#pervasive refusal syndrome

[the-trans-dragon]

I am continually astonished by my capacity to do things (or to not do things; or to do them in a very specific way).

For years I’ve been thinking “I want to try putting a little hot plate on my nightstand to keep my coffee warm in the mornings.”

I’ve been meaning to try it for at least 7 years. I’ve had the hot plate to do so for at least 4. And today I finally did it!

I don’t know why it takes me so long to do things. It’s a lifelong issue. I try to manage it like it’s adhd—and the adhd meds and advice do help. But i really don’t know what it is. When I try to look it up, I find a million different ideas from a million different people and fields of study.

Adhd. Task avoidance. Learned helplessness. Pervasive Refusal Syndrome. Victim playing. Self-handicapping. Pessimism. Procrastination. Perfectionism. Avoidance coping. Avoidant personality disorder. OCD. Experiential avoidance. Work aversion. Laziness. Analysis paralysis. Decision fatigue. Information overload. Anxiety. Depression. Autistic burnout. Chronic mild stress.

I’m gonna have a nap about it

#sorenhoots

[medusacomplex]

Recollection pulls itself from an old corner of her mind to the days her mother used to comfort her at the strange sounds heard rampant through the night; it's the house settling, dear, it's not a monster. It's nothing to be afraid of. She'd taken it to heart, and refused to give creaks and groans any mind since then, opting instead to play ignorance as her weapon, to shun the sounds and resist the urges that begged her gaze be brought 'round her shoulder, to spot the shadow creeping at the end of the hall. She has been less successful at this strategy in the last few days, finding the smell of rot and musk and fresh dirt so pervasive that she couldn't help but allow her curiosity to get the better of her. Stupid mistakes, the kind dumb girls in horror movies make, inching towards the closet in response to the sound of dripping water, imagining the hot steam of breath on the nape of her neck and not just brushing it off, instead seeking out the source. This is not how you survive a scary movie.

Long had she been plagued by what she supposed could be best described as some sort of telltale heart syndrome; guilt gripped her, paranoia too, and they made for a deadly mix. A dead friend's arms reaching desperate from the floorboards as she attempted to sleep, a memory of the blue air of the other world she'd been caught up in, a feeling of smoke filling her lungs and a burning, a sharp pain on her palm ... all of these sensations were normal and rather natural to her by now. She had developed a numbness to the torturous memories, a thick skin to the nightmares. But as of late ... the feel of everything was different. Not entirely tangible but not as clearly self-manifested as before. She wondered, at times, perhaps these were elaborate tricks. Perhaps she was being watched, again, toyed with like some sort of prey. That brought about a sensation of anger and terror that overwhelmed her so sincerely that she had little voice to articulate it.

Perhaps the exhaustion makes her less nervous about the other's words, or perhaps she only hides her skepticism and distrust as some kind of strategic methodology; whatever it is, she takes in the words with a somewhat stoic expression, as the stranger speaks:

@antigodeus, asked: ❝ i need you to come with me. ❞

" You ... who are .... "

She begins to look behind herself, stopping as her chin reaches just before her shoulder and she can see in her peripherals an empty hallway. But she knows, she can feel it, something is there. She returns her gaze to the stranger, eyes narrowing, mouth agape. She's not sure who to trust, but the thing at her heels feels far more harrowing a choice than that which stands before her. A strained action, but she nods, takes a step towards them and forces herself not to look back down the hallway.

" What's going on? Who - are you? "

#▌ ⁑╰ v. unknown. ∎ ჻ ʇuǝƃɹǝʌᴉp . #antigodeus #so sorry this is amazingly long with like very little dialogue for #you to jump off of so feel free to reply as short or as long as u like :3 #and i give u permission fully to godmod the action as needed bc i #think nanc is pretty convinced to follow micah JKHADSF

[glorioustidalwavedefendor]

UK Teenager with Severe ME Threatened with Forced Institutionalization

JULY 24th, 2019

Gigi’s doctor has dismissed her symptoms of severe ME and has, instead, diagnosed her with Pervasive Refusal Syndrome, meaning that she is either consciously, or subconsciously withdrawing from the world because of some trauma, real or imagined.

Pervasive Refusal Syndrome is not a formally recognised mental illness and has no empirical basis or agreed-upon treatment.

The doctor has told Gigi’s family to stop “colluding” with their daughter. ME, meanwhile, has been recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a neurological disease since 1969.

The horror of Gigi’s situation is not an isolated incident as dozens of children with severe ME have been threatened with being sectioned in the UK and throughout Europe for being unable to snap out of their debilitating illness. 

(...)

Gigi’s mother is herself a Clinical Psychologist, with over 20 years’ experience of working with children.  Despite this, medical staff have refused to accept her mother’s personal and professional opinion regarding the cause of Gigi’s illness.  They continue to insist that it has a psychological basis.

(...)

In 2013, 24-year-old Karina Hansen was forcibly removed from her home in Denmark for declining to follow the orders of a doctor who had recommended graded exercise therapy, which had worsened her. Karina spent three-and-a-half-years detained at a psychiatric ward where her treatment further worsened her. After a five-year legal battle and ongoing support from the ME community, Karina was finally freed from state guardianship in 2018.  

In 2003, Sophia Mirza, a British woman with severe ME, was removed from her home and placed in a mental hospital, where her condition worsened. Sophia died in 2005, and an independent neuropathologist found Sophia’s spine contained massive infection.

British pediatrician, Dr. Nigel Speight, has personally been involved in defending 28 cases in which adolescents were threatened with being sectioned due to severe ME, as health officials viewed their disease as a psychiatric issue they could overcome with talk therapy and exercise.

https://www.meaction.net/2019/07/24/uk-teenager-with-severe-me-threatened-with-forced-institutionalized/

#MillionsMissing #cfs/me

[justwireless]

Programa intervalo

#Programa intervalo full

#Programa intervalo free

A Section 504 plan is available to students who have a medical diagnosis but do not qualify under Indiana law for special education and related services.ħ. You should call the school psychologist and request testing for an Autism Spectrum Disorder. This will depend upon the needs of the student and is a case conference decision after a complete educational evaluation is done. Is that true?Ī student with a medical diagnosis of Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, or Pervasive Developmental Disorder may or may not qualify for the educational eligibility of Autism Spectrum Disorder. My child is medically diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and my doctor said he needs an IEP. A school can however test for the likelihood of attention problems and if these are present and significant enough to impact their educational progress, then the school can provide services to the student under the educational eligibility area of "Other Health Impaired."Ħ. This is a medical diagnosis made by a doctor. Can the school do that?Ī school corporation cannot test for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The school can test for a "specific learning disability" in the area of reading which is an educational eligibility area.ĥ. This is medical/clinical diagnosis which must be made by a clinical psychologist at the expense of the parent. How long does the school have to test my child?ĥ0 school days unless otherwise specified in writing on the notice of initial evaluation.Ī school corporation cannot test for dyslexia. The parent may challenge this following their procedural safeguards.ģ. If the school determines there is not any data to support the need for testing they are legally able to refuse. The school is required to gather data to determine if there is a need for testing (academic and behavioral). The school has 10 school days to respond by law. Be sure to include your concerns in this request. You should put your request in writing and give it to a licensed professional, ideally the principal of the school. Who do I ask for testing, and does the school have to test my child if I ask? The school can test children starting at age 3 (special rules apply for transitions from First Steps).Ģ.

#Programa intervalo free

No-this service is free of charge and the responsibility of the school corporation. Does it cost anything to have my child tested? To take the parent survey after your annual case review meeting: Click Here Additional Informationġ. All survey responses are confidential, and no individual information is disclosed. The survey is easy to complete and asks you to rate various items regarding your experience in working with school staff and about the special education services your child has received. The Indiana Department of Education - Office of Special Education (IDOE) is asking for your help with an important survey to learn more about how Indiana families feel about the special education services their schools provide. Notice of Procedural Safeguards in English, Español and other language translations are available here.

