#mentalhealth — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #mentalhealth, aggregated by home.social.
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Please Help Today!
I have a cart full of #food to eat but lack the $350 to buy it, I have a cart full of personal care, hygiene, and household supplies but lack the $200 to buy it, I have a cart full of clothing that I need but lack the $400 to buy it, not to mention the rest of what I need to deal with, it is sad really, that in one of the wealthiest times in human history and in one of the wealthiest nations on earth, that anyone would be struggling with #poverty and #disability, and do so with so very little support at all, it really is sad that I have to beg for help that I most certainly never actually receive in any capacity to actually resolve the gapping growing hole of needs;
This Disabled Man Existing In Poverty, Is $2148 Away From Being Able To Afford To Take Care Of Myself And The Things I Still Need To Take Care Of This Month. Your support today could mean the difference between nourishment and starvation and some kind of stability.
This is not a request for luxury. This is a cry for dignity.
🔗 Donate here: paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=… 💸 CashApp: $woctxphotog
Please share. Please help. Every dollar matters. Every act of compassion echoes.
#MutualAid, #Disabled, #Poverty, #Help, #Survival, #Compassion, #Pain, #MentalHealth, #Food, #Groceries, #Hygiene, #Anxiety, #PTSD, #Bipolar, #Dignity, -
It gets rather old and disparaging having to beg day in day out for help that either never comes, or what does come and is gratefully received, is never enough to actually accomplish very much of anything leaving you constantly existing in scarcity, and as a disabled person existing in constant pain, poverty really amplifies the desperation and despair you exist in, again from constant pain to a body that keeps failing everyday in every way, your executive cognitive functions declining like a skydiver without a chute, every facet of your life becomes beyond overwhelming, the isolation from having no one in your life nor any support system at all is a burden no one should ever have to bear, yet I do, I cry out for help I scream out for help I beg for help and it simply is never there, $5million may seem like a big number, but when you look at it, it is not, first the cost of buying property and then building a forever home that will sustain and take care of you, I have the numbers worked out, and when all is said and done I should have $1.5million left, which works our around $37,00 a year for the next forty years, in 40 years I will be 88, assuming I live that long, $37,000 a year will empower me to care for myself cover my own expenses, and if by the Grace of God I could have more, I would be able to help others along the way, so maybe they don't have to suffer alone and as much as I have, from dinner tonight to taking a shower tomorrow, to having the security of my own forever home until I expire, your support right now means far more than you can ever fathom, so please, share support and embrace my plight with some compassion right now, thank you;
Urgent need: $20,928, Monthly survival: $1,500, Long-term liberation: $25,000 to climb out. $5 million to build a forever home and sanctuary for others like me.
If you’ve ever wondered what despair looks like, this is it. If you’ve ever wanted to make a real difference, this is your chance.
Please help. Every dollar matters. Every share matters. Every act of compassion matters.• CashApp: $woctxphotog
• PayPal: paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=…#MutualAid, #Disabled, #Poverty, #Help, #Survival, #Compassion, #Pain, #MentalHealth, #Food, #Groceries, #Hygiene, #Anxiety, #PTSD, #Bipolar, #Dignity
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‘I’m a cardiologist and I never eat these foods – one is almost pure fat’
Eating foods high in fat can increase your cholesterol, raising you risk of heart disease and strokes, as…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Health #Cardiachealth #Coconutoil #food #goodhealth #healthyeating #healthylifestyle #HealthyLiving #heartattack #heartdisease #Mentalhealth #TikTok #Viral
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/670822/ -
‘I’m a cardiologist and I never eat these foods – one is almost pure fat’
Eating foods high in fat can increase your cholesterol, raising you risk of heart disease and strokes, as…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Health #Cardiachealth #Coconutoil #food #goodhealth #healthyeating #healthylifestyle #HealthyLiving #heartattack #heartdisease #Mentalhealth #TikTok #Viral
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/670822/ -
Complaint of an autistic, bipolar, and gifted person who is dysregulated and tired...
Something changed. In my personal life and in my digital life. I'm getting old, with bipolar disorder and level 2 autism, with an overlap of 3 autoimmune diseases, diabetes, progressive deafness, and almost no work (due to the economic situation in my country and my health).
I live quite peacefully despite these problems, with my wife, my cats, and my dog. I have a very good family environment, with my daughter (even though we live 1100 km away), my wife's children, my sisters, and a few close friends.
I have some activities that satisfy my brain and intellectual exercise needs, such as chess tournaments with friends, some science projects, books, music (I have a guitar to sing blues in the evenings), hacking and programming, and my Zen and Yiquan practice at home.
So yesterday I had a "conversation" with a guy who claims to be autistic and a psychologist, but who actually isn't and just wanted to argue and practice his neurosis on me. His supposed profession and life wouldn't stand up to even the slightest OSINT investigation; it doesn't exist. It's not that I enjoy doxing stupid people, it's that it's practically obligatory (and I can't break my old habits) given how many people like that there are on social media.
The thing is, I don't even feel like sharing memes anymore because there's always some son of a bitch trying to stir things up. I'm tired of it. My wife gave me a lecture today, and she's right.
The worst part is that these kinds of encounters have almost always been with people who claim to be "autistic." I hardly ever think about being autistic in my daily life, nor am I constantly engaged in activism or tilting at windmills. I also dislike the ideological mess that many people have in their heads.
So I'm going to keep quiet for a while and let certain topics go. The main reason I had social media accounts, and lately on Mastodon, was for the information and the people involved with computers. The rest doesn't really interest me. The autism issue is over for me; I've already understood what I needed to understand after the diagnosis, which was the last link in a series of diagnoses that took up 18 years of my life. There's no need to keep dealing with repetitive and irrelevant information or with unhinged people.
Of course, there are interesting and pleasant people on Mastodon, and even among the autistic ones I can find, but my mental and physical health are screaming for me to step back from digital life a bit more. Mastodon isn't exempt from the toxicity of other platforms; it just seems less noticeable because there are fewer people and because many users follow a certain behavioral model and a set of sociocultural guidelines. But dare to think differently, to disagree with something, to not be interested in the group, cultural, and even tribal trends of Mastodon, and we'll see how you fare. It's exhausting to see hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of profiles that seem to be made with templates and with bombastic hashtags that are more like threats than advertisements, because if you don't agree with or aren't interested in the topic of the user you're interacting with, you're going to be labeled a damn Nazi. I've even seen users with thousands of followers proposing bans and boycotts of people, software, and even memes because they're "on the other side."
I'm really tired of so much human mental crap and it's very likely that I'll disappear or do what some accounts do that only post cat memes, not because they don't have anything better to say but because the others won't understand or listen to anything serious or really important.
I still prefer hacking and programming, and the people who focus solely on that. As Mr. Torvalds said, I like computers, not people. And I understand his reasons.PS: I don't feel like replying to comments that are just trying to start a fight or argue. And the post will be deleted no later than tomorrow, depending on my mood.
😞#actuallyautistic #autism #autistic #bipolar #gifted #neurodivergent #mentalhealth #brainrot #socialmedia #mastodon #toxicity
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Think of the last person you interacted with. How happy do you think you are relative to them? (I ask this question every day to gauge how happy the Fediverse is.) #happiness #poll #mentalhealth #psychology
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https://www.europesays.com/uk/990984/ ‘I’m a cardiologist and I never eat these foods – one is almost pure fat’ #CardiacHealth #CoconutOil #Food #GoodHealth #Health #HealthyEating #HealthyLifestyle #HealthyLiving #HeartAttack #HeartDisease #MentalHealth #TikTok #UK #UnitedKingdom #viral
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DATE: May 28, 2026 at 04:59PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
Why are #webportals a favorite target of #hackers? https://t.co/pUspfjwPY5
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at https://www.healthcareinfosecurity.com/ under the title "Latest"
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Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Healthcare security & privacy posts not related to IT or infosec are at @HIPAABot . Even so, they mix in some infosec with the legal & regulatory information.
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#security #healthcare #doctors #itsecurity #hacking #doxxing #psychotherapy #securitynews #psychotherapist #mentalhealth #psychiatry #hospital #socialwork #datasecurity #webbeacons #cookies #HIPAA #privacy #datanalytics #healthcaresecurity #healthitsecurity #patientrecords @infosec #telehealth #netneutrality #socialengineering
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DATE: May 28, 2026 at 04:58PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
#Connecticut #Medicaid Portal Hack Affects Thousands: Attackers Attempted to Reroute #Hospital Medicaid Reimbursements https://t.co/pUspfjwPY5 #GainwellTechnologies @HartfordHealthcare #HIPAA
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at https://www.healthcareinfosecurity.com/ under the title "Latest"
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Healthcare security & privacy posts not related to IT or infosec are at @HIPAABot . Even so, they mix in some infosec with the legal & regulatory information.
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#security #healthcare #doctors #itsecurity #hacking #doxxing #psychotherapy #securitynews #psychotherapist #mentalhealth #psychiatry #hospital #socialwork #datasecurity #webbeacons #cookies #HIPAA #privacy #datanalytics #healthcaresecurity #healthitsecurity #patientrecords @infosec #telehealth #netneutrality #socialengineering
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DATE: May 28, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: A virtual reality navigation test predicts Alzheimer’s risk in healthy adults
Struggling with spatial navigation in a virtual reality environment can predict actual brain shrinkage a year later in adults without memory problems. These navigation tests might offer a new way to spot the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease long before memory loss begins. The findings were recently published in the journal Alzheimer’s Research Therapy.
