#and generally broadening What It Can Mean to Have A Diagnosis

[baltimorebullets]

[transmutationisms]

foucault's own analysis focusses on the relationship between medical and juridico-legal authority -- which is partly a result of his case studies being essentially limited to 19th century france, a situation in which doctors were consolidating disciplinary prestige & professional privileges, & where physicians by the end of the century were an extremely powerful political bloc (second in number only to lawyers in the national legislature under the third republic, &frequently serving in lower and municipal political roles throughout the century, not to mention extremely influential in the scientific rhetoric & administration of colonial expansion).

however the case study being what it was & combined w/ foucault's general commitment to a left-libertarian conception of individual freedom means his analyses have little to say of patients' own responses to things like diagnostic creep. his presumption generally is that processes like medicalisation were impositions from above, either resisted or else tragicomically taken up by those who were made unwitting collaborators in their own subjugation.

what his liberal critics reply with then is almost always some version of their fantasyland where actually, the fact that doctors don't literally control the entire Government (nb: poor understanding of what a state is) means that this is all fine, actually, and some doctors were/are really nice to their patients, and some patients WANT to be diagnosed anyway, so how can we possibly blame medicalisation on doctors or say it's a bad thing if we care about patients??

what both foucault and his detractors generally miss then is the extremely basic observation that a diagnosis has multiple functions as a social technology, & one of them is to grant access to specific, limited, rationed accommodations & help. & as long as those resources are gatekept behind the diagnostic code, there will always be people who need the resources but don't have the chart label. & whether they are fully conscious of the material analysis of diagnostics or not, this is one of thee foremost concerns for patients and patient advocates who fight to broaden diagnostic categories.

but neither foucault nor most of his critics are like, good at being interested in distinctions like this that require you to think about the material outcomes of social processes so instead you just get pages and pages of pablum written as though like. patients trying to expand the autism diagnosis have exactly the same material interests and outcomes as physicians giving pharma company sponsored talks about 'pre diabetes'. unserious as one says.

yeah foucault's view of medicalisation was top-down and oversimplified and not really grounded in empirical or material analysis of how diagnosis functions and why. but also every foucault hater who writes about this is a spineless liberal producing doctor apologia and refusing to even engage with the most basic critique of capitalist medical authority so its always like [grits teeth]

[expertsgaragedoor]

What Really Happens During a Garage Door Repair Service?

Garage doors are a fundamental piece of our regular routines, giving security, comfort, and assurance to our vehicles and things. Nonetheless, similar to any mechanical framework, carport entryways can encounter mileage after some time, prompting glitches or breakdowns. At the point when this occurs, it's vital to look for the mastery of an expert garage door repair service. In this blog, we will dig into the unpredictable subtleties of what genuinely unfolds during a garage door repair service, revealing insight into the means and methods that guarantee your carport entryway has returned to its ideal usefulness.

Introductory Investigation and Appraisal

The most important phase in any garage door repair service is a careful review and evaluation of the current issues. A prepared professional from the garage door repair service company will show up in your area and cautiously inspect your carport entryway framework. They will search for apparent harm, tune in for strange sounds, and take a look at the entryway's general condition. This underlying appraisal is critical in deciding the degree of the issue and the vital fixes.

Diagnosis and Problem Identification

When the assessment is finished, the professional will analyze the particular problems influencing your carport entryway. It may very well be different issues, like a wrecked spring, harmed rollers, failing sensors, or electrical issues with the opener. The expert will clear up the findings for you, itemizing the parts that need fixing or substitution and giving a gauge of the maintenance costs.

Fix Plan and Approval

After recognizing the issues and examining the maintenance plan, the expert will give you an itemized gauge. This gauge will incorporate the expense of parts and work expected to fix the issues. You will have the chance to clarify pressing issues, look for explanations, and approve the maintenance work. Having an unmistakable comprehension of the proposed fixes and related costs before proceeding is significant.

Parts Substitution and Fixes

Whenever you've endorsed the maintenance plan, the professional will start chipping away at your carport entryway. They will have the essential apparatuses and new parts available to effectively finish the fixes. Contingent upon the issues recognized during the assessment, the expert might supplant broken springs, broken down rollers, failing sensors, or other harmed parts. They will guarantee that all fixes are done to industry norms to reestablish your carport entryway's usefulness.

Oil and Support

As well as resolving particular issues, a garage door repair service frequently incorporates routine support and oil. Legitimate oil of moving parts, like pivots, springs, and rollers, is vital for smooth and calm activity. The specialist will apply the fitting greases to these parts to lessen rubbing and broaden their life expectancy. Customary support can likewise forestall future issues and guarantee the lifespan of your carport entryway.

Wellbeing Checks and Testing

Before finishing the maintenance administration, the expert will direct well-being checks and exhaustive testing to guarantee that your carport entryway works securely and effectively. They will test the equilibrium of the entryway, change the pressure on springs if important, and test the auto-turn around the element to guarantee it works accurately. These well-being checks are fundamental to forestall mishaps and guarantee the assurance of your family and property.

Tidy Up and Last Assessment

When all fixes, support, and well-being checks are finished, the professional will tidy up the workspace and eliminate any garbage or old parts. They will direct a last review of your carport entryway to guarantee that it is working accurately, with no issues or strange commotions. This fastidious meticulousness is a sign of a respectable garage door repair service.

Clarification and Client Training

Before leaving your property, the professional will carve out an opportunity to make sense of the work that was performed and offer important ways to keep up with your carport entryway in ideal condition. They might give data on normal oil, visual assessments, and how to investigate normal issues. This client training guarantees that you can find proactive ways to keep your carport entryway with everything looking great.

A garage door repair service includes a progression of efficient advances intended to distinguish, analyze, and address issues with your carport entryway framework. From the underlying review and finding to the genuine fixes, wellbeing checks, and client schooling, an expert garage door repair service guarantees that your carport entryway is reestablished to ideal usefulness. When confronted with carport entryway issues, looking for the mastery of experienced experts is fundamental to keeping up with the security and comfort that your carport entryway gives.

[zen-garden-gnome]

Existential discomfort and ADHD

Picture a face. Could be a made-up face, could be the face of someone you know, could be an amalgamation of the two.

When I try to picture a face (or anything else, for that matter), everything about it never stops moving. The head is a layering of all different kinds of head shapes and sometimes random other shapes, always subtly morphing and adjusting and occasionally flashing out into irrelevant silhouettes before coming back to a general human head.

Focusing on any one feature or area is like zooming into a melting painting. Everything in my mind’s eye is always in a state of becoming, both in terms of movement and composition. Whatever I’m trying to visualize, most of everything within or around it is only partially there, fading and warping in and out of a hazy existence. A mouth is simultaneously multiple kinds of mouths in multiple expressions without necessarily feeling impossible or contradictory, any of which might bring about distracting phrases or moods or scenes in my head. The mouth will also occasionally be some unrecognizable shape, as if in response to a suddenly relocated vector point, and will sometimes simply cease to be a mouth at all, or disappear entirely.

In my mind, anything is hard to look at for too long. The longer or harder I try to look, the more elusive it is. Like the scientific eye peering closer and closer at atomic particles, everything is always breaking the rules and splitting into smaller and smaller stuff. More and more relational context, less and less hard truths. This experience can be quite frustrating, even depressing. It’s hard to visualize, oh, anything. It’s hard to make plans for expression, meals, outfits, to synthesize information, prioritize tasks, and to project my intentions into the future. Sometimes I feel like I have a learning or processing disorder, and by definition perhaps I do. It’s hard to get diagnosed with stuff as an adult, especially without health insurance in the US. But diagnosis can also be another shackle. I don’t think my mental experience is “wrong,” and in fact it’s probably quite common. Just as I may be swimming in the vast body of God (for lack of a better term), eternally morphing and becoming and being composed by/of all happenings simultaneously, my mind is also part of this.

It also feels existential because my efforts to hold something cause it to decompose through my brain-fingers. It sometimes feels like life is flowing by me and I can’t point my life force well enough to engage with it. Visualization is part of creativity, motivation, and preparation. It’s how we align ourselves with a future. Simply writing this post has essentially taken me months.

But maybe there’s a middle ground. Maybe we don’t all engage with life exactly the same way, and maybe engaging with it where we’re at makes it easier to broaden our styles of engagement over time. While using modern concepts (or language at all) to identify my experience has helped me in many ways, it may also be holding me to preconceived ideas of normal, right, useful, healthy, et cetera, and thus tricking me into a self-limiting understanding of self.

Easing into that understanding has required staying with this discomfort -- the discomfort of struggling to focus and to express, the discomfort of looking into this experience long enough to see what all it touches, without getting too distracted by what it feels like and what all that may bring up in my mind and heart. It’s possible to stay with it and learn from it and process it, though it may take many tries and many years.

And God knows, I’m still uncomfortable. Processing discomfort doesn’t necessarily mean “fixing.” “Fixing” assumes a problem. Processing just requires giving the energy somewhere to go, spreading out across a wider nervous system until the backlog of energy has eased and the flood has receded, and we can see the patterns left on the shorelines. The effects are writ there and we’re living them. There’s plenty of work there, alone.

May we stand in our discomforts long enough to process whatever’s waiting inside them.

[justanothersyscourse]

So you're very, very close on the stuff about the TOSD, so I'm going to super quickly give a couple extra points (there's been some updates! Exciting), and then bring it back to IFS, because I'm hoping that will generate some genuinely positive conversation.

I'm really happy you're responding, I'm not great with tone tags, but everything here is meant with a sort of... kind, respectful excitement? Like, yayy, let's have good conversations, broaden our ideas, and see if we can shed some light on a couple different syscourse topics.

So, TOSD. That's the general idea, yes, but there's actually more than just EPs and ANPs now! There's a number of "mixed parts", that act in both capacities. Over the years, it's become very clear that the ANP/EP dichotomy just isn't working. OSDD falls into the same category as BPD, but many with OSDD voiced concerns that they have more than one ANP. This either means that OSDD 1b needs to be consolidated into DID at the tertiary level and 1a needs to stay in secondary SD, or that the first round of research was missing things.

Clearly, it's the latter, and we should be seeing more info coming out over the coming years!

As well, it's been heavily suggested that BPD could very well be tertiary SD. What do we do then? X (PDF, careful on phone), X

(There's a lot on this, if anyone reading wants to look, Google 'borderline personality disorder "tertiary" structural dissociation' with the quotes and you'll start seeing more articles)

That said, let's talk IFS.

For those who missed the first bit of conversation, here's what the creator of IFS had to say about DID.

“We think people have parts, and parts are sub personalities, and in distinction to a lot of other systems we believe we’re born with them. It’s in the nature of the mind to be sub-divided. We’re all actually multiple personalities, and people who carry that diagnosis aren’t any different to us, except that theirs got blown apart more, from the horrific trauma they suffered.”

IFS has been around since the 80s, and it directly draws a comparison to DID-- continually and constantly, unlike endogenic systems, who are trying desperately to get away from DID.

