#Neurologic Manifestations

[magnetothemagnificent]

Non-ADHD and non-autistic disabled people whose only idea of ADHD and autistic people is shaped by media depictions of a nerdy white boy or a quirky goth girl with low support needs: "Yeah ADHD and autism are destigmatized and we should ignore people with ADHD and autism in favor of real disabilities. I am very smart and progressive."

Lateral prejudice towards other disabled people will get us nowhere.

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

“is this a need or just a very very strong want”

[dogboycolumbo]

MORE complaining sincr i have a headache and my whimsy levels are critically low

[feminist-space]

Cat in the Hat:

"The German Health Minister gave an important update on the Covid situation yesterday.

I’ve written up the section of his speech from the video below for easy reading.

It’s immensely refreshing to see a government minister warning of the harms of Covid in such a transparent way."

https://x.com/_catinthehat/status/1732092683508678954

Prof. Karl Lauterbach

Health Minister, Germany

4 December 2023

"This second (long Covid) round table was very interesting, lasting three and a half hours. It serves as a unique forum for dialogue among scientists, researchers and those affected by long Covid, facilitating the exchange of ideas.

There are many new findings about long Covid. Not all of them are good news. One piece of not-so-good news concerns the fact that long Covid is actually still a problem for those who are newly infected. One estimate that has been put forward is that the risk of contracting long Covid now, even after vaccination, is around 3%. Now you may say, "that's not such a big risk" , but there are tens of thousands of people who are repeatedly affected in a short period of time. And so, the long Covid problem has not yet been solved.

We have also established that there really are many subgroups of long Covid and that we do not yet have a cure. And it was clearly pointed out that we are also dealing with problems here that will challenge society as a whole, because vascular diseases often occur after long Covid. Throughout Europe, we are currently seeing an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease in the middle-age group - from 25 to 50. This is associated with the consequences of Covid infections.

We also very often find cognitive impairment in older people. And one participant pointed out that it may well be like the Spanish flu, where 20 years after the Spanish flu there was a significant increase in Parkinson's disease and probably also dementia.

This is something we must pay attention to, as the past infection afiects how the immune system in the brain functions, as well as the brain's blood vessels, potentially increasing the long-term risk of these major neurodegenerative diseases. This is why we need to conduct very intensive research. This research has played a major role.

What is the overall assessment of the situation now?

We have to be careful. Long Covid is not curable at the moment. We also know that over 40% of those who have several manifestations of long Covid, for example, five or more, still have symptoms after 2 years, so it doesn't seem to heal spontaneously. We also know that those whose symptoms are more pronounced at the beginning are less likely to heal.

So some of what we know from the demographics of long Covid has been confirmed, and we now know more precisely which mechanisms in the brain, but also in the blood vessels and the immune system, are responsible for this. Professor Scheibenbogan will explain this briefly later.

At this point, I can only say the following - this is particularly important to me:

First of all, long Covid is a disease that stays with us and that we cannot yet cure. And we are seeing an increasing number of cases as the waves of infection continue to affect us.

Secondly, Covid is not a cold - with a cold, you don't usually see any long-term effects. You don't see any changes in the blood vessels. You don't usually see an autoimmune disease developing. You also don't usually see neurological inflammation - these are all things that we see with long Covid. Therefore, one should not assume that Covid infection is just a common cold. It can affect brain tissue and the vascular system, and we still lack an effective treatment, making these studies crucial.

Significantly, we know that the risk of long Covid decreases when you're infected but have been vaccinated. That's why it's concerning that only 3 million people have been vaccinated with the new, adapted vaccine. That is a very bad result.

Please protect yourself from severe infections.

Please protect yourself from long Covid.

Currently, the danger posed by Covid is indeed being underestimated. Nothing is worse than infecting someone at Christmas who then becomes seriously ill and may not fully recover."

Alt text is included in all images of this post.

[crab-on-printer]

HOLY CRAP I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING

NORRELL OJICCLE IS AN INTREST

He’s the manifestation of Elias’s intrest in neurology!!! The reason why he’s not some orphan child is because Elias nurtured him! He got a job that involved neurology! That’s why he’s the one to have the copper gun, since Elias’s knowledge of neurology is what made him take the copper supplements!!!

I mean his head’s transparent, only showing his brain for heaven’s sake! And with him now being dead, this probably means that Elias will take up some other career or intrest he loves!! I’m not sure if this was something that everyone else knew, but it hit me right in the face when i figured it out!

[lostlegendaerie]

Veritas Ratio and Autistic Representation

Chances are you know autistic people in your life; autism itself is a fairly recently coined term, dating back to 1911, and can encompass a wide variety of symptoms and eccentricities which have existed since the dawn of humankind. (The 'fey-touched' child or changeling in European lore shares a lot of traits with autistic children.) Autism is a spectrum, encompassing and overlapping a lot with ADHD and other neurological disorders. There are probably millions of people out there, especially from older generations, who are on the spectrum and have no idea. I did not even get my diagnosis until I was 27.