#Programa intervalo full

Most students can be educated in their neighborhood school, however, a full continuum of services is offered to meet the diverse needs of our students. Working closely with families, teachers and administration, the district is committed to educating students in their least restrictive environment. Students are determined eligible for special education supports and services through a multidisciplinary team evaluation and case conference process utilizing criteria established in Article 7, Indiana's special education law. Muncie Community Schools provides special education and related services for students with disabilities, ages 3 through 22 who meet eligibility criteria.

#Programa intervalo

[munchajiggs-blog]

Wk 4

Roger’s five factors reminded me of the path to new research and innovation around previously difficult-to-diagnose illnesses that fall within the family of Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, rare forms of encephalitis, and most recently long covid. I have become intimately acquainted with the complexity of navigating an illness that is difficult to diagnose, and also met with social stigma. Aside from the challenge of finding effective treatments, my research at Sloan while doing an independent study on how to pursue a career in management while managing a chronic illness has shown me that negative perceptions from both the medical community as well as laypeople is one of the leading causes of distress in these affected populations. Rogers suggests that five factors- relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability- can let you know how powerful a product innovation may be. I am curious if the larger attention focused on Long covid will translate into funding or research and innovation in this class of disease. What regulatory bodies will support this? The FDA’s campaign to block innovation in these diseases is well documented. Will they be an ally going forward if they are economically incentivized to do so? Will this become a bipartisan issue in the US in the way that early responses to the pandemic proved to be? While denial of the science behind climate change can be conceivable for hyper sheltered people, however inane it is, the denial of the most glaring scientific fact-millions dead- has proven the lengths to which people can hold steadfast to their perceptions if it aligns with their political agenda. What is the likelihood of people who refuse to wear masks supporting research in Long covid? Despite chronic illness being the most expensive and pervasive form of disease taxing our healthcare system, it will be difficult to untangle perceptions from the economic benefit of innovation. A similar line of reasoning can be drawn for factors two through five. Does this present a branding opportunity to reframe research on the ongoing health impacts of the pandemic such as long covid, PTSD, anxiety, etc. as a path forward to economic recovery? I believe this approach could garner bipartisan support.

#MITSloan2022SBrandingB

[maaarine]

A stable sense of self is rooted in the lungs, heart and gut (Alessandro Monti, Psyche, Dec 06 2021)

“Think back to a recent episode in which you felt as if you were being true to yourself. How would you describe what you did?

Perhaps you would say that you ‘trusted your guts’ or ‘followed your heart’, rather than ‘thinking with your head’.

You might also assume that these idioms involving the guts or the heart belong to an outdated folklore – that they are a poetic rather than a scientific expression of what’s happening when we tap into our sense of self.

Yet, emerging scientific evidence increasingly suggests that being aware of who you are – being self-conscious – really does depend, not just on processes in your brain, but also on what’s happening deep in your viscera. 

Consider how, right now, you could be in a very different place, mood or situation than 20 seconds or 20 years ago, yet you feel that in a fundamental sense you are the same person.

This is partly because, as William James put it in The Principles of Psychology (1890), you are aware that ‘the same old body’ is always with you, exuding warmth and intimacy.

With the exception of dreaming and altered states of mind, all conscious experiences entail this subtle but pervasive feeling of bodily self-consciousness.

But where does it come from? (…)

Indeed, a remarkable feature of visceral organs is the fact that they go through steady, predictable physiological cycles. 

Heartbeats, breaths and gut contractions repeat themselves with regularity, keeping the body warm and fed – a physiological equilibrium known as homeostasis. 

Moreover, each of these cycles involves peripheral nerves – especially the vagus nerve – sending chemical and electrical signals to the central nervous system.

As a result, the activity of specific regions of the central nervous system synchronises with cardiac, respiratory and gastric fluctuations.

While sensory impressions coming from the external environment vary from moment to moment and fade away, this coupling between brain and viscera is a permanent feature of your physiology.

You can close your eyes, cover your ears, hold your nose or seal your mouth, but you cannot cut yourself off from your bowels. (…)

Given that gut signals seem both to regulate food intake and to buttress one’s sense of self, poor processing of these signals could explain why individuals living with anorexia or bulimia nervosa display both abnormal eating habits and a fuzzy sense of self, sometimes morphing into self-disgust.

If gut signals are exceedingly high, they might anchor the self too heavily to what happens in their stomach and intestine. 

Conversely, if they are exceedingly low, they might make the self too reliant on external feedback – or just too unstable.

The latter case could apply also to people with depersonalisation, whose feeling of being detached from their body and self might be due to the fact that their selfhood is not rooted enough in their viscera (although there is evidence both for and against this claim).

Such an impairment could be even more pronounced in Cotard’s delusion, a rare syndrome in which people feel they are ‘empty’, ‘rotting inside’, ‘without internal organs’, or even ‘non-existent’ or ‘dead’.

Smart pills tracking the activity of the gut, combined with questionnaires and manipulations of bodily self-consciousness, such as bodily illusions, could thus deepen the current knowledge of these psychological and psychiatric conditions. (…)

An important limitation of contemporary psychology and neuroscience is that scholars replaced the old Cartesian dualism – mind versus body ­– with a new dualism: brain versus body.

The new dichotomy was even cruder than the old one, and certainly no less rigid.

Experimenters refused to take note of whatever happened south of the neck because the scientific picture du jour dismissed what previous ages had carefully noted – the wisdom of the heart, the power of breathing, and the intelligence of the gut.”

#gut brain #mbti #mbtiideas #article

[beneaththetangles]

Reader’s Corner: Carole & Tuesday, Rascal Does Not Dream of Siscon Idol, and The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya

Rascal Does Not Dream of Siscon Idol (Rascal, Vol. 4)

My most consistent complaint about the Rascal series, which I otherwise find charming, is that the stories are too full of contrivances. with plots points and character actions often making little sense. Though these developments are often small, such as an explanation that the sisters at the center of this volume aren’t apologizing to each other after a fight because neither would accept such apologies, when that hardly seems true, the way they impact character development and the plot by changing both for the sake of reaching certain resolutions and mile markers in the text, rather than letting the characters and their situations play out naturally, is frequent and significant. The same issue continues, though thankfully at a lesser extent, with Siscon, the fourth volume of the Rascal series, which introduces Mai’s half-sister, Nodoka, an idol in her own right but one far less famous than her actress sister. Both are impacted by Adolescent Syndrome in this volume, switching bodies and being forced to act as one another in different realms and levels of show business. The dialogue between Sakuta and Nadoka is almost as delightful as between him and Mai, and features frequently throughout the text in this fun and warm read which continues the series’ delightful balance between playful adolescence and development of authentic relationships between characters, in whom I’m now fully invested. ~ Twwk