Alzheimer’s disease damages the brain for years before a person experiences noticeable memory decline. Some of the first brain areas to deteriorate are those responsible for spatial navigation. This is the ability to understand where you are in a given environment and how to get to your destination. Because these internal navigation centers degrade so early in the disease process, medical professionals are looking for ways to test a person’s navigation skills as a warning sign.
One specific navigation skill is called path integration. This is the brain’s ability to track a person’s current position and direction of movement by using internal cues. It relies on sensory feedback from balance, body movement, and visual flow rather than external landmarks. When you wake up in the dark and walk to the bathroom based entirely on your sense of distance and direction, you are using path integration.
When the brain networks supporting these spatial calculations begin to break down, people start making errors in their internal maps. A team of researchers wanted to see if these specific spatial errors could forecast physical changes in the brain over time. Kazuya Kawabata and Sayuri Shima, researchers at Fujita Health University in Japan, led the investigation. They worked alongside Hirohisa Watanabe and several other colleagues.
The research team set out to determine if subtle miscalculations in a virtual reality game could predict structural brain decline. They specifically wanted to study adults who currently show no signs of cognitive impairment. To answer this question, the researchers recruited 71 adults with healthy cognitive function. These participants underwent brain imaging at the beginning of the study and again about one year later.
During the initial visit, the participants also gave blood samples and completed a virtual reality navigation task. They wore a headset that placed them in a featureless circular arena designed to test spatial awareness. The virtual room was 20 virtual meters wide and bounded by blank walls to ensure participants could not rely on visual landmarks.
Using a hand-held controller for forward movement and a swivel chair for physical rotation, participants moved to two different checkpoints in the virtual room. The checkpoints were marked by colored flags. After reaching the second checkpoint, the visual markers disappeared from the virtual world. The participants then had to rely solely on their internal sense of direction to return to their original starting point.
The research team measured two types of mistakes during this return trip. The first was path integration error, which is the physical distance between where the participant stopped and the actual starting point. The second was angular error, which measured how far off their rotational direction was compared to the correct path back to the start.
The researchers then compared these behavioral errors to changes in the participants’ brain scans over the following year. They looked specifically at the thickness of the outer layer of the brain, known as the cortex, and the overall volume of different brain regions. A reduction in cortical thickness or volume indicates that brain cells are shrinking or dying off.
The results showed a clear pattern connecting virtual reality performance to structural brain health. Participants who made larger path integration errors at the start of the study experienced faster thinning and volume loss in specific parts of the brain. These physical reductions occurred in several areas, including the parahippocampal gyrus and the posterior cingulate cortex.
These specific brain regions are highly vulnerable to early damage from neurodegenerative diseases. The parahippocampal gyrus helps the brain encode new memories and process spatial locations. The posterior cingulate cortex acts as a central hub that connects memory processing to emotional regulation and spatial awareness. Experiencing tissue loss in these areas is often one of the earliest physical signs of cognitive decline.
Errors in rotational direction, or angular errors, showed a very similar relationship with brain shrinkage over the one-year period. The researchers noted that angular errors were not closely tied to the general chronological age of the participants. This suggests that rotational mistakes might be a specific indicator of disease related decline rather than a normal symptom of getting older.
The team also analyzed the baseline blood samples to look for specific proteins that act as biological markers for Alzheimer’s disease. They tested for tau proteins and glial fibrillary acidic proteins. Tau proteins can form destructive tangles inside brain cells, while glial proteins are structural components of support cells that leak into the blood when the brain is damaged.
Both the path integration errors and the angular errors were tied to higher levels of these proteins in the blood. This biological connection strongly supports the idea that the navigation mistakes reflect underlying disease processes. The distance errors proved to be highly accurate at identifying the specific individuals who experienced the fastest rate of brain thinning in the parahippocampal region.
“Our findings suggest that VR-PI performance captures both molecular (blood biomarker) and structural (MRI) signatures that emerge before overt clinical impairment,” says Dr. Kawabata. This dual connection to both blood proteins and brain imaging makes the virtual reality test a promising tool for early detection.
Despite the clear patterns, the researchers noted a few limitations to their work. While the virtual reality system requires people to physically rotate in a chair, it does not involve actual walking. This means it lacks the physical sensations of forward acceleration and leg movement that the brain normally uses for path integration. Virtual reality can only partially mimic the sensory experience of walking through the real world.
The automated software used to measure brain thickness from the magnetic resonance imaging scans can also introduce slight measurement variations. The team also mentioned that their participant group was relatively small and consisted entirely of adults in Japan. Because spatial navigation strategies can differ across cultural and educational backgrounds, the results might not perfectly apply to global populations.
Future research will need to include larger and more diverse groups of people to see if these patterns hold true across different demographics. Scientists also need to use more advanced imaging techniques to look closer at the earliest signs of brain shrinkage in these specific spatial navigation centers. The researchers hope future studies will track participants for longer than one year to see how their cognitive health changes over a longer timeline.
Still, connecting a simple behavioral test to both biological proteins and physical brain shrinkage offers a promising path forward. Testing navigation skills could eventually become a standard part of routine checkups for older adults. Spotting these problems early gives doctors a much better chance to intervene before severe memory loss takes hold.
“Our approach may allow earlier identification of risk of neurodegenerative diseases, including AD. Over the longer term, it may contribute to a shift toward earlier detection, potentially enabling timely therapeutic interventions at preclinical stages and delaying disease progression, thereby preserving cognitive function and quality of life,” concludes Dr. Kawabata.
The study, “VR-based path integration predicts individual risk of rapid cortical decline: a one-year longitudinal study in cognitively unimpaired adults,” was authored by Kazuya Kawabata, Sayuri Shima, Reiko Ohdake, Epifanio Bagarinao, Yasuaki Mizutani, Harutsugu Tatebe, Riki Koike, Atsushi Kasai, Akihiro Ueda, Mizuki Ito, Junichi Hata, Shinsuke Ishigaki, Hiroshi Toyama, Takahiko Tokuda, Akihiko Takashima, and Hirohisa Watanabe.
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
EMAIL DAILY DIGEST OF RSS FEEDS -- SUBSCRIBE: http://subscribe-article-digests.clinicians-exchange.org
READ ONLINE: http://read-the-rss-mega-archive.clinicians-exchange.org
It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #VRpathintegration #AlzheimersPrediction #spatialnavigation #corticalthinning #neurodegeneration #bloodbiomarkers #tauproteins #VRinmedicine #earlydetection #cognitivehealth
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DATE: May 28, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: A virtual reality navigation test predicts Alzheimer’s risk in healthy adults
Struggling with spatial navigation in a virtual reality environment can predict actual brain shrinkage a year later in adults without memory problems. These navigation tests might offer a new way to spot the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease long before memory loss begins. The findings were recently published in the journal Alzheimer’s Research Therapy.
Alzheimer’s disease damages the brain for years before a person experiences noticeable memory decline. Some of the first brain areas to deteriorate are those responsible for spatial navigation. This is the ability to understand where you are in a given environment and how to get to your destination. Because these internal navigation centers degrade so early in the disease process, medical professionals are looking for ways to test a person’s navigation skills as a warning sign.
One specific navigation skill is called path integration. This is the brain’s ability to track a person’s current position and direction of movement by using internal cues. It relies on sensory feedback from balance, body movement, and visual flow rather than external landmarks. When you wake up in the dark and walk to the bathroom based entirely on your sense of distance and direction, you are using path integration.
When the brain networks supporting these spatial calculations begin to break down, people start making errors in their internal maps. A team of researchers wanted to see if these specific spatial errors could forecast physical changes in the brain over time. Kazuya Kawabata and Sayuri Shima, researchers at Fujita Health University in Japan, led the investigation. They worked alongside Hirohisa Watanabe and several other colleagues.
The research team set out to determine if subtle miscalculations in a virtual reality game could predict structural brain decline. They specifically wanted to study adults who currently show no signs of cognitive impairment. To answer this question, the researchers recruited 71 adults with healthy cognitive function. These participants underwent brain imaging at the beginning of the study and again about one year later.
During the initial visit, the participants also gave blood samples and completed a virtual reality navigation task. They wore a headset that placed them in a featureless circular arena designed to test spatial awareness. The virtual room was 20 virtual meters wide and bounded by blank walls to ensure participants could not rely on visual landmarks.
Using a hand-held controller for forward movement and a swivel chair for physical rotation, participants moved to two different checkpoints in the virtual room. The checkpoints were marked by colored flags. After reaching the second checkpoint, the visual markers disappeared from the virtual world. The participants then had to rely solely on their internal sense of direction to return to their original starting point.
The research team measured two types of mistakes during this return trip. The first was path integration error, which is the physical distance between where the participant stopped and the actual starting point. The second was angular error, which measured how far off their rotational direction was compared to the correct path back to the start.
The researchers then compared these behavioral errors to changes in the participants’ brain scans over the following year. They looked specifically at the thickness of the outer layer of the brain, known as the cortex, and the overall volume of different brain regions. A reduction in cortical thickness or volume indicates that brain cells are shrinking or dying off.
The results showed a clear pattern connecting virtual reality performance to structural brain health. Participants who made larger path integration errors at the start of the study experienced faster thinning and volume loss in specific parts of the brain. These physical reductions occurred in several areas, including the parahippocampal gyrus and the posterior cingulate cortex.
