It’s Not Just For ‘Bad Parents!’

22 April 2013

Are you a manager or business owner in denial?

• Are you one of those managers or business owner who denies that your personal life is creating havoc for you?
• Do you deny the impact that your personal life’s challenges is having on your work and business environment?
• Do you take your personal situation out on your colleagues, staff and team members or associates?
• Have you become the office bully because you can’t see another way out?
• Do you find that the pretence of having a perfect home life is weighing you down?
• Is the façade or pretence distracting you from your business priorities and success?
• Are your business and working relationships starting to fall apart too?
• Do you recognise how much you are making your work colleagues lives life miserable by your actions or inactions?
• Are others walking on egg shells and tip toeing around you right now for fear of saying or doing the wrong thing that might upset you?

Most people seem to think that because I work with parents, it must mean that I work with ‘bad parents’ or ‘troubled families’ or ‘parents whose teenagers have gone wild’. The truth is I work with ALL PARENTS!

I had a client in the past who was a successful businessman and who had different challenges going on in his personal and business life. His personal challenge regarding his children caused him the greatest anguish and had been for a number of years. This situation had also spilled over into his workplace and clearly affected the working environment and the strain he endured was evident to his staff.

When we first worked together he shared both challenges and his natural reaction was to work on the working relationship situation challenging him at work. Once he had the clarity he needed regarding his work situation, he didn’t think for one minute (or he couldn’t bring himself to ask for help) that he could use the same coaching process to get clarity and solutions relating to his personal situation!

Thankfully, after our discussion he could see how my 3 Month Parent and Relationship Liberation Programme could help him.

Is this you too? Do you plod along with your head in the sand hoping that your personal situation will sort itself out? Or do you not allow yourself to recognise that you even have a personal challenge that needs attention?

I was speaking to a very good associate and contact of mine who is a business coach and he revealed that one of his main challenges with his clients is their personal life! Whilst he could only support them so much regarding their business challenges, goals and breakthroughs, he recognized that all of that work could be to no avail because their lives were having such a detrimental impact on their business life, to the extend where things could go ‘belly up’ but unfortunately his business owner clients do nothing about it. Is this you?

Do you know, we all have ‘stuff’ going on in our lives, no matter who we are or what we are? We wouldn’t be humans if we didn’t. What matters most is how we deal with the ‘stuff’ or challenges that we face on a regular basis.

Even the greatest of the greats and most successful people among us have personal challenges and ‘stuff’ going on! How they handle it is what matters most.

“The coaching helped me to focus on what I need to prioritise in my life and how to effectively achieve these changes. Jennifer challenged me and took me to the edge of my comfort zone at times which is exactly what I needed.”
Ali Murray, Ignition Training & Development

“I have made massive changes to my lifestyle already by making
a positive decision to move to Northern Ireland, actually taking steps to arrange accommodation, applying for employment and organising to rent my home out in Birmingham. This has all taken place within approximately 4 weeks. Jennifer made me sit up and do something positive about it, to actually improve my life for me and for once in my life to actually put
myself first. I am extremely grateful to Jennifer to give me the strength and courage to take these steps. Jennifer has helped me to turn my life around for the better.”
Jackie Scott

“It’s not just work-focused coaching that people need. They need a balance as other things affect people’s performance.”
David Battersby, Manager, Midland Heart

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Children With School Refusal Behaviour

11 April 2013

School refusal stems from emotional distress and anxiety which could be related to a range of issues either at home, school or both. A recent study reveals that 1 in 5 British children experience phobia or school refusal which has shown to be more prevalent in children’s age groups aged 5 – 6 and 10 – 11 years.

The research also revealed that many parents were not aware of the conditions and those who were aware of it, experienced a major lack of information.

School refusal does and can bring about a range of physical challenges and symptoms for the child or young person and these include:

- stomach aches

- vomiting

- headaches

- trembling

- joint pains

From a behavioural perspective, the symptoms show up as: tantrums, threats of self harm, crying or angry outbursts. These symptoms are likely to subside once the child feels safe and secure, generally in the home environment and/or once they’ve been allowed to stay at home.

School refusal may be triggered by a number of reasons, children of any age may be refusing to go to school for fear of losing their last remaining parent (or main care giver). Their parents may have separated or they might be a bereaved child and the fear of even more loss, keeps them at home and in a ‘protective role’ and with separation anxiety.

