* Overcoming my Birth Trauma with Lucy Parker – Even Angels Fall - "I was adamant I wanted a homebirth... When I heard that Lucy Parker offered birth trauma therapy, I knew it would be worth a shot. I didn’t feel I could truly move on from Benjamin’s birth until I came to terms with what happened... I didn’t get the birth that I wanted"
Nowadays "trauma" is anything someone doesn't like
Governor JB Pritzker on X - "Illinois is now the first state in the nation to require mental health screenings in its public schools. Our schools should be inclusive places where students are not just comfortable asking for help — they’re empowered to do it."
Hunter Ash on X - "The constant societal focus on mental health very obviously makes our mental health worse. So many millennials and zoomers speak in therapy idioms and it only encourages endless ruminating and narcissism."
Most GPs say everyday stress is mislabelled as mental illness - "Normal upsets are being over-medicalised, 84 per cent of doctors believe, according to a poll of 1,001 GPs. Antidepressants are also being prescribed too easily, they say, with a lack of alternatives given as one possible explanation. The polling is part of a report by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) think tank, which warns that the ease with which patients are being labelled as having a mental health disorder could leave those with genuine needs unable to get help. Politicians are wrestling with the growing impact of mental health problems on the benefits system, with some questioning the increase in diagnoses. Sir Tony Blair warned earlier this month against the trend for self-diagnosing mental health problems, saying: “I think we need a proper public conversation about that, because I think it’s a very, very difficult question. We’re spending vastly more on mental health now than we did a few years ago. And it’s hard to see what the objective reasons for that are.” There is mounting evidence that the pandemic and lockdowns damaged people’s mental health. Surveillance reports conducted for the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities showed a rise in anxiety, depression and stress across the population. A study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies last year found that the number of working-age people on health-related benefits has risen by a million since 2019, to 4.2 million. Sophia Worringer, deputy policy director at the CSJ, said: “Misunderstood mental ill-health is the leaky bucket draining the nation. It is a leading driver of economic inactivity. No amount of government initiatives to tackle the symptoms of a stagnating economy, flatlining productivity or the anxious generation will fix the problem unless the leaks are plugged.”... The CSJ report said nearly a fifth of adults in England were taking antidepressants. A recent NHS England report found at least 10 per cent of prescriptions were unnecessary and could cause further harm. Dr Sanjiv Nichani, consultant for paediatric intensive care at Leicester Children’s Hospital, said: “Mental ill-health is one of the great challenges of our time. It’s having a major impact on the health service, but also on the wider economy. The danger is that sometimes, rather than helping people with the everyday stresses of their lives, we find a solution in a medical intervention, which can risk making things worse, with people languishing on medication for far too long.” The market research consultancy Savanta polled 1,001 GPs for the CSJ. Separate polling by Opinium for the think tank showed the public shared their scepticism. Nearly two thirds of 2,050 people — 65 per cent — agree the NHS should prioritise addressing the root causes of mental ill-health through therapy and/or social prescribing, while just 12 per cent think medical interventions should be prioritised. By 2030, a quarter of all UK children will suffer from a probable mental disorder, the CSJ forecasts."
