#think of this post as a suggestion from someone who is currently dying of cancer

[elmatadorisfemme]

do you have any supa strikas ocs?😜

no because then i wouldn't be special anymore and i would be just a regular supablr user. like the rest of you

[flyonthewallmedstudent]

Re-watching House as a Physician. Pilot Episode. Neurology in the young.

I’d actually recommend this as an exercise.  Re-watching this as a means to motivate studying. It’s truly terrible watching it. So much so, that you want to do it properly or throw shit at the TV. 

If I had students and we couldn’t physically see patients I’d probably tell them what episode to watch and we’d go through the cases together. Go through all the things the team does wrong. Then discuss the things you don’t know yourself.

Because that is actually how you learn best.  Recovering from your mistakes. Identifying gaps in knowledge. 

Unfortunately, all my current students are final years and they do have to see real patients. 

Opening episode: 29 year old female, no past medical history has expressive dysphasia then a first seizure.  How do we know it’s expressive dysphasia?

IN the episode, the patient notices she’s having trouble getting words out, and is able to write. Then has a seizure. Wilson actually has a good introductory statement here. House finds the case boring, this really isn’t boring. If it doesn’t excite a physician it should certainly terrify them. A la house of god, rule number X = Treat the dying young. With urgency. The majority of patients I see in IM are in their 70s-90s, have predictable issues like metabolic syndrome, heart failure, arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation, infections like community acquired pneumonia and dementia. These are my bread and butter. 

More often than not, my primary role is to ensure a dignified end of life care. Many of them come in already at death’s door or will be imminently there. To continue to push them through medical treatment when they no longer have resilience to go through them, is to prolong suffering. 

You can’t predict how someone young will respond even to the most aggressive of treatment. You give them every chance you have. OFten if the young are sick, it’s really bad. With the elderly, a common cold can make them really sick as their body is in decline. 

Young patients with a single organ system issue will usually go to a subspecialty.  Actually any medical subspecialty or IM in general is considered “diagnostic medicine”. It’s just different flavours of it. 

1st seizures: - it’s rare to have a second.  - usually the cause of underlying seizures is infection - follow-up is clinic with neurology. It’s rare to require further.  - we could go into differential seizures, but that’s a whole other post in itself

(Epilepsy only occurs if you have a number of them and this is rare)

In the case of House, they jump straight to cancer like webmd.

Before they do much, she jumps straight to radiation therapy. This is completely unrealistic. This sort of thing requires multidisciplinary teams to pour over all her results and discuss the best way forward. Chemo and radiotherapy are notorious in the general public for having crazy toxicities. For obvious reasons.

It’s weird re-watching these, where medicine is no longer a foreign language. Actually, it’s watching someone for whom English is a new language and they haven’t really gotten it yet. The tense and grammar are all wrong. 

I watched the Queens Gambit - holy fuck is chess a foreign world and language. I know the basics, but none of the strategies. Sicillian sounds like a great name for a tasty pizza. Or something else. 

Anyways, it takes a whole lot of time before they get to differentials. 

Honestly, you would be getting to these the minute you hear the presenting complaint. Then considering how to rule them in and out. For students, always have the surgical sieve in mind. 

Differential diagnosis of expressive dysphasia in a young woman are then addressed in the episode. here’s what they consider: - Aneurysm and stroke (haemorrhagic stroke in this case if we’re talking aneurysm), incidentally most common cause of berry aneurysms is high blood pressure. this is a decent consideration. but you would have seen it on imaging from the start. 

- CJD = very much mad zebra. I wouldn’t even suggest this. You would if it was rapid onset dementia or behvarioural changes and they came from high risk areas (eg ate burgers in the UK in the 1980s and 90s). But rapid meaning weeks to months. Not sudden onset within minutes. It’s more stroke.  - Cncephalopathy: requires an LP to go over this, and she doesn’t present with a fever either. regardless, important to consider. would always consider an LP in addition to imaging.  - Wernicke’s: only consider if they have a nutritional disorder like severe, chronic anorexia (which she doesn’t have) or heavy alcohol use. This is caused by thiamine/VitB1 deficiency. A thiamine level test takes days or weeks. We would never wait for a thiamine test to come back, you’d treat IV thiamine straightaway. I mean it’s vitamin B. This is a terrible differential to consider so near the top. She also doesn’t really have the other symptoms.

Then there’s the more obvious differentials they didn’t bother to consider: The greatest mimic for a stroke particularly in young women is migraine. You can have similar neurology, but it’s often associated with a headache.  If we wanted to chase zebras in the young, you could consider a PFO (holes in the heart that are congenitally there) and thromboemboli causing stroke. (In other words, you develop a clot, normally the lungs will pick up the clot like a filter before it gets to the brain. But the clot can bypass the lungs via holes in the heart and give you a stroke). This is always the consideration in cryptogenic strokes (in which you have a young patient without any reason for having an atheroma causing stroke). Risk factors for thromboemboli can include the oral contraceptive pill (estrogen can be thrombogenic) and then long periods of immobility, think long haul flights or trauma to the long bones or surgery. IN rare cases, those who had particular types of heart surgery as an infant, like a Fontan’s. But this is very niche mind you. And they’re often already on preventative therapy. Infection is a key thing to consider, where there are risk factors. she’s not immunosuppressed or done any exotic travel or eaten raw foods she shouldn’t have eaten (raw pork, bad sushi etc.). It’s a shame they didn’t mention it early. THere’s a few infections that go to the brain but you’d often have these in mind with the risk factors as stated before. THe imaging is often a giveaway

Learning point here - always eat cooked pork! Finally, cancer. But it’d be obvious on imaging if you’d already developed seizures or focal neurology, the lesions would already be large enough to pick up. the sad part to many brain tumours is that they’re already very large by the time of presentation. Beau Biden for instance, presented with acute confusion before his diagnosis, preceding that he had weakness and altered sensation (the lesion was likely too small at the time to be picked up on imaging and was diagnosed as a stroke). 

I would rarely be referred brain tumours, the emergency department will have scanned the brain and seen something that would prompt referral to the neurosurgeons. When you’re young and have a lesion/tumour, any team will try everything, including majority surgery, to salvage what life is left. it is very tragic. 

Anyway, stopping here. Already too much stuff to dissect and unpack from just the first episode alone. Note that I’m in IM, no doubt a neurologist or neurosurgeon will have different opinions on this episode. Ha. 

[duskyskz]

- Erasure - 1

Hwang Hyunjin x Female Reader

With washed out, dyed pastel hair, sea salt and acrylic clinging to his jeans, Hwang Hyunjin expected to find himself many places that night. A jail holding cell. Under the abandoned train station bridge. Maybe even his own bedroom.

Your living room wasn't on the list.

Warnings - Some angst in later chapters, suggestive/smut, minor character death mentions, Hyunjin is an eboy and a little angsty, Changbin is doing his best as a big brother, slow burn (?)

A/N - Finally! Sorry for the delays, my head just hasn’t been with me this week;; I hope you enjoy this series as much as I am excited to write it. 

***

The steady buzzing of your speakers fills the living room as you watched Changbin scroll through the Netflix home page. Both of you settle deep into the sofa, balancing a bowl of popcorn and chocolate between your knees. 

“Endgame? Homecoming, Nightmare on Elm Street?” Binnie flicks through the suggestions, and you shake your head in distaste. “I'm not watching that octopus documentary again!”

“You only hated it because you cried at the end.”

“She died! He had to look after her little babies! Your heart is too cold, too far gone for that level of compassion.” The last part of your brother's grumbles are cut off when you throw a burnt kernel at his forehead, barely missing his ear. 

There’s nobody else home. Nobody else ever comes home, either. It's been just you and Changbin for a while, and it's not all that terrible. He’s a few years older than you, having graduated last summer and now undertaking an apprenticeship at the village police station. It doesn't pay a stellar amount, but Changbin reassures you once he passes the trainee exams he’ll treat you to a new pair of winter boots and you can finally quit the ice cream parlour to focus on college. You tell him that even if he wins the lottery tomorrow, you'll work your own job. For all the support your elder brother gives you, you like having your own thing. It makes you feel a little more involved, a little more even than jsit washing the dishes and doing his laundry on days he’s too tired to move. 

The Thursday evening is reserved for you both, to catch up on the hours together you miss during the week when Changbin doesn't get back till you're fast asleep and you don't have the chance to say good morning. 

He’s been doing that a lot more recently. 

Sighing into his coffee, shaking his head at nobody in particular. It's easy to notice the signs of stress and overwork in his face, sunken and tired even on the weekends when he finishes early. 

“Do you wanna finish Teen Wolf?” The softness in his voice when he addresses you is the same, though. “We have three episodes left of this season, if you wanna binge.”

“Sure.” You want to ask him about the circles under his eyes. What’s got him coming home later and later because nothing ever happens in this town. “I'm still waiting on Derek’s redemption arc.”

You're twenty minutes into the episode when a vibration from your coffee table catches your attention. You glance at Changbin, but he ignores his ringtone, flipping it to silent.

It rings again, no music, but harsh vibrations drumming against the polished wood. 

And again.

Knowing he’s not picking up to make a point of it, you pause the show, nodding at the mobile he’s avoiding glancing at. “Go on. Pick up, it might be an emergency.”

“If it's an emergency they don't need an intern there.” Despite his words, Changbin shifts his position and you know he’s growing hesitant. 

“If it's an emergency all the more reason for you to be there and learn.” You state with more force behind your tone. “Why have your grades been dropping? You're coming home so late but your exams keep getting delayed -”

“My grades are fine!” Changbin never snaps at you, but the frustration in his voice is evident. “I'm fine. There's just - Just one case we're working on and I'm nearly there, I just need time.”

You shut your mouth, letting him speak.

“There’s this kid who keeps tagging the beach houses on Dawning Lane, and that shit  was expensive to put up last year. Some stupid, bored child that thinks a few cans of spraypaint and lung cancer are a good excuse for your adolescence. He’s not even that good… Just scribbles.”

His lips pout in a frustrated whine at the last phrase, and you know he’s more frustrated at the situation than he is at you or himself.

A beat of silence, interrupted by another ringtone - you almost reach for it yourself to check the caller ID and force him to pick up, before Changbin’s arm shoots out past you to snatch the device, slinking out the door and into the hallway. 

You aren't surprised when a few moments later, your brother’s head pokes nervously out the door frame - He's already got his coat on, waving his phone at you as an awkward goodbye. 

“I’ll see you in the morning, y/n.”

“Yeah, see ya.” You salute back, smiling to ease the tension in his shoulders, and it works a minimum. You won’t see him till the late evening at best.

The door clicks shut as soon as he turns around, leaving you surrounded by popcorn and empty space. You really aren't surprised - but it'd be pointless to deny you weren't hurt by another night alone with Teen Wolf playing idly through your TV speakers. Cold popcorn only did so much to soothe your heart, and the distance wedging itself recently between your sibling bond was hard to brush over, between missed calls and texts too often left unanswered. 

You just really miss your big brother.

 You commit yourself to Stiles Stilinsky instead, sighing into the blanket around your shoulders. Autumn rolls in quick by the seaside, making your calves prickle with goosebumps. It's nearing 11pm, you realise, picking up the -

Thump!

Your fingers freeze, hovering over the TV remote. Changbin wouldn’t be back yet, he never comes home the same night he leaves. 

“Bin?” You try it anyway, calling tentatively into the hallway. It’s still entirely black, void of disruption.

Clang!

That definitely came from your kitchen.

Armed with a half empty popcorn bowl and nerves of steel, you tiptoe into the other room. There’s a lump of something or someone crouched behind the dining table, and your grip around the glass dish tightens marginally despite the quivering of your knees, fumbling for the lightswitch without taking your eyes off the rising dark mass as it straightens its back. 

“S-Stay down! I have corn and I know how to use it!” You don’t have a fully formed plan yet, but you’re sure the sharp kernels will be of some importance. Fluorescent white light floods the kitchen, momentarily blinding both you and the intruder who now stands at full height. A steady 12 inches above you. 

“Ouch! Calm down, I’m not going to rob you!” He says, sounding almost exasperated at your defense of your own property. He still has his hands raised in defense, keeping the table between himself and you, and you’re grateful he hasn’t tried to knock your legs out from under you, yet. “I’m not here to steal your stuff.”

“What are you here for, then?” You lower the popcorn bowl, but don’t let it fall out of your grasp. He doesn’t seem dangerous - He doesn’t seem like he could manage clambering through the window you always leave ajar either, but here he clearly is. There’s something sticky and pink in his blonde hair, stains following down his shoulder blades all the way down the cuffs of his jeans. If anything, he looks...a little lost.

“It’s the address on the post-it note.” Your confusion must have been plainly obvious, because the boy elaborates, pulling a crumpled neon-green paper from his jacket. “The post-it note that man gave me. That’s what Changbin gave me.”

Perhaps you lack self preservation instincts, but there’s an uncertain vibration in his voice that makes you give up your weapon and attitude. 

“You know my brother?” 

“He told me if I really need to go somewhere, I can come here.” You watch slim fingers tug at the sleeves of his jacket as he measures with a weight akin to a glare. “He didn’t tell me it was his house, or that somebody else was living here.” 

Bold of him to accuse you of ruining his night plans. 

It really did only click in your head when you looked closer at his tangled hair, dried paint clumping it together at the ends of bleached blonde strands. The  artistic menace haunting your sea-side town was standing right on your tiled kitchen floor, and he looked downright miserable. 

And Changbin had invited him. 

Biting down the discomfort at realising how little Changbin had been telling you recently,  you set the popcorn down on the table, you take in the threat currently three feet before you. A tall, lanky boy, with odd shoelaces and a sharpie sticking out of his trouser pocket. His hair hasn’t been cut in a while, and probably brushed either - it’d be generous to say he ran more than a stressed hand through it anytime recently. Though chapped, his full lips and wide eyes made him look far too innocent for his own good, and you blamed your soft heart for finding the boy kinda cute. 

He did have a leaf stuck above his ear, though. 

You almost reached up to remove it.

“Do you wanna watch Teen Wolf?”  You break the quiet that settled, already shuffling your feet out into the living room. You sincerely hoped he’d follow. You weren’t sure what you could do apart from leaving him standing on cold tile, and he already looked freezing from the night chill. 

Luckily for you, with a hesitant step, your impromptu companion takes after you to the couch where your Netflix and remove still await instruction. Changbin might grumble at you tomorrow at finishing the season without him, but you needed something to lure the boy into comfort. 

“I’m y/n, by the way.” You mention. The boy sits stiffly, clasping his hands in his lap with parted lips, avoiding the decorative pillows. 

“Hyunjin.” Now that he’s actually inside your house, Hyunjin’s confidence seems to have evaporated. The thrill of the break-in, if you can even call is that, has worn off, giving way to the nerves. He’s suddenly too conscious of the paint on his clothes, of sandy shoes still on his feet, of the smudges still on his cheeks. Should he take his jacket off? Or wipe his shoes? 

