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And on the subject of twattishness

Mindfulness lessons in schools do not improve children’s mental health

“Hello children. My name’s Tarquin and I’m a twat who will teach you how to be a twat.”

Not going to improve matters except as an example of what not to do, is it?

23 thoughts on “And on the subject of twattishness”

  1. Bloke in the Fourth Reich

    We had an afternoon of this fad, in house. Before corona.

    The first task the trainer set us was to eat a chocolate chip cookie, slowly, experience the feel of the biscuit and the chocolate.

    I disrupted it immediately. “I don’t eat sweet things”.

    It didn’t get any better.

  2. Bloke in the Fourth Reich

    It is interesting to have a bunch of twats today, after yesterday’s fuckin’ idiots.

    Can we have some incoherent morons tomorrow? Perhaps some insufferable nincompoops on Friday?

  3. I’ve done the mindfulness thing as part of a pain relief treatment for my frozen shoulder since the pain killers weren’t doing a damn thing even in combination (2 * 500mg paracetamol + 2 * 200mg ibuprofen), takes about 15 minutes and pain relief lasted from a few hours to as much as the following morning, so not completely worthless for an old fart with lots of time to waste and the ability to sit still in a chair for 15 minutes.

    Found electroaccupuncture to be more useful though.

    Are kiddies going to get anything from it? Probably not, but then again, teaching the little buggers to sit down quietly with their eyes closed for 15 minutes and see if they can picture a unicorn or truly appreciate the taste of a biscuit is hardly the worst aspect of the modern education system.

    Beats grooming them for the pedos via Drag Queen Story Hour.

  4. “Hello children. My name’s Tarquin and I’m a twat who will teach you how to be a twat.”

    Tim, I’m rarely in danger of coffee-based involuntary expectoration, but lol.

  5. @JG: when I was young my GP unfroze my shoulder as follows. I stood up with my arm dangling by my side. I was not to use my muscles: he took my wrist and lifted my arm slowly up to the horizontal and then slowly let it down again.

    90% cured. Fanbloodytastic.

    Other good GP visits I’ve had were for minor surgery. I suspect GPs enjoy Doing Stuff rather than listening to symptoms and writing prescriptions.

  6. John Galt: “2 * 500mg paracetamol”

    I’ve been told by someone who keeps up to date with these things that paracetamol doesn’t work. I think this is it: https://uk.cochrane.org/news/paracetamol-widely-used-and-largely-ineffective

    I can well believe things like mindfulness *can* work. I certainly know I have had physical symptoms caused by worrying about things, and aches and pains caused by being tense, for example. But a lot of it is how you communicate. There’s no point talking to people like Tim about getting in touch with his inner energies or something, but put it in proper scientific terms and he might get on board.

    I’ve encountered quite sensible people who are into things like wicca. They view it as using a ritual to bring about a mental state. They don’t literally believe in magic.

  7. @JG: when I was young my GP unfroze my shoulder as follows. I stood up with my arm dangling by my side. I was not to use my muscles: he took my wrist and lifted my arm slowly up to the horizontal and then slowly let it down again.

    Yeah we’re doing movement stuff (wall walking with fingers, clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation of the arm, etc.) and working with an osteopath to improve matters incrementally, but I still can’t lift the arm vertically even with the help of others or using supporting walls, just too stiff and painful.

    The sort of treatments which are a good osteopaths knee in the back and your done when your in your 20’s and 30’s aren’t quite as easy when you’re in your mid 50’s.

    We’re getting there, but it’s pretty gradual and incremental.

  8. Bloke in the Fourth Reich

    “I’ve encountered quite sensible people who are into things like wicca. They view it as using a ritual to bring about a mental state. They don’t literally believe in magic.”

    I could absolutely do this, and have toyed gently with the idea. A religion with few, and genuinely sensible, rules for life. What’s not to like? Given the candles, cosplay, and incense, it’s basically Roman Catholicism without the anti-sex stuff (or pedos).

    But I would probably be annoyed at the people who did take it seriously. Besides, it would wind up Mrs BiG too much.

  9. John Galt: “2 * 500mg paracetamol”

    I’ve been told by someone who keeps up to date with these things that paracetamol doesn’t work. I think this is it: https://uk.cochrane.org/news/paracetamol-widely-used-and-largely-ineffective

    Yes. I found the paracetamol on it’s own was ineffective, but mixing both 2 * 500mg paracetamol and 2 * 200mg ibuprofen” worked quite well, giving between 4 and 8 hours of relief if taken in the morning.

    Mindfulness actually worked better, providing I did it first thing in the morning or at first onset of pain, then it tended to last until late evening or next morning.

    The problem with mindfulness is you kind of have to be in the right frame of mind to use it, which I know sounds ridiculous. I actually have an .mp3 file from my occupational therapist that I just play on the computer, so technically guided mindfulness (a bit like guided meditation).

    It does work though.

  10. Sorry, completely missing my own point.

    Even with the “2 * 500mg paracetamol and 2 * 200mg ibuprofen” you can feel it becoming more ineffective over time with pain relief being shorter duration and depth of pain felt increasing from “none” to “continual nagging”.

    Hard to explain, really.

