#you would not believe the amount of medical professionals that see being/becoming disabled as a personal failing

[somelazyassartist]

> develop ✨ mystery disorder ✨ that makes it so that if I move too much my organs start eating themselves alive. Have disorder for over a year in which it progressively gets worse from the roughly one episode a month to nearly daily now

> cars become especially bad for me due to how jittery they are, every time I get in one basically guarantees being bedbound the rest of the day or longer to recover

> put up with car ride to go to hospital, the 6 minute drive is so bad I feel like I'm going to die

> "Doctor can you fix my mystery disorder I want to be able to move again"

> Doctor says it is bad I can't move. Doctor agrees that it's best not to agitate it on purpose, so limit leaving the house. Doctor says they can't do the tests for my mystery disorder

> "Why can't you do the tests for the mystery disorder it says on your website you can do those tests"

> Doctor says website is old and they stopped doing those medical tests but haven't updated that in their info page

> "Why did you stop doing these tests when clearly there are people here that need these tests"

> Doctor doesn't know

> "Where can I get the tests done if you won't do them"

> Doctor says I have to drive 3 hours to the big crowded city with lots of curvy bumpy roads to do the tests, go through all the procedures, and then drive 3 hours back. This is only for the first appointment to see if they can figure out what I have, and if they find something I will have to do this again every time I want to get treatment for it

> "You just told me to limit being in cars because they make my organs fall apart"

> Doctor confirms I shouldn't be in cars

> "But my only choices are to either purposefully trigger the mystery disorder for 6+ straight hours a day for every day I try to figure out what it is and get treatment and therefore put my body into a constant state of eating itself alive, or be essentially housebound until it magically goes away on its own because you won't treat me"

> Doctor says yes

> "Are there any other ways of finding out what this is"

> Doctor says no

> "What can I do about this"

> Doctor asks if I've tried not having the body I have

> "Sorry wow no I've never thought of that before I'll give it a fucking shot, sir"

[mymanysituations]

The renaissance pieces of a rebuilt man. (So, I did the drugs)

After consulting my Doctor and having the crap scared out of me at what my future would bring if I decided not to go on a medication, I decided against my better judgment to go on a dx.

The drugs out there for Multiple Sclerosis are claiming to help prolong our lives, but with no guarantees either. These drugs aren’t aimed at curing and really aren’t even specialized towards a certain illness. They are just to “maybe” have a few better days while dealing with your illness.

I was scared and simply did not know anything that was going on in my new mixed up hard to read world of chaos and dismay. Besides being just diagnosed with a neurological illness (if this wasn’t scary enough) I had Doctors telling me how crippled my life would become and how life would never be the same.

They told me if I did not take drugs that I would not last but a few years and those few years would be severely disabled. So yes, out of fear and putting my trust into professional's hands I hesitantly chose a drug as my new treatment plan.

Like I stated I have tried these drugs, not all of them but a few. I tried enough of these drugs to know and see how they changed me not only for the worse in health, but also for the worse in my own demeanor.

The drugs gave me many of their side effects and brought upon more flared days, bringing along more symptoms than I ever have had, with some of them never to leave me.

 

The renaissance pieces of a rebuilt man. (So, I did the drugs)

Not everyone will have these reactions and allergies to the medications, but the problem is you do not and will not know until you have the drug in you. First of all, the drug needs time to interact with your system, then it needs the time to build up in your body. Now by the time it has set and built up in your body you will see if this drug is for you or not. Remember though if you get sick from it or have a horrible reaction there is not a whole lot you can do. If you decide the treatment is not for you then you must detox from your previous drug and start from scratch.

When I say detox, I mean a full detox. I was throwing up bile for days and filled a six-gallon garbage bag with pure bio in one night. I felt like I think a junkie would feel. I had the sweats and constant shaking. While sitting in the dark and scratching my itchy skin so hard I was leaving marks and bleeding.

For me it took a while to start getting more symptoms.

I believe what happened was the medication I had been taking had built up in my system to a point of overkill. It felt like and I still believe that it was, an overdose on this medication.

I never understood how they could prescribe these medications all the same strength and all the same amounts to take?

My point being for example a man six foot tall at 200 pounds is taking the same amount of drugs and the same dosage of those drugs as a five-foot five teenage girl? How do they know if it is not enough for him? Or if it is too much medicine for her? It just never made sense to me.

How can this not be monitored better before we have to poison ourselves and our bodies to tell you, your medication is no good for us?

 

The renaissance pieces of a rebuilt man. (So, I did the drugs)

My prescribed treatment had made me extremely ill and had placed me in the emergency room throwing up bio.

I was throwing up straight bile for hours on end in a four-day streak.

After I recovered from the illness of a two-week crazy detox.

Illness caused from these drugs and what I believe to be an unguided overdose that had flooded my body with the medication's toxic ingredients.

My wife and I had a long discussion and wrote down pros and cons of being on any type of drug compared to being on an all-natural treatment.

Again, neither of us like drugs in the first place, but we were torn thinking if we didn’t choose one of the suggested treatments from my neurologists that it may affect my health in a negative direction.

Although we knew it might be a risk in saying no to any drug treatment, we had also seen how my quality of life was depleted from the drugs I had tried.

I remember saying to my wife it felt like I was dying when I was on the drugs and that they just caused me to sit in a vegetative state all day with no purpose what so ever in life. She agreed with me seeing me every day like this, that there had to be a better way in taking this disease on.

So, we decided to stay away from all the drugs from that point on.

We felt I would be better off with supplements and vitamins and some type of homeopathic therapy. Again, the research was on and in full force.

We looked up what vitamin helped with what ailment and the same for what foods to eat, what minerals and or supplements to take and how often.

This was a start to a new begging in my life and this journey of a warrior battling an invisible disease.

 

The renaissance pieces of a rebuilt man. (So, I did the drugs)

How they tell if you have Multiple Sclerosis or not is by having the patient get an MRI done. If the MRI shows lesions of three or more then they consider you to have Multiple Sclerosis. Multiple (many) sclerosis (lesions) the lesions are like scars and with each lesion depending where they are comes the new scar causing some type of neurological issue from the lesion made on the patient's nerve(s).

It doesn’t matter how many lesions you have but really matters where the lie. Lesions can corrupt, cut off, or cause misfiring of whatever or however many nerves they lye across.

Your neck is thinner and narrower than your brain so neck lesions are a lot more crucial because of the limited space can cause a lot more damage and loss of function.

Think of a lesion the size of a pin head, now think of that pin head somewhere on your brain. Where ever that pin head is, is the nerve it will affect because that pinhead lesion is a picture of a wounded nerve or nerves. So, a pin size issue in a broad area can completely miss all the surrounding nerves, or may land on one, or may land partially on one and another next to it.

Now with the same scenario put the pin size problem on your narrow neck. You see the difference in how many more nerves it will affect. A lot less space with the same amount of damage being done as was on the much larger of spaces the brain.

So really each person carrying this illness is unique and no diagnosis are the same.

The severity of damage is caused by the lesion. The lesion is a damaged nerve left without its protective covering leaving the nerve in a very vulnerable position to be damaged and can lead to misguided information sent to the mind.

The severity of what nerves are being affected is how they are being affected. How damaged are they? And for how long has the damage been taking place? Are just a few of the questions leading to what the nerve are ultimately affecting and or damaging.

 

The renaissance pieces of a rebuilt man. (So, I did the drugs)

To recap I tried Multiple Sclerosis drugs a few times and a few kinds as well and none worked for me.

I had bad reactions from the medicines and the steroid treatments they had both caused me to develop symptoms I have still to this day.

The drugs got me violently ill and caused me to call off and be un-reliable at my job. While becoming so mentally and physically ill that I had to retire at that same job I really loved to do and worked so hard to succeed at every day.

I became handicapped in a blink of my eye. I woke up to go to work like every other day. I made my dry toast for morning along with my smoothie I would bring with me every day for lunch at work. I drove to work and started my morning with no clue of what would be waiting for me right around the corner. About fifteen minutes into my shift (where I was alone in my department) I started to feel ill and extremely off balance and light headed.

I made it to the phone and was able to page my night shift manager just in time. The next thing I remember was him coming to get me off of my walk-in freezer floor my clothes soaked from the perfuse amount of sweating caused from the vertigo and anxiety were frozen on the icy floor. My manager helped me up and called my wife to come pick me up.

One day was business as usual then that same night was like I was abducted and taken into a new life.

A life that I had no clue in the world of how to utilize and what to expect of as well.

It was still my outer shell that I wore yes, and it was still my looks and my skin. Except now I had a whole new inside with a slew of problems caused from nerve and pain and damage caused from MS.

These problems would be forever mine from that point on, into the rest of my life.

After this flare at work, I would now, instead of being an essential part of society be declared as no use at all in the common work forces community.

Instead, now, my new definition would be a part of the permanently disabled persons classification.

 

The renaissance pieces of a rebuilt man. (So, I did the drugs)

I officially became disabled from what I believe were the drugs that I had been on for the past year that were given and pushed on me by my Doctor to take.

I trusted the Doctors since I never even heard of my illness before yet alone would know how to handle and fight it. I also let down a guard witch I usually kept up and on high alert.

I had the hopes that they could explain this illness to me and help me understand such an incredible blast of news.

I also had the hopes that my Doctors would have and give me what I would need to carry on in life, for a somewhat normal life.

I did not know that I would become pretty much a lab rat in their records for finding a cure by testing their medications on me and expecting me to report back to them with details on all that had gone wrong while I was using those medications.

I was now fighting an invisible enemy (My illness) and listening deeply to the people who I put my trust and life into their hands.

This only led me to become an official disabled person who was no longer needed in the work style of this world.

I had very little energy even the sound of other people's laughter would physically drain me.

I could not have a conversation either way, I had developed speech problems slurring and stumbling over my words making it hard to understand what I was trying to say.

Then my cognition skills were compromised and I could not understand most words and what most people were trying to say to me.

On top of the two disadvantages for conversation it would also exhaust me to a point of full chronic fatigue from trying to speak my point across, or trying to listen to someone else with their question or story. It was just way too much at this time and took way too much of my valuable and very low amounts of energy.

[thalenteot17]

The elephant in the room

Today we take the bull by the horns in a discussion of substance abuse and addiction in South Africa.

What is substance abuse?

I am sure all of you can define this one, but for the purposes of reflection, substance abuse occurs when you use alcohol, prescription medicine, or legal or illegal substances too much or in the wrong way. While addiction is a disease, meaning you can’t stop the addiction even though that behaviour causes you harm (Dumain, 2022).

Addiction is not specific to substance abuse; it is repeated engagement or behaviour that the person can’t stop. People can be addicted to many things, including but not limited to sex, money, drugs, pornography, and the list is endless.

Substance use is a well-identified diagnosis and is included in the Diagnostic Statistics Manual. It is characterised by consumption of substances in large amounts, wanting to cut down but failing to, impairment in other roles, and continued use despite the use being harmful (APA, 2022).

Types of substances used.

Alcohol

Cannabis

Hallucinogens

Inhalants

Opioids

Sedatives

Stimulants

Tobacco

Painting the picture.

Globally

Substance abuse is the major contributor to disease, disability, and death; 3.5% of the world population is a drug user.

Substance use disorder is the second largest burden disease, second after depression. This interestingly goes hand in hand, with depressed people abusing substances to ‘escape’ reality or their depressors. Alcohol is the leading cause of death for men of working age.

South Africa

This is where it gets more frightening.

Drug consumption in South Africa is two times higher than the world norm, with 15% of our population having a drug problem. According to SAPS, 60% of reported crimes were related to substances. In our country, drug abuse costs us R20 billion a year, which is why the World Drug Report has declared South Africa to be one of the drug capitals of the world.

Why do people use substances?

We have never really given this much thought.

But these reasons pitch up: a good effect, self-medication, curiosity, performance enhancement, or a desire to fit in.

In exploring how people start, my brother and cousins come to mind; they are now well-known alcohol addicts. For them, and I believe this is true for many of our South African adolescents, they started by drinking on Christmas and on New Year's Eve. There seems to be something about these days that screams alcohol. While I may not have remained innocent in this regard, yes, I have in the past had a drink or two on these days. Research shows that drinking in South African children is as early as 12 years of age (Mail and Guardian, 2022).

And from drinking on these holidays, which I now realise is even allowed in some families, they may not want children to use substances but have exceptions towards these days. Sadly, for my cousins, this started as a silly ritual, fun, or curiosity, and after a few years of this behaviour, they started drinking on weekends also. Whilst I may also be part of the stats that had a drink before the age of 12, I’d like to just share that my first drink was from an elderly person. Although I look back and it is funny now, with just that, you realise how messed up society is. There are many more children who are still being encouraged to use substances, and there is this misconception, which I see with most of our black population, that if you drink alcohol, it is a sign of manhood. It seemed exciting then, but right now as I write this blog, I am repulsed by this attitude.

Today I am a university student just about to graduate to become a health professional. I can’t help but wonder how my life would have turned out had the idea of drinking alcohol grown with me. Many people are homeless today, many people are dropouts, and many people have caused much distress to their families today because of using substances. My brother is a high school dropout who has been lucky to get good employment but, due to his use of alcohol and marijuana, would lose his job. That is a young adult choosing to lose a job in a country with a unemployment rate of 32.9% (Stats SA, 2023).

He is at home and relies on community piece jobs; he has been stabbed once in a tavern; he is abusive to my mother, who feeds him; and as I write this blog, I will soon hear that he has done something.