And this is the UK, too. The US would be even worse
Time for more "awareness" about mental health
Analysis: Depression is probably not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain - "For three decades, people have been deluged with information suggesting that depression is caused by a “chemical imbalance” in the brain – namely an imbalance of a brain chemical called serotonin. However, our latest research review shows that the evidence does not support it. Although first proposed in the 1960s, the serotonin theory of depression started to be widely promoted by the pharmaceutical industry in the 1990s in association with its efforts to market a new range of antidepressants, known as selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs. The idea was also endorsed by official institutions such as the American Psychiatric Association, which still tells the public that “differences in certain chemicals in the brain may contribute to symptoms of depression”. Countless doctors have repeated the message all over the world, in their private surgeries and in the media. People accepted what they were told. And many started taking antidepressants because they believed they had something wrong with their brain that required an antidepressant to put right. In the period of this marketing push, antidepressant use climbed dramatically, and they are now prescribed to one in six of the adult population in England, for example. For a long time, certain academics, including some leading psychiatrists, have suggested that there is no satisfactory evidence to support the idea that depression is a result of abnormally low or inactive serotonin. Others continue to endorse the theory. Until now, however, there has been no comprehensive review of the research on serotonin and depression that could enable firm conclusions either way... drug trials show that antidepressants are barely distinguishable from a placebo (dummy pill) when it comes to treating depression. Also, antidepressants appear to have a generalised emotion-numbing effect which may influence people’s moods, although we do not know how this effect is produced or much about it... We also looked at research that explored whether depression can be induced in volunteers by artificially lowering levels of serotonin. Two systematic reviews from 2006 and 2007 and a sample of the ten most recent studies (at the time the current research was conducted) found that lowering serotonin did not produce depression in hundreds of healthy volunteers. One of the reviews showed very weak evidence of an effect in a small subgroup of people with a family history of depression, but this only involved 75 participants... Some of the studies in our overview that included people who were taking or had previously taken antidepressants showed evidence that antidepressants may actually lower the concentration or activity of serotonin. The serotonin theory of depression has been one of the most influential and extensively researched biological theories of the origins of depression. Our study shows that this view is not supported by scientific evidence. It also calls into question the basis for the use of antidepressants... There is no other accepted pharmacological mechanism for how antidepressants might affect depression. If antidepressants exert their effects as placebos, or by numbing emotions, then it is not clear that they do more good than harm. Although viewing depression as a biological disorder may seem like it would reduce stigma, in fact, research has shown the opposite, and also that people who believe their own depression is due to a chemical imbalance are more pessimistic about their chances of recovery."
From 2022. People get remarkably upset when you challenge the idea that antidepressants work
Emma Watson and Harry Potter co-star banned from driving for speeding - "the 35-year-old, drove her Audi S3 at 61kmh in a 50kmh zone. She already had nine points on her driving licence. In Britain, if you accumulate 12 points within a three year period, you can be disqualified from sitting behind the wheel for at least six months... Watson's former co-star Zoe Wanamaker was also penalised for excess speed by the same court and also didn't appear before judges. The 76-year-old actress, who played Madam Hooch in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was caught speeding in August last year in the town of Newbury in Berkshire. The magistrates' were told that she was driving her Volvo at 74kmh in a 70kmh zone."
Thai woman arrested for blackmailing monks after sex with thousands of videos - "Thai police have arrested a woman who allegedly had sexual relations with monks, and then used photos and videos of the acts to extort money from them. The woman, who police are calling "Ms Golf", had sex with at least nine monks, police said at a press conference on Tuesday. They believe she received around 385 million baht ($11.9m; £8.8m) over the past three years. Investigators who searched her house found more than 80,000 photos and videos used to blackmail the monks, the police spokesman said. This scandal is the latest to rock Thailand's much revered Buddhist institution, which in recent years has been plagued with allegations of monks engaging in sex offences and drug trafficking... Police added they found that nearly all of the money has been withdrawn and some of it had been used for online gambling... The police have also opened a hotline for people to report "misbehaving monks"... The government is also pushing for harsher penalties - including fines and jail time - for monks who breach the monastic code... Wirapol Sukphol, a jet-setting monk known for his lavish lifestyle, made international headlines in 2017 when he was charged with sex offences, fraud and money laundering. And in 2022, a temple in the northern province of Phetchabun was left without any monks after all four of its monks were arrested in a drug raid and were disrobed. Despite years of criticism about disciplinary and accountability issues within the Thai Sangha, many say there has been little real change in the centuries-old institution. A big part of the problem lies with its strict hierarchy, say experts."
