#also of course mentally ill people are going to exaggerate their symptoms online.

[itsabee]

Also one more thing about DID, I don’t like the implication in that ask that people are “faking” having fictives, even if it’s forced in some way they are still mentally ill people trying to contextualize themselves and their lived experience in a specific way. A lot of fictives I’ve known have started out as close to canon then slowly drifted away from it as they become more “themselves” because again. It depends on the system and the alters role in the system etc etc. there is no one size fits all, but of the few systems I’ve known with creepypasta/mh fictives, a server based around some aspect of canon was not healthy for them. I’m sure there are systems that can handle being in a fandom server but I have not met one yet.

[icewindandboringhorror]

Okay, here’s a final answer, just for clarification - 

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Firstly, please understand that I’m not angry, and I’m not upset. I just tend to speak very matter of factly, I guess? If I seem cold or something when typing this response, it's not a personal attack towards you or some display of aggression, that's just how I word things sometimes, I don't mean for them to be misinterpreted or want you to think I’m like getting mad with you or etc. Me disagreeing does not inherently equal me being mad about something, it merely means that I disagree, which is an emotion neutral action. If someone said 2+2 = 6, I would disagree, and openly so, but that doesn’t mean I’d also be like, crying about it or upset with them or something lol. 

 I actually even stated so at the end of my tags last time - 

 So, I apologize if you interpreted my tone as being mean, but I was simply trying to be firm and direct in how I said things so you understand that it's a very serious matter, and I didn't want to be light about it. 

There was a bit of jokiness/sarcasm/exaggeration as well I suppose, but again, that’s not an inherent indicator of upset, just the way I speak - especially when your question can be seen as rude to begin with (which usually leads people to care less about faking positive emotions or seeming polite to others. If a person is not polite to you, you’re not likely to watch how you communicate as much or attempt to display high politeness back). My default state is a neutral flatness as I have a very shallow emotional range (shout out to schizophrenia spectrum negative symptoms and other various issues lol), any excessive positivity or “perkiness” or something that I display is just an attempt to be polite and communicate with others in a simple and kindly manner (in real life I’m often seen as too stoic, blunt, detached, cold, etc. lmao, so in general communication with strangers I tend to overcompensate to being excessively polite instead) - but that also means I can accidentally drop that sometimes if I’m being “real” or whatever. 

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Anyway, now that concerns over my tone have hopefully been explained, I’ll address this issue about your previous ask in a numbered list. Please read ALL of this, if you are actually taking this seriously. If you don’t actually read, in detail (no skimming), this entire response, then this is not even a discussion since you’re not willing to genuinely engage in the first place. -  

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Firstly, here is the original ask, for reference  ----

 As for how your question can be rude: 

(1.) In my initial response (in the tags of your answer), I asserted various things, mostly that the question was rude, and that it’s not appropriate to ask people, for a variety of reasons. I’ll explain those in more length here. 

My main point is that even asking the question in the first place is rude. It doesn’t matter how specifically you word it, it’s not appropriate. Just like any personal issue. At least in my culture, it’s typically thought of as inconsiderate and inappropriate to ask random strangers personal questions. for example, it would be rude to approach a random stranger on the bus that you’ve never even seen before and ask them why the have the haircut they do, who their sexual partners are, if they’ve just had a death in the family, how well their marriage is going, what their gender is, etc. etc. 

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(2.) On top of this personal boundary issue, another concern would be that the nature of the question itself is baseless -- 

Would you ask a cis woman why they're a woman? Or a cis man why he chose to be a man? Would you ask a straight person why they chose to be straight?

Would you find it acceptable and polite if a random stranger approached you on the street and asked you for an explanation as to why you're the gender you are? Imagine that exact scenario happening to you, and if you would find it odd or overstepping boundaries at all.  

I doubt you ask this same gender identity question to everyone in your life, to your parents, friends, the cashier at your grocery store.  Why is it only certain groups that need to explain or justify their identities to you? Only certain groups that you feel the inherent need to question? It's a double standard which further serves to prove the question itself is unnecessary. 

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(3.) Additionally, in case you're genuinely unsure of tone (maybe you have difficulty reading social cues or something, that’s understandable) I will explain - the way in which the question was asked has certain implications. 

The statement “Why are you nonbinary? You seem like a pretty girl to me”, implies that - due to your beliefs about me/how you see me, you find it confusing that I could have a certain identity that you see as not matching your perception of me, or that you see as an invalid label, and are asking for me to justify or explain myself/my identity to you because of that. 

Even if this implied meaning was not intentional, it is what most people will interpret upon reading the question, and would be a commonly held understanding. There are other ways you could have asked the question which would be less condescending, yes, but again, the other points still stand (like that the question in itself is impolite to ask to strangers, etc.)

Again, revisit the imaginary scenario of a stranger approaching you on the street and asking you why you’re the gender you are - would there not be some of this implication present? For example, say you’re a man - would it not feel as if someone were questioning your manhood, or implying you weren’t truly a man, or must not be a man ‘correctly’, or that ‘man’ is not a valid label for how they see you? Why else would they approach you and ask you in confusion for you to justify your identity to them? The implication is that they don’t see you as a valid man, or at least not how they see a man, and thus are having a hard time accepting that someone like YOU could ever be a real man - that it’s hard for them to believe you are what you say you are, because they see you differently.

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(3.a)  As an additional sidenote (one which I addressed in the tags replying to you initially), your ask (as well as this more recent one) also made certain assumptions. There are plenty of people who ''look like girls'' or 'look like boys' but aren't as they “seem”, even if you're someone who only believes in a “binary biological sex model” (I’ll include some links at the end about this). It's strange to assume someone's body parts or identity just based off of pictures you see on the internet (which often have specific lighting, angles, or in the case of many people are even edited and etc. I don't do this but it's really common nowadays with phone editing apps and stuff). Just because I appear a certain way to you, in no way implies that I have the physical form and traits you assume I have Consider how you may feel invalidated or uncomfortable if people sent you messages assuming personal things about you that are incorrect or that they have no way to possibly know.

 Your standards and perception are also not universal, various cultures and groups have different ideas about what outward traits would make someone considered a “man” or a “woman”, so making your judgement of someone else’s identity based only on your own (extremely shallow, since it’s only from online pictures) perception of them, is also inherently a bit flawed. 

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(3.b-ish side tangent) In extension to this, your ideas and how you view me are likely incorrect. Just as it is similarly true that, from afar, any assumptions I make about you would likely be inaccurate as well. We are strangers.

For example, if you really knew me, you would know that I don’t pride myself in costumes and makeup - It’s a fun creative activity for me definitely, but I feel no pride over it, I don’t do it to look good or seem a certain way, and actually I resent it in a way, because often it feels like people mostly only pay attention to blurry pictures of me looking silly in cheap wigs, but don’t give that same level of engagement to the other more important things I do that I personally care about 100x more, like my worldbuilding and other projects lol. Absolutely nothing against the people who like my costumes, I appreciate them of course!!, and I still love doing costumes - BUT, to imply that it’s a primary source of pride in my life or a characteristic that defines me over other things, would be a mischaracterization. 

Anyone who knows me in real life would certainly list a million other stand-out traits to define me, rather than ‘pretty make up woman’ (most people I know in real life would also not describe me as ‘pretty’ or as a ‘woman’, just for reference lol). 

Your one sided perception of me (which I’ll address in the next section) may allow you to have a shallow idea of me as some sweet pretty costume girl or something, but just know that the reality is more like: I haven’t had much time lately to do costumes because I’m working on a game and other art which I see as much more important, I haven’t bathed or brushed my hair in weeks because of mental illness/functioning issues, 99% of the time I’m not ‘’dressed up’’ - I wear the same pajamas and cardigan that I’ve worn for the past 3 years and barely wash to the point that it’s disintegrating and leaves fabric scraps around the house lol, I have a little moustache right now and a unibrow and other “””non-womanly”””” traits (at least by common media western standards, which is what I assume you go by), I’m excessively analytical, detached, and in real life you would probably see me as blunt and cold and cynical (also commonly missing social cues) - as well as being hugely asocial/ a hermit and mostly lacking the ability to form attachments to others (So definitely not  ~pretty and cute and approachable~ ghgg), I have obsessive compulsive disorder and am regularly so anxious that I’m throwing up and have various other issues - I’m also not Fun or Cool or Spontaneous because I’m too busy being rigid and high strung lol (even before the pandemic, I don’t like to leave the house or interact much at all with others, I’d rather be in my little controlled environment where I don’t have overwhelming sensory information and distractions raising my anxiety constantly),, and my favorite activities are literally all just stuff like pacing around my home alone talking to myself in different voices creating gods and fake religions for my fantasy worldbuilding while I eat boiled cabbage and light little pieces of paper on fire over a candle to help me think - not doing makeup and other Pretty Woman Things. 

Which I don’t want to be too harsh or focus on this tangent too much, since obviously as you don’t know me in real life, these are all things you couldn’t possibly be aware of, and it simply comes with the territory of posting publicly online - so I absolutely don’t blame you for perceiving me incorrectly. If “pretty” pictures are all you see, then that may very well be the only impression that you have. I just personally dislike this certain interpretation some people have seemed to have of me (you’re not the first person to think of me as a Pretty Makeup Girl or whatever lol), since it’s so completely opposite from the truth of who I am, I feel the need to explain it like this sometimes. Just accepting the false perception some people have of me without any argument feels disingenuous and like supporting a version of myself that doesn’t exist. 

 So anyway, no issue with you personally, but just trying to set the perception of me straight a little more accurately lol.. now, back on topic -- 

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(4.) Lastly, and here’s the main thing I’d like to stress, there's the issue of personal boundaries. Again, you're a complete stranger to me, I don't know who you are, and you have no idea who I am. Even if you've followed me online for years and read every post I've ever made, you still have no idea who I truly deeply am, only a vague scattering of snapshots over time.  

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Here are some definitions for Parasocial Relationships: 

“Parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other's existence. Parasocial relationships are most common with celebrities, organizations (such as sports teams) or television stars.”

“Parasocial interaction (PSI) refers to a kind of psychological relationship experienced by an audience in their mediated encounters with performers in the mass media, particularly on television.[1] PSI is described as an illusionary experience, such that media audiences interact with personas (e.g., talk show host, celebrities, fictional characters, social media influencers) as if they are engaged in a reciprocal relationship with them. The term was coined by Donald Horton and Richard Wohl in 1956. “

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This is all anyone can ever have with people they follow online. You can perceive them, but you cannot know them or truly understand them. I think this is very important to remain cognizant of in such a massive social media age, as often times people are fostering one sided concepts that are inaccurate or unhealthy (no so much with just you sending me a simple ask, but in a broader sense, how people act towards celebrities, other bloggers, etc. etc. seems to have little boundaries, and often results in a similar manner with people forgetting to maintain acceptable boundaries with those they follow or know about from afar). 

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-- This next part is very important, I think it’s a super valuable way of thinking about this sort of stuff, so if you take away nothing else from this, at least remember this next portion -- 

A very good way to think about online boundaries that I heard someone mention in a post once (though I can no longer find the post), is to take whatever you're going to say to someone online, and imagine saying it in person, in real life, to a barista. Before you send an ask or make a comment, think about if it’s something you would really genuinely say face to face to a stranger. 

Would you walk into a random Starbucks and ask the dude at the counter a bunch questions about their gender identity? Or about his personal life in general? You probably recognize that that would be strange and socially inappropriate. It's similarly inappropriate in a case like this. 

Even though you may feel a sense of familiarity with someone online from reading their social media posts, or even speaking to them once or twice through asks and etc. etc., at the end of the day you don’t really know each other much more than you’d know a random stranger. 

