Hello all!
This Monday I decided on a whim, that I’m quitting my job & booked a month long trip to Europe, joining my group of best friends from high school who are all going out. I’ll be starting in Oslo, Norway on the 25th of June, and flying out of Oslo on the 21st of July.
Will likely be in Oslo from June 26th-30th or so, before coming back towards the tail end of the trip, and just wanted some general advice before walking in blind! Things to expect, customs to abide by, etc? We’re all going primarily to see the band Sticky Fingers perform at Rockefeller Music Hall on the 28th, but outside of that we may head into other parts of Norway/Europe before heading back to catch the flight home.
Any local recommendations for relatively cheap lodging, food suggestions, travel, etc are all more than appreciated. I’m also a travel / music / event photographer, so any advice on some maybe more obscure, yet beautiful, locations is eagerly welcomed as well.
I want to get the notable Norway shots, am already planning on going to Bergen as well, but if there’s anything else you may recommend for a traveling photographer heading to Norway, and even just Europe for the first time as a 24 year old American, I’d really appreciate it! 😊

I've told this story so many times that my larynx hurts. I've dictated it so many times and then had to go back and correct the mistakes I'm working on carpal tunnel as well. Anyway as you can tell I'm at that point of the day where I felt I should share but what's the point? I work in an industry where I'm a painter of sets and such for corporate events and plays and things like that. So out of the blue they decided when you get day to use isisyanite-based primers and paints and we did it over the weekend and I was exposed for close to 16 hours with only a 3M gas mask with a regular filter in it. The sprayed product was called chassis saver. If you want to look up the MSDS you're going to have to type in chassis saver MSDS. It's got a whole smorgasbord of fun like methyl diisocyanate mixed with aluminum flake? That was shot out of an HVLP gun under pressure in a closed Warehouse because it was seemed outside so there was no ventilation for 2 days. I had ... okay let's just quit trying to give anybody to benefit it out here and say I had no protection whatsoever. Cuz if I'm going to mention the 3M mask but not the fact that I need a full body suit gloves full face mask with supplied oxygen and I'm supposed to leave all of my clothes at work including my shoes and not get it on my skin along with proper ventilation? Well none of that was done. First off because we weren't worried about the danger secondly none of that stuff is available to us at work and thirdly I wasn't even the one using the stuff. Didn't matter I still became concerned when the room was a silvery cloud of toxins so after a couple weeks when I realized I was asthmatic and having reactions every time I went to work? My GM had me apply for workers comp and sent me home for 4 days. Then I was asked to come back to work to help and the symptoms started again. It took me a while to figure out what was going on by doing some reading on OSHA and the CDC. Plus all the other articles and case studies. It all lined up it was obvious that I didn't kind of get exposed... I was immersed in it. That includes breathing it having it in my eyes eating after using it no ventilation and wearing the same clothes home along with getting some on my skin when I was helping him clean up afterwards. Poured it on the side of my abdomen because it was in a mixing cup. It felt really good. Anyway, as soon as this hit corporate everything went s*** house crazy. I continue to go to work for 4 weeks and see the doctor that they had sent me to and since I've been self-employed my whole life as a portrait artist? That's my college degree it's a BFA and fine arts. Probably kiss my oil painting career goodbye. So they got rid of the job I had and any other talents I could fall back on. Anyway yeah this is going to be kind of a sarcastic post so enjoy it. What doctor was I send to that was an expert on chemical exposure with isocyanates and occupational acquired asthma? What was the name of that place it's famous like the Mayo Clinic but instead it's everywhere and oh yeah Concentra. You know the place you go to and the doctor runs a stethoscope all over you and says he doesn't hear anything to indicate asthma even though it sounds like there's a kitten stuck in your throat? Then he tricks your blood pressure and says it's normal even though it's rising quickly? He asks you why you're there and nods his head and you can tell in his mind he's going "well that's like a total s*** show. If I do what the insurance adjusters are telling me to do I'm basically sending this guy back to work to die. So let me get on that" I would come in and he would look at me and say so what do you want to do today and I would say I don't know maybe doctor stuff like check me see if I have asthma I don't know what the tests are for us to cyanide exposure? You're the doctor what do you want to do? Oh you want to go okay well be sure and sign that box telling me to return to work because he can't find any injury or evidence of exposure. Thanks. Oh this week you want to do blood work. But you only want to test for the most extreme exposure the kind that would cause neurological damage and okay. So he sends off the blood test tells me it'll be a week. And remind you I'm going back to work every day and getting re-exposed to all the stuff that I'm now allergic to and it's damaging my lungs and I'm coughing so hard my lungs are starting to separate from the wall my back. It's funny it's hilarious you know but at least they're saving money. They get to watch it and hear it but you know... buck up cowboy. You shouldn't smoke. Yeah y'all managed to do more damage to my lungs in 18 hours than I did in 47 years of light smoking. Seriously five cigarettes a day maybe. No history of asthma no history of allergies other than penicillin. I always watched other people just go through miserable seasons I mean just I swollen shut it's not running down their face and I thought how lucky I am. So my job decided that wasn't fair and locked me in the building with a chemical that destroyed a town in India. And they only used it that one time and decided they didn't like the properties of it. Probably cuz it's not meant to be put on wood but that's what the chassis saver was for was to give it sort of a metallic quality so they can roll the what yeah that's right bed truck liner on it that was day two and early the next day. When everybody was at work. When we were applying this stuff they were only two people there me and my supervisor. So if you look at the time clock it tells you when and who was there. If you look at when this stuff was purchased and under what project the stuff was charged to? what client? While we were doing a huge project for caterpillar that they were having out in Las Vegas. Don't know why one of our designers figured that bed liner would be a good idea for some of the staging when you can achieve that with paint and clear coat. But that's what he wanted. So so much for avoiding it just because it's not necessary. In the state of Texas you can't sue your employer for personal injury unless you can prove gross negligence. I would say that kind of falls where we're at. Unfortunately the other thing in Texas is that there aren't many workers comp attorneys because in 1993 they passed some laws that made being a workers comp attorney a tricky thing and you can lose your license really easy. In other words it was a very business friendly law to get companies to move here. Especially when you couldn't get sued for you know sending someone on fire or destroying their lungs and life. So a lot of people can get a worker's comp attorney even if they're a crappy one. But most of them that claim to be workers comp attorneys? They're actually just want to hear your stories so they can see if there's a personal injury lawsuit in there due to gross negligence cuz that's the only way they're going to make any money in this state and if it's a chemical exposure? I've been told by several attorneys who had extreme sympathy for my situation that they couldn't even refer me to an attorney that would take my case hey there's no attorney that's going to touch a chemical exposure case in Texas because it's already tough enough. Well I've been put the ringer lied to followed by a private investigator in the whole time I've been on represented and doing all the paperwork myself which they throw at me everyday usually it's fake stuff or stuff with the wrong date or deadline on it they mess with any attempts I get to find another diagnosis when they know damn well what happened on what day and with what products and who was there and when you know there's just no disputing the fact of what happened and when it happened and that we weren't protected because they don't have that kind of stuff there for PPE. we don't use that stuff so why would we need supplied oxygen masks. If I'm spraying something with metal paint mixed with silo I put on a 3M mask and use it organic filter and keep an eye on when it's starting to wear out even then? I'm not going to get leukemia or brain cancer for another 30 years well after I'm not working for them anymore so they've got that going for them and as do I. And this happened back in February 25th and I was sent home immediately because they were extremely concerned but they be suddenly became unconcerned about 4 days later I guess cuz corporate got involved and told me to come back into work and I spent another four weeks getting worse and worse and worse having the weekends to try and recover but not completely so I would start off at a level of irritation and asthma that was already underway when I returned on Monday. This was fun. Because even though they can see it they would just blame it on my smoking which is hilarious because you know life and for that weekend I wasn't allergic to anything in that building for two and a half years and I'm one of two people in the paint department so it's not a huge crew I'd say there's about 30 people that work there and probably too many people in the front office getting paid too much just sitting air conditioning. I mean they do work but you know if they had the chance they'd probably urinate on your face. That's not fair. They would wait till you run conscious from toxic exposure to gases anyway. Or they would but the workers comp adjusters do that for them. I mean they pay them for a reason and it's not help the employee so? Why am I talking to them again without an attorney oh yeah see above. So yeah they're just having a good old time they're beating me like a pinata making me run around like an idiot and freaking me out with letters and false deadlines that after a while I began to realize it being seriously gas lit I stopped playing nice guy and started recording phone calls and screenshotting text messages to make sure they got saved and save me everything in files and whenever they screwed up and intentionally put the wrong deadline on a Federal form like a FL la form from the Department of Labor anything like that? I would call him about that and record the response. One of my favorites was well that was just a suggested date because you know if you got it done sooner then you would get the paperwork done sooner and everything you get done sooner and you know just faster. Well yeah I understand how that works Einstein thanks I understand the whole concept and time and speed Mass velocity whatever. I swear to God they treat me like Chaka from Land of the Lost. They're all like 30 years younger than me and about to lose their jobs to AI but hey it'll be funny to watch. Won't need all those people running CAD machines and designing stuff after a few years. But let them enjoy it while they can anyway back to my career being ruined so they've just been having a good old time calling me and then they sent out a private investigator to harass me and want to talk to me until finally I just exploded and said what is it exactly you want to talk to me about.? I've been advised by everybody I know who is an attorney who may not be working in workers comp but they are an attorney? That I should never ever meet with a private investigator especially one that's a third party. You know one that's hired and not actually from the company. Cuz then he's not bound by the laws of an attorney or a police officer or an investigator he can do what he wants. Especially since he wanted to just talk to me and fill in the details of what happened that day. You know what caused the accident. I asked him what kind of forum is this going to occur in he said we could meet anywhere you want we can meet at McDonald's but I'm sure you don't want people here in your private information and I told him I don't like McDonald's anyway so I don't know I guess maybe after I get done with this doctor and have a solid diagnosis of asthma and something to stand on I'll be ready to comment. But until then I'm