h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_792378.html

Not having an opinion,



(note to self: leave it!)

I'm sorry, but it is beyond words.

I thought it was sarcasm!
Unreal.

I was reading about PTSD after seeing that many had trouble getting a diagnosis. From what I read the main clincher is that many Dr.s feel it last only a few months to a year. Others think it can last longer but is quite rare. They had better get a definition so it is not used as a weapon on persons, such as this nonsense. This sort of thing will unravel the good that has been done.

A real study, that?? But anyways, I just wanna say I have a bit of a problem of psychologists/psychiatrists turning everything into a label, theoreticising everything etc. For instance I see myself not as being 'paranoid schizophrenic' but as having some problems like for instance having difficulty trusting people, not trusting the 'leaders' of the world, believing the world is heading for a crisis/crises ... I can be a mite delusional at times, a mite obsessive ... I have manic/depressive tendencies as well ... I'm a bit credulous and naïve, and I tend to believe things too easily ... I have an extremely active imagination and I can easily imagine myself into situations that I'm not 'really' in at the time ... I have degrees of PTSD related to a large number of unpleasant things that have happened to me up till now ... I am perhaps oversensitive to some things ... I may also have overactive senses leading sometimes to sensory overload, and also there may be a kind of 'processing overload' that sometimes short-circuits my thought processes ... I have an extremely high level of identification whith things that are not (as far as other people are concerned) 'myself' ... I have a very loose and unusual, pliable, multi-dimensional multi-aspect ego-structure ... I experience my 'identity' as not being confined to this mind and this body, this time and this place ... I tend to have weird but for me *positive* transcendent-sort of experiences that in past ages were considered religious visions or states of rapture and ecstasy but are now called psychosis ... I feel myself as being very strongly affected by ethereal kinds of forces and qualities that seem to be drifting around in the air but that *originate* from the collective thoughts and feelings of large numbers of people, animals and plants and other living things ... I seem to be sensitive to the 'moods' and 'spirits' of certain places and I can 'tune in' to collective happiness and health, or to collective misery and despair, and these things can affect me positively or negatively ... and so on. But you know what, psychiatrists or psychologists have *never* tried out to find out the nature of these things ... they've never tried to understand why I am like this, and what it means to me or how it affects me ... they've never tried to unravel the complexity of it all ... they just label the whole of it 'paranoid schizophrenia' and give me some pills to take.

I disbelieve they can qualify a mind and emotional and physical states and barin chemicals all that easily. I think many things can cancel others out and that the mind is amazingly healing and protective overall.

Some of that sounds a bit like Auspergers(sp) In the family of autism but more functional generally. There is much confused and variances in just those two. Many of the things you mention could be a combo with that in it. There is also brain damage that does all kinds of things.

Some of it sounds like *sensitives* that see auras and feel extra sensitive energies. Quite an interesting mix of possibilities, not all of which can probably be explained by one thing OR as illness.

You're are very interesting and likeable

Not forgetting to mention a *stellar* command of the english language, considering your condition and nationality.

Thanks abbi and Chris, you are both interesting and likeable people too! And you too, Richenda!

Anyways my own concern is to understand the various kinds of mental phenomena ... and why some of them may be causing problems. I drink the pills because they *do* help me with some aspects, such as delusions, mania and depressiveness ... but there are other aspects that pills alone cannot do anything about. Anyways I'm very interested in mental phenomena in general and I like to find out, from other people, how they experience certain things, what it means to them, and how it affects them. In the negative there might be some positive. Or negative might be turned into positive.

Hi there Willem!

Lots to say on this, but feeling pretty exhausted at the moment after active 4 days with Z & the gig last night, so will post later in more detail.

All I will say at the moment is that the "omens" & "psychic linking" that I sometimes experience could definitely be construed as the sort of "symptoms" you experience. Luckily, "they" haven't yet managed to (literally) pin me down long enogh to nail a fancy label onto me.

