#not helped by so many health advice sites that describe this or that disability as occurring in children

[mimzy-writing-online]

Writing A Blind/Visually Impaired Character: Canes, Guide Dogs, O&M

Wow, back in June I decided to take a few months break from blogging to recharge and focus on my mental health. About a month ago I began writing this specific post, slowly and in stages because of how demanding, detailed, and long it is.

I’m not sure when I planned to come back. I have about 200 posts with tags and image description in my drafts folder, waiting to be queued, but I wanted to finish this guide before I fully came back.

Come back with a bang, right?

But this blog, and specifically, my Writing a Blind or Visually Impaired Character  guide, has gotten so much traffic and support that I felt incredibly motivated to come back now.

So I finished the guide, and now here it is. It’s been a year+ in the making. Since the very beginning of this writing advice series about writing blind characters, I’ve promised to write a guide specifically about canes, guide dogs, O&M, and other accessibility measures the blind community relies on. 

In fact, if you look at my master post for this guide (now pinned at the first post on my blog) you’ll find that it was reserved as Part Four, even as other guides and additions were added over the last year.

In this post I’ll be explaining 

What Orientation and Mobility (O&M) is

How one learns O&M

About canes, from different types of canes and their parts, as well as how to use a cane. 

I will be explaining the sensory experiences of using a cane and how to describe it in narrative. 

I will include small mannerisms long-time cane uses might develop. 

At the very end will be a section on guide dogs, but this will be limited to research because I have no personal experience with guide dogs, being a cane user.

Disclaimer: I am an actual visually impaired person who has been using a cane for nearly three years and has been experiencing vision loss symptoms for a few years longer than that. This guide is based on both my experiences and my research. My experiences are not universal however because every blind person has a unique experience with their blindness

What Is Orientation & Mobility

Orientation and Mobility (O&M) is the specific skill of understanding and navigating the world safely and confidently with vision loss.

I’m going to quote Vision Aware’s specific definition [link]

"Orientation" refers to the ability to know where you are and where you want to go, whether you're moving from one room to another or walking downtown for a shopping trip.

"Mobility" refers to the ability to move safely, efficiently, and effectively from one place to another, such as being able to walk without tripping or falling on steps or elevation changes, crossing streets, and using public transportation

O&M can involve :

-learning how to use a cane, as well as what cane works best for you

-safely navigating obstacles with your cane, including stairs, ramps, elevators, uneven or curved sidewalks, through crowds, around furniture

-learning safe strategies for crossing the street

-planning routes to new or recurring locations

-using technology enroute, including GPS and apps like Uber and Lyft

-safely accessing public transportation

-how to ask for help when needed

-working with human sighted guides

A Note on the Blind Community and Their Relationship with Canes

The Perkins School for the Blind estimates that only 2-8% of the blind community rely on canes for navigation. The rest rely on remaining vision, guide dogs, and sighted guides. Only about 2% of the blind community relies on guide dogs however, and to get a guide dog in the first place, a person must go through O&M classes and use a cane for six months before they can sign up for a guide dog.

What this means is that 90% of the blind community don’t use a cane.

I didn’t know this fact until I begun research for this guide, and that number astounds me. 

Truth be told, while I have navigated my life without a cane before, I can’t imagine going back to the way it was before I got it. Even if I only need my cane some of the time, I can’t bear to not use it in the situations I need it. Having a cane made my life a lot easier, a lot safer.

I don’t know what to attribute this number to.

I might attribute it to the concepts of invisible vs. visible disability, internalized ableism, or the feeling of ‘not being blind enough’ for a cane, as well as accessibility to the blind community and knowledge, and access to buying a cane in the first place. I could write a thing about it, but if I try it’s gonna be its own post.

Onward~

How Do You Learn O&M? How Will My Character Learn?

You will have to find an Orientation and Mobility instructor and have them personally teach you O&M skills.

The O&M Instructor is a sighted adult who has gone to school for a bachelor’s degree and gone through O&M training themselves while blindfolded, usually fulfilling a certain requirement of hours (one program required 400 hours of O&M practice blindfolded before you could become certified), and apply for certification to teach O&M.

(Or, as is the process to become an instructor in the United States, where I am from. Becoming an instructor would vary in other countries, I’m sure)

To find an O&M instructor, you would reach out to your local school or foundation for the blind. Finding your nearest school for the blind could be done through…

Google search

Your Ophthalmologist (eye doctor) referring you to a school for the blind

A Social Service Worker reaching out to you and helping you contact the school

Possibly your school (as in grade/primary school, high school, university) reaching out to the nearest school for the blind on your behalf.

Unfortunately, there is not an abundance of schools and foundations, so your nearest might still be a far travel distance. My local school is a 45 minute drive away. For some it might a few hours away. 

This is, again, a U.S. experience, because our land mass is spaced out, and something like a six hour drive feels like nothing to most people (although is highly impractical and very difficult to a blind person who cannot drive themselves), but in other countries a six hour drive would mean crossing several borders, and other countries have different social programs.

There is not a full and complete database of every available school for the blind either, no one website to find every possible option. For example, the school I went to wasn’t listed in most of the website resources I found, even though it has seven branches and locations. 

This is more a complaint at the real life struggle to find disabled services, that there are few comprehensive resources out there. If you ask me, it should be made significantly easier to find and access your local blind communities. Accessibility and disabled services should be easily available everywhere.

If your story is based in a real world location, googling ‘school for the blind (city/county/country)’ should suffice in finding the one most local to your setting.

What might a school for the blind provide for your character?

Well, on top of helping your character connect to an O&M instructor, a school for the blind might provide other rehabilitation classes and access to additional resources.

Those rehabilitation classes could include lessons on:

-Reading/Writing Braille & using brailling machines

-Technology classes for screen readers, magnifiers, etc on your computer and smart phone.

My local school has separate classes specific to Andriod, iOS, JAWS, Zoomtext Fusion

-Independent Living skills (cooking, cleaning, organizing, planning how to get groceries and medications)

-Self Improvement (dancing, art, music, self defense. These were classes my school taught)

The additional resources form these schools might include- 

Referrals to counselors for coping with vision loss

Access to their audio-book and braille library

Access to magnifier devices, brailler machines (think of a typewriter for writing braille)

Some schools also offer grade-school or high-school education, meaning blind children/teens learn there instead of a mainstream school.

Some schools have lodgings for clients to stay at while going through rehabilitation, especially if the vision loss is sudden and severe. They live on-campus and take part in classes. Other schools only have day classes offered and you need to find transportation for every visit. Many schools might have a rehabilitation specialist or O&M instructor visit you in your home.

My local school did the last two. They had on site classes, but the school is a 45 minute drive from me, so I only visited a few times. They were able to send an O&M instructor to me. 

On Wednesdays at 3 pm she would drive to my house and give me lessons on using my cane. Those included her driving me to different locations to practice certain skills (like using stairs and escalators at the mall, or crossing a moderately busy intersection, or visiting a bus station to practice boarding a bus safely and communication with a bus driver where my stop was).

She also brought multiple different types of canes for new students to try out and determine which felt best for them.

The Many Types of Canes

Long Canes are used to sweep the immediate area in front of the cane user as they’re walking. This is the cane type that the general public is most familiar with seeing. There are several sub-types of long canes. They can also be called white canes or probing canes.

[Image Description: Man in business clothes traveling on the side walk with a white and red cane. End Image Description]

White cane can be a misnomer for two reasons: One, the concept of the standard cane for the blind can look different in different countries. In America, the standard is white with a red tip. In some countries the standard is an all-white cane. In some countries an all white cane might mean the user is blind while a white cane with a red tip means the user is deaf-blind.

Two, some companies like Ambutech allow customers to customize their cane colors and tips. Example: Molly Burke’s hot pink cane. My white cane with a purple tip. An all black or all sky blue or all red or all purple cane. A black cane with a blue or purple tip. Ambutech also allows customers to request neon-colored reflective tape to make their canes more visible at night.

Probing cane is not a term I’ve personally heard before, but it is a term Vision Aware uses on their website.

There are three main types of long canes:

Non-folding Canes: a cane that has no sections, cannot be folded or collapsed.

[Image Description: stock photo of man in business suit with a non-folding all white cane. End Image Description]

Folding Canes: The cane has 3-6 sections depending on its height. The taller the cane, the more sections it has. The sections are separate pieces that are made to snap together and are held together by a strong elastic rope inside the sections.

[Image Description: a folding cane with four sections, white with a red tip, and a rolling marshmallow tip. End Image Description]

Telescopic Canes: in which the sections slide into each other, similar to a telescope/spyglass, rather than pulling apart and folding. The handle is the widest section, and the tip section is the thinnest.

[Image Description: Three stacked images of a blue telescopic cane. First is of the cane completely collapsed. Second is of the sections partially sliding out. Third is the cane sections completely out and locked.]

Beyond that is also the Identification Cane. The function of this cane is to visibly identify the user as blind. It’s not used for O&M the way long canes are, there is no sweeping out the next two steps. It can be used as a support cane, however. 

It’s appeals most to the elderly who not only make up a huge percentage of the blind community, but might also benefit most from having both a support cane and an identifier for their blindness, in case they need assistance. 

[Image Description: identification cane with curved handle. All white with red tip. End Image Description]

A note: From what I’ve heard in the blind community, some people prefer solid/non-folding canes over folding or telescopic canes. The reason for this is that solid canes transfer vibration better than folding or telescopic canes. It’s said that the more sections a cane has, the less precise the vibrations are. 

Some cane users train themselves to understand the vibrations of the surfaces their canes are touching. It tells them what kind of surface they’re on (wood vs. marble vs. concrete), if there are nearby objects to their cane. While I rely somewhat on cane vibrations to tell me what surface I’m walking on (more on that later), it is beyond my current O&M abilities to use cane vibrations to sense nearby walls or objects.

Cane vibrations are just an additional information-sense to add to the others in use, and extra bit of data input.

Parts of the Cane: Materials, Handle, Tips, Sections, Elastic Band

Material

The three most common types of materials used to make canes are aluminum, carbon-fiber, and fiberglass. Each material has some drawbacks and benefits.

The ideal cane is lightweight and durable. It should be strong enough to withstand hitting something solid without bending or splintering.

Aluminum is strong and durable, but heavy. If it’s damage, it’s more likely to bend than break entirely. A bend can be straightened out, but it takes considerable strength.

Carbon-fiber is lightweight and durable. It’s stronger than fiberglass, and it can bend out of shape rather than splintering.

Fiberglass is lightweight but a bit rigid. If it breaks, it splinters.

Handles and Elastic Bands

While some canes can have specialized grips (plastic, wood, corkboard) the most common handle material is a black rubber handle that is about ten inches long, give or take. In the previous photos you’ve seen, the canes have had black rubber handles.

Here is an example of a cane with a wood-mesh material used as the handle.

[Image Description: a four section white cane with a red tip and a orange wood mesh handle, with black elastic band attached. End Image Description]

The benefits of black rubber handles over others are that it’s easier to hold onto, especially if your palms are wet or sweaty, than a plastic or polished wood handle. It also wouldn’t show the indents or scratches from wear and tear daily use. I’m guessing that is cheaper to make on the manufacturing standpoint, and thus is conveniently the standard.

Pay attention to the black elastic band attached to the handle in the above photo. Notice how it has a tied off loop? That is so that when the cane is folded, that loop can be stretched over the folded sections to hold it together.

[Image Description: a four section folding cane folded up with the black band around them. End Image Description]

Additional benefits or functions of the elastic could be to use it as a wrist strap while using the cane, or hanging it up on a hook while not in use. I tend to have my cane folded up and tuck my wrist under the strap to hold it more securely while carrying it. Images of that ahead in my cane-isms section.

Cane Height

Ideal cane heights depend on the user. For most users, you want your cane height to be to your shoulder, give or take a few inches. You might need a longer cane if you are a fast walker with long strides, or a shorter cane if you prefer to hold your cane at a lower angle than is traditional.

What I mean when I talk about holding your cane at a certain angle is that the standard is to hold your cane handle in your dominant hand and position it in front of your belly button, moving it side to side with each step. Traditional grip methods are holding your hand palm side up with your cane in hand, or to hold the cane at the section joint closest to the handle with what is called the pencil grip, holding the cane like a fat pencil.

Depending on the height, a cane can have anywhere between three and six sections. Longer canes have more sections. The top section includes the handle, and the last section includes the stripe color (traditionally red, unless customized) and the tip. 

The sections of the cane are generally slightly reflective, regardless of color. If you hold a cane up to the light you’ll see tiny specks of light reflected back, almost like very fine, tiny particle glitter paint. This detail is important in cane production because it makes the cane more visible at night, especially if something like car headlights reflect off it while someone is crossing.

Additional visibility at night can be added by wrapping stripes of reflective tape along the shaft.

Cane Tips

There are several different tip options for canes.

[Image Description: four different types of cane tips on a blue background with labels. From left to right: marshmallow tip, ball tip, pencil tip, glide tip.]

[Image Description: a rolling marshmallow tip with a blue background. End Image Description]

[Image Description: Bandu basher tip with a white background. For anyone not familiar with the name, the long, curved cane tip that looks like a hockey stick. End Image Description]

Some of these tips are better for the tap-tap method of cane travel, as in tapping the spots where you plan to step. They can also be used to feel out the shapes of objects, stairs, etc. 

marshmallow tip, pencil tip, 

They should not be scraped over surfaces, the tips will wear down much faster than they should. There are better tips for rolling over surface

Some tips are better for the rolling method of cane travel, which is the method I use. They aren’t great for tapping, but it can be done in a pinch. 

rolling marshmallow tip, ball tip, glide tip

The Bandu Basher tip, the hockey stick shaped tip, is best for hovering an inch off the ground and lightly tapping objects. It could be tapped. It should not be scraped over the ground like a rolling tip. It hovers.

After enough use, the tips will wear down and need to be replaced. The part of the tip that has the most contact with the ground, usually the edge of the shape, gets scrapes, sands down, and eventually begins to look like it was shaved off while still having bits of plastic still gripped to it.

Never fear, cane tips can be removed and replaced when they wear out, replacing the whole cane is not necessary.

Some tips slip on or twist on. Others hook on. By hook on I mean that the elastic that keeps the cane sections together also has a loop at the tip end that a hook onto and stay held into place. Look back at the photo of the rolling marshmallow tip and you will see the hook that attaches to the black elastic.

Cane tips sell for about 5 - 10 U.S. dollars, plus shipping, so it’s advised to buy several back up tips with your cane. I replace my rolling marshmallow tips once every six to twelve months. I don’t know if that’s considered too much or too often. The last time I needed to replace mine was June 2019 (It’s July 2020 at the date of writing this, but I’ve hardly left my home for the last six months because of COVID-virus related quarantine/social distancing.)

Sensory Details/Describing What Using a Cane Feels Like

Every surface type feels and sounds different when tapping or rolling a cane over it. It’s this difference that tells us a lot about our environment.

It tells us when we stepped off the side walk onto the grass, when we’ve walked inside because the concrete changes to wood or carpet flooring. These little details become trail markers too, useful for places we anticipate traveling to a lot.

Example: A week before every semester in college, I would travel to each of the classrooms and learn necessary routes. I learned that certain paths had giant cracks in the sidewalk that would be distinct enough to use as a trail marker to where I was on a path, or that certain paths went from cement to gravel, or cement to brick.

Carpet: The sound is very soft, and if you’re rolling your cane across carpet it sounds like a quiet swish-swish-swish. Tapping sounds depend on how thick the carpet padding underneath is, the thicker the carpet the softer the sound. If there’s a lot of padding then taps don’t make much sound, but if the padding is thin or underneath the carpet is tile or concrete then you hear a louder thudding tap. It’s still pretty quiet. If you’re rolling the cane you would feel a little bit of drag, the cane moves slower over the carpet. The thicker or shaggier the carpet is, the more drag it has.

Wood floor: Cane tips make rumbling sounds when rolling over wood floors. The smoother the wood, the less it rumbles. There’s a little vibration moving from the cane tip, through the cane and into your hand as you roll over wood planks. Very small. The more sensitive you are to vibrations, the more you feel it. Tapping makes hallow, thudding sounds on the wood. Sometimes they sound a little snappish if you’re tapping harshly. You feel stronger vibrations when tapping. Older wood feels softer, with more give. New wood is stronger, more vibrations in the cane.

Tile:It depends on the size of the tiles and the wideness of the grout lines, but it’s not a pleasant feeling. Tiles have grout lines, which are little divets between the tiles. The smaller the tiles or rougher the grout lines are, the more the cane vibrates in your hands. Every bump is felt running from the cane to your hand. The sound is a little grating too. Imagine fifty sets of stiletto shoes walking on tile, that’s what it sounds like when you roll your cane over rough, small tiles. Larger tiles with smoother grout lines aren’t so bad. Tapping the tile with your cane sounds like one really loud step of a stiletto heal, one step for each tap. Tile floors are usually found in bathrooms, kitchens, and industrial locations where the room is going to have harder walls (more tile, concrete, etc) and few furniture, so the room echoes more.

Linoleum: is a smooth even surface. It feels like your cane is gliding when you roll it, barely feeling any vibrations. The rolling sounds are very soft because of the lack of bumps, however tapping sounds are a bit louder. Not as snappish as tile or marble, but almost.

Marble: is similar to linoleum in its smoothness. Your cane glides when rolling. Tapping sounds are sharp. Because marble floors are common in high end malls, luxury homes, and fancy office building entries, places that usually have high ceilings and hard walls with minimal decorations and minimalist furnishing, those sharp tapping sounds may echo. Assuming there isn’t too much noise and the environment is relatively quiet.

