3lb Mass of Jelly Behind Your Eyes

he/him | psychiatry/neuroscience/mental health topics | adhdposting | aquariumposting | reblogging memes sometimes

[brightlotusmoon]

Indica's Effects on the Brain: Comparing Indica and Sativa Strains

Explore the distinct effects of indica and sativa cannabis strains on the brain, including neurochemical changes, therapeutic applications,

"How does indica affect the brain? When you consume an indica-dominant cannabis strain, THC binds to cannabinoid receptors throughout your brain, amplifying dopamine signaling, reducing activity in the amygdala, and boosting GABA, your nervous system’s primary brake pedal. The result is the sedation, body heaviness, and quieted anxiety most users report. But the full picture is stranger and more interesting than the indica/sativa labels suggest."

Sativa's Effects on the Brain: Neuroscience Behind the High

Explore sativa's effects on the brain, from neurotransmitters to cognitive function. Discover the science behind this popular cannabis strai

"Sativa cannabis doesn’t just make you feel different, it temporarily rewires the signaling patterns across your entire brain. How does sativa affect the brain? THC, sativa’s primary active compound, binds to the same receptors your brain uses to regulate mood, memory, creativity, and motivation, flooding key circuits with dopamine while simultaneously distorting time perception, loosening associative thinking, and, depending on dose and individual biology, either sharpening focus or triggering anxiety. The science behind that high is far stranger and more precise than most people realize."

How Indica Cannabis Affects Your Brain: The Complete Science-Based Guide | Online Marijuana Guide

Understanding how indica cannabis affects your brain is crucial for anyone considering medical marijuana or recreational use. Recent neurosc

[3lbmassofjelly]

Sorry @brightlotusmoon, psychiatrist here to tell you this is misinformation.

In the year 2026, the difference between indica and saliva strains are...marketing. What differences exist mainly pertain to the morphology of the plant ie whether it grows tall and lanky or shorter and bushy. But chemically? These are the same thing.

Perhaps at one point in time, indica and sativa landrace strains had notable differences in THC:CBD ratios and some terpene related differences. In 2026, one trip to the dispensary will tell you this: Marijuana across the spectrum has been bred for very high THC and zero (or close to zero) CBD. This is just as true for indica strains as for sativa strains.

The original landrace strains have been hybridized between indica and sativa so many times that these pure landrace strains essentially do not exist in the recreational or medical market - to the extent they do, they likewise have been bred for high THC and zero CBD.

You might rarely find cannabis with a 1:1 ratio of THC to CBD. This is not "cannabis indica:. This is any kind of THC-containing Marijuana that has been hybridized with near-zero THC smokeable hemp that itself has been selectively bred for high CBD levels, occasionally with other cannabinoids at appreciable levels like CBG or CBN. That's a hemp-marijuana hybrid. You cannot get this even from the OG indica landrace strains of 50 years ago.

"Ok but terpenes!" What about them? As I mentioned, sativa and indica strains on the market have been hybridized between eachother a million times over before someone arbitrarily names it "indica" or "sativa" based on arbitrary criteria (again mainly differences in how the plant grows, in addition to how any parent strains may have been arbitrarily classified). There is no "sativa" terpene profile ljust as there is no "indica" terpene profile. You can have two random sativa strains that have more differences in the types and concentration of terpenes than you might have between one sativa and one indica strain selected at random.

So what's the difference to the end consumer between indica and sativa strains?

Marketing.

The difference is marketing. It's all marketing.

[prokopetz]

Vitamin megadose "therapy" is of course nonsense for the most part, but I love how sometimes just carpet-bombing the problem is a legit diagnostic tool. "Hey, we think you might have a vitamin D deficiency, so we need you to buy this specific supplement and take ten tablets a day for a week, then report back." Fantastic.

[tricky-pockets]

You should be able to buy a single 50k IU capsule of vitamin D at the grocery store labeled "Vitamin D Deficiency Test." Test results are positive if you wake up the next morning at full hp, without disadvantage on any saving throws, and with a mildly euphoric feeling of renewed vitality.

(I had a severe vit D deficiency that went undetected for a long time and that first monster dose felt like a fucking miracle.)

[prokopetz]

I'm given to understand there's some disagreement in the field regarding whether 50 000 IU all at once or 10 000 IU daily for a week provides better diagnostic results; the former has apparently been known to trigger a manic episode in a small percentage of people!