You press resume, watching him relax after a few minutes as his brain finally has something else to focus on to let his worries ease. Hyunjin doesn't seem to mind you already being halfway through the episode, and you let yourself admit it’s nice having someone around this late at night. 

“How do you know Changbin?” You ask while the topic is still fresh.

“I don’t.” Hyunjin bumps his knees together, fiddling with a loose string on his jeans as he shrugs. “I don’t really know him, he just...saw me around a few times, and I guess he figured I could use a place to crash. So he gave me your address.”

“You’re the mystery kid painting the beach houses, right? On Dawning Lane.” 

At the accusation, Hyunjin’s lips part, flipping to face you with wide, blinking eyes., knowing he’s in no place to try and deny it. You blink back, observing his reactions, in case he suddenly changes his mind about staying. “Are you gonna turn me in?...” 

“No.” You shake your head after a moment of thought, and he visibly untenses. “For whatever reason Changbin didn’t, so I won’t either. If he trusts you then I do too.” 

You’ll never know if it was the murmurs of the TV, or if Hyunjin did whisper a thank you, and you won’t ask. There’s a lot of things you do want to ask, but a tug in your heart tells you now is not the time. Hyunjin looks exhausted, eyes drooping with every slow blink as he does his best to focus on the screen, hands previously tugging at his jeans now still and flat on his lap, slouched forward as if any moment he’ll drift off sitting on your pillows. Flurries of fluorescent light flicker on his cheeks, over barely scrubbed paint smudges and faint cuts from running too fast, you guess. In the delicate, dimmed light of your floor lamp, it’s hard to imagine Hyunjin as a bad kid. Prickly, maybe. On edge is a better word for it, tension clinging to his shoulders like stubborn dust bunnies. Curse your naive little heart, you tell yourself, building up your courage to speak.

“Hyunjin?” He hums in response, straightening his back. “Do you want to sleep here tonight?”

All you’ve been taught in life sent alarm bells through your skull when you asked a complete stranger (who just two hours ago, broke in through your kitchen window) to sleep in your living room overnight, but Hyunjin didn’t feel  like a stranger. Changbin trusted him enough to lead him right to your house, so that must count for something, right? And no matter how much you tried to keep your guard up around the boy, watching him struggle to stay upright instead of letting his tall, lanky body fall backward and rest comfortably only made you worry a little about him, not the other way around. 

Well, he did say he’s not going to rob you. 

“You can sleep on the couch if you want, I’ll bring you some blankets.” You prompt him again when he doesn’t respond. “Changbin won’t be back for a while still.” 

“Are you sure you’re okay with that?” There’s a lilt of doubt in his voice, but he sincerely hopes you’re serious. This couch is warmer than anything he’s slept on in months and he really doesn’t want to crawl outside again with the rain pattering against your roof. 

“Sure, you haven’t tried to stab me yet.” You shrug, getting up to fetch a duvet and looking him over.

“Ah, you probably want to wash your hair from all...that,” Hyunjin’s hand flies to his hair, patting out the tangles as if it’s the first time he’s noticed them. “You can use the bathroom upstairs, there’s towels by the shower already.”

He nods, following your directions with a ‘thank you’. Once his footsteps disappear up the landing, you set about pulling out the couch into a flatbed, rearranging the pillows at its base. Lugging the duvet down from Changbin’s room had been a feat, but you’re determined to make the space welcoming. Satisfied with the cushioned bundle you created, you run back upstairs. 

You invade your brother’s room for the second time that day, tugging open his drawers in search for something acceptably pijama-like. 

“Hyunjin?” You knock tentatively on the bathroom door as the shower head turns off and the shuffling ceases. “I’m leaving some clothes for you to change into outside, okay? Come downstairs when you’re ready.”

You scroll through your timeline as you wait, catching up on the last few hours’ events from your friends until a shuffling to your left prompts you to raise your head. 

Your brother’s sweats hang a little loosely around Hyunjin’s hips, ending just above his ankles, bare feet sliding over the wooden floor of your living room, sinking into the rug as he steps closer to where you sit. His own clothing cradled in his arms close to his chest, you can’t stop your thoughts drifting momentarily to the damp mess of sunshine coloured hair. With his jacket on earlier, it was hard to make out his build under layers of fabric, but now it’s proving a challenge to not focus on the lines of his arms or the curves of his large hands gripping his clothes. Luckily for your dignity, your nerves of steel allow you to drag your gaze away from the collarbones peeking out from under thin white cotton higher to meet his eyes instead and find your voice again.

“I brought down some pillows for you, these are a bit too hard to sleep on.” You note, pointing to the decorative cushions you moved onto the lounge chair. “My room is right opposite the bathroom if you need anything, I’m a light sleeper.” 

“M’okay.” Hyunjin towers above you, yet you’ve never seen a boy so dainty. There really is no other way to describe the delicate line of his nose bridge or the rosy tint of his lips when his tongue pokes out to lick them as he mulls over your words, settling down on the makeshift bed. 

The proximity now feels different than the air between you when Teen Wolf still blared through your speakers, warm quiet heavy on your tongue with dim golden glow tumbling over his cheekbones that’s too much for your heart to take unprepared.

“Goodnight then!” You bounce up from the couch waving Hyunjin a quick goodbye, but a soft hand wrapping around your wrist pauses you. 

“Wait,” Hyunjin brushes his thumb over your palm softly, and you hope he doesn't notice the goosebumps on your skin at the contact. “Thanks for not kicking me out...or calling the police. Y’know, as most people would for a break in.” 

The smile he flashes you is almost teasing, but you can tell he means the words sincerely. You lay your other hand on top of his, patting in what you hope is a reassuring motion.

“Sure, Jinnie. It’s okay.”

[bandbacktogether]

Coping With Cancer

New Post has been published on https://www.bandbacktogether.com/resources/health-resources/cancer-resources/coping-with-cancer-resources/

Coping With Cancer

When you find out that a friend or loved one has been diagnosed with cancer, it’s hard to know how best to provide help and support. People who have cancer have different treatment plans, different types of cancer, and differing responses to treatment. That means that there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to supporting a friend or loved one with cancer.

You may have just learned that you have cancer. Or you may be in treatment, finishing treatment, or have a friend or family member with cancer. Having cancer changes your life and the lives of those around you. The symptoms and side effects of the disease and its treatment may cause certain physical changes, but they can also affect the way you feel and how you live.

Research shows, though, that the more help and support a person with cancer has during their diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, the more well-adjusted they feel. So, your friendship really matters.

What Might I Feel After My Diagnosis?

We all know that cancer affects your physical health, but it can also bring up a wide range of feelings you’re not used to dealing with. A cancer diagnosis can also make existing feelings seem more intense. They may change daily, hourly, or even minute to minute. This is true whether you’re currently in treatment, done with treatment, or a friend or family member. These feelings are all normal.

Often the values you grew up with affect how you think about and cope with cancer. For example some people:

Feel they have to be strong and protect their friends and families

Seek support and turn to loved ones or other cancer survivors

Ask for help from counselors or other professionals

Turn to their faith to help them cope

Whatever you decide, it’s important to do what’s right for you and not to compare yourself with others. Your friends and family members may share some of the same feelings. If you feel comfortable, share this information with them.

Anger

It’s very normal to ask, “Why me?” and be angry at the cancer diagnosis. You may also feel anger or resentment towards your health care providers, your healthy friends and your loved ones.  And if you’re religious, you may even feel angry with God.

Anger often stems first from feelings that are hard to show, such as:

fear

panic

frustration

anxiety

helplessness

If you feel angry, you don’t have to pretend that everything is okay. It’s not healthy to keep it inside you. Talk with your family and friends about your anger. Or, ask your doctor to refer you to a counselor. And know that anger can be helpful in that it may motivate you to take action.

Denial

When you were first diagnosed, you may have had trouble believing or accepting the fact that you have cancer. This is called denial. It can be helpful because it can give you time to adjust to your diagnosis. It can also give you time to feel hopeful and better about the future.

Sometimes, denial is a serious problem as it make keep you from getting the treatment you need.

The good news is that most people work through denial. Usually by the time treatment begins, most people accept the fact that they have cancer and move forward. This is true for those with cancer as well as the people they love and care about.

Depression

Depression can be treated. Below are common signs of depression. If you have any of the following signs for more than 2 weeks, talk to your doctor about treatment. Be aware that some of these symptoms could be due to physical problems, so it’s important to talk about them with your doctor.Emotional signs:

Feelings of sadness that don’t go away

Feeling emotionally numb

Feeling nervous or shaky

Having a sense of guilt or feeling unworthy

Feeling helpless or hopeless, as if life has no meaning

Feeling short-tempered, moody

Having a hard time concentrating, feeling scatterbrained

Crying for long periods of time or many times each day

Focusing on worries and problems

No interest in the hobbies and activities you used to enjoy

Finding it hard to enjoy everyday things, such as food or being with family and friends

Thinking about hurting yourself

Thoughts about killing yourself

Body changes:

Unintended weight gain or loss not due to illness or treatment

Sleep problems, such as not being able to sleep, having nightmares, or sleeping too much

Racing heart, dry mouth, increased perspiration, upset stomach, diarrhea

Changes in energy level

Fatigue that doesn’t go away

Headaches, other aches and pains

You don’t and can’t fix depression on your own. Depression is a very normal part of any life-changing diagnosis. If you’ve been feeling blue for longer than 2 weeks, call your doctor and tell him or her about it. They can help.

Fear and Worry

It’s scary to hear that you have cancer. You may be afraid or worried about any number of things, including:

Dying before loved ones

Feeling that your life is unfinished

Pain

Feeling sick and ill before and after treatments

Looking different than you once did

Providing for and taking care of your loved ones

Cost of treatment

Taking care of your family

Keeping your job

Dying

Some cancer fears are based on stories, rumors, or mis-information. To cope with fears and worries, learn as much as you can about your cancer, treatments, support, and all the medications you may take Be an active part of your care team and treatment plan. Ask questions no matter how dumb you feel. It’s been shown through a few studies that people who are more well-informed about their cancer and its reatment are more likely to follow their treatment plans and recover more quickly than those who are not.

Guilt

It may seem odd to you, but many people who’ve been diagnosed with a life-changing illness – such as cancer – feel a lot of guilt. Maybe it’s for upsetting your loved ones, or feeling like you’re a burden. You may be jealousy of the good health of others only to then feel guilty about it. Some people even feel guilty for the lifestyle choices that may – or may not – have led to cancer.This is completely common and may dissipate if you share them with someone else. Try to find and join a local or online support group.

Hope

With acceptance of cancer, many people feel a sense of hope, and for good reason! Millions of people walking around, living life every day have survived cancer. Every single day, your chances of living with and recovering from cancer are better than they’ve ever been. Plenty of people with cancer can lead still active lives, even during treatment.

Some doctors suggest that hope actually makes treatment go by a bit easier. Here’s how to keep some hope alive, no matter how scared you are:

Keep planning your life like you’ve always done

Unless you need to rest, don’t let cancer dictate how you live your life

Write down things that make you hopeful – a favorite holiday, flowers blooming

Spend time in nature. Nature is incredibly healing to be in, especially when you’ve got a lot on your mind

Reflect on your religious or spiritual beliefs.

Don’t dwell on the stories of those who have succumbed to cancer; focus on talking to those who have survived and thrived.

Loneliness

People with cancer often feel lonely or distant from others, just as others with chronic, life-changing diseases do. These may be some of the reasons for your loneliness:

Sometimes, friends and loved ones have a really hard time dealing with your cancer diagnosis and may avoid calling and visiting you.

You may be too sick to engage in the hobbies and activities you used to enjoy.

Sometimes, no matter how supportive your loved ones are, you may feel that no one understands what you’re going through.

It’s also normal to feel alone after treatment. You may miss the support you got from your health care team. Many people have a sense that their safety net has been pulled away, and they get less attention. It’s common to still feel cut off from loved ones. Some think that as treatment is over, you’ll  be back to normal soon, even though this may not be true. Others may want to help but don’t know how.

Look for emotional support in different ways. It could help you to talk to other people who have cancer or to join a support group. Or, you may feel better talking only to a close friend or family member, or counselor, or a member of your faith or spiritual community. Do what feels right for you.

Overwhelmed

When you first learn that you have cancer, you may feel as things have gone completely out of control

You wonder if you’re going to live

Your life now revolves around doctor appointments, treatments, tests

You feel like you can’t do the things you enjoy.

You feel helpless and lonely.

Even if you feel out of control, there are ways you can take charge. It may help to learn as much as you can about your cancer. The more you know, the more in control you’ll feel. Ask your doctor questions and don’t be afraid to say when you don’t understand.

These feelings will pass.

For some people, it feels better to stay busy. If you have the energy, try taking part in activities such as music, crafts, reading, or learning something new.

Sadness and Depression

Many people with cancer feel sad. They feel a sense of loss of their health, and the life they had before they learned they had the disease. Even when you’re done with treatment, you may still feel sad. This is a normal response to any serious illness. It may take time to work through and accept all the changes that are taking place.When you’re sad, you may have very little energy, feel tired, or not want to eat. For some, these feelings go away or lessen over time. But for others, these emotions can become stronger. The painful feelings don’t get any better, and they get in the way of daily life. This may be a medical condition called depression. For some, cancer treatment may have added to this problem by changing the way the brain works.

Stress and Anxiety

Stress and anxiety are completely normal after diagnosis, during treatments, and after treatments. This doesn’t make you any less of a fighter. Anxiety means you have extra worry, can’t relax, and feel tense. You may notice that:

Increased heartrate

Headaches and muscle pains.

You may eat more, you may have no appetite

You feel sick to your stomach or have diarrhea.

You feel shaky, weak, or dizzy.

Tightness in the chest and throat

You sleep too much or too little.

You find it hard to concentrate.

If you have any of these feelings, talk to your doctor. Though they are common signs of stress, you will want to make sure they aren’t due to medicines or treatment.

Stress can keep your body from healing as well as it should.

If you’re worried about your stress, ask your doctor to suggest a counselor for you to talk to. You could also take a class that teaches ways to deal with stress. The key is to find ways to control your stress and not to let it control you.

Gratitude

Some people see their cancer as a “wake-up call,” and it helps them realize how important it is to relish every second we have. They take trips. Finish projects. Spend more time with friends and family. They mend broken relationships.

Maybe you don’t feel that way, but make an attempt to find any joy you can in your life. Watch the birds. Work in the garden. Explore new things. Enjoy all the parts of life we normally take for granted. Write out your feelings. Talk to your loved ones.

You can also do things that are more special to you, like being in nature or praying in a place that has meaning for you. Or, it could be playing a sport you love or cooking a good meal. Whatever you choose, embrace the things that bring you joy when you can.

Coping With Your Emotions:

Express Yourself

It sounds wild, but the more you express to others the strong feelings like anger, loneliness, and guilt, the more you can let go of them. Sort them out with a loved one, a support group, or a counselor. Remember that your loved ones may not have the answers, and that’s okay.If talking makes you uncomfortable, write them down. Do anything you can to get it out of your system.