As well as anxiety, other stress related situations at home, school or with peers may also be a trigger for school refusal.

From an emotional perspective, symptoms of school refusal include panic attacks, fearfulness, depression and occurs with both genders.

One of my sons had a change of primary schools and the new primary school that he moved to was a trigger for his school refusal right from the first day of school.

He was evidently emotionally distressed by going to that school, was crying and wouldn’t get dressed in the mornings. He said that the school was too big, which I didn’t understand but his deep reaction and distress to attending that school was more than enough for me to take heed. Within a week he had moved yet again to another primary school and was evidently happier, brighter with smiles all round, which brought about the swift end to his short-lived school refusal.

School refusal and a range of other behaviours from children and young people is merely a form of communication that something is not right. This calls for school staff and parents to look more closely at what is not being said. What is their behaviour telling you?

There is always a reason for children’s behaviour and it is invaluable piece of communication for adults.

How Can You Help Children With School Refusal Behaviour?

Doctors, Parents, Educators, and other professionals can all assist in supporting a child or young person back to school, individually or as a team.

Some ways of helping include:

 

  1. Identify whether the behaviour relates to school refusal for reasons such as those above or whether it relates to truancy. The distinction between the two generally lies on the child’s focus and/or interest in their school work once their anxiety or fear of school attendance and other related symptoms have subsided. That is, how do they behave once they feel safe and secure at home? Do they focus on their school work or is there a total dis-interest and general negative attitude towards school? Another distinction is the extent of their emotional distress relating to attending school versus being indifferent about school attendance.
  2. Explore best possible options of moving the child towards re-entering the school environment as quickly as possible, yet in a supportive manner. This could include making changes, where possible, to conditions at home which might be triggering the school refusal and engendering collaborative approach between parents, doctor, school and mental health professional/therapist. As some of the presenting symptoms are physical, it is important to involve physicians who may also be able to make referrals to relevant therapists.
  3. Research has shown cognitive behaviour therapy to be particularly beneficial and successful in helping pupils to manage their mindsets, depression and returning to school.
  4. Parental involvement to improve school attendance has also shown to be helpful.
  5. Undertake proper preparation at school for the pupil to be re-integrated and positively supported back into the normal school environment
  6. Foster on-going parent-school communication, collaboration and joint support of the child.
  7. Planned, gradual, assisted exposure to the school environment
  8. Relaxation remedies including visualisation.
  9. Positive reinforcements relating to school environment and attendance.

 

Do you have pupils who refuse to attend school?

Which of the above strategies would work for them?

Which strategies have you yet to try or test out?

Send us your examples of school refusal and how you dealt with it to: info@stepup-international.co.uk
Find out how our courses can assist you in getting a better understanding of children and young people’s behaviour here: http://stepup-international.co.uk/self-harm-training-2/

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Did You Know It Was An Inside Job?

13 March 2013

People come into your life for a reason and being in a relationship provides us with undoubtedly the hardest challenges we face as adults as we are seldom taught to truly love ourselves as children, yet we are expected to know how to love other people as adults in very deep, meaningful, life changing situations such as that posed by marriages and other long term relationships. Relationships teach us, help us to learn life’s lessons and certainly help us to grow as more tolerant human beings if we choose to take up that opportunity. In order to truly love someone else, we must first learn and re-learn to love ourselves. It is impossible to love anyone else more than we love ourselves. The extent of the love we give out is a direct reflection of the love we have for ourselves.

“Be the change you want to see” -Mahatma Ghandi

MY ‘OTHER HALF’

We get fooled into thinking that the other person only needs to be ‘half ok’ and that we will make up the other half of the relationship, hence the all too common phrase ‘’my other half’’. A healthy relationship needs both parties to be whole, complete individuals in and of themselves, bringing their own happiness, uniqueness, love and abilities into the relationship.

My Partner Is Not Meeting My Needs

A lot of times if we are feeling unfulfilled in our relationship, we tend to aim the
focus of our discontent at our partners without taking sufficient time to focus on
what we might be doing to exacerbate the situation. I know it is easily done and
I have fallen prey to this situation myself in my previous marriage. One of the
things I was guilty of was focusing on what my ex-husband was or was not doing
within the relationship. When I had LEARNT to shift the focus from him to myself,
it was only then that I was able to focus on what I was doing and or not doing
in the relationship. I had to LEARN to take control of my own happiness and
decided that it would not depend on whether my ex-husband or anyone else was
making me happy.