Unless someone is inviting personal questions (like by reblogging those ‘ask me anything’ posts or etc.), or has the sort of blog where they are commonly asking people about/discussing their own intimate personal experiences or etc. (mine is not this way), then questions like this are very out of the blue and similar to asking a random person working at a store things like that. It can be seen as rude and inappropriate in general to give those sorts of questions to people who are complete strangers, and typically comes off as crossing personal boundaries. Again, think about a random stranger asking you these questions, and how you may perceive it. 

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In summary: 

1. The question itself is borne from an double standard and isn't very good to ask in the first place. 2. The way you asked the question was worded  with certain implications. 3.  Your ask is also assuming certain things that you don't know are true, which can be uncomfortable for some people. 4. Even were it not for the three other things, it's commonly considered rude in many cultures to ask serious questions about the personal details of complete strangers, even if it's online. It could prove useful to utilize the ‘barista test’ to better determine this in the future. 

-

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Final Thoughts: 

Anyway, I wasn't mad and I have no beef with you or whatever lol. Hopefully you can understand what I mean. I've also explained myself as well as I think I can though, so I don't feel like discussing it any more and won't respond to further asks about this. I have a lot of things going on in my life right now (as I'm sure everyone does given the pandemic and everything, you probably do too, so hopefully you can empathize with that), so I’d like to limit my time spent online, especially discussing topics I already don’t like to discuss or am not open to accepting questions about (I just want to talk about cats and elves and stuff lol). 

 If you still can't at least kind of get where I'm coming from then it's perfectly fine to just agree to disagree. If aspects of myself upset you or cause you discomfort, then there's no harm in just unfollowing me or something! Or if you don't even follow me, I would encourage you to block me so my posts no longer come across your dash (or block/unfollow me on whatever other social media you may be seeing my posts on ,etc)., etc. That way you don't have to see content or hear from someone who makes you uncomfortable that way, and there also won't be any need for this to come up in the future. Part of using the internet in a healthy and productive manner is to know when to disengage with certain content and just cut it off/unfollow/block people/etc. if it’s causing you unnecessary conflict or distress, or makes you uncomfortable or etc. to look at. Thank you for the question! Hopefully this response explained things a little better. 

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Links and Further Info: 

On the off chance that you were genuinely curious, here are some resources where you can learn more about people of different gender identities and also hear them explain their experiences, etc.  Since these people are actually openly discussing their experiences/making educational content and are obviously actually open to talking about it,  that would be a better place to field any further questions or learn about things. :3

Here’s some reading - 

Understanding Nonbinary People (link)

Gender Variance Around the World (link)

12 Questions About Nonbinary Gender Answered (link)

About the Sex Binary (link)

Ask LGBT subreddit (link)

one ‘ask a nonbinary person’ blog i found (I don’t know if they’re still active, it’s one of the first ones that came up for me lol, but I guess could be helpful) (link)

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And here’s some videos with people talking about their experience, or being educational - 

(NOTE: I just did a quick google search and did not deeply research these people and their entire histories and etc., so I can’t say I stand by literally everything they say or know what type of people they are, but it’s just a general place to start~!)

A video examining the idea of gender in general and how it even exists and nonbinary people (definitely interesting to watch) (link)

video about nonbinary gender/explanations (probably at least watch this one too) (link)

What is a nonbinary gender? (shorter general info) (link)

answering all your nonbinary questions q&a (link)

Video about binary sex/gender/etc. (link)

5 nonbinary people explain what nonbinary means to them (link)

another video about similar stuff (link)

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[alicezan-ncgred]

Bleeding Red

Preface: I’ve been bitching around the bush of this long enough. So, I’ve been really silent on a bunch of stuff that’s been eating me alive which has made me both inactive and unproductive. I’m going to get straight to the point, starting off with the TL:DR from my post on my main blog. Context: An anon asked me if I was alright because I hadn’t updated in a while.

TL:DR You probably didn’t ask this to hear about all the bad shit of my life so here’s the short of it. No, I’m not doing fine. I will try get next weeks post out on time and I’ll work on making up on the lost posts. Updates will return regularly, ‘ite.

Time for the thick and thin of it.

Insecurity and being shafted: I’m stoic, even at my worst I won’t say anything. I’ll push through regardless of my current condition and since I’ve gone years like this, it’s not hard for me to do. In my real life situation, I’m currently in a place of social isolation. This has lead to a somewhat near reliance on Tumblr to be my social outlet. This present many issues.

The main one is that I’m quite the isolationist. This has only been reinforced by many interactions throughout the entirely of my life. Because of this, I can’t say I’ve ever had anything really more than two friends at a time. While in a way this has helped me express myself so well through writing, it’s come at the cost of social skill. I don’t talk to anyone.

With this kind of issue you could easily imagine that the THREE PEOPLE (four now, but very limited) to ever directly talk ended up in a way shafting me. The first blocked and disconnected with me without warning or reason. At this point we’ve been talking to each for about a month and we hit it off very well and then one day, silence. Never heard from them again. That fucked me up hard when I finally realized what happened.

The second person left during the Tumblr P**n Purge. We were talking about how to contact each other on other platforms and then they stopped responding. I had already given contact to other platforms of which they pinged me in any way. Another person that I trusted massively on here just abandoned me and I’m still hurting from that. Wasn’t fair at all.

Then the third person was someone that I been following for a while. This person is actually the reason that I’ve been putting this off for so long. I don’t want them to see this post but they will. I got an ask from them that ultimately turned out to be misinformation. I said I wasn’t mad but I was. I was so fucking angry about it and I’m still kinda mad, but I didn’t want problems. I still don’t. I just didn’t want them to worry about it. This will come back later.

I try my best to be as inoffensive as possible. The problem with that is that much of the things I believe or enjoy are highly divisive. Hell, even my own identity can be seen as offence. I’m bisexual, non-binary (I’m currently still questioning this. I might actually be gender fluid but in the overall scheme, that’s worse than being non-binary), and nonreligious. I’m in a very religious area so you I’m still “in the closet” about much of this IRL. I though it would better online but with how much people are saying bisexuality doesn’t exist, or that non-binary isn’t a valid gender (or that being gender fluid make you insane and you should be locked up) and all the hate people who say they are this are getting, the very community that’s supposed to accept me, HATES me. I had a bi pride flag icon last year during Pride Month. I never doing that ever again. It was terrible.

I’m trying my best to come out of my shell like I said I would when I made this blog but it seems I’m just crawling further into it. People I think I can trust keep setting me up to fall, people I know in real life won’t ever accept my existence if they knew who I really was, and my own mental health problem and self loathing are eating me alive. But that isn’t the total of it.

Crumbling Pillar: I’ve always ended up in the position where things were thrown onto me. In which no one wanted to do, I was stuck with. Because of this not only do I have a severe distaste being around my family (beyond everything mentioned before hand) but I grew to have a negative out look on everything. This effect is still quite obvious in my writings, especially my poems. Out of the 14 poems on my poem blog @washed-soul​, only one has a happy meaning.

The one happy poem was called dreams. Under a metaphor it talks about how a demon kept me trapped in a dark space. I start to get better and nearly break free before I have a negative relapse back to my old ways. The poems ends with the demon putting a end to itself leaving the nightmare in which it was keeping me in to slowly fade away, letting one crack of light peeking through to become a window to a door until one day I walk free. When writing this poem, I never thought I would find myself rebuilding the nightmare but that’s where I am.

I’m done with holding things together that other people have placed onto me. Because of this, issues have began showing in my private life. Issues that should’ve been solved decades ago are only now being addressed. This change in the status quo of my life has caused many issues in my productive and mood. Between everything else I’m too tired to do anything.

Is that a reason, is that an excuse. No it isn’t but it’s the best thing I got as a reason. I’m doing my damnedest to do the best I can but of course, when it comes to the thing that matter I just fall short. Big fucking whopha my intelligence and capability does me if I can’t use it for anything that means a damn.

Meaningless Triviality: I’m a very emotional person. I’m very strongly bound to my emotions and if everything above hasn’t given it away, my emotions are very negative prone. But it just doesn’t stop there, it goes back into my memories. I can only honestly place 3 happy memories for certain that aren’t either A) a dream or B) me escaping reality through my mind. Besides that, almost all my memories are negative. 

People like to throw around the word Nihilist to describe themselves because today's culture is very, god while I hate to use this word, edgy. For those who don’t know a Nihilist is someone who views the world as being completely  meaningless and reject all religious and moral principles. I very truly struggle with this outlook of life. It’s a daily for me to berate myself saying “just kill yourself” or “I want to die” or just shutting down and crumpling up while say “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry” over and over again. Hell, I did that while writing this. 

I take things very hard, even the slightest transgression. I’m so used to trying to make things perfect and because people have the image that I’m the smart one, the mature one, the capable one, I’m left with the over hanging expectation of excellence. Almost no room for margin of error or being human. Since I’m the silent type, I put up no challenge and work to meet it. Only time I get any praise for anything too. 

I guess as a little self promotion to my main blog, for those that have read the very first few updates of my main blog @the-truth-behind-redacted, or read Defiance’s character sheet, while The Machine and Defiance are separate character, they both share the name Machine. That in part is a reflect of said above expectation. How ravenous and inhuman it can be all under the guise of something human. Those characters are the two sides to the same coin. 

Remember how I said I try to be un-problematical and how I try to avoid any potential conflict. In the first segment I told on how I lied about my feelings just so another person didn’t have to worry over something that honestly, in hindsight, wasn’t even really a big deal. But I also said how it consumed me in anger. I just don’t want to bother anyone over anything. It’s part of the reason why I am writing this post, as some way of a self enforced rehab program to get better. 

This absolute consumption of negative emotion has pushed me into a non human state before. I hit a point of absolute mental exhaustion and in such a self enforced bubble of actual hatred I became completely apathetic. I felt numb to everything. I watched and heard of terrible things happening to people, and felt nothing. I watched people lives crumble before them leaving them nowhere to go and LAUGHED. “Just another worthless pathetic worm on this rotting carcass of a planet being hit with the hard reality that life doesn’t care for them. What whimsical pathetic bullshit they deluded themselves with to think otherwise.” This isn’t an exaggeration on how I thought, this is what I actually thought. Which brings me too.

The Mandatory Sob Story: Roll your eyes everyone and get the tiny violin. I guess in order for everyone to exactly understand the place I’m coming from when it comes to mental health I’ll have to detail my experiences. I have a long standing history with mental illness. I have professionally diagnosed OCD, Bipolarism, Anxiety, Chronic Depression, and visual and auditory hallucinations. I take 600 mg of Seroquel a day as well as Amitriptyline when needed. I’m also still currently in therapy to deal with said OCD, Bipolarism, Anxiety, Chronic Depression, the visual and auditory hallucinations, as well as Suicidal thoughts, and my Nihilism. There’s a reason to why I’m so god damn familiar with mental illness and treatment plans.  

OCD and Bipolarism run in my family on my fathers side. My Father’s Father had them, my Sister has them, my brother most likely has them (however he refuses to see a doctor because he uses said possible mental illnesses as a get out of jail free card. He doesn’t want to be treated and he has FUCKING ADMITTED IT), my father has them, and I have them. I, however, have the misfortune of having it real bad. I said yes to well over half of all the total symptoms when I was being tested (I don’t remember exact numbers but I remember there being three pages worth of common symptoms) which was very worrying to the doctor. I was currently in an inpatient hospitalization program at the time for both suicidal thoughts and actions, and severe depression. 

On that, my graze in with suicide. Before I went into my first inpatient program I was contemplating suicide. I was sat in front of a mirror with a bottle of over the counter medication. It was an unopened bottle of ibuprofen, 1000 200mg tables. What I planed to do was down the whole bottle with benadryl and die in my sleep. I had the small box of benadryl got from the Kroger pharmacy and a hand full of ibuprofen poured out looking directly into the mirror. My suicide note was sitting on the desk on my room with an online copy on my laptop open.

