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Cake day: June 4th, 2023

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  • I am a psychotherapist. Mental disorders are often curable. Our mind, our psyche, our brain develop and change in every waking moment, one small increment at a a time. A good indication for this are mental disorders themselves. Their emergence is proof of our mind’s capability to change - for the worse, in this case, but change nonetheless.

    So in theory it should always be possible to change the other way around, to get significantly better to the point where the disorder is no longer present. (If you define a episode of mental health and wellbeing after a depressive episode as “managing” a still present disorder, then sure, they are incurable, but that’s because that’s part of your definition to begin with. The symptoms of a mental disorder can definitely disappear.) A more difficult question would be if our surroundings and social realities allow for so much change to take place. And sometimes, unfortunately, this isn’t possible, since our society can be a fucked up place and economic constrains have an unavoidable influence on our capability to shape our own path.

    Still, in my personal experience working with hundreds of patiens in different therapeutic setting, most people can (and do) reclaim their mental health, given supportive surroundings and adequate treatment. From your pessimistic outlook at mental health I will cautiously assume that you don’t have those widely available to you. In this case you’d be somewhat right: Under such circumstances the possibilities to cure mental disorders are limited. Another complicating factor might be mental disorders themselves though. The feeling of “this is never going to get better, I’ll never be happy again” is one most people with depressive disorders know all to well. So if we ask the affected people directly we will often arrive at the conclusion that the disorders are in fact incurable. And that’s a horrible feeling for sure. I find it important to remember though that what our thoughts tell us in those dark episodes isn’t necessarily the truth. In this case I’d argue it isn’t. I’ve seen too many examples of the opposite, luckily.


  • It’s going to be hard for her partner, friends, and family, but it would be so much worse and so traumatic if she didn’t have help or had to hide the desires until she took her own life regardless of the laws.

    I’m not sure that’s true. Losing someone to suicide is in itself quite traumatic. One relief many people have is when they wrap their head around how a self destructive impulse in the heat of an especially devastating moment could have led to it. But living with the fact that your daughter/wife/sister/friend very consciously decided she would rather be dead than to share in this life with you - that’s tough. It’s not unusual with relatives of suicide victims to struggle with feelings of intense anger towards the person they lost, which in turn can lead to feelings of guilt and shame. It’s hard to work through something like that. And I don’t think it gets any easier if the circumstances are as emphasised as in this case.

    I think there are very valid use cases for assisted suicide. Personally I doubt that depression is one of them, because suicidality is such an inextricable part of the disorder itself. At the end of the day this is a suicide, just with extra steps and a stamp of approval by a national agency. The people surviving her will not only have to work through the fact of her suicide but process the official approval as well.

    The only advantage to a “regular” suicide I can think of is avoiding the trauma of the person finding you. (Although there are probably ways around that anyway.) But I guess she has her reasons to have chosen this specific method and setting.











  • A shame there’s not more information about the incident.

    I checked some German sources and this is what I found: The protest camp was build two weeks ago, before the “Palästina-Kongress”, which was cut short because they had someone hold speeches who’s banned from political activity in Germany for antisemitism and glorification of violence. The protest camp was allowed to stay because they didn’t break any rules. Over the next two weeks several incidents started to accumulate, which were deemed increasingly criminally relevant. Planted areas were damaged, streets were blocked, passerbys harrassed, police attacked, antisemitic paroles and incitements were shouted. A court issued a ban on the camp and friday morning police announced this, at which time most protesters removed their tents and left. The few remaining stayed until 4pm when police decided to dissolve the camp, which some protesters didn’t want to accept. This moment is most likely what we see in the video.

    I know some people out there got the impression that Germany simply arrests anyone who’s not unapologetically pro israel in this war. I myself would want our politicians to be more openly critical of israel, although I think I understand why they struggle to do so. Based on what I see in the news and the political opinions of the people around me (which are mostly pro Palestinians, anti Hamas, anti Netanyahu, pro Israelis) I do feel like the people on lemmy seeing this as examples of facism in Germany only see a very limited part of the picture. Videos like this with no context whatsoever are not exactly helping there, either.

    If you want to see facism in Germany look at the AfD, our most right wing party. Their lead cancicate for the EU-parliament recently received 20k from Russia to spy for them (which obviously doesn’t stop the party from endorcing him). Their position on Israel is nonexistent. Israel doesn’t like them (since they’re Nazis) and they, by policy, don’t care about other countries at all (“Germany first”). If there’s ever a return to facism in Germany, those are the ones that will do it.




  • No what I’m saying is maybe you are sensitive (for whatever reason - from a exceptional metabolism to placebo, over other sensitivities/allergies, complex psychological effects, etc everything is possible) but it’s certainly not because glutamate is a neurotransmitter.

    Neurotransmitters and the stuff in our bloodstreams (nutrients, hormones and so on) are two very different systems. Think of it as a river and a power grid. We all have this massive stream of different molecules in our bodies, and we have an elaborate information system made from electric and chemical signaling, like cables and batteries, working right beside it. The batteries might happen to utilize the same molecules that swim around in the river, but they still have nothing to do with each other. The river doesn’t touch the batteries, and your body very carefully decides which part it takes out of the water and into the batteries. Highly simplified of course, but that’s kinda how you can imagine why one doesn’t hurt the other.


  • To add:

    • No visible clocks. If possible don’t check the time at all while trying to sleep. Doing math at night (aka “oh no only 4 hours left”) only makes you angry or sad.
    • No alcohol. If unavoidable, try to be sober by the time you want to fall asleep. (Dring sooner, if at all.)
    • No coffee after midday. Some bodies suck at metabolising it.
    • Bedroom should be as dark and silent and comfy as possible. If there’s any way you can add comfort, do it.
    • For persisting sleep problems: Change position or location. (E.g. turn completely around in your bed, feet at the headrest, or sleep on the couch if comfortable.) Brains are very good at linking a location with a state of mind, and changing things around can help if the thought of your bed stresses you out already.

    For severe problems it’s probably always wise to check with a physician, or if there’s specific stuff in your head that keeps you awake to consider telling a friend or therapist about it. To distance yourself from your thoughts is something everybody can learn and it can be tremendously helpful with stuff like that.


  • Even though you’re right in that glutamate is a neurotransmitter, eating it doesn’t affect our brain chemistry at all. It can’t pass the blood-brain-barrier. Which is relieving since basically every food group contains it and flooding our brain with that would lead to violent epileptic seizures and certain death. Not insomnia.

    And melatonin isn’t a neurotransmitter but a hormone.

    So maybe you do in fact sleep better when avoiding specific food groups in the evening, but your explanation certainly isn’t correct.

    Just putting this out there since glutamate is such a highly misunderstood molecule surrounded by many misconceptions, this one being a very common one.