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If Empathy is EFFORT ---What does that mean for Neuro-Diversity with the emphasis on Diversity ---- A Lot of EFFORT

7/20/2022

Two of the things that we're slowly coming to terms with:
- Our "empathy" often isn't that Empathy with EFFORT --
  - It's really more maximizing the efficiency of like-minded people, and
  - We are struggling to address pretty hard-wired split second Empathy determinations that are really based on "which team you're on."

If we're using that EMPATHY of EFFORT
- it can be TIME-CONSUMING
- it can be FRUSTRATING, and
- it may be forcing us to come to terms with our own limits at the same time we're being asked to exercise MORE EFFORT in understanding someone else.

I don't think it's any accident that the Americans with Disabilities Act says yes we need to make REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS ---
- Unless it would be an "UNDUE HARDSHIP"

If we just default to an idea that EMPATHY is something GOOD PEOPLE do --- and don't really have the ability to recognize:
- The Double Empathy Problem not just in autism but in human relationships generally
- We're going to UNDER-ESTIMATE what it really takes.

Further, Neurodiversity is really testing EMPATHY on the part of everyone because----
- Neurodiversity isn't some MONOLITH --- it's all over the place, and
- Neurodiverse people are going to have to empathize with other Neurodiverse people who may be very different from themselves.
- and if they can do that ---
- they'll have a lot to TEACH the SOCIETY

PBS The Brain with David Eagleman
In-Groups & Out-Groups

Neuro-Divergent Therapist Louise Taylor
Neuro-Diversity & Empathy

When We're Talkin' Neuro-Diversity -- We're Talkin' Neuro-Diversity

Abortion Debate

5/5/2022

It is hard to see how we get out of this NATIONAL TRAUMA of which the ABORTION DEBATE itself is part of without more LATERAL and INTEGRATIVE THINKING.

Colorado has been a good place for that:
- Abortion is Legal, and
- We've done things like make Contraceptives available to teens and that has reduced abortions
  - That is not necessarily the SOLUTION a lot of Conservatives, especially Religious Conservatives, are looking for BUT ---- it does show some "FLEXIBILITY" in dealing with the issue.

"MAKING SPACE" is a BIG IDEA right now and it's a little cooler version of INCLUSION.

I post both Pastor T.D. Jakes and Modern Secular Philosopher Alain de Botton.

Alain de Botton is this wise bald guy --- very much my TYPE who is very INTELLECTUAL, concerned with HUMAN ETHICS, etc. I just love all that.

But it is just within the last few days that I learned that Alain de Botton was the author of "The Consolations of Philosophy."
- I had not connected the two.
- I had his "The Consolations of Philosophy" (originally published in 2000) but in a a process of MINIMIZING ---- I got rid of it
  - Because I felt it missed the CONSOLATIONS OF RELIGION.
  - Now my IDEAS of RELIGION and other people's ideas are not necessarily and are probably not the same.

INTEGRATION is a BIG IDEA that has gotten BIGGER.
- When I was growing up in Oklahoma City in the 1970s --- the BIG ISSUES were SCHOOL INTEGRATION, BUSING --- RACIAL INTEGRATION.
- The INTEGRATION MANDATE of the Americans with Disabilities ACT -- makes "INTEGRATION" a central duty.
- Most recently, when we talk about INTEGRATION we're often talking about INTEGRATING PHYSICAL and MENTAL HEALTH CARE.

Another IDEA is "Working Our Way Back in the Chain of Causality to Solve a Problem"
- That's what we're doing in moving around the World to a more Public Health Approach to Criminal Justice.
- It's what Colorado did in making contraceptives more available.
- It's what RESEARCHERS did to get better understandings of Neuro-Developmental Differences and Psychiatric Disorders.

Reframing the Conversation around Unplanned Pregnancy

Even if you are not faced with an unplanned pregnancy in the GREAT DEPRESSION in Oklahoma -----

You don't have to think that hard or go back that far in the "CHAIN OF CAUSALITY" to realize providing people MORE SUPPORT (FINANCIAL, EMPLOYMENT & SPIRITUAL) as well as Reducing the Incidence of Rape and Incest could reduce the number of abortions.