I turned my blog into a diary entry a bit there, but this has been my reality with substance abusers.

Substance abuse has caused much damage to our families. With our grandmothers being disrespected and our mothers being insulted in their own houses, it is time we fight this surge!

If you are suffering from substance abuse addiction, please know there is help; there is treatment; it just needs you to realise you have a problem and need help.

Feel free to visit this link for list of support groups: https://www.accsa.co.za/single-post/getting-free-help-for-addiction-and-related-disorders-in-2022

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5-TR. American Psychiatric Association Publishing.

Dumain, T. (2022). What Is Substance Abuse. WebMD https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/substance-abuse#:~:text=It%20occurs%20when%20you%20use,other%20hand%2C%20is%20a%20disease.

Special reports (2022). Should alcohol be in schools? Mail and Guardian. https://mg.co.za/special-reports/2022-06-10-should-alcohol-be-in-schools/

Stats SA. (2023). Beyond Unemployment – Time-Related Underemployment in the SA Labour Market. Statssa.gov.za. https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=16312#:~:text=South%20Africa

Stellio5. (2022). Getting Free Help for Addiction and Related Disorders in 2022. ACCSA Main Site. https://www.accsa.co.za/single-post/getting-free-help-for-addiction-and-related-disorders-in-2022 Turnbridge (2017. Impact: What is the

Impact of Addiction? - Recovery Research Institute. https://www.recoveryanswers.org/addiction-101/impact/

[swamp-spirit]

Am I Depressed or Just Lazy?

It’s the question that haunts most disabled people, whether the disability is physical or mental. Is it my fault? Am I just not trying hard enough? How do I know? 

It doesn’t help that everyone has their own opinion, opinions your accommodations and aid depend on. Do you need help, or do you just need to try harder?

Well, here’s my answer for you, an answer that has been very important for me: The question is wrong.

To get into why, let’s discuss different kinds of limits. (note, many disabled people have more than one, if not all of these. this is not an attempt to ‘rank’ disabilities, and all come with their own unique range of issues)

OBJECTIVE HARD LINE

This is something you can prove. You can go into the doctor, do a test, and have them clarify that this is a fixed, provable limit. For example, if you are paralyzed from the waist down, that’s a hard line. No amount of luck or willpower will let you walk that day. You might have a form of aphasia that makes you incapable of forming coherent sentences. If you allergic to gluten, you’re allergic to gluten.

SUBJECTIVE HARD LINE

This is a consistent, predictable limit that you know, but is not an exact, easily proven fact. For example, ‘if I hear about a car accident, I have a panic attack’. It’s more difficult to prove to external sources, but fairly easy to recognize internally.

UNPREDICTABLE HARD LINE

You know your disability has a clear, observable consequence, but you can’t say exactly how much you can handle before it hits. For example, if you walk to much, your hip freezes up, but you don’t know how much walking will cause it. You may know going to crowded events give you sensory meltdowns, but not know how much you can handle. There is no “I can go to your party for exactly eleven minutes”. 

SOFT LINE

These revolve around energy. Maybe your executive function issues make it hard for you to do homework. Maybe your chronic pain means going shopping leaves you tired. This is where spoon theory becomes popular. Everyone has physical and mental struggles and limits.

-----

The problem is, everybody has soft lines. Everybody gets tired if they push their bodies. Everybody gets stressed or sad or overwhelmed. There’s no exact measurement. 

It makes a lot of us push ourselves towards our hard lines. For example, I struggle with chronic pain and exhaustion, and, at a certain point, faint. After years of being told I was faking it, being dramatic, just needed to push through, starting to actually collapse was the first time people began to realize there was something wrong. I still don’t know how to believe my own body, I don’t know how to forgive myself for not pushing, so I push for the limits. Once I faint, then I’ve finally proved I’m trying, that I’m not just being dramatic or lazy. Mental illness is particularly hard to quantify, and many people are driven to self harm trying to create some proof that their pain is real.

Disabled or lazy? 

What do we do if the answer is lazy? We don’t want to be one of those bad disables who uses our health as an excuse and doesn’t make changes.. Maybe you can just push through it. Maybe if you just HATE yourself enough, you’ll be the person you want to be.

On the flipside, maybe it’s your disability. Not your fault. Out of your hands. No point in trying to fix it.

Obviously, neither of these are healthy places to stay, but if the two options are ‘it’s my disability and I have no control’ or ‘it’s my fault and I could fix it if I cared’, what else can you do? It also makes us lash out at hope. After all, if you can get better, isn’t it... kinda your fault that you aren’t? Aren’t you choosing to stay sick?

Because here’s the core problem: You are like this for a reason.

What is lazy? There’s this attempt to boil ourselves down to what’s ‘us’, the core traits open for moral judgement, and what’s ‘not our fault’, experiences outside us that shape our actions. It’s particularly obvious in the way we discuss criminals.

But we’re all the way we are for a reason. Every asshole has mental and social reasons to be an asshole. Nature and nurture, baby.

So what? None of it’s our fault and we should do what we want and blame other factors?

Of course not, but the reverse isn’t any better! Let’s look at a common issue:

I don’t clean as much as I want. Is it my disability, or am I lazy?

If you’re lazy, what do you actually do? Well, you stop being lazy! You buck up and Do The Dang Thing!

But if wanting to do it was enough, you wouldn’t be worrying about it in the first place. Maybe you’ll force yourself to clean for ten minutes, but the real thing you ingrain is self loathing. Stop being lazy. Stop being lazy. Stop being lazy. Hate yourself healthy.

That’s not constructive because you’re fixing the wrong problem. So what do you do? How do you give yourself agency without basing it around guilt? How do you change without shame?

. Instead of asking if your problems are ‘real’, here’s what I recommend:

1. Why am I not acting the way I want to act?

Don’t accept any answer that has moral judgement. Cut the word lazy. It’s useless. Don’t ask if it’s ‘your fault’ you have Type II diabetes, if you ‘should be able to’ pay attention in class. Cut moral judgement from the process.

Actually understanding why you act the way you do might take time, research, and thought, but changing behavior does!

Example: Why am I eating so much junk food when I know it’s making me feel worse?

Bad answer - I’m depressed

Worse answer - Because I’m a glutton with no self control

Good answer - My depression makes me seek out temporary highs from food because long term highs aren’t working, and I have self control issues that mean I often don’t act in my own best interests.

2. What are my barriers?

Once you’ve identified what’s stopping you, get into more details. If you find doing dishes overwhelming, why? What parts of the process do you find overwhelming or uncomfortable?

For the more general answers (motivation, energy, etc), what are your barriers to the solutions? What steps might help with your depression and what’s stopping you from taking those? Why don’t you do your physical therapy?

3. Is this something I can change? Is this something I can change now?

Earlier we talked about hard lines. Those come back in here. Some things, even with unlimited time and resources, remain fact. It’s not ‘giving up’ to accept a hard ‘cannot’. That said, be careful not to listen to mental illness ‘cannots’ in this situation. For example, I have been told by professionals I will probably always need psyciatric medication to be functional, no matter how good my self talk and lifestyle is. Accepting that, I think, is healthy. It would not be healthy, however, to decide that I ‘cannot’ have a good life.

But you do not have unlimited time and resources. When I said ‘what are your barriers’, plenty of you probably went “MONEY! IT’S MONEY, YOU ASSHOLE” Sometimes it means knowing an issue can’t be addressed until you have money/time/surgery. 

It’s okay to put things on the backburner. If you’re trying to figure out ‘how do I keep from being homeless next week’, you might decide ‘how do I eat more vegetables’ is not your most pressing issue.

You can also decide a fix isn’t worth the cost. Maybe you could afford knee surgery, but you don’t think the amount it would improve your life would be worth the expense or risk. Maybe you could take the stairs to class, but it would leave you too exhausted to pay attention.

Sometimes you realize ‘I want something more than I want to fix this’, and... that’s okay. Sometimes you aren’t ready for a change. Sometimes you don’t need to change. But if the change really is something you want:

4. Make a plan that directly confronts your barriers?

You’ve already broken your barriers into small, objective issues. Now you can start working on those issues. 

If you know you need to eat better, and your main barrier is impulse control, don’t plan to ‘stop eating junk food’. Figure out healthy, easy snacks you like and leave them in plain view.

Find ways to make chores easier. Learn to cook while seated, try playing music while you clean, find what works for you. If it doesn’t work, try something else.

Talk frankly with the people in your  life. Try to help them understand what your barriers are and make them allies in overcoming them. “I know it’s important I do this, and I am trying. Here is the specific element I am struggling with. Do you have advice for that?”

I particularly love this conversational tactic with doctors. Here is a conversation I had with a lot of doctors:

Doctor: You need to fix this habit. Me: I know. I’m sorry. Doctor: It’s really important. Here’s why it’s important.

I would get upset and defensive that the doctor seemed to think I didn’t care, and that the solution was just shaming me into caring more. The doctor would probably see me as unwilling to change.

Here is the conversation we have now:

Doctor:  You need to fix this habit. Me: That’s a priority for me too, but I’m really struggling with x and y hasn’t helped. Do you have any advice that helps people with x?

This either gets me advice on my actual problem instead of just being shamed for not fixing it, or it forces the doctor to change the topic and perhaps redirect me to somebody with more experience.

Write down lists of issues you want to address with your doctor. Focus on concrete steps and goals, and celebrate every win. People might not see how hard your fight is, but if getting out of bed in the morning is a fight, you have every reason to celebrate it.

But your barrier is NOT that you are lazy. It is not that you are bad or stupid or worthless. You cannot hate yourself healthy.

Your struggles are real, and the steps to overcome them are based in understanding, agency, and support, not self loathing.

[phoenixfire-thewizardgoddess]

I think, given how covid played out in the initial days of infection, and even deep into it, when we STILL had people like "it's a hoax" and "you can't make me stay home/wear a mask/limit my right to shop!" etc

that every future pandemic or zombie or alien apocalypse fic... now needs to follow this particular trend, until it becomes an accepted trope

The first case(s) come to light. The world splits into different factions

You have the people directly affected and their families, frightened and afraid for their lives/loved ones and not knowing what will happen. Because it is an unknown and there was no preparation.

You have the people who hunkered down like it was doomsday who had sort of the right idea? Maybe a little disappointed the enemy is microscopic and not somethng they can shoot.

You had the poor who knew that every step outside their homes was a threat to their lives and those of their families, but someone had to bring in money and food.

You had the middle-class who split between staying home to be safe and making random trips to the store for things, and those who refused to acknowledge any issues.

You had people from the last group who also decided to hoard as much food and items they could, knowing it could disadvantage everyone. They make "I can't believe they're making you work during a pandemic!" statements at the counter.

You have the rich, who hunker down in their mansions and cry on the internet about how hard things are. Their servants and stylists and bodyguards are sent out into the wild for things they want.

You have the wealthy brats, who think being able to travel to another country in pandemic/apocalypse is a bragging point and they try to get clout on social media.

You have the the leeches and the snake oil salesmen. They are the landlords who double rent and evict people to the streets when they cannot go to work, they are the people who charge desperate people for a 'cure' that is a sad lie. They are the vampires of hope and future happiness.

You have the false matyrs. The people who speak the words of the gods but line their pockets with the money of the desperate and faithful, who they claim they can save or heal or whatever it takes to build another mansion for this 'humble servant'. You have the followers, of different levels of the socioeconomic system, who all cling to them and pay their 'tithes' to seek favour with a god who apparently cares nothing for them unless they pay the subscription. They are prey to greed and cruelty.

You have the Deniers, who claim it is a hoax and cannot see how the 'sheeple' are so fooled. They proudly hold protests about wanting shops to open, claiming they are the oppressed here. They will likely die, or have blood on their hands.

You have little people in small streets and towns and suburbs all around the place who did pull together, they barter from home to home so no one has to go to the shops. You have the helpers, who put themselves on the line with every precaution possible, to try and help the vulnerable, the elderly, the home-bound.

You have the people in their fields who fight through every day to try and save as many as they can, cure who they can, and even just hold the hands of those who are passing so they do not leave alone. You have the medical professionals who are working hard, you have the scientists who are frantically searching for the how, the why, the what will fix it?

You have the cruel. Like the leeches and snake oil salesmen, but they have Power, they are the tools of martial law. The ones who think that the world going to hell is subtle permission to show greater brutality when there are not as many eyes on them. They are the arms of the Offices Above us all, and they are soulless.

You have the media, who report whatever truth they are allowed to by their channel's owners.

You have different countries who respond either with pro-protect the people, or using generic shows of appreciation for their health and general service workers who are hostages to the situation.

You have the aholes who think its fine to hoard vast amounts of sanitation/safety items and try to gouge people for the chance of not dying, what little money they do have. They are rarely disciplined for their crimes.

You have those trapped in places they cannot leave, knowing that one little contagion or careless action or mishandled item, and they all die. Like nursing homes or prisons or hospitals. You have those in poor mental health who are trapped without outside help, the disabled who need supplies but they're all gone, those in domestically abusive households who have no way to leave and the more stress the angrier They get.

You see the corporations leering down on the common folk like gods witholding a lifesaving boon until the appropriate amount of sacrifice is made to them. You want to spit in their faces for their greed, but you cannot risk upsetting them, or others may miss out.

And each stage is a rollercoaster. It starts, things peak, some countries react and are proactive, others do not. Cases rise rapidly, spiking, and again and again.

Then things stabilise, but no, a spike again.