Rascal Does Not Dream of Siscon Idol is published by Yen Press.*

Yokohama Station SF

Not every robot overlord is like Skynet, intent on killing all humanity, with android enforcers that are nigh impossible to kill. Sometimes, the enforcers are turnstiles that not only keep the ticketless out of the station but eject rules violaters to unoccupied spaces to meet their deaths by starvation, and sometimes the master computer is just railroad infrastructure consuming the entire island of Honshu via slow, automated urban renewal. This unique and immensely absorbing post-apocalyptic novel begins long after the “Winter War” devastated Earth, and Yokohama Station, a concrete and metal structure growing seemingly without end, has covered almost all of Honshu and threatens the neighboring islands. Hiroto, lives on a sliver of land just outside the behemoth structure on a tiny beach community until an “Insider,” ejected from within the station, gives him a chance to explore the vast unit for five days, also charging him with finding a resistance leader, while he brings in a personal quest of his own. From the description, you may sense both Terminator and Ready Player One vibes, though its more similar in tone and eventually story to the latter, though cutting out that work’s affection for nerd culture and replacing it with efficient writing. Yokohama Station SF features a clever and well-crafted but familiar world, interesting artificial intelligence units—always a plus for me—and believable science fiction, having been written by an actual scientist, Yuba Isukari. Yokohama Station SF is his first novel, and as a compelling piece of sci-fi with anime sensibilities, it is a significant achievement. Paraphrasing another overlord of a sci-fi franchise, I shall be watching Mr. Isukari’s career with great interest. ~ Twwk

Yokohama Station SF is published by Yen Press.*

Love of Kill, Vol. 1

The quiet, beautiful Chateau Dankworth is a bounty hunter, working for an organization that contracts with mafia families to eliminate targets. Ryan-Ha Song is also an assassin, but an especially notorious one, skilled and feared for his prowess. When these two become entangled, it’s not in a deathmatch—it’s because the enigmatic Song wants to date Chateau! Volume one of Love of Kill features plenty of action and establishes the deadly world in which the protagonists work, but otherwise gives very little information about the two. Structurally and thematically, the opening volume is engaging, functioning through leaps back and forth in time and filled with grisly episodes of violence. It’s quite jarring, most particularly when the volume mixes in a romantic interlude between the leads that feels as awkward to readers as it does to Chateau, and for the same reason: Song appears to be entirely psychotic. That also makes it hard to root for the killer, while younger assassin displays so little personality that she’s also difficult to care for. With such coldness, it’s hard to imagine why this manga, which in its initial version was published through the Japanese art site, Pixiv, necessitated a fuller release. Perhaps future volumes will reveal that answer, but for now, the tale of Pixiv to published is the most engaging part of this manga. ~ Twwk

Love of Kill is published by Yen Press.*

Eniale & Dewiela, Vol. 2

This second volume of this very silly series continues within the same framework of gags from volume one. In one story, Eniale causes havoc to the world by using supernatural noises to create sonar in an attempt to find Dewiela’s earring, which she’s lost. This humorous storyline and other chapters also provide a view into the interesting cosmos of this version of the world. While Eniale and Dewiela represent the Lord and Satan, respectively, from a Christian framework, this world setting has other deities and belief structures both existing and being true concurrently. Eniale and Dewiela are trying to reap souls for their respective afterlife locales, while local deities they encounter are pushing back, saying that the local souls belong to them. The duo face especially harsh pusbback by local deities when they enter Japan. The most interesting story comes from the tale of a Catholic priest who, according to Heaven, may become an angel one day to battle during Armageddon. However, something changed in his life and Eniale is sent to investigate. This bittersweet tale ends, as usual, on a gag, reflecting how fun this series is overall, even if it’s theology is just wildly inconsistent. ~ MDMRN

Eniale & Dewiela Vol. 2 is published by Yen Press.*

Carole & Tuesday Vol. 2

Volume two of Carole & Tuesday has the titular girls experiencing new challenges on their way to recognition and success in the music business, but it opens with a focus on a third girl. Angela, a child prodigy famous for modeling, wants to try something different and to become a singer. The manga shares some of her backstory and how she teams up with Tao, a man of mystery who creates popular songs using A.I. He riles up Angela throughout the manga, pushing her (rudely) to try harder. Meanwhile, Carole and Tuesday are try to get DJ Ertegun to listen to their song, which he refuses. Later, they struggle to find harmony on a new song, and take a little break outside on their own, considering their journey up to that point. When they return to their apartment, their slovenly manager, Gus, convinces them to enter the Mars Brightest competition. It’s like American Idol, but on Mars! Angela also enters in the test that will show how skilled these three girls really are as singers. I’ve seen the anime so I knew what to expect, but the manga still entertained me, particularly with its fantastic artwork. The panels pop out and feature intricate detail, connecting more with the characters through the facial expressions, dialogue, and the challenges they face. ~ Samuru

Carole & Tuesday Vol. 2 is published by Yen Press.

The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya (Haruhi Suzumiya, Vol. 5)

Having watched the episodes, but never having read the novel from which they were adapted, I expected the “Endless Eight” story to be much like the anime version: repetitive, dull, and overly long. It is in fact none of these things, taking up just 1/4 of The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya, the fifth light novel in the Haruhi Suzumiya series. While I still admire KyoAni’s decision to spend eight episodes on almost identical material to reflect the time loop aspect of the story (this despite the disastrous reaction it received), the much shorter chapter in Rampage doesn’t need the repetition to convey the peril and anxiety of the situation. It’s an excellent story, joining the funnier material in “The Day of Sagittarius” and “Snowy Mountain Syndrome,” the longest story in the series so far, which initially feels like material already covered but in a winter setting, though it later reveals itself to be a story that not only reminds us of how Nagaru Tanigawa excels as a science fiction writer, introducing further elements of the genre into his work, but also one that conveys serious heart. The last story provides another one of Haruhi’s sincere explanations of her behavior to Kyon and heavily features character development of Nagato, as subtle as it is, which is equal parts uplifting and mysterious. ~ Twwk

The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya is published by Yen Press.*

Maison Ikkoku Collector’s Edition, Vol. 3

Some forty years after it was first published, these chapters from volume three of Maison Ikkokku Collector’s Edition show precisely why this romantic comedy is so beloved, displaying the full retinue of humor and charm that are pervasive throughout the series. This volume continues to demonstrate Rumiko Takahashi’s talent at using misunderstandings to develop strong comedic content, which then gives way to reveal her character’s personalities and hearts. With Godai now knowing Kyoko quite well, but still miserably immature in his outlook on romance, he struggles to “make the leap” into a relationship with her, but each chapter shows that despite the obstacles that get in their way—some significant and others more figmental—the two are more and more making connections between their hearts. And as laugh out loud funny as many of the panels are, it’s these moments of caring, which increasingly find their way into the lives of Godai, Kyoko, and the rest of the Maison Ikkoku residents, that make the series memorable, driving it closer and closer toward fulfillment while keeping us just far enough away to crank the angst up to 11.  ~ Twwk

Maison Ikkoku Collector’s Edition is published by Viz.*

The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, Vol. 1

The world’s best assassin has run out of time—or has he? On the verge of retirement, he is tricked and killed during his last mission. But upon his death, the assassin appears before a goddess (what a surprise!) who needs him to do her a favor: Kill the hero of the world she’s in charge of before the hero causes trouble in the future for her and the world he is in. She chose the assassin because of his skill and allows him to be reborn whilst choosing his own skills. Much like Rudeus in Mushoku Tensei, this protagonist is reborn literally, as a baby, but retains his previous memories. As he grows up among a wealthy family of assassins in a world of magic and knights, he trains to become better and to prepare to face the hero. Along the way, he meets a girl named Dai who becomes his magic teacher and Tarte, whom he rescues from poverty (she eventually becomes his assistant/servant of sorts). Although it’s rather rushed and features fanservice moments I felt were unnecessary, I enjoyed volume one. It’s a good selection for fans of isekai, though not without some flaws. ~ Samuru

The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat Vol 1. is published by Yen Press.

=====

Reader’s Corner is our way of embracing the wonderful world of manga, light novels, and visual novels, creative works intimately related to anime but with a magic all their own. Each week, our writers provide their thoughts on the works their reading—both those recently released as we keep you informed of newly published works and older titles that you might find as magical (or in some cases, reprehensible) as we do.