THAT IS the CONSOLATION of RELIGION and PHILOSOPHY.

Ideas & The Need for Conversation & Dialogue

Conversation & Dialogue: Integrating Science, Reason & Faith/Religion

"Lack of Empathy," LimitS and Neuro-Diversity

4/25/2022

Conjecture

There's almost always A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING.
Further, a lot of what we "THINK" about "Mental Health" isn't so much "WRONG" as "PARTIAL."
When we just have a FEW PIECES to the PUZZLE or we are "TOO CLOSE" or "TOO FAR AWAY" --- things can look DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT and SKEWED AND DISTORTED.

To me, "LACK OF EMPATHY" is "They Know Not What They Do" BUT it is also a pretty good indicator of PERSONAL and SOCIETAL LIMITS----

When we start talking about "LACK OF EMPATHY" in the Criminal Justice System ----We're often tagging this with "ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER"

When we start making some kind of CONNECTION between "ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER" and NEURO-DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS

It didn't do away with the "LACK OF EMPATHY"
BUT it starts to look a lot DIFFERENT.

I did very well in SCHOOL --- but I was and am EXHAUSTED a lot of the time --- and I would generally come home from school and crash.

I can remember one day in particular in which I did not get up in time to pick up my younger sister --- she did manage to have a friend take her home BUT

She spent what seemed to me to be an inordinate amount of time SCREAMING at me in the front yard -----
- That I was the "MOST INCONSIDERATE PERSON IN THE WORLD."

Now --- it sticks out in my mind because most of the time that wasn't happening.

Up close or far away?

Scientists challenge you to work out whether you’re looking at microscopic or macroscopic photos of nature

BUT what if you are somebody in which that is happening MULTIPLE TIMES A DAY.

You're going to get ANGRY after awhile --- and probably NOT AFTER AWHILE --- BUT VERY QUICKLY.

Further, if people didn't understand your INITIAL "LIMIT" ---

they are unlikely to understand why you are ANGRY.

Just to make this more INTERESTING --- DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND YOUR INITIAL "LIMIT" ----?

Now this is complicated enough ---- BUT LET'S THROW IN EPIGENETICS.

This really gets into "BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR."

We want this person to be "MORE SENSITIVE" ----

GUESS WHAT --- You may get your wish ---
Only it's not going to look like your "IDEA" of "SENSITIVITY" ---
- It's going to look like "REACTIVITY"

The MORE STRESS you put that person under in the hopes of getting "SENSITIVITY" ---- the more "REACTIVE" the person may become biologically.

We are currently in the PROCESS of UNRAVELING 2 GREAT INTER-TWINED LANGUAGES:

BIOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT

One of the things we're finding in this GREAT UNRAVELING is not only does CLIMATE HAVE LIMITS ---- WE HAVE LIMITS TOO.

One of the Many Hard Things About Life ---We're Often Taking the Test BEFORE We've Learned the Lesson

3/15/2022

WebMD: Anxiety and Cancer Patients
(Feb. 2021)

"Intense anxiety associated with cancer treatment is more likely to occur in patients with a history of anxiety disorders or depression, and patients who are experiencing these conditions at the time of diagnosis.

"Anxiety may also be experienced by patients who are in severe pain, are disabled, have few friends or family members to care for them, have cancer that is not responding to treatment, or have a history of severe physical or emotional trauma.

"Central nervous system metastases and tumors in the lungs may create physical problems that cause anxiety.

"Many cancer medications and treatments can aggravate feelings of anxiety."

I found this article March 7 ---- a couple of hours before the Hospital was predicting my husband would probably not survive more than 24 or 48 hours.

It has been a very long road for 2 honest, over-educated people who more often than not --- DID NOT HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION THEY NEEDED.

As children we see adults and read about people in history making mistakes, floundering around and --- WHY DON'T THESE PEOPLE KNOW BETTER?

And at least sometimes --- it wasn't that people weren't being HONEST --- it was that FUNDAMENTAL ASPECTS of the problem were NOT KNOWN or were MISUNDERSTOOD.

