Crystal Blue Persuasion

Illicit use of Methamphetamine began in the United States in the 1960’s. During that time clandestine labs began the production of speed, commonly known then as ''crank,'' and distribution began to spread throughout the United States via motorcycle gangs. Bikers who made their own meth used to call it crank because they hid the drug in the crank cases of their motorcycle engines.

Clandestine Chemistry 

In the 1980's, common cold medicines such as pseudoephedrine (hydrochloride), and Sudafed (the common nasal decongestant), were becoming increasingly popular on the shelves in pharmacies. The medication dried up sinuses and provided a jolt of energy. Before long, drug dealers found a way to transform the medicine into meth.

Crank isn't as clean or pure. This powdered meth is often cut with something else making it much less pure and thus less effective. The user has to ingest much more for the same effect crystal methamphetamine would give them. 

 

By the late 1990's it seemed that meth was being cooked up everywhere and in two years 35,000 meth labs were busted in the United States. Today, medicines such as ephedrine tablets now require prescriptions. While homemade productions in the U.S. have significantly dropped, the supply has not.

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Michelangelo Phenomenon

''Wait, I said IDEAL-self !!'



This is a pattern of relationship interdependence, in which close partners influence each other's dispositions, values, and behavioural patterns in such a manner as to bring both people closer to their ideal-selves. It suggests that close partners 'sculpt' one another's selves, shaping one another's skills and traits and promoting versus inhibiting one another's goal pursuits.

The concept was introduced by the US psychologist Stephen Michael Drigotas and several collaborators in an article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1999, reporting the results of four experiments designed to elucidate the phenomenon.

Unsurprisingly, it is named after the Italian sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564) who is said to have conceived of some sculptures as a process of bringing out figures already hidden in stone - by chipping away at the excess.

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''I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free''   ~ Michelangelo

''What is my name?'' ~ The Rumpelstiltskin Phenomenon

''Look at the head on that'', she thought.
''It looked as if he slept face down in a
box of pineapples''

This is the tendency for the naming of something to create an impression of imparting an understanding of it.

 

 

It applies, for example, to the naming of mental disorders: a person who tells implausible lies may be said to be suffering from pseudologia fantastica, but that term is nothing more than a name for implausible lying, and any impression that it imparts an understanding of the phenomenon is a cognitive illusion.

 

 

The phenomenon is named after Rumpelstiltskin. In a famous fairy tale called 'Rumpelstilzchen' in the German version collected by the brothers Grimm, a strange dwarf exerts a baleful influence over a miller's daughter until she eventually gains power over him by learning his name.
                                                                                                                                              (Colman, 2009)

Hikikomori

This culture bound syndrome is found almost exclusively in Japan, most commonly among male teenagers and young adults.

 

It is characterized by extreme social withdrawal and near total severance of contact with the outside world, without any other evidence of psychiatric or neurological disorder. It is usually triggered by an upsetting experience, such as being bullied, failing an examination, or experiencing a broken love affair. People with the disorder usually lock themselves in their bedrooms and refuse to come out for weeks, months, or even years.

 

A theory, advanced by Ryu Murakami in an essay entitled, "Japan's Lost Generation," suggests that Japan's worship at the alter of high-technology may in some way be responsible:

 

"Japanese society is caught in a paradox: it is concerned with the increase of socially withdrawn kids, while at the same time it applauds gizmos like the new Sony PlayStation, which comes equipped with an Internet terminal and a DVD player. Technology like that has made it possible to produce animated movies and graphics, as well as conduct commercial transactions, without ever stepping out of the house. It inevitably fixes people in their individual space. In this information society, none of us can be free from being somewhat socially withdrawn."

 

The disorder was first recognized in the 1970's and the word hikikomori was first applied to it by the Japanese Health and Welfare Ministry in 1991.

 

When mood interferes with our ability to function

What is Major Depression?  Symptoms can include; weight loss, insomnia, a negative self-image and even suicidal thoughts. It's not the mood itself that denotes pathology, but its extent, severity, and duration. When left untreated, depression can often go away by itself, but for many people - it persists. Depression can begin as a reaction to specific life experiences, such as the death of a loved one, job loss, divorce, or reacting to growing old.

 

Many people with major depression think they have only physical problems, so they seek help from a physician, and in fact they may never get to a mental health practitioner at all. Depression can come in many forms from the mildest, that may go undetected, to the most acute, requiring hospitalisation. 

 

The milder forms of depression may be exemplified by a high executive who flies a corporate jet and who feels a lot of physical symptoms occurring over a period of time with a gradual onset.

 

They may feel a sense of malaise, decreased energy, or a decreased enjoyment of life, but can still work and function as far as others are concerned. But as far as he's concerned, he's only working at 30 or 40 percent of his usual capacity.

 

This person may be very unhappy, their life may be extremely difficult for them and others may not even notice. The fact is that many people are working and functioning in this state. This same person may respond to treatment and feel one hundred times better once their actively treated. But to the outside world, they may look exactly the same. That's the mildest form of the illness.

 

In acute or severe depression, the psychomotor retardation is even more intensified. The person moves slower, speaks slower. The person actively withdraws from social contacts, he doesn't want to be involved with other people, they just want to be left alone. They can no longer function as well as they could. They have no motivation to work, to be involved in anything. Nothing seems worthwhile.

 

In psychotic depression, there is a break with reality, here the person experiences delusions, usually associated with guilt or self blame - more extreme forms of what we see in milder forms of depression. They may have hypochondriacal delusions about their bodies, such as cancer. In the most pronounced forms of depression, called 'depressive stupor', all of the previous symptoms are aggravated. Here the same person does not respond to the outside world at all. Some are even spoon-fed to be kept alive.

 

In general, the subjective case of the depressed person is that they're living life beneath a cloud. People are hopeless that anything will take the pain away. It's like being tortured and seeing no way to get out of it, no way to end the pain. And that's when people not only consider suicide, but that suicide seems like a merciful exit for them, a way to get out of what seems to be a no-exit situation.

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''Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls, the most massive characters are seared with scars''

                                                                                                                                               ~ Khalil Gibran