WHAT ARE YOUR NEEDS?

Sometimes we think we know what our needs are, however, when it comes to naming them, we get stuck. If you were to ask your partner today to meet your needs better, what would you say? Do you know what your REAL needs are? Which needs are not being met?
When was the last time you did something spontaneous or special for your partner without expecting something in return? How are you meeting your partner’s needs? Do you know what your partner’s needs are? If you don’t know, then ASK them. Find out what they need in order to feel loved and connected. Sometimes just BEING THERE, being PRESENT is enough. If your partner is not meeting your needs, chances are you may not be meeting theirs either.

INSIDE JOB

You’ve got to give to others first before you can get what you want. If you want a better relationship, go to work on YOU. The problem is not necessarily out there and is usually an ‘inside job’. That is, rather than looking externally and pointing the finger at your partner, look within first. Rather than trying to ‘fix’ them, ‘fix’ you instead. Identify what you want in an ideal relationship and Start to act the way you would like your ideal relationship to be.
Identify where the ‘problem’ really lies: is it you, your partner or the relationship itself. Be honest with yourself and your partner. When you have identified the ‘problem’ then go to work on finding solutions and changing it.

“Be the change you want to see” -Mahatma Ghandi

True, Authentic Self

So, if you want your relationship to be better and grow, GO TO WORK ON YOU TODAY. As you love you more and more, and find your true, authentic self, you will be in a better position to give and share more of your love with your partner.

Loving Inspirations From Children

If you are still feeling unsure about what love is, here’s some inspirations from some children. Enjoy!

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, “What does love mean?”

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.” Rebecca- age 8

”When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.” Billy – age 4

“Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.” Karl – age 5

“If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,” Nikka – age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka’s on this planet)

”Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.” Noelle – age 7

“Love is when Mummy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross.” Mark – age 6

”I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.” Lauren – age 4

“When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.” (What an imagination) Karen – age 7

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Do You Love Me?

14 February 2013

This is the underlying and constant question that children and young people have running through their minds whether on a conscious or unconscious basis. We all have a need to be loved and children and young people are no exception to the rule.

Most often than not, however, children and young people may not be aware of this driving need and may act in ways which test their parents’ love for them. Again, they are generally unaware of why they are doing what they are doing because it is an unconscious act governed by the need to be and to feel loved. Though these actions may test some parents’ patience or drive some parents to despair, the trick for the parents is to look behind the behaviour at what children or young people might be trying to tell you. For instance, examples of behaviour might range from minor incidences like some children bedwetting again, creating ‘weird and wonderful’ fantasies that might seem real to them, hyperactivity, to more serious situations like stealing, mixing with the wrong crowd that leads them astray, substance misuse, self harm or even worse, suicide (sadly and steadily on the increase amongst young people and is the second or third highest cause of death for young people). The behaviour is a form of communication to you that tells you that something is going on and again, children especially, and young people may not be able to put into words how they are feeling. They just need that affirmative ‘yes’ in words and actions from their parents.

Where young people are concerned, they have so many challenges going on at this crucial stage of development in their lives, that it is so easy for them to get distracted and perhaps do things that they wouldn’t normally do in an attempt to ‘find themselves’ or ‘find me’. It is also a time for them naturally to want to explore and strive for their independence from their parents. Whilst this is a natural part of their growth, this stage still needs to be managed, whereby parents give young people more freedom a little at a time depending on their ability to manage this new found freedom and the responsibilities that it entails. Give them too much freedom at first and it will be difficult to claw it back later on if and when things go wrong. Children and young people of all ages need boundaries, irrespective of their behaviour and them telling you that they are not ‘a kid’ anymore. An Ofsted report 2007 UK reveals that young people believe that teachers treat them like young adults too soon. So whilst they want the extra freedom, they don’t want or are unable to cope with too much of it and therefore the increased responsibilities that it brings.

Another important point about a young person’s need to know that he or she is loved is the natural need for them to see their parents demonstrate that they love them. It might appear that they don’t want to be hugged anymore as they get older, but this is generally a façade that they put on at this stage of their development. Providing you are not ignoring their wishes by hugging them and embarrassing them in front of their friends, (my eldest is 17 years old and he openly initiates and gives me a hug in front of his friends), then always show your children affection. This can be as simple as tapping/touching them on their shoulders, arms, head or back as you walk past them.