The Great Man Theory of History, Neuro-Developmental Disorders & Psychiatric Disorders, GENDERAND CRIMINAL JUSTICE (When It is NOT ADDING UP)

3/13/2022

What are some of the THINGS that are NOT ADDING UP:

Failure to Recognize the greater incidence of NEURO-DEVELOPMENTAL issues among males and its implications for CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Failure to Recognize the CONNECTION between Neuro-Developmental Disorders and Psychiatric Disorders.

Failure to Recognize that OUR Systems are EMPOWERING GREED and INCOMPETENCE.
- The ANSWER is not a Criminal Prosecution or to FORCE someone out ---
- We need a MAJOR SYSTEM RE-DESIGN
  - That has as one of its MAJOR COMPONENTS Translational Research and Medicine, and
  - FAIRNESS and EQUITY in
    - Compensation, and
    - Administrative Support (& Fairness and Equity for those Adminstrative Support Staff)

Colorado (2011)

Medicaid Mental Health Services for People With Developmental Disabilities

Criteria for Behavioral Health Organizations (BHOs) and Community Mental Health Centers in the assessment of Mental Health Conditions for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities.

[This Letter from the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing was necessary because Mental Health Centers were refusing to treat people with DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES.

If you have kept up with the CURRENT RESEARCH --- the IRONY of that is NOT ESCAPING YOU.

We are paying a lot in both PUBLIC & PRIVATE MENTAL HEALTH CARE (and unintentionally RIPPED OFF in many cases) -- NOT because Mental Health Professionals are CHARLATANS but because we haven't provided the RESEARCH and TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE SUPPORT to an often BURNT OUT PROFESSION.

[Dr. Carl Clark at MHCD is kinda the "GREAT MAN of Colorado Mental Health" who is far from a MONSTER but is GREEDY and isn't worth Colorado Tax Dollars that have gone to support him one way or another. --- See The Rolling Heads in Colorado's Crappy Mental Health System.

The problem for Mental Health Centers, Colorado Medicaid and for much of the ECONOMY is it is CHEAPER to pay 1 person an ENORMOUS AMOUNT --- while keeping the WORKER BEES at a low level --- that is one of the reasons we have a workforce shortage in MENTAL HEALTH. ]

Insights into the Relationship of the Immune System with Neurodevelopmental and Psychiatric Disorders (2018)

a Translational Group in Autism Spectrum Disorder – GETTEA, Clinical Hospital of Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil
b Autism Wellbeing and Research Development (AWARD) Institute, Preston, United Kingdom
c Brazilian National Institute of Science and Technology on Neuroimmunomodulation (INCT-NIM), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
d Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
eSchool of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom

Neurodevelopmental disorders: A new study has found that neurodevelopmental disorders are more common in males than females.

Neurodevelopmental disorders are referred to a group of disorders which occur as a result of disturbance in the central nervous system. Jul 5, 2018

Risk Of Neurodevelopmental Disorders Is Higher In Men Than ...

Seoul National University School of Medicine

Mental disorders among workers in the healthcare industry: 2014 national health insurance data (2018)

Results

Prevalence estimates for selected psychiatric disorders

Among all insured employees, females demonstrated a higher percentage of mood disorders (2%), anxiety disorders (2.26%), sleep disorders (2.1%), and any psychiatric disorders (6.53%) compared to males.

The most common disorder was anxiety disorder in both sexes. Among workers in healthcare industry, females had a higher percentage of psychiatric disorders than males, except for sleep disorders. Compared with all insured employees, sleep disorders were the most common problem, and the overall frequency of psychiatric disorders was higher in workers in the healthcare industry

Scientific Reality, A Kinder Gentler Nation & Making Piece With the "State of Nature"

Might Makes Right

3/4/2022

The BIG MIGHT MAKES RIGHT CONFLICTS are WARS

But . . .
Many people find those issues in their lives on a --
- smaller scale
Further, if the truth be told most people have been on both sides of that at one point or another in their lives.