All You Need Is Positivity

Sometimes this means looking for the good even in a bad time or trying to be hopeful instead of thinking the worst. Try to use your energy to focus on wellness and what you can do now to stay as healthy as possible.

Don’t Blame Yourself for Your Cancer

It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. If needed, go ahead and say it into the mirror until you believe it.

Some people think that they got cancer due to something inside their control. However natural it feels to blame yourself, remember this: even cancer researchers don’t know why one person gets cancer and another does not.

Cancer can happen to anyone.

Don’t Try to Be Upbeat If You’re Not

There’s no use for you to putting on a brave face. Most people see right through it, and as hard as we try to make others feel comfortable, just be honest. Give into those feelings and let them out.

You don’t have to be sunshine all the time.

Only Talk About Cancer If YOU Feel Like It:

Well-meaning people may want to talk at great length about  your cancer, compare it to their loved ones, and offer you different “cures” and advice. They don’t know any better. It can be hard for people to know how to talk to you about your cancer. Other people mean well, but they don’t know what to say or how to act. You can make them feel more at ease by asking them what they think or how they feel or simply tell them that you’re not into talking about cancer right now.

Relax

Whatever activity helps you unwind, you should do it. Meditation, guided imagery, relaxation exercises, taking a bath, and taking a nice walk are just a few ways that have been shown to help others; these may help you relax when you feel worried.

Get Out There:

Sometimes, getting out of your environment at home can give you some life. Try anything – take a drive, go grab a cup of coffee, visit a friend, are all things you can do to help you from feelings of crawling the walls.

What Do You Enjoy?

Most people do have activities they once – and/or still – enjoy. Why not try to do some? Getting creative, writing your story, these are all ways you can feel productive, even when you’re not feeling well.

You Can’t Control It All

Like addicts and others with chronic illnesses, you can’t control it all. Period. However, putting your life in order may really help you feel as though you’ve achieved something. Work on being involved with your care, keep appointments, and make changes in your life to make you healthier. Sometimes, people find that making – and keeping – a daily schedule keeps them sane. Of course, you can’t control all of your feelings and thoughts, but try not to dwell on the bad ones – and enjoy the positives where you can.

How To Cope If You’ve Been Diagnosed With Cancer:

When you learn you have cancer, you may feel like your life has been turned upside down. Once the shock wears off, the process of making changes begins. You may have to rearrange things in your life as you start treatment. The symptoms and side effects may take a toll on both your body and your emotions. You may have to learn new ways of talking to your loved ones and to your health care team. And you probably have a lot of questions to ask about adjusting to all the new issues that cancer brings.

Learning that you have cancer is frightening – you may feel anxious, depressed, terrified, and overwhelmed. Here are some tips for coping with a cancer diagnosis.

Get the facts about your diagnosis – ask your doctor specific questions and write down the answers. If it’s overwhelming, have a friend or family member do so.

Maintain your normal lifestyle – but be open to changing things around if necessary.

Maintain lines of communication between your doctor, your friends, and your loved ones. A cancer diagnosis is particularly isolating, and this is the time to let people in and let them help. They want to help.

Look into your goals and priorities and find time to do those that are most important to you.

Try to anticipate any physical changes. After a diagnosis is the time to learn more about the physical changes that may occur with cancer and cancer treatment. Ask your doctor about any changes you should anticipate. Pick up some wigs, makeup, and any other items that may make the transition easier on you.

Stay healthy – eat a healthy diet, exercise as best as you can, and get enough rest; this can help combat some of the stress of treatment.

Let people help you. Now is not the time to be proud and put up a strong front – let people in. They want to help. Encourage that. Come up with specific items or areas where you need assistance and ask your friends and loved ones to help with these things.

Talk to others who have been diagnosed with cancer. If you have cancer, sometimes it feels like no one else understands you. Those who have cancer do. Seek out support groups on the Internet or find a local support group.

Figure out how to cope. Your coping mechanisms may not be the same as others, but there will be things that you can do to cope with your diagnosis and illness.

Check into insurance options (if you’re in the US). You may feel trapped at a particular job for fear that you will be denied new insurance. Find out any assistance your state may offer, check into the FMLA Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act – and if you qualify.

How To Help A Friend With Cancer:

Many people going through cancer treatments – or treatments for other chronic illnesses – find asking for help challenging. Instead of waiting to be asked, offer your friend specific ways you can help. It’s up to him or her to decline your offers.

If you have no idea what to help with, ask your friend or their family.

Register to be a bone marrow donor. Even if it’s not something that can help your friend specifically, you are giving the gift of life.

Try not to let your friend’s condition get in the way of your relationship. Treat them just as you always have.

Make sure to provide your friend space, but offer visits whenever they would like.

If you are able to, make space for their uncomfortable feelings. Let them talk about how scared they are (without jumping in to reassure them), or how mad they are (without jumping in to cheer them up), or how frustrating, invasive, unfair this is (without trying to redirect them into “positive” thoughts).

Be supportive if they need more than you can give and if they turn to therapy, a support group, a pastor, etc.

Make sure any plans that are made are easily changeable – just in case something pops up.

Make sure that you can make some plans for the future too – this gives your friend something to look forward to.

Do your best to follow through with any commitments you make. If you promise to pick up groceries or watch their children, do it.

Allow your friend to be sad. Yes, it’s uncomfortable, but these feelings are expected and allowed. Make sure your friend knows that you can hear the hard stuff, too.

Check in once a week via phone or email. Let your friend know he or she doesn’t have to answer the phone if he or she does not want to. Sometimes that level of contact is simply too much.

Be sure to write, too. Some days, when the treatments are too exhausting, your friend may not want to talk on the phone. Instead, postcards, emails, even text messages will be read and reread, lovingly, by your sick friend.

Rotate your visits to the hospital. Your friend needs to rest just as much as he or she needs to see you, so make sure to visit in shifts so as not to overwhelm your friend.

Talk to your friend about non-cancer related topics. Sometimes your friend needs a break from talking about cancer.

Make sure to include the family of the person with cancer – often, they are so overwhelmed by care-giving responsibilities that they do not take proper time and care of themselves.

What Are Some Practical Ways To Help A Friend With Cancer?

Practical help is often very valuable for a friend with cancer. Your friend’s needs will change often due to treatment time-frames, symptoms, side effects, energy, and ability to concentrate. Be creative and flexible in the practical help you offer. These are some suggestions for practical help:

Help with house chores – take out the garbage, help out with pets, clean up, help with laundry, bring in the mail, do any gardening.

Make dinner or bring some takeout and watch movies.

Help babysit children, offer to chauffeur them around town and arrange for play-dates.

Put together a phone chain or support team to check in with the friend frequently.

Offer to drive your friend to a support group – and join! Friends and family are always welcome.

Offer to go with and take notes at a doctor’s appointment.

Keep your friend company during a treatment session.

Coordinate transportation to treatments.  Work with your friend, their family, and their other friends to take turns driving your friend to and from treatments.

Offer to help sorting through medical bills and insurance claims. Those piles of paperwork can be massive.

Offer specific help – “can I bring over dinner tonight?” rather than “let me know if you need me.”

What Do I Say To Someone With Cancer?

Sometimes, it’s hard to know what to say to a friend with cancer. You’re afraid of stepping on land mines, toes, or making your friend feel worse. Here are some things you can say:

“I’m really sorry this happened to you.”

“I’m here if you want to talk.”

“I care very much about you.”

“How can I help?”

What Are Some Gift Ideas for a Friend With Cancer?

It’s a nice idea to pick up some gifts for a friend with cancer – huge mood-brightener. But…what to buy?

Gift cards for a Kindle/iPad or other eReader.

Gift cards for music for an mp3 player.

Makeup, jewelry and other beauty items.

Crossword or other books of puzzles.

Money for a housecleaning service.

Gift certificates to a spa, for a massage, restaurants, passes to local museums.

Pajamas or a robe.

How NOT To Help a Friend With Cancer:

The worst thing you can do is nothing at all. Every cancer survivor knows at least one person, who, upon hearing the news, disappeared forever. Your friend will never forget if you’re the one who does that.

Don’t say, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” It implies that God had a role in the development of cancer and may make your friend feel as though he or she is being punished.

Avoid comparisons. Just because your best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s girlfriend had cancer, followed THIS diet, and was cured doesn’t mean your friend will.

Send mylar – not latex – balloons to the hospital. Many people are allergic to the latex in balloons, so they may not be allowed on the floor.

Call and check with the hospital to see what their policy is about sending flowers. As cancer suppresses the immune system, anything that has the potential to cause an allergic reaction should be avoided.

Don’t visit your friend if you’re feeling even a tiny bit sick – people with cancer have suppressed (weakened) immune systems and should not be exposed unnecessarily to germs.

Don’t take it personally if your friend doesn’t want to talk. Sometimes, it’s too overwhelming for your friend to even pick up the phone.

Don’t give medical advice. You’re not a doctor and you’re certainly not familiar enough with your friend’s illness to be making medical calls.

Don’t give advice about how to change their lifestyle and diet. They may already be struggling with completing their normal routine.

Don’t make statements that may imply that your friend has caused their cancer in any way – don’t ask about smoking history, exposure to toxic chemicals – what matters is the NOW, not the before.

Don’t bother touting the latest miracle cure. No one wants to hear it.

Don’t tell them to “chin up” or “cheer up.” They are entitled to their feelings, which may or may not be comfortable for you.

Platitudes are bullshit. Don’t use ’em.

Don’t tell horror stories about people you’ve known who had cancer and died from it.

What NOT To Say When A Friend Has Cancer:

It’s easy to want to express trite platitudes when someone you love has cancer. It’s also extremely challenging to know what to say and what NOT to say. Here are some things not to say to a friend with cancer:

“I know JUST how you feel.” (No, you don’t.)

“I feel helpless.” (Imagine how your friend feels.)

“You need to talk about it.” (Your friend will talk when he or she is ready.)

“Here! This is what you should do. I heard about it on Oprah.” (You don’t know your friend’s illness better than your friend.)

“I don’t know how you’re managing it all. I’d die if it were me.” (Thoughtless!)

“You’re going to be fine.” (You do not know that.)

“How much time do you have?” (Morbid!)

If you have any more tips about how to cope when a loved one has cancer, please send it to bandbacktogether@gmail.com!

[brain-garden-blog]

The concept of schizophrenia is coming to an end – here’s why

The concept of schizophrenia is dying. Harried for decades by psychology, it now appears to have been fatally wounded by psychiatry, the very profession that once sustained it. Its passing will not be mourned.

Today, having a diagnosis of schizophrenia is associated with a life-expectancy reduction of nearly two decades. By some criteria, only one in seven people recover. Despite heralded advances in treatments, staggeringly, the proportion of people who recover hasn’t increased over time. Something is profoundly wrong.

Part of the problem turns out to be the concept of schizophrenia itself.

Arguments that schizophrenia is a distinct disease have been “fatally undermined”. Just as we now have the concept of autism spectrum disorder, psychosis (typically characterised by distressing hallucinations, delusions, and confused thoughts) is also argued to exist along a continuum and in degrees. Schizophrenia is the severe end of a spectrum or continuum of experiences.

Jim van Os, a professor of psychiatry at Maastricht University, has argued that we cannot shift to this new way of thinking without changing our language. As such, he proposes the term schizophrenia “should be abolished”. In its place, he suggests the concept of a psychosis spectrum disorder.

Another problem is that schizophrenia is portrayed as a “hopeless chronic brain disease”. As a result, some people given this diagnosis, and some parents, have been told cancer would have been preferable, as it would be easier to cure. Yet this view of schizophrenia is only possible by excluding people who do have positive outcomes. For example, some who recover are effectively told that “it mustn’t have been schizophrenia after all”.

Schizophrenia, when understood as a discrete, hopeless and deteriorating brain disease, argues van Os, “does not exist”.

Breaking down breakdowns

Schizophrenia may instead turn out to be many different things. The eminent psychiatrist Sir Robin Murray describes how::

I expect to see the end of the concept of schizophrenia soon … the syndrome is already beginning to breakdown, for example, into those cases caused by copy number [genetic] variations, drug abuse, social adversity, etc. Presumably this process will accelerate, and the term schizophrenia will be confined to history, like “dropsy”.

Research is now exploring the different ways people may end up with many of the experiences deemed characteristic of schizophrenia: hallucinations, delusions, disorganised thinking and behaviour, apathy and flat emotion.

Indeed, one past error has been to mistake a path for the path or, more commonly, to mistake a back road for a motorway. For example, based on their work on the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which is transmitted to humans via cats, researchers E. Fuller Torrey and Robert Yolken have argued that “the most important etiological agent [cause of schizophrenia] may turn out to be a contagious cat”. It will not.

Evidence does suggest that exposure to Toxoplasma gondii when young can increase the odds of someone being diagnosed with schizophrenia. However, the size of this effect involves less than a twofold increase in the odds of someone being diagnosed with schizophrenia. This is, at best, comparable to other risk factors, and probably much lower.

For example, suffering childhood adversity, using cannabis, and having childhood viral infections of the central nervous system, all increase the odds of someone being diagnosed with a psychotic disorder (such as schizophrenia) by around two to threefold. More nuanced analyses reveal much higher numbers.

Compared with non-cannabis users, the daily use of high-potency, skunk-like cannabis is associated with a fivefold increase in the odds of someone developing psychosis. Compared with someone who has not suffered trauma, those who have suffered five different types of trauma (including sexual and physical abuse) see their odds of developing psychosis increase more than fiftyfold.

Other routes to “schizophrenia” are also being identified. Around 1% of cases appear to stem from the deletion of a small stretch of DNA on chromosome 22, referred to as 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. It is also possible that a low single digit percentage of people with a schizophrenia diagnosis may have their experiences grounded in inflammation of the brain caused by autoimmune disorders, such as anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, although this remains controversial.

All the factors above could lead to similar experiences, which we in our infancy have put into a bucket called schizophrenia. One person’s experiences may result from a brain disorder with a strong genetic basis, potentially driven by an exaggeration of the normal process of pruning connections between brain cells that happens during adolescence. Another person’s experiences may be due to a complex post-traumatic reaction. Such internal and external factors could also work in combination.

Either way, it turns out that the two extreme camps in the schizophrenia wars – those who view it as a genetically-based neurodevelopmental disorder and those who view it as a response to psychosocial factors, such as adversity – both had parts of the puzzle. The idea that schizophrenia was a single thing, reached by a single route, contributed to this conflict.

Implications for treatment

Many medical conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, can be reached by multiple routes that nevertheless impact the same biological pathways and respond to the same treatment. Schizophrenia could be like this. Indeed, it has been argued that the many different causes of schizophrenia discussed above may all have a common final effect: increased levels of dopamine.

If so, the debate about breaking schizophrenia down by factors that lead to it would be somewhat academic, as it would not guide treatment. However, there is emerging evidence that different routes to experiences currently deemed indicative of schizophrenia may need different treatments.

