Rise Up, Oh Heart, For There is Another Battle to Win

lord-of-the-discourse:

freshest-tittymilk:

lady-willowrx:

takma-rierah:

thealidoyle:

lemonsharks:

queenshulamit:

arachnocomrnunism:

quasi-normalcy:

knightfrog1248:

black–lamb:

I know it’s illegal but whenever I get antibiotics from the doctor I save a few and give them to friends or coworkers who don’t have insurance so that when cold season comes they might be able to shorten their illness

That is not good- that’s not quite how antibiotics work.

Antibiotics kill some bacteria, but don’t manage to kill other bacteria. Just like when you get a particular sickness (or a vaccination), your body can protect you from future infections, any bacteria that came into contact with the antibiotic is protected from future doses of that antibiotic. Bacteria are very virulent breeders, so they spawn more resistant bacteria.

If you take the full dose of antibiotics, your natural antibodies can deal with the cells that are resistant while the medicine kills off the bacteria that isn’t resistant. If you don’t take the full course of antibiotics, then your body has to deal with both the resistant and the non-resistant strains of bacteria, and it can become overwhelming. Also, most bacteria are able to pass on genes between still-living cells, so that previously non-resistant strains become resistant, and you have inadvertently cultivated a stronger strain of bacteria.

Furthermore, colds and the flu are viral infections, so antibiotics don’t work against them anyway. The best protection against viral infections are vaccinations, as there are not many viruses that we have developed anti-viral medication against, once you already have the disease. If there are anti-viral medications, it is even more important that you take the full dose of the medication, because anti-viral medication is even harsher against the body than antibacterial medication is.

How antibiotics work

How antiviral medication works

Spread this around; antibiotics are not candy

To put it shortly: antibiotics don’t do shit for the cold. You need to take the entire bottle that is prescribed to you. People not doing that is how antibiotic resistant infections crop up. People like OP are literally why diseases like MRSA exist.

OP shouldn’t feel bad about good intentions but this is really dangerous. There’s also the risk that your friends are allergic to the specific type of antibiotics you give them.

things that a better-off person can do for their sick less-well-off friends that don’t involve breeding superbacteria through misue of antibiotics:

• Buy them cold medicine 
  
• Buy them cough drops
• Buy them fancy tissues with lotion
• Make them too much soup to eat in one go and freeze half for later
• Find them a low-cost clinic and accompany them there
• Tell them you are giving them their day’s wages and they are staying home Friday/Monday and then do.
• Go to their house. Wash the dishes, take out the garbage, walk the dog, scoop the cat or just plain change the whole litter box, clean the bathtub and mom voice them until they take a hot shower or steam their head.
• if they have asthma or bronchitis and are out of inhaler but you have a half-full one, that is a thing you can sanitize and share.
• ditto palliative prescription medication like “I have half a bottle of lidocaine gargle, you want it?” “I am bringing you the rest of my Robitussin with codeine” “here harvest some ibuprofen from my giant bottle of 1,000 ibuprofen”

I feel like some of this should have been covered in high school health class. It would do a lot to combat misuse of antibiotics. Superbacteria is really dangerous for everyone but is particularly bad for people with multiple antibiotic allergies and will lead to hospital stays for IV antibiotics of kinds they can take.

It’s really, really important to know how antibiotics work. I taught university students in an intro biology lab for two years and one of the things I really tried to emphasize was how antibiotics and antibiotic resistance works. To stress the importance I asked some variant of “how do antibiotics work” on three weekly quizzes in a row and I was still getting wrong answers at the end! Though, far fewer, thankfully.

Also, I would recommend against antibiotic soaps and whatnot, for similar reasons. Use alcohol or hand sanitizer if you want to kill bacteria. I can’t imagine there’s any bacterium in existence that’s still vulnerable to the antibiotics in those products, but just in case!

But, btw, I would like to point out that the VAST majority of antibiotic misuse is agricultural, when large factory farms pre-medicate their cattle with large and constant doses of antibiotics. The USA is particularly guilty of this, especially as it allows big ag companies to keep animals in much more crowded and unhealthy conditions than they could get away with otherwise.

Never use antibiotics for a simple cold. To much use of antibiotic can lead to the creation of resistant bacteria, and you really don’t want that when you have more serious infection.