I don't think you're a "paranoid schizophrenic" at all. I think you are simply a "great human being". (It's easier to type as well!)

Of to birdwatch, maybe there are some messages. Abbi know's what I mean, don't you Abbi?



(before I forget; Abbi, at the last shrink appointment, amused myself watching two s building a nest. Meanwhile, somone else was doing likewise with water birds. hmmm.)

Terri.

I've got a few ideas bouncing around in my head about this, too, but can't quite arrange them into anything I can communicate at the moment... perhaps later.

But I will say that I find all of you to be extremely likebale and interesting, too! And Willem, you're so amazingly intelligent and perceptive. And sensitive... I think sentivitity is a very positive thing, especially when you can feel a strong connection to things that aren't (at least not in the usual sense) "part of yourself". I think it's kind of beautiful.

Yes Pcandy ,it's "kinda beautiful!"
All of you are intersting ,the writings too.

I just hope I make some sense, in the light of such amazing writers!
Speaking of that Willem(sp)has written a beautiful description of the area of Africa he resides in (his journal)

Terri the and water birds! interesting! Watching nest building during therapy! I see you are not impressed with the therapy.

Nature can heal & teach us a lot!

It seems we are well beyond embitterment now, so how about we officially declare this a Topic Drift Thread?

Anyways I now posted part two of the description of my town ... at this rate it's going to take a while.

But as for nature being able to teach and heal us ... yes, indeed, and wow! Really I do love nature and especially the unspoilt kind. You guys know here in South Africa there are many places that don't look good. Much destruction of nature. But there are a few places that are like, wow, awesome, breathtaking, unbelievable, magical! You just have to see them, experience them. They're all way off the beaten track. For instance there's this indigenous forest ... it's off the tarred road, to explore it you have to venture your vehicle onto muddy tracks in mountainous terrain, or you have to go in on foot. But it's amazing ... a mountain rain forest, very high levels of precipitation ... in fact you'll usually find yourself in a mist-rain, you just have to get used to it ... the whole place dripping with water, soft patches of moist moss everywhere, and ferns ... and you're there amidst these amazing tree trunks, and everything seems to be going on up above your head ... if you're trying to watch birds you're getting cramps in your neck from having to look up all the time ... but then you catch these incredible glimpses, as turacos fly from tree to tree over your head and the sunlight glows through the crimson of their wings ... and you see these fantastic fairytale spiderwebs in openings between the leaves, with these millions of mist-drops on the strands ...

OOO reminds me of the rain forest in the state of Waghington -US.
One of my greatest joys to experience

That's another place I'd like to visit if I ever get to the USA!

But of course the forests we have here will be very different from the forests over there. For instance, in our forests the trees are not so big. The mountain mist forests are very 'shrubby' types of forest. In some places the forest canopy is only about 20 ft high, and in some places the canopy is open so that the undergrowth of ferns and herbs and shrubs get a lot of sunlight and grow profusely. The big trees range from about 30 ft to 65 ft or so and most of them have fairly thin trunks, about four to ten inches in diameter. Then we have a few species that do grow rather big, from about 100 to 150 ft tall, and tower above all the other trees, and sometimes also distinguish themselves by having huge trunks of over 10 ft in diameter. And of course the species are different ... the big forest trees in America are mainly conifers, while our trees are mainly broadleaved, and belonging mostly to several tropical and subtropical African families. What they lack for in size they make up for in forms and shapes and textures. When I'm in a forest like that I take time to take in all the different colours and textures, the sounds, the smells. I go up to the trees and feel their bark, or I feel the soft moss that covers their bark; I feel the fresh green leaves of the herbs and shrubs and ferns, I feel the vigour and life in them. I smell the leaves of the aromatic plants ... lots of plants here in South Africa are very aromatic ... and the entire forest atmosphere has its own wonderful smell, it really is a kind of extremely invigorating and spiritually refreshing smell. And of course the whole place is also, always, filled with the sounds of insects, frogs and birds.