Brian Tracy, a leading sales and personal development guru, sited an experiment called the Infant Death Syndrome where an experiment with newly born babies showed that half the babies in the experiment were not shown any form of affection and were just fed and changed when necessary. The other half of the babies in the experiment were also changed and fed, given extra attention, affection, hugged and played with. The difference in the development of the growth in the two sets of babies was so stark that the experiment had to be stopped, though too late, as the set of babies which didn’t receive the nurturing and affection, literally shriveled up and some of them actually died. A very potent example to illustrate the point above, as it is so easy to underestimate young people’s need for affection because of the contradictory behaviour that they portray.

So what do you do?

Give constant reassurance, praise, love, focused attention and affection and most importantly, LISTEN and give Lots of hugs.
This by no means, is not just about Positive Parenting or just being positive parents as this approach goes
over and above that.

 

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Giving Your Children Focused Attention

6 February 2013

As parents living in a fast paced society, it is so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life, concern ourselves with all the chores that need to be done and give what little time we have left to our children.

Image from: voices.yahoo.com

“Quality time” means different things to different people. Giving just five minutes ‘quality time’ to children isn’t the answer and doesn’t go very far in meeting children’s needs. All children need real time from their parents, not just to make them feel special, however, also a natural part of the nurturing, development, secure relationship building, guidance and supportive processes that parents need to provide.

Recently, I took some downtime, which also allowed me to immerse myself in to some chores around the house. Taking this downtime made me wonder how on earth I manage my busy schedule, a home and make time for the children. It’s a case of prioritising. And no I don’t always get it right! However, it’s about having the focus to make your children a priority in your life because no one else will do this for you, unless of course you have a nanny that takes care of their practical needs, but this in no way replaces the love and attention that children need and deserve from their own parents. Time flies by so quickly these days that before you know it, your children have reached the age of 16 and able to make some of their own decisions which includes leaving the family home.

Children and young people need to know that you love them and they need to see and experience this behaviourally rather than just auditory, i.e. what you say. That is, you need to show your children that you love them, and not just tell them!

So how do you give your children focused attention?

READ MORE

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Young Prisoners Battle With Self Harm And Self Injury

31 January 2013

In 2009 Rob Allen published an article on the Guardian website called Prison is no place for children. That statement still rings true today. He continues to say that “The prison inspectorate’s disturbing report of the culture of violence and fear in Cookham Wood Young Offender Institution (YOI) prompts serious questions about whether prisons should continue to accommodate children under 18.”

Another key issue which affects many young people in prisons is self harm and self injure. The number of young people who self harm is becoming more apparent. Recent research suggests that 10 per cent of 15 to 16 year olds have self harmed at some stage in their lives.

In 2003 there were 16,393 cases of self-harm in prisons in England and Wales but the number has since increased to 22, 459 cases according to The Howard League for Penal Reform, which is a national charity working for less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison.

Feltham prison, in Middlesex, is one of the biggest prisons for children and young people in the whole of Europe. Frances Crook, Chief Executive of The Howard League for Penal Reform recently expressed her concerns about young people’s self harm and self injure behaviours in prisons. She expressed her concerns about young prisoners who self harm as coming from appalling backgrounds, e.g. homelessness, having abusive parents or engaging in prostitution, and self loathing. Self injury on the other hand, comes in all forms including; cutting, swallowing, hair pulling and also taking cocktails of drugs. The conditions and prison environment in itself do not help their situations and lends itself to create an environment where suicide, self harm and self injure can flourish without young offenders receiving appropriate self harm help.

Being in prison for anyone, let alone an adolescent, can be very lonely, distressing and disempowering! Harming themselves enables them to gain some element of control of themselves and their body. They may be driven by anger to self injure or self injure as an expression of their anger and to obtain some element of ‘release’.

Frances illustrated an example of a young prisoner who self injured by inserting objects many times; resulting in the young offender not being able to have children. Some people often assume those who self harm are inarticulate and uneducated individuals. However, self harm and self injure are generally done by people of all intelligence levels, ages and genders, who are in a high state of emotion and distress, hence it is vital that young people in prisons are assessed regularly as they are vulnerable and at risk of self injuring and equally vital that Prison Officers increase their level of self harm awareness in order to be able to provide relevant and adequate help for self harm.