This is the stuff they should be teaching in science classes as well as health class… Not (just) condoms the periodic table…

Um. Please make sure you and your friend have the same concentration and type of inhaler medicine before loaning one to a friend. That’s incredibly dangerous because if it’s not the same kind you could literally poison them or trigger an asthma attack. Please don’t. It’s arguably more dangerous than not taking all the antibiotics because it is powerful medication that should not be taken lightly like have you seen the giant side effect warning packet?

(via patroclvss)

what you need to do if i have a convulsive seizure

normalgiraffes:

I was just complaining to my friend that my oldest sister didn’t know what to do the last time I had a convulsive seizure, and I ended up injured because of it. And my friend said that actually, they don’t know what to do when they see someone have a convulsive seizure, either.

So I thought I’d explain it to you.  I’m not a doctor, and I have no medical training and not everything here will apply to everyone who has convulsive seizures, these are just the things that apply to me, and when in doubt, call an ambulance. 

Here’s what you do:

Look around. Am I lying in the middle of a busy street or on the railroad tracks, or somewhere else dangerous, like in the bathtub? If yes, drag me to somewhere where I am not in imminent danger of being hit by a truck or drowning. 

Am I somewhere safe, but lying near dangerous things like fire or knives or broken glass or pans of boiling water or anything that can hurt me? Move the dangerous things away from me.

My body will be convulsing. That means my head and my arms and my legs are rapidly hitting the ground. Put something soft underneath my head. If there’s a cushion right there, perfect. If not, wad up your coat or shove your shopping bag under my head. If there’s nothing immediately to hand that would take you more than a few seconds to grab, stick your feet underneath my head, it’ll work.

Am I wearing anything around my neck, like a tight collar, or a necktie, or a choker? Loosen it, so my airway is clear.

Don’t restrict my movements - don’t try to hold my arms and legs down. You’ve already moved all the dangerous things away from me, and cushioned my head, so don’t hold me down, unless it is necessary to keep me from doing serious harm.

Don’t put anything in my mouth. A lot of people think you need to stick your fingers or a spoon or something into the person’s mouth to prevent them choking on their tongue.  Don’t do this. 

Try to make a note of the time the seizure first started. If the seizure lasts for longer than five minutes, call an ambulance.

When the convulsing/jerking has stopped, roll me onto my side. If you know what the recovery position is, put me in the recovery position, if you don’t, just roll me onto my side, and check my airway. If I’m not breathing, or I’m having trouble breathing, call an ambulance.

It seems to be instinctive to help someone get back to their feet as soon as the seizure is over. Don’t do this with me. After a seizure, I’m in something called a post-ictal state. It makes me very, very confused, and lying on the ground or sitting somewhere soft is the safest place for me. If you pull me to my feet while I’m still this confused, I will walk directly into traffic or put my hand on a hot stove because I won’t know where I am, or what’s happening, and often I won’t be able to see at all for a few minutes. Keep me somewhere safe until I’ve fully recovered.

If I have another seizure before I’ve fully recovered from the earlier one, call an ambulance.

If you think I might be hurt, or you’re confused or not sure about what to do, call an ambulance.

That’s all there is to it. Make sure I’m not in immediate physical danger; cushion my head (but don’t restrain it); when the jerking stops, roll me onto my side and check my airway; keep me somewhere safe until I’m fully recovered, and if the seizure lasts a long time, or I have a second one, or you aren’t sure what to do or you think I might be hurt, call an ambulance. That’s it. It’s not hard, and I promise you can do this.

OP I hope you don’t mind me adding on to your super good (and accurate) post but, as it says above, don’t restrain a seizing person, please.  There are medical reasons for this, beyond the fact that it’s alarming to come around while restrained.  They might get lucky and be fine.  Or they might be convulsing hard enough to tear a muscle or dislocate a joint if they’re restrained.  Move them away from dangerous shit and cushion their head and note the time and then stop touching them.