And again. And again. There is no time, in this void of worrying if the world will end. And then you hear of the selfish actions of someone who wanted to breach quarantine or who left the doors open 'for some air' and let the zombies in...

And you cannot imagine how they can do this. But there are so many.

And people die.

And then it calms, it plateaus. Not great, but holding and the world gets hopeful. The vaccine is here, maybe. A weapon to shoot down the alien ships, maybe. The sun is rotting the zombies now.

But it's not over.

Some countries go back to 'normal'. The new normal at least.

Acting as if things are not still at crisis for other countries, as if people have stopped dying because it is no longer here.

But everyone is changed. Everyone is wary. Even the loudest dissenters still shuffle into self-isolation if there is another lockdown, another siren to announce potential worry is here again...

There are so many characters and viewpoints in this ongoing pandemic/apocalyptic event, so many facets of humaity that have been seen, positive and disgusting. Cruel and kind.

AS of yet, we don't know how it will end, as it will not until all countries are vaccinated, until no cases have been seen for more than 6 months. Then, that is the time people will breathe a little easier, and not before.

When that will happen, who can say.

But for the genre, I think we have proven beyond doubt that there will always be a boomer or a karen arrogantly slamming their hand on a bell for service, even with a hoarde of zombies bearing down on them, while minimum wage workers crouch behind the counter and hold one another in fear, begging the gods that the zombies bypass them in favour of the loud one.

And as the boomer/karen hits the ground, yelling for police, they will see the workers and point at them. Drawing attention to them. Killing them as good as if they'd pointed a weapon themselves.

With rage in their eyes, the employees can do nothing but glare back at the foolish person who has brought doom to them. They are shackled to the counter and cannot escape, and this entitled bastard has killed them...

Perhaps a hamfisted allegory, but, seeing a maskless someone approach during quarantine periods and not being able to just fucking glen 20 them in the eyeballs would be terrifying. Or when a customer sticks their head around the plastic screen??? Or starts yelling about their right to not wear a mask or use sanitiser or....

[sas-afras]

re: synth goop being a finite resource

(warning! this is almost entirely pseudoscience, i don’t know shit about genetics and cloning, and the science in fallout is basically magic anyways so who gives a shit really)

tws for: dehumanization, medical abuse & trauma, body horror, eugenics, and ableism.

(i’m gonna be talking about the institutes views on disability & “”genetic purity”” wrt synth construction, but know that i absolutely do not agree with any of their views. they are monsters, and this is being written from the perspective of a disabled person who’s been mistreated by medical professionals & dealt with casual ableism their entire life. if the topics i’m going to discuss here make you uncomfortable, i’m not gonna be offended if you don’t read! take care of yourself)

i mentioned in my earlier post about how synths are treated in the institute (and later in my post about super mutants and how the institute kidnaps wastelanders) that gen 3 synths are usually processed once they go beyond “peak functionality” to recycle their biological components (usually around 20 years barring any injury or other defects) and create entirely new synths.

this is because the Synth Goop (aka the stuff in the big kiddie pool in the middle of the robotics division- why doesn’t that shit have a railing, by the way? something for another post) is in very VERY limited supply.

the amount they have now is from decades of harvesting stem cells and other samples from Human Shaun and cloning them repeatedly. the thing is- you can only clone something so many times before it starts to degrade and mutate. think jpeg compression, after the 4th or 5th time all the cells end up a little bit janky. that with the fact that shaun isn’t healthy enough anymore to donate (plus all of his cancer treatments compromising the “integrity” of his samples) means that the institute has no way of producing more Goop.

if they tried to continue to clone shaun’s original cells, or use new ones after his cancer treatments, the resulting synths wouldn’t be up to the functional standard of the institute, and the entire synth would have to be completely disposed of so as to not potentially taint the remaining genetic material. and that’s a waste! so the robotics division recycles as much as they can, and only makes new synths very rarely. there is no constant conga line of naked people being born from the synth goop kiddie pool, unfortunately.

(spoilers for SAS below this point)

on a more plot-relevant note, that’s part of the reason shaun wants penn to come to the institute! he does have somewhat of an emotional attachment to them, but the major reason is that he sees their intelligence and pre-war genes to be an invaluable resource for the institute as a whole. he also sees a lot of himself in them- their main character syndrome that i’ve described before (being way too pushy with helping people whether they want it or not, believing that they’re the only competent/capable person for any job, needing to have everything be Right and Perfect all the time) aligns pretty well with his ethics as a person and as leader of the institute. he’s also come to idolize penn, building up a false sense of their character in his head over the time he’s spent monitoring them in the wasteland. family, amiright?

which, of course, horrifies penn. seeing an example of how their life is gonna go if they don’t get a handle on their shit is a huuuuuge wake up call. going to the institute and being enabled by shaun constantly, having him encourage the worst parts of them and eventually seeing how that worldview has affected his actions and made him a monster is uhhhhhh scary as shit. they get serious about improving pretty soon after that, but if they didn’t have the support system they do at the point where they infiltrate the institute, they’d probably just abandon any sense of morality and nosedive into becoming an evil scientist. they’re VERY thankful that people are there to call them out. (especially maccready. him being 100% openly distrustful of the institute and shaun even after penn reports back about how normal everything seems is what prompts them to investigate further and uncover the real horror of how synths are treated.)

i won’t reveal how exactly how penn deals with the institute, because to be perfectly honest i’m still ironing out the details and want to make an ending that gives the synths the justice they deserve. i wrote most of the late game SAS plot back in 2017-2018, and updating everything to reflect my improved skill as a writer has been an undertaking to say the least lol

(i also have an au cooking somewhere in the back of my mind where shaun has penn brought to the institute the minute they’re unfrozen, and that uh… doesn’t go well. might expand on that eventually, but it’s much darker than even the main sas institute canon, so i’m probably just gonna keep it to myself)

[adultingautistic]

Hi, I’m self-dxed and pretty sure I have at least some amount of APD, but annoyingly my parents disagree bc apparently I’m “too smart” to be autistic, esp because I’m a med student. At least they recently accepted that I have some problems with listening (mostly because of my struggles in med school) but they still refuse to believe it might be related to autism and instead think it’s a defense mechanism from my being bullied as a kid (which, again, autism ugh) and it’s just so frustrating (1/2)

(2/2) unfortunately, I don’t really know where to go to get a professional diagnosis bc I live in Korea and most resources I can find for getting a professional diagnosis for APD is very US-centric. If you have any ideas where to start, that would be great, but honestly I just wanted to vent bc I wish my parents just listened to what I had to say. Like, you’d think they’d listen to the person who has the most medical knowledge in the family (*eye roll*)

Ask date: September 12th

Ugh, coming out to parents is always difficult, no matter who you are (a med student or not), or what country you live in.  Parents are...parents.  And for some reason, they’re terrified of their children having autism.  The stigma around autism is just so huge that they’d rather you be anything else.  

But, a lot of this stigma comes from lack of education.  I doubt your parents truly understand what autism is.  They have a stereotype in their mind, and since you don’t fit that stereotype, you can’t be autistic.  It sounds like your parents think that autism is the same as an intellectual disability, and this is a really common misconception because not too long ago, the only autistics who were diagnosed were people who also had intellectual disabilities. So it was a common belief, not too long ago, that all autistics also were intellectually disabled.

So your parents are basing their declaration that you can’t be autistic on their stereotypes of what they believe autism is, without actually understanding it.  I’ve noticed that this tends to be most parents, when their child comes to them and tells them “I’m probably autistic” for the first time. 

The best thing for this is patience and gentle teaching.  What I did with my mother was the “state an autistic symptom that I have first, then say it’s due to autism” method.  It looks like this: 

“Hey Mom, you know how I’ve always been an extremely picky eater?”

Mom: “Yes.” (she can’t deny it, she’s called me that hundreds of times!)

Me: “Well, now I’ve figured out why.  That’s an autistic trait, because of sensory issues.”

The first few times I did this, she came back with “Having one autistic trait doesn’t make you autistic.” which was fine, I let it go.

But after I did it 10 times, then 20 times, she started to see it wasn’t one autistic trait I had.  I had 10 autistic traits.  I had 20.  And some of these explained things about me that had been very confusing and frustrating for her trying to raise me.  And slowly my relief at knowing why became her relief at knowing why. 

Now, about two years later, she’s actually reading articles about autism online and sending them to me!

So patience and education and more patience is the best way to try to get allistic parents to understand.  And they may never fully understand, but you don’t need them to, really.  What you really need is to be able to talk to them about it, and for them to listen, which the more they understand the easier that becomes.

As far as getting diagnosed for APD, I am wondering why specifically you zeroed in on that.  Are you trying to get accommodations from your university?  If so, you don’t have to have an APD diagnosis- you may just be able to tell them you are hard-of-hearing, or have reduced hearing ability, and that may be all they require to give you accommodations.  I’m wondering what accommodations you’re looking for that would help you.  If it’s something as simple as getting the professor’s class notes ahead of time so you can study the terms and know what they are before the lecture, you might just be able to ask the professor, and they might just say yes.

If they require medical documentation, you can get a hard-of-hearing diagnosis, which is much easier to get and you can get from almost any audiologist.  While not as accurate of a diagnosis, the accommodations are the same, and so it will help you anyway.

But sometimes just realizing yourself that you have APD can be a huge help.  Once I admitted to myself that I really did have trouble hearing the professor, I gave myself permission to just sit in the front row in class.  That made a huge difference for me, and I didn’t need any diagnosis or to involve the school at all. 

So I hope this advice helps you somewhat with either your parents or your APD.  If you just want to vent about APD I’m here anytime, as I have it pretty badly and I can totally relate.  In the meantime, good luck with medical school!  Do your best to accommodate yourself as much as you can so you can succeed, because the world needs more autistic doctors, that’s for sure!

[missolivialouise]

“When I arrived at Breda station last month to find out why this Dutch city was recently named the winner of the 2019 Access City award, I did something I have not done while travelling in a long time. Instead of taking a taxi, I independently pushed the two kilometres to the hotel, to see whether lack of access for wheelchair users like me is as big a problem here as it is in most other cities.

Usually, a journey like that would be a nightmare, particularly in older European towns like Breda, a city of just under 200,000 people that was an important centre during the Holy Roman Empire. Medieval city centres and cobble-stoned markets are a recipe for broken castor wheels and painful pressure sores for wheelchair users.

On average, the cost of living for disabled people is £583 a month higher than for their non-disabled peers – a substantial amount of which goes towards paying for taxi journeys to mitigate inaccessible public transport options. Travelling is even costlier: disabled people often have to stay in more expensive accessible hotels when hostels and independent bed and breakfasts are not a viable, barrier-free option. Add in the cost of damaged equipment and medical bills from injury, and the feelings of fear and isolation that lack of access creates, and you have a recipe for cities that feel difficult and anxiety-inducing.

But in Breda, I found that the issue had been turned on its head. The city authorities have pulled up all the cobblestones in the centre that surround the Grote Markt and Grote Kerk marketplace and church, turned them upside-down and sliced them widthways. The result: a flat surface for those with mobility impairments, while keeping Breda’s streets just as photogenic as they were before.

It was a literal breath of fresh air pushing myself through Valkenbergpark’s widened, flat pathways. I saw the portable threshold ramps that Breda’s shopkeepers lay out when they raise their shutters in the morning, encouraging business from customers of all abilities – something you rarely see in the UK. I learned that all buses and bus stops in the city are now fully accessible to wheelchair users, with drivers trained in disability awareness.

Once at the hotel, I found wellness and physiotherapy facilities for disabled guests; the accessible rooms had lowered wardrobes and mirrors, wheel-in showers and seated baths. You don’t even have to pull open the main door to enter the hotel: a camera detects your arrival and the door opens automatically. There are even plans to create a tactile navigation line along the route I took, to help visually impaired visitors move from the train station to the city centre through Valkenbergpark.

Over the past two years, more than 800 shops and bars have been checked for physical access. And in 2017, Breda’s main website was made fully accessible for all, including those with sensory impairments; accessibility improvements were made to another 25 websites that aid residents and tourists. Mastbosch, Breda’s forest, is fully wheelchair-accessible, and every two years the city hosts the ParaGames, a large European sporting event for disabled people.

Improvement hasn’t come overnight, says Marcel Van Den Muijsenberg, a fellow wheelchair user who volunteers his time to consult for improved access in the city. Breda has been working on the issue of inclusion for all since the 1990s, with the city’s local foundation Breda-Gelijk! (Equal Breda!) reviewing all new plans and initiatives.

“Most people think that the Access City award means that Breda is the most accessible city in Europe,” Van Den Muijsenberg says. “It isn’t, and the award isn’t about that. It’s about a commitment to improve and partners working together towards this commitment. We have done a lot, but there is more to do.”

Karel Dollekens, a civil servant working on accessibility in Breda, says he believes a willingness to collaborate is what won the award. “We have a wide network of university professionals, city staff and disabled people working together,” he says. “Sometimes we have heart-to-hearts, sometimes we get angry about the reality of projects and the limitations we face, but the conversation always continues. The network has now become a movement.”

After focusing almost exclusively on physical access, Breda’s accessibility groups are widening their focus to improving digital communication and resources to include those with sensory and learning impairments. Breda’s city council is slowly but surely introducing easy-read regulations for all documents and, if an organisation wishes to run an event in the city, it now receives an accessibility checklist that must be complied with.

