Here you can add some background information about yourself. You can add as much or as little as you feel comfortable with (you can always add more later), and you can even put random stuff in to see what it looks like! No one will see this info apart from you.
There are five things you can look at as part of establishing your health – you will see these below. You can tackle any or all of them now, or go back to your dashboard and address them later.
Our values are what make us tick! They are what we hold to be true – they motivate our actions and help us make decisions. They are universal concepts, which unite people. Values reflect how we have learned to think about how things should be, or how people should behave. It’s what we think is desirable.
Your behaviour is governed by your attitudes and values. You need to have worked out what these are, either by taking an online questionnaire, downloading a list and working out which apply to you, or just listing what you feel is important to you.
We show four approaches, and you can select which you would prefer to do. You can:
Enter your top 5 values (possibly after thinking about it for a time – we recommend getting paper and pen and brainstorming)
Download a list of possible values and select the 5 that apply most to you
Use the VIA Institute of Character approach – either download their list or do a test online
Use the Life Values Inventory approach – this is a complete programme in 5 steps which you sign on and complete online.
We would ideally like you to limit these to five values, although we’ll let you add a sixth if you feel you need to!
Click the button below to find out more about values, attitudes and beliefs.
First we ask for some background info, just to get you thinking about what’s important to you. Then you can decide how you want to understand and enter your values
Now you’ve decided how to decide on your core values, enter them here.
This is where you analyse your health. We ask you to consider what you think of as your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to your health, and also what you feel you can build on and what’s holding you back.
This diagram shows a list of things which influence health. In your case any of these could have a positive or negative influence.
Diagram courtesy of Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts
This is aimed at getting you to think about your health. It’s like a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) but with a focus on health. We’ll give you some more information as you go.
If you want to analyse your overall health then press the button below.
This is where you look at your current state of health overall. This might involve taking a health questionnaire, and as explained there are three to consider. The first two you can download or do on our site – the third you have to do on their site.
You only want a quick overview of your health and wellness, and will dr.ill down in any areas needing work – use the Subjective Happiness Scale
You want to do a more detailed assessment and then focus on areas you’re already aware of – use the Oxford Happiness Scale
You want to look at the whole situation in detail – use the Testwell Holistic Lifestyle Questionnaire online. Select the most appropriate version – adult, older adult, teen or college. It has 50 questions and takes about 15-20 minutes.(note you can only do this on their site)
When you started to add your overall health status, there was additional information on the page. If you want to see this information again, click the button on the right and it will pop up. You can close it and continue.
First choose which questionnaire to take and how, then click the button which appears and take the questionnaire
Once you’ve completed the questionnaire, click on the button below then add details and then click on the button at the bottom that says ‘Add your overall health details’ and your results will appear.
Your attitude to change affects how likely you are to make any improvements
Click below to see why this is important
This is where you look at your attitude to change. This is important – if you want to actually do something to improve your health, you have to make changes! You may know this already, but if not you can take a questionnaire to find out or confirm your view of what your attitude to change is.
Your Locus of Control determines how you see life – whether you feel you’re in control of your own life or whether you think things will always happen to you that are outside your control.
See more information on locus of control by clicking the button below
Your locus of control is an important part of how you see the world. If it’s external, you see all sorts of external forces being responsible for what happens to you. If it’s internal, you believe you can influence hat happens to you yourself. You can take a questionnaire to find out or confirm your view.
Once you’ve completed your health record, you can download it as a PDF. Click the button on the right to download it.
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We all have our beliefs, attitudes and values – these have developed throughout our life based on who we are and what we have done. Let’s look at what these are.
The University of Reading explain: “People’s values, beliefs and attitudes are formed and bonded over time through the influences of family, friends, society and life experiences. So, by the time you’re an adult, you can hold very definite views on just about everything with a sense of “no one is going to change my mind”.
The combination of your personal values, beliefs and attitudes are your moral principles that guide you in life and affect your behaviour. However, your views can wildly differ to others and in an institution such as a school, these beliefs may be counter to the values of the school, child development or indeed the law.”
Let’s look more closely at the differences between beliefs, attitudes and values.
These come from real experiences – we think our beliefs are based on reality, but in fact our beliefs colour our experiences; also, an original experience e.g. when we were a child is not the same as what’s happening now. Beliefs can be moral, religious or cultural and reflect who we are. They can be rational (‘it gets colder in winter’) or irrational (‘I am never going to make something of myself’).