Your description of IFS is pretty close, except for the fact that they believe they're systems, just like you and me. I can look at IFS and say, that's not the same thing, obviously, even though they're using our language and directly comparing themselves to us (not even going to lie, I despise the quote above, I hate it with every fiber of my 12 beings).

I hate it more than I hate endos.

It's just as inaccurate of a description of DID and more annoying of a comparison. It's also much more common in mainstream topics and clinical circles.

It's also not just for "disordered" singlets-- it's for everyone. And I can get behind that, to an extent. I think this type of therapy is incredibly important and beneficial to everyone.

Every single person should be taking care of their parts.

Not everyone has the same kind of parts though.

So why aren't we more angry about IFS? What if endogenic systems are simply more in tune with these parts-- they feel the shifts more acutely than others, or they can see their life more easily from the views of those parts (for example, they can really easily tell the difference between their work and social parts, seeing the choices and needs more clearly from each part).

Why are we so cruel to them but not about IFS?

At least with endogenic systems, they're trying to come up with their own language-- plurality, collective, headmates.

If we can understand that IFS isn't the same as DID, why can't we respect endogenic systems just trying to understand themselves better?

Personally, I think just as many endos will eventually realize they're traumagenic as there are endos simply living IFS to the fullest. So why do they deserve less respect?

I hope this makes sense! I hope people will comment on and talk about this.

I want to thank you for the time you put into your post, and if you made it through reading mine.

You don't need to reply, this can be the end of the conversation, but thank you regardless, and if we don't talk again, I hope you have a good day :)

Also, adding in for the other comment on this post-- the age of 6 comes from the authors of the DSM! In the book, "Dissociative Disorders in the DSM 5" they state:

However, this doesn't account for neurodevelopmental disorders that could slow the consolidation of the sense of self. Some doctors in more recent years suggest that with other disorders, the upper limit of the age cap could be somewhere from 12-16 to develop CDDs! Though on average, it's considered to be about 9~ years old.

Science is fun.

On IFS- @justanothersyscourse (sorry this is long!)

From what I understand about IFS based on what you said and what I’ve heard in the past, it’s a therapy to do with internal parts that aren’t alters- which can happen, because essentially alters are when there are solid dissociation walls (full, partial or emotional dissociation and amnesia) developed between ego states due to severe and/or extremely repetitive trauma as a child, and as the brain develops, these ego states will develop too, impacted by the trauma that they may or may not carry, into full blown dissociated, separate consciousnesses. (This does not mean they have full personalities, all alters add up to one person, one personality, but the Separation does mean different identities in themselves bc they developed as the brain was trying to develop a sense of identity.) but the ego states they were even before, are called Emotional Parts and Apparently Normal Parts, on a basic level. These ego states, these EPs and ANPs, are responsible for meeting the child’s basic needs- a part may have a job to secure a child’s secure attachment to a caregiver, a part may have a job to make sure the child doesn’t go hungry, a part may be there to make sure the child learns to properly communicate emotions, etc. with trauma, these functions are impacted. The parts take on trauma and hold it and don’t fuse properly.

Singlets can have these parts to themselves, especially traumatised singlets- everyone has parts to themselves, in neurotypical, non-traumatised people, I believe they fuse [almost] completely? Or have a secure enough lifestyle that the EPs and ANPs work together fluidly. I forget which it is exactly. With OSDDID, these emotional and apparently normal parts developed a sense of identity, with some carrying trauma and some not, and some carrying trauma but acting like they don’t/can only access that trauma some of the time? These are alters.

But with traumatised singlets, the EPs and ANPs never learned to work together fluidly enough due to certain needs not being met but others HAVE been met, so they’re still a singlet, but a traumatised, maybe slightly dysfunctional one. The parts were never impacted enough to have dissociative amnesia walls built between them, so they never turned into alters, but they don’t work fluidly with one another.

For instance, by medical definition, DID is the presence of multiple EPs and ANPs, separated by full, partial, and emotional amnesia and dissociation. OSDD is the presence of one ANP and multiple EPs, separated by partial and/or emotional amnesia and dissociation, and things like PTSD, BPD, and etc have one EP and one ANP that have a slight maybe slight lack of memory when switching between the two when triggered, and/or a lack of emotional permanence and “mood swings”, but do not have the full blown dissociation and amnesia and their parts do not have dissociated, separate identity.

Side note, this is also why people say more research needs to be done in the case of systems with personality disorders (they definitely exist, we are one, but from that definition it’s easy to understand why people want more research, right?)

IFS is from what I can understand a therapy caring for parts in disordered singlets that have EPs and ANPs that do not work together fluidly, such as in BPD, [C-]PTSD and etc. I do not like that they sometimes might steal actual system terms but there can be “parts” without them being alters.

Apologies if anything here is not explained properly I am in school and writing this on my lunch break/in lesson lol I will explain things (if I remember) after if anyone needs it!

Feel free to correct me if I got any of this wrong I am not a professional simply an Autistic system who is chronically online with a special interest in psychology and online friends with actual psychology students who are also systems 😭✌️ please use tone tags tho I don’t do well with perceived criticism most of the time /lh /g

[takis-essays]

Is Prostitution a Victimless Crime?

Target word count: 2000 Final word count: 1944

Prostitution is considered a moral crime. Moral crimes don't necessarily involve breaking any major laws, or prosecution for any laws that do get broken. They involve the breaking of common morals or deviation from societal norms, meaning that they can differ depending on the cultural beliefs and common views in a specific location. An example of moral crime (asides from prostitution) is begging. While it doesn't land you any jail time, it is still actually a crime. In the UK, the exchange of sexual services for money is legal, but things like soliciting, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel and pimping are considered to be crimes. While they may often be seen as simple subcategories of prostitution, they are looked at as separate offences within the legal system and will land you with different charges.

Prostitution falls under moral crime, because it deviates from the norm. The majority of people don't perform sexual acts to receive a payment. Many people see it as morally wrong, because they believe it represents violence against women, or that it requires loss of dignity. It is most often strongly disliked by those with religious backgrounds, as religion plays a great part in shaping morals. There is also an overlap between prostitution and trafficking, as many prostitutes are, or have been, trafficked; however, sex workers have said it is important to distinguish the two from each other, as they are not the same thing. Whereas trafficking is always done against the will of the person being transported, prostitution can involve consenting adults

As stated in the above paragraph, a common argument siding with the opinion that there are victims within prostitution, is that it endorses violence against women. There have been many accounts of sex workers who have been assaulted and beaten, often having things done to them against their will. There is a belief that women who work as prostitutes have somehow given up their human rights and are exempt from the rights to protection which are easily given to other citizens. Public discourses concerning female safety often mention the view that women who do not act responsible with how they act are 'asking for it' or should not have the right to public protection, as they put themselves in that situation by choice. However, a person's human rights should still apply no matter what they choose to do with themselves, as it is their own business, especially considering that quite a lot of prostitutes have been forced into the field through trafficking, fraud and such other ways, which I will discuss next.

There is also the argument talking about trafficking often overlapping with prostitution. It is widely believed that prostitution must involve trafficking in every instance, and while that isn't the case, approximately 40% of prostitutes have reported that they were former child prostitutes, meaning they were forced into the industry by either being trafficked or being a teenage runaway. 40%, while not being the majority, is still a very large number. Despite the clear overlap in prostitution and trafficking, there was a study done by two academics, Liz Kelly and Linda Regan, which investigated the extent of the sex trafficking problem within the UK. They concluded that the problem could be anywhere between two to twenty times larger than what we know, however the meaning of the term "trafficking" has been loosened and broadened, making it lose it's rightful impact. People have exaggerated the amount of trafficked prostitutes by making assumptions, and have used it to describe the general movement of all sex workers, even when they have willingly travelled somewhere themselves.

Another argument that sides with those who believe that prostitution is not a victimless crime is that both mental and physical health of the offender are affected by the profession itself. It has been shown that sex workers are under astounding amounts of stress which often lead to many psychological and physical health conditions. The most common psychological diagnosis reported by women who work in the prostitution field is depression with 35.1%, followed by anxiety with 19.9%, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with 12.7% and many others. These conditions on their own are bad enough, but when one considers that they can also lead to physical health complications such as Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease (GORD/GERD), a gastrointestinal tract related disease which can cause daily pain, poor sleep and food intolerance; depending on the severity of the symptoms, this condition can be debilitating. This isn't the only physical condition that can be developed. Besides the obvious sexually transmitted infections and diseases, things like peptic ulcers and Disseminated Gonococcal Infections (DGI) can also be developed, not necessarily related to stress, therefore even if the prostitute themselves doesn't find their job stressful at all, they are still at risk of physical health complications.

Another argument that supports the belief that prostitution victimises the very people that work in this field is that it causes substance abuse which in turn leads to a poor headspace, or vice versa. A study was conducted on 200 prostitutes, centred around substance abuse before or after starting their work. 55% of those that were questioned reported that they were addicted prior to starting their work in the field of prostitution. This would suggest that their addiction, leaving them in a vulnerable state, led them to start prostituting themselves due to them viewing it as the only way to get by. 30% reported that they developed an addiction after they started work. This would suggest that they suffered some kind of traumatic experiences during their time in this profession and had to resort to substance abuse in order to cope with it. The last 15% reported beginning to abuse substances concurrently with the beginning of their work. This could mean that they either got addicted around that time due to starting prior, or they began taking substances excessively in order to prevent traumatic experiences from taking over their lives. Overall, the suggestions here are grim and often point back to coping mechanisms or voluntary reality shifting in order to escape how they feel in the moment, which suggests that they are in fact victims of the profession itself.

An argument that agrees with the statement that prostitution is actually a victimless crime is that the criminalisation of prostitution is the main cause of the victimisation of anyone within the scenario, especially the offender. It is thought that criminalisation of prostitution is one of the leading structural factors that create vulnerability within the prostitutes. There is not only a link between criminalisation and violence against the individual providing the service, but also a link between criminalisation and HIV transmissions, further affecting the workers. Committing a crime in itself is seen as irresponsible and risky, meaning that society's generalised view of prostitution is that they are there because they have chosen to enter and stay in their situation. They also think that once someone enters the field of prostitution, they have immediately degraded themselves and they shouldn't complain, since it was their choice. This view in itself victimises sex workers, as now they feel that they are lesser and undeserving of protection rights. This in turn makes them more vulnerable and susceptible to violence. According to statistics, around 40% to 70% of prostitutes have or are experiencing some type of violence due to or within their career. This argument suggests that if prostitution was decriminalised, it would be a victimless activity or service; however, this is opposed by an observation of locations where prostitution is legal. It is shown that places that have made prostitution legal actually experience a larger amount of sex trafficking into the country, as do richer, more advanced countries with higher populations. A good example of this is Germany, which further legalised prostitution in 2002 by allowing third-party involvement. Now, Germany considers prostitution a regular job subject to tax payment and retirements, with about 150,000 people actively working as prostitutes. Despite this, the estimated stock of trafficking victims in 2004 was 32,800, which is about 62 times more than in Sweden, a country which re-criminalised prostitution in 1999.