Van Den Muijsenberg is delighted with Breda’s success, but realistic about the journey ahead and the need to spread better awareness. “Security staff at pubs and clubs need training,” he says by way of example. “Disabled people are being refused entry because staff think they are too drunk, rather than disabled.”

Indeed, perception affects inclusion just as much as a lack of physical access. Ramps and automatic doorways mean little unless paired with social confidence, a welcoming atmosphere and the desire to treat a disabled customer in the same manner as their non-disabled peers. But Breda is heading in the right direction.

“People aren’t disabled,” Dollekens says. “The environment they live in is.””

[paternosterlawgrp-blog]

6 MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS TO DETERMINE HOW MUCH YOUR SLIP AND FALL CASE IS WORTH

How much is a slip and fall lawsuit worth? This is a question I hear often, but it isn’t a one size fits all answer. The fact is every case is different and every person is different, so there is not a universal answer. Fear not, though, because every case does have a number, and it is predicated on some very serious issues.

To determine what your skip and fall case is worth, the amount you will get at the end of the case, lets determine what factors we have to look at to decide what the outcome will be.

What is a Slip and Fall?

A Slip and Fall accident actually refer to several different types of accidents. One can literally slip and fall. If someone spills some liquid at the supermarket or big box store, for example, and the liquid causes you to slip, it’s a classic slip and fall.

You can also trip and fall. If you were walking through a Las Vegas casino and the carpet on the floor has been inadequately tacked down, or if there were some obstruction in your way that caused you to trip, this would be a trip and fall.

There is also an accident known as a Step and Fall. In Las Vegas, where you often have to walk vast distances to get from one hotel to another, we often see step and fall accidents here. Parking lots that have potholes where you can take a misstep or a broken piece of tile which just catches you the wrong way are step and fall injuries.

All of these accidents fall under slip and fall law.

What is Premises Liability Law?

Slip and fall accidents are a category of premises liability law. Business property owners, under Nevada law, have a duty of care to their customers and to the public. They are responsible for ensuring their businesses are safe. There should be no areas where members of the public could be harmed through no fault of their own.

Property owners must maintain their premises in a safe condition. In a store, for example, there should be no fallen objects on the floor or spilled liquid. In a hotel or casino, there should be no lumps in carpet that anyone could trip over. In rental properties, spaces should be well-maintained. There should be no low places where someone could trip on a sidewalk or holes or defective places in stairs where anyone could trip or slip.

Here in Las Vegas, we have some of the largest hotels and casinos in the world. Generally speaking, they maintain their properties very well. But problems do arise from time to time, and even they miss things. When this happens, they are in breach of the law because they didn’t take the best care in the public – your – safety. The breach in the duty of care means they were negligent in their duties as property owners.

It is the negligence that creates liability for an accident that occurs as a result of the breach of duty of care. If an owner can be proved negligent, and that negligence caused an accident which in turn caused you to be injured, you can bring a suit for a slip and fall under the law.

But what if the owner believes the premises are safe? After all, it is not unheard of for hotel owners, for example, to argue that their parking lots are completely safe, despite a large and uneven crack in it that makes tripping on it an inevitable outcome.

The law turns to a reasonable person standard in these cases. The premises can be deemed unsafe under the law if a reasonable person would believe them to be unsafe. Most reasonable people, for instance, could agree that a cracked and uneven surface of a parking lot can cause you to trip if you aren’t looking directly at it when walking.

What if the premises are safe, but some event or action occurs suddenly makes them unsafe? Couldn’t the owner say that they didn’t know the premises were unsafe because they didn’t check?

In that case, the law also turns to a reasonable person standard. A business owner is responsible for fixing and responding to events or actions that make the premises unsafe if a reasonable person knew or should have known they had become unsafe.

Part of the owner’s duty of care is to fix or remedy the situation within a reasonable period of time, as well. If someone spills something in a store, the manager or the employees should clean it up as soon as possible. They can’t wait a few hours, because the court are highly unlikely to consider that a reasonable period of time.

In addition, if a premises or location becomes unsafe, business and property owners should clearly mark the affected area as unsafe. They can place hazard tape, warning signs, or cones to alert anyone in the area that there is a danger and it is unsafe. Those signs you see in stores about a wet floor when they are mopping is to protect you and them.

Knowing this information, you are now ready to understand what the 6 most important factors to determining how much your slip and fall case is worth.

1)The Amount of the Full Damages

When you are injured by a slip and fall, the full damages you incur are a mix of things that need to be identified and valued. If you went to a doctor, the medical bills you have incurred (not simply what your insurance co-pay may have been) are part of the damages.

Beyond that, though, are the long term effects of the damage. If you are unable to work because of your injury, whether for a short period of time or a long term disability, the loss in income is a damage you have incurred. If your house has to be retrofit to accommodate you because of the injury, that is a damage. All of these are easily identifiable monetary damages you have incurred and will go in determining how much your case is worth.

2) Future Treatment Costs

If you have to continue seeing a doctor or medical professional because of your injury, even if you have mobility, these future costs should not be paid by you, as you were not the one that caused the long-term damage. These costs are directly attributable to the slip and fall case and are used directly in the determination of your cases value.

3) How Much You Have Lost by Being Injured

Lets use an example for this. Lets say someone who was a truck driver slipped on some icy stairs at a client facility when getting paperwork signed to off-load his delivery truck. In trying to save himself, he grabs the handrail, but the ice was there too. He slips and his eye catches the handrail, making the driver blind in one eye temporarily. This sounds like a terrible accident, but at least the driver can still walk, talk, and isn’t completely blind.

Driving a truck requires you to have vision in both eyes, so he can’t drive a truck anymore. This means the occupation he studied for and is getting paid to do is gone. If his livelihood has been impacted by this accident, the loss in income is something that can be quantified and needs to be taken into consideration for his case.

Although the example above is fictional, slip and fall accidents often have severe losses because of the injury, and a good attorney will fight to make sure you get what you deserve for those losses.

4) How Much You Will Lose in the Future Because of the Damages

Using the same example above, what if the driver was permanently blind in one eye. While he can work in the office, they can’t pay him the same wages as if he were on the road. Assuming he earned $60,000 per year on the road and will earn $45,000 in the office, the other $15,000 per year, with adjustments made for inflation and average increases in both roles, will be considered.

The subsequent loss in income over his working years will all be taken into account when determining the future losses for your case. Your attorney will do all the research for you to get you the most they can for your case, but they know how to make all this information highly relevant to the case and the courts.

5) Pain and Suffering

This one is the hardest to quantify, as it relies on every individual person’s state of mind. If you are wheelchair bound because of your accident, and your spouse can’t take care of you in that condition, causing a divorce, that is very difficult to handle emotionally. This falls into the pain and suffering category.

What if you suffer from phantom pains because of your injury for years (or the rest of your life)? There is nothing physically wrong and no doctor can help, but you feel real pain. This also falls into the pain and suffering pool.

Last example (I promise); what if your injury causes you to become depressed. How that makes you feel can’t necessarily be measured in dollars and sense, but you are still feeling some pain and suffering. This is all vital to your case.

6) Hiring the Right Attorney

If you are in a slip and fall injury in Las Vegas, NV, you have options of lawyers who can represent you. The streets and the strip are littered with billboards of attorneys all claiming to be the best. How do you know, then, who is really the best.

You want to choose a personal injury attorney who does nothing but personal injury law. You want someone who has represented thousands of clients in slip and fall cases and knows exactly how to win them and get large settlements awarded in your favor.

At Paternoster Law Group, we believe that nobody who was injured in a slip and fall accident should proceed in dealing with the companies who caused the injury without talking to a qualified attorney first. As experienced personal injury lawyers, we know the games insurance play to get out of paying what you deserve.

Don’t fall for their tricks. You deserve every penny of damages the law allows you to collect. Call our team at Paternoster Law Group Personal Injury Lawyers at 702-654-1111 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation to discuss your legal options. We are conveniently located in Las Vegas and can schedule meetings in person at our office, wherever you are, or via tele-conference. The sooner you meet with us, the better your chances of preserving your rights to recover the compensation you deserve

Source: https://paternosterlaw.com/slip-and-fall/what-slip-and-fall-case-is-worth/

[dizzyspellbook]

answer from aries to 12th house. all of them. please.

oh my god ahahhhaaha WELL OKAY.

aries: what are you passionate about?

I am passionate about making art, connecting with people, and helping others the best that I can. when I can help teach someone something important or help them access their own tools, that’s such an amazing feeling!

taurus: name 3 of your favorite books.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, Circe by Madeline Miller, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. all ABSOLUTE bangers. also fuck u I work at a literature company I can put a fourth book if I want.

gemini: what was the last text you sent?

“i shifted how i was sitting and was like ‘oh stabby, cool’” my friends will know what this is about

cancer: if you could choose your child’s zodiac sign, what would it be?

n/a (don’t want kids)

leo: name something you love about yourself.

I LOVE. how creative I am. I mean I constantly bounce between like five different hobbies and I just love looking at the things I’ve created and feeling proud of myself and remembering how much fun I had making the thing! plus, my art has helped me connect with so many people and has helped so many people and that’s just. ahh. so rad!!

virgo: what’s your #1 pet peeve?

I HAVE TO NAME JUST ONE? LMAO. honestly i think i’ll have to say when people are not aware of their surroundings—whether that’s people walking too slowly in front of me or someone just standing like a dummy in the middle of the aisle/sidewalk like buddy come on people have to Go Here.

libra: describe your dream partner.

my dream partner is patient, funny, handsome, supportive, excited, and understanding! he also has been dating me for over five years. :^)

scorpio: do you trust easily?

this is an interesting one. I... don’t think so? and that’s not because I expect people to hurt me, I just have a lot of walls and a front I tend to put up until I’m close with someone. and scorpio is my dominant sign so hey that’s fitting. I can’t always rationally tell whether or not I’m vibing with someone, but if I notice myself struggling to be myself or behave like I normally would because of my protective walls, I know they’re not a good fit for me. (also this isn’t because I’m not friendly or outgoing, it just takes a minute for people to get to know me a bit deeper. asndgntdn i’m overexplaining lol)

sagittarius: if you could travel to any place in the world, where would it be?

bro uh. you know i see why people romanticize traveling a lot, it’s supposed to be this really revealing experience—and I did get to study abroad in college, and it was a powerful and introspective experience—but now that I’m older and have a job and medications and illnesses and disabilities I just don’t know how feasible traveling would be for me. THAT BEING SAID: it’s on my bucket list to spend a few nights to a week in a cabin with paints and books and just fucking chill.

capricorn: what’s your dream job?

currently my goal is to become an adolescent therapist, but if that doesn’t flesh out, something else in the realm of social work or accessibility. and obviously I want enough time and energy to keep making art!

aquarius: do you believe in aliens?

scientifically, yeah! there has got to be intelligent life out there. spiritually, yes! I tend to think of deities as higher-vibrational creatures that can interact with us—similar to spirits and ghosts.

pisces: describe someone you love.

my mom is nerdy and gets excited about small things, from glitter to videogames. she has almost as many tattoos as me, and almost all of them are geeky references. she and i are both traumatized and chronically ill in similar ways, which I think has strengthened our relationship in my adulthood. though, I was always close with her—she always made sure to support whoever we were as children and teens and give us the resources we needed to succeed. :’)

sun: describe yourself in 3 words.

kind, balanced, sensitive

moon: what’s your favorite song?

Such Great Heights by The Postal Service!!!! it’s been my fav song for like, fifteen years

rising/asc: how would you describe your style?

lazy nonbinary wearing nothing but sweaters as they wait for surgery lol

mars: are you easily angered?

no—and in fact, it took me some time and a fair amount of therapy to be able to access my own anger after leaving an abuser. (though I DO get annoyed easily, see the question about pet peeves lolol)

venus: what’s your aesthetic?

i..... what the fuck is my aesthetic outside of my style. what does this mean. raw art, forests, sunsets, rain, i guess???

mercury: what color do you talk in?

green. sometimes, orange! other times, deep sea blue. but usually green.

jupiter: what moral do you live by?

be the best version of you that you can be, listen to the messages the universe sends you, and enjoy your life. be kind to others.

saturn: what’s your biggest fear?

living a dull, unhappy life and not making the most out of the life I have. making decisions out of fear and not going anywhere.

uranus: are you rebellious?

ok so not needlessly so, but whenever it comes to rules I think are dumb as shit, yes. yes. I was the kid in high school who got straight A’s but talked back to the subs when they were being unreasonable lol. I just tend to think “well I’ll do this my own way” when I don’t like something.

neptune: share one of your dreams.

I want to live in a brick house. I think they are so cute. I want a window nook seat, and a tower/fun shaped attic where a library can be—I want a yard for my doggy and a space for me to paint.

pluto: what’s the biggest thing you’ve learned by far in your life?

people are healing.

lilith: do you have any guilty pleasures?

sure! I like to imbibe in some drink or smoke and zone into a dumb videogame every once in a while.

chiron: have you ever broken a bone?

i broke my nose as a child!

ceres: are you a momfriend?

I used to be, now I think of myself more as a mentor and friend than the mom friend. being the mom is exhausting.

pallas: do you have a good relationship with your parents?

my mom, yes!

juno: do you believe in soul mates?

of course! not just romantic soul mates—there are many different kinds.

1st house: are you confident?

yes! most of the time, lol. until i am outside and constantly looking over my shoulder because ptsd has eaten my brain

2nd house: if you could only keep one of your personal items, what would you choose?

probably my laptop because of all the stuff on it, art programs, etc.