[pusheenthenerdcat]

For specific vitamins, when it works it works!

my specialist was like "you need so much b12. i swear to you there is no practical upper limit just do it" so i got some patches and... my incurable neuropathy got wayyy better??

like i accidentally missed a dose of gabapentin one day and I WAS FINE. after barely a year of b12. i cannot express enough how for that level of nerve damage thats SUPPOSED TO BE COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE. i didnt even have a deficiency

[3lbmassofjelly]

B vitamins are water soluble. You pee out any extra.

Vitamin D is fat soluble. If you have extra...it just stays active in your body.

For Vitamin D this is a good way to end up with too much calcium in the blood. This kills the kidney.

[prokopetz]

Vitamin megadose "therapy" is of course nonsense for the most part, but I love how sometimes just carpet-bombing the problem is a legit diagnostic tool. "Hey, we think you might have a vitamin D deficiency, so we need you to buy this specific supplement and take ten tablets a day for a week, then report back." Fantastic.

[3lbmassofjelly]

Hi doctor here.

This is not how you diagnose vitamin D deficiency and can cause a vitamin D overdose and resulting kidney injury.

Instead if I think you are vitamin D deficient, I will send you for a blood test to confirm that. THEN I will replace the Vitamin D if you are missing it. Simple as.

[bitchard-nixon]

If I ever saw Sigmund Freud in real life I would scream

[3lbmassofjelly]

Why? Does he resemble your father?

[this-is-ableism]

This might be more indirect idk but people seeming to think DID and OSDD are the only dissociative disorders.

I hate having to explain that I have a dissociative disorder that doesn't involve any kind of plurality and people think I'm lying.

I shouldn't have to overly explain dpdr just to prove it's a real thing. I shouldn't be told I'm lying about my disorder because I don't experience plurality.

this is ableism.

[shortedbrain]

Most people don't even know depersonalization and derealization are parts of DID, the focus on just plurality is genuinely harmful because the other symptoms can affect your life a lot. I didn't know what I was experiencing was depersonalization and derealization for years because no one talks about it.

[3lbmassofjelly]

Weirdest thing about DP/DR is it's a completely normal thing to experience once in a while and most people have had this experience likely multiple times. I know I have. But for most it isn't frequent nor does it cause great distress or dysfunction. It is when it gets frequent or really distressing that it becomes a disorder.

So we really should be able to talk about this more as it's an experience most can relate to on some level.

But nope.

[3lbmassofjelly]

TIL if under-cooked, a popular mushroom in China causes “lilliputian hallucinations,” a rare phenomenon involving miniature human or fantasy figures. The hallucinations are consistent across people and cultures: "tiny, elflike people" climbing under doors, scaling walls & clinging to furniture

Meet The Mushroom That Makes People Have The Exact Same Hallucination

Scientists call these “lilliputian hallucinations,” a rare phenomenon involving miniature human or fantasy figures

Lilliputian hallucinations are also seen as a type of "release hallucination". As a person goes blind, if their brain that process images still works, you may get Charles-Bonnet syndrome

Lilliputian hallucinations (often in these other cases but involving small animals but can involve small people) are seen in a few neurological conditions. The famed writer of "Hallucinations", Dr. Oliver Sacks, wrote and talked frequently about these kinds of hallucinations. They are seen in Parkinson's disease. Commonly in Lewy Body Dementia, which is where you get dementia and neuropsychiatric problems before you get movement problems but all due to the same pathology in the brain. In which case I believe animals are the usual thing. If you are going blind but your brain still works it can fill in the blanks with geometrical figures or sometimes lilliputian hallucinations of various sorts. In these cases the person has full awareness that the hallucinations aren't real.

Listen to Oliver Sacks talk about visual (and audio) release hallucinations and other hallucinations! The first 5 and a half minutes are a very good story of a patient of his with the phenomenon.

Anyway it's real fucking weird that this mushroom seems to cause this kind of hallucination in particular. The lilliputian "little dude/critter" hallucinations. But mostly little dudes in this case. And we also don't know what chemical causes it or what else it does or how safe it is or isn't.

