Understanding
THE WHITE RIBBON WHY DO WE OBSERVE REMEMBRANCE DAY?
WHO IS GOD?
A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE WORLD TODAY
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WHAT IN THE WORLD LOCKDOWN DEPRESSION One in ten Victorians considered suicide during the peak of lockdowns in 2020. A survey of 1157 citizens from the state found that that 33.4 per cent had symptoms of depression or anxiety, with 26.3 per cent reporting feeling burnt out. Additionally, 12.3 per cent reported using illicit substances to deal with the situation. If you need help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or 0800 543 345 (NZ).—ABC
SAVE YOUR DOLLARS NEW ZEALAND
Don't be fooled by the higher price—a study by journal Nutrients has found New Zealand supermarket food brands are just as healthy as more expensive options. There was no difference found in salt and sodium content, leading doctors to encourage consumers to consider cheaper homebrand products; while dispelling the myth that a higher price comes with health benefits.—Stuff. co.nz 4
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YASMINA-H—UNSPLASH, VIKI MOHAMAD—UNSPLASH, EMILIANO CICERO—UNSPLASH, MIKAEL KRISTENSON—UNSPLASH
AUSTRALIA
EPIDEMIC LEVELS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ONLYFANS U-TURN WORLD
The website Onlyfans, which earned $US150 million from hosting amateur pornography in 2020, announced that it would ban explicit content from its platform in August this year. The company has since reversed plans to update its content policy. The company's founder attributed the initial decision to "unfair treatment" from banks and pressure from investors.—CNBC
2.2 million Australians have reported being physically or sexually abused by current or former partners.—Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Every nine days, one woman in Australia is killed by their partner.—AIHW The elder abuse hotline received an average of 30 calls each day in 2017–18.—AIHW 1 in 3 New Zealand women have experienced physical violence at some point in their life.—New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse
EVOLUTION IN THE MAJORITY UNITED STATES
A study by the University of Michigan has found the theory of evolution is now accepted by the majority of Americans. Americans have generally been evenly split on the topic for the past 35 years until the last decade, when pro-evolution sentiment increased from 40 per cent to 54 per cent. Schools and educational institutes teaching the theory has been linked to the increase.—KSBY
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Taking care of your mental health during Covid-19 is an understated priority. BY GABRIELA TAVELLA AND GORDON PARKER
WE'RE ALL EXHAUSTED
BUT ARE YOU EXPERIENCING
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ith more than half of Australia in lockdown throughout the latter part of 2021 and many of the social support systems we rely on having been put on hold, it’s no wonder people are feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. For some, such feelings may ultimately culminate in burnout. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, burnout was, for the most part, considered a work-related issue. But in our research in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, we have identified burnout in people outside of the workplace, including those who are dealing with other life stressors, such as caring for loved ones full-time. Now, due to the pandemic, rates of burnout appear to be rising, especially since research from the Australian Institute of Health and Safety says working from home means workers are often required to “do more with less” and be online and available 24/7, as well as homeschool children. Our research into burnout—to determine how to best
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identify and manage it—is outlined in the book Burnout: A guide to identifying burnout and pathways to recover and is summarised here.
what is burnout?
The most widely used burnout measure, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), defines it by three criteria: • Exhaustion • Loss of empathy towards service recipients/cynicism towards one’s job • Reduced professional accomplishment. But the MBI has been widely critiqued. One concern is it overlooks key symptoms that are prominent in burnout and may be especially debilitating, such as cognitive dysfunction (which might include forgetting things or not being able to concentrate). Another concern is it was derived solely from researching burnout in those who work directly with patients and clients, such as those in caring professions. Nuances of burnout that
the Sydney Burnout Measure
In our studies, we asked more than 1000 participants who said they’d experienced burnout to report their main symptoms. They worked across a range of contexts, from paid employment positions to more “informal” work positions such as caring for elderly parents and/or children. We found the syndrome comprised of not just exhaustion, but also cognitive dysfunction, withdrawal and disconnection from the world and those around you, and reduced work performance (whether in paid work or in tasks at home), commonly accompanied by depression, anxiety and insomnia. These symptoms we collated into our own measure—the Sydney Burnout Measure (SBM) is a checklist of 34 burnout symptoms, with a high score indicating you might have burnout. But it’s also possible to get a high score because of other under-
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Due to the pandemic, rates of burnout appear to be rising.
