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Jan/12/2021 news: __ Gas prices could rise: ֏ vs $ __ Jailed for taking Azeri bribe __ How much will AM-AZ railway cost? __ COVID strain, vaccine, stats __ POW & borders __ Childbirth subsidy __ Seismic resistance __ IRS to monitor casinos __ Environmentalists to have voice __ Yezidi theater __ more
Your 11-minute Tuesday report in 2562 words.
gas prices could rise due to currency fluctuations
Russian gas price (at the border) had increased from $150 to $165 per 1000m3 in 2019. Although the Russian currency Ruble was devaluing against the Dollar, Armenia was/is paying for gas with Dollars. Since 2019, the Pashinyan administration has been trying to convince Russia to implement a different gas payment mechanism within the EAEU trade bloc. Making payments in Rubles instead of Dollars was one of the priorities: "We are constantly talking about high dollarization within the EAEU, but we still pay for Russian gas in dollars. Our proposal was that it would be more correct if we paid for gas in rubles, because I think it is more logical, also within the EAEU," said Pashinyan in early 2020. This idea was also shared by Vladimir Putin's personal adviser back in October 2018. It appears the EAEU has been working towards this goal lately. But meanwhile, Armenia has to pay for Russian gas in Dollars. With Armenian Dram devaluing against the Dollar, the pricing for consumers will likely be revised. Consumers pay 139 Drams per cubic meter. This was calculated in 2020 when $1 was 480 Drams. Today $1 = 520 Drams. Large consumers pay in Dollars and have their rates adjusted periodically, while small consumers (general public) pays in Drams. Armenia imports 2.2 billion m3 gas from Russia annually, at the price of $165 per 1000m3. 0.7 billion of it is consumed by the general public. Dram was devalued by 6.6% since November. This could prompt the internal gas company to raise the prices, including for the general public. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039886.html http://www.armbanks.am/en/2020/04/07/128024/ https://neftegaz.ru/en/news/energy/406887-armenia-should-pay-for-russian-gas-in-rubles/
Public Council meets drone and robotics industry
The Public Council (linked to PM's office) held a meeting with engineers from the drone, robotics, AI, and nano-tech industries. They discussed ways to help the state to develop the military-industrial complex, drone production, aviation, and to bring their quality to international standards. https://factor.am/327477.html
former PACE MP sentenced to 4 years for taking bribes from Azerbaijan
An Italian court has concluded that Italian PACE representative Luca Volonte, who is the former head of the European People's Party, took €2.4 million in bribes from the Aliyev regime in 2012-2013. The bribe was handed over by Azerbaijan's PACE delegation leader Suleymanov. The scheme was coordinated by an Azeri lobbying firm based in Brussels. In return, the MP gave Azerbaijan favors during PACE and Italian Parliament sessions. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039927.html Tags: #caviar
POWs and searches
The search crews in Artsakh discovered bodies of 10 soldiers and 1 civilian in Jabrayil, Hadrut, and Sgnakh regions. The civilian has already been identified by his relatives. The cause of death is being investigated. Many bodies under the possession of the Armenian side are yet to be identified, while more bodies will likely be found during daily searches for the foreseeable future. Overall, 575 calls have been made by families who are looking for missing relatives, says the Russian humanitarian envoy in Artsakh. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039900.html , https://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/289293/ Human Rights Ombudsman Tatoyan once again criticized Azerbaijan for intentionally politicizing and delaying the POW swap mission. "It is against international laws to file felony cases and arrest POWs because that's a form of a prohibited punishment. Azerbaijan is also hiding the true number of POWs." The Ombudsman has noted that Armenian residents in Tegh, Vorotan, and several other bordering villages have lost access to 2500 hectares of farming lands due to border changes. (some lands that were internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan were given to Azerbaijan after the war). https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039933.html , https://factor.am/327226.html , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/204175
POW discussions: general prosecutor meets Azeri counterpart
Chief prosecutor Arthur Davtyan and his Azeri counterpart were invited to Russia. The three sides held a conversation about the establishment of future contacts in the field of international law and other related topics. Prosecutor Davtyan mentioned the importance of implementing the November 9th statement about the return of POWs, "which will serve as an assurance for implementation of other [trade unblocking] issues." https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039953.html , https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039972.html
how much will a new railway network cost?
Azeri economists believe it will cost around $430 million to build a railway network connecting Kars(TR)-Nakhijevan(AZ)-Meghri(AM)-Zangelan(AZ)-Baku(AZ). Overall, if you add Gyumri between Kars and Nakhijevan, it could cost about $434 million. Economists believe Armenia can use this network to connect with Russia via two directions: Gyumri-Nakhijevan-Meghri-Baku (southern trip), or Ijevan-Ghazakh-Baku (northern trip). https://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/289313/
rumors & rebuttals: traitors are not selling Azeri juice in Armenia
Telegram channel Mediaport circulated rumors that "Azeri Sandora juice is being sold in Armenia". The misinformation was picked up by several outlets and caused confusion among the buyers. Fact-checkers contacted Sandora's local importer who said the producer is a Ukrainian company that sells its product in multiple post-Soviet republics, so they have one unified tag that contains information both in Armenian and Azeri languages. https://fip.am/14469
Pricing for 43 commonly-consumed items was examined by the consumer protection agency in Artsakh. 12 became more expensive, 5 cheaper, 26 remained the same. Onion +25%, cottege cheese +6%, milk +6%, gloves +5%, ..., pear -12%, rice -1%, eggs -1%, butter -1%. Several dairy product prices went up, and since Artsakh has dairy companies that own dominant market share, the consumer agency will launch an investigation to see if there was price-fixing. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039946.html
seismic resistance assessment for old buildings
A significant portion of Armenia's large apartment complex buildings were built half a century ago. They may not be seismically safe, considering Armenia's geolocation. After the 1988 earthquake, some buildings remain populated despite being deemed highly unsafe. Many other buildings have safety irregularities. It is necessary to assess the situation, so the Urban Development Committee has drafted a bill "Methodology for assessing the priority of increasing the seismic resistance of buildings and structures". https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039887.html
IRS will closely monitor gambling industry / RFID chips & servers
IRS press release: gambling facilities and online betting services will be more closely monitored. We worked with international experts to digitize the gambling industry and bring it on par with international standards. All gambling machines and platforms operating in Armenia will be connected to one server which will be connected to a monitoring Center. All betting and winning transactions will be recorded. The Center will also install RFID microchips in casinos to monitor the movement of chips, the chips purchased or won by players, in real-time. The government's Digital Council has approved the bill, which is yet to be discussed and voted in the Parliament. The goal is to be able to monitor the financial flows in this sector and to estimate the actual revenues. It will combat money laundering. (BHK skipping a Parliament session due to "COVID" in 3, 2, 1, ... /joke) https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039915.html
new "public council" will advise Nature Ministry
Nature Minister Romanos met several environmental organizations and environmentalists and discussed the creation of a new Council, which will advise him on nature protection issues, help draft bills and roadmaps, work with other environmental organizations and NGOs. The Council is accepting applications. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039896.html
large quantities of illegally-cut trees were busted
Context: An incident happened last week between parents of drafted soldiers and military officials at a military unit. The parents wanted assurances that their sons would be safe after being deployed on Artsakh borders. The parents wanted to know why Armenian soldiers are still being sent to Artsakh "despite the November 9th statement saying Armenians should withdraw from Artsakh." During the confrontation, an incident happened between a military official and a journalist. The official struck the camera and instructed it to be turned off. Several media outlets released a message condemning the officer for hindering the journalist's work. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039973.html
infrastructure upgrades
Four settlements in Kotayk province (Yeghvard, Nor Gegh, Aragel, Zovuni) have a newly renovated irrigation pipeline as part of a govt subsidy program. https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/204202
today in history
1932: First Yerevan tramway began operating in Yerevan 1951: The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was implemented. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039885.html
get your free colonoscopy today
The National Center for Oncology has purchased the latest generation tools and will perform a free and enjoyable colonoscopy for residents over the age of 45, for the next 6 months. The goal is to detect suspicious growths at an early stage. It's the third most common cancer among adults in the world. It has become more common in Armenia in the past decade. When detected early, it can be fully treated. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039911.html
... we lift some of the restrictions! "Aye, aye, Captain!" "I can't hear you!" "The rule that limits attendance to non-commercial gatherings to no more than 60 people has been removed. All other safety requirements remain in place," said a Healthcare official. "You can enter Armenia via air or land by presenting negative COVID test results that were taken within the past 3 days. If you don't, you will be tested at the airport and will need to self-isolate until the results arrive." https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039931.html
Armenia will soon import COVID vaccines
Healthcare Ministry: we are negotiating with multiple entities. The first batch of vaccines will arrive between late-January and mid-February. We are negotiating with producers whose vaccines have passed the necessary tests: Sputnik V, Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca. In the first phase, the vaccines will be given to the most vulnerable 10% of the population. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039921.html
Sputnik V vaccine has already been tested in Armenia
Healthcare Ministry: no complications were reported by the 15 patients, including Minister Torosyan. The often-discussed "skin redness" in the injection area has not been observed, either. The first injection gave a 91.4% efficiency. The second increased it to 94%. Even if the vaccine doesn't fully prevent the infection, it can save the patient's life by making the case mild (is that right??). https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039925.html
the new COVID strain: good news, bad news
Doctor Davit Melik-Nubaryan: the version of COVID that mutated in the UK will eventually reach Armenia. Preliminary data shows that those who have already been infected and gained immunity from the original COVID will be immune to this new strain. It is believed that the immunity will last 6-12 months for the majority. The good news is that the new strain isn't more deadly and doesn't result in heavier cases. The bad news is that it spreads a lot faster. The Healthcare system could be overloaded again. The vaccines against the original strain will likely work against the new one. Pharmaceutical companies may have to modify the vaccines, but it will only take weeks. Closing borders with the UK won't be helpful to prevent it. We may already have the new strain. We need to develop a new strategy from the ground up. Viruses mutate all the time. It's part of the evolution. Sometimes they cause more severe symptoms, sometimes lesser. From the evolutionary and survival standpoint, viruses want to cause less severe symptoms for the host so they can have a chance to spread wider. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039856.html
Armenian scientists will study the COVID strain
CDC chief Bakunts: Armenia will have the ability to study the genetic mutations of the coronavirus. Active work is underway to invest in research resources. Meanwhile, we can submit a virus sample to a WHO laboratory to conduct a study for us. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039962.html
families with newborn children receive mortgage subsidy
450 families have so far taken advantage of a government subsidy program that helps with purchasing apartments. ֏526 million will be paid as part of this 2020-2023 program. It is part of a recent initiative to boost the birthrate. Two other aid programs went into effect in mid-2020. Provincial families received a downpayment subsidy equalling 5% of the total price. Another one subsidizes insurance payments. The same family can apply for all three programs, and there is no age limit for parents. https://factor.am/327385.html
diaspora-government cooperation expands: iGorts
iGorts is a program that recently recruited 48 highly skilled diasporan Armenians to visit Armenia and work at 19 various government agencies. Three more volunteers have arrived today to begin their work: Shila Palyan from Canada, Zaven Ayvazyan from Russia, and Anahit Mikaelyan from Cyprus. https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/204211
Yerevan to install 32 more elevators in apartment complexes
Arabkir district is the next recipient. Hundreds of units were installed in 2020. They replace the decades-old elevators that have become dangerous and poopy. The new elevators come equipped with running water and flush so you can drain your crap /s. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039954.html
have you been buying stuff right and left lately?
...because trade turnover increased by +34%, and the number of printed receipts by +7%, during this year's New Year's holidays. ֏91 billion was spent between December 29-31, which is ֏23 billion more. https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/204195
would your majesty be pleased to take a salt bath?
Nerqin Getashen will have a halotherapy "salt bath" center to help alleviate certain conditions. It's the first in Gegharquniq province. There will also be rooms for aromatherapy (oils), ogyxenotherapy (oxygen cocktails), and massage. The owner claims it helps boost immunity and alleviates breathing, allergy, and insomnia issues (take the claim with a bath of salt). https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039974.html
first Yezidi theater to open in Armenia
"шəp' y əBин" or "war and love" will be the first performance in a newly opened Yezidi theater in Ejmiatsin. It's part of a «Եզդիների կողքին» cultural initiative. The crew had planned a major performance about Yezidi national legend but the 44-day war began and some were drafted. The crew ended up performing the "шəp' y əBин" during the war. It's about the importance of Yezidis in Armenia, and their love for the country. The January 17th performance will be dedicated to Yezidis who died fighting. The performers aren't professional actors but they received acting training on-the-fly. "It seems to work because their enthusiasm is great. A very good team has been formed," said the producer. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1039941.html
Aram Khachaturian House-Museum will resume "Musical Thursdays"
Netherlands college will donate large quantities of school supplies
Several thousands of desks, chairs, furniture pieces, computers, lockers, etc. are being loaded in containers to be shipped to Armenia. The Hermann Wesselink college is renovating its building with new items so they decided to donate the old stuff to Armenian kids. This will be enough to equip 15 provincial schools. https://factor.am/327135.html
Trump consistently nominates the worst possible person for every job. His campaign slogan was "drain the swamp", but instead he's putting lobbyists and business executives in charge of regulating their own industries. His nominees enrich their business buddies and waste taxpayer money for their own pleasure. I'll break down his cabinet, nomination by nomination. (plus a couple cabinet-level positions such as EPA administrator)
Commerce
Wilbur Ross
Completely out of touch. He wondered aloud why furloughed federal workers went to food banks rather than applying for loans
Bragged about the lack of protests in his Saudi trip (protest is illegal in Saudi Arabia)
Tried to add a citizenship question to the census. This wouldn't be objectionable on its own, but leaked emails revealed that the citizenship question was part of a Republican plot to reduce the reply rate of immigrants and rig the census in favor of Republicans.
Held Russian and Chinese assets during his tenure, despite pledging to divest from them on his ethics agreement. After learning that reporters were looking into these holdings, he dumped some of them before the news could bring the stock price down. This may count as insider trading.
Allegedly, Ross habitually stole large sums of money from his businesses. The allegations total over $120 million.
Trump mistakenly said that Hurricane Dorian was forecast to hit Alabama. Simple mistake that can quickly be corrected, right? Not with Trump. He doubled down on it and demanded that his administration fall in line. Ross Threatened to fire NOAA officials who didn't repeat Trump's misstatement as fact. Dorian, by the way, did not wind up touching Alabama.
Retaliates against employees who speak out about climate change
Said climate change has nothing to do with the severity of California's wildfires, and instead promoted a conspiracy theory about terrorist groups
Used taxpayer money on private aircraft trips. He tried to get out of it by saying that technically he never took a private jet, because they were private planes and helicopters instead
Pushed for the 2017 tax cuts for the rich, saying they'd pay for themselves. Now that we've seen trillion-dollar deficits from those tax cuts, he's doubled down on his claim.
Violated ethics rules by letting his son offer business partners the chance to have access to him
Is trying to adopt a new rule that would allow homeless shelters to discriminate against anyone who looks like they might be trans.
