Time to Change: Ruby Wax gives advice on what to do if your friend is living with depression
contra omnia discrimina
TAKE ACTION ON 1ST DECEMBER '10
Over 90,000 people are living with HIV in the UK and new infections continue every year. World AIDS Day 2010 is all about raising awareness to tackle HIV prejudice and help stop the spread of HIV.
This year, (RED) launches the most important campaign to date.For the first time since AIDS arrived on the scene, we have a chance to realize, in the next 5 years, a whole generation born AIDS free. This goal is achievable through continued funding from the global health community, including the Global Fund.As a way to educate people about the goal and create a rallying cry to help achieve it, (RED) have enlisted numerous street artists, painters, illustrators, photographers and sculptors to provide their creative interpretation of an AIDS Free Generation born in 2015. Each artist chose a headline and incorporated a unique take on “2015”. We are launching with 10 artists, but many more will follow in the months to come.The best way to understand the reality of living with HIV in the UK today is to read true accounts written by people with HIV.People are often surprised to hear that what it is really like to live with HIV. Advances in treatment mean that many people diagnosed today can expect a near normal life expectancy if they get diagnosed early and take treatment correctly. However side effects of daily treatment can have an impact. For many people with HIV it is the social consequences that can have the biggest impact - dealing with prejudice, money worries or how to tell friends and family.The stories below have been submitted from people living with or affected by HIV. Each person explains in their own words the impact HIV has had on their own lives.Whether you have a family member or friend that is affected by HIV, or are HIV-positive and want to tell people what it's really like to live with HIV - we’d like you to share your story. Real stories, whether positive or negative, help build a true picture of HIV in the UK today and increase public understanding:View real stories from people living with HIV and hear them explain in their own words the impact HIV has on their lives. These videos messages include stories from Gary, Steve and Adrienne who tell us about late diagnosis, long term medication and stigma and disclosure.Adrienne - Stigma and disclosure
A special message from Annie Lennox:
Now visit these links, please:
www.worldaidsday.org
www.joinred.com
It is normal to feel periods of being 'down in the dumps' that last for a short time. Normal life events can cause these to happen. For example, when someone dies or you lose a job.
Clinical depression, on the other hand, is another event, in itself. It does not only last a week or two but is a deep dark hole, a lonely abyss, a black dog (as Churchill once said) that seems impossible to escape from. It is a dangerous medical condition that is caused by an imbalance in the chemicals of your brain. If it is not treated properly it can completely disrupt a persons life and sometimes leads to suicide.
The Twitter Microfiction 'Wrong Rooms' is set to reach it's ultimate finale this weekend, with new updates already being published on twitter. The secret-author hinted on his personal feed that the ending would come 'sometime' this weekend.
This signals that the story will finally be wrapped up after several months of silence - the unknown author published a tweet from his personal account saying 'time to lay this ghost to rest.' Could this indicate the story is based on real events?
Shortly afterwards, the latest updates to Wrong Rooms were all published live on twitter within seconds of each other, indicating the ending has already been written. The question remains... why wait five months before picking up the story again? More intriguingly, there are strong rumours that a major publisher is attempting to secure a contract with the author.
Do you have any insight? Please leave your comment below. In the meantime, catch up with the story at www.twitter.com/wrongrooms
UPDATE:
The story so far can be found at http://www.uselessdesires.co.uk/wrong-rooms
It’s Stress Awareness Day. There’s only an hour or so left but I wanted to mention it because Stress is misunderstood. The term ‘stressed out’ is over-used and people need to know more about what it really means so they can help themselves, friends, family and colleagues. I’ve been there and know how hard it was to manage.
Cigarette smoking causes 87 percent of lung cancer deaths . Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women . Smoking is also responsible for most cancers of the larynx, oral cavity and pharynx, esophagus, and bladder. In addition, it is a cause of kidney, pancreatic, cervical, and stomach cancers, as well as acute myeloid leukemia.
The health risks caused by cigarette smoking are not limited to smokers. Exposure to secondhand smoke, or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), significantly increases the risk of lung cancer and heart disease in nonsmokers, as well as several respiratory illnesses in young children. (Secondhand smoke is a combination of the smoke that is released from the end of a burning cigarette and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Institute of Environmental Health Science’s National Toxicology Program, and the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) have all classified secondhand smoke as a known human carcinogen—a category reserved for agents for which there is sufficient scientific evidence that they cause cancer. The U.S. EPA has estimated that exposure to secondhand smoke causes about 3,000 lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers and is responsible for up to 300,000 cases of lower respiratory tract infections in children up to 18 months of age in the United States each year.
Cigarette smoke contains about 4,000 chemical agents, including over 60 carcinogens. In addition, many of these substances, such as carbon monoxide, tar, arsenic, and lead, are poisonous and toxic to the human body. Nicotine is a drug that is naturally present in the tobacco plant and is primarily responsible for a person’s addiction to tobacco products, including cigarettes. During smoking, nicotine is absorbed quickly into the bloodstream and travels to the brain in a matter of seconds. Nicotine causes addiction to cigarettes and other tobacco products that is similar to the addiction produced by using heroin and cocaine.
Smoking harms nearly every major organ of the body. The risk of developing smoking-related diseases, such as lung and other cancers, heart disease, stroke, and respiratory illnesses, increases with total lifetime exposure to cigarette smoke. This includes the number of cigarettes a person smokes each day, the intensity of smoking (i.e., the size and frequency of puffs), the age at which smoking began, the number of years a person has smoked, and a smoker’s secondhand smoke exposure.
Smoking cessation has major and immediate health benefits for men and women of all ages. Quitting smoking decreases the risk of lung and other cancers, heart attack, stroke, and chronic lung disease. The earlier a person quits, the greater the health benefit. For example, research has shown that people who quit before age 50 reduce their risk of dying in the next 15 years by half compared with those who continue to smoke. Smoking low-yield cigarettes, as compared to cigarettes with higher tar and nicotine, provides no clear benefit to health.
For additional information on quitting smoking, why not check out the We Quit Website? Or for great support or information, and to get a free Quit-Kit, visit the NHS Smoke-Free website: http://smokefree.nhs.uk/
