Gudrun Frerichs, PhD

The Benefit of Groups

"The quality of a person's social life could have an even greater impact than diet and exercise on their health and well-being. There is growing evidence that being a member of a social group can significantly reduce the risk of conditions like stroke, dementia and even the common cold. New research by the Universities of Exeter and Queensland, Australia, shows that membership of social groups has a positive impact on health and well-being". (American Physiological Society (2009, September 13).

Myth About Womens' Low Sexual Desire

Many people are of the opinion that if a woman rarely wants sex there is something physically wrong with her. Maybe her sexual desire, her libido, would improve with the help of medical treatment? What pill can be prescribed that would get her back on the right track?

Like in many other areas, some health professionals (and certainly pharmaceutical companies) quickly reduce interpersonal, social, and cultural problems to a hormonal imbalance, that can be - and should be remedied with something we can buy in the pharmacy.

The biggest misconception of our present time is that problems like low sexual desire or depression are all due to hormonal or chemical imbalance. A misconception that is widely fed and supported research financed by pharmaceutical companies whose huge profits rely on people reaching for 'the pill'.

Improve Your Sex-Life

Sex is the most profound and intimate way people express their love to each other. Through the ever increasing access to information through traditional media and the internet we are very well informed about the many different ways people enjoy and pursue sex and sexual gratification in their lives. Even though one might think we have been 'immunised' and desensitised by explicit sexual depictions in public, in movies, and in the media, sex or the lack thereof is still a very reliable barometer of the quality of people's relationships with each other.

The Economic Down-Turn and Mental Health

For a long time people in New Zealand enjoyed a good life! After all, aren’t  we living in ‘Godzone”? Yes, we are still living in one of the most beautiful places in the world. However, the world-wide economic down-turn also effects us in li’l old New Zealand. Lots of people who struggled for years with their mental and physical health know the impact of financial insecurity and (-hopefully-) have a fair understanding of how/where to get help, and what they can do to help themselves.

What Is Grief?

It is safe to say that grief will be experiences by every person at some point in their lives. Although grief is integral and unavoidable as we move from birth to death, it is one experience that causes some people to struggle considerably. A common romantic notion is that ‘grief is the price we pay for love’. If we lose someone or something we have cared for deeply, we respond by grieving that loss.

The Symptoms of Grief

When a person is faced with a significant loss his/her world has lost all its familiar reference points and the future is an unclear, unfamiliar, and frightening nothingness. Without being able to control one’s emotional and physical states, the person is overwhelmed with intense and unsettling emotions that often follow each other in quick succession. In contrast, others might not feel anything and remain in a state of numbness.

What Helps When Your Are Grieving?

Losing someone or something you have cared about deeply is a huge blow to your SELF-system. You might as well look at it as a SELF-crisis. At a time like that it is of utmost importance that you reduce the stress by making sure your physical and emotional energy does not get depleted.  Looking after your physical and emotional well-being in times of grief and sorrow is one of the most important and useful steps you can take to help yourself. You can look after your emotional health by finding ways to express your feelings.

When Grief Becomes Complicated

The normal expectation of the grieving process is that after a while grief is no longer all-consuming and the person is creating a new life without the person or something that has been lost. That doesn’t mean that the sadness about the loss is going away completely. Whenever we are reminded of the loss, we will feel grief about the loss. However, this feeling is expected not to take over a person’s life.

10 Instant Stress Buster

In line with the topic of ‘Stress’, that has been the focus of my last newsletter, I would like to share with you ten of my favorite stress busters. They are easy to apply and you don’t have to go to large expenses. By the way, it is for the reason of high expenses that I havn’t included shopping as a great way of dealing with stress.

How To Get Over Childhood Stress: The Process Of Healing

I have explained in the previous article “How to Get Over Childhood Stress: The Process of Getting Hurt" how childhood experiences became part of the child’s neurological physiology that over time, through re-enforcement and repetition becomes an aspect of its personality structure.

The task of recovery is to stop the process of repetition and re-enforcement of the unwanted beliefs, thoughts, and behaviours and to encourage new, positive ways of being in this world. Thus new neuro-pathways need to be created (if you remember that has to happen through experience!!) or if they exist but are just faint connections they have to be strengthened through more and regular traffic. At the same time it has to be avoided to go down the familiar path of neuro-connections that are negative and unhelpful so that they wither away. On paper that sounds very easy, doesn't it?