These specific brain regions are highly vulnerable to early damage from neurodegenerative diseases. The parahippocampal gyrus helps the brain encode new memories and process spatial locations. The posterior cingulate cortex acts as a central hub that connects memory processing to emotional regulation and spatial awareness. Experiencing tissue loss in these areas is often one of the earliest physical signs of cognitive decline.
Errors in rotational direction, or angular errors, showed a very similar relationship with brain shrinkage over the one-year period. The researchers noted that angular errors were not closely tied to the general chronological age of the participants. This suggests that rotational mistakes might be a specific indicator of disease related decline rather than a normal symptom of getting older.
The team also analyzed the baseline blood samples to look for specific proteins that act as biological markers for Alzheimer’s disease. They tested for tau proteins and glial fibrillary acidic proteins. Tau proteins can form destructive tangles inside brain cells, while glial proteins are structural components of support cells that leak into the blood when the brain is damaged.
Both the path integration errors and the angular errors were tied to higher levels of these proteins in the blood. This biological connection strongly supports the idea that the navigation mistakes reflect underlying disease processes. The distance errors proved to be highly accurate at identifying the specific individuals who experienced the fastest rate of brain thinning in the parahippocampal region.
“Our findings suggest that VR-PI performance captures both molecular (blood biomarker) and structural (MRI) signatures that emerge before overt clinical impairment,” says Dr. Kawabata. This dual connection to both blood proteins and brain imaging makes the virtual reality test a promising tool for early detection.
Despite the clear patterns, the researchers noted a few limitations to their work. While the virtual reality system requires people to physically rotate in a chair, it does not involve actual walking. This means it lacks the physical sensations of forward acceleration and leg movement that the brain normally uses for path integration. Virtual reality can only partially mimic the sensory experience of walking through the real world.
The automated software used to measure brain thickness from the magnetic resonance imaging scans can also introduce slight measurement variations. The team also mentioned that their participant group was relatively small and consisted entirely of adults in Japan. Because spatial navigation strategies can differ across cultural and educational backgrounds, the results might not perfectly apply to global populations.
Future research will need to include larger and more diverse groups of people to see if these patterns hold true across different demographics. Scientists also need to use more advanced imaging techniques to look closer at the earliest signs of brain shrinkage in these specific spatial navigation centers. The researchers hope future studies will track participants for longer than one year to see how their cognitive health changes over a longer timeline.
Still, connecting a simple behavioral test to both biological proteins and physical brain shrinkage offers a promising path forward. Testing navigation skills could eventually become a standard part of routine checkups for older adults. Spotting these problems early gives doctors a much better chance to intervene before severe memory loss takes hold.
“Our approach may allow earlier identification of risk of neurodegenerative diseases, including AD. Over the longer term, it may contribute to a shift toward earlier detection, potentially enabling timely therapeutic interventions at preclinical stages and delaying disease progression, thereby preserving cognitive function and quality of life,” concludes Dr. Kawabata.
The study, “VR-based path integration predicts individual risk of rapid cortical decline: a one-year longitudinal study in cognitively unimpaired adults,” was authored by Kazuya Kawabata, Sayuri Shima, Reiko Ohdake, Epifanio Bagarinao, Yasuaki Mizutani, Harutsugu Tatebe, Riki Koike, Atsushi Kasai, Akihiro Ueda, Mizuki Ito, Junichi Hata, Shinsuke Ishigaki, Hiroshi Toyama, Takahiko Tokuda, Akihiko Takashima, and Hirohisa Watanabe.
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
EMAIL DAILY DIGEST OF RSS FEEDS -- SUBSCRIBE: http://subscribe-article-digests.clinicians-exchange.org
READ ONLINE: http://read-the-rss-mega-archive.clinicians-exchange.org
It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #VRpathintegration #AlzheimersPrediction #spatialnavigation #corticalthinning #neurodegeneration #bloodbiomarkers #tauproteins #VRinmedicine #earlydetection #cognitivehealth
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DATE: May 28, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: A virtual reality navigation test predicts Alzheimer’s risk in healthy adults
Struggling with spatial navigation in a virtual reality environment can predict actual brain shrinkage a year later in adults without memory problems. These navigation tests might offer a new way to spot the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease long before memory loss begins. The findings were recently published in the journal Alzheimer’s Research Therapy.
Alzheimer’s disease damages the brain for years before a person experiences noticeable memory decline. Some of the first brain areas to deteriorate are those responsible for spatial navigation. This is the ability to understand where you are in a given environment and how to get to your destination. Because these internal navigation centers degrade so early in the disease process, medical professionals are looking for ways to test a person’s navigation skills as a warning sign.
One specific navigation skill is called path integration. This is the brain’s ability to track a person’s current position and direction of movement by using internal cues. It relies on sensory feedback from balance, body movement, and visual flow rather than external landmarks. When you wake up in the dark and walk to the bathroom based entirely on your sense of distance and direction, you are using path integration.
When the brain networks supporting these spatial calculations begin to break down, people start making errors in their internal maps. A team of researchers wanted to see if these specific spatial errors could forecast physical changes in the brain over time. Kazuya Kawabata and Sayuri Shima, researchers at Fujita Health University in Japan, led the investigation. They worked alongside Hirohisa Watanabe and several other colleagues.
The research team set out to determine if subtle miscalculations in a virtual reality game could predict structural brain decline. They specifically wanted to study adults who currently show no signs of cognitive impairment. To answer this question, the researchers recruited 71 adults with healthy cognitive function. These participants underwent brain imaging at the beginning of the study and again about one year later.
During the initial visit, the participants also gave blood samples and completed a virtual reality navigation task. They wore a headset that placed them in a featureless circular arena designed to test spatial awareness. The virtual room was 20 virtual meters wide and bounded by blank walls to ensure participants could not rely on visual landmarks.
Using a hand-held controller for forward movement and a swivel chair for physical rotation, participants moved to two different checkpoints in the virtual room. The checkpoints were marked by colored flags. After reaching the second checkpoint, the visual markers disappeared from the virtual world. The participants then had to rely solely on their internal sense of direction to return to their original starting point.
The research team measured two types of mistakes during this return trip. The first was path integration error, which is the physical distance between where the participant stopped and the actual starting point. The second was angular error, which measured how far off their rotational direction was compared to the correct path back to the start.
The researchers then compared these behavioral errors to changes in the participants’ brain scans over the following year. They looked specifically at the thickness of the outer layer of the brain, known as the cortex, and the overall volume of different brain regions. A reduction in cortical thickness or volume indicates that brain cells are shrinking or dying off.
The results showed a clear pattern connecting virtual reality performance to structural brain health. Participants who made larger path integration errors at the start of the study experienced faster thinning and volume loss in specific parts of the brain. These physical reductions occurred in several areas, including the parahippocampal gyrus and the posterior cingulate cortex.
These specific brain regions are highly vulnerable to early damage from neurodegenerative diseases. The parahippocampal gyrus helps the brain encode new memories and process spatial locations. The posterior cingulate cortex acts as a central hub that connects memory processing to emotional regulation and spatial awareness. Experiencing tissue loss in these areas is often one of the earliest physical signs of cognitive decline.
Errors in rotational direction, or angular errors, showed a very similar relationship with brain shrinkage over the one-year period. The researchers noted that angular errors were not closely tied to the general chronological age of the participants. This suggests that rotational mistakes might be a specific indicator of disease related decline rather than a normal symptom of getting older.
The team also analyzed the baseline blood samples to look for specific proteins that act as biological markers for Alzheimer’s disease. They tested for tau proteins and glial fibrillary acidic proteins. Tau proteins can form destructive tangles inside brain cells, while glial proteins are structural components of support cells that leak into the blood when the brain is damaged.
Both the path integration errors and the angular errors were tied to higher levels of these proteins in the blood. This biological connection strongly supports the idea that the navigation mistakes reflect underlying disease processes. The distance errors proved to be highly accurate at identifying the specific individuals who experienced the fastest rate of brain thinning in the parahippocampal region.
“Our findings suggest that VR-PI performance captures both molecular (blood biomarker) and structural (MRI) signatures that emerge before overt clinical impairment,” says Dr. Kawabata. This dual connection to both blood proteins and brain imaging makes the virtual reality test a promising tool for early detection.
Despite the clear patterns, the researchers noted a few limitations to their work. While the virtual reality system requires people to physically rotate in a chair, it does not involve actual walking. This means it lacks the physical sensations of forward acceleration and leg movement that the brain normally uses for path integration. Virtual reality can only partially mimic the sensory experience of walking through the real world.
The automated software used to measure brain thickness from the magnetic resonance imaging scans can also introduce slight measurement variations. The team also mentioned that their participant group was relatively small and consisted entirely of adults in Japan. Because spatial navigation strategies can differ across cultural and educational backgrounds, the results might not perfectly apply to global populations.
Future research will need to include larger and more diverse groups of people to see if these patterns hold true across different demographics. Scientists also need to use more advanced imaging techniques to look closer at the earliest signs of brain shrinkage in these specific spatial navigation centers. The researchers hope future studies will track participants for longer than one year to see how their cognitive health changes over a longer timeline.