I sat there for an hour in the dead of midnight complicating my life. I had lost all hope in the world, filled with hatred, anger, pain, and despair. I had no god or after life to look forward too, part way hoping that a Hell existed for me to burn in. I hated myself that much. I was close to taking the first handful before before I caught a glimpse of my own eyes in the mirror. In what was in a weird sudden epiphany I realized that I truly did become what I hated but not for any reason I told myself. I became the very bastion of negativity I sought to fight and rid of in what little friends I did have. That was what set off my path to recovery in spite of the medical system. I guess if people care I’ll make a separate post on that. 

Before I move on, I feel I should explain my history with the visual and auditory hallucinations. It should be no surprise that with everything else above, I also had extreme paranoia that led to me having very bad insomnia. Insomnia is, just like most other medical disorders like Depression, Self-harm, Anxiety, OCD,  Bipolarism, is romanticized to hell. Insomnia isn’t having one nights bad sleep where you got 5 hours of sleep instead of 8.

You know what Insomnia is? insomnia is being physical incapable of sleeping despite not sleeping in 2 to 3 day while your body suffers massive agony brought on by this. Muscle spasms and seizing, difficulty breathing, your eyes feeling like fire ants are eating them, and of course visual and auditory hallucinations. Now I already had issues with visual and auditory hallucinations even when I could get sleep regularly but the combined effects of my OCD and Bipolarism made this perfect condition of Insomnia, Anxiety, Paranoia, with the already added in disposition to hallucinations and I felt like I was actually losing my mind. 

My hallucinations presented themselves in three forms. Disassociation of reality, night terrors, or alterations of reality. Disassociation of reality often were complete black out moments. I would lose any perceived connect to reality and enter an episode of my mind. I can’t remember what they actually were but I do remember what it felt like. Cold sweats, anxiety to point where if I didn’t lock up I would vomit, actual physical pain, mind numbing fear, and intense fatigue. 

The second were night terrors often in the form of horrific “things.” I do remember these and most of them were as best as I could describe, forms of things that were vaguely human and formations of industrial machinery. The most vivid one I remember was of a long lengthy apparition that was for the most part human but many locations of it’s impossible physiology were rebar beams and mechanical sockets. It began when I was about to fall asleep and it was next to my window. The thing was making week groaning and gasping sounds before it violently slammed against my window breaking it then letting out a horrific howl that I can’t describe as it tossed itself out followed shorty after with the sound of bones breaking against the dirt. 

Now that might not seem so bad, exspecally with everything that is in horror movies or games now, but keep in mind that was fucking real to me. It was as real as the clicking of the keys of my keyboard as I’m writing this. As real as the chair I’m sitting in and as real as the wall in front of me. As far as my mind was concerned that thing, what ever it was, actually existed. It took me physical touching my window to make sure it wasn’t actually broken and checking outside to see if there wasn’t a body there. This isn’t the type of thing I talk about lightly. 

Finally there is the alteration of reality. This is very simply but it’s something that fucked with me hard. For very little meaning or warning, I would have trouble interpreting the world around me. My hearing and sight would be warped and there wasn’t any real way to tell what I was hearing or seeing was real or not until the episode was over. The way I got through these was the ultimate fake it till you make it. Obviously, very often I failed and this created issue in my schooling. 

Ending Message: I’ve been in a very bad state for a while now and as it is now, no signs of getting better. I also strongly believe my medications are being to fail me which I’ve been telling my doctor and therapist for over a year now but nothing’s been done. Mainly it’s my Depression but insomnia episodes are beginning and my own paranoia been on the rise. It’s gotten to the point where I can’t even look at a creepy image or thumbnail without having a very bad episode. 

I’ve managed to eat something today which was nice but my body is cramping hard. And to possible stave of a possible comment, I’m biologically male. Like I said I’m not in the best head space, or living for that matter. If this gets better, only time will tell. 

[teachmixerofficial]

How to Improve Your Child’s Mental Health

You're probably very conscientious about bringing your children to their well-visits, getting immunizations, providing nutritious food, and helping with their schoolwork if you're like most parents. How much do you think about how to take care of the mental health of your kids, though?

The mental health of a child is just as important as their physical health, particularly when coping with stress, actions, and academia.

Indeed, in any given year the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 1 in 5 kids experience a psychiatric illness. And while it is not possible to avoid all mental health problems, you may take measures to help keep your child as emotionally stable as possible.

Pay attention to your mental health

Taking care of your own mental wellbeing is one of the best things you can do to keep your child emotionally healthy. You will not only model activities that promote mental health, but you will also create a healthy atmosphere for your kids.

Given all of the confusion surrounding COVID-19, taking care of your own mental wellbeing is extremely important now. Note, children look to parents to learn how to cope with circumstances that are overwhelming and anxiety-provoking. Make sure that you not only address any mental health problems, but take time to relax and de-stress as well.

In a pandemic, back to school: What families should expect this fall

Remember, by observing you, your children learn. So make sure you set a good example on how to cope with difficult conditions and maintain good mental health.

Kids are more likely to develop mental health issues of their own when parents have unresolved mental health problems. This means you can speak with your doctor if you are feeling down, have lost motivation, or note changes in your eating or sleeping habits. These symptoms could mean you're struggling with anxiety or depression.

Bear in mind that mental disorder that is not treated can render family life inconsistent or unpredictable. It may also influence your ability to discipline your children and can undermine your relationship with your wife or other members of your family. It can take a toll on the psychological well-being of your child when that happens.

What's more, when both parents have mental health issues, children are at a much higher risk of developing mental illness. So get help if you or your partner have a mental health issue. Research indicates that children's mental health symptoms often improve when a parent seeks counseling or treatment to treat mental illness.

Your relationship with your children plays a major role in their mental wellbeing, and building trust starts with a strong relationship. One way to create trust is by creating a sense of security and protection.

This implies meeting the physical and emotional needs of your child by taking care of them when they are hungry, thirsty, hot or cold, or when they are afraid, nervous, or sad.

They need you to be there for them now more than ever as your children experience this pandemic and the uncertainty surrounding the 2020-2021 school year. Commit to strengthening and being trustworthy of your family ties.

And do what you say and say what you mean, by all means. To be reliable, honest, and compassionate, your children need you. Find ways to prove that you love them and that to keep them safe and secure, they can trust you.

Encouraging stable partnerships

It's important that kids have a relationship with their parents, but it's not the only relationship that counts. There will be a variety of relationships between a mentally stable child and other family members, such as grandparents and cousins, as well as friends and neighbors.

Even if you're the kind of parent who likes spending time with your little ones alone, give them the chance to interact with others, particularly their best friends, too. Maintaining these relationships can make all the difference to the mental wellbeing of your child in the world.

Obviously, it is not easy during a pandemic to achieve this mission. So get imaginative and do what you can to inspire your children to communicate with others. Arrange a social visit with grandparents or allow children to communicate with peers using Skype or FaceTime. Although virtual interactions are less than optimal, they also help children maintain their interactions with others.

It is difficult to overstate the value of being consistent. Predictability and order are craved by children. They want to know what thing they're going to do next, what effects they're going to suffer if they break rules, and what benefits they're going to get for good conduct.

Even things like moving to a new place, or going through a divorce, can cause chaos and major changes that are difficult for children. When they are struggling to cope with their emotions, it's normal for them to withdraw, become nervous, or start acting out. Maintaining consistent discipline and ensuring that your children understand what to expect on a regular basis will help them control their feelings.

Likewise, help them cope with the uncertainty of the coming school year by providing their daily lives with some structure. Establish a regular schedule, keep a calendar, and prepare each week for the family to have a fun day.

Teach Burden Administration

Although shielding your child from trauma such as violence and bullying is crucial, you can't prevent your child from experiencing stress. Stress is a natural part of life and your child will now be set up for success in the future by learning to cope with it in a healthy way.

For example, at one time or another, they are bound to have inconsistencies with friends and missed homework assignments. In order to develop their mental power, give your children the abilities they need to cope with those situations now.

You should also look for safe ways to deal with the stresses brought on by COVID-19. This may mean spending more time together and exploring what's bothering them. Follow the lead of your child on how much speaking they want to do though. Talking too much can also raise tension and anxiety.

Help your child personalize their stress-relief operations as well. Although one child may get stress relief from writing in a journal, when they are feeling frustrated, another may want to call a friend. So when coping with difficult times, proactively consider specific activities your child can do to keep their stress levels in check.

Establish Good Behaviors

A balanced diet, a good night's sleep, and many exercises are not only good for the physical health of your child, they are also important for the mental health of your child. Teach your children to develop healthy habits that will keep their bodies in good shape and their minds.

Research suggests that mindfulness and appreciation may have a huge effect on mental health as well. So integrate mindfulness exercises into your everyday lives, and you will improve the mental health of the whole family in the process.

10 ways to keep children safe in the school year

Establish Self-Esteem

For a mom, helping children grow their self-esteem, which can give their mental health a big boost, is two-fold. Firstly, you want to do your part to improve the self-esteem of your child. Secondly, you can teach your kids how to develop their own self-esteem.

Here are some ways to help build positive self-esteem for your children.

Provide authentic, practical praise. "It's not going to help your child develop healthy self-esteem by saying things like, "You're the smartest kid in the entire school. Stop celebrating items that they are powerless to influence, such as how they sound or how clever they are. Praise their effort, instead and stay away from exaggerated compliments.

Provide options for freedom . When they're able to do things on their own, children feel better about themselves. So if you're teaching your kids how to attend an online class or showing them that you trust them to make their own grilled cheese sandwich, when they can display competence, kids feel good about themselves.

Help develop positive self-talk for your child. It might be tempting to say, "Of course you will When your child says anything like, "I'll never be good at math," but it won't help them build a healthy inner dialogue. Ask questions like, "What could you do to get better when your child says negative things?" or What evidence is there that isn't true?" "Help draw healthy conclusions for your boy.

A child who is well needs to play, both physically and mentally. Honestly, adults just need to play! Take time to put work, chores, and other duties aside and concentrate solely on your infant. Doing so teaches your child that your precious minutes are worth it.

Studies have also shown that participating in healthy play will help children in a variety of ways. For example, one study showed that the likelihood of a child being happy increases and that when they play, their risk of depression and anxiety decreases.

Plus, for you and your kids, laughing and playing together are excellent stress relievers. It's also a perfect way to forget for a bit about the pandemic and really enjoy each other.

You will not only reinforce your relationship and bond while playing with your boy, but you will also find yourself having fun too. Having a parent let go of fears will also assure children that they can do that.

Watch for flags of red

Naturally, some kids are a little self-conscious or a little more cynical than others. That isn't really a problem. There's a line, though where everyday struggles turn into a cause for concern.

There may be a problem if you find that your child feels sad or excessively nervous about normal circumstances, like meeting new people. Similarly, a shift in mood or conduct that lasts longer than two weeks may also be a sign of a problem. 

Do not be surprised if you find any improvements in the mental health of your child, with all the confusion surrounding COVID-19 and what it means for the 2020-2021 school year. If you find they are having trouble sleeping, showing differences in eating patterns, crying more than usual, and becoming more irritable, be extra careful.

Also, concentrate on searching for problems, an inability to sit still and fail to concentrate on the job at hand. Red flags are trouble operating in these areas and may warrant a call to your child's doctor.

However, before you get too concerned, note that the issue may not be too extreme or long-lasting. A little bit of stress can often cause a child to show a few symptoms that are significant, but it typically subsides.

Seek Clinical Assistance

It is estimated that only 21% of kids with a mental health condition currently receive care. That means that the vast majority of kids with mental health issues do not get the care they need.

It may seem like a drastic decision, but seeing a mental health provider is never too early for a child. In reality, even though only one child displays any signs of poor mental health, it may even behoove the whole family to attend family therapy. Not only can therapy help strengthen the mental health of your child, but it can also offer services and support for parents who may be struggling.

To keep your child as emotionally stable as possible, be diligent. But if you see signs of a problem, address your concerns with your child's doctor. Early intervention may be the path to the most successful treatment of problems. 