*Thank you to Yen Press and Viz Media for providing review copies.

#Manga #Lights Novels #Yokohama Station SF #Yokohama eki SF #Love of Kill #Koroshi Ai #Eniale & Dewiela #Carole & Tuesday #Haruhi Suzumiya #Suzumiya Haruhi #Maison Ikkoku #Rascal Does Not Dream of Siscon Idol #Seishun Buta Yarou wa Siscon Idol no Yume o Minai #The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat #Sekai Saikou no Ansatsusha Isekai Kizoku ni Tensei suru #Reader's Corner #Articles #Author: TWWK #Author: MDMRN #Author: Samuru

[gaykey]

From what i remember, on EYK's blog, they wrote about their experience interviewing SHINee and I guess they really poorly organized it as well. Like everything was extremely last minute and they met SHINee backstage directly after they finished a performance in some tent, and there were no seats, poor lighting for filming, and they didn't have their questions well prepared. I guess they had been in contact with some SM rep via phone prior to the interview, but they said they had difficulty communicating with the rep because they didn't know Korean well enough with business lingo to communicate, so they had to use their one assistant at the time who (i believe) was korean and was acting as their translator. Overall, the phone conversations were a mess and the SM rep kept being unclear whether they were actually cleared for the interview or not. Their video of the interview had to be taken down from what i remember since SM was angry that EYK hadn't sent in questions to be cleared for the interview. (which makes me think that SHINee didn't know beforehand what the interview was even for and had no way to prepare for the interview in any way). EYK just blamed it all on the SM rep not being properly organized to clear them for the interview, but it seemed like to me the blame was also on them for not being professional in how they set up the interview to begin with. the era of EYK trying to set themselves up as KPOP journalists is still very surreal to me when I look back on it. one thing that still sticks out to me is how they said they "knew korean," but then would also never speak korean, even in situations when it would be better to do so. why lie.......just admit you know the bare minimum about the language.

anonymous asked: i remember i went down a recent reddit thread rabbit hole about EYK. i didn't know, but they had moved to japan and made a new channel called Eat Your Sushi (i think), but I guess it had gone dormant around the start of 2020. then they put out some vague update video, but it didn't really answer much as to what was actually going on with them. (apparently their instagrams left people with many questions since it looked like martina was no longer in japan, but back home in canada and that she was living alone). the thread got a little crazy since people started speculating they were getting a divorce. they do live separately from what people can tell and martina at least had been talking about starting her own separate youtube channel (possibly stepping away from eat you sushi since she doesn't live in japan anymore). i also didn't know she had been living with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome for a couple years now. their time living in japan seemed like it was filled with the usual mess of casual racism and microaggressions, and i just felt frustrated all over again with their endeavors to try to be korean culture or japanese culture journalists. it was never just "innocent appreciation" from them. they also seemed to ignore the privilege they had in being able to buy an entire house in japan in the outskirts of a city. i feel like people now, don't fully realize how pervasive they were with their kpop stuff......it felt like everywhere i looked there was some EYK "meme" and people writing the same essay over and over to defend them.

hello people!

woah, damn, so, there's a lot going on with eyk huh?

first anon, woah, so it was really just a total shambles then. like, they blame the sm rep, which okay, but also, who are they? like, they're literally nobody, and they were interviewing a huge kpop group, and didn't go through all the measures, that any professional journalist would know to.

they were in over their heads, and it showed.

also, yeah, the disrespect? see, they very well could have known korean quite fluently, but we're just arsehoows about it, and refuse to speak it? it coukd go either way. literally a prime example of ahitty white people who live in korea.

second anon, yeah, i knew they had moved to japan, but that was all. ew, they're literally so gross. they're vague racism and appropriation. it feels like they went with whatever asian culture was popular at the time and ran with it because it got them views.

yeah, they really were everywhere. but, there not now and thank god tbh.

#anon #eat your kimchi #i hate them jxhdjdjdjd #and oof divorce yikes #sucks for them lol

[afterourhearts]

Eyeliner Tears

Why are Asian eyes so ugly? I thought to myself as I outlined their shape with the blackest liner I could dig out from the free Lancôme makeup samples Mom never used. This was my daily routine since I first discovered the beautiful black pencil when I was 12 alongside lip gloss, mascara, and blush. But eyeliner was my favorite – changing most dramatically what I hated most passionately. • Monolids are ugly because they make eyes look like slits. • Double lids are ‘mutant’ because, as my white medical professor once so aptly described, “Epicanthic folds are a prominent feature of Down Syndrome. If you don’t know what they are, Asians commonly have this feature.” Let’s face it: we can’t win, at least not in the beauty arena. But with my eyeliner adding the illusion of a larger eye, I felt halfway there. Not everyone, however, appreciated my foray into adolescent self-transformation. The Chinese beauty culture operates very differently than American beauty culture: pale skin, small mouths, soft bodies, and youthful innocence are prized over glowing tans, wide smiles, athletic frames, and sultry seductiveness. To achieve the Chinese beauty ideal of youthful innocence, heavy makeup such as eyeliner is unacceptable, and makeup at all is frowned upon for younger girls. Mom called them “raccoon eyes” and told me I looked uglier with it on but I never heeded her advice. She also said respectable girls did not waste their time on vanities like makeup, but rather immersed themselves in their studies. She especially hated when I wore makeup to church, a place where teenage girls are supposed to look extra pure. I rolled my raccoon eyes. One year, I met a new girl at our Chinese Christian Church. She was talkative, witty, similarly loved makeup and rebellion, and we became fast friends. This same year, a new youth pastor arrived at our church. He was funny, fluent, and finally our first youth pastor who wasn’t middle-aged. So how do they tie back to eyeliner? Prior to their arrival, I dreaded attending church, paranoid that the judgmental eyes of multitudes of Chinese parents hated my appearance and shared the Chinese cultural views held by my mother. Was it paranoia, or was I just observant? Adults would enthusiastically praise my younger brother’s handsome features and say nothing about my appearance other than, “She is tall!” Their smiles seemed disingenuous and their attitudes towards me distant. Or maybe I was just overly sensitive. Regardless, much of that paranoia melted away with the arrival of a new friend and youth pastor – two characters who seemed more attuned than the other members to the Asian-American dichotomy that was my life. I began to loosen up at church, smile more, and even happily greet the adults. I felt … safe. Maybe not enthusiastically accepted, but also not frowned upon with disdain. One might wonder why I was so concerned for approval from within my Chinese church. When you live in a country spearheaded by people who don’t view you as truly American, you cling onto the safe spaces that still might take you in and consider you a member. I wasn’t aware of how shaky my walls of comfort had been built, though, until one sentence caused them to tumble back down again. “He said he doesn’t like you because you wear so much eyeliner.” She told me. She being my new best friend and he being the cool and young youth pastor we both adored. “How do you know this?” I asked, disbelief and doubt at each other’s throats in the battleground that was now my mind. “Because he told my mom. And my mom told me that it’s not just him who thinks this way, but a lot of other parents. They tell their kids to stay away from you because you are a bad influence.” Bad influence. Me, the introvert who rarely speaks, a bad influence? I let that sink in. That night, I considered giving up my eyeliner. I thought all my fears about being hated by my friends’ parents were unfounded and paranoid. I thought my youth pastor would especially not judge me by something so exterior – actually, why would he judge me at all? Why would a grown ass man concern himself so heavily with whether a teenage girl wears eyeliner? Anger and sadness bubbled up around me. How did one of my greatest fears, one I thought had been pushed away and laid to rest for good, one which only my new friend knew so intimately, suddenly come to surface all over again? And that’s when it hit me: maybe she lied. The seed of thought that this supposed best friend might not actually like me at all was planted. And over the next few months, it thirstily drank up water and sunlight. I befriended other girls and began to uncover bits and pieces of the horrifying truth: she did hate me, and they had evidence. Screen captures and chat conversations were forwarded to my inbox. Not only did she tell others about how terrible I supposedly was, she also told them I disliked all of them and fabricated statements I had never uttered nor so much as thought. I could not believe it – why did she want to destroy my life and capitalize on my insecurities? What did I ever do but consider her my friend? Sometimes, you never get answers. Not too many months after, she moved again. We stumbled across each other’s Instagram accounts a few years later. She had dyed hair, tattoos, piercings all over, eyeliner wings bolder than I had ever applied, false lashes nearly reaching her thickly painted eyebrows, the same deceptively sweet smile as when we first met, and was surrounded by other Asian girls. I once burned with the anger of her betrayal, but all I could think about now was her new embodiment of the criticisms she claimed were the reasons for my rejection from our community and how ironic our appearances were now – me being the studious medical student who sometimes forgets to wear eyeliner and she being the girl who refuses to be seen in public without it - the pictorial epitome of the bad influence she once used to mark me for social abandonment from our only remaining community. Irony, Karma, or Hypocrisy? Today, I won’t know if sprinkled between her lies were grains of truth, and if her comment about my reputation was one of them. I won’t know if my eventual submission to certain Asian cultural values drew its main roots from my teenage experience of potential two-fold community rejection. I won’t know if she ever realized the extent to which she hurt me or if she continues to hurt in similarly sneaky ways our other Asian sisters struggling to find acceptance and self-love in a land which has subjected them to unwarranted rejection. What I do know is this: We All Cry The Same Eyeliner Tears Yes, we do. They trickle down from our unmistakably Asian eyes, glide along our sunscreen laden faces, and leave smudgy black streaks to remind us of both our perceived physical imperfections as well as our efforts to conceal the ugliness we feel inside. 

