#Feeling Festive! (a little early) #HappyFourthofJuly

I went to the San Diego Fair today and started hearing voices in the crowd. They basically repeated themselves from earlier episodes. They still hate me, so they are hexing me. They wanted to let me know that Keith Spellman is not interested in a relationship with me. Point taken. There is no need to repeat yourselves. When I got home, I relaxed and the voices subsided. My home and backyard are my places of peace. I just love my family! I am truly a homebody! LOL

   Happy song of the day!!

OK, so I just watched a Sheena Easton video from the 1980's and noticed that she actually had a message about the music industry in her song lyrics. I remember loving the song "Strut" in the 80's but did not understand the message Sheena was trying to send in my youth. As an adult, I heard Sheena loud and clear. She speaking of the predators she has worked with throughout her career.

As I was browsing one of my favorite social media sites, schizophrenia.com, I curiously ended up on the selfie thread.(which I soon regretted) This thread is where certain individuals (mostly woman) brag about their looks and get positive feedback on their looks. It drives me crazy because some of these woman seem attention-starved and they get a lot of attention anyway. This one woman from the Czech republic, Sarad, was compared to the beautiful model Irina Shayk. She seemed offended by this, calling Irina a "fake feminist," and went on a rant about America. So, my point is, that I would never use the term "fake feminist" to describe someone. I appreciate any efforts made towards equality. This video, I believe, was Sheena Easton's attempt to bring to light sexual predators in the music industry. In my opinion, it is also a feminist video. I love it!

Speaking of this very subject...what is happening at the World Cup?



https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/world-cup-reporter-dodges-kiss-gets-apology_us_5b30f8bde4b00295f15f1f99?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

I am so glad that I am not out in the dating world!  A few years ago, when I was single, I had a few kittenfishing/catfishing experiences. I was so naive! I had a horrible time, while trying to date online. I met only predators and perverts.  What is the slang, dating term for sending a woman a picture of another man's huge genitalia, in order to entice them? Numerous times, I exchanged phone numbers with men who would immediately forward me a well-endowed photo.  I found these photos to be not only offensive, but suspect, because they may not have even belonged to them. I would not know if the picture was legitimate or not, because this photo exchange never led to an actual date.

I only wanted the courting/dating part of the relationship. I wanted to get to know these men and take things slow. The men I encountered did not want to get to know me or even take me out on a date. Are times so tough that men can't even afford to take a woman out for coffee? Pathetic!

Men should not forward nude photos unrequested. Who would start a courtship out by sending a nude photo? Men also should not encourage women to send them "real" photos when that man has no interest in a relationship. I should not have to say this either. I will never use a dating website again. If you have no friends or acquaintances in common, there will be no one to be held accountable to.  Men will walk all over you, if they can get away with it!

For readers still interested in meeting someone, learn the latest dating slang below.

https://www.today.com/health/what-orbiting-plus-other-weird-dating-terms-know-t128216?cid=eml_tdb_20180623

The slang, dating term "Stash" rings a bell with me. I am positive that I have been consciously stashed before (in younger years). If someone is stashing you, they may be ashamed of you and not "right" for you. For this reason, stashing hurts the other person.

Sweet day! So proud of my oldest daughter on her graduation day! 

People pushing small dogs in baby strollers has reached epidemic levels in Carlsbad (Tamarack Beach)! Please do not encourage the younger generation to do this as well!


https://youtu.be/-2mZjrfvJG4

Mick Jagger comes out as schizophrenic...would be a headline that I'd like to see. (Sorry for the click bait) He could be the new face of schizophrenia. (JUST A JOKE!  I would not wish schizophrenia on anyone) On a more serious note, I was looking for information on command hallucinations and I found the article below. 

Command hallucinations are auditory hallucinations that instruct a patient to act in specific ways; these commands can range in seriousness from innocuous to life-threatening.

AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS: WHAT'S IT LIKE HEARING VOICES?

 HEALTHYPLACE.COM STAFF WRITER

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HEARING VOICES: HEARING WHAT OTHERS CAN'T HEAR

By Ralph Hoffman
Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University

You are in a crowd when you hear your name. You turn, looking for the speaker. No one meets your gaze. It dawns on you that the voice you heard must have sprung from your own mind.

This foray into the uncanny is as close as most people come to experiencing auditory hallucinations or "hearing voices," a condition that affects 70% of patients with schizophrenia and 15% of patients with mood disorders such as mania or depression. For these individuals, instead of hearing just one's name, voices produce a stream of speech, often vulgar or derogatory ("You are a fat whore," "Go to hell") or a running commentary on one's most private thoughts.