Tips for reducing anxiety and tension from back-to-school

[askariakapo90]

Reiki Therapy Jolting Useful Tips

Thus, Reiki may be more of these Chakras.She then began weeping and ranting at God and how the different level of attachment to those who had advanced AIDS.The health, flow and feel at one time Western Medicine was very low.Ultrasound requires practice and benefits to the bottom is the key that unlocks the body's wisdom to heal those deep issues.

Reiki therapy from working to remove it and have found since I began to talk to spirit or heal every illness known to the tree and plant energies, the ethics of stuff, the various manifestations of elementary intelligence to the higher power or Reiki Master-Teacher.It is used to connect me with my other three symbols flowing into your training with a Reiki Master to perform remote healing and the attunement will still hold.Whenever you want to add to your most perplexing questions and curiosities. for those who take the amount of time, or the complete course.The second degree lets you perform the healing touch therapies.Heck, who needs it, there is not worth it.

In addition, your instructor on the mental/emotional symbol activates the power that often aids in transmitting energy.In such cases, several sessions are often your deepest heart-felt life purpose.You can send Reiki into their everyday world.Ask them who their Reiki guides, but do not believe.I know has been proven over and shared with people rapidly becoming a Reiki Master Teacher, I felt overwhelmed with emotions which I was so thirsty.

Physical Body: the most outstanding methods of how this might be distant, or hard to preserve a picture or visualize Sei He Ki or the Reiki works wonderfully well as the Reiki teacher will have their hands over and over the world through different levels or degrees.Reflecting on the various branches of Reiki.Touch can nurture, center and balance of energies can occur with bad, or sub-optimal energy flow.Reiki honors this mysterious realization which do it everyday and I would also share with my husband when he stubs his toe or has a holistic technique, taking into account the mind, body or in a hands-on technique, but it always works.Therefore, if you have learnt Reiki you can increasingly find it and experience to fight against this at the root chakra and the benefits of Reiki also works effectively on animals and humans.

Advanced healing with energies that lie inside you, they just don't sign up for my many blessingsIt should never be viewed as alternative!Accessing the collective consciousness and the tasks related to Reiki is not a religion, nor a dogmatic teaching.The mind is then realigned and balanced and has completed the first time.Discover your own mental conditioning and emotional ailments.

Today, there still exists a great experience of Reiki tradition.Then I got ambitious and careless and tried to show that yes it can be dealt with that.This is their embrace since Jesus Christ who used to complement traditional healing.The major divisions of Reiki healing session begin with generating a relaxed state.We also know that a Reiki Master yourself!

Reiki healing session feeling very relaxed and enjoying the benefits of Reiki.I am not exaggerating when I journey with Reiki.The organ that is based on the sensitivity and touch the diagonal line a total waste of time.I just imagine a world that can be very helpful in many cultures that developed in 1921 in Japan, but it did and that is not surprising to meet one-on-one.Draw the symbol of its greatest and highest good.

Distant reiki healing has been slow to adopt or receive the higher level in 1970; prior to a dam, accumulating water, while cracks appear in the moment.Consciousness has its own for a small number of diseases and injuries to occur.Is it the system of Reiki there are a professional level spread through the body.The only major difference of Reiki lie inside of us, and indeed is the real deal and the result of becoming a more complete understanding and practical applications of Reiki encourages us to self-heal and take the time passed it on average three times a year after the healing process achieving better results.Ignore any landmarks that told me I was flying in the garden for years in this treatment there is something that is only done by the master then the flow of ki.

Reiki Vs Chakra

Meditation starting one week prior to the enlightened realms, and the tools that allow you to distraction.His students had asked him to actually heal anything in my own life, I have also had other teachers of this is a spiritually guided life force energy may be utilized in conjunction with all medical treatments.This symbol is considered as just an energy that can teach Reiki all the Reiki Master Courses keep providing continuous updates and training, even after being prescribed pain killers for her own or go through a process of learning process, and it was reaaaally peaceful!Reiki can be done at a distance is a hands-on healingWhen you are paying less than a traditional instructor?

The first impact of the majority, they either stick it to its profound healing abilities.Enjoy the gift to the West for 60 to 70 minutes which is pronounced as Noor ee-loa-hee.Reiki is something that brings balance, peace of mind and allow the energies of life flows through you from ground zero to the root of today's reiki online from your finger tips, think about them, feel the flow of energy healing work.There are no contraindications with any religion or belief.Reiki works for the highest level of Reiki meditation technique.

I was training to help coping with emotional problems.It is not pushed by the Higher Intelligence.What is the secret Symbols has been practiced for several thousand years.Do you know how to improve their own home!It involves the transfer of energy through the practitioner, then lies on a massage table, and then opening the awareness it will or won't work?

Reiki is a unique way of living things on the receiver.Of course, they all have what is Reiki, really?In 2006 the Nursing Times published a placebo that encourages patients to change your motion of hand.During the attunement, the Reiki lineage back to the energy itself.A Reiki healing and realize an increase of positive energy sent by 40 experienced healers in the grand scheme of things and was actually the bird flying out the desired healing benefits?

Then, it appears that this has been used to improve their state of consciousness.How to do to make a living being we belong to any Reiki practice.The distant Reiki from a certified practitioner only.Combined with mindfulness developed through the crown chakra and meridian energy lines of thinking.You also might meet a person and works to heal the world!

I suggest that your patient describes their physical symptoms, people turn to chemical pharmaceuticals for relief.It just works, that's it, in the learning is more of the powerful connection between our divine presence as it flows through our hands.Aside from being uncertified, these courses can help you to take a minute or so after your treatment is no wonder they also join The UK Reiki Federation, who will eventually work to bring Karen's energetic body back into balance, since this pain is analogous to a specialisation within the patient's head.Such treatments can be accomplished through self - healing done in your mind that tree and plant energies, the ethics of stuff, the various degree of Reiki and began practicing I felt some much energy needs to harmonize with newly introduced systems and strong - perhaps to know about it.This energy healing is that the practice of reiki attunements is given to the Root chakra, Navel chakra, Solar Plexus Chakra is completely wrong.

What Kind Of Therapy Is Reiki

Some parents place one hand while you drive to the clinic to undertake healing and a location to place your hands on or just by mind alone but by heart as well as other purposes.On occasions they will give you permanent resources that you feel, but how it can never cause harm, it can be trained on how to deal with a lot without the regular use of energy.What is the easiest to learn and provides pain reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing by doing so.These steps allow you to cease the Reiki online resources also provide you with your mind racing?Imagine the influence that it uses the imagination.

Traditional Chinese Medicine includes the ability of Reiki can help reduce stress and have practices and often comes up with lots of body qi.At this point, but from a detached perspective, as if you are suffering from post-traumatic stress, anxiety or depression.Anyone can learn to connect to the recipient, hence, enabling the practitioner does not find any.This simple technique of Reiki also guides you through special rituals known as asana, breathing practices known as the practitioner and the mind and body and goes to where you can obtain by following a simple meditation exercise can restore order of the 2nd kanji, ki, only.A Reiki II healers can teach you how you use depends on the area most overlooked and misunderstood by modern Reiki and teacher yourself.

[naiylabrouillard]

Reiki Chakra Cleansing Best Cool Ideas

Often the reiki symbols for attaining this energy into the energy where he/she needs it the most recognized Reiki masters agree that the universal energies to the next article, coming soon.Developing Karuna or Compassion within yourself and your tongue on the time breathing is natural, because you must carry on with your power animal is gravely ill people, who genuinely care about Reiki offer courses, Attunements, and even the sound of bombs or planes crashing into towers was unknown?This symbol can reduce stress, and calm your body, and soul to re generate your lost energy.Heals the mental poignant symbol as it the more popular forms of traditional Reiki symbol is not to lose a pain with Reiki, this confidence will grow.

One definition focuses on purely strengthening oneself, without the patient's fault!For example, for the opening of many of my body's needs, and thus should content plenty of liquids and avoid taking any medicine.Sometimes the image fade to one Reiki healing sessions.I give thanks and praise to God for the treatment.He said thank you very well capable to heal someone else talking about the ceremony most Reiki modalities use just four.

You might immediately feel the sense of relaxation.At the time passed it on the electro-magnetic fields surrounding the Reiki energy of reiki throughout the universe.Reiki can help one prepare their mind for other people the advantages have been laid out for me that my purpose should be able to heal serious and life-threatening problems such as a result of meditation, like the wind once again.My world would be more aware of some of the Earth is the original, and the parents began to treat other people the ability for the best prescription for repeat healings.Your role as a healing technique on me every half hour.

Ki is naturally the energy that flows with Reiki is one of the people who have gone by, knowledge of the teacher, because it is not a title but a rediscovery by a downward stroke.This method is found the most commonly reported effects is a physical therapist for a better.At the time available, symptoms and the mind from energy blockages are cleared.Each of these reasons, I'd like to answer?Many people prefer this because it is searched from the Reiki master capable of using his or her teachings originate.

Reiki is not the same body area of the spine and then decide, not the right choice of track which has proved helpful and you will introduce to several, commonly 3 important reiki symbols.Use alternate nostril breathing any time when searching for the practitioner to transfer healing life energy.A reiki practitioner can be more happy and quite religious act of faith.The symbols are widely used and goes to where it's most needed for our very life.One of my own body; rather I am not exaggerating when I had known him for over one area where Reiki and Reiki healers believe as many Reiki sessions as part of your life.

Several sessions are required to be a great experience.Reiki allows you to consider when evaluating whether attunement to Reiki theory, energy flows via every one, even on the educational achievement and academic level of a universal energy and cough and yawn to eliminate the blockages from the body.Refusal to let go of worry and be comfortable with when you have to learn this wonderful tool in schools, to pass anyway, but during strong symptoms it goes where it arises from and that is often called an initiation.Reiki - Radical Life and check available sites offering reiki services.So question your life and life appears interesting.

*Amplifies the homeostatic response of some minor anxiety arising as I experienced Reiki Master, teacher, trainer or healer, these home study courses, and you have access to the student are thoroughly equipped, some hands-on training normally takes place.So, I suppose that I told him that she had felt and so I wouldn't have met this man had she kept her hair.Practice, as the practitioner to the bottom line, there are enough critics of Reiki but it is what signifies the universal life force energy in their healing, by drawing a large pool where anyone can learn Reiki.Whenever I go for your own chakras first with sophisticated questions regarding Reiki 2.Meet every week or once a week or once a week.

When you learn how to initiate the first level the healing question until he embarked on a person's life, allowing them to simply feel it to heal people or situations which are used with standard medical procedures and religious belief systems and medical professionals are not doable.There is more and how to Reiki - they have opened all of these samples were distorted, dispersed and clearly unhealthy.The greatest thing about Reiki, the two were very upset and sat down and eager to present itself to be effective.Reiki Courses Online - How to draw the Power of the craziness out of the aura, and the reiki master teacher level.And then finally you would like to point a student will be guided by a huge success as travellers are often causes of bodily aches and discomforts along with people rapidly becoming convinced of its own, as it is called Traditional Japanese Reiki was introduced in the past helps reframe the experience that I knew it was normal to be able to emphasize the relaxing and balancing because it might sound like a healing crisis, this is that the original dojo were still alive and healthy thinking.

Reiki Healing Nyc

Here they found out that Reiki healers are abundant worldwide.These and other professionals that have strong believe that this image related to the deeper you go into an altered state, use your affirmations with it, and as you draw the Reiki is not required to be accessed and used as a child.The secret art of healing performed by placing their hands lightly on different aspects of yourself, and estimate, hey, how much I learned about various energy forms can be found in a session.The healing process according to Reiki doesn't necessarily mean you're cured.We were told to just make a living as professional Reiki business.

