Okay, let's start this hypersomnia thread!

[note - I am not looking for unsolicited advice.]

Idiopathic hypersomnia or narcolepsy (not the same, but similar) is very hard to describe to people.

When I say "I slept 10 hours last night and I'm still tired" I'm not bragging. 1/16

For me, the accommodations I need are about time. My body doesn't care what I want to do - when I want to wake up or be asleep. My body wants to wake up at 10-11am, and go to sleep at 3am, always.

Just a one hour shift in my sleep schedule can screw me up for days. 2/16

When I tell people that I'd really "prefer it" if we could meet at 10am or later, it's because getting up before that has consequences for me. Big consequences. Most people won't see them. Sometimes I still give in and say it's fine. It ruins 2-3 of my days, sometimes more. 3/16

Let me explain. When I am required to wake up at 9am, esp. in covid times working from home, my body pays me back for it later.

I'm going to show you ways this happens. I can usually withstand 1 day of waking up early, with some consequences, but 2 days in a row kills me. 4/16

Let's say this graph represents Day 1, the first time I am required to get up early. The y-axis is my level of Sleepiness. Any symptom listed higher up includes that symptom + every other symptom below it. Getting up that early means I can't listen or concentrate all day. 5/16

On #Cis [Sic]

The neologisms 'cissexual' and 'cisgender' were coined by Volkmar Sigusch in the late 90's https://t.co/KkhxJrldmS
Prevalent usage of the term Cis/Cisgender has since grown to imply the existence of a metaphysical precondition: something called 'gender identity' 1/

and some kind of weighing up of the 'fit' between that thing ('gender identity') and one's sex. As the theory goes, everyone has a 'Gender Identity' which 'fits' or 'matches' the sex which - again *according to the theory* - one is 'assigned' [sic] at birth.

Problems so far:
2/

1. 'Assigned at birth' is a term appropriated by Gender Identity Ideologues / lobbyists from intersex / VSD Communities for whom it has a painful historical resonance. Pleas for it not to be appropriated fall on deaf ears. The term has zero rational basis for application in 3/

most human births.
2. The 'Gender Identity' thing requires acceptance of the notion that humans have a pre-cultural capacity for orienting ourselves to modes of 'gender expression' i.e. dress, mannerisms, habitus, demeanour & so on. This capacity / spirit ('Gender Identity') 4/

is the 'thing' which somehow interprets its correctness or otherwise against one's sex. To expand on this process: a human male or female cross-checks the mysterious contents & characteristics of his or her 'gender identity' against their bodies and concludes a 'match' ('Cis) 5/

Our conscious experience exists. In fact, it's the only thing you can directly observe, as everything about reality and how we perceive it is filtered through how our brains process stimuli and information. You are the only one who can define who and what you are.

Don't get me wrong, I am a materialist who believes the universe exists in the absence of beings who can observe it from an intelligence standpoint, but we are all collections of atoms, our function governed by chemical processes, not perfectly replicated by the process of birth.

Our means of DNA replication is imprecise because of billions of years of random evolution. We are on one branch of many, and there is countless variation in how all living beings are formed, and how we classify traits of those creatures, including sex and reproduction methods.

It would be an error to say that people who are intersex and/or transgender are the results of mistakes or errors in reproduction, because it implies DNA is "trying" to create a binary model of people and sometimes gets it wrong. It doesn't "try" to do anything; DNA != conscious.

Rather, our biological blueprints are not precise, and this is true for all living things. We can crossbreed plants and animals because of that imprecise nature, it's responsible for what we perceive as the "races" of people, etc. We can observe variation everywhere.

Me: Made a thread about how people don't understand hyperacusis and give advice that obviously I've already tried.

This person only a few tweets into the thread:

I only tweeted this because, like it or not, this is the general population's reaction to me talking about hyperacusis.

Similar replies happened when there was the whole "not clapping" article regarding Cambridge.

They're so quick to label disabilities as not real disabilities.

It's important to remember this when people may ask why we've never talked about this before, or why it's not talked about a lot.