Concrete: (I’m referring to concrete found in parking garages and industrial buildings, not sidewalk) It depends on the age of the concrete and how it’s maintained. Old concrete with lots of cracks and mini-craters feels very different from smooth concrete that was set less than a year ago. With old concrete there’s a rattling sound as your cane tip rolls over the bumps and those vibrations travel up your cane. New concrete can feel similar to marble or linoleum. The taps are loud thuds on dull concrete and sharper on new concrete.

Sidewalks: are made of concrete, but in my experience they feel a little different than the above example. Sidewalks have a grittier surface, they’re slightly rougher, more dry. There’s a bit more rolling cane vibration with sidewalks and the taps have more of a thud sound. And because they’re outside, you’re unlikely to hear any echoes unless you’re walking in an alley or between buildings.

Asphalt: is one of the worst surfaces in my personal opinion. Asphalt is the material used in roads and it’s made to be rough and gritty so that car tires can grip onto it and not lose traction while driving. The older and more damaged it is, the rougher it is. Because it’s rough the vibrations are much stronger, sometimes irritatingly so. I can’t roll my cane over asphalt because the bones in my hand can’t handle those kinds of vibrations, so I almost always use the tapping method instead. The sounds are gritty and dull. Unfortunately, asphalt is an unavoidable surface, unless you can find a way to never need to cross a street or walk through a parking lot.

Note: the white or yellow lines that have been painted into asphalt sometimes feel smoother because of the material they’re made of and because they’re added after the asphalt has been laid down.

Note: There’s something called tarmac which is similar to asphalt, used for a similar purpose, and more common in the U.K. (I believe) but I can’t say that I’ve ever knowingly walked on it so I have no personal experience to give you.

Gravel: Another one of those evil surfaces. Gravel is just loose rocks and they’re common in rural roads, driveways, some landscaping. The looseness of them is what makes them untrustworthy. It makes a crunching sound. If you roll your cane, you’re likely to end up tossing small bits of rock and dust here and there. If you tap, you’ll hear the crunch but your brain might not translate that into “it’s gravel” until you’re walking on it and only realize when you walk over it and the sharp rocks begin digging into your shoes.

Wood Chips: I don’t have any experience with this since vision loss and getting a cane, so I’m using my memories of being on the playground in grade school because the surface on the playground was wood chips. I’d say wood ships are a love child between gravel and wood floors. The surface is loose and rolling your cane over it would kick up loose chips and dust. It would probably sound similar to walking on sand I think, because wood chips are much softer than gravel but not as consistent as wood. If it’s rained recently, then the waterlogged wood chips sound even softer.

Hard Dirt: I’m thinking dirt roads here, which are a lesser evil to asphalt and gravel. They can be rough like all roads, but the material isn’t has hard and solid. Rolling your cane will kick up dust on a dry day, but if it rained a few days ago you might hear a soft crunch as you roll over wet dirt. Tapping will have a very soft thud.

Soft Dirt: Think gardening dirt. Because it’s so soft, it makes very little sound and is easily kicked up. There’s a bit of drag, about the same or slightly more drag than grass or sand. Tapping has almost no sound but you might feel a slight give as your tip lands in the dirt, a slight resistance as it sinks in.

Mud: Yuck. I’m imagining this getting in my cane tip and how gross it would be after. Sound and feeling depend on how wet the mud is. Wet mud sounds slurpy. There’s more squish if you roll or tap your cane. Your character might not identify it right away until their shoes begin slipping as they walk over the mud. This is a personal experience. Drier mud sounds soft and feels almost solid underneath your cane. Wetter mud has more drag for a rolling cane. Muddy areas are also generally uneven because top soil has been displaced, so muddy hills and fields have unexpected but usually subtle changes in elevation.

Puddles: have both a slurpy and splash-splash sound. The slurpy sound is more common with rolling cane techniques. The splash sound is more common with tapping. The deeper the puddle, the louder is sounds and the more drag you experience. I am not fond of this texture/experience.

Snow: I have zero experience with snow since the development of blindness. So no experience of what it’s like to walk through with a cane. This is something I hope a blind reader can inform me on so I can edit this at a later date. My best guess is that it has a soft crunch, softer than the crunch of shoes in snow. A lot of drag too. Rolling through snow would probably be near impossible, especially if it’s deep snow or hard packed. Again, my best guess. The last time I experienced snow was when I was twelve.

Grass: One of my least favorites personally. Too much drag. Worse than shag carpeting. It’s very soft and doesn’t make much sound either. Like a crisp crunch you can barely hear. If the grass is wet or frosty you hear it a bit more crunch.

Surface with fallen Autumn leaves: Leaves everywhere! This is a bit dependant on whatever surface the leaves are on. It would soften the sound of cement, but there would be a louder crunch on grass. If the leaves are big and very curvy/pocketed then they’re easy to push aside. Smaller, flatter leaves don’t push as easily. The driest ones will crunch under your cane. It’s fun sometimes, if you’re the kind of person who likes stepping on leaves on purpose, but if you can’t see the leaves it might lose some of its fun and be more unexpected. 

Sand: I’ve never personally taken my cane to the beach, despite living so close to the coast. The reason is because beach sand is so squishy and loose that it’s already impossible to stay steady on your feet. The sand is always sinking under your feet, unless you’re next to the water line and the dampness has made it firmer. So a cane isn’t very useful to me at the beach. Not to mention that sand isn’t something you want inside your cane joints if you want the cane to last. Sand will erode and damage the joints, regardless of if they’re metal or plastic. If I were to take my cane to the beach, it would make the softest crunching-swishy noise of sand sliding over sand, similar to what your footsteps sound like on sand, but possibly even quieter because canes are lighter.

Side Note: My mother sarcastically asked about rolling your cane through dog poop or gum left on the floor. Can’t say I’ve ever rolled through it, so couldn’t tell you. Use your imagination I guess, Mum

The Invention of Tactile Paving

These are amazing! Tactile Paving are those yellow (or sometimes grey) bumpy squares you see on ramps leading into parking lots or when crossing the street. In 1965, Japanese engineer Seiichi Miyake used his own money to develop a tactile brick that you could feel even when walking over it with shoes, and he designed this because a friend of his was losing their vision and he wanted to help. These are amazing, and accessible to everyone, even the blind who don’t have a cane or guide dog. These are literal life savers. Before I got my cane, if I felt those bumps under my shoes I knew to immediately stop because I was about to walk into the road. Because less than 10% of the blind community uses canes or guide dogs, this is the most accessible form of blind aide available.

[Image Description: a yellow rectangle of tactile paving in front of a ramp leading into a parking lot. End Image Description]

Note: similar detail, most doors in commercial buildings (in my localized experience) have a metal plate on the threshold to hold the door in place so there are no cracks underneath. The metal scraping sound when you roll or tap your cane on it is distinct but temporary and non-repeating, so it’s a good indication that you’ve reached and passed the threshold.

Blind-isms

I have a section in this guide about blind-isms, but these ones are focused specifically on cane use.

-Do. Not. Touch. My. Cane. Don’t. Just fucking don’t.

-The above ism comes from the fact that our cane is our safety net, an extension of our body, our eyes, the one thing that makes sure we’ll get somewhere safely. For that reason, blind people hate having their canes (or their on duty guide dogs) touched by strangers, acquaintances, friends we’re not very close to, some family members.

Important Note: That is a universal thing for disabled people. Don’t. Touch. Their. Mobility Aides. It’s assault. Touching someone’s wheelchair or pushing them around without their expressed permission is assault. Moving their wheelchair while the user is currently standing is assault. (Most wheelchair users are not paralyzed, but they still need the wheelchair because of their medical condition, which is not your business to know). It doesn’t matter if the wheelchair is in the way, the disabled person needs it right there, do not touch it. Touching or grabbing someone’s support cane or their long cane is assault. Touching or moving someone’s walker is assault. Touching, poking at, or tampering with someone’s hearing aids is assault. Touching their oxygen tank or cannula is assault.

Back on topic-

-Idle motions with your cane while waiting in line. I often rest my chin on my cane or lean on it

-twirl my cane like a staff when I’m alone and no one can see. I would not ever do this in front of anyone because I don’t want anyone thinking it’s a toy or they can just touch or grab it. I’m just a little childish and bored sometimes and idle motions are a common thing for people with ADHD.

-When carrying my folded cane inside (like say a store) I hang it from my wrist by the strap.

-Keeping my cane within arms reach at all times, even in situations where I don’t need it currently. Example: if we’re doing a classroom assignment where I need to leave my desk, I know the classroom well enough to not use my cane, but I won’t leave it at my desk, ever. (This does not apply at home. And in the homes of a very few, very trusted friends I will leave it somewhere I deem safe.)

-Having a set, specific place in my home (living with my immediate family, who almost never have guests) for my cane. In my case, it’s the top of an antique dresser in the living room, across from the door. It has a little bowl for my sunglasses as well. If I move out and have roommates, my cane will be in my room.

-Love me a bag or backpack that has enough space to discretely store your cane, but most of my bags cannot do that.

-People with folding canes develop a muscle memory for folding and unfolding their cane, so they can do it without really thinking about it.

-Unfolding my cane: I hold the black handle between my thumb and palm with my other fingers folded over the remaining three sections, cane tip pointing up. I slide the elastic over the tip, loosen my four fingers and roll my wrist to the side. The red colored section unfolds first and snaps into place with its neighboring section. I roll my wrist in the opposite direction so the next white section can unfold and snap into place with it’s neighboring section. Roll it back in the first direction and the third section snaps into place with the handle. My four section cane is now unfolded and straight.

-Sometimes I just grab the black handle and let the sections fall and unfold as they will, but this is less controlled and risks your cane bumping into something or someone.

-Folding my cane: I start with the black handle, lifting it up so the joints unlock. I fold it down, grab both sections in my hand and lift the second section away from the third and fold it over. Wrap my hand over all three sections and unlock it from the red section.

-Because I have a four section folding cane, the cane tip and the handle are on the same side while the metal joints are on the opposite side. Those metal joints are what my elastic slips over.

-A three or five folding cane will have the head of the handle (and its elastic) on the opposite side of the cane tip, and you will be folding the elastic over the cane joints and tip.

-A six section cane has the tip and handle facing the same direction like the four section cane.

-People with non-folding canes like leaning their canes up against walls and other objects when not in use. Corners are popular, the corner of a desk up against a wall too.

-But oh god the frustration when the cane randomly rolls out of place and hits the floor, it’s a combination of “Not again” and “did that really just happen” and “you had one job. one job.”

-Sitting with our cane tucked between our legs. Picture a bit of man spreading, the cane tip leaned against the side of our foot to keep it stable and the cane leaning against our shoulder or opposite knee, possibly also held securely with our fingers too.

-The no-manspreading alternative of that is with the cane leaning against our shoulder, cane tip resting on the toe of our shoe or the outside of it, held securely with our fingers or our arm wrapped around it, elbow hooking it.

(Okay, a while back I was looking for photos of someone using a cane to use as a reference for drawing Ulric. I only found three, and two of them were Daredevil promo photos. Which, no offense to Charlie Cox, but he is not blind and he does not use a cane in his daily life, he does not have that relationship a blind person has with a cane and the concept of a fifth limb, and it shows. So the photos were stiff and unusable, so I had to like use several photo references of different poses and Frankenstein them together to get what I wanted.

And I still haven’t finished the painting... fuck)

-In a car with a non-folding cane: 

-Right passenger seat- The cane tip goes all the way into the corner of the foot well to the right of my feet, with the handle resting over my right shoulder or on the seatbelt. It pokes a bit past my headrest. The longer the cane, the harder it is to tuck into a car.

-The U.K. / Austrailian / New Zealand / Japan version of this (because they drive on the left side of the road with their drivers seats on the right side of the car) it’s like this: Cane tip in the foot well to the left of my feet, handle on my left shoulder or on the seatbelt.

Backseat: the absolute worst. There’s less foot well room, and if you’re in a sedan there is almost no room behind your shoulder for the handle. I position my cane diagonally with the handle on the shoulder closest to the door and the tip next to the foot closest to the middle. 

-For this reason, no one with a non-folding cane will want to be sitting in the backseat.

About Guide Dogs

While my knowledge of guide dogs is limited only to what I can research and not personal, I will give you some basic facts and practical knowledge from said research.

Guiding Eyes for the Blind estimates that there are 10,000 guide dog teams out there in the world. That makes up 2% of the blind and visually impaired community.

Guide Dog Training

Becoming a guide dog is the most difficult form of dog training there is. The majority of dogs who enter guide dog training wash out and either become family dogs or go into a different type of service dog training, like medical response or PTSD/anxiety response, or possibly become therapy dogs, which is a career altogether different from being a service dog.

Guide dogs go through two or three years of training, which includes puppy training, basic socialization, proper behavior when on duty and actual guide training. Most service dogs only go through a year to a year and a half of training before they are partnered with a disabled handler.

Between the cost of training, the cost of housing and feeding the dog and the cost of vet bills from birth until being partnered with a blind handler, the overall cost of a guide dog is something like 30k to 40k. While most service dog training organizations require handlers to fundraise and pay for the cost of training (usually something like 15-30k), guide dog organizations give their dogs to qualified blind clients for free. These organizations pay for the dog costs through their own fundraising and charities. Fortunately for these organizations, guide dogs are a highly respected field and have a lot more charity directed their way, while other service dog types have less public interest when it comes to charity.

Guide Dog organizations have an application process, requirements, and a wait-list before you can be partnered with a guide dog.

Requirements to get a guide dog are (usually) as follows: 

Must be legally blind (as in not visually impaired, but legally blind) and have had at least six months of O&M with a cane and demonstrate enough O&M stills to navigate by oneself. They also require you to be responsible enough to independently care for a dog, able to keep up with training and retraining of the dog, as well as financially able to handle food and vet bills (which are at least a few thousand dollars every year).

The reason for cane training before getting a guide dog is because the dog cannot do everything for you. You, the dog handler, are responsible for knowing where you are and how to get where you need to be.

The dog can’t read stop signs or tell when a light is green or red, nor do they have GPS to find a brand new location nor can they learn that route on the first try, nor will they know exactly where you want to go when you say “Starbucks” or “library” or “school” or “mom’s house” and guide you all by themselves. That falls on you, the dog handler, having enough orientation and mobility skills to know when a street is safe to cross and knowing how to learn new routes and how to keep on route and make sure you make the correct turns. A guide dog can’t communicate with bus drivers for you either, they don’t know which number bus to use or what stop to choose. That falls on the blind person’s own skill.

Other Guide Dog Resources

Molly Burke is a guide dog user and has made several videos about what kind of work guide dogs do, her personal experience being a guide dog user for over ten years, how she got a guide dog, specific commands, unique experiences with things like travel, etc. She has a playlist all about guide dogs, but here are some of my favorite videos.

How Guide Dogs Guide A Blind Person

Guide Dog User Answers the Most Googled Questions about Guide Dogs

How I Met My First Guide Dog

Final Thoughts:

There is a lot more to be said about Orientation and Mobility, such as:

How do you safely cross the street with a cane?

How do you learn new routes?

How does getting a cane significantly change your life?

How do family, friends, and strangers react to you “suddenly” having a cane?

I could also write a ton on other tools the blind community relies on so strongly, such as screen readers, magnifiers, etc. In fact, I originally promised to include those in my master post when Part Four was titled  Part Four: What Your Blind Character Needs to Survive and Not Die. However, this guide is ages long and it feels better to focus on this specific topic for here.

Did you like this guide?

Consider checking out my other guides, links of which can be found on the master post here.

Follow my blog, I write and curate writing advice guides outside of blindness, I reblog writing memes with image descriptions, reblog soothing aesthetic photos with image descriptions, talk about disability, lgbtqa+ issues, ableism, and mental health.

If you want to further support me, this is the link to my ko-fi (however there is no such requirement nor pressure to do so, and please don’t worry about it, especially if you are in a financial situation that can’t afford it)

[curedofheadaches]

My mission with this blog…

To bring awareness to a grossly underestimated cause of headaches: caffeine.

To get to the bottom of why doctors don’t appear to know this.

Most of all: To help those plagued with headaches. 

I need your help…

          If you are a headache sufferer, you can help me test my caffeine-cause theory, possibly curing yourself of headaches, by participating in my experiment, and then simply describing your results here in my comment box. If I gather evidence from others that this works, then my argument will be stronger and I will be able to get more attention from the medical world. 

          Because migraines are closely associated with epilepsy, I certainly wonder if this would apply to those with epilepsy as well, and I would like to hear your experiences too as it relates to elimination of caffeine from the diet.

         The experiment…

          I need headache volunteers, who have a caffeine habit to any degree, to try a caffeine-free diet for two months, and report back to me as to whether or not you are having fewer headaches, if they are less painful, shorter in duration, or require less to no drug intervention. Every bit of caffeine must go: coffee, tea, sodas and energy drinks with caffeine, chocolate , or any other product with caffeine. This includes many of the very drugs that doctors prescribe for headaches, as well as many of the over-the-counter remedies. You must clean your system of caffeine for several months before you can tell if it will work for you. 

          Considering the pain you are in with headaches, this is not a hard thing to do. However, I have met many stubborn headache sufferers who refuse to try the caffeine-free diet and would prefer to have a sickening headache. You don’t have to cut out coffee or tea. You just have to switch to decaf. Switching to decaf products, is easy to do taste-wise, but could make your head ache from withdrawal, so do it slowly and in increments. I talk about it in my story  below.