Preliminary evidence suggests that people with a history of childhood trauma who are diagnosed with schizophrenia are less likely to be helped by antipsychotic drugs. However, more research into this is needed and, of course, anyone taking antipsychotics should not stop taking them without medical advice. It has also been suggested that if some cases of schizophrenia are actually a form of autoimmune encephalitis, then the most effective treatment could be immunotherapy (such as corticosteroids) and plasma exchange (washing of the blood).

Yet the emerging picture here is unclear. Some new interventions, such as the family-therapy based Open Dialogue approach, show promise for a wide range of people with schizophrenia diagnoses. Both general interventions and specific ones, tailored to someone’s personal route to the experiences associated with schizophrenia, may be needed. This makes it critical to test for and ask people about all potentially relevant causes. This includes childhood abuse, which is still not being routinely asked about and identified.

The potential for different treatments to work for different people further explains the schizophrenia wars. The psychiatrist, patient or family who see dramatic beneficial effects of antipsychotic drugs naturally evangelically advocate for this approach. The psychiatrist, patient or family who see drugs not working, but alternative approaches appearing to help, laud these. Each group sees the other as denying an approach that they have experienced to work. Such passionate advocacy is to be applauded, up to the point where people are denied an approach that may work for them.

What comes next?

None of this is to say the concept of schizophrenia has no use. Many psychiatrists still see it as a useful clinical syndrome that helps define a group of people with clear health needs. Here it is viewed as defining a biology that is not yet understood but which shares a common and substantial genetic basis across many patients.

Some people who receive a diagnosis of schizophrenia will find it helpful. It can help them access treatment. It can enhance support from family and friends. It can give a name to the problems they have. It can indicate they are experiencing an illness and not a personal failing. Of course, many do not find this diagnosis helpful. We need to retain the benefits and discard the negatives of the term schizophrenia, as we move into a post-schizophrenia era.

What this will look like is unclear. Japan recently renamed schizophrenia as “integration disorder”. We have seen the idea of a new “psychosis spectrum disorder”. However, historically, the classification of diseases in psychiatry has been argued to be the outcome of a struggle in which “the most famous and articulate professor won”. The future must be based on evidence and a conversation which includes the perspectives of people who suffer – and cope well with – these experiences.

Whatever emerges from the ashes of schizophrenia, it must provide better ways to help those struggling with very real experiences.

Originally published by The Conversation

[tinyshe]

“Around the world,  reports are pouring in of people dying shortly after receiving the COVID-19  vaccine. In many cases, they die suddenly within hours of getting the shot. In   others, death occurs within the span of a couple of weeks.

“One notable case  is baseball legend Hank Aaron, 86, who died January 22, 2021, 17 days after  publicly getting vaccinated for COVID-19.1,2 He said at the time that he hoped other Blacks would follow his lead and  get their vaccines too.

“According to news  reports, he died “peacefully in his sleep” and no cause of death had been  announced. Aaron was famous for being the home-run king of baseball, and broke  Babe Ruth’s record when he hit homerun No. 715; he had hit 755 by the time he  retired from the sport.

29 Dead in Norway

“In related news,  Norway has recorded 29 senior citizen deaths in the wake of their vaccination  push.3 Most were over the age of 75. A total of 42,000 Norwegians had by that time  received the vaccine.

“While health  officials initially downplayed any connection to the vaccine, a report in  Bloomberg suggests the Norwegian Medicines Agency are now reconsidering. At the  time of the deaths, the Pfizer  vaccine was the only COVID-19 vaccine available in Norway, so “all deaths  are thus linked to this vaccine,” the agency told Bloomberg.4

“’There are 13 deaths that have been assessed,  and we are aware of another 16 deaths that are currently being assessed,’ the  agency said. All the reported deaths related to ‘elderly people with serious   basic disorders,’ it said.

‘Most people have experienced the expected side  effects of the vaccine, such as nausea and vomiting, fever, local reactions at  the injection site, and worsening of their underlying condition’ …

“The findings have prompted  Norway to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines may be too risky for the very old and  terminally ill, the most cautious statement yet from a European health  authority.

The Norwegian Institute of  Public Health judges that ‘for those with the most severe frailty, even  relatively mild vaccine side effects can have serious consequences. For those  who have a very short remaining life span anyway, the benefit of the vaccine  may be marginal or irrelevant.’”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious  Diseases, commented that the deaths have to be “put into context with the  population they occurred in.”5

In other words,  they were old and old people die. It’s hypocrisy at its finest. When seniors  die before vaccination, it’s due to COVID-19 and something must be done to  prevent it, but when they die after vaccination, they die of natural causes and  no preventive action is necessary.

The World Health  Organization added that since there was “no certain connection” of the vaccines  to Norway’s deaths, there is no reason to discontinue giving it to senior  citizens.

Questionable Coincidences

Interestingly,  several areas have reported that deaths are rapidly increasing AFTER  vaccination programs are implemented. The news stories don’t actually say it  straight out, but if you look at dates given, it raises questions. One such  example is what’s happening in Gibraltar at the southern tip of Spain, which  has a population of 34,000.

The area rolled  out its vaccination program on January 9, 2021, using the Pfizer mRNA vaccine.  By January 17, 2021, 5,847  doses had been administered (about 17% of the population), according to a  report by MedicalXpress.6

The curious thing about it is that the area’s  first recorded death from COVID-19 didn’t occur until mid-November 2020. By  January 6, three days before the vaccination program began, the total  COVID-19-related death toll reportedly stood at 10.

Then, by January 17, the total death toll had suddenly skyrocketed   to 45. In other words, 35 people died in the first eight days of the   vaccination program. Most were in their 80s and 90s.

Chief  Minister Fabian Picardo said, "This is now the worst loss of life of  Gibraltarians in over 100 years. Even in war, we have never lost so many in  such a short time."7 None of the deaths are being blamed on the vaccine, however. Instead, they’re loosely  blaming them on the new variant of SARS-CoV-2.

Vaccine Rollout Coincides With Outbreak

Other  areas are also reporting “outbreaks” of COVID-19, resulting in increased death  tolls, after the rollout of vaccinations. Case in point: In Auburn, New York, a COVID-19 outbreak began  December 21, 2020, in a Cayuga County nursing home.8,9 Before this outbreak, no one in the nursing home had died from COVID-19.

The next day,  December 22, they started vaccinating residents and staff. The first death was  reported December 29, 2020. Between December 22, 2020, and January 9, 2021, 193  residents (80%) received the vaccine, as did 113 staff members.

As of January 9,  2021, 137 residents had been infected and 24 had died. Forty-seven staff  members had also tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and one was on life-support.

Considering we’re  also seeing cases in which healthy young and middle-aged individuals die within  days of receiving the vaccine, it’s not inconceivable that the vaccine might  have something to do with these dramatic rises in deaths among the elderly in  various parts of the world. In fact, I’d expect it.

You can rest  assured, however, that the public health authorities and media will not report these  observations. Anything that conflicts with vaccine safety and effectiveness  will be intentionally and universally buried. This is precisely their modus  operandi of the past three decades, so it’s really up to each individual to do  their own research.

Massive Amounts of Serious Side Effects Emerging

While  the global  vaccine campaign is less than a month old in most places, reports of serious  side effects have already started pouring in. Many are sharing their  personal experiences on social media networks. Disturbingly, many are having   their stories censored as misleading or false. Videos, in particular, tend to  be taken down.

Aside  from sudden death within hours or days,10,11,12,13,14 examples of side effects among survivors of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA  vaccines include:

Persistent malaise15,16 and extreme exhaustion17

Severe allergic, including anaphylactic reactions18,19,20    

Multisystem inflammatory  syndrome21

Chronic seizures and convulsions22,23

Paralysis,24 including Bell’s Palsy25

To get a feel for what’s really happening, check out prezi.com, where someone has started  collecting stories from various social media posts. It’s a rather shocking  compilation that is well worth sharing with family and friends who are still on  the fence about getting the vaccine.

Many say they  “feel weird” and that they “don’t feel like myself.” Dizziness, racing heart  and extreme high blood pressure seem to be a common complaint, as is severe,  chronic seemingly “unbreakable” headache that does not respond to medication.  Many describe the pain they feel in their body as “being run over by a bus” or  “being beaten with a bat.”

Some report  swollen and painful lymph nodes, severe muscle pain and gastrointestinal  issues. Symptoms mimicking stroke are being reported, even though CT scans show  nothing of concern. One such report is from a 19-year-old girl. Several report  lethal heart attacks claiming the lives of someone they love.

Psychological  effects are also starting to creep in. One woman who is on chemotherapy reports  “mood changes with intermittent periods of elation and mild euphoria.” Bouts of  anxiety, depression, brain fog, confusion and dissociation are also being  reported, as is an inability to sleep.

One person  reports having lost “the voice in my head,” which I suspect is the ability to  hear yourself think. Another reports losing the ability to formulate words  about half an hour after getting the first dose of vaccine, and a third reports  “struggling for lost words.” Loss of taste and/or smell are also being  reported, as well as taste alterations. Several say they have developed a  metallic taste since their vaccination.

One pregnant  woman reported spontaneous rupture of the amniotic sac resulting in premature  delivery. Another woman’s baby was found to have no heartbeat two days after  her vaccination and was delivered stillborn. Several describe effects  suggesting vascular problems, such as skin blotchiness and fingers turning  blue.

We see mass cell activation syndromes. The clinical symptoms are  going to be the inflammatory diseases. We hear everybody calling it ‘long haul  COVID’ — the extreme, profound, crippling fatigue, the inability to produce  energy from your mitochondria. It's not long haul COVID. It's exactly what it  always was — myalgic encephalomyelitis, inflammation of the brain and the   spinal cord. ~ Judy Mikovits Ph.D.

While people are  hoping and praying their side effects will be temporary, a significant portion  say they’re still struggling with the effects one or two weeks after their  shot. Time will tell whether they turn out to be permanent, but considering the  fact that the mRNA vaccines reprogram your DNA, there’s certainly the  possibility that they might be long-lasting.

Side Effects Were Predictable

I recently interviewed cellular and molecular biologist Judy Mikovits, Ph.D., about the mechanics of COVID-19 mRNA  vaccines, which are in actuality gene therapy. They’re not conventional  vaccines. Compare the summary of reported side effects in the section above to  the longer-term side effects she suspects will become commonplace, based on the  mechanics and biological effects of these gene therapy “vaccines”:

Migraines

Involuntary muscle movements,    tics and spasms

Parkinson’s disease

Microvascular disorders

Cancers

Severe pain syndromes

Bladder problems

Kidney disease

Psychological disorders such    as psychosis and autism spectrum

Neurodegenerative diseases

Sleep disorders

Infertility and other    reproductive problems

The underlying causes, according to Mikovits, are  neuroinflammation and dysregulation of the immune system and endocannabinoid  system.

“It's the brain on fire,” she  says. “You're going to see ticks, you're  going to see Parkinsonian disease, you're going to see ALS, you're going to see  things like this developing at extremely rapid rates, and it's inflammation of  the brain.

We see mass cell activation syndromes. The clinical symptoms are going to be the inflammatory diseases. We hear everybody calling it ‘long haul  COVID’ — the extreme, profound, crippling fatigue, the inability to produce  energy from your mitochondria.

It's not long haul COVID. It's exactly what it always was —   myalgic encephalomyelitis, inflammation of the brain and the spinal cord. What  they're intentionally doing is killing off [certain] populations.”

Discrepancies in Moderna’s FDA Report

According to a  recent report by The Defender,26 there are significant discrepancies in the data Moderna submitted to the U.S.  Food and Drug Administration:

“Moderna’s reported death rate for its COVID vaccine, based on   clinical trials, is 5.41 times greater than Pfizer’s. Yet neither are   representative of national death rates — that’s a red flag …

The Moderna vaccine arm  death rate of 0.36 deaths/100K/day) is 5.14 times higher than Pfizer’s (0.07  deaths/100K/day). This large discrepancy deserves notice and requires explanation.

If Moderna’s on-vaccine  death rate is so far below the national death rate and also simultaneously more  than five times greater than Pfizer’s on-vaccine death rate, then Pfizer’s  study sample appears even less representative of the entire population. This, too,  requires due consideration …

When comparing [Moderna’s] study-wide number of  deaths per day per 100K for the study to that of the entire U.S. population  from 2019, I was shocked: the national number of deaths per day per 100K is  2.44.

Moderna’s screening process and exclusion  criteria in the trial led to evidence that the general population is dying at a  rate 6.3 times greater than the death rate in the Moderna trial — which means   the Moderna study, including its estimated efficacy rate and the vaccine’s  alleged safety profile — cannot possibly be relevant to most of the U.S.  population.

The super-healthy cohorts studied by Moderna are  in no way representative of the U.S. population. Most deaths from COVID-19   involve pre-existing health conditions of the types excluded from both Pfizer  and Moderna trials …

Those enrolling in the post-market surveillance  studies deserve to know the abject absence of any relevant information on  efficacy and risk for them. In their zeal to help humanity, or to help  themselves, these people may very well be walking into a situation that will  cause autoimmunity due to pathogenic priming,  potentially leading to disease enhancement should they become infected  following vaccination.”

Why Is Moderna’s Gene Therapy Deadlier Than Pfizer’s?

What might  account for Moderna’s gene therapy “vaccine” causing more than five times more  deaths than Pfizer’s? One possibility raised in The Defender’s article is that  they failed to “screen out unsafe epitopes to  reduce autoimmunity due to homology between parts of the viral protein and the  human proteome.”

According to a  2020 paper27 in the Journal of Translational Autoimmunity, “Pathogenic priming likely  contributes to serious and critical illness and mortality in COVID-19 via  autoimmunity,” noting that the same may apply post-vaccination.

As  explained in this paper, all but one of SARS-CoV-2 immunogenic epitopes are  similar to human proteins. Epitopes28 are sites on the virus that allow antibodies or cell receptors in your immune  system to recognize it.

This  is why epitopes are also referred to as “antigenic determinants,” as they are  the parts that are recognized by an antibody, B-cell receptor or T-cell  receptor. Most antigens — substances that bind specifically to an antibody or a  T-cell receptor — have several different epitopes, which allow it to be  recognized by several different antibodies.

According to the author, some epitopes can cause “autoimmunological pathogenic  priming due to prior infection or following exposure to SARS-CoV-2 … following  vaccination.”

In  other words, if you’ve had the infection once, and get reinfected (either by  SARS-CoV-2 or a sufficiently similar coronavirus), the second bout has a great  potential to be more severe than the first. Similarly, if you get vaccinated  and are then infected with SARS-CoV-2, your infection may be more severe than  had you not been vaccinated.

