That people have an enormous interest in psychological well-being is obvious from a glance around any large bookshop. There seems to be a continuous flow of titles promising to help us to get ourselves sorted out, and a continuous flow of customers to buy them. But if you're on the Internet, there is quite an enormous amount of good information available at no extra cost.
Not only is most of this information written in plain English but much of it is based on solid research rather than the geewhizzery on which some self-help books are based.
Psych Central (www.grohol.com/grohol.htm) is probably the Internet's best starting off point for information on mental health. Its listing of Web sites on aspects of mental health is so comprehensive that one is tempted to say that if you haven't got something that's on the list, you're probably dead.
A quick look at some of the sites listed under the letter A brings up such titles as Abuse Surivors' Resources, Addictions, Alzheimer's Disease, Another Empty Bottle (no prizes for guessing what that's about), The Anxiety Panic Internet Resource, On-Line Asperger's Syndrome Information and Support, Anonymous Sexual Abuse Recovery (Canada) and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. That's just some of the headings under the first letter of the alphabet! Each listing comes with an assessment of the site and it really is a marvellous resource for anybody interested in the whole mental health area.
One of the sites mentioned above is the Anxiety Panic Internet Resource (www.algy.com/anxiety/index.html). This site has a lot of information and links on anxiety and panic. It includes an unusual project, an encyclopaedia on anxiety made up of articles contributed by people suffering from high levels of anxiety themselves. It's still in the early stages but will be of interest to people affected by this condition.
Mental Health Net (www.cmhc.com/) is another splendid source of information on mental health. It lists over 7,000 individual pieces of information, links and other resources. For instance, if you click on `eating disorders', you will immediately find links to well over 30 sites on the topic, including well-researched on-line information leaflets. It also includes a link to a very detailed psychological self-help book on a vast variety of mental health issues. If you are interested in mental health, this site is well worth getting to know.
Never mind all that, I hear you say, what about The Little Book of Calm? Oh, alright, author Paul Wilson (it's just not fair that he got to make all that money out of such a little book) has a site at www.calmcentre.com.au.
Actually the Calm Centre involves Wilson and various collaborators apparently engaged in spreading calm but it appears to be mainly a marketing exercise for his books. It has some extracts from his works, will play you soothing music if you have real audio and will enable you to email a "calm moment" to somebody else. It also has a cool little gizmo in which you see a cloud passing by a window while you breathe in time to it.
Compared to many other sites the content is thin, but it's at a relatively early stage of development and could become much more interesting as time goes on. Even as it is, however, it's fun to explore and this grouchy hack even found it enjoyable at seven in the morning - by which time, it is safe to assume, Mr Wilson has half a day's work done.
If you are one of those who believes that hell is other people or if you're struggling with a relationship, the Relationship Survival Guide (nsonline.com/odat/) is worth a visit - especially for its page of links to oodles of other sites. Be warned, though, that the home page of this site has too many graphics for its own good and can take a long time to load. If you haven't got loads of time, try going straight to the links page instead (nsonline.com/resources/).
A personal favourite is the site of the To Do Institute (www.anamorph.com/todo/) which includes a lot of useful and usable information on an Eastern approach to psychology called Morita Therapy. It might more accurately be called a philosophy, rooted in the notion of being aware of feelings, accepting that they are outside our control and getting on with doing whatever needs to be done. You can navigate around this site very quickly - it hasn't been cluttered up with fancy graphics or banners to slow everything down.
One of the larger Irish sites is that of the William Glasser Institute Ireland (indigo.ie/irti/wgii.htm) which promotes the practice of Reality Therapy in this country. It has lots of information about the institute and explains what reality therapy is all about. Many teachers in Ireland have done reality therapy courses and would find the site interesting but it's accessible to all. Sites such as this one with horrible URLS (Internet addresses), are often easier to get to by typing the name into a search engine such as Alta Vista.
Another Irish site is that of Schizophrenia Ireland (ireland.iol.ie/lucia/). It contains information about the organisation's activities. Presumably, more information and links will be added in the future. If you want to keep up with current findings in the mental health area, CNN's health page (www.cnn.com/health/) is worth a daily visit. This is a very attractive site covering all aspects of health. Its stories are usually accompanied by links to sites where more information can be found on the topic.
And remember that many of the big search engines, for example Infoseek, have health "channels" which will lead you to lots of other interesting mental health sites.
But try to get to know some of these sites in detail instead of surfing endlessly. They're worth it.
Padraig O'Morain, social affairs correspondent of The Irish Times, is at: pomorain@irish-times.ie