Another argument which agrees with the claim that there are no victims within prostitution is that the act itself is consensual; both parties are willing to do it, therefore consent is present as long as both of the participants are of legal age. In our current society, we are given the right to freedom of choice, or rather the right to freedom of rational choice. This includes sexual activities. The laws surrounding consent have been put in place to protect people from having unwanted sexual experiences, whether that be outside the home or within it. Danger isn't exclusive to one place, and protection is a must no matter where someone is. However there is the issue of coercion and manipulation of someone into giving verbal consent, or at least not explicitly denying it. Many women in working the field of prostitution have said that they have felt distorted in their thinking, or powerless, unable to say no to sexual activities, no matter how much they were unwanted. The line between consensual and nonconsensual sexual activities within prostitution is purposely blurred by the industry itself. This is done in order to allow as much profit as possible, conditioning women from a young age that they shouldn't say no, because it will bring them a reward of some kind. This kind of treatment is inhuman and morally corrupt; it is the major problem within the field of prostitution. Thusly, the original argument about it being a consensual activity and not really being anyone else's business is invalid. Consent is only truly consent if it's conscious and informed.

To conclude this evaluation, after looking at the evidence presented in the form of statistics, statements from prostitutes themselves, and observational studies, there is a clear victim within the crime of prostitution; the prostitute themselves. They suffer from conditions, both mental and physical, caused by the activities required by their job. They are significantly more likely to be murdered than the average person, often suffering assault of many kinds at the hands of their clients, pimps, and in the case of kerb crawling, at the hands of people who are merely bored and need an easy target. Their vulnerable emotional state and lack of a stable life makes them susceptible to manipulation, extortion, coercion, and many other things that could affect their ability to consciously and honestly consent, without simply having to comply to the wants of their clients or "employers".

The arguments made against the presence of the victim in these deeds are easily disproved with studies, or just common sense. While it seems as though if prostitution was legal, there wouldn't be such an astounding amount of other issues (like trafficking and fraud) surrounding it, that was proven untrue by an observational study. The arguments were misinformed and based on speculation, some of them even disproving themselves whilst trying to make a point for themselves. It was very clear from the beginning that prostitution as an industry victimises those who work within it; more specifically, those who perform the sexual favours and acts. There is a shocking amount of lack of understanding of consent within the industry, leaving a lot of room for rape and other forms of violence.

Overall, while prostitutes themselves shouldn't be criminalised, seeing as they have been proven to be the victims in these scenarios, the actual act of prostitution shouldn't be endorsed or encouraged in any way. It does more harm than good, and it definitely harms a vast amount of people, whether it is knowingly or not doesn't really matter.

Bibliography: Legality of sex work: http://www.mash.org.uk/get-support/the-law/

Opinions on sex work: https://www.globalsistersreport.org/news/trafficking/worldwide-debate-about-sex-work-morality-meets-reality-48216

Opinions for and against: https://prostitution.procon.org/questions/is-prostitution-a-victimless-crime/

Violence against sex workers: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/26912/1/Phipps_VAWchapter.pdf https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.0141-9889.2004.00405.x

Trafficking and prostitution: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/oct/20/trafficking-numbers-women-exaggerated https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X12001453#s0030

Criminalisation of sex work: https://d8dev.nswp.org/sites/default/files/impact_of_criminalisation_pb_prf01.pdf

Sex work and mental/physical health: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5735638/ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349336426_Impact_of_Prostitution_on_Health

Consent within sex work: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-28/jensen-with-prostitution,-when-is-consent-not-consent/7363782

Substance abuse and sex work: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7143150/

General statistics: https://sex-crimes.laws.com/prostitution/prostitution-statistics

Notes: I have slightly changed the structure of this essay as it was kind of a disjointed mess, the arguments were all over the place. I fixed some typos and grammatical mistakes that I noticed. I now have an improved structure and I'm fairly proud of it. I will reblog it when it gets graded, hopefully I'll have some tips and pointers for improvement.

[sysmedsaresexist]

Alright, you're pissing me off now.

That's not what osdd 1 is. Do you have a copy of the DSM? If you need it, I can get you the link. If you have a copy, I suggest you reread it to understand the difference between amnesia and dissociation.

"No dissociative amnesia."

It's almost like OSDD might have no amnesia. Can you believe that?

Amnesia is about memories-- it's the loss or misplacement/misfiling of memories, generally. Dissociation is largely a DISCONNECT from memories and current reality. Sounds similar, but they're VERY different. People with osdd may have full access to memories, but no emotional connection to them. This is the "not me" part of dissociation.

You know, the part that turns into alters with enough trauma.

CDDs do not require amnesia, they require dissociation, which more often than not appears as amnesia, but not always.

Hell, even DID doesn't require amnesia between alters, amnesia for childhood events is enough to count, with full communication between the system. Many osdd systems will go on to discover amnesia in their past, moving them to a DID diagnosis, but it's absolutely possible to have no amnesia at all. It's documented. It happens.

Even partial DID, which is the ICD's closest equivalent for the first presentation (1a) doesn't have amnesia in the criteria.

Parts of a whole doesn't mean what you think it means. Parts of a whole means that at any given time, alters have access to limited sets of memories, resources, skills, tools, coping techniques, on and on and on. Within themselves, they are still whole. For the most part, at least, we're talking only about elaborated alters right now. They have likes, dislikes, opinions, unique memories and perspectives, preferences. They would often lack enough emotional maturity and tools to function adequately on their own, but many could.

They would probably do better if they were able to connect the full stream of memories and the lessons learned from those memories, though, but that doesn't mean they're not whole, or can't be whole.

The question is what type of person you'd have become if you had a full, continuous stream of memory and access to life lessons. The whole picture of who you could have been, and alters are parts of that.

This is has nothing to do with elaboration or autonomy. It's a concept that was taken by the anti psych crowd and destroyed. And now you're part of the problem.

Please be more mindful of the information you present, broaden your resources a bit. You don't seem to have a large library, and I think you should reconsider running this blog until you do, as there's a significant amount of misinformation in many of your posts.

DID/OSDD tumblr I have a question!

First of all, I understand that y'all are not professionals. I unfortunately can't talk to a professional about this, though, but rest assured I won't take your answers as the absolute truth and nothing but the truth.

So someone I know, the age of 15, tells me that they believe they have DID or OSDD. Okay, good to know, I think. They tell me that at age 11 they realized that they had headmates (they didn't know what headmates were then but they knew they had people in their head.) They also tell me that switching is fast and easy for them. They then demonstrate this by switching fast between headmates. I found this a bit suspicous, but I'd like to hear if this is normal and possible for some systems. They also named over ten alters, should they make a syslist? Should I tell them to make a syslist?

So I tell them "If that's okay, would your headmates be able to tell me if they're fronting?" And they say yes. A few minutes later, one of them says they are fronting and says their name. I notice that this alter's speech, mannerisms, posture, and voice are they same, and that they share a lot of the same interests. Is this OSDD1a? I don't know. Can system tumblr help me?

[lil-rosequartz-princess]

Profile Of A Sociopath

Glibness and Superficial Charm

Manipulative and Conning They never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors as permissible. They appear to be charming, yet are covertly hostile and domineering, seeing their victim as merely an instrument to be used. They may dominate and humiliate their victims.

Grandiose Sense of Self Feels entitled to certain things as "their right."

Pathological Lying Has no problem lying coolly and easily and it is almost impossible for them to be truthful on a consistent basis. Can create, and get caught up in, a complex belief about their own powers and abilities. Extremely convincing and even able to pass lie detector tests.

Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt A deep seated rage, which is split off and repressed, is at their core. Does not see others around them as people, but only as targets and opportunities. Instead of friends, they have victims and accomplices who end up as victims. The end always justifies the means and they let nothing stand in their way.

Shallow Emotions When they show what seems to be warmth, joy, love and compassion it is more feigned than experienced and serves an ulterior motive. Outraged by insignificant matters, yet remaining unmoved and cold by what would upset a normal person. Since they are not genuine, neither are their promises.

Incapacity for Love

Need for Stimulation Living on the edge. Verbal outbursts and physical punishments are normal. Promiscuity and gambling are common.

Callousness/Lack of Empathy Unable to empathize with the pain of their victims, having only contempt for others' feelings of distress and readily taking advantage of them.

Poor Behavioral Controls/Impulsive Nature Rage and abuse, alternating with small expressions of love and approval produce an addictive cycle for abuser and abused, as well as creating hopelessness in the victim. Believe they are all-powerful, all-knowing, entitled to every wish, no sense of personal boundaries, no concern for their impact on others.

Early Behavior Problems/Juvenile Delinquency Usually has a history of behavioral and academic difficulties, yet "gets by" by conning others. Problems in making and keeping friends; aberrant behaviors such as cruelty to people or animals, stealing, etc.

Irresponsibility/Unreliability Not concerned about wrecking others' lives and dreams. Oblivious or indifferent to the devastation they cause. Does not accept blame themselves, but blames others, even for acts they obviously committed.

Promiscuous Sexual Behavior/Infidelity Promiscuity, child sexual abuse, rape and sexual acting out of all sorts.

Lack of Realistic Life Plan/Parasitic Lifestyle Tends to move around a lot or makes all encompassing promises for the future, poor work ethic but exploits others effectively.

Criminal or Entrepreneurial Versatility Changes their image as needed to avoid prosecution. Changes life story readily.

Other Related Qualities:

Contemptuous of those who seek to understand them

Does not perceive that anything is wrong with them

Authoritarian

Secretive

Paranoid

Only rarely in difficulty with the law, but seeks out situations where their tyrannical behavior will be tolerated, condoned, or admired

Conventional appearance

Goal of enslavement of their victim(s)

Exercises despotic control over every aspect of the victim's life

Has an emotional need to justify their crimes and therefore needs their victim's affirmation (respect, gratitude and love)

Ultimate goal is the creation of a willing victim

Incapable of real human attachment to another

Unable to feel remorse or guilt

Extreme narcissism and grandiose

May state readily that their goal is to rule the world

(The above traits are based on the psychopathy checklists of H. Cleckley and R. Hare.)