So it is entirely possible that the creators of Veritas Ratio from Honkai: Star Rail did not intend to write him as autistic and based him on people they knew in their own lives, who, diagnosed or not, are on the autistic spectrum. However, the point of this piece is to talk about the ways in which Veritas Ratio is good autistic representation (in my opinion as a autistic person), and how people who want to write characters like this can take a page out of Honkai's book in their own work.

1) SPECIAL INTEREST. Ratio shows a *staggering* amount of dedication to the pursuit of knowledge and his quest to cure the world of ignorance. This quest of his tends to supersede everything else in his life, with no mention of any friends, family connections or romantic partners in his character story. (Said as a Ratiorine shipper - not sinking any 'ships, here) His dedication to education started early, with reading college undergraduate education levels while still in middle school - seven or so years ahead of his peers. Autism is considered a disability, yes, but it does not exclude you from being smart, and the fixation on your chosen topic(s) can be extremely useful in motivating you to reach the top of your field. His path being The Hunt also outlines this dedication; he is seeking his target without rest or distraction.

2) SENSORY ISSUES. Ratio very explicitly can become distracted and disgusted by the feeling of dirt or sweat on his skin, something that tends to be more prevalent with specific clothing textures but absolutely can manifest in a need to feel clean. He also can apparently become very irritated and overwhelmed by lights and sounds, and wears his plaster mask as a way to deaden and deafen the amount of sensory input that he receives. This allows him to think better, and is a fantastic example of what it feels like to suffer from sensory overload. (If you find yourself getting stressed in crowds, try bringing earplugs and putting them in the next time you're in a noisy restaurant and see if doesn't help you out.)

3) STRONG SENSE OF MORALITY. Autistic people tend to suffer from a somewhat black-and-white feeling of right and wrong, and can hold themselves and other people to an extremely strict moral code. This does not mean that they are always correct in what they believe is right and wrong, but it means that they can be extremely passionate about following those rules. Ratio's beef with the Genius Society and their selectivity is indicative of his unwavering passion towards sharing knowledge with the masses, but the tactless way in which he wishes to cure ignorance bleeds into our fourth point.

4) DIFFICULTY WITH SOCIAL CUES. In one of his earlier conversations with Aventurine (where he is clearly irritated at how careless Aventurine seems to be about their entire mission), Ratio inadvertently insults Aventurine's his lack of education and parents. He apologizes afterwards, stating he did not intend to come across that way, but he maintains the same imperious tone of voice. Autistic people often, but not always, struggle with social cues and can often be considered rude when we are trying to be direct and easily understood; and we can especially struggle with understanding sarcasm or sounding sarcastic when we intend to be sincere.

With my reasons for believing Ratio to be Autistic coded firmly established, let's move onto why I think he is good representation. The two most important parts of representation, in my lived experience as an Autistic person, are RELATABILITY and EMPATHY.

Ratio exhibits some of the same mentalities and symptoms I've had, such as being misunderstood and accidentally offending people and becoming extremely stressed in large crowds due to overstimulation, so he checks off the first box. But the way that the other characters in the game respect him and do not ridicule him for his eccentricities marks the second. Whether in marketing material or in character dialogue options, Ratio's love of baths, his plaster bust, and his ceaseless drive to educate other people (whether they need it or not) are seen as charming and generally positive, and those attributes are not constantly brought up (and mocked) in his interactions and dialogue with other characters. Aventurine doesn't constantly ask Ratio if he needs to leave the Dream to take a bath, and the TB's text conversations with him allow you to engage with his special interests such as his requests for problems to solve and debates to wage against you. He is canonically seen and respected as a brilliant individual, and not reduced to a joke or viewed as comic relief (e.g. Sampo, who almost exclusively is given negative dialogue options for the player to use when interacting with him and who almost every character in the story openly despises.)

Some of you are going to disagree with me in the comments (which is fine, it's my opinion), but for the few of you who read this all the way through, thank you. I hope that this helps you view Ratio and Autistic people overall in a new light, and I am excited to see where else we go from here with him and the rest of the cast!

[sauron18]

Weeping Angels Are Conceptual Entities

In their first appearance (Series 3’s Blink), the Weeping Angels are a race of monsters who can only move and live when no other creature is looking at them. As soon as they are perceived, they become quantum locked and turn into stone statues. They feed by shifting their victims back in time and absorbing the potential energy of the life they would’ve lived in their original era.

Yet even in that story they’re called “creatures of the abstract.” This description would make more sense in their next appearance (S5’s Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone), where we see a long-dormant angel crash-land a human ship above a labyrinth that held a multitude of other dormant angels.

In this story the angels display the ability to act on the world around them in non-physical ways. The first angel causes the ship it’s in to crash without leaving its prison cell. Then it inspects the area around the ship by using a projection of its image in a camera recording to manifest outside the crash site. While it does this, it is also able to deadlock the temporary shelter where its image manifests.