So, please read about my own 27-year odyssey with headaches, and then leave your comments or questions below. Please write as much detail about your headache journey as you wish and be sure to include your experiences with doctors. I am especially interested in knowing how they communicate with a patient on a first visit.  

My own history of migraine headaches…

           For 27 years, my life was plagued by right-sided migraine headaches. They started when I was 22 and lasted until I was 49, when I figured out what was causing them.  In that time, I was prescribed a wide variety of powerful drugs that wasted my body, affected everything major aspect of my life, including possibly the loss of a pregnancy as well as my marriage and may have contributed to long-lasting health issues such as dry macular degeneration.

          Cafergot, Fiorecet, Fiorinal, Esgic, Midrin, Atenolol, Topamax, Elavil, a wide assortment of triptans, Tylenol with Codeine, Demerol, marijuana, botox, Excedrin and Depakote are the drugs I tried along my 27-year migraine headache journey. Some of these were prophylactic stabs in the dark at prevention, none of which worked. Many of them are painkillers that seemed to aggravate the problem and I would cycle through them, hoping for better results. Some of them are the big guns drugs that stop the headaches, but leave you wasted in their wake.

          The ergotamines were the old-fashioned drugs that worked as vessel-clampers. They worked, but they were dangerous. The first time a doctor prescribed cafergot to me, he prescribed a dose that was way too strong for my 100 pound body. I ended up unable to open my arms and legs to get out of a fetal position. My muscles became locked from lack of blood flow. It also made me vomit. For days afterward, I had rebound headaches. In the weeks to follow, I went through black out periods after taking too much of the drug again.  Working out the dosage so that I took just enough to kill the headache, but not so much that it made me sick or caused black outs, was tricky but once I worked out a good dosage and timing of that dosage, I was able to better control the migraines to keep them from escalating out of control. Cafergot suppositories became my crutch, the item I never left home without, for years. Then, the triptans became the popular migraine drug as Cafergot disappeared from the market due to safety concerns.

          The beginning of the end of my headaches came in 2008, when I was co-authoring a blog.  In a post one day, I mentioned that I had migraines.  Two of the readers of our blog commented on the post, telling me that the only way they had gotten rid of their own migraines was to eliminate caffeine completely from their diet.  

           At the time, I didn’t believe that I consumed enough caffeine to make a difference. In fact, no doctor I had ever seen about it, thought it could be problematic. Surely, they would know. They were even prescribing caffeine and telling me to try a cup of coffee at the onset. In theory, that might work since coffee is a vasoconstrictor which might help to shrink the swollen blood vessels in your head. I know now, that it doesn’t work and serves to aggravate the problem if you already have a caffeine habit. At the time, I thought my headache  attacks would have been much worse without the caffeine. 

           I was in the habit of having one cup of coffee in the morning that was made of half-strength caffeine (half-caf).  Then, I would have a glass of iced tea for lunch, and sometimes, as a chocoholic, chocolate in the evening. Adhering to my reader’s advice, I decided to wean myself off of a caffeine habit that I had had my entire adult life except when I was pregnant, during which time I did not drink caffeine and during which time I, incidentally, did not have headaches.  My doctors told me at the time, that the lack of headache was due to hormones and the miracle of pregnancy.  

           I first reduced my cup of half-caf in the morning to quarter-caf.  The day after I began this reduction, I had a nasty withdrawal headache that lasted a week and required drug intervention of Frova.  The following week, when I switched to full decaf in the morning, again I had a headache for a week.  Next came the tea.  I also reduced it to half twice, with an extended headache resulting each time.  At that point, there was no doubt in my mind as to how profoundly the small amounts of caffeine were affecting me.  The last to go was chocolate and again, a headache.  Once my system was clean, I was completely cured of migraine headaches, or at least had learned exactly how to control them. I have not taken a single drug for a  headache since. It has been 12 years.

           To test my caffeine theory, I have experimented with adding caffeine back to my diet in small amounts.  I can tolerate one dose of caffeine in the form of coffee or chocolate if, I do not consume it again the following day to set up a cycle of need.  I have tested this many many times. Now, when I do get a caffeine headache, I as able to ride out the attack without intervention of drugs, because I don’t further aggravate the migraine by adding the caffeine fuel to the headache fire. They do not get bad enough to bother me to the point I would waste my body with drugs like the triptans. 

           Through the course of my life with migraines, I have tried just about every remedy known to the neurological world.  I have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on doctors, therapists, drugs, MRI’s, botox injections, biofeedback, and on insurance rates inflated because of my pre-existing condition. I have lost countless work hours and feel it drastically affected what would have otherwise been the most productive years of my life.  There was even a time when I considered applying for disability. To have altered my body’s chemistry with harsh drugs for 27 years could well have the long-term affect of shortening my life span and could possibly have caused my dry macular degeneration (no family history and “vascular condition” is a risk factor).  All of this, because I did not know that what was causing my headaches all along, in the smallest amounts, was the common substance, caffeine. 

           In those 27 years, each time I have been to a doctor about my headaches, I have been routinely questioned about my caffeine intake, but I was never once told that I should eliminate caffeine completely from my diet. It would seem that the doctors were looking for abuse of caffeine, and were not concerned about moderate use. Quite the contrary, I have been prescribed the very drugs with caffeine, that I know now, perpetuated my headaches.  These include Fiorinal, Esgic, and Cafergot, and over-the-counter medications that contain caffeine.  I am amazed that the complete cessation of caffeine consumption is not a routine part of headache treatment practiced by every doctor in this country.  Why, indeed, do doctors prescribe medications with caffeine?  Why do drugmakers produce it without warnings. Whenever a patient presents with chronic headache complaint, doctors should automatically ask if the patient has any caffeine habit. If so, they should eliminate it completely from their diet for two months to see if it works.

Misconception or fraud?

           And why is this unknown to the medical world?  After I cured myself of headaches, I went to see my neurologist one  last time to tell him that I thought I had discovered what had been causing them all along. He didn’t believe me, doubting that it could be true, and questioning whether it would last.

           Furthermore, I have never found any literature stating that all headache sufferers should cease all use of caffeine. In reading the National Headache Foundation site for instance, there is no mention of this.  To the contrary, the site lists ‘Excedrin Migraine’ as its first over-the-counter medication.  Excedrin Migraine has caffeine.  

           I am alarmed by the ignorance of the medical field with regard to the perils of caffeine for sufferers who already have a seamingly benign caffeine habit. How can an average person like me know this, but the nuerological field is ignorant to it? Is it negligence on the part of researchers and educators? Or worse—fraud? Malpractice? Consider the careers that are built on headache treatments. Consider the money that millions pay. Consider the loss of productivity and quality of life. Consider other people who might be plagued for 27 years like me.

Please write to me...

Again, please tell me your story in my comment section. If you would prefer to email me directly, my address is: lbtowers@aol.com. Many thanks, in advance, for your help to solve this mystery!

Lisa

[cannabisrefugee-esq]

Holy Shit Y'all. Morgellon's Disease (Aka "Delusional Parasitosis") is Actually Real. #gaslighting #fuckdoctors #killallmen) 

October 2, 2019

Whilst performing my daily catch-up with my favorite conspiratard sites, today I found this: recent peer-reviewed medical research indicating that so-called Morgellon’s disease is actually a real, physical ailment and not all in patients’ — usually female patients’ — heads.  I have had a slightly more than casual interest in Morgellon’s disease for at least a decade if not two, and I am seeing the year 2002 thrown around as the approximate date that reports of this confounding, untreatable and disabling medical condition first appeared in the United States.  People — usually female people — started presenting to their doctors for diagnosis and treatment of a condition comprised of skin lesions, often with strange “fibers” protruding from them or embedded in the unbroken skin or in the scabs, as well as maddening feelings of itching, crawling, burning etc. under or on their skin as if “bugs” were crawling there.  There were almost certainly additional complaints considering what Morgellon’s actually turned out to be — a tickbourne infection that is often comorbid with Lyme disease — but let’s leave it there for now.

Morgellon’s patients routinely brought in a collection of scabs and fibers to show their doctors, intending to be good patients and their own “advocates” to help the doctors do their job, which is the current advice given to particularly women in order to insure that they get the best medical treatment possible (and so that the women themselves as actors or co-actors on their own “care team” can take part or all of the blame when they are not effectively treated).  Whereupon the doctors proceeded to mock the women and their attempts to document and provide physical evidence of what was happening to them by referring to such evidence as “matchbox sign” because women allegedly brought the fibers and scabs with them in empty matchboxes.  Of course, matchbox sign was a euphemism for evidence of fraud and mental, not physical, disease.

Here is an example of “matchbox sign” where the woman brought her evidence in a folded piece of paper, and not an empty matchbox, but whatever right?  The point of inventing and naming matchbox sign was so that doctors could warn other doctors that the person sitting in front of them covered in lesions and in terrible, ongoing and relentless pain, cradling a sad bundle of phony evidence was crazy.  The point was obviously not to tell the truth or describe anything accurately or even neutrally, or in a way that was likely to get these women meaningful treatment or relief.

Recently, around 2018 perhaps, there has been a bona fide connection shown between Lyme disease and Morgellon’s disease, where 6% of a sample of known Lyme patients were also diagnosed with Morgellon’s, and 100% of those were seropositive for B. burgdorferi infection.  The full article can be found here. 75% of these Lyme/Morgellon’s patients were women and most of them presented with late stage “disseminated” Morgellon’s; their badly progressed disease was likely due to having unsuccessfully sought treatment for years or decades only to be told they were crazy and denied treatment that could’ve prevented the infection from spreading.  A person with any experience with Western medicine might speculate (and correctly) that these women were told to see a shrink and likely prescribed powerful and dangerous psychiatric medications, that they may’ve also been psychiatrically incarcerated at some point, and/or told to go home, have a glass of wine, and let their husbands fuck them.   And that it would’ve been better for these women if they had been denied any “treatment” at all.

This article abstract provides several gems and is worth reviewing.  Somewhat late to the party, where people suffering from chronic illness have known this for a long time, Big Medicine recognizes in the case of Morgellon’s that physical illness often precedes, coincides with and even causes so-called psychiatric complaints: in essence, just because someone is crazy now, doesn’t mean they were always that way, and it doesn’t mean the crazy exists all or only “in their heads.”  That’s right y’all, sick people’s brains aren’t sitting in jars on counters, and people’s heads and brains are actually connected to physical bodies that have to exist and navigate in the real world, bodies which are vulnerable to illness, injury, toxic exposures and the like.  Brains and bodies are connected, and there is a physical demonstrable connection between physical illness and so-called “mental health.”  In the case of Morgellon’s, previous “studies” (if they can even legitimately be called that) that have been used for decades to dismiss and humiliate infected patients — primarily women — in disabling pain have been, uh, flawed.  Yeah, flawed, that sounds good, let’s stick with that.  Ignoring that “flawed” studies are not even legitimate studies at all and are literally just hateful propaganda:

Clinical studies supporting the hypothesis that MD is exclusively delusional in origin have considerable methodological flaws and often neglect the fact that mental disorders can result from underlying somatic illness.

Full article here. Let us also consider that invisible physical illness would oftentimes appear as mental illness to outside observers.  Think about that shit.   Even if a person appeared nutty as a fruitcake to someone who wasn’t living in the sick person’s body, practically every “psychiatric” symptom I can currently imagine is also a known symptom of physical disease, acute or chronic pain, and/or side effects of dangerous medications including wrongly prescribed psychiatric medications taken by physically ill/compromised people who don’t actually need them.   Jesus fucking Christ.  At this point I’m not sure if my increasing nausea and urge to defecate are due to my current Crohn’s flare or the result of reading this medical literature and “digesting” its implications for sick people and sick women.

In contrast, rigorous experimental investigations show that this skin affliction results from a physiological response to the presence of an infectious agent.  Recent studies from that point of view show an association between MD and spirochetal infection in humans, cattle, and dogs. These investigations have determined that the cutaneous filaments are not implanted textile fibers, but are composed of the cellular proteins keratin and collagen and result from overproduction of these filaments in response to spirochetal infection.

So the women with their ignorant, sad and fraudulent matchboxes were actually right all along.  The fibers were evidence of an actual, demonstrable physical disease, the doctors just chose to believe these stupid sluts lady patients adult female humans coming to them for help were all irritated and scabby for no reason and that the “fibers” embedded in their psychiatric sores and skin crusts (!) originated from their dumb wimmin clothes, or from lint from doing the laundry (or as was alleged in one case, also linked above, the bristles of a broom).  Of course, the fibers are often embedded in unbroken skin as well but let’s forget about that part, or if we do acknowledge it, let’s choose to imagine the women putting the fibers under their healthy skin themselves.  Let’s imagine that, shall we.  It must’ve required a syringe of some kind, or magic!

Crafty slutty scabby wimmins trying to defraud and make fools of men.  The best case scenario here is that the mountains of psych meds likely prescribed to Morgellon’s women over the years provided some relief from the effects of long term chronic illness and chronic pain and being abused and gaslighted by powerful men, but we know those meds likely did not provide such relief.  And that any relief they did get was surely eclipsed by the crippling side effects of the medications, the progressive effects of an untreated yet “disseminating” pathogen, and the medicalized trauma that is baked-in when dealing with Western medical providers at all.  They probably also had undiagnosed and untreated Lyme and God knows what else, considering how many women are currently subclinical or diagnosed autoimmune patients and women are, en masse, becoming progressively ill with often multiple chronic, progressive and incurable disease.

Comments Open.

[inkxlenses]

Regarding post/172299066623/istj-hedonist-samlick23-istj-hedonist-when I don't get why people would compare mbti with astrology and shit. It's as flawed as any other personality theories but it's still a system that works. Astrology doesn't even deserve to be called a personality theory 😩 And just like u said it's never about 'personality' anyway?? That test clusters people yet only considers people's behaviors as if nobody doesn;t have shit like that

Okay. These are among the most exciting asks that I have received so far. I would like for this blog to be as drama-free™ as much as possible because it’s just my virtual escape™. I have also always expressed that I don’t consider this blog as solely an aesthetic™ and inspiration blog. In fact, I was very humbled to be encouraged by my friends and followers to continue including topics that interest me in this blog. But even though this is my blog, I know that I have the responsibility to check what I post here to ensure that nothing would negatively affect someone else’s mental and emotional health (especially as I have observed that most of my followers are minors). So I would just keep my response under the line—and because it’s just really, really, long. HAHA. Also, just for future reference, if you oh-so-hate MBTI [or whatever piece of knowledge I feature here/ if you’re only interested with the aesthetic™ content], you could blacklist my *mbti*, *text* and *photo* tags.

Coincidentally, I would be having a mini-hiatus, and this would be my only response regarding this topic because I’m not really fond of tumblr drama™. I would be temporarily disabling anonymous asks during my break, so if you have anything you would like to discuss with me, kindly contact me via private messaging (but please be patient with my response. I promise I would get back to you as soon as I become online). My only request is that you should first read what I have to say before reacting to anything, because I might have already discussed what you are trying to ask. No worries, I wouldn’t judge nor hate you for your opinions. I actually welcome and enjoy healthy debates (as it is part of my real-life job lmao). And I’m not a fragile snowflake™ so you could really talk to me about anything, I wouldn’t mind :P 

Firstly and most importantly, I want to apologize to anyone who had been offended or had felt attacked on my rant. I was not describing a particular person in the *inner dialogue*, and it’s not my intention to offend anyone. So if anyone had felt this way, again, my apologies.

So what is this post about?

I had recently reblogged an MBTI post where I was referring to the function theory—not the common MBTI stereotypes and misconceptions circulating over the internet. And just like what I had mentioned over and over again [and on my tags on that particular MBTI post], online MBTI tests are not accurate and should not be taken seriously. It’s disappointing how 16personalities have been profiting from this by selling misinformation to people. This was OP’s topic, in which I had just agreed with their views and had personally shared my opinions as well. Yet it seems to be that there had been some misunderstanding regarding said topic. Literally OP’s argument—and the same criticisms we continuously read regarding MBTI *points to some of the anons above*—are exactly what we are critiquing as well, because these are common misconceptions and stereotypes which are not related to the theory anyway. So I don’t really understand the intense reaction regarding our opinions on the letter dichotomy and online MBTI tests, because we actually disapprove of the same things as well. Weird -_-

I never mentioned nor even vaguely expressed that MBTI should be the zenith™, the absolute “ Law™ ”, nor do I believe that it should monopolize all the ideas in personality theories. That’s just.. funny. We wouldn’t mind if the function theory is not your thing; you can leave it just like that. Simple. Just like how everyone else has their own beliefs and interests that others simply don’t agree with as well. Nobody would forcefully entice you to MBTI, especially if you had not expressed your interest and curiosity for it. It’s just a matter of respecting others’ POVs and interests.

I could easily brush this off because I truly believe that people are entitled to their opinions, and I respect that. More importantly, I had studied typology for several years now that I’m already quite confident of my knowledge about it. Thus, I won’t easily be shaken by criticisms about the theory—which I’m very much aware of anyway. Sadly, it’s seems to be an automatic impulse in tumblr to hate, rather than communicate. My friends had told me of someone publicly posting something defamatory with regards to the MBTI post that I reblogged. I don’t know what that particular blog had been aiming for, but clearly their hateful intent had failed miserably. I didn’t expect the support of my friends, more so, the consideration of people from the MBTI community. I really want to thank everyone who had supported and understood me even if I wasn’t online during that time. My friends are so protective of me, and the responses of people from the MBTI community had been so funny and adorable I’m SO flattered. Watch as my face turns vermillion xD

With that said, I felt like I should at least explain my part and answer the anons who aren’t in favour of MBTI. I just want to stress that I don’t plan to forcefully persuade you to believe MBTI. My only intent is so that you could look into my perspective as I share my knowledge and understanding after many years of studying the theory, in contrast to the misconceptions and stereotypes about it, which I believe is what these anons were referring to. I emphasize that if MBTI is not your *thing*, then you could simply ignore it. This topic is very important to me because it had helped with my well-being, introspection, relationship with others, career, and general outlook in life. So I just want to clarify some points with regards to the asks above^ because I believe some misunderstandings had occurred. So thank you very much @hueristix​, @clumsynix​, @ckatharcis, @tzeentchs-secretary​ and anons for your messages. I am really so thrilled to discuss my views with you.