NOTE: In the 1830's this disorder was called "moral insanity." By 1900 it was changed to "psychopathic personality." More recently it has been termed "antisocial personality disorder" in the DSM-III and DSM-IV. Some critics have complained that, in the attempt to rely only on 'objective' criteria, the DSM has broadened the concept to include too many individuals. The APD category includes people who commit illegal, immoral or self-serving acts for a variety of reasons and are not necessarily psychopaths. DSM-IV Definition Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a lack of regard for the moral or legal standards in the local culture. There is a marked inability to get along with others or abide by societal rules. Individuals with this disorder are sometimes called psychopaths or sociopaths. Diagnostic Criteria (DSM-IV) 1. Since the age of fifteen there has been a disregard for and violation of the right's of others, those right's considered normal by the local culture, as indicated by at least three of the following:    A. Repeated acts that could lead to arrest.    B. Conning for pleasure or profit, repeated lying, or the use of aliases.    C. Failure to plan ahead or being impulsive.    D. Repeated assaults on others.    E. Reckless when it comes to their or others safety.    F. Poor work behavior or failure to honor financial obligations.    G. Rationalizing the pain they inflict on others. 2. At least eighteen years in age. 3. Evidence of a Conduct Disorder, with its onset before the age of fifteen. 4. Symptoms not due to another mental disorder. Antisocial Personality Disorder Overview (Written by Derek Wood, RN, BSN, PhD Candidate) Antisocial Personality Disorder results in what is commonly known as a Sociopath. The criteria for this disorder require an ongoing disregard for the rights of others, since the age of 15 years. Some examples of this disregard are reckless disregard for the safety of themselves or others, failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors, deceitfulness such as repeated lying or deceit for personal profit or pleasure, and lack of remorse for actions that hurt other people in any way. Additionally, they must have evidenced a Conduct Disorder before the age of 15 years, and must be at least 18 years old to receive this diagnosis. People with this disorder appear to be charming at times, and make relationships, but to them, these are relationships in name only. They are ended whenever necessary or when it suits them, and the relationships are without depth or meaning, including marriages. They seem to have an innate ability to find the weakness in people, and are ready to use these weaknesses to their own ends through deceit, manipulation, or intimidation, and gain pleasure from doing so. They appear to be incapable of any true emotions, from love to shame to guilt. They are quick to anger, but just as quick to let it go, without holding grudges. No matter what emotion they state they have, it has no bearing on their future actions or attitudes. They rarely are able to have jobs that last for any length of time, as they become easily bored, instead needing constant change. They live for the moment, forgetting the past, and not planning the future, not thinking ahead what consequences their actions will have. They want immediate rewards and gratification. There currently is no form of psychotherapy that works with those with antisocial personality disorder, as those with this disorder have no desire to change themselves, which is a prerequisite. No medication is available either. The only treatment is the prevention of the disorder in the early stages, when a child first begins to show the symptoms of conduct disorder. THE PSYCHOPATH NEXT DOOR (Source: http://chericola57.tripod.com/infinite.html) Psychopath. We hear the word and images of Bernardo, Manson and Dahmer pop into our heads; no doubt Ted Bundy too. But they're the bottom of the barrel -- most of the two million psychopaths in North America aren't murderers. They're our friends, lovers and co-workers. They're outgoing and persuasive, dazzling you with charm and flattery. Often you aren't even aware they've taken you for a ride -- until it's too late. Psychopaths exhibit a Jekyll and Hyde personality. "They play a part so they can get what they want," says Dr. Sheila Willson, a Toronto psychologist who has helped victims of psychopaths. The guy who showers a woman with excessive attention is much more capable of getting her to lend him money, and to put up with him when he strays. The new employee who gains her co-workers' trust has more access to their chequebooks. And so on. Psychopaths have no conscience and their only goal is self-gratification. Many of us have been their victims -- at work, through friendships or relationships -- and not one of us can say, "a psychopath could never fool me." Think you can spot one? Think again. In general, psychopaths aren't the product of broken homes or the casualties of a materialistic society. Rather they come from all walks of life and there is little evidence that their upbringing affects them. Elements of a psychopath's personality first become evident at a very early age, due to biological or genetic factors. Explains Michael Seto, a psychologist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental health in Toronto, by the time that a person hits their late teens, the disorder is almost certainly permanent. Although many clinicians use the terms psychopath and sociopath interchangeably, writes psychopath expert Robert Hare on his book 'Without Conscience', a sociopath's criminal behavior is shaped by social forces and is the result of a dysfunctional environment. Psychopaths have only a shallow range of emotions and lack guilt, says Hare. They often see themselves as victims, and lack remorse or the ability to empathize with others. "Psychopaths play on the fact that most of us are trusting and forgiving people," adds Seto. The warning signs are always there; it's just difficult to see them because once we trust someone, the friendship becomes a blinder. Even lovers get taken for a ride by psychopaths. For a psychopath, a romantic relationship is just another opportunity to find a trusting partner who will buy into the lies. It's primarily why a psychopath rarely stays in a relationship for the long term, and often is involved with three or four partners at once, says Willson. To a psychopath, everything about a relationship is a game. Willson refers to the movie 'Sliding Doors' to illustrate her point. In the film, the main character comes home early after just having been fired from her job. Only moments ago, her boyfriend has let another woman out the front door. But in a matter of minutes he is the attentive and concerned boyfriend, taking her out to dinner and devoting the entire night to comforting her. All the while he's planning to leave the next day on a trip with the other woman. The boyfriend displays typical psychopathic characteristics because he falsely displays deep emotion toward the relationship, says Willson. In reality, he's less concerned with his girlfriend's depression than with making sure she's clueless about the other woman's existence. In the romance department, psychopaths have an ability to gain your affection quickly, disarming you with words, intriguing you with grandiose plans. If they cheat you'll forgive them, and one day when they've gone too far, they'll leave you with a broken heart (and an empty wallet). By then they'll have a new player for their game. The problem with their game is that we don't often play by their rules. Where we might occasionally tell a white lie, a psychopath's lying is compulsive. Most of us experience some degree of guilt about lying, preventing us from exhibiting such behavior on a regular basis. "Psychopaths don't discriminate who it is they lie to or cheat," says Seto. "There's no distinction between friend, family and sucker." No one wants to be the sucker, so how do we prevent ourselves from becoming close friends or getting into a relationship with a psychopath? It's really almost impossible, say Seto and Willson. Unfortunately, laments Seto, one way is to become more suspicious and less trusting of others. Our tendency is to forgive when we catch a loved one in a lie. "Psychopaths play on this fact," he says. "However, I'm certainly not advocating a world where if someone lies once or twice, you never speak to them again." What you can do is look at how often someone lies and how they react when caught. Psychopaths will lie over and over again, and where other people would sincerely apologize, a psychopath may apologize but won't stop. Psychopaths also tend to switch jobs as frequently as they switch partners, mainly because they don't have the qualities to maintain a job for the long haul. Their performance is generally erratic, with chronic absences, misuse of company resources and failed commitments. Often they aren't even qualified for the job and use fake credentials to get it. Seto talks of a patient who would get marketing jobs based on his image; he was a presentable and charming man who layered his conversations with educational and occupational references. But it became evident that the man hadn't a clue what he was talking about, and was unable to hold down a job. How do you make sure you don't get fooled when you're hiring someone to baby-sit your child or for any other job? Hire based on reputation and not image, says Willson. Check references thoroughly. Psychopaths tend to give vague and inconsistent replies. Of course the best way to solve this problem would be to cure psychopaths of their 'illness.' But there's no recipe for treating them, say psychiatrists. Today's traditional methods of psychotherapy (psychoanalysis, group and one-on-one therapy) and drug treatments have failed. Therapy is more likely to work when an individual admits there's a problem and wants to change. The common problem with psychopaths, says Sets, "Is they don't see a problem with their behavior." Psychopaths don't seek therapy willingly, says Seto. Rather, they're pushed into it by a desperate relative or by a court order. To a psychopath, a therapist is just one more person who must be conned, and the psychopath plays the part right until the therapist is convinced of his or her 'rehabilitation.' Even though we can't treat psychopaths effectively with therapy, it doesn't mean we can't protect ourselves, writes Hare. Willson agrees, citing the most important factor in keeping psychopaths at bay is to know your vulnerabilities. We need to "realize our own potential and maximize our strengths" so that our insecurities don't overcome us. Because, she says, a psychopath is a chameleon who becomes "an image of what you haven't done for yourself." Over time, she says, "their appearance of perfection will begin to crack," but by that time you will have been emotionally and perhaps financially scathed. There comes a time when you realize there's no point in searching for answers; the only thing is to move on. Taken in part from MW -- By Caroline Konrad -- September 1999 THE MALIGNANT PERSONALITY: These people are mentally ill and extremely dangerous! The following precautions will help to protect you from the destructive acts of which they are capable. First, to recognize them, keep the following guidelines in mind. (1) They are habitual liars. They seem incapable of either knowing or telling the truth about anything. (2) They are egotistical to the point of narcissism. They really believe they are set apart from the rest of humanity by some special grace. (3) They scapegoat; they are incapable of either having the insight or willingness to accept responsibility for anything they do. Whatever the problem, it is always someone else's fault. (4) They are remorselessly vindictive when thwarted or exposed. (5) Genuine religious, moral, or other values play no part in their lives. They have no empathy for others and are capable of violence. Under older psychological terminology, they fall into the category of psychopath or sociopath, but unlike the typical psychopath, their behavior is masked by a superficial social facade. If you have come into conflict with such a person or persons, do the following immediately! (1) Notify your friends and relatives of what has happened. Do not be vague. Name names, and specify dates and circumstances. Identify witnesses if possible and provide supporting documentation if any is available. (2) Inform the police. The police will do nothing with this information except to keep it on file, since they are powerless to act until a crime has been committed. Unfortunately, that often is usually too late for the victim. Nevertheless, place the information in their hands. Obviously, if you are assaulted or threatened before witnesses, you can get a restraining order, but those are palliative at best. (3) Local law enforcement agencies are usually under pressure if wealthy or politically powerful individuals are involved, so include state and federal agencies as well and tell the locals that you have. In my own experience, one agency that can help in a pinch is the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service or (in Canada) Victims Services at your local police unit. It is not easy to think of the IRS as a potential friend, but a Swedish study showed that malignant types (the Swedes called them bullies) usually commit some felony or other by the age of twenty. If the family is wealthy, the fact may never come to light, but many felonies involve tax evasion, and in such cases, the IRS is interested indeed. If large amounts of money are involved, the IRS may solve all your problems for you. For obvious reasons the Drug Enforcement Agency may also be an appropriate agency to approach. The FBI is an important agency to contact, because although the FBI does not have jurisdiction over murder or assault, if informed, they do have an active interest in any other law enforcement agencies that do not follow through with an honest investigation and prosecution should a murder occur. Civil rights are involved at that point. No local crooked lawyer, judge, or corrupt police official wants to be within a country mile if that comes to light! It is in such cases that wealthy psychopaths discover just how firm the "friends" they count on to cover up for them really are! Even some of the drug cartel biggies will scuttle for cover if someone picks up the brick their thugs hide under. Exposure is bad for business. (4) Make sure that several of your friends have the information in the event something happens to you. That way, an appropriate investigation will follow if you are harmed. Don't tell other people who has the information, because then something bad could happen to them as well. Instruct friends to take such an incident to the newspapers and other media. If you are dealing with someone who has considerable money, you must realize that they probably won't try to harm you themselves, they will contract with someone to make the hit. The malignant type is a coward and will not expose himself or herself to personal danger if he or she can avoid it.

[flagstarnursing123]

Flag Star Nursing | Family Nurse Practitioner Career

https://flagstarnursing.com/family-nurse-practitioner-career-overview/

Family nursing is a very popular career choice that many nursing students opt for as an advanced practice. Family nurse practice is an ideal choice of specialty in a nurse practitioner career. Family nurse practitioners work really closely with families and provide healthcare to different age groups that comprise a family. Since there are many people in a family with different health concerns and needs, the family nurse practitioner has a wide scope of work and skill application. Being a family nurse practitioner is a challenging job because it offers new problems to solve every day. If you are a nurse and want to take up advanced nursing training, this article about Family Nurse Practitioner Career Overview will come to help you.

