What is it to be good ?

We are coming to half term and a long half term it has been. Soon Christmas will be upon us with all its joys, excitement and promise of hope for the future. I have been thinking this week about what makes a good person and how we can try to achieve that. I learnt some twenty years ago when I had a nervous breakdown that money, position and power over others were worth nothing in themselves if we did not value our health, our family and the good we can do for others. This is why, when I got better I returned to teaching.

 Aristotle  lived in ancient times and wrote some of the greatest books on how people ought to live. He says of the good person:

“It  belongs to goodness to do good to the deserving and love the good and hate the wicked, and not to be eager to inflict punishment or take vengeance, but to be gracious and kindly. Goodness is accompanied by honesty, reasonableness, kindness, hopefulness, and also by such characteristics as love of home and of friends and of one's fellow-men, and love of what is noble..”

To me, as a psychologist, there is much wisdom in these words of over two thousand years ago. However, they will not necessarily serve you well in the world of wealth, competition and promotion. Nobody gives prizes for honesty, or kindness or for seeking justice for the poor and under-privileged. The prizes go to those who are most competitive in the human jungle, the industrialist who can make his workers unemployed without a thought, a politician who can cut nursery places for poor children, or ourselves ignoring the homeless on our streets.  So, we must behave well and do our best not because it will bring us praise or reward but because it is the right thing to do.

"Coffee! Because you can sleep when you're dead"

It’s no surprise that Costa in Northwood has had to double in size or that the coffee machine in Gwyer is almost always broken. It’s a fact that St Helen’s girls cannot seem to function on a Monday morning without their daily hit of caffeine, whether that be a latte or an espresso. We were intrigued to find out whether this habit is actually enhancing our learning and waking us up, or if it is just becoming an addiction that should be discouraged. 

We did a survey of 20 girls in Year 12 and found that 70% have a least one coffee a day. When these girls were asked whether their daily cup of coffee truly benefited them, or if it was simply more of an addiction, the majority responded in favour of it being beneficial. We were curious to find out if this was in fact true.

We found substantial evidence to show that caffeine has no power to transform us into an alert, energetic machine. Nor does it have the ability to enable us to storm through that 1000 word English essay that we’ve been procrastinating over until 2am on the deadline day. Instead, think of caffeine as some sort of placebo. The effect can often be almost imaginary, especially in the long run. Like nearly all things in life, the more you consume caffeine, the more resilient your body becomes towards it. Sure, your first cup of coffee probably left you feeling full of energy, but from experience that one cup later turns into three a day in order to have the same effects. This is what often leads to caffeine dependency and later a possible addiction. Like any drug addiction, withdrawal is going to be extremely uncomfortable for your body. It can lead to headaches, insomnia, stress and exhaustion – ironically, all the things coffee is meant to prevent in the first place. What coffee does do to you over the course of time is to stop your body from resting. So when you do decide to brave that essay with a coffee (which may seem like your only saviour) you are only damaging your body further. 

So take the morning after you’ve pulled an all-nighter to finish the English homework for example. The only thing you feel like doing is sleeping for eternity, but instead, your alarm rings and it’s time for breakfast. You opt for a coffee because you feel sorry for anyone that has the misfortune to cross you when you’re tired. However you might be interested to know that when you take that reassuring gulp at 7am, you’re actually stimulating your central nervous system. Adenosine (a neurotransmitter) binds to its receptors in the brain when it is created. This fusion causes you to feel drowsy by slowing down the nerve cell activity. Caffeine is, in simple terms, disguised to look like adenosine. It fools the receptors to allow itself to join onto it just as the adenosine would do.

Adenosine usually causes the blood vessels in the brain to dilate, meaning more oxygen can get into it during sleep, however the caffeine creates the opposite effect. This is why many headache medicines contain coffee, as the constriction of blood vessels can help to stop a headache. Caffeine also causes increased neuron (fancy word for brain cells) firing in the brain and the pituitary gland, which controls hormones, senses this and assumes an emergency is occurring. It releases hormones which tell the adrenal glands to release some adrenaline. We’re sure you’ve all experienced the release of adrenaline when you’ve spotted a huge spider whilst in the shower or watched a scary movie but here are its main effects: 
• Your pupils dilate
• Heart beats faster
• Blood pressure rises 
• Liver releases sugar into bloodstream for extra energy
• Blood vessels on surface of skin constrict 
• Muscles tighten

These are all explanations as to why, after your numerous hits of caffeine, you feel excited, your heart beats faster and your muscles are tensed. Although these effects seem rather dramatic for just a hot drink, none of these have any real detrimental impact on our bodies if you moderate your intake of caffeine.

Overall, our aim for this blog was not to run costa out of business, but instead to give light to the other side of coffee. In no way are we suggesting you give up on that treat every morning, but instead, think more carefully about why you are drinking it… and maybe next time, try opting for a decaf with your toast.

Hi Exciting News ! The blog will be edited by Y12 from now on!

Hi Exciting News ! The blog will be edited by Y12 from now on!

Maisy Tracey, Ellen Weerasekera and Melissa Clark will now be running the Tea & Toast Psychology blog. Ideas are welcome, so please get in touch via school emails if you want to contribute towards this blog!

A few ideas we have for upcoming posts are:
- The long term effect of caffeine, energy drinks and performance enhancing drugs on our bodies and brains
- How the Paralympics have altered the nation's views on disability
- Is it cool to get good grades?
- Should there be a stricter dress code for Sixth Formers? And would this increase concentration levels?
And more...

We're really excited to get working on this blog and we hope we can maintain Dr. Brown's standard!
Please feel free to email or come and find us with feedback or any ideas.