Feeling ugly is not just some manifestation of low self-esteem as these American schools/media/counselors might tell us in order to erase from our mutual history and from their responsibility the ‘chink’ comments that we heard or the fingers-pulling-eyes-upward-to-mimic-us that we saw.

Our damaged self-esteem is not some personal mental and emotional disorder or a reflection of our weakness but a collective experience caused largely in part by the pervasive belief that some belong here but we don’t and that some are beautiful but we aren’t. Don’t think that just because dating apps are now asserting, “Asian girls are the most desired race!” that the girls who come after us are protected from the less-than we endured. The American dating scene did not just become more “accepting” of us – we changed to look more like them. But underneath the beautifully and extravagantly drawn eyeliner wings, the perfectly filled in eyebrows, the time-consuming application of fake lashes, the hours spent at the gym to avoid ‘Asian flat butt’ stereotypes, and the sharp cut of the surgery knife on our eyelids, we still cannot help but wonder: is this beautiful yet? And when he says, “Yes”, we still worry, was I not beautiful before? Do we really want to be with the ones who only want what is made-to-order, and overlook the ones who saw the original, in all its imperfections, as worth discovering? So while I have every right to be mad at my Asian sister for the hurtful actions she made against me as a result of her wanting to be more accepted by our community than I was, I cannot lose sight of the more formidable barrier to our collective inability to self-love: not the lies she told before, but the lies they still tell today. Why are my Asian eyes so ugly? I used to think to myself constantly. And if you’ve read this until the end, I think you know the answer.

_____________________________________________________________

Comments: Friends who have read this far or read my shared thoughts at all, I know my experiences are not isolated. My past shared posts related to familial pressures and relationships have shown me just how overlapping our experiences can be. The feelings of low self-esteem and self-image at some time or another in your life is probably a universal one. Experiences of betrayal are sadly quite common. Hopefully you enjoyed this short piece - it’s a bit different from the other posts I’ve written (a little more cleaned up and narrative when compared to my usual frenetic ranting) ... anyways, I wanted to share that I’ve been working on putting together some more shorts + poems in my free time (this is how I destress from school haha) and something I hope to achieve through writing with this project (and since day one) is unfiltered and unapologetic storytelling highlighting the Asian voice that is so often completely ignored in discussions of race and discrimination. I’m not saying our experiences are to be equated to the experiences of other minorities because noo, but I am saying we should at least be included in the discussion. 

This brings me to my next point: I want to continue to share your stories too. If you have experiences you want to share related in any way to your identity as an Asian-American female, I want to hear them and with your permission, try to make prose or poetry of it. Text me, message me, or call me and let’s get in touch :) Thank you for being a part of this whether as a reader or direct contributor. Let’s shape our collective voice!!!

[iraklismytridis]

Starseed Syndrome: Learning to Have Compassion for Yourself

Starseeds and lightworkers have come here to earth to help earth in her Ascension. They’re not a new innovation because they have been incarnating on earth for a long time, steering the people of this planet towards higher consciousness. In duality, there’s a positive side and a negative side to being a starseed/lightworker. The negative side is that you can feel different from others on this planet, like an outsider. This can lead to a whole host of difficulties as you traverse this lifetime towards self awareness.

You learn to reject yourself because you feel different from everyone else. It starts at a very young age before you can develop any conscious understanding of what you’re doing. If you come from a dysfunctional family, this habit of self rejection can become a disproportionate problem which keeps you from alignment with your soul.

Characteristics:

– You have a pervasive sense that there’s something wrong with you – Why don’t you fit in, why are you different? – Why do you see things differently, why do you feel different? – What’s the matter with everyone else? Why can’t they see it my way? – Why do people love everything and you have a problem with it? – Why are you bored with others? – Why do people do that? Don’t they know better? – Why can’t you behave like other people? – This leads to an inferiority complex – Empaths who are unconscious are particularly at risk of feeling different because they are sensing the emotions of those who are disguising them at surface level. Often life experiences are incongruent – the inside doesn’t match the outside and people are perplexing to you – Having been born into a dysfunctional family only exacerbates the feeling of being different; it really takes on a context of being “flawed” rather than different – People tell you you’re weird or different, never admirable – You tend to stay alone rather than with others, you get labeled as anti-social – You get bored a lot – You learn to fear people who bring out this feeling of being abnormal (arguers, instigators, perpetrators), you fear their reaction to you because you see it as further proof of your strangeness and inability to cope or to fit in – Instances of rejection by others fuel your self rejection complex- you think “all these people can’t be wrong about me!” because you keep getting the same reactions from different people. You don’t understand that these reactions are prompts to change brought on by universal law, not evidence of the undeniable truth of your being flawed. – Feeling of needing to fit in, while all the while fighting the desire NOT to fit in, you become conflicted. This can make you appear to be indecisive, which prompts more negative reaction towards you so you become secretive and alienate others – You become very hard on yourself, all the while trying to fit some standard that you’re not interested in anyway – You become confused. Life perplexes you because you need to understand yourself in order to understand how you see it. – Your outer appearance is a mask to cover up your inner experience.

Not understanding who you really are and where you’ve come from, you may find all sorts of other explanations for why you feel different. As a child, I reasoned that it was because I was tall. Later on I felt different because I was overweight. My somewhat ample nose also supplied an excuse, it must’ve been because of that. Thinking primarily as a physical being, you tend to blame your physicality for your feeling of being different and the self rejection you are perpetrating upon yourself. This can have further ramifications later on as you develop a poor body image and possible eating disorders.

Or maybe it was because the other kids were good at gym class and I frankly couldn’t stand it? I didn’t like volleyball. I didn’t get picked until the end of the team formation either; these types of events only added to the self rejection. You take every slight as further evidence of your strangeness. You rationalize everything as further evidence to support your case against yourself. You beat on yourself because you can’t appear to fit into the standard – you’re not athletic, or you’re not intellectual, or you’re not pretty or handsome, or you’re not musically inclined. Anything you can’t manage to look even passable at, your ego will hound you for failing at.