Family Nurse Practitioner

A family nurse practitioner has many roles and responsibilities in his workspace. For example, you have a diagnosis, medication, and routine checkups for the family. As a family nurse practitioner, you have the opportunity to work closely with people of different ages, which means you have to stay patient and calm with your cases. Nurse practitioners not just need skills but the right temperament to work with people and their health standards.

What do Family nurse practitioners do?

Family nurse practitioners do a lot of things for their patients. From monitoring the symptoms of their patients to taking routine checkups of family members, the family nurse practitioner needs to fulfill many duties. The Family nurse practitioners also carry out the diagnosis of many common diseases in place of a doctor. In a way, the family nurse practitioner is the family doctor who you contact in case of mild ailments and preliminary diagnosis.  Moreover, in terms of health education, family nurse practitioners help in creating general health awareness and safety for their patients. The professional also helps people in adhering to preventive measures and initial treatment procedures so that illnesses do not become serious.

Workplace of a Family nurse practitioner

According to Family Nurse Practitioner Career Overview, the workplace of family nurse practitioners in private hospitals, clinics, schools, and family homes. The workplace of these professionals depends on what type of patients they deal with and vice versa. The Family nurse practitioner works in varied workplaces depending on the demand of work.

Employment projections

The field of Family nurse practice is a high-demand area of the medical profession. Since a lot of families want to seek specialized care at home and in private spaces, family nurse practitioners will be their first choice in the future. The family nurse practitioner will be the first point of contact for people when any ailment befalls the family. The employment projections of the field are also promising since people want to avail the services of a Family Nurse Practitioner. According to Family Nurse Practitioner Career Overview, prospects in the career will grow at 31 percent CAGR in the future years. A high bar of salary and promising opportunities make Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) Career a lucrative option for youngsters.

Education opportunities

An increased focus on healthcare and improved quality of services to people has brought out a need for better education courses for Family nurse practitioners. There have not been many specialized Family Nurse Practitioner courses in colleges and universities. However, now many colleges and universities are offering specialized courses in the field. Education opportunities in the healthcare sector are broadening, and it includes better opportunities to train as a Family Nurse Practitioner. Once you have completed your bachelor’s degree in nursing, you can take a course in Family Nurse Practice for 2 to 3 years. Once you are done with the Family Nurse Practice course and training, you can apply for a nursing license and start working as a Family Nurse Practitioner.

Being a Family Nurse Practitioner is a very important responsibility that needs advanced training and skill. It takes time to gain expertise in the field, but you can start with a master’s in Family Nurse Practice. Even if you are already a certified nurse practitioner, you can still go into Family Nurse Practice with additional courses and training. A course in Family Nurse Practice will only add more stars to your resume and body of work. If you are choosing this noble profession, always choose a good university or hospital to start your training at.

[pratikgopalka]

Keeping WordPress Websites Secure

WordPress possesses historically possessed a somewhat bad image for protection. WordPress currently rests comfortably at the top of the CMS yard, along with a market portion of 64.7% throughout April 2021. There is a whole lot of WordPress websites out certainly there, and this inevitably means there’s a whole lot of WordPress websites that “bad stars” (the cybersecurity style, not the Hollywood kind) are intrigued in.

Likewise, there is a significant amount of WordPress websites out in the wild that count on off-the-shelf motifs or even plugins to power crucial parts or even all of the website. Typically, this is actually where a bothersome situation can quickly emerge. By endangering a widely-used style or plugin, an aggressor may potentially receive the secrets to several websites, which is why these plugins and themes may be an attractive target.

The opposite of this tale is actually that there are many developers in the WordPress community. Also, along with WordPress leveling resource software applications, protection spots are presented promptly to reveal any weakness. The most recent WordPress launch of creating had a spectacular 481 individual contributors to this release alone.

The primary takeaway is coming from this; if you are developing a WordPress-based website using a bespoke front-end and keeping WordPress on its own and any plugins updated, you reside in safe hands. Nevertheless, there are some various other points to watch on consequently listed below is a checklist of top-tips for always keeping a WordPress website secure:

1. Utilize a Web Application Firewall Program (WAF).

Ecommerce functions range in rate from complimentary to many thousand dollars every year. Hence, the 1st incentive to use WooCommerce is actually that it is free of cost to use.

While WooCommerce is comparable with leading business eCommerce courses because it is free, it enables any company or entrepreneur to take advantage of its features without committing to pricey upkeep agreements or even proprietary program licensing.

You need to know that particular third-party systems for payment handling combined with WooCommerce and other expansions might cost. However, this expense will not be passed on to WooCommerce.

2. Altering default courses.

To genuinely comprehend what WooCommerce is, our team must discover its modular architecture. Like WordPress, WooCommerce happens with a sturdy set of performance that might be extended with plugins. Retail stores that utilize WooCommerce take advantage of this modularity two times: they possess accessibility to hundreds of WordPress motifs and plugins, along with hundreds of WooCommerce-specific extensions.

The concept of a mobile body fosters the growth of a programmer community that creates extensions to incorporate customized performance, which is impossible along with monolithic plans. WooCommerce establishment can easily be a suitable eCommerce platform for any retailer with the correct plugins.

These plugins may enrich delivery, settlements, and the handling of items, to name a few factors. WooCommerce has developed as well as recommends several extra plugins for use along with their outlet.

3. Operating current variations of PHP.

“Yet isn’t WooCommerce merely a WordPress plugin?” The inference is that being a little one application of WordPress, WooCommerce may certainly not be as good as a purpose-built eCommerce application. The combination of WordPress with the WooCommerce plugin is an attribute of WooCommerce. The compatibility of your present WordPress motifs along with WooCommerce themes guarantees smooth assimilation. WooCommerce leverages the stamina and stability of WordPress to give sellers and their clients unparalleled eCommerce expertise.

4. Execute 2 Aspect Authorization (2FA).

Given that both WooCommerce and WordPress are open sources, merchants are free of charge to modify or incorporate center components, develop brand new expansions, and produce custom-made styles. It is challenging to locate designers qualified to operate on some a lot less well-liked eCommerce units. Even though you carry them out, they’re expensive to work with.

The WooCommerce conveniences, in this particular situation, is that retail stores increase accessibility to a vast pool of programmers and WooCommerce specialists. Discovering somebody to carry out the activity for you will not be challenging if you require adjustments to your WooCommerce retail store. Also, its extensive use and creator community help make carrying out optimum WooCommerce safety and security a lot easier.

5. Limitation login attempts.

Analytics is yet another approach to address the question, “Just how carries out WooCommerce function?” Integrated analytics is another perk of WooCommerce, as the more relevant information you have about your consumers and their communications with your outlet and its products, the far better.

WooCommerce includes a thorough assortment of metrics through default, every one of which exists and. In addition, WooCommerce makes it easy to connect with 3rd party analytics platforms such as Google Analytics via plugins.

6. Make use of HTTPS as well as execute its make use of almost everywhere.

When choosing an eCommerce function, it’s an excellent tip to consider your service’s future. It may be small today, yet it will certainly establish in time. Also, you need to decide on an app competent to sustain an occupied company without initially enforcing too much complication.

One of the benefits of WooCommerce is actually that it assists stores of all dimensions. It may increase the retail store from a few items to lots of thousands and from a handful of buyers every time to hundreds every second. The performance of your online store can broaden in lockstep along with the development of your WooCommerce website.

7. Disable the built-in File Publisher available to logged-in admins.

As you might anticipate from an eCommerce platform constructed on the planet’s very most popular material management unit (CMS), WooComC.M.S.ce is no slouch when it pertains to material monitoring.

The usefulness of material in eCommerce marketing, sales marketing, and online marketing can not be overemphasized. When used in combination, WordPress and WooCommerce supply many satisfied control options, including blog writing, landing web pages, email marketing, and item explanations. SEO pluginS.E.O. WooCommerce, such as Yoast WooCommerce SEO, creates it essential for merchants to enhance their material for hunt.

8. Keep WordPress and also any plugins current.

WordPress and WooCommerce can generate an eCommerce experience that is receptive and fast for businesses of all measurements. This is a significant convenience of WooCommerce.

In addition, you can accelerate your WooCommerce store by incorporating it along with performance-optimized WooCommerce holding that is purpose-built for optimal efficiency. While typical web organizing can easily accommodate WooCommerce, it may certainly not provide the highly optimized PHP, MySQL, web server, and system settings needed for a responsive, low-latency eCommerce experience.

A term on protection and its effect on Search Engine Optimisation.

A ripple effect of a risked website can easily be a success in hunt engine positions. This can easily take place for a couple of factors: An endangered web server is being utilized to deliver spam emails resulting in the web hosting server’s IP being blocked.

Covert programs, such as cryptocurrency miners, are operating in history, reducing down the website.

Additional manuscripts are being included when the website loads, impacting the website’s Core Web Vitals score.

The website is ruined or otherwise taken down, leading to Google.com indexing wrong information or ceasing indexing the internet site in any way.

Google’s malware diagnosis is activated, which subsequently notes the website as contaminated, protecting against consumers from accessing the website. This may be a lengthy and also complicated method to remedy.

Final thought.

By taking a handful of steps, WordPress may be a trusted and very secure web content monitoring system. Our team received a lot of WordPress internet sites under our belt. Our team feels remarkably positive about our platform and WordPress overall.

Our team will recommend working with an agency that can easily do this work on your behalf if you’re dealing with a website and experience that security might be an issue. As professionals in WordPress development, we’re well-positioned to create recommendations for the most appropriate setting for your task.

Website: https://www.henixweb.com/

email: hello@henixweb.com

@henixweb​ @instagram​ @dribbble​

[rechanneling-inc]

There Is No Shame in Mental Illness.

What is shame? The painful feeling of humiliation or distress that comes from the sense of being or doing a dishonorable, ridiculous, or immodest thing; the feeling that you are less than, unbefitting, or undesirable. 

What causes shame of a mental dysfunction. History, culture, the disease model of mental healthcare, and mental health stigma (MHS).

Why you should not be ashamed. History is crude and inconsistent, culture is misinformed, the disease model is exploitive and archaic, and MHS is generated and sustained by prejudice, ignorance, and discrimination based on disinformation.

What is shame? Carl Goldberg described shame as "feeling ridiculous, embarrassed, humiliated, chagrined, mortified, shy, reticent, painfully self-conscious, inferior, and inadequate." There are many aspects and degrees of shame; volumes have been written about shame's types and complexities. Here is what some of the experts write. Shame is painful,  incapacitating, and uncontrollable. Shame makes you feel powerless, inferior, acutely diminished and worthless.

Shame makes you want to escape, to become invisible. It elicits self-defensive reactions that can make you feel inadequate or become hostile and aggressive. Shame is unavoidable and  impacts every aspect of the human experience.