In the US

Another extreme could be LAW ENFORCEMENT EXCESSIVE FORCE
- With the advent of CELL PHONES, the general public is more aware this is a PROBLEM --- than was generally understood previously.

MIGHT MAKES RIGHT and MAJORITIES in DEMOCRACIES often go together.

In more politically complicated ways than the OUTRIGHT DICTATORSHIP
Nonetheless . . .

What the Disability Community, especially Cognitive Disability Advocates, Individuals and Families find in the US is a KIND of SMALL TOWN CORRUPTION --- that isn't really SMALL TOWN.

It is aided and abetted by INEFFECTUAL SYSTEMS at MULTIPLE LEVELS of GOVERNMENT
LACK of UNIFORM and PREDICTABLE ENFORCEMENT of Title II of the ADA and Olmstead
- And at ROCK BOTTOM a lack of understanding of WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO COMPLY WITH THE LAW?

Olmstead is about addressing the INSTITUTIONALIZATION and RISK of INSTITUTIONALIZATION of People with Disabilities ---
- Caused by HUGE SHORTAGES in DISABILITY HOUSING and generally INTENSIVE SERVICES that COLORADO and MOST STATES are struggling with.

Title II of the ADA and Olmstead are also about INTEGRATION and INCLUSION
- NOT JUST THE PRETENSE OF IT.

The Scary Mess We've Gotten Ourselves into with Knowledge Boundaries

3/4/2022

There's a lot of knowledge out there that is routinely excluded as irrelevant --- that is FAR FROM IT.

In the Law ----

Higher IQ Neuro-Developmental Difference / Disability
Brain Injury and
the Social Determinants of Health

are 3 Big Areas that are routinely mishandled by The Legal System.

In fairness, more and more politicians from both parties are integrating SAFETY CONCERNS with HEALTH and TREATMENT CONCERNS.

Further, there is room and a great need to INTEGRATE Supported Employment and Entrepreneurship in this as well.

It is going to be difficult to make the kind of progress we need to make without addressing:

an OUTDATED DIAGNOSTIC MANUAL in the DSM 5 --- and the answer is probably not a DSM 6

Medical Academics have started to write TEXTBOOKS that are more recognizing the BLURRED NATURE of some of these DIAGNOSTIC CATEGORIES as well as identifying common biological mechanisms such as:

Shared Genes across disorders that often go to the Immune System as well as Epigenetics
Maternal Immune Activation
Trauma
etc.

There is a certain sense in which none of us fully get to the PROMISED LAND --- that is for future generations and another sense in which the PROMISED LAND is here right now and all the HARD WORK gave our lives meaning.

BIG shortages and a need for new understandings & Treatments

2/27/2022

I remember a few years ago when the Legislature appropriated an additional $40 million dollars to Mental Health

I think a lot a people in other areas of the Disability Community thought Mental Health had SCORED pretty big --- and they had --- BUT ---
The need is quite frightening ---- and I remember thinking at the time it's really going to take a BILLION DOLLARS to get this System on a SECURE FOOTING ---
- That CONCLUSION wasn't based on an ACTUARIAL STUDY
- BUT Audits, Actuarial Studies and other Professional Data Collection Efforts --- some of which already exist --- need to be used to address the BIG SHORTAGES in ADULT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING & INTENSIVE SERVICES.

FOR THE FEDS:

Colorado is NOT the ONLY STATE facing BIG SHORTFALLS in NECESSARY Funding for Higher IQ Neuro-Developmental Disorders & Psychiatric Disorders
We do have to address the IMMEDIATE CRISIS.
It absolutely includes the SOCIAL DETERMINANTS of HEALTH, especially HOUSING.

We also need to build out SYSTEMS of EXCELLENCE that go beyond the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Mental Health.

