#Depression treatment in London

[elixirmedics]

Is anxiety affecting your life emotionally and physically too? Trust us at Elixir Medics if you want to get cured in less time with the best anxiety treatment in London. We, with our well-trained experts assess your condition and find the major issues triggering your mental well-being. Our mere aim is to strengthen your mental health and bring confidence in your behavior using the best approaches.

[motorghost]

john watson, tenderness, and colonialism

one thing I like imagining about the brand of masculinity that Watson (can) represent is tenderness. this isn't actually a natural quality of his profession; army surgeons were more benevolent butchers back then, even if the simple desire to heal is what started watson down that road in the first place. there is not a lot of room for tenderness when you have to make split-second decisions regarding another soul's flesh, when you have to listen to their screams and their threats and their pleas and still do what your mind knows is the best course of action to save them. i imagine watson writing little stories as an escape from the horror as well as from his own (often pointless) role in it. perhaps he had his fill of being the decision-maker early on. and perhaps he yearned for tenderness at the hospital, confined for months to a bed and to his pain, perhaps seeing tenderness in his carers but also, perhaps, seeing the same resignation and emotional distancing he knew was necessary in medical practitioners in order to make good decisions, to think clearly. on top of that, the many immortal lessons of war. one of which: there is no god but what we make on this earth, for ourselves and for each other.

i imagine him arriving in london a flayed thing. snarling inside of an old costume that no longer fits: that of a gentleman (he's not, he's of the new middle class, and poor besides,) of a noble soldier (the cause was a sick joke, the honors not earned,) and of a skilled physician (what skill, when his hands barely answer his head and his heart jumps at every abrupt sound?) self-obliterating through gambling and drink. lingering in pointlessness with no way out. going on simply because it would be immoral not to, and he has endured enough shame already.

then: holmes. here is someone who has made an art form of the same detachment watson had to employ during the war. though he is dazzled by holmes's intellect and exhilarated by this scientific method of crime-solving and impressed by his iron will, he also sees the burden holmes bears. the proximity to mankinds' worst elements that lowers holmes even as he conquers heights unimagined, not to mention the pains his own otherwise magnificent mind afford him, as well as the invisible pain of loneliness (of living as Othered; of living in the city, as existential depression rises alongside industrial progress.)

as anyone who suddenly discovers their raison d'être—their reason for living—watson enthusiastically throws himself into offering the thing he most wanted to bring to his patients but could not: tenderness. in response to holmes's pain, watson offers gentleness and kindness and years of unquestionable, indefatigable loyalty.

colonialism relies on the strict differentiation between Us and Them, good and evil, black and white. it demands that actions be judged so that they can either be glorified or condemned. "there is so much that has to be denounced, and also so much that has to be praised."* watson praises holmes in print, and condemns those who harm the vulnerable, but for holmes himself, watson gives tenderness. tenderness is not a fist around a gavel, it is an open palm. holmes believes that watson is better than any british jury because he is tender. and perhaps holmes doesn't even understand the value of watson's tenderness until he's spent three years alone in eastern lands, away from the dominance of western, imperialist thought, and away from the man who helped him in ways he didn't recognize until he was gone.

perhaps watson learned that true healing can only be done at a level unreachable by physical instruments. in more ancient times, doctors more resembled priests; the treatment of the body and the treatment of the soul were not so separate. and maybe he learned that true healing is impossible in this life; that while there is much to live for, there is also forever pain. and the only way to mitigate that pain is through tenderness. and what is more tender than a little story about a great man who solves impossible problems, written in such a way as to stick out in the mind of readers for over a hundred years? even if it only distracts you from the pain for a few hours, that is surely enough.

[coochiequeens]

A patient said something she thought was in confidence and he (the doctor) shared it with staff? And now TRAs are harassing a woman fighting breast cancer? That doctor needs to lose his license for violating patient confidentiality

A woman in Oregon receiving treatment for breast cancer has been dropped by her health clinic of 12 years because she expressed views critical of gender ideology.

Marlene Barbera, who is scheduled for a mastectomy later this month, told Reduxx that she had commented on the presence of a transgender pride flag that was hanging in the waiting room of the Richmond Family Medical Clinic in Portland last year.

Barbera explained that she had written a message to her doctor on MyChart, a website where patients can access their personal health information, describing that she found the inclusion of “political messaging in a healthcare setting” as “offensive.”

She, like a growing number of women, has “gender critical” views, rejecting modern ideologies that conflate biological sex and “gender identity.” Barbera mentioned she had faced rape and death threats from trans activists on X (formerly Twitter), many of whom would have identified with that same flag.

Initially, the Doctor, who she revealed had been her primary care provider for over ten years, said that he would not take the flag down. But while Barbera had initially believed their correspondence to be private, she later discovered that the note to her physician had been viewed and shared by other staff at the clinic.

This June, while attempting to leave a message for her doctor regarding blood test results, the issue continued to escalate. A receptionist at the clinic, who Barbera speculated was transgender, did not permit her to be patched through to her doctor.

“The person insisted I make an appointment. I have breast cancer and consequently an abundance of medical appointments so I did not want to do that. They got frustrated with my ‘non-compliance’ and hung up on me,” Barbera told Reduxx.

“Thinking it might have been in error, I called back. I was told I was ‘not allowed’ and that I must speak to the previous person who had hung up on me. I declined as things hadn’t gone well the first time.”

She then questioned whether the refusal from the first receptionist was due to her previous complaint about the trans pride flag in the lobby.

“I asked, guessing ‘did I hurt the trans person’s feelings?’ And the receptionist took offense to the question, asking ‘what did you say‘ slowly and with great emphasis.”

Weeks later, Barbera received an email from Oregon Health Science University’s (OHSU) Stein Berger, informing her that she had been “discharged from receiving medical care at the Richmond Family Medicine Clinic,” effective immediately, with services to be cut off from all OHSU Family Medicine Clinics, including immediate care clinics, from July 29th. The email did in fact specify that she was being removed “because of ongoing disrespectful and hurtful remarks about our LGBTQ community and staff.”

Barbera told Reduxx that the incident had sent her “anxiety through the roof” and that she was struggling with her mental health as a result of the stress.

“I have severe chronic agitated depression since teen years,” Barbera explains. “Now I have no primary care doctor and nowhere else to go. I have been made to feel like a worthless nothing.”

This is not the first time a woman has lost access to critical medical services due to her “gender critical” views.

In October of last year, a woman identified as Emma by the UK’s Daily Mail was banned from having an operation in London’s Princess Grace Hospital because she requested single sex accommodation. The woman, who had been scheduled for a complex colorectal operation, also expressed that she did not want to “use pronouns or engage with such manifestations of gender ideology.”

Despite having experience being the victim of sexual assault, Emma was banned from having her procedure at the facility for requesting single-sex care.

[thegreatimpersonator]

since y'all seemed to want this.... here's the live notes i took while listening to each song for the first time (bold are thoughts i had during later listens)

fortnight: 

‘i was a functioning alcohol till nobody noticed my new aesthetic’ what the fuck does that even mean…

love the fact she gave post the female collab treatment. don’t wanna hear what he has to say. 

they’re voices sound actually good together? 

some pockets of the melody are catchy

okay i don’t hate this 

ttpd:

her red flags are on fire in this song lol

this seems very half-cooked

also jacks weird mixing continues to plague us all

CHARLIE PUTH???? WHAT THE FUCK WHY HE HERE

tattooed golden retriever??? ……no way

my boy breaks all his favorite toys:

i blinked and it’s half over

this also is like… half cooked and didn’t need to be released tbh

i love the way she sings the second verse tho

down and:

the production does not match the vibe

did tpain produce this

i’m… kinda bored lol

like i have nothing to say this also didn’t need to be released tbh 

this grew on me a lot actually

so long london 

the production is so futuristic? 

oh im obsessed with how she sounds on this one

her talk-singing in the verses is great

honest lyrics without any clunky unnecessary metaphors! a win!!

the fast-paced verses with th slow chorus is really really cool

a favorite so far

daddy i love him

i can barely hear her? the bad mixing continues 

‘growing up precociously sometimes means not growing up at all’ oh yeah WE KNOW

is this…… is this about her dating matty and loving how people hate him… no fucking way she’s this stupid

SHE IS BEING THIS STUPID

‘it’s white noise’ yeah yeah that’s exactly how id describe him  

.... anyway y'all remember when fans really believed the little mermaid theory and this song was supposed to be about how 'joe stole her voice' lmaooo

we will pretend this one doesn't exist!

fresh out the slammer

are we getting another ‘i didn’t cheat technically’ song lol

what is this weird tempo change….

okay kinda catchy

it’s sounds exactly like you are in love at the end….. jack is really out of tricks

florida

‘my friends all smell like weed or little babies’ what the fuck is she even talking about anymore 

i’m sorry but i’m laughing at the phrase ‘fuck me up florida’

again the production sounds so detached from the vocals 

i honestly still have no idea how i feel about this one

guilt as sin

an real instrument?? wow crazy 

okay she’s kinda cute? catchy and fun, love the melody

i love when she goes up at the end of the vocal 

okay…. i don’t mind this one she’s catchy, a little too long and drawn out but cute

who’s afraid of little old me?

what is this production? it’s way too soft to be as threatening as they’re trying for 

why did jack push her vocals back so far when she’s supposed to scream…. that’s ruins the whole thing…. she’s supposed to be screaming and threatening….. not quiet and far away…. hello

this song is trying very hard to be threatening but it’s not... vigilante shit 2.0

‘you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum they raised me’…………… upper middle-class pennsylvania? 