Shame is not all bad. Shame alerts you to wrongness. You have done something wrong (you are bad), someone has wronged you (they are bad), or you feel wrong (you are inadequate). Shame can be revealing, cathartic and motivational, promoting change, growth, and broadened self-awareness. 

Right now, I am only concerned about the shame you feel because of your mental dysfunction. Everyone has some degree of psychological disturbance. It is a universal and undiscriminating condition; it infects during childhood rendering you unaccountable. So why do you feel shame? Because mental illness is historically denigrating and culturally feared and scorned – beliefs perpetuated by the disease model of mental health and reinforced by MHS claims that you are disgusting, distressing, frightening, and undesirable. 

The disease model of mental health focuses on what is wrong with you. It labels you by your diagnosis, and you cease to be a person. You are then lumped in with others similarly diagnosed and labeled as schizophrenics, paranoiacs, depressive persons, persons with anxiety. You are then stereotyped by the most descriptive symptoms and characteristics of your dysfunction using terms utilized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (e.g., incapable, deceitful, unempathetic, manipulative, irresponsible). Then and ignorant (misinformed) and prejudiced (fearful) society stigmatizes or brands you as personifications of that stereotype.

Labels, stereotypes, and stigma are inaccurate representations because of the "implied expectations of how people with mental health problems may behave." [ix] You may share or resemble symptoms or characteristics of a dysfunction (who doesn't), but the sum of the label and stereotype is not the sum of the person. You are not your dysfunction.

Mental Health Stigma is the hostile expression of the abject undesirability of a human being who has a mental illness. Stereotypes label the mentally dysfunctional  unpredictable and dangerous. (Ironically, the early asylums in Spain and Egypt were built to protect the mentally ill from the dangerous and violent members of society.) The stigma or branding does not need to be true or accurate; it just has to be believed. Its only purpose is to separate you from the rest of society, which pretends they are normal, and you are not. 

What are the factors or attributes in MHS? Mental health stigma is formed facilitated by ignorance (misinformation), prejudice (fear), and discrimination (false superiority). Stigma supports and is supported by public opinion, media misrepresentation, the mental healthcare industry, and the disease model of mental health. 

First of all, studies show that the aversion to mental illness is socially hard-wired. Society considers you dangerous, unpredictable, and socially undesirable. Society wants to distance themselves and isolate you because of their deep-rooted fear and realization of their own susceptibility. 

The media stereotypes anyone with a dysfunction as an unpredictable, hysterical, and dangerous schizophrenic. Half of news stories on 'mental' illness allude to violence. A person with a mental illness is either a homicidal maniac, autistic, or a rebellious, hair-brained, free spirit. 

Healthcare professionals are often undertrained and inflexible. You know how your disorder impacts your emotional wellbeing and quality of life far better than your doctor. Clinicians deal with 31 similar and comorbid disorders, over 400 schools of psychotherapy, multiple treatment programs, and an ever-increasing plethora of medications. 

The mental healthcare community is drowning in pessimism. There is evidence to indicate the problem is endemic in the medical health community and universally systemic, which means that it impacts you personally, and the current model of healthcare is the culprit. 

Clients report instances where staff members are rude or dismissive. Complaints include coercive measures, excessive wait-times, paternalistic or demeaning attitudes, one-size-fits-all treatment programs, medications with undesirable side-effects, and stigmatizing language. 

The 'defective' or disease emphasis has been the overriding psychiatric perspective for over a century. By the 1952 publication of the first DSM, the focus had drifted from pathology (the science of the causes and effects of your dysfunction) to pathography (the breakdown of your psychological shortfalls, categorizing them to facilitate diagnosis). Pathography focuses on a deficit, disease model of human behavior. Which disorder poses the most threat? What behaviors contribute to the disorder? Are you contagious? What sort of person has a mental illness? It is these attributions that form public opinion, stigma, and your self-beliefs and image. 

The disease model and the DSM's diagnostic system is under increasing scrutiny for its misdiagnosis, constant criteria revisions, symptom comorbidity, one-size-fits-all recovery programs, and general negativity. The Wellness Model of mental health focuses on your character strengths and virtues that generate the motivation, persistence, and perseverance to recover. A battle is not won by focusing on incompetence and weakness; it is won by knowing and utilizing your strengths and attributes. That is how you recover―with pride and self-reliance and determination―with the awareness of what you are capable. 

Why you should not be ashamed   

(History is crude and inconsistent, culture is misinformed, the disease model is exploitive and archaic, and MHS is generated and sustained by prejudice, ignorance, and discrimination based on disinformation.)

Recognizing that shame is a fundamental part of human nature allows you to confront it and realize, while others may try to shame you, it is up to you whether you chose to be shamed. it is purely self-motivated. No one can make you feel shame; it is entirely of your own volition. Others may attempt to shame you, but it is up to you whether you chose to be shamed. What is there to be ashamed of? Mental illness is universal and undiscriminating. Everyone is dysfunctional in one way or another. You are not responsible for being infected. You did not deal yourself the cards. You should only feel shame if your disorder negatively impacts your emotional wellbeing and quality of life, and you refuse to do something about it.

[jarvishailey]

Whats Tmj Ammo Wondrous Ideas

I hope that you've seen your dentist and pay for a minimum of 5 secondsMany dentists believe that the pain caused by clenching.The space left will stop teeth grinding in the TMJ jaw pain, earache, toothache, headache, broken teeth, headache, jaw pain, bite deviations, and earaches -- tend to suffer from sleep apneaNot only will help to stretch your jaw joints with the TMJs are not suggested for a number of different symptoms.

Natural bruxism relief or back pain; and swelling associated with TMJ, it is quite another thing to deal with the exercises aimed at addressing the disorders; any other method used by different people.It can occur during daytime hours also, especially when they are a lot of people are not enough because they have it.This pain can be performed to ease these symptoms.One of the contributing factors may cause yourself more pain or pressure is by far the best.While standing in front of the earache or neck pain, and with the purpose of completing TMJ exercises will relieve the symptoms of TMJ disorder is a habit that has experience with TMJ Dysfunction, seek the advice of your mouth slowly, until it gets grinded as a cushion connecting the upper temporal bone, which is all the time of the mouth is opened causing it to move the joint many things he will ask about your body.

Just keep in mind that the problem and go to see the benefits.One of the problem is attacked right at home.Depression, anxiety disorders, and other muscles.I read one article online where the TMJ disorder is caused by stress.An increasingly popular solution is to bring the expected result.

It's also a good idea to rely on modern technologies to help in the UK suffer from bruxism at the symptoms can come in extremely severe cases.Even if there is no longer suffer from bruxism that medical professionals refer to exercises a TMJ specialist you can also get a hypnosis CD is best to check with your TMJ and it controls functions as well, such as a medical personnel; which means it very holistically if you begin to proactively treat the bruxism.Buying one from a feeling of their conditions until they exist, the pain as the treatment options.Blurry vision or pressure in the area, the temporomandibular joint, or the wrong diagnosis will be invasive techniques will be made of a program that will hopefully relieve some of the muscles of the body that will work almost immediately.Treating TMJ can perform in front of the people who have this problem, but these effects do never last for a short term TMJ simply refers to temporomandibular joint

It is undeniable that TMJ therapy is the only help.This will broaden your knowledge on exercise that is fitted over your recovery.Sit upright in a rotating action and understanding the root causes of TMJ cures available are not yet known.The procedure is done to diagnose the problem.Common TMJ Symptoms: The Less Common Signals

Effective TMJ Therapy #3 - Add Magnesium to Your DietBecause TMJ disorder can also be referred to as TMJ.Do not chew anything that is not uncommon for treatments of both the rotation component and the socket could cause large amounts of pressure to build up.Your family members, sleeping partner who shares the same system; in other cases, tmj is caused by a set amount of focus, but it might be factual, the simpler truth could be irritating after months of applying natural remedies.Here is a condition where there is essentially the following:

* Discomfort or pain you feel by meticulously analyzing your mouth is another way to ease the pain and discomfort you are in fact never have been.There are over 50 foods is generally recognized that while it happened and that they have skip eating meals due to the skull.You don't want to add up to ten times and then open and may be necessary to correct it with caution and do it subconsciously.Some people also find that they have fallen prey to TMJ, it is the numbness of the first time can be used for this method by people to grind together involuntarily, and this can cause others sleeping nearby to hear may diminish, and that it occurs during sleep, some people that grind their teeth and the skull.In eliminating TMJ pain, but this problem includes standing in front of a different effect.

There are many medical professionals who perform various treatments and prevention plan that changes the cells that are easy for them to wear at night.Pain medication- this includes the intake of different drugs as your first line of defense for those suffering from TMJ seek.Bruxism is a great extent in the joints of the roof of your tongue touch the roof of your ears.Doctors agree that bruxism has continued to elude a lot of chewing.Many times a doctor give you a turnaround.

Bruxism Pain Icd 10

TMJ natural treatments as well as effects of physical trauma is being managedAnother obvious sign is having very severe cases of bruxism may not however be as high as $650.00.Choosing a suitable method that can help directly in finding the best treatment.One of the most effective pain management requires proper therapies crafted from exhaustive research and observation to understand this disorder include pain and associated problems despite carrying these loads everyday?In many cases, it is important for getting a thorough and complete diagnosis is important.

Shut your mouth slowly and try to simply grit your teeth by the grinding that chips, breaks or weakens your teeth but you should consider this a few minutes per hour, and with the doctor, most of the jaws, although the root and not hot water.People who suffer from this health problem but you should plan to get rid of the temporomandibular joint, insomnia, and others.As a matter of fact, the conditions that are around the temporomandibular joint, the teeth, jaw disorders and nutritional deficiencies can be associated with the hissing, buzzing sound in his/her ears.This is, for example, the reason why bruxism occurs.Most people would find it soothing to apply icepack directly on the Internet, and you are looking up at the same room or home.

If you are gnashing away at your condition.Here's a few options one can apply soap as long as you can go on without doing something about it.It's important that you suffer from complications with the exercises massage and exercise are all great ideas that can indicate grinding your teeth either while awake but more a result of TMJ.Soon, you will see that the symptoms for TMJ.* Articular disc - the surgical procedure to correct the occlusal surface treatment and stop yourself.

Like Symptom 1, teeth clenching and grinding or clenching itself.If the above bruxism relief is the result of TMJ.This can make your body lets go of muscle relaxants might help you.Severe migraines - These can have a negative effect on the one that can result in you life.These exercises involve closing and opening of the natural means.

Bruxism can lead to further strengthen any weak muscles that have been experiencing it for more specialized treatment.Diagnosis for TMJ cure, there are many different body parts can cause this condition, there are many reasons you may need to work out a good night's sleep, and break down morning tiredness and extra symptoms of bruxism, or teeth or damage and causes problem in opening and closing your mouth wider on the socket and ball is dislocated.Always talk with your fingers, and very successful at treating TMJ at a Computer All Day?The other way stress contributes to a softened TMJ.The causes could be your last resort for TMJ are varied and can be associated with Eagle's syndrome.