I thought really all the natural at least classes of naturally found psychotropic drug had been found but this is something new

[3lbmassofjelly]

Hi, so I've read your post on Lyme disease and I hope I could get some advice. Not medical advice, just an advice on how to communicate with my mom on this issue. So, you see, she was bitten by a tick about 2 months ago, after a few weeks she found a telltale rush, went to the doctor and took the prescribed antibiotics. About a week later, her knee started to hurt and swell, making it difficult to walk. Unfortunately, this is when she has found the chronic Lyme community. Now she demands doctors to give her even more antibiotics, and, at the same time, the doctors are being dismissive of her pain. Yesterday she got blood results with high IgM (but low CRP), which she believes means she's still infected. What should I tell her? I want to be supportive, I just don't want to see her going down this rabbit hole. What got me also worried is how she even speculated that my brother might have chronic Lyme simply because of how tired he usually is.

I will preface with I am psychiatry so while I went to med school and everything, this is not something I manage in my day-to-day work so I could be off here.

So, IgM is an acute-phase antibody that is typically seen in active or recent infection, which generally fades and is replaced with long-term IgG which is expected to be positive...forever, usually.

But there a couple points worth noting here.

If your mother was infected 2 months ago and was successfully treated, her initial IgM response has probably simply not gone away yet. You would expect IgM to last weeks to a few months. And some studies have even found positive IgM decades after exposure:

Persistence of immunoglobulin M or immunoglobulin G antibody responses to Borrelia burgdorferi 10-20 years after active Lyme disease - PubMe

The interpretation of serological results for patients who had Lyme disease many years ago is not well defined. We studied the serological s

IgM or IgG antibody responses to B. burgdorferi may persist for 10-20 years, but these responses are not indicative of active infection.

Here is the thing:

Your antibodies do not care if the infection was treated or not.

Let us say the initial antibiotic course did not wipe out all the bacteria.

You would still expect, barring cases like the above where IgM decides to stick around for decades, that the initial IgM response will fade and be replaced with IgG. Even in an active, chronic, untreated, infection, IgM should eventually go away.

Serology gives us zero information about whether an infection has been treated or not.

It only tells us if our system has had exposure to a bug, and it might tell us if that exposure was more recent or occurred a long time ago.

Think about it like this. Someone commits a murder, fingerprints are gathered from the scene and are uploaded to a government database.

Those fingerprints will stay in the database forever regardless of whether the perpetrator has been caught and jailed, or is still out on the loose. The fingerprints in the database only tell us that we collected fingerprints from a murder scene. They tell us nothing about the fate of the murderer. That is what antibodies are like.

I had Lyme treated in high school. I will be at least IgG positive for Lyme the rest of my life. Maybe I could even be one of the people in the study I linked with persistent IgM against the spirochete. It doesn't matter, once I have had a single positive serology test, any future serology tests are rendered useless at best, and as in your mother's case, actively harmful at worst towards people who don't understand how this works.

But considering most sources I am able to find say that IgM PEAKS at 3-6 weeks, regardless of treatment, we expect your mother to still be IgM positive at 8 weeks. She may or may not have even mounted an IgG response yet, you didn't tell me if that was positive or not, but it wouldn't matter either way, eventually she will be positive for IgG and that will persist forever.

So to boil it down.

Positive IgM usually, but not always, indicates a recent exposure*, and says nothing about if the bacteria have been eradicated by antibiotics or not.

*But can be positive for decades in some people, without ongoing active infection

Positive IgG response usually indicates exposure some months ago, and says nothing about ifnthe bacteria have been eradicated by antibiotics or not.

I really like the fingerprint analogy above and I might try explaining it in those terms to your mom.

Now with all of that said...I would probably be worried if I had a bullseye rash, got antibiotics, and then a week later developed acute joint swelling and pain.

One explanation this could well be something like she got oral antibiotics and her case required IV antibiotics and her infection is still active. That said, this is not very likely.

What is more likely?

Her immune system is reacting to fragments of the dead bacteria that are still present.

When Lyme Disease Doesn’t Go Away While most people recover after treatment, about 10–20% of patients continue to have symptoms like joint pain, fatigue, and brain fog. This is known as Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), and for years, its cause has been unclear. A 2025 study by McClune et al. may offer an answer. Researchers found that fragments of the Lyme bacterium's cell wall, specifically peptidoglycan, can remain in the body even after the bacteria itself is gone. These fragments were found in the liver and joints of mice, and in the joint fluid of people with Lyme arthritis. They can trigger ongoing immune reactions, which might explain lingering symptoms. This discovery could be the key to developing treatments that address PTLDS more effectively.