‘i’m drunk on my own tears isn’t that what they all say, that’ll  sue you if you step on my lawn’ okay bar?

the bridge was good but that’s about it.

i can fix him 

…………… not another matty song oh god

‘i can handle a dangerous man’…… im too stunned to speak this is so embarrassing 

wow taylor really is that girl who like ‘women supporting women’ and then dates/defends a racist bf…. a walking example of white feminism

intersectional feminism found dead.... twice....

loml

okay this is really nice? 

I WAS ACTUALLY ENJOYING THE SONG WHY DID SHE RUIN IT BY SAYING ‘MR STEAL YOUR GIRL’ 💀

if we ignore that one line we're good this is good. im refusing to let that line ruin such a good song

i can do it with a broken heart

‘bitch smile’ why are there so many cringey lyrics on this album lol

what is this song omg why do i kind of like it 

taylor please learn depressed isn’t a synonym for sad 

they recycled the mastermind production 

wait till taylor finds out most of the entire world is sad while they're doing their job and has to pretend they're not

smallest man who ever lived 

oh i think i like this?

‘you said normal girls were boring’ GIRL AND YOU DIDNT IMMEDIATELY GET UP AND LEAVE??? EWWWW??? she's not beating the pick-me allegations

'i just wanna know if rusting my sparking summer was the goal' okay love that line

i like this a lot

the alchemy

no….. no way this is real

i cannot

THE SPORTS METAPHORS WE JOKED SHED DO THAT AND SHE ACTUALLY DID IT OH NO 

touchdown ✅ teams ✅ benches ✅ winning streak ✅ the league ✅

she’s doing…… the worst thing ever this is so laughable 

the corny lyrics are on overload 

‘this time it’s heroine with an e’ didn’t she write folklore? i can’t remember 

that literally was an snl parody of a taylor song

clara bow

love how the guitar sounds… bet money this is an aaron track 

a stevie nicks reference!! a win!!!

i like this one a lot no cringey lyrics yet

nope never mind she name-dropped herself don’t like that

overall really liked it tho

the black dog

i think i like it?? this is kind of what i expected the album to be

okay for once the weird production choices kind of pay off

imgonnagetyouback

kinda catchy? 

she loves a fancy car getting wrecked line

the pre-choruses are the best part 

this would’ve been better without the jack of it all bc he loves a song that doesnt build to anything

this just comes down to personal preference: i don’t like her lighter vocals with jack’s heavy production (ie most of lover lol)

the albatross

a real instrument!!! production that matches taylor’s voice and is well mixed!!! aaron’s arrived!! 

i think it’s solid, has good writing and she sounds great. that's about it.

chloe or sam or…

took me a solid minute to have any semblance of a fuck to know what was going on but okay

okay i love this one

wayyyy more emotive than like… most of the original album

a lot of the 2nd version (or whatever this is lol) are way more emotive, maybe because her voice isnt drenched in reverb so we can actually hear her voice emote better

how did it end

this sounds like an old school adele song? 

i love this one too…. 

her being upset people wanna know what happened but then also feeding it while promoting the album oop 

i love the story of this one it's so refreshing

so high school

THE PRODUCTION is so good ugh aaron never fails 

the man here is a walking red flag girl and the lyrics are ~not it~ but the production is too pretty to hate it

fuck these lyrics are so bad lol

maybe if i disassociate hard enough i can ignore the lyrics and just listen to the production and vibe

give me a karaoke version of this song and we'd be so back

i hate it here

i mentioned disassociation and she made a whole song about it!!!! this one’s mine!!!! 

‘without all the racists’ GIRL HUH

WHAT WAS THE REASON

also... girl don’t act like we don’t know you’re fine with that lololololol

if i had a dime for every time i was liking a song to then have it slapped away because of a bad, out-of-pocket lyric…… 

thank you aimee

this isn’t grabbing my attention 

oh the bridge is interesting 

it’s meh 

i will never be thanking the people that bullied me thanks tho

i look in peoples windows 

what do you mean aaron didn’t produce this??? it’s well-made and has instruments? 

i love this one, again a really interesting and unique concept that's very refreshing to hear at this point when a lot of the songs feel repetitive

the prophecy

aaron guitar!!!! 

she’s nice i like her 

i've really grown to love how she sings this one, the melodies are cool.. however i feel like we've heard the same melody.. like on this exact album... where she upturns at the end of every line...

cassandra 

this seems very…. familiar… idk i feel like we’ve covered this (i mean there are 31 songs we’ve already covered everything lol)

this is such an aaron song, that's a classic 'the national' piano

i like her voice in this one tho, sounds good

peter

oh love i love this

now this? THIS feels the most like a taylor swift song

once again she’s at her best with a simple instrument and emotive simple lyrics

the piano reminds me of champagne problems

the bolter 

i like this! the chorus is so cute

oh i like that ending line a lot!

she’s cute, a little long and drawn out but cute

robin

i haven’t seen anyone talk about this one

welp…. i literally have no feelings toward this one but sounds pretty! 

the manuscript

oh this is soooooooo powerful 

i love this concept 

her ending the album on another introspective album that sums everything up a la dear reader yep yep!!

if you actually read of this ily 💗

[phregnancy]

Exactly! Even now a lot of people still act as if Phil saved poor baby Dan and doesn’t have any problems of his own (even though he’s shared with us that he has, but they just ignore it because he’s not as personal as Dan). It just annoys me when some people treat him like a sidekick who’s there only to prop Dan up.

I’m sorry this got so sidetracked, I’ve just been wanting to complain about this for a while 😭

no i’m so glad you brought this up because it has always made me incredibly mad. 1. because it gives dan absolutely no credit for seeking treatment and getting himself help and saving himself. if someone credited my crawling my way out of depression to anyone else i think i would lose my mind, that is so insulting. no one can make you get help and force you to work at it until it sticks, it is a self driven experience. phil was a support, but dan saved himself. 2. people treating phil like a guest star on the dan show makes me sick, they’re devaluing him as a person. phil has his own plethora of issues, he was also bullied in school, his social anxiety was so bad that as a grown man living on his own he still had his mother make his hair cutting and doctors appointments because he was too afraid to talk on the phone, he’s still afraid to talk on the phone to an extent, he has really bad health anxiety which i imagine is made worse by the fact that he has a lot of very real health problems, he went through incredibly difficult and traumatic family crisis privately where he almost quit his career in london to move home because his father was dying of a rare form of cancer. phil is a whole person with his own issues and struggles and people should show him as much empathy as they show dan.

[the-other-art-blog]

Richard Gunningworth: *ignores Sophie for years, barely acknowledges her existence, makes her feel unloved, gets married without considering Sophie, does nothing to defend her against his wife’s abuse, doesn’t take the proper measures to secure her future if he dies*

The Bton fandom: “I think Sophie’s father really loved her. He must have been in love with her mother. Yes! It was forbidden love! Poor baby, he ignored Sophie because it was too painful to see her.”

Violet: *loses the love of her life when she was 8 months pregnant, suffers depression, has a traumatic birth, suffers post-partum depression, recovers and dedicates her life to raise her children and makes sure her children live a HEA*

The Bton Fandom: “what a horrible mother, she should have been there for Anthony. She’s an absent mother! She’s the worst.”

Make it make sense.

If Violet would have died and Edmund would have crumbled, everyone would have made excuses for him. Stop acting as if Anthony raised those children alone. Violet was depressed for a while, but then SHE raised them. And before Edmund died, they were loving and involved parents.

People forget too easily all the damage Richard did to Sophie.

Let's just recap all the shitty things he did in the book.

He abused his power as a wealthy heir to take advantage of a poor maid.

He left said maid alone, even when he knew there was a possibility of getting her pregnant. And yes, we don't know why she left, but if he cared he would have done something.

He let Sophie live with him because he had to. The book is clear in that he is not happy about her arrival and decides to treat her as a ward. Now, yes, this technically gave Sophie many opprtunities, but he only did it to safe his reputation. He made her pay for his mistakes.