The Howard League for Penal Reform sets out to achieve change in young people’s experiences in prisons and to improve the nature and situations of these establishments for young people.

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The Relationship between Self Harm and Stigma

21 January 2013

Self injury or self harm, generally speaking, is a wider range of different things individuals do to themselves which is either in a deliberate or hidden way. It includes burning, cutting, banging the body against hard objects, pulling the hairs, scalding, biting, poisoning, and inserting or swallowing objects. However the harm is done, it still is damaging not only physically but also emotionally for both the person self harming and their loved ones. 

Photo from: mamamia.com.au

SELF HARM AWARENESS

If young people self harm, they do so usually due to emotional pain and suffering, with the reasons varying for each specific individual. For some, it provides a way to deal with overwhelming emotions and helplessness. For others, it is also their way of shutting themselves off against the harsh world surrounding them and to prevent other people from getting in.

 

The main thing about self harm is that it is not a switch that can be turned on or off any time. Teenagers who self harm undergo periods where they feel that they are most vulnerable to self injury. Whilst it is dangerous and damaging, it provides, for most teenagers a means of coping with life’s difficulties and challenges. Friends, family and relatives of the young person should be mindful of this issue and talk with them. It is not advisable to take away his or her means of self harm and self harm help, as this can just increase the emotional anguish and can make the situation possibly worse. Discussing alternatives with them would be more fruitful and perhaps receiving some self harm training and awareness would assist you in doing so.

 

How Do People Stereotype Those Who self harm?

People who self harm are stereotyped in different ways. These include stereotypes around gender or race, or that self harm is just ‘cutting’ or that it’s only ‘goths’ who self harm.
Because evidences of certain aspect of self harm can be noticeable on the arms and the legs, others who are unaware of and lack understanding behind the need to self harm, may find it easy to stare, point at, react violently, and question the action. Some might see self harm as disgusting, unsightly and unbearable, however, little do they know that their judgmental actions can sometimes reduce an individual’s self esteem and could be a trigger him or her to do more injury to themselves.

When outsiders label people who self harm in a negative way, it makes them hide their scares even more so, because they do not want to be misjudged and have one more burden to carry. Young people can feel ashamed and guilty of their self harming behaviour, and all they need is positive self harm help.

 

At the end of the day, we all have ‘stuff’ going on at some time or other in our lives. Some people manager this better than others and many of us have unhealthy methods of doing so. Self harming is just one method that SOME people use to manage their emotional ‘stuff’!

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Affects on Young People of Britain’s Hidden Housing Crisis

17 December 2012

Panorama Special: BBC 1 Thursday 13 December 2012 @ 21.00pm

This Special Panorama documentary focuses on Britain’s embarrassing housing shortages but most importantly, some of the unlikely people that one would expect to be homeless or sleeping rough on the streets due to the economic crisis

 

In particular however, I want to draw your attention to the increase of a similar category of young people that are now homeless and sleeping rough and the government’s stance of stopping housing benefit for young people of 25 year olds and under.

 

Government minister’s reason or excuse for this decision is that we, adults, his generation has mismanaged spending (i.e. the government has mismanaged tax payers money) and young people will bear the brunt of this in their 40’s by paying higher taxes.

 

At this moment in time, do homeless young people who are victims of adult’s misspending, really care about taxes that they will be paying in 20 or 30 years time?

 

We all have a need for shelter and roof over our heads. When that doesn’t happen all else is secondary and all our efforts and energies are channelled into meeting that one need!

 

Homelessness is one of the reasons why young people self harm and self injure. The government’s stance of forcing young people back home is likely to exacerbate and have a huge impact on the situation.

 

Young people leave home for a variety of reasons, thus:

 

-         they are ready to leave their parents’ home and set up home by themselves

-         they’ve been kicked out of their parents home

-         they leave due to family break up

-         they are brought up in care and must leave at the age of 16 years old

-         they have experienced some kind of abuse at home (emotional, physical, sexual, verbal)

-         leave to escape the domestic violence situation at home

-         leave due to pressure of the strain of the current economic crisis on their parents either due to declining wages, increasing bills or their parents unemployment which may make them feel compelled to move out to ease the pressure and burden on the family

-         they are ex-offenders and have moved into their own residence

-         they are orphaned

-         Their parents lost their own homes due to the economic crisis!

