from the heavy-is-the-head-that-wears-the-crown dept.
Images of Zelenskyy show the physical toll that trauma and stress can have on the body:
As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy toured the devastation in Bucha this month — where bodies of civilians lay in the street and buildings were destroyed — his haunted face seemed to show the toll of Russia's war in Ukraine.
The 44-year-old's normally shaved face was bearded and lined, his forehead scrunched in distress and his eyes with heavy bags underneath.
They are the hallmark physical signs that can appear on anyone who is going through intense trauma and stress — particularly in wartime, according to Glenn Patrick Doyle, a psychologist who specializes in trauma.
[...] "The thing to understand about trauma and the body is that stress responses kind of hijack every otherwise 'normal' function of our body," he says. "The bodily processes that keep us focused and regulated on a normal day get kind of suspended for the duration of the stressor and replaced with processes designed to help us just get through the stressful experience."
[...] Much has been written about the way U.S. presidents seem to age while in office. Often, images from the time they entered office and those from their final days at the White House are compared. The presidents often display more lines, much more gray hair or heavier bags under the eyes than they did on their first days in the White House.
[...] When we experience physical or emotional stress, the human body produces cortisol, the primary stress hormone. It contributes to the physical changes of the body under long-term stress, Dr. Nicole Colgrove, a specialist in otolaryngology at Virginia Hospital Center, told NPR.
Cortisol accelerates the loss of elasticity in skin, leading to a sagging or sunken appearance, she says. It also contributes to hair turning gray or white under intense stress.
A person undergoes more changes outside of just the physical, the longer they are exposed to stress and trauma, Colgrove and Doyle say.
"Over time, it's as if our actual personality or values systems get replaced by trauma responses, which can make living a life and having relationships almost impossible," Doyle says.
[...] "Many trauma survivors come through their experiences with negative beliefs about their worth or their efficacy," he says. They often believe the world is dangerous, unpredictable and not worth living in.
[...] "Psychologically, as people begin to heal, I've seen people regain their sense of humor and ability to connect and trust others, both of which are signs that healing is actually starting to happen," Doyle says. "But it can be a long road. A long, long road."
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @07:42PM (14 children)
People going through stress and trauma are the inhabitants of the East of the former Ukrainian SSR, ethnic Russians living under bombardment and discrimination for at least eight years.
People going through stress and trauma are the men aged 18-60 that have to fight this pointless war on behalf of the Empire.
One thing Zelenskyyyy has to be careful about is when the country's Nazi brigades decide they no longer want a Jew in power in Kiev, sorry, Kyyyyv. He'd better get his friends in NATO to fly him to his second home in Miami before they get their hands on him.
(Score: 4, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Thursday April 14 2022, @08:59PM
It is impressive how those cunning Ukranians manage to bombard people in the east using Russian jets!
I would suggest it's the Jewish brain control ray but I'm sure you can spot the flaw in my hypothesis!
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @09:31PM
I'm glad you were able to fake a few minutes off from shelling civilians, raping grandmothers, and bombing children to post this. Why don't you tell us more? We'd like to hear your opinions on the works of Dostoyevski. If you haven't read them, please take some more time. Go ahead, we'll wait.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @09:35PM (1 child)
The people in eastern Ukraine may speak the Russian language, but by and large they don't identify as "Russians" at all. They identify as Ukrainian. For anyone interested in a reasoned explanation of this behavior, I strongly recommend reading (or listening to) this podcast, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-timothy-snyder.html [nytimes.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2022, @05:55AM
Pull the other one.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday April 14 2022, @11:47PM
The only people attempting to build empire here are the Russians. Sorry, spreading the NATO club is not empire building.
Funny how Putin has fucked up so badly and yet, you still carry water for him. He may have been a strong leader at one time, but that's in the past. The weakness goes beyond his considerable strategic blunders or immense moral failings of his entire life.
Bottom line is that Putin's image is based on strength and fear. And well, he's just not that strong or feared any more. Live by Machiavelli. Die by Machiavelli.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by zafiro17 on Friday April 15 2022, @01:02PM (8 children)
Good Lord. I took a year or two away from Soylent while I did other things. Suddenly remembered this haven of nerds, science, and community, and came back to see what's become of it. When I set the filters to +3 or above, there's nothing much to read. Open it up to read all comments and find out the nerds seem to have departed, and the commentary here is too often a poor version of 8chan trolling. Very sad.