Then, after killing two soldiers from a military force that arrived on the planet to re-capture it, the angel strips their cerebral cortex and uses their consciousness to communicate via radio with the Doctor, his companions, and the other soldiers. All the while the radiation from the crashed ship slowly revives the dormant angels in the labyrinth, and they all proceed to hunt the humans as they try (and fail) to harness the energy from a time rift in the hopes of becoming a formidable force in the universe again.

Besides seeing an expansion of their abilities in this episode, we also get some interesting lore from a book written about the angels. The book explains how the projection of an angel is an extension of it, “That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel.” It speculates on their abstract origin, “What if we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if, one day, our dreams no longer needed us?” And it even explains how they can infect and possess a living being who looks into their eyes, “The eyes are not the windows of the soul, they are the doors. Beware what may enter them.” And as the other angels in the story begin to regenerate from shapeless humanoid statues to their angelic forms, the Doctor states “Their image is their power.”

All of this means that the angels in this story have become, essentially, conceptual entities. They are perceived physically as stone statues, but they operate primarily as non-corporeal beings.

“As conceptual entities only seem to affect the minds of their victims, it’s often said that the entities are ‘made out of pure thought’, but this is clearly inaccurate as thought itself isn’t a substance. Although many people are determined to think of the entities as telepathic presences, or neurological parasites, or in some cases even ‘spirits’, in fact it’s much more accurate to think of them as nothing more than hostile ideas. They exist by bypassing matter altogether, and instead giving themselves structure inside the meanings of things.” — The Book of the War

At this point, the angels are no longer simply monsters who move when they aren’t seen. They are living ideas who exist on the periphery of perception. They affect the world primarily through non-physical means. As conceptual entities, the angels infect the physical world, reshaping its meaning to suit their needs and to give them power and form.

This post is already long enough, so instead of going into more detail about other stories. I’d like to conclude by mentioning how in their most recent TV stories, in Flux, we see a group of angels working as operatives for Division. They are killers-for-hire for this ancient temporal power that exists outside of normal time and space, a notion that goes back to their original description in Blink as “the lonely assassins.” In other words, they are conceptual entities who are living weapons at the service of a Time Lord interference group that has abandoned the physical universe.

This may all be coincidence, but regardless, I love thinking about how the angels have gone from being a creative monster of the week to becoming another televised incarnation of ideas from the Faction Paradox and Doctor Who literary universes.

[crunchcrunchteacakes]

The Power of the Mind: Speculating Yor’s Super Strength

This is going to be long post on how I think Yor’s strength works after reading the events of Chapter 85.

In the fandom the topic of Yor’s strength is a common topic with with two main conclusions. Yor’s is a test subject of Ostania’s super-soldier experiment projects or her strength is exaggerated for the sake of comic relief or an Anime trope. I attribute Yor’s Skills to her assassin training that began at a young age which become ingrained in the form off Muscle memory. It is developed through repetitive practice of specific skills or movements over time. When a skill is practiced repeatedly, the brain creates neural pathways that strengthen the connections between the brain and the relevant muscle groups, making the movements more efficient and precise. But know I think it is more, efficiency and precision is one thing but elevated amount of strength and speed is another.  Yor’s powers seem far-fetched in reality, After Chapter 85 I wanted to explore a speculative concept that suggests a connection between mindfulness meditation and the potential manifestation of super strength.

The reason I never associated Yor’s with any human experimentation was because super-soldiers are not in style with Ostania’s Human experimentation which focus on creating higher-intelligence subjects. Project Apple and Anya’s secret organization both produced subjects that are associated with neurology resulting in psychic super powers of precognition and telepathy, Super speed, endurance and strength just don't fit in their. Besides Ostania can always employ Blackbell industries to make mechanical suits armors that would achieve the same results. (Chapter 25).  

Anya, Bond and Yor’s power which I earlier separated on the basis of mind-body are not so distinct after all, the below panel provides a unique connection between checks on mental inhibitors and the manifestation of super strength in individuals.

The technical term for Yor’s strength is Hysterical Strength : In real-world scenarios, cases of "hysterical strength" have been reported where individuals have displayed astonishing feats of physical strength during life-threatening situations. It is believed that adrenaline release and the "fight or flight" response may temporarily override mental inhibitors, enabling individuals to access greater strength. It is also reported to be present during situations of altered states of consciousness. (Source)

An altered state of consciousness (ASC) refers to any mental state that differs significantly from a person's usual waking awareness. In these states, the individual's thoughts, perceptions, emotions, and sense of self may be altered or modified, leading to a different experience of reality. Altered states of consciousness can be induced by various factors, including meditation, Yoga, spacing out (Source). The practice disengaging yourself convoluted emotions of mind by not denying or burring them but to simply step and and observe them from a different perspective in mindfulness to foster inner peace and self awareness. This concept was first introduced to us by Mr. Green in Chapter 39.

