Revival

Is your sense of belonging linked to your generation?

Do you identify with your generation?
What do you regret or praise your generation for?
Did age stop you from achieving your goals?

The more I hear about disabilities, the more I wish I was born 20 years later.
Mental awareness at school and workplace was never acknowledged before the 90s.

I was struck this morning to hear that Mc Donald UK started hiring autistics over 50.

The 50s are the new 30s!
Also, there s an increasing number of working 90 yos!

My vision of the future is that State Pensions will disappear.

Generations are becoming interchangeable, we see it in music, 80/90s bands are having a revival.
90s kids invented techno-beat.

20 extra years, that’s all I need.

David Bowie sang in the 90s:
♬I’ve got Seven days
to live my life 
and Seven days to die…♬

Today he would replace Seven Days with Twenty Years.


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Outdated Technology

The Internet revolutionized society and the way we interact, both positively and negatively. 

Calls have become obsolete, these days.
Texting is the norm.
A text can’t express emotions like a voice.

My generation adopted the Internet and eventually adapted to it.
On the other hand, it was imposed to new generations.
That implies a difference in displaying emotions: the Young are clearly more comfortable in texting, the Senior in speaking.

How do we match generations?
There are times when compromising is inevitable.

Calls are extremely stressful.
I love voice calls. 
At the same time, I m aware they can be bothersome for others.

Nowadays, the ‘etiquette’ is booking calls prior text.
Don’t dare to dial without notice!
People want to be comfortable to speak, 90% of phones are now mobile devices.
Back in the day, you could only reach someone at home, no need for notice.

Problem today, is matching time between caller and receiver, virtually impossible.
I try to follow the ‘general rules’, office hours, meal times still, each person has a different schedule and often find myself in an inconvenient conversation.

How to overcome communication s barriers will be the new AI challenge.

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Self-awareness in Neurodivergence

Victimization and Criticism stop us from Achieving.

Self-awareness and Acceptance are the antonyms of Victimization and Criticism.
The latter are the main obstacles in ADHD, although common in Autism to a lesser extent.

Autism and ASD are two distinct disorders sharing some traits.

Autism normally requires institutionalization.
ASD was formerly known as Asperger Syndrome and is highly co-morbid with NPD = Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
The two conditions are offensively referred to as ‘Low-functioning/High-functioning Autism’, a topic I’ll discuss extensively in future articles.
Just so you know, there is only One diagnosis of Autism thus far.
ASD doesn’t require institutionalization.
I have an autistic institutionalized brother, don’t try to challenge me with populist rhetoric, I’ve been ridiculed big time on the subject, I don’t stand the test anymore, I know all too well.
Forgive the emotional outburst, I live only for my brother and wife.
My parents are long gone, the pain is often unbearable.

To date, I score predominantly on ADHD, and I am grateful for my strong empathy.
Helping others is my biggest motivation and reward.

I don’t get along well with pathological ‘know it all’ ASDers. 
Their concept of friendship is Convenience: if they need your help, they become best buddies, once achieved their goals they discard you on the spot without resentment. 
They generally excel financially, henceforth better off with addressing their obsessions to expensive life-coaches on a “see you later”, non-committal fashion.
No offence intended, I just speak from personal experience.

Commitment is very along the lines with self-awareness and acceptance. 
One doesn’t become aware in the blink of an eye. Difficult task in ADHD. 

Professionals have coined the expression “Staying on Task”.
Why are awareness and acceptance fundamental to staying on task?

The ADHD brain is constantly wandering around, stimulant medication is a key element to achieve awareness. Awareness enhances Acceptance, Motivation and Self-esteem in succession.

Motivation is the driving force behind Reward.
People who are eager to start a new workday are a rarity.
The solution is seeing the reward at the end of the day, Motivation.
If you can’t see the light, seek reward in volunteering, but don’t enter the mindless pursuit, Addiction.

Acceptance is of big help for patience, reward doesn’t come straight.
As far as you try, you are never a failure.
The more you try, the more you’ll develop Self-esteem.

Don’t be a victim.



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Bullying of Neurodivergent

Autistics are still bullied. Teachers must tackle and recognize neurodiversity in its first manifestations.

Autistics are often victims of bullying in school.