(Source: supergiraffes, via lupinatic)

codenamemaximus:

codenamemaximus:

If this gets 50 notes I’ll tell you guys how I ran an underground sex ed class and helped put a pedophile in jail during second grade

Okay, so my mom has always been super open about health stuff and when I was just starting elementary school she got me a bunch of those American Girl books about your body and your feelings and they were really informative and truthful and I really liked them. One day I was talking to a friend about one of them and we started reading it and she was asking a ton if questions and seemed really excited and interested by it and I answered questions and explained stuff. We talked about the books during recess and eventually more girls joined in until we were a group of about 10-15 seven year-olds talking about puberty and sex and a lot of things that most adults don’t The thing about those books is that they look really innocent with cute drawings and there are chapters about brushing your teeth and stuff; but what most people don’t expect is that there’s a lot of health stuff about puberty and mental illness and drugs and a lot of really important stuff that everyone should know. The teachers didn’t care because the books looked super innocent and they thought were talking about proper brushing habits or something. We’d go sit down and read a chapter and I’d add some other stuff that my mom had told me and then we’d just talk and ask questions. It was kind of like group therapy but with sex ed. This was all okay until one of the boys saw a page with a ton of boobs on it (the page was demonstrating a breast exam) and he told the teacher. So they found and I got suspended and I wasn’t allowed to bring any more of those books into school. 

Closer to the end of the year, one of the second grade teachers was revealed to be a pedophile when one of his students said that he tried to touch her inappropriately and then three other girls came forward with the same story. After he was arrested, the girl told me that she said what he did because we had talked about what to do in that exact situation. Because of our group she knew that she probably wasn’t the only one and she knew that it was wrong for him to do that and that she wouldn’t get in trouble if she told someone and that she probably wouldn’t have said anything if she hadn’t read those books.

I started doing it again the next year. No one stopped me. 

(via johanirae)

nuclearvampire:

gelasticat:

this is like entirely irrelevant to art but i’ve seen a lot of people give this advice without a proper explanation and it’s really easy to dismiss anything without one so like?? an explanation on the Eat Something If You’re Feeling Especially Depressed thing also featuring Why Is Mental Illness So Fucking Exhausting

k so i know it really doesn’t feel like it especially when these moods hit you but your brain does a Lot to keep a lot of shitty things at bay, especially if you’re mentally ill. (this stuff applies to people who aren’t as well obviously, it’s just more of an issue if you are.)

it’s working at keeping stuff away p much constantly, and that’s on top of everything else brains do daily (which is a metric fuckton, our brains control absolutely everything that happens with our bodies and the cognitive processes even in something as simple as perception are absolutely batshit) and it takes a lot of energy that neurotypical people would have spare for other stuff, so you’re obviously going to get tired faster with all that going on all day, right?

your brain getting run down trying to keep the bad shit at bay means it exhausts itself and isn’t able to keep the bad shit at bay, which is why when you’re hungry it can literally feel like the world is ending and why all the little things that didnt bother you that much just nyoom the fuck up and suckerpunch you in the throat out of nowhere

you don’t feel that bad just because you’re hungry (in case you needed to hear that bc know i end up feeling like a melodramatic little bitch) it’s because your brain doesn’t have the energy to fight back against stuff anymore, and that’s why it’s important to eat when things feel especially bad

*seconds this earnestly*

If eating seems really hard, literally eat anything that might appeal past the depression funk. Eat a candy bar. Eat poptarts. Eat a popsicle. Drink a glass of juice. Like, in those moments, don’t make “healthy” or dieting a focus, you’re getting emergency fuel to your brain so you can eat something else in a couple minutes.  I have poptarts and little candy bars in my room for exactly this reason. Sometimes that little bite sized butterfinger is enough to motivate me to eat, and then whoops, wow, food sounds awesome now.

(Source: gaylalondes, via cthulhu-with-a-fez)

PTSD and the physical effects.

sciencefictionclitoris:

hollowedskin:

So, as I explained in this post on the basics of how early trauma affects us, abuse and neglect during our formative years add extras into our experience of PTSD and one of those is physical illness. (a reminder that ‘formative’ is in terms of brain development; so up until the age of 25)

One of the big reasons for this is hypervigilance and the limbic system.  How being constantly surrounded by an abusive environment makes you highly sensitive to sensory input (hypervigilance), and how this affects you physically.

Basically “why am I so fucking sick all the time and why doesn’t it seem to have a cause”
or
“what does it mean when they say that my PTSD is causing these physical symptoms”.

First you’ll have to bear with me while I explain some things about your brain and it’s parts, because otherwise this won’t make any sense.

Your amygdala is part of the limbic system that controls instinct and the panic response. It’s sometimes referred to as your “lizard brain”.
And because you don’t really need to know how the whole thing is rigged, I’m going to keep calling it that. (Like you can look it up if you want, i’m not going to stop you).
It’s the instinctive part and also where your core beleifs about the world are (called schemas; which is another topic).