So if what was happening to your mom was happening to me, I would probably seek medical care, and I may seek the opinion of a rheumatologist, or an orthopedist. Acute joint swelling is no joke and shouldn't be fucked around with, and there are life-threatening causes of this like staph or other infection that you may not want to miss depending on how red and swollen and angry the knee is.

And it's real fucked up that the doctors she is seeing are being dismissive of her pain. It could be because she is demanding a certain treatment and the doctors think she is out of her mind. Shouldn't be that way at all, but a lot of doctors will absolutely disregard women with weird symptoms in general, and triple that if they are demanding a treatment that doesn't make sense to the doctor.

So if this was my mother, I would be trying to do two things:

1) Do find a doctor that is not dismissive of her symptoms

2) Try if at all possible to convince your mom to tell her story with regards to the Lyme rash and treatment and subsequent knee swelling, but hold her tongue on saying what she thinks it is wrong, because this may cause some doctors to disregard the complaint entirely. You validate her knee pain and try to get her the best possible care for it.

3) Educate on the limitations of serology testing past identifying whether someone has been exposed to this specific bacteria and roughly how long ago that exposure first occured.

Best of luck.

[autistic-af]

Source ~ Neurodivergent_Lou

Alt Text added to each image.

Note: these are different ways these can show up. They can also show up in a stereotypical way. If you've met one autistic, you've met one autistic.

[teaboot]

REALLY

FUCKING ALL OF THEM??!?!?!!

[3lbmassofjelly]

I'll add that basically none of this with exception of eye contact and maybe repetition has very much to do at all with diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder and all of these traits can occur without ASD being ptesent.

[3lbmassofjelly]

Give me grounded organized leader types who hear voices and are paranoid of everyone they allow to get close to them. Give me down-to-earth, easy-going people with immense anxiety hidden to everyone including perhaps himself. Give me kind and morally pro-social, yet completely unfeeling psychopaths. Give me bubbly depressed folks who aren't hiding their depression. It's just they still maintain their bubbly-ness despite the internal rotting and stagnation of their brain and soul.

[thoughtkick]

“How can you say you love one person when there are ten thousand people in the world that you would love more if you ever met them? But you’ll never meet them. All right, so we do the best we can. Granted. But we must still realize that love is just the result of a chance encounter.”

— Charles Bukowski

[mummymerrit]

Who else also thinks its very possible to love just 1 person when there are billions of people

[3lbmassofjelly]

We're still around today as a species because of it!

Loving relationships are built. They are not discovered, unlike what Tinder would have you believe.

[seaphine]

[atn-antronach]

[3lbmassofjelly]

AI happened

[3lbmassofjelly]

A crab's shell is not its exoskeleton.

Your skeleton is not your endoskeleton.

Rather:

The crab has a normal (external) shell. Whereas you?

Internal, concealed shell.

Hidden cronch.

[shadow-wizard-moneygang]

So Voyager found out there is this bubble surrounding our solar system made up of solar material blown outwards by solar wind and acts as a border between the solar system and the rest of space has a temperature of 30,000-50,000 Kelvin.

For reference the surface of the sun has a temperature of roughly 5770 kelvin

[mookybear12404]

Googled to see if this was true and

NASA's Voyager Spacecraft Found A 30,000-50,000 Kelvin "Wall" At The Edge Of Our Solar System

Temperatures there reach an astonishing 30,000-50,000 kelvin.

[kittydesade]

*giggles manically in computer nerd* It’s a FIREWALL

[findingfeather]

To clarify because I know some people won't click through:

Particles of matter in this area can be that hot.

However since there are vanishingly few particles of matter in that part of space, comparatively, neither Voyager actually touched any of said particles, and were totally unscathed.

It is not a wall. It is a vast region that has grain-specks of super-heated material in it.

[ruffboi-mags]

Somehow that is even weirder. Why is it like that! I love space so fucking much!

[littlemissbighead]

So what im hearing is that going forward sci-fi has a size limit on interstellar space armadas. Also on the space equivalent of cruise boats.

[wemblingfool]

New space horror, ten thousand times worse than micro meteorites.

Imagine cruising along and all of a sudden a speck of dust hotter than the frickin' sun melts its way through your ship, and you.

[3lbmassofjelly]

Probably less like a spec of dust and more like a hydrogen atom.

But I'd imagine the vacuum is thin enough that your interstellar space armada is unlikely to encounter any such particles, either.

[the-apocrypha]

Attn: People With Cervixes!