not meeting with you without an attorney in the room and probably even after I'm not going to meet with you without attorney in the room. So now it's come to this thing where I do have a doctor that's helping that was accidentally in their Network because I guess it slipped to the radar that they had an actual doctor that would do spirometry and asthma testing. of course they're messing with her a lot. I get your phone calls I get weird texts everybody has assured me that I'm obviously being observed surveilled. I don't see anything but I don't care either because nothing to see. I'm not at work. Why would I have asthma at home? I'm sure there's some triggers out there but I haven't discovered yet but that'll be fun and something to do in my free time. Anyway they seem to be kind of stuck in this rut where they won't go forward or approve anything unless I meet with the private investigator. Finally I blew my stack and said that I have no obligation to me the private investigator I've made my statement they were two people in the room y'all know what happened y'all know what I'm saying was the result you're not allowing me to explore that so I would think the best way for y'all to fill in the gaps and figure out what happened and what the situation this is letting me go to a f****** doctor that treats me and actually trust me for the things that I claim I have. That way instead of treating me like I'm lying you can prove that I'm lying which won't happen because I'm not lying which is obviously what you know so what is it he wants to ask me about again oh yeah he wants me to fill in the details is he a doctor? No okay well how about you get a doctor to do it instead of somebody who follows people husbands and wives around looking for infidelity. So I still don't have an attorney and I called OSHA reported the exposure and all they did was call my workplace and say "hey, did you have an exposure there?" and they said "yeah, but we got rid of that stuff" and they said "okay great" slow clap into a face palm. Which you know, kind of blew my mind. Because I thought calling OSHA was starting a nuclear war. That they would be in there with clip boards and chemical detectors and wanting to know just what the hell happened here. Because they've been really hard on this chemical and they've been trying to educate the public but evidently calling and just asking if it happened and them saying "well we got rid of that stuff" . That's enough for them. never mind the fact it was an "exposure to isocyanates in the workplace that I was reporting" which is what they told me they were going to check on. I wasn't calling them to tell them that they had harmful materials in a building, so evidently the guy I'm dealing with doesn't understand exactly what the law is or what law I was trying to get them to acknowledge. Cuz that would help my case if there were questions posed by government officials and they had to tell the truth. Either way, if they reported the exposure?great. They followed the law and I would have that an admission that an exposure occurred .....or they didn't report it and it would look really bad and probably cost them some money. But to my dismay, OSHA is obviously a joke. At least here in Dallas. So it's been real fun, yeah it's been one disappointment after the other of people just saying "I know this is my job, but I'm sorry. looking at your situation I'm just not good enough talented or educated enough to take it on. I'm just one of those people takes the easy cases and if something looks difficult? Even if it's a matter of you possibly dying or living on the streets and your whole family getting kicked out and never having a proper diagnosis to have on your medical records to show other employers or people in the situations that you can't be in in the future? I'm going to go over here and handle this easy money case." I'm sure there are some attorneys out there that if they knew about me and my situation it'll be all over it because they like a challenge and realize that there's not much left to do. All the information that I have and phone recordings, some documentation of b******* that has accumulated over the past months. Because normally you know you'd call a lawyer at the beginning of the case and there wouldn't be anything there. But since they figured I was never going to get an attorney? It was just "hey let's whack the pinata guy" . If an attorney were to walk in at this point? We've got enough acts of malfeasance and fraud and deliberate dishonesty, misleading statements and instructions, recordings and plenty of Doom and gloom documents meant to make me quit give up or go away out of fear or exhaustion.....and all I have to do is just hand you this stack and explain to you what's going on and we could probably even find a case that had nothing to do with workers compensation and had more to do with fraud and gross negligence and just have fun doing that. I mean they've had their fun why not? I didn't go into this looking for a cash settlement I just wanted to be taken care of and as the law states it should be. But I'm really just kind of f****** done with the whole f****** thing because everyone I talk to everyone I talk to doesn't want to touch it. When you have workers comp insurance that doesn't have ANY (ZERO) doctors in their Network to handle workplace asthma? which is one of the most common workers comp claims it pretty much leads the pack with all the saw dust and gas fumes out there to breathe in. But no we didn't have any doctors that would treat that or even know how to treat that at all. in fact the ONE that I did find? had retired about 5 years ago. That was funny. it was always a interesting thing to find out that when you finally had an aha moment leading to a hopeful situation? That turned out it was actually just a straw man. Even dealing with the Texas agencies help with people who are going through workers compensation or having difficulties? It depends on how you get on the line there's nothing more extremely helpful to the point where they'll even call the adjuster to make them call you back and help you fill out your forms whereas there were others that are just generally irritated by the fact that you're even calling and don't know what you're talking about. Well believe it or not there are some people in this world that don't do workers comp for living and don't spend their whole time having to deal with it. Especially people that are self-employed portrait artists for most of their lives. I guess this long-winded rambling stream of consciousness is just what's going on in my head and I can tell you right now it ain't a lot of good things and nothing really positive to say about working for anybody under any circumstances and I wouldn't take anything that anybody said they were going to do for you as a fact. It's all good on paper and everything but when it comes down to it it's all about saving money and if it involves an injury that doesn't look good on their records they got to get rid of that and they really don't f****** care what happens to you. You could be dissolving with sulfuric acid on your body and they would tell you to get out of the Sun and quit smoking. And they just watch it happen until you were just a pile of just steaming you know white powder on the ground or whatever happens. Do I sound frustrated? Flippant "whatever. Didn't see that coming". So I guess if you're in Texas and you're an attorney that this work is compensation and you want your entire case handed to you and you can say that you want a chemical exposure case in Texas I've got it right here for you if not fine. If you're from out of state that's fine too if you'd like to file a lawsuit that they beat me with clowns I don't give a carrot to a donkey whether you do that or not. As long as we win the case and they suffer for their behavior. It's not all vengeance. I want but is owed to me by law. And I didn't get that instead I got financial destitution cuz they have not paid me a dime and I'm the runaround which is basically we won't honor your claim until you prove that you were injured on the job. Okay I can't do that unless I prove that I have asthma. So they send me to a doctor that doesn't treat me for asthma now he's my pcp. Finally I find somebody that can treat me what do they do they immediately start pulling the plug on everything saying that my time's up sorry this show's over quick turn off the lights but hold up a minute they were too slow and I was able to get in there and she's doing spirometry tests and everything but you know I know it's not going to be enough because that's why I need to do the super serious testing the kind that definitively says whether you have asthma or not and there's no doubt there's no doubt that these people can try and split hairs and make excuses. Then I get to try and type for the workplace which wouldn't be hard if I had an attorney because this in front of a judge and argue it this is the guy before this is the guy after he's got occupational asthma he worked here for two and a half years and then after that weekend where was the only two days out of the year that that chemical was present and being sprayed? After that he developed severe occupational asthma and an insensitivity to isocyanide due to acute exposure with absolutely no PPE or guidance instruction and now no help no financial help and the guys that I work with here in town that run the show don't talk to me anymore it's all corporate people that were states away and have no idea and don't care what the facts are they just want the positive outcome which is the one that benefits them. But we all know that. We wouldn't be in this form if we didn't know that. Ask for all of y'all that have had better luck congratulations. I am truly happy for you. I don't know where I'm going to be I know obviously you can tell where I am mentally right now and that if another person involved with the adjuster or my employers handed me a form fill out to get the thing that I need that ain't going to happen that they say would happen that won't? I'd wad it up and throw it back in their face without reading it and not worrying about what they say will happen if I don't fill it out. Because they know if I fill it out and sign it or if I don't fill it out and sign it? It wouldn't do a f****** thing. Unless it was an attorney wanting to get with me and get a retainer and all that stuff set up .....and get going. Because nothing.....everything else is just a f****** waste of time, gas and mental energy. It's just that's what it's designed to do... wear you down. You know the truth and you can't prove it and you start feeling like you're living in bad movie like invasion of the body snatchers or something. like I said, it's the ultimate definition of gaslighting. So if you're going through the same thing with workers comp? I feel your pain. I definitely have sympathies if your injuries are more severe or debilitating than mine and you're being treated like this, but something needs to be done about the system because I'm quite aware of what it is now. I've had plenty of time to sit down and parse out what happened and watch videos listen to other attorneys talk read articles on the chemical and how not only companies and workers comp are reacting to it, but also the manufacturers themselves. For instance the CEO that wiped out that city in India? he showed up one day for court in India and then claimed he had to return to the states to take care of some business and never went back. India tried to extradite him for several decades. But instead? he was able to retire with a nice fat paycheck Savage whatever you want to call it and live out the rest of his days in Florida. And I guess he slept well at night knowing what he did. Union carbide. Bought by now Dow? Pretty sure they have never done anything wrong..... I'll have to double check that but I'm pretty sure on they are on up and up right? If they have the good attorney defend the behavior. I mean chemical companies they don't f*** around.... do they? anyway. whatever. I'm not too jaded to where I don't want to accept help or nail these f***. Or just get what I deserve. So take my post as a bit of Comedy or just a rant..... some venting. Maybe you feel the same way. Maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't. Just don't let it scare you cuz your case might be totally different than mine. I have an invisible injury and that's a s** place to be. Just like growing up in Texas. Well I guess it's time to lay down on the couch and play video games. How much is something like that pay?
My apologies if the punctuation spelling of what I've written up there (or actually dictated) has weird words that are completely out of contact in there somewhere. I dictated this because I'm so f****** tired of typing and I'm really tired of going back over what I wrote and fixing the grammar and trying to make it not look insane? It's just fatigue and I just thought I should get this out there in the Reddit forum. I'm a member of some other groups, but you know... first time listener first time caller