This is an immediate belief or disposition about something specific. It is a recurring group of beliefs and behaviours aimed at specific groups, people, ideas or objects. They will normally be positive or negative and we will always behave that way to the target group. Examples of attitudes include confidence (I can or can’t do something), grateful (I an entitled to / grateful for XXX) and cheerful (I am generally happy / miserable).
These are things (principles or qualities) that we hold in high regard or consider to be worthwhile or right / wrong. They are formed by a belief related to the worth of something – an idea or behaviour. Some values are common (e.g. family comes first, the value of friendship) or cultural (which the whole community have – see video at Study.com here).
Expectancy Value Theory suggests you balance your beliefs about something with the value you attach to it. The Theory of Reasoned Action suggests that beliefs and evaluation about behavioural outcomes determine attitudes, and intentions lead directly to behaviour.
Expressions of confidence – can change over time
Learned predispositions to something – are subject to change
Ideals that guide our behaviour – Generally long lasting and often need life changing experience to change
Iceberg demonstrating implicit and explicit bias – from Owlcation
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At YouDrive we try and help people improve their health. We use ‘health’ but we understand there are other terms such as wellbeing or even happiness that reflect how we are doing in our lives – if you’re interested in the different definitions and ideas see our page on the subject.
We want to help whether you have a particular problem – physical, financial or mental – or if you just want to improve some specific part of your life or just make some improvements overall.
You’d be surprised, but there has been a serious amount of scientific work done in this area over the last twenty years.
Did you know the OECD have a Better Life index that since 2011 focusses on well-being rather than economic statistics and GDP, where each country is scored?
The 2020 World Happiness Report is the 8th measuring people in 156 countries by how happy their citizens are.
In the UK we have been measuring wellbeing since 2011 and you can see the results at a national level on our page and at regional level on the ONS website .
On a more local level the Co-op Community Wellbeing measures how well your local community works – you just enter your postcode!
So first we allow you to assess your current health (or wellbeing, or happiness). We do this by questionnaire. Which one is determined by the type of person you are:
By the way, we take your privacy seriously – we collect information that you choose to provide but we de-identify it as much as possible and will never share it with anyone without your explicit consent.
You can then drill down into some specific areas and there are more questionnaires to see your situation in these particular areas. We provide you with specific information and refer you to other potential aspects of help. Our next step is to build a personalised action plan – for now we will make a suggestion for you to develop your own plan and then after a time you can see whether this has had a positive impact by retaking the test.
In future we will be engaging with medical and behavioural specialists to devise action plans for individual people with specific situations.
We have an overall questionnaire which you can complete which will assess your current state.
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No matter how healthy you are at the moment, the chances are that there are some areas you could improve. It may be that you have a real problem in one or more areas, and you would like to make some improvements.
At YouDrive we accept that there are many different degrees of ‘not wellness’ in a large number of different health areas, ranging from physical illness such as covid-19 through mental illness such as anxiety through to financial problems like debt. We try and help where the problem ranges from ‘slight’ to quite bad’ – after this expert help and intervention may be needed.
However, especially in these times, we have to try and make these changes ourselves, possibly with some help from others, whether remotely or face to face.
The thing is, to make an improvement we have to change some things.
This involves changing our behaviour in some respects, and that’s not always easy.
Henry Ford, the creator of the assembly line, is quoted as saying “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”.
Another way of looking at this: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” – attributed to Albert Einstein.
Consequently we need to make some changes. The problem is that we have already developed a lot of habits, some of which we need to break and replace by better ones. Some of our bad habits have become entrenched, and the bad results they create in turn engender further bad habits to develop – in effect the bad habits can feed on themselves. Look at ChangeDrive for more examples.
We need to understand how we can make changes and stick to them, and that’s what this part of your health profile is about.
It will involve some learning, through reading, some videos and some additional information and also seeing how you react to change currently.
It will also ask you to consider whether you feel you are in charge of your future, or whether you feel it’s all fate.
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People look at things differently. Some people believe things happen to them, while others believe they can influence what happens to them. Technically this is called the ‘locus of control’. People can have an Internal or external Locus of Control
Tend to be less influenced by others
People tend to take more responsibility (locus gets more internal) as they get older. However, external isn’t always bad – for example if you are physically unable to do some things you can accept it and focus on the things you can do. This American video explains the concept and gives examples of how this can affect relationships.