Still, connecting a simple behavioral test to both biological proteins and physical brain shrinkage offers a promising path forward. Testing navigation skills could eventually become a standard part of routine checkups for older adults. Spotting these problems early gives doctors a much better chance to intervene before severe memory loss takes hold.
“Our approach may allow earlier identification of risk of neurodegenerative diseases, including AD. Over the longer term, it may contribute to a shift toward earlier detection, potentially enabling timely therapeutic interventions at preclinical stages and delaying disease progression, thereby preserving cognitive function and quality of life,” concludes Dr. Kawabata.
The study, “VR-based path integration predicts individual risk of rapid cortical decline: a one-year longitudinal study in cognitively unimpaired adults,” was authored by Kazuya Kawabata, Sayuri Shima, Reiko Ohdake, Epifanio Bagarinao, Yasuaki Mizutani, Harutsugu Tatebe, Riki Koike, Atsushi Kasai, Akihiro Ueda, Mizuki Ito, Junichi Hata, Shinsuke Ishigaki, Hiroshi Toyama, Takahiko Tokuda, Akihiko Takashima, and Hirohisa Watanabe.
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #VRpathintegration #AlzheimersPrediction #spatialnavigation #corticalthinning #neurodegeneration #bloodbiomarkers #tauproteins #VRinmedicine #earlydetection #cognitivehealth
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"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will better, we can bear a hardship today." By Thich Nhat Hanh
#motivation #inspiration #positivevibes #mentalwellbeing #mentalhealth #mentalwellness #hope #ymhc
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"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will better, we can bear a hardship today." By Thich Nhat Hanh
#motivation #inspiration #positivevibes #mentalwellbeing #mentalhealth #mentalwellness #hope #ymhc
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DATE: May 26, 2026
SOURCE: AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATIONTITLE: Why is dating on the decline among young adults?
URL: https://www.today.com/video/why-is-dating-on-the-decline-among-young-adults-263945285998
Research shows that Gen Z teens and young adults are dating far less than generations before.
URL: https://www.today.com/video/why-is-dating-on-the-decline-among-young-adults-263945285998
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #DatingDecline #GenZDating #YoungAdultRelationships #DatingTrends #GenZLife #RelationshipStatus #ModernDating #CohabitationTrends #YouthCulture #DatingStatistics
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DATE: May 14, 2026
SOURCE: AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATIONTITLE: Risk linked to antidepressant use fades after accounting for other risk factors,
URL: https://time.com/article/2026/05/14/nature-connection-positive-body-image/
A new study uncovers why exactly nature is so powerful at improving life satisfaction—no matter who you are.
URL: https://time.com/article/2026/05/14/nature-connection-positive-body-image/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #RiskFactors #Antidepressants #MentalHealthResearch #LifeSatisfaction #NatureTherapy #WellbeingScience #HealthStudy #Psychiatry #LifestyleFactors #PublicHealth
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DATE: May 4, 2026
SOURCE: AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATIONTITLE: Parents’ stress tied to children’s mental health
Two of the top sources of stress were kids’ behavioral issues and kids’ mental health.
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Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ParentsStress #ChildMentalHealth #BehavioralIssues #KidsWellbeing #MentalHealthAwareness #ParentingTips #FamilySupport #StressManagement #ChildDevelopment #EducationalInsights
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DATE: May 1, 2026
SOURCE: AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATIONTITLE: Coffee helps protect your body from aging and disease
Coffee was found to activate the NR4A1 receptor, which plays a role in aging, stress response, and disease.
-------------------------------------------------
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #CoffeeBenefits #AgingPrevention #NR4A1 #HealthAndWellness #DiseasePrevention #Antioxidants #StressResponse #Longevity #CoffeeScience #HealthyLifestyle
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Be kind to your mind: Learning to live well with self-care means taking steps to improve your wellbeing. Here’s a few helpful self care articles from #OpenLearn ➜ https://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/learn-live-well-self-care-on-openlearn
-
Be kind to your mind: Learning to live well with self-care means taking steps to improve your wellbeing. Here’s a few helpful self care articles from #OpenLearn ➜ https://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/learn-live-well-self-care-on-openlearn
-
Be kind to your mind: Learning to live well with self-care means taking steps to improve your wellbeing. Here’s a few helpful self care articles from #OpenLearn ➜ https://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/learn-live-well-self-care-on-openlearn
-
Be kind to your mind: Learning to live well with self-care means taking steps to improve your wellbeing. Here’s a few helpful self care articles from #OpenLearn ➜ https://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/learn-live-well-self-care-on-openlearn
-
Be kind to your mind: Learning to live well with self-care means taking steps to improve your wellbeing. Here’s a few helpful self care articles from #OpenLearn ➜ https://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/learn-live-well-self-care-on-openlearn
-
DATE: May 28, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Nanoplastics cause abnormal branch growth in neurons
URL: https://www.psypost.org/nanoplastics-cause-abnormal-branch-growth-in-neurons/
Tiny pieces of plastic can enter brain cells and alter their physical development, with the smallest particles causing the most noticeable changes. New research reveals that while low levels of microscopic polystyrene plastics do not kill brain cells or stop them from communicating, particles measuring just 50 nanometers wide prompt nerve cell branches to grow abnormally long. These findings were published in the journal NanoImpact, raising new questions about how environmental plastic pollution might affect neurological health over time.
Global plastic production continues to climb every year, generating massive amounts of waste that eventually breaks down into microscopic fragments. These fragments can enter the human body through the water we drink, the food we eat, and the air we breathe. Once inside, these tiny particles travel through the bloodstream and can lodge in various organs, including the lungs, liver, and kidneys.
Recent research has revealed that plastic particles can also cross the blood-brain barrier. This barrier is a highly selective border of cells that usually protects the brain from harmful substances circulating in the blood. Finding plastic within brain tissue has sparked widespread concern about potential neurological risks. This discovery prompted researchers to investigate exactly how these synthetic materials interact with delicate brain cells.
Most prior laboratory tests on plastic toxicity used exceptionally high doses or large plastic particles. Scientists often tested these massive doses on robust, immortalized cancer cell lines rather than normal brain tissue. This approach left a large gap in our understanding of how realistic amounts of small plastics might affect healthy, developing brain networks. To address this blind spot, a team of researchers from the University of Eastern Finland designed an experiment to observe the effects of low doses of microscopic plastics on highly sensitive brain cells.
Veronika Górová, a doctoral researcher at the A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, led the study. Górová and her colleagues focused their efforts on understanding how the sheer physical size of a plastic fragment changes its biological impact. They hypothesized that tinier particles would be absorbed more easily by cells, leading to more distinct biological changes than their larger counterparts.
The researchers chose to study primary cortical neurons, which are specialized cells taken directly from the outer layer of the brain of fetal mice. Neurons are the primary messengers of the nervous system, using electrical and chemical signals to process information and control the body. By using fresh cells rather than immortalized lab strains, the team created a model that more closely mimics how a living brain might react to foreign materials.
To test their hypothesis, the team exposed these neurons to tiny spheres made of polystyrene, a very common type of plastic used in everything from food packaging to building insulation. They used particles in three extremely small sizes: 50 nanometers, 100 nanometers, and 250 nanometers in diameter. For perspective, a human hair is roughly 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide, making even the largest of these tested plastics entirely invisible to the naked eye.
The neurons were submerged in liquid containing these plastic spheres for 24 hours. The researchers intentionally kept the concentration of the plastics low. They wanted to simulate a more realistic environmental exposure and observe subtle changes in the cells, rather than simply poisoning the neurons with an overwhelming amount of foreign material.
After the exposure period, the team used advanced microscopes to look inside the neurons. They successfully observed the 250-nanometer plastic pieces accumulating inside the bodies of the brain cells. The team noted that as the concentration of the plastic increased in the surrounding liquid, the amount of plastic absorbed by the cells also increased.
The microscopes used in the study could not clearly visualize the 50-nanometer pieces due to their incredibly small size. However, the researchers suspected these tiny pieces were also entering the cells. To determine if the plastics were harming the basic survival of the neurons, the researchers performed a test to measure the metabolic health of the cells.
They found that these low doses did not impair the basic survival or metabolic function of the neurons. The cells continued to process energy normally, showing no signs of dying off. It was only when the researchers applied extremely high doses of the plastics, far above their intended test range, that the neurons began to show signs of damage and reduced survival rates.
The team then investigated whether the tiny plastics affected the physical shape of the cells. Neurons grow long, thin extensions called neurites, which eventually become the wiring that connects different parts of the brain together. Proper neurite growth is an essential part of brain development and learning.
Using specialized imaging software, the researchers measured the length of these branches after the plastic exposure. They discovered that neurons exposed to the 50-nanometer plastics grew longer branches than those exposed to clear liquid. The cells exposed to the larger 100-nanometer and 250-nanometer plastics did not show this abnormal branch lengthening.
To understand what was happening at a deeper level, the team examined the neuronal transcriptome. The transcriptome is the complete set of genetic instructions, or RNA molecules, that a cell is actively reading and using at any given time. By looking at these instructions, scientists can see which genes a cell is turning on or off in response to stress.
The genetic analysis revealed subtle alterations in the cells exposed to the 50-nanometer plastics. The researchers found changes in the activity of genes known to control nerve branch growth and cell development. For instance, a specific gene associated with extending nerve branches, which relies on calcium to function, was highly active. This genetic shift matched the physical branch lengthening they had seen under the microscope.