The cognitive function theory—more commonly known and referred to as MBTI [especially here]—explores the human cognition, NOT outward behaviours and personal preferences. Contrary to what the first anon had said, I believe that we cannot compare the theory with astrology because the former never categorizes how humans act the way they act, more so, it never simply propose their “ personality traits ”. The theory recognizes that every person has their own free will, inherent capabilities, traits, emotions, and preferences (etc. I could go on and on, I swear), and would be constantly affected by personal struggles, life circumstances and other external factors through out their life.. and well, basically just like what Jeanne (ckatharcis) had referred to, it acknowledges that humans cannot be “ clustered ” simply through their behaviours, personal preferences, traits, etc. because again, the theory is NOT about that. Thought process is the essential and primordial reason why outward behaviours, personal preferences, emotions, etc. are easily observable in a person, and NOT the other way around. Thus, it’s also the reason why your type cannot change contrary to common misconceptions, and essentially the reason why tests are not reliable. [Link 1, Link 2—I highly recommend this post.]

I think the first anon is not familiar with the function theory, but, instead, with the letter dichotomies (i.e. I vs. E, etc.) which is the general principle on the said 16personalities site [and other online MBTI tests]. This was exactly what OP had criticized and what I had discussed on my *inner dialogue*. Again, I do not blame the first anon or anybody else who are familiar with this concept because misconceptions and stereotypes are easier to be accessed, contrary to the theory itself which would definitely require time and in-depth research to get acquainted with. I understand that not everyone would be interested to invest time and effort on something that they would just like to casually learn. And it’s okay.

However, I would like to clarify that I [and I truly believe that OP as well] have no intention to humiliate, condemn, mock or ostracize people who had only been familiar with MBTI stereotypes (the letter dichotomy) and/or had only taken online MBTI tests, because we understand that [again], sadly, those misconceptions are disappointingly perpetuating in the internet and even on some books. OP had clearly stated that their only issue was how people who aren’t really familiar with the function theory should refrain from initiating any MBTI-related discussion. Even if I personally agree with OP, their premise was repeatedly contradicted by others who were justifying the validity of 16personalities. However, I believe that asking questions and expressing genuine interest to learn more is different from spreading misinformation to others. As long as you do your own research first, the MBTI community here is actually very welcoming of people who would like to learn more of the theory. The MBTI community here also encourages critical thinking, exchanges of different ideas, and endless rational debates—which is exciting, right?

I think OP had been very honest with their opinion (though may had been perceived as *offensive* and rude by some) and I truly concur with their points. I’ve said in my *inner dialogue* how I believe that spreading wrong information is destructive. It is damaging to other people who have only been starting to learn the theory, to take advice and information, or be mentored by people who had been misinformed as well. Why? Because above all else, the theory is used for self-evaluation and understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses (with regards to their cognitive process), to provide clear direction on how to advance towards their personal growth and development. For that reason, if one is mistyped, and they generally believe that their thought process works this *particular* way and that they have *certain* strengths and/or weaknesses, then they are not only failing to seize the opportunity to recognize their *actual* strengths and weaknesses through fully understanding how their cognition works, but they could also potentially damage their mental health and well-being because that is not how their thought process operates. It worsens when spreading misinformation like that is increasing exponentially.

We would never dismiss nor humiliate anyone who have only been starting to familiarize themselves with the theory, because we had been beginners as well. Mate, my blog is not an MBTI blog, but I have two mutuals who had been so humble to admit that they had fell for that abomination-of-a-test, and had asked me about the basics and other resources to study the theory. I never ridiculed them; contrary, I was so proud of their humility to admit that they had been misinformed, and of their willingness to learn. There is no shame in that. I really admire people who admit their mistakes or ignorance because I know that people who think this way are really the ones who have the desire to learn and improve, and have insatiable thirst to absorb more knowledge.

I’ve been studying the function theory for about 3 or 4 years now, but I still consider myself to be a newbie at this. Even if I’m already quite confident of my knowledge about it, I know that I still have a lot more to learn [and that’s exciting]. But OP and other legit MBTI blogs here have been studying this theory for many years now, and they are considered as reliable resource persons for other MBTI enthusiasts as well [at least in tumblr]. Which is why I think [just my opinion], they could easily retaliate on insults or misinformation thrown at them by people who don’t even make an effort to read just the basics and/or have poor acumen to just believe everything they read on the internet, yet have all the liberty in the world to whine and be [passive-aggressively] defensive to rationalize their misconceptions of the theory. These legit MBTI blogs know what they’re talking about, and I think you could be the judge as to how they could react to insults thrown at them by people who don’t even understand the topic itself. I’ll just quote hueristix here, “ laziness should not be an excuse to ignorance ”. As I’ve said before: be receptive to different ideas, yet skeptical enough to question everything before accepting any piece of information as real™. And yes, that includes everything I say. After all, I’m just responding to opinions as well and we’re all just stating our subjective views here. We wouldn’t mind if the function theory is not your thing; you can leave it just like that. Simple. Nobody would forcefully entice you to MBTI, especially if you had not expressed your interest and curiosity for it. It’s just a matter of respecting others’ POVs and interests.

Yes, I am passionate about this theory and I know it is fine. But never had I mentioned nor even vaguely expressed that MBTI should be the zenith™, the absolute “ Law™ ”, nor do I believe that it should monopolize all the ideas in personality theories. I don’t know if what the first anon actually meant was: since I’m so passionate of this theory, then MBTI must be My Favourite™ personality theory, thus, I propose that it should be held true above all else.. but uhm I just want to clarify that MBTI is not My Favourite™ (I even prefer Enneagram over it, sorry haha). I am aware that it’s not the most recognized personality theory in the field of Psychology. And I had said it before, and I’ll say it again: just like any other typological theories, I know that MBTI has its merits and flaws. Though there is qualitative neuroscientific research intended to point evidence to the existence of cognitive functions in the human mind, MBTI is still not 100% considered to be scientific by some [because according to them there is no physical manifestation of cognitive functions. Uhm. I’d just leave it like that.. For now]. No personality theory is infallible. And again, as I had said in verbatim on my *inner dialogue*: “ The human mind is so complex. And to propose that a person’s *personality* could easily be identified through a 10-minute test is just absurdly.. laughable to me [not to mention that that test is focused more on NATURAL HUMAN behaviours and not cognition—which is what the theory is about anyway xxxx xxxx xxxx] like wtf so amazeballs that they could identify my *personality* with such an overly-random question that any other person could have strong preference over the other. ”. So I don’t really understand what the first anon’s critic was, because what they had pointed out was exactly what OP, I, and basically all the people who had studied this theory are continually expressing. Based on my tags alone, we’re actually on the same team™ here.

How? (1) I had said earlier that the theory does not limit human free will. It understands that people have innate imprints in them that manifest on how they act, talk, feel, etc. In the same way, it also understands how people and their preferences are constantly developing and changing [and yes as the first anon said, “ evolving ”], because humans will continue to encounter and be exposed to several personal afflictions, relationship struggles, disappointments, successes, gratifications, religious beliefs, cultural conformity, and other life-altering situations and external factors throughout their lifetime that will heavily affect their behavioural makeup and adaptability to their external environment. Everyone—whatever their type may be—can behave any way they like depending on the situations and circumstances that they are dealing with, because there are many factors that affect and influence how people behave, not only a person’s type. BUT their cognitive functions have been there all along, constantly operating, even if their *functional stack* could fluctuate on their healthy and/or unhealthy states depending on how they had adjusted and adapted to these circumstances [uhm more advanced topic of the theory—see the beauty of this theory? It’s never obsolete. Contrary to misconceptions, the theory recognizes the erratic human nature. It pains me how people could outright dismiss and insult the theory without studying it first, because they fail to realize its usefulness in a person’s life, more than what that shite site says *ho hum*]. (2) I agree with most of the principles of the function theory because it doesn’t “ categorize everyone into 16 cutout personality types ”, nor does it have a manual that says “ ‘here are a few common personality traits, be free’ aspect ”. MBTI stereotypes and ideas from the 16personalities assert that; the function theory does not. (3) [uhm this is getting so repetitive now] The theory is not about what our external behaviours are, nor does it dictate what our *personalities* are. Rather, on the simplest terms, it analyzes how we think. It analyzes how we make decisions, through our cognitive process, when we encounter a particular situation.

Hopefully, my explanation would be enough to clear up some misunderstandings from the aforesaid post. However, I believe that this explanation alone would not suffice for anyone who are still confused with the theory and/or for those who are interested to learn more. Hence, the next section is really just for reference and further clarification, just in case there are still some questions that others are still confused about. That said, I know that I would not be able to articulate these ideas the way this particular blog do [and I don’t want to sound like a bot if I would just be reciting their ideas exactly as they had expressed it], so I’d just be quoting one of the most reliable MBTI blogs here and a personal favourite of mine (mbti-notes), to give insight on some issues that had been critiqued on that post. These are really interesting and thought-provoking ideas so I hope you could take time to read them. Also, I highly-recommend their blog!

[With regards to common MBTI stereotypes and misconceptions]:

Anonymous: Stereotypes give people wrong assumptions about what types are. They don’t define what your personality or your actions are going to be like. They don’t even define what thoughts you have. It’s simply the pattern and the functions you use to come to conclusions. I’m an ENTP (22) and my best friend is an ENFP (23). Yet people would probably switch our two types because I tend to be very gentle and kind around others while she appears more tough and openly says what she thinks.

I appreciate your point. Part of the reason for the stereotyping problem is that the information online and even in books is dominated by two main schools of thought that focus very heavily on behavior at the expense of cognition (Myers-Briggs and Keirsey Temperaments), so a lot of people do not realize that there are other (better) interpretations available. My first exposure to typology was through Keirsey and, although I thought it was interesting at the time, I wasn’t able to see the full potential of the system because everything was masked behind simplistic labels (stereotypes) that didn’t seem to connect with real life to the degree that I thought was necessary to be a truly viable theory of personality. I think a lot of people get interested in MBTI because of its practical applicability in situations like personal relationships or group/work environments and MBTI is good for learning some general rules of thumb that can help you improve the ways in which you deal with different kinds of people. However, general rules of thumb very easily morph into stereotyping and pigeonholing when people do not understand the finer details of the theory and then apply the ideas and principles too carelessly. The human mind is prone to lazy overgeneralizing or drawing invalid conclusions as it is and the lack of depth in the information available unfortunately encourages that laziness. (Source)

[With regards to MBTI’s *accuracy*]:

Anonymous: Do you think that other personality identification types such as Alignment and Global 5/SLOAN are more, less, or just as accurate as MBTI can be?

“Accuracy” is not really the right question. Every theory of personality that is developed by academics is put together very deliberately to serve a particular purpose, and it must be used as intended in order to preserve validity. Unfortunately, when the ideas trickle down into mainstream consciousness, the original purpose of the theory often gets lost in translation, with the general public using it more like a horoscope or fortune cookie and then complaining about the inaccuracies. Every kind of theory has its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, the Five Factor model is a trait theory, which has the advantage of being easily quantifiable and very reliable for statistical analysis. However, there is no actual theoretical underpinning for it because the traits are derived from factor or data analysis, which offers no explanation as to why traits exist, how they arise, why there are only five, and so on. Trait theories are limited in what they are able to explain about human behavior but they remain very useful for doing replicable research studies. There is of course some overlap of concepts between trait theories and type category theories like MBTI.

Cognitive function theory is a qualitative and holistic model of personality that sprawls into other related areas of psychology. Qualitative research excels at theoretical analysis and depth of detailed explanations and is less conducive to statistical analysis/prediction. Jung developed psychological types as a part of the psychoanalytic tradition, however, that tradition fell out of favor in the US to make way for more popular quantitative research methods, though it continued to expand in certain European circles. Myers & Briggs and David Keirsey brought it back to life in a more digestible form but it was never meant to be distilled to such an extreme degree; MBTI essentially turned into a corporate money making tool and Keirsey rejected the notion of cognitive functions in favor of behavioral descriptors. Many of the criticisms that are leveled at MBTI are legitimate but not actually applicable to cognitive function theory because of not seeing the full extent of it and how it is embedded firmly within the long history of psychoanalytic theory, a school of thought which has done more than any other to reveal the qualities of the unconscious mind. Now that there is emerging neuroscientific research that confirms some of these old ideas about the unconscious, there is some resurgence in their popularity within research circles. (Source)

[With regards to MBTI’s basics, development and “scientific” basis]:

Anonymous: The J/P dichotomy is particularly interesting because, say, you have already three letters I N F, the last letter decides not only your dominant and auxiliary functions, it flips the stack; INFP (Fi-Ne-Si-Te) vs. INFJ (Ni-Fe-Ti-Se), and then we read that according to descriptions those types are very different. But then we also have a lot of people who can’t really decide if they’re INFJ or INFP. It’s all very strange to me.

It’s strange to you because (judging by the earlier question) you haven’t understood what the J/P distinction really means and you haven’t properly distinguished cognition and behavior. Two different cognitive functions can manifest similar looking behaviors on the surface (as I have explained numerous times in the guides, please read them carefully). E.g. Any introvert can be reflective but the reasons WHY a particular individual is reflective, the motive and explanation behind it, differs according to the cognitive functions involved (Fi vs Ni). If you don’t know the details of their inner cognitive processes, you cannot see the differences because, just looking from the outside, all you see is that they are both reflective in demeanor. xxxx xxxx xxxx MBTI type descriptions are purposely simplistic because newbies don’t know the theory and therefore must identify themselves through simple behavioral descriptors. MB designed their system in part to sidestep the complicated process of learning function theory so that more people could access it, a noble intention, therefore simple type descriptions do not include all the info you need to type accurately because they do not address variations within type and cognitive function specifics. In other words, problems with typing stem from lack of knowledge of the theory, usually because of not going any deeper than the simplified descriptions/tests. The test was meant to be administered and interpreted by an expert, which means that people run into all kinds of problems when they try to self-type with limited to no knowledge of type theory.

[continuation of the ask] Is there any real scientific proof that Jungian cognitive functions exist? Dario Nardi’s attempts are certainly interesting, but it’s a common knowledge that EEG method is far from being reliable. Also, on one of his AMA discussions on reddit he presented instances when he was testing midlife INFJ adults who he couldn’t differentiate from of ISTPs, which he attributed to the use the second most common pattern (Ti-Se for INFJs). So, which model is true, or is this a combination of dichotomies and functional stack model? Can you shed some light on those issues and inconsistencies? Additionally, I’d really like your opinion on Reynierse’s articles (“Preference Multidimensionality and the Fallacy of Type Dynamics”, etc.). Thank you. The question of “science” has already been beaten to death over and over again so I’ve grown impatient with this can of worms. I don’t have much to say about Nardi, he’s pursuing his ideas and more power to him, but his work is not particularly interesting to me because it is getting away from other aspects of type theory that I am more interested in. xxxx xxxx xxxxx Some people latch onto him because they desperately want some kind of “scientific proof” of the functions. Some people dabble in typology and keep demanding “scientific proof” but don’t understand the differences between quantitative and qualitative research. There are different kinds of theories, with different kinds of objectives, with different standards of measurement, with different methods of application - the scientific method is only one valid research framework and it should not be the measure of all things. Traditionally, science often includes the concept of falsifiability but you can’t falsify that which is not within the realm of empirical fact, e.g., you can’t falsify human valuations or subjective meaning/experience, so are these things not “real”? Do you understand the difference between facts and values? Do you believe that only scientific measurements can imbue ideas with value? Do you believe that materialistic explanations of human psychology are the be-all and end-all? Not everything about human experience can be reduced to neurons and electrons. If you think it can, then feel free to dismiss type theory as crap because it’s not going to fit well with your assumptive worldview. Also, abstract and concrete knowledge are different and should be treated differently. No idea is “real” because “real” implies concrete, and ideas are abstract. One can easily claim that any idea is not “real” depending on how you want to set your standards of measurement. xxxx xxxx xxxx Similarly, people claim that “types” or “functions” are not real even when they themselves: behave as type theory describes, suffer the problems that type theory describes, feel attracted to the relationships that type theory describes, follow the developmental path that type theory describes. 


