Psychiatry and Psychology

By extraversion I mean the Big Five extraversion which is broader than the popular understanding of the world, since it also includes stuff like assertiveness, activity level and excitement seeking and not just sociability. I mean an actual change in the trait itself and not just behavior. Someone who behaves in a less extroverted way due to having more family- or work-related responsibilities and doesn't have time for socializing but still feels the same urge to be social doesn't count here.

Cast your spotlight minds upon my shadows, will you, scholars? I'm a half filled in crossword, waiting for your inky suggestions. Let's begin... My first memory is of the bogeyman; I think you'll see this as relevant to this hagiography. I was, perhaps, three. I could walk and speak anyway. My older sister took me outside and we saw kids smashing the windows of a derelict house. I asked one of these lads "who lives there?" "The bogeyman," he decided. Cut to when I was six or seven. Let's just say I had some very sinister thoughts around then. Not the natural product of a child at all. My sister told my mother that I had bitten a girl at school, in the playground. I had no…

It's existence makes no sense to me. Narcissitm is a reaction to having a fragile, insecure ego full of shame, the organism reacts by building a grandiose false ego that then tries to bury the fragile true one as deep as possible. But why precisely does such a bizarre process take place? Why invent such a messy, flawed psychological solution when simply dialing up the activity in the Prefrontal Cortex (to dampen the overactive amygdala) would be enough? The individual in question would end up being much more resilient and at the same time dramatically less toxic to other people in their environment.

I'm asking for two reasons: 1. Neuromodulation is a fast developing field. 10 years from now it should be completely mainstream and used for a myriad of psychiatric issues 2. This matter is of personal relevance to me (due to my low affective empathy) I am not well versed in this topic but I do know that affective empathy involves the Anterior Cingulate Cortex, the Anterior Insula and some part of the Prefrontal Cortex but I can't say which one. Advanced neuromodulation will be (in the next 10-15 years) a perfect toll for me if it works since it has the potential of causing significant personality changes without me having to do any kind of work. With regards.

The oft cited figure is that 50% of personality is due to genetics and 50% due to environment - but this is the number for society as a whole. Individuals can vary. By personality I mean the Big Five personality traits which is the personality model with the most empirical backing as of now.

I mean raising kids to have high Openness to Experience, one of the Big Five personality traits. It includes several traits: intellectual curiosity, aesthetics, fantasy, adventurousness, feelings, values. In other words, children who, when they become adults, constantly self-educate (out of genuine curiosity), can have deep discussions about the theory of evolution, macroeconomics and political theory alike, have good imagination, appreciate art and beauty, are open to new and unconventional value systems etc. The crucial period is childhood and adolescence when neuroplasticity is much higher than in an adult. The crucial point is that the upbringing cannot be forceful. F…

I don’t think they are powerless, but I sure as hell think they could pick up a book and learn how to converse kindly with others instead of insisting on a racial superior complex I feel that they are doing it because generally men are not as supported as women in areas such as mental health and such, though there are much better ways to express you need help rather than shitposting dank memes about how the ‘crusades were awesome.’

In last years, Elon Musk have been using Ozempic against obesity: https://www.axios.com/2024/12/26/elon-musk-ozempic-mounjaro-weight-loss As far as I can see, the Ozempic can be considered as a psycho-active drug (usually, the pleasure from eating is maybe rather psychological then physiological). And here is some more information: it seems that last time Musk have lost his mind: Maybe these two facts are related?

Is it a valid theory? It was invented by Simon Baron Cohen and states that there are two main modes of cognition in humans - empathizing and systemizing. They're distributed normally in the population but since males are on average higher on systemizing, their right tail of the curve reaches further and hence there are more autistic males than females. What do researchers think of it?

Why do countries like China have so many people with high IQs relative to Western countries? I mean I know that China is the most populated country in the world but as a they also have a higher percentage of people with higher IQs. What are the psychological explanations for this? Is it because Chinese people are brought up in a more strict academic environment? Or has it got something to do with their genes?

What causes them? Are they caused more by structural changes in the brain or more by neurotransmitter abnormalities? A drug that was to be the first to target negative symtoms of schizophrenia (roluperidone) has just failed phase 3 trials.

Greetings, It’s been a while since I’ve posted here on this titled subject, so I thought I’d do so now with this brief discussion. I thought I might correct some misconceptions about the nature of dreams and dreaming and answer any questions you may have. My perspective is based on the science of the dreaming brain, which traces the intricacies of dreaming in brain function. You are free to critique my perspective and, as always, I will try to keep this discussion palatable to respondents of all knowledge levels. Let’s begin with the most basic question about the nature of dreams, which is are they important or meaningful? If you never learn anything about o…

The political side of this focuses on legislation, however I'm curious what other social resources are that can prevent school shootings and mass shootings. People may suggest investing into "mental health", but I think there are other variables as well. Some of the school shooters may have been bullied, though that doesn't excuse their actions, and may not always be the case. Perhaps better resources which teach people how to properly handle bullying so that they don't feel powerless are in order (since simply punishing bullying when it happens won't break the cycle or be able to address all of the unseen or unreported bullying which inevitably occurs). Likewis…