3rd house: do you like to read?

yesss!! see above with my book suggestions. I’m working on Dune right now.

4th house: what does your bedroom look like?

cozy! half messy, half not. we still have boxes we need to unpack at the foot of our bed, but I’ve decorated my dresser with a lot of memorable items—my necklace tree, photos, instax, we have a couple plants, oh and my altar is in here too!

5th house: name your favorite movie or show.

Avatar: The Last Airbender for surreeee

6th house: do you participate in community service?

not currently—while I like the idea of it, I feel like I don’t have the time or battery level with commissions and art and working full time and working out and taking care of a dog.

7th house: if you could choose, what zodiac sign would you like your dream partner to be?

man I don’t like this one, every zodiac sign has its ups and downs and further, combinations of zodiac signs are what make people truly unique—not to mention peoples’ life experiences!

8th house: do you believe in reincarnation?

yes, absolutely!

9th house: what’s your favorite quote?

not to be boring but I don’t think I have one, and I don’t really want to pull one out of my ass for the sake of answering this question. :(

10th house: are you good at public speaking?

surprisingly yes! I’ve got a good blend of professional and cracking the occasional joke.

11th house: what sign(s) is your best friend/squad?

LET’S SEE. we’ve got a cap, a gem, a gem/cancer cusp, a cancer, a libra, and a pisces.

12th house: do you like to be alone?

lmao tonight i hung out with my partner and her date and after a movie i was like “i’m gonna be a party pooper and go to bed and by go to bed I mean get on my bed and draw while listening to music” so yes, I sure do like being alone.

[uhlexsuhmuhchel-blog]

Abortion and the Ban in Ireland

My topic is abortion and the banning of it and I am doing an analysis because I’m passionate about women’s sexual health, rights and the process of which laws get put into place and are formed. In this analysis, I am going to explain the use of pathos, ethos and logos and The NY Times’ use of these rhetorical devices in this article. 

When it comes to the Climate of Fear: When Part of a Country Bans Abortion, one of the main points of the article is that Belfast and Northern Ireland have banned abortions, similar to the laws being set up in Louisiana. Another important main point is that women are traveling outside of the country to have abortions for a variety of reasons because of the laws in place. These women are forced to carry the fetus full term, no matter the conception whether it be rape, incest or even if the fetus could not and would not survive outside of the womb. When it comes to getting caught trying to have an abortion, even if you are pregnant because of one of the previous reasons, women can face life in prison as there doesn’t seem to be an addendum to the law that states otherwise.

The purpose of this article is to inform people of the problems that are occurring in different countries with abortion bans and how this may affect those that are in a place where abortion bans are being put into effect around the country and in other countries. I believe the intended audience are those potentially affected by the abortion ban as well as those who may be in a position to help anyone affected. This also may just be an article that sheds light on the subject as a whole as well and can explain what the women are doing in response to this ban, bringing attention to the illegal abortions as well. Overall that feels like the main purpose of the story. 

Ethos is the use of credibility or trust to influence the reader and allows the source to give the reader confidence in the source they are reading and gives the reader faith in the journal as a whole and leaves little room for a reader to feel they need to question the information or the source. One piece of information in the article that could be pushed when it comes to ethos is the statement that says “activists worry that even if abortion is decriminalized, the anti-abortion movement will become more aggressive” which doesn’t expand on that statement and doesn’t give any back up for the statement, giving me the idea that the New York Times generalized the statement and spoke for a vast amount of women whether this was the truth or not because readers would trust the statement. 

Another statement that could rely on the use of ethos when it comes to the credibility that the New York Times has is the statement “Several women have been prosecuted after police officers have raided their homes or workplaces” which doesn’t give any support for this information. The lack of back up information causes me to question its validity and the source. 

The next thing I want to analyze for this paper is logos which is the use of logic, reasoning or proof, one of the examples being the same as one of the last ones I used, being the statement that claims that many upwards of 10 women have been arrested for seeking out a medically-induced abortion. This specific statement makes a large claim but doesn’t back it up with any form of arrest records, or names, maybe even if for confidentiality reasons, this statement should be backed up. There is no proof of these women being arrested for seeking out an abortion or for any reason and doesn’t give the reader any option to do their own research either. 

The next statement I want to include when it comes to analyzing logos is a statement that does include the use of reasoning is the statement that discusses the other choices for women who are looking to have an abortion, stating that there are fully funded abortion services in England, though not all women can make the trip, citing reasons such as disability, domestic abuse or a lack of childcare. This statement presents the solution to the problem these women face then immediately answers the question of “why is this not valid for everyone?” 

I want to analyze the use of pathos now which is the use of emotion and I have two statements in mind as I do so. The first one being the mention of the abuse women face and one woman in particular because she explained her want for an abortion to a counselor while her husband was present. She believed that this would be safe but once they got home, he beat her with a metal spatula and threatened worse but didn’t follow through as she was pregnant. This is an intense statement and a point of tension for a lot of people, men or women when explaining that someone has been subjected to this type of treatment. I believe that the New York Times uses this to tug at the readers’ heartstrings and to gain sympathy from the readers, even those who don’t agree with abortion.  

Another statement I want to analyze is the statement that includes the fact that women are banned from having abortions, even when it comes to death, rape or even incest. I believe that this statement alone shows that no matter the reasoning, there is a reason to be upset about the fact that a woman can not freely choose to abort no matter the reason, but even those in the most intense and dangerous of situations are stuck with carrying a baby to full term and only then can they take the situation into their own hands by choosing to put the child up for adoption or have to attempt to abort illegally. 

Overall, this piece used ethos, pathos and, logos to intrigue the reader as well as keep their attention on the main point of the article. I believe that overall this is a well written, informative piece by the New York Times, meant to bring attention to those who are unaware of the current struggles women in other countries, and soon our own country will be facing. 

                                               MWA 1 Reflection 

Some general concepts I learned during this sequence was how to write sentences effectively and in a way that makes them less bulky as well as getting to the point more effectively. I also learned how to analyze how sources use pathos, ethos, and logos to influence their readers as well as how to use pathos, ethos, and logos to make an effective argument. 

When it comes to the student learning objectives for this sequence we are meant to learn how to compose effective arguments with different sources of information and we’re meant to use writing o explain our personal beliefs, making effective arguments as we do so. It also taught us to provide relevant and important information only, getting rid of any unnecessary fluff that may not be helpful to the points we want to make as writers. 

When it comes to learning how to analyze arguments, I have learned how to see what rhetorical devices the author is using to either break down their argument or strengthen it effectively and I learned that there are certain aspects you need to have in an effective argument, such as effective and correct sources, correct information and a professional and unbiased tone. The use of images, audio and text can help strengthen an argument as long as they are valid and vital to the argument. They can hinder the argument if they don’t correlate well to the information trying to be pushed and spoken about. For example, if talking about climate change, adding graphs of the amount of CO2 being put in the atmosphere could help you make the claim that CO2 is hindering the health of the planet but if you added a comic style photo of a “sick planet” it may be relevant but not all that professional and can hinder the argument. 

My opinion on the argument that I made is still the same, SWA 2 and MWA 1 didn’t change my viewpoint but did make me feel as though I can talk about it more effectively and in a way that seems more educated than it would have been before these writing assignments. I still believe that women's sexual and reproductive health should not be hindered by the government and that no matter the situation, it should be a woman’s choice to make, not politicians. I did learn more about the topic than I did know though I was already well versed when it comes to the topic overall. 

Publishing my work publically didn’t change my perspective on my perspective because my feelings about the topic are ones I have discussed publicly and this is a view that I would keep myself from discussing as it can affect many people in ways that can be life-threatening and fatal. I know that not everyone is going to agree with my views and they are free to do so, which is just a part of having opinions and if someone disagrees with me after seeing the piece, I wouldn’t take offense to it. The only aspect that changed was that I did want what I said to be accurate when it comes to my writing and feelings as I wanted to give my opinion and thoughts in a well thought out way as well as an effective way. 

The technology didn’t change how I formatted this writing because I have previously used media to publish my writing, even if it isn’t something I’m comfortable with it is something I’m used to. 

I can apply using what I’ve learned in this sequence when I go on into the work field and need to form unbiased and professional opinions as well as professional and clear arguments in my career field. I also know that I can observe the ethos, pathos, and logos in many arguments as well as different pieces of writing now that I have learned how to do so and I can use those to form informed opinions based on what I am viewing whether it be the news, social media or even writing. I can use it to make sure that I am informed and know how the author of a certain piece is trying to inform the audience or even to tell if they may be trying to manipulate an audience in a certain way.

Yeginsu, Ceylan. “Climate of Fear: When Part of a Country Bans Abortion.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 Aug. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/world/europe/abortion-northern-ireland-roe.html?searchResultPosition=11.

[hegglespeggles]

Mental Illness, the Honour System, and the Commodification of Human Beings.

Hi. I’m Peggy. I have a mental illness.

    People talk a lot about mental illness. It’s kind of a Thing. It pops up when a teen commits suicide, or there is a mass shooting, but especially at Halloween, where monstrous “psychopaths” and “schizoids” charge at us with their chainsaws from the dark corners of haunted houses and our screens. Particularly, a good chunk of the discussion tends to centre on how to integrate these mentally ill people, with their strange green-skin and their funny antennae, into our society full of humans. I find a lot of this dialogue to miss the point, so like every person with an opinion and a keyboard, I’m going to offer mine.

    I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder when I was 15. When I was 19, those were both were discovered to be manifestations of PTSD from an emotionally abusive and neglectful childhood. I was hospitalized at 16 for a suicide attempt (the most successful in a chain which started when I was 12) and have been in therapy ever since. With the right combination of medications, therapy, and accommodations from my university, I am in my second year studying Music at Western University and have a part time job. I also do musicals with the campus theatre society and do a bunch of writing and composing and occasionally, stand-up comedy. I spend my summers working at an overnight camp and I want to be a music therapist when I finish school.

    I tell you all of this for two reasons. One, that I am not some waif withering away from some romantic disease, like a modern-day Victorian heroine. I am not some tortured saint who is just too delicate for this world. I am loud, and abrasive, I love my friends and strangers with the same ferocity and I give great advice. It just so happens that last week I was also spending about 4-6 hours a day staring at a very specific chink on my balcony because my brain was shutting down and I had no ability to focus and very little awareness of what’s happening around me. (This is what the psychologist-types would call a “Hypoarousal Trauma Response” and it is just as scary as it sounds.) This is a very foreign concept for a lot of people, and before I finish this I’ll probably end up trying to explain it even more, because yeah, part of what makes this such a hard concept to grasp is that even those who suffer from it have trouble describing it. Lumping us all together is difficult for the same reasons lumping cancer patients together is difficult. In the same way that leukemia, brain tumors and melanoma are all vastly different from each other, I could no sooner fully grasp what its like to have OCD, or schizophrenia, but I’m going to accept that your melanoma has different symptoms than my leukemia. Please don’t ask me what I did to catch it, or if I’ve tried this herbal remedy, or tell me that you don’t think that my medication is a good idea, because its messing with my brain. I know it does. That’s the point.

    Secondly, please understand that those with these illnesses are under no obligation to prove themselves to you. I have had many a boss or professor push for details of my diagnosis, to the point where one professor asked for the nitty-gritty of my abuse. And hey, I get it, we all love salacious gossip and exciting backstories on the people around us. But the problem is that what is your fun real-life soap opera, or your next conversation topic for Girls-night-in, that same problem is the reason that I wake up screaming in the middle of the night, or hyperventilate, shake, and vomit until I pass out. It’s the same way that while Game of Thrones is fun to watch, no one would want to live there.  I am offering my issues up as a platform and case study for discussion, and so please, I ask you to pick and prod and ask questions, (As any of my friends will tell you, I have dangerously little filter,) but the people you meet and interact with in the world, you must understand that their struggles are their own bruises to pick at and not yours. These are issues that we struggle to talk about with ourselves, let alone other humans. I understand the desire to verify the truth, but that is a job for professionals, (with all due respect,) not you.

    And that’s the crux of the issue isn’t it? Mental illness is antithetical to our society’s method of dealing with the ill. It’s not a linear healing journey, and its not always a cold that you can muscle through. Submitting the proper paperwork and showing up for disability meetings and the fighting and clawing and demanding the help with is your right (the difficulty of access to which is its own discussion) is something which is difficult and frustrating under the best of circumstances, and is infinitely more difficult when the very nature of your illness is to convince you that you are an unworthy burden, sapping any focus and energy you had to do it anyway. Perhaps more frighteningly, it is an invisible illness. There is no way to tell if someone is faking it or not, and in our empirical, productivity-based society, that is a frightening notion: if some people, not for lack of trying or desire to do so, cannot function at peak efficiency most of the time, how do we measure their worth?

    I can feel your incredulity, but I mean it. We pay a lot of lip service to being well rounded and self-care, which to my delight is becoming more and more mainstream, but for most it’s a lofty dream, on par with being a Best-Selling Novelist, or owning a home in Toronto. But check some twitter bios, and go on some first dates, or a party with lots of people with people you don’t really know, and you’ll notice we define ourselves by our careers, what we do, not who we are. So, what do I say when I spend an alarming amount of time fetal on my floor this morning because I didn’t have the energy to get up, and even if I did, my brain is screaming how burdensome I am to any system with which I interact?

