Unapologetically Dysfunctional

name's ollie unless otherwise stated, all posts are ok to reblog if you are neurodiverse and/or physically disabled. Ableds need not apply.

[pervocracy]

How to hack any hospital computer

-Use the password taped to the monitor

How to hack any hospital computer (L337 version for advanced security systems)

-Use the password taped to the back of the monitor

[dysgraphicprogrammer]

As a computer guy: This is what happens when you have too much security. It reaches a tipping point and then suddenly you have none. Security at the cost of convenience comes at the cost of security.  

[pervocracy]

This is true of so many things in healthcare.  Example: our software is designed to automatically alert the doctor if a patient’s vital signs are critically out of range.  If someone has a blood pressure of 200/130, the doc gets a pop-up box that they have to acknowledge before doing anything else.  It makes sense, in our setting.

But then some mega-genius upstairs realized something: the system was only alerting for critical vital signs, but not for all vital signs that could possibly be bad.  Like, yeah, 200/130 is potentially life-threatening, but 130/90 is above ideal and can have negative effects on health.  Should the doctors be allowed to just ignore something that could negatively affect a patient’s health?  Heavens no!

So now the system generates a pop-up for any vital signs that are even slightly abnormal.  A pressure of 120/80 (once considered textbook normal, now considered slightly high) will create the pop-up.  We have increased our vigilance!

Well, no, what we’ve actually done is train doctors to click through a constant bombardment of pop-ups without looking.  We’ve destroyed their vigilance and made it much easier for them to accidentally skim past life-threatening vital signs.

But you can’t tell that to management, because you’d have to confess that you are a flawed human with limited attention resources.  They’d tell you “well, all the other doctors take every abnormal vital sign seriously, it sounds like you’re being negligent.”  And if you’re smart, you back down before you start telling the big boss all about your habit of ignoring critical safety alerts.

The end result is exactly the same as if we had no alerts at all, except with more annoying clicking.

[softlyfiercely]

this here is an absolutely fascinating overview of how and why this happens

[i-hate-chick-fil-a]

Absolutely horrible

[hikergirl]

Our Sister Becky

What if the doctors had listened to her?

This is pretty gut wrenching and another tragic example of how patients, especially women, are blown off.

[julierthanyou]

“But what good are stories like these, if nothing is done about them? If no one is held accountable? I wish that I could go back in time to those appointments where they dismissed her pain and storm them with a righteous fury, but I can’t, and she’s gone, and in the clinic next door there might be someone else being gaslit into thinking their physical pain is all in their head.”

[ladydrace]

Has anyone else noticed how, when you have a chronic condition of some kind, that there’s always the basic assumption from people around you that you’re not already doing everything you can?

[squidsqueen]

It’s all about the illusion of control. People who are healthy like to believe they can always keep being healthy if they do the right things. They don’t want to think about how good people get struck with terrible circumstances for no reason. So they keep assuming that if they got sick, they could do something to make it better. And if you’re still sick, that must mean you’ve done something wrong or not done enough.

[atalantapendrag]

Nail. Head. The same attitude can be seen in how a lot of people talk about poverty.

[queeranarchism]

Accurate. And mental illness, and sexual assault, and abuse, and unemployment, and eviction, and and

A lot of people are desperate to believe that they are entirely in control of their own lives and don’t want to face the fact that there are a lot of aspects in their life that they have no control over at all. So they’ll convince themselves that when a terrible thing happens to something else, that is in some part either a result of their own actions or something they can always overcome through their own actions. Nothing else is acceptable because accepting that things just happen and you can not always make them go away is terrifying.

Truth is, we are inherently vulnerable because that’s part of human life and we live in a system that makes us far far more vulnerable because people who can’t produce aren’t given the means to a decent life, so when something bad happens our job and our savings and our house and our connections fall apart all at once. Facing the truth of that vulnerability is essential to being less than total shits to each other and to identifying how this system hurts us all, even those of us with health insurance who are not living paycheck to paycheck. 