Transportation
Elaine Chao
Mitch McConnell's wife
Her sister and father have big investments in China, leading to conflicts of interest
Failed to divest from a paving company as required by her ethics agreement. She later sold them at a higher price than when she took office.
Energy
Rick Perry
The Department of Energy was one of three departments Perry campaigned on abolishing back in 2012. (along with Commerce and Education)
Instead of doing his job and promoting clean energy, he tries to keep us reliant on fossil fuels. He spreads climate denial and makes utterly absurd pro-fossil-fuel arguments like that they can help prevent sexual assault in Africa
Met with coal executives to set up subsidies for coal companies and rollbacks of Obama-era regulations.
He even believes in climate change. (which is an incredibly low bar to clear for Secretary of Energy, but he does clear it)
Education
Betsy DeVos
Doesn't know a thing about education. Completely clueless any time she's questioned. Didn't know about the debate between measuring by growth vs measuring by proficiency, didn't know that federal law protected students with disabilities, and didn't know about school accountability standards.
Her family are long-time GOP mega-donors. She bragged that her donations were buying influence, saying "We expect a return on our investment".
Stopped investigations into fraud by private universities, and put a DeVry executive in charge of the department that was supposed to do those investigations
Pledged to divest from dozens of companies as part of her ethics agreement during confirmation, but refused to follow through. This leads to some serious conflicts of interest, such as her investment in Neurocore.
Was VP of the Edgar & Elsa Prince Foundation, which made large donations to extreme anti-gay groups such as Focus on the Family. She claims to have had no involvement with the foundation.
DeVos's lifelong drive has been to shift power and funding from public schools to religious and charter schools. This article is well worth reading, and goes into detail on her motivations and actions. She said "Our desire is to confront the culture in ways that will continue to advance God’s kingdom."
Succeeded in getting Michigan to adopt widespread charter schools, ultimately leading to worse outcomes
Is fine with government funding going towards private schools that refuse to accept LGBTQ students
Redirected millions in COVID funds inteded for public schools to private schools
Sided with Trump's threat to cut funding to public schools that delayed reopening. Said kids being in school is not "in any way dangerous".
Homeland Security
John Kelly
Joked that Trump should attack members of the press with a sword
Came up with the family separation policy, explicitly saying that its goal was to be a deterrent.
Left after 6 months to become Chief of Staff
Kirstjen Nielsen
This is a good timeline of Nielsen's role in carrying out the family separation policy. Of note:
She repeatedly denied the existence of a family separation policy
DHS separated families that were legally seeking asylum
At least 471 parents were deported without their children
Eventually, she and Trump gave in to backlash and repealed the policy. Trump later fired her for refusing to reimplement it.
Nobody
Cabinet officials need Senatorial approval, which (even with a Republican-controlled Senate) is more oversight than Trump is comfortable with. He found a loophole of not appointing a nominee at all, thus letting his "acting" DHS secretary run the department indefinitely. The current acting secretary is Chad Wolf
Under Wolf, DHS is sending unmarked federal officers to take protestors off the streets with no accountability.
Racked up a long list of conduct allegations during his time as personal White House physician. These include freely writing prescriptions for whatever people wanted, writing himself prescriptions, creating a hostile work environment, and repeatedly being drunk while on duty.
Withdrew his nomination after it became clear that he wouldn't get confirmed
The whole reason that he was considered for a cabinet position is that he sucked up to Trump by giving him a laughably positive bill of health. This included lines such as "He has incredibly good genes, and it's just the way God made him".
Robert Wilkie
Pro-Confederacy. In a 1995 speech, he heaped glowing praise on Jefferson Davis, criticized abolitionists, and said the South's cause was honorable.
Lied to Congress that he didn't have more recent ties to Confederate groups
Hello, I have been subjected to an illegal LSD-experiment, in a hospital, in Europe . . The drug in question is called Abilify, I got 45 mg, without being informed it was above maximum approved dosage, nor was I told it only had effect, on psychosis, which I was mis-diagnosed with, instead of OCD, anxiety, and mania, up to 10 mg Abilify, and therefore there was no scientific reason, for giving that dosage, based on my ( mis-diagnosed ) symptoms . . On 45 mg, I experienced a horrific, terrifying ' trip ', made worse by the fact Abilify, as an anti-psychotic, lowers dopamine, causing, depression, angst, self-hatred, etc . . It began 45 minutes, to 1 ½ hour after getting that dosage, a girl had a similar experience, on 5 mg, also Abilify, not injection . . . Hallucinations is a documented side-effect, on Abilify Maintena, but not yet on the pill-form, simply called Abilify . . Abilify is similar to LSD, psilocin, ketamine, and DMT, in that it inhibits the serotonin 5-HT2a receptor, also 5-HT2c, the receptors considered responsible for LSD-trips, ' acid-trips ' . . Note that mushrooms also stimulate dopamine transmission, which is why ' psilocin ), and will TEND to give happy, pleasurable experiences, when dopamine is lowered, by Abilify, also Rexulti, it will give more ' bad ' trips, which lead to suicide, homicide, madness and, psychosis . . Abilify has a Ki ( constant of inhibition ) for the serotonin ( 5-HT ) 2a receptor, which means it inhibits this receptor, and the brain messages, it sends into the brain . . LSD, psilocin, ketamine, and DMT also have a value, inhibiting this receptor, it's signals, into the brain . . . Abilify has a Ki, defined as ' the amount of drug, or compound necessary to inhibit the enzyme, here a neuro-signal, further into the brain, by 50 % ' . . This is stated, by University College London, on this page, made public . . . https://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucbcdab/enzass/inhibition.htm Quote : " Ki, the inhibitor constant The inhibitor constant, Ki, is an indication of how potent an inhibitor is; it is the concentration required to produce half maximum inhibition. " That has been measured, and quantified in experiments, some of them by Otsuka, that manufactures Abilify, also Rexulti . . LSD has a Ki ( amount needed to inhibit serotonin 2a - receptor signals ) of 2.9 nM, Abilify has a Ki of 3.4 nm - 35 nm ( two studies disagree on it being 3.4 nM, or 35 nM ), because LSD weighs less, the molecules, there is more available per gram, but it also has a lower bio-availability, 71 %, Abilify has 87 %, according to wikipedia, that list scientific research, as behind the information . . . That means, 1 mg LSD = 1 mg Abilify, or close, or 1 mg LSD = 10 mg Abilify . . It doesn't matter in the end, because 1 mg LSD elicits a HARD ' trip ', or hallucinations, and Abilify is typically given, in 10 - 15 mg, to psychiatric patients, they can go as high as 30 mg, with special suspensation, in Denmark, don't know global health security rules, don't live there, you need to find this out, if you can . . . . Also, Rexulti has a Ki ( inhibition constant ) of 0.47 nM, and therefore . . 1 mg Rexulti = 6 mg LSD, no question, it has a lower molecular weight ( LSD ), but also has a lower bio-availability, meaning more is removed in the digestion, and liver, before it ' hits ' the blood, in human beings . . . Bio-availability for Rexulti is 95 % . . Note as well, LSD has a half-life of 3.6 hours, leading to 8 - 12 hour long trips, Abilify has a half-life ( for the active substance ) of 94 hours, Rexulti has a biological half-life, of 86 hours . . That's almost 30 times higher, actually 24 for Rexulti, and 26 times greater, for Abilify . . Multiply that by 8 - 12 hours, and you get a ' trip ', theoretically, that lasts . . 208 - 312 hours, for Abilify, and 192 - 288 hours, for Rexulti, at a high enough dose, no one seems to know what this is, it isn't documented anywhere, in the drug information, I have found . . . That's 8.6 - 13 days, for Abilify, and 8 - 12 days, for Rexulti . . Also, consider that this is probably of interest to the narcotics-community, as this stuff will give the wildest, THEORETICAL psychotic trip, of any known substance recorded, scientifically, and if the production, and chemical recipe for this isn't made illegal, it will certainly be made into a street-drug, and sold, leading to crime, assault, and murder, known from LSD, but worse . . . On 45 mg Abilify, I saw hovering, ' floating ' tv-screens, of babies, and new-borns, and had very excacerbated sexual urges, this is scientifically accounted for by the fact, that when a drug lowers dopamine, it increases prolactin, a maternity hormone, released by the anterior pituitary, in human brains . . . Prolactin, among preparing the body for the physical changes, of an ordinary pregnancy, also stimulates maternal behavior, explaining the baby pictures, images of new-borns . . . Because mushrooms at least STIMULATE dopamine, people that take this narcotic won't see this, but MANY patients will see this, on Abilify, note also Abilify blocks the D2 dopamine receptor by 40-45 %, for Rexulti it is 60 %, because dopamine is a tonic, of physiological active inhibitor of prolactin, people will ALWAYS experience increased prolactin, on these drugs, and it's the expected experience, baby, or maternity related psychosis, unlike mushrooms, per science . . . Because LSD causes social dis-inhibition, documented as a side-effect on Abilify as increased sex-drive ( hypersexuality ), gambling, eating, and shopping, reward or, pleasure seeking behavior, I wanted to masturbate, and ' touch ' myself, sexually, during the ' bad ' trip, that led to me attempting suicide, after 3 weeks, and 2 - 3 days, by jumping from the seventh floor, of a psychiatric hospital, in Aalborg, Denmark, Europe . . I was NOT warned, not informed, or explained what to do, or who to talk to, IF this happened, and nearly died . . . Please, help . . Here's a video, with the math, I think there's a little error, in one place, or so, but the over-all math is solid, and Abilify is, gram for gram, 0.1 - 1 gram LSD, and Rexulti is, per gram, 6 gram LSD . . Note that the more mild hallucinogens DMT, and Ketamine have a much higher Ki, this means they're more mild, as Ki is ' the amount needed to block the receptor-signa 50 % ', so a lower number means, a more toxic narcotic, or pharmaceutical . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8orjcXlWGkI Note, there are answers from the Danish FDA, where they concluded it was side-effects, after describing what's in the video, to them, along with easily readable screen-shots, of those documents . . . This explains all the side-effects of Abilify, referring to dis-inhibition towards eating, gambling, shopping, and sex, LSD does the same, look at a rave, no inhibitions, poor self-control . . . Here's a video, with the math, there might be a small error, or two, but the math OVERALL, is sound, and the above numbers are accurate, I'm also a former engineer, specializing in chemistry, and bio-technology, trained to develop, improve, and sell drugs, in a company, or pharmaceutical enterprise . . . The LSD-experiments of the 1960's have been deemed illegal, but the companies Otsuka ( sells Abilify ) and Lundbeck ( sells Rexulti, in a combined venture, for profit, with Otsuka ) have repeated them on un-suspecting mental patients, and in my case, was sent home, where I got homicidal urges at a friends house, due to LSD - dis-inhibition . . That led to my hospitalization, where the doctors mistakingly diagnosed me as ' psychotic ', and gave me first 30 mg, where I didn't hallucinated, then 45 mg, where it happened, in a hospital . . A girl, I met online, hallucinated for 12 hours, on 5 mg Abilify, so I was maybe especially resistant, I had also never done drugs . . Giving an LSD trip, while also lowering dopamine is VERY dangerous, in mental patients, of all people . . People with mania will become violent, more ' un-restrained ', possibly causing crimes, people with anxiety will become paranoid, known from LSD, people with LSD will become suicidal, and people with schizophrenia will become more crazy . . Note also, Abilify is known to be indicated for irritability, in autists, and giving an LSD-trip to an autist, is basically murder, at least hard torture . . . Autists can't take stimulate, need a very quiet, sedate environment, any environmental stimuli, a sound, or seeing something ' unusual ' can send them into fits, or rages . . . Some patients, with autism, that get an LSD-experience, that is also negative, because of lower dopamine, could take years to recover, and for some, it becomes permanent, people with mental, or biological vulnerabilities NEVER come out of the trip, basically killing them, torturing them, with an ENDLESS stream of images, and sounds, that get shot directly into their brain, it even continues when their eyes, are shot, known effect of LSD, one sees geometry, and moving patterns, on the inside of ones eye-lids . . . Here's the video with the math, again, I think there's a small error, it might be 10 - 15 %, but it doesn't change the overall conclusion, Abilify and Rexulti are pharmaceutical grade LSD, or psilocin, that cannot be changed, after double-checking the results I get about the same result, in an independent calculation . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yREM29scQck I nearly died, and have near-permanent psychological, and emotional damage from the experience, please advice, I need a lawyer . . . Is it legal to give LSD, to mental patients, without informing them, anywhere in the world . . . Is LSD an illegal substance, in most of the world, including Denmark . . . Do I have the right a. to be protected from such treatment and, b. is it a crime, for doctors, to give it to me, in Europe . . . Thx <3
I made a comprehensive guide for those of you lurkers who suffer from extreme constipation
I now maintain an updated and more user-friendly version of this guide at /ConstipationAdvice. I've seen that many of you have chronic constipation but you do not understand why you have it, and your general practitioner doctors either don't think you have an issue or don't know what to do. I know how you feel. I know what it's like to not even feel like a human being because you can't go to the bathroom like everyone else. It is frustrating and depressing, and not something you can just go around telling people. I hope this guide helps you a ton. BECOME A DETECTIVE Keep this in mind as you proceed: your disorder is a puzzle. All you have to do is solve it. You can do it, if you have a great deal of patience, persistence, and commitment. Become your own investigator. Figure out your digestive cycle and your body's language. Listen to your body. Keep notes - I'm talking handwritten or typed notes, anything that will help you make a paper trail. Women: I have left a special note for you at the bottom regarding the additional problems you face when dealing with doctors. Please read it. WHY I MADE THIS GUIDE I'm a (mostly) healthy, physically active 31-year-old male. I have spent years seeing doctors, reading studies, accosting and interrogating medical professionals and pharmacists, calling pharmaceutical companies, and generally being an interrogator to anyone who has information that could help improve my life. This post is the aggregation of my conclusions and recommendations. In 2012 I got constipated. I grabbed an OTC laxative and was fine after that. But then the constipation happened again a few months later. It became more frequent, going from once a month to once a week, to every day. As of 2016, I was completely unable to eliminate without the use of pharmaceutical drugs. It took seven years for doctors to figure out what was wrong with me. I made this post because I want to help some of you turn my 7-year journey into a 7-month journey. Print this guide out and keep it with you. I've done all the heavy lifting for you. I did all of these myself, and now I want to help you. You will spend money on all of this, but it will change your life. You will be glad you did it. QUESTIONS FOR YOU If you suffer from severe chronic constipation, you need to answer the following questions, write them down, and bring them to your doctor:
Do you have the urge to go, but you cannot? Or do you have zero urge to go? (this is the most important question)
Do you have alternating diarrhea and constipation, or just constipation?
Do you have nausea, vomiting, acid reflux, difficulty swallowing, or early satiety (getting full really early into a meal)?
Have you had this issue since childhood, or did it begin in teen years/adulthood/after a major life event (surgery? divorce? car accident? mauled by bears?)