Psychosurgery is back. But these are not the ice-pick-through-the-eye-socket lobotomies of the past - "Anya, who asked that her last name not be used to protect her family’s privacy, is a participant in an experimental treatment that is part of a modern-day revival of brain surgery for mental disorders. Psychosurgery is a field with a dark, complicated and messy history that hangs over it still, but is one that practitioners are working hard to rehabilitate. Advances in brain imaging, more refined surgical tools and an enhanced understanding of the brain and its structures are moving surgeries to alter brain activity from crude, unregulated and “blind” operations, where surgeons couldn’t see what they were cutting, to more precise, minimally invasive direct-to-brain interventions. For some people who’ve run out of all other options, it can mean the difference between being housebound — and living a relatively normal life. These aren’t the “ice pick through the eye socket” lobotomies of the postwar 1940s and ‘50s. With magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound capsulotomy — Anya’s surgery — there are no burr holes in the skull. No opening of the cranium, no cutting into the brain, no blood. The helmet-like device surgeons placed over her scalp that January day in 2019 is lined with more than 1,000 ultrasound transducers that emit acoustic waves at frequencies far higher than humans can hear. Once converged on the target brain circuit, tissue is heated to 60C — a thermal dose sufficient to melt away brain cells and interrupt what scientists have hypothesized is scrambled, hyperactive circuitry within brain networks. The brain lesions are tiny, about seven to 10 millimetres, maybe a quarter-inch in diameter, though destroying any bits of a healthy brain is ethically thorny. Psychosurgery’s revival has unnerved critics who remain unconvinced that science can point to a specific neural circuit or clump of neurons and say, “There — therein lies the problem.”... Focused ultrasound has been used thousands of times the world over for the treatment of neurological-movement disorders such as essential tremor — which causes the hands to shake — and Parkinson’s disease... The World Health Organization has ranked OCD among the top 10 most disabling illnesses globally. As many as 40 per cent of those affected don’t respond to first, second, or any conventional therapy. An estimated 15 per cent attempt suicide... In a recently published study involving 15 patients with treatment-resistant OCD, and 10 with major depressive disorder, Lipsman and colleagues reported that OCD scores were significantly reduced 12 months after focused ultrasound capsulotomy; 50 per cent of patients met the criteria for treatment response, seeing at least a 35 per cent reduction in anxiety scores. For severe OCD, a 35 per cent improvement in symptoms can mean going back to a job or school, Lipsman said. “It means reintegrating into a life they were otherwise totally disconnected from.” However, for those in the study with depression, the reduction in scores after focused ultrasound wasn’t significant. Lipsman said the brain targets may need to be different for depression, reflecting a differing underlying circuitry."
There’s one big motivator that makes people waste less food – and it isn’t sustainability - "nutrition-conscious consumers were more likely to plan meals, avoid overbuying and use leftovers... the study found no significant link between sustainability motivations and lower food waste."
What drove Del Monte Foods into filing for bankruptcy? Blame foodies. - "“Canned produce gets a bad rap,” said IBISWorld, pointing to a negative consumer perception driven by health and quality concerns. The irony is that dietary and other experts will point to the fact that canned produce can often be just as healthy as the fresh variety, provided it’s not packaged with added salt or sugar. That’s because the produce is typically picked at peak freshness when it’s canned and can retain all the valuable nutrients... “Canning was the height of modern food preservation, and that height has grown stale,” Zagor noted. Nevertheless, experts say that consumers often turn more to canned products during tough economic periods because of their relative affordability. Lempert said that could especially come into play if lower-income households lose government assistance for buying food under the federal budgetary legislation currently under review, and thus need to find ways to save. At the same time, Lempert said producers of canned items are looking to up the taste factor — as in adding more spices and tweaking recipes — to appeal to contemporary consumers. “We’re seeing a bunch of whole new flavors,” he said."
Parents call for meat to go back on the menu at 'vegetarian' primary school - "More than 100 people have signed a petition to reinstate meat offerings at Sharow School in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, which advertises itself as vegetarian. According to current government guidance, schools should provide a portion of meat or poultry 'on three or more days each week' and oily fish should be served 'once or more every three weeks'. The only current non-vegetarian offerings at Sharrow are fish fingers, which are served every Friday, or tuna mayonnaise which is offered with a jacket potato every three weeks... Emre Heald, 22, whose little sister attends the school, launched the petition to change the menu and accused the school of putting children's health at risk... Mr Heald says pupils have even asked him to go and buy food for them, adding: 'A lot of the kids in the school were getting really bad stomachs, and one of the kids was going to the doctor having a bad stomach that we know... 'I think it's important, in my area some kids were asking me to buy them rice and chicken from the shop, they weren't even asking for sweets. 'A lot of the kids are so poor they don't get any meals after that two meals a day at school.' A parent of a pupil at the school, who asked not to be named, said her daughter had been waking up with stomach aches ever since the menu was changed."