[spoonie-living]

CN: article and research is gendered

Since doctors aggressively prescribe exercise for fibromyalgia, nuanced research like this is extremely necessary!

This article really buries the lede, so here’s the short version: the results showed that while physical activity can improve functionality, fatigue, and overall quality of life in fibro patients, it doesn’t appear to have an impact on pain.

Here’s the research study the article summarizes, for those curious about the nitty gritty: Physical activity is related to function and fatigue but not pain in women with fibromyalgia: baseline analyses from the Fibromyalgia Activity Study with TENS (FAST) (Merriwether et. al., 2018)

What do this mean? Well, it means the doctors have it half right, and exercise is certainly a good treatment option for fibro—in fact, only 10 minutes of physical activity per day can be enough to make a difference!

However, it may not be the entire solution; pain management probably needs to be discussed outside of this particular treatment method. If you aren’t getting the pain management you need from your doctor because “exercise will fix that/maybe you just aren’t exercising enough,” this study may help encourage them to explore other options. It may also explain why you didn’t get what you expected out of your new exercise routine.

Of course, if exercise and physical activity is helping your pain, then keep it up! And let us know. Lived experiences of patients carry just as much, if not more, weight as research.

[bogleech]

For decades, the medical community has ignored mountains of evidence to wage a cruel and futile war on fat people, poisoning public perception and ruining millions of lives. It's time for a new paradigm.

“Diets do not work. Not just paleo or Atkins or Weight Watchers or Goop, but all diets. Since 1959, research has shown that 95 to 98 percent of attempts to lose weight fail and that two-thirds of dieters gain back more than they lost. The reasons are biological and irreversible. “

[chrisco90]

Fatsplaining at its finest. I don’t give a fuck when someone chooses to not be healthy, but don’t sit there and make bullshit excuses and blame anything other than yourself and your lack of self control. Take responsibility and own up to it, you’re not fooling anyone.

[bogleech]

I’m sorry other people’s shapes make you so angry that you pretend science is wrong

[pope-goodvibes]

the link is to huffington post im pretty sure its full of shit lmfao

[aridara]

Non-Huffington-Post links coming up!

45% of USA adults remain worried about their weight.

For 3-6yo girls, it’s more than 50%.

Between 35% and 75% of medically obese people are metabolically healthy. No high blood pressure, no insulin resistance, no high cholesterol.

Thin people are twice as likely as fat people to get diabetes.

Doctors have shorter appointments with fat people, and check them less. They also show less emotional rapport - often accusing fat patients of being “noncompliant”, “overindulgent”, or “weak willed”.

Migraine-related doctors believe that fat patients “had a worse attitude and were less likely to follow their advice“, compared to thin patients. Yes, this applies when the ONLY difference between fat and thin patients was that the former were fat.

In 2011, 14% of all OB-GYNs in South Florida barred access to all patients above 200 pounds, regardless of any other reason.

Thin doctors are more confident in their recommendations, expect their patients to lose more weight and are more likely to think dieting is easy. This is regardless of knowledge about fatness and weight loss.

Medical students get a minuscule amount of hours of study about fat people.

Fat people don’t get much medical help beyond “lose weight”. And I don’t mean they get prescribed specific diets or exercise regimens - out of 100 patients who ask about diets and weight loss, only 13 got any specific plan for diet or exercise, and only 5 got help arranging a follow-up visit. Even when doctors want fat patients to lose weight, they do a shitty job at it - and then blame the patients.

Looking at high-weight Americans who wanted to lose weight, for every person who received counseling from a dietician, 2 were instead directed towards  meal-replacement diets - the kind of diet most likely to fail.

21% of hiring managers believe that a fat woman is automatically unprofessional, and will not hire her. This despite knowing NOTHING about her professionality.

89% of obese adults were bullied by their romantic partners. And this is a problem if you want fat people to lose weight, because fat shaming causes weight GAIN.

The effects of weight bias get worse when they’re layered on top of other types of discrimination. African-American women are more likely to become depressed after internalizing weight stigma than white women.

Hispanic and black teenagers have significantly higher rates of bulimia, compared to white teenagers.