For  this reason, “these epitopes should be excluded from vaccines under development  to minimize autoimmunity due to risk of pathogenic priming,” the paper warns.  The abstract lays out the basics of the pathogenic priming process.29 As noted in The Defender:30

"Thus, concern over vaccine-induced pathogenic priming is not   zero, but it may be less than COVID-19  vaccines that  use more than one SARS-CoV-2 protein. However, the hyper-focused IgG response  to the fewer antigens could cause hyperimmunization, a condition considered   ripe for off-target autoimmunity attacks."

Are Lethal Effects Being Hidden?

The Defender  points out that vaccine trials never use inert placebos. Instead, many use  another vaccine. By doing so, they effectively hide side effects. In the case  of Moderna, a total of 13 people died in the trial, seven in the vaccine group  and eight in the placebo group. One severe adverse event in the placebo group,  however, was relabeled as a death, and one death in the vaccine group was   relabeled as a severe adverse event.

In the vaccine  group, deaths were listed as cardio-respiratory   arrest, heart attack, multisystem organ failure, head injury and suicide. None of the deaths were  linked to the vaccine.

However, as noted in The Defender, heart attacks  can involve autoimmunity and have been seen in post-vaccinations before.   Multisystem organ failure is also “consistent with autoimmunity against ubiquitously expressed proteins as a result of vaccination.”

“The suicide cannot be ruled  out as not due the vaccine, either,” The Defender writes, noting it could be  related to “autoimmunity against oxytocin or serotonin receptors,” which might  result in “devastating depression.”

Indeed, prezi.com includes a number of reports of people saying  they’ve experienced anxiety and depression following their vaccination.  Depression is also a possible outcome of neuroinflammation, as noted by  Mikovits.

Do a Risk-Benefit Analysis Before Making Up Your Mind

While both Pfizer and Moderna report low rates of side effects — Moderna’s  being just 0.5% — the rates of side effects in the real world appear to be  extraordinarily high. Data are still hard to come by, but if we go by initial  data reported by the U.S.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,31 we end up with a side effect rate in the real world of 2.79%.

By December 18, 2020, 112,807  Americans had received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Of those, 3,150  suffered one or more “health impact events,” defined as being “unable to  perform normal daily activities, unable to work, required care from doctor or  health care professional.” If you divide the number of reported side effects  with the number that received the vaccine, you get a side effect rate of 2.79%.

If you then extrapolate that to  the total U.S. population of 328.2 million, we may be looking at 9,156,780  Americans suffering vaccine injuries if everyone gets vaccinated.

[to see full article with tables/graphs and other information not picked up in a cut and paste please go here]

[1-800-fuckyou]

god i am stoned out of my MIND rn lets do this. i havent done one of these in literally years.. i was tagged by @soddingdeeproads

Rules: Copy this post into a new text post, remove my answers, put in yours, and when you are done tag up to ten people and also tag the person who tagged you… And most importantly, have fun!

A - Age: 23 baybayyyy B - Biggest fear: putting all this time effort and money into trying to make my FUCKIN dreams a reality out here in LA but ultimately failing to ever really get my feet off the ground, therefore being forced to LEAVE LA C - Current time: 11:44 PM D - Drink you last had: mr newmanns virgin lemonade E - Every day starts with: some real emotional turmoil @ my ever rocky re-entry into consciousness then perhaps a bagel F - Favorite song: i just dont think ill ever get over you by collin hey or angeles by elliot smith or la loose by waxahatchee or let go by imogen heap or god only knows by the beach boys  G - Ghosts, are they real?: nina put “hoo boy they sure are” here and i literally burst out fucking laughing when i real that because it reads in EXACTLY her voice lmfao H - Hometown: im from westchester county in ny J - Jealous of: people who can do dramatic lighting easily i was trying to block it out today in a drawing i was doing and holy fuck!! teach me ur ways  K - Killed someone: the vibe L - Last time you cried: this morning in therappyyy then i got in the elevator with a guy i had walked into the counsellor’s office with and as the elevator went down i knew he was looking at me because my face was a blotchy and red and i laughed and said boy what a good one! and he was like really? and i was like lol no. who the fuck goes to therapy at 9am? I can’t unpack my issues and then start my morning and he was like yeah fuck the rest of the day and we both cracked up M - Middle name: grace N - Number of siblings: i have an older brother and a younger sister god i miss them so much my familial crops are dying since i moved cross country O - One wish: genie a gf,  Q - Questions you’re always asked: people dont ask me questions i dont normally wear an expression that would suggest i know the answer to questions R - Reasons to smile: like if you just feel like it S - Song last sang: i was singing irreplaceable with my coworker T - Time you woke up: 7:45 am U - Underwear color:  it’s blue and it has little sushis on it V - Vacation destination: ive never been to europe i want to go to berlin W - Worst habit: being so CRITICAL!! X - X-rays you’ve had: god when i was like 8 i swallowed a quarter by accident and it got stuck in my throat and i had to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance and they took a bunch of x rays to see where it was in my body my little idiot body Y - Your favorite food: god i fucking love zankou chicken like i am sorry there was a void zunzi’s left and it has been truly filled by garlic butter dip and chicken kabobs Z - Zodiac sign: im a cancer 

and i tag @countvonroo, @miss-shydeer, and uhh @legsweat. 

[t-baba]

5 Signs It’s Time to Quit Your Job

"Jerry wouldn't let me go to the emergency room."

Jenny010137 recounted her story on Reddit. She had a major health crisis, but Jerry, her boss, wasn't buying it.

Jerry wouldn't let me go to the emergency room after the heavy vaginal bleeding I had been experiencing suddenly got way worse. I went over his head and got permission to go. I called my mom, told her to meet me in the ER. The ER nurse said he'd never seen so much blood. An ER nurse said this. It's determined I need a couple of blood transfusions and will be admitted.

Jenny's mom calls Jerry on her behalf.

My mom calls Jerry, who then proceeds to tell her that it's just stress, and I NEED TO GET BACK TO WORK. At this point, I couldn't even lift my own head up, but sure, I can take a bus across town and go back to work.

Doctors told Jenny they found a large growth that needed a biopsy.

They found a large growth that needed a biopsy. Jerry kept insisting that it couldn't be cancer because I'd be tired and losing weight. I had lost eight pounds in a week and went to bed the minute I got home. I was still recovering from the procedure when Jerry called me to let me know I was fired for taking too much time off. Five days later, I was diagnosed with cancer. Fuck you, Jerry. Fuck you.

Think about that for a second.

Jenny is losing blood rapidly. There's a good chance she's dying. Her boss can't be bothered to verify that she's okay. While she's in the hospital fighting for her life, he fires her for taking "too much time off."

This situation is obviously one to walk away from.

But it's not always so clear cut.

Sometimes you're in a situation where there are both positive and negative aspects of the job. With situations like these, the decision isn't always as obvious as we'd like it to be. Walk away from a promising position prematurely and you may burn bridges and destroy any goodwill you've built up.

What's the best way to know?

If you focus on the signs, you may be right, but too much uncertainty means you may handle things in a way that's less than ideal.

There's a better way.

Focus your attention on the right set of principles and you'll have the framework you need to decide when it's time to quit your job (or not). Let's take a look at these principles.

Principle #1: Your Job Violates Your Boundaries

Art Markman, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, shared a story relayed to him by a reader.

My mother suddenly passed away on a Friday evening. On the Sunday my boss showed up to my house with groceries and flowers and suggested that I go into the office on Monday for the quarterly meeting. After all, "this was a pivotal time" for the business.

I didn't go in the next day because of my overwhelming grief. I later found out that I was to receive an award on that Monday. Was this a career-limiting move, or is my boss not clear on boundaries?

This boss meant well, but his concern was self-serving and not at all in the best interests of his employee. What's worse, he may not have understood why it was a problem if his employee spoke to him about it later on.

This is why you need boundaries.

Boundaries act as gatekeepers in a variety of professional, emotional, social, physical and situations. Here's why you need boundaries and why they're so important:

They protect you from abusive or toxic behavior (for example, managers or co-workers making inappropriate demands, verbal abuse, inappropriate conversation, or details that are immoral or infringe on your values).

Boundaries define how others can or should communicate with you.

Good boundaries protect you from sacrificing your autonomy, freedom of choice, family, identity, integrity or contacts.

Great boundaries attract more of the people, projects and opportunities you want. When set up appropriately, these boundaries repel the items you don't want.

How do you set great boundaries?

It's a simple process. First, determine what you do and don't want. Next, figure out what your employer wants or doesn't want.

Sounds simple, right?

Figuring out what you want is really about asking the right question (see above). Figuring out what your employer wants is really about identifying criteria that are documented in some way. That's important, because it gives you the leverage you need to protect yourself (legally) against any inappropriate behavior.

But setting boundaries is risky.

Consider this common idea: Tell your boss No and you could get fired (or worse). If developers are smart, they'll avoid biting the hand that feeds them.

This rationale is trash.

If you set a boundary, it will be tested. Those around you — your manager, co-workers, other developers — will attempt to back you into a corner. You're going to have to find appropriate ways to rise to the challenge and enforce your boundaries.

Why go to the trouble? Because boundaries limit the damage from the other four principles discussed in this article. If you don't have strong boundaries, you'll face the problems discussed here. It doesn't matter if you're employed or you own your own business.

If you have poor boundaries, you won't be able to achieve your goals.

Principle #2: Your Job Goes Against Your Goals

Reddit user YellowRoses had goals until their boss torpedoed those goals.

How do you deal with feeling disrespected by your boss? from r/careerguidance

They were promised a promotion. They negotiated with their boss and earned a verbal agreement regarding their promotion, only for said promotion to be denied with an "Oh, that's not happening now." No explanation or attempts at justifying the rescinded promise.

What if your employer isn't aware of your goals? Still doesn't matter. If you have a specific goal in mind, you're responsible for that goal. Not your co-workers, employer, or family members. Are you pushing for the director's position that's opened up? Prefer to stay in your current role but receive the same pay as managers? It's on you.

This seems obvious, until you realize most people wait to be chosen. They wait for someone to approve of their audition, accept them, recruit them, promote them, extend a helping hand, etc. Which goes nowhere fast.

To be clear, it's generally a good idea to discuss your goals with your employer, provided that you're in a good place to do so. If your employer laughs at you, mocks your goal, or decides they're unwilling to help you meet said goals, it's on you to make it happen.

The post 5 Signs It’s Time to Quit Your Job appeared first on SitePoint.

by Andrew McDermott via SitePoint https://ift.tt/35sCXEv

[meditationadvise]

The Concept of Schizophrenia Is Coming to an End - Here`s Why

The idea of schizophrenia is dying. Harried for decades by psychology, it currently appears to have actually been fatally wounded by psychiatry, the really occupation that once sustained it. Its death will not be mourned.

Today, having a medical diagnosis of schizophrenia is connected with a life-expectancy decrease of almost 20 years. By some requirements, just one in seven people recover.

Despite advertised breakthroughs in therapies, terribly, the proportion of people that recuperate hasn't raised over time. Something is exceptionally wrong.

Part of the trouble ends up being the concept of schizophrenia itself. Disagreements that schizophrenia is a distinctive illness have actually been 'fatally weakened'.

Just as we now have the concept of autism spectrum condition, psychosis (commonly qualified by upsetting hallucinations, delusions, and also overwhelmed ideas) is additionally said to exist along a continuum as well as in degrees.

Schizophrenia is the severe end of a spectrum or continuum of experiences.

Jim van Os, a professor of psychiatry at Maastricht College, has argued that we could not change to this new method of thinking without changing our language.

As such, he proposes the term schizophrenia 'should be eliminated'. In its location, he recommends the principle of a psychosis range disorder.

Another trouble is that schizophrenia is depicted as a 'helpless persistent mind condition'. Because of this, some individuals given this diagnosis, and also some parents, have been told cancer cells would certainly have been more effective, as if much easier to cure.

Yet this view of schizophrenia is just feasible by omitting individuals who do have favorable results. Some that recuperate are efficiently told that ' it should not have actually been schizophrenia after all'.

Schizophrenia, when recognized as a distinct, hopeless and deteriorating mind condition, suggests van Os, 'does not exist'.

Breaking down breakdowns

Schizophrenia might instead transform out to be several points. The noteworthy psychiatrist Sir Robin Murray describes just how:

I expect to see completion of the concept of schizophrenia soon ... the disorder is currently starting to failure, for instance, right into those instances caused by copy number [genetic] variants, medicine misuse, social hardship, and so on. Most likely this process will certainly speed up, and the term schizophrenia will be restricted to history, like 'dropsy'.

Research is now checking out the various ways individuals might wind up with most of the experiences deemed characteristic of schizophrenia: hallucinations, deceptions, disorganised thinking and practices, lethargy and level emotion.

Indeed, one past error has been to blunder a path for the path or, a lot more typically, to error an alley for a motorway.

For example, based on their work with the bloodsucker Toxoplasma gondii, which is transferred to human beings through cats, researchers E. Richer Torrey and Robert Yolken have said that 'one of the most crucial etiological agent [source of schizophrenia] may transform out to be an infectious cat'.

It will not.

Evidence does recommend that direct exposure to Toxoplasma gondii when young could increase the odds of somebody being identified with schizophrenia.

However, the size of this impact involves less compared to a double rise in the odds of a person being diagnosed with schizophrenia. This is, at best, equivalent to various other threat variables, and also probably much lower.

For instance, experiencing childhood difficulty, utilizing cannabis, and having childhood years viral infections of the main nerve system, all increase the probabilities of someone being detected with a psychotic disorder (such as schizophrenia) by around 2 to threefold.

More nuanced evaluations reveal much greater numbers.

Compared with non-cannabis users, the everyday use of high-potency, skunk-like cannabis is related to a fivefold increase in the odds of someone creating psychosis.

Compared with a person who has actually not suffered trauma, those who have actually experienced five different sorts of injury (including sexual as well as physical abuse) see their chances of creating psychosis rise much more compared to fiftyfold.

Other routes to "schizophrenia" are likewise being recognized. Around 1 percent of situations show up to stem from the removal of a tiny stretch of DNA on chromosome 22, referred to as 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

It is additionally feasible that a low single digit percentage of individuals with a schizophrenia diagnosis could have their experiences grounded in inflammation of the brain created by autoimmune problems, such as anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, although this stays controversial.

All the variables over could result in similar experiences, which we in our early stage have taken into a bucket called schizophrenia.

One individual's experiences might result from a mind condition with a solid genetic basis, possibly owned by an exaggeration of the normal procedure of pruning connections between brain cells that occurs during adolescence.

Another person's experiences may result from a complex post-traumatic reaction. Such interior and exterior aspects can also operate in combination.

Either means, it transforms out that both severe camps in the schizophrenia battles - those who see it as a genetically-based neurodevelopmental disorder as well as those who see it as an action to psychosocial elements, such as misfortune - both had parts of the puzzle.

The concept that schizophrenia was a solitary thing, reached by a single route, added to this conflict.

Implications for treatment

Many medical conditions, such as diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure, could be gotten to by several courses that however impact the exact same organic pathways and reply to the exact same treatment.

