Questions bipolar version #10

This doesn't truely answer the question, but parasites scare me. I can't really think of a warm blooded animal that strikes fear in me, but leeches & ticks certainly strike fear in me. I once waded into a muddy pond and emerged with my legs draped in leeches. To this day, the memory of of that day is palpable. Deer ticks are another phobia I have. For those of you who might live in arid climates, deer ticks are having a banner year. They spread lyme disease, which is a debilitating disease that saps one's strength and can cause joint pain. There's not really a satisfactory treatment for lyme disease. It simply has to work it's way out of one's system. Tape worms? Don't get me started...

"What evil lurks in the heart of men? The Shadow knows."
https://www.oldradioworld.com/media/...red%20Time.mp3

This blurb was the beginning of a very old radio show. As far as mankind is concerned, do you think some people are born evil, or is it a learned set of behaviors? Explain using examples.

I don't think people are necessarily born with the innate desire to go out of their own way in order to hurt someone who's minding their business. I heard somewhere something to the effect of, in the very worst case scenario of someone who may eventually be deemed evil, "nature loads the gun and nurture pulls the trigger". I think in most of the more shocking cases, you know, when evil lurks and is more or less unknown that it's a danger, there is still an event that causes some sort of disturbance. Now I'm not saying the reasons are valid or justified but again, I don't believe people wake up from bed after years of honky dory and stop their day to make plans to **** up someone else's plans. I don't really have an example - this is theoretical in my mind and I have no research to back it up. However I'm sure at least a handful agree with this.

What makes you who you are? Do you have a part of your identity that you know to be true, through and through?

I'm going to sound like I drank the Kool-Aid again, but I think the AA program helped me understand who & what I am. AA is a twelve-step program. The only step that deals with alcohol is the first step. The rest deal with helping one deal with their emotions and making peace with one's past transgressions. I think most anyone who tries to work a twelve-step program could benefit one. One thing I know through and through is that I am a recovering alcoholic...& I can never forget that. There's no such thing as "just one drink" for me.

I'm not sure everyone will be familiar with the "27 Club," but it's explained in this article:

A Brief History of the 27 Club – Rolling Stone

Who is your favorite artist in The 27 Club? Explain.

Maybe someone other than me knows all of those better than I do, but I must say Kurt has always been a phenomenal soul in my view. Had a poster of him on my wall in middle school. I'll never forget the day my dad played smells like teen spirit for me. I fell in love.. and eventually my favorite and by far most played song is "Lithium", which strangely became my first psychiatric med about 10 years later. RIP. Over 1,000 listens, I believe on the 8GB ipod? One of the big old ones.

Do you like caffeinated drinks? How do they effect you?

I definitely do, but nowadays I mostly just drink American-style coffee, espresso, Lungo (basically espresso with a bit more water), iced green or black tea, or the occasional cappuccino and hot black teas. I don't drink so many that they affect me, negatively, nor does a post dinner espresso keep me up at night. I rarely drink soda. When I do, it's often to calm my stomach (ginger ale or Coke). I usually drink the above without sugar, except maybe cappuccino.

Do you eat a lot of sugary things? Either way, how does that affect your mood, sleep, etc?

I do not eat a lot of sugary things but also am not someone who tries not to eat any form of sugar. I usually eat a dessert maybe once in 2 weeks and I enjoy it and do not need more.

I do absolutely like fruit, especially moist fruit. Not too sweet: I prefer sour fruit, but I eat more fruit than recommended. It is not a terrible food vice, but it is not optimal, either.

Q: what was your most recent funny dream?

No funny ones recently unfortunately, last funny one was my male coworker drenching himself with water on me and my girlfriends dinner table and running his hands through his hair, like the movie coyote ugly, trying to impress her. She was impressed (I was as well if we're being honest). So the three of us made our way to the zoo (naturally) and saw some beautiful caged monkeys. I went in and saved one of them. I forget the details of the dream but that's the synopsis.

Who is your favorite comedian? If you don't have one, what's your favorite comedy movie? Please explain why!

My favorite comedian by far is Bo Burnham. He has several things on Netflix, the best of which is "INSIDE." It's a film he made during COVID lockdown. He's a very talented musical comedian. He wrote, performed, filmed, and edited it all himself. It takes place in his guesthouse. He talks frankly about mental illness and suicidality. He own struggle is with panic disorder, which he has healed from.

My favorite comedy movie by far is "What About Bob." I've watched it over and over. I find it just such a funny, charming, and amusing movie.

What do you think is the best method of weight loss and why: intuitive eating or counting calories?

I do not think that either intuitive eating or counting calories is an effective method of weight loss. For sustainable weight loss, I recommend taking either Ozempic or Wegovy or Mounjaro and following a high protein, high fiber diet.

Both, plus being lucky enough to be in the right mental state. I have lost notable amounts several times in my life. The only times I lost good amounts without "deliberately trying" were once at university and when I lived in Taiwan. They were from a combo of near daily (1 1/2 hour +) long distance walking and/or dancing, not always having access to food
(& low appetite), being very busy and/or being hypo/manic, and sometimes suffering from major gastro problems, an issue I've had off and on throughout my life. The other times, I did watch my eating in some way (no/little counting WW Core plan or low carb with counting, plus exercise. I kept the weight off for a long while after by maintaining those lifestyles, even w/o counting. I was usually the thinnest in my immediate family, even despite bipolar medications and genes from a family of overweight or even obese people. I am now almost as heavy as I was once 15 years ago, when severely depressed for months and on a weight unfriendly mix, but I see that as sadly normal for my family, plus the last three years have been very stressful! No exaggeration. I do need to lose weight because diabetes type 2 is knocking at my door. My sister, mother, a grandmother, great grandmother, and some cousins contracted it. Others were borderline.

What do you enjoy doing on a rainy day?

I enjoy listening to the rain, but when we lived in the country I took a shower in the rain a few times. I can still feel the warm rain washing over me.

Do you enjoy severe weather? It can sometime be a real adrenalin rush.

My partner and I are both doing Weight Watchers, @Tart Cherry Jam. The point system really works, and there's really nothing you can't eat. "Dieting" is a bad word in WW. It's more of a lifestyle change. That stated, it's too easy to skip tabulating points. That's been my downfall for the past month. I lost 27 pounds, but have gained back 6 pounds since I stopped tracking. My partner is taking Ozempic in addition to doing WW. It hasn't made a significant dent thus far, but I guess it takes time to kick in...but I digress.

Do you enjoy severe weather alerts?

I have also regained exactly 6 lbs (after losing 60 on Ozempic) but I think that happened because I stopped weight training. My personal trainer went away in April and still has not returned (she is trying to sell her late grandma's house and the sale still has not closed) and without her, all I do is cardio and flexibiity. But at the current weight, I have been for several months, maintaining it on Mounjaro. My insurance covers only a low dose of Mounjaro and refuses to cover more, which is probably why I am at a plateau. What dose of Ozempic is your husband on?

I do not think tabulating point is a sustainable practice for the reasons you underscore.

Learning to eat high protein is sustainable though because you learn what a good enough portion looks like and you do not need to weigh, track, tabulate, or record.

I pile up one protein source on another, and in particular combine plant and animal sources. Say, this morning I had farmers' cheese (a super high protein dairy source) with walnuts and hemp seeds. It is also very filling.

Eating high fiber helps with the feeling of fullness, too.

All of those methods: Ozempic which slows gastric emptying in the beginning of treatment, high protein, high fiber, plentiful liquids allow one to stay sated for longer.

In addition, high protein and especially high fiber are implicated in better longevity. So it really is a win-win proposition, achieving or maintaining weight loss and advancing longer term goals.

I hope your husband breaks through with Ozempic. I did not start losing weight on it until several months into treatment.

I don’t know that I say enjoy? But I do get a rush during severe thunderstorms. The thunder and lightning are awesome 😎

Do you like doing something artistic? Clay? Crayon? Dot to dot?

I used to make necklaces from a wide variety of beads, and I enjoyed it immensely.

I also used to do adult coloring and it was OK.

Now, I do not have time for either.

The best part of making necklaces was gifting them. Making them unusual and sometimes asymmetrical was also fun.

Q: Have you confessed your love to anyone in the past 10 years? If yes, in what form?

Besides my husband and close family members, yes. I did tell my old long-term psychiatrist (in the US) that I loved him. I was unwell when I did, but it was the truth. I had a powerful transferance love for him and in most ways he was even more caring than my own father, towards me. We haven't communicated for a couple years, though, and likely won't again. I believe there was also a notable countertransferance.