When was your last Pap smear?

Because I am tired of seeing young people (think 40 year olds!) die horribly of an almost completely preventable disease, and I haven't seen the obligatory Tumblr PSA about it, so I'm making my own.

1. CERVICAL CANCER IS REALLY BAD

Cancers that have a good prognosis are usually cancers that can be caught early--like skin cancer, which is easily seen, and therefore usually treated very early. Cervical cancer does not give you symptoms until you have very advanced disease, which means unless someone is regularly testing your cervix, you will likely not be diagnosed early. More than half of people diagnosed with cervical cancer present with advanced disease. 75% of them will be dead within 5 years. For comparison, when caught in the earliest stage, there is a 90% 5 year survival rate. Treatment for those diagnosed is chemo and radiation, and believe me, those are not fun. If you do happen to be in the lucky 25% of survivors, if your cancer comes back, you have an 85% chance of dying within a year. Also! We think of cancer as something that happens to old people, but the average age of diagnosis for cervical cancer is 50.

2. WHO GETS CERVICAL CANCER?

Cervical cancer used to be the most common cause of cancer-related death in women in America, but at this point it's basically a disease of People Without Pap Smears--developing countries, immigrants, low socioeconomic status, BIPOC, rural communities, LGBTQ, etc.

3. HOW DO PAP SMEARS SAVE YOUR LIFE?

A Pap smear is a screening test for two things: HPV, and your cervical cells. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world. Literally half of the people in America have some strain of HPV on their body. Most HPV infections go away on their own (in people with healthy immune systems), but some strains are Very Bad, and some people are just Very Unlucky, and the HPV starts causing your cervical cells to turn cancerous. 91% of all cervical cancers are caused by HPV. So a Pap smear looks to see if your have HPV, and if so, is it one of the bad ones? And also, do you have any cancerous cells hanging about in your cervix? And! It takes 10-30 years for HPV to turn those cells into cancer, which means you have a really really long time to catch it before it becomes cancer and cut those pre-cancer cells out!

4. WHAT ABOUT THAT VACCINE?

The thing my dad said I shouldn't get because it might make me a slut. Yes! There is an HPV vaccine! You should get it! It protects you against the nine most common cancer-causing types of HPV. It's recommended starting at age 11, and you can get it up to age 45 now! (It used to be 26, but as of 2020, it's now extended.)You can get it from most primary care doctors, or from Planned Parenthood, CVS, Walgreens, etc. If you get the vaccine you still need Pap smears.

5. I HEARD YOU CAN ONLY GET THE VACCINE IF YOU'RE A VIRGIN

Fake news. While the vaccine does not treat old infections of HPV, it does prevent new ones, so while the benefits are theoretically decreased in those who have already been sexually active, it does not mean you will not benefit from having it!

6. WHO GETS PAP SMEARS?

Everyone with a cervix starting at age 21, until you lose your cervix or until you're 65. You should get them every 3-5 years (depending on your exact age and what test your doctor does).

7. BUT I GOT THE VACCINE

Nice! You still need Pap smears.

8. I HAD ONE AND IT WAS HORRIBLE/I'M SCARED OF THE EXAM

Talk to your doctor about this in advance! Good gynecologists (and other providers) will work with you to minimize discomfort as much as possible. They can use a small speculum and lots of gel, prescribe anti-anxiety medications to take in advance, and some people will even use numbing creams and/or laughing gas.

9. BUT I DON'T HAVE/CAN'T SEE A GYN

Most primary care physicians can do them! So do a lot of urgent care centers!

10. BUT I'M A LESBIAN

HPV can be transmitted through oral/genital contact, hand/genital, and even hand-to-hand-then-genital, so you still need Pap smears.

11. BUT I'M A VIRGIN/ASEXUAL

You still need Pap smears. HPV can be transmitted not just through penetrative sex, but also through oral/genital, hand/genital, and hand-to-hand-then-genital, and also 9% of cervical cancers are not caused by HPV.

12. BUT I'M A TRANSGENDER MAN

If your cervix was removed, then congrats! You do not need Pap smears. Otherwise, unfortunately, you are still at risk for cervical cancer and need to be screened.

13. BUT I'M A TRANSGENDER WOMAN

Neovaginas do not need Pap smears! Congrats! Consider getting the vaccine, though, to prevent spreading HPV to others.

