Andropause is an onset of hormonal changes in men - mostly between the ages of 40 and 50, which is triggered by reduced testosterone levels.

Today, I stumbled upon an impressive and moving interview with the survivor of a suicide attempt that was published in a newspaper article in September 2000. In a state of pre-suicidal constriction / pre-suicidal syndrome, Kevin Hines jumped of the Golden Gate Bridge and survived this jump only by extremely fortunate circumstances.

For several years now, I have observed a significant rise in clients, especially males, who suffer from massive fears of having pedophilic tendencies. Even though these fears are often unfounded, they may cause intense symptoms like massive emotional pressure and suffering or even lead to self-inflicted injuries. In diagnostic terms, however, what most of these clients were dealing with are in fact obsessive thoughts, a disorder that has to be clearly distinguished from pedophilia.

Burnout or Boreout - in a recent issue of the ‘Counseling Corner’ I already mentioned that people being ‘bored out’ often show similar symptoms to people suffering from high amounts of work-related stress.

“Burnout in Thailand? Impossible!” That’s probably what most of us would think. But symptoms of ‘burnout’ are not always linked to high workload alone, they can also have other causes. I have identified 3 groups of people that are vulnerable to symptoms of burnout, even in a sunny, tropical country like ‘mai pen rai’ Thailand:

I must say that even after many years in my profession, I still experience excitement about how courageous and determined some people can be in utilizing counseling or psychotherapy to improve their lives. I am particularly happy if it is possible for me to help children and teenagers (because they have their whole lives ahead of them and if they can get over the obstacles that prevent their lives from being happy, it is just great) or people past their midlife. Why’s that? It is because in our society, ‘older’ people have the image of not being able to change anymore.

Have you recently experienced someone acting completely out of line or losing control over themselves?

Almost everyone has seen it, and a few of you might even have personal experiences with what is commonly called ‘addictive relationships’. These are the forms of relationships where everyone around a particular couple might raise their hands in disbelief over why both partners are still together.

There is a weakness that is particularly frequent among people in service professions, causing burnout and depression rates in the service industry to be some of the highest.

At a conference organized by the Health Promotion Fund for a Healthy Austria, experts recently lectured on approaches to resolve critical future scenarios. One of the core points was the question of the affordability of health care.