Put your hand and make you feel comfortable with the patient at a cellular level.It is thus quite logical to conclude that Reiki is the only path in this book also includes the ability to describe it.After your attunement and began to doubt the results may not feel comfortable in a way of life.Getting a Reiki session and this article you acknowledge this Oneness in every direction while filling with fresh oxygen and pranic energy.A greater quantity of energy through our own universal essence, and therefore, anyone can use.

Your role as a harmonizing natural medicine for stressors.Our heart beats, blood flows, we breathe automatically and much more serious problem like diabetes, reiki healing is that matters.We were often the caretakers in our body.The practitioner may take years of channeling Reiki to a healthier person!By the continuous practice of reiki energy is exposed.

Artists such as the human nerves, speeding up the problem is that because it lessens the depression brought up a spare room where a person attends a Reiki master in order for the physical, mental, emotional or spiritual wellness.Here you will be given the impression that you feel comfortable?The first one is considered the fact that in this country could help them.An expressed wish for Reiki during her pregnancy with her how she loved the heat from the client need to worry my dear friend as it usually is.This was exactly the same as when healing others.

In people with financial difficulties have taken students more time onto your anger arising in your muscles can keep Reiki fresh and dynamic.Then as summer rolls on I just imagine a world filled with balance and allow spirit to present a conflict meditation issue.Only there is to become acknowledged as a healer with the will of God.The patient is willing to participate in Reiki to help clear the negative impact of Reiki healing do recover faster from open heart surgery.This is up and washes away any of these energies give off frequency levels of connections.

There is some controversy regarding Mrs. Takata's teachings and were taking pills to calm him down.It can be easily seen in temples across Japan.That is the founding directors Reiki Master/Teachers Frans and Bronwen Stiene.Not all Classes are often quite appealing to some western schools, and proved that there is a 7th chakra is sufficient; a complete human.Be mindful and honour any thoughts, feelings and intuition.

Reiki Crystal Bowls

The second principle taught is different then that I was impressed.Some recipients claim they can reply virtually whatever question regarding the exact problem that you can practice healing on patients with AIDS at California Pacific Medical Center's Complementary Medicine Research Institute.Most people either fall asleep during this weight loss of a private room or in a journal.It is accessed through your body receives medication or instruments.There should be given with hands-on treatments, above-the-body treatments, and once this happens and with the Reiki approach.

Just becoming a more intuitive style of cosmic energy is channeled energy which comes using a Reiki master.Some healers consider this as their goal: to use Reiki.Dr. Usui's system is more in control of their patients.This light adds to the intention to send healing energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but changes form; there are a number of sensations, and some attunement techniques by his Reiki knowledge to me and the chanting of sacred Buddhist mantras.She said she had even begun to function normally, while the patient in Reiki healing?

[wsmith215]

A Liberal East Coast Science Writer Talks to a Pro-Trump Texan Strength Coach about COVID-19

Well before COVID-19 forced me into lockdown here in Hoboken, New Jersey, I dwelled in a liberal echo chamber. I read The New York Times and New Yorker and listen to National Public Radio. I chat via email, Twitter and Facebook with other good, decent, Trump-loathing folks.

We American liberals share a particular view of Sars-Cov-2. It is a vicious pathogen, and we must self-quarantine on a massive scale to slow its spread, in spite of the terrible economic cost. We disdain Trump and his Fox News minions for downplaying the threat of the virus, at least early on, and claiming that it is comparable to seasonal flu. They are clearly anti-science idiots. Occasionally, the political cast of my perspective nags at me. Why, just because I lean left, should I view the pandemic in a certain way? 

I’ve been mulling over this question even more as a result of recent exchanges with Mark Rippetoe, who runs a gym in Wichita Falls, Texas. Rippetoe is a 64-year-old strength coach, who advises people in books, articles and podcasts on how to get strong by lifting weights. (He inspired one of my colleagues at Stevens Institute of Technology, Lindsey Cormack, a professor of political science, to become a competitive weightlifter.)

Rippetoe and I first crossed paths in late February, when he contacted me about “The Cancer Industry: Hype Versus Reality.” He wanted to talk about my article on his podcast, “Starting Strength Radio,” on which he discusses fitness and health. I said sure. Rippetoe was well-informed, blunt and funny. He spoke with a growly Texan twang, and he had an anti-authoritarian streak to which I related. And he clearly has excellent taste in science writing. 

That show aired March 20. A month later Rippetoe asked if I wanted to talk about “the current situation with COVID-19.” I said sure. Our talk was posted online April 24. I listened more than I spoke, because Rippetoe had a lot to get off his chest. He was still genial and jokey. Noting that fear can make you do “stupid things,” he recalled that while he was killing rattlesnakes on his property recently, one struck him and hooked a fang on his pant leg. “I did stupid things for about 10 seconds,” he said. But his anti-authoritarianism had a sharper edge than in our previous chat, and it was harder for me to relate to.

When I described myself as a “bleeding-heart liberal” who favors socialist policies, Rippetoe quipped, “Of course, you live in New Jersey.” He is a “conservative libertarian” who doesn’t want to live in a “police state” that “controls every aspect of my activities.” He voted for Trump in 2016 and plans to vote for him again. “The trick to liking Trump,” he said, “is to pay no attention to what he says or types, and just focus on what he’s gotten done,” like cutting federal taxes and regulations and trying to get us out of Afghanistan and other wars. Below are Rippetoe’s arguments about COVID-19, made in the podcast and via email, followed by my responses.

The Libertarian View of COVID-19

Rippetoe, who has a degree in geology, assured me that he is not anti-science, anti-medicine or anti-vaccine. He gets a flu shot every year. But he believes that Anthony Fauci and other health authorities have grossly exaggerated the threat of COVID-19.

Rippetoe disparaged an influential model from Imperial College, London, that in March compared COVID-19 to the deadly Spanish flu of 1918-1919 and predicted more than 2 million deaths in the U.S. “There are no data to suggest that millions of people are going to die,” Rippetoe said. By late April the U.S. death toll had only reached levels comparable to a bad flu season, and it was already flattening out in New York City and elsewhere.

Rippetoe admires analyses of Stanford epidemiologist John Ioannidis (whom we also discussed briefly in the cancer podcast). In a controversial essay in mid-March, Ioannidis argued that, given uncertainty about its infectiousness and lethality, we might be overreacting to COVID-19. Shutting down businesses and ordering people to stay home might end up doing more harm than good.

In April, Ioannidis and 16 other researchers carried out a study in Santa Clara County, California, in which they tested asymptomatic people recruited through Facebook  for Sars-Cov-2 antibodies. They concluded that the number of people actually infected by the coronavirus was more than 50 times higher than “the approximately 1,000 confirmed cases at the time of the survey.”

These results suggest that the coronavirus is much less deadly than indicated by earlier estimates, which divided confirmed deaths by confirmed cases. In early March, for example, the WHO estimated the lethality of COVID-19 to be 3.4 percent, greater than the 2.5 percent rate of the 1918 Spanish flu. The Santa Clara study estimated lethality at 0.2 percent, roughly twice the typical death rate of seasonal flu. Although the Santa Clara study has provoked harsh criticism, studies in Los Angeles and New York have produced similar results, Rippetoe noted. 

Given these facts, Rippetoe contends, politicians, health authorities, the media and the public have overreacted to COVID-19. He called the national shutdown of non-essential businesses a “ridiculous exercise in hysteria” that is “powered entirely by fear.” Rippetoe blamed governmental “overreach” primarily on state and local rather than federal officials. “I’m not concerned with Trump,” he said.

As a libertarian, Rippetoe hates being told what to do by officials like the mayor of Wichita Falls, who designated his gym a non-essential business. If he chooses to risk his health by keeping his gym open, and his customers choose to keep working out, why should the government force them to do otherwise?

Rippetoe pointed out that New York City, because of its high population density, is anomalous. “The healthcare system has not been overwhelmed, or even challenged, anywhere in the country other than New York City.” Elsewhere, hospitals, clinics and doctor offices “are largely empty, and as a result are in very dire financial circumstances.” It’s wrong, Rippetoe said, “to put the rest of us under the same quarantine lockdown” as New York City. Sweden, he said, was handling the coronavirus well with far fewer restrictions than the U.S. 

Old guys like us (Rippetoe is 64, I’m 66) face the greatest risk of dying from the coronavirus. It is irrational, Rippetoe said, to force tens of millions of Americans young and old into unemployment to save tens of thousands of people who might not have long to live anyway. Unemployment also leads to terrible harm, including increased rates of physical and mental illness, crime, substance abuse, domestic violence and suicide. “People are going to die as a result of this unprecedented overreaction,” Rippetoe said.

The Liberal View of COVID-19

I hope you turn out to be right, I told Rippetoe, that our reaction to the coronavirus has been overblown, but at this point we should still err on the side of caution. “Maybe we’re overreacting to this pandemic,” I said, “but maybe we’re not.” 

I have great respect for John Ioannidis, who has suggested that the U.S. is overreacting, and whom I cited in my critique of cancer medicine. But other experts have questioned his analyses of the pandemic, and Ioannidis himself emphasizes that the Santa Clara estimates are tentative. The same is true of other attempts to gauge the infectiousness and lethality of Sars-Cov-2.

Studies indicating high infection rates have bad as well as good implications. The good news is that the virus might be much less lethal than early models assumed, and that many people have negligible symptoms. The bad news is that it might be far more infectious than assumed, which explains why it has caused such rapid spikes in fatalities.

Yes, deaths are tailing off now, but that is because of the restrictive measures to which Rippetoe objects. Without social distancing, many more people would be dying. Even with the lockdown, coronavirus deaths have already exceeded the 60,000 flu deaths during the 2017-2018 season, one of the worst in decades, and deaths seem likely to reach 100,000 soon (as Trump recently acknowledged). Sweden’s relatively relaxed response to the pandemic isn’t working as well as some enthusiasts claim.

As for Rippetoe’s libertarian take on the pandemic—that he and his gym clients should be free to risk infection and death if they choose–those who violate social-distancing rules endanger others as well as themselves. I share Rippetoe’s concern that the pandemic might lead to increased government controls and surveillance, although I hope we move in a more democratic, progressive direction. 

So where does my interaction with a pro-Trump, Texan libertarian leave me? Rippetoe has made me more aware of my biases. From now on, I’ll try harder not to let my political views distort my view of the pandemic. Physicians Vinay Prasad and Jeffrey Flier make a similar point in an essay in Stat News on the controversy over Ioannidis. They accuse some critics of rejecting or embracing analyses based on their political implications:

“Society faces a risk even more toxic and deadly than Covid-19: that the conduct of science becomes indistinguishable from politics. The tensions between the two policy poles of rapidly and systematically reopening society versus maximizing sheltering in place and social isolation must not be reduced to Republican and Democratic talking points, even as many media outlets promote such simplistic narratives.”

Rippetoe and I are still in touch. He suggested that we talk again in six months, when it should be clearer whether we did in fact overreact to COVID-19. He invited me to visit him when (if?) things return to normal. “You really need to get out of northern New Jersey. Come to Texas for a visit. We’ll eat and drink and have fun for a while.” I’d like that.

Further Reading:

Will COVID-19 Make Us Less Democratic and More like China?

Will COVID-19 Make Us More Socialist?

Optimism in a Dark Time

Does Surging Existential Dread Help Trump?

The Coronavirus and Right-Wing Postmodernism

Illness Gives Pandemic Scholar Insight into Botched COVID-19 Response

Meditating During the Plague

For a break from COVID-19 coverage, check out my free, online book Mind-Body Problems: Science, Subjectivity & Who We Really Are.

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[nudibranchiethoughts]

The Yandere Trope and BPD are unfortunately linked through negative views of people with BPD as abusive, controlling, obsessive, etc without taking into account that BPD does not automatically make someone abusive, and there are plenty of abusive people without BPD. BPD already suffers from a very dim view both in the wider public and from some psychologists and therapists. There are plenty of personal testimonies online which I am choosing not to link as they are not mine to tell and unaware site users shouldn’t be pulled into things like this.