14. BUT I'M A CIS-GENDERED MAN

Congrats! You do not need Pap smears! You should still consider the vaccine though, not only to prevent the spread of HPV to others, but also because HPV causes 50% of all penile cancers as well.

In summary: please please please go get your pap smear. Go get vaccinated. The spread of HPV can be prevented, and cervical cancer can be caught and treated before it even becomes cancer.

DON'T FEAR THE SMEAR

[the-apocrypha]

it's cervical cancer awareness month y'all

[thestereotypebuster]

Also, pap smears need to start at age 21 OR when you start being sexually active, whichever comes first.

[macabrekawaii]

Please get regular paps. I had cervical cancer, and had multiple surgeries and led to a hysterectomy. I am alive because I got regular paps, and monitored this over a decade until, alas, I needed surgery. If I was just la de dah not getting regular screenings? I dont want to think about what could have happened. I had HPV (I am older than the vaccine was available, and it was not made available to my age group until it was too late for me). Get Gardasil, get regular paps. Save your life. 

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

hey uk people who remember her: cervical cancer is what jade goody died of. very publicly. get your cervix prodded.

[theatricuddles]

[ID: a medical diagram indicating a cervix, the small canal at the bottom of the uterus which connects to the vagina.]

[3lbmassofjelly]

Probably as good a time to remind post-op trans girlies that you should also get HPV vaccine for yourself because that neocagina was made out of the same penile tissue that is susceptible to HPV-related penile cancers.

Also for everyone with a butthole that uses it for receptive sex (which is also a lot of trans women regardless of surgery)...yep the HPV goes there too, can cause extremely deforming warts (not a good thing to Google image search) and also anal cancer.

Also reminder: the STD testing you get qlong with your new partner before you have sex with said new partner? (you ARE doing that, right?)

That doesn't test for HPV.

So get the vaccine.

[thequeeranachronism]

As someone who’s been disabled for over 20 years because of fraud doctors I can confidently say chronic Lyme disease doesn’t exist. You know when I started getting better? It was when I stopped those supposedly necessary antibiotics. My family and I were so desperate to find a cure for my unknown childhood illness that we were taken in by these people.

My illness was debilitating and no one at the time could figure it out. Maybe if we hadn’t been taken in we would have figured it out. I will likely never know what caused my illness whether it was PANDAS or something else. All I know is that these people spreading the idea that chronic Lyme disease is a thing are hurting people. Their tests aren’t more reliable their long term antibiotics do more harm than good and those cures they sell are snake oil.

While Post Lyme syndrome is a thing chronic Lyme isn’t. I know it can be scary when you’re so very sick and the doctors don’t have answers but please don’t be sold a bill of goods by doctors who are either wrong or trying to take advantage of you.

If you think you have chronic Lyme disease this post isn’t to attack you but please reconsider. I wish I had so much earlier. There is hope and there are so many other real chronic illnesses that you could have if you allow yourself to look into different diagnoses.

[arctic-hands]

I reblogged this without comment but then remembered this site always requires a disclaimer

Lyme disease, as a chronic illness, exists. One you really don't want, so either wear long socks or spray your feet and ankles with DEET when out in nature, and take other anti-tick precautions. Due to climate catastrophe, the range for Lyme-spreading ticks is expanding, so keep an eye on reports

"Chronic Lyme disease" is a pseudoscientif buzzword used to peddel fraudulent cure-alls and make a profit on people legitimately suffering by lying about what they have and promising to cure it, often with physically harmful alternative "medicines" and financial exploitation. If you're feeling chronically miserable and have been told you have "Chronic Lyme disease", I beg of you to stay with real doctors and keep advocating for yourself until you're diagnosed with a legitimate, verifiable condition. By accepting the claim that you have CLD, you're denying yourself effective treatment for what you really have and are flat-out being exploited for profit and clout

[thequeeranachronism]

Post Lyme syndrome is a chronic illness Lyme itself is not. Lyme is an easily cured illness that may take time to recover from but doesn’t require long term antibiotics. Post Lyme syndrome is like long covid and can heal overtime but it might not.

[3lbmassofjelly]

MD here. You are correct. Lyme can cause semi-permanent to permanent damage especially to nerves.

But the spirochete bacteria that causes it is very susceptible to the antibiotics used to treat it.

There is zero reason to be on long-term antibiotics for Lyme. You killed it all like 2 weeks in, probably well before that.