The problem with eating and health is not how much we eat, nor fatness; it’s  what we eat. For example, fructose damages insulin sensitivity and liver, while nuts seem to protect against diabetes.

The decisive factor in the care of obese patients is not the diet patients went on, but how much attention and support they received while they were on it. Again: if you want fat people to lose weight, don’t fat shame.

School-based physical activity programs don’t make kids lose weight, but they DO improve athletic ability, encourages them to exercise, and improves their scolastic ability.

[sapphicscience-archive]

i’m tired of “how to help a partner with [x mental illness]” guides that assume that the other partner has no issues of any kind; i want more discussion of how to balance the differing mental health needs of multiple people in a relationship

[borderbetweencountries]

So my partner and I have been together almost two years, and we both suffer from anxiety, BPD, and a handful of other mental illnesses, and here’s some things that help us out immensely.

communication is key. Tell your partner if you’re having a bad day. Listen when your partner says they’re having a bad day. It’s easier to be careful with someone when you know they’re already having a bad day. I can’t stress this enough - communication is always important in relationships; but it’s doubly so when one or both of you has a mental illness. You have to trust your partner to be able to be honest with you about what they’re feeling and how their illness is affecting them, and you need to be honest with them, too. ask questions. If your partner is struggling, asking them questions to help you understand how to help them can be good. Remember that ‘I don’t know’ is a valid answer, and it is one that you can also give. be reminders for each other. It can be super hard to remember to do simple things for yourself; it can be easier to remember to remind your partner to do them. My partner reminds me about medication, food, etc., and I do the same for him - it helps a lot. use safewords. And I don’t mean in the kinky sense. My partner and I have a series of words that mean different things, because sometimes it can be hard to say ‘I’m swinging’ or ‘I’m having a panic attack’ or ‘this subject is upsetting me for x y z’ reason. It’s easier to say one syllable - ‘swing’ for rapidly cycling emotions, ‘count’ for panic attacks (so one of us can count breaths for the other). We have words that mean ‘drop this subject now’ and words that mean ‘please don’t touch me’. We also have hand signals for days when one or both of us are nonverbal, and we revert to texting on those days. be willing to give each other space.  But don’t necessarily go far. If you need your space, tell your partner; if your partner needs their space, make sure they can still access you.  acknowledge each other’s illness. Don’t pretend it isn’t there. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away. Acknowledge that they’re there, acknowledge that sometimes they may come in conflict with each other, and learn how to take a step back when it becomes a problem. call each other out. If your partner is repeatedly doing things that are detrimental to themselves/your relationship/you, call them on it. Don’t do it in an asshole way - just sit down with them and be like ‘hey, you’ve been doing this thing that is really sucky lately, and it needs to stop.’ Likewise, listen when you’re being called out. It’s really easy to get stuck in shitty loops when your brain is sick, and sometimes you don’t know what you’re doing ‘til someone points it out. This hurts! And it sucks! But it’s part of acknowledging your illnesses. It doesn’t do any good to let bad habits continue, even if there’s a reason they’re happening. learn to forgive. When you’ve both got brain issues going on, it’s inevitable that people are going to say things they don’t mean, and that is going to hurt. The important thing is being able to recognize when you’ve messed up and apologize sincerely, and accept it when your partner apologizes. These are just some things that work for us. Add to the list if you can and I hope this helps.

[sapphicscience-archive]

i’m tired of “how to help a partner with [x mental illness]” guides that assume that the other partner has no issues of any kind; i want more discussion of how to balance the differing mental health needs of multiple people in a relationship

[borderbetweencountries]

So my partner and I have been together almost two years, and we both suffer from anxiety, BPD, and a handful of other mental illnesses, and here’s some things that help us out immensely.

