Psychiatry and Psychology

Ok so after setting up a question, and you can find that in "Strange Self-Induced Feeling" on my profile, I was answered that a strange, unexplainable feeling I can create is actually me somehow activating/aggravating/consciously stimulating my parasympathetic nervous system. I would just like to know if that is the case and if so, why am I able to do that? What are the pros/cons (if any) of doing so and if there are any applications to this "skill"? Is it something uncommon or can everyone do it but I was lucky enough to have found a way to do so by some means? Out of all the people I know, only one other friend of mine can do it and understand what I mean, but he is …

Increasingly, suffix (-ly, -ing, -ed, etc.) omission has plagued my writing. It's particularly frustrating to find an omission after having reviewed what I've written several times both before and after making it public. Recently, for example, I wrote "actual" when I meant "actually." Errors involving sound-alike word (homonym) substitution are more agreeable to me than these seemingly small suffix errors. It's a small thing I know, but it bothers me especially after finding the error several hours after having reviewed, dozens of times, what I wrote. As far as I can tell, the error involves two aspects; a blockage in the efferent (output) command to fully execute…

We are experiencing a bit of a problem with our kids who spend way too much time in front of screens and interacting with electronic devices in stead of each other, friends, books, our dogs and other healthier options. It has now reached a point where our monthly data cap would often run out. We had various discussions with them re this topic, restricted their data use, tried to encourage other alternatives, but it remains an uphill battle. If it is not Minecraft on the PlayStation or laptop, it is YouTube video's on the cell phones, or the latest craze, Pokémon. While reading up on this modern-day problem, we came across this article It's 'digital heroin: How screens…

I tried to watch different therapists on you tube to solve some of my problems. I cant find any other advice other then keeping a journal. All of the other things they say are talk to your therapist usually with my patience I do talk therapy. I don't have a therapist and cant afford one.I keep a journal of my experience in life my feelings and dreams, but I have noticed that i think about bad things more with a journal ,I tend to think and think about my problems where normally I would distract myself from my feelings. Im not a therapist so I trust what therapists say works but they say things aimed to an individual based on all the facts. on one hand keeping a journal is…

Hello everyone I'd like to discuss something concerning our thoughts on disease and death when it comes to age. Today, I was in the operating room, witnessing a biopsy of a brainstem tumour in a 12-year old girl, predicting not much good. One of the interns told me: "I always find it terrible to [have to] perform surgery on a child. You know, especially when you have kids yourself ... I always try to do that little bit more for a child." And I have a fundamental problem with such statements. It is common in our Western society to believe that the death and suffering of a child is more severe, more emotionally touching, more radical, than that of an adult. …

Hello everyone It happens quite often that, since I wake up at 5 a.m., I tend to rest my eyelids on my train rides. I'm never really asleep. I hear everything that happens around me and I am aware of my whereabouts. However, it so happens that certain dream-like thoughts tend to come up in my mind, and when 'in' these thoughts, I tend to build further on them and believe them. I cannot give an example straightaway (perhaps tomorrow, if it happens and I remember it in the evening). These thoughts can come up really fast, after even 1 or 2 minutes of eye closure and they are comparable with a state of sleep in which you are still in a more conscious state and able…

For those who can put himself in someone's shoe and making the understanding choice rather than tit for tat. For me i.e.

Frequently see poor spelling from those with whom I ideologically disagree. I also know that spelling is often a neurobiological challenge for otherwise very intelligent people, and further stipulate that I likely have a selection bias (wherein I don't recall / notice the spelling errors of those with whom I agree and/or tend to align as much as I notice it among those with whom I tend to disagree). My conjecture here is that, for most people, poor spelling can serve as a proxy of intelligence, one suggestive to readers that the individual contributing/posting doesn't read much. From that core, I then make the (what I deem to be rational and justified) assumptio…

After Orlando, there has been a huge conversation on TV news where commentators emphasize that love wins and hate causes more hate. But I have been confused as to how one is supposed to address people that hate them. For instance people gather to show their hatred for haters. They hate the haters, and give them no quarter, no benefit of the doubt. What is our current understanding of Hate? It must have a survival benefit, or we would not all have the emotion.

I heard about a strange dream from my friend where she found her entire body (below neck) sort of tied, so that she cant move her limbs and trunk. And she feels really uneasy and screams but it is heard only as a little merely audible to the person sleeping next to her. She requests everybody to wake her up as soon as they sense this happening. It occurs repeatedly. And as I have observed, it occura mostly on days when she was sad or depressed by something!Anybody have any clue? Is this some disorder?

Why do people crave popularity?

Is there any relation between autism and bipolar disorder ?

