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Day 852

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What completes breakfast is marmalade. What enriches it with tradition is marmalade. What makes breakfast wholesome is marmalade, a source of happy, healthy, tangy carbs.

The origins of this exquisite preserve are controversial but date back to the1500s. The name has its roots in the Portuguese language. It is made from sugar and water boiled with the juice and rind of citrus fruits. Sweet oranges, limes, lemons, mandarins, grapefruits, any other such fruits or combinations of them are used.

Apparently the younger generation of today is more inclined towards smoother spreading jams, chocolate spreads and peanut butter as opposed to the bitty orange spread.

What had me hooked was the homemade version, made with Seville oranges by Si’s mum. Dark, with an intensely rich flavor. As most modern mothers have no time to make marmalade at home, it is not surprising that their kids have no taste for it. They are missing out on a delicious piece of their heritage.

For variation, it can be flavoured with ginger and whiskey as seen in farmer’s markets and gift shops at distilleries. I like them all.

It’s official. Without doubt, I am now ‘old’.
Both, The Telegraph and BBC Radio 4 support this view.
I am not just old, but ‘elderly’.

Ref: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/23/marmalade-preserve-elderly-data-shows/

Day 851

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“The university did not ring and tell us that she had been admitted to hospital critically ill. We were in the dark for hours as to what had happened. We found out off Facebook” says Nikki, mother of Miranda.

Miranda Williams 19. Student of Philosophy.
Daniel Green 18. Student of Law.
Kim Long 18. Student of Law.
-Deaths by suicide, first term of first year at the same University.

Lara Nosiru 23. Student of Neurosciences.
-Died by suicide, Final year at the same University.

All these lovely young people died within a few months of each other. On the surface of it the deaths do not seem to be related to each other.

At least 1600 families face this nightmare every year and at least 1600 beautiful young lives are wasted year on year with no sign of a drop in numbers, only a rise.In 2007, there were 75 university students died of suicide in England and Wales. In the ghastly year of Saagar’s death, 2014, the number went up to 130, nearly 75% higher.

Why?

Underdiagnosed anxiety and depression at school.
Problems identified but not dealt with.
Stigma stopping young people from asking for help.
Unfamiliar surroundings.
Being away from home/family/friends for the first time.
Excessive drinking culture.
Trying their best to start off Uni on the right foot.
Debt / financial pressures.
Academic pressures.
Suddenly being treated like ‘adults’.
Trying to cope with pressures all alone.
Too proud, worried or ashamed to ask for help.
Not enough help available at Uni.
(“During Kim Long’s inquest this week, it was revealed that more than 600 Bristol University students were referred to support services by their tutors last year because they were deemed at “high risk”.)
Improper use of ‘Confidentiality’.
New students not being identified as high-risk.
Poor understanding and management of depression in the community

1600!!!

Ref: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2838174/is-a-cocktail-of-ballooning-costs-stigmatisation-of-mental-health-problems-and-academic-pressure-killing-our-kids/

Day 850

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Findings of National Confidential Inquiry into suicides and homicides by people with Mental Illness – 20 year review published in 2016 :

Key elements of safer care in Mental health services

  1. Safer wards: Removal of ligature points /Reduced absconding / Skilled in-patient observation
  2. Early follow-up on discharge from hospital to community
  3. No ‘out of area’ admissions for acutely ill patients
  4. 24 hour crisis resolution/home treatment teams
  5. Community outreach teams to support patients who may lose contact with conventional services
  6. Specialised services for alcohol and drug misuse and “dual diagnosis”
  7. Multidisciplinary review of patient suicides, with input from family
  8. Implementing NICE guidance on depression and self-harm
  9. Personalised risk management, without routine checklists
  10. Low turnover of non-medical staff

Key elements of safer care in the wider health system:

  1. Psychosocial assessment of self-harm patients
  2. Safer prescribing of opiates and antidepressants
  3. Diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems especially depression in primary care
  4. Additional measures for men with mental ill-health, including services online and in non-clinical settings

There is strong evidence for all of the above.

5 items from the first list (MH Services) were missing for Saagar.
4 were not applicable. One, I am not sure of(rate of staff turnover).

All 4 items on the second list were missing for Saagar. The ‘wider’ health system did him more harm than good.

Can we turn this evidence into action before hundreds more die? Please.

Reference: http://research.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/cmhs/research/centreforsuicideprevention/nci/reports/2016-report.pdf

Day 849

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School playgrounds are challenging places. Many of us haven’t quite survived them or their equivalents. They are part of growing up and some of the memories created there, stay with us for a long time. Our childhood never leaves us.

The playground has now extended itself into our private spaces via the World Wide Web. There is nowhere to hide. No place is safe. The aggressors can be cowardly and hide but the attacked are exposed even when sitting alone in their bedrooms. Any child from any background can be a victim and any child from any background can be a culprit.

How easy it is to make people feel they don’t fit in, by words or by indifference. Many agonise over fitting in and being accepted for who they are. The deep desire to fit in can cause misery for life. The feelings of non-acceptance are deeply damaging when internalised, leading to long term mental and physical health problems.

It must not be easy for kids to talk about being bullied. It must hurt. It must be embarrassing. Attention needs to be paid to what they say to alert us to the subtle or overt bullying that goes on. Every blessing requires care and commitment. Everyone needs to feel loved and valued. While meanness may afford short-term gains, kindness is transformative.

In Primary school, Saagar’s friend Adam always stood up for him in the ‘school playground’. They were best friends for many years and I am very grateful to Adam for his kindness. Saagar was too even though at the time he did not know that he would not survive the playground. Neither did I. 

Henry James said, “ Three things in human life are important: first is to be kind; second is to be kind; and third is to be kind.”

The ‘Special K’.

 

 

Day 848

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Three centuries ago, Newton thought that reality had 3 basic components: time, particles and space. This model didn’t explain everything. Soon other forces that govern movement of particles came along like electromagnetism. Photons, gravitons and gluons emerged yet the essential ingredients of reality remain a mystery.

To explain gravity, Einstein merged space and time into a composite, space-time. Michael Faraday added the concept of a classical field that carries forces through empty space. Quantum Theory showed that all mass and energy are really excitations of underlying quantum fields. Quantum fields and space-time are incompatible, so perhaps there is a more basic component hidden beneath.

In the late 1990s, String Theory was proposed. I don’t understand it fully but basically it says that elementary particles emerge from the vibrations of one-dimensional strings. Therefore, an electron is not really a point, but a tiny loop of string. If it oscillates one way, we see an electron. If it oscillates in another way, then we call it a photon, a quark, or a …

Julian Barbour, a British physicist believes that space and time, united by Einstein must be uncoupled. The only way to define space is to consider it as the geometric relationship between observable particles. He argues that the universe is a set of possible configurations of the 3D geometry of space. He believes that these configurations or ‘snapshots’ exist in a space of possibilities. Time is not real but merely something we perceive – an illusion that comes about because the universe is constantly changing from one snapshot to another.

Spiritual masters have been teaching the concept of everything being an illusion for thousands of years. Physics seems to be catching up.

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
– Albert Einstein

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