If you want to find out how you see things, you can take a test to show what your locus of control is. Most of the tests are based on work by Rotter dating back to 1966 – many have been updated since.
Psychology Today have a 15 minute test which gives you a summary of your position you can buy the detailed results if you want to.
My Personality Test have a 10 minute test which gives you a summary/
Difference between sexual fantasy and reality
Well for many fantasies are just that and are kept to the individual or partner. Those can sometimes be extreme in nature but that’s where it stops and it never gets to reality. Some partners want to go further and put the fantasy into reality.
Well in this case it requires thinking through especially if it involves third parties or doing things whereby you can get caught. There is nothing wrong with turning a legal fantasy into reality provided everyone is truly consenting and not coerced into it.
Pornography is now almost universally available - on phones, computers and tablets. It's no longer a case of 'top shelf' magazines! Can watching porn spice up a sexual relationship, or is it a sad addiction? Who watches porn anyway? How real is it? Is there a balance between a bit of spice and a compulsion?
Multi-partner, Group, threesomes, orgies, are not for everyone and need to be planned otherwise things could backfire. There are people who enjoy these types of sexual gratification but if a partner is reluctant then they should never be coerced or forced. Sex and sex acts do magical things to our bodies naturally but the brain has to remain in control and make sure the act doesn’t turn into an addiction.
Why not take the sex addiction test in the tabs below and see how you get on?
There are no Government statistics because sex addiction is not classified as a medical issue but professionals are seeking classification as increasing numbers of people seek out advice. It is estimated that up to 12% of the population could have a secret sexual addiction. Sex addiction is characterised by excessive urges to have sex or engage in other sex-related behaviours, even when such actions may jeopardise your physical health, emotional wellbeing or social standing.
Of course, sexual desires and urges are a normal and healthy part of life. But in the case of sex addiction, these urges become overwhelming and the resultant decisions and actions can be extremely destructive.
Love addiction, which is also widely referred to as ‘co-dependency’, shares many of the same characteristics of sex addiction, although the intrusive thoughts and preoccupations of sexual urges and fantasies tend to be focused on one person, with the aim of repeatedly reliving the initial ‘rush’ of new romance without any desire to progress a relationship further.
Sex addiction and co-dependency are associated with a wide range of signs and symptoms. Whilst there is no single action or behaviour that will definitively establish that you are struggling with sex or love addiction, the symptoms generally fall under the following categories:
The following are among the more common examples of specific signs and symptoms of sex addiction:
The following are among the more common examples of specific signs and symptoms of love addiction:
A great many psychological factors can contribute to the development of sex addiction – and just as every individual’s psychology is unique, so too is every combination of such factors.
Many people use sex as a form of escapism – from loneliness, sadness and other negative emotions – and this can drive repeated behaviour of the sort likely to develop into an addiction. Low self-esteem is also seen as a critical contributor.
People suffering from depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorders, learning disabilities and substance abuse disorders are all more likely than the average to develop sex addiction, as are individuals with personality traits including low self-esteem, difficulties sustaining intimacy and relationship stability, insecurity, and a low tolerance for frustration, and people with paraphilia-related disorders.
A study published in 2014 suggested brain activity in “sex addicts” watching porn is similar to that of drug addicts when shown their drug of choice.
Time is Up!
Time’s up
Time is Up!
Time’s up
In a recent survey 39% of the UK population said they have watched pornography recently. This rises to nearly 50% for adults under 24. Of this group 76% are men watching pornography on the internet, compared with just 36% of women.
A recent study by Marie Claire found that as many as one in three (31%) women watch porn every week, while Pornhub, one of the world’s most popular free sites, recently revealed that women make up more than a quarter (29%) of its global audience.
However, problems start to arise when people get fantasy and reality mixed up.
Porn is a way to delve into your sexual fantasies and discover what turns you on. It’s anonymous, it’s free from rejection, but are there drawbacks to making love to watching porn? We explore the effect porn can have on your brain and how this can affect relationships and your performance.
Porn can actually change the way your brain deals with sexual impulses. Porn stimulates the same part of the brain that addictive drugs do. Watching porn makes you feel good because it releases feel-good hormones and as a result, we watch it over and over again. The problem is, over time, the brain becomes desensitised to what it sees and no longer releases those feel-good hormones so readily. In the same way that drug users, over time, need bigger hits in order to feel high, people watching porn need more and more hardcore stuff to reach the same level of satisfaction. This is where your brain becomes a little one-track minded and your porn habit begins to look more like an addiction.