(Mr. Green is definitely a member of Garden, but that is an topic for another day)

Yor is spaced out all the time, it’s like her personality trait, what we call ditzy and brain empty no thoughts, forgetful is literally her way of channeling her super strength. She is disengaged from her conscious mind. In this speculative narrative, she might temporarily enter altered states of consciousness where mental inhibitors are temporarily suspended or tweaked to channel her strength in any way she wants.. 

This means that Yor is in autopilot most of the time and her brain is at wakeful rest. No wonder her character was inspired by Little Briar Rose, a.k.a the Sleeping Beauty. This autopilot mode also made her seem more robot like to her colleagues who often say terms like “come back to earth Yor”. The autopilot mode also is an result of her training that has developed her muscle memory mentioned before, thus she has excellent mind-body coordination. We see her in the state of deep contemplation mostly when she is alone or outside the Forger family, Anya and Loid bring out Yor from this trance back to reality as seen in the clip below.

Honestly Thorn Princesses blank glazed eye feature should be every bit as popular as Twilights Sharp focused one.

This kind of contemplative state can be achieved by Yoga, and I am talking about the philosophy of Yoga that is part of the Indian and Buddhist cultures, not the western version of exercise. In yoga philosophy, it is believed that energy, or prana, flows through the body. When this energy is blocked or stagnant, it can lead to physical and mental discomfort. Yoga practices, including asanas and breathwork, aim to unblock and balance the flow of prana, promoting vitality and clarity of mind. The existence of inner energy reserves (e.g., prana, chi) that, when harnessed through meditation, can lead to enhanced physical abilities. Yeah Yor wasn’t lying here when she said she learned it through Yoga.

Fiona trained her body not her mind, we see her break her mental barriers but she achieved this because of hysteria a state of great emotional distress and not something that she could just tap into, thus it cost her 3 out of 4 limbs. Yor does it through mindfulness, it encourages observing thoughts and emotions as they arise without attaching judgments or becoming entangled in them. So even though she is enraged and distressed when harm comes to Anya she does not become entangled in her emotions and maintains control over her strength by not overtly harming herself or others. Emotions come and go they are part of what makes us human. What's important is not to give into them but to channel them into positive actions. And at the end this is what Wheeler and Fiona are unable to do. He lacks any emotions this can never attain true strength and she doesn’t reign in her emotions thus making herself vulnerable.

I will follow up on the nature Garden it’s relationship with Ostania and government in another post, but for this is how I think Yor’s powers work.

TL;DR: Yor strength is connected to neuroscience of mindfulness, her extraordinary strength results from her extreme control of her consciousness which she can tap into to tweak the mental blocks.

[covidsafehotties]

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/brx2.58

Published April 16, 2024

Abstract

Caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) primarily manifests as respiratory dysfunction. However, emerging evidence suggests SARS-CoV-2 can invade the brain, leading to cognitive impairment (CI). It may spread to other brain regions through transsynaptic neurons, including the olfactory, optic, and vagus nerves. Moreover, it may invade the central nervous system through blood transmission or the lymphatic system. This review summarizes the neuroimaging evidence from clinical and imaging studies of COVID-19-associated CIs, including magnetic resonance imaging and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography. The mechanisms underlying COVID-19-associated CIs are currently being actively investigated. They include nonimmune effects, such as viral proteins, tissue hypoxia, hypercoagulability, and pathological changes in neuronal cells, and immune effects, such as microglia and astrocyte activation, peripheral immune cell infiltration, blood-brain barrier impairment, cytokine network dysregulation, and intestinal microbiota. Inflammation is the central feature. Both central and systemic inflammation may cause acute and persistent neurological changes, and existing evidence indicates that inflammation underlies the elevated risk of Alzheimer's disease. Finally, potential therapeutic options for COVID-19-associated CIs are discussed. In-depth research into the pathological mechanisms is still needed to help develop new therapies.

[charmedreincarnation]

hi i’m sorry for this small rant. i really hope you reply to it because i’m spiralling so bad. i have been listening to v powerful luckiest girl and get all your desires instantly forced subs and i had two really bad days and overall my life feels so shit and i feel like nobody gives a shit about me feel left out with my friends and am really regretting some past choices i have made as in subjects i chose to study. why do subs not work on me ever? i detach but subs just don’t work for me idk what should i do i want to enter the void and live my better/dream life but i keep failing and i’m so spiraling so hard rn. i am not even seeing small success i can’t even manifest my acne away or to grow a few inches how will i enter the void and magically change my life entirely. please help me out. how do i manifest or enter the void as soon as i can. i am being delululu living in 4d but yes ik if i am truly living in the end i shouldn’t have doubts but it’s been so many months when will i see results in my 3d. manifestion should be instant right. i’m sorry for my negativity i hope you have a great day

Hi love! I feel like any of this could be answered in another ask, but you seem really worried, so I'm going to answer it anyway!