Did you in the past or do you currently take any medications that could damage your intestines? The acne drug Accutane/Sotret/Claravis/many other names (isotretinoin) has been linked to serious conditions of the digestive tract. I am absolutely convinced that my large intestine was destroyed by this drug. Antibiotics are also a major culprit in ruining the small intestine microbiome and causing diarrhea/constipation disorders. Antidepressants can ruin the serotonin balance in the gut as well.
Did you suffer sexual abuse as a child? There is a high degree of correlation between childhood sexual abuse and adult constipation disorders. Meaning, a lot of people with chronic constipation disorders in adulthood experienced trauma when they were young. This sort of thing must be investigated by both your doctor and a therapist in coordination. Do some Googling on this topic if you believe this might be your issue.
If you have the urge but cannot go, you very likely have Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, especially if you are a woman who has had children. Other indicators of PDF are pain during sex and incontinence. Sorry, but your test is the anorectal manometry - have fun! It can sometimes be treated. Alternatively, you might have a bowel obstruction or a tumor. Your doctor must test for these. If you have zero urge to go to the bathroom, you very likely have a nerve or muscle disorder of the large intestine. These are called motility disorders. This is what I have. The most common are Slow-Transit Constipation, Chronic Idiopathic Constipation, and the dreaded Colonic Inertia. Both are extremely frustrating and difficult to treat. It is especially likely that you've got one of these conditions if you have no associated pain or any other symptoms. Your current gastroenterologist likely specializes in IBS; tell him you want a motility specialist or a neurogastroenterologist. If you have constipation sometimes and diarrhea sometimes, you very likely have IBS-C or a rare form of colitis, or a combination of issues. You may have a nervous condition. Outside chance you have Crohn's Disease. You must be checked for intestinal ulcers/irritation/inflammation, and also for food intolerances and allergies. A buddy of mine had "IBS" for many years, but then later discovered he was allergic to tuna, shellfish, pistachios, and fructose. If you have nausea, vomiting, acid reflux, difficulty swallowing, or early satiety, you very likely have general gastroparesis, where your entire GI tract is sluggish. I'm sorry to say that this is very difficult to treat and a horrible disease. You must see a neurogastroenterologist, AKA a gastroenterologist who specializes in motility disorders, and you must also see a neurologist to test for autonomic neuropathy. You need a prokinetic motility drug like cisapride, domperidone, prucalopride, etc. Don't go on cisapride unless you have excellent heart health and make sure the doctor keeps an eye on your heart at all times. If you have experienced constipation since childhood, you might have Hirschsprung's disease and you need a neurogastroenterologist (a special type of gastroenterologist who studies nerves and motility) to diagnose it by taking a Full-Thickness Biopsy. This is a major surgery and you should try to exhaust all other options first. The Full-Thickness Biopsy comes with its own potentially serious side effects. If you took heavy medications that could possibly have caused your issue, first write out a timeline of events and try to remember exactly when you took the medication and when your issues started. Write down the progression of symptoms and severity. Bring it with you to your doctor appointments. Correlation does not imply causation, but you are a detective now and you need to follow every lead. You need to insist to your GP that you want to see a gastroenterologist (a specialist of your digestive tract, from your mouth to your anus). You need to advocate strongly for yourself because nobody else is going to do it for you. You have to be aggressive in your appointment-making, follow-ups, call-backs, consultations, and arguing with your insurance company about getting your specialty medications covered. You have to do it yourself. You have to fight. If you don't, you will suffer alone. Nobody is going to save you but you. It's time to get smart and tough about your condition. THE FIVE FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS You are embarking on a journey to improve your health and to discover the cause of your digestive issues. Rather than force you to stumble upon these facts yourself, I'm just going to lay them out for you:
Your general practitioner (AKA "family doctor") does not know anything about your condition. He is not an expert in diseases of the large intestine. With a few exceptions, he is a gatekeeper for the experts that actually can help you. He will only refer you to these experts after you complete a few basic tests. Do them quickly.
The specialist your GP refers you to is also probably not an expert in your condition. Once you arrive at the specialist's office, ask him what his specific expertise is. It took me a year to realize that my specialist was an expert in liver cancer. Womp womp. Your disorder is likely in your large intestine, and your specialist may have spent the years of his fellowship removing nodules from the esophagus. Ask him who he knows that is an expert in motility disorders, and if he doesn't know anyone, tell him to find one and send you there.
You have to elbow your way through the medical system like a Muay Thai fighter if you want to get anywhere. Make your GP give you a referral to a specialist. Make that specialist refer you to the right specialist. Make that specialist order a bunch of tests. Then make him lay out a treatment plan for you.
Your insurance is going to act like all of your tests and prescriptions are "experimental." Experimental is insurance-code for "F*ck you, we aren't paying for this." The magic spell to banish this bullshit is the phrase "medically necessary," and only your specialist has the power to utter it. Make sure he does, on all of your prescriptions and test orders.
Your digestion operates in a cycle - just like your sleep cycle. Pay attention to it, listen to it, memorize it. Know the foods your body hates, know what throws your cycle off, know what improves it. Most importantly, once you have the cycle memorized, track its rhythm over a long period of time. After a year or two, you may notice some changes to the cycle. This information is key.
TESTS YOU PROBABLY NEED First, work your way through the following tests with your general practitioner:
Standard blood panel to check for any really wacky levels/deficiencies
Celiac blood panel to eliminate the small possibility that you have Celiac
Fecal blood test. Blood = tumors, ulcers, or perforations
Then, once you have a referral to a gastroenterologist, have him perform the following tests:
Extensive stool cultures: look for rare parasites. Small chance you have SIBO, very small chance you have SIFO, very very small chance you have a Clostridium infection that paralyzes the bowels. Ask the doctor to ensure Clostridia are tested for.
Extensive thyroid panel (sometimes hypothyroidism causes gastroparesis / slow gut transit. This one's an EASY FIX; pray you have this one). You want a full workup, not the standard one.
SITZ Marker Study: The lab will not know what this is or why you're doing it. Follow the doctor's instructions carefully. Do not take laxatives during this study (it lasts a week) because the point is to identify which specific part of your large intestine is broken (ascending, transverse, descending, rectum). If you accelerate transit by taking laxatives, you will give the lab a false result and it will screw up your treatment.
Endoscopy with small bowel aspirate and biopsy; and colonoscopy with biopsy: If you're under 30 your doctor will fight you on this. He is an obstacle. Defeat him. Also, specify that you want two types of biopsies performed: a normal biopsy of the small intestine to check for Celiac and Crohn's, and an eosinophilia biopsy to check for allergies. They won't do this unless you specifically request it. Don't screw up the pre-op prep, no matter how hungry you get. If your condition is severe enough, ask about the Full-Thickness Biopsy which tests for ganglionic nerve density / Hirschsprung's disease. This is a very serious surgery and I urge you to get a second opinion before having it done.
Anorectal manometry and MR Defacography: The anorectal manometry is critically important for people with severe constipation disorders. It really sucks to get it done, but do it.
The AM / MRD test suite is sometimes described as a "motility workup" and it can only be performed at highly specialized GI clinics. You will need to pressure your doctor to help you find one, tell him to contact your insurance company and declare these tests medically necessary. This is a battery of humiliating tests to determine if you have PFD or another nerve-related motility disorder. If you have a good sense of humor and are capable of relaxing in embarrassing situations, it'll be easy.
CT Scan with contrast: This is the one where you drink the radioactive dye and lay down inside a space ship. The point is to find tumors, divurticula, obstructions, etc. Ask the radiologist what s/he sees. Sometimes they'll slip up and tell you. They can't say "You don't have cancer" (that's for your doctor to determine) but they can say "I don't see any tumors."
Risks: Some redditors have expressed disagreement with the CT scan's former position on this list (it was higher up), citing the patient's exposure to radiation as dangerous. They argue a CT scan should only be performed after a colonoscopy. To be clear, a CT scan exposes you to much more radiation than a regular X-ray, but only about 1 in 2000 people develop cancer as a result of a CT scan, and that cancer generally occurs late in life. The reality is, the purpose of the scan is to help diagnose and treat a condition that is debilitating and potentially dangerous to you right now, and you are weighing that benefit against the potential prospect of cancer later in life. Talk with your doctor about the risks vs benefits. Ask him/her if you should do it before or after a colonoscopy. You will have a diagnosis after these tests. If none of these tests result in a clear diagnosis: see my comment here for next steps. TREATMENTS AND MEDICATIONS Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. Make sure to clear each of these with your doctor before proceeding. Do not gamble with your own health. Cycle through these home remedies and request these medications from your doctor, in roughly the following order:
Do all the stupid fiber crap just so you can tell your doctor to shut up about it. Fiber does not help people with motility disorders (people like you, probably). It will not help you - unless you have a lack of the Prevotella bacterium in your gut microbiome. Increasing your roughage intake and eating a plant-based diet will increase your Prevotella count, and might alleviate your condition. If the extra fiber constipates you more, move on.
Cut out all dairy immediately for a month. Dairy is delicious and makes live worth living, but it is disgusting and terrible for you. Almond milk, almond milk ice cream, rice milk, dark chocolate...get used to it.
Cut out all gluten for a month and stick to it. Wheat is insanely hard to digest for almost all people and it causes nothing but problems for people with bowel disorders. Even if your Celiac panel comes back negative, you still might have Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity, which is still being researched but quite prominent. Many people immediately see results after cutting gluten. But look out - the shit's in BBQ sauce, soy sauce, it's in the air, it's in the water, it's in your pillow, it's everywhere. It's as if the USDA has an agreement with US farmers to sprinkle wheat in literally every f*cking food product.
Try the FODMAP diet and stick to it. Eliminate all potential dietary causes of your constipation, then reintroduce them one at a time to identify the culprit. For 90% of you, diet has nothing to do with your constipation. You have a nerve disorder. As a rule of thumb, grains are all difficult to digest and should be avoided, but I've found that potato and corn are easiest, rice is a bit harder, and wheat and oat are the worst. No idea about quinoa. I strongly recommend sweet potato as a healthy filler replacement for breads. It doesn't even need butter!
Try a few high-quality probiotics. People with intestinal motility disorders have different gut microbiota than normal people, but scientists aren't sure which is the cause and which is the result. A 2015 study showed that Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, and Prevotella are significantly reduced in people with functional constipation disorders, and their clostridia counts were higher. (Clostridia is bad and requires antibiotics. You can determine if you have this by asking your doctor for a Clostridia-specific stool culture test.) Try Visbiome, VSL#3 if you can find/afford it. Also, try one of these. You want enteric-coated capsules that are not broken down by your stomach acid so they make it to your intestines.
Miralax (polyethylene glycol) is your first line of defense. It's a chemically inert (non-reactive) substance that you mix in water and chug. It's an osmotic laxative, meaning it does not stimulate the nerves/muscles in the intestines. It draws water into the bowel and flushes you out. It works slowly; it might take several days to work. The mainstream medical consensus is that polyethylene glycol is extraordinarily safe and can be used in babies, the elderly, etc. It can be used for years and years. However, there is some evidence now that it's bad for the environment and probably not as good for people as we thought. I'm ignorant of chemistry, but polyethylene sure sounds like plastic to me.
If you need fast relief, go to a health food store with a supplement section and buy a bottle of Magnesium Citrate powder. It must be citrate, and it must be powder. Mix 450mg (usually a heaping teaspoon) into a tall glass of water and chug it as fast as you can. Do this on an empty stomach in the morning before breakfast. If your disorder is mild, you will have to take a dump immediately. Don't get in the car to go to work for a little bit. MagCit is extremely safe and effective. Doctors prescribe it to old people for years and years with no side effects. But if you have renal disorders (kidney problems) talk to your doctor before trying this.
I find that MagCit works best for me right before bed. I have to wake up in the middle of the night to pee out all the water I chugged, but in the morning, I generally am able to empty. By the way, MagCit is also an osmotic laxative.
Cayenne pepper capsules have been used in combination with magnesium citrate with great success in some people. The pepper stimulates peristalsis in the large intestine, and the magnesium draws water to the large intestine. Combined, they propel your gut's contents along. These capsules can be obtained at any health food store with a supplement section; you can get them and magnesium citrate in the same store usually. Be warned, some people report a mild burning sensation both in their esophagus and their rectum (basically like when you eat some really spicy food and it gives you the runs). The regimen I've read that works best is a heaping teaspoon of magnesium citrate in a large glass of water, chased with 1 or 2 Cayenne capsules before bed produces a BM the next morning. Start with a low dose. When you buy the capsules, they'll have a heat rating, usually between 40,000 - 90,000 HU.
Request Lactulose from your pharmacy. It's basically a sugar that helps with bowel transit. Didn't work for me, but it works for some.
Docusate is an OTC stool softener that makes me nauseous and does nothing else, but maybe it'll work for you. MagCit beats its brains out.
Bisacodyl is your go-to OTC stimulant laxative. In the US it's known as Dulcolax, but there are off-brand boxes that are cheaper and similarly effective. Use this carefully. It can exhaust the muscles in your intestines, so while you get relief one day, the next two days you're in a refractory period where constipation starts up again. Use 10mg 2x per week if you have insanely bad constipation like me. Don't exceed twice per week. Use 5mg if you're underweight. Safe to use with MagCit. I like using it in the morning on an empty stomach and I'll skip breakfast that day. The more food you have in your digestive tract, the longer it takes. Empty stomach = 2-4 hours, full = 8-12. Long-term use is frowned upon but there's no actual evidence whatsoever that it causes a problem. Read the case studies if you don't believe me.
L-Arginine is an over-the-counter supplement available at health food stores. It is used by athletes to increase cardiovascular health, but it has a magic side effect: diarrhea! Why? Because it breaks down into nitric oxide synthase, which regulates bowel transit time, and researchers recently discovered is deficient in people with motility disorders. See this conversation for more details. Also, taking this supplement with a small amount of baking soda might increase its effect, according to some athletes who experienced intense diarrhea after doing so (they like baking soda because it reduces acid production / muscle soreness). Oral dosages vary from 2-6 grams but some people go higher. Be careful and talk to your doctor first. L-arginine is also available in suppository form and there is good evidence to believe these are safer and much more effective.
Amitiza (lubiprostone, prescription): Your doctor might prescribe this first. It's an expensive prescription osmotic laxative. It causes nausea in a lot of people and it didn't work for me, but it's a godsend for some. Try it. Take with a great deal of water. DO NOT TAKE AMITIZA WITH LINZESS, MIRALAX, OR MAGCIT BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL OSMOTICS (or behave like osmotics).
Linzess / (linaclotide, prescription, "Constella" in Canada): This is the most powerful prescription "osmotic" (it's actually a Guanylate cyclase-C agonist) in the world, and it will make your ass explode the first time you take it. It comes in strengths of 72mcg (that's micrograms), 145, and 290. I have a lot to say about this medication so read carefully. Also, if you've tried Linzess and it didn't work, please read my how to make Linzess work guide.
First of all, it has a mild prokinetic effect (meaning it stimulates your nerves) in addition to its osmotic effect. This is a good thing. Amitiza does not have this. Your digestion is on a schedule. Some of you go every day. Some every other day. Some once a week. Whatever your normal clockwork is, this medication will sometimes work and sometimes not, depending on how much fecal obstruction there is in your intestine on the day. There were times when 290mcg did absolutely nothing for me, and other times 145 made me run wide-eyed to the bathroom fifteen times in thirty minutes. You will figure out how to make this medication work after a lot of trial and error. Don't just dismiss it the moment it doesn't work. I'm of the mind that no human being should ever take 290mcg and it has got to cause long-term damage to the intestines, but all my specialists disagree. They prescribe this dose to women quite frequently for some reason. Linzess has a penchant for working very well for a few weeks, and then ceasing to work at all. Keep it refrigerated (there's a rumor that it goes bad if it gets warm, but pharmacists will not confirm this). Take it with a large glass of water and stay super hydrated all day. Water is key; it cannot work if you don't drink a ton of water with it. If this medication dehydrates you (it will), grab a bunch of those vitamin/mineral powder packets from the health food store and chug one or two a day. If you get bad headaches/migraines/weak pulse/sweats/nausea, you need to just quit the medication and talk to your doctor. Ask him to reduce the dosage. Although the prescription for Linzess is once daily, I find it works best for me taken twice per week with another medicine like Motegrity (Prucalopride) or Bisacodyl. I take it on an empty stomach in the morning and don't eat anything until it starts kicking in (which is quite fast...usually under two hours). LINZESS HAS A BLACK BOX WARNING against its usage in persons under 18. It is extremely dangerous to children. If you don't hydrate enough on a regular basis, it is also dangerous to you. It is illegal to give it to your kids. If you don't have a gallbladder, mention this to your doctor before taking Linzess. I once heard that's an issue, but I can't find a source online. DO NOT TAKE LINZESS WITH AMITIZA, MIRALAX, OR MAGCIT BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL OSMOTICS (or behave like them).
Motegrity (prucalopride, prescription): This is a brand new drug, the first in its class, and it's a 5-HT4 agonist. It works similar to some antidepressants, by targeting specific serotonin receptors in your intestines. Except Motegrity is a highly specific agonist, meaning it has a narrower range of side effects and typically won't affect your mood. This drug actually works for me, it worked immediately, it still works. Zero side effects. I take it in the morning on an empty stomach, although it can be taken without regard to food.
Most doctors in the US don't even know about Motegrity so ask them to look it up. It's brand new, meaning it's expensive. But don't worry. All of these drugs are insanely expensive. As far as I can tell it is safe to take with osmotics like Linzess but I have not confirmed this with a doctor. In my reading, I see no relevant contraindications between the two. There is a warning in the box that some people committed suicide or experienced suicidal ideation while participating in clinical studies for Motegrity. There is no statistically significant relationship established here, but the company is by law required to make this information public. Frankly, Motegrity has zero side effects on me, and I expect these people killed themselves or thought about it simply because constipation disorders are f*cking horrible and make you depressed. If you live in the UK, Europe, or Canada, your doctor will know this medication as Resolor or Resotran.
Zelnorm/Zelmac (tegaserod, prescription): This drug is similar to Motegrity (insofar that it is also a 5-HT4 agonist). It is older than Motegrity, and considered less safe because it interacts with receptors in a less specified way; there is some evidence that it interacts with cardiac receptors. In plain English this means it might be responsible for causing strokes and heart attacks in some patients. The evidence is debatable. 0.11% of people who used Zelnorm in a study experienced cardiac events, compared to 0.01% who took the placebo. That's 13 out of 11,500 people. The drug is available in the US only to women, although your doctor can order it "off-prescription" if he deems you low risk. Basically don't try this drug if you are overweight or have any notable cardiac family history.
Trulance (plecanatide, prescription): This is the main competitor of Linzess (linaclotide) and has a smaller side effect profile. It appears to work pretty well if osmotics work for you, but I haven't tried it. It also has a mild prokinetic effect (meaning it stimulates the nerves in your intestines). I assume, like Linzess, it is also dangerous to children. Give it a try.
Mestinon (pyridostigmine, prescription): This is where it gets weird. Mestinon is a drug that treats myasthenia gravis, which is a nerve disorder similar to MS. But, it can be used to treat constipation in some cases. It's an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, meaning it increases your body's levels of acetylcholine. This is a neurotransmitter that is partly responsible for telling your intestines to squeeze. Most doctors will be hesitant to put you on it, but you can give it a try if all else fails. It has a strange side effect profile and causes fainting/blood pressure drops in some people. I never tried it.
An interesting story...there is a woman who did a bit of basement chemistry and figured out that she could spike her acetylcholine levels by literally sticking a nicotine patch on her stomach below the belly button. It caused her bowels to empty after a week of constipation. She then invented Parasym Plus, a supplement that allegedly does the same thing. I bought this and I cannot figure out if it actually worked. Maybe it did a little. There are many acetylcholinesterase-inhibiting drugs on the market. Prostigmin (neostigmine) is one of them. Ask your doctor if he thinks it's a good idea. He'll say it isn't. But if all else fails...
Lexapro (escitalopram oxalate, prescription), or any related SSRI antidepressant: Antidepressants are now being used to treat constipation. Some clever fellow figured out that the majority of serotonin (the mood-regulating neurotransmitter) is manufactured in your intestine, not your brain, and that antidepressants were giving people diarrhea for some reason. I haven't tried Lexapro but it's next on my list and my doctor likes it because of its small side effect profile relative to other antidepressants. This drug has a wider side effect profile than related constipation meds like Motegrity/Tegaserod, meaning you could have mood swings or drops/spikes in energy, etc.
Despite our overwhelmingly negative public opinion about antidepressants, they are rather safe* and effective for many people. It's just that they're over-prescribed. A low dose does help some people normalize bowel function without causing mood/personality changes. *edit: A redditor linked me to this article explaining that some SSRIs can cause long-term GI problems. The comments are worth reading. As with all pharmaceutical drugs, you are weighing your current problem versus the potential side effects of its treatment. Talk to your doctor about the risks and do your own research. Talk to friends and family members who have taken SSRIs.
Erythromycin: This is an OTC (I believe) antibiotic with a very odd side effect: it speeds up gastric emptying and gut motility. Hooray! The case studies are kind of back and forth on its efficacy for constipation, but some doctors swear by it. The problem is that it's an antibiotic.
Here's the thing about antibiotics. They should not be overused or used unnecessarily. They can seriously devastate your gut flora and cause SIBO and worsen your condition. On the other hand, your condition could have already been caused by antibiotics, or by a pathogen that will killed with antibiotics. Proceed with extreme caution.
Colchicine: This is an anti-inflammatory derivative of the autumn crocus plant. In large doses it's highly toxic, but in small doses it's used to treat Gout. However, a recent study determined that it's an effective treatment for Slow Transit Constipation / Colonic Inertia (basically any constipation disorder that does not involve physical blockage like tumors, obstructions, etc). I haven't tried this but my specialist claims it is quite safe in low doses and he would be happy for me to try it out.
For those of you who are diagnosed with slow-transit constipation / colonic inertia:Here is a master list of treatments.
MY PERSONAL REGIMEN: Some of you have asked about my specific medication regimen. After several years of trial and error, I have found regimens that basically make my life normal again. Please note how the regimen evolves over time! Intestinal diseases typically are very transient and change over the years. What works for you now might not work in a while: 2012 - 2014: Senna laxative once per week 2016: Bisacodyl and Miralax twice per week 2017: Magnesium citrate 450mg each morning before breakfast 2019:
2mg Motegrity (prucalopride) daily in morning
145mcg Linzess (linaclotide) every other day in morning
450mg Magnesium citrate before bed
EXERCISE Of all the treatments I've tried, exercise is near the top on the list of effectiveness. Exercise is a conduit for getting all of that stress and potential energy out of your body and away from your guts. Get a standing desk at work (a good company will accept a doctor's note and buy one for you). Stand for half the day, intermittently. Go on jogs in the morning and walks in the evening. Get to the gym and get your knees above your waist - stairmaster, yoga, squats, etc. Just MOVE MOVE MOVE. By doing so you are stimulating the vagus nerve and increasing motility. You will literally shake the poop out. If you live an incredibly sedentary life, you will suffer much more. SURGERY FOR EXTREME CASES Please visit my updated guide at /ConstipationAdvice for new guidance on these surgeries.
For those of you diagnosed with CI, you might be considered for the TAR IA surgery, (total abdominal colectomy with ileorectal anastomosis). This is the laproscopic removal of your entire large intestine and the attachment of your small intestine to your rectum. The nice thing about this surgery is that you still get to go to the bathroom normally, except you have mostly diarrhea for the rest of your life (because your large intestine is the thing that turns diarrhea into solid stool by absorbing water).
The other option is one of many variants of the colectomy (resection or removal of the large intestine) with colostomy or ileostomy. These are both ostomies, which is the surgical creation of a hole in your lower abdomen. A medical bag is affixed to that hole, and your small intestine drains into it instead of down into your rectum. This is a much bigger life change, but from the people I've talked to, it's surprisingly not that big a deal.
If you are interested in these surgeries you will have to have a great number of conversations with many doctors and jump through a lot of hoops. A NOTE FOR WOMEN AND TEENAGERS The feedback I get from most women is that their (male) doctors are extremely dismissive and incredulous about the woman's constipation issues. Doctors are going to act like you are crazy and hormonal. They're going to tell you to just eat some fiber and take some miralax and bugger off. You have to be strong, confident, and knowledgeable of your situation. Do not take no for an answer. Inform your doctor that you are past the standard constipation treatments and this is an ongoing problem that reduces your quality of life and warrants the attention of a specialist. It helps if you appear to know what you are talking about. Learn about your digestive anatomy and understand the difference between your small and large intestine. Understand the constituent parts of the large intestine (ascending, descending, sigmoid, transverse, rectum, etc). This will help you communicate to your doctor more efficiently and it will help you better understand his/her findings. If you show your doctor you've done your homework, it is very likely he/she will take you more seriously. Everything I just said applies to teenagers. The additional problem facing you is that you have an extra gatekeeper: your parents, and the fact that you rely on their insurance. You need to have a level-headed conversation with them about your situation, however embarrassing that may be, and convince them that they need to be advocates for you, not obstacles to you. Getting them on your side now will benefit you greatly when the doctor questions the seriousness of your complaint. A FEW FINAL NOTES
Read. You aren't going to effectively communicate or convince your doctor of anything unless you have some introductory knowledge of your body. Learn about your digestive anatomy and understand the difference between your small and large intestine. Simply knowing this information will help you come up with questions about what could be causing your issue.
Save yourself the remarkable headache and get physical and digital copies of the results of every single test you have performed, even simple blood tests. When you inevitably get transferred to a different specialist, having this stack of files will make your life so much easier.
Your insurance company is going to fight you on some of these medications. Tell your doctor to tell your insurance it is an urgent medical necessity that they cover this medication. They will fold.
DO NOT GIVE UP. Write down your next steps. Follow up on calls, appointments, etc. I keep lists of all my medical to-do's and I cross them off line-by-line. It gives me a great sense of accomplishment and control over this whole situation.
Relax and get your mind off your condition. This is hard. But there is absolutely a psychological component to your condition. For some people, it's entirely psychological (this is called Chronic Idiopathic Constipation or Functional Constipation). People who suffered sexual abuse in childhood often develop constipation disorders in adulthood. Google this and investigate it with your doctor!
I go on long nature walks with my headphones. This is how I unwind. Some people do Ju Jitsu. Some people do music. Spend time with family and engage in your hobbies. This will absolutely help, especially if your condition is idiopathic in nature.
Intractable constipation is often the result of extreme stress. Have a serious brainstorm about whether you need to quit your high-stress job. Are you in an abusive relationship? GET THE FUCK OUT OF IT. Can you afford a week-long spiritual retreat where you take a vow of silence and eat a vegetarian diet and sit in a garden with a pen and paper? DO IT. Now is the time to try all the weird stuff.
Cry whenever you have to; don't bottle anything up.
Talk to other sufferers about it. Reach out and get involved in a community. Support is everything.
Your enemy has a name. You very likely have a motility disorder. It can be caused by an underlying nerve disorder, blood vessel disorder, mechanical muscle failure, neurotransmitter imbalance, hormone imbalance, or bacterial imbalance. Once you get your diagnosis, you will not feel so confused and lost about how to treat it.
Not cured but here's my story and a culmination of my research
LONG FUCKING POST INCOMING If nobody cares about my blog, and I don't expect people to, skip to 'what I did about it' I also posted this on a throwaway account as some people I know may browse this subreddit and I don't want them identifying me then digging around my post history just to be an asshole. I may have also taken adderall which causes me to type up things like this and it was all done in one sitting so this may be a fucking mess or grossly inaccurate. I am also available on Steam for anybody who has questions about any of this or just wants someone to talk to about it, I also will reply to reddit messages but not consistently. Feel free to send me your Steam profile link (PM or reply with it here idc) and don't hesitate with reaching out, I tend to already initiate most conversations with people as it is. I'd leave my profile link but again I'm trying to keep this more or less anonymous.
