come across as selfish 4 People are most likely to comment on how ♥ Well you do♦ Much you care♣ Little you do♠ Much you do 5 If a friend gifted you a spa day, you’d think…

I recently found out that someone very close to me had cancer. And that my grandma had passed suddenly. On the same day. It was almost too much for my brain to process at once. I went into a state of freeze, mind paralyzed; then flight, moving around the house without reason, and then finally fight, frantically trying to understand all the information and fix the problems. As I took in the information, and as sad as I was that I had lost my grandmother, thankfully, the close family member diagnosed with cancer told me he had been given very a strong chance of survival. Still, I went to bed that night feeling like a truck had hit me. ‘It will all seem better in the morning’, my husband said;…

She’s hugely popular, and for years she’s been a leading voice working to show how to combine the scientific with the spiritual, helping us tap into our intuition and bring lasting transformation in our lives. Yet she’s just taken the biggest risk of her career by sharing the fact that her dead husband speaks to her from behind the grave. And it’s causing quite a stir. ‘I think it’s really struck a chord with people, we’ve received thousands of emails and I’ve personally received thousands of DMs, and I’m not exaggerating when I say thousands, from people with similar stories. And I just think it was such a taboo subject. ‘I hate to say this about myself, but when someone with authority and credibility, who’s been known and trusted as…

‘We are bombarded not only with atrocities, but with a break down in our shared reality.’ With 24-hour rolling news and constant access to updates through our phones, the stream of information rarely stops long enough for mind or body to recover. It’s no wonder a growing number of people across the UK are feeling the emotional strain of constant global crisis. ‘We are living in an environment our nervous systems simply weren’t designed for,’ says Dr Sophie Mort, clinical psychologist and author of A Manual for Being Human. ‘An almost constant stream of distressing, often horrifying news. Each headline registers as a potential threat, activating our fight, flight, freeze system. In small bursts that system is protective, but when it’s triggered over and over, with no pause to recover,…

There’s a lot in life that is ‘baked into the dough’. And people come with all sorts of hidden, unlikely qualities that don’t reveal themselves until you’re intimately involved. And like the sesame seeds did for Natasha, a silent saboteur can do untold damage, while appearing benign. A silent saboteur hides in plain sight. They might be your parent, partner, friend, colleague, or sibling. They don’t tell you that your passion project is a waste of time, energy, and money. Nor do they rile you with stories and statistics about how unlikely it is that you’ll succeed in your creative ambitions. In fact, they appear supportive. But that is just a front for how they really feel. And if you look closely enough, you might see a flicker of contempt…

There is so much going on at menopause. Not only are there the physical and emotional changes but also the question of ‘What am I going to eat?’ Thinking about what to cook every day can be, quite frankly, exhausting. Especially if we haven’t slept well or are feeling overwhelmed or anxious. These recipes help to simplify this process, away from all the noise out there on what you should (or shouldn’t) be eating at menopause, providing you the energy you need when you feel that gnawing anxiety or simply flat out on your feet. Lemon chicken tagine SERVES: 4PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES, PLUS MARINATINGCOOK TIME: 1½ HOURS A warming and comforting one-pot tagine with glycine- and B vitamins-rich chicken to calm our nervous system, along with serotonin-supporting saffron. The…