When we begin to develop telepathically, when we begin to understand we see things others can’t, when we begin to understand that we live in a world that others don’t comprehend and worse, one that they think is imaginary or foolish, this can add to the self rejection. When it became apparent I had psychic abilities as a teenager, that was another thing that made me different and set me up to further reject myself. As a teenager, I wanted desperately to fit in but hung out with the “out” crowd because that’s how I felt – like an outsider.

Understand that your attempts to fit in tend to repress your budding multidimensional abilities and slow down your Awakening. Not accepting what you are capable of inhibit these abilities. You are literally in a battle between wanting to fit in to your earth life and blooming into the starseed/lightworker you were born to be.

I sensed that being different would not help me in future. I feared being different but I was fearing my destiny. I saw one girl after the next get picked as desirable by guys in school while I stood there, waiting for once to be the belle of the ball. I was a very shy person growing up.

I kept looking for places for misfits to hang out at, wanting to socialize with people like myself. That was until I discovered alcohol. Inhibitions left me as I further revealed my superficial mask. I became the life of the party. I’m now 20 years sober.

Having studied spirituality later on in my 20’s, I attracted attention as being somewhat of an expert. I was welcomed for my knowledge in this area. This was a relief because whatever it was that I had done in the past nobody else seemed to be interested in. I always had to bend to their will and do as they were doing, and in so doing, I lost whatever sense of self I had. I was fated either to bending to their will to appear normal or striking out on my own to attend spiritualist churches, lectures by astral travelers and seminars by animal communicators. I was alone. Nobody I knew wanted to talk to their cats.

Starseed Syndrome will morph into all kinds of false ideas about yourself because you don’t understand why you feel different. This trait you have of being self rejecting will come out whenever you’re at odds with life on earth and it will take flight like the Goodyear blimp on helium whenever you feel rejected by anyone. It can morph into self hatred for any number of reasons, with the fact that you’re inexplicably different from others on earth as being the core reason.

Nip it in the bud now. Understand yourself and love yourself for all the wonderful things you’ve chosen to come here to do. List them if you have to. Look back to all the times you helped a blind lady cross the street, helped a blind man in the subway and rescued a cat. Write them all down. Read about other lightworkers doing great work and understand you’re like them.

Which brings me to the last point I need to make about Starseed Syndrome. Until you learn to have compassion for the bright spark of light that volunteered to be born here on earth, to help an entire race of people survive an extinction event, until you feel with your heart for that beautiful spark of life, you will continue not to accept yourself every time you have a fall-out with another earthling. All those old voices of “You’re weird,” “What is wrong with you?” “Why can’t you get along with anyone?” “People hate you!” will continue to haunt you.

And the dark will continue to send its minions your way, just to keep reminding you.

Starseed Syndrome has to be healed. This lack of self acceptance has to be met with compassion for a change. You’re a beautiful being who has sacrificed much to come to earth to help those who are mean to you. That’s an incredible act of love and courage.

Keep telling yourself the truth of who you are every time the dark sends a minion to anger you, upset your life, go into battle with you. Refuse to fight these little skirmishes. There are bigger fish to fry.

You ARE different and it’s because you’re different that this world will thrive again. It’s because you’re different that the Light is shining on this world once more. When you learn to embrace the positive things about yourself and understand that the negative things are ideas you surmised out of ignorance at a time in your life when you were developing and didn’t know any better, you can then let them go.

Understand what you’ve come here to do, have compassion for yourself and learn to validate yourself and your multi-dimensional experiences in a world where few will.

Many of us choose the path to the Light through negativity for the reason that it must be healed in the collective. Understanding this about yourself will help in your healing and of others’

[torturedpoetemotions]

Which comic book villains do you relate to?

@irreverentcatalyst asked me this, with the stipulations that all Marvel and DC villains for all time are fair game, but I must pick no more than three. And it took me a full fucking week to think it through. Because what villains you relate to says a lot about you. Things like what your fatal flaws might be.

So after a lot of thought, and all credit to irreverentcatalyst for talking it all through with me...here are my three villains.

Magneto

I struggle against the impulse to hurt others in response to being hurt. Not for pleasure, more as a balancing of the scales. It’s hard to quiet the belief that if those who treat others unjustly were given a taste of their own medicine, they might stop. And a lifetime of watching passive attempts at forging peace and equality fail often has me thinking things like “if every man who touched a woman without her consent got his fucking fingers broken, they’d be less brazen. Maybe they’d even be too afraid to harass women.” Of all the seven deadly sins, mine is definitely wrath.

Harley Quinn

Harley is a former villain with an incredible redemption arc, but she was still a villain once upon a time, so she makes the list. I know what it’s like to be in an abusive relationship that you refuse to see as abusive until much later. I also know what it’s like to be entirely consumed by that relationship to the point that you do things to please that person that you would never do otherwise. Living in a toxic relationship can really turn you into a toxic person over time, and I really relate to how Harley has to deal with that and that slow battle to unravel herself from the person she became with Joker.

Clayface

I’m a perfectionist with rampant imposter syndrome. I’m protective of my past, but insecure about my future and at time intensely uncomfortable in my own skin. I love to tell stories about more interesting people and live with the pervasive feeling that just me is not enough...for life, for the real world, for the people close to me, for the task at hand. I struggle with my own sense of identity and am never 100% sure of how honest I’m being, even with myself. Almost every social interaction I’ve ever dealt with has been totally performative, and I’m intensely uncomfortable if I don’t know the script.

#marvel #dc comics #villains #comic book villains #harley quinn #magneto #clayface #lizawords

[dee-dee-blogs]

Stretch like Chuyang!!

 Stand up, stretch your arms ,bend forward and touch your toes with your legs and spine erect.Just hold it for 1 minute. Difficult? Legs shaking? Cramps on calf ?Whoof ….This 1 minute yoga seems like a difficult task,but not for this Yoga_kid ! Sun Chuyang from China , is just 7 years old and has already set his name as the youngest certified yoga trainer in the world. At the age of 7,we used to lick the nicest tasting lollipops while swinging in the park’s swings but this kid earns over $15900 (over  Rs.10 lakhs), by training yoga to over 100 students.And to add up, he learnt yoga to fight up autism. A little deep into this kid’s achievement ­–­­­

Latch onto Autism:

Before we start to know about Chuyang, lets capiche autism. Autism, or Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD), refers to a range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication, as well as by unique strengths and differences.It is a group of problems that people can have, including Asperger syndrome and others. These problems happen when the brain develops differently and has trouble making sense of the world and helping someone communicate. Every day, our brains interpret (understand) the things we see, smell, hear, taste, touch, and experience. But when someone's brain has trouble interpreting these things, it can make it hard to talk, listen, understand, play, and learn. Kids with autism often can't make connections that other kids make easily. For example, when people smile, you know they feel happy or friendly; when people look mad, you can tell by their face or their voice. But many kids who have autism have trouble understanding what emotions look like and what another person is thinking. They might act in a way that seems unusual, and it can be hard to understand why they're doing it.At certain stages , they would find it difficult to make friends,share things,talk or greet. Like , if you ask their name today,they would reply it tomorrow.It sometimes leads to pain,anxiety and aggressive behaviours

 Positive side :

Of course, autism is mental disorder,but it doesn’t mean that they are incapable.It just takes time for them to interpret things.Many people view autism as a hardship instead of a blessing.They posses awesome qualities that most of the population don’t have.They concentrate on lesser important things *lesser important things do matter*.In other ways this type of thinking can help people with autism be successful in their lives.Thats the reason why IT sectors seek ASD people who can find issues with software that others cannot due to their intense focus on details, rather than on whether a program “works” or not.They may not know lot of things like us,rather are experts in specific fields. It is almost common knowledge that people with autism see things differently than those who are considered neurotypical and they posses ability to teach others.