The blog
Around when I was 14 I was smacked with existential dread from an intense worry of reality not feeling "real" combined with panicking about how the idea of any 'eternal' afterlife (or nothingness) was terrifying, it just suddenly smacked me while standing in a pool and I really couldn't snap out of that state, but I had no idea what actually happened. Off topic but over a decade later through some psychedelic use I realized there's so much more I can possibly experience than religious depictions of the afterlife and made me a lot more okay with death. I know it's just a drug but simply showing me existence beyond being a human (and what it meant to be a human at the same time) along with extremely intense emotions and sensations not even conceivable sober changed my outlook immeasurably Anyway, I'm not sure if the existential crisis caused the DPDR or if the effects from the DPDR caused the crisis but I remember this kickstarting a period of an obsession with death. I also got kicked in the head a bunch after being badly assaulted at this age and haven't put two and two together but I'm wondering if I did suffer some sort of brain damage. I don't remember being obsessed with this for more than a year or so and am not sure when/if it lifted but I'll continue. Around 20 I noticed my hair was thinning and got extremely obsessive about, it wasn't just the hair, but the signal to me that I'm aging, that I'm this balding, old person I never thought I'd become. I spent weeks, possibly months researching if I was actually losing my hair, after getting a diagnosis of it in fact being MPB it was a huge relief just because I could stop obsessing. I'm still not over it but at 23ish I had to put a childhood cat down that I was more attached to and vice versa than the rest of family. I did not handle it well but once again, there was a huge relief of knowing there was nothing more I could do; I obsessed for years (before any health issues with the cat) if I'd be able to put them down if the time came. It was the easiest decision of my life when it did happen, it broke me emotionally and caused enormous stress in the weeks leading up to it, but I'm happy that I was able to make the most ethical decision possible as somebody who was willing to spend thousands on a surgery that I later found out wouldn't help. I've made myself sick worrying about other older pets dying (always checking them and getting worried if I didn't see them) but even them dying was nothing compared to this. Aside from the above for as long as I can remember I've been under unreasonable amounts of stress but as a dumb kid I had no idea it wasn't normal. It's not worth elaborating on details but I've developed GAD, a form of OCD (not self diagnosed), 'C-PTSD' in response to certain people in my life constantly causing overly stressful situations for me. It was only stress and worrying before, but since my early 20s I've also started living inside of my own head; I'd overthink everything to death and occupy any gap in the real world by just thinking; this helped my study skills enormously and helped me learn a foreign language so I'm honestly worried if I recover that this'll hinder those efforts. The last source of stress is I developed insomnia in my teens and people in the room next to my bedroom would constantly be selfish and make unreasonable amounts of noise as I tried to sleep, this would jolt me awake and piss me the fuck off and later condition me to be jolted awake with an adrenaline rush with any noise. An inability to shut my brain off to this day prevents me from sleeping along with tiny noises "triggering" me, though I've learned to undo a little of that. What I've especially noticed is issues with that C-PTSD trigger (don't worry about details) would make my DPDR go from what I estimate to be 40-60% to 100%; this would result in a state where I can barely tell I'm not dreaming and give zero fucks about my personal safety or composing myself in public. On a normal day I'm not sure what my DPDR is at and at times I wonder if I even have it or if this is just what being an adult is like (this is how I rationalized my rumination and overthinking); researching the subject is very interesting to me and not that stressful but the thought that this disorder wasted the majority of my 20s eats me a bit. The last thing worth mentioning is very recently, over a period of a few days, I've been reading a self-help book and been practicing mindfulness, or rather I somehow caused my brain to shut up. On the third[?] day of this I felt something was really off in a way that felt like the come-up of a shrooms trip, I wasn't sure if DPDR was lifting or if I broke something else in my brain, but later in the day I smoked weed (been smoking nearly daily for about a year), started falling asleep, for some reason I'd feel like I was 100% pissing or shitting myself which would jolt me awake badly, eventually this caused a full on panic attack; I could not breathe and legitimately thought I was dying and never realized how physical or awful these truly were. These recurred daily for a few weeks, always while falling asleep or waking up but I've learned to control them and calm myself after the adrenaline dumps (sense of doom, extremely fast and strong heartbeat, vision zooming out hard, sweaty but cold and numb in this specific way feet etc.) before the particularly bad symptoms set in. They went away after a few weeks and despite occurring high I don't think it correlated with any drug use, anxiety or changes in DPDR. The point of the blog is to illustrate my circumstances and although I can never really fully relax and let go, DPDR does not seem to lift with an absence of stress which I believe is a result of 'living in my head', the persistent state has been at least a few years but I really have no idea. I also had an enormous career meltdown spanning years but sorted that out. Aside from that pool episode and the persistent state lasting at least a few years I do not know when else this may have happened.
What I did about it
I'm not sure what, if anything helped, but through extensive research on thought processes, neurology, pharmacology of various medications, cognitive behavioral therapy etc. combined with anecdotes from people that correlate strongly to this research, the following seems to be the most helpful for people. Regardless of helping me personally I do understand what tends to work and why.
Not medication
For all of the below these are best practiced regularly on a schedule (except mindfulness which is wherevewhenever), if you want to take a day off, type out your reasons then read it as if some other redditor typed it; is it a legitimate reason or are you just being a bitch? You're not going to look for any excuse to tell some redditor not to practice but you'll do anything you can when the difference is YOU being affected by it. Ask a friend to check in on you in intervals (daily is ideal but weekly or whatever is fine) to make sure you did the shit you said you were going to; letting a friend down and having to explain why to them is a good motivator.
Exercise
Even vital for for general well-being, endorphins tend to counteract DPDR pretty well and aerobic exercise (cardio) by far provides the most of these along with general health benefits. Jogging is pretty bad for joints, especially on hard surfaces such as treadmills/asphalt/concrete so if you must jog try to keep it on dirt or grass. I'd recommend cycling or power walking as far as cardio goes. Weightlifting is also good but if you have to pick one, go with cardio. Please actually know what you're doing, especially in the case of weightlifting, remember that thing I said about research? Although not considered exercise typically, yoga is surprisingly difficult and contributes both as a sort of mediation (more on that below) and exercise, I highly recommend it along with the above but take classes even if just at first, it's very easy to injure yourself if you slip up even slightly with form.
Meditation
Honestly just google 'mindfulness meditation', personally I don't think focusing on breath is ideal as it leaves too much room to think, rather I try to focus on sensations such as smells, whatever I'm physically feeling, my internal sensations and so on. The other thing is don't worry about not doing it right, not not thinking (extremely counter-productive, simply accept if you had a thought and push it aside) and set a timer so you're not constantly wondering when it's done. DO NOT ENGAGE IN TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION AS IT HAS THE OPPOSITE EFFECT IN THAT IT CAN INDUCE OR WORSEN DPDR. The shower is a good place to start this as you have many sensations between the water pressure, heat, sounds, smells and so on to focus on. Lastly your job is to just sit there, your job isn't to not think and you shouldn't expect some reward for doing it, with time you'll probably enjoy meditating but not if you're focused on the end result. I should also mention meditation significantly improves brain function as seen with studies on monks and other frequent practitioners.
Mindfulness
It's basically meditation but during your daily life. You know those routine chores you zone out during? Stop zoning out, instead focus on sensations. If you're washing your hands pay attention to the temperature of the water, the pressure, the feeling of soap, the feeling of your hands rubbing together etc. If you zone out simply just return to noticing things. It's a very difficult practice at first but getting out of living in your head is fundamental for alleviating DPDR.
Cognitive behavioral therapy
This one would take too long to explain but it's essentially rewiring your brain by changing your thought processes and/or getting you to discover truths about yourself in a way that you can work with rather than simply acknowledge. Therapy and self-help books (I've been reading how to get out of your mind and into your life and while it's frequently up its own ass, a lot of the concepts are valuable) are useful for this but if you're lazy, maybe just google some exercises. The point of therapy is largely facilitating a medium for your to hear your problems out loud as talking to someone about them is far more helpful than people give it credit for, the therapist's job is mostly to guide it. The point of therapy is not regurgitating bullshit you could have googled. Starting with the fourth paragraph of the medicine section I refer to labeling and "yous" which is a very important part of CBT, I'd advise reading that paragraph even if you're not interested in medication.
Do something
Time spent doing things is time spent not obsessing about bullshit. Yes even video games are useful for this, but you're better off learning a skill which causes you to think and practice often such as a musical instrument, foreign language (don't pick one that's too easy; you'll learn the grammar too early and spend the entire time memorizing vocab which isn't useful for this purpose), math in general, programming and so on. The important thing is you have some way to practice and measure your progress. Activities that involve learning not only improve intelligence and general brain function but keep you sharp with age. You're also not going to be productive full time so don't stress yourself out about making sure you're always learning something, ideally try to keep study time on a schedule and force yourself to do it no exceptions. Avoidance tends to also be a huge problem with DPDR, if you're the type of person who would suffer more from dreading doing something than actually doing it, just fucking do it. Stop procrastinating on things you'll have to do eventually, and stop passing up real world opportunities due to your anxiety, both of these teach you to deal with your problems instead of taking the easiest route out; DPDR is a coping mechanism because your brain thinks you can't deal with stress, prove it wrong.
Medication
Despite my interest in medical research, I am not a medical professional and I highly advise only taking the following information as something to do your own research on rather than blindly listening to one idiot on reddit. Me referring to something as generally safe means with proper usage and research use shouldn't be a problem but individual experiences vary. IF SEEING A DOCTOR GET TREATED FOR OCD, NOT DPDR. Doctors do not know anything about DPDR nor the specialists they'll refer you to who will read from a CBT/anxiety medication pamphlet, typically anxiety-treatment courses are recommended both by the internet and medical professions but OCD's symptoms and treatments align far better. I don't recommend lying about OCD but if it gets the treatment you need, pick a mild form such as nail-biting or compulsive hair pulling. Do not eschew medicine from a "I don't need drugs to feel good" viewpoint, literally anything you do to feel good is manipulating your brain chemistry to be in an enjoyable state, drugs are no exception. Medication isn't a crutch, it's a tool for making it easier to incorporate better lifestyle changes which will affect you long term while also correcting your current problems to some extent. Yes an SSRI will make you happier and less anxious, but the real magic is the improved mood being conducive to actually living your life, which in turn will make you happier and less anxious even post discontinuation of medication. Don't be afraid of taking medication because it threatens the idea of "you" being "you", you'll realize even with one dose it's still "you" and clinging to this idea of "you" that you created in itself is an extremely detrimental practice generally speaking, this is something cognitive behavioral therapy addresses. You can find any reason to call a pillow shit after convincing yourself it is, you can do the exact same thing with convincing yourself a shit pillow is good by cherrypicking any good quality you can. Like the pillow you form your idea of yourself with labels, e.g. "I'm have anxiety" or "I'm a good person" then will do anything you can subconsciously to conform to that. If your identity is being anxious, you'll start viewing the world through that filter and actually make yourself more anxious in the process and not being anxious ends up a threat to your identity resulting in opposition to treating said anxiety. If you refer to yourself as a good person you'll start trying to justify any action as "good" and be unable to accept it when you've done something bad. Psychedelics, even with ego death REALLY helps you get rid of that previously mentioned idealized version of you that you'll suffer extreme cognitive dissonance just to conform to, these drugs can commonly result in you inherently grasping things you may otherwise understand logically. It's kind of the difference between reading about how God exists in the Bible and actually "feeling" "God" by smoking a ton of DMT, or reading about sex on Wikipedia vs. doing it. I was terrified of drinking having not done drugs prior because it'd turn me into something 'not me' and conflicted with my idea of myself. Then I drank, and it didn't matter. I think alcohol is a pretty shitty drug all things considered. Regardless, I was afraid to try literally any drug, then after realizing it isn't a big ideal I've taken some of the most mind-raping, intense drugs possible (salvia, psychs to a lesser extent) and came out the other side better. I resisted SSRIs too because "that's for mental trainwrecks who can't handle their own problems, I'm above that" - I eventually caved as anxiety got extreme and can't believe I was that oppositional for no reason. Everyone told me I was being unreasonable, I even knew it to some extent, but I had to take the SSRIs to understand how stupid I was being. One more word, supplements and recreational drugs (used for medical reasons) should be viewed as medicine nonetheless; if something is generally agreed upon as self or helpful for a medication you wouldn't change your dose or dosing schedule, why would this be any different for a non-prescribed drug? Of course effects and toxicity range with drugs like they would with medication, and like medication, horror stories regarding any medications/drugs I list commonly result from misuse rather than the drug itself. Serotonergic medication
SSRIs/microdosing shrooms or acid/5-HTP supplements to fix serotonin issues.
Serotonin is the chemical that is responsible for overall well-being and the above treatments more or less operate under the same principle. As for microdosing specifically, both the amazing feeling from psychs and the benefits of microdosing are because the drugs are highly serotonergic. SSRIs are prescription, 5-HTP is OTC. I'll provide further information about acid and shrooms at the bottom of this section. Due to risk of serotonin syndrome along with other problems from over-stimulation, only one of these treatments should be used at a time. MDMA, Tramadol and St. John's Wort seem to be the most common, problematic substances when used with other serotonergic agents such as the ones listed above. I would also discontinue all of them for a couple days before using any serotonergic psychedelic I think the SSRIs work better for anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) purposes and microdosing is better at baseline personally. Serotonergics unlike dopaminergics are usually not addictive though I'll throw in a mention of adderall for mood/energy, it can make rumination/overthinking/anxiety worse or better depending on the individual, for me I just end up doing stupid projects for hours like typing this essay. Although not comparable to adderall, modafinil (or its OTC prodrug, adrafinil (tends to strain the liver with frequent use as it needs to be metabolized by the liver unlike modafinil)) is pretty beloved for a mild mood and energy boost. GABAergic medication
Phenibut
Although I've never managed to recapture the magic of my first dose, phenibut is amazing as not only an anxiolytic but as a general motivation, cognitive performance and mood best. Despite being stimulating it also dramatically improves sleep quality. It's available OTC (I like nootropics depot if I'm allowed to source) and reasonably harmless when practiced on a schedule of two doses spaced at least two days apart. If taking above 1g (no reason to take more than 2g really), the remaining 500mg-1g should be taken a few hours later as staggering doses seems to work better. Not eating a couple hours before doses is also ideal. Phenibut takes 4-6 hours to really kick in and I've had the strongest effects the day after taking it, so don't redose if you don't feel it immediately. Also mixes very well with stimulants, especially adderall, however as it may mask stimulant effects never take more than your normal dose of a stimulant if you're not feeling it. Addictions occur primarily due to people using it in small amounts for consecutive days thinking it isn't a big deal then end up with withdrawals and rebound anxiety worse than what benzos or opioids would cause. As a GABAergic, it shares a tolerance with other GABAergics (benzos notably, maybe alcohol?) and doses should be spaced away from any opioid or alcohol use. Discontinue any benzo use when using phenibut and maybe hang around the phenibut subreddit a bit.
Benzos
Due to phenibut's positive symptoms outshining benzos and benzos causing absurdly shitty withdrawals (which can trigger DPDR) with daily use, I recommend phenibut over benzos. Benzos still have value with calming an over-active mind but I find for anxiety and mood they're pointless. Benzos as a hypnotic will negatively effect sleep quality. I'm not sure how safe or accurate research chemical benzos are but if you're going that route there's safer and better things to buy from the same sites. Glutamate-modulating drugs A TON of mood disorders generally result from faults within the same circuit in the brain due to faulty glutamic activity which the following medications fix in various ways. These tend to be especially helpful for OCD and rumination/ neuroticism ESPECIALLY with the aforementioned compulsion/impulse disorder which is not limited to nail-biting/hair-pulling but even more general impulse control issues as seen with gambling and drug addictions. Phenibut and serotonergics also help in a less direct manner.
N-Acetylcysteine - 1800-2400mg/day. Available OTC. Can apparently make anxiety acutely worse which typically subsides, how long it takes to work varies but can be weeks. Tends to be beneficial for brain function and health even with an absence of disorders. NAC IS NOT PSYCHOACTIVE AND SHOULD BE VIEWED AS A SUPPLEMENT.
NAC is also very valuable for purging buildup of unwanted and potentially toxic chemicals in the brain, I forgot the exact mechanism but it can even prevent 75%~ of a hangover (or liver strain in the event of taxing medications such as adrafinil) when taken BEFORE drinking or whatever substance. Taking NAC while hungovealready drunk can damage your liver so, uh, don't do that.
Lamotrigine - RX only. Typically stacked with an SSRI and is virtually the only clinically approved treatment.
(Mu-) Opioid antagonists States of dissociation aside from glutamic tend to occur due to mu-opioid receptor agonism and drugs people take to dissociate such as ketamine or nitrous act on these receptors. Usually a medication intended for treating an opioid overdose will help though I'm only aware of Naloxone which is prescription. I'm not very familiar with dissociatives unless salvia counts, nor am I familiar with Naloxone. Deficiencies Many deficiencies can cause/exacerbate DPDR and mood disorders, arguably the most common of which is viatmin D for people who don't go outside much. I'd recommend taking a reputable multivitamin and D supplements as needed, but really get a blood test that looks for deficiencies specifically. Other substances
Hydroxyzine
Also calms the brain the hell down and can really help insomniacs get to sleep, unlike traditional medication it's not a hypnotic and won't interfere with sleep quality. Hydroxyzine allegedly doesn't result in a tolerance or hangover and seems to not interact with much, nonetheless it's still RX.