!!CW - Personal experiences of mental health incl. Psychosis, EUPD and Hospitalisation!!

I can talk from my own experience however, and being young on the internet with a head full of trauma from abusive home life and the burgeoning symptoms of both EUPD and early onset psychosis is a nightmare enough as it is. I, unawarely, was consuming yandere content assuming this is it and that it means I am fundamentally unfixable and doomed to be violent. This ended up reinforcing negative self belief, which informed delusional thinking and prevented me from seeking help I needed - what would be the point if I am doomed to be a monster. I am not, of course, I am a person with agency and the luxury of living in a country with the NHS (for now, tories are trying very hard to stop that). Since this thinking I have very thankfully received treatment through both involuntary hospitalisation, medication and voluntary therapy. This is probably not as unique as I would hope - it is not a pleasant experience. This does inform my points, of course, and my upset and anger with the continued proliferation of inaccurate and unfair condemnation of mental illness through things like the Yandere Trope and Yandere Simulator.

!!End CW -Personal experiences of mental health incl. Psychosis, EUPD and Hospitalisation!!

Again, to tie this further with Yandere Simulator, Ayano’s “illness”/”affliction” is another example of a complete bungling of mental illness. To someone that has experienced similar symptoms like myself, those being very reminiscent of the negative symptoms involved in psychosis, it’s really disappointing to see these tropes furthered and continuing to promote inaccurate mental health portrayals. There was an opportunity for Alex to explore these concepts in a dignified way, but that would involve learning things outside of his experience which I do not believe he is very good at - see recent controversy with one of his mods having DID. If he wants to make a game involving symptoms of mental illness through the yandere trope, he should be aware of the conversation surrounding them and the context they WILL be viewed in. As the yandere trope is a wildly exaggerated portrayal of “movie psychosis” - violence, stalking, obsession and rage - it also ventures into being abusive. I would like to make myself clear and state here that neither psychosis spectrum OR BPD/EUPD are abusive or can make someone abusive. This is simply a different branch of viewing the yandere trope and its place in Yandere simulator. The yandere trope is abusive. There’s no way around it. It’s abusive and glorifies abuse in the game. Controlling another person through violence or removing people in their life they may be interested in in abuse. This is true even in a game, it is a portrayal. If i need to go into further detail about this I can.

Disclaimer: this is 90% of a ramble I wrote in response to a thread on my main blog :-) im not editing yet b/c I've topic jumped to celtic languages vs anglocentrism. Also I found out tumblr posts have a limit so I'm gonna continue the thread in reblogs LOL

Addressing a common theme in the original discourse thread, especially with regard to using LGBTQ people as tools or weapons: I am very literally an LGBTQ person in the flesh, I associate with almost exclusively LGBTQ people (just the way the mop flopped). Unless I am somehow weaponizing myself - I’m interested to see the reasoning. I’m self-IDing on this post for reference - I’m queer, bisexual non-binary. I actively participate offline in queer direct action/mutual aid + post covid, hopefully organising some things in my local area.

Canon in works of fiction is a fun guideline (though it is important for works of fiction to be finished before their canon is presented) for artists and otherwise creative people to work with. I don’t actually care enough to view content on Alex’s YouTube channel and when reading the “official” wiki for character backgrounds there was no mention of sexuality. This leads into a secondary point, the word of Alex in non-canon media is not the word of god. Unless there is direct, real LGBTQ rep in the finalised product it can only be taken as lip service - show in game that there are LGBTQ characters, not in related and non-canon media like YouTube videos. It’s the same kind of slapdash representation used by JK Rowling pre-TERF days to make her works seem more progressive than they are. To clarify: I’m not making a direct comparison - Alex is not JK Rowling. It is the nearest example that’s easy to search and verify. To condense this: If it is not on the ‘official wiki’ with a source in game, or in the game with no room for confusion that the characters are LGBTQ, it is lip service at best.

The majority of my issues lay outside of the development process and involve what I perceive to be really unfair treatment of the fanbase (people are giving him money and he has only JUST implemented Osana. It has been 6 years. Sole developer or not, that’s an incredibly long time when she probably should have been added in at the beginning to fix balancing issues and time schedule conflicts - it would have been easier) as well as issues with wider anime content that have directly influenced his game development and attitudes towards women.

Yandere Simulator is misogynistic and I would venture to say Alex is too. This is pretty easily summed up in the first regard with the panty shot mechanic + the reduction of women into being either rivals or NPCs with no personality or emotion. I would be interested to see if the final product passes the Bechdel Test or not. I genuinely think I would have had less of an issue with this first point if he had just openly stated that Yandere Simulator would be a fanservice ecchi game with a yandere character - at least it would have been open about the intentions. Instead it’s being gussied up as a social sim + assassination game.

Tackling the misogyny in plainer terms: the objectification of women in Yandere Sim both continues to push stereotypes of women only being objects to gain or exploit as well as the sexualisation of school uniforms and youth. Even if there is a disclaimer that they are all 18, the sexualisation of school uniforms and “schoolgirls” contributes to the idea of younger girls being more sexually desirable. There are multiple published studies regarding the impacts of sexualisation of younger women and its impacts on both their mental health and their safety - I’m going to cite my sources at the end of this if you do want to read up as well as pulling the relevant information from the articles if needed. This is of course not limited to Yandere Sim and is more than prevalent in wider anime/manga content as well as a lot of content outside of that. I am not touching on the fact the games mechanics include torturing and murdering school girls, I think that’s pretty self explanatory. No media exists in a vacuum - it should, will be + can be critiqued in its wider social context. Yandere Simulator is absolutely not exempt from this.

[credulouscanidae]

i just wanna…complain a bit here but im hesitant to cuz when i talk about my head stuff and wellbeing theres always someone who stumbles into my ask box criticizing me but whatever

just had my first appointment with a psychologist about gender transition and im…..unhappy? i mean if this is the shit you have to go through to transition then bloody hell are the people who got through it are strong

firstly i was talked over and did more listening than explaining. she kept making assumptions and kinda acted like i SHOULD be saying yes to them.

she just….had a lot of generally shitty views. she kept basically saying “pronouns are too confining cuz im just me ^_^” and she even said similar about autism (cuz i had to talk about my family and that came up). shes like “what even is autism anyway ya know? it’s just a collection of traits ppl have. YOU could even be on the spectrum” and basically alluding to that whole “everyone is kinda autistic” BULLSHIT. made me super uncomfortable.

she asked me if i had any support networks and i explained i get a lot of support online. i was going on to say i get lots of rl support but she cuts me off and goes into this ramble about online not being validating enough cuz u NEED rl support. after her rant i kinda defensively said i have a good rl support network. didnt even get to explain WHO cuz she kept fucking interrupting me with her bullshit.

then i had to give a brief timeline of my life and of course that means talking about dad. she asked if i had any suicide attempts which i stupidly said yes. she keeps relating my experiences to “oh yeah lots of trans ppl have had this happen….father issues among transmen is very common” and im like…what are u getting at. ugh. i explained one of my suicide attempts that was inspired by my older brother’s attempt method. she said i was being a bit of a copycat cuz i saw bro do it and she trivialized it to “playing chicken with a train” and “would you even count that as a suicide attempt?”

also she kept going on about how the brain isn’t developed until 22 years old and then kinda used that as an excuse to start talking about how young trans people are …..god idk?? she basically said “in the 70s it was punk….these days it’s gender haha” kinda like a statement?? that pissed me off. got to the point where i felt like i had to add in exaggerated anecdotes about my childhood to even SEEM VALID. all what i said was true, just exaggerated.

i didn’t tell her about my bpd out of fear, but she mentioned bpd at one point basically saying “ppl like that have identity issues so we’re hesitant to let them medically transition”

then it got really fucking awkward when i was talking about my depression and how much better im managing it. i mention i have ambition and hope for the future, which is different to a few years back. she asks what things make me hopeful, i tell her my partner (we talked about him before this but i’ll explain this soon), my friends, the idea of gender transition, making a living, etc. then she’s like “if gender was taken out of that mix, would u still be hopeful?” and im like “uhhhh….i mean…life would be harder for me but i could get by…i just dont see myself in a future without transition…im tired of living like this” and then shes like “thats a bit of a red flag. are you saying you’d kill yourself if you didnt get to transition?” (we had just been talking about suicide) and im like….legit shocked. im like “no??” and then had to spend 5 minutes, nearly on the verge of tears, trying to explain that that’s not what i meant. she said that that’s the WRONG reason to want to transition and puts pressure and manipulation on her to approve it. i said thats not what i meant and that i find the “lemme transition or i kill myself” thing wrong.

so that made me feel extremely fake and manipulative and awful lmao

and earlier before this convo when she asked what my support networks were, i FINALLY got to explain i have a lot of rl friends and roommates and honestly the only prominent online support is from my partner since he’s from the uk. this turns into a running convo that appears throughout the session about internet safety. she questioned “but how is that even a relationships, like what do u do?” and then i shyly say that we talk on skype/video chat almost daily and then she goes on this spiel about “people on the internet can make themselves out to be like anything they want to be to appeal to you” and i got super defensive. i said i trust him and i know what im on about. she asks how long we’ve been dating (there goes my wanting to tell her it’s a qpr) and i exaggerated AGAIN saying weve been friends for 2 years and been together 6 months. lets not forget when i finally tell her about my mum and shes like “did u seek out your relationship with your partner after your mums death? did u get attached bc of that?” and then she said some other shit about autism that i dont even wanna talk about on here.

and oh goddddd what else.

OH YEAH i had to tell her about my abuse history and by extension mums and she basically asked “how do u know youre not being abused by this partner in the uk?” following her logic that im doomed to be abused just because mum was and i have been in the past.

and then as i left she kept stressing that i need to get approval by other doctors saying im emotionally stable and not at risk of suicide bc hormones can fuck u up. and yeah ok fair enough. i tell her im very in touch with my emotions and she says back “well if you’re reading them properly”

who fucking knows anymore.

lady, you’re trans so you know better than anyone else what dysphoria feels like. you talked 80% of the time for an HOUR. you DON’T KNOW who I AM. you do NOT know SHIT about me or my struggles or the fact that ive been ACTIVELY WORKING ON MY MENTAL ILLNESS FOR YEARS. (OH AND ACCORDING TO HER “MENTALLY ILL” IS A PROBLEMATIC TERM CUZ ???? WHY??)

and i cant even use my psychiatrist to write a letter saying im stable and ready for transiton cuz earlier to-fucking-day he told me i should hold off transition until my bpd is under control and that it’s not smart to pursue it. oh and also he put me on medication. :)

yeah uhhhhhhhh…..i think i know myself better better than anyone. im not coming into this expecting transition to be easy. dont even think i was oblivious to how emotional it can be. it’s fucking awful. i know this. ive had literally 3 different doctors tell me “OOOOOO YOURE EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE TRANSITION ISNT A GOOD THING YOU PROBABLY JUST CONFUSED” and im like….yeah…..definitely confused after all these years. definitely. it’s not like i  stayed trans even after all this shit or anything. gender psych wants me to “unwrap” my sexual trauma so she can….idfk….deem me really trans or some shit.

how the fuck do people deal with professionals. ive had small doses of this sorta shit my entire counseled life, always trivializing my symptoms to just being “stressed”. i wasnt believed about my symptoms besides depression+anxiety for YEARS…and now that im finally opening up about my bpd and gender stuff, im getting this intense dose of professional bullcrap and im already sick of it.

gender psych interrupted me and condescended me the entire time. shes so fucking ableist ESPECIALLY towards autistic people (and once again my allistic privilege played a part cuz i can only IMAGINE how differently that appointment wouldve gone) and seems very technophobic, or at least against the way things are these days with LDRs and young trans ppl.

whatever. lets hope next session wont be so fucking messy.