Brigitte Macron launches appeal in top French court after women who claimed she was born a man were cleared of defamation - "The 72-year-old filed a libel complaint against the two women after they posted a YouTube video in December 2021, alleging she had once been a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux - who is actually Brigitte Macron's brother. In the video, defendant Amandine Roy, a self-proclaimed spiritual medium, interviewed Natacha Rey, a self-described independent journalist, for four hours on her YouTube channel. Rey spoke about the 'state lie' and 'scam' she claimed to have uncovered that Jean-Michel Trogneux had changed gender to become Brigitte, and then married the future president... Judges sitting at the Paris Appeal Court ruled that Amandine Roy, a 53-year-old clairvoyant, and Natacha Rey, 49 and a blogger, had every legal right to make the sulphurous allegations. Both had claimed they were subjected to 'intimidation by the authorities' as 'ultra protected' members of the Paris establishment tried to cover up a 'state secret'... The defendants also claimed that Brigitte's first husband, André-Louis Auzière, had never actually existed before his reported death in 2020, aged 68. A judge sitting at Lisieux, in Normandy, originally fined the two women the equivalent of £1700 each, after finding them both guilty of libel. Following earlier appeals, Roy's fine was reduced to £850, while Rey had £1300 of her £1700 fine suspended, meaning she had to pay just £400. Now, neither will have to pay anything, and they will be able to repeat the allegations against Ms Macron."
This didn't stop Trump haters cheering the Macrons for suing Candace Ownes
The Case for Building BC Ferries in China - "Islanders look at any issues around BC Ferries wondering two things. Will service improve? And how much more will fares go up? From that perspective, the decision to buy four new ferries from CMI Weihai shipyard in China makes sense. Especially given the fuzziness of the arguments against the deal. No Canadian shipyards responded to the requests for bids, in part because the three main shipyards — two of them foreign-owned — are operating at capacity building taxpayer-funded ships for the navy and coast guard as part of the federal government’s 2010 shipbuilding strategy. Politicians claim to be dismayed by the decision to build the four new ships — the largest in the fleet, each with room for 2,100 passengers and crew — in China... even building the ferries in Europe — not B.C. — would add $1.2 billion to the cost... The federal government has decided, rightly, that taxpayers should subsidize Canadian construction for ships for the military and coast guard, but hasn’t introduced the same for BC Ferries or other builders. Most ferry users — and the communities that rely on them — are just looking for better, more affordable service, even if that means building ships in China. In 1975, a car and driver could cross from Victoria to Vancouver for $5. If ferry fares had kept pace with inflation, the cost would be $29 today. But in fact the fare, for most sailings, is $105."
Economic nationalism means people should suck it up and pay more and wait longer
Nokia 3310 Keeps Surprising Us - "A man from Pontypridd, Wales, finds his long-lost Nokia 3310 after 22 years… and guess what? It turned on with 1 bar of battery left! If this doesn’t put the power bank industry out of business, I don’t know what will."
We started eating three meals a day in the 16th century - here’s why
7 Engineers Suspended After $2.3 Million Bridge Includes Bizarre 90-Degree Turn - "A brand-new $2.3 million bridge in Bhopal, India, is going viral—not because it solved traffic, but because it bends at nearly a 90-degree angle. Now, seven engineers have been suspended, a retired official is facing investigation, and the construction firms behind the project have been blacklisted... According to official records, the design for the bridge shifted multiple times over the past seven years, largely due to conflicts between the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Railways. The two agencies couldn’t agree on how to share land, and in trying to work around both railway property and the new Metro line, they ended up producing a final layout with an abrupt 90-degree angle... Internal PWD documents show the original 2018 plan featured a more manageable 45-degree skew. That plan was scrapped after the Railways refused to approve construction on its land. A second design attempted to accommodate the Metro line. A third version adjusted for alignment errors, though the Railways later admitted that the final result “is neither fulfilling the functional requirement nor safe for road users.”"
Convicted murderer's request to test mystery prints incriminates him further - "Marlon Kiser has spent more than a decade seeking to overturn his conviction for the 2003 murder of Deputy Donald Bond. Kiser has long maintained that Mike Chattin, his former roommate, framed him for the murder. But in pushing for further testing, it seems Kiser has further incriminated himself. On Tuesday, District Attorney General Neal Pinkston said a latent fingerprint found on Bond's patrol car that had previously gone untested belongs to Kiser. In March, Kiser's defense attorneys requested that law enforcement examine unidentified prints from the original investigation, including some on Bond's car and one on his flashlight. Prior to this identification, none of Kiser's DNA or fingerprints were found at the scene. Prosecutors said Kiser had and disposed of Bond's gear, but this is the first fingerprint that connects him to the victim."