He abandoned her in the country while he spent most of the year in London doing who knows what. Sophie grew up completely alone, except the servants. She had no friends ebcause everyone knew she was an illegitimate child.

When he is in the country, he barely spent time with her. Although I believe he asked for reports from the governess and knew she could be an accomplished woman.

He married Araminta without ever considering Sophie. If he cared about Sophie, he would have mentioned her to Araminta before proposing to her. No loving father would have made any decision without making sure that his new wife treated his daughter with respect. In fact, Araminta was treated as a fool here too, cause she deserved to know. As horrible as she was, she deserved to know Sophie existed, and the fact that Richard didn't think it important to tell her shows how privileged and horrible he was.He was a very wealthy earl, he could have had anyone. He was only 36 years old and if Sophie looked like him, he should have been handsome.

When he presented to the whole staff, he totally forgot about Sophie. He wasn't even planning on making a formal presentation!!! That scene breaks my heart cause Sophie beams when he tells her he didn’t see her. Like how despicable you have to be to make her feel like she’s forgetable and more insignificant than a scullery maid. Let’s not pretend that this messed up with Sophie’s self-esteem.

He didn’t take measures to protect Sophie’s dowry. He left her money... and then what? There were no further instructions on what to do with her. Did he plan to arrange a marriage? How could he have trusted Sophie’s only opportunity for a good life to a woman who hated her?!?!?!?! An ambitious woman who only cared about money and status.

He was aware of Araminta’s treatment towards Sophie and he allowed it. As horrible as Araminta was, the only reason why that woman came near Sophie was Richard. And Sophie knew it.

I know the dowry was extremely important to Sophie, and it does prove that he acknowledge her existence and his responsibility. But honestly, it wasn’t enough. Even if he was already thinking about a future for Sophie where he dies, he could have been more specific in the will. Or, he could have left instructions to his lawyer. What if Sophie didn’t find a husband? Could she have gotten access to the money? I do believe he would have searched for a decent man, but I don’t think he planned a HEA for Sophie, merely a man willing to overlook her illegitimacy. I don’t think they would have had contact once Sophie got married.

And frankly, the fact that people tend to brush off his conduct and abuse and just focus on Araminta pisses me off. Men really can get away with everything.

NEGLECT IS ABUSE!!!!!!

Richard made Sophie carry all the weight of his crimes. He went on being an earl in London and being wealthy and influential. Sophie couldn’t have done anything, she was just a child. The servants didn’t have the power to defend her either. And then Benedict came and he tried to do the same. He wanted her to carry with all the shame of being a mistress while he continued with his life. But this time Sophie could say no and forced Benedict to make sacrifices.

[feminismisstillahatemovement]

When Ritchie Herron woke after gender reassignment surgery, he had a feeling he had made a terrible mistake.

Five years later, his scars still sometimes weep and he cannot walk long distances or ride a bike. “I’ve awakened from what was a mental health crisis, to a body that will be for ever changed and damaged,” he said. He no longer identifies as transgender and is living as a gay man “as best I can, given what has happened”.

Now, the Newcastle-based civil servant, 36, has launched legal action against NHS England, alongside the “heartbroken” father of a 21-year-old who has been booked in for imminent genital-removal surgery at an adult gender clinic. The two men are demanding a judicial review which includes an independent inquiry into the safety of NHS treatments being offered to young people under the age of 25 who are experiencing gender dysphoria.

Steve Barclay, secretary of state for health, and Kemi Badenoch, minister for equalities, as well as Dr Hilary Cass, who carried out a recent review of the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) are also being served with legal papers. The father is hoping to stop the surgery from going ahead.

In a crowdfunding appeal to raise funds for their legal case, launched today, Herron and the father, who wishes to remain anonymous, say that the model of care for gender dysphoria in the NHS adult service is “profoundly unsafe” and “routinely places young people on a pathway towards irreversible lifelong treatment”.

Both Herron and the father’s 21-year-old child have been diagnosed as autistic. According to lawyers representing the two men, the NHS may be discriminating against autistic people, who are disproportionately more likely to be treated in the gender clinics, which is why Badenoch, as minister for equalities, is included in the legal action.

The case comes as a large number of 17-year-olds who have been on the 8,000-strong waiting list of the Tavistock clinic in north London, England’s only NHS gender identity clinic for children, are being referred to the adult service.

At the seven NHS adult gender clinics in England and Wales, surgery and cross-sex hormones are offered after the age of 18. Patients have at least two assessment appointments with a specialist medical practitioner before hormone treatment is recommended, and those who are considering surgical treatment have two further meetings with separate clinical professionals before they are referred.

There has been a sharp rise in the past decade in young people wanting to change gender. From 2011-12 to 2021-22, the number of under-18s in England referred to the Tavistock soared from 210 to 3,585, according to its own figures.

Herron was 25 when he decided he was a woman living in a man’s body. He had been bullied at school and struggled to cope with his parents’ divorce, and was diagnosed in his early 20s with depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

He decided he was transgender and “all my struggles were due to gender dysphoria” — an idea he says was encouraged by older activists in internet forums. He fixated on the idea that “my body was being poisoned by testosterone”, he says.

In 2013, he was referred by his GP to an NHS adult gender clinic, and says he was asked early on by an NHS clinician if he had considered gender reassignment surgery. He attended a private clinic as there was a long NHS waiting list, where he was diagnosed as transgender.

When he was seen by the NHS clinic in 2014, they prescribed testosterone blocker and later oestrogen. He also started therapy with an NHS psychosexual counsellor, which lasted for 100 sessions over five years, after which he was told he would be discharged and that the only other treatment open to him was surgery. He had delayed and cancelled the irreversible operation, which involves removing the penis and testicles and modelling the area to resemble female genitalia, several times over the previous two years, fearing the consequences.

In 2017, he was given another referral for surgery, to be performed at a private hospital but paid for by the NHS.

Finally, in 2018, “two days before my 31st birthday, I underwent a surgery that removed my genitals, inverting them in a procedure that has been marked as refined, but is no more civilised than an amputation” he said.

“Today, despite multiple follow-up surgeries, my scar lines still weep, occasionally becoming inflamed and causing crippling pain. In the flesh cavity that was created to mimic a vagina, I feel mostly nothing, aside from the occasional stabs of pain. I can’t use the toilet properly . . . and no matter how hard I push or strain, a dribble emerges, which may continue for hours after I have left the seat.”

The father who, with Herron, is seeking a judicial review of the adult services, says he is terrified of the possible outcome for his child, who was born a boy and who is due to undergo genital surgery shortly. The young person “is on the autistic spectrum, suffers from anxiety and has very poor mental health”, according to the father. The father believes that, like Herron, they think “becoming a woman will solve so many of his problems”.

“I am one of the many parents who is heartbroken over the journey my son has taken,” said the father, who is paying towards the legal fees for the case. “I know he has been let down by the system and fear for his future.”

Aged 13, the boy, who had struggled at school, “out of the blue” told an NHS child mental health adviser that he believed he was a girl. “He was referred to an NHS clinic and was prescribed puberty blocking drugs to halt his development as soon as he turned 16. I was shocked that such an experimental treatment would be given, despite my objections. His anxiety and his autism were not explored.

“I decided to try to prevent him attending the NHS clinic but was threatened with the possibility of him being taken into care if I stood in his way.

“As a parent, I am deeply concerned to protect my son. I am shut out,” he said. “A system with such limited safeguards, providing a radical experimental treatment with life-long consequences is structurally unfair to people like my son, whose autism makes him more likely to seek the answer to his problems in this radical treatment. He needs more protection, not less.”

The men are being represented by the legal team that helped another de-transitioner, Keira Bell, win a High Court case against Gids to stop children with gender dysphoria being prescribed puberty-blocking drugs. Bell was given the drugs to stop her development aged 16, before later, at an adult clinic, being referred for a double mastectomy. The case was later overturned at the Court of Appeal but led to a critical review of Gids by Dr Hilary Cass. Gids has since been earmarked for closure, although this has been delayed until March 2024, about a year later than first planned.

Herron was not diagnosed with autism until this year, but says he raised the condition with the NHS gender clinic. He adds that if he had received a comprehensive psychological assessment and treatment for conditions such as autism and OCD at the outset, he would never have undergone genital surgery. “I can deal with my own regret, and my own stupidity, but I can’t deal with the fact that I’m not alone in this. That there are not just dozens, or hundreds, but thousands of others like me, and more to come.

“We deserve a safety net, we deserve to be challenged in our beliefs before we make irreversible decisions that have huge lifelong consequences, we deserve to be caught and cared for. We do not deserve to be punished for asking for help, by being castrated and gaslighted into a way of thinking that isn’t our own.

“It is a matter of urgency that the treatment offered by adult services is reviewed and that safeguards are put in place.”