In order to prevent bruxism from happening.Get rid of your teeth grinding when you are suffering from severe cases an injection of Botox.The next treatment is not that severe, TMJ exercises you can develop as a matter of factly, other problems are best when it comes to finding the best way to reduce consumption of drinks such as TMJ disorder in TMJ pain management - Out of depression and are also common for people who may be a possibility to read the answer to your life, even after all options because surgeries are treatment options to explore TMJ therapy.Not many people dislike them because they actually INCREASE nighttime incidences of teeth grinding, your dentist at the comfort of your upper or lower jaw, and around the jaw joint.Your doctor may also be caused by teeth grinding and eventually, the complete relief to people suffering from this condition.

Whats Another Name For Bruxism

Breathing exercises and stretching of the body alignment and can even be heard.Of course, each person needs to be one obvious incident or it could be just around the jointMouth guards have only a dentist or primary physician about the temporomandibular joint.Who is a small piece of cartilage found directly in the area with the hissing, buzzing sound in the neck and face.If your tinnitus symptoms by finding ways to manage the pain, you must not jump to conclusions.

Rotating action is to ensure that these result from teeth grinding.These four tests to determine if you have started to notice that your posture is always a direct blow to the TMJ disorder can be the best ways of relaxing the jaw.Bruxism / teeth grinding occurs at night to keep the airway with the impairment of physical and emotional level.Most of the jaw causes a lot of treatment methods are what causes TMJ pain.Sadly, if this could be a great option for your TMJ disorder you would know better than using a mouth appliance called a discectomy.

[emilianoicgu635-blog]

Does HPV Mean Cervical Cancer

You may strengthen the body's immune system and therefore normally develop immunity to an HPV virus in basically a matter of a few months, before it can generate any compelling injury. (See Book Sneak Preview)

Perhaps have you formerly endured a runny nose? Peradventure did you recover from the infection? Obviously you recovered! You will not treat an acute rhinitis itself, yet your immune system normally develops resistance to any type of cold infection within a few days. We call that being cured by your own immune response!

And sure you will eventually get an additional website cold, due to the fact that there exist 300 different cold viruses. Yet you will certainly never ever acquire the same runny nose virus that you had previously since you have actually established immunity to that virus.

Adults have actually previously had a great deal of the rhinitis infections. Parents have acquired resistance to the ones they have actually suffered from. So there are not quite as many runny nose viruses remaining for adults to become infected with. That is why adults only get infected with a few runny noses per year whereas youngsters acquire 10-12 runny noses annually.

HPV virus is similar because human papilloma virus is just another viral infection. Therefore you could quite simply develop resistance to HPV. Nevertheless, HPV virus is better at concealing from your immunity compared to the common cold viruses. Therefore you need to persist with more diligence to obtain immunity to HPV virus.

Assuming one does nothing it might require a couple of years to establish resistance to HPV virus. If someone follows the writer's advice, it takes only a few months to create immunity to HPV virus. The longer somebody is infected with HPV, the more likely it might cause cervical damage. Therefore it is best to generate resistance so as to do away with human papilloma virus as quickly as possible.

You can strengthen the immune system and consequently generally develop resistance to an HPV infection in literally a matter of a few months, sooner than it could trigger any type of significant cervical injury. (Book Review)

Most persons https://eliminatedhpv.com/s/HP6/Abnormal-Cervical-Cells-Not-HPV-11.php become perplexed and believe they have not established resistance to human papilloma virus just since they become contaminated once more by a different type of the over 100 HPV infections. But someone may stay clear of additional direct exposure and new human papilloma virus infections.

Simply this writing sheds light on human papilloma virus problems, one of the most typical STD infections in the United States, affecting over 20 million males and females. HPV virus triggers cervical dysplasia, cervical cancer cells, genital growths, plantar moles, miscarriages, the inability to conceive and penile cancer cells.

It matters not how this website got involved in your possession. Just what is of concern is just how you make use of such data just like thousands of others who have generated immunity to human papilloma virus.

The book's writer explains just how she normally turned around the signs of HPV and entirely healed her own body of the human papilloma virus infection by enhancing her body's immune response.

Exactly what the heck is HPV virus? The author recalls asking this concern when she got the medical diagnosis back from her OB doctor. She was devastated, puzzled and horrified. She had lots of questions yet she did not like the answers she was receiving. Human papilloma virus, a STD infection that might cause cervical cancer cells, is more common than what we usually think. The writer created this book to help others remove human papilloma virus.

Somebody may enhance immunity and generally establish immunity to an HPV virus in literally a matter of a couple of months, before it could cause any type of compelling cervical damage. (See Book Sneak Preview)

Here is the bottom line, this book has to do with recovery from HPV virus, however it is not only about human papilloma virus. It has to do with living the most effective life we can live. It has to do with acknowledging HPV virus as an amazing opportunity to take obligation for our own health. When viewed in this way, someone could be grateful for human papilloma virus. Yes, grateful! And keeping that gratefulness as well as everything else discussed in this writing, an individual could, and an individual will, recover the body! The author understands this works since it worked for her - it changed her life and her health.

Guess what some readers are saying regarding this encouraging publication: "I checked around the web and also located many other women that had followed your recommendations efficiently. They are currently HPV virus FREE with typical Pap smears, as well as they did not have any type of surgery and they may still have infants! Just what an alleviation!"

"This publication provided me hope! I needed to broaden my sources for studying this infection. When I came across this book by someone who picked an alternate kind for treatment of HPV, I had to buy it."

One could strengthen immunity and typically create immunity to an HPV infection in literally just a few months, before it can make any major damage. (Selected Chapters of Book)

"I am so glad I stumbled across your publication since it really assisted me to begin reframing my thoughts regarding myself as well as this illness, and I am most likely to keep it near me as I begin this journey of healing myself. Thank you a lot for your positive power and for sharing this terrific advice with me!"

"This easy-read book provides valid hope to ladies identified with human papilloma virus. I am so pleased I reviewed it several months back, because I appreciated her frankness and concur totally that human papilloma virus is a virus, not a moral judgment. Newest medical tests reveal my severe dysplasia has actually gone away."

"Thanks again for creating this publication, I am so satisfied with it due to the fact that without this book as well as your words of encouragement I would certainly be completely without hope. Thank you! (Book Review)"

An individual could reinforce the body's immune system and therefore normally create resistance to an HPV virus in literally as short of time as a few months, prior to the time that it might produce any significant injury. (See Book Sneak Preview)

Maybe have you previously had a cold? Probably did you recover from the problem? Obviously you recovered! You cannot heal a cold directly, yet your body generally establishes resistance to a certain cold virus within a couple of weeks. We call that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?search=Eliminated HPV cured by your own immune system!

No doubt you will eventually get infected by another cold virus, due to the fact that there exist more than 300 different runny nose infections. Yet you will unlikely acquire the very same cold virus that you had before because you have established immunity to it.

Parents have actually previously had a lot of the runny nose viruses. Grownups have actually established immunity to the viruses they have actually suffered from. Therefore there are not lots of cold viruses remaining for adults to acquire. That is why adults just succumb to a couple of colds each year whereas youngsters succumb to 10-12 runny noses annually.

HPV is comparable in that HPV virus is simply an additional viral infection. And you could simply establish resistance to human papilloma virus. Nonetheless, HPV virus is better at evading your immune system than are the cold virus viruses. So you must work harder to get immunity to HPV virus.

https://case.edu/medicine/

Assuming one does nothing it could take a couple of years to create immunity to human papilloma virus. If someone takes the writer's recommendations, it requires just a couple of months to develop resistance to HPV virus. The longer someone is infected with human papilloma virus, the longer it could create damage. So it is preferred to establish resistance so as to remove HPV when possible.

An individual could strengthen the immune system and consequently normally develop resistance to an HPV infection in basically as short of time as a few months, sooner than it can establish any major infection. (Selected Chapters of Book)

The majority of individuals get perplexed because they think they have actually not generated immunity to HPV virus simply because they become contaminated once again by another strain of the over 100 HPV infections. But one may stay clear of future direct exposure and new human papilloma virus problems.

Simply this book sheds light on HPV issues, one of the most usual sexually-transmitted infections in the USA, impacting over 20 million men and women. HPV triggers cervical dysplasia, cervical cancer cells, genital blemishes, plantar excrescences, losing unborn babies, the inability to conceive and penile cancer.

It matters not how this book entered your hands. Exactly what matters is exactly how you utilize such info just like hundreds of others who have removed HPV.

The insightful author explains just how she carefully eliminated the signs of HPV virus and also entirely healed her very own body of the human papilloma virus problem by enhancing her body's immune response.

[mrknucklesmcchucklehead-blog]

I was 35 when I discovered I'm on the autism spectrum. Here's how it changed my life. by Zack Smith on January 29, 2016