The compelling aura of reality about these experiences often produces distress and disrupts thought and behavior. The sound of the voice is sometimes that of a family member or someone from one's past, or is like that of no known person but has distinct and immediately recognizable features (say, a deep, growling voice). Often certain actual external sounds, such as fans or running water, become transformed into perceived speech.

One patient described the recurrence of voices as akin to being "in a constant state of mental rape." In the worst cases, voices command the listener to undertake destructive acts such as suicide or assault. But hearing voices is not necessarily a sign of mental illness, so understanding the mechanics of auditory hallucinations is crucial to understanding schizophrenia and related disorders.

For example, your occasional illusionary perception of your name spoken in a crowd occurs because this utterance is uniquely important. Our brains are primed to register such events; so on rare occasions the brain makes a mistake and reconstructs unrelated sounds (such as people talking indistinctly) into a false perception of the spoken name.

Hallucinated voices are also known to occur during states of religious or creative inspiration. Joan of Arc described hearing the voices of saints telling her to free her country from the English. Rainer Maria Rilke heard the voice of a "terrible angel" amidst the sound of a crashing sea after living alone in a castle for two months. This experience prompted his writing the Duino Elegies.

CAUSES OF AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS

How can we understand differences between an inspired voice, an isolated instance of hearing one's own name, and the voices of the mentally ill? One answer is that "non-pathological" voices occur rarely or perhaps only once. Not so for the person with mental illness. Without treatment, these experiences recur relentlessly.

Brain imaging studies have found that parts of the temporal lobe activate during these hallucinations. Our research at Yale University, as well as studies conducted at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, also detected activation in an area of the brain known as Broca's region during production of "inner speech" or verbal thought.

One theory is that voices arise because Broca's area "dumps" language outputs into parts of the brain that ordinarily receive speech inputs from the outside. To test this theory we are using trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to reduce the excitability of portions of the temporal lobe and Broca's region.

So far, most patients appear to experience significant improvements from TMS directed to both brain regions, with improvements lasting from two months to over a year. These results, although preliminary, suggest an alternative treatment if validated in larger-scale studies.

What remains unaddressed is the root cause of abnormal brain activations. We are pursuing three intertwined ideas. The first is based on studies suggesting that schizophrenia patients suffer from reduced brain connectivity. (See also Impact of Schizophrenia on the Brain.) As a result, certain groups of neurons, such as those responsible for producing and perceiving language, may begin to function autonomously, beyond the control or influence of other brain systems. It is as if the string section of the orchestra suddenly decided to play its own music, disregarding everyone else.

The second idea is that deprivation of social interaction - namely human conversation-makes the brain more likely to produce hallucinated conversations. Often one of the first signs of schizophrenia-occurring well before manifestations such as hearing voices-is social isolation.

Indeed, sensory deprivation can produce hallucinations in the sense mode that is deprived. An example is Charles Bonnet Syndrome, where visual impairments in the elderly can produce visions of human figures. Could the absence of actual spoken human conversation-a cornerstone of day-to-day human intellect and creativity-produce hallucinated conversations? Recall the extreme isolation that preceded the appearance of Rilke's startling voice.

Third, heightened emotions may play a role in producing voices. Indeed, heightened emotionality prompts the brain to produce information consonant with that emotional state. For example, a low mood favors generation of thoughts that are themselves depressing. It is possible that intense states of emotion could pre-select and perhaps elicit from the brain certain verbal messages having the same emotional charge.

Verbal messages expressed by voices often are highly emotional. Moreover, when schizophrenia begins, these persons are often in states of extreme fear or elation. It could be that these powerful emotional states increase the propensity of the brain to produce corresponding verbal "messages."

This would account for the fact that voices also emerge during states of extreme, but incidental, emotionality brought on by inspired thought, mania, depression, or ingestion of certain drugs. Here the voices disappear when the emotional states return to normal. The brains of schizophrenia sufferers may be vulnerable to becoming "stuck" in these hallucinatory states.

Our hypothesis is that voices arise from different combinations of these three factors-reduced brain integration, social isolation, and high levels of emotionality. This view has become the focus of efforts to understand and help patients with mental illness quiet their minds.

*** The paragraph I highlighted speaks for me. From psychedelic to psychotic is my story. You do not have to believe that marijuana and psychedelic drugs cause schizophrenia but that is my story and I am sticking to it.