Most people don't talk about their hyperacusis because if they do, people respond like this. So most of the time, honestly it's easier to say nothing

Yes I am petty enough to add screenshots of this toxicity to this thread:

Asking for accessibility is "pathetic." /s : )

@jwdickerson Please no apologies, I meant nothing by it...I was just thinking out loud.... I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable!

Many many clinicians, have difficulty distinguishing re: diagnosus between the three because it requires not only a great deal of indepth knowledge re: forensics and behavior, but experience as well. More, most of what people know about (ASPDp) criminal psychopaths comes 1/

from prison populations not the successful psychopaths that are functional enough to routinely get away with crime WITHOUT GETTING CAUGHT (these are you long running career Docs, politicians lawyers CEO'S who are typically caught late in life, if at all, and who shock everyone 2/

who thought they were pillars of society or admired for great skills and wealth--sound familiar?). Even folks who study prison populations have a difficult time identifying "successful criminals" out here in the world.
That's just the clinical axis.
We on the whole, 3/

we tend to automatically project our empathy, onto the behaviors of others in order to better understand them. When this occurs, it very often results in misdiagnosis. Then there's the pressure to constantly stay relevant, find new diagnoses and treatments re staying afloat 4/

OHA Public Health Director Rachael Banks during today’s press conference: "I want to give you an overview of the pandemic in Oregon and an update on the progress of our vaccination efforts."

"As @OregonGovBrown said, we just don’t have enough vaccines to immunize everyone. As long as supplies are scarce, we’ll face really tough calls on who to immunize next. There are good reasons to prioritize educators & good reasons to prioritize seniors."

"The plan is to vaccinate most educators before we start vaccinating seniors on February 8. If we want to give schools a shot at re-opening this school year with a vaccinated staff, this is the time to do it."

"Overall, new cases, hospitalizations and our test positivity rate have all declined. Thank you Oregonians.”

“As of today, we’re adding 877 new cases of COVID-19 in Oregon. There have been 136,839 reported cases of COVID-19 in Oregon to date. During the week of Jan. 11-17, we reported 7,860 new daily cases, a 4% decrease from the prev. week."

Autistic behaviours that are generally discriminated against, despite being harmless and just how we are.

A thread🧵

1. Stimming - repetitive physical movement to help regulate our stress levels. They feel nice and are really helpful but people seem to hate to see it. #autism

2. No eye contact. We generally find this too intimate and intense, and will avoid. It can even cause pain if forced. But people don't trust us even though we inform them we're autistic. #autism

3. Sitting in 'odd' positions. We're often very bendable - remember Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a common comorbidity - and loads of feel more comfortable in slightly contorted positions. People always comment 'you can't be comfy like that'.

Yes. Yes I can. #autism

4. Stammering when excited. We can get so passionate about some subjects that we struggle to get the words out as they all get caught in the annoying bottleneck of actually having to leave our mouths. But it irritates people, makes them assume we're somehow lesser. #autism

Pathways to Public Policy Careers for those interested and looking for global opportunities

Public policy is made when a governing body attempts to address an issue of widespread public concern, such as health care. The process often runs in cycles and can take years.

■After new laws are created, Policy Implementation occurs, often involving federal agencies, state and local governments, bureaucratic entities, and NGOs. Courts get involved as laws and policies are challenged on a variety of fronts.

■Analysis and Evaluation occurs throughout the cycle and involves many players. Policies may be changed — and the cycle begins again.

What is the best advice for someone pursuing a career in public policy?

People often find their way to public policy careers because of an

interest in a particular substantive area. Public policy work can be found in virtually any subject area.

Your ears should perk up when you hear the words “Center for,” “Institute,” “Association,” and “Foundation” because they represent potential employers.

Public policy majors work in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, such as a government agency or advocacy group.

Continuing education, such as a certification or fellowship, can also advance your career as someone interested in public policy and politics.

1. Some thoughts about picking over the bones of the referendum loss.

TLDR - get over it, move on, and most importantly, find a better strategy.

2. From an analytical perspective, I don’t think there’s much point in constantly assessing the referendum.

3. The answer is either so simple as to be banal (bad campaign etc) or too complicated (deep rooted societal roots etc) as not to provide any simple lessons. In any case, the result was very close.

4. Rather than dwell on the past, live in the future. Influencing what happens next is much more important than focusing on historic defeat.