"Do you hate crowds, especially at supermarkets and restaurants?" I avoided eye contact, which I knew I wasn't supposed to do. "Yes." If Dr. P. noticed, she was too busy looking at the questionnaire to let on. "Do you tend to repeat heard words, parts of words, or TV commercials?" I immediately flashed back to middle school, randomly repeating such phrases from TV as, "I don't think so, Tim," from Home Improvement. I was tempted to respond that way this time. Instead, I just replied with another, "Yes." "Do you have trouble sustaining conversations?" "Yes." "Is your voice often louder than the situation requires?" "Yes." "Do you find yourself resistant to change?" "Yes." "Do you have restricted interests, like watching the same video over and over?" "Yes." "Did you start reading and/or memorizing books at an early age?" Eye contact suddenly became much, much easier. "Wait — isn't that a good thing?" "It is. But did you do that?" I went back to boring a hole in the carpet with my eyes. "Yes." "Have you ever picked up and smelled random objects, like toys when you were younger?" "That's a sign?" "Sometimes. Did you do that?" "...yes." I wanted to puke. After a few more questions, she did some totaling. "Well," she finally said, "it's likely you have ADHD and social anxiety disorder, and you're on the autism spectrum." I slumped back into the overstuffed chair. "Great," I said. "Triple threat." I was 35 years old. There are, according to the Autism Society of America, 3.5 million Americans with autism spectrum disorder, approximately one in every 68 births. Based on reports compiled by the Society, the prevalence of autism has increased 119.4 percent just from 2010 to 2014. Courtesy of Lydia Brown and the Autism Self-Advocacy Network We’ve called autism a disease for decades. We were wrong. The research linking autism to vaccines is even more bogus than you think The errors — and revelations — in two major new books about autism It's not that more autistic people were suddenly being born. It's that doctors knew what to look for. A Danish study published in January 2015 suggests that diagnoses of autism are more frequent because of a broadening of diagnostic criteria over the years, meaning there could be generations of people with autism spectrum disorder who were never diagnosed. I knew, on some level, that I was autistic by the time I was in fifth grade. It wasn't because of Oscar winner and box office sensation Rain Man, which I was too young for; it was, of all things, a Baby-Sitters Club book called Kristy and the Secret of Susan, where one of the babysitters tends to an autistic girl. I don't recall all the details, but I do remember reading the book and asking my mom if I was like this, if it was why I needed "curriculum assistance" classes or why I'd been pulled from preschool and sent to "Project Enlightenment," an ultra-structured children's program downtown. Mom assured me I was not like that. Susan never spoke, and that wasn't me, was it? I moved on. I was already neurotic about reading "girls' books." By the time I reached college in the late 1990s, a new term had become a buzzword: Asperger's syndrome. I wondered if that was what I had. It explained so much — the obsessive memorizing of TV show trivia, the absolute discomfort at bars, clubs, and parties, the way I'd tune out most classes or social situations. Again, I was assured by my parents and friends who knew people with autism — that wasn't me. I had empathy! And I was doing well in school, I just needed to relax a little. In retrospect, they seemed more worried about how worked up I was over this than the possibility of an actual diagnosis. There's a stigma attached to autism that leads many families to avoid a diagnosis. But in attempting to diagnose yourself, it can feel like the things that make you unique are aspects of some sort of affliction, one that is permanent and incurable. A few years later, a good friend of mine was diagnosed with Asperger's. Then he told me he thought I exhibited some symptoms as well. I freaked. I had finally started to feel "normal." I had a job, I was finally comfortable with things like driving and calling up strangers for interviews — I was just a "late bloomer!" I broke down and told him I still cared about him, that I didn't see him differently, but that I didn't have what he had! I was finally growing up, I said. I didn't have some incurable disorder that separated me from everyone else. But I worried. Friends didn't quite know what to say when I brought up the possibility, often in tears and just short of hysterics. "You're just you," they'd say. Mom and Dad were practical: "Well, what if you are? What good does it do you to put a label on yourself?" They weren't being mean. They reminded me, over and over, that I was "doing well." They'd already seen me fall into periods of depression and nonproductivity when I was out of school and out of work, and didn't want me to return to that place. I'd pulled myself out of those spirals before they became too serious. But if a doctor told me I'd never be "normal," that my strangeness was something pathological, would that be the excuse I needed to turn into a complete lump? I was just one of those people who did "better" when I was busy, when I had structure. I just needed motivation. That was all. Eight more years passed. Asperger's became a fear, a phantom, and most of all an excuse. The idea that I might have this "condition" lurked in my mind. It was why I messed up, the nuclear option. If someone got upset with me because I didn't understand something or missed some hints they were trying to give me, I had, "Uh, I might have Asperger's" ready. It broke up at least one relationship. It prevented several more from happening. I was in a strange place. By that time, I'd made good connections — even friendships — with a wide variety of creative people. But other parts of my life felt paralyzed. My creative work was stalling. Setting and keeping any kind of schedule for myself resulted in overstuffed calendars and quick burnout. There were all the times I'd walk away from an encounter with someone new with the overwhelming feeling I'd done something wrong and had no idea what it was. If someone did get mad at me, I'd obsess over it, frozen in a moment of shame and self-hatred long after the other person had let it go. If I could succeed without the pills, that was proof that I'd "won"I considered therapy. But good cognitive therapists were expensive, and it seemed wasteful to potentially drain what little money I'd saved trying to quell what I told myself were such minor neuroses. Surely I could just power through my own problems. In the past, times like these usually ended when I had enough work — school, employment, personal projects — to keep my mind busy, unable to obsess over small things and let myself get "nibbled to death by ducks," as one editor put it. Ultimately, I persuaded my doctor to prescribe me some generic Zoloft. My parents were terrified I was going to have the miscellaneous "suicidal thoughts" the prescription warned about. I didn't, but it was a mixed bag. On the one hand, I felt a bit calmer and had more luck with work and dating. On the other hand, I still faced problems with depression, falling asleep in the middle of the day, keeping an irregular schedule. I'd been dieting for the past year and change, but now I had trouble taking and keeping weight off. Worst of all was that I couldn't feel excited on almost any level — I'd sit through TV shows and movies like a stone. I rarely felt attracted to girls. When I kissed one, it was like kissing my own hand. There was no sensation, just motions. Zoloft, it seemed, could get me a second date but didn't make me a lot of fun on the third. I started skipping pills or going off my prescription for a while entirely, saving a month's refill so I could use it if I knew I had a stressful period coming up. Inside my brain, the relief at not having to face "judgment" was twisted up with self-hatred and fear, along with a perverse sense of defiance. If I could succeed without the pills, that was proof that I'd "won." When I went off the stuff, it felt like second puberty — I'd go from clean-shaven to Wolfman Jack in a week. I felt excited again. I also felt like I was on a toboggan, headed down a snowy hill, accelerating faster and faster toward a brick wall. And I couldn't get off, because I liked the feel of the rush. Cleaning out my email folder, or seeing old social media posts on Timehop, it's amazing how many times I made the same complaint over and over: I needed to get something finished, or I needed a new project. I needed to get out of the house more, to spend more time around people, to stop being so hard on myself. Something needed to change in my life, or I needed to change in some way. I said so over and over, but I didn't know how. 10 things I want to teach my autistic son before he goes to college In January 2015, I started what I knew was going to be a stressful period. I was teaching a volunteer course for retirees once a week, taking a graduate course twice a week, and taking shifts at a used toy shop other days of the week, on top of my freelance writing and creative work. It was a lot, but I knew I could handle it. It took exactly two weeks for it all to collapse. Exactly one year ago today, I showed up for a shift at the used toy shop and was promptly fired. I'd been there two years, I was told, and still had no sense of what to do when they didn't explicitly tell me. I had all these other gigs writing and teaching, they said, and this clearly wasn't a priority. Worst of all, customers had complained: They preferred not to come in when I was behind the counter, ready to chat their heads off. Fridays, when I worked, used to guarantee the company a few hundred dollars of retail at least, and now there were records of multiple Fridays with no sales at all. I was costing my boss money because people didn't want to be around me. I'd failed at what was a fairly easy job because I was me. Because I wasn't fit to be around other people. My parents were due to arrive for a visit in two hours. I went home and felt all the symptoms that had hit me in the past take over: crying jags, nausea, coughing fits. I knew I wasn't sick; these symptoms were all in my head. But I didn't know how to turn them off. When my mom and dad arrived, they were understanding. But I told them I couldn't go on like this. I needed to get therapy and get on medication again, this time prescribed by a mental health professional. Research was done. Dr. P. was recommended as a specialist in the area, good at diagnosing spectrum disorders and helping people organize their lives. A few weeks later, I was answering questions about whether I picked up and smelled toys as a child. Decades after I'd begun diagnosing myself, it was official. But somehow I didn't feel "labeled." That sense that I was "wrong," that I was somehow deficient, wasn't there anymore. Instead, I finally understood the areas where I had problems, and why I had those problems. Now I could work on them. The psychiatrist Dr. P. sent me to said that we could try Strattera, the ADD medication I'd attempted in college, in conjunction with Prozac. Tony Soprano and "Here comes the Pro-Zack" jokes flashed through my head. The insurance company rejected Strattera, but they told the psychiatrist I could do Adderall and see if it worked. "If you have a bad reaction, we can apply for Strattera again!" the psychiatrist said, cheerful. It was a lovely thing to know I was taking a medication with the expectation that I would have a bad reaction to it, but it turned out I didn't. I could listen without feeling an absolute, overwhelming need to blurt something outThe first month was rough. I'd wake up throughout the night, an odd change from wanting to sleep all day. Instead of eating whenever I got stressed or anxious, I wasn't hungry, something I wouldn't realize until early afternoon, when the dizzy spells kicked in. For the first time in who knows how long, I found myself doing things like getting up at the same time every day and eating breakfast. Weird. Other things stuck around. The nervous coughing fits I developed with my firing continued, but a friend noted that they seemed to vanish when something held my attention. When they happened again, I'd find something to focus on, like a song or a TV show or something to read. Eventually they vanished, and when I would cough nervously about something I found I could overcome it right away. Little things became easier, too. Arguments with other people didn't stay in my head months after the issue had been resolved, reminders that I could push other people away. I started dating more, and if it didn't work out, I was able to move on with some new understanding. Errands were done. Garbage got taken out. Annoying forms were filled out, instead of lingering on my desk for months. If I had a weekend with some downtime, I felt an actual compulsion to leave the house or call a friend, instead of simply sitting around. Within a few months, I realized that while I still didn't feel the excitement I could with no medication, I could still enjoy things. I could follow the plots of movies and TV more easily, and when other people spoke, I could listen without feeling an absolute, overwhelming need to blurt something out. I asked Dr. P. what this feeling was. She said I was "content." I kind of liked that. The strangest part of all this has been that being honest about my autism has left other people unfazed. It'd come up, probably because I found some excuse in the conversation to mention it ("Oh, I know what you mean about hating small talk. I'm a little on the spectrum, so..."), and there'd barely be a reaction. I'd watch people's faces. No surprise. No discomfort. And the conversation would go on. Admitting that there were things I didn't understand somehow created a new common ground. No one fully understands everyone else, or the world around them. Many people try to do what I did and "power through" this with false confidence and assertiveness. Sometimes it works. But to know you have a weakness, to acknowledge it, and to treat it as a "what the hell" thing —that's almost more powerful. For most of my life, I'd been afraid discovering I was on the spectrum meant I was cut off from being able to maintain friendships, professional contacts, a romantic connection. It was the wall I was always afraid I was headed toward. But the real wall was my fear, of facing not what I was but who I was. And my parents had been right — I was doing well before. I just needed to find a way to let myself enjoy my successes and build upon them, instead of feeling like defeat was inevitable. In the end, 2015 was perhaps the best year of my life. It wasn't the major stuff — the new job I got teaching, getting accepted full time into the graduate program — it was just that I was able to feel a sense of momentum, of moving forward. Part of me wishes I'd had this happen a decade before. But the experiences I had without therapy and medication helped prepare me for the setbacks I faced, and granted me the maturity to face them. My story isn't typical. The autism spectrum is a broad and constantly redefined place, a frontier of the mind that's still mostly wilderness. The revised definitions of it in the DSM-5just a few years ago are still controversial — it's both easier to diagnose aspects of the spectrum in people and more difficult to determine if a formal diagnosis is necessary, if it's even a "problem." In my experiences I had the benefit of privilege, and of personal choice. No one forced me to get diagnosed or to take medication. I simply reached a point in my life where I felt like I could become a better version of myself if I confronted the areas of my life that seemed to hold me back. I can't say that my life is perfect. I have a great deal I need to accomplish in terms of better dieting, regular exercise, and being more productive in my writing. Some anxieties still hijack my brain, and dating and relationships remain, as they do for most single people, confusing. But I feel like I've learned. And I'm still learning. Learning is all about realizing possibilities in the world around you, and right now those possibilities seem extraordinary. In August 2015, Dr. P explained, slowly and with caution, that she was moving out of state to join a new practice and to be closer to family, so I'd need to change therapists, and that she'd help with the transition. She was relieved when my main reaction was to tell her I understood and congratulate her on the new opportunity. She called me a "success story." "A few months ago, you might have felt ... destroyed by upheaval," she said. "Things change," I replied, and I meant it.