'Mental health journeys can be transmuted into superpowers': Mountaineer Cory Richards
One of the world's leading climbers and photographers has spoken to FRANCE 24 about his passions and his mental health struggles. Cory Richards grew up with a perfect early childhood living in the Rocky Mountains. But when things went wrong, he ended up institutionalised, then on the street. He was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and still struggles with his mental health. His new book in English "The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within" has just been translated into French as "Les brûlures de glace" or "Ice Burns". He spoke to us in Perspective.
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Euronews
2 days ago
- Euronews
Mental health innovations take centre stage at VivaTech Paris
VivaTech opened its doors this Wednesday in Paris, marking the start of Europe's most important tech and startup annual event. With more than 165,000 expected visitors and nearly 14,000 startups from over 50 countries, the ninth edition of the event is set to be the biggest yet. Just like last year, artificial intelligence (AI) is the star of the show. But this time, some of the most attention-grabbing innovations are those applying AI and tech to health care and mental well-being. 'Artificial intelligence is moving from science fiction to real-life application. And visitors will discover with the more than 13,000 start-ups what it is going to mean for business, for our everyday lives and our democracies," said François Bitouzet, Director General of VivaTech. There is a geopolitical context that is incredible in which tech and AI play a role, and we will analyse this during the next four days," he told Euronews. In a year marked by increasing geopolitical tensions and debates around technological sovereignty, Europe is looking to assert itself as a key player in AI innovation. But the tech fair also serves as a platform to explore how this technology can help address deeply human challenges. One such example is Emobot, a French startup developing an AI-powered tool that helps monitor mood disorders through a patient's facial expressions and voice. 'It's an app that is installed on the phone and on the computer. We analyse facial expressions every second while the patient uses their phone throughout the day," explained Antony Perzo, co-founder and CTO of Emobot. "We also analyse their voice. Then, we aggregate this data to monitor for symptoms of depression. All this data, we put it together and then make a dashboard for the doctor that allows them to follow the evolution of the mood disorder symptoms," he told Euronews. All this information is combined to generate a dashboard for doctors, allowing them to track the evolution of symptoms remotely. 'Psychiatry is one of the few disciplines where we can't visualise disorders. In other areas of medicine, we have MRIs or imaging tools. We wanted to create the first device capable of tracking and visualising mood symptoms over time. Think of it as a sort of thermometer for mental health', he said. Another mental health startup, AMOI, blends neuroscience with perfume to shift a person's mood in just minutes. Whether you're looking for focus, calm, energy or joy, AMOI claims its neuro-fragrances can deliver results within five minutes. With more than one in four people reporting feeling mentally unwell, AMOI's founder Pascale Fontaine, says her project is about offering accessible and enjoyable tools for emotional well-being. VivaTech runs until 14 June at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris. The European debate on children's access to social media networks has begun, with three EU Member States promoting the idea of a "digital majority" or the age below which it would be forbidden to connect to such platforms. For France, Spain and Greece, the goal is to protect minors from dangerous online content. "Today, in the terms and conditions of use of these platforms, there is already a minimum age of 13," explains Clara Chappaz, the French Minister Delegate for Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Economy. However, Chappaz says: "We've all been children, it's very easy to change your date of birth. And so the current system means that, on average, children are logging on and creating accounts from the age of 7-8." France, Spain and Greece believe that the algorithms used by social networks expose the very young to addictive content that can ultimately lead to increased anxiety or depression. They also argue that excessive exposure may limit the development of certain skills and impair cognitive abilities. The EU currently has legislation in place in the form of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which tackles illegal online content such as hate speech, terrorism and child pornography. The law has been in place for almost two years for larger platforms and search engines, and just over a year for smaller organisations. But for industry representatives in Brussels, new legislation appears premature. "We believe that the new rules must first be properly applied. We haven't yet seen all the effects," says Constantin Gissler, Managing Director of Dot Europe, which represents online services and platforms in Brussels. "I think it's a bit hasty at this stage to be already discussing new rules and I think it's also very important that we take more account of the reality and implications for minors of such a ban," he adds. 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France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
'Mental health journeys can be transmuted into superpowers': Mountaineer Cory Richards
One of the world's leading climbers and photographers has spoken to FRANCE 24 about his passions and his mental health struggles. Cory Richards grew up with a perfect early childhood living in the Rocky Mountains. But when things went wrong, he ended up institutionalised, then on the street. He was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and still struggles with his mental health. His new book in English "The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within" has just been translated into French as "Les brûlures de glace" or "Ice Burns". He spoke to us in Perspective.
LeMonde
2 days ago
- LeMonde
In bed and on the job: How to stay productive while lying down
With the democratization of remote work, our potential workspaces have expanded to include an unexpected area from which it is now accepted that one can move projects forward like Sisyphus in pajamas: the bed. Indeed, when working from home, it is tempting to abandon the uncomfortable sitting posture and, at some point, relocate to that soft and rectangular haven that seems to beckon us. Let anyone who has never attended a remote meeting from their mattress throw the first memory foam pillow at me! Although difficult to quantify, this trend seems to have taken root. A study conducted in 2020 by Tuck Sleep, which researches sleep for commercial purposes, showed that the Covid-19 pandemic had the side effect of increasing the amount of work done from bed. Among the 1,000 Americans surveyed, 8.8% spent between 24 to 40 hours per week in a paradoxical state of being both supine and productive. Even though it evokes a sense of hedonism, calling to mind the tutelary figures of Alexandre le Bienheureux (the indolent hero of the 1968 French cult film Very Happy Alexander) or Playboy founder Hugh Hefner – or even Winston Churchill, who also worked from his bed – this posture is sometimes a necessity, dictated by the lack of a proper desk in small apartments. Despite its promises of an improbable mix between work and leisure, it often proves uncomfortable in practice. As a passive variable in a society where information flows rapidly, you may find yourself at risk for back pain or a stiff neck caused by an excessively static posture. All the micro-efforts you make during a day at the office without even realizing it (walking to the printer, the cafeteria or grabbing a coffee) vanish if you spend the majority of your working life lying down. This extreme sedentarity, which takes you from bed to bed, is accompanied by increased morbidity, exacerbating cardiovascular, metabolic and musculoskeletal issues. Hybrid spaces Despite its risks, this temptation has become a new market, as evidenced by the fact that, on Amazon, one can purchase an intriguing cushion-desk on which to place a laptop and a latte, working while feeling like you're having breakfast at a hotel. Ikea has even launched a section on its website titled "How to work comfortably (and productively) from bed," where the hybridization of spaces dominates, neither truly restful places nor entirely credible work zones. Hence the recurring joke on TikTok, under the hashtag #WorkFromBed, in which an employee emerging from under the covers declares vindictively, "Oh, I'm at the office now!" In a Reddit conversation dedicated to the theme of working from bed, it is clear that the reasons motivating this practice are very eclectic: pain (such as menstrual cramps), fatigue, the comfort provided by blankets, depression, the demand to work from wherever one wishes, the creative necessity to let one's mind wander... Nevertheless, all of this requires certain arrangements to ensure that the realms of work and rest do not become completely indistinguishable. "I just make sure to have a transition between work and sleep: put away the laptop, go to other spaces to do something else before going to bed," shares BostonBluestocking. Is the horizontal worker not, ultimately, the most perfected product of a deverticalized working world, at last?