Funding the Nation's Teaching Hospitals and Academic Medicine --- to provide support to Medicare and Medicaid Providers.
There's NOT everything we need --- BUT there is a lot of information for potential MODIFICATION of PARADIGMS and TREATMENT STRATEGIES buried in PubMed.
- It is going to take a major effort to SYNTHESIZE what we've got.
- Much less the FLOOD of RESEARCH STUDIES from AROUND THE WORLD that are coming in FASTER and FASTER.
- The last 5 to 10 years of Research are finding these DISORDERS are more COMPLICATED than we thought AND
- That ironically may open up some additional TREATMENT AVENUES

Time Waits for No One and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2/27/2022

James Baldwin at 60 (obviously prior to his death) observing HOW MUCH in TIME and GENERATIONS the CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE had taken --- and is continuing to take. But progress has been made.

The ARC OF JUSTICE is long and life is short.

The last several months have been very difficult as I've been the primary (not the only) caregiver for a bed-bound husband with CANCER.

Wed. we're going in for an INFUSION TREATMENT that may be more PALLIATIVE CARE and HAIL MARY than anything else.

I'll be 60 next February.

I am going to be posting this year ROUGH DRAFTS of COMPLAINTS for DECLARATORY JUDGMENT ---- I don't think that is the only way to go.

Further, I probably will be dividing my time between that and INTEGRATING scientific information RECONCEPTUALIZING ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER and Efforts on PROBLEM SOLVING COURTS and a PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH TO CRIMINAL JUSTICE.

Rick has been the primary and reluctant supporter of Orchid --- we're such weirdos and we were lucky to find each other.

I think the shortness of life does force you to focus on the people you LOVE and your STRENGTHS.

As long as I'm able, I'll always be interested in INTEGRATING KNOWLEDGE and MOVING THINGS FORWARD.

Addressing the fears that are preventing us from more effectively treating cognitive disability in the justice system

2/2/2022

This Round Table Discussion on Megyn Kelly's Show from 3 years ago gets to the CRUX of the FEARS, ANXIETIES and CHALLENGES of dealing with Mental Health in Criminal Justice.

At 5:29: PBS "In Principle" Commentator Amy Holmes --- Wanda Barzee is a psychotic menace.

At 7:05: NBC legal analyst Dan Goldman --- Failure to deal with Mental Health and Addiction Issues LEADS TO CRIME.

At 7:30: Amy Holmes --- "We don't know that she has mental health problems --- we know she's crazy."

Many of the OBJECTIONS to addressing Mental Health, Addiction, and other invisible disabilities such as Brain Injury --- are related to the fear that someone will GET OFF and the COMMUNITY WILL NOT BE SAFE.

At this same time we have a Mental Health DIAGNOSTIC MANUAL that the RESEARCH COMMUNITY is REPUDIATING.

Psychiatric Disorders are looking quite related to NEURO-DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS involving MATERNAL IMMUNE ACTIVATION.
TRAUMA damages the IMMUNE SYSTEM
Being on the BOTTOM of the SOCIAL HEAP damages the IMMUNE SYSTEM.
While PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS certainly involve the BRAIN, they also involve the IMMUNE SYSTEM, the MICROBIOME, METABOLISM and the ENDOCRINE SYSTEM.
Susceptibility to Addiction Problems are related to the IMMUNE SYSTEM.
The IMMUNE SYSTEM is related to SENSORY PROCESSING and OVERLOAD.

"CRAZY BEHAVIOR" can have various UNDERLYING BIOLOGIES. Generally, "PSYCHOSIS" would by DEFINITION be related to classic OLD SCHOOL PSYCHIATRIC understandings.

So there's that: We can't even accept the FLAWED and LIMITED UNDERSTANDINGS of Traditional Psychiatry and the DSM 5.

What Stanford Neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky is calling us to understand is the BIOLOGICAL BASIS of BEHAVIOR --- not just "CRAZY BEHAVIOR," but "GOOD BEHAVIOR" --- "MEH BEHAVIOR" and everything in between.

Being able to tie BEHAVIOR to the INDIVIDUAL UNDERLYING BIOLOGIES and explain how SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS can harm INDIVIDUAL UNDERLYING BIOLOGIES --- is the DIRECTION of PRECISION MEDICINE and a PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH to CRIMINAL JUSTICE which at its best is providing:

More HUMANE TREATMENT for INDIVIDUALS, and
Greater SAFETY for the COMMUNITY

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