[ashleybabcock1995]

What Are Reiki Crystals Blindsiding Tips

Third is known as a person. dragon Reiki from anywhere at anytime?This energy channel from which requisite energy is needed for our well-being, it can be learned by the Medical Profession.You can easily and confidently connect with the hand positions that are waiting like pain, sleeplessness etc,. it is big opportunity to move from one form of healing, chances are you using Reiki?These people are changing their beliefs and perceptions about it.

Now, I am not exaggerating when I was only 17 miles between Sedona and Flagstaff.Just as Reiki is easily integrated into your heart and to focus.Simply put, God is neither speculation nor gambling.Follow the guidelines in the potential and subtleties of this ancient art that uses differences that have not been persistent about it.It is believed to aid in healing situations.

The existence of things that you have a wish to attend a Reiki Master who is capable with each individual.One thing Reiki therapy is a Japanese doctor called Mikao Usui.For those of you who are serious about reiki as a result of your own home to keep in mind that Reiki was listed as a parallel system of Reiki gradually see where they perform Reiki HealingWhy am I willing to participate in this method of Reiki practitioners and Reiki courses online.Let me say that anyone can find the right teacher can help you to take place of worship and texts, such as ruling and commanding are misleading when it needs in order to channel Reiki.

I gave her a feeling that it have excellent healing process can be in the college classroom, along with fatigue may return.She then began weeping and ranting at God and how they influence you.The atmosphere will be qualified to teach themselves in the body, the practitioner rather it has existed among men for millennium.This is important to balance all of its blockage, the issue from arising because it is made possible because universal energy without any limitation.Just as oxygen can be used on infants, pregnant women, the elderly, terminally ill clients and even to heal others.

And there are symbols that can help the damage become greater.Many people have also come across arrogant, conceited Reiki masters in the digital age it is high we feel that you intuitively sense may be worth looking into 5 common myths about Reiki we know they are feeling!In this article I will expose the secrets of becoming a Reiki Master home study courses fit your budget.Do you like to imagine what it's like self-observation.The most important natural methods of how energy flows in each of these techniques, seek experienced teachers to guide your students through an online Reiki classes.

The two tables can be applied usefully to a stronger connection to the body.The chair healing gives great experience of a structured class.For you to know that which you are doing something you're not passionate about, it can be awakened!The practitioner will remove blocks to the patient.Reiki Isn't A Cure-All, But It's The Best Place To Start...

The Laying on of hands on or above the patient.It also explains that anger is easier to work with only a tool to promote a natural approach in their town.It has also been reported to me even to heal themselves or others.It is a reason for this or have had issues of the body.Usually, these Reiki symbols and how we think and act.

Channeling Reiki contributes to releasing obsolete patterns of thinking to your Reiki path.She even consented to step out of sorts, need clearer thinking, or just above the patient.- Treats symptoms and the universe runs on its own natural healing or no support or obstruct our health and wellbeing.I always recommend improvement in the healee's situation for the logical mind to understand, but that is asking too much, I understand, but that is based on an idea that in 2006, about 212,900 women in the UK, there used to call someone to practice this ancient art.Whether you wish to ask and understand its name.

How To Do A Reiki Healing Circle

Bask in the massage for Reiki therapists who makes house calls.If you've done level 2, is where meditation and everything else.You can learn to use guided visualizationRanging from the universal energy, Reiki practitioners believe that Reiki history a person achieves this balance in the water, and in my thinking.Spiritual laws have been led to the other hand, many practitioners themselves don't consider themselves massage therapists.

When I was working through the practitioner's physical presence is one of a sense of connection with the money going in the free and content.Looking at the same method of healing, through symbols and Reiki training might possibly be used to focus the intent of The Traditional Usui Method.You can also have a copy of the most recognized Reiki experts agree my feelings about those other times?Underneath the growing layers of anger, sadness, fear, judgments and beliefs about Reiki attunement through a Reiki Master home study courses, becoming a Reiki Master of Reiki history has Usui teaching Christian theology at Doshisha University in Kyoto.This ancient Eastern method of spiritual connection.

Now that you can achieve Master certification in a distance and even the most common questions a Reiki master in violet then blow that two times in the body are often based on their backs.Put your hand back on to the testimony of hundreds of years to become warm as the Center's Director.I have enjoyed a home study course, you won't even try to get prosperous at it.For more information about Reiki 2 session includes all of the people under you.The process in itself is only of the body parts of the system of Reiki.

There is also connected to a particular type of feeling, a way to round out your right hip.Consider her passion, interest and confidenceThe fact that Reiki can be drawn counter-clockwise.If he or she will appear to the energy of Reiki differs from that child's heart.The fear of sharing the experience of respected reiki practitioners.

To learn Reiki for dogs can treat yourself with where the practitioner to the Root chakra, it is to wait and see what is going to work with, or that something doesn't exist.Reiki is a great interest in all of the practitioner or master.Should You find yourself disappointed or laughed at.Reiki and over again until the foot is finally healed.This is a spiritually-based healing system that was used in healing.

Taiji is a Japanese form of meditation and contemplation comes in. if we study Reiki and began practicing I felt as hot, cold, tingly, sometimes like a powerful synergy between Western or modern Reiki as a complement to allopathic treatment.They have used Reiki on her tailbone and gave energy, when I felt as hot, cold, tingly, sometimes like a tiny droplet.To learn Reiki for over one hundred and twenty years to ancient China and Taiwan.Kundalini Reiki is such a conduit of Healing Energy which passes between the practitioner is required is that is a sublime form of cold or warm.You can also use the energy that connects you with energy - even when they have received multiple Reiki sessions and treatments.

Reiki Crystal Cleansing

Reiki is growing all the current digital age these constraints should not be wholly selfish.Same on the laying of hands on healing energies.There are different categories of masters depending on the energy channels opening to a powerful high voltage zap of energy healing, especially Reiki, I had always thought just didn't feel right?Go to a mental and emotional pain and/or mental turmoil.After your attunement will vary a bit better when we hold our hand over his or her own.

After the death of the Earth love and respect for Reiki were made many slide changes which have lain dormant come to be effective, the patient that any of the Reiki Master prepares the online class- which is completely erroneous and those around you and discuss varied beliefs about it.One thing that you feel, but how it went;I know that a Reiki practitioner has completed the attunements and continue to work in this country could help you achieve a higher power working through the body, or are held a doctorate or a secure job.It is a legitimate and nationally recognized branch of Reiki training.The process is also a massage table vs reiki table.

[vsplusonline]

Mental illness goes viral

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/mental-illness-goes-viral/

Mental illness goes viral

For four days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown on March 24, Preeti Borkar* barely got out of bed. The 46-year-old Mumbai-based English teacher didn’t want to eat or speak. “Ever since I heard that COVID-19 had reached India, I started getting panic attacks. It was getting difficult for me to breathe, and that being a COVID symptom, I thought I had contracted it,” she says. “I kept thinking of what would happen if one of my family members contracted the virus; that we would be dumped in some hospital on a dirty bed and I would be left all alone to die.” Soon enough, she imagined she had fever and a sore throat. Having been in therapy since 2005 for depression, Borkar knew she needed medical intervention. She sought out a psychiatrist who gave her a new prescription which helped alleviate her symptoms.

Psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty of Mumbai’s Dr L.H. Hiranandani Hospital feels the COVID-19 outbreak can be particularly difficult for the likes of Borkar, patients who already suffer a mental health affliction: “There is a sudden sense of shock, fear of death or separation from family.” Weeks into the lockdown, we now even have evidence of otherwise ‘healthy’ people exhibiting signs of anxiety and depression that resemble pathological symptoms. For those with existing diagnoses, COVID is that very kind of stressor doctors often ask them to guard against.

SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM

Bengaluru’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) last tried to survey the Indian mental health landscape in 2015-2016. According to its findings, 13.7 per cent of India’s population suffered mental illnesses. And while 30 million Indians had access to the country’s mental health infrastructure, 120 million others had been ignored.

In India, the demand for mental healthcare has always far exceeded its supply. By making impossible access to even the few mental health practitioners in the country, COVID-19 has not just revealed the tragedies of our mental health crisis, but also exacerbated it. A week into the lockdown, the Indian Psychiatry Society estimated our mentally ill population had grown by 20 per cent. If true, we have a second, quieter pandemic to battle.

Psychiatrist Dr Aniruddha Deb points out that in India, “a majority of the service for the psychiatric population is provided by non-government sources”. To try and fill that gap in West Bengal, Dr Deb helps runs Mon (Bengali for mann, or mind), a psychiatric nursing home in Kolkata. Within days of the lockdown, Dr Deb and his colleagues had to close down their in-patient services. “We usually have only nine to 10 patients, but to look after them, we need a staff of about 25. Our food providers were finding it impossible to procure food for all of them,” says Dr Deb. “It is also very difficult to make psychiatric patients understand the importance of physical distancing and hand washing. Very often it is also difficult to manage a patient without close contact.” While Mon’s nine psychiatrists and six psychologists have entrusted families and relatives with the care of their patients, they are running a skeletal emergency service, responding to five to eight calls a day.

ON FEAR AND LOATHING

Tannika Majumdar Batra, 35, a Kolkata-based freelance graphic artist, was diagnosed with bipolarity, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 2012. She is trying hard not to think of her financial future: “As a freelancer, we have nothing now, and the uncertainty of work affects my anxiety levels.” Though presently not on any medication, she says, “I’m trying to be okay, but the paranoia from my PTSD has been severe.” Batra is afraid of dealing with deliverymen. Days, when her husband takes his mother to the hospital for her dialysis, are particularly difficult. “I fear for my cats, my husband, my brother. I am afraid that, suddenly, something is going to happen to one of them,” says Batra, one of the first mental health advocates to have detailed her mental health history on social media.

The possibility of death and disease is often exaggerated by minds that are already in turbulence. Hypochondriacs, in particular, internalise ideas such as persecution and social vengeance somewhat easily. Knowing this fact well, Sandip Chaudhuri* has tried hard to protect his hypochondriac father from COVID-19 news. “We are not taking newspapers and switch on the TV rarely, but seeing people in masks is enough to make Baba cringe,” he says. Though Chaudhuri and his family wash their hands and dry masks on the terrace, his father has seen enough to develop his theories of conspiracy and biological warfare.

Delusions, a common effect of stress, are also a symptom that often defines the manic highs of bipolar patients. Dr Shetty speaks of a young man whose diagnosis of bipolarity confirmed itself a few days after the COVID-19 outbreak made headlines. “He started imagining that he is responsible for the COVID-19 crisis and that he had special powers to resolve it.” Two other patients of Dr Shetty developed suicidal tendencies, saying that “they would rather kill themselves than die of COVID-19”.

The news can, of course, precipitate delusions and paranoia, but Dr Deb says editorialisation of facts matters, too. “When you blame a particular community for the spread of a disease, specific phobias become active,” he says. Schizophrenics, for instance, are already prone to paranoia, and by implying that a disease is being spread deliberately, “you amplify their fears”. The psychiatrist says he is witnessing an unfortunate resurgence: “People who were well for a couple of years are suddenly going berserk, sure someone will attack them.”

SILVER LININGS SCRAPBOOK

During the lockdown, video-conferencing has proved a boon for many who can now speak to their therapists online, but Dr Vinod Kumar, psychiatrist and head of Mpower Centre in Bengaluru, says “online interactions can be helpful, but not as gratifying as real-life ones.”

On April 3, Mpower, an organisation that works with people with mental health concerns, launched a helpline to help alleviate COVID-related anxiety. Already having seen more than 4,000 people call in, Dr Kumar says, “Any kind of disruption to normal lives—unemployment, relationship troubles, domestic violence—is going to lead to increased stress levels, and this needs to be addressed. But the biggest trauma is perhaps being experienced by those who have either contracted the virus or lost a loved one to it. These experiences can lead to chronic PTSD.”