Conversely, the larger 250-nanometer plastics did not cause these same genetic shifts. “It is important to understand that not only the concentration and material, but also the size of the particles matters,” Górová said in a press release. “With decreasing nanoparticle size, we observed more pronounced, although still relatively subtle changes.”
Finally, the scientists checked to see if the plastics disrupted the electrical communication between the neurons. They placed the cells on microscopic sensor plates capable of detecting the tiny electrical sparks neurons use to talk to one another. After monitoring the cells for an entire day following the plastic exposure, the team saw no changes in the firing rate or the strength of the electrical signals.
The results from the electrical tests were not statistically significant, meaning the plastic did not reliably alter the cells’ communication abilities. The brain cells maintained their normal chatter despite the presence of the foreign material. This suggests that while the smallest plastics change the physical structure and genetic reading of the cells, they do not immediately shut down the brain’s basic electrical network.
While this study offers a detailed look at how microscopic plastics interact with individual brain cells, the researchers noted several limitations to their work. The experiment involved growing isolated nerve cells in a dish, which lacks the protective barriers and complex interactions found in a complete, living brain. The human brain contains multiple types of support cells that might help clear away foreign materials or react differently to the plastics.
Additionally, the laboratory exposure only lasted for 24 hours. In the real world, humans and animals are exposed to a continuous, lifelong stream of environmental plastics. The researchers point out that a brief exposure in a lab setting cannot fully replicate the cumulative effects of decades of plastic accumulation in the human body.
The team also focused entirely on polystyrene. While polystyrene is a heavily researched material, it is just one of many different types of plastics polluting the environment. Future studies will need to test other common materials, such as polyethylene, to see if different chemical makeups trigger different reactions in nerve cells.
The researchers plan to continue exploring how these materials influence neurological health over longer periods. “In the future it would be interesting to have a look at the effects with more complex models and prolonged exposures, to get closer to the real-world scenario,” Górová said. By slowly building more realistic models, the scientific community hopes to eventually determine the true risk that everyday plastic pollution poses to the developing human brain.
The study, “Polystyrene nanoplastics modulate neurite length in a size-specific manner,” was authored by Veronika Górová, Thuy Thi Lai, Alexey M. Afonin, Kore Nemeth, Anssi Pelkonen, Tarja Malm, Pasi Jalava, Riikka Lampinen and Katja M. Kanninnen.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/nanoplastics-cause-abnormal-branch-growth-in-neurons/
-------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #Nanoplastics #Polystyrene #NeuriteLength #NeuralDevelopment #BrainHealth #Neurons #Neurotoxicity #Microplastics #Neuroscience #EnvironmentalPollution
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If you say you love freedom, but don't care if it applies to everyone, then what you really love is privilege.
#intersectional #intersectionalitymatters #mentalhealth #socialjustice #humanrights #socialdeterminantsofhealth #equity #discrimination #stigma #mentalhealthmatters #ymhc
-
If you say you love freedom, but don't care if it applies to everyone, then what you really love is privilege.
#intersectional #intersectionalitymatters #mentalhealth #socialjustice #humanrights #socialdeterminantsofhealth #equity #discrimination #stigma #mentalhealthmatters #ymhc
-
If you say you love freedom, but don't care if it applies to everyone, then what you really love is privilege.
#intersectional #intersectionalitymatters #mentalhealth #socialjustice #humanrights #socialdeterminantsofhealth #equity #discrimination #stigma #mentalhealthmatters #ymhc
-
If you say you love freedom, but don't care if it applies to everyone, then what you really love is privilege.
#intersectional #intersectionalitymatters #mentalhealth #socialjustice #humanrights #socialdeterminantsofhealth #equity #discrimination #stigma #mentalhealthmatters #ymhc
-
If you say you love freedom, but don't care if it applies to everyone, then what you really love is privilege.
#intersectional #intersectionalitymatters #mentalhealth #socialjustice #humanrights #socialdeterminantsofhealth #equity #discrimination #stigma #mentalhealthmatters #ymhc
-
Goals bring direction to compassionate insight, www.compassmethods.com. https://youtube.com/@compassionscompass-sb7jo?si=S-BrtV0ANESCm5c0 #mentalhealth #goals #love #compassion #wisdom
-
Before the phone: feet flat, name three things you can hear. The room exists. You exist in it. News comes after. https://twp.ai/9OVym5 #Mindfulness #SelfCare #MentalHealth #Grounding #Healing #Druid #Wellness /|\
thistleandmoss.com -
Before the phone: feet flat, name three things you can hear. The room exists. You exist in it. News comes after. https://twp.ai/9OVym5 #Mindfulness #SelfCare #MentalHealth #Grounding #Healing #Druid #Wellness /|\
thistleandmoss.com -
Take this job
Rojie’s prompt today, just 85 hours and 50 minutes (or so?) until the first of June, is:
Many years ago, in an earlier life, I was spending my days happily working at a job that excelled at keeping my mind busy. One day I saw there was an internal job posting that I thought sounded interesting. It was a white-collar, entry level job in IT and I kind of liked the thought of going to work wearing smart-casual shoes, chinos and a button down shirt instead of sneakers, jeans and a Grateful dead t-shirt. I had many some a few a couple of the minimum job qualifications so I applied and surprisingly, I got notified that I was selected to be interviewed for the job. Wow, great! Now what? Interviews for all the jobs I’d held to this point had been simple: Why do you want the job? You don’t use drugs, do you? Will you remember to come to work everyday? Ok, see you Monday morning at 8:00.
Now I was going to interview for a real job, one that meant something, and I needed to get some insight into interviewing. I got a book from the library about job interviews, and I actually read it and I was as ready as I could be.
The interview was with two people, the direct supervisor and the branch manager. The direct supervisor asked me questions and the branch manager sat there and stared at me like she thought I might steal something if she blinked, and if the goal was to intimidate, it worked.
The supervisor was nice and the interview was going well and a quick glance at the clock told me we’d been at it almost 10 minutes and I thought we had to be near the end because all my earlier job interviews had lasted like a minute or two and then the Staring Branch Manager broke her silence and threw me a curveball and asked me to talk about my greatest weakness. Ok, let’s play. I had read the book, and I knew what to possibly expect so I was sitting, waiting on the curveball and when I saw it headed right at me at 80 miles per hour I leaned back and took a swing for the fences and framed what I believed was my greatest weakness was into an actual strength. Thank you interview book!
Swing and a miss. There was no joy in Mudville when Casey struck out and there was no joy in that hot interview room because the Staring Branch Manager said, “How about you give me an answer that didn’t come from a book?”
Strike three.
This part, the part about the interviewer knowing what was in the book, wasn’t in the book. Thanks a lot interview book! Was she a mind reader? Had to be. Maybe she wrote the book, or certainly a book? I had nothing else to do at that point but panic. I answered poorly and that was that. Thank you, nice seeing you, blah, blah, blah. I left, and like The Wizard of Oz movie Dorothy who realized she was very happy right there in her own backyard, I just wanted to put my sneakers, jeans and t-shirt back on and return to my comfortable little backyard.
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.” – Dorothy Gale
This is a really long way of saying that today’s prompt, “What is your own pet peeve about yourself?” reminded me of a job interview question.
If you’ve made it this far and are sitting there thinking, like the Staring Branch Manager who was likely a telepath, that he didn’t answer the question, I’ll just say that like everyone, I have pet peeves about myself, and when life starts to spiral for any reason it’s incredibly easy to get lost in that spiral which can lead to emotional overload. I work hard to not get lost in that spiral, to avoid the overload, but I admit I don’t always recognize it as quickly as I could.
You can decide for yourself if any of that is true.
#CaseyAtTheBat #DorothyGale #Interview #JobInterview #Life #Love #MentalHealth #SelfHelp #Spiral #Telepaths #TheWizardOfOz #Work #Working #Writing -
Take this job
Rojie’s prompt today, just 85 hours and 50 minutes (or so?) until the first of June, is:
Many years ago, in an earlier life, I was spending my days happily working at a job that excelled at keeping my mind busy. One day I saw there was an internal job posting that I thought sounded interesting. It was a white-collar, entry level job in IT and I kind of liked the thought of going to work wearing smart-casual shoes, chinos and a button down shirt instead of sneakers, jeans and a Grateful dead t-shirt. I had many some a few a couple of the minimum job qualifications so I applied and surprisingly, I got notified that I was selected to be interviewed for the job. Wow, great! Now what? Interviews for all the jobs I’d held to this point had been simple: Why do you want the job? You don’t use drugs, do you? Will you remember to come to work everyday? Ok, see you Monday morning at 8:00.
Now I was going to interview for a real job, one that meant something, and I needed to get some insight into interviewing. I got a book from the library about job interviews, and I actually read it and I was as ready as I could be.
The interview was with two people, the direct supervisor and the branch manager. The direct supervisor asked me questions and the branch manager sat there and stared at me like she thought I might steal something if she blinked, and if the goal was to intimidate, it worked.
The supervisor was nice and the interview was going well and a quick glance at the clock told me we’d been at it almost 10 minutes and I thought we had to be near the end because all my earlier job interviews had lasted like a minute or two and then the Staring Branch Manager broke her silence and threw me a curveball and asked me to talk about my greatest weakness. Ok, let’s play. I had read the book, and I knew what to possibly expect so I was sitting, waiting on the curveball and when I saw it headed right at me at 80 miles per hour I leaned back and took a swing for the fences and framed what I believed was my greatest weakness was into an actual strength. Thank you interview book!