Schizophrenia could be like this. It has been said that the several different causes of schizophrenia reviewed above might all have an usual last effect: increased degrees of dopamine.

If so, the debate regarding damaging schizophrenia down by factors that lead to it would be rather academic, as it would certainly not lead treatment.

However, there is emerging evidence that various courses to experiences currently regarded indicative of schizophrenia may need different treatments.

Preliminary evidence suggests that individuals with a background of childhood years trauma who are identified with schizophrenia are much less likely to be assisted by antipsychotic drugs.

However, even more research study into this is needed and also, of course, any person taking antipsychotics should not quit taking them without clinical advice.

It has actually likewise been suggested that if some situations of schizophrenia are really a form of autoimmune sleeping sickness, after that the most efficient treatment can be immunotherapy (such as corticosteroids) as well as plasma exchange (cleaning of the blood).

Yet the emerging picture below is unclear. Some brand-new interventions, such as the family-therapy based Open Discussion technique, reveal assurance for a vast variety of individuals with schizophrenia diagnoses.

Both basic interventions and specific ones, tailored to a person's individual course to the experiences linked with schizophrenia, could be needed. This makes it crucial to check for and also ask people about all potentially relevant causes.

This consists of youth abuse, which is still not being routinely inquired about and also identified.

The possibility for different treatments to work for different people additional discusses the schizophrenia battles. The psychiatrist, person or household that see dramatic advantageous effects of antipsychotic medications normally evangelically advocate for this approach.

The psychoanalyst, patient or household that see medicines not functioning, yet alternative strategies appearing in order to help, admire these. Each team sees the other as denying a technique that they have experienced to work.

Such passionate advocacy is to be praised, as much as the factor where individuals are rejected an approach that could benefit them.

What comes next?

None of this is to claim the principle of schizophrenia has no use. Several psychiatrists still see it as an useful professional syndrome that aids specify a group of people with clear wellness needs.

Here it is deemed defining a biology that is not yet comprehended however which shares a common as well as significant genetic basis across numerous patients.

Some people that obtain a diagnosis of schizophrenia will certainly discover it helpful. It could assist them gain access to treatment. It could improve support from family as well as friends.

It could provide a name to the troubles they have. It could show they are experiencing a disease and not a personal falling short. Certainly, several do not discover this diagnosis helpful.

We have to keep the benefits and also discard the downsides of the term schizophrenia, as we move right into a post-schizophrenia era.

What this will appear like is vague. Japan recently renamed schizophrenia as 'assimilation disorder'. We have actually seen the suggestion of a brand-new 'psychosis range problem'.

However, traditionally, the classification of conditions in psychiatry has been argued to be the outcome of a struggle in which 'one of the most well-known as well as verbalize teacher won'.

The future needs to be based on proof as well as a conversation that includes the perspectives of people that suffer - and deal well with - these experiences.

Whatever arises from the ashes of schizophrenia, it must give much better means to assist those having problem with extremely real experiences.

[emtheloser]

tagged by @artdefines06, finally got around to doing this lmao

1- Name/Nicknames? don’t really have one :,)                2- Height? 5'3 3- Hogwarts House? Slytherin, apparently

4- Last Thing Googled? "image resizer” -interesting 5- A fictional character I’d like as a sibling? PHICHIT ALL THE WAY  6- How many blankets do I sleep with? Just a sheet and a (very warm) duvet 7- Favorite artist/band? Lorde/P!ATD/Declan Mckenna/dodie/Marina And The Diamonds/twenty one pilots/Troye Sivan (all very good, I suggest you check them out) 8- How many blogs do I follow? 170, eh 9- What do I usually post about? shitposts/memes, aethetics, literally anything that catches my eye or I think is interesting 10- Do you get asks regularly? nope 11- What’s your Aesthetic? minty green, colorful sunsets, the ocean

biggest fear: dying (unoriginal i know) current time: 3:03 pm

drink you last had: coke  every day starts with: forcing myself out of bed then getting breakfast favorite song: that’s a hard one, but one of my all-time favorites is Brazil by Declan Mckenna ghosts, are they real? nope  hometown: Atlanta in love with: Music  jealous of: good artists killed someone: what?  last time you cried: few months ago middle name: Tove (it’s Danish don’t ask) number of siblings: 1 one wish: for bernie to be president person you last called/texted: my friend emmye questions you’re most asked: how do you pronounce your last name? reasons to smile: knowing there’s people who actually care about me  song last sang: City Of Stars from La La Land time you woke up: weekdays: 7am weekends: 9-10 underwear color: blue vacation destinations: I’m going to New York in May but I also really want to go to London worst habit: picking at scabs x-rays you’ve had: teeth, wrist your favorite food: Pizza (so generic ik) zodiac sign: Cancer

[milquetoast-on-acid]

Bastille Day, A Reactionary Post

Battlestar Galactica S.1 E.3, Episode Review

Tigh as a functioning alcoholic The episode opens up with Tigh starting off his day with a couple of shots. And just how easily it is for him to function on a normal level with that alcohol running through his veins.

It's interesting to note that despite finding water in Water they are down again or hadn't found enough water. This is a nice and wonderful contrast to a little known sci-fi show that RDM previously worked on called Star Trek Voyager. In which they never ran out of torpedos, food, water and had a endless supply of scuttle crafts. Just ask Chakotay about that last one.

Solving the water crisis...with criminals I love Laura here. She takes charge here as President. There still is a power struggle here between her and Bill. And she doesn't back down, nor does she defer to him here. Even though things are better between them and they have started to bond and find some common interests. It is vitally important for her to maintain power. That she can and will.

Also her response to Billy suggesting Anastasia go with the crew to the prison ship. Mary McDonnell is a master in reactions. Later her teasing Billy is just too adorable.

Laura's hair

Looks like they are still trying to figure out a good hairstyle for Laura. It's better than the mini but looks very farrah fawcett circa 1970's. Not my favorite style for Laura. That'd be season 2 "Laura is dying so she doesn't give too much attention to her hair" so it looks pretty natural.

Choosing sides: Lee, who do you want to be? A Battlestar Commander like Daddy or the President like Mommy?

Lee is a young man who really doesn't know what he wants to do. He has a strong set of morals but I think at this point he doesn't really know who he is. And here he finds himself torn between his father and Laura.

Honestly I'm not quite sure why Bill has such a big bug up his ass about Lee being Laura's representative. Maybe it's a bit of Bill not wanting to lose Lee to politics. Despite having both of his sons follow him into the service, one is dead and the other one seems to be contemplating what he wants out of life. And that just may not be a commander on the battlestar.

Although maybe Bill's point of choosing sides may have to be that Lee will have to pick on whether he wants to be a pilot or a politician. He can't be both. Which of course I agree with Bill on that he can't. But for now Lee will do a bit of both before he has to ultimately decide on who he wants to be.

"If they volunteer but these men are not slaves and I will not have them treated as such."

Also knowing what I now know about Lee. It’s not hard to see Lee being swayed by Laura. She’s very much for democratic rights at this stage in the show and that’s something that’s very much at the core of what makes Lee tick. So she’s someone for him to look up to verses his father’s rigid stance on democracy (he really doesn’t believe in it) especially when he lives in world where taking and giving orders is life. In that world there is no room for democracy.  

I am Tom Zarek and today is the first day of the new era I remember when I was first watched the show last year. There was such a big deal with Zarek's introduction scene that I knew he had to be someone but he wasn't any kind of actor that I had recognized. If you had watched the original BSG then you'd recognize him as the original Apollo.

Apollo verse Apollo

I could never get a handle on what exactly Zarek wanted. Here he pumps Lee for information on any weaknesses between Roslin and Adama. He appeals to Lee's strong morals to sway him towards his agenda. I suppose my assumption would be that Zarek wants power and to gain control of the fleet. Although why, I'm not exactly sure. To have power? Because he's power hungry?

The thing about Zarek is that he always brings up some really great points about the current political situations whenever he pops up. He's got a point that Laura was never elected and that there should be elections. However, he's waaaay over dramatic about it and he is completely wrong that her presidency is illegitimate. Laura's assent into the presidency was in fact legal with her being the next in line for the presidency and there for legitimate.  

The thing about Zarek is his way of going about things to prove his point. He more often than not uses violence to force change and for what reason? For Power?

Boomer and the Chief: a forbidden love story

It's only obvious to everyone that Boomer and the chief are hitting the sheets or rather hitting the deck plates. Their illicit affair is having consequences.

“Your his superior officer, we're at war this is a combat unit and your his superior officer. Put a stop to it. That's an order." 

Tigh is finally putting his foot down and as we later learn Adama knew about their affair and let it go on. Another way that Tigh and Adama differ. Tigh doesn't let anyone get away with their shit. Adama is a softie at heart and really just wants people to be happy. And if that means giving them more room to do their thing than they should then so be it. Also the Irony of what is being said here to what happens in season 4.

Caprica City, Caprica I have to wonder if Caprica is so yellow due to the radiation from the bombings or is Caprica naturally that bright and yellow.

“He's your son.” “He's your advisor.”

Mom and Dad fighting over their kid already. You send the kid in to deal with the situation and what does he come back with? Not the solution that you had in mind. Much like a later episode (which is considered the worst episode of BSG, and you know what I'm talking about) Lee's solution to the problem is not to actually resolve the problem. Instead of dealing with the prisoners he decides oh. Let's let them go and be free men. Even if none of them have earned it. Even if some (lets face it probably all) of them are dangerous.

Lee's compromise is that they are dependent on the rest of the fleet for food and fuel. Yes that's true but what's stopping them from hijacking a transport to their ship and wreaking having on the rest of the fleet. Nothing. 

I will give him that yes, I agree. They should eventually have an election once the remainder of Adar's term is up. But on the downside of this...actions have consequences and the result of Lee's actions means that ultimately Gaius Baltar becomes president. And in a strange twist of fate New Caprica and this shit that happened there is precipitated by Lee.  

Kara and Tigh and the water that was not booze. I love Kara here and her little fake out. By giving Tigh water out of a flask and everyone (including Tigh) thinking that it's booze. This is really Kara's way of coming to common ground with him. Not necessarily resolving their issues but at least they are in a better place than before.

Laura and Lee, 

“The truth is I have cancer.” “I’m going to fight this but there is a great need for secrecy. Whether or not I survive this illness it is a great importance to me that there is a future for the people. And I fear that knowledge of my illness will erode hope. So this has to stay between you and me.” - Laura

“You can count on me.” - Lee

irony...oh Lee.

Love that dialog "Stay Frosty, there Billy." I feel like that was a saying back in the day. Stay frosty. I love it even if I don't know what it means. Stay cool maybe? Don't let shit get to your head?

"Where's your mommy?" - Saul "Dead. Where's yours?" - Useless kid who I forget his name, oh yeah it’s Boxey. What the hell kind of name is that!?

- I swear this kid is so useless except for giving awesome one liners and thank goodness he's gone from the show after this episode.

"Zeus is calling." The first time that Adama is called Zeus, god of Olympus and god of the gods. A pretty fitting title since this show loves mythology and religious references. Adama is the father of humanity (Olympus) and father to those under his command (god of the gods). And the man with (along with Laura) holds the power.

The Sad Bill segment

why so sad?

What I liked about this episode? I was never the biggest fan of Apollo's character but after seeing the whole entire series. I do think I like this episode better than the first time I saw it. We also get introduced to a wonderfully slippery Zarek. Who we always know has nefarious motivations but does bring up excellent points. He's power hungry and able to read people.

What I didn't like about this episode? Wasn't much that I didn't like except maybe the focus on a character that I don't care for all that much. Meaning whiny Lee.

[crhiscornell]

time for a long and ridiculous new years post

I think the beginning of 2016 was decent, besides david bowie dying. that fucked me up for a few weeks, and it was extra strange for me because it was the first celebrity death that i’d been alive for that sincerely bothered me. but i was relatively happier than I had been in a long time, and I started listening to AFI again, which was weirdly a positive thing. it led me to become friends with some incredible people, and if not for deciding to listen to afi again, i wouldn’t have even come across any of them. 

the biggest thing lurking in the back of my head 24/7 was the fact that my bff was going to be moving across the country at the beginning of summer and that was (and is) a huge bummer since i’m a needy piece of shit, but at the same time i’m proud and happy for her cause wow she’s a smart badass and i love her... i’m gonna stop because of privacy issues

almost the end of spring and like 2 days before the deadline i applied to the college i’m currently going to because i absolutely DID NOT want to stay in state, but between the cost and my parents being all guilt trippy and shit about me leaving i ended up only being 3.5 hours away from my home town. 

and then the rest of the summer went by and essentially everything that could’ve went bad did go bad. and this is going to sound like self-pity, which it probably is, but i found out my grandpa has cancer, i didn’t get the job i wanted, my bff was a thousand miles away, and someone i loved very much died the day after my birthday. i forced myself to ignore all of that as much as possible.

starting college was pretty great, but mostly the part where i’m not in a tiny town full of weird people and criminals and the part where i don’t have to consult my parents for everything, and i’ve been vegan since i moved into the dorms. i made one really good friend who i’m very grateful for; almost everyone else i’ve met in college has managed to irritate the shit out of me. but she gets me, and we can make shitty depression jokes together. 

i started seeing a counselor who just sits and waits for me to talk and every twenty minutes she’ll suggest something, so that didn’t help me as much as i would’ve liked.

this fucking year has been full of losses. i’m still trying to find the time and energy to fully deal with everything that i’ve been putting off. i watched matilda with my little brother a few days ago and started crying bc i used to watch it with my aunt when i was a kid. those are all bad things. 

but there are good things too, even if they don’t feel as massive as the losses. i started going to drag shows and wearing blue lipstick. i made fantastic new friends, and i went to a theater with big, soft reclining seats. i found an okay job. winter break brought my best friend and i together again. i would go in depth but it would be too gay for the public

my biggest resolutions for this year are to finish healing and to save as much money as possible.

[gsasustainability]

Eilidh McEwan, Highly Commended, Sustainability Degree Show Prize 2021

FINALE 

 For my final project in third year I designed a traditional funeral home however due to COVID this project was cut short and I was left feeling uninspired to continue it. The inciting incident which made me reconsider this typology for my final year was the passing of my granddad during lock down. Due to the restrictions surrounding care homes we weren’t able to see him before his passing and we also weren’t allowed a funeral afterwards. Not being allowed to participate in or hold such an important event put into perspective the importance of these types of spaces.

After deciding to design a funeral space in fourth year I revisited my old work. I quickly realised that my third year work didn’t challenge the social and cultural issues surrounding death which we face in western society. In the UK I feel we have an outdated and rigid way of looking at death, it is still very much a taboo subject. Our fear of death is perpetuated by the current funeral industry which works in a profit focused business model instead of a one modelled around empathy, community and compassion. Designing a traditional funeral home would mean designing a space has an outdated way of approaching death. This is not what I wanted this space to be. During my research I learned about the term Memento mori - “remember death”. A Momento mori is an object kept as a reminder of the inevitability of death, this can materialise in many forms, commonly it is seen as a skull, ring or coin. I wanted this space to be its own Momento Mori and ‘remember death’ in a positive way.

From this, ‘FINALE’ was born. FINALE is an an open and safe death positive space. The building features multiple levels and zones catered towards different aspects of death. Each zone allows people to come to terms with their own morality in different ways, no matter what stage in life they are. I chose the name finale as it ties in with the history of the building, as was a purpose built cinema build in 1922. A finale is a term given to the ending of something often exciting or spectacular. I think Western society would benefit from viewing death more as a finale, focusing on a celebration of someones life rather than the loss of it.

I feel there is a misconception surrounding death and grief that it begins after the person has passed. During my own experiences of grief, I realised that it began as soon as I acknowledged my grandad was seriously unwell. Months went by from that moment to his eventual passing where I was both experiencing grief and anticipating it. My research discovered that 40% of women found the pre-loss stage to be more stressful than the post-loss stage. This lack of support led me to research Death doulas. These individuals provide non medical care and support for the person and their family before, during and after their death. Everything from where they envision themselves resting to what music or poems they want recited. Throughout the dying process, they check in with family members to alleviate their stress and once the individual has died, they guide the surviving members through the grieving process. Including a Death doula space in my building not only empowers the dying to take control of their last moments but it also allows the deceased’s family the time and energy to properly grieve. The death doula zone has an indoor garden and kitchen area where users of this space can spend time independently.

This space also features two ‘deathbed rooms’, one which replicates a hospital room and the other a bedroom. Not all of us can have the luxury of dying at home and so I wanted users of this service to be able to curate and contemplate their deathbed so that when the time comes they feel safe and surrounded by familiar material objects which give them comfort. The majority of the Doula service is conducted inside a curtain railing system which can accommodate four smaller tables in individual curtain pods, or one large group in a singular pod, making the space accessible for 1-1 meeting as well as meetings with large families.

Something I specifically wanted to incorporate into the Death Doula service was a space for digital death. Our increasing digital presence is becoming a second life, so it makes sense that once we die it is like a second death. Social media accounts which were once a centre of communication from you becomes a source of communication to and about you after you die. Digital death is is a relatively new concept which acknowledges this fact and encourages people to organise their online information and assets and take control of their digital legacy. I chose to incorporate digital death into my space with individual pods. These glass pods are wrapped in wool felt which absorbs both high a low-frequency sound waves and the gaps maintain an open and airy feel. Users would come into this space and organise which accounts will be shared to a loved one to memorialise or manage, and which ones will be deleted after the user has passed. This can include online banking, social media, cloud storage, purchased digital content and email accounts. The inspiration for this space came from my dissertation research. In my dissertation I research objects of death and mourning throughout history and if these objects are successful in a digital format… and often times they are. Memorialised accounts act as a powerful digital destination for grief and are increasing in popularity.

The death industry has a lack of sustainable death options. The funeral industry in the UK is estimated to be worth around £1 billion annually with over 600,000 funerals taking place each year. Many of the practices upheld by this industry are not only damaging to our relationships with death but also have a massive environmental impact. In one year globally, the funeral industry uses 4 million acres of forest for caskets, 2 million tons of concrete for burial vaults and 800,000 gallons of Formaldehyde for embalming. Formaldehyde is considered to be in the top 10% of the Environmental Agency’s most hazardous and damaging chemicals, it is also known to cause cancer. Moreover, our current use of cremation also releases mercury vapour, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and carcinogens. I have swapped fire for water cremation. This is an environmentally friendly alternative where the process of alkaline hydrolysis is harnessed to break a body down into its chemical components. The resulting liquid contains amino acids, sugars and salts and can be used as plant fertiliser. When compared to traditional cremation, alkaline hydrolysis uses 1/8th of the energy and leaves less than 1/4th of the carbon footprint. Water cremation drastically reduces the greenhouse gas emissions and the water used to reduce the body is less than the average person would consume in 3 days of life.

It was important to me that the water cremation space was a disability accessible space and that the experience was the same for everyone. The first ramp from the waiting area to the function room is wide enough for multiple family members to walk side by side, comforting each other and the second ramp which brings the bereaved back to the reception is single file, giving an opportunity for individuals to focus on their singular identity and their unique relationship with that person. The water cremation space holds witness cremations which means once the bereaved enter the space they will be able to dress the casket, normally with flowers or pictures, and then view the cremation. Viewing a body has many benefits to the bereaved, a chance for final recognition and a time for everyone to personally say goodbye. I also wanted the option to open this intimate space to the public in a controlled and educational way. The ceiling is actually a void space which has a curtain that can be opened or closed to allow complete privacy.

The first floor compromises of a community space, an event space and a death design retail space. I wanted to create a space in which people who are grieving can distract themselves and connect with the world around them. Originally I was using the Kübler-Ross model which is more commonly known as the five stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. However after my own experiences of loss I found this process be too linear of a process and I don’t think it accommodates different types of grief. This led me to research the ‘Dual Process Model of Bereavement,’ This model suggests that there are two types of stressor that are associated with grieving: loss-oriented stressors and restoration-oriented stressors. Loss-oriented stressors, are stressors that come from focusing on and processing the loss of the person who has died and our relationship with that person. This includes everything from looking at old photos, yearning, remembering, and reminiscing. Restoration-oriented, on the other hand, has to do with attending to life changes and doing new things which distract from feelings of grief. A crucial part of the Dual Process Model is the concept of oscillation. Healthy grieving means engaging in a dynamic process of oscillating between loss-oriented and restoration-oriented coping. A griever will oscillate between confronting the loss and avoiding the loss. My aim for this space is for it to embody the restoration oriented stage of grief. This is an open and airy space which aims to help the grieving try new things and reconnect with the world after their loss. On the occasions that the crematorium curtains are open, this space will be still be open to the public, but it will be used to witness the cremation service below.

[ntrending]

Can you overdose on weed?

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/can-you-overdose-on-weed/

Can you overdose on weed?

Too much marijuana can cause extreme confusion, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and unintentional injury. But dying from the substance alone is very unlikely, if possible at all. (Deposit Photos/)

Last month, a coroner in Louisiana claimed to have recorded the first death exclusively caused by weed.

Toxicology results for a woman who died in February suggested she was killed by an excess amount of THC, the primary psychoactive component of weed, the coroner, Christy Montegut, told the New Orleans Advocate. Montegut failed to find anything else—drugs, alcohol, disease—that could have attributed to her death.

Stories about a supposed first-ever lethal marijuana overdose occasionally crop up. They’re usually followed by rebuttals that no, as far as we know it’s not possible to die from ingesting too much THC at one time—and dying from another cause while having THC in your system is not quite the same thing.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a government agency that handles drug use and addiction, there has yet to be an adult death attributable solely to marijuana. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also states that while using too much marijuana can cause extreme confusion, emotional distress, increased blood pressure, heart rate, severe nausea, or unintentional injury, “a fatal overdose is unlikely.”

A prominent argument for the impossibility of death by weed is a statistical one: Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. Half of U.S. adults have tried it in their lifetime and one in five young adults under age 25 report having used marijuana in the past month, according to 2017 NIDA statistics. In 2015, 36 million Americans over the age of 12 reported using marijuana in the past year—which, according to rudimentary statistics, would have resulted in dozens of fatalities if the odds of blazing yourself to death was even one-in-a-million.

“Whether you can die from an overdose of marijuana, the answer is no,” says Alex Manini, an emergency medicine clinician specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. But can someone overdose on marijuana? Manini says yes. Technically, an overdose happens any time someone takes more than the normal or recommended amount of a substance or drug.

And people show up in emergency rooms all the time after overdoing it with cannabis, Manini says, with all kinds of serious symptoms: panic or anxiety attacks, passing out, rapid heart rate—even an increasingly common condition where cannabis users can’t stop vomiting.

“You (can) think of taking a hit as a therapeutic dose, to get a feeling of euphoria, maybe the giggles,” he says. Or you can smoke so much that you feel like you need to go to the hospital. “I would call that an overdose. Will you die, if you’re a young, healthy person? Probably not.”

Marijuana is still a Schedule I drug, according to the federal government, and technically still doesn’t have any currently accepted medical uses. Still, numerous states have moved to legalize marijuana for recreational or medical treatment (mostly for conditions such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, seizures, epilepsy, and chronic pain). We also know—from a 2016 analysis of marijuana samples from materials confiscated by the Drug Enforcement Administration over two decades—that the potency of THC in marijuana has increased at least threefold since 1995.

Altogether, this means that more people have more access to strong cannabis. For most, that just increases your probability of getting higher than planned. But for some people, doctors say the advent of widespread, highly-potent cannabis products increases their risk of an overdose.

One group of at-risk individuals is children, who can accidentally ingest cookies, brownies, and other treats infused with super-concentrated THC doses—especially in states where recreational marijuana has been legalized. In a 2016 study, researchers investigated 430 calls to the National Poison Data System from 2013 to 2015 related to cannabis edibles and drinks; they not only found that the number of such calls increased year over year, but they also noted that a quarter of the cases involved children under the age of five, who, unlike adults, don’t know an ordinary looking treat might contain several doses of THC.

“That was a big finding,” says Dazhe Cao, a co-author of the study and a medical toxicology doctor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. For those young children, cannabis exposure typically made them sleepy or uncoordinated, or affected their breathing (in two cases leading to intubation).

“That could [be a] potentially life-threatening situation for a child,” says Mount Sinai’s Manini. “Children are not little adults”—their bodies process all drugs differently than even a more petite adult would.

Synthetic cannabinoids—man-made chemicals sometimes called Spice or K2—have also complicated the safety of all cannabinoids. When Manini and colleagues compared the clinical effects of synthetic weed with regular marijuana in 87 emergency department patients, they found those who ingested synthetic cannabis fared far worse, according to results published in 2016.

“They had much worse cardiovascular effects, much worse agitation,” he says. The two products are chemically different, he explains, and so their safety should be considered separately. “The safety of marijuana has been borne out over decades. This is a whole new world.”

And even if marijuana itself won’t directly kill you, there have been deaths associated with cannabis products, Cao says. In a 2014 case, a 19-year-old Colorado man died after he ate a cannabis cookie, began behaving erratically, and jumped off a fourth-floor balcony. His autopsy reported marijuana intoxication as a chief contributing factor.

“It is very controversial to say whether someone can die from marijuana or cannabis products” Cao says. “They’re not always direct causes of deaths.”

Cannabis use can also increase heart rate and blood pressure, and it can be a risk factor for some people who have pre-existing heart-related conditions, whether they know it or not.

In one 2014 study, a group of French researchers examined 35 medical cases and concluded that cannabis could be a potential trigger for cardiovascular complications in young people. And when researchers from the Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia analyzed a national database of patients, they found the prevalence of heart failure, stroke, coronary artery disease, and sudden cardiac death, were significantly higher in patients with cannabis use, according to results published in 2018. After adjusting for a number of factors including age, sex, diabetes, and tobacco or alcohol use, they found cannabis use remained an independent predictor of both heart failure and stroke.

Scientific evidence also links long-term marijuana smoking with chronic bronchitis and respiratory symptoms like coughing and wheezing (there is not an established association between smoking weed and the incidence of lung or head and neck cancer). The long-term health effects of vaping remain mostly unknown.

If you have pets at home, you might also be wondering how marijuna might affect them. For obvious reasons, the rise in edibles can pose a danger for your furry friends. Cats and dogs are increasingly exposed to THC-containing products, especially chocolate-containing treats, according to a 2018 examination of calls made to the Pet Poison Helpline. Because dog brains have more cannabinoid receptors than human ones, the study notes, they could be more sensitive to marijuana’s psychoactive properties (common signs of poisoning for dogs include lethargy, impaired balance, vomiting, and increased sensitivity to motion and sound). As seems to be the case with humans, the paper also notes synthetic cannabinoids may result in more severe symptoms for pets, such as tremors, aggression, and seizures. But to be clear, the authors note that “fatality in pets from marijuana intoxication is extremely rare” and that no deaths associated with marijuana had ever been reported to Pet Poison Helpline.

All of this is not to say people should be afraid of marijuana, Manini says, or should lump it in with other commonly-used substances that regularly kill people (on average, 130 Americans die every day from opioid overdose and six people die daily from alcohol poisoning in the U.S.). Across the nation, most people over the age of 12 don’t see a great risk of harm from monthly marijuana use, according to statistics from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“It probably has a better safety profile than a lot of other illegal substances,” Cao says. “The perception that this is dangerous is dropping. But you can absolutely overdose.” Actually dying from that overdose however, is far less likely—if at all possible.

Have a science question you want answered? Email us at ask@popsci.com, tweet at us with #AskPopSci, or tell us on Facebook. And we’ll look into it.

Written By Marion Renault

[sarahburness]

Create More, Consume Less: A Surefire Way to Feel More Excited About Life

“Creating means living.” ~Dejan Stojanovic

We live in a consumer culture. We love to eat, drink, and be merry—while binge watching whatever’s trending on Netflix and getting a dopamine hit for every item added to our cart on Amazon Prime.

We love to take it all in—information, entertainment, status updates, news reports, substances, and an endless array of stuff. There’s never a shortage of things we can consume, often to keep our minds distracted and our feelings silenced.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love a good meal, a Jim Beam or two, and an afternoon spent zoned out on my couch, Penn Badgley haunting me hour by hour as his stalking escalates from creepy to criminal.

And I’m all for staying educated and updated, on issues both important and inane. I’ve spent hours obsessively researching all things health-related, and I’m embarrassed to admit that my search history reveals more than a healthy number of celebrity websites, if such a number exists.

I also understand the instinct to shut down for a while. Our minds can get intolerably loud, and sometimes, external demands can be overwhelming. A little disengagement can be a good thing in a world that often requires us to be on.

But there needs to be some kind of balance. If we spend our whole lives ingesting information and scarfing down an assortment of stuff meant to soothe us, we’ll never have the time or space to connect with ourselves and create the things we want to create.

I’m not talking just about artistic expression, though I personally feel more alive when I’m bringing some type of creative vision to life. I’m talking about filling the void inside with our own curiosity, passion, and awe instead of constantly stuffing it with external pleasures.

It may not seem like it in the moment when our shows, social media, or shopping carts beckon, but often the greatest pleasure stems from actively working toward a life that excites us.

What are some things we can create?

1. A mission statement

Many of us go through our days without a sense of purpose. We have no idea what we value or what we stand for. We have no idea what we’re really doing with our lives, or why.

Nothing feels exciting when nothing is fueled by passion or intention.

In order to feel alive, we need to be connected to what matters to us most individually. I’m not talking about a specific career direction, though that could be a part of it. I’m talking about creating a blueprint for how you want to show up in the world so you can be the person you want to be and make decisions that feel right for you.

For example, my current mission statement is:

To live with wonder, courage, compassion, and integrity, prioritizing family, freedom, adventure, and creative expression.