    See, we grew up in this culture too. We internalized that otherness and vague discomfort with mental illness too, often long before symptoms started manifesting. So, all that frustration and confusion at how we can’t just get up and do things, we feel that too. It all adds to the melange of confusion and self-hatred. On top of that, we see the same people who wear their neurodivergence like a shiny new thing which separates them from the normies who just don’t get it. Believe me, it makes me just as angry. I would do just about anything on this earth to be one of those normies. I believe in self acceptance and loving yourself for who you are, right now, but I also must believe in the innate human lust for self improvement, and that we all must take active steps in our lives to better ourselves every day. It’s hard, but it must be done. My illness is not beautiful, but it is also not a flaw. It is a part of myself which a work everyday to improve, and that involves taking hard, humbling looks at how I interact with the world and working hard to turn that into tangible change. Again, this shows us where that tangible change gets sticky: its different for everyone. For me, that means working on my trust issues. In order to tell my friends something as small as my age and birthday, I had to be at least five glasses into a case of boxed wine and spent the next week a broken shell of a human crying in bed as a result. In a culture which vilifies mental illness, and expects objective proof of things, where do I go from here? Surely, this is not my fault, as this was a misstep in an ever-present journey to be the best version of myself that I can be. Likewise, how do I, or anyone around me, know whether I’m faking it? How do my professors know that I am not just blowing off class because I don’t want to go?

    Now of course, I’m lucky. I am a white, pretty, middle-class woman who has a very agreeable personality. This means people are more likely to give me lots of extra chances and help me out. My family had the money to put me into therapy. I’m also lucky that I’ve had lots of experience pushing through the system, first trying to access support on my own when I was 13. This means I have no fear asking for accommodation, and I have the vocabulary to describe what I need. But what about people who don’t fit the key demographic for what we expect mental illness to look like? Or people who don’t know where to start, or think that they deserve it? What about men, who are just as likely to suffer from these issues but only a fraction as likely to seek help? And while we’re at it, what about people who will experience anxiety and depression without it being a full-on disorder? I am a rare unicorn in that I have the support I need, and the self assurance to speak up when I am not getting it. But why should someone in my position, which I stress again, is an almost impossible best-case scenario, be the only person who is allowed to access support to it’s fullest? Even with a well documented diagnosis and disability accommodations, I have professors and bosses who express disappointment in my inability to function. It leaves me wanting to scream “I know! I’m angry at myself too!”

    The best way to explain it is that it feels a bit like having your insides vacuum sealed to the point where breathing feels like trying to pull against the vacuum, being blindfolded and thrown naked into a pool of maple syrup which has thumbtacks at the bottom and trying to make it to some nebulous “other side” of the pool. Meanwhile everyone in your life is waiting on the other side of a door for you and you can hear them telling you that “you should be moving faster,” and that “you don’t have it that bad.” You also don’t want to be doing this, but you don’t know where the pool stops, how to avoid the thumbtacks, or how to move faster through the syrup. You start to wonder if the pool is infinite, is this just what your life is, and how you’ll ever accomplish anything.

    That’s why I need the support. Because its handy to get an extension on a paper when all of a sudden, the pressure of the vacuum seal is too strong, and I need to remember how to breathe. Its really nice to not be penalized for not going to a rehearsal because I was busy fishing a thumbtack out of my foot. And its difficult to describe what’s happening to me when I’m blindfolded, so I have no way to describe where I am. Everyone around me is waiting for me to get to the other side of the room, but they aren’t allowed in, so they can’t see that in order to do this, I have to traverse this surrealist obstacle course. My academic accommodation is someone telling my professors that my room is a bit more difficult than other rooms, and my therapist is up in the spectator gallery, talking me through it from the PA system. Medication is like a pair of flipflops. I’m lucky to have these things, but what about someone who doesn’t know how to work the PA system? Or someone who’s superiors think they’re taking a nap in that room? What about someone who doesn’t realize their room has a pool in it, and now they’ve fallen head-over-foot into it?

    This is why I’m about to propose a mildly radical thought: If someone says they’re struggling, believe them. Give them the benefit of the doubt, that they are actually doing their best. Yes, there will be people who abuse the system, but don’t you think that letting them go, is worth helping people who need it? Otherwise, we run the risk of throwing more thumbtacks in the pool of someone who is genuinely trying to meet you halfway. Likewise, these people are not delicate flower petals who just couldn’t cope with the difficulty of their room. They’re just as capable, and strong as anyone coming out of any other rooms. Maybe their syrup was a bit deeper, or there were more thumbtacks, or to this day they aren’t quite sure of the shape of the pool and they’ve tripped and fallen back in a few times. All that does is speak about their pool. Not them. They didn’t build the room, and they didn’t ask for this room so that you would pity them. Who would want to go through a room like that? All they want is someone waiting at the door and cheering them on, without hurrying them.

    When you live in a society that is timing how quickly you can get through rooms and how far you can get, it’s a wildly daunting task to not only believe that you can get through the room, but that doing so is worth risking stepping on another thumbtack, and making sure that you’re taking the air you need. For me, I don’t know if there will ever be a point where someone releases the vacuum seal, but that is something I can live with. I like so many others, am just desperately yelling to the people on the other side of the door to wait for me until I get there. I know I won’t be able to make it through with the times that other people have, and in our society’s way of measure success, that means I’m not as good. The only way to reconcile this is for us all to realize the differences in our rooms, and that we might not be able to directly compare times. Its frustrating and complicated, that there wont be such a clear one-to-one comparison of our successes, but isn’t it that much more rewarding to know that you’re actually be timed for what you actually have to go through?

    So, my professors won’t know that I’m not faking it. My friends are waiting on the other side, and they’re probably getting annoyed at how long they have to wait for me. All I can do, all any of us can do, is call out to them that our room is a little bit weird, and that we’re still trying to make it to the other side, but it’s going to take a while. I guess I just hope that the world takes us at our word.

[pasteluchiha-blog]

Is Erectile Dysfunction A Warning Sign For Stroke Or Heart Attack?

Could erectile dysfunction be a warning sign that a man might be at risk for heart attack or stroke? David Kandzari, M.D., an interventional cardiologist at Piedmont Hospital, shares more about the latest findings. New research has shown that many of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease (heart attack and strokes) are the same as the risk factors for erectile dysfunction. “These recent studies contribute to an emerging body of evidence that suggests there is a vascular cause for erectile dysfunction in eight out of 10 men,” says David Kandzari, M.D., an interventional cardiologist at Piedmont Hospital. “Erectile dysfunction pre-dates the onset of symptomatic heart disease or stroke by about three to five years for many men,” he says. “It is no surprise whatsoever that the same interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease and stroke would be the same to help erectile dysfunction symptoms,” says Dr. Kandzari. “In particular, lifestyle modifications through exercise and diet, and when appropriate, drug therapy for the treatment of high blood pressure or cholesterol, improved erectile dysfunction symptoms across the board for all individuals. But in fact, the data proves the opposite, says Dr. Kandzari. “We are consistently seeing studies that show that taking these medications is associated with an improvement in erectile dysfunction symptoms,” he says. His key message for men with erectile dysfunction and their partners? If you begin to exhibit the symptoms of erectile dysfunction, be sure to talk with your doctor as soon as possible. He or she will determine if you have risk factors for other serious health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, and determine your best treatment plan. The global erectile dysfunction drugs market size was valued at over USD 4.39 billion in 2014. Key drivers of the market include an increase in patient awareness and education levels and growing base of geriatric population. Rising adoption of a sedentary lifestyle and increasing incidence of lifestyle diseases are further anticipated to fuel growth. However, the industry is estimated to witness a decline in revenue over the forecast period owing to the patent expiration of key drugs in 2019. Moreover, reported side effects from the existing drugs are negatively affecting the industry growth. Availability of cost-effective counterfeit drugs is further expected to decrease the valuation of the branded erectile dysfunction drugs. Government reforms and public awareness initiatives in developing regions of Asia Pacific and Latin America are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period. Economic development, healthcare infrastructure establishment, and increasing target population are estimated to provide potential growth platforms for this industry in these regions. Novel molecule combinations and drug delivery techniques such as the use of creams and pellets that show better efficacy and performance are expected to become an opportunity for the erectile dysfunction drugs industry. Now even though ED would only be rated 0%, this 0% rating, as opposed to no rating at all, is an important distinction. A 0% rating means that the VA recognizes it as a service-connected condition. As such, it could still qualify for Special Monthly Compensation, Category K (SMC-K). SMC-K provides a small amount of compensation for the loss of use of a creative organ. So if the erectile dysfunction effectively makes the veteran infertile, he would qualify for SMC-K. Also, because the condition is considered service-connected, any conditions that it causes (“secondary conditions”) would also be eligible for compensation. So if the veteran developed depression because of his ED (a very common symptom), it would qualify for compensation. Depression is a condition that can definitely interfere with the ability of a veteran to properly function in his daily life and earn a living. So, even though the ED itself would only be rated 0%, any condition that it causes that interferes with the veterans ability to work, would still qualify. While it is still unknown whether or not this change will officially be made, the VA has made a distinct stand on the issue of infertility with this proposal. If this change goes into effect, it is not clear in the proposal whether or not veterans who have already been awarded a disability rating for ED will retain that benefit. Historically, ratings, once given, have often not been reduced or taken away when changes like this have been made. Sometimes, however, a rating that is being eliminated because of new changes to the VASRD will have a definite end-date for current beneficiaries. We will not know what the ruling will be in the case of erectile dysfunction until the VA publishes the final regulation in its entirety. For all proposed changes, the VA grants a period of time when we can give feedback. How do you feel about eliminating the rating for ED? Check out our blog post about the changes and let us know your thoughts. Andrology Australia is an excellent resource for men to begin to explore their erectile dysfunction problems. Erectile dysfunction can be treated both psychologically and pharmacologically. The prescribed medicines of Viagra, Cialis and Levitra can be effective but do present some side effects, so consultation with a GP or specialist andrologist is recommended. Avoid cheap deals on the internet as the content of what is being sold cannot be verified. Psychological treatments are recommended when the cause of the dysfunction has emotional or psychological components. For example, a history of sexual abuse or other traumatic sexual experience may be helped by treatment by a psychologist. These treatments usually explore the patients’ histories and might involve applying Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (trying to change the way one thinks) or focusing on the context of the problem. It is best to ask any potential treating professional exactly what he or she intends to do and how this might work. And all this could be just a result of him being highly stressed at work. These relationship problems might be simply avoided if the man was open about his work situation and discussed this with his partner. A couple could also experience relationship difficulties that then lead directly to sexual difficulties, and so the man experiences erectile dysfunction. These kinds of situations are ones skilled psychological therapists are able to understand and treat. We know depression is linked to many unhappy outcomes, but it can be particularly related to erectile dysfunction and is suggested as a common cause. There is no doubt the two are closely connected, canadian pharmacy online 24 but it’s not clear which precedes the other. If a man is depressed about, for example, his career prospects, this can be reflected in his lack of interest in his sexual relationships and an experience of erectile dysfunction. Some antidepressant medications have been shown to increase erectile dysfunction, so this can compound the situation. The most appropriate way to manage erectile dysfunction is for men to have a preliminary health check with their family doctor and then be referred to a skilled psychological therapist who uses psychologically based treatments. Men experience a number of issues as they age, but one of the most troubling is a lack of sexual desire and performance. If you have noticed these changes in yourself, you may be thinking about asking your doctor for a prescription, but there are other alternatives on the market. Erectile Dysfunction is a male enhancement and sexual performance supplement designed to address those sexual issues. Many men are already using Erectile Dysfunction and supplements like it, and regular use may aid performance and help men fight back against the aging process. It is a problem many men are reluctant to talk about, even with their doctors. Erectile dysfunction, or ED, is a common problem, but it is also a problem that for many men goes untreated. When men who were once young and vigorous find themselves unable to perform in the bedroom and please their partners, the effects can be devastating. Prescription Drugs like Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra come with serious side effects and don't treat the underlying causes of ED. Here are some of the most commonly found ingredients in natural erectile dysfunction supplements. ➣ Panax ginseng - Also known as true ginseng and Korean ginseng, this natural herb is a major part of many erectile dysfunction formulations. No matter what name it goes by, ginseng may enhance mood, improve sexual desire and aid performance. ➣ Maca - Maca is a root vegetable native to Peru, but it has been making its way north and finding its way into natural erectile dysfunction formulations. Maca has been extensively tested in rats and shown to enhance sexual desire and performance, and there is ample reason to believe it may have the same effect on the human male. ➣ Tribulus Terrestris - Tribulus Terrestris has long been used in traditional medicine, and practitioners of alternative treatment value it for its healing properties. This common natural ED treatment is derived from the fruit of a spiny vine, and it is harvested carefully to preserve its effectiveness.