The world needs a soylentnews where nerds can gather to discuss things that matter. But it also needs soylentils who are willing to engage in actual conversation.
Replying to a troll here, which of course is ridiculuous. But holy crap, what happened here, did all the smart people go away and leave the comment farm to the retards?*
* No offense intended for retarded people, who are probably better conversationalists than the jerkoffs left posting around here.
Too bad, because whoever is posting articles around here is posting some great stuff.
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey
(Score: 2, Troll) by zafiro17 on Friday April 15 2022, @01:19PM (4 children)
aww hell, mod me troll. Tried to edit, then delete my previous comment. Apologies everyone, I didn't contribute much to the conversation either.
I have high hopes for this place. Will shut my trap and try submitting some cool articles instead. Anyone able to explain how article submission through IRC works?
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2022, @03:20PM (2 children)
The noise is about the same as always, and maybe the signal has dropped a bit with a few departures you might have remembered, but there's still plenty here to have discussions about. You should set your threshold to -1 anyway. There's not so many comments that you need to filter down the number, and the spamming/trolling are easy enough to pass over without reading, much like how you can skip through commercials on TV or ads on web sites without really paying attention to them.
By all means, please submit stories you think are interesting. That much has really dropped off, but some very clever people have written good bots to automatically scrape stories off the Web, but you'll only catch stories from the pool of usual sites that way. I've never submitted one via IRC, though I think it isn't much more than sending a link to something and requesting it be submitted. The editors here work very hard to get these things out, so the more material you give up front the easier it is for them, which means the easier it is to put it out. If you're not sure something would make a good story submission, you could always solicit the opinions of those logged on IRC.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by deimtee on Friday April 15 2022, @06:13PM (1 child)
I set the threshold to zero, but then set all the mods except spam to +1. You see everything but spam.
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2022, @06:30PM
Been using this software for over 20 years and why have I never thought to do it that way??
(Score: 2) by zafiro17 on Friday April 15 2022, @06:09PM
I meant: mod the *other* post troll, not the apologetic one. But whatevs.
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2022, @05:05PM (2 children)
You've been away during the time when SN became a Microtwitter for people with nothing to do, but push pro-Fauci, pro-Biden and now pro-Ukraine propaganda.
I guess you are not seeing any nerds, science and community anymore, because the Elites have destroyed that for us since 2020.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2022, @05:32PM
RWNJuice is strong in this one.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by zafiro17 on Friday April 15 2022, @06:19PM
Poor diddums, did someone make you wear a mask? I can see where coming to a nerds/science place and finding support for scientists would be a shocking and traumatic experience for you.
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @07:56PM (4 children)
Article said:
"Often, images from the time they entered office and those from their final days at the White House are compared. The presidents often display more lines, much more gray hair or heavier bags under the eyes than they did on their first days in the White House."
Stress can be part of it, but surely, simple aging is most of it.
The vast majority of presidents are at least middle aged when elected. The vast majority serve 2 terms, or 8 years. Who ISN'T going to look older at the end?
But back to stress: Trump served one term, and he lost a lot of weight after he was out of office. He's got more time to take care of himself.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @09:39PM (2 children)
> Trump served one term, and he lost a lot of weight after he was out of office.
Or maybe McD doesn't deliver to his area anymore...
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 15 2022, @03:00PM
Maybe he can no longer afford to have McD delivered out of his own personal money vs White House budget.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2022, @05:36PM
Maybe he had to cut down on his daily 7hr 37min [bbc.com] of Executive Time. Exhausting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2022, @05:16AM
Here are some pictures to compare. To me it looks like being president makes you much older. George W Bush definitely aged in the 8 years and Obama did too. However, 16 years after leaving office Bush looks about the same age and Obama could easily claim to be younger after those 8 years later.
GWB inauguration: https://cbsnews1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2017/01/18/d49d7a24-0d4e-45b1-abf9-f15548e49e07/gettyimages-51979991.jpg [cbsistatic.com]
GWB last day: https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9095ebc/2147483647/strip/true/crop/586x385+0+0/resize/1440x946!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fc8%2F9c%2Fce714e961e076429bb77a76e54c3%2Fla-bush04-kdt2wknc [brightspotcdn.com]
BHO inauguration: https://images.csmonitor.com/csmarchives/2009/01/picture1_200.jpg?alias=standard_900x600nc [csmonitor.com]
BHO last day: https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/1eec1d966a7cf28b7cc6faa2acaeaaecb3494261/c=0-1740-3625-4466/local/-/media/2017/01/20/USATODAY/USATODAY/636205426166329709-b03-obama-0121.jpg [gannett-cdn.com]
GWB & BHO at Biden's inauguration: https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1240w,f_auto,q_auto:best/newscms/2020_49/3432646/201202-obama-biden-2009-inauguration-jm-1251.jpg [s-nbcnews.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @07:59PM
Zelenskyy's haunted face is shaved and Botoxed?