Swing and a miss. There was no joy in Mudville when Casey struck out and there was no joy in that hot interview room because the Staring Branch Manager said, “How about you give me an answer that didn’t come from a book?”
Strike three.
This part, the part about the interviewer knowing what was in the book, wasn’t in the book. Thanks a lot interview book! Was she a mind reader? Had to be. Maybe she wrote the book, or certainly a book? I had nothing else to do at that point but panic. I answered poorly and that was that. Thank you, nice seeing you, blah, blah, blah. I left, and like The Wizard of Oz movie Dorothy who realized she was very happy right there in her own backyard, I just wanted to put my sneakers, jeans and t-shirt back on and return to my comfortable little backyard.
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.” – Dorothy Gale
This is a really long way of saying that today’s prompt, “What is your own pet peeve about yourself?” reminded me of a job interview question.
If you’ve made it this far and are sitting there thinking, like the Staring Branch Manager who was likely a telepath, that he didn’t answer the question, I’ll just say that like everyone, I have pet peeves about myself, and when life starts to spiral for any reason it’s incredibly easy to get lost in that spiral which can lead to emotional overload. I work hard to not get lost in that spiral, to avoid the overload, but I admit I don’t always recognize it as quickly as I could.
You can decide for yourself if any of that is true.
#CaseyAtTheBat #DorothyGale #Interview #JobInterview #Life #Love #MentalHealth #SelfHelp #Spiral #Telepaths #TheWizardOfOz #Work #Working #Writing -
Take this job
Rojie’s prompt today, just 85 hours and 50 minutes (or so?) until the first of June, is:
Many years ago, in an earlier life, I was spending my days happily working at a job that excelled at keeping my mind busy. One day I saw there was an internal job posting that I thought sounded interesting. It was a white-collar, entry level job in IT and I kind of liked the thought of going to work wearing smart-casual shoes, chinos and a button down shirt instead of sneakers, jeans and a Grateful dead t-shirt. I had many some a few a couple of the minimum job qualifications so I applied and surprisingly, I got notified that I was selected to be interviewed for the job. Wow, great! Now what? Interviews for all the jobs I’d held to this point had been simple: Why do you want the job? You don’t use drugs, do you? Will you remember to come to work everyday? Ok, see you Monday morning at 8:00.
Now I was going to interview for a real job, one that meant something, and I needed to get some insight into interviewing. I got a book from the library about job interviews, and I actually read it and I was as ready as I could be.
The interview was with two people, the direct supervisor and the branch manager. The direct supervisor asked me questions and the branch manager sat there and stared at me like she thought I might steal something if she blinked, and if the goal was to intimidate, it worked.
The supervisor was nice and the interview was going well and a quick glance at the clock told me we’d been at it almost 10 minutes and I thought we had to be near the end because all my earlier job interviews had lasted like a minute or two and then the Staring Branch Manager broke her silence and threw me a curveball and asked me to talk about my greatest weakness. Ok, let’s play. I had read the book, and I knew what to possibly expect so I was sitting, waiting on the curveball and when I saw it headed right at me at 80 miles per hour I leaned back and took a swing for the fences and framed what I believed was my greatest weakness was into an actual strength. Thank you interview book!
Swing and a miss. There was no joy in Mudville when Casey struck out and there was no joy in that hot interview room because the Staring Branch Manager said, “How about you give me an answer that didn’t come from a book?”
Strike three.
This part, the part about the interviewer knowing what was in the book, wasn’t in the book. Thanks a lot interview book! Was she a mind reader? Had to be. Maybe she wrote the book, or certainly a book? I had nothing else to do at that point but panic. I answered poorly and that was that. Thank you, nice seeing you, blah, blah, blah. I left, and like The Wizard of Oz movie Dorothy who realized she was very happy right there in her own backyard, I just wanted to put my sneakers, jeans and t-shirt back on and return to my comfortable little backyard.
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.” – Dorothy Gale
This is a really long way of saying that today’s prompt, “What is your own pet peeve about yourself?” reminded me of a job interview question.
If you’ve made it this far and are sitting there thinking, like the Staring Branch Manager who was likely a telepath, that he didn’t answer the question, I’ll just say that like everyone, I have pet peeves about myself, and when life starts to spiral for any reason it’s incredibly easy to get lost in that spiral which can lead to emotional overload. I work hard to not get lost in that spiral, to avoid the overload, but I admit I don’t always recognize it as quickly as I could.
You can decide for yourself if any of that is true.
#CaseyAtTheBat #DorothyGale #Interview #JobInterview #Life #Love #MentalHealth #SelfHelp #Spiral #Telepaths #TheWizardOfOz #Work #Working #Writing -
Take this job
Rojie’s prompt today, just 85 hours and 50 minutes (or so?) until the first of June, is:
Many years ago, in an earlier life, I was spending my days happily working at a job that excelled at keeping my mind busy. One day I saw there was an internal job posting that I thought sounded interesting. It was a white-collar, entry level job in IT and I kind of liked the thought of going to work wearing smart-casual shoes, chinos and a button down shirt instead of sneakers, jeans and a Grateful dead t-shirt. I had many some a few a couple of the minimum job qualifications so I applied and surprisingly, I got notified that I was selected to be interviewed for the job. Wow, great! Now what? Interviews for all the jobs I’d held to this point had been simple: Why do you want the job? You don’t use drugs, do you? Will you remember to come to work everyday? Ok, see you Monday morning at 8:00.
Now I was going to interview for a real job, one that meant something, and I needed to get some insight into interviewing. I got a book from the library about job interviews, and I actually read it and I was as ready as I could be.
The interview was with two people, the direct supervisor and the branch manager. The direct supervisor asked me questions and the branch manager sat there and stared at me like she thought I might steal something if she blinked, and if the goal was to intimidate, it worked.
The supervisor was nice and the interview was going well and a quick glance at the clock told me we’d been at it almost 10 minutes and I thought we had to be near the end because all my earlier job interviews had lasted like a minute or two and then the Staring Branch Manager broke her silence and threw me a curveball and asked me to talk about my greatest weakness. Ok, let’s play. I had read the book, and I knew what to possibly expect so I was sitting, waiting on the curveball and when I saw it headed right at me at 80 miles per hour I leaned back and took a swing for the fences and framed what I believed was my greatest weakness was into an actual strength. Thank you interview book!
Swing and a miss. There was no joy in Mudville when Casey struck out and there was no joy in that hot interview room because the Staring Branch Manager said, “How about you give me an answer that didn’t come from a book?”
Strike three.
This part, the part about the interviewer knowing what was in the book, wasn’t in the book. Thanks a lot interview book! Was she a mind reader? Had to be. Maybe she wrote the book, or certainly a book? I had nothing else to do at that point but panic. I answered poorly and that was that. Thank you, nice seeing you, blah, blah, blah. I left, and like The Wizard of Oz movie Dorothy who realized she was very happy right there in her own backyard, I just wanted to put my sneakers, jeans and t-shirt back on and return to my comfortable little backyard.
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.” – Dorothy Gale
This is a really long way of saying that today’s prompt, “What is your own pet peeve about yourself?” reminded me of a job interview question.
If you’ve made it this far and are sitting there thinking, like the Staring Branch Manager who was likely a telepath, that he didn’t answer the question, I’ll just say that like everyone, I have pet peeves about myself, and when life starts to spiral for any reason it’s incredibly easy to get lost in that spiral which can lead to emotional overload. I work hard to not get lost in that spiral, to avoid the overload, but I admit I don’t always recognize it as quickly as I could.
You can decide for yourself if any of that is true.
#CaseyAtTheBat #DorothyGale #Interview #JobInterview #Life #Love #MentalHealth #SelfHelp #Spiral #Telepaths #TheWizardOfOz #Work #Working #Writing -
Take this job
Rojie’s prompt today, just 85 hours and 50 minutes (or so?) until the first of June, is:
Many years ago, in an earlier life, I was spending my days happily working at a job that excelled at keeping my mind busy. One day I saw there was an internal job posting that I thought sounded interesting. It was a white-collar, entry level job in IT and I kind of liked the thought of going to work wearing smart-casual shoes, chinos and a button down shirt instead of sneakers, jeans and a Grateful dead t-shirt. I had many some a few a couple of the minimum job qualifications so I applied and surprisingly, I got notified that I was selected to be interviewed for the job. Wow, great! Now what? Interviews for all the jobs I’d held to this point had been simple: Why do you want the job? You don’t use drugs, do you? Will you remember to come to work everyday? Ok, see you Monday morning at 8:00.
Now I was going to interview for a real job, one that meant something, and I needed to get some insight into interviewing. I got a book from the library about job interviews, and I actually read it and I was as ready as I could be.
The interview was with two people, the direct supervisor and the branch manager. The direct supervisor asked me questions and the branch manager sat there and stared at me like she thought I might steal something if she blinked, and if the goal was to intimidate, it worked.
The supervisor was nice and the interview was going well and a quick glance at the clock told me we’d been at it almost 10 minutes and I thought we had to be near the end because all my earlier job interviews had lasted like a minute or two and then the Staring Branch Manager broke her silence and threw me a curveball and asked me to talk about my greatest weakness. Ok, let’s play. I had read the book, and I knew what to possibly expect so I was sitting, waiting on the curveball and when I saw it headed right at me at 80 miles per hour I leaned back and took a swing for the fences and framed what I believed was my greatest weakness was into an actual strength. Thank you interview book!