[outofbrainpower-blog]

German Apotheke Ships Worldwide

The way it works is quite simple: It blocks the rat’s digestive system by aborting vitamin A and all those enzymes necessary to digest both protein and starches. The federal or state government might insure this type of risk, but it would be necessary for it to subsidize the premium rates to make them affordable. So don’t make the mistake of focusing only on weight loss. Once a death claim is verified, the amount of loss is normally the face value of the insurance contract. In contrast to group life insurance, for which employer contributions may result in some taxable income to an employee, Code Section 106 provides that employer contributions for disability income insurance result in no taxable income to an employee. When an employee benefit loss is difficult to verify or measure, the insurer may attempt to overcome the problem through several methods. For any period during which the employee is not under the care of a physician. Medical Care - Learning advanced first aid and natural remedies - or forming/joining a mutual assistance group containing medical care professionals of some type will vastly enhance the chances of surviving an EMP attack. Most people with this mindset have no clue about exactly what the government will have to fix after an EMP attack or natural electromagnetic pulse disaster - or even the true magnitude of the aftermath of such a monumental disaster. Can’t use poisons because we have 6 Chihuahuas and a lazy cat. Whether it is accompanied by weight loss or not, exercise can help the body use insulin more efficiently. Packages over 2 Kilos usually take 4 weeks or more. For more information, including other ferries going to Paget and Warwick, see Bermuda Transportation for Visitors. It is just not going to happen. In addition to housing the Corporation of Hamilton, it is the home of the City Hall Theatre (phone 292-2313), Bermuda Society of Arts Gallery and Bermuda National Gallery. 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[dawnfelagund]

Am I crazy for wanting to become a teacher? I'm taking classes for teaching certification right now, but I saw the post about ADHD and the anger there really shook me. Any words of wisdom for a young aspiring educator?

The short answer is, no, I don’t think you’re crazy. :) I adore my job and there is nothing else I’d rather do. I have so much fun with my students; laughter and joy are part of my everyday work. I’m on summer break now, and the other day, I found myself scrolling through pictures on my phone that I’d taken throughout the school year and reminiscing about the last school year and laughing anew at the things we got up to and missing my kiddos badly.

But–you probably knew there was going to be a but :)–I would be lying if I didn’t say my job is extremely hard. Teachers are notoriously bad at work-life balance. (One of my professional goals for next year is to improve on work-life balance because the year I had last year is not sustainable long-term.) I think new teachers should go into their work with eyes open to the challenges we face in our profession right now; they are not insurmountable challenges, but they are significant and tend (in my experience) to be glossed over by teacher-prep programs and school districts desperate to solve teacher shortages by harping on the “Make a Difference!!” message at the expense of acknowledging what the day-to-day reality of new teachers will actually look like.

As I said in my original post, expectations and working conditions vary widely by district in the U.S. Contrary to conservative myth, the federal government does not control or mandate curriculum (Common Core is standards, not curriculum, and also not adopted by every state)–and ironically, the biggest federal education mandate, the unfunded No Child Left Behind law, was a Republican policy–and this is controlled at the state or local level, so my experiences in the two states where I’ve taught (Maryland and Vermont) may not reflect what your experiences would be where you live.

In general, though, teachers are on the front lines of a society where people are increasingly finding it difficult to meet their basic needs and where the social safety net has been systematically dismantled. Unless you end up in a very privileged school–which is near-impossible for a new teacher–this absolutely impacts the kids you will see in your classroom every day. It most often manifests in behavior problems, either because kids in families stretched thin by poverty haven’t been taught behavioral expectations for school or because kids are acting out due to trauma and other psychoemotional problems that they are unprepared to cope with. In my experience, teacher-prep programs have done little to nothing to prepare new teachers for how to manage a classroom where kids are daily trying to cope with such challenges. (For the record, the first five years of my career were spent in a special-ed school in Baltimore for boys with emotional disabilities, so I know what extreme behavior looks like … and my teacher-prep program spent one week in one class addressing classroom management, never addressing significant behavior issues that you most likely will encounter in the classroom. While my first school had major shortcomings, I am extremely grateful that it did offer me the training I needed to be effective with the most challenged and challenging kids. I hope your program serves you better than mine did but if not, I’m happy to share resources.)

Again, the impact this would have on your as a professional depends on your district. I am lucky to work in a district that prioritizes education, so even though my school had the highest eligibility for free and reduced meals in the state last year, you would not know it from looking at my school, which does a commendable job of extending the same opportunities to our students as would a school serving a middle-class community. Most of the enrichment and social services we provide is funded through our school budget or grant money. Sadly, this is not the case for most schools in the U.S. that serve low-income populations, which is why you often hear of teachers coming out of their pockets not only for their classroom supplies but for food and clothing for their students who would otherwise go without.

Part of my anger is because of this: because how have we failed as a nation if we cannot protect the basic needs and safety of children? Yet I have had children in my care for every moment of my career who have faced hardships that would have been the end of me.

And some of the anger you sensed is because one of the other realities of our profession that no one talks about in your teacher-prep classes is how despised our profession has become–and routinely and casually so–due to right-wing slander against educators. And for whatever reason, this rhetoric has been picked up by people across the political spectrum. This is Tumblr, so I’d be willing to wager that most of the people in the original thread I was responding to would identify with the left politically, yet are fully comfortable making claims that public educators medicate kids because they’re too lazy to deal with developmentally normal behaviors. Likewise, I have had progressive friends make disparaging comments about educators directly to me, thinking nothing of it because it’s become so commonplace to assume that teachers are stupid, incompetent, and lazy that they don’t even stop to think about what they’re saying long enough to consider their audience. (To wit, the saying “If you can’t do, teach,” which an online friend–again, an outspoken progressive–actually wrote to me when congratulating me for completing my certification, apparently never stopping to consider that I might find that sentiment insulting.) But, as I noted in my post last night, we are one of the only professions remaining with strong union membership, and this makes us a threat to big-money interests that would like to skim out of our pockets in the same way they have the U.S. people as a whole and are fighting with every ounce of their being to privatize and profit from the public right to a free and appropriate education for every child in the U.S. In addition, as I noted in the tags, we are the ones teaching kids inconvenient facts about their legal rights and democratic ideals and some of the less-rosy chapters of our nation’s history, which makes us a threat to certain groups who would far prefer an ignorant, frightened populace.

Anyway, as I noted at the beginning, I would not choose to do any other work, despite the frustrations and challenges. At the core of what I believe is the potential of all human beings to influence our world for the better, no matter the color of their skin or their gender identity or the amount of money in their parents’ bank accounts when they’re born, and so I feel compelled to do this work, to put my talents and energy to offering a leg up to kids who might otherwise slip through the cracks.

If I could offer advice to a teacher-in-training, it would be this: First of all, be aware and evaluative of the amount of training your are receiving in classroom management. I can’t speak for every teacher-prep program, but the ones I’m familiar with spend very little time on this even though classroom management is the top concern of new teachers and, in my experience, the biggest reason why new teachers leave the field. Although I know that adding one more thing is probably like adding gasoline to a wildfire at this point in your career, it really is worth pursuing information on this on your own, if your program is not meeting your needs. It will make your first job so much easier (and make you so much more confident to be able to handle the challenges I described–and projecting confidence is itself a good classroom management strategy, especially if you work with older kids). As I said, I’m happy to share resources. If you have a mentor, they can help here as well.

If at all possible, student-teach in a school that is similar to the schools where you think you’ll eventually work. Another shortcoming I find with the teacher-prep programs I’m familiar with is that they stick their student teachers into the cushiest, easiest middle-class schools before casting them into a job market where they will likely start in a low-income, high-need school with significant challenges.

Talk to teachers in districts and schools where you’re considering working and find out what the strengths and challenges are. What support do they offer new teachers? (Ideally, you’ll get a mentor for at least your first year.) How much support do they offer their teachers in general? Does the administration have your back, or are they going to abandon you the moment the going gets tough? How much control will you retain over what and how you teach? Classroom management? You should be able to make adjustments to meet your students’ needs and interests; this is best practice, and if a district or school is doing otherwise, run. Does the school/district favor a positive or punitive approach to classroom management? What does the district/school see as their priorities? (Growing the whole child or raising test scores? Relationships or rigor?) How much pressure is put on teachers around test scores? How will you be evaluated and what is the philosophy around evaluation? (Assuming everyone can always grow and improve or using evaluations to punish shortcomings and mistakes?) How supportive is the administration in terms of maintaining a healthy work-life balance? What resources will you be given? Will you have a budget for supplies? How much? Are the books, resources, and technology up to date? (Is there even technology? What is the ratio of students to devices actually available to use?) What opportunities are available in the school day for the arts? Do students have access to unstructured play and social time during the day? What resources does the school offer for kids and families in need of additional social services? Are there meals available for food-insecure kids? Counseling and mental health services? After-school programs? Or will you be buying breakfast every day for your homeroom rather than imagining them struggling through their morning on empty stomachs? Asking teachers and not administrators will help get some honest answers to these questions.

And please feel free to reach out to me at any time (and this goes for anyone thinking about or starting a teaching career!). I’m a mentor in my district and so trained to coach new teachers, and if I can offer any tips or resources then I’m happy to do so.

[infraredforhealth1]

Can Dogs See Infrared?

How Do Puppies Learn to Bark When They Sense Infrared Heat?

It is difficult to believe but some pet dogs may be able to sense the heat from an infrared device.

If your dog feels threatened or anxious, then your dog may exhibit the typical signs of anxiety and/or fear.

This includes sniffing the air, heavy breathing, and an increased amount of attention to small things around him such as the doorbell or the television which all emits infrared radiation.

It may also startle at the sound of a car coming up on your yard.

Some dogs will also lick their ears and mouth, show their teeth, and put their nose in your face. In some cases, your pet dogs may even jump on you!

In order to see if your dog exhibits these signs of anxiety or fear it would be beneficial to have your pet dogs examined by a veterinarian.

At this time they will conduct an examination using ultrasonic and magnetic-frequency technology to determine if there are any physical abnormalities that may be causing these behavioral problems.

You may want to consult your vet if you notice that your pet dogs seem to be adjusting in a way that they were not previously accustomed to.

In many cases, these tests will reveal if your dogs may have some form of medical condition that is causing these behavior problems.

Some signs that may be observed in your pet dogs include excessive barking, whining, and even urination.

In most cases, if a veterinarian rules out medical causes for these behaviors then it will be necessary to make sure your dog is adjusting in his new surroundings.

During this process it may be necessary for you to bring your dog to a new place where he can be alone. This way he can relieve himself when he needs to without creating a panic for you and other family members. If you provide your pets with adequate exercise and emotional support they will be better adjusted in a short period of time.

Signs Dogs Can Sense Infrared

You’ve all probably seen the commercials on TV that show a dog that can smell things from hundreds of yards away.

It’s amazing how much they can sense and I’m sure you’re asking yourself, can dogs really sense the infrared sound that is made by a radar gun?

The answer is yes, they can and the reason that they can is because it is exactly what the dogs are smelling-radar.

Dogs can sense infrared and they do this even better than the police dogs can.

It’s actually amazing to watch dogs working their A.C.T. and work that way for hours at a time without any type of tiredness at all!

They can smell all sorts of things and they can actually tell you if something is wrong or not.

Do Dogs Really See in Infrared Light?

Most people have a misconception that dogs cannot be trained to see in the infrared spectrum.

They are under the impression that dogs cannot see infrared and so any attempt to train them must be fruitless.

The fact is that dogs can not only see infrared but they can also be taught to see it.

You may ask what does ‘hear’ mean when people say they can’t see infrared.

This is because they are both hearing and visually oriented animals.

To train your dog to see in the infrared light you will need to have him or her see an invisible light source.

When this light flashes on the dog’s eyes, he or she should follow it.

If they don’t, then he or she needs to be taught how to see. One of the best ways to teach your dog to see is by pointing the invisible light at the dog and saying “hear”.

Some dogs will respond to this command and others won’t.

A Comparison Between Our Senses And The Dog’s

Dogs have keen senses which make them exceptional at finding food, following trails, sensing danger and other tasks that we humans often take for granted.

However, it has been observed that dogs have a different type of brain which is more geared towards smell than ours which makes them far better sense detectors than the average human being.

In fact, the nose was once thought to be stronger than the brain and was used to track people, animals and other things that we might find difficult to track using our other senses.

The nose is also closely connected to emotions and dogs with abnormally large and powerful noses seem to display more fear than others do.

Another way in which dogs have an enhanced sense of smell is due to the fact that their nasal cavities are lined with oil glands which constantly produce a discharge that can be used for detection of bad odors.

Dogs also have many other senses besides their keen sense of smell and the fact that they have the ability to follow scent trails and use them to find food.

Their vision is probably one of the better senses that they possess along with the ears, paws and teeth.

Although dogs can hear very well they have very poor eyesight and depend heavily on their paws for this.

Although they cannot see very well due to their extremely sensitive eyes, their sense of smell is extremely good and they are able to pinpoint an animal or a person that is in the area by the smell of the body odor emitted by the animal.

While dogs have several great abilities that humans have and can take for granted, they have one major disadvantage, which is the fact that dogs are only able to see about 20 feet in front of them.

This means that unless they are moving quickly the rest of the world may not be in front of them and will not be able to assist them should there be an emergency.

Although some dogs have the ability to see at night they rely heavily on their vision during the day and if it stops working due to any environmental factors including light or weather, then their vision is severely hampered.

Although our dogs have keen senses that enable them to locate people, bark at intruders and even to herd farm animals, they still rely on us to keep watch over them.

Service Dogs Is People’s Best Friends

Dogs that serve humans have to be of a certain breed, usually a non-sporting breed such as a Labrador Retriever or a German Shepherd Dog, but they can also be bloodhounds, and sometimes even service dogs that are put on duty to locate lost children, deliver babies, find missing persons, or even make searches for survivors in disaster zones.

There are all kinds of dogs used for these kinds of jobs. But the most important task that they are required to perform is the detection of lost people, whether they are on a disaster or are just lost on their own.

This is why service dog training is so important.

There are three distinct types of service dogs.

The first type is the assistance dog, this dog performs the job of alerting the owner that their dog is missing.