There is still no anti-Bullying law, although schools are taking serious actions, recently.

Back in my day, bullying was totally ignored and perpetrated by teachers themselves.
That made me feel an underachiever.
I wish I was born 20 years later.

My Christian faith was not that strong back then.

My worry is not being accepted by young generations.
I wish I was appreciated by my young personality, not my biological age.

I’m full of initiative, I just need people to pave the way for me.









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Nervous breakdown

Is Burnout a symptom or synonymous with Brokenness?

Medical jargon is being updated to unprecedented extents, complicit Online Medicine. Nowadays, people consult Medical sites prior to visiting doctors. Online diagnoses are Medical frauds.

Burnout is the result of long-term stress.

Cortisol is the main stress-hormone released by the adrenal glands in response to fear, logically of calming properties.
Quite the contrary: Cortisol damages Dendrites, thin filaments attached to neurons involved in memory.
‘Dendritic Retraction’, the shriveling up of dendrites with consequent severe memory loss in chronic stress, is the outcome.

The function of Cortisol is to erase fearful emotions, nonetheless, it has proven a dysfunctional non-selective hormone by disrupting all spatial memory.
Cognitive Impairment is the ultimate result.

Keeping a regular sleep-routine remains the first preventive measure.
There is no specific cure yet for Memory Decline.
Prevention associated to a healthy lifestyle, always provides the best protection from disease.




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Social Narratives

Some new types of therapy deprive neurodivergents of their dignity for conformity through ethically questionable methods.

Social narratives are a kind of repetitive behavioral therapy used for subjects with severe learning disabilities.
Although results are quite satisfactory, I personally associate a certain extent of humiliation to it.
Repetition is always synonymous with poor performance.
We’re talking of mere repetition of actions to be mindlessly memorized and carried out automatically for the purpose of conforming to neurotypical behavior.
I understand there are circumstances where standards are to be met either for safety or consideration, despite believing in more humane approaches.

Social Narratives are what was formerly called ‘Role-playing’ in a pre-Internet society.
We re starting to realize how badly the social media have enslaved us.
New vocabulary invented by technology is introduced daily.
I’m not against ameliorating syntax, but what we’re doing now is destroying languages: we pronounce words individually, grammar is off the charts, all for the sake of media.

What differentiates ‘Social Narratives’ from ‘Role-playing’?
The outcome is basically the same.
The byproduct is different: with Social Narratives we create functional humans by erasing thought-processing.
With ‘Role-playing’ we can achieve conformation to non-erratic behavior by stimulating thought-processing.

Now, everybody has a dignity, even the cognitive impaired.
Thought-processing is dignified.
Depriving a person of their dignity equals Cloning, the frightening new frontier of Globalization.

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Mental Brokenness

Neurodivergence from a traumatic perspective.

Brokenness is rooted in the past, although we experience it in the present.

Nowadays, psychology is abused by unqualified, self-proclaimed therapists and life-coaches, primarily accounting for former Social Workers with basic skills in Crisis Intervention, their first appeal to many NDs who lost trust in Mental Health Professionals.

Medical insurances don’t cover these holistic practices for lack of scientific evidence, yet the law allows them to operate as in private facilities.

There are four responses to brokenness as described by psychologists:
Denial, Distraction, Sadness and Despair, ultimately culminating in Mercy-seeking.
Charlatans know it well: they sell Mercy.
Why not Professionals?
In this instance, we must enter the sensitive field of Medical Ethics.

Doctors must show empathy without getting emotionally involved with patients.
Have you ever wondered why doctors can’t treat their family members…?
Unfortunately, some Mental Health Professionals fail to compartmentalise these two skills, in so becoming apathetic and encouraging patients to look for unhealthy alternatives.

Denial and Distraction have a lot in common, the former being a Delusion, the latter a Coping strategy.
Eventually, Sadness takes over.
The last stage of Sadness is Despair.

Brokenness has a different chemistry from Clinical Depression.
MDD is characterized by hopelessness and it’s not necessarily post-traumatic.
Brokenness is always the outcome of past Hurt, a form of ‘mystical PTSD’: sufferers have normally a solid faith that keeps them going, but not always in the right direction. 
They’re easily lured in search of Mercy.