You might have a problem with porn if your porn habit escalates from a few times a month to daily. Or you’ve noticed the type of porn you’re watching getting increasingly extreme. Or real sex doesn’t give you the same satisfaction that watching porn does.
Watching excessive amounts of porn can also impact on your physical capability to maintain an erection, or you may find a general disinterest in real sex. Bingeing on porn can numb your brain to real-life sex and as a result, weaker signals are sent to the genitals. This can mean erectile dysfunction for men and an inability to feel turned on for women.
What does this mean for my relationship? Sex with real people is great. Unlike virtual sex. With people you get an emotional connection and the pleasure of being touched and touching someone else. Sex with a partner is also great for your mental health. Unfortunately, people who frequently watch porn often find their sex lives becoming a little dull.
So people mix up the two…
Porn can be mutually beneficial and sometimes help service sex, making it a little easier to get things started, especially in today’s lifestyles. The brain is flexible and can be retrained away from excessive porn usage and you have the power to beat your obsession with porn and have great sex once more. Here are somethings that may help:
o Watch porn with your partner not alone, choose something you both like
o Don’t let it rule the event merely kick start it
o If you are on your own and the urge comes on, try exercise. This releases endorphins and other feel-good hormones.
o If you are alone try sex without porn. Use your imagination rather than porn, after all you only choose porn because it’s so freely available.
o Talk to your partner. If you feel your sex life is getting a bit boring, open up the conversation. Ask your partner what turns them on and perhaps try something new.
SexDrive takes a brief look at extensions of sexual activity such as BDSM. For many years people thought it was shameful and a bit sick and people who did it were weird. But research has indicated that BDSM people are in many ways normal and suffer no more mental health issues than straight sex people. There is always a caveat to this in that dominants tend to be very extravert and willing to try new things but submissives could be coerced into carrying out the act. The key and important point is average and extreme. With all sexual deviations if it’s gentle, nobody gets hurt and people are doing it freely then people can do as they wish. But extreme BDSM can get out of control physically and psychologically and that’s dangerous.
Group, dogging, exhibitionism, swinging are all practiced quite openly in the UK and many people enjoy these activities. Again, if people are doing these practices freely and nobody is hurt or injured and it’s not illegal then so be it. But research has indicated that a lot of people participating in these activities do have mental health issues and use the practice to overcome things like low self-esteem and insecurity. Exhibitionism Is classed as a mental health disorder. The interesting point here is it usually isn’t a dirty old man in a raincoat. The offenders are late teens to early thirties and are serial repeat offenders.
Whatever you’re into and whatever your gender enjoying a good sex life and relationship is not easy to do with the modern world we live in. You have to, and I know it goes against the grain to many, but you have to put effort into a relationship and a good sex life. It is basic instinct for most but to have a good sex life and relationship you need to make the effort.
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People tend to believe that each individual is different and unique in their own way. While that may be true to an extent, it’s not entirely accurate.
It’s certainly not helpful when firms are trying to recruit people ‘of a certain type’.
When it comes to personality types, there are tests that categorise people into one of a few groups that describe their characteristics.
The ‘Big Five’ personality traits characteristics are :
Easily remembered as OCEAN. You can find out what type of person you are by taking a free test here. It’s from Truity and doesn’t need an email or login.
• A third of Britons who go abroad return to the same resort every year
• The average UK holidaymaker has been to the same place four times
• More than one in ten return to the same holiday spot ten or more times – and many even try to book the same hotel room.
• More than a third, 34 per cent, go to the same restaurant they ate at on their last trip, and more than a quarter, 26 per cent, don’t even bother trying to find new drinking locations
• Some 59 per cent of us go on the same holiday in successive years
• McDonalds and KFC are worldwide brands and people in a foreign city can always head to a McDonalds and KFC because you only need to point at the picture and with 3 fingers held up means you want 3 – language barrier overcome. No slight embarrassment not knowing the menu or protocol.
• Many go back because it is the easy option.