I had Lyme myself as a teenager. Had weird symptoms, namely no symptoms at all except burning neuropathy in both my hands that started suddenly without clear reason.

After MRI brain and a bunch of other workup I got a call from the neurologist saying he'd last minute added on a Lyme panel to my bloodwork and it came back positive for having had the infection for many months. I was given IV infusion of doxycycline every day for 2 weeks. The neuropathy thankfully went away. It is possible that I could have continued to struggle with that symptom long after all the bacteria were dead. Luckily I made a full recovery.

Now here is the thing, because I had this, I will for the rest of my life test positive for "had Lyme for at least a few months". The test measures antibodies. It measures both acute-phase (IgM) and chronic-phase antibodies (IgG). IgM is only produced for a short period, but IgG antibodies remain forever basically. The test does does not test for the bacteria itself. This sucks because I could get Lyme again and unless caught in the acute phase window where IgM would be present. there would be no way really to tell if I caught it again.

But it also means I will always show up positive even if I don't have it. So in working up my current chronic pain condition that started well over a decade after I had Lyme, a doctor also added a Lyme panel to my bloodwork. And then said that Lyme could be causing my symptoms. But then I explained I had it as a teenager and was treated for it. I do not have "Chronic Lyme" that survived 2 weeks IV antibiotics and is causing current new symptkms. And so while entirely possible I could have it again from a new tick bite at some later point, it's still not a great fit for my current symptoms even considering Lyme's status as "the Great Impostor" disease that can have a huge variety of presentations. So that ended the conversation. We have better explanations for my currenr chronic pain even if there are no objective bloodwork or imaging tests for it.

But had I been less informed about Lyme I could have taken those positive test results to heart even if the doctor filled me in on the false positive forever thing. Maybe I don't believe him. Maybe I think chances are high that I still have it. Maybe I read Lyme can cause x and y and z and q and r and t and s and so on symptoms and wow some of those sure could be construed as matching my current ailments! It even explains unrelated problems! It's the cause of everything wrong with my body!

From there maybe I find a naturopath or someone else grifting by hawking supplements. Maybe I find a quack mid-level practitioner that gives me indefinite antibiotics, possibly along with random supplements as well. Maybe I stop the treatments my MD recommended for me, after all none of those have to do with Lyme! I get taken advantage of and don't get any better but just take it as a sign I need more antibiotics or supplements.

Things like this happen all the time.

I will never forget on my neurology rotation in medical school, this was on a day I was in the outpatient clinic. A 20 something year old quadrapeligic man comes in with his mother. He had gotten into a car accident 5 or so years prior, hit by a truck if I remember. Fucked up his spinal cord at the level of his neck. Essentially paralyzed from the neck down since the accident. He hadn't been to the neurology clinic in like over a year with some missed appointments during that last year.

Mom showed up with a gallon sized freezer ziplock bag packed full of bottles of various vitamins, herbs, and other supplements. She explained she took her son to a naturopath who diagnosed Chronic Lyme as the cause of his paralysis and DIRECTLY SOLD the supplements to the family out of their own office. She wanted our opinion on the matter. I could see the neurologist's brain short circuit and blow a fuse in real time as he tried not to completely lose his shit. I could only assume my face looked about the same as I tried to hold my composure.

YOUR. SON. WAS. HIT. BY. A. TRUCK. AND. SEVERED. HIS. SPINAL. CORD. HE. WAS. PARALYZED. IN. AN. INSTANT. WHY. DO. YOU. THINK. THIS. IS. A. CHRONIC. INFECTION. OR. LITERALLY. ANYTHING. OTHER. THAN. THE. TRUCK????????????¿?

I literally still cannot wrap my head around this woman's thought process but she was convinced if she got the right mix of supplements that her son would walk and be able to use his arms again. So much false hope and this naturopath completely took advantage of the situation to directly sell her worthless supplements (that is the best case scenario, could be worse than "useless" as we don't know what most of those herbs do and there are no controls on what goes into those supplements, could be filled with toxic insecticides used for growing the herbs for all we know, could be other herbs entirely, could be the advertised herbs but it is mildly toxic either alone or in combination with one of the other supplements in the ziplock or even in the same pill, could be carcinogenic, etc etc.) just to make a profit.

