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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIs WiFi destroying your brain? Mark Morford
Is your face getting hot right now? Do you feel an itch or a burn around your eyes, your mouth, perhaps a tightening in your throat? Are you finding it difficult to breathe? Focus? Swallow?
Here, let me adjust the frequency. It is, after all, a new and experimental WiFi system were testing in your home, very powerful, located in that box near your very delicate skull.
How about now? Headache? Feeling dizzy? Heart racing? Difficult to stand or walk? Yes, the blinking light on the box means its working. Lets turn the signal up, but place it slightly further away. Better? Worse?
Here is perhaps the far more important question: How much of what youre feeling is really the result of the WiFi, and how much comes from your anticipation of the danger, your expectation that the device must be causing you harm, your absolute conviction that, because Im telling you its so powerful and youve heard/read/been told of the mysterious dangers of EMFs and shadowy gizmo malevolence, it must be causing you ill?
The rest: http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2013/05/21/is-wifi-destroying-your-brain/
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)I'm protected.
napoleon_in_rags
(3,991 posts)I wonder if that author really understands how provocative that editorial really is.
We all get the idea that that in this society of junk food for instance, we are expected to take care of ourselves - which means not abandoning ourselves to the total crap food wasteland this society pushes us toward, lest we get obesity or diabetes. But what he is saying here goes a step well beyond that. He's basically saying that we are individually responsible for cultivating an optimal state of mind, which is not oppressed by so called these so called nocebo effects.
Cultivating a state of mind, whether the Buddhist's state of non-attachment or a PI's state of constant detail awareness is necessarily a discipline, which must be consciously undertaken, through practice and possibly meditation. It generally takes a predefined training path to follow which the individual can dedicate oneself to fully, at the expense of the personal "freedom" they attributed to their former mode of thinking.
The question is: Is this author, any one else, prepared to lay down the principles for the people's new mind? The training path for all of us to follow in cultivating a new mental discipline to deal with life? That's a big question, as such a person takes on both great power and responsibility. However if one isn't willing to put forth a new discipline of mind, sitting back and critiquing the mental operations of normal people seems like the pinnacle of self-important do-nothing nonsense.
PEace!
longship
(40,416 posts)I get a migraine every time I hear or read about EMF sensitivity.
Berlum
(7,044 posts)Last edited Wed May 22, 2013, 10:46 AM - Edit history (1)
Teh Crop Circle Overlords are part of this, some say. Here's the Evi Dense:
Skittles
(153,104 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)DeeDeeNY
(3,354 posts)BumRushDaShow
(128,351 posts)Thank you for causing my spewing of a sip of coffee.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)You can always trust Old Abe!
tclambert
(11,084 posts)Maybe as a liner for a nice stylish hat. "Keeps your brain from cooking and makes you snazzy looking."
mainer
(12,017 posts)she gets side effects from everything. I mean, EVERYTHING. Before she takes any medication, she reads the endless list of possible side effects because "I want to know what side effects I'm going to have."
There's an endless list of things she must never be exposed to, from alcohol to aspirin to MSG to smart meters to nitrites to nonorganic produce of any kind.
Or she gets "deathly" ill.
Unfortunately, she's part of the family.
napoleon_in_rags
(3,991 posts)How does she discipline her mind not to do that? What's the solution? This article gets at something real, but without putting forth a solution, to me its just frustrating, saying nothing.
mainer
(12,017 posts)We all have to cater to her every sensitivity or she has the vapors.
I don't know that there is anything she herself can do -- or wants to do -- because she's used to people scurrying to make her feel better.
napoleon_in_rags
(3,991 posts)Maybe one thing to affirm to herself when she wakes up in the morning, what would it be?
I'm asking because I think our whole society is like this to some extent.
mainer
(12,017 posts)I myself have never had a side effect from anything, so I don't understand hypochondriacs.
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)Unless she has a real mental disorder and in that case maybe everyone needs to demand she go for treatment.
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)We live in a society saturated with fearful things. Some are harmful, some aren't, but it takes a lot of wisdom and research to know the difference. On your list--MSG, nitrites and nonorganic produce are known questionable food substances to limit intake of or cut out entirely. (Who really needs bacon laced with carcinogenic chemicals)? It is also best to limit alcohol, food chemicals, GMO foods, preservatives and medicines as much as realistically possible. On top of that the regulation of purity and packaging and sources is lax. Who can you trust? Surely not the FDA. read up on GMO foods and you'll understand why Europe bans them.
Look --we have NO adequate consumer protections in this country. "Buyer Beware" attitudes protect none of us. I understand why some people choose to practice extreme avoidance and keep it simple. It's smart. My Dad was not so careful--he developed leukemia & died from a chemical he was ingesting over many years. We are exposed to harmful substances routinely now.
I could give you a list of medications that people take regularly that I wouldn't touch (and even some that doctors avoid themselves). But I won't because that's not OK here.
It's a shame that some of us become paranoid, a shame that people have to research everything they eat or medicate with, a shame that we cannot trust the suppliers of these products to have consumers best interests in mind. Even some of the "natural" and less harmful products still have stuff in them that aren't so good for us in the long run.
"Unfortunately she's part of the family" (Maybe there's something else going on here?) I say have some tolerance about this. She may be extreme, but she's more right than someone who thinks they're made of teflon.
mainer
(12,017 posts)The things she's "allergic to" just add up year after year, but only after someone tells her a particular substance is dangerous. She ate nitrites all her life since she loved bacon; now, at age 87, she's suddenly allergic to it. Someone told her that Smart meters in the electrical system could cause neurological issues, and she's got neurological issues due to the smart meter. She got a dizzy spell when she thought she detected a whiff of alcohol in a stew -- then we told her there was absolutely no alcohol in it, and she started to feel better.
