Tag: Medical

Q is for Questions

Erin Penn 2 Comments

Taking a break from the short stories for today to expand on “Trigger: Cutting.”

First off, I want to point out I provided a clear and easy to identify reason for Kevin to fall into depression. I could have just as easily had Kevin with two loving parents struggling to understand him instead of just one, but I chose to take a clear starting point for Kevin’s problems. I did this is because fiction has to make sense.

Most times the emotional injury triggering cutting behavior is unclear. And what sets off one person will not affect another. Because – SURPRISE – everyone is different! So what sends one person into a spiral of depression wouldn’t even be a blip on someone else’s radar. And this is okay.

For those in back, let me repeat it. IT IS OKAY to have something affect you differently than someone else.

What we need to address is the wound first and foremost, not figure out how it got there in the first place. Think waking up and finding a bruise on your body. Thinking about yesterday, you might recall banging into a drawer or a locker or a fist, or you might not remember the inciting incident at all. But in the end, that happened yesterday, and you can’t fix the past. What you have now, today, is a bruise that needs treatment.

If you are cutting yourself, or have a friend who is cutting themselves, they have a bruise that needs treatment … as soon as possible. The sooner the better because, like a tree, the person is going to grow around the wound. The sooner it is treated, the less scar tissue there will be from the bruise. There will be scar tissue, no matter what, but you or your friend doesn’t need to be only scar tissue.

I realize coming forward to friends and family will be hard. You don’t want to be stigmatized with “mental illness,” and sometimes family can get really angry at dealing with this stuff, or blow it off, or hurt themselves, and you have no idea how they are going to react. I get that, believe me from the bottom of the therapy I had at age thirteen (not for cutting, but stuff like it), I get that.

You can show this story, and this final bit, to an adult or friend and tell them what you are doing and you want to get help. Whether you go forward with this, is up to you. No one pushing you. You have control.

Now I am going to talk to the person who this is shown to. First off, DON’T FREAK. Think about this like the son, daughter, friend, spouse, parent, etc. coming to you with a bad bruise – because that is what they got, a bad bruise to the head that needs some TENDER LOVING CARE. Got that – TLC and a first aid kit, not a lecture or a freak.

You are not going to be able to fix this on your own, so don’t try. Do the initial kiss and make it better while also letting the person know you will get them help. Can you do that? If you can’t, find someone who can help your friend or family member. (Again, as I said at the start, people react differently to things. What hurts someone does not hurt someone else – if you can’t handle it, that is OKAY – find someone who can.)

Help can be complicated. But doable.

Self-Harm Texting Hotline: https://www.crisistextline.org/selfharm
Advice for Parents:

(Google “cutting resources” and “self-harm help” for more. There is a lot; figure out what you need.)

Finally, I want to talk to the friend who has been confided to by their bestie, about their bestie cutting themselves and asked not to tell anyone.

Loyalty – am I right? That is why you haven’t said anything. Because friends are loyal and don’t squeal on each other. Loyalty and trust. Guess what, there is one more part of friendship. That is love. And I am not talking about romantic love, but loving … caring … about the other person so deeply you want them to succeed, want what is best for them … even if that means you may lose them. I’ve helped friends find jobs and move, because that is what they needed. You may have hear love is an action. 

Your friend has told you something, and you know they need help beyond what you can give them. If you tell an adult or someone else, your friend will know you broke their trust.

Let me ask you – what is more important to you: your friend or your friendship?

After you think about that answer, if you want, show your friend this blog and tell him or her that you want to talk to an adult. Talk it over between you and figure out which adult that you both know that will be best to talk to. Then go together; be there with your bestie. Because that is really what friends do when they say they got each other’s back. They listen, they help, and they support. They act. Even when the going gets tough.

 

A to Z Short Story List Breakdown

Rainbow Spectrum (A to F)
Marathon Party (G to M)

Trigger: Cutting (N to Q)
4/16/2019 – N is for Nihilism
4/17/2019 – O is for Open
4/18/2019 – P is for Pause
4/19/2019 – Q is for Questions

Next: Bookstore Sort

 

#HoldOntoTheLight

About the campaign:
#HoldOnToTheLight is a blog campaign encompassing blog posts by fantasy and science fiction authors around the world in an effort to raise awareness around treatment for depression, suicide prevention, domestic violence intervention, PTSD initiatives, bullying prevention and other mental health-related issues. We believe fandom should be supportive, welcoming and inclusive, in the long tradition of fandom taking care of its own. We encourage readers and fans to seek the help they or their loved ones need without shame or embarrassment.

