Tag: Chronic Pain
Opposition to IL SB3499: Assisted Suicide in Illinois
Reading Update: 03-08-2024a
I was able to listen to two Chapters of Capitalism and Disability, earlier. I’ve been experiencing quite a bit of pain, lately. When I’m in pain, I can’t concentrate, so I didn’t even attempt to read The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Hopefully, the pain subsides some, soon.
In other news, I found this funny. Fairbanks Morse Defense isn’t far from me, so I liked their Facebook page to stay up-to-date. They make engines for naval vessels. The Little Crappy Ships are the only ones that I’m aware of (one reason why I’m interested in them). In fact, those ships were made at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard up North. Someday, I’ll have to look into Fairbanks Morse’s history.
Anyway, good night or morning, depending on your sleep schedule.
Disabled need help living, not help dying
AS NEW HAMPSHIRE considers legalizing assisted suicide, also referred to as medical aid in dying (MAID), I would like to draw attention to the potential impacts this bill could have on disabled and other marginalized residents.
I was 19 years old the second time I attempted to die by suicide. I had just been diagnosed with a chronic but not life-threatening illness, I had rapidly lost about 70% of my hearing in the middle of completing a music degree, and I was struggling with untreated anorexia that was taking a serious toll on my health.
At my intake appointment with a new therapist a few days after my attempt, I explained my situation and the hopelessness I was feeling. She nodded along, then looked me in the eyes and said something I will never forget:
“I would probably kill myself if I were you.”
She wasn’t the first person to say this to me as I started becoming more noticeably disabled, but she was probably the last person I expected to do so. Now that I work in disability policy, nothing surprises me. I hear stories from other disabled people about doctors pressuring them to sign DNRs because they are assumed to have a low quality of life due to their disability. I get messages on social media from people asking me how to advocate for appropriate pain management when their doctors don’t believe the amount of pain they’re in. I pore over story after story of people like Michael Hickson and Tinslee Lewis having treatment withdrawn, withheld, or threatened because of the pervasive view that it’s better to be dead than disabled.
Jules Good: Disabled need help living, not help dying
Psychedelic Drugs Are Rushing Towards Approval for Therapy. Here’s What’s Next
Psychedelic Drugs Are Rushing Towards Approval for Therapy. Here’s What’s Next
Yet one glaring problem remains. Despite promising clinical results, no one knows exactly how psychedelic drugs work in the brain. Examining their actions on brain cells isn’t just an academic curiosity. It could give rise to variants that maintain antidepressant properties without the high. And because hallucinogens substantially alter our perception [management?!] of the world, they could be powerful tools for investigating the neurobiology behind consciousness.
…
This year, scientists found another common theme—psychedelics seem to “reset” the brain to a more youthful state, at least in mice. Like humans, mice have an adolescent critical period, during which their brains are highly malleable and can easily rewire neural circuits, but the window closes after adulthood.
…
An earlier study showed that MDMA reopens the critical window in adult mice, so that they change their “personality.” Mice raised alone are often introverted and prefer to keep to themselves in adulthood. A dose of MDMA increased their willingness to snuggle with other mice—essentially, they learned to associate socializing with happiness, concluded the study.
It’s not that surprising. MDMA is well-known to promote empathy and bonding. The new study, by the same team, extended their early results to four psychedelics that don’t trigger fuzzy feelings—LSD, ketamine, psilocybin, and ibogaine. Similar to MDMA, adult mice raised alone changed their usual preference for solitude when treated with any of the drugs. Because habits are hard to change in adulthood—for mice and men—the drugs may have reopened the critical period, allowing the brain to more easily rewire neural connections based on new experiences.
…
These are just early results. But psychedelic research is gaining a new ally—artificial intelligence. Algorithms that predict protein structure, combined with rational drug design, could generate psychedelics that retain their psychiatric benefits without the high.
H/T: The Most Revolutionary Act
Related:
Psychoanalytic roots of CIA psychoprofiling/pseudoscience
Meaghan thought psychedelic therapy could help her PTSD. Instead it was the start of a nightmare
Why is the American right suddenly so interested in psychedelic drugs
What if a Pill Can Change Your Politics or Religious Beliefs? (archived)
Do Psychedelic Trips Change Your Political Views? (archived)
America’s Remarkable Unwillingness to Support Its Veterans
Andrea Mazzarino explores how so many of the American military personnel dispatched to fight it and the rest of the disastrous Global War on Terror have suffered until this very day, while this country largely turned its back, leaving them in the lurch.
America’s Remarkable Unwillingness to Support Its Veterans
FDA Cracks Down on Animal Tranquilizer That Is Sometimes Mixed With Fentanyl
FDA Cracks Down on Animal Tranquilizer That Is Sometimes Mixed With Fentanyl
This is why fentanyl is used in black-market opioids in the first place. Users did not demand a substance that is 40 times more potent than heroin for recreational use; prohibitionist policies made it more challenging to procure pain medication, leading pain patients to seek out heroin. Heroin, however, is a crop drug, which makes it expensive to produce, ship, and buy. Fentanyl is synthetic, making it cheaper to produce, ship, and buy. When the law makes it harder to get legal pain pills, everybody adapts, and you get illegal fentanyl with no quality control.
Related:
The opioid crackdown leaves chronic pain patients in limbo
They Call Me a Drug Seeker. Here’s What Their Opioid Policies Did to Me.
The new CDC guidelines aren’t much better.
Euthanasia Used in Canada to Get Rid of Poorest People
Euthanasia Used in Canada to Get Rid of Poorest People
Related:
Canadians Turn to Euthanasia as Solution to Unbearable Poverty
Why is Canada euthanising the poor?
The problem is neoliberalism—or capitalism, whatever you want to call it! The government doesn’t want to spend more on healthcare (Medicare), welfare, or affordable housing—things that fiscal conservatives, and corporate democrats won’t fund! Yet, there’s always money for war!
14-Year-Old Speaks Out After Being Denied Medication Because She’s Childbearing Age
Over the weekend, a local news outlet in Tucson, Arizona, reported that a 14-year-old girl had been denied her medication, methotrexate, for her debilitating arthritis and osteoporosis, because methotrexate can possibly induce a miscarriage and the girl is of childbearing age. This comes just after Arizona’s pre-Civil War, total abortion ban took effect at the end of last month.
14-Year-Old Speaks Out After Being Denied Medication Because She’s Childbearing Age
Dr. Campbell: Kyle’s experience (Oct 22, 2021)
YouTube: Dr. Campbell: Kyle’s experience ( Oct 22, 2021)
Pericarditis after vaccination, possible inadvertent intravenous administration. Useful links as discussed in this video.
YouTube: Big Health Update / Checking In – Kyle & April – Ride MTB
Dr. John Campbell
Despite being pro-vaccine, Dr. Campbell has long warned that the drugs were being administered incorrectly ― re. aspiration of the syringe prior to injection ― and even called for people to petition their respective governments to said effect.
Reddit
Related:
Vaccines Being Administered Incorrectly Causing Myocarditis
Working-Class Americans Are Standing Up for Themselves—and the Left Is Denouncing Them
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
You must be logged in to post a comment.