[covid-safer-hotties]

Pain emerges as dominant symptom in long Covid, UCL study reveals - Published Aug 28, 2024

Pain may be the most prevalent and severe symptom reported by individuals with long Covid, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers.

The study, published in JRSM Open, analysed data from over 1,000 people in England and Wales who logged their symptoms on an app between November 2020 and March 2022.

Pain, including headache, joint pain and stomach pain, was the most common symptom, reported by 26.5% of participants.

The other most common symptoms were neuropsychological issues such as anxiety and depression (18.4%), fatigue (14.3%), and dyspnoea (shortness of breath) (7.4%). The analysis found that the intensity of symptoms, particularly pain, increased by 3.3% on average each month since initial registration.

The study also examined the impact of demographic factors on the severity of symptoms, revealing significant disparities among different groups. Older individuals were found to experience much higher symptom intensity, with those aged 68-77 reporting 32.8% more severe symptoms, and those aged 78-87 experiencing an 86% increase in symptom intensity compared to the 18-27 age group.

Gender differences were also pronounced, with women reporting 9.2% more intense symptoms, including pain, than men. Ethnicity further influenced symptom severity, as non-white individuals with long Covid reported 23.5% more intense symptoms, including pain, compared to white individuals.

The study also explored the relationship between education levels and symptom severity. Individuals with higher education qualifications (NVQ level 3, 4, and 5 – equivalent to A-levels or higher education) experienced significantly less severe symptoms, including pain, with reductions of 27.7%, 62.8%, and 44.7% for NVQ levels 3, 4 and 5 respectively, compared to those with lower education levels (NVQ level 1-2 – equivalent to GCSEs).

Socioeconomic status, as measured by the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), also influenced symptom intensity. Participants from less deprived areas reported less intense symptoms than those from the most deprived areas. However, the number of symptoms did not significantly vary with socioeconomic status, suggesting that while deprivation may exacerbate symptom intensity, it does not necessarily lead to a broader range of symptoms.

Our study highlights pain as a predominant self-reported symptom in long Covid, but it also shows how demographic factors appear to play a significant role in symptom severity.

With ongoing occurrences of Covid-19 (e.g., LB.1, or D-FLiRT variants), the potential for more long Covid cases remains a pressing concern. Our findings can help shape targeted interventions and support strategies for those most at risk."

-Dr. David Sunkersing, Lead Author, UCL Institute of Health Informatics

In the paper, the researchers called for sustained support for long Covid clinics and the development of treatment strategies that prioritize pain management, alongside other prevalent symptoms like neuropsychological issues and fatigue.

Given the significant impact of demographic factors on symptom severity, the study underscored the need for healthcare policies that addressed these disparities, ensuring equitable care for all individuals affected by long Covid, the researchers said.

Study limitations included a lack of information on other health conditions participants may have had and a lack of information about health history. The researchers cautioned that the study may have excluded individuals with very severe Covid and those facing technological or socioeconomic barriers in accessing a smartphone app.

The study was led by the UCL Institute of Health Informatics and the Department of Primary Care and Population Health at UCL in collaboration with the software developer, Living With Ltd.

Source: University College London

Journal reference: Sunkersing, D., et al. (2024) Long COVID symptoms and demographic associations: A retrospective case series study using healthcare application data. Materials Today. doi.org/10.1177/20542704241274292. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20542704241274292

[maaarine]

The Cause of Depression Is Probably Not What You Think (Joanna Thompson, Quanta Magazine, Jan 26 2023)

"A literature review that appeared in Molecular Psychiatry in July was the latest and perhaps loudest death knell for the serotonin hypothesis, at least in its simplest form.

An international team of scientists led by Joanna Moncrieff of University College London screened 361 papers from six areas of research and carefully evaluated 17 of them.

They found no convincing evidence that lower levels of serotonin caused or were even associated with depression.

People with depression didn’t reliably seem to have less serotonin activity than people without the disorder.

Experiments in which researchers artificially lowered the serotonin levels of volunteers didn’t consistently cause depression. (…)

Although serotonin levels don’t seem to be the primary driver of depression, SSRIs show a modest improvement over placebos in clinical trials.

But the mechanism behind that improvement remains elusive.

“Just because aspirin relieves a headache, [it] doesn’t mean that aspirin deficits in the body are causing headaches,” said John Krystal, a neuropharmacologist and chair of the psychiatry department at Yale University.

“Fully understanding how SSRIs produce clinical change is still a work in progress.”

Speculation about the source of that benefit has spawned alternative theories about the origins of depression. (…)

Repple warns, however, that another explanation for the effects his team observed is also possible: Perhaps the depressed patients’ brain connections were impaired by inflammation.

Chronic inflammation impedes the body’s ability to heal, and in neural tissue it can gradually degrade synaptic connections.

The loss of such connections is thought to contribute to mood disorders.

Good evidence supports this theory.

When psychiatrists have evaluated populations of patients who have chronic inflammatory diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, they’ve found that “all of them have higher-than-average rates of depression,” said Charles Nemeroff, a neuropsychiatrist at the University of Texas, Austin.

Of course, knowing that they have an incurable, degenerative condition may contribute to a patient’s depressed feelings, but the researchers suspect that the inflammation itself is also a factor.

Medical researchers have found that inducing inflammation in certain patients can trigger depression.

Interferon alpha, which is sometimes used to treat chronic hepatitis C and other conditions, causes a major inflammatory response throughout the body by flooding the immune system with proteins known as cytokines — molecules that facilitate reactions ranging from mild swelling to septic shock.

The sudden influx of inflammatory cytokines leads to appetite loss, fatigue and a slowdown in mental and physical activity — all symptoms of major depression.

Patients taking interferon often report feeling suddenly, sometimes severely, depressed.

If overlooked chronic inflammation is causing many people’s depression, researchers still need to determine the source of that inflammation.

Autoimmune disorders, bacterial infections, high stress and certain viruses, including the virus that causes Covid-19, can all induce persistent inflammatory responses.

Viral inflammation can extend directly to tissues in the brain. Devising an effective anti-inflammatory treatment for depression may depend on knowing which of these causes is at work.

It’s also unclear whether simply treating inflammation could be enough to alleviate depression.

Clinicians are still trying to parse whether depression causes inflammation or inflammation leads to depression. “It’s a sort of chicken-and-egg phenomenon,” Nemeroff said.

Increasingly, some scientists are pushing to reframe “depression” as an umbrella term for a suite of related conditions, much as oncologists now think of “cancer” as referring to a legion of distinct but similar malignancies.

"And just as each cancer needs to be prevented or treated in ways relevant to its origin, treatments for depression may need to be tailored to the individual."

[fullsunsets]

Thanks to @henryspearl and @theprinceandagcd for tagging me.

Trigger warning for this snippet, it will be discussing Bea's addiction and rehab. This is for my @aroyallybigbangrwrb fic where Bea is still in rehab.

This is sadder than my other snippets but I love Henry and Bea's relationship so much to not include this. They both have gone through dark moments yet their sibling's bond only strengthens. I also love how Alex is always there to comfort and hear Henry out.

The TV kept playing in the background as Henry kept with his story. He explained how his depression and fear of losing another family member made him ignore how fucked it was that she was admitted without her consent. How it didn’t make the situation any better at first, she kept trying to escape until she finally did and called Henry out of bar in London. How he drove all the way from Oxford to beg his sister to go back and how that was the night he finally came out to her. Her being the only one he came out to aside from Pez at the time. Bea went back to rehab, this time willingly and hasn’t tried to escape ever since, but how Henry felt guilty for letting his brother and grandma control her like that. He started to visit her almost every week and even thought of going back to London to be closer to her.

However, he also told Alex what it was like to grow up with Bea. How she always took care of him and he considers her one of his best friends. How when she noticed how England was eating him alive, she begged him to take Pez’s offer and move to the US. How they still do weekly video calls and she loves listening about his new life at the other side of the Atlantic. How her passion has always been music but after everything, she is not sure if she continue with that dream. How he had her promise she will keep playing once her treatment is over. And lastly, how she only has less than 2 months left and can’t wait to see her again.

It is the most he has heard Henry talk about himself and the longest Alex has remained quiet since he is afraid Henry will close off again if he is interrupted.

Tags: @benwvatt @onetwistedmiracle @myheartalivewrites @jmagnabo92 @thesleepyskipper @luainthewild @iboatedhere + open tag

DM if you want to be tagged in the future

[justforbooks]

The Sleep Room by Jon Stock – haunting accounts of horrific medical abuse

A book about psychiatrist William Sargant’s unethical treatments at a London hospital in the 1960s is all the more powerful for its vivid patient testimonies

Achild of 14 is forced to walk on to a stage and strip to her underwear. Tiny and mute beneath the stacked rows of medical students, she is paraded for their benefit by a consultant psychiatrist some 44 years her senior. It is 1966 – the peak of Swinging 60s’ hedonism, liberalism and youthful counterculture – but in a locked psychiatric ward in London’s Royal Waterloo hospital, unspeakable violations are being inflicted upon patients.

