Saturday, June 23, 2012

Three More

Three More Questions and My Answers from Webanswers

[cuz I'm vain like that]...

How can you find out if someone is collecting disability when they shouldnt be?


There is such a thing as a "hidden" or "invisible" disability.

Some disabilities have physical components to them and are obvious. Blindness, deafness, spinal cord injuries are examples of these.

Other disabilities do not have observable physical signs. Traumatic brain injuries may fall into this class. Some psychiatric disabilities, learning disabilities, fatigue-related disabilities, and blood disorders are examples of less obvious disabilities.

If you are not someone's physician or other helping professional then you do not know if a person is lazy or scamming the system. My friend was once criticized for using a disabled parking space [and she was in possession of the proper permit]. She turned to the man who criticized her and said three words, "I have cancer." He had the grace to apologize to her. [And yes, it was terminal cancer. She recently died].

US disability law references the ability to do work that a claimant had previously done. A surgeon who acquires a muscular-skeletal disease may not be able to perform surgery any longer. That surgeon would become eligible for Social Security Disability payments.

People who are fixing their roofs or plastering their pools may still be unable to consistently apply the effort to work full-time due to the nature of their disabling conditions. A child with ADHD is certainly considered disabled because that condition has the potential to limit school and career success.

The next time you "decide" that this person or that person "looks fine" and "should be working full-time," please remember that you just may be wrong.




What is border line personality disorder?


Borderline personality disorder is a specific set of symptoms which point to a dysfunction in the ways that the sufferer manages his or her emotions, self-image, and interpersonal relationships. People who have this personality disorder may have extreme and frequent changes in mood, chronic feelings of emptiness or boredom, abandonment issues, sudden anger reactions which seem extreme to others, suicidal ideation, cutting, feelings of numbness, fluctuating self-image and poor self-esteem as well as a habit of over-idealizing/emotionally discarding others.

Symptoms of borderline personality disorder can often begin in childhood but typically is not diagnosed until the sufferer is in his or her teens or early twenties. Those who have symptoms of this disorder are often victims of childhood abuse. Medication along with supportive psychotherapy are often used in treating BPD. Martha Lineham has pioneered Dialective Behavioral Therapy which teaches those with BPD and others specific ways of regulating emotions. Nathanial Branden is a well-known author whose books may aid in teaching specific practices associated with raising self-esteem. The Samaritan Counseling Centers (USA) are known for treating folks who have experienced childhood trauma.

The degree of impairment experienced by someone with BPD varies greatly and also depends on the entire clinical presentation. Some folks with BPD are able to work but will experience more difficulties in their relationships with their co-workers and employers than the average worker does. Others are not able to work and can be found in day hospital programs and community residences. Folks who have borderline personality disorder may be viewed by treatment providers as difficult [non-compliant] patients. Folks who have BPD who are in committed romantic relationships have extreme difficulties maintaining any stability with their partners, however those who attend treatment have better outcomes in a general way than those who don't. Symptoms of borderline personality disorder may naturally burn out when the sufferer reaches his or her fifties.



What is schizoaffective disorder?


Schizo-Affective disorder is a condition characterized by symptoms of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder type 1 [manic depression]. Someone who has this condition will experience the highs and lows associated with bipolar disorder and also the disordered thinking associated with schizophrenia. Folks who have bipolar type 1 often respond well to medication and are able to function well in society. Folks who have schizo-affective disorder generally display more impairment even when treated adequately with medication and need more support in day-to-day living.

Someone who has bipolar 1 when experiencing a manic episode will have racing thoughts, hyper-sexuality, decreased need for sleep, and impulsive actions. When someone who has schizo-affective disorder experiences a manic episode, he or she will have psychotic symptoms such as auditory and/or visual hallucinations along with the bipolar 1 symptoms.

The best treatment for either disorder is careful evaluation by a psychiatrist and pharmacology [medication]. A specific danger inherent in both bipolar 1 and schizo-affective disorder is rapid cycling. Without medication management, manic and depressive episodes can occur four or more times a year.



radical sapphoq who is indeed vain like that

The Question Was

Should Transgender[ed] people be allowed gender-altering surgery?