    But “2 * 500mg paracetamol” on it’s own was pretty much worthless.

  11. I won’t argue against the pain relief described above, but as for meditation and ‘mindfulness’ as a stress-busting activity, my view is that if can afford to spend 30 minutes a day sitting still and contemplating the sound of one hand clapping, your life really isn’t all that stressful.

  12. Mindfulness probably does work for some people. But what a monumental waste of time and effort this seems to have been. From the article:

    “The eight-year study involved more than 28,000 children aged 11-14, as well as 650 teachers from 100 schools across Britain.”

    Well, that looks promising. A big sample, and done over a period of time. But hang on! What’s this?

    “Prof Mark Williams, the founding director at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, and a co-investigator, said that on average, pupils practised mindfulness only once over the 10-week course.”

    So on average pupils practised this once. Meaning that some significant numbers didn’t practice at all. And very significant numbers didn’t practice as much as was intended in order to measure results. Isn’t that like saying that in a study to test the effects of a new drug, few patients completed the course, some only took it once, and some didn’t bother at all?

    Cue Prof with vested interest then saying that it definitely works, but we just can’t prove it:

    “That’s like going to the gym once and hoping you’ll get fit,” he said. “But why didn’t they practise? Many of them found it boring… Those students who did engage, did improve.”

    Well, the Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre would say that, wouldn’t he?

    This is really a test of whether teachers can get pupils to take part in a new initiative that they are not particularly interested in. Teachers in the UK can’t get their pupils to sit quietly in class for a few minutes, even when given allotted time and extra money to do so. Who knew?

  13. John Galt: “But “2 * 500mg paracetamol” on it’s own was pretty much worthless.”

    Out of interest, did you try the Ibuprofen on its own?

  14. BiFR – Given the candles, cosplay, and incense, it’s basically Roman Catholicism without the anti-sex stuff (or pedos).

    Optimistic. There’s a yuge crossover between Wiccans and sexual predators, and always has been.

  15. I’ve heard, and I’m not competent to have an opinion of my own, that the sole purpose of paracetamol is to mix with other drugs to cause those drugs to become lethal if you try to overuse them.

    So you can’t get codeine, which you can get high on. But you can get paracetamol+codeine, and if you try to get high on it it’ll kill you, nastily.

    Paracetamol is remarkably dangerous. I won’t touch the stuff.

    I seem to remember that during Prohibition the US authorities would poison booze rather than destroying it. Same deal.

  16. Out of interest, did you try the Ibuprofen on its own?

    No. The combination was suggested as more effective than paracetamol or ibuprofen on its own and there are a bunch of studies suggesting that this is the case without any clear explanation of why this is the case.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25778933/

    I won’t argue against the pain relief described above, but as for meditation and ‘mindfulness’ as a stress-busting activity, my view is that if can afford to spend 30 minutes a day sitting still and contemplating the sound of one hand clapping, your life really isn’t all that stressful.

    That’s a bit of an oversimplification though, since a lot of those with anxiety are stay at home moms and the “disabled” with plenty of time on their hands. If mindfulness allows them to control their anxiety and get off welfare and back to work, then surely that’s a good thing?

  17. Bloke in North Dorset

    @John Galt,

    Give acupuncture a go. The first time I had it I had a serious back spasm that meant I could only walk with a stick and that was agony*. My regular sports physiotherapist suggested giving it a go as I wasn’t really responding to the massages and other treatments. It took a couple of sessions and the stick was gone and then she worked on massage again.

    When I felt my back going a year ago I went straight for acupuncture and I was soon sorted.

    *The pain was so bad she first wrote to my GP and recommended some pain relief tablets because it was nerve pain and didn’t respond to the usual suspects. When I read the side affects I decided not not take them, no driving, risk of delusions etc.

  18. Give acupuncture a go.

    I’ve been using electroacupuncture as the go to since the right shoulder got frozen back in 2019 or so. That worked for the right shoulder and I’ve now got full movement again.

    Left shoulder started to freeze in November 2021 and I was back with the electroacupuncture again. Does great for pain relief and allows a certain degree of movement but progress stalled in June and hasn’t moved much since then. I started alternating with osteopathy to try and finish the job, but it’s early days yet. Between the two of them I expect to be pretty much back to normal before I go on vacation in France at the end of August.

  19. Do schools improve kids’ mental health?

    《If mindfulness allows them to control their anxiety and get off welfare and back to work, then surely that’s a good thing?》

    What if mindfulness leads to less demand for markets?

  20. I was sceptical until I had some sciatic pain that just wasn’t getting better and a friend of the family who is licensed acupuncturist said why not give it a go, was very effective, nothing like a successful demonstration to change your mind

  21. I’ve always found the first reel of Lawrence of Arabia instructive for this sort of thing. There’s a scene where Peter O’Tool is being watched as he allows a match to burn down to his fingers. The watcher asks. “Doesn’t that hurt?” He replies. “Of course it hurts. But it’s caring whether it hurts.”
    It does actually work. Concentrate on the pain sensation until one can understand exactly what it consists of. The consciously decide to ignore it. And it goes away. It’s still there. But one refuses to feel it. Self hypnotism? Dunno. But it works for me.

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