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To many of us, NAFO is a place to make memes that bonk on Ruzzia cause it makes them look bad and boosts the moral of our brothers and sisters fighting in Ukraine. This is good, keep it up.
What I want to discuss, is how we can use the cyberspace to cause massive impacts with regards to undermining Ruzzian propaganda and by extension, support for the Ruzzian regime.
The topics I will discuss will make this post quite lengthy and it may seem on the surface that the points I a making are irrelevant or that I am taking a very long winded approach in order to get to the ultimate points I am making - but I will do my best to communicate the key components of each topic and why they are all related.
If that's okay with you, read on and buckle up - we're going to be covering a lot of intermediate and heavy topics first before we can get to the good stuff.
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Before we get started, I want to give you my perspective on how I see the World, the Universe and everything around me (yes, just bare with me...).
The Universe is this great big mathematical object. I theorised this some years ago, only to realise that a much better physicist than myself had the same idea with far superior backing and research for the theory than I ever could have applied (The Mathematical Universe Hypothesis - Max Tegmark, 2014).
The best that we can observe is that there are these little spikes of data representing what we understand to be subatomic atomic particles from the Standard Model within these spaces called "Quantum Fields". Actually - these particles aren't so much individual particles themselves, the particle is the excitation in that Quantum field. These excitations follow very rigorous mathematical laws - they won't change unless there is some external stimuli that affects them. When these excitations coalesce due to the physical laws of our Universe, we say that these particles have formed larger structures such as Pions, Hadrons and even Atoms. These atoms go on to form larger structures such as planets, stars, cellular life and the human brain.
All this is to impress upon you the idea that everything, absolutely everything, is the product of mathematical determinism. Even if we consider the probabilistic nature that Quantum Mechanics implies, this is in itself is a deterministic construct if we were to consider that probabilities are determined by the nature of the events leading up to the new event as yet to be determined - further, many scientists reason that this is evidence for a "Multiverse theory". Personally, I speculate that the probabilistic appearance of the Quantum world is indicative of axial dimensions that are additional to the classical x, y, z, t dimensions most of us are probably use to.
Regardless, the point remains. You do not have free will. No matter how much you may or may not want to believe it - Everything you are, everything you believe, everything you know, is a product of everything else that has happened before you.
"If the moon, in the act of completing its eternal way around the earth, were gifted with self-consciousness, it would feel thoroughly convinced that it was traveling its way of its own accord on the strength of a resolution taken once and for all. So would a Being, endowed with higher insight and more perfect intelligence, watching man and his doings, smile about man's illusion that he was acting according to his own free will." - Albert Einstein
The "decisions" you make are not so much a choice you ever really had, but the manifestation of the synapses in your brain responding to external stimulation.
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To think about the Brain for our purposes, we need to think about it as a physical object. This object, and the conclusions it makes about the world around it, can be influenced, guided, manipulated and/or programmed. In a funny sort of a way it can kind of be thought of as a computer...
We are the products of our environmental conditioning - the events of everything that has happened before us and all the events that have shaped our experiences, make us who we are today.
Nature plays its part of course, nurture is nature. Both genetics and epigenetics will play significant roles in how we interact with the world; but consider this:
If a baby born to Chinese parents were to be adopted at birth and raised in Houston, Texas, will they speak English or Mandarin? I suspect that they will probably end up speaking English with a thick Texan accent, and that they may also find it difficult to identify many persons of Chinese origin due to a lack of exposure they have had to Asiatic faces.
“Give me just one generation of youth, and I'll transform the whole world.” - Vladimir Lenin
The stimuli that affects the brain can come from all forms of external sources. It will manifest itself by the way that we literally sense the world - every sight we see, every sound we hear, every smell, every touch, every temperature variable, every pattern we recognise. Recognising this and understanding how this relates to shaping the very experiences and views that people have of the world is the key to understanding how and why people believe what they believe.
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Belief is a natural product of human evolution. There are no papers on this - this is my own theory, but I would bank a lot of money on it if I had any.
Imagine a hypothetical scenario in cave man times to keep things simple. Tribe A and Tribe B are at war with each other. Tribe A aren't the most abstract of thinkers, but they are all united on a common belief that Tribe B are "bad dumb-dumbs" that need their heads bonking. Tribe B, meanwhile, are arguing and debating amongst themselves about the ethics in their approach to fighting Tribe A and about who's method amongst themselves is the best to be adopted when dealing with the Tribal War Issue. Unless Tribe B can be unanimous and expedient in developing their strategy for dealing with Tribe A, then their advantage of greater capacity for abstract thought will be rendered effectively useless - Tribe A will wipe the floor with them (I'm looking at you Ancient Greece).
Human beings, for the most part, have a natural propensity for adopting belief systems irrespective of irrefutable evidence. Evolution does not require you to consistently choose and believe the objective truth. Evolution only cares that you adopt the strategy that is most likely to increase your survival, and more specifically, the survival of your group whom are likely to share similar genetic material as you. Belief, regardless of objective truth, is therefore a survival strategy in and of itself - the underlying strategy of which being to obtain social unity and cohesion.
In reality, a groups survival will depend upon a multitude of factors - but this survivability will increase if that group has many different members more capable of different skills and different kinds of abstract reasoning. It's why the concept of "Time and Motion" works, why the cells in our bodies all function to serve unique purposes, why symbiotic relationships in the animal kingdom work so effectively... Our collective capabilities, and therefore our odds of survival, are increased when individual members are able to specialise in areas the group as a whole can benefit from. We are very much a social animal - Mother Nature has dictated that we should be this way.
[As a side note: This also adds into my theory for why Autism in many is not so much a disability, but rather an evolutionary strategy that makes the neurological trade-off in the autist themselves that sacrifices social capabilities for increased pattern recognition and abstract awareness. Their social skills are not required if the group is well off enough and able to take care of them - the autistic person is able to provide a level of abstract thought and reasoning that can provide technology with the capability of increasing the groups probability of survival massively.]
For more information on this topic, I thoroughly recommend this Ted-talk on Homosexuality and Epigenetics.
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"Neuro-Linguistic Programming" (or simply "NLP") is, more or less, an applied science on how language and communication techniques can be used to influence (other people as well as ourselves). It is a "science"* that is exploited immensely in the fields of sales and marketing (*long story, some people hold the opinion it is a pseudo-science). NLP is used by psychologists and hypnotists and what it boils down to is the idea that communication techniques (as well as the utilisation of intelligently placed external stimuli) can be used to influence people into certain ways of thinking.
NLP can be used, and has been used, to alleviate people of their phobias. NLP is used to provide therapy for people to overcome trauma and depression. NLP is used to sell products. NLP can be used to convince people into sleeping with you. NLP can be used to manipulate large swathes of people into believing what you want them to believe. NLP can be used to elicit emotions like happiness, sadness, anger and practically any other emotion you can think of. It is used to achieve results. It is used, by those with the inclination to do so, as a means to achieve the outcomes from people that they themselves want to see in them. The most common use of NLP is in by making you believe that a choice you've made is the result of your deciding on a matter, and not the result of some smart fucker hacking into your neurological programming.
NLP is a tool. It is neither good nor bad. How it is used provides the basis for our own subjections as to whether something has been used for "Good" or "Evil".
Remember that the brain is just an object that is malleable and can be influenced by external stimuli? This is what it is about. Along with another field called Behavioral Economics, NLP is about controlling the perceptions and behavior of people - Behavioral Economics is the same thing but on a large scale. Just as Sales is to the Marketeer, NLP is to the Behavioral Economist.
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This is propaganda. Now do you understand me? The underlying objective is to assist the propagandist in their (or their Masters') objective to attain, or retain control of, Power. The means by which they do this is by calculating the most effective ways to achieve the results that most fit their desired outcome. Do we want more people to quit smoking? Let's make legislation so that packs of cigarettes must have NSFL imagery on them so more people have an adverse negative reaction and association to it. Do we want Western nations to be divided so as to undermine their internal security? Let's pump out reactionary memes and propaganda to outrage the people and polarise the population into demonizing "the other side".
"Divide et Impera" - Latin: Divide and Rule - sometimes translated as "Divide and Conquer", Antiquity
Do we want to win the election by any means necessary irrespective of the values of freedom and democracy? Let's use AI technology to send out specific messages via social media designed to bring about strong emotional responses in those with the potential to be galvanized to voting in our favour, and other messages designed to make those who would vote against us apathetic to the voting process.*
"The greatest danger to our future is apathy." - Jane Goodall
[*This actually happened in 2016 during the Brexit and Trump Election campaigns using technology by a company called Cambridge Analytica - it's a wild story in and of itself, so check it out if it interests you.]
Do we want to convince the population that, what would otherwise be considered an unjustified war, is entirely necessary for our defense and security? 9/11 Let's blow up an some apartment blocks, kill hundreds of civilians, and use this as a justification to invade Chechnya!
Minds can be controlled. People can be manipulated. The results of these manipulations have real world effects and are very much considered by top military analysts as being major components of modern warfare along with other little known dimensions of conflict such as espionage, economic and political interference.
---
What happens when you train an Artificial Intelligence algorithm into identifying and producing propaganda unique to an individual?
To do this effectively, you'd need data... a lot of data... petabytes upon petabytes of data... both to train the AI algorithm in identifying the psychological makeup of a person and to train the algorithm into understanding what kinds and forms of stimuli are going to be most effective when trying to influence this kind of person. How would you do this? You'd need some kind of platform with an unfathomable amount of human resources.
Now imagine you have an application, with the structural architecture for keylogging, that aggressively harvests data from users phones, with a known history to censor content critical of authoritarian regimes, and has over 1 Billion active monthly users...
... what do you think they're going to be using all that data for?
For the love of all that is FUCKING good in this world. STOP. USING. TIKTOK.
---
We are up against individuals who are hellbent on their own power. These people will use the technology I have discussed to manipulate as many people as possible in ways that most suit them. They will divide us. They will make us apathetic, or they will galvanize us into blindly supporting policies or actions that suit them. Their fight is for control over hearts and minds - they had no intention of alleviating you of your chains, only replacing them with shackles they alone hold the key to.
---
By all means, carry on bonking vatniks with your clubs and your sticks when they carelessly wonder upon our turf - I certainly don't object... but I have the basis for a toolkit to help you develop highly accurate strategic information missiles to help you make significant impacts in the places where it most matters.
When you are making memes to combat Ruzzian disinformation, think about who the meme is for... is the meme for other fellas so we can fratbro with each other confirming what we already know and how great we all are? Well, you'd be preaching to the crowd... ofc we're fucking awesome! We haven't necessarily convinced anyone else of that though and we might have even pissed off some vatniks hard enough they want to go out there way to use slimey techniques to underhand us...
Maybe the memes we make could be aimed at those who are falling victim to Ruzzian (and Chinese) propaganda... maybe we could take a calculated approach to consider exactly what is going to be most effective method in dispelling the beliefs held by those who are sympathetic to Ruzzia. Maybe we can talk to people in such a way that gets them to change their minds.
Remember: the mind is malleable - it is a programmable object, we're not trying to program people with our own ideas, we are trying to alleviate people that have had virus's infect theirs.
---
We don't have to be looking at those spouting Ruzzian bs like vile creatures and enemies... if you're friend had a brain tumour, would you hate your friend or the cancer? (Fuck Cancer).
There's a good chance we will be more effective with removing the cancer from peoples minds if we adopt a position that is explicitly non-hostile. Imagine, from their point of view, what it would be to convince them to rethink their world-view. For the vast majority of those on the opposing side, they will need a way out accepting that they have done wrong in their lives without fear of being treated as a pariah (this is why the forgiveness and "born-again" narrative works so well for so many religions) - of course we want to treat them like pariahs because of the hurt we and our people have endured; but I ask you, what is better: hating on someone who is helping to push the Ruzzian narrative or letting it go and maybe having one less vatnik to worry about?
Our true enemies after all are those pulling the strings on the marionettes we see before us. To them, we should also be measured since they are likely calculated but with their own interests in mind.
---
To develop the perfect memes for our cause, you need to consider:

