I 100% agree, and hope that remains to be an option. But also… things can change, and they can change fast. We are all only a few days of missed meals or missed mortgage payments from having very different standards.

Or a submarine.

The problem is, while you and I have a problem with that, billionaires don’t.

Just my personal opinion but I think while you are right - a lot of the time it’s almost coincidental that these two factors overlap.

I say that because I think a huge factor is an underlying psychological need to feel powerful and in control. So in their actions they target those who it is easy to feel powerful over. But in their posturing they seek positions that are viewed as powerful.

It’s all a somewhat normal biological drive that healthy people grow through and integrate into their psyche while going on to add things like empathy. For these people that part of their development remains at that of a tiny child. Maybe genetic, maybe trauma, whatever it is they need help - and help far away from the vulnerable and positions of power so people can remain safe until they can (if it’s possible - and I’m not sure it is always) heal.

To be clear - nothing about these people’s actions is OK, they are terrible people. But I do think we should be trying to figure out more why so many of them end up in powerful positions and what we can do about it, is there early interventions we could be putting in place etc. to catch these people and head off their harm at the pass.

As much as people seem to hate her I have to say I think she was a fabulous leader. Especially given she ran a country with very little power and finances given the puppet strings that ran from westminster. People go on and on about how bad the SNP were but the simple fact is Scotland declined a LOT slower than England and Wales did in that time because of their leadership.

She was fierce, passionate, committed and measured. It is unfortunately rare in the world today to have a leader that is worthy of respect on the public stage. Next to folks like Boris and Trump she was a powerhouse.

There is an Organic Maps ios app which I use to mostly good effect. Occasionally have to fall back to Google maps and then I make a note to update OSM with the details missing where possible later.

Thanks so much for sharing this Bookwyrm is on my radar to try (currently use storygraph). I’ve been looking for ways to contribute to the open source community as a non-coder so def going to check out bookbrainz. Freedom of information is one of my biggest passions and this goes hand in hand with those goals as they form the backbone of meaningful archival efforts.

Thanks for saying this - I did click the link but saw it was 45mins and was immediately out until I read the comments.

Incredible video. I love him!

The world: How much are your eggs?

Trump: $100

The world: Sure we’ll help… that will be $99.

If god is so bad then why did he give we buy Joel Osteen such a giant house??

Yes, SO much this! They are firstly more likely to go under the radar due to misconceptions of what ADHD looks like in individuals and then secondly, to add insult to injury, more likely to be dismissed/not believed when it does get put out there.

As a psychotherapist I’ve found myself working with quite a few people in the last 5yrs going through the process of questioning if they are neurodivergent after social media psychoeducation.

In my experience many professionals are woefully under trained in the area of both trauma and neurodivergence and both would be primary considerations if you friend is resonating with descriptions of experiences and symptoms of ADHD. It is very often overlooked and misdiagnosed or missed as a diagnosis. Additionally many Therapists are trained to stay in the clients frame of reference and would not suggest a diagnosis that would be the job of a psychiatrist (at least here in the UK).

I think this can be a really complicated field to navigate. The way we diagnose mental health divergence in the west is primarily using the ICD or DSM both very problematic for various reasons but most of all because they look at symptoms to diagnose. Generally when diagnosing a physical condition symptoms are key to bringing people into the doctors office but you wouldn’t want chemo because you had trouble breathing… You’d want some further tests to identify if it was lung cancer or a broken rib. Hell even some good additional questioning can drill down to this. Now in saying that a good mental health professional will do this, but many don’t - especially somewhere like America.

The reason this is such an issue is many underlying conditions can present as ADHD - and visa versa. Your friend could have complex or chronic trauma, or any number of personality disorders for example. On the flip side I’ve seen people with probable ADHD be turned away from medical help because psychiatrists have (in my opinion) wrongly presumed it’s trauma.

So to me the thing I tend to focus on more than anything is how does this stuff show up in people’s lives and how can they alieviate the pain. For many seeking a diagnosis and getting medical help will be worth trying. For many other just having a community that struggles with similar issues and supports each other with tools and techniques that help is enough. Whatever it looks like for your friend I’d recommend you ask her what supporting her would look like from her perspective and do your best to be there.

To be clear I don’t think you did anything “wrong”, we all react from our own frame of reference and yours was different then than it is now as you are considering other angles. But I think you are asking the right question and sound like a good friend.

On the topic of these psycho education social media platforms - ultimately, I’m more thankful for the increased awareness and access to tools and techniques that help people than for any false self-diagnosis that undoubtably occurs because of it.