Swing and a miss. There was no joy in Mudville when Casey struck out and there was no joy in that hot interview room because the Staring Branch Manager said, “How about you give me an answer that didn’t come from a book?”
Strike three.
This part, the part about the interviewer knowing what was in the book, wasn’t in the book. Thanks a lot interview book! Was she a mind reader? Had to be. Maybe she wrote the book, or certainly a book? I had nothing else to do at that point but panic. I answered poorly and that was that. Thank you, nice seeing you, blah, blah, blah. I left, and like The Wizard of Oz movie Dorothy who realized she was very happy right there in her own backyard, I just wanted to put my sneakers, jeans and t-shirt back on and return to my comfortable little backyard.
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.” – Dorothy Gale
This is a really long way of saying that today’s prompt, “What is your own pet peeve about yourself?” reminded me of a job interview question.
If you’ve made it this far and are sitting there thinking, like the Staring Branch Manager who was likely a telepath, that he didn’t answer the question, I’ll just say that like everyone, I have pet peeves about myself, and when life starts to spiral for any reason it’s incredibly easy to get lost in that spiral which can lead to emotional overload. I work hard to not get lost in that spiral, to avoid the overload, but I admit I don’t always recognize it as quickly as I could.
You can decide for yourself if any of that is true.
#CaseyAtTheBat #DorothyGale #Interview #JobInterview #Life #Love #MentalHealth #SelfHelp #Spiral #Telepaths #TheWizardOfOz #Work #Working #Writing -
Daily Bread as Exit from the Jungle: The Hidden Meaning of the Lord’s Prayerby Yuriy Gladkov with Copilot.
#christianity #islam #psihologia #stoicism #buddhism #mentalhealth -
Back & Posterior Delts.
Lat Pulldown:
1. 40kg x 20 reos
2. 47kg x 15 reps
3. 54kg x 10 reps
4. 61kg (134lbs) x 8 reps
10 seconds rest un between the setsSupine Overhead Pulldown:
1. 40kg x 15 reps
2. 47kg x 12 reps
3. 54kg x 10 reps
4. 61kg (134lbs) x 8 reps
10 seconds rest in between the setsDRAX Row:
1. 20kg x 20 reps
2. 25kg x 15 reps
3. 32kg x 10 reps
4. 40kg (88lbs) x 8 reps
10 seconds rest in between the setsSupine DRAX row:
1. 25kg x 20 reps
2. 32kg x 15 reps
3. 40kg x 10 reps
4. 47kg (104lbs) x 8 reps
10 seconds rest in between the setsMTS High Row:
1. 40kg x 20 reps
2. 50kg x 15 reps
3. 60kg x 10 reps
4. 70kg (154lbs) x 6 reps
10 seconds rest in between the setsResistance Band Pulldown:
15, 15, 10 & 10 hard squeezes
10 seconds rest in between the setsResistance Band Shoulder Abduction:
4 x 10 repsResistance Band Facepull - high:
4 x 10 repsVariable Resistance Band Facepull - Regular:
4 x 15 reps
#blog #bodybuilding #fitness #MentalHealth -
https://www.europesays.com/videos/34176/ Behind closed doors: Inside the UK’s maternity crisis #BABIES #baby #BirthTrauma #car #care #CONSULTANTS #HEALTHCARE #HOSPITALS #maternity #MATERNITYSERVICES #MATERNITYSYSTEM #MENTALHEALTH #MIDWIVES #NEONATAL #NEWBORNS #news #nhs #nurses #patients #POSTNATAL #PRENATAL #PREMATURE #PRENATAL #PTSD #SkyNews #SophyRidge
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On average it is taking a full 2-3 hours for my systems to fully engage everyday, when I first drag myself out of bed I can barely see that lasts 30-45 minutes before my blurry eyes clear and I can somewhat see, my ankles knees and legs at first are stiff rigid dead weights that can take a full 2 hours before I can actually move normally, my stomach slowly becomes active and after 3 or 4 times to the throne it is finally online completely, my hands well they seem to struggle all the time now, my mind my brain seems to take at least 2 hours before I can fully process anything at all, aging with chronic fatigue constant pain being disabled and existing in poverty all take a horrible toll on the body and mind that so many either can not or chose not to see, and when your alone in life all those things add up hard and fast making every day a monumental task just to be, my existence to say the least is a battle of spite because I have long lost the strength to fight, the decline is constant and unforgiving, the loss of executive cognitive function is exhausting and having nothing more than a rather mundane and depressing routine, to try and stay the course in itself is burdensome, so many are clueless to the extreme difficulty I experience every single day, and in my 48 years of life so far, I have found people in general truly don't care, until it is themselves that are trapped in a well of disfunction and despair, they won't take the time to offer any support when support is asked , leaving a already tumultuous existence a rather bleak endeavour:
That is why it is so important I get the help I need to raise the money I am trying to raise, not only to live each day, but to buy property build a forever home and hire a personal caretaker, and maybe have the means to helps someone else like me before my time expires, $5million may seem like a big number, but when you look at it, it is not, first the cost of buying property and then building a forever home that will sustain and take care of you, I have the numbers worked out, and when all is said and done I should have $1.5million left, which works our around $37,00 a year for the next forty years, in 40 years I will be 88, assuming I live that long, $37,000 a year will empower me to care for myself cover my own expenses, and if by the Grace of God I could have more, I would be able to help others along the way, so maybe they don't have to suffer alone and as much as I have, from dinner tonight to taking a shower tomorrow, to having the security of my own forever home until I expire, your support right now means far more than you can ever fathom, so please, share support and embrace my plight with some compassion right now, thank you;
Urgent need: $20,928, Monthly survival: $1,500, Long-term liberation: $25,000 to climb out. $5 million to build a forever home and sanctuary for others like me.
If you’ve ever wondered what despair looks like, this is it. If you’ve ever wanted to make a real difference, this is your chance.
[color=green]Please help. Every dollar matters. Every share matters. Every act of compassion matters.• CashApp: $woctxphotog
• PayPal: paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=…#MutualAid, #Disabled, #Poverty, #Help, #Survival, #Compassion, #Pain, #MentalHealth, #Food, #Groceries, #Hygiene, #Anxiety, #PTSD, #Bipolar, #Dignity
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DATE: May 28, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: The psychology of paradoxical thinking: Extreme arguments in favor of a controversial topic can reduce overall support
A recent study published in The Journal of Social Psychology suggests that presenting people with exaggerated arguments in favor of a controversial topic might actually make them oppose it more strongly. By testing this persuasion technique on attitudes toward prostitution, researchers found that exposure to absurdly supportive messages tends to reduce favorable views on the issue and indirectly increases support for restrictive policies. These findings provide evidence that unconventional communication strategies can shift opinions on morally charged social issues.
Changing strongly held social beliefs remains a major challenge in psychology. People naturally process information defensively. When they encounter facts that contradict their existing views, they tend to evaluate that evidence in a way that protects their current opinions. Because of this defensive reaction, direct persuasion attempts using counter-arguments often fail to change minds.
In response, psychologists developed a technique called paradoxical thinking. This method involves presenting messages that agree with a person’s general stance but are exaggerated to an extreme or absurd degree. The goal is to prompt the listener to reject the extreme conclusion. By distancing themselves from the absurd argument, individuals might soften their original stance.
Psychologists sometimes call this process cognitive unfreezing, which refers to a temporary mental openness that allows people to reconsider their prior beliefs without feeling directly attacked. Most past experiments on paradoxical thinking have focused on political disagreements and intergroup conflicts. The authors of the new study wanted to test if this technique could influence views on a highly polarizing and morally loaded topic.
Uri Lifshin, a senior researcher at the Israel Center on Addiction and Mental Health and the psychology department at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, explained the study’s origins. “Daniella and Omer came up with the idea during the course ‘Psychology and Social Change’, in which students tried to apply various social psychological theories to promote social change,” Lifshin said, referring to co-authors Daniella Yaffe and Omer Kochav. “We were exploring the idea of using paradoxical thinking as an intervention in different social domains.”
Attitudes toward prostitution are widely varied and deeply tied to personal morals. Some people view prostitution as a consensual economic activity, while others see it as inherently harmful and exploitative. Because arguments against prostitution can sometimes feel like threats to individual freedom, people might resist standard negative messaging. To explore this dynamic, the scientists designed three experiments to see how readers would react to absurdly pro-prostitution messages.
In the first experiment, the researchers recruited an international sample of 231 adults through the social media platform Reddit. The group consisted of 114 men, 105 women, and 12 individuals who reported a different gender, with ages ranging from 18 to 66. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of four short articles about prostitution.
All the articles contained identical factual information about global prevalence, gender distribution, and reported psychological harms. The texts only differed in their concluding arguments. The moderate paradoxical article argued that prostitution should be allowed simply because it gives women a way to make easy money.
The extreme paradoxical article took a more drastic stance, arguing that prostitution should continue because men enjoy it and benefit from it psychologically. A negative message article concluded that prostitution must be stopped due to the severe harm it causes. Finally, a neutral article presented only the basic facts without any prescriptive conclusion.