• What is going to have the most impact?
• What will spread to the most amount of people?
• What will have the greatest likelihood of alleviating our side from apathy?
• What will have the biggest impact in dispelling the beliefs of those who might be sympathetic to the other side? What will make them question the legitimacy of the false narratives they have been told?

When dealing with victims of Vatnik propaganda in person, you need to let them know that you are their friend and not like all the propaganda has led them to believe about you. Be NICE!
You can use techniques from NLP in order to communicate more effectively, but do it responsibly, it is not a tool to be abused.
In time I will try and develop this system so it is easier and more succinct to follow for your regular everyday normal fella. For now, and for those of you who have been brave enough to read this far, I have given you the underlying framework for understanding how communication can be used as a tool to directing people into a directed frame of thinking.
What I'm really trying to impose upon you more than anything else is the idea that we should be thinking strategically about our methods for addressing the issues of Ruzzian disinformation. Consider exactly what it is you want to achieve in combating misinformation and calculate the most effective means of communication in order to achieve it.

Hey there,
I posted last week about the anti-bullying podcast that I am helping out on. This week we put out an episode that is more relevant to this subreddit, as it is about a military wife and fitness expert who ended up getting bullied and driven out of her job over a charity event. We also talk about the wisdom of creating Facebook groups to accuse specific businesses of bullying.
Below are the links to listen. Both myself and my partner in this endeavor would love to hear from you about your experiences and even possibly interview people about their experiences with bullying. We'd also love to hear your feedback on how we can make the show itself more helpful and useful to you.
Episode 3: Apple / Spotify / Google

Episode 3 of the anti-bullying podcast that I am helping produce was released last week. In the discussion this week, we talk about whether it is a good idea to just create facebook groups to go after companies someone might have a disagreement with as well as talk to a fitness expert & business owner who was ostracized by the US military over a disagreement in regards to a charity event that led to years of abuse.
Please have a listen. We would love to be contacted and talk to anyone who might want to share their story with us, or have advice to share about how they dealt with bullying in their life. We would also appreciate any feedback that could make the show more helpful to you.
Episode 3 of KCB on Apple / Spotify / Google

romesentinel.com /stories/guest-column-olmsted-city-whats-in-a-name-plenty-for-city-of-utica,182927

GUEST COLUMN: 'Olmsted City?' What’s in a name? Plenty for city of Utica

Phil Bean, chair of Olmsted City7-8 minutes
People sometimes ask why we call our nonprofit group “Olmsted City” rather than something like “Utica Olmsted Parks.”
That’s understandable; we are currently focused on East Utica’s 62-acre Frederick T. Proctor Park. Still, we aim to do much more.
Four years ago, I returned after 23 years in Boston and Philadelphia and bought a home in the city of Utica. I wanted to contribute to Utica’s increasingly promising redevelopment efforts. Convinced that our parks are among our most important quality-of-life assets — they certainly made a difference in my life — I began working in 2019 to rejuvenate them, and two years ago I founded Olmsted City partly to promote that work.
It’s not enough simply to say we have parks — for decades, we’ve had too much talk and not enough sustained action to restore and maintain them. In contrast, by the end of 2022-23, Olmsted City will have spent over $250,000 on F.T. Proctor Park. Last year, we also recruited 150 volunteers who invested 1,100 hours in the park.
This is not a hobby for the amusement of the privileged or just a historic preservation project. Olmsted City is driven by the conviction that everyone, including the least fortunate, deserves beautiful recreational spaces. Indeed, such ideas drove Thomas R. Proctor to embark on a park-building binge more than 120 years ago. And today, a much higher proportion of our underprivileged neighbors live within a 10-minute walk of our Olmsted parks than do the most fortunate in this region.
This reality is at the forefront of everything we do.
Public health research has proven that visiting urban parks confers significant physical and mental health benefits. The local diabetes and blood pressure rates are higher than the state average, and a disproportionate number of Uticans (notably but not exclusively refugees) have experienced trauma.
For many such Uticans, parks have medicinal power. Healthy park tree canopies also cool temperatures and reduce pollution for those who live nearby.
Despite our dedication to parks, however, we call ourselves “Olmsted City” because we are also trying to rebrand Utica — not just one institution in it, but the entire city. “Olmsted” is by far the most nationally recognizable name to which Utica can attach itself. Very few outsiders have heard of Munson, Williams, or Proctor, and not many more know who Conkling or Seymour were.
For over a century, in contrast, the Olmsted family fundamentally transformed the American landscape. This fact recently inspired a highly successful, year-long nationwide celebration of the bicentennial of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., the inventor of the American urban park, the co-designer of Central Park and innumerable others, and the first person to call for a national park system.
His son, who did so much in Utica, designed the landscaping for the White House, the Jefferson Memorial, and many other nationally famous sites. He also helped save the California giant redwoods and start the National Park Service.
People from major metropolitan areas celebrate the name “Olmsted” because their lives are enriched by Olmsted family creations like not just Central Park, but Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, Boston’s Emerald Necklace system, Philadelphia’s FDR Park, Montreal’s Mount Royal Park, the Seattle parks system — and on and on it goes.
So, who cares about what people in big cities think? Uticans should. Utica is definitely on an upswing, but it’s still an under-resourced city. We need more outside capital. Big-city money and talent are helping to transform other small cities. Many people who might bring these goods here are accustomed to parks like F.T. Proctor … but they also expect them to be well-maintained.
In addition, the businesses we’d like to attract are interested in quality of life for their workers, increasingly many of whom value the outdoors. Mention that we have an Olmsted-designed park, and it makes many such people see Utica in a different light — and so should we.
However, we don’t have just one Olmsted park. We are the smallest U.S. city with an Olmsted parks and parkway system that’s over 70% the size of Central Park and comprises about 90% of Utica’s public parkland.
It offers diverse opportunities to engage with nature and healthful exercise: miles of wooded paths; tennis, basketball and (soon) pickleball courts; baseball and soccer fields; ice skating (coming next season); swimming pools; biking paths; picnic areas; a golf course; a skate park; dramatic vistas of the valley.
We also have five beautiful Olmsted-designed neighborhoods: Brookside, Proctor Boulevard, Talcott Road, Sherman Gardens, Ridgewood … and in New Hartford, there’s Hoffman Road.
About a tenth of the landmass of the city of Utica — more if you exclude our vast wetlands — was designed by Olmsted and his firm, Olmsted Brothers.
Olmsted City is dedicated to our green spaces, and we have an impressive record of commitment to them — but we are also dedicated to promoting a story for a new Utica, a story that is positive, true, and compelling to outsiders.
It is about having the sort of local pride that attracts opportunity. It is about elevating perceptions of Utica to promote our economic development. The message in our name is that there is something special here: Utica is an Olmsted city, and we should celebrate and protect our Olmsted heritage.
Toward this end, last year alone we planted 27 trees and more than 2,100 other perennial plants, installed five benches, repaired a historic stone staircase, created two new destinations, and cleaned up the long-neglected park gate at F.T. Proctor Park. Unlike many other organizations, we have no paid staff or a multimillion-dollar endowment — our work is dependent on civic-minded volunteers and donors who share our vision and appreciate our track record of getting things done.
We are currently in the midst of reconstructing the park’s previously deteriorated Lily Pond, a 1913 Olmsted creation that’s one of the region’s most iconic spots. It should be running again later this month. Come see it then, but in the meantime, please begin thinking and speaking proudly of Utica as an Olmsted city.
Editor’s note — Phil Bean is chair of Olmsted City; the president of the Utica Public Library Board of Trustees, and a Proctor graduate. He is a former college dean and author of “The Urban Colonists: Italian American Identity and Politics in Utica, New York,” published by Syracuse University Press, and other works about Utica’s political and ethnic history. He is also the co-creator, with Dennis Dewey, of a series of well-received, short YouTube videos called “Utica: An Olmsted City.”