-         other relationship/familial reasons

 

There is always a reason for young people leaving home!

 

Even in the past when some teenagers got pregnant so that they could get a council flat or house, there was more than likely a familial reason for going to such extremes to get one’s own place. Granted, there were likely to have been some naïve teenagers who thought it was a great fun thing to do until the reality check of bringing up a child on your own hit home.

 

But we are not talking about those kinds of teenagers today. There are young people on today’s streets that one would not expect to be there.

 

The government’s blinkered approach to stop housing benefit for ALL 25’s and under doesn’t take into account any of the above real challenges for young people. What’s more, the government is aware that the homeless figures for young people is on the increase! That is, more young people are already on the streets now! When you watch the programme, take a look at the government minister’s response to the young people’s questions. He didn’t want to be there!

 

If these young people are lucky enough to get some kind of assistance from a homeless charity, the charity in turn would be looking for some kind of assistance for the young person in the form of housing benefit to get and keep a roof over their heads.

 

Where does the government suggest that these young people go or return to? If things have gotten so bad so young people resort to sleeping rough, are they likely to return to circumstances that they felt that they could no longer tolerate? Whilst some young adults might be in a position to do that and mend some broken and challenging relationships, many others do not have that luxury!

 

The government’s stance is unfortunately a classic situation or trigger point for young people to start self harming (drink, drugs, eating disorder) or self injure (ingestion, cutting, hair pulling) or if they already self harm/injure, this behaviour is likely to be exacerbated.

 

This is yet another example of adults dumping on young people!

 

They didn’t cause the economic crisis nor did they make the government mismanage tax payers’ money! Therefore why force young people to pay in such a manner? There are other alternatives that the government could explore if they care to listen to organisations who are against their stance on stopping housing benefit for 25 year olds and under.

 

 

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Take responsibility for your actions!

29 October 2012

What do we really mean when we tell children and young people to take responsibility for their actions? Do we really understand what we are asking them to do? Do they really understand what we are asking them to do? How much are we assuming about our children?

Do you illustrate it to them by leading by example or by guiding them to become aware of the pros and cons of their proposed/impending actions? Or alternatively if they have already made a mistake as a result of the action they had taken, are you giving them guidance in terms of how they can make amends?
Do they understand or are clear on consequences of their actions? Are you both moving forward with the same clarity of consequences AND responsibility taking?

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When Average Performance Was Just Not Enough!

16 October 2012

We have recently had our Paralympics in the UK, which is an international sport event, which athletes with physical and

Photo by: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02320/paralympics_2320300b.jpg

Photo by: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02320/paralympics_2320300b.jpg

other disabilities participated in, this may include mobility disabilities, amputates, blindness and cerebral palsy.

 There is a practice called boosting, which an athlete with spinal damage is capable of doing. Statistics indicates that a 30% of wheelchair athletes are doing boosting before the games. They do self harmto help increase blood pressure and performance enhancement without feeling any pain. The way this is done would be having the lower part of the body exposed to painful stimuli like, a full bladder, breaking a toe or sitting on sharp objects. Some would even go to the extreme of pinning their testicles.

Boosting for a Paralympians is the same as banned drugs or steroid to an able-bodied athlete.

The officials help the self harming athletes by telling them how dangerous this boosting can be for their health. Players would be required to have their blood pressures taken before the game and if it’s off the roof, then the punishment would be the disqualification of that player from the game. But if they have a doctor’s certificate explaining why their blood pressure is high, then they are still permitted to compete.

But interestingly, ever since the Beijing Paralympic games, no athletes have been tested positive for boosting.

The risk of these boosting practices is a stroke or a heart attack due to elevated blood pressure, but since some other athletes can’t feel anything, they thought that the risk is worth taking. This is an extremely dangerous and risky stunt to do but for others this is the cost of victory. They’d do a little self harm in exchange for a moment of triumph that they’ll remember forever.

Currently the number of Paralympians who had been through a programme that teaches the dangers of boosting is increasing. The programme covered all aspects of the athlete’s preparation. The athlete is fully aware that the Paralympics does not encourage boosting in any way, form or shape that can cause potential danger to the person.

With the number of interest and investment for the Paralympics that kept on increasing from other nations, it is believed the athletes would have the spot light that can help boost their performance without any self harm from boosting. These indeed are positive signs not only for the Paralympic games but for the Paralympic athletes as well.

 

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