On Vimeo there is a documentary about the effects of pornography on the BRAIN, aired also on CHANNEL 4, called "Porn on the Brain". The TRAILER is available on Vimeo: url deleted The synopsis: "This documentary features groundbreaking science revealing the effects of pornography on the brain for the first time. A journalist and father concerned by alarming headlines, and aware that his son will soon reach the age most children first see porn, wants to find some answers. Is it really bad for kids? We meet neuroscientists, therapists and educators who are all concerned about the effects of easy access to hardcore porn on vulnerable teenage brains." What do you think ab…

Are clothes a second skin ? Attire is the window to your identity and people perceive you by how you dress, what fabric you use, how color co-ordinated you are and how well your clothes fit. Why is this premium attached to your habiliments ?

Front. Psychol., 23 March 2016 http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00399/full What do you think is causing racial/national differences in cognitive ability tests?

It's observed that intelligence measured by IQ differs consistently by nation and race. Is this due to genetics or the environment and culture, or some combination? What arguments and data support your view?

I don't know the medical psychological term for "copycat personality." From what I understand, copycat personality is when someone basically steals who you are and begins to transform themselves into the way you speak, the way you dress, the way you behave, and a multitude of other things. Does anyone have information on this psychological behavior?

Is it higher than average or not? To my estimation, their achievements as a group are higher than predicted by the oft-cited 1 SD higher IQ.

I know a lot of "necessary evil" occupations have high rates of depression, anxiety, and various other forms of trauma. Solder in the military is, hands down, the most common example. Firefighters are also at very high risk for anxiety, as are cops. Therapists and lawyers often suffer from "compassion fatigue." I just saw a WhatCulture video about strange last meal requests, and that prompted me to go and watch some death row documentaries on Youtube. I tried to picture myself as an executioner. It's my job to hold one of those five rifles and pull the trigger. It's my job to flip the switch to pump the poison gas into the chamber. I wonder how I would feel if tha…

Anyone familiar with studies showing beneficial effects of various types of Buddhist meditation on human psychology? Not just stress reduction and other mundane shit but deeper changes. Is it possible to experience a deep personality transformation with meditation (long term)?

I'm wondering if anyone has heard of a condition such as what I'm about to describe. Whether its something either science has described and recognized, or whether anyone feels the same or has any comments: I find that I have no intuitive understanding almost AT ALL of what people would describe as "mental problems," by which I don't mean mental illnesses, but what would typically be meant by that phrase in sports, thought its not exclusively applied to sports. So examples where someone underperforms for mental reasons, someone who's dynamite in practice but can't perform under the lights, or can't perform under other more specific conditions, or uses an excuse to fai…

Hello! I'm Cristina, new on this forum. I really need your help with a topic I find diffcult to understand its meaning. I have to write a scientific paper for Uni on a topic called "Morphological and functional support of sexual activity from psychosomatic point of view ". The problem is I don't really know if it reffers to: 1.the relationship between sexual response cycle (Masters&Johnson model) and what happens in the brain during sexual intercourse (psychologicaly) 2. psychosomatic dysfunction reffered to desire, arousal, orgasm and sexual pain. or 3. endogenous ( perspiration, pheromones) and exogenous factors (how the partner looks, talkin…

Hi, I have depression and am currently taking Buproprion. I have taken HTP-5 and SAM-e both and they both give me the same feeling as Buproprion, a little manic happiness, which is good. But I have taken St. John's Wort and that really hits the spot, it feels like it hits what is really lacking, a deeper content happiness. Thing is the supplement also makes me feel like garbage in a different way... I am wondering if there is a medication that works the same way as St. Johns Wort. thanks!

I play this game called League of Legends (LoL in short), and wanted to share my experience of the human world going on there. It is a very popular web game with real life people playing along side and against you. First of all I will say that the level of human character there is simply shocking, I am honestly horrified by it. It is mainly kids, around the age of 14, but it is not just kids. They curse each other, yell at one another, at literally sub human level. I cannot come up with any comparison, I think it is a form of behavior simply uncomparable to anything. There is a feature where you can report other players, to the staff of the game. Basically anything "negat…

I think sadomasochism deserves a much deeper look than it has gotten, as one of the very foundations of human psychological operations. As the common definition is known, sadism seems to be "a sexual enjoyment of inflicting or viewing pain or humiliation in others". But a real look at sexually sadistic behavior offers the view that pain and humiliation are only tools of a "power exchange", where sadists seek an increase in power, through role playing and fantasy, and masochists seek a reduction in power, through role playing and fantasy. Sadomasochism being focused on pain and humiliation has been misleading as to what SM actually is. SM focuses on power. More intens…