[ed: on WebAnswers.com a site that allows folks to earn bits of revenue from AdSense after 50 posts]

Male children born with Androgen Insufficiency Syndrome (an inter-sexed state) are commonly reared as girls because their bodies do not respond to the presence of androgens. They need genital surgery or surgeries; and estrogen as they become teens. Performing gender reassignment surgery on AIS adult females to look like men does not work because their bodies are not capable of responding to the necessary androgen treatments. Consequently, for good reason it just isn't done.



Trans-genderism is by definition a medical condition which deserves treatment just like any other medical condition. Prospects for sexual reassignment surgery in the USA must go through extensive psychological screening and counseling and hormone treatments and live as the favored gender for set periods of time before being allowed to initiate the process of gender reassignment surgeries. (Often, it is surgeries that are needed, and not just one surgery).



Because transgenderism is a bona fide medical condition and not merely a "whim," insurance companies should absorb the costs of counseling, hormone treatment, and the necessary surgeries at rates comparable to other conditions. Co-pays for care related to transgenderism should be no more than standard co-pays for any other condition. 



Historically, some percentage of trans-gendered people have taken jobs in strip bars catering to customers who want to see strippers who have their mothers' bosoms and their fathers' appendages in order to pay for medical care at a time when no insurance company would cover trans-genderism. A small percentage of trans-gendered people have committed crimes in order to be sentenced to prisons. The prisons will often opt to arrange for gender reassignment surgeries in order to maintain safety and order among the prison population. And some trans-gendered folk opt to obtain gender reassignment surgeries in other countries where qualifications are more relaxed or where the process is not as long as it is here in the USA. The process in the USA can take eight years or longer from initial psych screening to completion of the last surgery.



Certainly, the preferable and beneficial option for a civilized compassionate society is to offer medically competent care to trans-gendered folk who opt for either hormone treatments alone or for hormone treatments plus gender reassignment surgeries paid for by insurance dollars.


radical sapphoq on transgenderism


the thing underneath here should bring you to the question and my answer (alas, not chosen as the best, but I think it was a quality answer) on the webanswers site.


Should Transgender people be allowed gender altering surgery?

Saturday, June 16, 2012

You Might be a Psychopath (with apologies to Jeff Foxworthy)



"There is no evidence that we've been placed on this planet to be especially happy or especially normal.  And in fact our unhappiness and our strangeness, our anxieties and compulsions, those least fashionable aspects of our personalities are quite often what lead us to do rather interesting things."
     from  The Psychopathy Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, Jon Ronson.  New York: Riverhead books, 2011.  page 271



If you possess that certain slick sick charm that has enabled you to live in a style that you are not used to, you might be a psychopath.


If disagreements with your spouse escalate into you screaming like a banshee, you might be a psychopath.


  If you have arranged for your elderly relative to sign up for benefits which they are not entitled to and then transfer funds from their account to yours on a monthly basis for years on end, you might be a psychopath.  


If you punch someone in the face and then accuse them of lying and claim that you are the victim, you might be a psychopath.


If you live off of others when they have money and kick them to the curb when their money runs out, you might be a psychopath.


If you can apologize in a convincing way when it suits your purposes, you might be a psychopath.


If you make promises that you have no intention of keeping, you might be a psychopath.


If you pretend to cry over the phone in order to convince someone that you "care," you might be a psychopath.


If you are living in a condo and have stocks and investments yet tell people that you are impoverished and starving in order to part them with their money, you might be a psychopath.

  

If you've ever claimed that you were driven to do something or that "they deserved it," you might be a psychopath.


If you care about getting caught but not about what you did, you might be a psychopath.


If you read this list and instantly hunt through a list of relatives and acquaintances who may have had the gall to write this, you might be a psychopath.




http://www.hare.org/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199401/charming-psychopath

http://aftermath-surviving-psychopathy.org/

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/psychology/robert_hare/index.html

http://www.readersdigest.ca/health/healthy-living/are-you-psychopath

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/26/136619689/can-a-test-really-tell-whos-a-psychopath