Selling a White OLED Switch
Asking 300 or best offer. Buyer pays shipping. Willing to do local pickup in Bergen County NJ.

We are playing 1/3 every Wednesdays, long running home game hoping to meet new friends over poker. hit me up if you'd like to join us or looking for more information.

Company Name	Title	City
Concrete Science	Concrete Finisher	Corcoran
Malco Products	New Products Development Tool & Die Maker	Annandale
Malco Products	Tool & Die Maker 1	Annandale
Malco Products	Tool & Die Maker 2	Annandale
Ninth Judicial District	Stenographic or Electronic Court Reporter	Bemidji
Black Boot Builders	Construction/Iron Worker	Cambridge
Cloquet Housing Authority	Maintenance Technician	Cloquet
Adams Publishing Group LLC	Little Falls Reporter	Eden Prairie
Otter Tail Power Company	Transmission Land Specialist	Fergus Falls
Otter Tail Power Company	Reliability Engineer	Fergus Falls
Otter Tail Power Company	Energy Recovery Analyst	Fergus Falls
Red River Valley Co-op Power	Director of Finance and Administration	Halstad
Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid	Grants ManageAdministrator Full-time (Hybrid)	Mankato
Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid	Human Resources & Accounting Specialist Full-Time	Minneapolis
City of Mounds View	Police Officer	Mounds View
Ymca	Lifeguards	Northfield
Cemstone	Ready-Mixed Drivers	Owatonna
ECM Printing	Web Press Operators	Princeton
ECM Printing	Postpress Helpers	Princeton
Community Resource Bank	Mortgage Loan Officer	Roseville
Automotive Part Headquarters	Store Counter Sales Rep	Saint-Cloud
AmerisourceBergen	Warehouse Position	Shakopee
Meyer Bros LLC	Class A Cdl Driver	City Of Rochester
Meyer Bros LLC	Class A Cdl Driver	City Of Woodbury
Delta Airlines	Flight Attendant	Minneapolis-Saint-Paul

Hey guys, here are some recent job openings in mn. Feel free to comment here or send me a private message if you have any questions, I'm at the community's disposal! If you encounter any problems with any of these job openings please let me know that I will modify the table accordingly. Thanks!

• Defend the Ahmaud Arbery killing, including with the lie that he had to be up to no good because he was wearing boots (he wasn't), that he drove 26 miles from his house (it was 1.8, on foot), and that the chase driver was innocent (he hit Arbery with his vehicle)
• Defend the Ralph Yarl shooting
• Defend a guy who drove into a crowd of BLM protesters and shot a guy four times
• Defend Officer Chauvin for killing an unarmed, subdued, and later unconscious man, but condemning Officer Byrd for killing an armed rioter breaking into a protected government area
• Incoherently defend the killing of a disorderly homeless man - tried to compare his yelling on the subway to a home invasion, donating $20k to Daniel Penny's legal defense in order to fight the "culture war.", before - on the same day - condemning the killing of a disorderly person who said the n-word
• Claim to be an advocate of public healthcare, then opposing its proposal
• Oppose Roe v. Wade and its prospective codification by Congress and stating that if the abortion debate came down to banning abortion entire versus allowing it up to 9 months, he'd ban it completely to protect the unborn children, before the Uvalde shooting happened a week later, and he stated that 'it doesn't matter how many children are harmed, because you can't take away rights from people'
• Suggest that it'd be self-defense to kill an abortion doctor
• Encourage “liberals to abort and sterilize their kids” to ensure a more conservative future
• Assert that the 10-year-old Ohio rape victim was a hoax - until it was determined to be committed by an illegal immigrant
• Claim Lizzo will trigger communist famine that will wipe out liberals, while implicitly admitting he’s “on the right” again

• Called someone a Nazi for sharing a photo of him with WNs
• Refer to "a certain World War Two-era hero"
• Deflect from a mass shooting by a neo-nazi fan of Tim Pool - baselessly claiming his SNS was faked to impugn him because ‘they’re losing the culture war’, despite Tim himself posting phony information, before declaring multiculturalism was the real cause
• Claim "Biden colluded with big tech to steal 2020 Confirmed" while willfully ignoring the actual government entity who made similar requests
• Implicitly admit he’s right-wing and rejecting meta-studies, wants to see the Daily Wire grow because it "shares our values", works for TPUSA to talk about how totally segregated Occupy was
• Lie about Shake Shack poisoning police
• Defend Andrew Tate and Harvey Weinstein
• Lie that “Per capita, trans people commit more acts of terrorism than any other demographic.” and that Democrats cause mass shootings
• Lie that a hospital is supposedly performing secret "trans surgeries"
• Lie that a research article supposedly encouraged SA
• Suggest Target and LGBT people are pedophiles based on colors
• Call people supporting pride celebrations in school “pedophiles”
• State: “if you drink bud light and shop at target youre gay”
• Advocate people start suing schools for displaying pride flags, because the rainbow is a Christian symbol which "they are using to represent sin".
• Justify anti-LGBT vandalism
• Suggest an "illegal end" to the "problem" of LGBTQ people
• Rationalize the shooting of LGBT people and advocating their imprisonment, call for any Miami cops listening to him to go rogue and start arresting people for hosting drag shows, call for DeSantis to pursue criminal charges against parents of trans children, and forcibly detransition them
• State there isn't a "classical liberal solution" to the problem of trans people existing: Trans people are creating a "crooked and corrupt society", and we need "some kind of system that says here are the lines, do not cross them"
• Say that trans people should be prohibited from owning guns
• Argue that "cancel culture" is only unacceptable for thee, while endorsing the boycott of Hershey's, and advocating boycotts of Anheuser Busch while demanding they apologize for having the temerity to include a transgender person on an Instagram post, fall for a satirical post of them apologizing
• Blame Anheuser Busch for conservatives assaulting its consumers
• Crybully LGBT people
• Oppose no-fault divorce

• Call for a dictator to "take the reigns of power" and "cleanse the system" by mass arresting Democratic politicians
• Employ and feature white nationalists like Cassandra Fairbanks and Hannah Brimelow
• Preface Fuentes' appearance by suggesting he couldn't be a white supremacist because of his association with Kanye - who Pool endorsed
• Assert that seizing classified documents is like Kristallnacht, calling for war if Trump is arrested
• Condemn your own website for using the legally accurate term "asylum seekers".
• Mock the idea that immigrants being separated from their families and kept in cages in squalid conditions amounted to concentration camps, before later asserting that covid quarantine facilities are concentration camps
• Express vaccine skepticism after condemning the left for supposedly being skeptical of a rushed vaccine in 2020
• Believe the Damar Hamlin "body double" conspiracy theory
• Suggest Bieber’s facial paralysis was due to the vaccine (chickenpox actually), ditto with Jamie Foxx, implying that a kid had a heart attack due to the vaccine, before being informed that his own linked article states there was no heart attack, which he ignores in lieu of doubling down and insulting leftists
• Defend Stein's harassment of AOC, championing Steven Crowder, defend Crowder’s spousal abuse
• Argue with his conservative friends that they’re wrong about Mario not being woke
• Assert Fox News is “too woke”
• General hypocrisy
• Declare Democrats “low info voters” because they voted for a dead candidate, before changing tack after the article also reveals Republicans did so as well
• Assert Trump will end the war in Ukraine in 10 minutes, by using the genius strategy of... asking everyone to stop fighting
• Claim that there was a "soft coup" against Trump
• The "49 state landslide", another "landslide" if Trump is arrested, his repeated predictions of a 2022 "red wave" - which he insisted came to fruition even after the results were known, prompting Milo Yiannopoulos to reel him in
• Declare “Trump is likely going to win in 2024”
• Repeatedly declare AOC is going to lose
• Misrepresent polarization data
• Claim that "If Trump gets reelected, you're gonna have all your dreams come true."
• Advocate Trump endorse Kari Lake as VP
• Suggest Kari Lake lost due to fraud, but turning on Mike Lindell as soon as he alleged fraud by Republicans
• Launder debunked claims of voter fraud - which he used to encourage January 6th attendance, but after which, alleging that antifa was really responsible, before switching tack again and threatening that if "backed into a corner Trump supporters will snap harder than they did on the 6th"
• Proclaim that "Q Shaman IS INNOCENT"

• Insist that Democrats are evil, assert that people who criticize the police are to blame for the murder of Tyre Nichols via new policing standards - of which he ignores that they were hired prior to
• Speculate that the Ohio train Derailment, as well as the recent attacks on power substations in North Carolina, weren't at all accidental and may have been coordinated by leftists
• Assert that people only vote Democratic because they’re “NPCs”
• Suggest young people and mentally ill people shouldn’t be allowed to vote, coming around to the position that women shouldn't be allowed to vote, because he keeps hearing conservative women say the 19th amendment should be repealed
• Propose a "solution" to the problem of women in the workforce: "The only result that is possible is that we become a much more traditional country"
• Claim it's actually bad to provide food to people in need. Instead, society should "create some degree of hardship where they're forced to actually work for their food".
• Approve of a new type of school, where kids are placed on tiny farms so that they can "engage in some commerce" and receive "military tactics training".
• Complain that you can't use the n-word, defend Scott Adams for saying black people are a "hate group" that white people need to "get the hell away from" by claiming he was really talking about the racism in hiring practices
• Go from lambasting the 'giant breasted teacher' as deranged leftism - to supporting it after it was revealed they're a right-wing troll
• Think leaked Tucker Carlson videos will be revealed as ‘deep fake’ trap for Media Matters
• Assert that liberals are insincerely praising TLOU show - based on its homosexual couple
• Claim the shooting of a NJ GOP councilwoman was politically motivated - without evidence, but ignoring the NM GOP candidate who explicitly targeted Democrats just weeks earlier,
• Say that if he were on the jury, he'd vote to acquit Paul Pelosi's attacker
• Do this conspicuous shit

Neuroinflammation within the basal ganglia in long COVID is reflective of this brain region's selective vulnerability following infection. This is similar to what has been observed in Parkinson's disease. While the source of the inflammation in long COVID is unclear, these findings should provide a greater impetus for investigating whether long COVID is a synucleinopathy and a possible harbinger of progressive neurodegeneration. At the same time, note that if progression to Parkinson's and related disease was a certainty that information likely would've already been born out in prior research. Nevertheless, understanding whether long COVID is a synucleinopathy should be treated as priority #1 in long COVID research. It's disheartening to witness the reluctance on the part of scientists to deal with this subject directly in open forums. In private discussions and literature publications these concerns have been raised repeatedly. It is critical to develop a contingency plan in the event that this theory holds true and that this should be done transparently.
​
Neuroinflammation After COVID-19 With Persistent Depressive and Cognitive Symptoms
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2805366

Gliosis may be consequent to inflammation, injury, or both, particularly in the ventral striatum and dorsal putamen, which may explain some persistent depressive and cognitive symptoms, including slowed motor speed, low motivation or energy, and anhedonia, after initially mild to moderate COVID-19 illness.

