Earlier today I appeared on ITV’s This Morning Programme. Apart from the fact that it was a pleasure to meet Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby it was also a chance to talk about how relieved and happy I am that my son has turned such a corner in dealing with his computer game compulsion. He is genuinely happy at school and has knuckled down to his GCSEs with a view to studying Maths, Geography and History at A Level. With me in the studio was Dr Richard Graham a consultant adolescent psychiatrist who has just opened a unit for technology addiction at the Capio Nightingale Hospital. Before we went on air he asked me what had worked for my son. I told him that in the end - after a lot of heart-ache, micro-management and therapy - it was simple; my son simply rebuilt his own confidence. His school, Hampton Court House, gave him the right structure to develop some self-esteem and he came to the conclusion that Real Life was worth a try after all. Which just goes to show no matter how compelling a virtual game is, it cannot match the Real Thing.
Archive for the ‘General’ Category
The Real Thing
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010Virtually Addicted
Friday, September 25th, 2009Teenage depression is a silent epidemic that is spreading through our increasingly complicated and fast-paced society. The average age of the onset of depression is now fourteen-and-a-half years of age…..and it is mostly boys.
Is it any wonder that so many of them choose to inhabit the risk-free world of computer games. I am not talking about those violent, savage games such as Grand Theft Auto but of the mythical, charming world of Final Fantasy.
Yes, they are fascinating, compelling and a haven for so many stressed-out teenagers. But are the safe. In the direct sense; yes. But they have an insidious quality which makes them a very real danger for our kids. In the end, many of our youngster prefer the virtual world to the real one….and that has very many dangerous implications.
At 8.OOpm on ITV’s Tonight I revisit three boys I interviewed three years ago about their computer game addiction. I wanted to see if they were off their drug of choice and working their way back to the real world. Two have made good progress but a third is still deeply immersed in his struggle.
This report has particular relevance to me since my own son developed a compulsion for computer gaming while I was making the original film. He has turned a corner…..but it has been a long and tiring three years…for him and for the rest of our family.
We under-estimate the lure of these games at our peril. The challenge now is to connect with our teenagers and make every effort to make real life a safe place to be.
It’s a numbers game
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009This morning I did a turn on Nick Ferrari’s breakfast show on LBC. He wanted to talk about why I wanted to be a politicians and why so few women got to the top of the greasy pole….and so few survived.
When I thought about it, I realized that there would be many more at the top if the number of women entering politics increased at the bottom. The City and big corporations have all been able to entice more women into their ranks and then successfully plug the leaky pipeline…..that is all that has to happen in politics.
What women need is practical help coping with their responsibilities. We are the sandwich generation and often have to cope with young children and aging parents. What about making childcare tax deductable? Shirley Conran once said that the biggest boost to the feminist movement was the washing machine…..how right she was.
And what about making politics appealing - at least to the point where women can understand its relevance to our lives.
I am not in favour of positive discrimination because I don’t think it is necessary if enough women participate. It really is a numbers game.
Ordinary People
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009Many years ago I saw the award-winning film, Robert Redford’s Ordinary People. It was the story of how Ordinary People reacted to extraordinary circumstances, in this case a family tragedy.
In a feature I wrote for the Mail on Sunday recently I wrote of what it was like to be an ordinary woman trying to become an MP. Some readers suggested I was far from ordinary because of my job as a journalist and my contacts in the media world. This misses the point entirely.
In a sense we are all ordinary people who can behave in extraordinary ways depending on whether we are dealt a blow or bestowed a boon.
I once interviewed Pam Warren the survivor of the Paddington Rail crash, who famously wore a plastic mask to help her scars heal. Her hands will never recover and her tendency to suffer flashbacks will always remain. She has become a motivational speaker: courageous and inspiring. But she would agree with me that she is just an ordinary person.
In my job as a journalist I have met many extraordinary people, from the lorry driver from Rochdale who raised half a million pounds to fund his daughter’s cancer treatment to the widows of the New York fireman, but at heart they were all ordinary. My extraordinary good fortune was to meet them.
We need people who can rise to the challenge by behaving well. It doesn’t matter what their job is. Plenty of current MPs were ordinary people behaving badly what we need is ordinary people behaving well. What we need most of all is leaders behaving well. The best way to spot a leader is to look at who is following. On June 4 we will know.