But yeah we had to actually calmly explain to this woman and her son (who seemed to have zero opinions himself about the matter) that he had a massive spinal cord injury when he had his motor vehicle accident and that is why before the accident he could do everything and after the accident could do nothing. And thay there is no other cause for his paralysis. And that she was getting actively scammed by this naturopath and should stop giving the supplements to her son and should stop buying them. That in any case Lyme is only treated by a course of antibiotics and not supplements.

And you know what?

She didn't believe us. Said we didn't know anything about "Chronic Lyme" and we needed to get educated on it. That we were just treating his spasticity symptoms and doing nothing to try to get her son walking again. She was unable to hear that her son never would walk again after that accident. Her son stared at the floor and said not a word.

But yeah "Chronic Lyme" isn't a thing and the people who want you to think it is a thing have something to sell you (even if that is just time billed to insurance in the case of things like actual medical professionals prescribing long term antibiotics as opposed to naturopaths and chiropractors hawking supplements)

[lachonk]

I think it's a shame that "Oedipus complex" refers to fucking your mom instead of the actual point of his story, fulfilling your destiny through your attempts to avoid it. It just so happens his destiny was to fuck his mom

[charyou-tree]

Yeah, I don’t know what Freud was thinking, but Oedipus very much did Not want to fuck his mom. He spent the entire play trying to avoid that, and then gauged out his eyes when he learned that he had anyway.

[lachonk]

I think Freud was too caught up with the fantasy of fucking his mom to appreciate the themes of the story tbh

[its-the-freak-phone]

[ostrich-riding-cowboy]

It's a dialectical conflict foundational to psychosexual development, but it's a dialectical conflict about fucking your mom.

[3lbmassofjelly]

In more modern psychodynamic thought (I believe this would fall under Object Relations school but don't quote me on that), the Oedipus Complex is less about fucking your mom. It is more about destroying the father and becoming merged with the mother. Indeed in the ancient Greek tale, a huge part of the prophecy was that Oedipus would kill his father. Which he did.

The young child is jealous they are not the entire world of one of their parents, and that the other parent also receives love and attention from the parent that the child wishes to merge with. A desire forms to destroy one parent and become fused with the other. In more of an emotional than a sexual way.

This dynamic ends up popping up in the adult psyche in various indirect ways. Consider the employee jealous of another employee who seems to be the boss's favorite. Consider there may even be a potential promotion available for one of the employees. Such a person might harbor a wish to destroy the other employee and gain full favor of their boss. They might wish to sabotage the performance of the rival employee or may even act on these wishes, in the hopes that with this other employee out of the way, they may become the boss's new favorite, gain the promotion, and rise up the company ranks as a result.

So-called "libidinal energy" involved in the Oedipal Complex doesn't have to be a desire for sex. In the above example, it is a desire for approval, success, money, and power.

Consider a married man whose wife has just had their first child. Suddenly the husband is not the wife's entire universe. He has become unfused from his wife, who is a stand in for the mother in the man's Oedipal complex. Her attention is now focused on the baby, who also now literally attached to the wife's breast. Left unchecked, the man may recreate the Oedipal conflict, not against his father but against his newborn. This involves a wish to destroy the newborn in some way. This could end up coming out in various ways from avoidance and emotional neglect towards the child who may grow up seeing their father as emotionally unavailable without clear reason. Or can result in more overt abuse of the infant or even infanticide in extreme cases.

These examples illustrate why it's still important to consider the Oedipal Complex in modern day psychotherapy. We do not think all our patients want to have sex with a parent. But sometimes when we see a desire to destroy someone in order to become merged with someone else, we should be thinking about this process, and we should wonder if a similar dynamic may have been present towards the parents at some early point in development only to become repressed and rear its head in other ways as an adult.

[innerchildabortionclinic]

Your takes on RSD are dogshit and you’re contributing to the stigma against people who actually experience it, do better

my "take" that it's a trauma reaction and you can learn to deal with it properly in relationships? what's wrong with saying that? I literally can't figure out how this statement could make someone upset...

[innerchildabortionclinic]

[3lbmassofjelly]

Friendly neighborhood psychiatrist here yes please tell me more about how this "RSD" phenomenon, which I have only seen used online, isn't actually a symptom of a neurodevelopmental disorder but in fact a learned response that can be un-learned. Tell me more, I will use this information to help people.

I'll add that if people want to paint this as a neurodevelopmental disorder thing...I will ask...what do you think happens to kids with neurodevelopmental disorders when they seek approval from parents, teachers, and especially like-aged peers?

Do they get that approval as much as other kids do?