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Almost everyone has short-lived sleep problems lasting a few days during stressful phases of life or during an illness (a cough, say, or a “blocked nose” from a cold). Most of them are harmless. With “real” sleep disorders it is different. These are sleep problems that go on for a longer stretch of time (three to four weeks, and sometimes years) and markedly reduce a person's ability to function. They can be physical as well as psychological. So the first thing to do is to fin

Expecting a baby, going through childbirth, becoming a mother — this is one of the most wonderful and overwhelming experiences there is. On the other hand, a new family situation calls for serious changes to the life you had before.

Plenty of people are afraid of change — metathesiophobia, sometimes also called neophobia, the fear of the new. We feel comfortable in familiar surroundings, in our routines and our familiar things; changes to the comfort zone we meet with doubt, suspicion and fear.

Imagine you have a bad cold and a fever. What do you normally do? You go to the doctor and get treatment. If someone asks how you are, you say: "Not great, I’ve caught a cold." Perfectly normal, isn’t it? But what would you do if you had trouble communicating, outbursts of anger or a low emotional state? Would you look for help the way you do with your body? Almost certainly not. And yet our psyche needs our attention and care