Hey witches.
Hey scientists.
Hey artists.
Hey naturalists.
Hey writers and poets.
You’re my people and I appreciate you.

Janaina Medeiros
dirt enthusiast
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Product Placement

blake kathryn

Discoholic 🪩

oozey mess

@theartofmadeline
hello vonnie
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Monterey Bay Aquarium

JVL
Today's Document
DEAR READER

shark vs the universe
Peter Solarz
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Love Begins
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
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@avira-wolvezevie
Hey witches.
Hey scientists.
Hey artists.
Hey naturalists.
Hey writers and poets.
You’re my people and I appreciate you.
Back in the early 2000s there was a whole movement about listening to your body, and being the expert in your body, and then that just stopped because it turns out doctors do NOT like it when patients say they know something.
Image description: A screenshot of the symptoms of 'factitious disorder,' from the Mayo Clinic. The symptoms are listed below alongside my discussion of them.
This is the 'condition' that used to be known as Munchausen's.
I am not claiming that nobody ever fakes being sick. But it is vanishingly rare compared to the number of people who ARE sick, but doctors refuse to take it seriously.
Let's take a look at some of these. How can they tell if the medical problems are 'clever and convincing' or just... real, if it's one of the hundreds of conditions that don't show up in a clean cut way on imaging or labs ?
'Deep knowledge of medical terms and diseases' is much more commonly a symptom of being forced to do your own research because doctors refuse to help you figure out what's going on. I have deep knowledge of certain medical terms and diseases. Wish I didn't have to.
'Vague or inconsistent symptoms' - you mean like those that occur in, once again, the many conditions doctors like to ignore and dismiss because clear objective diagnostic measures don't exist yet? Like they did with multiple sclerosis before they invented the MRI?
'Conditions that get worse for no clear reason' - sometimes the reason is pretty clear! Medical neglect! And many conditions worsen for no obvious reason. Do they not understand the concepts of progressive,' 'degenerative', or 'relapsing-remitting'?
'Seeking treatment from many healthcare professionals' - it's almost like if a doctor dismisses your symptoms or refuses treatment you might need to look for another?
'Not wanting healthcare professionals to talk to family or friends' - Many chronically ill people live in abusive situations and/or with people who do not believe they are sick.
'Staying in the hospital a lot' - Because you're sick and no one will provide appropriate treatment outpatient. Because they don't believe you. So it escalates to hospital severity.
'Desire for frequent testing or risky surgeries and procedures' - It's almost like people want to find out what's wrong with them? And get treatment for it even if it has risks?
'Many surgical scars or evidence of many procedures' - Sure yeah let's just demonize people for having had medical care. Alright.
'Having few visitors when in the hospital' - Yeah, definitely if a chronically ill person experiences social isolation or abandonment they must be faking. We definitely don't live in a culture that isolates sick people.
'Arguing with healthcare professionals and staff' - And this is the one that inspired my addition to this post. G-d forbid we know anything about our bodies or advocate for ourselves.
Someone I care about very much was recently 'diagnosed' with this despite massive evidence of life threatening, untreated medical conditions. This diagnosis can kill people.
leebrontide, please pardon me if this was more than you bargained for when you made your post. I've been thinking about this a lot recently and you inspired me to talk about it.
No this is pretty much exactly what I’m talking about.
Oh, but don’t forget that several of these can also come about due to people having deep shame about their health after being repeatedly dismissed, degraded or basically called hysterical for asking for help!
Absolutely. And I'll add that they even have one for if they DO acknowledge you're sick, but don't like your attitude about it.
Image: Mayo Clinic screenshot, overview of 'somatic symptom disorder.'
"Somatic symptom disorder involves focusing too much on physical symptoms such as pain or tiredness. This focus causes major emotional distress and makes it hard to function. You may or may not have another medical condition that causes these symptoms. But how you think, feel and behave because of the symptoms can be extreme."
"You might often think the worst about your symptoms. You may seek medical care often, searching for a reason for the symptoms, even when other serious conditions have been ruled out. You also might spend so much time and energy focusing on your symptoms that it's hard to function, sometimes leading to more challenges in your life."
So... if you find your symptoms of an actual real diagnosed medical disorder 'too' distressing, seek 'too much' medical care, and want to find out why you're sick, they can just diagnose you with 'Never take this person's medical problems seriously again disorder'.
The 'even when other serious conditions have been ruled out' part is especially absurd. Which other serious conditions? Sure, if you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras - rule out the most common possibilities first. But if you're still having symptoms that don't fit your existing diagnoses? Then yeah, you might want to rule out less common causes!
And the idea that it's not the symptoms themselves that cause the problems, just that you spend too much time focusing on them... I've noticed a strange phenomenon in my personal experience where I spend a lot less time and energy focusing on my symptoms when they are treated to the point that they aren't severely debilitating. Idk, maybe that's just me.
And the symptoms list... how do they not hear themselves?
Image: List of symptoms from same Mayo Clinic page.
Symptoms of somatic symptom disorder may include:
Specific symptoms, such as pain or shortness of breath.
General symptoms, such as feeling very tired or weak
Symptoms not related to any medical cause.
Symptoms related to a medical condition but that are more severe than usually expected.
One symptom, many symptoms or symptoms that change over time.
Mild, moderate or severe symptoms.
It's literally... any symptoms? Mild, moderate, severe, general, specific, related or unrelated to a diagnosed medical condition. With the clear implication that if it's not diagnosed yet or if it's unusually severe, it's fake.
We never moved past 'hysteria' or 'hypochondria.' They just realized those terms have become unpopular and dressed it up in cleverer clinical terminology.