​
The following consists of GPT4 generated text checked for accuracy and supplementary information taken from Wikipedia.
Function of the Basal Ganglia:
The basal ganglia are a group of nuclei deep within the cerebral hemispheres, consisting of the caudate nucleus, the putamen, the globus pallidus, the substantia nigra, and the subthalamic nucleus. They are interconnected with the cerebral cortex, thalamus, and brainstem.
The basal ganglia play a critical role in voluntary motor control, procedural learning, habit formation, and reward systems. They participate in a complex network of pathways and circuits within the brain that facilitate both movement initiation and inhibition of unnecessary or competing movements. The basal ganglia's functions are not limited to motor control but also extend to roles in cognition and emotion.
The paper found a correlation between neuroinflammation, specifically within the putamen and ventral striatum (includes the nucleus accumbens and olfactory tubercle), and long COVID symptoms.
​
Function of brain regions (text from Wikipedia)
Putamen

Through various pathways, the putamen is connected to the substantia nigra, the globus pallidus, the claustrum, and the thalamus, in addition to many regions of the cerebral cortex. A primary function of the putamen is to regulate movements at various stages (e.g. preparation and execution) and influence various types of learning. It employs GABA, acetylcholine, and enkephalin to perform its functions. The putamen also plays a role in degenerative neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's disease.

Nucleus Accumbens

As a whole, the nucleus accumbens has a significant role in the cognitive processing of motivation, aversion, reward (i.e., incentive salience, pleasure, and positive reinforcement), and reinforcement learning (e.g., Pavlovian-instrumental transfer);[4][7][8][9][10] hence, it has a significant role in addiction.[4][8] In addition, part of the nucleus accumbens core is centrally involved in the induction of slow-wave sleep.[11][12][13][14] The nucleus accumbens plays a lesser role in processing fear (a form of aversion), impulsivity, and the placebo effect.[15][16][17] It is involved in the encoding of new motor programs as well.[4]

Olfactory Tubercle

The OT [Olfactory Tubercle] has also been shown to play a role in locomotor and attentional behaviors, particularly in relation to social and sensory responsiveness,[1] and it may be necessary for behavioral flexibility.[2] The OT is interconnected with numerous brain regions, especially the sensory, arousal, and reward centers, thus making it a potentially critical interface between processing of sensory information and the subsequent behavioral responses.[3]

​
Gliosis in the Basal Ganglia:
Gliosis is a process of scarring in the central nervous system that involves the production of dense fibrous network of glial cells (astrocytes and microglia) in response to damage. This is generally a protective response intended to limit injury, but it can also interfere with normal functioning.
In the context of the basal ganglia, gliosis can disrupt the delicate balance of neurotransmitters, leading to dysregulation of the motor, cognitive, and emotional functions that these nuclei control. The specific impacts of gliosis would depend on the extent and location of the scarring.
Parkinson's Disease and the Basal Ganglia:
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder primarily affecting the motor system. It is characteristically associated with degeneration of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc), one of the major components of the basal ganglia. The SNpc normally produces dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is critical for regulating the function of the basal ganglia.
In Parkinson's disease, the loss of dopaminergic neurons leads to decreased dopamine availability, disrupting the balance of neurotransmitter activity in the basal ganglia and leading to the characteristic motor symptoms of PD, including bradykinesia (slowness of movement), resting tremor, rigidity, and postural instability.
Neuroinflammation, including gliosis, has been observed in Parkinson's disease. Reactive gliosis in the basal ganglia could be a response to the ongoing neuronal degeneration. The activation of glial cells could potentially contribute to the pathogenesis of PD through increased oxidative stress and neuroinflammation. It's worth noting that while gliosis may be a reaction to the disease process, it may also contribute to the progression of the disease through these mechanisms.
In conclusion, the basal ganglia play a significant role in voluntary motor control, and gliosis within this region, especially in the context of Parkinson's disease, can significantly disrupt this function. The relationship between gliosis and Parkinson's disease is complex, with ongoing research to fully understand the implications of this process in neurodegenerative disorders.

https://doi.org/10.4103/1673-5374.373715

Ketogenic diet alleviates cognitive dysfunction and neuroinflammation in APP/PS1 mice via the Nrf2/HO-1 and NF-κB signaling pathways

