theoutpatientproject-blog

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Reminder that you can change the world. 

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[theoutpatientproject-blog]

Remember to do monthly self breast examinations and talk to your doctor if you notice any unusual changes (lumps, growths, changes in color or size of nipples, unusual discharge, etc.)

We got this graphic from this kickass lady: https://badrightbreast.com/category/breast-self-exams/

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On gender transition for voice: A lot of people (talking male to female) …Post puberty, the male larynx tilts forward, gets larger, vocal folds are longer and thicker and that is what makes their pitch about an octave lower than their childhood pitch. So, females and males pre-puberty have the same what we call, fundamental frequency or same pitch. When people go through puberty, females drop half an octave and males generally drop a whole octave. The effect of female hormones on the larynx is limited because the vocal folds are long and they are thick so what we would have to do is teach people to use a pitch that is on the lower part of the female range but on the upper part of the male range. So, teaching people how to do that, it is a motor behavior. But that is not the only thing, because the perception of gender which is in the head-not sex (which is in the body). People’s perception of feminization is not just the pitch of someone’s voice, it is the intonation pattern, the linguistic variables that they do. For example, women use a lot more of what we call tags like “That is a cute purse. Isn’t it?” So, the “isn’t it” comes at the end is something that females do all of the time. The second thing that many females do is that they use a lot adjectives like, “Oh, that is a totally darling purse.” Where the perception of masculinity is that here is a limited use of that. Women do more rising of their intonations at the end of their phrases. So, there are linguistic, there is paralinguistic, there are gestural kinds of things that also are a part of the package for a perception of feminization. So, it is not just the pitch of the voice. When working with persons who are MTF, we also look at their general pitch range and identify a pitch level that is not too difficult for them to do, so they are not straining their voice. We also work on these feminization techniques. That is just in a nutshell. It is very complex. And a lot of this is coming from research of course about what is the perception of feminization, of masculinization, of masculine versus feminine. And everything is a range. It is not like everybody does it the same way.

Interview with a Speech Pathologist

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As we're nearing finals for students, it's important that you make time to get enough sleep! According to The National Sleep Foundation the amount of sleep an individual needs varies person to person, but here are some general guidelines:

School Age (6-13): between 7-12 hours/night Teenagers (14-17 years old): between 7-11 hours/night (8-10 usually recommended). Young Adult (18-25 years old): between 6-11 hours/night (7-9 recommended) Adult (26-64 years old): between 6-10 hours/night Older Adults: (above 65): between 5-9 hours/night Source: (https://sleepfoundation.org/…/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-n…)

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“Stuttering is one of those disorders that when you say that you are a speech pathologist, people say, “oh yeah like you work with people who stutter?” Well I happen to be one of those people, yes. We are really talking about one percent of the population of persons who stutter. If you look at really tiny children under the age of five, you can look at anywhere from five to ten percent of the population-little children-who have some evidence of stuttering. And it is interesting to know that of those little ones, who appear to be stuttering, that by the time we get them to be six, seven, eight, nine, ten, really, we are looking at ten percent of the children who were indefinitely-persistent with stuttering. So, we do know that there is with most people, not everybody, but most people that are what we call are developmental stutterers. That means that since they started talking, they have demonstrated this repetition, prolongation, whatever it is, during their talking. There are some people that may have had some sort of brain injury-they might have had a traumatic brain injury [TBI], they could have had a stroke and that they will stutter during recovery. But they are very different people than people who are developmental stutterers. And that is like about, of the one percent population, I would say five percent were what we would call, neurological stutterers. And then there is even a smaller percentage, two percent maybe, of the one percent maybe even less than that, who are what we call psychogenic stutterers. This is where they have either experienced some sort of trauma, emotional or physical trauma, and that prior to the trauma they did not stutter. But they did after that. So, like the neurogenic stutters. The neurogenic stutters are when they have a frank evidence of brain injury. They did not stutter before, they had the brain injury and then they stuttered after. But these are different folks… the people who have psychogenic stutters. Their stuttering is different than folks who are developmental stuttering.