Periodic reminder that your doctor is not your boss, your doctor is your paid consultant. All due respect to their education and experience but their job is to enable you to make informed decisions, not to make the decision for you. When they don't supply information you ask for then they're not doing their job.
Louder for the people in the back:
When they don't supply information you ask for then they're not doing their job.
Society™ has, for centuries, framed physicians as the ultimate Authority Figures (to the point where they internalized it, and become authoritarian).
Authoritarians hate being challenged. Especially when the person challenging them is marginalized (women, queers, p.o.c, children, the disabled, the chronically ill ...).
I hate that I tick so many of these boxes because I've had to advocate for myself and others so hard and do so much health care for my cats and so much research for writing that I KNOW a lot of shit! I shouldn't be punished for curiosity or pushing to understand what the fuck is wrong with me.
God only knows what is in my file. Mostly they seem to respect me but boy howdy do they love to just say things where they think you won't see.
accidentally said "invasive thoughts" instead of "intrusive thoughts" today and actually I think I'm onto something. this thought does not belong here and it is harming the local ecosystem
At the risk of sounding anti-intellectual, I think that college should be free and also not a requirement for employment outside of highly specialized career fields
At the risk of sounding like an effete intellectual, I do actually think you should be allowed to just take college courses indefinitely
technically you can, if you don't care about degrees.
Free Harvard courses. Free Courses from Stanford. Free Courses from MIT. Free courses from Yale. Free courses from Princeton.
Free courses on Coursera.
Free Courses on EDx Free Courses on Alison
For paid, there's The Great Courses+/Wonderium. 20$ a month for unlimited courses.
When searching, the phrases you're looking for are Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), or you can do a general search of say, "free online college courses." Oh, and so you don't get surprised like I did, have an avoid: Hillsdale College is a conservative Christian site and not a valid MOOC place. Sign up with them and you will get things like THIS IS WHY THE LEFT IS TURNING YOUR KIDS TRANS AND GAY in your inbox.
@yourunderwaterskies I wanted to say thank you so much for adding these links, seriously, they've been life-changingly helpful to me-
And I also wanted to mention that humanitarian organisations have free courses too, like the Red Cross on international humanitarian law.
Learn more about the Red Cross International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Program to train policy professionals, government officials, academics,
Kaya is a free humanitarian learning platform which offers hundreds of training opportunities across a range of key topics, including the hu
US Book ban on LGBTQIA books
The nationwide book ban bill, HR 7661, has progressed out of committee and into the House. Here's what you need to know to take action.
At least hit the shiny repost button if you're going to do nothing else. This should not stand.
Stop the bill dead in its tracks. LGBTQIA people have a right to be represented in books.
I like the idea in fantasy that humans are better at maintaining things long term because they set up societies or professions to do it whereas dwarves and elves and stuff are like “just get bob to do it he’s got a good few hundred years left” and then bob doesn’t teach anyone else how to do it
Elf: How have you kept this castle maintained for a thousand years if your lives are so short?
Human: We just train new people how to do it?
Elf: *gears visibly turning in their head*
Human: Are you alright?
Elf: I just realized that we didn’t have to let that whole city fall to ruin just because my grandfather died.
Human: What?
Human: Wait that’s why there’s ruins of elven cities even though you live for so long? You just keep not asking people how to do things? How do you learn anything?
Elf: There’s a lot of “you’ve got time to figure it out on your own” attitudes floating around in our society that I’m starting to question somewhat.
Elf: That sword, where did you get it?
Human: My cousin made it.
Elf: Impossible! Those metalworking techniques were lost a hundred years ago!
Human: What do you mean lost? My great-grandmother learned to make these swords from an elven smith, then taught it to her kids.
Elf: That's ridiculous. No elf would give such secrets to a human.
Human: They didn't. Meemaw delivered the metal to the forge, and no one kicked her out when she stayed and watched. She always said they barely acknowledged her even when doing business with her, like she wasn't worth noticing.
Elf: Come to think of it, my great-uncle always was rather single-minded when he started working.
Human: So he wasn't ignoring her, he just forgot she was there?
Elf: Oh, he was definitely ignoring her, too. He was super racist.
Reblog if you think public libraries are important and should be maintained.
Church steeple struck by lightning in Baltimore, MD on the morning of March 28th
Photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor of The Baltimore Sun
you know?
Inclusive language is for everyone!!
Their boyfriend is their partner why is this hard to understand
Also, “partner” is just a good word? It implies an equal relationship where both of your work together in pursuit of something, whether that be life goals or just having fun together.
It’s a good word. People should use it more.
Also, sometimes their partner is not out? My fiancee called me her partner to people I wasn't out to. Maybe Matt is genderqueer but doesn't want to tell everyone yet, Becky.
love the library. there's no risk. you can take out a book and go "wow this sucks" and just give it back. and when you do that you're still making the library's Number Go Up so you'll be able to roll the dice on even more books. all for the low low price of free/you already paid for it with your tax money so you might as well use it
Hades and Persephone Tarot cards I did for the bookish company Illumicrate <3
𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔐𝔞𝔦𝔡𝔢𝔫, 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔐𝔬𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℭ𝔯𝔬𝔫𝔢
That time of year when the robins (American) start singing while it’s still dark. From now until some time in July I think.
I had a flock of Canada Geese fly over yesterday after seeing four Red Winged Blackbirds also fly over. The Tufted Titmice (Titmouses?) are singing their peter-peter songs and I think the Carolina Wrens are singing too. Oh and my tulips are pushing their leaves up through the thawed mulch like a big 🖕🏻 to the snow banks.
ABSOL Print ✦ X
so don't get too comfortable.
high resolution free to download [ here ]
I like the word “witchery” because of its linguistic similarity to “fuckery.” Witchcraft is fuckery; fuckery is witchcraft. They are inextricably connected in my mind and it makes me happy.