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder characterized by cognitive decline and chronic inflammation within the brain. The ketogenic diet, a widely recognized therapeutic intervention for refractory epilepsy, has recently been proposed as a potential treatment for a variety of neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. However, the efficacy of ketogenic diet in treating Alzheimer’s disease and the underlying mechanism remains unclear. The current investigation aimed to explore the effect of ketogenic diet on cognitive function and the underlying biological mechanisms in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Male amyloid precursor protein/presenilin 1 (APP/PS1) mice were randomly assigned to either a ketogenic diet or control diet group, and received their respective diets for a duration of 3 months. The findings show that ketogenic diet administration enhanced cognitive function, attenuated amyloid plaque formation and proinflammatory cytokine levels in APP/PS1 mice, and augmented the nuclear factor-erythroid 2-p45 derived factor 2/heme oxygenase-1 signaling pathway while suppressing the nuclear factor-kappa B pathway. Collectively, these data suggest that ketogenic diet may have a therapeutic potential in treating Alzheimer’s disease by ameliorating the neurotoxicity associated with Aβ-induced inflammation. This study highlights the urgent need for further research into the use of ketogenic diet as a potential therapy for Alzheimer’s disease.
------------------------------------------ Info ------------------------------------------
Open Access: True (not always correct)
Authors: * Jingwen Jiang * Hong Pan * Fanxia Shen * Yuyan Tan * Shengdi Chen
Additional links: * https://doi.org/10.4103/1673-5374.373715
------------------------------------------ Open Access ------------------------------------------
If the paper is behind paywall, please consider uploading it to our google drive anonymously.
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1.) Time abstaining from narcotics (12 months minimum)
This is the golden rule. From what I've gathered, from other users on this subreddit (myself included), Its generally a year abstaining from narcotics.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7703868/
Investigations suggest that substantial improvements in neurobehavioral functions occur during the first 4 to 8 weeks of abstinence, followed by more modest mid-term (i.e., approximately 1 year) gains. Verbal skills typically improve most quickly, while other domains, although improved, may remain compromised for several months to years. https://www.paterehab.com/about-abi/#:~:text=You%20can%20expect%20the%20most,affect%20the%20degree%20of%20improvement.
You can expect the most rapid recovery from acquired brain injury in the first 18 months to two years following the injury; however, recovery can be a life-long process.
https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/sites/default/files/chapter-2-neurobiology.pdf
Supported scientific evidence shows that these changes in the brain persist long after substance use stops. It is not yet known how much these changes may be reversed or how long that process may take.
https://www.recoveryanswers.org/recovery-101/brain-in-recovery/
https://www.aspenridgerecoverycenters.com/how-long-for-dopamine-receptors-to-heal/#:~:text=So%20how%20long%20for%20dopamine,with%20proper%20treatment%20and%20rehabilitation.
So how long for dopamine receptors to heal? On average, it may take approximately 14-months to achieve normal levels in the brain with proper treatment and rehabilitation.
https://www.uchealth.com/en/media-room/articles/brain-injury-the-road-to-recovery
2.) Consistent 8 hour rest.
Sleep comes at 2-3 months into sobriety.
https://www.headway.org.uk/about-brain-injury/individuals/brain-injury-and-me/top-tips-for-a-good-nights-sleep/
A lack of sleep has many negative effects on a person’s physical and mental wellbeing, especially in the early stages of brain injury recovery. It may also exacerbate some of the symptoms of the brain injury, such as memory loss, lack of concentration, poor balance and mood changes.
https://news.ohsu.edu/2021/03/12/study-suggests-role-of-sleep-in-healing-traumatic-brain-injurieshttps://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/41/10/zsy147/5057802https://www.verywellhealth.com/sleep-traumatic-brain-injury-study-5117032https://nida.nih.gov/about-nida/noras-blog/2020/03/connections-between-sleep-substance-use-disorders
Most common mental disorders, from depression and anxiety to PTSD, are associated with disturbed sleep, and substance use disorders are no exception. The relationship may be complex and bidirectional: Substance use causes sleep problems; but insomnia and insufficient sleep may also be a factor raising the risk of drug use and addiction. Recognizing the importance of this once-overlooked factor, addiction researchers are paying increased attention to sleep and sleep disturbances, and even thinking about ways to target sleep disruption in substance use disorder treatment and prevention.
3.) Exercise
10-15k steps daily. I would recommend against strength training early in recovery, the professionals say to avoid strenuous workouts when recovering from a head injury. From what I've read, its generally flexibility/Aerobic/endurance exercises rather than strength/resistance/anabolic training. This is low weight, high rep workouts. Steady-paced/long duration workouts such as walking, jogging or swimming. The aim is for overall physical health/vasculaoxygen flow to your tissues. I personally do strength/endurance, aerobic/anabolic exercises now ( 18 months into sobriety).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3276339/
Epidemiological studies reveal that individuals who engage in regular aerobic exercise are less likely to use and abuse illicit drugs.
https://www.physio-pedia.com/Physical_Activity_Guidelines_for_Traumatic_Brain_Injuryhttps://amoryurgentcare.com/7-exercises-to-do-while-recovering-from-injuries/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4380661/
In recent years, aerobic exercise has gained attention for its neuroprotective effects and has been studied as an intervention in healthy older adults,8,9 and in those with cognitive impairments10–12 and other neurological disorders.13 Aerobic exercise is associated with various physiological adaptations that have positive effects on cortical function, including angiogenesis and neurogenesis.14 Evidence from animal studies suggests that cognitive deficits associated with TBI can be improved following exercise.15–19 In rodents with experimentally-induced TBI, better performance on the Morris water maze15–18 and step-down avoidance task19 was observed when exercised compared to being sedentary. This suggested that both learning and memory had improved with exercise. The expression of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor was also found to be increased in the hippocampus,15 which is an area associated with memory and learning.
https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/benefits-of-aerobic-exercise-following-traumatic-brain-injury
In a systematic review of controlled clinical trials and randomized controlled trails with adults with neurologic disorders, McDowell and colleagues reported that aerobic exercise improved cognition, particularly attention and cognitive flexibility in adults with TBI, and improvements in motor learning for adults with stroke.7Exercise may promote cognitive recovery via a variety of mechanisms, such as increasing neural repair and neuroplasticity, modulating neurotransmitter systems (particularly dopamine), and decreasing neuroinflammation.
4.) Reduced stress.
When I read about recovering from an injury, they "the professionals" talk about how stress hinders the progression of the recovery.
Following a head injury, it is very important that you use healthy ways of dealing with stress in order to promote a good recovery. Psychological factors like stress and anxiety can increase all of your head injury symptoms and slow down your progress.
https://www.cognitivefxusa.com/blog/journaling-techniques-and-ideas-after-a-brain-injury#:~:text=Journaling%20offers%20you%20a%20way,yourself%20in%20a%20creative%20way.
Write in your journal
https://www.headway.org.uk/about-brain-injury/individuals/brain-injury-and-me/10-top-tips-for-coping-with-stress-after-brain-injury/
Take some time to consider what contributes to your stress. Identifying your triggers can help you anticipate issues and come up with solutions. You might find keeping a stress diary helpful, where you log your stress levels while performing your everyday activities.
-Im gonna work on this segment in my next update, I think its more important than the other segments. Stress plays a huge role in head injury recovery.
Avoid people and situations that are counter productive to your recovery(or rather recognize who means you help and who means you harm). In my experience over the past year of recovery, a blindsided stressor or a stress thrown at you that your recovering brain cannot handle, regresses your recovery 5 steps.
Let loved ones know what you're going through, so they take it easy on you... get away from abusive relationships, move in with your parents.
Avoid group settings jobs/deadline jobs, maybe look for a job where you are isolated.
Let people know when you need your alone time. You have to tip-toe back into the pool when in recovery.
5.) Omega 3s dha and epa
https://www.shinesheets.com/why-omega-3-can-be-beneficial-in-substance-abuse-recovery/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7457439/
https://www.flintrehab.com/fish-oil-therapy-for-brain-injury/#:~:text=Reduces%20Inflammation&text=The%20EPA%20and%20DHA%20acids,therapy%20for%20brain%20injury%20patients.
Besides reducing inflammation, omega-3 also improves communication between brain cells. This allows the brain to work faster, which leads to a boost in cognitive function.
In fact, in one placebo-controlled study, patients who took 2000 mg of omega-3 fish oil per day performed significantly better on cognitive tests than those who did not take omega-3.
These patients especially showed improvements in executive function and memory, two areas that brain injury patients particularly struggle with.
https://indyneurofeedback.com/nutrition/omega-3-can-help-after-a-brain-injury/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5531869/ The DHA obtained through the consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids is positively associated with cognitive and behavioral performance.[56] In addition DHA is vital for the grey matter structure of the human brain, as well as retinal stimulation and neurotransmission.[1]
6.) Brain derived neural factors
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in neuronal survival and growth, serves as a neurotransmitter modulator, and participates in neuronal plasticity, which is essential for learning and memory. It is widely expressed in the CNS, gut and other tissues.
https://www.optimallivingdynamics.com/blog/21-proven-ways-to-increase-your-brains-growth-hormone#:~:text=Drinking%20coffee%20is%20another%20great,increasing%20BDNF%20levels%20(90)).
Intermediate fasting has been proven to increase BDNF.
https://www.bswhealth.com/blog/intermittent-fasting-brain-health#:~:text=Fasting%20can%20increase%20BDNF%20levels,the%20body%2C%20including%20the%20brain.
Fasting can increase BDNF levels, which may lead to improved cognitive function, learning and memory. Reduced inflammation: Intermittent fasting can help decrease inflammation in the body, including the brain.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5697621/
Drinking coffee is another great way to increase BDNF levels. Research shows that caffeine protects brain cells and lowers the risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases. In one study, researchers found that caffeine significantly reduced age-related impairments in memory by increasing BDNF levels (90).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4697050/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/dneu.20774
During development, neural networks are established in a highly organized manner, which persists throughout life. Neurotrophins play crucial roles in the developing nervous system. Among the neurotrophins, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is highly conserved in gene structure and function during vertebrate evolution, and serves an important role during brain development and in synaptic
plasticity. BDNF participates in the formation of appropriate synaptic connections in the brain, and disruptions in this process contribute to disorders of cognitive function. In this review, we first briefly highlight current knowledge on the expression, regulation, and secretion of BDNF. Further, we provide an overview of the possible actions of BDNF in the development of neural circuits, with an emphasis on presynaptic actions of BDNF during the structural development of central neurons.
https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.150.8
A mouse study also found that mice fed a high-protein diet had higher BDNF levels, especially when combined with exercise[42].
One reason is that amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, are necessary for the production of neurotransmitters--including BDNF[41].
7.) Vitamin B's
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-b/
https://www.healthshots.com/brand-posts/heres-how-brain-health-can-be-improved-with-vitamin-b/#:~:text=Vitamin%20B6%2C%20B9%20(folate),and%20boost%20your%20brain%20power,and%20boost%20your%20brain%20power).
One such group of nutrients is B vitamins, which are considered essential. These are a collection of eight water-soluble vitamins that are critical for various metabolic processes. Vitamin B6, B9 (folate) and B12 are the major B group vitamins, which support the functioning and health of the brain as well as the nervous system.
These vitamins are medically proven to relieve stress and boost your brain power. In fact, they also fight depression, restrict brain ageing and help you live a longer life. The subtypes of vitamin B perform a range of vital roles in keeping your brain working efficiently.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27569259/
Vitamin B12 and omega-3 fatty acids are important nutrients required for neuronal functioning. We have demonstrated the beneficial effects of vitamin B12 and omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on brain neurotrophins and cognition
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31105562/
https://www.hopeafterbraininjury.org/brain-injury-and-b12-deficiency/
Vitamin B12 is essential for our immunity, cognitive health, and entire nervous system.
I'm on the fence about vitamin B. It does give you a boost in energy, anything that alters your mood and energy has the potential to be bad in recovery. Albeit, the research shows it is the most key vitamin for nerve health.
8.) Sunlight
I think sunlight has the ability to perform miracles of science, in regards to health. They used to prescribe a glass house/glass room/sun rooms for certain mental illnesses back in the 1800s
https://www.northstartransitions.com/post/how-does-being-outdoors-help-addiction-recovery
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5318/3/1/8
https://centralglassutah.com/light-life-windows-contribute-improved-mental-health/