The second type is the therapy dog, they give the owner emotional support by speaking to them, playing with them, and generally making them feel better.

The third type is the Sporting or survival dog, they assist their owners with things like finding their lost items or hunting for their lost friend.

All service or therapy dogs should go through some basic obedience training before becoming a permanent member of their owners’ family.

Some breeds of dogs have a natural instinct to fetch or to hunt for things, others may be taught in classes but will need constant training.

Once the training has started, the dog will perform its job efficiently, saving the lives of those it is meant to help.

These dogs are not only man’s best friends, they are also his protectors, able to find way out of dangerous situations where people may otherwise get stuck.

There are several organizations that train guide dogs, and there are even schools that offer certification in training guide dogs.

Service Dogs Is Personally Appreciating by Human Healers

There are a number of organizations that have been working for years with service dogs as part of their missions.

Some of the organizations to assist in finding homes for the animals and others in training their dogs to assist those with disabilities or health issues.

A service dog is not a puppy, but rather an adult dog that has been professionally trained to assist people with disabilities whether it be physical or mental.

This can include but is not limited to, pulling a wheelchair, serving as a guide dog, hearing aid or a pet dog.

Many times, this service dog is also used by the family’s veterinarian, who will take the dog into the vet’s office to provide the patient with care from their own veterinary pet, instead of having to call the vet for the patient.

One of the most common disabilities that service dogs provide for people are people with mental disabilities. Because of the dog’s connection and relationship with its owner, the dog will be able to know where its owner is at all times, and will be able to respond to and work around any needs the owner may have.

This helps cut down on the stress of people with mental disabilities and allows them to lead much more normal lives.

These service dogs are an invaluable part of the communities that they serve. As we continue to see all too often, there are plenty of devastating natural disasters in the world, and many of the human community members who should be prepared are not able to take advantage of the services that these dogs offer.

When disaster strikes, these dogs will be the heroes in our communities helping to get the relief that people need, instead of being the victims.

10 Ways Your Dog Can Sense You

Dogs are best known for their sense of smell and hearing, but they are far from the only senses that they use.

Although their sense of smell is the most common it isn’t the only one and neither is it the strongest.

There are 9 other types of senses in the canine world and they are olfactory, visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, kinesthetic, and Reproductive.

Each has to do with how the dog uses the sense of smell and there are some that dogs are especially known for having a strong sense of. These include:

Smell: This is often used as the basis for a breed preference or a type of breed.

For example, the Labrador Retriever is known for its strong smelling capabilities.

Bulldogs are known for their power to smell so other things like cooked meats or garbage can be used as tests of strength.

Lops are said to have the best sense of smell of all the canines and other big dogs are not as highly ranked.

Visual Agnosis: This is also known as “the spy of sight” because this sense is used to follow the movement of things around them.

This is most commonly used by the large hunting dogs such as the Doberman Pincher.

Other examples include the Greyhound, Weimeraner, Golden Retriever, and the Toy Poodle.

Some dogs can only tell if something is moving by sight alone or through experience.

This includes the Fox Terrier, which relies on its hearing to determine whether or not something is truly there.

Safety Dogs Sensing Infrared

There is a new technology in working dogs, and it has something to do with the dogs’ ability to sense their environment, which can be sensed by a device called a thermal imaging device.

What the dog does is it will go into its own little world and will begin to act like it is in a different environment without you telling them that they are.

This is done by detecting changes in temperature and thus changing their behavior accordingly.

The device is called a thermal imaging dog and it has the ability to sense the temperature differences across a variety of temperatures.

It does this using something based on their thermal heat sensing ability.

Thermal imaging uses infrared and as we know, animals that have a high metabolic rate and those that can run a lot faster than the others tend to be the warmest.

If there is a drop in temperature across the pack this will cause the dog to slow down and it will take longer to catch up.

These dogs detect the change in temperature using the tip of their nose since it is an infrared sensor.

As it turns out, the infrared that the dogs use is actually based on their body shape.

Most dogs have a unique structure built in to their skin. They have a large mass of connective tissue between the bone and the skin which reflect the temperature of the animal’s body.

If you look at some of the big dogs you will notice that their fur is a very dark brownish color and the connective tissue is thinner.

This way the infrared that the dog uses can detect the temperature of the surrounding and allow the receiver to determine what the temperature is.

Study That a Dog Can Sense Thermal Or Infrared Heat

A new study that a dog can sense thermal or infrared heat is getting some attention.

Researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Munich, Germany have found that dogs can respond to temperature differences in human-carrying air.

Researchers believe that dogs may use this understanding of temperature to help their owners keep their pets warm.

The study appears in the current issue of the Journal of Veterinary Medicine.

Previous studies had shown that dogs could detect body heat and cold body temperatures, but they had no way to know if they could sense the warmth of human air. The new study shows that dogs can respond to body heat.

The first part of the new study involved placing dogs on a cold floor and emitting repeated temperatures above their head.

After about ten minutes, the dogs showed a response to the temperature above their heads.

During subsequent tests, the same dogs tolerated being mildly hot and mild cold for up to five minutes.

Because the heat and cold treatments were carried out over several days, the researchers were able to measure the actual change in body temperature over time.

By comparing the results of their previous tests with the new findings, the researchers concluded that the dogs were registering changes in temperature based on human body heat.

Although the new study provides insight into the ability of dogs to sense temperature changes, it does not address other questions about how dogs are able to control their bodies when it is cold or heat outside.

Understanding how various breeds cope with climate and weather can also shed light on how to better care for and train your dog.

It is possible that further tests can lead to further clues about how canine can perceive infrared or thermal heat. In the interim, it can be helpful to keep your pet indoors when the weather gets too hot or cold.

Why Do Dogs Allow Them to See Better in Low Light Conditions?

Over the years dogs have come through a lot of different sorts of training and conditions that make them much better able to see better in certain lighting conditions.

Dogs are great animals and have the ability to adjust to different types of light very quickly.

There are several things that dog do better than most people, and one of those things is to adjust to dimmer lights.

One of the reasons that dogs are able to do this so well is because dogs have cells in their eyes that can sense the intensity of light.

The darker the light, the less light that are reflected onto the retina of the eye, and this means that the intensity of light at night is less intense than it is during the daytime.

In addition to the change in the intensity of light at night, dogs also have a mechanism in their eyes that is used to compensate for lower levels of light.

This means that when the light is dimmer than normal, dogs are still able to see because of their eyes being able to adjust.

Did Wolves and Doesn’t Evolve the Ability to See Infrared Light?

In my study of wolves and dogs I have found that wolves do not have the ability to see infrared light.

They only seem to be able to see ultraviolet light.

I believe that the main reason for this is that wolves are carnivores and being able to see UV light would have been a big advantage to them over the other animals on the plain such as cattle, sheep and pigs.

However, the same cannot be said for dogs. Dogs do have the capability to see infrared but they are very poor at it.

Canine’s have evolved into what we know today as a different breed.

A lot of the characteristics that we associate with wolves and dogs have been artificially created in order to allow us to recognize one another.

Although there are some differences in behavior and appearance most of the time these are not enough to identify one wolf from another.

Wolves do have some genetic differences from other dogs but when it comes down to it if they look similar enough to a human they most likely are not the same wolf.

So in conclusion wolves and dogs didn’t evolve the ability to see infrared.

Wolves Specialized Sight

Studies from around the world suggest that wolves are adapted to catching prey while in a day time they are able to move at a much faster pace when there is no natural prey to catch and eat.

Wolves instead evolved specialized sight to hunt in low light conditions because during the day they would have been walking around looking for food and once they located a good source of food they would then have hunted the animal.

At night time on the other hand they would roam around tracking down their next meal.

This is further backed by the fact that wolves actively search out their next meal during the night time, which is way before humans would ever actively hunt for their next meal.

This can be further backed up by the fact that wolves actively track their prey during the daylight and during the evening when the prey is no longer active.

This means that during the day wolves track after their prey but at nighttime when their prey is inactive, they simply move on.

This observation alone leads scientists to conclude that wolves hunt during the day and at night.

It is also proposed that the reason for this is that during the day when the lighting is poor, the wolves hunt during the night time when the lighting is good and the wolf can easily track their prey.

Why Do Dogs Only See Two Out Of Six Colors?

There is a common belief that dogs only see two out of three colors.

While this is true to some extent, they can actually see color in all six spectrum spectra, with different saturations of yellow, blue and gray.

The eyes of dogs have receptors which are sensitive to red light, green, blue and yellow.

Most likely though, dogs only see their color in the ultraviolet spectrum.

Some dogs do not have normal color vision. There are many breeds of dog which have varying amounts of melanin which gives them their specific color.

Signs Dogs Can Sense Infrared

Dogs use many of the same senses we humans do. They can sense heat, as you probably already know, and they are very sensitive to movement.

Dogs that are overweight often have problems with their eyesight.

This is not the case however, and some dogs can actually see well at night if given enough light. If you own a dog that seems lazy or lethargic, it may be a good idea to start training them to become more active.

There are some other common signs dogs can sense infrared.

Some breeds have large paws that help them track movement at night.

This is a major consideration when choosing a dog and keeping its environment friendly for the animal.

The ears are another way dogs can tell how they are feeling.

Many are extremely sensitive to noises and the tone or pitch of the sound can indicate illness in humans.

Another common sign of dogs that may have more than you thought are smell glands.

They may also have small bladders that can hold a scent much longer than a normal sized dog.

Their eyes may be dilated, which may mean they can see in dim light as well.

How Do Dogs Can Sense Infrared?

When a dog senses heat it’s actually in the red. That’s because red light is the most powerful invisible light in the animal world, and it is also the kind of light that your dogs’ vision will be reduced from.

Heat is such a strong signal because it is so near the animal’s eyes that their pupils dilate.

While dogs can’t see infrared, they can detect it with their keen sense of smell since they have infrared sensors at the tip of their nose. We humans aren’t that keen but we do smell things.

So if you have a dog that has been trained to locate hidden treasure, then you can tell a lot just by observing what he or she’s going to do.

It’s the same if you have a dog that has been taught to locate intruders in your home by their scent.

The main reason that your dogs can sense infrared is because they are closer to the surface than we are.

Because we walk through the night with our shoes on, our feet get a lot of ground in, and therefore they are closer to the ground.

This gives us our pets the ability to smell things on the ground through our own smell, which is what makes their sense of smell so superior to ours.

Other than being able to smell things on the ground, your dogs can also sense things on people, and if your dogs can sense your fear, then your dogs can sense infrared as well.

How Can You Tell If Your Dog Can Sense Infrared

There are a few ways you can tell if your dog can sense infrared, and one of them is by seeing where their ears are when they look at you.

If you raise your own eyebrow, your dog will most likely do the same.

Many dogs can’t fully protect themselves from the warmth of the sun, and so they look away from you in order to reduce the amount of heat they feel.

If you notice your dog pawing at you to get your attention, then they’re probably feeling very warm too.

If you can, try rubbing your hand up and down their back or around their neck to check out any raised temperature spots.

If you want to know how can you tell if your dog can sense infrared, but don’t have any evidence to help you out, there are some other things you can try.

Touch your hand on your pet’s back and run your fingers through its hair. If you can feel the heat, your dog is very sensitive to it.

Another way you can check to see if your dog can sense infrared is to hold a piece of aluminum foil in front of him and shine a bright light in front of him.

If your dog immediately stops moving and begins to blink rapidly in the direction of the light, then he’s definitely sensitive to it.

How to Tell If Your Dog’s Can Sense Infidelity

Do you suspect your dog may be cheating on you are suspicious of your partner’s attitude towards their new puppy or dog, then one of the most important signs dogs can sense is a raised temperature.

This means your dogs can detect a slight drop in temperature from you.

You will notice that your dogs seem more excited, energetic and chatty and also much more attentive to your every movement.

Your dogs may have also noticed you coming home after being out all day which means they were probably hiding behind your curtains watching you and we’re waiting for you to come home.

Another one of the common signs dogs can sense infidelity is aggression.

If you or your significant other has been leaving small amounts of money on the table in the form of snacks or meals, then your dogs may be looking for an opportunity to attack you.

If you have a chewed up piece of paper or note book from someone who was unfaithful, then your dogs may be picking up this type of information.

They may even be barking and howling while you are cooking or eating or running in circles around the house looking for the scent of someone who has been cheating on you.

A raised temperature coupled with aggressive behavior is another sure sign that your dogs may be picking up on infidelity in the form of aggression.

These are just two signs of infidelity that you or your significant other should be aware of if you think your dogs have picked up on infidelity.

The more signs of infidelity you can find, the more reliable the infidelity signal is.

How to Know If Your Dog Can Sense Infrared Energy & Start Showing Signs

Canine Aggression starts at a very young age, studies have shown that dogs can sense heat even before you see their hot temper or hear their howling.

When you are away from them for long periods of time, they will start to show signs of aggression.

They may sleep more and exhibit signs of unhappiness and depression.

One of the biggest fears of owners is that their dogs will develop full-blown aggression or worse, attack another dog.

Unfortunately, if your pet has this fear already, there is not much you can do about it other than trying to calm them down or make them realize their mistake and leave them alone.

If you see your dog starting to display signs of aggression then you should try to figure out what is causing this aggression.

Many times, this aggression occurs when they are bored or frustrated.

Other times, they may be defending their territory.

Sometimes dogs will display aggression for no apparent reason. It is important to know what is triggering each individual behavior so that you can address the cause instead of reacting to one of the signs.

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