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psychology

My Experience With Antidepressants

Antidepressants are most commonly used to treat depression in people with major depression or depression caused by other illnesses (such as bipolar disorder). My experience began when I was about 19. I had been depressed for a long time and decided to see a psychiatrist. At first I was diagnosed with major depression but later on, another doctor realized I actually had bipolar disorder II.      The first antidepressant I was given was Paxil. It didn't help me at all. In fact, the only thing it did for me was it made me sleep about 18 hours a day. I felt completely apathetic. I wanted to sleep and I would wake up long enough to eat or go to the bathroom but that was about it. I was advised to stay on it for at least a couple of weeks to let it "get in my system". So I took that advice and waited a few weeks before giving up on it completely.      Then I was given Lexapro. I basically had the same problem with it but it also caused me to have some chest pain and I felt like my chest was really…
Score: 1.18

Language Can Indicate Psychopathy

Psychopaths make up close to one percent of our general population and about 25 percent of male convicts in prisons are psychopaths. These are people that show a lack of empathy toward others, a lack of guilt or remorse. They also have very shallow emotions, they can be impulsive, have superficial charm, and a grandiose sense of self-worth. But many psychopaths are people that never actually commit horrible crimes or hurt others. According to researchers, brain scans of psychopaths show an average of an 18 percent reduction of volume in the brain's middle frontal gyrus. There is also a nine percent reduction of volume in the orbital frontal gyrus. But there could be a much easier way to determine if someone might be a psychopath.      It's interesting to note that whether they are violent or not, many of them give away clues to their true inner nature. Scientists that have studied psychopathic people for years say that certain patterns regularly show up in the way they speak.      Scientists…
Score: 1.23

What It's Like To Have Dyscalculia

I have a learning disability called dyscalculia. I wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of it. Most people have heard of dyslexia which refers to people that can't keep words and letters straight. Dyscalculia is similar except instead of having trouble with letters it makes people have trouble with numbers and math. Dyscalculia makes it difficult to deal with simple numbers and it makes it extremely hard to do any complicated math.   According to scientists, they may have discovered the area of the brain that's links to dyscalculia. Researchers have explained that the area of the brain known as the intraparietal sulcus (or IPS) is crucial for properly processing numerical information. This part of the brain is located toward the top and back of the brain and goes across both lobes. The IPS helps determine how many items are perceived, as opposed to how much.      To explain how these two different modes of thinking are related, researchers say to think about what it's like when a…
Score: 1.24

Tips For Maintaining A Healthy Brain

It's important to stay healthy but most of us just focus on our bodies. But our brains are just as important. There are lots of things you can do to make sure you have a healthy brain. Here are few tips for improving your brain's health.      1. Eat unprocessed foods.   This is a great tip because it's important for your body as well. Try to eat foods like seafood, red meat, eggs, vegetables, nuts, and fruits. It's best to avoid or at least limit foods that are high in grain like corn, wheat, rice, etc. because these foods are low in nutrients and can have negative effects on not just your brain's health but your overall health as well.      2. Drink lots of water.   Plain water is best but if you must have some flavor you can put some lemon slices in it. Your body and brain both run better when they are completely hydrated. Making sure you drink plenty of water will help keep you from getting that foggy feeling and you'll be able to concentrate better too.      3. Avoid refined or simpled…
Score: 1.01

Avoiding Burnout In EMS

  I was an EMT for five years but that was about nine years ago. I left the field after becoming severely burnt out. At the time we were working 72-hour long shifts and each night I was on duty I was only getting about two or three hours of sleep a night. This took a huge toll on me mentally and physically. I became depressed and my eating habits got worse. I even developed gallstones and had to have my gallbladder removed.    Unfortunately, in the time since then, I've struggled to find work so I'm going through EMT training again so I can go back into that line of work. So I've been doing a lot of research to make sure I don't become burnt out again. EMS, along with several other types of work, including fire, law enforcement, and other medical jobs can be extremely stressful. Here are several tips that I've either learned from personal experience or from my research that can help you stay healthy if you work in any of these jobs.      1. Do your best to maintain a normal sleep schedule.    This was…
Score: 1.1

4 Popular Misconceptions About Music That You Probably Don’t Know

 
    1. You always know what you hear  Unless you are tone-deaf, you can tell when a note is played higher or lower than other.  Or can you…  Like there are optical illusions, there are also auditory illusions (and I do exploit them as a composer).  One of the most important concepts in music theory is the harmonic series. Essentially, whenever you speak or make a sound, there is the fundamental pitch that you hear as well as many pitches above that pitch resonating that the same time. These other pitches give sounds their unique qualities and timbres.  There is a phenomenon called the missing fundamental.  If you were to take all these upper pitches from a note and remove the fundamental, you would still hear the fundamental.  This can make notes sound like they are rising even if they are falling. Or can make you hear notes that aren’t even playing. Or chords that aren’t present.    One great resource to learn more is auditoryneuroscience.com. There, you can test yourself amongst actual samples and see if…
Score: 1.14

Why You Mourned The NASA Opportunity Like A Lost Pet

       "The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Weighted Companion Cube cannot speak. In the event that the Weighted Companion Cube does speak, the Enrichment Center urges you to disregard its advice." -- GLaDOS, Portal   On February 12th, 2019, NASA reported its Opportunity rover mission to Mars was no longer functioning. After its fifteen years of service, a considerable extension past the original 90-day mission it was designed for, it was trapped in a Martian dust storm in June of 2018 and entered a special hibernation mode, hoping to recover when natural winds blew the dust off its solar panels. That salvation didn't come, and after NASA mission control's repeated attempts to raise a signal from the power-drained rover, NASA declared Opportunity dead.  So far, so typical.  Opportunity was only the fifth of six robotic expeditions made to Mars, each time increasing in functionality as technology progresses. The 1971 Soviet "Mars 3" rover stopped communicating only 20 seconds after…
Score: 1.11

You're A Miracle: Understanding and Accepting the Vast Array of Human Emotions and Behaviors

  There are numerous books out there that will claim to change your life - from self-help to multi-step programs. But the jury is still out on how helpful such schemes truly are. That is not to say personal change cannot be inspired by someone else’s story, however. A story is a powerful thing. Words can be both a weapon and an elixir. Or, as Albus Dumbledore would say,    “Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.”    If ever there was a book capable of changing one's life, of bringing about healing and understanding of ourselves as humans, it is this - You’re a Miracle (And a Pain in the Ass), by author, podcaster, and overall fantastic human Mike McHargue, also known as “Science Mike”.       Trigger Warning   “This is a dangerous book,” Mike warns his readers in the author’s note. It’s true, parts of this book could be tough to read, even triggering. The author writes about his “experiences with trauma and…
Score: 1.07