First and foremost, you are allowed to have doubts. Just because you have doubts doesn't mean you're producing those thoughts. From a psychological perspective (which aligns with LOA), our thoughts are not entirely our own. This is a scientific truth, whether you believe in LOA or not. Scientists say that our thoughts are influenced by external factors such as our environment, upbringing, and the thoughts of others. Sound familiar? They also claim that we have the power to change our thoughts and create our own reality by consciously choosing the thoughts we entertain. So, just know that you're going to have doubts until the end, but as long as you categorize them as random thoughts and not your own beliefs, they don't matter! For example, if someone dressed as Chucky the doll jump-scared you and you started having "scary" thoughts about it, that doesn't mean you actually believe Chucky is real and coming to get you. You have psychological responses to certain things that have been ingrained and coded in you for a while now. What LOA does is help us intercept these false messages and reframe them as "useless" instead of messages we encode in our mind and assumption.

I've always been interested in psychology and neurology, and even though it doesn't directly relate to your question, it's important to mention that you do have a brain, and your brain is wired to act in certain ways. Once you're aware of why you're acting and believing certain things, it becomes way easier to understand that the 3D world is malleable. I really suggest reading books by authors like Joe Dispenza so you can understand yourself better. Also, watching YouTubers who explain anxiety and reading self-help books can provide helpful ways to manage your own anxiety.

The second thing is, if you don't believe in subliminals, I don't know why people do this, but if you don't have faith in something or assume it doesn't work for you, just use something you have a little faith in. For example, maybe you're more logical. You can read about brain waves and then listen to binaural beats for anxiety,manifesting, and faith. Have faith in it, because you'll understand and know that those waves genuinely change your brain's alignment. That's just one example, but subliminals are not the only type of audios out there. There are many other methods to explore.

Also, meditation is very helpful. Not just to reach the void, but do you know how many conscious thoughts we have in a day? On average, it is estimated that a person has around 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts per day. These thoughts can range from conscious, deliberate thoughts to automatic, repetitive thoughts. That doesn't even include the number of unconscious thoughts we have, which is probably 100k+. You constantly have these little things running around in your head, trying to keep you alive, keeping you repeating the same thought patterns, beliefs, and assumptions. You can't consciously control them most of the time, but your brain and mind are working overtime 24/7. It's not your fault, so that's why meditation can help you. Not just to reach the void, though you can tap into that using some form of meditation as well, but to clear your mind and then it’s there it will be better to affirm and believe you can do whatever you desire. If you're not truly embodying the desired state, which you're not because you sent this ask, do you think a few measly affirmations can counteract the hundreds of thousands of thoughts you've been having every day since birth, most of which you don't even know exist? Affirmations do work, but trust me, I've been where you're at and worse. This is not the state to solely rely on "miracle affirmations" because you won't believe them, and when something doesn't happen, you'll just want to give up and confirmation bias will make you subconsciously think, "Well, see? I knew it. It isn’t real" But in reality, your mind is just looking for proof to align with your negative beliefs.

I know you say you haven't manifested anything, but can you really think back to something you thought was a "coincidence" or something you didn't really ask for but it just appeared? We usually brush those off as just the world at play or a small world, but nope, that was you. Maybe you don't have clear skin or whatever your desire may be, but as you probably know, that's because you've put it on a pedestal compared to all the other "small" but great things you've manifested

I know you probably wanted me to tell you exactly what to do, but I genuinely don't know you the way you know yourself - your own self, mind, and behaviors. You know best, fr! I could have said anything I've said before, like imagination is the real reality, the 3D being malleable, if you can see and feel it you can manifest it, try SATs or lucid dreaming lalala. But I've learned that you know what you have to do. Sit and meditate to learn about yourself and your mind, and why you think what you think. What past experiences do you still hold onto, reliving them in your mind and creating assumptions that no longer serve you? They can still affect you, we are humans and emotions cling to us like bees to honey, and that's okay. But we need to start moving those experiences into the past and start creating with what we are now, which is the present. Any given moment is a time to say, 'Okay, this doesn't serve me anymore, and this does. I don't want this life anymore, I want this type of life,' and consciously start creating with those desires instead.

Acknowledge your doubts, they're just doubts, and they're really just an extension of life factors that have been slowly consuming your mind. You may have them, but as a god, do you have them? No. But as a human, you are influenced by them, and who cares? You know who you are and your power now, so if you disregard them, work around them. But I can't tell you what to do because I'm not you! I wholeheartedly believe that you will get through this because I have as well and the lows are just apart of your journey as the success as corny as it sounds. But when you do succeed I promise you’ll back to this movement and just be very happy you didn’t give up despite how hard it was 💝

[kaurwreck]

There's certainly Something about singularities in Bungou Stray Dogs presenting as massive, myth-derived creatures with more than passing resemblances to kaiju given the setting predates its analog to World War II.