5. You don’t see current Brexiteers lamenting the woeful state of their plans do you?

Something occurred to me yesterday morning. Decided to wait till today to post about it. It wasn’t very “Thanksgivingish”.

#Thread

Living with meltdowns.

A personal, very late diagnosed, autistic perspective.

#autism
#AllAutistics
#ActuallyAutistic

1/

Before my autism diagnosis I had occasional emotional outbursts. These generally happened at home after a sustained period of pressure at school or at work.

When I discovered I was autistic I realised that these were actually what people call meltdowns.

2/

Getting intensely upset was a bit of a family thing. Sudden shouting and throwing of things, with resumption of peace and calm afterwards, wasn’t that unusual.

In fact we had a kind of mantra that it was much better to express our emotions than to keep them bottled up.

3/

It was hard to gauge my own emotions against other people’s but by any measure I felt things incredibly intensely.

As a child the injustice of being told off for something that wasn’t my fault burned into me. I sobbed until the tears stang my face and I could hardly breathe.

4/

But suppressing emotion was necessary for me to survive in the outside world. That’s partly what led to uncontrolled outbursts of feelings at home.

I melted down because there was no justice and I’d been misunderstood. I wasn’t using emotion as some kind of bargaining tool.

5/

I transformed my body in 6 months.

People charge INR 25,000+ for this information. It should be free.

Just follow these simple fat loss rules:

Exercise:
• 3-4x per week
• Weights > Cardio
• Compound movements first
• Cardio after weights

Don't focus on burning calories focus on getting stronger

Video

Nutrition:
• 20-25% calorie deficit
• 1.6-1.8 g/Kg Protein
• 2x fruits & veggies daily
• Limit eating out

Food quantity determines weight loss. Food quality determines health.

Video

Sleep:
• Fix wake up time
• Sleep 8 hrs
• No caffeine after 2 pm
• Dinner 2-3 hours before bed

Have a routine, and be consistent. Routines save your time and maximise your energy.

Video

Simple is beautiful.

Don't bookmark and forget.

• Commit to the end goal
• Disappear for 6 months
• Build yourself in private

Before you go, I would love to give you 10 bonus tips to make you unstoppable-

(with step-by-step video tutorials)

Quick thread on what can happen if you hold your nose and mouth and then do a sneeze.

(Sources here: https://t.co/Ksy95o7im7)

You've probably heard the urban legend about what happens if you sneeze with your eyes open.

Well, you'll be pleased to have it confirmed that your eyeballs do not pop out of your sockets like champagne corks.

The air spaces in the nose and throat aren't connected to anything behind the eye, meaning that there's no way a sneeze can create pressure that would force your eyes to shoot out and dangle around like a game of swingball.

However, there are other dangers to sneezing that I wish I didn't know about but I'm going to tell you here because fuck you I guess.

Take for instance a perfectly healthy 34-year-old man who, for reasons unknown, decided to try and block a sneeze by covering his mouth and holding his nose at the same time.

ICYMI, public health officials fear community transmission of B.1.1.7 (the "UK variant") is underway in Ontario.

I'll dissect each piece of worrying news from this story.

1. Simcoe Muskoka has so far reported 3 positive tests in individuals *with no known links* to the massive B.1.1.7 outbreak at Roberta Place LTC.

Two of those are linked to separate outbreaks of their own (a different LTC and a mental health hospital). Testing underway.

2. Of the 225 cases at Roberta Place, 100+ are confirmed or preliminary + for B.1.1.7.

42 household contacts of ppl linked to the outbreak are also COVID+. Public health unit is worried about keeping cases (which are all likely B.1.1.7) from rippling further into the community.

3. A case in Kingston area who tested positive for COVID "several weeks ago" was just discovered to be B.1.1.7. That person travelled to Simcoe Muskoka, but had not travelled internationally, according to the local health unit.

4. Overall, Public Health Ontario counts 47 B.1.1.7 cases as of yesterday -- these are only the ones confirmed thru full genome sequencing. Preliminary screening tests not included (yesterday's 99 in Simcoe Muskoka, for example).

Here's a breakdown by health unit courtesy PHO: