Posts by Noah Sanchez7

hollowtinker8 said:Oh man, sorry about that—I’ve had an exam lately and my head has just been totally in the clouds.
Don't take it personally, I'll reach out soon. We could even swap AOL Instant Messenger handles if you're down. I'll shoot you an email in the next few days.
Please don't be mad 😘

Got it.

Anyway, how are you doing? Have those nerves and anxiety issues finally settled down?

pupa16, what was your actual question here? What kind of answer are you looking for?

Are you struggling with whether Jesus actually rose from the dead? Of course He did. The Bible concludes there—it doesn't detail His subsequent movements after the resurrection—but it makes it clear that Jesus rose and is immortal. You can see He lives on today, quite clearly. His message, if you want to call it a philosophy, is divine, which makes it immortal by extension.

hollowtinker8 said:It’s definitely possible, and honestly, it isn't normal.
I feel so bad for whatever woman ends up with him—imagine having to marry someone like that. Man, I couldn't deal.😲

An old friend of mine actually seemed to go through the exact same thing.
He got married, but he was always calling his mom, and he was constantly fighting with his wife.
Everything stayed like that until his mother passed away.
Before then, he barely even noticed his wife existed, and they were always at each other's throats.
His mom was always standing right there between the two of them.
Now everything is fine, and my friend says he and his wife finally get along—they actually talk more and aren't so closed off anymore.
I’m happy for him, though—at least he doesn't have to listen to them fighting all the time.

Hi, Andrea Cao.

I don't think you were really interested in my story, but I wouldn't have been mad if you'd at least bothered to reply.. 🙄

I remember being about three or four years old; whenever my mother would sit in a chair with her legs stretched out—she’d be wearing a skirt—I would push my toy cars underneath her, pretending to play, but I was actually just watching her legs and even touching her tights with my fingers. Honestly, I loved doing that.
I can't say for sure if I was doing it for sexual gratification back then, but it probably was.

IS THIS NORMAL? 😳

I haven't been yet, but by the looks of things, I will be soon.

Paul Garcia25 said:Can chronic depression actually trigger schizophrenia? Or is that just a myth?

I think it can.

Richard Murphy6 said:That works, Hess.
Give "my faith" a shot. Check out his letters.

I just started reading.

I haven't gotten back to you regarding what you wrote about schizophrenia. It’s a heavy topic that requires quite a bit of time and deep thought.

If you're interested, we can chat via DM or whatever works for you?

analogpuma10 said:Personally, I think this book carries a much deeper message than just some starry-eyed, romanticized dream.
Can a person really just stumble upon internal harmony and unify all their conflicting forces if they haven't actually lived through the grit and glory of the real world?
Both those sides—the light and the dark—exist right inside us. Running off into some remote forest is just running away from ourselves. It’s even a form of denial, honestly. It’s refusing to believe our Spirit is capable of squaring up against life as it actually is and defeating Samsara right where we stand, rather than just kneeling under some tree in the middle of nowhere.
We are built from a multitude of different energies, and you can't just deny any of them. Life teaches us the true nature of these forces through various struggles; they can only be transformed into something higher, never ignored or escaped.
Just because someone hides away in a monastery doesn't mean they’ve achieved purity; it might just mean they haven't been tested by a situation that forces their true nature to surface.
Meditation should be everyday life. Any kind of work that requires our total, undivided concentration is, in its own way, meditation.
You have to experience things to realize they are illusions. Now, that doesn't mean you have to go out and make every stupid mistake imaginable, but once you make that first error and taste the bitter consequences, those are the signs that you've started drifting downstream.
A lot of people hiding out in temples aren't there because they've transcended the world; they're just hiding from it.

That is exactly the core of my question.
You put it beautifully, which is what I was getting at.

I think despite all the spiritual flaws in Quincy's Siddhartha, the book still offers some fundamental guidance.

You can't deny that, Fazlija.

Richard Murphy6 said:That’s a great question. Honestly, I’m not even sure why it’s weighing on my mind! Let's just say I've started leaning toward believing in the "supernatural." Yogananda touches on stuff like that, but things really started clicking for me after I read that interview with Castaneda. He was saying something along the lines of how nobody actually cares about the version of Jesus who rose from the dead and ascended into heaven... or something like that.
I’ve always felt like rising from the grave isn't the only way to "beat" death. For the longest time, I figured it was all just symbolic, you know? But now? I'm second-guessing everything. I figured I'd reach out and run it by the folks over at the IMF.
😎

Exactly. If you take the Bible literally, you'll end up heading down the completely wrong path. I assume you can see where I'm coming from.

Olivia Cook said:I hope I’m in the right spot here. Not really sure if this belongs in Psychology or maybe the Fringe section.

Anyway, my buddy and I have been going back and forth on something. We're wondering if it's actually possible—maybe through hypnosis, autosuggestion, or something else—to just switch off emotions? Like, to completely erase feelings toward everyone and everything (kind of like how the Vulcans are in ST 😬).
My friend thinks it's doable, though he can't really explain how, and I guess I'm more of a "maybe not" kind of guy 🙂.

Cheers...

If it is possible, I'm curious if this has ever been done to someone, if it could actually be helpful, or if there is any medical precedent for such a practice.

Richard Murphy6 said:Wait, who actually is Govinda?
Where can I find some info on him?
Is it the same kind of vibe we see in Damian?

Govinda has been Siddhartha's friend since they were kids. Their paths diverge for a while, but they eventually cross again.
While Govinda sets out to learn from various teachers, Siddhartha prefers to learn through his own life experiences.
I really think you should give the book a read.

Best,

Thanks for having me.

I've been thinking about pursuing a career in psychiatry. It seems like a reliable way to ensure people actually listen to you.

Thanks for the effort. 😘

vividskipper15 said:What exactly is ether?

I was asking about glue because a psychiatrist mentioned during our internship that it leaves behind some of the most devastating consequences.
It’s hard to say why you specifically would experience those kinds of side effects; for some people, it won't happen regardless of how much they use.

It's just the fumes you inhale. It hits fast, but it absolutely wrecks you.

Taking drugs isn't the issue; the issue is when you overdo it. My friends and I used to go way too hard.
For instance, during Coachella, we'd basically be high for the entire duration of the festival. It used to last about nine days, but thankfully they cut it down to 4.
Back in the day, we’d stay up for five or six days straight right in the middle of the school year.
Think of it like going that many days without eating or sleeping. That's where the damage happens.

Anyway, I was just a kid back then. I don't do that anymore.

I finally pulled the trigger on a new 2005 model. 🙂

Glue, paint, gas... never. It hasn't even crossed my mind.

It starts off with a ton of grass, then moves into a lot of weed. That's pretty much it.

Of course I don't want to have schizophrenia. It's just that I noticed something wasn't right, so I started looking into it. I found literally every single symptom listed for schiz within myself.
Anxiety, dread, hallucinations. There were times when I wouldn't see my own brother for who he actually is, but rather how I was imagining him in that exact moment.
I’ve also been having some unsettling thoughts about God, the Devil, Jesus, and Lucifer—all sorts of religious contradictions. Even a fear of God... and things like that.

stormylynx23 said:So, here's the deal with schizophrenia: it all comes down to a chemical mess-up in the brain involving neurotransmitters. Think of neurotransmitters as the little messengers that carry electrical signals between neurons. One big player here is dopamine—the theory is that people with schizophrenia either have way too much of it or their brains are just super hypersensitive to what's already there. Researchers are also looking at other chemicals like serotonin, glutamate, acetylcholine, and norepinephrine, thinking they might be part of the problem too. But honestly, most experts point the finger at an imbalance between dopamine and serotonin as the main culprit behind the symptoms. That’s exactly why antipsychotic meds work the way they do; they target those specific neurotransmitters (and a few others) to try and level things out.

Can you actually see brain damage from schizophrenia?

If you look at modern imaging tech we use here in the States—stuff like CT scans, MRIs, or PET scans—the evidence is pretty clear. There are undeniable differences in how the brains of people with schizophrenia function and look compared to healthy brains. We're talking visible stuff: enlarged ventricles filled with fluid, deeper grooves (sulci) between the brain's lobes, and a smaller hippocampus. Plus, there's often reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex, which is the area responsible for thinking, memory, and learning. There's a whole laundry list of these structural and functional changes, many of which can be linked directly to specific symptoms or cognitive struggles.

HealthFirst

So, does this mean I can just go get a scan and get a definitive "black and white" answer on whether I have it?

vividskipper15 said:You were most likely taking the MMPI, which is the standard tool used for personality assessments. Schizophrenia is just one single scale on that test, alongside depression, hysteria,
social introversion, and several others. If all your other scores are within the normal range and only the Sch scale is elevated, you almost certainly don't have schizophrenia. A high score on that specific scale doesn't equal a diagnosis; it merely points toward certain eccentricities in thought patterns. It is never sufficient grounds for a clinical diagnosis on its own—especially since you claim everything else is normal. Honestly, you’re probably more stable than most of us. 😁
Whenever someone experiences psychotic episodes or hallucinations triggered by drug use, we're dealing with an area that remains difficult to pin down. Clinicians rarely hand out a definitive diagnosis immediately because it’s hard to distinguish whether the symptoms are purely substance-induced or indicative of an underlying condition. Furthermore, there is a very high probability that these deviations disappear once the substances leave the system. That is likely why you avoided a permanent label. In my experience, I have seen plenty of cases just like yours. For individuals in this situation, the emphasis is always placed on the fact that the hallucinations were a product of drug use. Psychiatrists view those symptoms much differently than they would if a young, healthy person started hallucinating without any clear external cause.

I didn't start hallucinating for no reason, I'm certain of that. I wasn't the only one using, but I'm definitely in the minority when it comes to experiencing these manic episodes.
My buddies were fine, yet I was seeing demons and stuff. How do you explain that?

Are you a psychologist or a psychiatrist?

vividskipper15 said:Noah Sanchez7, did your psychiatrist actually give you a Sch diagnosis or what?

I saw a therapist who had me take this massive assessment—it felt like at least 250 questions.
Once you finish, they plot everything on a coordinate system to map out where you fall. Basically, there are these boundaries for "healthy" ranges, and most of my results were right in the middle, except for the schizo markers.
When I pointed out that it looked like I had schizo tendencies, he just told me that while those levels were elevated, I didn't meet the actual diagnostic criteria.
He prescribed me Lexapro (20mg) and then referred me out for rehab.

He told me to come back once I’d been clean for six months.
I've actually been clean for a year now, but I haven't gone back.