Knowing what I value, I’m better able to decide which opportunities to pursue and accept and which ones to politely decline.

This doesn’t have to be set in stone. Mission statements change over time as we grow and evolve. So write, revisit, and revise, as often you deem necessary.

2. Art

This is the low-hanging fruit for this list. Yes, art is something you can create! Big shocker! But it clearly has a place here nonetheless.

Especially if you’re tempted to consume to avoid your feelings, why not channel them into a creative project instead? Creativity is not only calming and healing, it’s a journey back to the simplistic joy of childhood—when you had countless Lego castles, doodle-filled pages, and chalk street art masterpieces to show for your time. And the possibilities are endless.

You could color, sketch, paint, sculpt, sew, crochet, knit, make jewelry, build something, or write a poem, short story, or song. You could art journal, scrapbook, create a magazine collage, try origami, or make something with unconventional materials (duct tape, wine corks, doll parts from your childhood).

If you tune into your feelings and curiosity, you’ll find endless inspiration, and if you look around, you’ll find endless materials to use and recycle.

It’s worth noting that quite frequently, consumption fuels creation. I can’t tell you how many scripts I read and films I watched when preparing to write my first screenplay. Every movie helped me learn and sparked ideas for my own story and its execution.

Though it’s also wonderful to enjoy art for the sake of it, there’s something thrilling about consuming with a purpose. Not just to be entertained but also to be inspired—so you can create something personally meaningful to you that will hopefully move and inspire other people to live and a love a little louder.

Little feels more exciting than chiseling a piece of your heart into something beautiful that will endure, while simultaneously motivating other people wake up and live more fully.

3. A medium for self-expression

We live in an exciting time for self-expression. No longer do gatekeepers get to decide whose words deserve a platform. Anyone can start a blog, vlog, or podcast to share their thoughts and views with the world.

The beautiful thing is, it’s not too hard to get started. You don’t need a fancy site or special equipment to get going—though those things are nice to have, and they’re things you could always acquire in time, if you like the medium you choose and decide to see how far you can take it.

With a little googling you can easily find a way to get set up today, for free, so you can move out from the shadows and share what’s in your heart and on your mind.

Not only will you give yourself an opportunity to express your feelings and feel truly seen, you’ll likely also help other people through your honesty and vulnerability. Yes, you.

If you think your voice doesn’t matter, consider this: a blog can reach only one person, and yet be the one thing that saved or changed that person’s life. You never know who you’ll help or inspire by finding the courage to speak up.

4. Memories

At the end of it all, when we look back on our lives, we won’t take a mental inventory of the dollars we earned, followers we gained, or items we checked off our to-do list. What we’ll see is a mélange of moments—times when we loved, connected, got outside our comfort zone, and engaged with world with wonder and enthusiasm.

These moments generally don’t just fall into our laps. We have to actively create them. And sometimes that means stepping outside the realm of our routine and actually doing the type of things we daydream about.

There’s a scene in the movie Stepmom (spoiler alert!) where Susan Sarandon’s character, Jackie, knows her cancer is getting worse and her time with her family is limited. So she does something out of character and beautifully touching: She wakes her daughter Anna in the middle of the night and takes her horseback riding, in the snow.

Anna says she’ll never forget this moment, and how could she? She’s nestled close to her dying mother, on a horse, in nature—when the night’s at its most peaceful and she’s usually asleep and unable to see it. Together they feel completely present and alive in this magical moment of connection and awe.

We can all create these kinds of moments. We can create magic for ourselves, someone else, or both, if we’re willing to prioritize it and put in the effort.

5. Possibilities

I suspect a lot of us feel pretty discontent with our lives. Perhaps Thoreau conveyed it best when he wrote “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

Most of merely survive and think of thriving as a luxury unavailable to the majority. I’m not going to lie; it’s easier for some to thrive than others. Some of us are born into more ideal circumstances, and some get more advantages.

But perhaps the problem isn’t just that not everyone gets the same chances, but also that not everyone takes the same chances.

If we settle into a pit of discontentment and do the same things every day, nothing will ever change.

The only way to make our lives any better is find and seize opportunities instead of waiting for them to come to us.

Make the call. Send the email. Sign up for the course. If you can’t afford it, research scholarships or free or cheap alternatives. Do something to create a new possibility for your life, whether it pertains to your work, your hobbies, or your relationships.

Then the next purchase you make might be something you need for this exciting new path, not something you want because you’re miserably unhappy with the status quo of your unfulfilling life.

6. New connections

We live in an increasingly disconnected world. We spend more time holding devices than hands and look into more screens than eyes, as the Dulce Ruby quote suggests. This is such a lonely way to live. But it doesn’t have to be like this. Not if we prioritize forming and maintaining relationships.

Of course this isn’t easy. It can be challenging to pull ourselves away from our usual indulgences, get outside our little bubble of comfort, and get present in the world beyond our own door. But it’s oh so worth it.

One day last year I was a feeling a little down about my limited social circle where I live near LA. I’ve moved a lot, I travel a lot, and I work from home; and I haven’t done a great job prioritizing relationships where I live.

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed on this afternoon, trying to distract myself from the sadness in my heart, when I decided to do something different: I navigated to a group for Highly Sensitive People, that contributor Bryn Bamber had actually recommended in a post about sensitivity, and I introduced myself, asking if there was anyone near LA.

Several people responded, including one who’s become a great friend—someone I can relate to on a deep personal level. Someone who gets me, who I get back. And not only did I make a new soul connection, I also opened myself up to new possibilities: because of her, I began volunteering at a nearby community theater, where I hope to volunteer again in the future.

It can feel awkward to initiate conversation with someone new. Or at least it feels that way for me. But as Frank told Don in The Green Book, “The world is full of lonely people afraid to make the first movie.” Make the first move. You just might change two lives.

—

In the words of Ferris Bueller, life goes by pretty quickly. Friendships evolve or fade, jobs run their course, kids grow up—and before you know it, we’re looking back at our years, either feeling proud of everything we created or wondering how and why we squandered our time.

I don’t know about you, but I want to prioritize the things that truly matter to me and fill my hours with purposeful actions that fill my heart with peace, passion, and excitement.

I want to make beautiful things, share empowering ideas, and collect more moments of awe than there are grains of sand on the beach.

I also want balance.

I want abundant movie marathons, occasional retail therapy sessions, and Sunday morning mimosas.

I want trashy magazines in the tub, an endless rotation of used true crime books, and a full Netflix queue that seems to scream, “I know what you like, Lori, I get you.”

But I want to consume those things intentionally. Not to avoid or escape anything, but just because they’re fun.

I think that’s a reasonable goal for all of us. To be a little more intentional, a lot more engaged, and in the end, far more excited about the lives we’re living.

About Lori Deschene

Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha. She’s also the author of Tiny Buddha’s Gratitude Journal and other books and co-founder of Recreate Your Life Story, an online course that helps you let go of the past and redefine yourself. An avid film lover, she recently finished writing her first feature screenplay and would appreciate advice from anyone in the industry to help get this made. You can reach her at email (at) tinybuddha.com.

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The post Create More, Consume Less: A Surefire Way to Feel More Excited About Life appeared first on Tiny Buddha.

from Tiny Buddha https://tinybuddha.com/blog/create-more-consume-less-feel-more-excited-about-life/

[doublenegation]

Too Early

Being too early in a night club feels like dying young. You can see the whole thing stretching ahead of you, all the things yet undone sort of fading in a distance you will never reach.

Only young men seem to go early, stuck somewhere between the cloak room and the toilet, struggling for what was it again? The night is still young. Too young, like it will go on forever until suddenly it no longer does, and here you are -- stuck waiting for something, anything to happen.

There's a faux arcade machine in the corner, lonely and not exactly retro -- I might be the only person in the room who knows what it fails to properly reference, 90s rave aesthetic weirdly displaced by an 80s that never was, begging for change, any change, loose change, admonishing responsible drinking while sporting that accursed deer mascot, rendered unlovingly in a wireframe aesthetic that never was, unartfully ripping off that drag-and-release mechanic killed by ludic literacy and a terrible tendency towards complexity but lacking any understanding of what it's for.

Very videogame. Like a real videogame (made by love, with love), it doesn't know what it is except perfunctory and limited, potential delimited by a marketing budget and ... zero ambition? It feels unfair to judge, I'm sure the good kids at Chloroplast Games with their weak blob logo would have preferred to excel, to push a boundary or two.

But here it is, in a corner, across from the bar, most likely unseen by anyone but those who miss the bathroom queue, make a right too early, find themselves in an alcove populated only by that herbal alcohol mascot and their own misunderstanding.

I suppose part of my ennui stems from going to a rock'n'roll club an hour too early. I should have learned by now -- the party is at least half an hour away, maybe an hour even! And rock? Do I even listen to rock unironically? Am I in a position to judge this scene as anything but maybe something I missed out on ten years ago?

Hard to tell, I suppose I ended up here because the other place was shut and this seemed to have, well, open doors and some people. Maybe it was the girl who briefly held my gaze before her boyfriend arrived and pulled her back to reality?

She might have preemptively lied to me, suggested an impossible connection or at least given my half-drunk mind the illusion of one, her gaze a reminder of what I need but don't know how to get in this strange city with its strange people and strange ways.

I mean, this is just playacting anyway -- I'm not really out tonight, I'm just investing in a potential future, seeing what's up, how it's hanging, so I'll get to sleep okay tonight and not lie awake staring at the ceiling waiting for sweet nothing to embrace me so another day can promise me things it can't keep.

There's supposed to be a dance floor, but it's empty. I paid to access this emptiness -- a pittance to be sure, but it still obligates me to try, I guess, to pretend like I'm out and about; seeing town when I'm really just waiting for tomorrow, the real deal, a potentially chance date with a hairdresser who thinks it's funny she can't pronounce my name.

It's nearly as expensive too. A quarter hour of work to spend what, a couple of hours in this cellar with its post-rock and empty dance floor and cockroach I just stepped on because my peripheral vision is way acute and I can't help myself.

Tomorrow is the real deal, the real illusion, the current fantasy, the affirmation that I'm doing something other than typing out future blog posts on my phone in this cellar on this park bench as far as I can get from that Jägermeister fauxcade game only I can put in its proper cultural context.

We're 30 minutes into the cellar life and there is still hardly anyone here, meaning my initial assumption is wrong -- there's no life after midnight. It happens at some witching hour yet to pass, one I might not even get to see before I decide I've had enough and go home to find that sweet bedtime I've lied about wanting to avoid, like I've lied to myself about the severe blonde at the bar looking at me, like I've lied to myself about maybe being in the mood for rock'n'roll.

Turns out my gut feeling is true -- rock'n'roll is a state of mind divorced from the presence of that cultural touchstone rock'n'roll. If I like rock'n'roll, it's because I like that confidence and that swagger and that noise and not because I strictly enjoy real guitars and real drums.

The other people literally just left, which lends me courage to stay just a little longer to see what they will miss, if anything. I like the idea of exclusively witnessing potential lost to others. It's my inner hipster god justifying itself -- to boldly go where no man thinks there's any fun to be had, to hope that the DJ is not as lonely as me, on this early November night in a city I don't know.

Hey, worst case I have produced my most spontaneous piece of prose in whoa, a long time, wrapped in my language, a critical language, one that is knowing and distant in lieu of knowledge and distance, wrought under the very limited auspices of autocorrect. And it only cost me a fraction of the expensive alcohol I bought as soon as my invoice was reimbursed this very afternoon, the sweet Mammon I've waited for all week, months worth of rent and -- well, this.

I might be too advanced for this chance experience. I might need something less haphazard, something I know I want instead of something I maybe think I need. Healthy, though -- I have chosen to be disappointed in an effort to discover myself.

The DJ is doing good. Maybe because it's empty. He's wringing out some noise I haven't heard before, like he's loving it despite being unheard -- maybe because he's unheard by anyone but me here on my park bench that doesn't belong here in this place I don't know.

Once upon a time I would have paid for two people to nearly enjoy this emptiness but now I only spent what, one percent of my monthly fun-budget having this epiphany, this realisation that you can't win 'em all but you can reflect very, very eloquently on that belated epiphany, that sudden realisation that your princess is in another castle.

A couple just stumbled into the cellar. They are ... well, nearly gone again. They are not sitting down to write essays and reflect upon the empty dance floor. They went towards the toilets (or maybe the fauxcade machine, my view from here is limited) and then vanished.

No, this is just a trial run, a ... premature anti-climax, a preemptive disappointment before tomorrow's big whatever, the real club night where maybe I'll find my hairdresser in the crowd and we will kiss desperately because we're no longer young and want some beauty while we can still offer some of our own.

I will be on drugs and I will listen to music more suited to my state of mind, to my ironic distance, nothing as forceful as rock or whatever this undead amalgam should be called. I will lose myself even if it's not to her.

The couple found the benches too. I suppose that is the death-knell, the final proof that I am not an outsider here as I touchscreen-type this little screed. I am just ahead of my time, settling into the non-event I could see not unfolding before me even hours ago, even before I left my new home to find something new, something I'm not bored by or angry at yet.

They are smiling and laughing. They have, like me, paid to be here and like me they are making the most of their bad investment, listening to the really quite great music and trying to ignore the fact no-one else is.

Entrance came with a free drink. I should go to the bathroom then claim it and have a cigarette. Maybe I will emerge to find the dance floor filled. Or maybe I will sow the seeds of that throat cancer I so desperately hope won't eat my voice before I get famous.

Either way, the new me is yielding something, rock'n'roller or not. This is something. This would not have happened just a week ago, and the price is very, very low compared to the cost of all those empty moments I have wasted these last few years.

Love is a lonely thing, and the more time I spend alone the more I come to understand, accept and -- yes -- kind of relish in it. The couple are talking over the loud music and I am typing this on the world's worst typewriter as I bury my rock'n'roll persona and head past the advergame, past the empty dance floor, towards the toilets so I can emerge and provoke that cancer I hope will pass me by and grab someone else by the throat so I can live forever.

Hey, unlike the DJ, I am free to leave. And in the grand scheme of things, I am paid more for my time here than he is.

On my way out, I stop for that smoke. A cute Italian girl asks me whether there’s anyone dancing downstairs. I let her know it’s dead. She’s disappointed, since she wants something -- anything -- but reggaeton. I argue in favour of reggaeton, my contrarian streak flaring up like a shooting star, and she thinks I’m funny.

I leave, and I get all the way home (which is only a ten minute walk, granted) before I realize I am drunk and I am not sleepy, and I decide fuck it, I might as well stay out. I head back.

She’s not there anymore. I convince myself this was just a trial run. Tomorrow is hairdresser day, and I need to be awake, alert and in a party mood for that. I am only half-convinced, but really -- I don’t have much else to believe in. So I live and I learn. And I won’t go out too early again. Except maybe tomorrow because I wanna be there before the place fills up so I can spot her or she can spot me and I can say hi, I’m here, just like I said I would be, and she will smile and it will be like tonight never happened.