Years ago we had seasonal fruit, but not now. Strawberries were April to August – now it’s January to November under poly-tunnel. How can a plant produce so much fruit??? Artificial feeding. How can they be so big? Artificial feeding. How can they look so pristine with not a mark on them? Artificial feeding and pesticides to keep the insects off. But because they are grown in artificial circumstances they can attract new types of diseases so chemicals are added to stop those diseases taking off. But, is there an alternative? Yes buy organic fruit and veg – at least there is an element of inspection and testing.
What is becoming scarier than processed food is fresh food. The farmers and scientists and government are now on a mission to feed the increasing population, HOW? Well, producing fresh food that we can grow quicker, faster, bigger, disease free and more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. But all these things come at a price.
The chemicals that farmers and growers put on the land to grow super-fast produce mean that the feed is so powerful it can double the growth and size in half the time. The pesticides they put on the plants kills everything and anything that lives on a plant, just so we don’t have a marked apple on the shelf. We do need chemicals to stop some diseases on fruit and veg but the chemicals on fruit and veg today go much further. This article in the Daily Mail on 1st November 2018 said;
On average, new research has found, a supermarket potato will have been doused with an astonishing 30 active ingredients (an active ingredient is the part of a substance or compound that produces its chemical or biological effect). Compare that to 40 years ago — when a potato would have been treated with just 5.3 active ingredients — and you start to see how mind-bogglingly dependent farming in Britain today is on chemicals.
Well years ago it was. When animals could go into the fields and eat grass and get normal supplements to keep them fit and healthy. But then big business wanted more and started to produce feeds like rocket fuel, the sort of food body builders eat to accelerate muscle and weight. Can you blame them? Not really. If someone says; “Hey, here’s a food that will treble the size of your animal in half the time, which means you get it to market faster and it’s cheaper to feed, so less cost and more profit.” Who wouldn’t?
But then you look at what they feed the animals and think it just doesn’t pass straight through the animal and out the other side – it is absorbed into the flesh. And then humans eat it. But, what’s the alternative? Locally produced, farm and grass reared, local butcher sold meats. Organic, just to add a bit of assurance nothing has been used on the land.
Ever wondered where the old out of date bread goes when it comes off the supermarket shelves? Well it goes to a special company and it is all ground together into a giant mincing machine and ground up into crumbs. This includes the coloured branded plastic bag it came in and the tag on the end. As bread is yeast based it requires further chemicals to stop another fermentation process taking place.
It is then sold to farmers for winter feed to cows who eat the crumbs and plastic bag and tag. We then milk the cow or eat the beef. Just to remind you cows stomachs may be big but they are not designed to eat colour printed plastic. Yet again another Food Standards Agency and Agricultural Agency getting together to provide winter feed at a cheap cost with no regard for the cow or the consumer. But what’s the alternative – organic milk. Aldi, Co-op and Sainsbury sell organic milk very competitively.
So what do we know, well firstly fish living together in huge pens in huge quantities attract disease. They also, in the case of salmon, lose their colour, so scientists created a food that has colour built in and contains chemicals that kill the fish lice and then we eat it. Take a look on YouTube at the investigations and make your own mind up.
The biggest fish farms in the world are now in the Baltic Sea. They farm pollock, haddock and cod and we also know the Baltic Sea is one of the most polluted seas on the globe. But, what is the alternative – fish caught in the open ocean.
Shellfish is a popular product in the UK but most prawns come from Thailand, Vietnam and South America. All are farmed. But, what’s the alternative – organic and ocean caught never farmed.
This recent documentary opens your eyes to fish farming and the issues they have – click here.
It’s not just eating the right food or drinking the right amount of water – it’s about when we do this. In the UK we eat as fuel and don’t eat for pleasure. We often push food down our throats as fast as we can – often late in the evening just before we go to bed!! There is an old saying breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen, dinner like a prince and supper like a pauper. Eating during the day gives our bodies the chance to work off the fuel we have put into our bodies. Many people have such busy days they don’t get time to eat during the day. If you’re that busy your body needs fuel so snack every hour or two if you cannot give up the time at lunch to eat. Little and often is recommended rather than a big meal at the end of the day.
We are creating a new type of member – the YouDriver.
YouDrivers will be able to build their own health dashboard – they will take health questionnaires to see how healthy they are, they will look at all aspects of their health and understand exactly what matters to them.
They will go on a journey to decide which health areas they want to work on, how they want to tackle these and then they will be able to build their own action plans.
We’re also inviting more people to get involved – whether by contributing their own views or by offering support to our site visitors.