communication is key. Tell your partner if you’re having a bad day. Listen when your partner says they’re having a bad day. It’s easier to be careful with someone when you know they’re already having a bad day. I can’t stress this enough - communication is always important in relationships; but it’s doubly so when one or both of you has a mental illness. You have to trust your partner to be able to be honest with you about what they’re feeling and how their illness is affecting them, and you need to be honest with them, too. ask questions. If your partner is struggling, asking them questions to help you understand how to help them can be good. Remember that ‘I don’t know’ is a valid answer, and it is one that you can also give. be reminders for each other. It can be super hard to remember to do simple things for yourself; it can be easier to remember to remind your partner to do them. My partner reminds me about medication, food, etc., and I do the same for him - it helps a lot. use safewords. And I don’t mean in the kinky sense. My partner and I have a series of words that mean different things, because sometimes it can be hard to say ‘I’m swinging’ or ‘I’m having a panic attack’ or ‘this subject is upsetting me for x y z’ reason. It’s easier to say one syllable - ‘swing’ for rapidly cycling emotions, ‘count’ for panic attacks (so one of us can count breaths for the other). We have words that mean ‘drop this subject now’ and words that mean ‘please don’t touch me’. We also have hand signals for days when one or both of us are nonverbal, and we revert to texting on those days. be willing to give each other space.  But don’t necessarily go far. If you need your space, tell your partner; if your partner needs their space, make sure they can still access you.  acknowledge each other’s illness. Don’t pretend it isn’t there. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away. Acknowledge that they’re there, acknowledge that sometimes they may come in conflict with each other, and learn how to take a step back when it becomes a problem. call each other out. If your partner is repeatedly doing things that are detrimental to themselves/your relationship/you, call them on it. Don’t do it in an asshole way - just sit down with them and be like ‘hey, you’ve been doing this thing that is really sucky lately, and it needs to stop.’ Likewise, listen when you’re being called out. It’s really easy to get stuck in shitty loops when your brain is sick, and sometimes you don’t know what you’re doing ‘til someone points it out. This hurts! And it sucks! But it’s part of acknowledging your illnesses. It doesn’t do any good to let bad habits continue, even if there’s a reason they’re happening. learn to forgive. When you’ve both got brain issues going on, it’s inevitable that people are going to say things they don’t mean, and that is going to hurt. The important thing is being able to recognize when you’ve messed up and apologize sincerely, and accept it when your partner apologizes. These are just some things that work for us. Add to the list if you can and I hope this helps.

[blkbruja]

y’all need therapy. not girlfriends

[yaheartchakra]

Or they need a girlfriend that doesn’t mind listening and trying to help them work through their shit and defeat their fucking demons without asking them to pour out their soul to a stranger who is only listening because it’s their job. That’s the kind of shit you do for the people you love.

[taxidermy-tits]

your partner is not your therapist. listening to your partner is one thing, but it is not their responsibility to help you work through your shit. that is on you.

one more time.

your partner is not your therapist.

[batmanisagatewaydrug-deactivate]

also if I may hop onto this, I REALLY hate when people try to spin “therapists only listen because it’s their job” as a BAD thing. can you imagine if we tried to apply that to literally any other profession?

“why take your phone into the store to get it fixed? they don’t care about you, they’re only doing their job.”

“I don’t want to order a pizza. they’re not making it for me out of the goodness of their hearts, they’re only doing it because it’s their job.”

“why didn’t you just have your girlfriend do that surgery instead of going to a stranger who only saved your life because it’s their job?”

it’s their job because they are better equipped to do it than the other people in your life. jesus christ. 

[closet-keys]

Also, while it is definitely true that some therapists don’t care, there are so many therapists who became therapists because they, themselves, are mentally ill and have recovered from trauma and want to dedicate their lives to helping other people through that journey. 

My past therapists have cared deeply, and demonstrated that care both in their own (boundaried, but still intimate) disclosures about their own histories and their genuine sadness when our therapist/client relationship came to a close. 

Just because someone is being compensated for their time, energy, and skills does not mean they don’t care about the people they work with. It takes a tremendous amount of work to help people through the process of recovery, and people who dedicate their lives to that work absolutely deserve compensation in the form of stable income for food/housing/paying off loans. 

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t require people to have constant income in order to have guaranteed survival, and maybe in that circumstance people could practice therapy without needing compensation. But in the world as it is, if someone dedicates that time and energy to helping people they don’t have time and energy for another job to provide income, so they physically require compensation. 