lying conditions that share several of burnout’s symptoms, such as depression. To assess for this possibility, approaching a GP or mental health professional may be necessary. These professionals will use their clinical experience to assess whether the symptoms you have are likely due to burnout, or some other mental health condition—as different psychological conditions often require disorder-specific treatment strategies.
addressing the external stressor
Once you know you have burnout, what can you do about it? First, the causes of your burnout need to be identified, so you can work to reduce their impact. External causes of burnout can come from your workplace (being overloaded, overlooked for a promotion, working overtime) or from home (caring for multiple children and/or elderly parents, being primarily responsible for domestic duties). A combination of both factors could be at play, especially during lockdown, where many are juggling working-from-home demands, financial difficulties and home-schooling children. Seeking resolution from your boss may be useful in overcoming some work stressors. Can they extend deadlines or arrange flexible working hours around your child-rearing responsibilities? For factors in the home, asking family members to assist in juggling tasks or researching whether some NOVEMBER 2021 • SIGNS OF THE TIMES
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occur in other contexts may have been overlooked.
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BIG
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DOES GOD EXIST?
tion and want an Puzzled by a "big picture" ques s magazine Time the of s Sign , 2021 In answer? life’s most on ives pect pers h will be sharing fres each ors auth new with contentious mysteries, ence to present a evid ctive obje ining exam th mon case for Christianity.
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ack in 2014, I went to university to pursue a degree in ministry. As part of my course, I had to take an elective titled “Issues in Physical Science and Religion”, which, to be honest, made me pretty nervous. We were studying renowned atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. Part of me worried they would demolish any belief I had in God and I’d have to rethink my career! But on the other hand, I was excited to finally go toe-to-toe with concepts from the great thinkers of the age. And while I can’t recount every detail of that journey, there were two prime moments that—far from destroying my faith—expanded it.
A lifetime of adventure and exploration beckons for those seeking an answer to Who or what started it all. BY MARCOS TORRES
One of the most memorable moments came from a conversation about the origins of the universe. The theist position at the time had come to rely heavily on the notion of a finely tuned universe. The finetuning argument went something like this: imagine a large football stadium covered entirely in analogue sound boards with millions of knobs. Now imagine that for life to exist each of those knobs would have to be turned to the right number all at the same time. If you adjusted one knob just a little too much or too little, life would no longer exist. With a mental picture like this, the theist would go on to suggest
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before the grandeur of the multiverse
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When your loved one suffers from dementia, sometimes lying to them is the virtuous way . . . BY JULIE HOEY 46
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remember having classroom debates in high school about whether it was ever okay to tell a lie. A few decades later, here’s my verdict: a lie can be the most virtuous thing you’ll ever do. I call it a righteous lie; others call it a therapeutic lie. I tell a righteous lie when my mother phones me in a panic because she can’t find the train station and she’s going to miss the train. I lie to her and explain that there are track works on today, so no trains are running. Her distress evaporates instantly. My mum has dementia and she is, in fact, pacing around the corridors of her nursing home. It’s little wonder she can’t find the train. If you haven’t yet encountered dementia in your life, you possibly think it’s about forgetfulness. While that’s one element of the cognitive confusion in dementia, it’s much more than wondering where you put your keys.
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extreme forgetfulness
Dementia forgetfulness is extreme—not the garden variety type that we all experience. My mum will ask, “What time are we leaving to go to the meeting?” She will repeat the exact words, five minutes apart, over and over again, with no recollection of having already asked the question. This forgetfulness
can have serious financial consequences, as they may pay bills multiple times, forget to pay insurance premiums or go shopping day after day—spending their money like they have an endless supply. Many people with dementia seem to forget whole decades of their lives. They revert to “living” in a past time in their life, such as when they were a child, and this often goes hand in hand with not recognising their present-day family members. They might even fail to recognise their own reflection in the mirror. It is particularly difficult for someone with dementia to process the death of a loved one, simply because they keep forgetting what has happened. They may ask for their son whose funeral they attended two weeks ago, and may feel rejected and abandoned because he hasn’t visited lately. No amount of re-telling what has happened makes it become a hardwired memory—it only forces them to re-live their grief and despair for the first time over and over again. In these situations, the righteous lie may be that he is away on a holiday and will visit when he comes back.
creating false memories
People with dementia may also experience delusions, hallucinations and NOVEMBER 2021 • SIGNS OF THE TIMES
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