Typing over 200wpm thanks to ADHD
And four other things at least sort of about mental health that you should see
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ADHD Superpowers
If you are lucky in this big weird world, you will have an opportunity or two to talk to some young people. Like college students, older high school students, very recent grads of either. Because that biz is a positive experience. They’re smart as hell, they believe in possibilities, they look forward. And yeah, they don’t have experience-based wisdom but they haven’t been squooshed by trauma as much either.
I’ve been working on a project that involves college students and I’ll be able to tell you about it soon enough.
As part of that, I interviewed this dude who types 225 words per minute on a weird-ass keyboard called a Dvorak keyboard.
He has world records for typing. He can also solve Rubik’s Cubes blindfolded.
Dude’s a first-year college student. He’s maybe 19.
How could he do stuff like this? How was he able to put in the incredible amount of work required to develop this level of skill?
ADHD!
I know! John said that he was diagnosed with ADHD and although that disorder is generally associated with being unable to concentrate on anything, in his case it was the ability to concentrate on just a small amount of things to the exclusion of all the other things to which one ordinarily needs to parcel out one’s attention. Basically, he could go big on the typing and the Cube but had a real problem concentrating on school work that he wasn’t particularly interested in.
And I didn’t know that happened. I have some tendencies that I think could be associated with ADHD, never had it diagnosed, but I always figure it was just being scattered all the time.
Now, John (this young person, not me) has been treating his ADHD and is happy that he is. He probably can’t type as fast as he used to and couldn’t slam a Rubik’s as fast but he’s taking a Latin class and is digging it. He can be interested in more things and get by much better in areas in which he does not have an interest in.
And I said this, I said: Huh. Huh, is what I said.
Is micro-dosing LSD and shrooms a real breakthrough or are people just tripping?
That’s the question being asked in a New York Times article that is more critical and dimensional than a lot of coverage of this approach for depression treatment. The article is critical and dimensional, I mean, not the New York Times.
Here’s the illustration they chose:
A third placebo-controlled trial, published earlier this month from the University of Chicago, tried to get around user expectations by giving participants four microdoses of LSD over the course of two weeks, but without telling them about the purpose of the study or even what they were taking. Once again, there was no difference between the LSD and placebo groups.
Still, some scientists point to evidence showing that microdosing has a direct impact on the brain to argue that its benefits are real. Using neuroimaging technology, researchers have shown changes in brain activity and connectivity after single small doses of LSD that are similar to what’s seen with larger amounts of the drug. And a study in Denmark found that a microdose of psilocybin activated nearly half of the specific type of serotonin receptors that psychedelics act on to produce their hallucinogenic effects.
The article says only about a third of people who are microdosing are measuring out their dosage carefully and the most common cause of problems from the practice is when people take too much. It doesn’t necessarily put them in physical danger but it can be inconvenient to one’s life tasks, work, school to be tripping out.
New World Health Organization report on mental health says about what you’d expect
25% increase in anxiety and depression during covid.
One major explanation for the increase is the unprecedented stress caused by the social isolation resulting from the pandemic. Linked to this were constraints on people’s ability to work, seek support from loved ones and engage in their communities.
Loneliness, fear of infection, suffering and death for oneself and for loved ones, grief after bereavement and financial worries have also all been cited as stressors leading to anxiety and depression. Among health workers, exhaustion has been a major trigger for suicidal thinking.
Somewhat surprisingly, the pandemic doesn’t seem to have been worse for people with previous disorders but…
(The brief) shows that the pandemic has affected the mental health of young people and that they are disproportionally at risk of suicidal and self-harming behaviours. It also indicates that women have been more severely impacted than men and that people with pre-existing physical health conditions, such as asthma, cancer and heart disease, were more likely to develop symptoms of mental disorders.
The Colorful Work of Ukrainian Artist Maria Prymachenko
Maria Prymachenko is one of Ukraine’s best-known artists. Known for her colorful, expressive, and “primitive” style, Prymachenko won a gold medal for her work at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris and Pablo Picasso is said to have remarked “I bow down before the artistic miracle of this brilliant Ukrainian” after seeing her work. Prymachenko’s paintings featured animals (both real & fantastical), everyday Ukrainian people, food & agriculture, and themes of war & peace.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine announced that the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum had been burned in the Russian invasion and that 25 works by Prymachenko had been lost. Luckily, according to the Ukrainian Institute, local residents were able to save the paintings.
So many beautiful paintings here in this article but I’ll only share one.
I commented on the Times article and I’ll say it here. I tried the psilocybin micro dosing. First I tried a laced chocolate bar (a piece every few days) then just weighed out mushrooms. I’m here to say it helps. The effect is real. I could feel it. If I had a reliable supply I’d still be doing it.