This is the part of your brain that tries to keep you alive at any cost, where the ‘flight, fight, freeze or feign’ response lives.
 
Your amygdala develops very early, which is why babies can experience fear. But it develops before the conscious thinking part.
Much like an actual lizard, your lizard brain doesn’t ‘think’ or reason, it just watches and notes what is dangerous, and what has worked to save you and stores that information.
Because what your lizard brain’s main function is is to keep you alive in a crisis.

Don’t know what I’m talking about?
This is the part of your brain that has already slammed on the brakes before you decide to when you’re cut off in traffic, or that gives you that feeling that ‘this is dangerous’ when you can’t really figure out why, but later find out that WOW you were so right.
It is activated when it sees that you are in danger, and it is going to take too long for you to decide what your response will be.

Ok so now we know what it is, but how does this relate to PTSD or hypervigilance and how can this make me sick?

In an untraumatised brain, the limbic system (specifically the amigdala) will dump stress hormones into your brain and body when you are in extreme danger. One of these we already know is adrenaline, but the hormone that is most important here is a steroid called cortisol.

Cortisol basically cuts off all the regular limits your body sets so you don’t get injured, because when you’re in danger it doesn’t matter if you get injured so long as you survive.
This means you can run faster and longer, you’re stronger, your senses are sharper, you’re hyperaware of your surroundings and you don’t feel pain.

This is how mothers can lift cars off their babies in a crisis.
Or how come you don’t notice that you’ve broken your arm in a car accident until later.

Cortisol is great when your brain functions properly.

However; when you’ve been exposed to extreme and ongoing trauma, you become hypervigilant. You have to be constantly aware of every tiny change in facial expression, every sound, every change in tone or every slight movement.
You are always prepared for danger and always trying to pre-guess what and when is going to happen.
In an abusive environment, you have to do this to stay safe.

The thing is that when you’re constantly in this state of hypervigilance and hyperarousal (not sexual arousal but sensory; where you could hear a cricket fart next door), your limbic system is constantly wired up. And it’s constantly activating your FFFF (Fight, flight, freeze and feign) response, and constantly dumping your cortisol to keep you ready.

What ends up happening is that your limbic system eventually stops being able to turn OFF your cortisol tap. So instead of a dump, its a leak. Constantly dripping into your system as it’s created - even after you’ve escaped the abuse.

But cortisol is good isn’t it? It makes us stronger and faster and feel less pain?

Yes; but if it didn’t have a downside we wouldn’t only have it as an emergency plan.

Cortisol is a steroid and an immunosuppressant, in a dump it forces more blood sugar production and shuts down the digestive system. Long term it decreases cartilage and bone formation, affects glucose levels along with a whole swag of of other things.

People with this ‘cortisol leak’ can experience

• Lupus
  
• Fibromyalgia
  
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
  
• Osteoarthritis
  
• decreased bone density leading to osteoporosis
  
• gastrointestinal problems (nausea, vomiting, bowel problems, difficulty digesting food or absorbing nutrients leading to nutritional deficiencies, IBD, constipation, and diarrhea)
  
• Asthma
  
• Eczema
  
• diabetes
  
• Sensory Processing Disorders (inc extreme sensitivity to light, noise, touch, sensory overload etc)
  
• Severe allergic reactions and other autoimmune disorders
  
• decreased immune response causing slower healing times and more infections
  
• heart disease
  
• memory issues; short term memory, and issues relating to the maintaining or accessing of memories
  
• and on top of all that are 300% more likely to self harm.
  

It also has the fun circular effect of… making you hypervigilant.

*sigh*.

So, much in the same way that anxiety stops us from doing things which then gives us more anxiety which means we can’t do even MORE things, over and over, the limbic system makes us hypervigilant which breaks the limbic system which then makes us even more hypervigilant.
And also sick.

PTSD is, as you’ve probably already realised, pretty good at cycling into awfulness like that.

But this is why the effects of traumatic abuse when our brains are forming is so profound, and so hard to heal. We quite literally have been given a form of brain damage, and our brains no longer function physically in the way they are designed.

Next up; I’ll be talking about the psychological effects of this; Maladaptive Schemas. (Which means that the things you learn as ‘’life truths’’ in an abusive environment while you’re developing can end up being warped, and that affects our ability to process information; including therapeutic information.