Weed
I'm losing steam so I'll keep this quick; occasionally weed isn't harmful but if it's causing extreme paranoia/anxiety or subsequent panic attacks I would discontinue use. Panic attacks are a very common source of DPDR and weed is a very common source of panic attacks. Daily smoking makes you temporarily retarded which mostly subsides after a few days and fully after a month; this effect does not seem to be observed in occasional (couple times a week) or less smokers. Like alcohol and benzos, weed will suppress REM and fuck up your sleep quality, however if you go to bed while sleepy from weed but not actually high anymore this is minimized. The following information is legally questionable, I am only providing my interpretation and not advice. Mods please delete this section if it's a problem. I may also repost this on the RC subreddit. I am in the business of harm reduction and proper education about drugs as lying/exaggerations accomplish nothing. I highly recommend Psychonaut Wiki for unbiased harm-reduction material along with browsing subreddits of any substance you're interested in. AGAIN I AM NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL OR LAWYER, I AM ONLY DISCUSSING MY INFERENCE OF THE SUBJECT AND AM NOT RECOMMENDING TO DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL, IF YOU'RE GOING TO DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL OR POTENTIALLY ILLEGAL ANYWAY THE FOLLOWING SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED ADVICE BUT SIMPLY ME THINKING OUT LOUD ABOUT THE SUBJECT. AGAIN, DO YOUR OWN PROPER RESEARCH ON ANY LEGAL OR DRUG MATTERS. Also don't do weed or any psychs/alcohol and try to avoid psychoactive drugs in general unless explicitly safe at your age (ie prescribed by a doctor) until when the brain is finished forming, which is around 25ish give or take a few years, frequent and earlier use especially contribute to considerable fucked up development. Occasional weed/psych use in early 20s should be fine, for weed specifically, daily as opposed to 2-3x weekly smokers had significant cognitive deficits whereas the latter group was close to baseline; it's reversible when your brain is fully formed (3 days abstinence for most function return, month for all of it - again I'll cite studies later if this generates enough interest) but common sense would tell you a temporary, sizable retardation of function while developing might cause some problems. Shroom spores can be obtained legally in all but 3 states (the psychoactive chemical in shrooms is what's banned and not present in spores) and chemicals such as 4-ho-dmt (aco being in place of 'ho' doesn't matter much) and 1p-lsd are qualitatively the same thing as shrooms/acid respectively and available for purchase on clearnet 'research chemical' sites for 'observing under a microscope', these can be used both as the respective drugs or for microdosing. Some RC chemicals are banned in specific countries (the US, Germany and Sweden ban the a lot and sites refuse to ship to the UK due to their idiotic drug whitelisting laws) but some reputable sites will ship whatever wherever (again except the UK) as their philosophy is it's up to the buyers to make sure it's legal in their countries. >! Buyers getting in trouble for purchase/possession is unprecedented, the only example I can find of somebody getting in trouble is some idiot who was frequently buying large packages to sell at his university and the university is the one who caught him, not law enforcement. I won't go ahead and call it 100% safe but law enforcement gives zero shits about some moron buying personal use amounts of a drug nor is it worth their time or effort to prove it was intended for consumption (which is what's illegal rather than simply buying it). The federal analogue act means you could potentially get in trouble for possession so I would avoid storing it in one's cars or pockets in the event of being searched for some other suspected crime.!< Chemicals are sold explicitly "not for human consumption", again do your research and stick to known chemicals or ones where you can reasonably infer safety profiles from similar drugs. Generally speaking, named drugs (e.g. Bromo-DragonFLY) and first-batches are what poison people rather than tryptamines and lysergamides but use a trusted source for anything. Although not common with RC vendors, NBOMe has a habit of being sold as acid and NBOMe is arguably more dangerous when knowingly taken as the effective dose as it needs to be held under the tongue for extended periods which you wouldn't do with acid, the problem is the toxicity threshold are very close and overdose can easily result in permanent damage or death and an OD is very possible when confused for acid; you can use a testing kit (people like Ehrlich) to rule NBOMe out but for NBOMe specifically the 'taste test' seems to be enough- if a tab is bitter or metallic tasting spit it the hell out. If you're microdosing with a tab you'd dissolve it in water and portion the water. Meditation while on a low dose of these drugs (1.5g shrooms/75mcg acid or equivalents) will be far deeper and more introspective than sober without being clouded by drug delirium, all you really need to do is stare at a pattern and zone out. I've been able to audit my own brain and rewire my thought processes as an independent observer; your brain breaks down and sets aside biases and patterns you've learned over your lifetime allowing you to experience and learn from a baby-like perspective (for example, when you speak a language your mouth is formed in a certain way by default which makes it difficult to learn sounds in other languages as an adult whereas a baby can learn anything, I've managed to learn problematic sounds I've struggled with for months instantly on low doses of shrooms even). These effects are more permanent than if you've done these things sober but it still needs commitment and to be taken seriously regardless. Shrooms and acid are both among the safest drugs you can do (alcohol is among the worst as it turns out) and the safety profiles of drugs from their respective families (4-subbed tryptamines and lysergamides) tend to match it. Acid and shrooms at a macro dose may be extremely beneficial and the most spiritual experience of your life but can also be the most terrifying, not only is a stable state of mind encouraged but those with a genetic predisposition to psychosis-related diseases such as schizophrenia shouldn't touch these, or even weed for that matter. It won't cause these diseases but can bring out underlying ones early. I don't really know what else to say and can't believe I typed all this bullshit in one sitting but I'd appreciate input on the things I listed, things you find helpful (if reasoning is included I may edit this post with suggestions) and maybe advice for me personally. Once again I am not giving any medical advice, any drugs or supplements should be inferred as "maybe google this" rather than a suggestion to use anything
The first part in this series introduced the nature of lobsters, why they are valuable, and major international lobster disputes. This post explains how lobster conservation management systems affect the relationships between the lobster industry, the Mi'kmaq people, the Wabanaki Confederacy, Canada, and the United States. Refer to the map for context.
Wabanaki, Canada, and the U.S.
The Mi'kmaq are a First Nation people in Canada whose historic territory, Mi'gma'gi, once spanned what is now Maine, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, eastern New Brunswick, and a small portion of Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula. The Mi'kmaq joined with the Maliseet, Wolastokiyik, Penobscot and Passamaquoddy First Nations in the 17th century to form the Wabanaki Confederacy, a state that extended into Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. The Confederacy defended native land claims, going to war with the British in 1688, 1702, 1722, 1744, 1749, and 1754. In 1862, the Confederation fell apart when the tribes differed in their policy towards their traditionally hostile western neighbor, the Iroquois Confederacy.1 There are more than 100,000 self-identified Mi'kmaq living in Atlantic Canada today, though most do not have Indian Status, a form of legal recognition in Canada which confers economic and political rights and benefits.
Modern revival
The foundation of Canadian-Mi'kmaq relations is the Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1752. In return for submission, the British government promised the Mi'kmaq that they would "not be hindered from, but have free liberty of Hunting & Fishing." For more than two hundred years the Canadian government effectively ignored the treaty's terms, but that changed in 1985. In 1980, RCMP officers arrested James Marshall Simon, a Mi'kmaq man in Nova Scotia who had been hunting out of season without a license outside of a reserve. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Simon v. The Queen (1985) that the treaty is valid and its obligations are enforceable, protecting the right of Mi'kmaq people to hunt and fish. In 1986, the Grand Chief of the Mi'kmaq created Mi'kmaq Treaty Day, a holiday meant to mark the 1752 treaty and reassert Mi'kmaq rights, but provincial and national political leaders ignored the event. Nova Scotian Premier Donald Cameron ended the boycott and attended Treaty Day in 1992,2 and in 1993, representatives of the five original tribes re-established the Wabanaki Confederacy. In 2008, tribal authorities went a step further when the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq Chiefs met at Province House in Halifax on Treaty Day and proclaimed the nationhood of the Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia, reviving their claim to Nova Scotia's lands and waters.
Fishery management
R. v. Marshall
Governments throughout North America conserve threatened species by placing limits on the time of year when fishing and hunting are legal (open and closed seasons), the physical size of a hunted or fished animal (like the size of a lobster's carapace), the number of animals an individual hunter or fisherman can catch (catch limits), how many animals a hunter or fisherman can have on his person at any given time (possession limits), who can fish and hunt (licensing), and the means and methods used to fish and hunt. In 1993, RCMP officers in Nova Scotia arrested Donald John Marshall, Jr., a Mi'kmaq man who caught and sold 210 kilograms (463 pounds) of eels. Marshall, son of then-Grand Chief Donald John Marshall, Sr., first gained notoriety when he was convicted of murder. He spent eleven years in prison before the court overturned his conviction, exonerating him entirely in 1990. Three years later, Marshall used a forbidden net out of season and without a fishing license to fish for eels in a test case of Mi'kmaq treaty rights. After six years of appeals, in 1999 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in R. v. Marshall that the Halifax Treaties of 1760-1761 between the Wabanaki tribes and King George II of England not only recognized the right of Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, and Passamaquody peoples to hunt and fish in order to maintain a "moderate livelihood," but that the Canadian government cannot restrict these positive rights. The court's ruling built on R. v. Sparrow (1992), which found that indigenous fishermen are entitled to fish all year round while maintaining existing seasonal limits for non-indigenous fishermen. These rulings are complicated by Nova Scotia's border with Maine. Maine has no seasonal limits on lobster fishing and Wabanaki Status Indians can freely cross the international border, leaving non-indigenous Canadian lobstermen at a competitive disadvantage with both their immediate neighbors and their international neighbors. Wabanaki fishermen believe that Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), the governing authority that manages Canada's fisheries, has no authority over them, but the Supreme Court clarified in Marshall No. 2 (1999) that Canada can impose limits in the interest of conservation or safety provided the government respects the indigenous right to their treaty-protected livelihoods and consults with indigenous authorities before imposing such limits. The difference between a "moderate livelihood" and commercial lobstering is still largely undefined.
1992 Cod collapse
Atlantic Canada is acutely sensitive to the risk of overfishing because of the 1992 cod collapse. For centuries, cod was the most valuable fishery in Atlantic Canada, but the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) overestimated cod stocks and mismanaged the industry, allowing too many fishermen to fish too many cod in environmentally destructive ways, particularly deep-sea trawling. In 1992, the population of cod suddenly declined to 1% of its estimated population in the 1980s. The government instituted a 'moratorium' on cod fishing that is still in place today, which cost 30,000 people their jobs in the largest layoff in Canadian history. When the cod population collapsed, Atlantic Canada had the lobster fishery to fall back on for employment, tax revenue, and sustenance. The cod population never recovered, and today Mi'kmaq have no alternative fishery to reply upon if the lobsters die out. Lobster fishing alone makes up 44% (2016) of Atlantic Canada's entire commercial fishery.
After Marshall
In 2000, non-indigenous fishermen in New Brunswick retaliated for their perceived exclusion under the Marshall decision by setting 4,000 lobster traps and a Mi'kmaq prayer site on fire in the Burnt Church reserve. Indigenous fishermen responded by burning down a white fisherman's house and pickup trucks. In August 2000, the DFO and police officers carried out an enforcement operation in Miramichi Bay, seizing 900 lobster traps suspected of use in illegal commercial lobstering. One hundred officers in 22 boats faced off with Mi'kmaq lobstermen on 14 boats. The officers rammed and sank two Mi'kmaq boats, injuring the fishermen on them who had to swim to shore. Other Mi'kmaq fishermen threw blunt objects at the police, who responded by beating and macing them. The DFO offered the Mi'kmaq C$2.3 million ($1.7m USD/€1.57m) to compensate for the damage, but the DFO wanted Burnt Church band members to agree to a limit of 40 traps per person when the band had asked for 5,000 per person. The Canadian government has since spent C$600 million ($455m USD/€411m) in fishing gear and licenses through the Atlantic Integrated Commercial Fisheries Initiative to support Wabanaki fishermen. In return for the assistance, each band council signed their own agreements with the DFO, pledging compliance with conservation measures.
Mi'kmaq-DFO tension today
Tension and resentment endure today as Mi'kmaq assert their right to fish lobsters and manage conservation without the Canadian government's assent. For the last several years, Wabanaki fishermen have lost lobster traps and boats to vandalism, sabotage, and arson attacks. Canadian authorities seize illegal traps and other fishing gear from Mi'kmaq fishermen who violate conservation management limits. Non-indigenous fishermen protest in front of DFO offices while DFO officials worry Wabanaki lobstermen may try to occupy their offices. Mi'kmaq fishermen have alleged that there is a conspiracy to plant illegal, undersized lobsters in their boats. Others accuse the DFO of racial profiling and accuse Nova Scotia's provincial government of racism. The provincial government is arguing in a legal dispute over a natural gas pipeline that Mi’kmaq are a "conquered people," the 1752 Treaty is null and void, and no one has any special rights to hunt or fish in Atlantic Canada. In recent years, the DFO has tried to crackdown on noncompliance with the commercial lobster licensing system. Listuguj Mi'kmaq First Nation fishermen are catching and selling lobsters caught in in Chaleur Bay without fishing licenses. Mi'kmaq Sipekne’katik First Nation fishermen are catching and selling lobsters caught in St. Mary's Bay and Annapolis Basin without fishing licenses. In 2017, DFO worked with the Canadian Coast Guard in Project Magnet, an undercover sting operation to interdict black market lobsters before they could be illegally smuggled to China. DFO officers tracked wild lobsters with microchips and intercepted a shipment of C$50,000 ($37,920 USD/€34,258) worth of illegal catch before it could be shipped.
Maine
Wabanaki authorities have also clashed with the state government in Maine. Maine's House of Representatives granted a non-voting representative to the Penobscot Nation in 1823, the Passamaquoddy Tribe in 1842, and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians in 2012. Another Wabanaki tribe, the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, is recognized by the state and wants its own representative in the House but has thus far been rejected. No other state legislature has tribal government representatives, but the Houlton Band's newfound representation inspired the Cherokee Nation to appoint a delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2019. Both the Penobscots and Maliseets are boycotting the state legislature, and all three Wabanaki tribes have had on-again, off-again boycotts, partly over fishing disputes. In 2013, Maine conservation officers tried to take illegal fishing gear from Passamaquoddy fishermen fishing for eels. The officials withdrew after a standoff with the armed fishermen. In 2015, the Penobscot Nation and the Passamaquoddy Tribe withdrew their representatives from the House after the state bannedfyke nets, which are used to fish for eels. The Passamaquoddy Tribe refused to comply with the emergency rule and previously refused to comply with catch limits. The Penobscot Nation claimed the Penobscot River, suing the state unsuccessfully in federal court. In 1980, the tribes agreed to comply with Maine laws except in cases of "internal tribal matters" in the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980. The Passamaquoddy Tribe had claimed sovereignty over 12 million acres, but in the settlement they gave up this claim and agreed to a relationship with the state similar to that of Maine city governments. Tribal authorities now want total control over land, fisheries, and natural resources, as well as greater control over gambling, civil and criminal jurisdiction, the right to set their own water quality standards, and to deny Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife personnel access to tribal lands to conduct fish surveys. Maine's Governor made some concessions, but has not granted tribal authorities any of their core demands.
