Love in the time of Corona

In the last few weeks two teenagers approached our service to ask for support. With touching and articulate requests, they let us know they were suffering and gave voice to their distress in order that we, my colleagues and I, may hear this and be able to help. Partly because of these young peoples’ eloquence, but more because of their courage, their stories have stuck in my mind. Often, young people don’t particularly want to come to CAMHS. It’s unfamiliar, it’s full of new people and it often means talking about things that are difficult. Generally then, I spend a lot of my initial sessions with new families trying to engage wary children and skeptical teenagers, while parents look on with crossed fingers. Young people actively asking for help from CAMHS can be a little out of the ordinary.   You might think that adults are different, that with more maturity and self-awareness comes more openness and humility. Except, it’s not that easy. Asking for help makes us vulnerab...

If tea had a collective noun, I’d like to think it would be “a comfort of cuppas”. It’s not just a sense of comfort that has us reaching for the kettle in times of need, but the word does a good job of conveying some of the feeling we get from a well-timed brew. Second only to water, tea is one of the world’s most popular drinks . People all over the globe congregate around the tea caddy at multiple points throughout the day, often in a reflexive response to stress, boredom, sleeplessness, or the need for a break. Tea is served when people are sick, or grieving and exchanged during meetings of friends or colleagues, fuelling creativity, planning, problem-solving and idle chatter. And there are good reasons for all this, as it turns out. Not only comforting, tea has purported physical health benefits and can support our psycho-social wellbeing.   On a basic level, tea is tasty, often caffeinated and reassuringly hot. It can hydrate you, energise you and research suggests that s...