Anxiety

• If you’re a parent with kids at home, it often leaves you and your children on edge.
• Children with neurodiverse conditions, such as autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, are even more susceptible to the effects of poor sleep, given their emotional reactivity and impulsivity..
• Struggles with sleep have been linked to increased aggression, irritability, inattention and hyperactivity in children with autism spectrum disorder.

The science behind sleep difficulties

• There are multiple reasons why neurodiverse children don’t sleep well, including medical conditions, biological causes and behavioral and environmental factors.
• Medical conditions, such as obstructive sleep apnea or epilepsy, can affect a child’s sleep.
• Medications that are used to treat medical conditions, such as antidepressants for mood disorders or stimulants for ADHD, can further disrupt sleep.

Treating sleep problems

All of these factors can be addressed and treated. A thorough evaluation by the child’s health care provider may reveal a medical cause, or medication, that is interfering with sleep. Behavioral approaches can make a big difference in improving sleep. These might include:
Changes to daytime habits, including getting lots of morning light and physical activity.
Shifts in evening habits, such as removing all screens (TV, computers, phones, etc.) and establishing calming bedtime routines.
Modifications to how a parent interacts with their child for those families who would like a child to fall asleep and stay asleep independently.

• It’s important to note that not all families want their children to sleep on their own.
• Because there are so many factors that can cause disrupted sleep, addressing sleep problems cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach and should be done in partnership with parents.
• Our team has developed a family-centered approach to address sleep problems in neurodiverse children.

The ups and downs of melatonin

• While behavioral approaches are recommended as a first-line treatment, melatonin can be helpful in jump-starting a behavioral routine.
• Overdoses can result from children eating a bunch of gummies, or parents not understanding how much melatonin is safe to give.
• To help parents sift through all the resources and articles on melatonin on the internet and social media, one of us created a video and wrote several blogs on melatonin safety.
• These include topics like whether children can become dependent on melatonin supplements over time, whether taking melatonin will delay puberty, whether children might experience side effects from taking melatonin and more.

Promoting healthier sleep

Here are some general tips for helping your child sleep better, regardless of whether they are neurodiverse:
Choose a consistent bedtime and wake time. This consistency will help children’s own natural melatonin kick in.
Make sure bedtime isn’t too early. For example, an 8 p.m. bedtime is too early for most 10-year-olds. Neurodiverse children may struggle to sleep and will become more anxious, which makes going to sleep even harder.
Help your child get natural sunlight in the morning. Morning sunlight sets our brain’s internal clock so that we can fall asleep more easily at bedtime.
Ensure your child is getting physical activity during the day.
Minimize naps longer than one hour, or after 4 p.m. for school-age children. Naps can interfere with going to sleep at night.
Avoid caffeine, including many types of soda, tea and chocolate.
Turn off all screens and smartphones at least 30 minutes before bedtime.
In the evening leading up to bedtime, turn down all lights in the house. Consider using red night lights, if possible. Set any devices to night mode in the evening to limit exposure to blue light.
Create wind-down time in place of screens. Have your child identify an activity they enjoy that is calming and soothing, such as reading a book, coloring or listening to music. If a bath is stimulating, move it to earlier in the evening, such as after dinner.
Help your child learn to fall asleep without needing you or their devices to be there with them. That way, they will settle down on their own at bedtime. And when they wake up throughout the night, since we all wake up in the night, they will be able to go right back to sleep without becoming fully awake.
For more tips, see Autism Speaks for free downloads of brochures and visual aids.

• She also receives funding from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
• She has received funding from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Autism Speaks for research on sleep in children with ASD.

Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, it has become normalised as a part of Australian culture. While for some, gambling might be a source of entertainment, for others, it can lead to significant harms.

Gambling and mental illness

• In many cases, harms associated with gambling lead to poor mental health.
• But people experiencing mental illness are also at greater risk of experiencing gambling problems.
• A person might not have a diagnosable gambling disorder, however they still may face problems in their life as a result of gambling.

Gambling and suicide

• Research from different countries has shown that among people receiving treatment for problem gambling, between 22% and 81% have thought about suicide, and 7% to 30% have made an attempt.
• Some 44% of Australian veterans experiencing gambling problems have thought about suicide, while almost 20% have made a suicide plan or attempt.

