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Forum: News and Current Events Topic: Shyness, a disorder? |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 07 Jul 2011, 2:12 pm
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Replies: 9
Views: 2,255
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| There is certainly a difference between normal shyness and pathological shyness (or social anxiety disorder). I now recognise that when I was a teenager I was pathologically shy - I had always been quiet (still am) and during my 20s would have been considered shy (as in talking to people I didn't kn... |
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Forum: Bipolar, Tourettes, Schizophrenia, and other Psychological Conditions Topic: NY Review of Books articles on psychiatry |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 27 Jun 2011, 2:51 pm
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Replies: 2
Views: 2,634
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| A very interesting book I read recently was 'Crazy Like Us' by Ethan Watters. It shows how the West (particularly the US) is 'exporting' its mental illnesses to other countries. Of course mental illness is common to all cultures, but it is expressed in very different ways depending upon cultural inf... |
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Forum: Bipolar, Tourettes, Schizophrenia, and other Psychological Conditions Topic: Anyone with a non 24 hour circadian rhythm? |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 15 Jun 2011, 3:07 pm
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Replies: 14
Views: 4,624
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| I too had read that studies showed people generally had 25-26 hour sleep cycles. Most people seem to be evening rather than morning people (certainly in my experience) and this would make sense - without clocks or light cues, staying up later and later and getting up consequently later too. I think ... |
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Forum: News and Current Events Topic: RESEARCH: Scientists More Likely to Have Autistic Children |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 15 Jun 2011, 2:44 pm
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Replies: 16
Views: 2,741
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| Doesn't surprise me, working as I do in research. There are plenty of people with autistic traits varying from very mild to pretty obvious. There are also quite a few people who are almost manically enthusiastic about things and jump from one thing to the next. However, what I have noticed is that t... |
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Forum: News and Current Events Topic: Parents keep child’s gender under wraps |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 01 Jun 2011, 3:09 pm
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Replies: 43
Views: 4,550
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| I don't know whether it is the right thing to do or not, but what I do find interesting is that the other two boys both like pink clothes. My friend has a 4 year old son who also likes pink, and she thinks that in general little kids like pink, but as it is normally so strongly discouraged in boys, ... |
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Forum: General Autism Discussion Topic: Really embarrassed when I use certain word(s) |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 16 Apr 2011, 1:16 am
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Replies: 29
Views: 5,702
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| When I lived in France I had a lot of problems speaking French full stop (it is a foreign language not a first language), particularly greetings and goodbyes, which are things I find difficult in English, but are a lot more important in France. I overcame this to a certain extent, but one word I cou... |
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Forum: Politics, Philosophy, and Religion Topic: Under-45s stay out of Politics, Ageism vs Wisdom of years |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 14 Apr 2011, 3:17 pm
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Replies: 25
Views: 2,798
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| The problem is not to do with age, but with experience. The problem with most of today's politicians, whatever age they are (although particularly with the younger ones), is that they have spent their entire lives in politics - a degree in PPE from Oxford, then several years working for their chosen... |
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Forum: General Autism Discussion Topic: Questions for Schizophrenics or Autistics... |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 14 Apr 2011, 2:01 pm
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Replies: 24
Views: 4,039
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| A vigilance level might be defined as a spectrum. If the vigilance level is too high for a given situation, then that's paranoid. If the vigilance level is too low, then that's naive. The trick is to have an appropriate vigilance level in each situation. If you're bad at reading people, you may hav... |
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Forum: Politics, Philosophy, and Religion Topic: What would the world be like today if... |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 12 Apr 2011, 2:07 pm
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Replies: 15
Views: 1,657
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| Merrymadscientist, are you sure Islam would even develop? I mean, if Christianity didn't get big, then perhaps Islam (which, in part, seeks to correct preceived inaccuracies in that religion) also wouldn't. I have to admit that my post was a bit of a train of thought and when I started writing it I... |
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Forum: General Autism Discussion Topic: Does anyone else love going out every weekend? |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 10 Apr 2011, 2:51 pm
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Replies: 72
Views: 7,997
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| Having read the whole thread I think it seems more likely that the OP has Narcissistic personality disorder than AS. It isn't just the party thing - I know some very social Aspies (who however could never pass for NTs), it is more the way he is expressing everything and the obvious stimulation that ... |
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Forum: General Autism Discussion Topic: What did you do for your 18th? |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 10 Apr 2011, 1:46 pm
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Replies: 84
Views: 7,985
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| I'd been admitted to psychiatric hospital two weeks previously so I was still there. Saying that, it was a Saturday and as not much goes on at weekends and they considered me well enough by then they let me go home for the evening/night and come back the next day. Went out for a meal with my parents... |
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Forum: Politics, Philosophy, and Religion Topic: What would the world be like today if... |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 10 Apr 2011, 3:19 am
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Replies: 15
Views: 1,657
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| Even if the Romans themselves had adopted Mithraism as the official religion, it is not likely that they would have been particularly effective at transmitting that to the peoples of their conquered nations. Christianity apparently spread so rapidly because of the way it offered hope (of better thin... |
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Forum: Politics, Philosophy, and Religion Topic: Over-extended Feminism |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 09 Apr 2011, 3:43 pm
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Replies: 116
Views: 8,537
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| I am of the opinion that gender roles are primarily social constructs, although I do think that hormones make a difference from puberty onwards to a certain extent. I also think it is normal for children to look up to adults of the same sex as themselves for guidance (this seems to happen in other p... |
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Forum: General Autism Discussion Topic: Gender stereotyping and Autism |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 06 Mar 2011, 5:43 am
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Replies: 25
Views: 2,515
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| Recently there have been many news stories showing ‘scientific’ demonstrations of innate differences between the sexes. These tend to reinforce keeping the status quo (you never hear about women being innately better at mathematics) and justify using this ‘neurosexism’ to halt or reverse current pro... |
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Forum: Politics, Philosophy, and Religion Topic: Beauty in nature |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 06 Mar 2011, 4:44 am
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Replies: 43
Views: 3,211
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| I think part of the beauty of extreme environments comes from their remoteness and inability of man to tame it, which inspires strong responses such as fear. For me, I often get a deep sense of longing when I see mountains (in particular), because the thought of being so far away from human society ... |
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Forum: Politics, Philosophy, and Religion Topic: Are Autistics whom are Pro-Abortion hypocrits? |
| merrymadscientist |
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Posted: 05 Mar 2011, 4:25 pm
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Replies: 400
Views: 19,828
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| Pro-choice is not the same thing as pro-abortion. I don't think doctors should encourage abortion of foetuses, but should provide all the necessary information about likelihood and severity of defects, quality of life and possible medical interventions, and then support the parents whatever their ch... |
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