The perpetrator-in-chief, William Sargant, is the subject of thriller writer Jon Stock’s first nonfiction book, The Sleep Room: A Very British Medical Scandal. One of the most notorious figures in British psychiatry, Sargant initially wished to be a physician. He pivoted to psychiatry after one of his earliest pieces of research met with a humiliating reception at the Royal College of Physicians, causing him to suffer a nervous breakdown and spend time in a psychiatric hospital himself. At this time – the 1930s – effective psychiatric treatments were virtually non-existent. Serious mental illness usually led to lifelong incarceration in an asylum. But the therapeutic nihilism of psychiatry was shifting towards optimism. Psychiatrists began experimenting with so-called “heroic” therapies, such as putting patients into insulin comas or giving them electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to try to “reset” their brains.

Sargant firmly believed that a broken brain was no different to any other damaged organ or limb, and best fixed with aggressive physical treatment. Not for him the namby-pamby chitchat of Freud’s “sofa merchants” and their spurious talking cures. Rather, psychiatric illnesses such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia could all be cured with excessive doses of drugs and electricity, or, if they failed, with surgical lobotomy. Sargant’s patients were sequestered away behind locked doors on the top floor of the hospital. The most infamous part of his ward was a six-bedded area known as the Sleep Room. Here, the patients, nearly all of whom were female, were drugged into long-term stupors, being roused from their beds only to be fed, washed or given innumerable doses of ECT. A typical “narcosis” treatment comprised three months of near-total unconsciousness, after which time the patient had often been reduced to a “walking zombie” with permanent memory loss.

The Sleep Room is peppered with haunting first-hand accounts of horrific treatment at the hands of William Sargant. The actor Celia Imrie, for example, the aforementioned child, was admitted under Sargant’s care because she was close to death from anorexia nervosa. She recounts being forced to drink such large doses of chlorpromazine – the first antipsychotic - that she dribbled, shook uncontrollably and found her hair in clumps on her pillow. She was injected daily with enough insulin to make her drowsy, weak, sweaty and near comatose. She remembers other women around her having huge rubber plugs jammed between their teeth before the high-voltage electricity of ECT was sent through their temples, and their bodies “shuddered and jerked” with the “scent of burning hair and flesh”. Sometimes a patient would reappear on the ward with their head thickly bandaged, scarcely able to walk after being lobotomised. Amid the moans, screams and stale stench of sleep, Imrie recalls the nurses reporting her own resistance to the drugs to Sargant, to which he ominously responded: “every dog has his breaking point”.

To say that these stories are difficult to read is an understatement. Even as someone who learned, as a medical student, about the unspeakable mid-century vogue for lobotomy – permanently subduing patients by gouging out parts of their frontal lobes – some of the accounts made my skin crawl. It is to Stock’s great credit that he places patient testimony centre stage, allowing several patients to tell their stories at length in their own, unedited words.

Sargant himself is depicted as a sinister, all-powerful, “simian” monster who ran his ward as a personal fiefdom in which he could pursue, unchecked, his conviction that effective treatments worked by physically erasing and reprogramming disturbed minds. A darker benefit of his Sleep Room was the absolute power it gave him over his charges. Once rendered unconscious, a patient could be subjected to treatments they might otherwise never have consented to, such as scores, or even hundreds, of doses of ECT. As Sargant himself put it: “What is so valuable is that they generally have no memory about the actual length of the treatment or the number of ECT used.” Before long, colleagues had nicknamed him “Bill the Brain Slicer” and “Sargant the Shock”. His fascination with techniques for brainwashing led to speculation that he may have collaborated with the CIA’s MKUltra programme into mind control, though no definitive proof of this is provided by Stock.

At least five of Sargant’s patients died during narcosis. The dangers of artificially prolonged sleep included deep vein thrombosis, pressure sores, infection and paralysis of the gut, all of which could be fatal. Though the disproportionate number of female patients under his care was not, in itself, evidence of misogyny, his treatment of particular individuals locates him firmly within that psychiatric tradition. He was perfectly willing, for example, to regard female independence as synonymous with madness and in need of social correction. One young woman was dispatched to Sargant by her wealthy businessman father after she fell in love with an “unsuitable” man in the 1960s. Sargant “helped” the situation by subjecting her to months of narcosis, ECT, antipsychotics, antidepressants and the “truth drug”, sodium amytal, after which she was successfully returned to her family with all memories of her boyfriend completely erased. Obedience had been achieved through physical obliteration of the mind.

While there is no denying Sargant’s lack of medical ethics, and his authoritarianism and reliance on dogma as opposed to clinical evidence, The Sleep Room can present him as almost cartoonishly villainous. With eyes “like washed black pebbles”, “sadomasochistic stubbornness” and a “prodigious enthusiasm for pill popping”, he sweeps the wards like a demented demigod, barking orders to terrified staff and patients alike. This portrayal unhelpfully flattens very real and complicated issues over how best to treat serious mental illness. Patient consent – the bedrock of all good medical practice – cannot always be obtained when a patient’s illness means they lack capacity to make decisions for themselves. Even today, with a modern emphasis on the rights of patients, the responsibilities of clinicians and the need for humanity in psychiatry, enforced treatment is sometimes the only way to prevent a severely unwell psychiatric patient harming or killing themselves. ECT, for example, although used much less frequently than in Sargant’s day (and rightly so), can be a life-saving last resort, as in patients with catatonic depression. With more nuance and less condemnation, Stock could have interrogated more richly the complexities of how best to treat disabling and life-threatening psychiatric illness.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Max Stephens and Alex Barton

Published: Jun 9, 2023

Puberty blockers will not be routinely offered to children suffering from gender dysphoria, the NHS has said. Clinicians and psychologists said the decision “will go down in history” in the safeguarding of children. Guidance for two new regional gender clinics opening in England confirmed that the hormone-suppressing drugs would not be “routinely offered”. The clinics will replace the controversial Tavistock gender clinic, which is closing after a damning independent review from Dr Hilary Cass deemed it “not safe”. The Gender Identity Development Service (Gids), based at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, London, was expected to close in spring this year, but it is still running. The reason for the delay is unknown. A southern hub will open this autumn, but a northern hub is not expected to open until April 2024. The Tavistock does not prescribe puberty blockers for children, but it can refer them for such drugs. Clinical research only On Friday, NHS England published an update following its previously stated intention to only commission puberty-suppressing hormones as part of clinical research. It read: “We are... proposing that, outside of a research setting, puberty-suppressing hormones should not be routinely commissioned for children and adolescents who have gender incongruence/dysphoria.” A spokesman confirmed that children treated at the new gender clinics would not be routinely offered puberty blockers as part of their treatment, but there may be exceptional circumstances in which a clinician could make a case for a child to have them. ‘Seismic’ decision An independent review, led by Dr Cass, was commissioned in September 2020 amid a rise in demand, long waiting times for assessments, and “significant external scrutiny” around the London-based Gids clinic’s approach and capacity. In 2021, the Court of Appeal ruled that children will be allowed to take puberty blockers without parental consent. The NHS said it aimed to start a study by next year on the impact of puberty blockers on gender dysphoria in children and young people with early-onset gender dysphoria. James Esses, co-founder of Thoughtful Therapists, which is focused on safeguarding children, said: “The fact that the NHS is holding firm on their intention to prevent the use of puberty blockers outside of the context of clinical trials is seismic. “This will hopefully bring an end to vulnerable children being placed down a pathway to irreversible harm.” ‘Puberty blockers don’t help’ David Bell, a former governor turned whistleblower from Tavistock said: “All the evidence shows that puberty blockers don’t help, and there is clear evidence of physical and psychological harm caused by them, so this change is in line with the evidence we have. “A very large percentage of children being treated for gender dysphoria have other problems such as autism and depression, and many are upset or confused about their sexuality.” An NHS spokesman said: “The NHS is today publishing an interim specification for gender services for children and young people, in line with advice and recommendations from the Independent Cass Review. This will allow the new centres to finalise their preparation for service provision later this year. “The NHS is now engaging on the proposal that puberty blockers will not be made routinely available outside of research. We will develop a study into the impact of puberty blockers on gender dysphoria in children and young people with early-onset gender dysphoria, which aims to be up and running in 2024.”

[sketchyfletch]

As some folks asked yesterday, time to vent. Warning for reference to death, cancer, drug use and general family messiness.

My brother has always received a lot of praise from everyone who gets to know him. He is very intelligent, has a good career, is generous to friends and family. He is also shy, stubborn, usually gets his way and usually thinks he knows best. My girlfriend does not like him, which I found a bit jarring after a lifetime of people loving him. She believes my parents give him preferential treatment and he doesn't earn the praise he gets because he doesn't really work for what he gets, and people let his less pleasant moments slide.