Gojira and the kaiju genre were born in the aftermath of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Lucky Dragon Incident (in which an American hydrogen bomb test rained radioactive ash on a Japanese fishing boat and much of the South Pacific). Life form singularities (like Chuuya and Verlaine), the Seven Traitors, the Transcendants, Mori's fixation on skill-based warfare, and everything else about the Great War all indicate that skills are akin to nuclear arms.

But unlike nuclear arms, skills are generally framed as intrinsic to their user. They're neurological; as much as part of skill users' wiring as the rest of their synapses. Even for Kyouka, whose skill was inherited but not fully integrated, her skill more resembles hereditary neurochemical wiring than it does nuclear proliferation.

Gojira (1954) ends with Dr. Serizawa's promise that hydrogen bombs would always assure nightmarish, monstrous manifestations of the horrors of war. You'd think Dazai's gift, then, would be the enigmatic focal skill of the series; he's capable of nullifying hydrogen bombs, after all.

But it's Atsushi and his celestial Byakko that Shibusawa calls the antithesis of all other abilities. And, as explained in 55 Minutes, Byakko doesn't heal or regenerate Atsushi, it negates his wounds. Atsushi isn't only a particularly tenacious shounen protagonist, Byakko compels him to stand when he's been cut down. When Atsushi is at the edge of death, Byakko consumes him completely, and Atsushi is lost within him, moreso than even Chuuya is in his Corruption state (Chuuya is fully conscious in Corruption— if Atsushi is conscious, he's either repressing or sluggishly recalling the memory of what occurred). Akutagawa also mentions during the Cannibalism arc that Atsushi's claws cut through skills themselves (even Rashoumon, which eats space). Akutagawa also becomes aware, in 55 Minutes, that Byakko can be triggered by Atsushi's peril, and Akutagawa does so to negate the manifestation of a seemingly transcendant skill that otherwise had utterly defanged them (although he seems sorry to have to do it).

Nevertheless, although Atsushi's Byakko seemingly negates the metaphorical horrors of the Great War illustrated by the others and their relationships with their skills, it's Atsushi who posits that perhaps skills aren't innate. He says to Kunikida, "Maybe they come from somewhere else and stick to us. Maybe they're something we can't understand... I don't really know how to put it into words, but that's how I feel."

Much of 55 Minutes is colored by Atsushi's fear of Byakko and his understanding that Byakko could devour him. His fear is seemingly validated by the antagonist, a manifestation of a skill that seemingly swallowed its human. But although textually consistent with his expressed fear, Atsushi's tone, demeanor, timing, and thought processes from when he speaks that line until the light novel ends aren't. His musings reflect his namesake's exploration of and uneasy relationship with the nature of existence, which he understood to be constructed by one's culture and environment better than most due to his somewhat rootless childhood.

I think it's interesting that someone with a skill capable of cutting through other skills, negating wounds, and antithesizing all skills challenges whether skills are innate at all. And if they're not, what does that imply about the parallels between skills, the horrors of war, and the fear of nuclear holocaust?

It's important to me that the scars of American imperialism and disregard for the sanctity of life are not erased from the narrative when discussing the world wars and nuclear proliferation. So I hesitate to posit anything about what skills may be in Bungou Stray Dogs that is too abstracted from trauma wrought by Western imperialism, Japanese imperialism, or the horrors of World Wars I & II. But perhaps that's it; when Atsushi speculates that skills are something that sticks to you, I'm reminded of how trauma has shaped and informed his own. He is certain that Byakko's negation and restless hunger are connected to his birth and subsequent suffering. At first, I thought we were being teased with his early background. But there's no need to tease; the reason so many characters in Bungou Stray Dogs are orphans directly relates to the Great War and the generational trauma still reverberating in its aftermath, and amid the threat of another, even more destructive war.

Perhaps Atsushi was implying that skills are constructs born not from any innate self, if there's such a thing, but from traumas, experiences, needs, cultures, and environments. Which is to say that skills aren't separable, exactly, from their users, but they're not innate either. They're like our personalities: immutable once shaped in the crucible of our most formative years, but nevertheless reflections of not only ourselves, but of what we need and who we become when confronted by others, in all of their beauty and horror.

Thus, perhaps it isn't Atsushi's skill that's so very antithetical to all others. It's his understanding of it, his ability to cut through to others, his compassion, his cowardice, his curiosity, and his separation from his sense of self that both inflicted him with Byakko and which will allow him to transcend it to become who he desires to be. It reminds me that, shortly before his death, his namesake decided to become a writer. And that although he wrote and lived only briefly, his sincerity, thoughtfulness, and introspective skepticism cut, and continue to cut, with a brilliance emblematic of life.

Anyway. Atsushi is both the main character and protagonist of Bungou Stray Dogs. Dazai knows this, too; even if he can nullify Byakko, he's just as impacted by Atsushi's brimming earnestness as everyone else Atsushi encounters. Atsushi liberates the narrative so that it's not a warning that the horrors of war will proliferate so long as we are capable of mass destruction, but instead it's a promise that hope needn't be intrinsic to persist all the same.