Hi I contempt everyday in my thoughts, maybe people see it through my acts I feel it is toxic to me, like being mean doesn't makes you feel good I think I do this to make me feel I'm better than others, to reassure myself, I think it's weakness. I try to stop, but it looks to be widespread in myself I guess there could have benefits from this like in maybe everything, I struggle to understand the "Virtues" part of the Wikipedia article by the way One benefit I think about this is to build who you are, I mean knowing what you like, and what you don't, getting firm and reliable I would like to never contempt again, but would my life expect…

I've heard some call it a "soft science" or a "social science" and some even fans of the hard science say it is not a science at all. Why is this? And if it isn't what would be a more scientific alternative approach?

I've heard this claim many times and I'm curious whether this has ever been studied and what has been found. I think I've also heard that it has been refuted or failed to replicate, but I may be making that up.

Am I right that one of the symptoms of psychosis is coming to believe stuff that isn't true? If so, can this extend to the moral sense? Eg suppose someone was really stressed and woke up one day believing it was OK to steal a car, when previously they'd never have dreamt of thinking that. Would that be psychosis? Cheerz GIAN

Well thing is that someone with major depression with psychotic feature can have all their symptoms elevated from just a SSRI. Similar can happen in bipolar with psychosis (using just a mood stabilizer) and anxiety disorders with psychosis (again just an SSRI). Although I'm not sure how common the monotherapy is here? But seems that people who have major depression or bipolar get psychosis more than the general population the same with people who have anxiety. It seems that SSRI are bad and trigger it.

Lately I have been wondering if body language is something we have no control over whatsoever or if we can manipulate it. Not only in ourselves, but in other people. Can we interfere in something that's done subconsciously? This is an unexplored subject... Exciting, isn't it?body language, for people My hypothesis is that we can. Let's start off by defining body language, for people who are new to it. As a vague definition we could say that it is the sum of the gestures, face expressions, or tone of voice someone uses. Body language is a very interesting topic since we can figure out a lot of stuff just by looking at someone. If you want to know more about it, I'd re…

(A spin-off from the thread about Neil deGrasse Tyson.) Is it? This has been the predominant hypothesis about the pathophysiology of depression for several decades and has been heavily promoted by the pharmaceutical industry - but there's now a rival theory, namely the glutamate theory of depression that says neuroinflammation and glutamate dysregulation are to blame for depression. Is there any scientific consensus regarding this matter?

In 2016 I was in a psychiatric ward for a month and a half with anxiety. It felt as if I was breathless but somehow I wasn’t physically drowning. One possibility is the breathlessness was the opposite of a lucid dream where I wasn’t fully self-aware in the real world as if it were like a negative symptom of schizophrenia in terms of apathy. So one version of breathlessness is as a form of extended sleep paralysis where breathing is hard even as you walk around. I couldn’t understand how meticulous the pain response appeared to be in changing forms between chest pain, overheating and breathlessness yet the body controls our smooth transition into unconsciousness during sle…

I'm not sure where to begin or how to explain. I have dreams when fully awake of places or things that I think I have experienced but never really have. It only last a few minutes when I'm fully awake. I see it and I completely forget what it was about when it's over, but I know it happened. When I have the dream, in the moment it seems real of a place I have been too. It's frightening and it makes me feel very uncomfortable. I don't like the feeling at all. Happens once or twice a month and anytime during the day. Started a few years ago. Please help me understand.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41537-024-00460-6 Any thoughts on this? Abstract Schizophrenia (SCZ), as a neurodevelopmental disorder and devastating disease, affects approximately 1% of the world population. Although numerous studies have attempted to elucidate the causes of SCZ occurrence, it is not clearly understood. Recently, the emerging roles of the gut microbiota in a range of brain disorders, including SCZ, have attracted much attention. While the molecular mechanism of gut microbiota in regulating the pathogenesis of SCZ is still lacking. Here, we first confirmed the difference of gut microbiome between SCZ patients and healthy controls…

Hello all, Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this. Everything I'm going to discuss here got started in what can only be described as a bit of a dumpster fire thread, which I feel led to an interesting discussion about autism and psychiatry, in the responses... which were thankfully absent the OP. To be clear, the OP seemed to believe that autism is a blood born condition that can be cured with bloodletting and hemodialysis. The OP was essentially a snakeoil salesman. So rather than really engage with this person, there was a pretty fruitful and calm discussion amongst myself and others (Whom I'll take the time to tag in the comments) a…

Hello! Read the image below and tell me if I am a freak for it. It tells something about me that people knew about by sneakily getting information from me. They then thought I am a freak for it. I don't know why people hate me for it. These 11 different long plaid skirts and these 11 females wearing them are all very attractive to me especially for the fact that all of the females are wearing the same long sleeve buttoned white blouse shirt. I like it when these 11 different long plaid skirts are lined up this way. It's because I then imagine all of these images as a sisterhood of 11 fierce bossy dignified elegant beautiful slim females trying to boss me …