Please consider donating to or volunteering for organizations dedicated to treatment and prevention such as: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Hope for the Warriors (PTSD), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Canadian Mental Health Association, MIND (UK), SANE (UK), BeyondBlue (Australia), To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) and the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.

To find out more about #HoldOnToTheLight, find a list of participating authors and blog posts, or reach a media contact, go to http://www.HoldOnToTheLight.com and join us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/WeHoldOnToTheLight

Geeking Science: Grandmother Effect

Erin Penn

Photo by Aleksandar Popovski on Unsplash (Cropped by Erin Penn)

Family Matters

Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures. (Psalm 90:10)

Why do humans live past their reproductive systems? Nearly every other species continues to have the females give birth until it kills them. This maximizes population potential. Homo sapiens are fairly unique in that the females have their reproductive system turn off about the time system breakdowns will prevent viable births. Also about the time their children are having children.

The 1960s came up with the “grandmother hypothesis” after observing surviving hunting and gathering societies. Grandmothers are better at gathering and were more able to provide their children food – so those children were healthier and the children’s children were more likely to survive childhood ills. The ability to NOT have children gave an evolutionary advantage to the family, and, hence, menopause. At least that is the speculation.

Studies by Kristen Hawkes of the University of Utah done in the new millennium expand this hypothesis. She found that while a mother with one child who is good at gathering food will have a healthier child, this advantage goes away with two children. Then it is all grandmother. (The article by John Poole has a link below in the Bibliography. The article focuses on the hypothesis of how needing a larger social structure to maximize food for healthy children results in humans being social creatures from a very, very young age.)

Recently two new studies based on modern evidence came out in Current Biology. Jonathan Lambert breaks them down for NPR in “Living Near Your Grandmother Has Evolutionary Benefits.” (see the link to the article in the Bibliography).

These studies are based on the early industrial age and show how the grandmother effect continues even in more modern societies. A 30% survival rate increase between the ages of 2 to 5 when the grandmother lives with the child – nothing like expertise and wisdom. Now this bonus drops away and reverses as the grandmother passes beyond 75 and she takes more care than she gives. Death rates also spike as the grandmother passes beyond “usefulness”.

“Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures.”

If you are interested in where evolution, biology, anthropology and culture meet. Dig into the full articles, and maybe hit up the Current Biology scientific studies.

 

Bibliography

Bible. Psalm 90:10.

Lambert, Jonathan. “Living Near Your Grandmother Has Evolutionary Benefits.” February 7, 2019. NPR.com – Goats and Soda. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/02/07/692088371/living-near-your-grandmother-has-evolutionary-benefits (Last viewed 2/8/2019)

Poole, John. “Why Grandmothers May Hold the Key to Human Evolution.” June 7, 2018. NPR.com – Goats and Soda. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/06/07/617097908/why-grandmothers-may-hold-the-key-to-human-evolution (Last viewed 2/8/2019)

Geeking Science: Three-D Printing

Erin Penn

If you have been with me for a while, you know I am totally geeked out about 3-D printing. I think it will be world changing, and you can see my fictional examples in Keep Trucking, Pickup Line, and my winning flash in the eSpec flash competition for the February 2019 – My Lifestyle Choice is the Best One, Let Me Tell You About It. My non-fictional piece for Geeking Science is: 3D Printer Tech.

Yesterday, this came across my facebook feed. This! This is 3-d printing changing the world.

Geeking Science: Ancient Arts and Crafts in an Electronic Age

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I need art to stay sane. Right now, as mentioned earlier this month in my Magical Words post, I’m not doing any. But I need to get out in the soil and garden, break out my silks and embroider, stain my fingers with ink, and smear clay over the world in one huge mosaic. I need to do it soon.

And now I have scientific backing about how important it is!

In a computer age, where things are measured in the nanosecond and the end-product is somewhere on the interwebs, having something that slowly grows, where you can gain skill and measure the difference with your own eyes and fingers, is calming in a way a computer game never can be. We are built for slightly repetitive tasks where we gain improvement and have a product at the end; basket weaving and gathering herbs are just two examples.

Crafts heal the mind and body, fighting depression and social anxiety. According to research, the benefits include:

relaxation; relief from stress; a sense of accomplishment; connection to tradition; increased happiness; reduced anxiety; enhanced confidence, as well as cognitive abilities (improved memory, concentration and ability to think through problems). (Luckman, 2018)

Basically crafting is a form of mediation, giving similar results including reduction of stress and fighting inflammation. Moving the fingers to create something that requires concentration, but not thought, gives the brain the time out desperately needed to decouple from the brain weasels presenting scenarios of disaster. 

“Playing” with arts and crafts provides the body something to do while the brain is relaxing. And the brain relaxes best, interestingly enough, when it gets used in a new way. Working in crafting involves:

many different areas of your brain. It can work your memory and attention span while involving your visuospatial processing, creative side and problem-solving abilities. (Wilson, 2015)

I could use some of that in my life right now. Mediation, relief from stress, and increased happiness. Maybe I do have time to break out the pins and needles.

 

Biography

Luckman, Susan. “In Our Brutal Modern World, Science Shows Our Brain Need Craft More Than Ever”. The Conversation. 2018 July 28. (last viewed 1/26/2019: https://www.sciencealert.com/modern-life-is-brutal-here-s-why-craft-is-so-good-for-our-health)

Wilson, Jacque. “This is your brain on crafting.” CNN. 2015 January 5. (last viewed 1/26/2019: https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/25/health/brain-crafting-benefits/index.html)

Editing Rant: Bruised and Battered

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of artur84 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I get it. Really I do. Action means characters get into fights. Thriller, mystery, urban fantasy, sword & sorcery – fist-to-cuffs and knife fights, sword clangs and gunshots.

But what makes all these so thrilling is the threat of injury. Not necessarily death; even simple disablement could mean the difference between finding the treasure or the enemy staying two steps ahead.

For the threat of injury to carry weight, the consequences of any injury need to be real and continuous. If a normal person gets a shiner, it takes a couple days for the swelling to go down. A healthy teenager or twenty-something will have a visible bruise for ten days to two weeks; while a sixty-year old, slow to heal and with thinner skin providing more visible bruising, may take a couple months. If writing a fantasy, such  as a superhero or werewolf, healing will be faster and pain is the biggest threat.

This editing rant is based on a book I read (not edited), published by a big house for a named author. A cyber-thriller with “normal” human beings who were exceptional hackers.

I’m going to call them “continuity” issues.

The main point-of-view character gets beat up, a lot. Before his arrest, some people who he had hacked found him and registered their discontent. He barely pulled himself home with a loose tooth, split lip, likely black eye (swelling), and BROKEN ribs (he heard the snap). He arrives home to find the feds, who taser him. Tasering in the real world makes all your muscles contract, which wouldn’t help his injuries but wouldn’t make them noticeably worse. Next time we see the POV, the agent-in-charge only notices the split lip. Please note BRUISED ribs take three to six weeks to heal in healthy adults, BROKEN ribs more so. The book narration reports no medical evaluations or intervention.

When he meets the rest of the hackers, no one thinks anything of his injuries even though they all sleep in the same area. Have you ever gotten out of bed with bruised ribs? I have. Unfun.

How long has passed between the first fight and him getting stuck in the dorm room? No clue, this “thriller” has no ticking clock, and therefore no thriller ride. Best I could figure is about a week, likely less.

The second day in the secret hacker prison/”work-for-us-and-we-erase-stuff” location, the POV gets tasered again and, the same day, a guard “pistons a fist into his side”. Even if the ribs were bruised and on the other side, I seriously doubt a geek-hacker would “launch himself upwards” swinging fists. Getting punched that hard hurts, knocks breath from the body. Doing it in a body area undergoing healing, opposite side (no side specified for either injury so let’s be generous and say opposite side) just means both sides are non-functional.

The POV continues to be a punching bag throughout the story, but I gave up at 25% of the book because the injuries of this normal human being had no impact on his life or the story.

I understand. Someone getting beating bloody in a thriller is a wonderful image. But obey the rules of the world. If you have normal people, SHOW the consequences of the injuries, CONTINUE the consequences of the injuries.

Editing Rant: How Injuries Work Series
1. Bruised and Battered (8/14/2018)
2. Gonna Leave a Bruise (4/13/2021)
3. The Burn (8/13/2024)