 YogAutism and Sun Chuyang:

Yoga is a group of physical,mental and spiritual practises or disciplines which originated from ancient India. Yoga incorporates epistemology(study of knowledge), metaphysics, ethical practices, systematic exercises and self-development techniques for body, mind and spirit. Practising yoga cures most of the health related issues.YogAutism explains how yoga treats people with autism.According to it , YogAutism was designed to meet the challenges of those with autism including Sensory Integration Disorder,Asperger’s Syndrome,Pervasive Development Disorder,High Functioning Autism and Classic Autism.With benefits associated with yoga, YogAutism provides benefits like reduction of pain,aggression,anxiety,obsessive & self-stimulating behaviours,more control in regulating anxiety &emotion ,joy of sharing class and making new friends.

People with autism have different sensory experiences ,their bodies get stuck in ‘fight ,flight or freeze’ response. This response moves blood from digestive organs to skeletal muscles.By this action, the digestion is disrupted,heart rate speeds up and breathing becomes shallower . These reactions leads to emotional state of anxiety.

Yoga helps to get out of ‘fight,flight or freeze’response and to feel more relaxed and less anxious .When body is no longer in this response , blood returns to the core and body can do its work of digestion and breathing.Specific yoga poses stimulates the gastro-intestinal track.It also facilitates better inhalation and exhalation ,which calms the nervous system.It builds core strength which , in the long run creates a healthier body.Only when a person feels calm and comfortable with his body ,can he really work on behaviour.At its core ,yoga is meant to deepen spiritual awareness.It creates an opportunity to explore spiritual experiences and share with others.

In the case of Sun Chuyang,he was diagnosed with slight autism at the age of two.Then he was enrolled in yoga class. He grew a special interest towads it and started practising yoga  at the age of three and fought over autism.Later , at the age of six, he received a certificate for teaching yoga.

Before yoga got into his life,Chuyang refused to talk or play with other kids.His mother Ye Wenyun , had to quit her apparel store and later focus on his yoga practice.She then saw him being enthusiastic while doing yoga poses.

Chuyang now became a social media sensation and appeared in various TV shows.He also got job offers to teach yoga at the centres.

Not just Chuyang achieved big, even Einstein, Steve Jobs ,Tesla and many other famous people are in the list of ‘famous people with autism’. They inspired the world and proved that disorders can’t stop you from creating history, it’s the willpower that rewrites history!!!

“It seems that success in science or art , a dash of autism is essential”

--Hans Asperger

#yoga #autism #yogautism #sun chu yang

[psychofactz]

The Avoidant of Personality Disorder

Avoidant Personality Disorder (AVPD) is a recognised disorder which is characterized by a hypersensitivity to criticism, intense self loathing and a strong desire to isolate themselves. Sufferers believe that they lack social skills, and feel they don’t know or understand “the rules”. Hence, they tend to avoid social situations to avoid the pain of rejection by others.

People in a close relationship with them often feel frustrated by the 

person’s tendency to pull away from them and avoid other people. They also find it hard to lead an active social life as the sufferer refuses to go to events such as family gathering, work parties and so on. Also, they may feel pressurised to cut themselves off, too, and live in a bubble with the AVPD person. This can be a source of stress for the person and the extended family.

Although people with AVPD will generally display a number of the traits outlined below, each person is unique and different. (Also, most of us display avoidant traits at times but that doesn’t mean we have AVPD).

Symptoms and traits include the following:“always” & “never” statements; blaming; catastrophizing (automatically assuming a “worst case scenario”); circular conversations (endless arguments which repeat the same patterns); “control-me” syndrome (a tendency to form relationships with people who are controlling, narcissistic or antisocial); dependency; depression; emotional blackmail; false accusations; fear of abandonment; hypervigilance;  identity disturbance ( a distorted view of oneself); impulsivity; lack of object constancy (the inability to remember that people or objects are consistent and reliable over time – regardless of whether you can see them or not); low self-esteem; mood swings;  objectification (treating a person like an object); panic attacks; passive aggressive behaviour; projection (attributing one’s own feelings or traits onto another); self-hatred; “playing the victim” and thought policing (trying to question, control, or unduly influence another person’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours.)

Specifically, the DSM-IV-TR, defines Avoidant Personality Disorder (AvPD) as being:

A pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by four (or more) of the following:

1.    Avoids occupational activities that involve significant interpersonal contact, because of fears of criticism, disapproval, or rejection.

2.    Is unwilling to get involved with people unless certain of being liked.

3.    Shows restraint initiating intimate relationships because of the fear of being ashamed, ridiculed, or rejected due to severe low self-worth.

4.    Is preoccupied with being criticized or rejected in social situations.

5.    Is inhibited in new interpersonal situations because of feelings of inadequacy.

6.    Views self as socially inept, personally unappealing, or inferior to others

7.    Is unusually reluctant to take personal risks or to engage in any new activities because they may prove embarrassing.

A formal diagnosis must be made by a mental health professional.

by: onlinecounsellingcollege

#psychology #fact #psychological facts

[thenewsguru]

