Bridging Minds - Social Anxiety Disorder Commercial

It can be so much worse. there's not always doors that are going to open. It's just you, your classmates, and some reg that just likes (? my only explanation) to see you squirm. Though as a medical doctor he/she should recognise the signs of anxiety, of the sympathetic nervous system going into 'flight or fight' -'usually flight mode. or dumb mode. simple shutting down.
Imagine being on a plane. Nowhere to run.
Anxiety sucks.
I don't know if they can create an ad that can let someone 'see' what its like to be chronically depressed, but this is a good start. Empathy not sympathy. That person who looks too nervous, is sweating a bit, shuns making eye contact-before dismissing just think for one second. Wait. The shite thing being there's not much you can do for someone who's in the midst of an anxiety attack.
Heart still beating fast after that video.

One happy dog

DOGS RULE!

For Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

When I first moved to America from Ireland, I had many misgivings. Despite being the old age of just turned 8yrs old, I had not been impressed with Ronald Reagan (who votes for an actor to be president?), and knew I was firmly a 'democrat' whatever that meant. Then in Kentucky, our Irishness was immediately a target for speculation, a benign tremor of the hand becoming an endless source of hilarity as to whether or not going through the DT's-not to mention how to pronounce my first name. Then the strangeness of being Catholic, did we really worship Mary? a woman? Yes a friend's father actually asked what faith I was and upon my response of Catholic, said I was going to hell. So I did what I do, I dove into books, and found the Americans I liked, the ones that gave me hope for this crazy place. Somewhere in my aul Kentucky home, there is a well read autobiography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. along with JFK (hello Irish Catholic), and Lincoln (I had to make sense of those weird X flags I saw everywhere). All taken from us. Even with my absentee ballot sent, I couldn't turn the red state of Kentucky blue, how I wished he was here when Barack Obama became president. I love this quote of his, and many of his speeches. In the States, they've turned today into a day of service, which I know he would approve of. Ireland is desperately racist, or maybe its anti-immigrant, I'm not sure, so we have much to learn from Dr. King. "A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." ~MLK Jr

Sofia the Lion Tamer at Wellington Zoo, New Zealand - 4th January 2012

So fascinating. What were they both really thinking? Was the lion being 'stroppy' as the zookeepers say? Would I have stayed that close after the first time the lion does whatever he's doing-not looking to bite more swat in my opinion, keeps hind legs down so not pouncing-really for an expert to say? Is this some kind of Disney affect? Does kinda look like Mustafa.

Scenic Vistas Efforts Becoming Headline News « Appalachian Voices

Scenic Vistas Efforts Becoming Headline News « Appalachian Voices

Coal companies attacking prayer groups?! Come on lads, like if ya haven't blown your chances already of a happy thereafter you're really pushing it.

The Neurocritic: Alcohol Blackout

The Neurocritic: Alcohol Blackout

much empathy to anyone suffering!! and if you don't remember, please don't put yourself into a tailspin of 'oh my god' and negative thoughts on this new first day of 2012. also to anyone who told me i was making it up when i said i didnt remember :p