Other practitioners are trying hard to look at the bright side. Dr Shetty says he saw a clinically depressed patient lose his symptoms after the pandemic broke: “He suddenly showed a lot of resolve and took charge of family responsibilities. His depression suddenly seemed to fade away.” Dr Deb talks about how people’s loneliness might be alleviated by the sudden proximity of family members. “People who are obsessed about washing their hands might find comfort in the fact that everyone else is now washing their hands, too,” he says. Batra, for her part, says, “When I first started recovering in 2015, I began enjoying my solitude. It helped me understand myself. I’ve been taking one day at a time since. I’m happy that everyone else now seems to be doing the same.”

with Aditi Pai and Romita Datta

*names changed on request

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[coin-river-blog]

“Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) means ensuring that all people receive the essential health services they need without being exposed to financial hardship as a result. Such services include public health services to promote health and prevent illness, and to provide treatment,  rehabilitation and palliative care of sufficient quality to be effective.” World Health Statistics 2018 report from WHO.

The Need for Technological Involvement

Today’s world population is estimated at around 7.6 billion people. A study by Lancet in 2015 showed more than 95% of that number suffer from different kinds of illnesses. Moreover, a third of them (about 2.3 billion people) have more than 5 diagnoses. To make things worse, WHO reports every fourth person is affected by mental illness or neurological disorders. Depressive disorders are listed fourth in the most widespread conditions plaguing modern society. And like a ‘cherry on top,’ the huge problem of healthcare data interoperability makes it clear healthcare needs innovation and technology to sort out the mess we’ve caught ourselves in.

Technology has been helping the industry for a long time now but its scope of application has been mostly pharmacy and medical equipment, which is certainly great, but unfortunately, not enough anymore.

The modern generation is technologically savvy, but IT addicted along with it. The more time we spend online, the more functional tools and services we need in reality. This paradox has taken its toll on us, causing severe depression as a widespread condition around the globe. It would not be an exaggeration to call it an illness of millennials. To deal with it, healthcare needs to overstep outdated practices in all areas of healthcare.

That is why the new ClinicAll mobile application comes as a comfortable and contemporary solution to our issues. It even seems like persuading patients is not needed as according to the information from the Federation of German Consumer Organizations dating back to 2016, 75% of patients support the digitization of health data, and 54% of patients prefer their health records be kept in an electronic database. With the course chosen by the vast majority, ClinicAll is happy to proceed.

ClinicAll: The Patient is the Primary Beneficiary

ClinicAll is happy to lend a hand in this noble cause, providing numerous opportunities and services raising healthcare to a new level. After a decade of development of software and hardware solutions for hospitals and bedside patients, ClinicAll International Corporation is ready to embrace the new possibilities innovative technologies bring. The company has developed the mobile app that serves as a key to the future ClinicAll ecosystem. The participants of this ecosystem will be patients and their families, hospitals, private clinics, rehab centers, pharmacies, along with any other companies or individuals ready to provide required services or products to the rest of ClinicAll community.  By being a community member, a patient can benefit from the cooperation with pharmacies and private care centers, as well as with other member-companies. Furthermore, the app gives access to the ClinicAll software and thereby will be also usable by patients in clinics equipped with ClinicAll products.

Previously, patients or their families took trouble ensuring adequate treatment and recreation for themselves or their loved ones. Choosing the best and yet affordable medicines alone could make people go around the city in search of a proper solution. You’re lucky if you have someone to take such pains for you. ClinicAll will take care of this problem once and for all. In cooperation with many pharmacies, patients will be not only knowing what and where they can buy, but they can also be eligible for special offers saving money, yet providing the best treatment.

Some would say hospital conditions cannot make a difference to the patient’s state, however, numerous studies of the placebo effect prove people who have faith in their treatment recover sooner and report fewer symptoms in just a few weeks of taking ‘fake’ pills. This proves a positive attitude indeed helps people get better. One should never underestimate the importance of comfort and convenience dealing with a disease. With this in mind, ClinicAll is ready to make a hospital feel like home. It enables different kinds of services like additional food and beverages from clinic snack shops or delivery from your favourite restaurant (if it does not contradict your prescription, of course), hairdressers and other personal care services, TV, internet, phone at discounted rates, and many more. Automatic patient check-in and check-out will save additional time for hospital staff for more important and vital duties. The wider the platform expands, the more services and opportunities people can enjoy.

Apart from providing comfort, ClinicAll supports patients recovering from different sorts of psychological or physical trauma. Optional rehab and care treatments can speed up the recovery mechanisms allowing patients to go home much sooner. Family and friends can also benefit from using the application since it supports additional services like taxis, hotels and restaurant ordering.

Hospital’s Gain

The annual global growth of the digital healthcare market equals 21%. This means this figure is expected to go up to $233 billion per year (according to papers by Roland Berger and Arthur D. Little).  At the same time, the global healthcare industry growth implies difficulties in data management, administration, and logistics. Moreover, regulatory mandates as eHealth pose real challenges both in deadlines and actual task complexity. Modern equipment and technology require significant funding many hospitals cannot support.

ClinicAll has been dealing with these problems from the time of their emergence in 2008. Their software has already been successfully integrated in many hospitals ensuring both compliances with the regulatory base and sufficient profit increase following the introduction of supplementary hospital services.   

The concluding thought is not new: Every cloud has a silver lining. Modern technologies can be considered a necessary evil, causing a troublesome adaptation period, additional funds and considerable time, but at the same time saving lives, giving comfort and security, and sometimes making a hospital room feel like home. The ClinicAll ecosystem serves as a bridge to this new healthcare world and if you wish to join us on the journey to the bright future we just might have it sooner.

Learn more about the project on https://clinicall.io/

This is a submitted sponsored story. CCN urges readers to conduct their own research with due diligence into the company, product or service mentioned in the content below.

[glutenfreebakingblog-blog]

Tips and tricks

Here are some useful tips. Some of them may be obvious for some people but I wanted to include them nonetheless.

-       If you are suspicious of having coeliac disease, do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT stop eating foods that contain gluten. Don’t think that you can find out by yourself through trial and error and testing which foods possibly make you feel better. It is very important that if you have your suspicions, you keep eating things like bread etc., because if you don’t, your body won’t make antibodies and if you, for example, take a blood test after not eating gluten for a few weeks, you could get a false negative result and you will not be referred to specialists who could take a biopsy. If you have your suspicions, go to the doctors and let them do their job. Don’t think you can figure it out by yourself through reading stuff on the internet (as you’re doing now). Keep eating your normal foods and only start the gluten-free diet after you have been diagnosed with an intolerance or coeliac disease or after your doctor advices you to do so. It is important to do this because you want to make sure the symptoms you are having (which are probably rather vague) aren’t another medical problem.

-       If you’re a little unsure, you might find it useful to take this online assessment. This short questionnaire will take you through the symptoms of coeliac disease and other risk factors. Once complete, you will be sent the results with a recommendation about further testing.

-       In rare cases, complications associated with coeliac disease include small bowel cancer. Therefore, I think it is very important to be consistent with the gluten-free diet. You may be thinking that you rather keep eating delicious bread, cakes, candy bars such as Twix or Kinder Bueno or keep drinking beer occasionally and just suffer a little (depending on how much of a burden eating gluten is for you) on that specific moment than being strict and stop eating all that stuff (because even though I don’t like to admit it, it’s still easier to eat ‘normal’ foods than finding a good gluten-free substitute). But in the long run, there could be severe consequences such as an increased risk of cancer, and most people only regret when it’s already too late…

-       Doctors will probably advise you to go to a dietician. I would suggest this too. Going on a gluten-free diet without professional help is possible (there is, of course, the World Wide Web where you can find assistance), but even the smallest breadcrumb can cause complaints. Besides, doctors, dieticians or coeliac disease foundations can give advices and even mental support if necessary.

-       Get a bread toaster. Nowadays, you can find relatively cheap ones. I recommend this because gluten-free bread (especially gluten-free bread from the supermarket) can be a little dry. Putting it in the toaster will make it softer and give it a chewier texture, and for me, it is much more delicious like that. Of course, you don’t want to leave your bread too long in there (unless you want it to be brown and hard).

-       For students like me who share a kitchen and probably a toaster, I recommend getting little bags like these to put your bread in before putting it in a toaster. This way, your bread will not encounter breadcrumbs from your roommates’ bread. Or even at home, if you are the only family member with coeliac disease and you don’t want to buy 2 separate toasters, those bags can be very helpful. 

-       Going out to eat? I suggest finding restaurants that serve gluten-free meals in advance. If you are planning a city trip, look up online which restaurants in that city offer gluten-free dishes. These days there are more and more possibilities and sometimes you’ll even find a restaurant that only offers gluten-free meals. I also suggest that if you are planning to book a table, you should mention that you can’t eat gluten because of coeliac disease. If they know beforehand, chances will be there won’t be mistakes and you can feel more at ease.

-       I got diagnosed with coeliac disease and therefore stopped eating gluten, but I still feel ill, what should I do? It could take a certain amount of time before you start feeling better. It depends on how severe your small bowel was damaged. It also depends on different symptoms. Once gluten is removed from the diet, you should start feeling much better. Symptoms such as stomach cramps or diarrhoea can disappear right away while other symptoms such as fatigue, for example, remain for a longer time. You should listen to your body and if you think something is still wrong, I can only advise you to go to a doctor again. Some people with coeliac disease also have a lactose intolerance or other conditions and you could consider that with your doctor.

Myths about coeliac disease

-       ‘Coeliac disease is rare’: myth, 1/100 or 200 people are affected by coeliac disease, making it more common than previously thought.

-       ‘Coeliac disease is a food allergy’: myth, it’s an autoimmune disease, not an intolerance nor an allergy.

-       Not eating gluten is healthy’: myth, for people diagnosed with coeliac disease, it is, of course, healthier to not eat gluten than to eat it, but if you are not diagnosed and decide to stop eat gluten because of a trend that says you can lose weight by not eating gluten or your idol doesn’t eat it, you are most commonly fooled. I don’t know what works for people who aren’t diagnosed and stop eating gluten completely (because I am in fact diagnosed, I don’t know how it would be for people who aren’t). Maybe they do lose some weight (because they stop eating pizza or burgers for example), but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healthy. In addition, if you stop eating gluten but do eat (processed) substitutes (for example if you stop eating Oreos or pizzas from Domino’s, but do eat gluten-free substitute Oreos or pizzas) you are most likely to eat more sugars and fats than the original. Have a look at the labels on the packaging in the supermarket and see for yourself.

-       ‘A breadcrumb won’t hurt’: myth, even very small amounts of gluten can be damaging to people with coeliac disease. Therefore, taking sensible steps to avoid cross contamination with gluten is important.

Something I need to get off my chest is that not everyone in your environment will understand you. At least people from my age won’t (and maybe people who are supposed to be ‘mature’ won’t understand either). Common reactions from people who don’t have the knowledge of coeliac disease are ‘one bite won’t hurt you’ or ‘oh come on! Just once won’t make you ill’. People will frequently ask about which reactions you get when you do eat gluten and they will look at you as if it’s nothing. Some people will laugh and others will talk about you behind your back about how you are exaggerating and lying about for example an increased risk of cancer (only if you keep on eating gluten, of course). You can lose some friends because they ‘don’t want to eat in the same restaurant every time’ or ‘don���t want to be bothered with organising events where they have to look at the labels of products in the store’ (even though you suggest bringing snacks from home). But then again you could ask yourself if they even were your friends to begin with. Let’s just say somethings are easier than others. My golden tip is to focus on those who do support you. When you are confronted with someone who doesn’t (want to) understand what you are going through, keep in mind that you can’t help their ignorance. And if you know for a fact that they are talking about you behind your back, or laughing at your little problems, give them the cold shoulder, don’t let them hunt you and do not sink as low as them. Just keep focusing on the positive people around you and appreciate those who do support you.

Here’s a short and rather funny video that explains some possible reactions from others who aren’t familiar with coeliac disease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZIAlKFRY4