#but like i do NOT have the attention span to do Repetitive Tasks for No Reason | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bondsmagii · 2 years

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As a person who works a very long, dull job in a building with free wifi i can put away a 14 hour audiobook in a single shift and always tell people reading a lot can be super easy if you MAKE it easy on yourself.

yeah, I know of loads of people who put away audiobooks on long commutes/while doing repetitive tasks at work/while working on art etc. I think that's got to be how some of the people I see on Goodreads who read 200+ books a year do it! I really do think that people who make those stupid posts forget about shit like reading speed, varying book length, audiobooks, etc. it's very easy to work reading in to your everyday schedule, if you want to do it. I personally took it out of my social media time, because I figured that I did not need to be spending that many hours a day staring at a screen, endlessly refreshing and getting bored, when I could be doing something I actually wanted to do. I also keep a book nearby and pick it up every time I have a spare couple of minutes. it doesn't always have to be one mammoth reading session (even though that's nice)!

I think there's two things putting these kinds of "oh it's grindset/it's just about the numbers" people off. the first is that it takes effort, and these people just don't want to try because they're worried about failure, and the second compounds the first: there's no instant gratification. if you're out of practise reading, or you're a frustratingly slow reader, or you have issues with attention span, reading will be a chore probably for months. until you get used to it, gain a tolerance for it, and improve your concentration, it will suck. and I think a lot of people out there just cannot be fucked putting in months of effort, because it seems for a while that it's all for nothing.

when it comes down to it, with shit like this you either do it or you don't. and I really do not think that people who don't do it should be talking shit about those who do. especially not on social media. it's like I said before, when someone sent me honest to god hate because they thought me mentioning the fact I read a lot was me being conceited: maybe instead of spending time being a little bitch online, sign off and use that time to read a book instead. literally the secret to doing things is doing them. but so many people want to turn their unwillingness to commit and try into a deep-seated societal problem. it's not capitalism manipulating people into wanting to improve skills and meet goals. it's not "grindset" to give yourself challenges. just admit you don't want to commit or do hard work and move on. it's literally fine if you can't be fucked. but nobody should be insulting others or making the achievements of others about their own insecurity. that's conceited.

#anon #asks

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pocket-size-cthulhu · 2 years

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Sometimes even i have a hard time remembering that my ADHD is more than just a silly goofy little thing about me and is an actual disability

So here's a thread of cute little jokes/excuses i make about ADHD and their dark side 🙃

(disclaimer: i am In Therapy!! And if you relate to this and you're not, i definitely recommend therapy!)

Lol sorry i'm acting sooooo crazy I'm just bouncing off the walls ✌️🤪

i am aware i am interrupting you. I am aware i am annoying you. I am aware I'm acting like a child. I wish i could stop and I'm worried about our relationship but i can't stop, and I'm excruciatingly embarrassed about it

Hang on can you repeat that? I am having the hardest time focusing. Bees in my brain haha 🐝

I am trying as hard as i possibly can to listen to you but no information can stick to my brain right now. The wheels are spinning but there's no traction. I want to pay attention but I'm not getting any of this and I'm embarrassed about it

Omg I'm so sorry i totally forgot to text you back!

I didn't forget. I thought about it multiple times every day that i didn't do it. I was overwhelmed by the prospect of making decisions. It's just a text and i feel so silly for fearing and procrastinating it. It's just easier to tell you i forgot than to explain how much i wanted to be a good friend and respond in a timely way, but couldn't. It's embarrassing.

Oh man that book sounds so interesting! Wish i was capable of reading books lol, too bad I'm an illiterate ADHD adult 😂

I don't have the attention span to do literally anything, even things i actually want to do. It's beyond frustrating and embarrassing. I used to read like crazy and now i can't even get through a long article online. Feels like my brain is atrophying and i hate it with a burning passion.

Oh gosh i totally forgot that thing was coming up

This time i did forget. I forget a lot of things. You wouldn't believe the late fees, the cancellation fees, the buying fresh produce over and over that never gets eaten, the rushing and running late and the stress of constantly forgetting things. As an adult you have to manage your own schedule and I'm next to incapable of doing that. I feel like a child and it's insanely embarrassing

Sorry I'm late!

Flip a coin. I'm either late because i forgot it was happening until the last second, or because i couldn't stop thinking about it for two hours and couldn't do anything else in that time so i started getting ready super early and figured "i have a ton of time, no need to rush" and didn't realize that time was passing until i realized i was late. Time blindness is ridiculous.

Why is it so unreasonably hard to keep a house clean? Seriously it's like it's got itself dirty the minute i finish cleaning 😒 you'd think it would have some manners amirite?

My understanding of cause and effect, and my ability to do repetitive tasks without the payoff of having "finished" them, are both extremely limited. I know when my house is messy, when i run out of clean laundry, when the garbage starts to stink, when i run out of clean dishes. It's not good for my mental state. But "staying on top of the house chores" is basically a pipe dream for me. Every time i open the cupboard to find it empty with no dishes in it, it fills me with shame and stress and paralysis.

ADHD is the most embarrassing thing you can possibly have. I get on Google like "help I'm scared of emails" and Google is like "oh you have 'brain of a literal six year old' disease. Have you tried using a planner" lmaooo

Like, all of this, but actually embarrassing. Thoroughly, endlessly embarrassing and shame-inducing.

Why am I so tired? Lol i literally don't even do anything.

Seriously why am I so tired? Why does my exhaustion keep me from doing things i like? Or from trying something new, even something as simple as a new movie or hanging out with a new friend? Why is life so much more exhausting and difficult for me to deal with than it seems to be for other people? How do people live like this? I'm barely staying afloat.

***

I'm so glad for my diagnosis so that i know that these things are products of my disability and not just moral failings.

I'm so glad I'm in therapy to help me reframe some of this and not be so shame-filled all the time.

I love joking about ADHD (how else are we supposed to cope?) but i think it's also important to highlight how it is actually a disability, even though it's embarrassing. As far as i know there aren't many standard accommodations for people with ADHD out there; you kinda have to self-advocate. But if it were more widely talked about and understood, maybe there would be standard accommodations so things could be easier for us. Medication is an amazing accommodation but it's by far not the only thing we need.

Anyway i hope this was validating to some of you. If every day is just swimming in a swamp of shame and burnout for you, you're not alone. Let's all get therapy, learn about our needs and get accommodations babes 💛

#long post #adhd #adhd problems #living with adhd #adhd as a disability #ADHD is more than a quirky little personality trait #this is embarrassing and vulnerable to say on main. please be nice to me

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hollyoxleylevel5 · 1 year

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Time management methods

I have decided to gather a more diverse range of time management methods because this will help to develop my ideas. It will give me different methods to recommend to the user.

Kanban

A visual method to help track the progress of your projects.

Create 4 columns on a board: Backlog, to do, In progress, done.

Start with backlog. In this column you need to plan the tasks you need to do for the project.

Then moved the tasks that you will be doing that day, or the next day, into the to do list. Leave the rest of the tasks into the backlog.

Move the tasks toy have started or are currently working on into the 'in progress' column.

Finally, when tasks are complete move them into the 'done' column.

Time boxing

Assign a certain time to each task and only work on that task for that time period.

Write down the goal you wish to accomplish

Make a list of all activities and tasks.

Assign appropriate time periods to each task.

Start from your first tasks and work through all of them.

Once the time period you have assigned to the task is done, stop working on it.

Take a break.

Look back a work.

Repeat steps 5-8 for each task.

Tip: The important tasks need longer time periods.

Biological prime time

Identify the time of day where you are most productive. Then allocate the important or difficult tasks to this time period.

How to find your biological prime time:

Set a time period and work only in that period for 20 days. E.g. 9am - 5pm.

Create a chart that tracks your focus, motivation and attention span throughout the day.

Each hour mark off these categories on the chart.

After 20 days user your chart to identify the hours that you are most productive.

Use this time period for tasks that are important or difficult and use the rest of the day for smaller tasks.

Productivity journals

Keep track of your activities and reflect on them to prevent mistakes being repeated.

Write a to do list each day, keeping that tasks simple.

Track the time it takes you to complete each task.

Self rate your productivity when completing each task.

Make a list of distractions you faced.

Repeat steps 2-4 for when you have completed each task.

At the end of the day reflect on what you have done: What have you accomplished? Have you faced any problems? How have you solved these problems? or what do you plan to do to prevent them in the future?

Seinfield method

A calendar system used to encourage you to work on a skill or repetitive task each day.

Get a red marker and big calandar.

Each day you work on a skill or task, mark the calendar with the red marker.

By completing multiple days you form a chain or red marks.

Complete the task or skill each day to keep the chain going. Missing a day will break the chain.

10 Minute rule

A rule used to increase motivation and productivity.

Select a task.

Set a 10 minute timer.

Start working on the task immediately.

After the 10 minute timer is completed, reflect on the task.

Decide whether you want to move on to a different task or want to continue for another 10 minutes.

Work for 10 minute periods until your task is done.

To done list

A list to compile all the tasks you have completed in one week. This will increase motivation.

At the end of the week list everything you have completed.

Next to each think include what you have learned.

Write down what you could have done to improve on you work.

Flowtime technique

A technique to increase productivity by only working for periods of time that you choose.

Select a task.

Set a timer for a certain amount of time. (This can any time you choose)

Work on the task until the itme stops.

Decide whether you wish to continue focusing on the task.

If you would like to continue set a timer for 10 minutes and continue working.

When the time stops repeat step 4.

When a timer goes off and you can no longer focus then take a break.

Top goal

Set aside time each day to complete tasks needed to accomplish a larger goal.

Pick your 'Top Goal'.

Schedule 2 hours a day to work on the goal.

Stick to the schedule.

Avoid social media and distraction during this time.

Only work on tasks towards your 'Top Goal' for the 2 hours.

Pareto analysis

20% of your actions are responsible for 80% of your outcomes.

Write down all the problems you are facing. E.g. I can't finish a task on time.

Find the cause of the problems.

Assign a score to each problem. - The hight the number, the more significant the problem.

Group your problems by cause.

Assign a score to each group. - The highest score is the ones you need to solve first.

Solve the problems by focusing on a group at a time.

1-3-5 Rule

A formular to plan your work day efficently.

the formular consists of:

1 Big tasks

3 Medium tasks

5 Small tasks

A the start of your day, choose the tasks you wish to complete

Get to work, starting with the big task.

Then complete the medium tasks

Finally complete the small tasks near the end of the day.

Be flexible by cutting down on medium and small tasks if you have a busy day.

Tip - If you have two big tasks, choose the most important to complete that day.

Bojo - Bullet journal

A bullet journal has 4 components to help you reflect and plan your time.

Index page - This contains information of page numbers for each section.

Future log - Plan 6 months, dedicating a page for 3 months. Create a box for each month and add important notes, tasks, appointments and lectures.

Monthly log - Plan out your month using a calendar and task list. Use a page for each.

Tip: Make sure to include all essential tasks.

Daily log - Write down the date and create three lists:

Tasks (dot bullets)

Events (circle bullets)

Notes (dash bullets)

Tip: For important tasks, mark them with a letter S.

Clockify. (2023). The 26 most effective time management techniques. [Online]. Available from: https://clockify.me/time-management-techniques/. [Accessed 19 May 2023]

#conceptsofvisuallanguage #Research #Timemanagement #Techniques #Methods

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onyxisnotuniqueenough · 2 years

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(THIS IS PROBABLY NOT GROUNDBREAKING. BUT?)

i can't believe the moment that I learned the most about mike is when I was doing nothing related to writing or the story whatsoever.

so what i would recommend (because now i'm an expert at everything and you should listen to me always) would be to do a repetitive task that doesn't require concentration or creativity, like a chore or makeup or something, and doing it in silence.

It forces you to think and keeps your hands active so all your attention is on what you're thinking about. I wouldn't recommend music, or at least not your taste of music or your playlists.

If you really have to listen to something because you're not completely comfortable in being alone with yourself, turn on some 1930s barber shop quartet or the soundtrack to a video game you've never played. Something NEW that you've NEVER heard before. If you know the songs you listen to you might sing along, or dance along or think about the artist that you know so well already. YOU NEED SOMETHING FRESH AND NEW MAN

in just the span of a few days i feel so much more connected to carver and her story because i was forced to be alone with myself and try to distract my brain

now i know i don't look particularly trustworthy since my tumblr is drier than a desert and I have no idea if what I write is even good, but i don't know. I felt happy and I had to write it down

at least, this works if you're anything like me, which... i don't know if you're like me, and you don't know if you're like me. So uh figure that part out

#writing #writing fanfiction #fanfiction #ao3 #original characters #ocs #advice from someone who hasn't really accomplished anything follow at your own risk #jk theres literally no risk

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adhdtogether · 4 years

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Symptoms vs. Impairment

Sometimes symptoms of ADHD can sound abstract. What does it mean in your everyday life to have a short attention span or poor impulse control?

The book says, “Symptoms alone aren’t enough to produce a diagnosis of ADHD. You have to be impaired by those symptoms.”

Impairment is anything that is negatively affecting your life, more than the average person. The book defines it as “the social and other consequences or costs that result from expressing the symptoms of ADHD.”

So if some symptoms can sound abstract, how do you know if you’re actually impaired by them? I mean... doesn’t everybody get distracted sometimes or make a random impulse purchase? (More on this idea later.)

I found these questions to be super helpful in making the abstract more concrete.

Attention Span

Do you quickly get bored during repetitive tasks?

Do you shift from one uncompleted activity to another frequently? (e.g., starting to clean the bathroom but then switching to go unload the dishwasher)

Do you lose concentration frequently during a long or complicated task (like writing an essay or doing your taxes)?

Do you have a hard time completing homework or work projects without being nagged by your teacher/professor/boss?

Do you become easily distracted when something new enters your field of vision (someone walking by, a bug zooming past, etc.)? And when you do, do you find it difficult to bring your mind back to the task at hand?

Do unbidden or irrelevant thoughts pop into your mind and then take you on a mental tangent that breaks your focus on a particular task?

Impulse Control/Delayed Gratification

Do people criticize you for not thinking ahead?

Do people frequently ask you “What were you thinking?”?

Do you often interrupt others? Are you frequently embarrassed by saying something you wish you could take back?

Do you dominate conversations?

Do you put off errands when you expect you’ll have to wait in a long line, like at the post office or bank?

Do you overeat or eat when you aren’t hungry?

Do you spend every penny you earn, even if you have something you really want to save up for?

Do you speed when you drive? Do you get angry when those around you are driving too slowly?

Do you get frustrated or upset easily?

Excessive Activity

Are you always moving, even when you are seated--rocking, tapping feet/hands/fingers, leg bouncing, etc.?

Do you find things in your environment to fidget with--pens, clothes, hair, whatever’s lying around?

Do you frequently doodle in your notes? Do you find that you concentrate better when you do?

Do you often feel antsy or restless, like you need to be up and about, doing something?

Source: Taking Charge of Adult ADHD by Russell A. Barkley, PhD with Christine M. Benson

#adhd #adult adhd #taking charge of adult adhd #adhd symptoms

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followthebluebell · 3 years

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hey hope you’re having a good Friday :) so I have two cats and one of them seems pretty smart and the other one may be the dumbest cat I’ve ever met (both are perfect in their own way of course). This made me wonder that while to me there seems to be a big difference between them and what they seem aware of/understand, how much can cats vary in intelligence? Do cats have a small scale of how smart they can be or is there actually large variation with some cats being very smart and some being very dumb?

ok, so first i’m gonna define intelligence. When I’m talking about cats and intelligence, I’m specifically referring to the ability to pick up patterns AND to apply those learned patterns to unfamiliar situations/objects (eg: a cat learns that tipping over a toy dispenses a treat. Cat encounters an unfamiliar toy that smells like food and attempts to tip it over in the same fashion to see if treats fall out; another example: cat learns that sitting when he sees a certain signal earns him a treat! He retains this information after 3-5 repetitions). There are different definitions, but this is the one I find the most valuable in my work.

Yes, some cats are slow learners. Persians are considered pretty dim as far as intelligence goes, and it’s... more or less true. There are definitely outliers but they just aren’t that bright. They CAN learn tricks, but it usually takes them 2-3x as long compared to, say, a bengal. It’s not JUST their ability to learn, tbh; they also just don’t have the drive to focus on a task in general.

Yardstick (domestic shorthair mixed breed) is VERY smart. He generally picks up new tricks after 5-7 repetitions, which is pretty fast as far as cats go. More importantly, he has the drive to learn. He enjoys new situations and generally gets bored pretty easily.

look, cats weren’t specifically bred to communicate with humans like dogs were. They’re also ambush predators, so they literally aren’t built to focus long-term on tasks. This makes training difficult, since you’re basically constantly competing with a cat’s naturally short attention span AND their (comparative) disinterest in communicating with humans in this fashion. So when I come across a cat who actively WANTS to learn and can focus, that’s a cat worth watching.

anyway, tl;dr, yeah, cats have different levels of intelligence, for lack of a better word, and this can vary pretty widely. but when we work with cats, we gotta remember: they aren’t dogs. They aren’t necessarily going to learn the same way dogs do, and we shouldn’t hold that against them.

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haifengg · 3 years

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Pairing: NanamixGN!Reader

Note: I think I got this ask quite a while ago but due to my hiatus it got postponed a million times. Now that I am slowly coming back and am publishing the bits and pieces I wrote during being away this A-Z is finally leaving my drafts as well.

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?) Given his S/O is a sorcerer as well I think he would limit PDA at work to a minimum. Even if they are officially together or even married. He just likes to separate work and home. Tho it doesn’t mean that he is not making small intimate gestures at work like randomly dropping in with coffee or - when they are on a mission - sending a text asking how they are doing.

At home he is pretty affectionate. Randomly pulling them in for a hug, giving small back rubs when they are doing the dishes after he cooked. This kind of thing.

B = Before (What were they like when they had a crush?) Distant. Nanami would probably be a person who maybe actually mistakes the feeling for some other emotion at first. Leaving him confused about why he thinks about them so much. The poor man would likely be irritated every time they are nice to him. Why the heck doesn’t his heart stop pounding? And why is he suddenly excited to go to work? Disappointed when he is not assigned the same mission as them? Or - if they aren’t a sorcerer - sad when a mission takes him away from wherever he met them for too long?

C = Confession (What was their confession like?) Well-planned and straight forward. Nanami was already observing them for a while before making a move. Although he doesn’t actually confess it is pretty obvious when he likes someone because it happens so rarely. Just imagine him asking someone out for dinner. That gives away so much - don’t you agree?

D = Date (What was the first official date they went on?) If we don’t count the dinner mentioned above … I guess it would be something like a gallery. Nanami would definitely want to test his s/o’s taste in art because it tells a lot about a person’s character. What kind of art they prefer (paintings, photography, sculptures, … ) and how they look at it as well.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?) Professionally. He would state the fact on why they aren’t compatible anymore and what made him draw this conclusion. I don’t think either one of them would cheat on the other mainly because Nanami wouldn’t get into a relationship with someone capable of doing that in the first place (I hope). He would sit down with his (not) s/o and talk it through. There might be tears on the other side but not on his. He thought about it a lot and made peace with his feelings before starting this conversation.

F = Fights (What would fights look like? What are things that upset them?) Kento barely looses his temper. And if he does I wouldn’t say that it is necessarily a bad thing. Getting him so worked up about something does only mean he cares. Fights would mostly be on the calmer/diplomatic side. He might be upset about something but there is no need for him to yell or anything. If the problem can be resolved just by talking about it - great! Why waste his precious energy on negative things, when he can use them elsewhere?

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?) We all know - and all those rough sm*t fan fictions can’t proof me wrong - that he probably is the most gentle character in entire JJK. He despises the violence of his job therefore he doesn’t want to inflict pain or anything on anyone on his good side. Especially his S/O. Nanami has the most gentle touch, fleeing kisses, he will hold them tight but never smother them.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?) As mentioned above: Tight and secure. Or soft. His S/O almost automatically buries their face in the crook of his neck because - who wouldn’t. Is there anything else I have to say about hugs by Nanami Kento? Yes. Am I able to put it into words? No. It’s just a very overwhelming feeling - that’s all.

I = Intimacy (What is their favorite form of intimacy? Do they have problems with it?) For him I think it would be things where they take care of him. While he shows his love through cooking and providing (which he takes a lot of pride from), he loves being taken care of as well. Maybe in departments he doesn’t know so much about. Like skincare. If his S/O teases him about his wrinkles and stern look he would gladly accept any advice in skincare from them, let them do their magic with face massages and serums. He doesn’t even care if it has any effect on his skin - he just loves the attention he gets and thrives on the feeling how much his S/O cares about him (and his skin apparently).

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?) This one I am really indecisive about. I can see him get more jealous that we would expect him too - which would be a nice surprise tbh. But also not jealous at all because he is confident. Kento knows what his S/O likes about him and he also knows what separates him from other men. What makes him special. I think the times he gets jealous are the days he doesn’t get to spent with his S/O because of work or a mission. Which rather results in being mad at Jujutsu Tech than jealous of someone else.

K = Kisses (Are they a good kisser? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?) Forehead. Kisses. It doesn’t matter what height there S/O is. It is one of the most protective gestures and he enjoys giving those as much as his S/O enjoys receiving them.

The back of the hand cheesy kisses. Because they are his everything, he wants to treat them like it. Nanami knows it’s cheesy but neither one of them thinks too much about it. When they sit across the table, fingers sloppily interlocked on the table top, he occasionally picks up their hand and places a soft kiss on the back of it. Almost absent-minded.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?) He is not very fond of them. Not saying that he won’t love and do everything for his own kids but other people’s kids are usually a nuisance for him. If they are loud or misbehaving he is really not having it. Though he would never lash out or raise his voice against them/their parents. ‘Children’ as in ‘his students’ … he always makes sure to treat them as children in a way he wants them safe/won’t put them in unnecessary danger.

M = Messages (How often do they text his S/O?) Kento strikes me as a kind of guy who doesn’t text often. Mostly because in his line of work sharing attention could easily be his downfall or worse. He will let his s/o know if he’s running late or occasionally ask if there is anything they need from the store or things like that but aside from practical messages he doesn’t text much.

Though if he is on a long mission and away from his s/o for quite a time span he usually rather calls them than text.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?) Nights as in ‘Nights Out’? Date nights? Well, he is a foodie so dinner is always a popular option. He takes the time to carefully research about the restaurant and the menu. If the rotate dishes, he will make sure they’re going at the exactly right season to get the best culinary experience possible.

Nanami is old fashioned. So he will hold the door for them, pull back the chair … helps them into their coat.

He also likes going to the movies. The intimacy of the dark theatre gives him the confidence to reach out for their hand or have his arm around their shoulder. Since he usually limits PDA in public this is exciting for him.

O = Opinion (Would they ask for their S/O’s opinion a lot? How important is it in terms of decisions?) Probably more than I would expect him too. Maybe not about the smaller things but decisions that involve the both of them he would definitely ask.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?) Due to the time he spends exposed to Gojo this man has the patience of a saint. Literally. He rarely snaps at his S/O.

Q = Quizzes (How does a bar trivia night teamed up with them look like?) Stressed. Yes, this man in very educated and cultured but imagine him sitting in a loud-ass bar, having to answer questions about the transformers or Megan Thee Stallion. Absolutely absurd. How old he must feel …

R = Remember (How much do they remember about their S/O or their relationship in general?) Not everything but a lot. He will remember little things they mentioned early on in the relationship and bring it up again later. He also uses this ability for presents and such. As well as in fights. If they think they can outtalk him with something you accusedly said or didn’t say some time ago - I suggest they surrender, because he will remember much better.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?) Very Protective. I mean yes, he knows that they can stand up for themselves but why should they have to do that if he is around? One of the big perks dating him is that he is who he is and that his presence confuses most people. So he might as well use it. Not so much in a physical way but rather in addressing the people bothering his S/O directly in the typical manner of his.

I think his understanding of being protected equals being taken care of which plays into the skincare thing I mentioned earlier. It is not so much physical procreation from danger but preserving a future together where one cares about the other deeply and only wants their best.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?) Medium effort. He prepares and researches but he rarely comes up with a new idea. He knows what he likes and his S/O probably does too. His work is so stressful and has close to no repetition so that he enjoys doing the same things on dates over and over. That does not mean it will get boring. Because Nanami sometimes thrives on going the extra mile. There is a restaurant across the country that he really wants to dine at? Buckle up - he is going on a vacation. Short trips or spa weekends are also things he appreciates.

Since he remembers dates and anniversaries well he is usually well prepared for those occasions. He puts a lot of thought into presents and barely ever gifts useless things. He does not like to have a lot of stuff laying around so what he gives to people usually serves a purpose.

U = Unique (What makes them unique as a S/O?) Literally everything I mentioned above. Namai Kento is a unique mix of all his traits. A very balanced person.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?) Well … he wears the same freaking suit everyday so … but yes I think cares about his looks and hygiene in general. As far as clothing goes he probably has one brand he is loyal too, which automatically sets his fashion style in stone as well. He has the same haircut for quite a while and sees no point in changing it.

Overall just the classic hetero dude who ones figured out what works for him and stuck with it. lol.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without their S/O? Yes. His S/O is the other side of him. Is what balances his inner peace. Without them he worries too much, stresses too much. He needs them to tell him it’s going to be okay.

X = X-Ray (How transparent are they?) Nanami doesn’t actually tells them everything but will disclose if they ask. He just doesn’t think they are interested in small details about him.

Y = Yuck (Everyone has flaws. What is theirs?) He. Doesn’t. Do. The. Dishes.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?) Kento never lets go of his S/O. Which can be annoying. And suffocating. Especially in summer. He is not clingy and they don’t fall asleep like this but in the morning he always spoons them or weirdly holds their hand. Sometimes toes interlocked lmao. Which makes them even more lonely when they are apart, because they got used to it way too quickly.

@kpopsnowball @soleilsuhh @jeonghanmoon @himitsu-luna

@sagedevans @shampoocifer @your-consulting-fangirl @gwynsapphire

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blackradandmad · 3 years

Text

why blippi is rotting yr children's brains

preface: i literally expect no one to read this. it is an essay length, strong opinion piece critiquing a niche youtube-based children's show that i don't expect most of y'all to even have knowledge of lol. but like, i promise that even if you know nothing about what i'm talking about, in my incredibly, super humble opinion, it's a good piece of writing and interesting nonetheless. anyway if you read this whole thing for some reason yr really hot and we should kiss.

i thoroughly vet everything my child watches before he watches it, episode by episode. and we rarely watch youtube for entertainment; we usually just look up educational videos when he has a question about something and wants more detail than i can provide him. and that's mainly because children's content on youtube is so fucking troubling and distressing. i don't judge parents who give their children a tablet at a restaurant at all bc i've been there and sometimes it's easier on everyone to just put on a video and avoid a giant scene, but i do judge parents who just leave their children alone with youtube kids on autoplay.

take stevin john, a literal millionaire who got famous from dressing up as a silly character called blippi and going on tours of places like aquariums, zoos, construction sites, etc and posting it on youtube. this has branched into a whole empire of blippi videos, hulu shows and specials, live shows and tours (that he outsources to another character actor), merchandise and so on. this 30-something year old man cites his main influence as being mr. rogers, but i question if he's ever even seen an episode of that program.

mr. rogers had no background in early childhood development or media production, but he revolutionized the world of children's media, because he respected his audience and didn't shy away from real world situations, all while creating a show with an enormous heart. mr. rogers begins his episodes by inviting the viewer in, literally changing his attire to be more comfortable, and talking about/doing things he genuinely cares about. whereas mr. rogers calmly and maturely addresses the viewer, blippi puts on a high pitched, contrived voice, interjecting every other sentence with a forced exclamation such as, "teehee! we're having so much fun!"

i don't find it a coincidence that john (blippi) is a veteran, either. his videos are completely devoid of the absurd, abstract, childlike thinking that makes children's media fun, creative, and entertaining. his thinking and process is methodical, devoid of emotion, and very superficial. this line of thinking clearly shows the kind of creative sterilization and emphasis on sameness and conformity instilled in the military. blippi simply observes things and interacts with them in a stale, matter-of-fact way. "this ball is purple! this ball is pink! anyway... what's over there? teehee! a car! vroom, vroom!" objects are colors, toy cars don't do anything but drive, curiosity is simply not encouraged.

he uses the "it's educational!" excuse to hide the fact that his show lacks everything that makes media a valuable resource for children to consume in the first place. further than identifying colors, numbers, and the occasional letter or shape, there is just this total lack of children's need for social and emotional development. when mr. rogers breaks the fourth wall to address the viewer and let them know they're special, it feels authentic and natural, because we've spent the last half hour building whole worlds with diverse characters and unique stories in a pretend neighborhood, learning about and enjoying different musical instruments, being exposed to and making friends with (even if parasocially, it is still a real bond to children when done properly) children who are similar to us in character regardless of physical or environmental differences, feeding the fish, making art together, and so on. when blippi tells the viewer, "you are very special, and i enjoy spending time with you!" it falls completely flat and feels unearned, because the last half hour was spent running around a soft play center pointing at bright, colorful objects, visiting interesting locations like farms or fruit production factories while failing to acknowledge the humanity of the humans actually working there (everything is machine or product focused; the human workers are simply an extension of the machine), learning "fun facts" about elephants that just list attributes of elephants, not taking the opportunity to inform the viewers of elephants' intelligence, or diet, or matriarchal society. it is a loud, sensory overwhelming display of a man so disconnected from the social and emotional needs and desires of children that he assumes they're stupid, easily entertained idiots who only need some silly dances and fast-moving cartoon graphics to give their attention (meaning time and desire to purchase products meaning $$$). john clearly views his audience as a means to gaming the algorithm and ultimately a paycheck by the hollow way he addresses them.

the show is so narcissistic, so focused on all the fun blippi is supposedly having, but he lacks any of the character traits that make individual children's show hosts memorable, so much so that he was able to have someone else who doesn't even vaguely resemble him dress as blippi and impersonate him and host the show or appear at live shows, and it went unnoticed by most of his toddler and child audience. the show is so formulaic and the character of blippi is so unmemorable that instead of taking the blue's clues route of developing a story of the host leaving for college and his brother now stepping in, or making some sort of believable excuse for the change in actors, they can simply swap him out with some random guy and not acknowledge it at all. although a comedy show for older children, the amanda show in no way could or would try to replicate the show with the same name but swapping out amanda bynes with a random teenage girl who is clearly not amanda bynes. it's weird and nonsensical and shows that his character is so much of a farce put on for a paycheck that not even his dedicated audience is affected or even cares when he is replaced by a random, unknown person.

this is completely garbage content made by an opportunist with no experience with children who saw his nephew watching children's youtube content, took it at complete surface level and still hasn't realized that while children's content only looks and feels so easy, entertaining, and enriching because it is so hard to do well. even with outsourcing his music, that aspect of the show still sucks. famous and successful children's musician, raffi, is known for his song describing the life of a little white whale, called "baby beluga." it opens with a calm strumming of his guitar, followed by the lyrics, "baby beluga in the deep blue sea/swim so wild and you swim so free/heaven above/sea below/and a little white whale on the go." is it silly and kind of pointless? yes, but the point is that he is captivating children and showing them the fun of listening to music, dancing, singing, and appreciating art. the "excavator song" featured in an episode of blippi about construction vehicles opens with what sounds like a default garageband loop and the flatly sung lyrics, "i'm an excavator/i'm an excavator/hey dirt, see you later/i'm an excavator." i don't feel i have to meticulously analyze the aforementioned lyrics; the stark contrast should speak for itself.

i have a million more criticisms about both blippi specifically and youtube children's content as a whole, but this is already so long and i doubt many people will get this far anyway. it's an issue i was completely apathetic towards until i had my own child and had to wean him off these kinds of junk food shows because i realized the fast-paced visuals and bright colors and repetitive songs/lyrics were putting him in this spaced-out, fugue state, and he thought he could demand this show or that show whenever he wanted. the moment he started regularly yelling things like, "watch! cars!" or "no! click it!" i knew i had to be a lot more invested in the things he watched even if just for entertainment or as a soothing message. i showed him an episode of mr. rogers yesterday and feared it would be too slow to hold his attention, but he was mesmerized, greeting and interacting with mr. rogers verbally, asking me, "what's that?" to different objects on the screen. since purging this low-brow children's entertainment, he has had a noticeable increase in attention span and concentration, can focus on a task for longer amounts of times, is more likely to "read"/look through books without me initiating it, and doesn't throw a fit when the tv/my laptop is off.

i just know that for me, growing up with so much unsupervised internet access definitely led me to real-world pain and consequences, and it seems like now children are born with an iphone as an extension of their arm. if my child is going to be consuming videos, i'm definitely supervising every second and am going to be highly critical of the videos and the credentials (or lack thereof) of the creators and team behind it. but i also know, from pure observation admittedly, that parents letting youtube kids autoplay parent their children for hours at a time is not an uncommon occurrence. and it worries me that a generation of children are being raised on videos that rely on being as loud and bright and superficially enjoyable as possible. what's the use of a child knowing their colors and alphabet if they don't know how to treat people with kindness and empathy and respect? there is something wrong for a children's show host to plug the spelling of his name at the end of his videos ("well, that's the end of this video. but if you wanna watch more of my videos, just type in my name! can you spell my name with me? b-l-i-p-p-i!") after essentially rotting his audiences' brains for a half hour. there's something so insidious about the prioritization of naming different parts of construction vehicles over honest depictions of and conversations about dealing with feelings, or why someone with autism may act differently than you, or what to do when you feel lonely, or ways to make art and express yrself creatively. also, not to mention the blatant police propaganda and outright worship is seriously jarring; as a black mother to a visibly non-white child, i cannot sit there and watch blippi show kids how to be a bootlicker for the shittiest profession on earth, but that could be a whole essay in and of itself.

anyway, thanks for reading, if yr looking for quality children's content, i recommend, in no specific order: mr. rogers, sesame street, the electric company, molly of denali, daniel tiger, bluey!, blue's clues, the odd squad, word party, trash truck, puffin rock, uhh... that's definitely not an extensive list but that's just off the dome!!! ok bye y'all <333

#lil rambles #long post t #idk why it's formatted like this ig cos i copy pasted from my fb?#whatever anyway idk why i waste my writing skills on shit literally nobody else but me cares abt #blippi #children's television

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takaraphoenix · 3 years

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Your fanfic output is crazy! (And omg, so appreciated!) Do you have any tips on how to get more stuff written/finished?

Do you think writing in multiple fandoms helps? And did you start slow and have to build momentum with certain characters/ships? Or jump into writing a bunch of stories about the same ship/character? Would love to know more about your writing process 💖

*laughs* Thank you, I love feeling appreciated <3

Well, mh. That's a good question and one without a clear, definite answer, I suppose. Let's start at the beginning and work our way through it. xD

Tips on how to get more stuff written? For me, that is my schedule, actually!

I'm a writer with too many ideas - I have so many ideas in my head and I have the attention-span of a goldfish. I used to discard a lot of my ideas and leave stories unfinished with half a page, or a bunch of pages written, because a newer, shinier idea caught my attention and I decided to write that instead and "get back to the other one", but after it, there was another and another and--you see the problem? So I would never get back to the first story that I had paused on, because by then I lost interest in the idea.

My schedule helps me with that, because for one, it organizes all of these endless ideas. As of right now, only oneshots and not the repetitive motion of my weekly multi-chapter updates, I have 50 oneshots on my personal updating schedule. All of them ideas I want to write - some of them ideas I have already written now. If I had only that, only all of these ideas, I wouldn't even know where to begin.

My schedule gives me an... order to follow. This year, it got revamped! Since I have more fandoms that I'm working with. I set it in tune with the four multi-chapter fics I currently have, since I have four fandoms that I am writing oneshots for. So there is this set scheme to my schedule - Shadowhunters, Percy Jackson, DCMK, DC Comics. And it rotates through in this order, plus my Magic Mondays for the shorter DCMK ideas flooding my brain. Now with the skeleton of my schedule set, I assign the masses of ideas I have a date based on that.

And then I work through it. Start at the earliest date that comes up and only move on to the next story when that is finished.

It's hard to keep focus on one story when you have too many that you want to write, so organizing my ideas like that allows me to put my focus onto only one story, knowing the others will only come after. And unlike how it used to be, where a story would be abandoned for the sake of another newer idea, said new idea becomes an incentive to finish the old first, because I do not get to write the shiny new thing until the other one is finished.

Which may make it sound like a task, but the idea that is currently being written too was the shiny new one at one point and it makes me no less enthused about it just because a newer one is grabbing my attention! I still want this story to exist too, after all!

I'm not sure how far this is helpful for you or other people, but I know it has helped me tremendously in prioritizing and in actually getting the stories written. I've also always been a person who works better with a deadline than with a "do whenever" though, so that's a part of it too.

I'm unsure how far multiple fandoms help. I'd say they help and hinder, both in equal parts? Yes, due to more fandoms, more things are happening, but it is currently leaving me all scatterbrained, in a way? I am currently in the most fandoms I've ever been active in - I have five fandoms that I'm right now actively writing for, if we do count BtVS since I have an ongoing multi-chapter fic for that too. It's very jumpy and all-over-the-place right now though, my mind I mean. On the one hand, there are all these DCMK short stories that my fingers are itching for, but then I'm so deep into DC Comics that I really want to explore my own Earth on it much more and just focus on that, and untimely so I have rediscovered my passion for PJO and keep coming up with more, new ideas for that - something that had been... less prominent in past year and allowed me to mainly focus on DC Comics and Shadowhunters, really. It's the different vibes of the different fandoms that are also not entirely helpful, in my experience at least, because it leaves me kind of dizzy? To jump from one fandom into the next and the next and the next, switch between very different worlds and different characters back and forth, instead of focusing mainly on one world and its specific characters.

But that too, I suppose, is a matter of preference. If you're a good juggler, you may find joy in it. If you need total focus, it might throw you into utter despair. Which is what I am currently verging at; I've been distractedly writing for the past two weeks now and am in a bit of a slump because my mind and thus my focus keep jumping from fandom to fandom and refuse to stay on just this one thing for the sake of me finishing it.

At which point the prompts I've taken two weeks ago come into play. Also as a part of the advise. Because regardless of just how many ideas I am already having - or sometimes even because I'm having too many ideas and feel like I'm drowning in my schedule and am being dragged under by it - I like breaking my routine. Take the prompts and just sit down and write something wholly new, wholly unplanned, just in the moment. Helps me easy my mind and get the antsy feeling out of my brain some. I usually use prompt lists to break writers' blocks of any kind and it usually works, for me at least.

Now the question about building momentum around a character/ship!

I'm absolutely writing my stories around characters. A character is why I'm here, usually. For Shadowhunters, that is Jace, for Percy Jackson, that is, well, Percy Jackson, for DCMK, that is Shinichi. I'm a notorious multishipper so you'll find a lot of ships on my profile, but you'll also find that nearly all of them are centered around one of these characters - I say "nearly", because if I am very, very invested in a fandom and have spent a lot of time in it, I will branch out to explore my side-pairings a little more in their own stories. But generally, all is about that one fave I latched onto.

I'm unsure what you mean about "building momentum", to be honest? You mean as a writer? I suppose I am doing that, though not necessarily... intentionally? As in, I never really intended to make up a tenth of all Nico/Percy fics on AO3, for example. It's just something that... kind of happened, over time, because I'm obsessed with the ship and think it deserves more love.

Though I'm a multishipper, I do always have my... flag-ships, as I like to call them. The one ship that I love just an edge more than the others. And I tend to write the most for it. Because I love the ship so much that I want to see more content for it, thus I create said content. And with my love also comes inspiration - the more I love something, the more inspiration I get for it.

If you are an author who thrives from feedback like me, then yes, I would recommend you build momentum around a certain thing that you love, because therein lays a fanbase - if someone reads your story about ship x and things you did splendidly on it and wants to read more and clicks your profile to find you have twenty more stories about ship x, chances are they'll be excited and give it a read and with each story, you'll gain more loyalty and love from them. If they however click your profile and find that sure you have a hundred fics but actually this was the only one in this fandom even and mh no they weren't really in the mood for any other fandom, or aren't even into any of your other fandoms, they'll move on. Yet on the other hand, if you gave that reader a lot of the thing they already like... they may even follow you into new fandoms. That's my experience, at least.

Dedicated and kind readers are what can really fuel you as a writer and that too can help you finish stuff. That multi-chapter fic you're writing will write itself so much easier if you get comment alerts from people expressing their excitement about the latest chapter and eagerness for the next. Knowing that people are actually excited for a oneshot idea I had makes me want to write it even more, because I know there is someone who shares my excitement.

So if you're a young writer, who's still finding their footing, I would advise you to not immediately dive head first into ten different pools in the deep-end. Go slow and into one. It's how I started out too, with one fandom, trying things out in it, making connections with other writers and with my readers, exploring my... identity, as a writer, exploring what I want to write. It's easier to focus on you and figuring yourself as a writer out if your focus isn't torn between all of the different characterizations and lore and stories that you'll have to try and get right and pay attention to too.

But generally? I really gotta say that you have to find what works for you, because everyone is so different and what's a magic trick to someone might be a cursed chore to another. Try one thing out and if it doesn't work for you, it's okay to abandon the concept and try something else - give the schedule a try, if it's too constricting for you, leave it behind, start with one fandom and if you find joy in focusing on that, keep focusing on that one fandom, but if you feel the itch for another, then don't let anything hold you back, always follow your passion because that really is what dictates a writer above all else. Write what has you the most passionate - if you're passionate about a certain character, make them your center-piece, if it's a ship, then that, heck it can also be a certain trope that you enjoy writing so much you want to play with it in all variations.

TL;DR - Try organizing your thoughts and ideas, in a manner that speaks to you, and try to prioritize, so you don't end up with 50 stories you are trying to write simultaneously because chances are that in that case you may abandon 48 of them, always follow your passion.

#Writing Advise #Phoe Giving Advise #damn this turned out long #I hope it was the insight you wanted #if not feel free to send another ask #<3

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nanapandaz · 3 years

Video

youtube

Cognitive Impairment in Schizophrenia

Disclaimer: I am not a mental health professional, I can’t diagnose you. If you think you have a mental illness please reach out to your doctor or a mental health professional.

For schizophrenics like myself, some of the most stigmatized, and sensationalized symptoms are the positive ones, meaning delusions, hallucinations, and movement disorders to some extent. You see them in textbooks and in the media; seeing, hearing, smelling or feeling things that aren’t real. Believing strange ideas, and this is my own example, like that the alien government lizard people are coming after you. These draw the most attention from the public eye, and I can’t blame them, alien government lizard people is pretty out there. But what about the less talked about symptoms such as negative and cognitive symptoms? Well, this essay will examine the cognitive side of a schizophrenia diagnosis.

According to Columbia University (2016), “many people with [Schizophrenia] also have cognitive deficits, including problems with short- and long-term memory.” They go on to say that cognitive factors can be the most disabling for people, leading to difficulty holding down a job and maintaining social relationships. They don’t have many answers as to the cause or cure for memory problems. Sucks to be us I guess. I personally have a plethora of issues with memory, short term and long term. I find myself lost when the dialogue of TV shows gets even slightly complicated because I immediately forget what was said, maybe that’s just me but it takes a toll on my self-esteem when I can't follow slightly complicated dialogue. But anyway, back to memory. Apparently when a group of healthy controls were compared to a group with schizophrenia, the healthy group, unsurprisingly, did better at memory tasks. In fact the health control groups brains showed increased brain activity the tests got harder and decreased activity when it got easier while the people with schizophrenia showed significantly weaker activity across the board.

According to Bowie and Harvey (2006) cognitive symptoms are the central feature of schizophrenia. As well as that these impairments may even present before the emergence of positive symptoms. They also found that there were “moderate deficits in attention, verbal fluency, working memory, and processing speed, with superimposed severe deficits in declarative verbal memory and executive functioning.” What is executive functioning? Well to quote Goodman (2021), “[e]xecutive functioning skills help you get things done. These skills are controlled by an area of the brain called the frontal lobe.” Things executive functioning helps you do is “manage time, pay attention, switch focus, plan and organize, remember details, avoid saying or doing the wrong thing, do things based on your experience, and multitask” (Goodman, 2021).

I’ll cover some ways to deal with executive dysfunction in a later essay.

Most people with schizophrenia will show some kind of cognitive impairment, but the severity will vary across different people. One interesting thing about these cognitive impairments is that they will remain relatively stable over time. There are some different types of impairments that I will summarize.

General Intelligence

I take some offence at the description that all people with schizophrenia have lower IQ’s, I mean there are/were some very smart people with it, like John Nash, or the people Cernis, Vassos, Brebion, McKenna, Murray, David & MacCabe (2015) studied, finding that there is “a high-IQ variant of schizophrenia that is associated with markedly fewer negative symptoms than typical schizophrenia” However the science seems to be overwhelmingly favourable in the direction that people with it have lower IQ’s as a group. On the other hand, I don’t know what kind of people they picked for their healthy control group, because if they were all university grads then it’s not really fair. So take this with a grain of salt. While the tests say that we are as a group, less intelligent than the “general” population it doesn’t mean you specifically are not intelligent. We can be just as successful as anyone else.

Attention

This one is simple, people with schizophrenia have a deficit in their ability to maintain their attention, this occurs even before the first psychotic episode.

Working memory

I have a terrible working memory, bad enough for it to be considered a learning disability. However I’m not alone in this, many people with schizophrenia have some kind of dysfunction in working memory, and apparently specifically verbal working memory. Bowie and Harvey (2006) state that “Working memory can be conceptualized as the ability to maintain and manipulate informative stimuli.” This is in contrast to attention span, with working memory being more cognitively challenging and attention span being more simple. In working memory, “The information must be held online for processing, but does not necessarily transfer to long-term storage, unlike episodic memory” (Bowie and Harvey, 2006). And poor memory can even affect social and interpersonal relationships because of the inability to pay attention to “multiple streams of information” Bowie and Harvey, 2006).

Verbal fluency

People like us sometimes find it rather difficult to speak in a coherent fashion, I remember many instances where I’ve tried to speak only for word salad to spill out of my mouth, and the looks of confusion and worry on other peoples faces is just great, really what I wanted to happen, not embarrassing at all. This inability to speak is due to “poor storage of verbal information as well as inefficient retrieval of information from semantic network” (Bowie and Harvey, 2006). Furthermore, "information that is stored is not always retrieved as a result of this inability to properly access semantic networks” (Bowie and Harvey, 2006).

Verbal and learning memory

A main impairment of schizophrenia is the difficulty of retaining verbal information. From what I understand, recognition memory seems to be able to work well in most cases, but “the pattern of deficits in schizophrenia tends to be reduced rates of learning over multiple exposure trials and poor recall of learned information” (Bowie and Harvey, 2006). So basically it takes a while for us to learn something but once we do we have good recognition memory. Now, recognition memory is the ability to recall something when you’ve seen it before, so I think what happens is if you’re able to process the information into long term memory you’ll be able to recall when you encounter that information again. Maybe I’m totally wrong, I don’t know.

Executive functioning

Now most schizophrenics have difficulties with most of all of the processes involved with executive dysfunction. Bowie and Harvey (2006) say that “schizophrenia patients have trouble adapting to changes in the environment that require different behavioral responses” which is directly due to issues with executive dysfunction. Furthermore, this “inflexibility” is highly associated with what Bowie and Harvey call “occupational difficulties.” This makes sense, when someone can’t plan, practice self-care, engage in social and interpersonal matters or participate in community functions, it’s gonna take a toll on your work life.

Treatment

Atypical antipsychotics seem to be the best treatment for cognitive impairments, though the results are sorta weak, Bowie and Harvey (2006) admit that “they have had very limited, if any, success in producing cognitive improvements. However, the search for new compounds designed specifically for cognitive enhancement in schizophrenia continues to be a promising area for future research.”

However there is also behavioural treatments, but there isn’t a lot of research on this topic. On the other hand, what little research there is, is very promising. “These strategies include training on computerized tasks similar to existing cognitive tests, teaching new learning strategies, training on novel tasks, and/or performing tasks repetitively” (Bowie and Harvey, 2006).

In the end, it seems that a combination of medication and therapy is the key. On the other hand, research by Everding (2005) states that “memory problems in schizophrenia can indeed be reduced and suggests that helping people use the right memorization strategy is critical to success.” The right strategies seem to be to remember more ‘deeply’ or according to Jantzi, Mengi, Serfaty, et al., (2019) to engage in retrieval practice, also Antzi, Mengi, Serfaty, et al.’s (2019) study is “the first to demonstrate that retrieval practice is also superior to restudy in improving later recall in patients with schizophrenia presenting with episodic memory impairment.” This is great news for us because it presents a real way of improving our memories, which apparently most of us need.

REFERENCES

Study finds brain marker of poor memory in schizophrenia patients: possible key to understanding and treating cognitive symptoms of the disease, (2016). Columbia University. Retrieved from https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/study-finds-brain-marker-poor-memory-schizophrenia-patients

Bowie, C. R., & Harvey, P. D. (2006). Cognitive deficits and functional outcome in schizophrenia. Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 2(4), 531–536. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2671937/

Černis ,E,. Vassos, E,. Brébion, G,. McKenna, PJ,. Murray, RM,. David, AS,. MacCabe, JH. (2015). Schizophrenia patients with high intelligence: A clinically distinct sub-type of schizophrenia? Eur Psychiatry. (5):628-32. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25752725/

Gerry Everding (2005). Memory study shows brain function in schizophrenia can improve with support, holds promise for cognitive rehabilitation: need cues, memory aids. Washington University. Retrieved from https://source.wustl.edu/2005/07/memory-study-shows-brain-function-in-schizophrenia-can-improve-with-support-holds-promise-for-cognitive-rehabilitation/

Jantzi, C., Mengin, A., Serfaty, D. et al. (2019). Retrieval practice improves memory in patients with schizophrenia: new perspectives for cognitive remediation. BMC Psychiatry 19, 355. Retrieved from https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-019-2341-y#citeas

Goodman, B. (2021). Executive function and executive dysfunction disorders. WebMD. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/executive-function

#schizophrenia #actually schizophrenic #cognitive impairment #memory impairment #youtube

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shorkbrian · 4 years

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Not a request but a game recommendation. It’s called “Obey me shall we date” and it’s really fun cuz the characters are yandere as hell (the rating says 12+ but it most definitely is 17+) anyways i just thought that you’d possibly enjoy it since Ik you like demon bois

Hi! yes, I have played that game (: I’ve also played Mystic Messenger and a few other otome simulators! Unfortunately, I have the attention span of a musty walnut and I can’t stay engaged long enough to actually enjoy them.

In Obey Me, the characters are actually a bit too tame for my preference, plus the MC does things or has dialogue that I would never in a million years do/say. My standards are frustrating lol. I find it’s much eazier to just plug into some action game like Assassins Creed or Halo and just do repetitive tasks than try to navigate social interactions.

Srsly, maybe that’s why I have a dislike for otome simulators. I can barely text my friends and family back, you expect me to have the energy to do the same for pixels? I’d die.

Maybe I just crave violence tho and that’s why I like playing COD and Halo and AC on loop. No thots only kill

#shorkbrian answers a lot of asks #I am hopeless #and irritating #I know #trust me

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scripttorture · 4 years

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Can a parent who is a torturer teach his child to become a torturer since childhood, but not teaching it as torture, but the techniques involved, and well, violence and abuse. Is it normal that the child is not being abused himself?? Or would such a parent torture their child if they wanted the child to grow up to become a torturer and take their place one day.

Torturers ‘teach’ on the job. I’m not sure if it would be possible for them to teach these techniques without exposing someone to violence.

And even if it was that isn’t what they do.

They bring the people they want to ‘teach’ into the cells with them. They have potential-torturers witnessing torture (and encourage them to participate) from the first day.

And here’s the thing: this makes sense. It makes sense because torture is functionally simple and because it applies social pressure to the potential-torturer. It makes it harder for them to refuse to torture and implies that they will be at risk of violence if they do.

The scenario you’re suggesting fundamentally misunderstands torture and torturers. You’re assuming that this stuff is more complex then it is and that torturers are more patient, thoughtful and restrained then they are.

All of those are common misconceptions that feed into torture apologia.

It’s OK to be wrong. The important thing now is the next decision you make; where you go from here.

Child torturers are rare. And while I have heard of cases where children were abusers or torturers I’ve never heard of a case where a parent tried to encourage their biological child to become a torturer.

There’s quite a lot to unpack and explain there so bear with me while I break this down.

Child torturers are rare because generally children are not put in positions of authority, and the torturer being in a position of authority is an essential part of the legal definition of torture. Children are not (usually) allowed to become police officers, soldiers, doctors, civil servants, teachers or any of the other professions torturers are drawn from.

There are ethical reasons for that but there are also practical reasons for it. Children do not make good soldiers. They are typically weaker then adults, have more complex nutritional needs, have shorter attention spans, cope less well with sleep deprivation and are not as good at performing repetitive tasks without fault.

They are harder to train as soldiers, less physically able to act as soldiers and harder to keep at a base standard of health in a warzone.

I am not saying children are incapable of torture: I am saying that they are not given the opportunity.

The cases that I’m aware of involving child torturers are uniformly child soldiers. Usually those children are kidnapped and enslaved. They are not the biological (or adopted) children of the other torturers.

Sometimes these children are deliberately drawn from despised minority groups. For instance the Daesh use of kidnapped Yezidi boys on suicide missions was part of a wider campaign of genocide.

Sometimes these children are encouraged to take part in torture as part of strategy to make these children feel like they can’t return home. They’re made to participate in violent criminal acts then told that they will never be forgiven by their society. This is part of how these groups coerce cooperation from their victims.

So child torturers are rare and the children who are usually in a position where they could be classed as torturers are generally not valued by the groups using them.

This makes me think that a valued, blood-related child would be less likely to be used as a torturer.

There’s also the question of why a torturer would want their child to follow in their footsteps.

Because torturers generally do not enjoy what they do. They report finding the experience distressing and exhausting.

Some of them frame it as ‘necessary’ and genuinely seem to believe they were doing something helpful. (This is not true, torture does not work). Some of them frame it as a punishment their victims ‘deserved’. Some of them don’t really seem to have much justification at all, everyone else was doing it so they did too.

But as a general rule torturers don’t report having a positive view of their own job. The typical relationship is more complex.

They have an inflated sense of their own importance and the importance of their job. They often depict themselves as the ‘only ones doing the real work’ and talk/act as though they’re the most important part of the organisation they’re in.

But they also report feeling consistently under-valued and overlooked by their organisations. They consistently describe a hugely stressful, pressurised working environment and an atmosphere of continued, unhealthy competition with everyone else.

Torturers do not take enjoyment in their work. They report finding it physically exhausting, extremely stressful and the development of mental health problems associated with torture.

They often feel as though they’re at risk of violence from their colleagues and superiors. And they’re not wrong. Looking over modern historical records of regimes like Soviet Russia show that torturers were regularly purged by the state. And the fracturing effect they have on organisations is sometimes enough for them to be attacked by other members of their organisation.