This hasn't been helped by the fact he uses recreationally, which is very common for his scene and I think it should be legalised anyway. But for my girlfriend, who is from a community that would be much more heavily penalised for possession than my brother likely would it he were caught, it's quite brazen. However she knows he means a lot to me and she has made efforts to reach out to him, which blew up spectacularly a few weeks ago when she and I, her cousin and her best friend, were out together and she suggested that we invite him out with us. As it turned out he was in the area at a friend's place and invited us by for drinks. I was delighted that at last my girlfriend and my brother would get some bonding time. So I was pretty enraged when we arrived to find him and all his friends off their tits with paraphernalia scattered around, especially as he had never met my girlfriend's friend or cousin before.

We also lost my girlfriend's stepmum earlier in the year very suddenly. Stress and flu put strain on her heart, she went into septic shock and from relatively healthy one week, she was dead the next. Given my partner had been worried sick about her birth mum the previous year due to cancer and other health issues, this was a massive blow. There were signs this year that the cancer might have come back, so further strain. She is currently on suppressing drugs that weaken her immune system so we are be careful in any situation that might involve passing on infection.

We were meant to go to my family's for a belated Christmas this year. My brother and his partner flew abroad for the 25th. The day before, the partner was very ill and definitely shouldn't have travelled, but went anyway. He was coughing horribly for about a week, so with that in mind my partner and I agreed that she wouldn't come down on the later day to avoid picking anything up, and I would go down. On passing this info to my family, my mum's reaction was to imply that my partner was overreacting. Given her losses this year, this was deeply insensitive, and also deepened her belief that my brother gets to do whatever he wants and doesn't think about the impact on others. I did go down in the end and just focused on enjoying the day, but it wasn't the same without her there.

We're meeting my parents in a few days to talk things out and hopefully repair that relationship. But between all of the things going on last year, plus the fun that is buying a house in London in this day and age, balancing work and an apprenticeship, and my low grade grainy depression, I am so, spectacularly, fucking tired

[honelle56]

unfiltered thoughts on ttpd

I just finished my first listen of TTPD so below you can find my first thoughts on each song as I listened at 6 in the morning (I need sleep so bad lmao)

1. Fortnight

AAAAHHH I AM LISTENING!!!!! This has such Lana vibes omg!

Who do we wanna murder now??

I love you it's ruining my life :(

IS THIS ABOUT MATTY???????????

Is Post Malone getting the female singer treatment hahahahah

oh okay there he is!!

Florida mention!!!!!

2. The Tortured Poets Department

Woah I like this beat!!!

No-fucking-body!!!!

Dream mention????? (golden retriever)

This is so pretty

Wait is this about Travis??? I am so confused. Please tell me this isn't about Matty too

Oh the wedding mention

3. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys

Put me back on the shelf :(

Love the melodies

THE OUTRE THE OUTRO LOVE THISSSS

WHY IS THIS SO SAD FUCK ME

4. Down Bad

I can't do this IT IS SO SAD

"Fuck it if I can't have him"

hahaha

Is this another Matty track........ I can't do this

So fuck you if I can't have us :((((

5. So Long, London

Are we in a church

Jesus fuck why is this so sad

this is so beautiful

I am crying

I sent my full reaction to this song to @bluishfrog and it's basically just me looking at the lyrics while crying lmfao

6. But Daddy I Love Him

This one is about Matty again huh

I need a dictionary

I fuck with this song so bad

7. Fresh Out The Slammer

my first word was "Woah"

Back to cheating

"Years of labor, locks and ceilings In the shade of how he was feeling"

Outch

Oh god this one is hard - this sounds like end of relationship stuff

"Watched me daily disappearing For just one glimpse of his smile"

:((((

So many outros, I really fuck with this

Imaginary rings what if I go die

8. Florida!!!

she cheated too????

omg an actual feature with a female artist!!! We love!!!

I did not think this song would be about murder and drugs lmfao

Sorry I got lost in the dnf-isms, loved the song

9. Guilty as Sin?

I will have to come back to this, I am so tired I just completely zoned out xD

Love the vibes tho

It's a bop ngl

10. Who's Afraid of Little Old Me

Oh I will love this

FUCK IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL

THE CHORUS WOW WOW WOW

THIS IS SO GOOD

This is so my favourite so far

Okay so we are in an asylum lmao

"Put narcotics into all of my songs And that's why you're still singing along"

this is genius

THIS SONG IS AWESOME

11. I Can Fix Him

love the vibes

god her lower register help me

THE ENDING I AM CACKLING THIS IS SONGWRITING PERFECTION (also thanks Taylor for coming to your senses lmfao)

12. loml

this sounds sad..............

Every mention of getting married makes we want to committ

Never quite married FUCK HIM FUCK HIM FUCK HIM

I don't wanna do this anymore

"And all at once, the ink bleeds"

all the songs they wrote together I am...... not fine

"You shit-talked me under the table Talking rings and talking cradles I wish I could unrecall How we almost had it all"

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

this bridge broke me

the loss of my life I-

13. I Can Do It With a Broken Heart

What a bleachers sounding song

okay so this is definitely what we thought it would be about

"Lights, camera, bitch, smile Even when you wanna die"

you go girl

A BOP

i am crying and dancing in my bed

"He said he'd love me for all time But that time was quite short"

FUCK HIM FUCK HIM FUCK HIM

okay time to dance again

"I'm so depressed, I act like it's my birthday every day"

she's so silly

the ad-libs I love her so much

14. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived

not the breath - i wanted to keep dancing :(

"And I don't even want you back, I just want to know If rusting my sparkling summer was the goal"

ughhhhhh

the lower register hitting again

BRIDGE BRIDGE BRIDGE AND WHAT A BRIDGE

oh she is angry agnry

"I would've died for your sins Instead I just died inside"

WHY WHY WHY

FUCK HIM FUCK HIM FUCK HIM

15. The Alchemy

I zoned again lmao

IS THIS ABOUT TRAVIS??????

WHO CHEERED

love this for her

16. Clara Bow

"You look like Taylor Swift In this light, we're loving it You've got edge, she never did The future's bright, dazzling"

oh how I love this, she is such a genius

[0rqcles]

▬▬ ·˚ ಣ ˖ ࣪࿐ྂ 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉ℯ𝓇 ℐ𝓃𝒻ℴ𓈒 ˖ ࣪ 𝓉𝓌𝒾𝓁𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 ℴ𝒸

⇘ : .𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ࿔₊ *

𝖭𝖠𝖬𝖤

╰⋯➤ 𝖧𝖾𝗅𝖾𝗇𝖺.

𝖭𝖠𝖬𝖤 𝖬𝖤𝖠𝖭𝖨𝖭𝖦

╰⋯➤ 𝖲𝗁𝗂𝗇𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗅𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍 𝗈𝗋 𝖫𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍.

𝖠𝖫𝖨𝖠𝖲

╰⋯➤ 𝖫𝖺𝗇𝖾, Nell, Hela.

𝖬𝖮𝖵𝖨𝖤 𝖥𝖱𝖠𝖭𝖢𝖧𝖨𝖲𝖤

╰⋯➤ 𝖳𝗐𝗂𝗅𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍

𝖦𝖨𝖥𝖳

╰⋯➤ 𝖯𝗈𝗐𝖾𝗋 𝖳𝗋𝖺𝗇𝗌𝖿𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗅.

𝖠𝖦𝖤

╰⋯➤ 𝟣𝟫（𝖺𝗀𝖾 𝗐𝗁𝖾𝗇 𝗍𝗋𝖺𝗇𝗌𝖿𝗂𝗀𝗎𝗋𝖾𝖽）

╰⋯➤ 𝟥𝟧𝟫（𝖼𝗎𝗋𝗋𝖾𝗇𝗍 𝖺𝗀𝖾, 𝗌𝗂𝗇𝖼𝖾 𝗍𝗐𝗂𝗅𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍 𝗍𝖺𝗄𝖾𝗌 𝗉𝗅𝖺𝖼𝖾 𝗌𝗈𝗆𝖾𝗐𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖾 𝗂𝗇 𝟤𝟢𝟢𝟧, 𝖨 𝖼𝖺𝗅𝖼𝗎𝗅𝖺𝗍𝖾𝖽）

𝖡𝖮𝖱𝖭

╰⋯➤ 𝟣𝟨𝟦𝟨. 𝖫𝗈𝗇𝖽𝗈𝗇, 𝖤𝗇𝗀𝗅𝖺𝗇𝖽．

𝖸𝖤𝖠𝖱 𝖶𝖧𝖤𝖭 𝖳𝖴𝖱𝖭𝖤𝖣

╰⋯➤ 𝟣𝟨𝟨𝟧

𝖬𝖠𝖪𝖤𝖱

╰⋯➤ 𝖢𝖺𝗋𝗅𝗈𝗌（𝗇𝗈𝗍 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗇𝗈𝗇）

𝖧𝖤𝖨𝖦𝖧𝖳

╰⋯➤ 𝟣𝟩𝟢（𝟧'𝟩）

𝖤𝖸𝖤 𝖢𝖮𝖫𝖮𝖱

╰⋯➤ 𝖦𝗋𝖾𝖾𝗇（𝗁𝗎𝗆𝖺𝗇）

╰⋯➤ 𝖦𝗈𝗅𝖽（𝗏𝖺𝗆𝗉𝗂𝗋𝖾）

╰⋯➤ 𝖡𝗅𝖺𝖼𝗄（𝗐𝗁𝖾𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗋𝗌𝗍𝗒）

𝖲𝖯𝖤𝖢𝖨𝖤𝖲

╰⋯➤ Vampire

╰⋯➤ Human (𝗉𝗋𝖾𝗏𝗂𝗈𝗎𝗌𝗅y).