The Liberals' Russian Sex Change Operation: Flip Flopping at its Best

The Democrats have had the equivalent of a sex change operation over Russia. It would make for a hilarious black comedy was it not for the dangerous implications for the safety of the human race — not to mention the increasingly disastrous miseducation of our youth. In fact, this sex change is so extreme it should make even a card-carrying LGBTQQP2SAA blush. Take our erstwhile senator from Vermont, Comrade Bernie, even now off touring the country with the latest "progressive" fave, a socialist with the apparent knowledge base of one of those clueless dimbulbs chosen for satiric man-on-the-street TV interviews. Bernie, as many knows, is a man who picked the Soviet Union for his honeymoon. As one who paid two lengthy visits to the USSR at about the same time on "cultural exchanges," I can assure you that most of us would rather spend our honeymoons at a toxic waste dump, which a significant part of that country resembled and still does. Not only that, on those two visits — and also on two subsequent trips post-Communism — I noticed the most obvious income disparity, something Senator Sanders is supposed to abhor. Yes, we have pretty wretched poverty in Appalachia and the inner cities, but this was pervasive, with all the clichés about empty stores with babushka ladies on breadlines one hundred percent accurate. I saw it for myself from Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia to Simferopol, Crimea. It's slightly better now under oligarchic capitalism, but still nothing like the West. It's one thing to excuse the naive idealism of Lincoln Steffens, who returned from Moscow in 1918 to tell us, "I have seen the future and it works." But Sanders went on his Soviet honeymoon in 1988, fifteen years after the publication of The Gulag Archipelago. How romantic. If there were ever a place where elites (nomenklatura) ruled and the sainted proletariat got the short end of the proverbial stick, it was the USSR. Further, all the visitors to the Soviet Union and many later were under constant surveillance by intelligence agencies. I know I was — oh, how I was — since I was approached by the KGB to "help them," a moment as terrifying as any in my life. (You can read about it here.) Spying has been a Russian constant since the czars. Only willfully blind true believers could have ignored all of that, but Bernie Sanders did. And now he's yammering on that Trump is betraying us to Russia. As if. But he's not half as bad or half as hypocritical as ex-CIA chief John O. Brennan. Brennan — it is well known and he admits it — voted for Communist Party USA chief Gus Hall in the 1976 presidential election. Talk about sex change operations. He excuses that as kind of youthful indiscretion — he was in his early twenties — and evidently many (including Obama, who gave him his job) believed him or said they did. But I was only a few years older than Brennan then and remember those days well since I too was on the left. I was even an acquaintance of such notorious characters as Abbie Hoffman and Tom Hayden and knew dozens of people who, to one degree or another, sympathized with them. Yet not a single person I can recall voted for Gus Hall or even remotely considered it. Hall was a Stalinist, for chrissakes! He was anathema, everything the young people of the so-called New Left were rebelling against them — and, in this one case at least, justifiably so. The mass-murdering crimes of Stalin were already common knowledge. Years later, when I read Brennan was among the minuscule .07 percent who actually voted for Hall, I was astonished. How could such a person end up the director of the CIA? I mean, I'm all for redemption and everything, but there are limits. Voting for a Stalinist candidate as late as 1976 would be akin to a personality disorder, almost like voting for Satan. It's one thing to forgive Brennan for this, hard as that may be, but there is something seriously unsettling about putting him at the helm of our most famous intelligence agency. (Other questions have arisen about Brennan's Middle East connections.) But now we have him leading the charge against Trump, accusing the president of actual treason in his dealings with Putin, the very thing Brennan's former hero Hall directly advocated. It's enough to make a sane man paranoid. This is all obviously part of the great game of "Russia" that has dominated our culture for nearly two years, a kind of media- generated obsessive-compulsive disorder. (Mentioning Russia has become the cable TV equivalent of the uncontrollable washing of hands in a Dickens novel.) This has to end — and now — or we'll all go crazy, paranoid or not. To do this, what we need more than ever is for Trump to exercise his executive authority and order the release of all the documents pertaining to the Hilary email and Russia investigations that the DOJ is refusing to produce. I have heard the president's attorneys oppose this for fear of some bogus obstruction charge. I'm afraid it's too late for that. The public has to see it all — and not, alas, through the filtered eyes of an inspector general. Trust is gone. We need the originals. And no phony redactions, please. Meanwhile, the Democrats' evolving Russia Derangement Syndrome — a viral mutation of TDS — is indeed a psychological disease worthy of inclusion in the DSM, especially since it has nothing whatever to do with Russia. Russia is always the same. The Democrats are not. They have had a sex change operation. ENVOI: It's worth remembering, however, that many of those who have such operations often have second thoughts and want them reversed. In this case, the Dems might be well advised to do so, go back to their old appeasing ways that began under Reagan and reached their apotheosis under Obama. Their new found belligerence is clearly not catching fire. The public seems mighty bored with the whole Russia business and judges it completely irrelevant to their lives, a mere asterisk, less than one percent in the latest polling of important campaign issues. Who can blame them? Read the full article

#Democrats #DonaldTrump #PolicyChange #Putin #Russia #Trump

[viviandesignresearch]

Research

Obtained from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673608604882?casa_token=0I4jWn5Zn0sAAAAA:okpjQ0vS1ix3U9lf58qxOg6eD_RhEFUZxpZ4PR8USVikMHe-ZpqBsJU9UZ_n78CvpHVkbqWHCQ

Volume 371, Issue 9618, 29 March–4 April 2008

The Lancet 

“Anxiety disorders are the most pervasive class of mental disorders, with a 12-month prevalence in the community of about 18%.1 Social anxiety disorder (also known as social phobia) is classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV; panel 1)2 and in the International Classification of Diseases 10 (ICD-10; panel 2)3 as a phobic (anxiety) disorder, alongside agoraphobia and specific phobias (from which it was first distinguished only 40 years ago4). People with social anxiety disorder fear and avoid the scrutiny of others. The concern in such situations is that the individual will say or do something that will result in embarrassment or humiliation. These concerns can be so pronounced that the individual shuns most interpersonal encounters, or endures such situations only with intense discomfort. Once largely neglected by the medical community, social anxiety disorder came to the attention of the general medical community a decade ago,5 and is now garnering increased attention and recognition as a widespread, impairing, but treatable condition.”

“DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for social anxiety disorder (social phobia):

A notable and persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations with exposure to unfamiliar people or possible scrutiny by others

The person fears that he or she will act in a way (or show symptoms of anxiety) that will be humiliating or embarrassing

Exposure to the feared social situation almost invariably provokes anxiety, which can take the form of a panic attack

The person recognises that the fear is excessive or unreasonable

The feared social or performance situations are avoided or endured with intense anxiety or distress

The condition interferes substantially with the person's normal routine, occupational (or academic) functioning, or social activities or relationships, or they have notable distress about having the phobia

The fear or avoidance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance or a general medical condition and is not better accounted for by another mental disorder

If a general medical condition or another mental disorder is present, the social or performance fear is unrelated to it (eg, the fear is not of trembling in Parkinson's disease)

Specify the disorder as generalised if fears include most social situations”

“F40.1 social phobias

Fear of scrutiny by other people leading to avoidance of social situations. More pervasive social phobias are usually associated with low self-esteem and fear of criticism. Patients might present with a complaint of blushing, hand tremor, nausea, or urgency of micturition, sometimes being convinced that one of these secondary manifestations of their anxiety is the primary problem. Symptoms can progress to panic attacks.”

“Individuals with social anxiety disorder are typically shy when meeting new people, quiet in groups, and withdrawn in unfamiliar social settings. When they interact with others, they might or might not show overt evidence of discomfort (eg, blushing, not making eye contact), but invariably experience intense emotional or physical symptoms, or both (eg, fear, heart racing, sweating, trembling, trouble concentrating). They crave the company of others, but shun social situations for fear of being found out as unlikable, stupid, or boring. Accordingly, they avoid speaking in public, expressing opinions, or even fraternising with peers; in some situations, this can lead to such individuals being mistakenly labelled as snobs. People with social anxiety disorder are typified by low self-esteem and high self-criticism,7 and as detailed below, often have depressive symptoms. The specific fear of urinating in public restrooms (paruresis, or so-called shy bladder syndrome) can be regarded as a discrete, relatively rare subtype of social anxiety disorder.”

“Social anxiety disorder has a very early onset, with many cases—especially those of the generalised type—beginning in childhood or early adolescence.17 The prevalence of social anxiety disorder in youth (6·8 % [SE 1·8%] in one study)18 is similar to that reported in adults. Social anxiety disorder is a common reason for school refusal in young children, and it is the only mood or anxiety disorder that has consistently been shown to be associated with dropping out of school early.19 Although it typically begins in early life, this disorder not infrequently persists into adulthood and even old age”

“Social anxiety disorder has been ranked as among the top ten chronic disorders—mental or physical—in terms of its effects on objective outcomes such as days of work lost;40 the effects of this disorder are therefore not merely on subjective distress, but also on measurable outcomes—such as health-related quality of life41—relevant to society and to public health. Although decisions to label particular entities as pathological clearly entail a sociopolitical process, this process can be rational.42″

“Our understanding of social anxiety disorder (also known as social phobia) has moved from rudimentary awareness that it is not merely shyness to a much more sophisticated appreciation of its prevalence, its chronic and pernicious nature, and its neurobiological underpinnings. Social anxiety disorder is the most common anxiety disorder; it has an early age of onset—by age 11 years in about 50% and by age 20 years in about 80% of individuals—and it is a risk factor for subsequent depressive illness and substance abuse. Functional neuroimaging studies point to increased activity in amygdala and insula in patients with social anxiety disorder, and genetic studies are increasingly focusing on this and other (eg, personality trait neuroticism) core phenotypes to identify risk loci. A range of effective cognitive behavioural and pharmacological treatments for children and adults now exists; the challenges lie in optimum integration and dissemination of these treatments, and learning how to help the 30–40% of patients for whom treatment does not work.”