Before you ask for “scientific proof”, you should first define exactly what standards of proof would satisfy you and make you believe that cognitive functions are “real”. It is quite often the case that people who like to harp about scientific “proof” don’t even understand what they’re asking for or to what end, they demand proof but no matter what proof is offered, they keep moving the goalposts because they are actually more interested in criticizing than understanding (see climate change deniers as the perfect example). Just so you know, many mbti bloggers are tired of dealing with such people, we’ve already gone through all these arguments a million times. I’m not saying you’re one of these people but beware that you’re stepping into a complex discussion and don’t seem sufficiently prepared. Instead of making people explain or educate you, state your exact criteria of scientific proof and I’ll happily tell you if type theory passes. Type theory is a big theory and some people find it hard to understand even the basic type concepts which barely scratch the surface because the theory goes far beyond simple typing. It is an incomplete and fragmented theory, with many people working on it for different reasons in different directions. Many people have found elements of type theory very useful and accurate in their lived experiences, even using it to permanently solve long running psychological issues, even using it to deftly cure relationship problems. There is piecemeal neuroscience evidence which does not directly relate to type theory but nonetheless corroborates it. I wouldn’t know if any of this is enough “proof” because you haven’t specified exactly what proof you’re demanding. If the book falling on your head doesn’t prove gravity is “real”, then I suppose all the people whose thought processes match the principles of type dynamics don’t count as real proof either. The results say a lot. I run a popular typology blog and have dealt with thousands of people, so I at least don’t suffer from sample-size-1. Type dynamics describes very specific problems and offers workable solutions, and I’ve witnessed many different kinds of people from different backgrounds, cultures, walks of life apply these ideas with great success. Is this “empirical evidence”? I’ve had the most hardened scientifically-minded strangers think I’m a magical wizard when I can knit together their life story and reveal their innermost insecurities based only on four letters, yet all I’m doing is applying and extrapolating from the theoretical ideas as I understand them, nothing more. 


All I will say about arguments against type dynamics is that they usually can’t see the forest because they’re stuck in the trees: they get wrapped up in granular details and superficial inconsistencies; they don’t see the historical big picture of how every model evolves from and contains the same set of ideas; they don’t see how some disagreements between models are merely semantic and actually address the same underlying concept; they don’t fully grasp the principles of type dynamics and then produce strawman criticisms (some of the points in those articles actually support, add to, or help clarify type dynamics rather than debunk it); they perceive the explanatory flexibility of type dynamics as a flaw, not a strength; they probably prefer trait theories because they are easily quantifiable (and then completely miss the point of type dynamics); they don’t see how the ideas could potentially fit with mathematical dynamics and energy flow. Any theory worth its salt should remain open to criticism, development, and further clarification but, in order to critique a theory successfully, you must first understand it, and I don’t think the author of those articles has understood type dynamics well enough. (Source)

Again, I apologize to anyone who had been offended of what I said in my tags. And thank you very much for taking the time to read this post! :)

P.S. I have no intention to answer that anon who made a sexist comment about M & B. I have already discussed what my points are regarding MBTI Tests™, so I wouldn’t really judge them or anyone else for having fun with taking multiple personality tests. But since I think this anon have zero knowledge of the theory anyway, I have to clarify that it wasn’t created by M & B [who, by the way, even if they had not been psychologists by profession, had made extensive research of the theory—probably more than you would ever do, anon. Then again, I don’t really adhere to M & B’s approach], but was devised by one of the best minds psychology has ever known. FYI that person was a man—if anon would feel more validated™ to know that their own sex is the perfect authority for objective™ measurement of intelligence or competence *cough* it actually isn’t *cough*. Also, I really am so tired already to rebut something that is completely illogical, it’s even barely understandable. *ho hum* I’m very open to discuss opinions that differ from mine, but if you are trying to establish your argument through a sexist comment, then don’t expect that I would answer you with respect.

[gracxful-blog]

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[blackburnraymond95]

can i take out a life insurance policy on my parents

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can i take out a life insurance policy on my parents

can i take out a life insurance policy on my parents? Do they have to to get it? I can you tell me from time to time if insurance will automatically reduce my premium if I am diagnosed with a medical condition I am not aware I am unsure about ? I have been paying cash for 50 years of my life, do they need to renew the policy or just send a fax to my parents to cancel it? Any ideas on how to handle it. Any advice would be appreciated. I have lived a lie and lie and was thinking of taking them over. Now they claim that my health is declining and the insurance is the reason for their delay, should they be able to get me medical under the policy now. My parents have been with the same company for over 40 years, my parents still work. When should I take out a life insurance policy? I know you have to look at your options. You will find that they will cancel it if they aren’t able to. It wouldn’t. can i take out a life insurance policy on my parents which have been living under my policy since January of 2008) is that if my parents die due to an accident in which my parents were the decedent(s) the policy would pay for their funeral expenses and would only give out no death benefits. The death benefit will be used to pay for any legal, health, funeral etc. It will also give out no death benefits of course but the policy will also be unable to collect the death benefits if you are the decedent of the decedent and are legally deceased but not being able to collect this life insurance death benefit would also make the policy ineligible for full benefits or whole life insurance death benefit. It all depends on the state you live in. I am considering it to be a life insurance policy with 3 levels of coverage for those who do not agree to pay the premiums. That way they will be able to decide what their premiums are for and if they are able to opt out from the coverage. I think you are right about. can i take out a life insurance policy on my parents just to take their cars or pay for it myself? If my parents are really into taking care of me, I don’t believe there’s a major difference in the situation, if both of them have auto insurance, which makes getting a policy that they can bundle into their policy all the more. There is no one size fits all approach when it comes to insuring a child. When a child has a serious life change they need to protect their future and I believe that is a big factor when it comes to insuring a child. I would say that the parent with the option to bundle the policy into the auto policy where the premium for that will usually be more than the auto policy being charged for, since the premiums will be higher. If the parent with a great job or high net worth also has a need for cash the spouse/spouse should give them the option, but that is generally not a good idea, and they can be counted on to do what is best.

Taking Out Life Insurance on Parents?

Taking Out Life Insurance on Parents? This is an excellent topic in itself;  . Unfortunately, insurance companies will only ask for details on your parent’s health. You can’t be sued. Life insurance companies may if you show proof that you caused their loss of or incurred their loss of income (i.e., a loss of income that would cause them to become disabled or to lose time with their activities).  I would think that most parents are more cautious about what they show their children.  In my experience, the more experienced a parent is about their children’s future , the less they are likely to get behind the wheel while they’re saddled with an expensive medical bill.  I recommend speaking with your insurance company to see what type of assistance there is and which is best for your parent(s). I am an 18-year-old mother of 4 kids. I am thinking about putting my child’s guardian/parents in my name and.

Why Consider Getting Life Insurance On a Parent?

Why Consider Getting Life Insurance On a Parent? The answer to this question may provide a little more clarity on the answer that you’ll need to consider most. Most people don’t know they’ll be purchasing a life insurance policy on their parents, but they’re probably already aware that life insurance will pay off the rest of their financial needs. Let’s look at the pros and cons of purchasing life insurance on a parent. Your parents won’t be without life insurance coverage forever – but life insurance helps them in the long run. They probably won’t need it for your final arrangements, nor for any ongoing things. What about parents who choose to purchase life insurance policies on their children? Most families are already familiar with the pros and cons of buying life insurance on a parent. This is because the benefits are obvious. The benefits can be incredibly complex to understand and the process of purchasing coverage can take a significant amount of time. One of the most common questions parents have is whether or not.

What Are the Alternatives to Purchasing Life Insurance for Your Child?

What Are the Alternatives to Purchasing Life Insurance for Your Child? There’s a good chance one of the ways they will end up purchasing life insurance for their child is to provide an . The policy will, and will be the most popular, of all time. A policy provides protection from financial devastation. When you purchase it, you’re protecting your children’s future right away. As a child, you do not have the financial or income need to provide for your care today or to care for your family s future. A good estate plan is designed to provide a source of income to pay for the needs of those present you may have once they are gone. The term family life insurance is often used to describe a child who will need additional financial support for things like raising a grandchild or other family. It often works to help make family life insurance more affordable. What Are the Alternatives to Purchasing Life Insurance for your Child? Even though it may seem like the options you have mentioned are not out there when it comes to finding the.

How Does Life Insurance for Children Work?

How Does Life Insurance for Children Work? Why do I own my term life insurance? To better understand how life insurance is sold, we decided to do a thorough look. We then looked at a total of the life insurance products offered by the top life insurance companies. The purpose of this review was to help you get a better perspective of the type of life insurance, as well as what the quality of life coverages are like. All we wanted to do was answer the question, why am I buying life insurance on my child? It is well-known that when a child grows up in poverty, life insurance companies will usually pay to compensate. This is because the children need the income to take care of their debt, provide for their own lives, and get the money they need to retire safely. A family with a middle-aged, middle-aged person can typically afford to fund a life insurance policy through work and allow them to use the money to help provide for the children who will be born next month. Some life insurance companies will.

Insurance by state

Insurance by state Insurance rates vary by company, but in general, you can expect some degree of variation in rates for men and women. Alphabetical list of companies Insurance rates are determined by each person’s individual circumstances and the coverage available in his or her state. Auto insurance companies in Louisiana are required to offer some variation in their coverage levels. Mobile app Apple Car+ Apple Car iOS Android app Apps Other states vary by story ConnecticutInsurance (based on premiums collected in the past 6 months) Apple Car iOS Connect For more certainty, many insurers have come to the table and not yet endorsed this information in any manner. New Hampshire Insurance rate variations vary depending upon your location, driving history, age and vehicle s cost of maintenance (or lack thereof). AlabamaInsurance rates can vary, based on.

What is the Best Type of Life Insurance Policy?

What is the Best Type of Life Insurance Policy? When it comes to life insurance - there are so many opinions for it.  It is a simple concept: a life insurance policy is a contract.  A contract is written on an individual for a specific number of years, and - in this instance - a specific policy would be required to be purchased.  That means the policy is designed to protect the individual and their families, and to provide coverage to an individual that is not a direct beneficiary of that policy.  This contract is important in this instance because it protects the family against the potential for lawsuits or liability arising out of claims caused by those parties - and because it ensures the individual receives the minimum coverage required in the policy.  This is also an important point because – on the surface - life premiums seem reasonable - but life insurance policies are different in a variety of ways.  The most important thing is that you always choose the right policy.  In this article we will take a look at some different types of life insurance policies. .

Does your kid need juvenile life insurance?

Does your kid need juvenile life insurance? It’s not possible to take it on as a rider on an existing life insurance policy. The primary purpose of life insurance is to protect your family from financial hardship, so it pays to . Life insurance may be a smart investment. But what if your child needs to live in a home without work or access to expensive health insurance? Would you like to purchase a life insurance policy on him or her? There’s another option – young adults can consider . For a certain amount of money, the parents can purchase a life insurance policy on their youngest child (only if you have coverage). You can also purchase a for a certain amount of time (a year, for instance). There is an option to purchase a life insurance policy on a who will not be working but will only be working part-time, and it’s for a particular person (like a parent). Many life insurance policies are variable. The life insurance company has certain metrics to meet when a policy is.

Buying Life Insurance on Someone Else

Buying Life Insurance on Someone Else’s Car? If you’re wondering does I need life insurance on someone else, you’re in the right place. That’s why it’s important to understand what common options are when it comes to life insurance for other people. A non-owner car insurance policy works best with a car owner to insure one car owner for that person. One policy per relationship, with one policy per car, and that one person (possibly both you and your spouse) will be the policy owner. There are two main types of non-owner car insurance policies: . Depending on the insurance company you’re purchasing insurance on or in the event of an accident, non-owner policy rates will vary, although most companies offer policies for all parties. If it’s your first vehicle, non-owner car insurance can be a valuable supplement to your existing insurance, as it doesn’t have to mean you need to take out a loan on.

You’re a millennial with no kids? Here’s why you should consider life insurance

You’re a millennial with no kids? Here’s why you should consider life insurance when these situations arise – including the best life insurance companies for you and your family. You’re in your early 20’s, and you need life insurance coverage. You are in need of life insurance protection, and you want options you can use when you need it most. From providing affordable term life insurance at affordable rates to help you provide dependable financial security, there are different life insurance plans for each of you. There’s little you need to worry about. That’s why people with a life expectancy of up to 80 years can get life insurance at a much lower premium. In fact, it’s the reason why can be so expensive. If you have children, you are looking at the very last stage of life. You have a dependable financial security. At any age, life insurance makes financial sense, including for children, when you need it most. So, is term life insurance the best? You’re a young man with.

How to Get a Life Insurance Policy Issued

How to Get a Life Insurance Policy Issued to Your Husband: Is it required by law, is it required to buy life insurance before the marriage? If not, how long should I follow through on it and what about my financial prospects should I be with her? If you want an explanation on all of this, please leave us a comment below. I have always had no issue with her, yet if I wasn’t married I’m hoping she would not have any trouble with us getting another life insurance policy and I hope my friend gets a better insurance policy at the same time. What Is Not Required: We have been married for about 30 years now but have never had a problem getting life insurance. Our goal today is to help you be your insurance expert with a life insurance policy issued in the state of Texas. It’s important that when you purchase a life insurance policy that is not subject to your income, so your spouse will receive the benefits and may have the right to file any claim on your insurance.

[driggarssaleha]

united of omaha life insurance company rating

BEST ANSWER: Try this site where you can compare quotes from different companies :insurecostfinder.top

united of omaha life insurance company rating

united of omaha life insurance company rating Best Company for Homeowners insurance The Best Company for Homeowners insurance AmericasLife Ins.co has been providing clients with a variety of life insurance coverage for over 25 yrs. It’s great to have a policy with the best company, regardless of your health. Guaranteed renewability benefits can also insure you during the first 6 or 12 months that you have a term policy with Americo, and the benefits paid from an accumulated value. There are discounts for both people with more than four children and couples with a household. The Americo family is an independent life insurance company that operates as an all-inclusive holding group. They specialize in life insurance for those who need a universal life policy. are offered by Americo through many of the best life insurance companies around. Backcountry Insurance provides quality life insurance for hikers and kayaks (U.S. residents) and is rated on S&P 500. Backcountry. united of omaha life insurance company rating is rated A++ by A.M Best, the same as it is for Allstate and Ameriprise. This is very helpful as we have been treated as a family for many years. We can now go about purchasing permanent life insurance products online. Thank you. The insurance companies are all top rated ratings. However, Allstate s rating was not the best for life insurance companies. When you compare Allstate with Nationwide, the premium is more. But Nationwide is a very good company and they were able to offer it under one condition. I was very surprised at the price. But Nationwide will take that as a plus. It offers a very strong policy. I am looking for insurance with my spouse and my car. The rates are comparable to Progressive, for your car insurance. There are better options for you, this is a great review. I purchased my life insurance for my baby son in the middle years of it. I am very upset that I could not save my investment at that time. united of omaha life insurance company rating. The company is a licensed agency with an A1C in its jurisdiction and their financial strength scores are higher than any other company ratings. I have insurance with great company underwriters and a lot of questions, but the company was there for me. Would not use other company for my husband . She is a good writer she would like to do business with. Thank you. We were young so i couldn’t afford to cancel my husband who was disabled at the time. My boyfriend tried to cancel an auto insurance plan for a few years and i am looking to cancel it . My brother is coming for work, and we have so many issues as a family with family life problems. We were wondering if we could insure each family member. I’ve had these plans for several years. I am just looking to get a life insurance that will give me a financial security for my family members over the years. Thanks . I’m writing to inquire on it what I can.

Mutual of Omaha life insurance policies

Mutual of Omaha life insurance policies are underwritten by the Life Insurance Company of North America, except in New York where approved by the Life Insurance Company of New York, Oak Brook, IL. Each coverage is available for $5,000, $25,000, $50,000, $100,000, $250,000 and $250,000, for drivers 50 and older up to age 70 or 75. Guaranteed insurability coverage is paid up to age 120 and is indexed to an annual interest rate of 5%. For people 50 and older: In New York: is underwritten by Allianz Life Insurance Company and is guaranteed for a set period of time, of 10 years and will pay benefits to your beneficiaries on the set date. For people 50 and older: is underwritten by Allianz Life Insurance Company and is guaranteed for a set term of time, of 10 years and will pay benefits to your beneficiary on the set date. For people 50 and older: If a medical condition.

United of Omaha Life Insurance offers life insurance with a variety of features. With an A.M. Best Rating of an A+, they offer Term Life Express (TLE) products and features such as Living Benefit Riders, Common Carrier Death Benefit Provision, and more. Get a United of Omaha Life Insurance quote today!

United of Omaha Life Insurance offers life insurance with a variety of features. With an A.M. Best Rating of an A+, they offer Term Life Express (TLE) products and features such as Living Benefit Riders, Common Carrier Death Benefit Provision, and more. Get a United of Omaha Life Insurance quote today! Life insurance policies described, quoted, shown and illustrated throughout this website are not available in all states. Rates and discounts vary among these customers. United of Omaha offers a range of life insurance plans, which are tailored to the customer’s needs. They also do everything they can to ensure they are getting the best prices available. The is a valuable resource all around. While the company’s offerings are relatively simple, they still have their own set of products and a few premium options to choose from, including their own Living Benefit Rider that applies to those on Medicare as well as their Living Benefit Plans. This provides additional benefits when certain situations require them. The Living Benefit Rider covers a set amount of money that you, the policy owner, receive if a covered person dies. The death benefit would start at 100% of a survivor’s Medicare deductible and would then increase each year as premiums increased. It has been a popular option for many insurers as it is considered to be the cheapest.

Ready to compare quick life insurance quotes?

Ready to compare quick life insurance quotes? From the simplest forms of advice through personal service — to the best and easiest to keep safe — there s an tool that shows you rates in your area. You can start the process in just a few minutes. You might even be able to save money, so get started today! As you may have probably gathered, it s actually fairly straightforward: if you re looking for life insurance without an exam, it s an easy way to do it. The first step to getting an affordable rate after you re gone. There are plenty of options in one place — but you need to be a bit more careful in choosing one. I ve done some of the dirty work for them. What do I do with life insurance without an exam? With a little more research, I found out what is possible. For me, life insurance is not about finding the lowest rates for the lowest price. The problem is in finding the cheapest rates for the people that would need it the most. When you re looking for.