I don’t think that need negates the compassion they have towards the people they help. Most therapists are relieved when they discover insurance will pay for sessions so their clients don’t need to. They don’t want to be charging money from clients, but unless insurance covers it there are no other options in our current economic system. 

[androidgynous]

Got my benefits cut and I’m not getting a paycheck for at least 2 weeks

The good news: I now have a job

Bad news: gonna take a while to give me my first check, plus my snap was cut this month and idk why or if I’ll be able to have the time to appeal it. I need to pay for food, gas, vital medication for my survival, etc. I’m a type 1 diabetic and I’m already pushing myself w how little I eat now just to keep costs down

Please please please. Hopefully I won’t have to beg for much longer now that I’ve got a job. Help this trans, multiply disabled dude out?

paypal.me/spooniespellbook

Or my venmo is (@)aliensatemybaby

Reblogs etc are welcome. Thanks folks

[androidgynous]

I haven’t gotten any help, be it donations or reblogs on this post and I genuinely don’t know what to do.

Please, my account is now in the negative and I have 10 days still before my paycheck. I’d like to be able to use it instead of all of it going to the dumb overdraft fees.

Ik it’s uncomfortable to see ppl begging but I’ve got nothing else. I’ll be getting more hours soon and hopefully I won’t have to beg for much longer.

[postgenderspock-deactivated2018]

please reblog & help my friend.

[androidgynous]

Thank you folks so much!! Thanks to your reblogs and a few kind donators I’ve been able to get some much needed food and clothes for work.

I’m still another 5 days before payday tho, and I need to get gas and (more) meds and I’m running short already.

Pls keep reblogging and donate if able. I thank you all for your kindness. This trans cripple is forever grateful 💜🏳️‍🌈💜🏳️‍🌈

[androidgynous]

Got my benefits cut and I’m not getting a paycheck for at least 2 weeks

The good news: I now have a job

Bad news: gonna take a while to give me my first check, plus my snap was cut this month and idk why or if I’ll be able to have the time to appeal it. I need to pay for food, gas, vital medication for my survival, etc. I’m a type 1 diabetic and I’m already pushing myself w how little I eat now just to keep costs down

Please please please. Hopefully I won’t have to beg for much longer now that I’ve got a job. Help this trans, multiply disabled dude out?

paypal.me/spooniespellbook

Or my venmo is (@)aliensatemybaby

Reblogs etc are welcome. Thanks folks

[androidgynous]

I haven’t gotten any help, be it donations or reblogs on this post and I genuinely don’t know what to do.

Please, my account is now in the negative and I have 10 days still before my paycheck. I’d like to be able to use it instead of all of it going to the dumb overdraft fees.

Ik it’s uncomfortable to see ppl begging but I’ve got nothing else. I’ll be getting more hours soon and hopefully I won’t have to beg for much longer.

[androidgynous]

Got my benefits cut and I’m not getting a paycheck for at least 2 weeks

The good news: I now have a job

Bad news: gonna take a while to give me my first check, plus my snap was cut this month and idk why or if I’ll be able to have the time to appeal it. I need to pay for food, gas, vital medication for my survival, etc. I’m a type 1 diabetic and I’m already pushing myself w how little I eat now just to keep costs down

Please please please. Hopefully I won’t have to beg for much longer now that I’ve got a job. Help this trans, multiply disabled dude out?

paypal.me/spooniespellbook

Or my venmo is (@)aliensatemybaby

Reblogs etc are welcome. Thanks folks

[androidgynous]

I haven’t gotten any help, be it donations or reblogs on this post and I genuinely don’t know what to do.

Please, my account is now in the negative and I have 10 days still before my paycheck. I’d like to be able to use it instead of all of it going to the dumb overdraft fees.

Ik it’s uncomfortable to see ppl begging but I’ve got nothing else. I’ll be getting more hours soon and hopefully I won’t have to beg for much longer.