With adolescents and adults who stutter, who are what we call persistent stutterers, there is a whole…the outside stuttering, the repetitions, the prolongations, whatever it is and then there is what I call the inside stuttering. The inside stuttering is the fear, the anxiety, the shame. They don’t know when it will happen. Can you imagine if you never knew that when you opened your mouth you did not know if you were going to stutter or not? It would be terrifying. So, with folks like that, the treatment technique is really working on ways to modify the initiation. And working on their own self-concept, and their understanding. Because many people who are adolescents and adults who stutter think that if they do not tell people that they stutter, that people will not know. But people realize it because you know they are like “hello we know when you are talking, you are doing this and people are going to know you are stuttering, so why not just tell them?” Like “Hi, my name is Robbie, and I Am a stutterer, so you just have to give me some time. I will finish what I say, but please do not finish my statements for me.” So, you see there are different ways of handling young children, adolescents and adults.”

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TW: Suicide

A quote from our interview with the lovely artist @tabba__ on Instagram. Check out her awesome art, she has something for everyone! 

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Meet The Outpatient Project team! This week we'd like to introduce our Social Media and Communications Director: Zoe Somerville​.  

"I joined The Outpatient Project because I have struggled with mental illness for a significant portion of my life. And I've found that one of the most cathartic experiences is to connect with someone that's struggled with something similar to you. That's what The Outpatient Project does. This project allows individuals of all backgrounds to have an equal platform to share their stories and find a safe community where we can talk about the good, the bad, and everything in between and remind ourselves that we are not alone. I truly believe in The Outpatient Project and through working and talking with people I have heard some of the most real, raw, and human stories. If you've ever felt alone during your health struggles, The Outpatient Project reminds you that you're never truly alone and that's why its #TimetoTalk because maybe someone needs to hear your story."

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Mental health is our business and we will work as a community to raise awareness, erase stigma, and create a world in which everyone receives the care they need.

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"I work at a university in a department of communications: Sciences and Disorders. My job is to educate undergraduates and graduates who are wanting to become speech-language pathologists, and I am a speech-language pathologist. Currently my areas of clinical involvement and research are in the following: working with individuals who stutter, working with individuals who have a variety of different voice disorders (including transgender voice training), also working with individuals that have speech sound disorders (and that could be little children who are not developing their speech as would be expected for their age), as well as individuals that have some neurological disorder which makes it difficult for them to produce intelligible speech. Speech therapy is a treatment approach that really looks at changing behavior and so it is not something where we are necessarily giving medication or we are doing some sort of massage or something along those lines, but rather teaching some compensatory strategies in a fifty-minute session “x” number of times per month; per week. We are helping individuals learn how to manage a small bit of their motor behavior that becomes more personally relevant and making sure that they can demonstrate change in whatever it is that we are trying to help them with. So, obviously, we have to work with starting out with small bits of behavior and moving, moving, moving… And as with all kinds of therapy it is important that people do whatever practicing in whatever arena they need to do outside of the treatment session, because you cannot just expect that coming twice a week, for an hour each time, is going to be enough to change something that has been going on for fifteen years; twenty years; five years; ten years. So, it really does require commitment on the part of the person and or the part of the parent. "

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Repeat after me: I am not a problem to be solved. Repeat after me: I am worthy. I am neither the mistake nor the punishment.

Unknown (via kajuned)

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Good Morning.

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Reminder to Self:

Talking to your mom makes you feel better. 

November 6, 2017

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romanticize the hell out of your life tbh? romanticize the freckle on your left ass cheek or getting gas at the station before sunset. make every moment a good memory. make yourself feel special because you are special and I’m tired of this attitude where we attack each other by saying “no one cares”

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It’s sad how much of what is taught in school is useless to over 99% of the population.

There are literally math concepts taught in high school and middle school that are only used in extremely specialized fields or that are even so outdated they aren’t used anymore!