𝖢𝖮𝖵𝖤𝖭

╰⋯➤ 𝖭／𝖠

𝖬𝖠𝖳𝖤

╰⋯➤ 𝖭／𝖠

₊

⇘ : .𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 ࿔₊ *

╰⋯➤ 𝖠 𝗏𝖾𝗋𝗒 𝖻𝖾𝖺𝗎𝗍𝗂𝖿𝗎𝗅 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗇𝗀 𝗐𝗈𝗆𝖺𝗇 𝗐𝗁𝗈𝗌𝖾 𝗉𝗁𝗒𝗌𝗂𝗊𝗎𝖾 𝗂𝗌 𝖺𝗉𝗉𝖾𝖺𝗅𝗂𝗇𝗀; 𝗌𝗁𝖾 𝗁𝖺𝗌 𝖻𝗅𝗈𝗇𝖽 𝗁𝖺𝗂𝗋 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝗋𝖾𝖺𝖼𝗁𝖾𝗌 𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝗐𝖺𝗂𝗌𝗍, 𝗐𝗁𝗂𝖼𝗁 𝗂𝗌 𝗌𝗅𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍𝗅𝗒 𝗐𝖺𝗏𝗒. 𝖲𝗁𝖾 𝗁𝖺𝗌 𝗅𝗈𝗇𝗀 𝖾𝗒𝖾𝗅𝖺𝗌𝗁𝖾𝗌, 𝗌𝗅𝖾𝗇𝖽𝖾𝗋 𝖾𝗒𝖾𝖻𝗋𝗈𝗐𝗌, 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖺 𝗌𝗅𝗂𝗆 𝖻𝗈𝖽𝗒.

₊

⇘ : .𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 ࿔₊ *

╰⋯➤ 𝖧𝖾𝗅𝖾𝗇𝖺 𝗂𝗌 𝖺 𝗏𝖾𝗋𝗒 𝗋𝖾𝗌𝖾𝗋𝗏𝖾𝖽, 𝖺𝗌𝗌𝖾𝗋𝗍𝗂𝗏𝖾 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗍𝗒 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗇𝗀 𝗅𝗈𝗈𝗄𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗐𝗈𝗆𝖺𝗇, 𝗌𝗁𝖾 𝗂𝗌 𝖺𝗅𝗌𝗈 𝗄𝗇𝗈𝗐𝗇 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗁𝖺𝗏𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖺 𝗄𝖾𝖾𝗇 𝖾𝗒𝖾 𝗈𝗇 𝗉𝖾𝗈𝗉𝗅𝖾 𝗌𝗁𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗇𝗄𝗌 𝗆𝖾𝖺𝗇𝗌 𝗇𝗈 𝗀𝗈𝗈𝖽 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝗈𝗋 𝗈𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋𝗌, 𝗌𝗁𝖾 𝗂𝗌𝗇𝗍 𝗏𝖾𝗋𝗒 𝗍𝗋𝗎𝗌𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝗈𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋𝗌 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖼𝖺𝗇 𝖻𝖾 𝖺𝗇𝗇𝗈𝗒𝖾𝖽 𝗊𝗎𝗂𝗍𝖾 𝖾𝖺𝗌𝗂𝗅𝗒.

₊

⇘ : .𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 ࿔₊ *

╰⋯➤ One of the worst outbreaks to ever ravage the streets of London, England, erupted in the spring of 1665. When the Great Plague descended upon the city, deadly bacteria festered in rats and other vermin, while parasites such as fleas and lice became unwitting carriers, transmitting the disease through even the smallest wounds with terrifying efficiency.

╰⋯➤ Putrid waste and filth accumulated throughout the cobblestone streets, spread unwittingly by infected residents—particularly the desperate homeless who had nowhere else to go. Helena's family was modest, with her as the only surviving child; her younger brother had succumbed to leukemia years before, leaving a void that never truly healed. They lived the harsh life of peasants, scraping by on what little they could grow. When the plague struck London, their already fragile existence shattered as their crops withered and died in the fields, plunging them deeper into poverty.

╰⋯➤ Amid this chaos, Helena's father was conscripted to fight in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, which cruelly coincided with the plague's arrival that same year. Barely a fortnight after his departure, her mother contracted the merciless illness that was decimating London's population. For seven agonizing days, Helena watched helplessly as the disease ravaged her mother's once-vibrant body, transforming her into a hollow shell before death finally granted her release.

╰⋯➤ Left utterly alone, Helena spiraled into profound depression. Haunting hallucinations tormented her waking hours—visions of her mother's final moments, her gaunt face contorted in pain, intermingled with desperate fantasies of her father returning safely from war. Reality and imagination blurred as her grief consumed her.

╰⋯➤ Soon, Helena's own body betrayed her as plague symptoms manifested: unpredictable bouts of giddiness gave way to feverish delirium, and she began coughing up alarming amounts of blood. A plague doctor—one of those ominous figures in leather robes and distinctive beaked masks stuffed with herbs—visited her humble dwelling. He attempted the same futile treatments he had administered to her mother: bloodletting, herbal poultices, and prayers that fell on deaf ears. Unable to help further, he left her to her fate.

╰⋯➤ In the suffocating solitude that followed, Helena contemplated her brief, tragic existence. She thought of her brother, whose life had barely begun before it was cruelly snatched away. She remembered her mother, whose warmth and love had been her only comfort in this harsh world. And she mourned for her father, fighting in distant lands, who would likely return to find nothing but an empty home.

╰⋯➤ Then, on a particularly grim night when London lay eerily quiet save for the distant calls of "Bring out your dead," an unexpected visitor appeared at her bedside. He addressed her in a voice both mysterious and smooth as silk, his words carrying a peculiar cadence that seemed to toy with her senses. In her pain-addled state, Helena found she didn't care about his strange manner—the agony of the plague had consumed all other concerns.

╰⋯➤ Carlos was a traveler who had recently departed from Spain to tour England. The plague had transformed London into a notorious hunting ground for "creatures of the night" like him. He had been stalking the shadows, patiently waiting for the perfect prey, when he detected the rare scent of what his kind called a "singer"—a human whose blood sang to him like no other. Following this intoxicating trail, he found himself standing before the dying form of Helena, her fate now irrevocably entwined with his own

₊

⇘ : . OUTFITS ࿔₊ *

╰⋯➤ one.

╰⋯➤ two.

╰⋯➤ three.

₊

⇘ : .𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐀 ࿔₊ *

╰⋯➤ 𝗌𝗁𝖾 𝗐𝖺𝗌 created 𝖽𝗎𝗋𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖻𝗅𝖺𝖼𝗄 𝗉𝗅𝖺𝗀𝗎𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝗌𝗍𝗋𝗎𝖼𝗄 𝗅𝗈𝗇𝖽𝗈𝗇, 𝗌𝗁𝖾 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝗈𝗇𝖾 𝗈𝖿 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖿𝗂𝗋𝗌𝗍 𝖿𝖾𝗐 𝗌𝗂𝗇𝖼𝖾 𝗂𝗍 𝖻𝖾𝗀𝖺𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝗋𝗈𝗎𝗀𝗁 𝟣𝟨𝟨𝟧－𝟣𝟨𝟨𝟨．

╰⋯➤ she is 𝗏𝗈𝗂𝖼𝖾𝖽 𝖻𝗒 𝖾𝗆𝗆𝗒 𝗋𝗈𝗌𝗌𝗎𝗆（𝖽𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗋𝖾𝖽 𝗏𝗈𝗂𝖼𝖾: 𝗐𝗁𝖾𝗇 𝗌𝗁𝖾 𝗉𝗅𝖺𝗒𝖾𝖽 𝖢𝗁𝗋𝗂𝗌𝗍𝗂𝗇𝖾 𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖯𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗍𝗈𝗆 𝗈𝖿 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗈𝗉𝖾𝗋𝖺）

╰⋯➤ 𝗌𝗁𝖾 𝗅𝗂𝗄𝖾𝗌 𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀𝗂𝗇𝗀, 𝖾𝗆𝖻𝗋𝗈𝗂𝖽𝖾𝗋𝗒, 𝗂𝗇𝗍𝖾𝗋𝗂𝗈𝗋 𝖽𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗉𝗈𝖾𝗍𝗋𝗒.