Minimum catch sizes
Historical background
Every few years there is a sudden, massive decline in the Atlantic lobster population, triggering extinction scares, only for the population to rebound to new peaks within a few years. This phenomenon has occurred since the inception of the commercial lobster industry in 1856. Lobsters have a natural survival rate of one tenth of one percent. A berried (pregnant) lobster is lucky if two or three offspring of ten thousand laid eggs survive to adulthood. As lobsters age, they grow physically larger and are more likely to have mated. Early conservation measures thus focused on protecting lobsters who have not yet reproduced. In 1872, an extinction scare and lobbying from the canning industry convinced Maine's legislature to ban the fishing of berried females. In 1874, canneries successfully pushed through a minimum catch size of 10.5 inches (266.7 millimeters) for six months per year, and in 1875, the crisis seemed to abate. But the Atlantic lobster fishery continued to suffer extinction scares or genuine mass die-offs in 1880,3 1884-1885,4 1890,5 1895,6 1906-1907,78 1914-1918,9-15 1920,16 and most recently in 199917 and 2019.18 When the first conservation law was passed in 1872, the international border did not provide a source of significant friction because lobster canneries in Canada were largely owned by Americans across the border,19 but these laws pitted canneries against the upstart live-lobster industry as well as other U.S. states.20 Lobstermen caught illegal, undersized lobsters in the Gulf of Maine and smuggled them on railroads to New York, which had no minimum catch size,21 from the 19th to the 20th centuries, undermining Maine's conservation management system. Canada's Maritime Provinces, New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire all adopted Maine's 10.5 inches (266.7 millimeters) standard in 1895 (and Rhode Island set a minimum of 10 inches/254 millimeters), but Connecticut undercut the transnational consensus by setting their own minimum size at 6 inches (152.4 millimeters).22
Catch and release
Lobstermen have no fail-safe way to filter undersized lobsters from their lobster traps. When traps are retrieved, lobstermen have to measure lobsters by hand, using a Lobster Measuring Gauge tool to determine which are too small and which can be sold commercially. They liberate (release) undersized lobsters and bycatch, fish unintentionally caught in lobster traps, by tossing them back into the ocean. But undersized lobsters that are thrown into the ocean are often consumed by other fish like the black sea bass before they even reach the seafloor. Releasing undersized lobsters upon a fisherman's return to shore might mitigate this phenomenon, but merely possessing undersized lobsters is a civil offense. The Canadian and American governments assume anyone caught possessing large numbers of undersized lobsters intends to sell them illegally. If juvenile lobsters are consumed before they touch the seafloor, then minimum carapace laws do not accomplish anything. The DFO and the NOAA need to determine what percentage of undersized catch and bycatch survive catch and release.
Districting theory
There is less standardization today than there was in 1895, though regulations are considerably more byzantine. The minimum carapace size allowed in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey is 3.375 inches (85.725 millimeters), but the minimum size in Maine is 3.25 inches (82.55 millimeters) while the minimum in Prince Edward Island is just 2.87 inches (73 millimeters). New York and Connecticut, the destinations for smuggled Maine lobsters a century ago, have now effectively banned the importation of lobsters that are legal in Maine. The U.S. federal government sets minimum and maximum carapace size limits on top of state limits across seven designated Lobster Management Areas with three different standard minimums and maximums. States control the waters three miles out from shore while the federal government controls the Exclusive Economic Zone, 3-200 miles out from shore. The Canadian federal government sets its own minimum carapace standards across 41 designated Lobster Fishing Districts each with their own open and closed seasons. Beyond the 200 mile limit is international waters. Fishing authorities in Canada and the U.S. set different limits for different fishing areas based on the idea that lobsters in colder waters grow more slowly but when the cold water-lobsters are allowed to grow, they ultimately grow larger. There is a general preference throughout the lobster industry for larger lobsters, though canned lobsters are valued for their sweeter taste. The larger a lobster, the greater its protein content and thus the greater its market value. But lobstermen do not want to risk waiting for lobsters to grow, only to lose valuable catch to predation or disease. When state minimum catch sizes conflict with federal minimum catch sizes, whichever size is more stringent (the larger size) is applied. There are three problems with this conservation management system.
Lobsters are migratory
First, lobsters are migratory animals who freely pass through multiple fishing areas, going north and south, closer inland and to deeper waters. Some will travel up to 1,448 kilometers (900 miles) in a year. Most are thought to only travel a few miles, but no effort has been made to tag and systematically study the movements of the Atlantic lobster population. No one can say with great confidence how far lobsters are migrating over a year or more importantly over a ten year period. What was once perceived as mass die-offs may have instead been great migrations into deeper waters. In 1975, scientists tagged and released more than 4,000 lobsters over a three month period. The experimenters recovered about one in ten of the tagged lobsters over the next five years. Almost one in five of the recovered, mature lobsters were found more than 92.6 km (50 miles) from the original release site. Originally released in Nova Scotia, many of the lobsters were found south in the Gulf of Maine.
Temperatures are not static
Second, the temperature in the Gulf of Maine and surrounding waters is not static, it is cyclical, and the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation climate pattern is difficult to predict. There are crests and peaks in sea surface temperature about every ten years on top of 60-80 year period shifts. The temperature may be peaking right now, so there may be a general lobster migration south, not north as so many American lobstermen have feared, within a couple of years. Small changes in temperature affect lobster growth, mating, and migratory behavior, but these associations are not linear. There is a complex interplay of a dozen factors (like availability of prey, sediment grain size, size of breeding grounds, exposure to pollutants like oil and gas, etc.) that affect how large a lobster will grow and how many viable offspring it will produce. If temperatures continue to rise, rather than dying out, lobsters may produce 'super lobsters' that are 50% larger than the average caught in the Gulf of Maine today. Alternatively, anoxia, pockets of oxygen deprived water associated with higher temperatures, may actually kill great numbers of lobsters.
Canning versus live lobsters
Third, having different legal minimum sizes in different jurisdictions encourages smuggling, the formation of a black market, and inter-jurisdictional resentment. In 2012, New Brunswick lobstermen physically obstructed trucks trying to import American lobsters into Canada. The legal minimum size limit for New Brunswick, 72 millimeters, was too small for NB lobstermen to legally export to the U.S., but the American lobstermen can export their lobsters to Canada. The live lobster industry is contending with canneries just as they did in 1874, but this time the live lobster industry in New Brunswick is pushing for more stringent regulations (larger minimum sizes) while the canneries in Prince Edward Island, which mostly export to China, want to maintain the status quo.
Conclusion
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is an interstate compact that works with the New England Fishery Management Council and various industry stakeholders to advise the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the American body that manages America's fisheries, on rule-making and management, but there are no representatives from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, or the Wabanaki tribes. Conservation measures implemented in Canada - like seasonal fishing restrictions - are undermined when they are not enforced in Maine. Measures implemented in one U.S. state but not in Canada, like robust minimum catch size restrictions, are undermined. Effective conservation management requires community buy-in with inclusive decision-making, acknowledging Mi'kmaq-Wabanaki treaty rights or they will continue to violate the measures on principle. NOAA has suggested studying lobster migration in a small area over the course of a year, but that is not enough to understand how temperature and other factors are actually affecting migration. Tagging lobsters with GPS tracking devices and studying their movements, preferably over a ten year period, will allow conservationists to determine how isolated lobster stocks actually are and whether previous stock counts under-counted lobsters who migrated into the deeper ocean. Twenty years ago the ASMF Commission treated the lobster population in Southern New England (SNE), Georges Bank (GBK), and the Gulf of Maine (GOM) as distinct lobster stocks, with Southwest Nova Scotia (SNS), Lobster Fishing Area 34, as a fourth stock outside of U.S. government jurisdiction. The Commission now treats the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank as one stock, GOM-GBK. All of these stocks have a common genetic relationship, geographic distribution, and movement pattern. The state must treat these stocks not as separate lobster colonies but as a stock complex, one great biological unit requiring one conservation management system.
Speck, Frank G. "The Eastern Algonkian Wabanaki Confederacy." American Anthropologist, 1915, p. 498.
McMillan, Leslie Jane. "[Mi'kmmey Mawio'mi: Changing Roles of the Mi'kmaq Grand Council From the Early Seventeenth Century to the Present." Dalhousie University, Dec. 1996, p. 120.
"The Lobster Bill - A Misapprehension." The Portland Daily Press, 30 January 1874.
"The Lobster and Crab." The Opelousas Courier, 8 August 1885.
"Facts About Lobsters." DeSoto Times, 12 June 1890.
"Report of the Commissioner of Sea and Shore Fisheries of the State of Maine" (1902).
"The lobster is in danger..." The Sea Coast Echo, 27 October 1906, p. 3.
"Official Visit Has Significant Purpose." The Richmond Palladium and Sun-Telegram, 28 July 1907.
"Our Meat Supply -- Fish." The Daily Telegraph, 17 December 1914, p. 12.
"How Science Hopes to Save the Lobster from Extinction." Richmond Times-Dispatch, 10 October 1915, p. 52.
"The Vanishing Lobster." The Bridgeport Evening Farmer, 23 September 1916, p. 2.
"To those who like to eat lobster...]." Connecticut Western News, 14 September 1916 p. 4.
"Stringent Lobster Laws the Only Salvation." Norwich Bulletin, 13 September 1916, p. 8.
"Extinction of the lobster is again feared..." Evening Star, 5 February 1918.
"Native Lobster Epicure." Evening Star, 3 March 1918, p. 34.
"Lobster Bill is Introduced." Perth Amboy Evening News, 12 February 1920, p. 5.
"Dejected Fishermen Blame Mosquito Spraying in Mysterious Lobster Deaths." The New York Times, 31 July 2000.
LeMoult, Craig. "Mysterious Lobster Deaths In Cape Cod Raise Climate Change Concern." WGBH, 23 October 2019.
J.D. Pringle, D.G. Robinson, G.P. Ennis, and P. Dubé, An Overview of the Management of the Lobster Fishery in Atlantic Canada (Halifax, NS: Department of Fisheries and Oceans, 1983).
Capturing the Commons: Devising Institutions to Manage the Maine Lobster Industry (2004). James M. Acheson. University Press of New England, p. 83.
"What is the Matter with the Fish?" The St. Louis Republic, 3 January 1904, p. 56.
"Proceedings and Papers of the National Fishery Congress" (1898), p. 220.
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Do JWs make any money? I remember this one time there was a girl JW that hit the back of my car and had to replace my bumper and she told me she had to get a job to pay for it.
Why were you disfellowshipped? I'm sure you're not telling the whole truth. Also please site examples because everything you've said is absolute falsehood. You're spreading lies or more importantly creating lies. I really feel for you.
Table of Questions and Answers. Original answer linked - Please upvote the original questions and answers.
Question
Answer
Link
What made you leave? Do you consider JW a cult?
Yes i consider it a cult. When I was in it, I didn’t think I was in one though. I hated the hypocrisy mostly, and how elitist it was. They also cover up a lot of bad things done by people within the organisation. I left because fundamentally I was miserable - it was going against everything I thought was morally right, and I was surrounded by toxic people.
Did you ever go to people's doors and knock on them or yell for them? Also, what is Jehovah's witnesses about?
Yes I knocked on people’s doors - I considered myself very good at it and I had studies with people which means you go back regularly, go into people’s homes and teach them about the bible. I never yelled for them. Sorry I don’t know what this means :) In answer to your question about what they’re about, Jehovah’s witnesses believe that we’re currently in “the end of days” and soon god will bring about Armageddon where everyone who is not a Jw will be killed.
Very strange. I was shunned by all my friends and everyone I’d known while I was in it. I haven’t spoken to any of them since. I was not brought up as a witness, so my mother was there when I decided I wanted to leave. This makes my leaving much easier than for others who have grown up in it and their parents are still in it. One of my best friends was disfellowshipped (kicked out and shunned) and her parents and family never spoke to her again. I wasn’t allowed to talk to her either - until I left. The problem is that they make you believe that shunning is a kind thing to do.
Do you still have contact with your family (I'm assuming they are JWs)? Was there an excommunication process?
I was not brought up as a witness. I joined as an adult and then left some years later. So my mother was there for me when I left. It’s much harder for people whose family is in it as they’re not allowed to contact you until you return. Yes, there was excommunication for me. Everyone shunned me. I have not spoken to any of my ‘friends’ since or anyone I knew.
Hi. Did you leave because you don't believe the WT teachings, or because you don't believe God is real?
100% the first. They teach you that JW is the one true religion. “The Truth” they call it. However, the WT is so far away from what is true, and what happens inside the organisation and what people do is not as pure as they claim to be. I couldn’t deal with the hypocrisy. Regarding God being real, I don’t know anymore. I wouldn’t like to say for sure as I don’t know. My JW experience killed my faith but I always had in the back of my mind “I’m just not 100% certain”.
Ok. Thanks for explaining. It it a great step to be brave enough to be true to yourself despite all the pressure to conform to what you don't believe. I am a Maronite Catholic. Please feel free to AMA. 🤗
I definitely got a lot of hate in the lead up to leaving, but in the last couple of months I was mentally already out. And yeah, I just couldn’t do it anymore. What is the Maronite denomination? What does that mean? :) thanks!
What was it like going to strangers doors and trying to make them join Jehova Witnesses?
It was definitely strange and uncomfortable going to peoples doors. Most JWs dislike the experience. We all would discuss how it was an unnatural thing to do, and that’s why we had to have courage and pray when we did it. I had some people shout at me and say horrible things, but most of the time people just shut the door or said they didn’t have time to talk. I’m from the UK, which is known in JW circles for being a place where people dislike talking. Other countries can be more receptive. When people did want to talk to me, I would usually try to ask them about their lives and try to leave a fact about the bible which I could then return on. Sometimes I would come across elderly people who were very lonely and they would talk for a while - not about the bible necessarily - but just so that they could have someone to talk to. These are the ones I miss the most because with these ones I genuinely felt I was making a positive difference to their lives. I found I wanted to do this more than just talk about the bible.
Maronites originated in Syria in the 5th century. The ancient Christian church was controlled by 5 great centers: Jerusalem was the first then Antioch in Syria, because Peter left Jerusalem and went to Antioch and established the church there before going to Rome, Alexandria Egypt, Rome itself. After the Muslim persecutions began in the seventh century the leaders of the villages around Antioch fled Southward to the mountain regions in Lebanon to avoid the persecutions. We existed peacefully there more or less until the Crusades in the 11th and 12th centuries. Then the French Christian Knights set up system to protect us from the Muslim attacks. And we've been allied with the French Catholics ever since. The Maronites are the only Eastern Church that did not abandon the authority of Rome when the church split in the 11th century into the Orthodox and the Catholics. We Maronites have our own pope independent of Rome, yet we accept all the same teachings, whereas the Orthodox refuse to accept a few of the teachings from Rome that came out after the split in 1054. And yet Maronites are also unique because we have married priests, we have a different Liturgical Calendar (for example we follow the calendar for Easter according to Rome not according to the Orthodox, but our Lent is like the Orthodox Lent, not the Roman Lent) a married priesthood, we say the mass in a mixture of Arabic and Aramaic rather than Latin.
Wow that’s really interesting, thanks for sharing. I hadn’t heard of them before. It’s interesting because JW people have a lot of distaste for catholics in particular. I don’t anymore, just to clarify, but there was a lot of brainwashing in terms of Catholicism teachings being very wrong according to what the bible says (the irony!) Did you get taught anything in your religion about JW being wrong? I always assumed this would be the case. Thanks for taking the time to explain your religion :)
Do you still have any family or friends in the organization? Do you think JW's in general are happy people? Why do JW's never seem to go door to door in affluent neighborhoods?
I don’t have any direct family who are JWs, no. But because I didn’t, many JWs became almost surrogate parents/family for me. I lost all of them when I left. Actually even before I’d officially left really. Including all my “friends”. Suddenly they all just stopped talking to me. No I don’t believe JWs are happy people. When you talk to them, it’s almost like a manufactured happiness. When I first joined I had no idea. It was only until I started really getting to know people and understanding their lives when I realised how truly miserable 99% of them are. There are restrictions to EVERYTHING. For example: They encourage you to never pursue anything that will distract you from the religion (a good career, hobbies, education etc). Regarding the affluent neighbourhoods: Where I live in Cambridge, UK, we often knocked on doors of the more affluent houses. I’m not sure where you live, but I have definitely tried to speak to the more privileged people equally to the poorer areas. In fact, we were often told that richer ones needed a lot of help to see that money and material wealth doesn’t lead to true happiness.
Not with my eyes if that’s what you mean. But I thought I saw him through things that happened to me, or prayers that were answered. I don’t believe I did anymore now though. I’m a bit more rational about it now.
What was one hypocrisy that sticks with you and questioned their way of teaching “the truth”?
I think the biggest one is saying they are the true religion because their followers are doing things correctly. They set themselves apart from catholics quoting the Paedophilia cases, but it’s rife in JW and people have been told to consult elders rather than police if it arises. The elders have covered up so many child sexual abuse cases so as not to “bring reproach to Jehovah’s name”. Also. For a group that says to love everyone including people they’re trying to convert, I’ve never met a more toxic, mean and elitist group of people in my life.
No worries :) 144,000 is said in the bible at Rev 14:1 I believe that when all the anointed (the 144,000) are selected that’s when Armageddon happens, or at least they coincide. No more people will go to heaven and they will rule over the other people living in paradise on earth (the rest of the JWs)
Thank you for your answer, I am quite interested in different religions despite being an atheist, someone you might would like to check out is telltale on YouTube, he is also an ex-Jehovah’s Witness
Thankfully I didn’t grow up as a JW so i still did all those things as a child. When I became a witness in my 20s I was not allowed to celebrate anything like that, no. So for a few years I did not celebrate Christmas, birthdays, Easter etc. It made my mother (a non-witness) incredibly sad because suddenly I refused to be involved in anything to do with those things. She’s happy now that I’m out and will be involved again. I don’t see Christmas or Easter as religious celebrations but I will get involved for the fun of it :)
I have taken this from jwfacts.com I hope this helps :) The past, present and future are explained in the following way. Jehovah is the Father and Almighty God Jehovah has existed eternally Jehovah created Jesus and together they created all else A righteous angel sinned and became Satan Satan deceived Eve, who deceived Adam, leading to mankind's fall into sin and the cause of human death Jesus came to earth to die as a Ransom sacrifice so that God could forgive the sins of humankind With our sins forgiven and the establishment of Jesus as ruler over earth humans will be able to live forever on earth Jesus began ruling in heaven in 1914 and will very shortly begin ruling over the earth Prior to taking over ruler of the earth Jesus will destroy all religion, government and commercial systems at Armageddon. Only Jehovah's Witnesses will survive Armageddon Key concepts are: God is not a Trinity. The Father alone is Almighty God, Jesus is his created son and not to be worshipped We do not have a soul; we are a soul On death we are unconscious and cease to exist until a future resurrection Jehovah has permitted wickedness due to a legal obligation to Satan. This is known as the issue of Universal Sovereignty, and directly relates to a humans right to free will Only 144,000 humans go to heaven to be rulers. Deserving humans will live on earth. The rest of humanity will simply not exist Fundamental practices are: Actively preach, normally door-to-door or beside literature carts, distributing Watchtower publications Regular meeting attendance - two times a week, Separation from the world, including refusal to vote, salute the flag, celebrate birthdays, Christmas and Easter Strict moral code, including no: Illegal drugs Gambling Drunkenness Fornication Homosexuality
The 144,000 are a select group of anointed JWs basically who will rule in heaven with Jehovah and Jesus. But yes, they could lose their spots if they did something wrong (committed sin for example). In this case, they believe that someone else would be selected in their place. The majority of JWs are not anointed and will not feel like they have a place in heaven - they are destined to be resurrected to live in paradise on Earth and governed by the 144,000 and Jesus. In regards to my religion now, I’m agnostic. I believe something put us here, but I don’t know what. And I don’t believe whoever it was is all knowing, all powerful, and all loving.
(Trigger Warning for this post btw) I'm gonna back u/exjwgirl up here - google the definition of a cult, if you're familiar with religions it may seem that any religion would fit, the difference between a cult and a religion can be explained by 'if you can't leave by your own free will with you're dignity intact then it's a cult'. In the JWs, I was banned from speaking/communicating to anyone outside of the religion, my family are extreme in this so was Homeschooled - my life literally revolved around the JW beliefs. No TV, no music no books other than the JW ones. I asked to not be a JW at 13 and instead was hit by an elder and had to have extra teachings with him. I was disfellowshipped from the JWs (essentially disowned) as between the ages of 13-15 I was abused by two elders (the one who hit me was one of them), at 15 I was pregnant because of this abuse. I was disfellowshipped for having a kid out of wedlock and disgracing Jehovah's name by reporting my abuse to the police. Because of this none of my family speak to me and the best friends I grew up with will now cross the street to avoid me. The elders who abused me were charged but are still serving and active Jehovah's Witnesses. The priority of the JWs wasn't to help me out in a 'Christian' way but instead was to protect the elders from my wayward ways, they get visits/letters in prison from most of the congregation. DNA of my kid did nothing to prove to the rest of the congregation that it actually happened - an elder would never do such a thing. Luckily the local Baptist church helped me out - there was no obligation to worship with them and I've only done so once to see if it was for me.
This is an interesting question. I definitely agree that cults have destroyed many people’s lives, and I’d love to be able to do away with them. But it’s strange because only towards the end did I start realising I was in one. I still had some “worldly” people I was in contact with off and on while I was a witness, and they would often suggest I was in a cult and I was brainwashed, but I would vehemently disagree. It was bizarre. So yes that’d be the first obstacle of “dealing with” a cult. Another is like...where do you draw the line? What defines a cult? Can they be so easily defined? Could you suggest that other more mainstream religions could also be classed as cults? Where does it end? Some countries have banned Jehovah’s witnesses as religion as well, and for some of those people they see themselves as martyrs being persecuted. Some say that it’s the true religion because they are persecuted. I’m not sure if you can win. I would love to be able to come to an exact answer for you, but I think if I were to arrest someone, it’d be the leaders and people in authority rather than the followers.
Just to clarify, I stayed for so long despite being unsure and miserable because I was scared to leave and also because I thought staying and pretending was easier. You’d be surprised how many JWs share this feeling.
It was definitely strange and uncomfortable going to peoples doors. Most JWs dislike the experience. We all would discuss how it was an unnatural thing to do, and that’s why we had to have courage and pray when we did it. I had some people shout at me and say horrible things, but most of the time people just shut the door or said they didn’t have time to talk. I’m from the UK, which is known in JW circles for being a place where people dislike talking. Other countries can be more receptive. When people did want to talk to me, I would usually try to ask them about their lives and try to leave a fact about the bible which I could then return on. Sometimes I would come across elderly people who were very lonely and they would talk for a while - not about the bible necessarily - but just so that they could have someone to talk to. These are the ones I miss the most because with these ones I genuinely felt I was making a positive difference to their lives. I found I wanted to do this more than just talk about the bible.
Please back it up then, and with facts not opinions. Jehovahs witnesses are not a cult. And no, I'm not. But to sit here and allow someone to run other people and their beliefs down because of their own attitude is ridiculous. It's the height of ignorance and arrogance. You just demonstrate why you wanted to leave the organization. I feel for you because you're blind to the reason you left, and to blame someone else is plain ignorance. So run them down all you want but just know an intelligent person sees through your garbage. But you're getting the emotional attention you originally made this post for, so glad it worked for you. Its like when that bad employee gets fired or quits and they yell and shout the whole way out! Thats you. The saying is don't go away mad, just go away. You did a great thing by removing yourself from their association.
I’m not angry at all actually, I’m finding this conversation with you quite funny. Though it’s like arguing with a trump supporter. You wouldn’t happen to be one, would you? It’d explain a lot. And you’re asking me to give you evidence on a thread all about my personal experience - that’s a little hard. 😆 People are asking me questions, it’s their choice what they ask. Where I can, I’ve given you links to really well known exjw researchers, and I’ve put in the thread on other people’s comments doctrine you’ll find on Jw.org. Did you miss these? But alas! you’re still not happy so - it seems like a pointless conversation. Why not have a look at exjw and read some other people’s personal experiences. Or just do a quick search on google for Jehovah’s Witness CSA. You’ll find a bunch of stuff :)
How would you suggest getting them to leave when they come to your door? I usually don’t open the door but one day one caught me walking across the yard while unloading groceries. I finally had to say that I didn’t want to be rude but it was a bad time and to please leave. I don’t want to be mean but it seems that anything short of threatening JWs with bodily harm just leaves room for interpretation and they hear “keep talking”.
As an ex-Seventh day Adventist I also had to knock door to door and I absolutely hated it. Difference is we were to taught to start with some kind of survey (answers were never used or tallied up, it was pretty much fake) to lead to would you like a bible study or attend this seminar, heres a brochure or flyer. I always thought there was a better way to evangelize, especially since I myself never responded well when people knocked on MY door. I’m surprised to hear that most JW don’t like knocking door to door. When I would do it there was sometimes someone in the group who had some ordained experience and they were there at just the right time... so I guess it was justified that way?
I was 31. I’m 33 now. If you ever need to talk, please reach out to me and others on exjw If you have family in there still, I recommend the fading approach rather than getting disfellowshipped or sending a letter. Sometimes it can be a bit easier and some families feel more comfy to contact you. Obviously it depends on what you want to do and how you feel :) I don’t want to sound patronising so I hope I don’t - maybe you already know the stuff I’m about to say but... Just please know that the world isn’t the place you get taught as a JW. There are some truly amazing things and you’ll be free to choose your own path. It’ll be hard without all the people you’ve grown up with, but it’s worth it ♥️
Proud of you! I’m dating an ex jw who left when he was 28. He is very very traumatized and his whole family will not speak to him. Really hard relationship
I have met his family once and they made it very clear we would not be invited to be a part of them at all. We have 2 kids that will never know them. He was sexually abused by his older brother for years and his parents just told him to keep his mouth shut. Him and his brothers were disfellowshipped multiple times but he’s only one that was cast out. He shares so many stories of others he knew that went through sexual abuse, self harm, extreme mental illness. It’s also very clear the cult seeks out the sad lonely or outcast to give them a sense of belonging but then they can never leave for fear of losing everything and everyone they know. I met him when he has 32 and it has been a rollercoaster. Having to deal with the emotions of his family that shuns him, he actually saw his mom in public once and she turned away and acted like she didn’t know him. Witnesses are a deep kind of evil.
Oh sorry I didn’t see your edit. Yeah witnesses don’t celebrate Easter, they celebrate the resurrection of Jesus but it falls on a different day each year. This is called the memorial :) This is the only thing that JWs celebrate actually - no birthdays no Christmas no Easter :)
Yes quite a bit, we weren’t allowed to associate with anyone else who wasn’t Jehovah’s Witness. Though we had to understand a little for ministry - that’s what knocking on people’s doors was for - to teach people that what they were doing or what religion they were following was wrong. You would only be saved at Armageddon if you were JW.
Ahhh I see what you mean, so like conversations that really stood out? Yeah I had a few tbh but I always angled them towards science (I have a chemistry degree and an anthropology degree) so I was able to talk with authority on subjects people didn’t expect me to know as a religious person. So when the question of evolution came up, I had my degrees to back my mindset and I’d slip that information to the householder. I had conviction in everything I was saying, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like they may have believed me more because I was slightly different than my other Jw companions. I had some excellent conversations about the state of the world. People would often choose to discuss that, and it was a topic I felt confident with - JWs believe that Satan is the ruler of this world right now, hence why there’s so much crap happening. And most people assume that God would be the ruler of the world. Gets people talking at least!
That is very interesting! The Jehovah’s witness that used to live near me knocked loudly and yelled for people to come to the door. They never got any new members because of them.
Do you still have any family or friends in the organization? Do you think JW's in general are happy people? Why do JW's never seem to go door to door in affluent neighborhoods?
I wasn’t disfellowshipped, and everything I’ve said can be backed up. But heres a start I haven’t lied about anything. But I’m guessing you’re an active witness? If so, I really feel for you too.
It seemed to me that on the whole JW's tend to be very much anti Advanced education as in University. In the first place because it takes away from your free time to ring doorbells and study the literature. But also because as you get more education you tend to see more and more conflicts between their teachings and reality.
As a JW you still believe in Jesus so therefore yes you are a Christian, but since I’ve left, I’ve not practiced or been to meetings/churches of other Christian denominations, no. So no I’m not.
I left. I told some people I was growing more and more angry with the organisation, and then one day I just decided to stop going to meetings. I was never disfellowshipped or brought before a judicial committee, but I would be if I went back for example. I didn’t want to get disfellowshipped or disassociate myself because I wanted to take advantage of the loophole - because I’m not officially gone, friends can technically still contact me. Despite the loophole, no one contacted me anyway.
I have taken this from jwfacts.com :) The past, present and future are explained in the following way. Jehovah is the Father and Almighty God Jehovah has existed eternally Jehovah created Jesus and together they created all else A righteous angel sinned and became Satan Satan deceived Eve, who deceived Adam, leading to mankind's fall into sin and the cause of human death Jesus came to earth to die as a Ransom sacrifice so that God could forgive the sins of humankind With our sins forgiven and the establishment of Jesus as ruler over earth humans will be able to live forever on earth Jesus began ruling in heaven in 1914 and will very shortly begin ruling over the earth Prior to taking over ruler of the earth Jesus will ... This post would be too long for Reddit and has been truncated
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