Till then, stay safe and know you’re not alone in this shit.
Hollow

Brain damage.
Jesus.

(via academicfeminist)

toastyhat:

foolsdiamond:

toastyhat:

toastyhat:

if your stomach’s sensitive because of anxiety, by all means spread out the food you eat over the course of the day instead of having large meals, just don’t…not eat.  you will go into hypoglycemic shock and that will suck.

By the way, symptoms include:

• Shakiness.
• Nervousness or anxiety.
• Sweating, chills and clamminess.
• Irritability or impatience.
• Confusion, including delirium.
• Rapid/fast heartbeat.
• Lightheadedness or dizziness.
• Hunger and nausea.

(because of the nausea, eating might not feel like the thing to do at first.  I’d suggest drinking a coke or something.)

I’ve dealt with sugar crashes before and I’ve collapsed and whited out.  I’ve had friends do it too.  If you think you’re going into hypoglycemic shock, and if there’s anyone else near by, tell them you think it’s happening, even if you’re not prone or it’s never happened before.  If your’e alone, make your way slowly to the kitchen/wherever you have food/drinks.  The standard rule is to take in 15 oz of a sugary drink (orange juice and soda–not diet–are the best) and wait 15 minutes to see if it’s over, then keep doing that until your sugar is stabilized.  Then you can eat.  If you think you’re about to collapse, especially if you start to feel dizzy, sit down and lay down or lean against something.  Don’t risk injury, it’s better to pass out while you’re laying down than it is to collapse and hurt yourself.

*points at this more educated person*

(via cthulhu-with-a-fez)

dovaahkiins:

dovaahkiins:

“your kid needs your attention, not adhd meds!”

“maybe we can talk about how with the internet there are more diagnoses of adhd now, and how the internet is rewiring our brains…”

“medicating childhood: the hoax of adhd”

literally all things ive seen in the past fucking WEEK let me out of this hell

i can debunk this all in a flash

adhd is a neurodevelopmental disorder, and develops around 12 years old. given that, and how many diagnosed adhd adults there are, including elders, this is something that predates the internet

adhd is genetic, so despite an attention given from parent to child, it’s incredibly likely that at least one of the parents or other relatives also has adhd

oh yes, and let’s not forget the myth that adhd symptoms are synonymous with child behavior. but adhd isn’t just hyperactivity - in fact, hyperactivity doesn’t always present itself. in addition to hyperactivity, other symptoms include:

• echolalia
  
• poor memory
• racing/scattered thoughts
• slowed social development (around 30%)
• difficulty understanding tasks/organizing them into steps
• struggles understanding time management
• impulsive acts (impulsive spending is a major issue with many of us)
• difficulty managing emotions, especially anger
• easily bored (and boredom leads to greater frustration than others)
• TROUBLE SLEEPING. many adhd people spend their entire lives not getting good sleep because of the constant “noise” in their heads. see the scattered thoughts. basically, the thoughts are always going. there is no shut off switch. insomnia is largely prevalent with adhd
• losing details (like getting poor grades because you missed the fine print on a test even with knowing the material)
• struggles with listening comprehension (words sound like nonsense)
• struggles with reading comprehension (words look like nonsense)
• memorization issues - a child skilled in math will have trouble with multiplication tables, for example
• has trouble “waiting their turn” in conversation - frequently interrupts without realizing
• hyperfocus - an often overlooked aspect, when one focuses to the exception of all other external stimuli, including needing to eat, sleep, etc. time almost ceases to exist
• not a symptom, but adhd - especially adult adhd - is highly comorbid with anxiety disorders and depression later in life. this is because a person with adhd is working their heart out to achieve the same standards, contrary to the believe that they’re “lazy.” as you can see above, almost every aspect of daily life is impacted - social, work, school, family, money… and this can lead to a feeling of being unable to cope.
• despite all that, people with adhd are also:
• more solution-oriented
• more resilient
• more expressive
• more curious
• and better at multitasking - not just because of having to learn how to manage the other symptoms, but these are, in fact, also symptoms. you can imagine how useful hyperfocus can be as well.

i wrote all this because i really want people to understand me and understand how this all works. and i want misunderstandings to stop so people can respect who i am.

(Source: sylvershroud, via cthulhu-with-a-fez)