After reading the assigned text, participants completed a survey measuring their attitudes toward prostitution, including their beliefs about the legality of the practice. They were also asked if they would be willing to sign a petition to make prostitution illegal, though the petition was fictitious. The results indicated that the moderate paradoxical message successfully reduced positive views on prostitution.
Participants who read the moderate pro-prostitution article reported less favorable attitudes toward the practice compared to those who read the neutral or negative articles. The extreme paradoxical text did not reliably differ from the comparison conditions in this first sample. While the messages did not directly cause massive shifts in petition signing, the researchers found an indirect effect.
The moderate paradoxical text shifted underlying attitudes. These adjusted viewpoints then predicted a higher willingness to sign the petition to ban prostitution. This suggests that the technique primarily operates by changing internal opinions before influencing outward behavior.
The scientists then conducted a second experiment to see if they could replicate these patterns in a different cultural setting. They recruited 103 Hebrew-speaking Israelis from Reddit, consisting of 88 men, 14 women, and one person of another gender, aged 18 to 47. This time, the researchers simplified the setup by removing the neutral article condition.
Participants were randomly assigned to read either the moderate paradoxical message, the extreme paradoxical message, or the standard negative message, all translated into Hebrew. Following the reading assignment, the sample answered the same questions regarding their views on prostitution and their willingness to sign the petition. In this Israeli sample, the extreme paradoxical condition proved to be the most effective.
Participants exposed to the extremely exaggerated message reported significantly less favorable attitudes toward prostitution than those in the moderate or negative groups. The success of the extreme message in this context caught the researchers off guard.
“We did not initially expect that the more extreme version of the absurd paradoxical statement about prostitution (that despite all the harm it can do, prostitution should be legal because men enjoy it) would be more effective than the moderate paradoxical message (that despite all the harm it can do, prostitution should be legal because it provides women with the opportunity to get relatively easy money),” Lifshin told PsyPost. “It was surprising to see that many people accepted the latter statement.”
Just as in the first experiment, the extreme paradoxical text did not directly alter petition signing. Instead, it indirectly increased willingness to sign by first shifting the participants’ attitudes.
For the third experiment, the researchers wanted to test the underlying psychological mechanism of paradoxical thinking. They hypothesized that the technique works precisely because people actively disagree with the absurd message. They recruited another group of Reddit users, resulting in a final sample of 97 adults aged 18 to 58. This group included 72 men, 23 women, and two non-binary individuals.
Participants were randomly divided into just two groups to read either the extreme paradoxical message or the standard negative message. Afterward, they rated how much they agreed or disagreed with the article they had just read, completed the attitude survey, and answered the petition question. The researchers found that participants agreed significantly less with the paradoxical message than with the negative message.
When analyzing the psychological pathways, the scientists noticed a distinct pattern in the paradoxical group. Strong disagreement with the absurd pro-prostitution article predicted less favorable attitudes toward the practice. These reduced favorable attitudes then predicted a higher likelihood of supporting restrictive policy actions.
In the negative message group, agreement operated in a standard persuasive manner, where agreeing with the text led to less favorable views on prostitution. This difference in pathways provides evidence that paradoxical thinking works specifically by triggering rejection of an exaggerated idea. When combining the data from all three experiments, representing 431 total participants, the overall trends became more pronounced. The combined analysis showed that the extreme paradoxical manipulation had a robust indirect effect on the behavioral intention to sign the petition to ban prostitution.
“The findings demonstrate that sometimes paradoxical thinking maneuvers can be more effective in affecting attitudes and behaviors than ordinary direct persuasion,” Lifshin said. “This highlights the potential use of the theory in different domains.”
However, the strategy is not without drawbacks. “There is both potential and risk in applying paradoxical thinking interventions as a persuasion technique,” Lifshin added. “The key is to consider the sensibility and variability within each context.”
The study has some limitations, including modest sample sizes and a high number of participants who had to be excluded because they failed attention checks. Additionally, the gender distribution in the second and third experiments was heavily skewed toward men. This imbalance makes it difficult to know how women might respond to similar messaging.
Lifshin pointed out that the findings require context. “First, that the effects of paradoxical interventions might be risky, as their effects may vary depending on factors like content and extremity,” he noted. “When poorly calibrated or delivered to the wrong audience, messages that are too moderate (or too exaggerated as found in previous studies) may reinforce rather than undermine the target attitude.”
“Accordingly, paradoxical thinking should be treated as a theoretically grounded approach that requires careful theoretical tailoring, ethical consideration, and testing before any practical application,” Lifshin said.
The authors also clarified their own stance on the study’s subject matter. “Second, the topic of legalization of prostitution itself is very sensitive and complex,” Lifshin added. “While there are many negative aspects of prostitution, we do not necessarily view it as entirely negative, nor do we believe that criminalizing sex work is the solution.”
Looking ahead, the researchers hope to test this technique in other areas. “We hope to be able to apply paradoxical thinking interventions to different domains,” Lifshin said. “It could for example be tested as a way to reduce prejudice, or to promote pro-environmental behaviors.”
“Currently we are thinking about testing paradoxical thinking interventions in the context of addictions (i.e., to reduce motivation for using substances or other addictive behaviors),” he noted.
“We hope that this work may inspire more work on applications of paradoxical thinking in important domains and highlight the need for theoretically grounded interventions for attitude change, what Tim Wilson and Greg Walton call ‘wise interventions’,” Lifshin said.
The study, “Paradoxical thinking and attitudes toward prostitution: preliminary experimental findings,” was authored by Daniella Yaffe, Omer Kochav, and Uri Lifshin.
-------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ParadoxicalThinking #AttitudeChange #SocialPsychology #PersuasionTechniques #CognitiveUnfreezing #PoliticalCommunication #MoralityDebate #ProstitutionResearch #WiseInterventions #BehavioralInfluence
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Florida International University: When a chatbot feels easier than talking to a person. “Late at night, when anxiety gets louder and reaching out to another person feels like too much, an AI chatbot can seem easy to talk to. It does not judge. It does not interrupt. It answers immediately. For people who are lonely, overwhelmed or afraid of being misunderstood, that can feel comforting. But […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/28/florida-international-university-when-a-chatbot-feels-easier-than-talking-to-a-person/ -
Florida International University: When a chatbot feels easier than talking to a person. “Late at night, when anxiety gets louder and reaching out to another person feels like too much, an AI chatbot can seem easy to talk to. It does not judge. It does not interrupt. It answers immediately. For people who are lonely, overwhelmed or afraid of being misunderstood, that can feel comforting. But […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/28/florida-international-university-when-a-chatbot-feels-easier-than-talking-to-a-person/ -
Florida International University: When a chatbot feels easier than talking to a person. “Late at night, when anxiety gets louder and reaching out to another person feels like too much, an AI chatbot can seem easy to talk to. It does not judge. It does not interrupt. It answers immediately. For people who are lonely, overwhelmed or afraid of being misunderstood, that can feel comforting. But […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/28/florida-international-university-when-a-chatbot-feels-easier-than-talking-to-a-person/ -
Florida International University: When a chatbot feels easier than talking to a person. “Late at night, when anxiety gets louder and reaching out to another person feels like too much, an AI chatbot can seem easy to talk to. It does not judge. It does not interrupt. It answers immediately. For people who are lonely, overwhelmed or afraid of being misunderstood, that can feel comforting. But […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/28/florida-international-university-when-a-chatbot-feels-easier-than-talking-to-a-person/ -
Florida International University: When a chatbot feels easier than talking to a person. “Late at night, when anxiety gets louder and reaching out to another person feels like too much, an AI chatbot can seem easy to talk to. It does not judge. It does not interrupt. It answers immediately. For people who are lonely, overwhelmed or afraid of being misunderstood, that can feel comforting. But […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/28/florida-international-university-when-a-chatbot-feels-easier-than-talking-to-a-person/ -
Teach about mandala art, meditation and mindfulness with film for Meditation Month. These free lesson plans include fun experiential activities that students love. A great way to introduce students to World Religions, Buddhism, and Global Education while teaching valuable emotional regulation skills. For grades 5-12.
#MeditationMonth #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth #Movies #SocialEmotionalLearning #MentalHealthEducation #Education #Homeschooling #Buddhism #Meditation #Mindfulness #Vipassana #MorganFreeman #MentalHealth #MentalHealthAwarness #Mandala
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@ayham_ljboor2008/116651730306843476
‼️ MENTAL HEALTH EMERGENCY‼️
🆘 It's really important that Ayham continues his education‼️ He needs to do this for his mental health‼️ It will give him hope for the future and help to keep his mind off the bombing, the siege, and other problems.
Please help a young man heal from a living hell‼️
Ayham genuinely gets few donations❗ 💔
Radio Watermelon ✅
lifeline4gaza ✅https://lifeline4gaza.com/share/733
#Gaza #hope #Palestine #humanity #humanrights #mentalhealth #wellbeing
-
RE: https://mastodon.social/@ayham_ljboor2008/116651730306843476
‼️ MENTAL HEALTH EMERGENCY‼️
🆘 It's really important that Ayham continues his education‼️ He needs to do this for his mental health‼️ It will give him hope for the future and help to keep his mind off the bombing, the siege, and other problems.
Please help a young man heal from a living hell‼️
Ayham genuinely gets few donations❗ 💔
Radio Watermelon ✅
lifeline4gaza ✅https://lifeline4gaza.com/share/733
#Gaza #hope #Palestine #humanity #humanrights #mentalhealth #wellbeing