Maybe Gandhi was unto something with the whole starve for peace thing.
(Score: 2) by donkeyhotay on Thursday April 14 2022, @09:46PM (2 children)
...except for Nixon. That guy thrived on it. If he were still alive he'd be tanned, rested and ready to run again :-D
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @10:00PM (1 child)
Nixon bit by early Steve Martin:
https://youtu.be/prbGlOhB7Ss?t=194 [youtu.be]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday April 15 2022, @02:02PM
The genius was about 15 seconds before that.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by pdfernhout on Friday April 15 2022, @01:57PM (2 children)
https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma-ebook/dp/B00G3L1C2K/ [amazon.com]
"Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments — from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga — that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal — and offers new hope for reclaiming lives."
The key point in that book is that trauma effects a non-verbal and non-rational part of the brain -- so you can't talk yourself or reason yourself out of being traumatized. That can be true even if talk and reason can help you figure out what actions you need to do repeatedly to retrain that part of your brain to heal from the trauma. Those action can include things like neurofeedback (to help visualize and change stress responses), yoga (training the body to relax), meditation (training the mind to let go of obsessions), Equine Therapy (gaining a sense of harmony, enjoyment, and mastery of huge physical forces), improved sleep (to process trauma naturally via REM dreams), EMDR (simulating REM sleep while actively processing the trauma), drama/sports/play (to gain freedom of action beyond trauma including physically playing out alternative scenarios), autobiographical writing (to an extent, if done in a certain style to help put the processed trauma safely in the past where it can be left behind, generally if done along with these other techniques), and so on.
Almost everyone who has found themselves in the Ukraine conflict will likely benefit from these sorts of techniques (including young Russian conscripted soldiers, who were essentially tricked into action). Such techniques may also help some people in moving past the traumatic stress of the recent pandemic.
Specifically Se-REM is one possible low-cost self-help treatment (especially given what matters is what how your mind processes the trauma, not what you tell others about it):
https://se-rem.com/ [se-rem.com]
"Se-REM is Audio Self Help. It is an advanced version of EMDR Therapy. EMDR is recommended by The American Psychiatric Association, The Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs, The US Defense Dept., and The World Health Organization. Se-REM has Restored Thousands of Lives."
There can be a role for some medications in treating trauma -- especially narrowly targeted ones that help someone move past anxiety to try some new action, or very specific ones that help someone sleep through nightmares until completion of REM processing (most "sleep" medicines may make things worse by suppressing REM sleep), or ones that help someone gain a new perspective (potentially psychedelics for that, which are a bit like electroshock in shaking things up but without the memory loss and other harms).
But in general many prescription psychotropic medications can make things much worse; see:
"Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial Kindle Edition" by Peter C. Gotzsche
https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Psychiatry-Organised-Denial-Gotzsche-ebook/dp/B014SO7GHS [amazon.com]
"DEADLY PSYCHIATRY AND ORGANISED DENIAL explains in evidence-based detail why the way we currently use psychiatric drugs does far more harm than good. Professor, Doctor of Medical Science, Peter C. Gøtzsche documents that psychiatric drugs kill more than half a million people every year among those aged 65 and above in the United States and Europe. This makes psychiatric drugs the third leading cause of death, after heart disease and cancer. Gøtzsche explains that we could reduce our current usage of psychotropic drugs by 98% and at the same time improve patients' mental and physical health and survival. It can be difficult, however, to come off the drugs, as many people become dependent on them. As the withdrawal symptoms can be severe, long-lasting and even dangerous, slow tapering is usually necessary. In his book, Gøtzsche debunks the many myths that leading psychiatrists - very often on drug industry payroll - have created and nurtured over decades in order to conceal the fact that biological psychiatry has generally been a failure. Biological psychiatry sees drugs as the "solution" for virtually all problems, in marked contrast to the patients' views. Most patients don't respond to the drugs they receive but, unfortunately, the psychiatrists' frustrations over the lack of progress often lead to more diagnoses, more drugs and higher doses, harming the patients further."