Opinion | Elite Colleges Have Found a New Virtue for Applicants to Fake - The New York Times - "There’s no evidence that civility mania will improve campus discourse, but it seems poised to widen the inequalities that already plague hyperselective college admissions. The trouble is that the disagreement question — like much of the application process — isn’t built for honesty. Just as I once scrambled to demonstrate my fluency in D.E.I., students now scramble to script the ideal disagreement, one that manages to be intriguing without being dangerous... The emerging consensus in the application-prep industry is that it’s best to avoid politics entirely... If colleges are serious about addressing the breakdown of civil discourse on campus, they can’t — and shouldn’t — attempt to screen out incivility at the gate. They need to look inward. Undergraduate education too rarely puts students in a position where substantive disagreement is expected, facilitated and taken seriously. Instead of granting themselves more and more opportunities to tone-police admissions files, institutions should reinvest in disciplines like philosophy, history and political theory that teach people how to reason through disagreement and should equip faculty members to lead hard conversations constructively... Many schools have already reinstated their standardized testing requirements, which, as Yale’s admissions office acknowledged, is less correlated with socioeconomic status than most other parts of the application"
Of course, there're the obligatory attacks on the right, without acknowledging what engendered all the hostility. Clearly, even left wing students and faculty being scared of other left wingers is the fault of the right
The first-ever Costco with apartments is officially in the works - "A new development in South Los Angeles will soon feature the first-ever Costco with apartments. On Sept. 18, the city broke ground on a unique Costco that will include not only its traditional warehouse but hundreds of apartment units in the neighborhood of Baldwin Village. Of the 800 rental apartments in the planned low-rise buildings above the retail space, developer Thrive Living plans to make 184 of them (23%) dedicated to low-income households."
50,000 Americans fled the Vietnam War draft and changed Canada - "Draft dodgers faced criticism from all directions. A hawkish political right viewed them as traitors to their country. Many of the dodgers’ own parents had served in the Second World War and valued military service as a national tradition. Genevieve, a resident of Nelson, B.C., is the daughter of a Vietnam-era draft dodger. When her father dodged the draft, his parents contacted the FBI and asked for their son to be tracked down. Even among vocal antiwar activists, draft dodgers were often shunned for taking the perceived easy way out. Students for a Democratic Society, one of the largest antiwar groups in the U.S., urged Canadians to stop supporting Toronto’s draft counselling centres. When Joan Baez performed at a 1969 concert in Toronto, she urged the draft dodgers to return home. “What (the draft dodgers) are doing is opting out of the struggle at home,” she declared. “That’s where they should go, if only to fill the jails.” These criticisms were tinted by the growing understanding of draft evasion as a class privilege... “I would go off and rent a room here for $9, rent a room there for $12,” says Mark Satin, recalling the years he spent in Toronto in the ’70s. “There wasn’t AIDS. There wasn’t herpes. You could find a girlfriend just by talking to someone in a park or in a grocery store.” He sighs. “By the Summer of Love and the late ’60s, we were talking to each other in ways that I’m not sure your generation does.” About half of the war resisters remained in Canada permanently. Some have stayed politically vocal over the years, advocating on behalf of the few hundred American deserters who fled to Canada during the Iraq War to avoid military prosecution. But most eventually faded into the woodwork, embracing a new way of life and allowing time to erode their old national ties."
I quit my job, divorced my husband, and moved to Italy to retire. I miss my kids, but I'm happier and healthier here. - "In 2017, I was at a crossroads. A lot of people I knew were dying, and I started thinking: You really don't know how many days you get or what's promised to you. I figured I'd start traveling abroad... So I quit my job, retired, and divorced my husband. We had 30 years together and raised our amazing kids. But I didn't want just to walk the dog, play pickleball, and tend a garden. I wanted a bigger life... After being a mom to four kids, it's amazing to travel alone. Eating, sleeping, and reading when you want to is nice. You can go back to the same restaurant twice or visit a museum. You have no one to apologize to or explain yourself to."
Uhh