How much does Mutual of Omaha life insurance cost?

How much does Mutual of Omaha life insurance cost? A 20-year term life insurance policy from Mutual of Omaha costs $1,300 a month on average. The company’s rates aren’t too favorable, however, though. According to the , for a 20-year term life insurance policy with $500,000 of permanent coverage, it cost $3,074 to purchase the policy for $1,300 a month. In comparison, Mutual of Omaha offers a comparable policy at an average cost of $2,922 per year. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, Mutual of Omaha’s term life insurance premiums tend to have a lower death benefit, averaging around $500,000. However, the company is also known for its customer service, being generally considered one of the most reliable providers of insurance. The company is listed for an annual premium of $2,749. On the cash reserves, there’s also lower guaranteed cash value, so it could be cheaper for the consumer. Mutual.

[thuhlia]

Disability in LGBTQIA

1. Introduction

https://health.usnews.com/health-news/patient-advice/articles/2015/07/29/lgbt-health-care-what-to-consider In this blog I will open up the dialogue addressing the issues within a specific LGBTQIA community that have lacked in recognition their queer community in addition to the rest of society. The topic in this blog is based on not having enough resources for disabled folks including others alike and elaborating on the issue of the Queer and overall community not making resources widely accessible to all types of disabled individuals. There is a lack of acknowledgement and discussion about the multiple obstacles LGBTQIA individuals face other than already being a part of the Queer community, which is the case we studied in this class. The most important step to progression on this issue is acknowledgement. To learn and address the concept that this population exists will open up the idea to be more inclusive, aware, and understanding. In willful ignorance, disability in our society has been pushed to the backburner of the fundamental rights of human life. Disability has developed into various layers that numerous people do not try to fully understand including the concept of  individuality within that community  in terms of sexuality, unequal representation, the combination of being a disabled queer individual, and being disabled, queer, and additionally, a person of color.

2. Sexuality is taboo

https://www.scope.org.uk/awkward/a-z

When society thinks of the LGBTQIA community, they think of sex and intimacy. When society thinks of the disabled folk, they strictly reminded of their incapabilities and certainly do not bother to consider that they may also share sexual desires just like any other human being. Whether they are straight or queer, the concept around sexuality and sexual lifestyle is ignored and denied when considering people with disabilities. The subject of sexuality as either a want or a need are seen as a taboo subject to the rest of society that should be untouched and forgotten about. Their sexuality and the act on pleasure of this particular group is ignored in all communities of sexuality and gender. (Tepper). There is a stigma that people with disabilities face in regards to sexuality and pleasure that once you become a part of the disabled medical category, that they must not desire or act upon sexual behaviors. Several institutions in our society “have adopted the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell policy of sexual education,” which already sets the community of the LGBTQIA group and in addition, leaving out the extra resources and recognition people with disabilities may need in this topic of discussion (Tepper, 284). The meat of this issue is briefly explained as Mitchell S. Tepper states, “The discussion of pleasure in populations such as women, older Americans, large sized people, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals, and children is also underrepresented in the medical or scientific research literature. This is equally true for people with disabilities” (285). Just as much as sexual behaviors and aspects of the LGBTQIA community  is ignored by society and the medical field, one can only imagine the lack of consideration and research people with disabilities within the LGBTQIA community receive. In the film, Sins Invalid: An Unshamed Claim to Beauty, a particular group of individuals with disabilities express the importance of free-expression and recognition of the medically disabled community. Whether they were gay or straight, they want to also be considered and recognized as a norm to the rest of society because although they may have a physical or mental incapability, they do not want to be considered as incapable of being human beings and performing activities of human life (2013). 

Class Source: Sins Invalid: An Unabashed Claim to Beauty. Dir. Patricia Berne. Kanopy. New Day Films. 2013. DVD.

Class Source: Tepper, Mitchell S. “Sexuality and Disability: The Missing Discourse of Pleasure.” Sexuality and Disability 18.4 (2000): 283-290. EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete. PDF.

3. Unequal representation in resources meant for all Queer folk

https://www.advocate.com/sites/advocate.com/files/2015/05/15/Op-ed--We-Must-Protect-Disabled-LGBT-Adults-From-Conversion-TherapyX400.jpg Many have this perception that a person with a disability is represented by a wheelchair when there are so many other signs and symptoms of various disabilities that may not be as apparent as a physical disability. Sylvia Rivera, a Latina, transgender woman and activist fought for a long time to help the community she felt she was a part of in a number of their needs. In her article, “Bitch on Wheels,” she describes the hardships that many of the youth in her city have had to face for a long time and no one was there to help them so she took initiative and fought for their rights as homeless, queer, and disadvantaged misfits of society (Rivera 2001). When our society hears the word “disabled”, an image of a person on a wheelchair appears. The reality is that disability comes in all shapes and forms. There is no staple image that represents what that may be. Disability doesn’t always have to be medical. One thing that Rivera and her efforts represented is that homelessness is a disability of overall life as well. Being homeless means you don’t have medical insurance, you most likely don’t have a job to support your personal needs and as a result you probably don’t have money to help you gain access to transportation to various resources that could help a person in many ways.   On the other hand, there are statistics stating that “the number of persons with disabilities who are homeless is higher than the number of people who are living in poverty - something that tells everyone that people with disabilities are having a difficult time finding a place to live, or a landlord who is willing to rent them” (Weiss, 2009). This is a perfect representation that not only people with disabilities are being discriminated against but the homeless community, including Rivera, are also being discriminated against for being queer and in that way, they have been categorized as disabled. The underrepresentation of the barriers that these groups are being forced to face is a reflection of the lack of resources that should be helping non-medically disabled queer folk. On a side note, fortunately, Rivera was that resource for many during her time.

Class Source: Rivera, Sylvia. “Bitch on Wheels.” Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries: Survival, Revolt, and Queer Antagonist Struggle.Untorelli Press, 2013. 32-39. PDF.

Article: Weiss, Thomas C. “People with Disabilities and Homelessness.” Disabled World, Disabled World, 14 Apr. 2017, www.disabled-world.com/editorials/political/disability-homeless.php.

4. Double Discrimination (disabled/queer)

were-all-queer-here.tumblr.com/image/165032080253 Source: were-all-queer-here tumblr profile         Based on the post above, this is a segway to the topic of double discrimination faced by queer disabled individuals. To quickly explain what this means, I found a testimony posted by Ashley Burnside called, “5 Intersections of Being Queer and Disabled.” She explains the intersectionality of the two marginalized identities that she personally identified with into five categories based on her experiences: Isolation, Dating, Fashion, Coming Out/Disclosing, and Pride and Acceptance (2017). A common theme in all of these categories that many other Queer individuals with disabilities may also experience is the pressure of being critiqued for not only being one or the other--queer or disabled, but it is also judged because of the combination of living with both identities (2017). An example of a level of discrimination among many is explained by Nancy J. Hirschmann in her article, “Queer/Fear: Disability, Sexuality, and The Other.” Based on the concept that both the LGBTQ community and people with disabilities are viewed as a more inferior version of human existence according to those who negatively judge them, Hirschmann states, “More pedestrian similarities, parallels, and intersections between disability and queerness abound, of course, such as the feminization of disability such that a disabled man is perceived as weak and helpless, regardless of what any disabled man or woman (or nondisabled man or woman for that matter) could actually achieve; much as gay men are feminized and denigrated by being labeled women—a term that is supposedly neutral in everyday discourse but which becomes a mark of contempt when used to refer to men” (141). Identifying as both disabled and queer means you are subject to discrimination and being valued less.

Article: Burnside, Ashley. “5 Intersections of Being Queer and Disabled.” The Mighty, 5 Apr. 2017, themighty.com/2017/04/intersections-of-being-queer-and-disabled/.

Scholarly: Hirschmann, Nancy J. “Queer/Fear: Disability, Sexuality, and The Other.” Springer Science+Business Media New York, 8 Mar. 2013.

5. Triple Discrimination (disabled/queer/poc)

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-06-20-1466447965-4709255-DTWPic2-thumb.jpg http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-06-20-1466447385-2856280-DTWPic1.jpg https://tallerdeteoriaqueer.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/queer-chicana-discapacitada-3/ One of the most underrepresented issue surrounding the disabled community is not only discrimination against queer folk but being a person of color as well. It’s a triple threat that goes unnoticed going through life as a disabled queer person of color. Race is in effect. Although there are some LGBTQIA disability resources, the representation of disabled queer individuals has often been all too white. Walking into spaces around this supposed progressive society, one cannot deviate from racism as it sadly continues to exist. Discrimination takes many titles such as: racism, homophobia, etc. People carrying the identities, as a queer person of color with a disability is a triple threat that many aren’t prepared for. In the article, “Inhospitable Healthcare Spaces: Why Diversity Training on LGBTQIA Issues Is Not Enough” written by Megan A. Dean, Elizabeth Victor, and Laura Guidry Grimes, they describe the interpersonal interactions suggested as micro aggressions towards members of the LGBTQIA community are many times conveyed through interactions between hospital staff and patients (2016). Being a person with a disability going to the doctor with their partner while also identifying as queer and representing as a person of color can a lot of times inevitably call attention to those who choose to be close-minded about such a community, whether they be homophobic or racist. This would also mean a change in treatment. That kind of staff may not treat their patients as fairly as they would to a cis, white individual. That’s why this article that I mentioned is important in understanding the negative effects of a lack of understanding and training in healthcare spaces. They describe that the “healthcare providers’ reactions to patients’ disclosure of LGBTQ status can include micro aggressions of this sort” (Dean et al. 561). No space is truly safe from discrimination, especially for an individual with this triple threat identity.

Scholarly: Dean, Megan A., Elizabeth Victor, and Laura Guidry Grimes. N.P.: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, July 2016. PDF. https://linkspringer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs11673-016-9738-9.pdf

6. Conclusion:

http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/assets/md5images/ab05c5954f4afb3aca1298a4dd7fe578.gif Disability in our society has evolved and is identified in a large range of different communities such as queer folk and people of color as mentioned in this blog. Disability in every group, culture and society has been deemphasized and devalued as there continues to be barriers that individuals with disabilities are forced to face without the establishment of proper or enough resources to support against those barriers. There is a lack of acknowledgement and conversation about the multiple obstacles LGBTQIA individuals face other than already being a part of the Queer community. As mentioned above, there are multiple obstacles that comes with being one, both, and all three identities: queer, disabled, and POC. After all, we are all human and we all deserve a chance at opportunities and resources free of judgment.

[learnleadgeneration-blog]

Picking out An Internet Dating Web site

Picking An Internet Dating Web-site

date hookup dating site Web-based dating is at this point a very popular strategy to meet someone special. Seeing that you likely know, there are many hundreds involving internet websites offering dating expert services - some are 'free' web sites (no price to enroll in or use the site), while others require settlement in some form. Such 'paid' web sites might charge a request, or perhaps a small fee for each message you send if using the site. date hookup And so far so good. Although one of many key problems with all these different types of sites is knowing what one is definitely 'right' for you. Nearly you have to pick out between 'paid' along with 'free', but also from 'boutique' versus 'general' dating sites. And then there are internet sites which have participants through across the world, compared to versions that have users mostly from a single region or country. Yet another factor is actually whether to go along with a proven 'name brand' internet site that is certainly widely advertised, as well as the one that you've not been told of. In the following paragraphs, I'll consider to give you any few words of advice, which may assist you in generating a decision about which usually online dating site (or sites) to work with. Firstly, I believe it's very essential to include a clear idea involving two things - the sort of man or woman you're shopping for, and how very much dollars you're prepared in order to spend to find them. When your clear concerning the form of person you wish, and then that's a large help. Knowing what region you prefer these to live in, their age, their own prices (conservative or a lot more easy-going) in addition to lifestyle selections. Once you get apparent about how much cash (and time) you're organized to expend in your own personal search, you're now all set to consider the following details. 'Free' versus 'Paid' on the web dating sites -- No cost sites are great intended for getting used to the on-line dating experience, and your own expectations are reasonably low. Services are generally work on a very small budget, so customer support may be limited, and the particular site is unlikely to be able to be as dependable as well as full-featured as a paid out site. However, there are usually some fine free internet sites that do a good job, and they should not be dismissed. In case you are unclear with regards to who else you're looking to get, then start with free dating. You have nothing at all to get rid of, and by simply using them it's very likely you'll learn a whole lot about what sort of man you're seeking. Paid websites offer more features, service, as well as usually provide a reliable and well-managed site. Nonetheless it can get expensive, specially if you haven't determined who you're seeking, or perhaps the reason why. Because some websites cost 'per message', they have a more robust to just send messages to be able to future dates that in shape your current ideal. On the different hand, a number of paid web sites have quite a few features that you may never employ - such as conversation and real-world social events. And that means you may feel this some sites are certainly not good value for cash. And then, many paid internet sites have very enticing advertising over the internet, and you can be disappointed once you discover the site doesn't meet the 'hype' described in the advertising. Nevertheless, paid sites are very popular, along with I highly recommend using these people if (and just if) you're reasonably very clear and professional about who have most likely looking for, and most likely ready to put in the particular time and money for you to find these. Boutique web-sites are alternative. These tend to be online dating sites which usually focus on specific audiences. Regarding example, several sites cater just for individuals over 40, or just for all those with a disability. Some other sites only allow 'beautiful' or really wealthy persons to join. Subsequently at this time there are sites which appeal to specific religious or ethnic groups. A boutique web site is a good solution if you are a part of a specific social niche market and it's important that you actually meet only individuals who are portion of the same market. Drawback of boutique dating sites is a lack of member numbers, which often can guide to disappointing search outcomes. Nevertheless , if you get a specific and well-defined group of people this you're hoping will incorporate your own personal future lover or mate, then boutique dating offers the advantage of a good focus on a certain set of people. Finally, will be certainly foreign sites, versus people far more locally focused. An individual can almost certainly guess the thoughts on this particular, structured on the foregoing conversation! Consider whether you are happy with the thought of any relationship with someone in another country. If an individual met the right man or woman online, would you be okay with travelling to be able to another section of the world to meet them? Would you manage the travel costs, along with ongoing costs of calls? If you answer 'yes' to these questions, then a international internet site may always be what you're looking with regard to. Otherwise, you can pick out a dating website which often has most of it is health club drawn from your own personal region, state or land. There are substantial language, cultural and take a trip rewards to searching for an individual in your home location. Also consider there's impossible to be a timezone issue. There are numerous local or nationwide internet dating sites which have hundreds of users, so you won't find the representative numbers limiting in that instance. I recommend using relationship sites specific for your country or region, if you do not exclusively want to meet an individual from a foreign state. You may, for instance, need to meet someone coming from Japan - because of camaraderie or relationship. An international internet site is therefore the perfect solution.

[yogaburn5-blog]

Picking out An Internet Dating Web-site

Deciding on An Internet Dating Site

datehookup Web-based dating is currently a very popular method to meet someone special. As you probably know, presently there are many hundreds of web sites offering dating solutions - many are 'free' web-sites (no fee to join or use the site), while others require payment in many form. Such 'paid' sites might charge a request, or perhaps the small fee for every single message you send while using the web site. date hookup dating site Consequently far so good. However one of the key problems using all these a number of00 web-sites is knowing what one will be 'right' for you. Not only do you have to choose between 'paid' in addition to 'free', but also from 'boutique' versus 'general' dating web-sites. Then there are websites which have users by across the world, vs . kinds that have users mostly in one region as well as country. Yet another factor is whether to go together with a professional 'name brand' web-site that is certainly widely advertised, as well as one which you've not listened to of. In this post, I'll try to give you any handful of words of advice, which may direct you towards creating a decision about which usually online dating site (or sites) to make use of. Firstly, I consider it's very vital that you include a clear idea of two things - the variety of particular person you're hunting for, and how a lot funds you're prepared for you to spend and discover them. In the event your clear about the kind of person you would like, after that that's a major help. Once you discover what region you prefer them to live in, their age, their own ideals (conservative or far more easy-going) along with lifestyle selections. Once you get apparent about how much money (and time) you're geared up to devote in your own search, you're now ready to consider the following factors. 'Free' versus 'Paid' on the net dating sites : No cost sites are great for getting used towards the on the web dating experience, and your own objectives are reasonably very low. Services are generally function on a very smaller budget, so customer assistance may be limited, and the actual site is definitely unlikely to be able to be as reputable or maybe full-featured as a paid out site. However, there tend to be some great free sites that do a great work, and they need to not be dismissed. Of course, if you are unclear with regards to who all you're looking regarding, then start with no cost dating. You have nothing at all to drop, and by simply using them it's probably you'll learn a lot as to what sort of person you're looking for. Paid sites offer more features, service, as well as usually provide a trustworthy and well-managed site. But it can get pricey, particularly if you haven't made the decision who else you're seeking, or perhaps why. Because some websites fee 'per message', is actually a sound judgment to solely send messages to be able to potential dates that match your own personal ideal. On the various other hand, a few paid internet sites have quite a few features that you may never work with - such as talk as well as real-world social situations. So that you may feel which some web sites are not really good value for cash. And then, many paid internet sites include very enticing promoting on the net, and you could be disappointed whenever you discover the site doesn't live up to the 'hype' described in its advertising. Nevertheless, paid web sites are very popular, and I suggest using them if (and solely if) you're reasonably obvious in addition to professional about who have you aren't looking for, and most likely able to put in typically the time and money for you to find all of them. Boutique websites are another choice. These are online dating sites which often meet the needs of specific audiences. With regard to example, a few sites provide just for those more than 40, or just for the people with a disability. Different sites only allow 'beautiful' or extremely wealthy men and women to join. In that case presently there are sites which appeal to specific religious or ethnic groups. A boutique website is a good choice if you are part of a specific social specialized niche and it is important that a person meet only individuals who are part of the same specific niche market. Drawback of boutique relationship sites could be the lack of member numbers, which will prospect to disappointing search final results. But if you get a specific and clear group of people which you're hoping will incorporate your personal future lover or partner, then boutique dating offers the advantage of a robust focus on a specific group of people. Finally, will be certainly worldwide sites, versus those considerably more locally focused. You can most likely guess our thoughts on this particular, based on the foregoing conversation! Consider whether you are generally happy with the thought of a new relationship with someone internationally. If anyone met the right particular person online, would you always be fine with travelling to another portion of the world to help meet them? Are you able to pay for the travel costs, in addition to ongoing costs of phone calls? If you answer 'yes' to questions, then a great international site may be what you're looking to get. Alternatively, you can select a dating website which often has most of it is health club drawn from your own personal region, express or state. There are substantial dialect, cultural and journey positive aspects to searching for anyone in your home area. Also consider there's improbable to be a timezone issue. There are several local or countrywide online dating sites which have hundreds of participants, so you actually won't find the fellow member numbers limiting in this kind of instance. I would recommend using dating sites specific to your country or region, if you don't specifically want to meet someone from a foreign land. You could possibly, for instance, would like to meet a person coming from Japan - either for camaraderie or relationship. A worldwide site is therefore the perfect solution.