Mercy has multiple implications for the mentally ill: it is the Longing to be heard, to be healed, for empathy.
Very few can find real mercy in holistic practices, if not just for the fees…

I wish Professionals would show empathy to their clients, in addition to coldly prescribing the latest treatment.

That could make the difference.

Neurodiversity can manifest overly introverted or extroverted. 
It can be upsetting to the NT who must put in a lot of effort to empathize with the ND by Listening non-judgementally, through impersonating into their mindset.
It is no secret that the mentally unstable crave for Attention.

We hear all the time about celebrities with multiple diagnoses of BPD, Bipolar, ADHD, ASD……, eventually claiming of having been misdiagnosed, nonetheless a component of the show-business for glamour, take it with a large grain of salt, I’m yet to see a neurotypical celebrity.

Some neuroscientists regard Psychiatry as pseudoscience struggling to keep a foothold, before getting inevitably embodied into Neurology.
Thankfully, psychiatrists know a good deal of neurology, they are MDs with a solid pharmacological orientation.
I’m positive about the integration with brain-circuitry oriented Neurology.






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Too much at stake

The aftermath of happy memories.

Too much at stake is a cry for help.
This week I have too much at stake.

It is possibly the worst state of mind to me: I feel out of touch, I can’t cope, I’m not able to multitask, I lack support and diversions, visual representations trigger me, sleep is not resting.

The Past sucks my happiness, I wish I could erase it permanently.
I dread memories since they belong to the past. The past is addictive like a recreational drug: the euphoria is always followed by crashing. Unfortunately, memories can’t be erased naturally.
I’m disassociating.

I knew it was going to happen. 

I couldn’t refrain from watching a documentary about my country in the hope of the euphoric reaction into bringing up happy memories.
It worked just fine while watching, only to be followed by unbearable nostalgia the next day.
I pretend to be there by detaching from reality.
It’s scary and draining.
My concentration swings dramatically between locations.

I can’t wait for the second episode tonight since it’s a five episode’ series.
It will be a spark of adrenaline and excitement, a temporary relief, an addiction.
The nostalgia will keep building up.
It will be a miserable week.

I have no options: my neurotypical wife loves my country and wants to watch with me in the capacity of commentator.
A typical example of co-dependency.I know how she craves Europe.

How long will it take for me to recover?
I m lucky to see my psychiatrist next week, that will help some…
Disassociating is not the solution.

Again, my dear autistic friends, choose carefully which means of entertainment work best for you.

And most importantly, keep in mind that adrenaline rushes are always followed by the deepest crashes.

It doesn’t pay off.

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Self-punishment

We know little of Self-harm. The main dilemma remains whether it is a conscious or subconscious act. It is generally dismissed as OCD, a non-specific condition itself.

Self-harm is not a diagnosis, it is a compulsion.
OCD is a co-morbid diagnosis.
‘Co-morbid’ means ‘underlying, multiple’.In turn, ‘underlying’ means ‘hiding’ in popular language.
We’re naturally unaware of hidden entities.
This would be eloquent to classify Self-harm as a subconscious action, yet OCD sufferers are fully aware of their irrational rituals still, unable to resist them.
Abating Anxiety is the established general consensus.
What goes against human psychology, is why Pain would abate Anxiety.
Quite the opposite, Pain is a major trigger of Anxiety in neurotypical individuals.

I support the ‘Self-punishment’ theory.

Talking from a male perspective: all men know how to avoid razor cuts, although a large number can’t help with it.
Refraining requires Willingness.
Willingness requires Commitment.
Commitment is a conscious choice.
No man is willing to cut his face, unless masochistic, a perversion rather than illness.
Forget shaving-tutorials and safety-razors. In the right mindset, you won’t hurt.

If I am in the throes of Guilt, I ll make a battlefield of my face even with the top state-of-the-art’ safety razor.
If I am gripped by Reward, I can clean-shave with a rogue kitchen knife without a single scar. I am in full control.

When I feel guilty, unproductive, underachieving, I can’t stop stroking my face until I consciously see the blood.
I know perfectly well that I am going to hurt myself.

Based on my personal experience, I concord that OCD doesn’t affect Awareness, it is the Compulsion to self-discipline through physical or emotional Pain.


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