https://foter.com/types-of-windows-and-their-impact-on-mental-health-and-depression
Many of us have already heard of light therapy. Light therapy is proven to treat various clinical disorders like Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and sleep disorders, which are often contributors to depression.
Evidence proves light or view from windows contribute to the prevention and treatment of mental health problems. Larger windows and glass walls permit more light, which impacts your brain chemistry and alters your emotional health.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2728098/
We found that among participants with depression, low exposure to sunlight was associated with a significantly higher predicted probability of cognitive impairment. This relationship remained significant after adjustment for season. Among participants without depression, insolation did not have a significant effect on cognitive function.
Vitamin D,D3
I guess will help in the winter months. Nothing better than plain Ole sunlight.
https://www.webbernaturals.com/en-ca/learn/the-role-of-vitamin-d-in-mental-health/
9.) Diet
This is a highly contentious debate. Some say a complex carbohydrate diet, others say a high protein diet. I'll give you a few different articles from both perspectives and let you make a decision. I personally do a ketogenetic diet now, which is a high protein/low carbohydrate routine. (I primarily used the ketosis diet to lose weight.) The argument is whether or not ketones or glucose is a better fuel source for neurogenesis/neurometabolism.
What you eat, highly influences your endogenous opiate activity.
https://www.karger.com/Article/Fulltext/338163
Opioids are important in reward processes leading to addictive behavior such as self-administration of opioids and other drugs of abuse including nicotine and alcohol. Opioids are also involved in a broadly distributed neural network that regulates eating behavior, affecting both homeostatic and hedonic mechanisms. In this sense, opioids are particularly implicated in the modulation of highly palatable foods, and opioid antagonists attenuate both addictive drug taking and appetite for palatable food. Thus, craving for palatable food could be considered as a form of opioid-related addiction. There are three main families of opioid receptors (µ, ĸ, and δ) of which µ-receptors are most strongly implicated in reward. Administration of selective µ-agonists into the NAcc of rodents induces feeding even in satiated animals, while administration of µ-antagonists reduces food intake. Pharmacological studies also suggest a role for ĸ- and δ-opioid receptors. Preliminary data from transgenic knockout models suggest that mice lacking some of these receptors are resistant to high-fat diet-induced obesity.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.951376/full The administration of a ketogenic diet in this semi-controlled setting to patients with treatment-refractory mental illness was feasible, well-tolerated, and associated with significant and substantial improvements in depression and psychosis symptoms
https://neurosciencenews.com/high-protein-diet-depression-22760/
The results showed higher protein intake was associated with a reduction in symptoms of depression during the follow-up period. Additionally, several deviations from the recommended nutritional intake were reported by the athletes.
https://www.isisn.org/MHS-1-1-2021/63-68-01(1)2021MHS21-112.pdf2021MHS21-112.pdf)
Carbohydrates when taken in adequate amount and in right balance (complex and simple carbohydrates) in diet can sustain good mental health and improve symptoms of any psychological issues especially depression, anxiety, mood disturbances and stress. On the other hand, taking a prominent quantity of simple sugars can cause the onset or exacerbation of stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Following a western diet containing hefty amounts of processed carbohydrates has also been associated with poor mental health. However, current findings are still ambiguous to develop a certain well defined relationship between carbohydrates and their effect on mental wellbeing and more research is needed in this respect.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2023.1147269/full
preclinical studies performed in rats and mice demonstrate that high fats and/or sugars diets have a negative effect on adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN). In contrast, diets enriched with bioactive compounds, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids and polyphenols, as well as intermittent fasting or caloric restriction, can induce AHN.
https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.150.8
Results showed that high protein diets induced BDNF expression and that combining this diet with voluntary exercise had an additive effect on BDNF expression. In contrast, a high fat diet attenuated the positive effects of exercise on BDNF expression.
I've noticed, how much I craved sugars after ingesting opiates... I think avoiding sugars is important in recovering from any and all addictions.
10.) Cognitive behavioral therapy
Healthy thoughts = Healthy mind.
CBT is trying to control your train of thought, or rather recognizing and changing a negative thought pattern.
Negative thoughts affect emotions and emotions affect your behavior and your negative behavior reinforces your negative thoughts.
Thoughts - emotions --- behavior --thoughts---emotions---behavior
https://neuliferehab.com/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-after-traumatic-brain-injury/
CBT focuses on getting patients to understand why they behave in the way they do. At the root, CBT helps patients uncover distorted or unhealthy thinking patterns. Patients learn to understand:
What we believe creates feelings.
Those feelings lead us to behave in a certain way.
The way we behave then reinforces how we feel.
https://www.brainline.org/treatment-hub/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-cbt
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help you to think differently about your experiences and your relationships, with the goal of making some positive changes in your life. CBT is based on the idea that how we think, how we feel, and how we act are all closely related.
CBT can help you identify and change negative or unhealthy types of thinking. For example, if you are dealing with PTSD, you might have overly negative thoughts about yourself based on guilt from the trauma that occurred. And triggers that remind you of your trauma might cause painful emotions, leading you to avoid triggering situations. Once you become aware that these thoughts are flawed -- that you did the best you could when the trauma occurred -- you can work with a therapist to change your thinking so that you can respond to challenging life situations in a healthier way.
CBT can also be used to help people who have had a traumatic brain injury. Many people with TBI struggle with depression or anxiety, often because of fear of further injury or further loss of functioning. In this situation, someone with a brain injury might be anxious about certain situations that present the possibility of another injury occurring. CBT would help identify this fear and teach healthier ways of thinking. People with brain injuries also sometimes have anger management problems or act more impulsively. This is due to changes in how your brain works after being injured. In these cases, CBT can teach someone ways to recognize when this is becoming a problem and strategies for how to solve it.
I also think, keeping higher oriented goals, or working on a project that requires constant input, gives you a feeling of progression in recovery(it also consumes your thoughts and gives you a directive to return to when feeling hopeless), as you feel so hopeless and nothing you do really matters in recovery. (a diary, financial goal, weight loss goal. any project that requires your attention and shows a progression.)
I think aswell, engaging in intellectual conversation/connections, stimulates neurogenesis in the brain. Any contact that changes your understanding of the universe(Its how we grow as people).
11.) Repetitive action
https://www.flintrehab.com/can-tbi-patients-fully-recove#:~:text=Therefore%2C%20a%20full%20and%20functional,can%20stall%20and%20even%20regress.
Research shows, repetitive actions promote neuroplasticity. Such as walking everyday, or writing down your thoughts in an app on your phone habitually, showing up to 9-5 day job on time everyday, etc. Neuroplasticity isnt brain cell growth, its change in your brain rather. The research on brain injuries Ive conducted, shows brain cell death usually doesn't regenerate, however your brain will rewire overtime to regain functionability.
So, can the brain heal itself from brain damage? Yes, absolutely – with the help of neuroplasticity!
"Neuroplasticity allows the brain to create new pathways and strengthen existing ones. This enables healthy parts of the brain to compensate for damaged areas. You can imagine it like this:
When a street or freeway entrance has been blocked along your daily commute, the GPS may suggest an alternative route. This alternative route may be unfamiliar and take longer to navigate, but it will still lead you to your destination. The same concept can be applied to neuroplasticity.
Use it or Lose it: The Importance of Repetition Now, you may be wondering how to activate neuroplasticity after brain injury.
Neuroplasticity is best activated through repetition, or massed practice. The more you practice a certain task, the stronger your neural connections become.
As previously mentioned, the brain adapts to experiences. Therefore, when the brain encounters a certain experience or action repeatedly, that pathway is reinforced and strengthened.
For instance, to improve your ability to walk, you should practice walking in safe environments. Additionally, there are leg exercises that you can do to strengthen your body and assist with mobility.
It’s important to practice impaired skills after a brain injury to prevent loss of function altogether. For instance, if your dominant hand was affected, you may be tempted to use your non-dominant hand instead, especially during mealtimes."
12.) Constant work
One of the things ive learned, is recovering from a head injury is not linear. You'll regress and grow in your recovery. It requires constant attention and effort, as I possibly had several TBIs while also addicted to narcotics, maybe leaving me partially brain damaged.
Around month 10-11 of my sobriety, I went back and relearned all of the basic disciplines. Grammar, social studies, algebra, etc. Everyday, I attempted to spell a paragraph of unfamiliar, difficult to spell words or recite the preamble of the constitution, etc.
13.) Collagen peptides, magnesium and trace vitamins(multis),minerals
Collagen
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body. Its fiber-like structure is used to make connective tissue. Like the name implies, this type of tissue connects other tissues and is a major component of bone, skin, muscles, tendons, and cartilage.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5950659/
Furthermore, hydrogels can be used as bulk scaffolds to fill in lesions in the CNS that are formed due to tissue damage after traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury in order to provide mechanical support and a favorable microenvironment for axon sprouting and cell infiltration (Zhong and Bellamkonda, 2008; Orive et al., 2009). I
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0142961211013949
These results suggest that the utilization of CG scaffolds can be considered as a potential clinical strategy for tissue regeneration and functional recovery after brain injury.
Magnesium
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6024559/
Restoring the balance of magnesium within patients with depression has been proposed to have anti-depressive effects by protecting brain structures associated with depression by reducing the cascade of cell death caused by excitotoxicity [95,96,97]. Magnesium may also impact depressive symptoms by interacting with the HPA system, as discussed with anxiety disorders [97,98]. As seen in several other neurological disorders, lower magnesium levels have been associated with depression. One recent study reported a negative correlation between dietary intake of magnesium and depression [93].
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5637834/
Magnesium should also be considered as an adjunct for depression, attention deficit disorder, prevention
Magnesium sulfate has been successfully used in agitated depression as far back as 1921 [71]. In fact, rapid recovery of depression has been reported with the use of Mg glycinate or Mg taurinate [72]. There is an inverse correlation in adults between Mg intake and psychiatric states such as anxiety and depression [73]. Magnesium is required as a coenzyme to convert tryptophan to serotonin, a neurotransmitter recognized as a major determinant of mental health and mood. A systematic review suggests that Mg supplementation may prevent depression and may be useful as adjuvant therapy
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/physrev.00004.2014
14.) Neuroplasticity/Neurogenesis
Here are various articles on the matter. Its as simple as believing in Neurogenesis, the idea the brain can regrow/heal after an injury/change, gives hope to the hopeless in substance recovery.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/brain-plasticity-in-drug-addiction-burden-and-benefit-2020062620479
https://www.altamirarecovery.com/blog/the-brain-that-heals-itself-neuroplasticity-and-promise-for-addiction-treatment/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6758482/
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01657/full
https://health.mil/News/Articles/2021/10/14/Brain-Resilience#:~:text=Aerobic%20exercise%20and%20regularly%20moving,first%20needs%20time%20to%20rest.
In summary
Just to clarify, a traumatic brain injury is anything that damages/disrupts the brains natural functioning.
TBI is a broad term(its usually understood as a brain injury acquired through external forces), I see the terminology "non-traumatic acquired brain injury", as the medical terminology for drug induced brain damage (stroke, hypoxia, neurotoxins, etc), they both are treated similarly. PM if you need help or have suggestions/pointers. Dont expect miracles, the damage is already done, some more than others. The goal is to try to regain as much functionality as possible...This list pertains to a polydrug addiction.(it's harder to find research studies on non-traumatic acquired brain injuries than traumatic brain injuries, it appears they are treated very similarly).

In the city centre there are many homeless people, wearing old tattered clothing, sleeping rough etc. Some are ‘regular’ folks who’ve fallen on a rough patch and then the second group are others who seem to be affected more seriously.
I don’t want to sound condescending when I say ‘regular’ but I mean able bodied, mentally stable people.
What has always struck me amongst the second group is their behaviour. Talking to themselves, unable to maintain eye contact, slurred speech, erratic bodily movements etc
Is this usually a result of substance abuse or mental/physical illness or a mixture?
For a large number could these issues could be entirely neurological/psychiatric and managed with high levels of medical treatment?