[thelastflight-home-blog]

Knowing The Most effective Hack Zombie Catchers To Order Is A Snap Making Use Of These Superb Advice

Games have received a dominant devote most properties on earth. Lots of people have fun with Zombie Catchers Hack to pass the time period, however some fortunate enough people are settled to learn gaming systems. Regardless of why you're taking part in Zombie Catchers Hile, these gaming applications will not likely go away in the urgent foreseeable future. Read more for several great tips on games.

Before purchasing a youtube Zombie Catchers Hile for a child, inquire about styles of Zombie Catchers Hile they enjoy. 

There are many of things that go into deciding no matter whether a Zombie Catchers Mod Apk is age group acceptable, just in case you should only have one headline with your report, you will leave the house to purchase it only to discover that it really isn't the ideal pay for.

When performing a shooter sport and you have to reload a tool, make certain you consider cover. Avid gamers will regularly manage to get their persona wiped out by ranking all-around and reloading in an hazardous vicinity. Don't let this be you! Find insure initial, and reload your tool.

When it is potential, obtain a demo option of an particular adventure to check it out 1st. The preview provides some comprehension of this Zombie Catchers Cheats. Nonetheless, exercise caution any time you obtain. Only help downloading from highly regarded web pages.

When taking part in Zombie Catchers Hile, remember to physical exercise your forearms and hip and legs frequently. Your body may get trapped undertaking precisely the same motions consistently. You will need to stretch your muscles in order to avoid cramping as well as help your circulation. This really is good for you.

The lumination for your Television set. While you might experience Zombie Catchers Cheats which can be put in the darkness, it can not enable your performance. Colorations all turn out to be just one and merge, which can make it hard to locate your enemies, which lets them come up upon you. Hence, it is best to enhance your panel, so long as you don't health care which you will a bit lose the realness within the game. It would create the shades quicker to discern and you'll be ready to recognize your enemies just before they detect you.

Under no circumstances hesitate to inquire about gameplay keep representatives for suggestions. Many individuals like different varieties of games, you need to check out part out. Hack Zombie Catchers retail outlet employees ordinarily know plenty of to stage you in the suitable route.

If you have younger children, eliminate the chitchat function in Zombie Catchers Mod Apk they play. A much younger level-schooler should not possess any entry to this include. Don't purchase any gaming applications that don't provide the replacement for disable conversation. Before you purchase it, look for the world wide web or make contact with a earnings clerk to make certain.

It really is not easy to buy a fine control console. Consider types of gaming applications you would like to have fun playing and which includes you may need. The Online Market Place is known as a goldmine for beneficial details. Testimonials of consoles can give you an improved idea of what are the finest. Before you purchase, learn about the distinctive consoles.

Don't forget to drink water when you're getting a marathon gaming appointment. Though games are an exceptional technique of treating strain, many people can be addicted and tend to forget to ingest. Just like any other action, breakdown to bring in a sufficient amount of mineral water can placed your quality of life vulnerable, so you need to consume a sufficient amount of water within your Hack Zombie Catchers classes.

Take a look at arcades when you go away from home. Many men and women enjoy Zombie Catchers Mod Apk at home into their living spaces! Viewing an arcade on occasion enables a lot more online and sociable habitat.

Check out public sale sites to order new Zombie Catchers Cheats. Market sites really are a nice method of getting great bargains on Zombie Catchers Hile. Before selecting look at the net for optimum agreement. Bid, secure and appreciate!

Don't let playing Zombie Catchers Hack become the perfect only leisure time action. 

Trying to play a lot could be unhealthy for you. Ensure that you be involved in other styles of things to do, very. Slight Hack Zombie Catchers utilization is ok. Addiction is simply not.

Don't cheat on competence games. You must not do this considering the fact that it will not transform your game playing knowledge at all. Cheats ought to be employed on showing off titles to enable you to take pleasure in the match significantly more.

Be sure you're furnished with the perfect gadgets and gear to learn a given activity. You most likely are amazed should you just presume you just require a controller. Search online or look at the adventure field to figure out what devices you want. This lets you prepare yourself so you everything you need for any gameplay.

If you love Hack Zombie Catchers then you probably have your faves. You must start looking beyond your compartment from time to time. Every once in a although, consider Zombie Catchers Hack that you really normally would not play. You might actually locate a amazing gambling experience with a genre you'd beforehand penned off of.

As was described earlier on in this short article, Zombie Catchers Hile are below to stay in. Game playing can be a excitement exercise for the whole friends and family, with Zombie Catchers Hile intended for each an associate your family. If strive to be a game player, read on!

[mangohealth]

Building Self-Esteem When Your Body Betrays You

Your body is you, and you are your body. But what happens to your sense of self-worth when a health condition affects your ability to function? Author and advocate Lene Andersen looks at the building blocks of self-esteem.

“A sense of self-worth is based in your image of yourself. When that image becomes fractured and broken, so does your self-esteem.”

Your body is supposed to work with you. More than that, it should do what you want, smoothly and efficiently following the electrical impulses from your brain. It is the one thing in which you can have total confidence; the one thing that will never abandon you.

Except when you have a chronic illness or other medical condition. All of a sudden, your body is working against you, refusing to do what you want, and moving in a way that is anything but effortless. It is devastating. Instead of being able to rely on yourself, part of who you are abandons ship just when you need it most. It can feel like the ultimate betrayal.

A sense of self-worth is based in your image of yourself. When that image becomes fractured and broken, so does your self-esteem. When your illness affects your ability to do your job, be there for your loved ones, or heartbreakingly, even lift your toddler, how can you have any worth? And so, your self-esteem spirals down, making it that much harder to cope.

Still, you do have worth. Although it might be hard to see and feel at first, it hasn’t been diminished by your chronic illness at all. Finding your self-esteem can take a while, but asking some deep questions can help you find the way back to confidence.

“You do have worth still. Although it might be hard to see and feel at first, it hasn’t been diminished by your chronic illness at all.”

Affirm your value Do you remember Stuart Smalley from Saturday Night Live? He’d face the mirror and tell his reflection, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.” It was done for laughs, but it’s not as ridiculous as the skits made it seem. The loss of ability that can come with a chronic illness can make anyone feel inadequate, eroding self-confidence.

The start of realizing your worth is simply with believing that you indeed have value — even with a medical condition. In other words, don’t let your health become a hang-up. Even though it might feel awkward, literally facing your own image and reaffirming that you believe in yourself can be the foundation of self-esteem.

 Separate your ability from your identity Living with a chronic or serious health problem can impact your ability to do the tasks of daily life, your job, your hobbies, and the occasional adventure. So much of our self-esteem is tied up in what we do. But the inability to hike a forest trail, skydive out of an airplane, or carry your children doesn’t define you.

Being in nature doesn’t depend on the ability to negotiate rugged terrain, and there are many other ways of getting an adrenaline rush. And to your children, the ability to sit in your lap and snuggle is what matters, not how they got there.

“Rebuilding your perspective can help you realize that you are tremendously valuable, just the way you are. And therein lies freedom, self-esteem, and a great deal of joy.”

Define who you are When asked to describe myself, I’d start like this: I am a woman, writer, daughter, partner, friend, advocate, person with a disability...and so on. Your list might include different roles, but in principle, it would likely be similar. This would be wrong, however. Lists like these describe what we are, not who we are.

Our true selves are complex, extending beyond our gender, profession, and levels of ability. Our identities are far more than our physical presence, who we are to other people, or what we’ve done in the past — they also include our hearts, souls, and dreams for the future.

In an iconic song, the musical group The Who asked “Who Are You?” Think about how you would answer that question describing truly who you are, not what you are. Taking a step back to challenge your idea of what gives you worth is an eye-opening experience. Rebuilding your perspective can help you realize that you are tremendously valuable, just the way you are. And therein lies freedom, self-esteem, and a great deal of joy.

 About the Author Lene Andersen’s new book is Chronic Christmas: Surviving the Holidays with a Chronic Illness. She is also the author of Your Life with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Tools for Managing Treatment, Side Effects and Pain, 7 Facets: A Meditation on Pain, and the award-winning blog The Seated View. Lene is the Community Leader of HealthCentral’s rheumatoid arthritis site.

 If you liked this post, you might also like: - The Ups & Downs of Chronic Illness – And How I Learned To Embrace The “Ups” - How to Practice Self-Care With Chronic Illness - 4 Ways to Recover from Chronic Illness Burnout

 The posts on this blog are for information only. They are neither intended to substitute for a relationship with your doctor or other healthcare provider, nor do they constitute medical or healthcare advice of any kind. Any information in these posts should not be acted upon without consideration of primary source material and professional input from one’s own healthcare providers.

[cesarkfaq379-blog]

The Ultimate Guide to Vehicle Accident Lawyer Dallas

And bear in mind that utilizing a small-claims court can be a practical choice to using an attorney in particular personal injury cases, but it is still a good idea to talk to an attorney initially to see if that is finest course of action for you to take with your particular case.

If you think about asking an injury attorney for legal support, you should not be discouraged by the unexpected mesh of advertisements of various law firms and independent personal injury legal representatives all over. For your info, there is a much easier method to find the best legal counsel for your injury case-- learn the best ways to find an attorney through an https://vimeo.com/390234648 online directory site. By this, you'll have the ability to conserve time, money and effort, and you'll not be searching through databases of reliable, skilled and previously-screened attorneys in your geographical region.

With the legal representative around, you can easily accomplish the kinds needed for lawsuits. You will have an efficient guide while you're still in the claiming process. Aside from the lawyer's services mentioned, you can likewise be encouraged by your legal representative if your specific case is entitled to a claim or not.

With all these services, personal injury lawyers have actually likewise picked their location of specialization. Some of them are more adept with automobile or car accidents. Others are into air travel disasters only. And, so on and so forth. Therefore, you can anticipate that one injury legal representative has truly mastered his craft because he focuses only in one field. This gives you a huge possibility of winning your accident case. One good thing about these legal representatives is that they do not request for legal fees unless your case becomes effective.

A traveler involved in an accident in almost all situations can bring an effective accident payment claims for damages where they have suffered injuries. Guests are normally considered blameless casualties who have suffered as a result of somebody else's carelessness. Nevertheless, failure to comply with the law associating with the wearing of seat belts may affect the level of damages obtained in any award.

This category will include cases not noted above. For instance sports injury cases, where an injury happens on the field of play due to the reckless actions of an opponent, or the failure of an official to apply the guidelines of the game in the way in which they should be applied. We will recommend on any issues or questions you have in regards to advancing an injury compensation claim.

Injury lawyers can help on cases where something wrong was done to you. Cases as vehicle mishaps resulting from another's dui, bodily injury because of a malfunctioning item, poisoning because of the ruined food served by a dining establishment, health issue because of drug containing harmful ingredients or maybe by medical malpractice by a medical professional, trauma because of uncalled for actions and hazards by another person, and a lot more, which jeopardize the security of a specific and detrimentally agitate one's https://vimeo.com/390234534 psychological, physical and mental wellness.

If you have actually been physically hurt or injured due to another person's commission of an act or because of another's negligence, you have the right to submit a lawsuit and need for damages. Also, if you feel your reputation was ruined by the libelous words of another, and if you feel you were maltreated by your employer because of his yelling, then you likewise have recourse in the legal arena.

Now, as soon as you are encouraged that you need an injury attorney, you have to put forth the effort of very first discovering the best person for your case. Here are a few suggestions on selecting the best lawyer for you.

Referrals can be excellent if you understand someone in the legal community. But if not, the best you will leave a referral is a sort of 'he or she isn't inept.' Due to the fact that let's face it, most clients have no concept whether the settlement they received was in truth the very best they might have.

Personal injury cases are caused by physical injury or psychological anguish triggered by actions or carelessness of another party.

Without a certified, experienced personal injury legal representative, their possibilities of receiving reasonable compensation plummet. That's why it's really essential that, if you have actually been a victim of personal injury, you select the best personal injury lawyer to represent you. Here are a couple of things to think about when making your choice.

The extent of your claim usually depends upon the seriousness of your injury. You are entitled to claim for loss of revenues as well as payment for bodily injuries and psychological distress. In many cases, for example asbestos health problems, your household is entitled to claim in your place.

The pain and suffering brought on by numerous accidents can be long-term and not only physical however psychological and mental as well. It can take months or perhaps years to recuperate from the suffering brought on by some injuries.

Speak with numerous legal representatives before working with one to manage your case. The majority of personal injury lawyers offer a complimentary preliminary consultation to discuss your case. This assessment offers you the chance to ask the legal representative concerns such as: what does it cost? experience he or she has; exactly what the fees are; what he or she feels your opportunities of having an effective case are; who will be working on your case (it might be an associate rather than the individual you have the preliminary consultation with); and how long she or he feels it will consider a resolution of your case.

When you begin trying to find injury attorneys in your area, do not arbitrarily choose names from advertisements that stretch the truth. Take advantage of matching services and make sure that your needs are going to be met. When you find the very best possible resource for personal injury legal representatives, you will have a greater opportunity of turning a bad scenario into one that you can deal with. Take simply a little time and attempt using among these services. You'll never ever know, you may not need to go any further to find the most qualified counsel for your legal needs!

Because of today's sophisticated technology, numerous law offices maintain numerous online sites to fulfill the needs of consumers who seek legal help. Frequently, law practice do not charge costs when offering legal suggestions, specifically in California. By seeking advice from a competent attorney, the damages of the personal injury can be determined and described. The lawyer will likewise tell you the pieces of proof that you have to prepare. Processing time these days are quick since lawyers typically deal with insurance coverage and law companies. Lots of individuals cannot understand legal citing and terms but your lawyer can assist you out.

Injury legal representatives are so essential in your accident cases. They have actually been specializing in various services to provide possible customers. These personal injury services consist of dealing with cases of auto or car accidents, air travel catastrophes, plane crashes or accidents, birth injury, brain injury, hazardous and malfunctioning products, dental malpractice, dog bites, medical malpractice, nursing home abuse, items liability, serious injury or disastrous injuries, slip and fall, spine injury, unfair insurance coverage practices, wrongful death, and a lot more.

If you suffer any injury as a result of lifting whilst at work, it may be that this was brought on by your employer's failure to supply appropriate training or correct manual handling equipment. Your employer has a commitment to guarantee that the work place is safe and devoid of hazards. Regrettably lot of times this is in dispute, nevertheless if you decide to file an injury compensation claim then you ought to look for expert guidance.

In a legal battle, you want somebody in your corner who will defend and fight for your rights. You will require the services of accident attorneys in such a fight, and the more experienced and efficient they remain in court, the much easier it is to win your case.

Using this online database and your regional yellow pages as a sort of basic list, it then ends up being vital to narrow this list by looking at the credentials of a specific attorney. Probably the best way to do this is to call your regional legal aid center, which is free. While these people are not in business of offering suggestions, the bar in a specific city for injury normally includes about fifty to one hundred attorneys, so among lawyers word navigates pretty rapidly regarding who is good and who is not.

Personal injury cases are major matters. They often involve severe injury, permanent disability, and even death. Victims depend on the personal injury lawyer to recover monetary damages that are required to cover their medical treatments, change completely lost earnings, and make up for their pain and suffering.

The discomfort and suffering brought on by many accidents can be long lasting and not just physical but emotional and psychological too. It can take months and even years to recuperate from the anguish brought on by some injuries.

Law Firm of S. Craig Glickman

4925 Greenville Ave, Suite 200

Dallas, Texas 75206

(214) 407-2607

https://craigglickmanlawfirm.com

https://goo.gl/maps/DWiuWTLJxNfetvVC6

https://car-accident-lawyer-dallas-craig-glickman.business.site/

[sethzcke764-blog]

5 Qualities the Best People in the Best Accident Lawyer Dallas Industry Tend to Have

Speak to a number of lawyers before employing one to manage your case. Most accident attorneys provide a complimentary preliminary assessment to discuss your case. This assessment provides you the opportunity to ask the legal representative questions such as: what does it cost? experience he or she has; what the charges are; what he or she feels your chances of having an effective case are; who will be working on your case (it might be an associate rather than the individual you have the preliminary assessment with); and the length of time she or he feels it will https://vimeo.com/390234739 consider a resolution of your case.