Likewise, some forms of talk therapy just bring up the trauma in an unhelpful way -- retraumatizing people with every session the trauma is discussed and re-imagined without resolution. The traumatized part of your brain is like some abused Golden Retriever afraid of something (thunderstorms, men, children, matches, brooms, newspapers, gunshots, tanks, cats, or whatever). You just won't be able to logically reason that abused dog out of its fears by talking to the dog about them. In general, only a specific set of positive interactions done repeatedly over significant time will help that dog move past the trauma.
Although one can also wonder if some dogs know what they are doing when they lick toads? :-)
"Animals on Psychedelics: Survival of the Trippiest: Do animals do drugs? Every chance they get. "
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-playing-field/201012/animals-psychedelics-survival-the-trippiest [psychologytoday.com]
"According to Italian ethnobotanist Giorgio Samorini, in his 2001 book, Animals and Psychedelics, the risk is worth it because intoxication promotes what psychologist Edward de Bono once called lateral thinking-problem-solving through indirect and creative approaches. Lateral thinking is thinking outside the box, without which a species would be unable to come up with new solutions to old problems or be unable to survive. De Bono thinks intoxication an important "liberating device," freeing us from "rigidity of established ideas, schemes, divisions, categories and classifications." Both Siegel and Samorini think animals use intoxicants for this reason, and they do so knowingly."
Of course, some lateral thinking does not help much if you just fall back into the same habitual dysfunctional ruts you developed while trying to cope with the trauma.
Trauma-induced depression is different than run-of-the-mill lifestyle-induced depression. The cure for lifestyle-induced depression is to change your lifestyle -- but that probably won't be enough if you are traumatized (especially if the trauma nudged you into unhealthy behaviors as a way of comfort or avoidance, including eating too many comfort carbs or drinking too much alcohol and then keeps you there despite rational attempts to break out of those "pleasure traps"). Unaddressed trauma is one reason lifestyle-based cures may have less than 100% success:
https://tlc.ku.edu/ [ku.edu]
"We were never designed for the sedentary, indoor, sleep-deprived, socially-isolated, fast-food-laden, frenetic pace of modern life. (Stephen Ilardi, PhD"
"Across the industrialized modern world, clinical depression has reached epidemic proportions, despite a staggering increase in the use of antidepressant medication. In fact, depression is now the single leading cause of work-related disability for adults under 50. However, there is strong evidence that depression can be both prevented and treated through a set of straightforward changes in lifestyle. Our research has demonstrated that TLC is an effective treatment for depression, with over 70% of patients experiencing a favorable response, as measured by symptom reduction of at least 50%."
Since trauma sometimes leads to suicidal ideation, one thing to consder is that suicide is best seen as an involuntary action that occurs when pain exceeds coping resources. You can avoid that extreme action by either reducing pain or increasing coping resources, and both are possible. Addressing traumas using the above techniques is one way to reduce pain in your life. See also:
"Out of the Nightmare: Recovery from Depression and Suicidal Pain"
https://www.amazon.com/Out-Nightmare-Recovery-Depression-Suicidal/dp/0595414974 [amazon.com]
"Out of the Nightmare. An all-out assault on the barriers that stand between you and recovery from depression and suicidal pain. decomposes recovery from depression into recovery from envy, shame, self-pity, grandiosity, fear, stigma, social abuse, and the double binds and vicious circles of the mythology of suicide. a drug-free approach to getting better and staying better. This book provides counselors with a bold new non-technical framework that is free from the prejudices that deter the suicidal from seeking help. It provides those who have lost a loved one to suicide with a broad array of new conceptual tools to understand the tragedy and to find help for stuck positions of bereavement. Most importantly, it provides all those who suffer from depression with hundreds of resources to find their way out of the nightmare."
I mention those resources in a reading list I've put together on how to have happier businesses and happier lives with less trauma created in them to begin with:
https://github.com/pdfernhout/High-Performance-Organizations-Reading-List [github.com]
The biggest challenge of the 21st century: the irony of technologies of abundance used by scarcity-minded people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2022, @05:38PM
Poor victim.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2022, @09:11PM
Interesting post but maybe put it in a journal and one topic at a time