• Gambling-related suicides were more likely to affect males (83%) compared to total suicide deaths in Victoria over the same period (75%).
• This is because, unlike for drugs and alcohol, at present there’s no systematic way gambling is captured as a contributing factor in suicide deaths.

Gambling is inherently risky

• Evidence shows pokies alone are responsible for more than half of all gambling problems in Australia.
• Casino table games are equally risky, but in the general population they contribute much less to problem gambling because fewer people play them.

What can we do?

• She suggested health professionals could make it part of their routine practice to ask simple questions like “in the past 12 months, have you ever felt that you had a problem with gambling?”.
• Or, “has anyone commented that you might have a problem with gambling?”.

• In June 2023, a cross-party committee presented a report with 31 recommendations to reduce harms from online gambling in Australia.
• Read more:
  Celebrities, influencers, loopholes: online gambling advertising faces an uncertain future in Australia

Advice for people who gamble

• For people who do choose to gamble, it’s important to be aware of the risks.
• If you choose to gamble, set limits on the amount of money you’re willing to loose, or the amount of time you will spend gambling.

gamble no more than 2% of your take-home pay
gamble no more than once a week
take part in no more than two different types of gambling.
If you notice you’re thinking about gambling more and more, or that it’s causing problems in any part of your life, seeking help early is key. Speak to your GP about how you can get some extra support, or visit Gambling Help Online. If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Anastasia Hronis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• People may think weight stigma only manifests as rude comments, is harmless or can even do some good.
• But the reality is that weight stigma is often insidious, and pervasively entrenched into our society and environment.

Fat microaggressions

• The impacts of microaggressions have been described as “death by a thousand cuts,” referring to how seemingly minor incidents, when repeated cumulatively, contribute to real harm.
• With combined input from reports of lived experiences, expert testimony and large studies with diverse samples, we identified four main types of fat microaggressions.

• Think fat jokes, unintelligent, gross, and/or unattractive fat characters on TV and in movies (like “Fat Monica” from Friends or Gwyneth Paltrow’s character in Shallow Hal), and thin friends complaining they “feel fat” in front of a larger person and commenting on how much they hate their bodies.
• Our data confirm that indirect microaggressions are the type most experienced by fat people — they invade every aspect of daily life and remind fat people that they are not viewed as OK.

Clothing exclusion

• One type of direct microaggression that emerged as its own category in our analysis was clothing exclusion.
• It is also common to see clothing in stores with claims that “one size fits all,” that really don’t.
• Fat activists have also long recognized that clothing exclusion acts as a proxy for other societal forms of erasure, in that the more standard options fail you, the more you are likely facing other forms of everyday oppressions.

Benevolent weightism

• You would be hard-pressed to find a fat person who has not tried multiple weight-loss methods, only to end up unsuccessful and feeling worse about themselves than ever.
• Indeed, the most likely outcome of weight-loss attempts is weight regain, and usually, weight rebound above your initial starting point.
• Studies that show otherwise are often methodologically flawed and frequently misleading in their headline messaging.

Why fat microaggressions matter

• Across four studies, we established the prominence of fat microaggressions in the lives of fat people and linked experiencing fat microaggressions to poorer mental health, such as greater stress, anxiety and depression, and worse self-esteem.
• Fat microaggressions were even associated with discrimination-related trauma symptoms, including feeling on edge or constantly on guard, fearing embarrassment or feeling isolated from others.

How you can help

• Greater awareness and recognition of fat microaggressions is an important first step to confronting them.
• If you really are concerned about health, do not tell fat people they need fixing; these microaggressions make people’s health worse, not better.
• Challenging anti-fat attitudes when they manifest in these other ways is key to a more inclusive and less harmful world.

Angela Meadows has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Megan Lindloff and Rachel Calogero do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Murfreesboro, Tennessee--(Newsfile Corp. - March 20, 2024) - TRUE (Transforming Roots Unto Eternity) Addiction & Behavioral Health proudly announces its grand opening in Murfreesboro, Tennessee for individuals seeking comprehensive addiction and behavioral health services.
• TRUE offers a spectrum of services addressing substance abuse, mental health disorders, and gambling and process addiction.
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT): Focused on managing emotions and relationships, particularly beneficial for addiction and self-harm.
• Additionally, TRUE plans to enhance community engagement among the clients with the upcoming opening of a 3,500-square-foot community center this spring.