In addition, you don't just need an accident lawyer who masters accident law. You likewise require someone who totally understands the jurisdiction of your region. Likewise, you must ask yourself this concern before employing a personal injury lawyer-- Are you comfortable with that lawyer and are you confident in his capabilities? If the answer is anything other than a definite "yes," you should keep looking. Your case is too important to entrust to somebody who does not motivate your self-confidence.

Because of today's innovative innovation, lots of law offices keep numerous online sites to satisfy the needs of consumers who look for legal assistance. Frequently, law firms don't charge fees when providing legal advice, particularly in California. By speaking with a competent attorney, the damages of the accident can be determined and described. The attorney will likewise inform you the pieces of evidence that you have to prepare. Processing time these days are quick due to the fact that lawyers usually work with insurance coverage and law agencies. Lots of people can't comprehend legal mentioning and terms but your legal representative can help you out.

With all these services, personal injury lawyers have actually also selected their location of expertise. A few of them are more skilled with auto or automobile accidents. Others are into aviation catastrophes only. And, so on and so forth. For that reason, you can anticipate that a person injury lawyer has actually really mastered his craft since he focuses only in one field. This provides you a big possibility of winning your accident case. One good thing about these legal representatives is that they do not request for legal fees unless your case becomes effective.

A passenger associated with a mishap in almost all scenarios can bring a successful injury payment claims for damages where they have actually suffered injuries. Passengers are usually regarded as blameless casualties who have suffered as a result of someone else's neglect. However, failure to adhere to the law associating with the wearing of seat belts may impact the level of damages gotten in any award.

A pedestrian might have the ability to recuperate payment through an injury payment claim for their injuries if they can show that their injuries were caused completely or to some degree by a third party. If as a pedestrian involved in a mishap you are held partly to blame, you might still be entitled so some level of compensation.

Accident lawyers can assist on cases in which something wrong was done to you. Cases as automobile mishaps resulting from another's driving while intoxicated, physical injury because of a malfunctioning product, poisoning because of the spoiled food served by a dining establishment, health issue because of drug containing hazardous components or maybe by medical malpractice by a physician, trauma because of uncalled for actions and risks by another person, and many more, which endanger the security of a specific and detrimentally agitate one's psychological, physical and mental wellness.

If you have been physically damaged or injured due to another person's commission of an act or because of another's neglect, you can file a claim and demand for damages. Likewise, if you vimeo.com/390234137 feel your credibility was messed up by the defamatory words of another, and if you feel you were maltreated by your employer because of his yelling, then you also have recourse in the legal arena.

The risk in running right out and working with a personal injury attorney immediately after injury is that you will have to pay for their services out of whatever payout you ultimately get. So, it is generally wise to very first consult with the pertinent insurance supplier and only then rely on legal alternatives. While speaking to the insurance company will in many situations fix the concern totally, there may be some circumstances in which the insurer either denies your claim totally or decides to compensate you in a matter that is from your perspective inadequate. In such scenarios, the premium that you pay to a personal injury lawyer will return to you in settlement damages often times over.

Another excellent resource is your city bar association. Your city bar will keep more basic information about who has not been approved by courts for malpractice and normally keeps a short list of suggested attorneys. However once again, take this list with a grain of salt as there are manipulations going on behind the scenes here as well. Frequently a much better tack is simply to have a list of three or 4 attorneys you are considering then call the bar association to hear their thoughts on each one.

Accident cases are serious matters. They typically include grave injury, permanent disability, and even death. Victims depend upon the injury lawyer to recuperate monetary damages that are required to cover their medical treatments, change permanently lost earnings, and compensate for their pain and suffering.

Without a qualified, experienced injury lawyer, their opportunities of receiving fair compensation plunge. That's why it's actually crucial that, if you've been a victim of injury, you select the best personal injury lawyer to represent you. Here are a couple of things to think about when making your selection.

Kinds of Accident. Personal injuries can be almost anything that leads to an injury. Whether this is a vehicle accident triggered by another driver, or whether you slip and fall while shopping or even at work these are all probably triggers for injury claims. http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=Personal Injury Lawyer Dallas TX Tripping over badly laid paving pieces might cause a successful accident claim. Canine bites, asbestos health problems, a crash while on public transportation or any mishap that leads to bodily injury may suggest you are entitled to claim. An injury lawyer will be able to advise you whether you have a case or not.

The pain and suffering triggered by lots of mishaps can be long-term and not only physical but psychological and mental as well. It can take months or perhaps years to recover from the suffering brought on by some injuries.

Law Firm of S. Craig Glickman

4925 Greenville Ave, Suite 200

Dallas, Texas 75206

(214) 407-2607

https://craigglickmanlawfirm.com

https://goo.gl/maps/DWiuWTLJxNfetvVC6

https://car-accident-lawyer-dallas-craig-glickman.business.site/

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Should You Bring Mom Home From Assisted Living During The Pandemic?

Dr. Alison Webb took her 81-year-old father out of assisted living, to live.

Navigating Aging

Navigating Aging focuses on medical issues and advice associated with aging and end-of-life care, helping America’s 45 million seniors and their families navigate the health care system.

To contact Judith Graham with a question or comment, click here.

Join the Navigating Aging Facebook Group.

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Coleen Hubbard took her 85-year-old mother out of independent living, to die.

With the coronavirus moving through facilities that house older adults, families across the country are wondering “Should I bring Mom or Dad home?”

It’s a reasonable question. Most retirement complexes and long-term care facilities are excluding visitors. Older adults are asked to stay in their rooms and are alone for most of the day. Family members might call, but that doesn’t fill the time. Their friends in the facility are also sequestered.

In a matter of weeks, conditions have deteriorated in many of these centers.

At assisted living sites, staff shortages are developing as aides become sick or stay home with children whose schools have closed.

Nursing homes, where seniors go for rehabilitation after a hospital stay or live long term if they’re seriously ill and frail, are being hard hit by the coronavirus. They’re potential petri dishes for infection.

Still, older adults in these settings are being fed and offered other types of assistance. My neighbor’s 80-something parents are at a continuing care community outside Denver. It has started a concierge service for residents who need to order groceries and fill prescriptions. At rehab centers, physical, occupational and speech therapists offer valuable services.

But would be Mom or Dad fare better, even with all due social distancing, in the family home?

Of course, care there would fall squarely on the family’s shoulders, as would the responsibility for buying groceries, cooking, administering medication, doing the laundry and ensuring the environment is free from potential contamination.

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Home health care services could lend a hand. But they may not be easy to get because of growing demand, shortages of personal protective equipment and staffing issues.

Another concern in bringing someone home: Some facilities are telling residents that if they leave, even temporarily, they can’t return. That happened to a family in western New York, according to Roxanne Sorensen, a geriatric care manager with Elder Care Solutions of WNY.

When this family took their elderly parents out of an assisted living facility for a brief “stay-with-us” respite, they were told the parents had been discharged and had to be placed on a waiting list before they could return.

Sorensen has a client in her early 70s who’s in rehabilitation at a nursing home after emergency surgery for a life-threatening infection. The facility is on lockdown and her client is feeling trapped and desperate. She wants to go home, but she’s still weak and needs a lot more therapy.

“I’ve told her, stay here, get stronger and when you go home you won’t end up in the hospital or with disabilities that could put you back in a nursing home for the rest of your life,” Sorensen said.

Those in nursing care who have cognitive impairments may become disoriented or agitated if a family moves them from an environment that feels familiar, said Dr. Thomas Cornwell, executive chairman of the Home Centered Care Institute. Some have behavioral issues that can’t be managed at home.

Families with children need to think carefully about bringing an older parent home, especially if he or she has underlying chronic illnesses such as heart, lung or kidney disease, Cornwell said. “Kids, generally, even in the past few weeks, have been exposed to hundreds of others [at school],” he said. “They tend to be vectors of infection.”

Ultimately, every family must weigh and balance the risks. Can they give an older parent enough attention? Do they have the emotional and physical stamina to take this on? What does the parent want? Will the pangs of displacement and disrupted routines be offset by the pleasures of being around adult children and grandchildren?

Dr. Alison Webb, a retired physician, is a single mom raising a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old. Her father, Bob Webb, 81, has mild dementia and had been hospitalized for depression before she asked him to leave assisted living and move into her Seattle home.

“Initially he resisted. He feared change, and he was concerned that his stuff was going to be left behind and he wouldn’t get it back, ever,” Webb said. Even today, Bob talks about going back home to his apartment.

Webb said a geriatrician on a Facebook group for female physicians convinced her it was safer for her father to leave his assisted living center. “’You’ll do a lot better here with the grandkids. You can play games. There’s a big yard. You can do some gardening,’” Webb said she told her dad.

There’s another benefit. Because she’s a physician, Webb said, she hopes “I’ll notice if he’s not doing well and take care of it right away.”

Coleen Hubbard’s mother, Delores, whom she described as “really resilient and really stubborn,” had loved living in a one-bedroom apartment in a Denver senior housing complex for the past decade. In October, Delores was diagnosed with endometrial cancer and decided not to have medical treatment.

“Mom had a lot of surgeries and hospitalizations in her life,” Hubbard said. “She was done dealing with the medical community.”

Every time Hubbard suggested her mother move in with her, Delores refused: She wanted to die in her own apartment. But then, a few weeks ago, serious pain set in and Delores asked the Denver Hospice to begin giving her morphine.

“That’s when I realized that we may be close to the end,” Hubbard said. “And I felt an incredible urgent panic that I had to get her out of there. Things were already starting to close [because of the coronavirus]. I could not fathom that she might be cut off from me.”

Hubbard prepared a room at home and found a small, tinny metal bell that Delores could ring if she needed help. “We made a lot of jokes about Peter Pan and Tinker Bell,” Hubbard remembered. “When she rang the bell, I’d come in and say, ‘Yes, m’lady, what’s happening?’”

Five days after arriving, Delores passed away. “Grieving right now happens in a space of solitude and silence,” Hubbard wrote in a Facebook post. “Sure, there are texts and phone calls, emails and snail mail, but no embraces, no questionable casseroles delivered by neighbors, no gathering of family and friends to share stories and memories.”

Amid the grief is relief that Delores had what she wanted: a death without medical interventions. “I’m pinching myself that we made that happen,” Hubbard said. “And I’m so glad we brought her home.”

Patricia Scott’s story is unfinished. The 101-year-old was living in a retirement community in Castro Valley, California, before her son, Bart Scott, brought her to his house in Santa Rosa, moving her into a spacious in-law apartment.

Asked how she felt about the change, Patricia Scott said, “I’ve never been particularly thrilled with the idea of homogenized residency with a bunch of old farts, of whom I am one.”

Yet, she longs for her two-bedroom apartment: “It’s just that everything is there. I know where crap is. I miss my regular life.”

Bart Scott has four siblings, and they agreed that it was untenable to leave his mother alone during the coronavirus scare. “She is the matriarch of this family,” he said. “There are a lot of people who put a lot of store in her well-being.”

As for potential health threats, Patricia Scott is characteristically sardonic. “I was born in 1918, in the middle of the influenza epidemic,” she said, “and I think there’s a delicious irony that I could very well exit in this one.”

Should You Bring Mom Home From Assisted Living During The Pandemic? published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

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Should You Bring Mom Home From Assisted Living During The Pandemic?

Dr. Alison Webb took her 81-year-old father out of assisted living, to live.

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Coleen Hubbard took her 85-year-old mother out of independent living, to die.

With the coronavirus moving through facilities that house older adults, families across the country are wondering “Should I bring Mom or Dad home?”

It’s a reasonable question. Most retirement complexes and long-term care facilities are excluding visitors. Older adults are asked to stay in their rooms and are alone for most of the day. Family members might call, but that doesn’t fill the time. Their friends in the facility are also sequestered.

In a matter of weeks, conditions have deteriorated in many of these centers.

At assisted living sites, staff shortages are developing as aides become sick or stay home with children whose schools have closed.

Nursing homes, where seniors go for rehabilitation after a hospital stay or live long term if they’re seriously ill and frail, are being hard hit by the coronavirus. They’re potential petri dishes for infection.

Still, older adults in these settings are being fed and offered other types of assistance. My neighbor’s 80-something parents are at a continuing care community outside Denver. It has started a concierge service for residents who need to order groceries and fill prescriptions. At rehab centers, physical, occupational and speech therapists offer valuable services.

But would be Mom or Dad fare better, even with all due social distancing, in the family home?

Of course, care there would fall squarely on the family’s shoulders, as would the responsibility for buying groceries, cooking, administering medication, doing the laundry and ensuring the environment is free from potential contamination.

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Home health care services could lend a hand. But they may not be easy to get because of growing demand, shortages of personal protective equipment and staffing issues.

Another concern in bringing someone home: Some facilities are telling residents that if they leave, even temporarily, they can’t return. That happened to a family in western New York, according to Roxanne Sorensen, a geriatric care manager with Elder Care Solutions of WNY.

When this family took their elderly parents out of an assisted living facility for a brief “stay-with-us” respite, they were told the parents had been discharged and had to be placed on a waiting list before they could return.

Sorensen has a client in her early 70s who’s in rehabilitation at a nursing home after emergency surgery for a life-threatening infection. The facility is on lockdown and her client is feeling trapped and desperate. She wants to go home, but she’s still weak and needs a lot more therapy.

“I’ve told her, stay here, get stronger and when you go home you won’t end up in the hospital or with disabilities that could put you back in a nursing home for the rest of your life,” Sorensen said.

Those in nursing care who have cognitive impairments may become disoriented or agitated if a family moves them from an environment that feels familiar, said Dr. Thomas Cornwell, executive chairman of the Home Centered Care Institute. Some have behavioral issues that can’t be managed at home.

Families with children need to think carefully about bringing an older parent home, especially if he or she has underlying chronic illnesses such as heart, lung or kidney disease, Cornwell said. “Kids, generally, even in the past few weeks, have been exposed to hundreds of others [at school],” he said. “They tend to be vectors of infection.”

Ultimately, every family must weigh and balance the risks. Can they give an older parent enough attention? Do they have the emotional and physical stamina to take this on? What does the parent want? Will the pangs of displacement and disrupted routines be offset by the pleasures of being around adult children and grandchildren?

Dr. Alison Webb, a retired physician, is a single mom raising a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old. Her father, Bob Webb, 81, has mild dementia and had been hospitalized for depression before she asked him to leave assisted living and move into her Seattle home.

“Initially he resisted. He feared change, and he was concerned that his stuff was going to be left behind and he wouldn’t get it back, ever,” Webb said. Even today, Bob talks about going back home to his apartment.

Webb said a geriatrician on a Facebook group for female physicians convinced her it was safer for her father to leave his assisted living center. “’You’ll do a lot better here with the grandkids. You can play games. There’s a big yard. You can do some gardening,’” Webb said she told her dad.

There’s another benefit. Because she’s a physician, Webb said, she hopes “I’ll notice if he’s not doing well and take care of it right away.”

Coleen Hubbard’s mother, Delores, whom she described as “really resilient and really stubborn,” had loved living in a one-bedroom apartment in a Denver senior housing complex for the past decade. In October, Delores was diagnosed with endometrial cancer and decided not to have medical treatment.

“Mom had a lot of surgeries and hospitalizations in her life,” Hubbard said. “She was done dealing with the medical community.”

Every time Hubbard suggested her mother move in with her, Delores refused: She wanted to die in her own apartment. But then, a few weeks ago, serious pain set in and Delores asked the Denver Hospice to begin giving her morphine.

“That’s when I realized that we may be close to the end,” Hubbard said. “And I felt an incredible urgent panic that I had to get her out of there. Things were already starting to close [because of the coronavirus]. I could not fathom that she might be cut off from me.”

Hubbard prepared a room at home and found a small, tinny metal bell that Delores could ring if she needed help. “We made a lot of jokes about Peter Pan and Tinker Bell,” Hubbard remembered. “When she rang the bell, I’d come in and say, ‘Yes, m’lady, what’s happening?’”

Five days after arriving, Delores passed away. “Grieving right now happens in a space of solitude and silence,” Hubbard wrote in a Facebook post. “Sure, there are texts and phone calls, emails and snail mail, but no embraces, no questionable casseroles delivered by neighbors, no gathering of family and friends to share stories and memories.”

Amid the grief is relief that Delores had what she wanted: a death without medical interventions. “I’m pinching myself that we made that happen,” Hubbard said. “And I’m so glad we brought her home.”

Patricia Scott’s story is unfinished. The 101-year-old was living in a retirement community in Castro Valley, California, before her son, Bart Scott, brought her to his house in Santa Rosa, moving her into a spacious in-law apartment.

Asked how she felt about the change, Patricia Scott said, “I’ve never been particularly thrilled with the idea of homogenized residency with a bunch of old farts, of whom I am one.”

Yet, she longs for her two-bedroom apartment: “It’s just that everything is there. I know where crap is. I miss my regular life.”

Bart Scott has four siblings, and they agreed that it was untenable to leave his mother alone during the coronavirus scare. “She is the matriarch of this family,” he said. “There are a lot of people who put a lot of store in her well-being.”

As for potential health threats, Patricia Scott is characteristically sardonic. “I was born in 1918, in the middle of the influenza epidemic,” she said, “and I think there’s a delicious irony that I could very well exit in this one.”

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/should-you-bring-mom-home-from-assisted-living-during-the-pandemic/