When this doesn’t happen they burn out. They reach a point where their mental and physical health problems become so severe they can’t even pretend to do the job they were hired for. And then they’re dropped, or ‘encouraged’ to quit.

They struggle to find any employment. Because by that point they typically have really severe mental illnesses and no useful skills. Plus the general aura of asshole that comes with an inflated sense of self importance and a tendency to lash out at anyone who doesn’t feed that ego. A lot of them end up dependant on other people.

Basically- I don’t think any torturer would want someone they value to become a torturer.

Even when torturers see their ‘work’ as essential they don’t see it as a good job. They’re acutely aware of the dangers and the toll it takes on them.

If this character actually cares for their child at all they’d probably discourage them from being a torturer.

I think that leaves two broad questions: ‘Do torturers abuse their families?’ and ‘Are torturers typically torture survivors themselves?’

And neither of those questions have clear answers because of the lack of research on torturers.

There are reports of torturers who abused their families. But there are so few reports by mental health professionals on torturers that it really is impossible to say if this is a trend. And there are also reports of torturers who never abused their families. Familial abuse by torturers could be in line with familial abuse in the general population.

There is no evidence to suggest torturers are any more or less likely to abuse their families then anyone else.

The second question is more complicated because of the assumptions underlying it: people who ask this generally seem to assume that someone who is tortured goes on to become a torturer and…. That isn’t exactly what we see these people reporting.

Yes some torturers are also torture survivors. Because a lot of them are soldiers and sometimes captured soldiers are tortured.

The pattern I tend to see reported (this is anecdotal because of the lack of research on torturers-) is torturers getting captured after they’ve been torturers for a while. Either by their own side or an opposing side in the context of a conflict. Then they’re tortured.

Or their area is invaded by an opposing side, they flee the conflict and get targeted with… exactly the same stuff everyone else fleeing the same situation is targeted with.

The child soldiers I described earlier in the ask seem to be particularly vulnerable to torture and other ill treatment.

We don’t have a way to measure how many torturers have also been tortured. By which I mean, no one has really done enough research to answer that question.

The vast majority of torture survivors will never go on to become torturers, because they won’t be put in a position of authority. Mentally ill people are systematically barred from positions of authority in most places. And torture survivors seem to be particularly vulnerable to unemployment.

So I think torture survivors are unlikely to be put in a position where they could become torturers.

But, yes torturers are sometimes put in a position where they might become torture victims. We don’t know how often this happens. My impression is that it’s no where near the majority, may be not even a particularly significant minority (though it seems to be more common in some specific areas/circumstances then others).

Wrapping up: I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a torturer also be a torture survivor in this sort of narrative. I think that’s an incredibly complicated thing to try and handle and I don’t think you’ve got the knowledge base to do it justice yet. I also don’t think it adds anything to the characters as you’ve described them.

There is no ‘safe’ way to expose someone to torture. Torturers do not try to protect the people they ‘train’, they throw them in at the deep end and encourage them to participate almost straight away.

But torturers also don’t necessarily see their jobs as ‘good jobs’. They don’t describe it as a legacy they want to pass on.

Why is it important that this child is actively taught? Could they be exposed to or witness torture in another context? Is it even important that the torturer is their parent? Using another influential adult character would allow the child to keep a more-or-less positive relationship with their parent. And it could make the conflict between child and parent about ‘You allowed this torturer access to me and they showed me awful, traumatising things’ rather then ‘You exposed me to traumatising things and you hurt me’.

Does familial abuse add to this narrative? Because I’d argue that exposing a child to torture is abusive and it creates another layer of complexity. On top of torture, and the peculiar mindset of torturers, and the mental health problems torture causes in survivors, torturers and witnesses.

Think about those questions. Go back to the sources page. Read O’Mara’s Why Torture Doesn’t Work and the appendices to Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth. Read Alleg’s The Question.

And consider whether these elements actually help you to tell the story.

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#writing advice #tw torture #tw child abuse #tw abuse #tw child soldiers #tw genocide #writing torturers #behaviour of torturers #child torturers #torture training programs #effect of torture on torturers #writing witnesses #torture is not safe #torture does not work #torturers and organisations

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apathycarestostudy · 4 years

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A great to do list app: Microsoft To Do

If you're the type who doesn't like to feel restricted by a schedule, has a soft spot for not completing what you set out to do, or simply don't have the time to sit down and make a whole plan — this app is for you.

My initial thing was making to do lists before I slept for the next day, but after a while of using this, if felt like it was missing something. I don't know if it's my steadily manifesting short attention span, or my inclination to abandon things once I get a small grip, but I needed more. This is where Microsoft To Do came in.

I found a new feature recently on this little app that has always been on my phone but never got the time of day, and all of a sudden it's my #1 organizational tool. Here's why it's such a good app meshed in with a tour of the app.

1. The main interface

So this is what the main page looks like (sans the email address at the top, which you need btw). It's simple, clear, and as minimalistic as it comes without it being too barren. You can make your own lists using the bottom left option (shopping lists, wishlists, writing prompts — literally anything), and if you want, you can group them together and pull the group up and down with the bottom right option. I mainly use it for studying at the moment, hence the singularity. The top lists (my day, planned etc.) come preset along with the app. More on them below.

2. Tasks

So everything you make, wherever you make it, also ends up in the tasks list as a master list of sorts. This is pretty useful if you want to reflect on all the to-dos you've made, or you want to quickly see everything at once.

3. My Day

So this is a really neat feature I've used religiously. Let's say you go to your tasks and make to-dos for the whole week, but then you need a space to see the ones for the specific day — that's what this is. You can put your to-dos of the day here and cross them off as you go, and of course, this'll also be crossed off your tasks list.

Here's what it looks like -

I'll explain what everything is. If nothing's checked off, it'll be one consistent list, and since I did *something* today, it separates them automatically like that.

Q: What is "Today"?

It's "suggestions", and these are from your uncompleted tasks. So, frankly, it's reminding you of your past failures and asking if you'd like another chance at them. It's safe to assume that I've used this option a lot, and it's especially useful when you plan on doing a task you put on your My Day the next day instead, and you don't have to write it again.

Q: What is the plus option on the side?

I know, I know — you probably knew. It's to add tasks. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT'S FUN?? You have all those options at the bottom! You can dump stuff straight into your tasks master list bar, you can set a due date (and time!), you can set a separate date to remind you, and you can chose to make the task a repetition. Yay.

Q: What about the star? The little numbers (0 of 3 etc.)?

If you star a task, it ends up in your important list.

Plain and simple right? Pretty self explanatory.

And this brings us to the feature I just recently found ✨✨✨

You can add steps to a to-do. EXAGGERATED GASP.

Isn't that beautiful??? It's an incorporation of a useful tip — when you're planning something, lay out the steps you gotta go through to finish a particular task, and with this feature, you don't have to make a bunch of to-dos that are steps to reach one particular goal. Extra yay.

3. Planned and Assigned to you

That's what it looks like. In regards to Planned, it shows what you got planned, what's overdue, and what your week looks like. So this is the nitty gritty part of the app, where you can have an overview of your plans. Assigned To You is more personal — what do you have to do, as simple as that? That's what you put in there.

Of course, this is all subjective. You can delete and make your own, use whatever for whatever, and more importantly, pick your own colours! There's an option to use a picture as the backdrop of a list, but those are some set images unfortunately. But they're pretty good too, I'm not complaining.

So that concludes this how-to/ tour. Honestly, I discovered the steps portion and just ran here to make a whole post about it. But it's really useful. And it's fun to use, and pretty freeing, so I would suggest this as a good organizational tool.

A couple of more fun things to note: it makes a little chime noise if you check something off (when your phone is on sound, it was a pleasant surprise!), and you can make it a widget to put on your home screen, either as a shortcut, or to show a (scrollable, tiny) list. I put Planned as a shortcut, and My Day as a tiny list, and I noticed that when you check stuff off while the list is a widget like that, a small bar appears and grows corresponding to how much of your tasks you completed.

Yes, I'm gushing. With a straight face. But honestly, extra big yay for Microsoft To Do. It's simple, clear, and as minimalistic as it comes without being too barren.

Hope this helps!

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