After 87 years of age, I think it's safe to say that none of her allergies shortened her life span.
We've bent over backwards to be tolerant. I guess I just feel frustrated today because we've borne the brunt of it.
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)you gotta understand where the fear comes from. There are scary reports bombarding us all the time, and there ARE things to avoid (if you can figure out what they are). It's seriously confusing--especially for the elderly, but really--for all of us. Sounds like your elder has a typical tendency to age related anxiety. And let's face it, trying to stay alive & well at 87 is no picnic. Count it as good that she wants to live at all. So many get depressed and don't care anymore. Maybe it's her way of getting reassurance that you still care, ie. attention.
I have an 87 year old MIL. She practices some avoidances I agree with, but on the other hand is a guinea pig for every new medication or supplement she hears about. Right now she's into chondroitin because a friend takes it. She has no joint issues but has high blood pressure (which chondroitin can elevate). So she's taking something that is not good for her, based on mythical prevention of joint problems (she's slim and spry for her age and never complains of her joints).
When people get older, bodies are more sensitive, and IMO ratcheting down everything from alcohol to medications as much as possible helps decrease stress on a less flexible system. Indian yogis who have the bodies of 30 year olds at age 70 eat very little--a few vegetable proteins, rice, nuts, fruit. We would do well to follow that diet, especially when getting older.
I understand your frustrations with elder care & "bearing the brunt." Having gone thru it myself with my Dad I would say do whatever makes YOU feel better. Stay cool. Try not to tangle with her. Give her whatever reassurances she needs (even if you don't agree). Accept this change at this stage. She's trying to hang onto some degree of control. (But I do also blame this hyped up, paranoia-producing culture where we are conditioned to be worried about the dangers in basic things. Unfortunately because of lack of consumer protections we have good reason to be paranoid. She's not crazy, just anxious). Whatever she wants to eat or not eat (within reason, short of hunger strikes) -- let her do it with as little fuss as possible. Don't push anything. For your own sake.
Grumpiness, plays for attention, using their health/diet as a wedge issue--this is sometimes the way that elders separate themselves. They know they must leave soon.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)I have aunt who is 87 and a hypochondriac as well. In my aunt's case, she has been a narcissist for most of her life as well.
mainer
(12,017 posts)Whenever anyone else in the family gets seriously ill, she says, "What about ME? Don't you have any sympathy for how his illness is affecting ME?"
Yes, it's always about her. Even when it's someone else on his deathbed.
flamingdem
(39,308 posts)Sometimes the paranoid turn out to be correct!
Canuckistanian
(42,290 posts)I work with radio (RF Tech) and every time someone says that radio is dangerous, causes cancer, baldness, hangnails, etc, etc.. I point out that my colleagues and I are doing just fine, thank you. And we're bombarded by RF every single day.
And I think this "nocebo" effect is also being ruthlessly exploited by fossil fuel industries to demonize wind turbines and solar power.
I HATE pseudoscience and people freaking out about it.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)....and look how great he turned out!
Nothing to worry about.
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)first off, there are physical and psychological affects of abuse that are obvious and can be recorded objectively, along with treated. EM signals, if they did what so many CTs say they do, means that stepping out into sunshine should be instantly fatal.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)Contrary to what you posted, the physical and psychological effects of abuse are NOT obvious, and can NOT be recorded objectively,
just like the effects of PTSD are difficult to document "objectively".
Anyone familiar with the DSM III or IV will agree.
The effects are very difficult to measure and document objectively.
2)What is "stupid" is setting one's self up as the standard of measurement for good mental health. That BEGS for satire.
Some of the most maladapted Human Beings I know are IT Specialists or Engineers.
I always thought that was from an absence of exposure to the Humanities,
a lack of Social Skills, and the inability to deal with intimacy,
but now,
I am entertaining the possibility that these maladaptations could be the product of an overexposure to Microwaves and other forms of EM radiation.
...and interesting hypothesis, donchathink?
bunnies
(15,859 posts)LiberalLoner
(9,761 posts)Buns_of_Fire
(17,148 posts)But it also repels zombies, so I'm gonna keep it.
"But how do you know it repels zombies?" "You see any zombies in here?"
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)RagAss
(13,832 posts)Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Put the wireless router under the ottoman and help keep those chilly toes toasty.
The worst thing is the lights going dim when wifi leeches three neighborhoods over are downloading pron from bittorrent.
winter is coming
(11,785 posts)you could dry damp tennis shoes or warm your lunch in the airspace inside the back of the cabinet, although it was a bad idea to try to do both at the same time.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)Lone_Star_Dem
(28,158 posts)It reminds me of the witches of old. People didn't understand herbal apothecary practices of old, so the people had to be witches who practiced such methods. If you ticked off the "witch" and later fell and broke a bone, it had to be the work of the scary witch taking vengeance on you.
1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)Megalo_Man
(88 posts)But somehow I don't think the electromagnetic soup most of us are bathed in 24/7 is safe in any way, ionizing or not. I can clearly notice the difference when I'm in a rural area compared to the city. Call it placebo effect if you want.
Initech
(100,027 posts)Poll_Blind
(23,864 posts)They're like fire ants when I'm watching HD streaming video. Doctor said it was either a lifetime of Prell and bad dandruff or 18 months of what he called "nature's cure".
Yes, occasionally a pinkie will drop onto my shoulder at an inappropriate moment but they scurry right back up there.
PB