What sounds do you often hear out your windows?

The robins are the first birds I hear at dawn, and the last birds to sing when the sun goes down. They are the hardest workers in the bird kingdom. They are also among the first bird's to return in the spring...a sure sign that winter's done. They're our official state bird. Beautiful song meisters!

Do you have a favorite bird? Explain why you love this specimen.

@buddha

Just to note that every advertised diet says that "dieting" is a bad word and that their approach is a "lifestyle change". This does not differentiate WW: they are all like that.

My recommendation, if you are willing to spend money on weight loss (WW costs money), is to invest in a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) for a few months. NutriSense, Levels, and there are other competitors of theirs offer that. It is very convenient: you wear a CGM (putting it in does not hurt) and you get real time individualized feedback through a smartphone app. I had NutriSense last year and learned certain things about my body, such as not eating watermelon for breakfast alone and not starting a big meal with a lemonade. CGM shows your own body's individual response to carbs and food in general, and the approach teaches you food combining (adding protein and fiber to carbs when you do want to eat carbs) and food sequencing (not starting a meal with carbs). You also get to observe the positive response to simple interventions such as walking for a bit after a meal.

Moderating glucose response is not the only or ultimate goal and you can trick a CGM into showing good numbers by eating unhealthfully, such as subsisting on bacon, but it is one of the several overarching goals of a healthy lifestyle. And people respond to carbs differently. There are people who spike to yams but are fine with regular potatoes. With a CGM, you can learn what would cause a spike in YOU, which is not something that WW or any commercial diet program can teach you because such programs lack an individualized approach and a way to measure individual responsiveness.

I normally do not write in favor of CGMs because of their cost, but since you are already paying money to WW, I thought that you in particular might become interested in wearing a CGM.

If you decide to choose one of the CGM companies to try it, note that NutriSense add free support from a registered dietitian for the first month, which is enough to learn to read the graphs and charts and interpret the data but not enough to conduct many experiments in a supervised fashion.

I have not used Levels but I am subscribed to their email and thanks to their recommendations I switched from cooking oatmeal to cooking chia seeds, hemp seeds and flax seeds in almond milk (almonds+water, nothing else). This means going from a meal that can spike glucose to one that cannot and that also contains healthy fats. I do not know whether oatmeal spikes glucose individually in me, though: I did not test it last year and this year I cannot afford a CGM, but I decided to go with a general recommendation and at any rate, I realize that those seeds are much more nutritious than oatmeal. The cooked seeds are quite tasty and provide a decent replacement for cooked oatmeal.

I hope I am not not being too insistent with recommending an approach that costs $$: do subscribe to NutriSense and Levels for free and you will learn a lot of helpful info, even without wearing a CGM!

I think I’d have to say the cardinal. They’re so pretty and bright. The last few years at mum’s house we had several that came around. They brighten up the dreary winters too.

What’s your favorite breed of dog. Why

I'm not really a dog enthusiast, but of them I probably like golden retrievers the best. They usually seem a quiet and gentle breed, despite their size. They are usually friendly, obedient, and well behaved.

How neat/clean (or messy) is your house/apartment?

My living places have historically been extremely messy. Currently I am in the cleanest living space I've ever been in and I'm proud to be contributing. It took a lot of adjustments, and I still feel like doing a mass clean every so often instead of wiping counters twice a day is more efficient, and I'm sure it is, but I'm willing to adjust if it means less stress on my partner.

What is your favorite type of scenery on a long walk?

The ocean when it is not still.

Q: when did you learn to swim, if you know how to swim?

1964, the community pool

Have you been in a movie theater recently?

Two to three weeks ago. We saw the Wes Anderson film "Asteroid City". It was good. It was at a nice movie theater in an huge fancy mall.

Have you ever seen back to back movies at a movie theater? Or even more than two in a row? Do you remember what movies?

I have a vague memory in highschool of seeing 1 movie then just not leaving the theater and seeing another, but I can't recall what they were, haha.

When I was younger I saw two back to back in a drive in - it was in 1999, star wars, the phantom menace, followed by Austin powers, the spy who shagged me


Do you have any unpopular opinions or beliefs that you're not ashamed to share?