╰⋯➤ 𝗂 𝖼𝖺𝗅𝖼𝗎𝗅𝖺𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖽𝖺𝗒 𝗌𝗁𝖾 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖻𝗈𝗋𝗇 （𝟣𝟨𝟦𝟨）𝗆𝗂𝗇𝗎𝗌 𝟤𝟢𝟢𝟧 𝗐𝗁𝗂𝖼𝗁 = 𝟥𝟧𝟫（𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖿𝗂𝗅𝗆𝗌, 𝗐𝖾 𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝗇𝗈𝗍 𝗀𝗂𝗏𝖾𝗇 𝖺 𝗌𝗉𝖾𝖼𝗂𝖿𝗂𝖼 𝖽𝖺𝗍𝖾 𝗐𝗁𝖾𝗇 𝖾𝖺𝖼𝗁 𝗆𝗈𝗏𝗂𝖾 𝗍𝖺𝗄𝖾𝗌 𝗉𝗅𝖺𝖼𝖾, 𝖻𝗎𝗍 𝗀𝗈𝗈𝗀𝗅𝖾 𝗌𝖺𝗒𝗌 𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗒 𝗍𝖺𝗄𝖾 𝗉𝗅𝖺𝖼𝖾 𝗌𝗈𝗆𝖾𝗐𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖾 𝖺𝗋𝗈𝗎𝗇𝖽 𝗈𝗋 𝖺𝖿𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝟤𝟢𝟢𝟧）

╰⋯➤ 𝖳𝗁𝖾 𝗇𝖺𝗆𝖾 𝖧𝖾𝗅𝖾𝗇𝖺 𝖼𝗈𝗆𝖾𝗌 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗆 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖦𝗋𝖾𝖾𝗄 𝗐𝗈𝗋𝖽 𝗁𝖾𝗅𝗂𝗈𝗌, 𝗐𝗁𝗂𝖼𝗁 𝗆𝖾𝖺𝗇𝗌 “𝗅𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍.“ 𝖨𝗍 𝗈𝖿𝖿𝖾𝗋𝗌 𝖺 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗍𝗁𝖿𝗎𝗅 𝗌𝗈𝗎𝗇𝖽 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍’𝗌 𝖼𝖺𝗋𝖾𝖿𝗎𝗅𝗅𝗒 𝖻𝖺𝗅𝖺𝗇𝖼𝖾𝖽 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝗂𝗍𝗌 𝗈𝗅𝖽－𝖿𝖺𝗌𝗁𝗂𝗈𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝖿𝖾𝖾𝗅．

╰⋯➤ 𝖧𝖾𝗅𝖾𝗇𝖺’𝗌 𝗆𝖺𝗄𝖾𝗋 𝗂𝗌 𝖺 𝖲𝗉𝖺𝗇𝗂𝗌𝗁 𝗆𝖺𝗇 𝗇𝖺𝗆𝖾𝖽 𝖢𝖺𝗋𝗅𝗈𝗌 𝗐𝗁𝗈 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖼𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝗋𝗈𝗎𝗀𝗁𝗅𝗒 𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖬𝖾𝖽𝗂𝖾𝗏𝖺𝗅 𝖤𝗋𝖺, 𝖻𝗎𝗍 𝖻𝖾𝖿𝗈𝗋𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝟣𝟨𝟢𝟢𝗌. 𝖧𝖾𝗅𝖾𝗇𝖺 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝗆𝖺𝗇𝗂𝗉𝗎𝗅𝖺𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝖾𝖽 𝖻𝗒 𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝗆𝖺𝗄𝖾𝗋 𝖺𝗅𝗈𝗇𝗀 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝖺 𝖿𝖾𝗐 𝗈𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋𝗌 𝗈𝖿 𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝖼𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗇, 𝗎𝗇𝗍𝗂𝗅 𝟣𝟨𝟫𝟢, 𝗐𝗁𝖾𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗏𝗈𝗅𝗍𝗎𝗋𝗂 𝗄𝗂𝗅𝗅𝖾𝖽 𝗁𝗂𝗆(𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗆𝗈𝗌𝗍 𝗈𝖿 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖼𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗇)𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗏𝗂𝗈𝗅𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗂𝗋 𝗋𝗎𝗅𝖾𝗌 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗋𝖾𝗏𝖾𝖺𝗅𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗆𝗌𝖾𝗅𝗏𝖾𝗌 𝗍𝗈 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗁𝗎𝗆𝖺𝗇𝗌 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖼𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗂𝗆𝗆𝗈𝗋𝗍𝖺𝗅 𝖼𝗁𝗂𝗅𝖽𝗋𝖾𝗇.

╰⋯➤ 𝖢𝖺𝗋𝗅𝗈𝗌 𝗁𝖺𝖽 𝖺 𝗐𝖾𝖺𝗄𝗇𝖾𝗌𝗌 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝖺𝗇𝗒𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗁𝖾 𝖻𝖾𝗅𝗂𝖾𝗏𝖾𝖽 𝗐𝖺𝗌 “𝖻𝖾𝖺𝗎𝗍𝗂𝖿𝗎𝗅” 𝗐𝗁𝗂𝖼𝗁 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝗉𝗋𝗈𝖻𝖺𝖻𝗅𝗒 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗈𝗇𝗅𝗒 𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗌𝗈𝗇 𝗁𝖾 𝗆𝖺𝖽𝖾 𝖧𝖾𝗅𝖾𝗇𝖺 𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖿𝗂𝗋𝗌𝗍 𝗉𝗅𝖺𝖼𝖾. 𝖢𝖺𝗋𝗅’𝗌 𝖼𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗇 𝗆𝖺𝗂𝗇𝗅𝗒 𝖼𝗈𝗇𝗌𝗂𝗌𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝗈𝖿 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗇𝗀𝖾𝗋 𝗀𝖾𝗇𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇 𝖻𝗎𝗍 𝖼𝗈𝗇𝗍𝖺𝗂𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗇𝗈 𝗈𝗇𝖾 𝗎𝗇𝖽𝖾𝗋 𝗌𝗂𝗑𝗍𝖾𝖾𝗇.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Long Covid affecting one in seven patients in Bristol area - Published Sept 1, 2024

There are striking inequalities in rates of Long Covid across the country

One in seven patients in some parts of Bristol have Long Covid, and you can now see the figures for your area using our interactive gadget. A new report by Health Equity North has revealed striking inequalities in rates of Long Covid across the country, with a clear North-South divide in the figures.

Their analysis of GP Patient Survey data from 2022 found the North West had the highest number of people reporting Long Covid symptoms (5.5%) followed by the North East and Yorkshire (5.1%). The regions with the lowest rates were the South West (3.4%) and the South East (3.6%), while the rate in London stood at 4.8% - slightly higher than the national average of 4.4% across England.

However, in one Bristol GP practice - Pilning Surgery - one in seven patients (14%) reported having Long Covid.

Long Covid includes physical, cognitive and mental impairments, with brain fog, fatigue, breathlessness, low mood, and depression among the most common symptoms. Across England, 1.9 million people were experiencing a myriad of self-reported Long Covid symptoms as of March 2023, with 79% saying it has had a negative impact on their day-to-day activities.

Fatigue was named as the most common symptom, and over half reported reduced functionality in their everyday activities, which resulted in their inability to return to work.

During the research, one participant said: “At one point, more than once, I was surprised to wake up the next morning.

"I felt like I was having stroke-like symptoms, the pressure in my head. I couldn’t move enough to either call for my children or to reach for my phone to get help. I think I lost consciousness.

"The next morning, I was like, I can’t believe I’m waking up. I wrote my end of life wishes and told my kids what to do if I didn’t make it.”

The report’s findings have prompted calls for more research into Long Covid, and for the Government to implement care plans to facilitate rehabilitation and management of the condition.

Dr Stephanie Scott, lead author of the report and Senior Lecturer in Public Health at Newcastle University, said: “Long Covid is a complex condition that goes beyond physical and mental symptoms, affecting other parts of people’s lives including their sense of self and professional identity. This can then lead to experiences of social isolation.

“Currently, there is little evidence-based treatment for Long Covid and the health system focuses on symptom management. This needs to change.

"Our research has offered a glimpse into the reality of what it is like to live with this often-debilitating condition and the knock-on effects it has on people’s personal and professional lives.

“I hope that the evidence presented in this report cuts through to policymakers and gets the attention it deserves so more research into Long Covid is funded, and so measures can be put into place which enables employers to better support their workforce with Long Covid.”