[luxe-pauvre]

The psychiatrist Laurence Kirmayer uses the concept of looping to consider how complex illness behaviour can emerge and then become amplified over time. In Kirmayer’s words, ‘the ways that we narrate our experience influence our interactions with others in the social world and this, in turn, reshapes our experience.’ [...] Functional neurological and psychosomatic disorders are often a manifestation of a maladaptive response to the mistakes made by the human system of perception. The brain can only express itself through the body and can only learn through the body’s interaction with its environment. We develop by trying things out and responding, seeing how that works out and then doing it all again based on what was gleaned from the first try. Our brains are so clever, we don’t even know what they are up to. The signals that bombard us are so complex and tricky, they are very hard to read. I am more surprised that we get it right so often and continue to learn than I am by the times we get it wrong.

Suzanne O’Sullivan, The Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories of Mystery Illness

[nalyra-dreaming]

Is there a specific meaning behind “the blood is bad here” I saw some people talk about it on Twitter but they wouldn't elaborate and I never got a response.

Mhhhhhhh.

I mean... the physical state of the body and state of the mind do influence the experience of the vampire feeding.

And the show has established it as canon that these vampires can taste diseases and that they do not like those. (Lestat spitting out the "cancer of the blood" blood, for example.)

It is also fact that they are influenced by what they imbibe, both book canonically (poison) as well as show canonically (poison, alcohol, drugs).

Louis mentions in the first episode that "the blood is bad here" because the experiences of the people in the war and then occupation - all the horrors they had to endure - somehow manifested in the blood.

Which is, actually, likely. Like, it is proven that the neurological pathways of babies for example are influenced by the mother's experiences, especially stress.

By the time Louis and Claudia have reached Romania Europe has been through years of war. Horrors upon horrors, all rather .... flippantly summarized as "ideological rift".

So. "Bad blood". The manifestation of starvation and desperation, violence and chilled surroundings, pain and terror. Claudia notes in her diary that the blood of "Prisoner of Wars" tastes bitter.

No strength in that blood, no real nourishment. No warmth. You cannot really live off it, just survive.

At least that is my interpretation.

Combining that with the inability of Daciana to turn another it pays into the "the blood being too weak bad to turn" (aka Claudia not having strong/enough blood as well for example) as well as the possible problems with the turnings since the "web" is thinning, and the blood just not having the power (anymore).

[sophieinwonderland]

There's so Much Wrong With This r/systemscringe Wall of Text!

Okay, u/Pismatic-Salad, I'm going to need to break this up into pieces.

Just because the 4th criteria for DID in the DSM says that “the disturbance is not a normal part of a broadly accepted cultural or religious practice” does not mean “researchers accept non disordered systems”. A cultural practice is a voluntary action, and is equivalent to making up imaginary friends. That’s why in the exact same criteria it says “Note: In children, the symptoms are not better explained by imaginary playmates or other fantasy play”.

Not all cultural practices are inherently voluntary. And even if they being voluntarily, that doesn't mean they will continue to be. And that actually includes imaginary friends.

Studies have shown that while about a third of imaginary companions are fully compliant, most are reported to go against their hosts in some instances. And about a third are what are dubbed as noncompliant imagined companions.

This third group often engages in actual bullying behavior towards the host child.

Clearly, these ICs demonstrate a high degree of both autonomy and self-consciousness.

 It is not an observable psychological or neurological phenomenon.

What is... "an observable psychological phenomenon"?

I mean, you can see it in their face or their reactions. But beyond that, what does this mean? Can you observe if someone has aphantasia? Synesthesia?

I would argue that psychological phenomena are largely observable through self-reports.

Maybe you're saying they aren't observable in the brain, but then why list psychological and neurological separate?

And even that would be false. Or at least unproven. To my knowledge, there haven't been any studies into ICs, endogenic systems or related spiritual phenomena to show their effects on the brain.

There is an fMRI study that's being conducted by Stanford, but the results have yet to be published.

 These fakers define “system” as anybody with involuntary identity alteration.

No? At least not entirely.

A system requires a single body with multiple autonomous and conscious agents with their own first person perspective.

Identity alteration isn't necessary for one to be a system. The agents may simply manifest as voices without any alteration occurring. And it's possible for alterations to only be voluntary when they occur.

Many systems will discuss switching beforehand and headmates won't force themselves to front if the current fronter doesn't want them to.

The main thing is that all headmates have their own agency. They can exercise that agency in other ways beyond taking over the body.

Religious rituals and beliefs are voluntary, once a person leaves the religion, the belief is gone. It is not involuntary. I can choose to believe I only have one leg, and live my life as if I have one leg, that doesn’t mean I actually only have one leg.

No...

No you cannot choose to believe you only have one leg...

That's not how that works...

Quick, everyone, choose to believe your body has a single leg! Don't just pretend! Actually believe it 100% as surely as you believe you have eyes to read this!