[androidgynous]

Got my benefits cut and I’m not getting a paycheck for at least 2 weeks

The good news: I now have a job

Bad news: gonna take a while to give me my first check, plus my snap was cut this month and idk why or if I’ll be able to have the time to appeal it. I need to pay for food, gas, vital medication for my survival, etc. I’m a type 1 diabetic and I’m already pushing myself w how little I eat now just to keep costs down

Please please please. Hopefully I won’t have to beg for much longer now that I’ve got a job. Help this trans, multiply disabled dude out?

paypal.me/spooniespellbook

Or my venmo is (@)aliensatemybaby

Reblogs etc are welcome. Thanks folks

[justsomeantifas]

My body is an allergy riddled mess plz help

So… my allergies have me bedridden with a sinus headache and severe shortness of breath. Like, I almost passed out at work yesterday from lack of oxygen. I need to deep clean the apartment, but my vacuum cleaner recently broke.

I just spent $50 on allergy meds and inhalers so I do not have the spare cash to get a new vacuum cleaner. I can get a cheap one for about $50, so if people could just shoot me some money so I can pick one up today, that would be a huge help!

I have a paypal at PayPal.me/pjfunds

Or if you need an email for paypal it’s [email protected] (yes, business is spelled like that in the email address!)

Any amount would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[the-transfeminine-mystique]

One of the biggest mistakes that mainstream liberal organizing has made (particularly in liberal/progressive religious contexts) has been to lose sight of nonviolence as a tactic and instead conceive of it as a moral imperative. Tactics develop, evolve, and change over time as they become known and circumvented by counter-tactics. Nonviolence in the civil rights movement was a tactic that juxtaposed the state’s (and rank-and-file white people’s) brutality against motionless and non-aggressive black bodies, specifically in the context where camera crews were documenting things the police weren’t used to having be documented. In that context, the tactic found success.

Modern interpretation of nonviolence as a moral imperative, on the other hand, does not allow room for development. The belief is that we must practice nonviolent resistance because it is right, not because it works. And that interpretation is the thing keeping people from realizing that the context has changed and nonviolent resistance doesn’t work in the same way. The state has learned how to manipulate and circumvent it as a tactic, but liberals are too married to it as a moral point to notice.

[kubrickstares]

I had another post but I’m making a shorter one - this is my roommate’s gofundme to raise $ for rent. I’m disabled, unable to work, and rely on her for housing. she was in a car accident & hasn’t been cleared to go back to work yet, which has put a huge drain on our finances. we have both been homeless before and don’t want to be evicted. there’s more info at the link. if you don’t want to donate through gofundme, I have paypal & cash.me as well. thank you to everyone who reblogs or donates. 

donate through paypal donate through the cash app

[kubrickstares]

I haven’t had a meal in 3 or 4 days, I can’t remember when it last was. if anyone’s able to donate $ so I can eat it would be much appreciated - and please reblog if you can!

[chronically-ill-dandy]

I am relatively young but in final stage renal failure. I have a higher chance of survival IF I can recieve proper medical care AND LIVING ASSISTANCE in a different state. Get me OUT of Mississippi.

The long post w the good explanation is being shared but not inspiring much help. So, I simplified it.

My illness is straight up fatal. Not gonna beat around thatBush, anymore. I seem desperate for help because I AM desperate for help.

My nephrologist has seen enough improvement in my kidney function, lately, to believe someone my age (early 30s) might have a longer life WITH PROPER AND FREQUENT MEDICAL ATTENTION. Sadly, that just isn’t an option where I live.

Please, if you can help me with moving expenses (even just a couple of bucks) I would be grateful. I’m sinking fast in Mississippi and now my doctors are giving me too much hope to ignore. I wanna get out of this situation and I’m working my fatigued, brain-foggy ass off to make it out of here.

If I can undo the damage my heart failure caused to the rest of my body, I want to. I don’t want to spend another month KNOWING what I should be eating, what medicines I should be taking, what tests and treatments I should be getting… and receiving almost none of it because Mississippi lawmakers think people like me have somehow earned slow, painful deaths.

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