For a subreddit that is so convinced that it's impossible to make yourself a system, I'm amazed at how this person thinks you can just casually will yourself to have such a powerful delusion. Because, to be clear, that's what they're describing. Believing you have only one leg when you clearly have two is a delusion.

(Although I suppose someone who already struggles with delusions and is suggestible enough might be able to force themselves to think this.)

Spiritual beliefs that may appear to be identity alteration are not actual identity alteration. They’re just beliefs.  Nowhere in the DSM or ICD does it say anything about “non-disordered systems”. You will not find a single quote mentioning those words anywhere. 

Guys, it doesn't use the specific words "non-disordered systems" so it doesn't count. They got us! How can we ever recover!?🙄

Do you know what words the ICD does use though? "Distinct personality states."

This is the same word choice used to describe alters.

And the creators of the theory of structural dissociation have said these distinct personality states may be self-conscious parts of the personality:

As of right now, every psychologist or psychiatrist who has ever written on the subject of non-disordered systems have ranged from "maybe they exist and need to be researched more," as we see from the creator of the theory of structural dissociation to a firm "they exist" as we see in the World Health Organization's ICD-11.

As of right now, the hard anti-endo position that claims endogenic systems aren't real is just an inherently anti-science one, not supported by even a single academic paper anywhere, and based entirely on hate and bigotry.

[ghouljams]

hello, hi! would you say you consciously write your ghost as autistic(TM) or is it more like "that's just how it is for him, fictional characters don't need their neurological issues diagnosed by me", or a third, secret thing? I'm curious and a local autism haver, and i have no agenda except satiating my curiosity. ignore me if this ask is at all convenient, and also thank you!

I think he's autistic, but I also think his trauma manifests similarly to autism, so it could be either. People can read my Ghost either way. My goal is always to convey that Ghost doesn't interact with the world the way a neurotypical person might, whether that's because of autism or trauma the reader can decide. It's my personal headcanon that the ptsd just made the autism harder to mask.

Ultimately I want Ghost to feel like a living breathing character, and the best way I know how to do that is through "quirks", but I don't want him to read as a stereotype or mass of symptoms/traits.

This is where I say that while I share a lot of traits in my adhd with my autistic friends I'm (pretty sure)not autistic, so I try to be respectful when I talk about Ghost's traits and stick to the ones that I share with him, or that my friends have shared with me.

[awhkacey]

10𝑘 𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑒：

creds: 98VIPER on twitter

According to science, it takes an estimate of 10k repetitions to master a skill and develop the associated neural pathway to familiarise your brain with the new action that you are repeating.

It is said we need at least 300-400 reps per session to begin rewiring the brain, and viper has approximately worked out that 400 repetitions would equal an estimate of 500 seconds (9 minutes).

‘This also explains why if you are wavering, doing a little bit at a time, or you’re not doing it that often, you get distracted, or you forget to affirm, why it takes longer. Because you are not doing enough repetition’ - Sammy

Viper stated that this challenge is just to explain how repetition is able to create dominant thoughts. It just explains how affirming and repetition is enough to saturate your mind with the new story.

It is not a rule to complete the full 10k repetitions im one day, you can spread it out within a week, two weeks, or even a month.

Viper said if you spread it out within thirty days, you would only have to do approximately 333 repetitions throughout those thirty days, which is under 9 minutes every day!!

It is to be said, you can affirm, listen to subliminals, or affirmations tapes, it’s up to you how you want to saturate your mind.

‘if u affirm 10k ur brain is fully saturated and it becomes an actual fact and belief for u bc ur brain creates a path for it! ur 3d can conform in 3 secs if u want IT TO!!!’ - Viper

SHE IS NOTTT saying it has to take 10k repetitions it’s just a estimate backed up by science, it can still happen after 10 minutes of affirming or even instantly but it has been said by science it takes the ESTIMATE of 10k repetitions in order for brain to fully adapt to the new neurological pathway in the brain.

‘also in the notes i made, it is alsp scientifically proven that minimum 400 times is enough and i showed yall how to do it in 9 mins istg u dont need to be shitting crying throwing up 10k times the whole day believe me just REPEAT PLS It can be twice even’ - Viper

Now a lot of people have been panicking over the thought of having do ten repetitions but when you think about how we think approximately 60-80,000 thoughts a day it’s not even half of the thoughts we would be thinking anyway, so although it sounds a lot. It really isn’t.

This whole concept is for those that actually are willing to do the mental work in order to receive what they desire. The truth is if you want it bad enough you would not let the four of 10,000 thoughts get in the way of you and your manifestation.

Like that’s crazy to me, people are really having a hard time choosing between living the life don’t want and repeating an affirmation for 10,000 repetitions like??? Huh? Like people are getting really lazy to the point that they’re like ‘Wait? i have to think in order to get what i want?!!’ Like girl, you either want it or you don’t. make up your decision because while you’re deciding whether you wanna live the life you don’t wanna live just to escape repeating affirmations that’s your choice but while you do that rest of us will be out here living a dream lives because we actually did the mental work.