Tag: Mental Health

Political Strategy or Mental Illness? Analyzing Trump’s Statements

President Trump is described as “delusional” by mental health professionals, political commentators, and world leaders due to his persistent assertion of claims that directly contradict documented facts. These descriptions often center on several key behaviors:

Clinical and Psychological Perspectives

  • Fixed False Beliefs: Psychiatrists define a delusion as a “fixed false belief” that is resistant to reason or confrontation with fact. Experts have cited his insistence on “stolen” elections and exaggerated crowd sizes as fulfilling this criteria.
  • Narcissistic Personality: Many specialists argue his perceived delusions are rooted in Malignant Narcissism or Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which can lead to a “delusional detachment from reality” to protect an inflated self-image or “personal myth of greatness”.
  • The Gospel of Positive Thinking: Some analysts link his behavior to his lifelong adherence to Norman Vincent Peale’s “Power of Positive Thinking,” where reality is shaped by one’s own mental attitude, leading to a refusal to acknowledge negative outcomes. 

Recent Examples and Actions (2024-2025)

  • Economic Claims: Critics describe his 2025 assertions that tariffs “magically” bring in billions from foreign countries—rather than taxing domestic consumers—as economically “nuts” and detached from reality.
  • Polling Discrepancies: In late 2025, Trump was described as delusional for claiming he had the “highest poll numbers” of his career on Truth Social, despite concurrent data from the Associated Press and Fox News showing some of his worst approval ratings.
  • Foreign Policy Assertions: Observers pointed to “delusional fantasies” in his 2025 claims regarding foreign leaders, such as incorrectly stating he ended a war between Azerbaijan and Albania (two countries not at war) and suggesting he could “own” or “take over” the Gaza Strip for real estate development.
  • Annexation of Canada: His public discussion in 2025 about Canada potentially becoming the “51st state” was cited as an example of a belief system that ignores the reality of sovereign nations and public opinion.

Debates and Counterpoints

  • Political Strategy vs. Mental Illness: Some observers argue he is “crazy like a fox,” using conspiracy theories and falsehoods as calculated tools for political success rather than out of a true clinical delusion.
  • The Goldwater Rule: The American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater Rule” prohibits members from diagnosing public figures without a personal examination, causing some professionals to push back against colleagues who label the president “delusional” publicly.
  • “Trump Derangement Syndrome”: Supporters often use this term to argue that it is actually his critics who are delusional, reacting irrationally to his unconventional but effective political style. 
Buffalo Springfield – For What It’s Worth (Official Audio)

The gift of lighting up the dark

The “skill psychologically of lighting up the dark” can be described as resilience and learned optimism, which involves acknowledging difficult emotions (the “darkness”) while actively cultivating hope and developing practical skills to navigate challenges and promote well-being. This concept draws on various psychological principles, including Jungian psychology and positive psychology. 

Key Psychological Concepts

  • Balance of Opposites (Jungian Psychology): Psychologist Carl Jung noted that light and darkness coexist; one cannot exist without the other. The “skill” involves achieving a healthy balance rather than trying to eliminate darkness entirely. It suggests that there is value (or “gold”) to be found in understanding and integrating one’s “shadow” side (repressed or unacknowledged parts of the personality).
  • Resilience: This is the mental and emotional ability to adapt to adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or stress. It is a key skill for navigating the “dark times” in life, enabling individuals to bounce back from challenges and learn from them.
  • Learned Optimism: A concept developed by Martin Seligman, this skill involves intentionally changing one’s perspective and challenging automatic negative thoughts. It is about how we interpret events, not changing reality itself.
  • Hope as an Active Mindset: Hope is not a passive emotion but an active mindset that involves setting goals, identifying pathways to achieve them, and maintaining a positive outlook even amidst obstacles.
  • Emotional Regulation and Processing: The ability to sit with pain and uncertainty, process difficult emotions, and avoid “toxic positivity” (dismissing genuine suffering) is crucial for healing and growth. 

Skills and Strategies

Cultivating the skill of “lighting up the dark” involves several practical strategies:

  • Awareness and Acceptance: Acknowledging and accepting the reality of one’s inner and outer “dark spaces” (sadness, fear, uncertainty) is the first step toward finding a path forward.
  • Practicing Gratitude: Actively looking for things to be grateful for, even in difficult times, can build a more positive outlook.
  • Seeking Support: Reaching out to others and leveraging empathy from friends, family, or professionals can provide the “candle” needed to find one’s way through challenging times.
  • Self-Care and Self-Compassion: Prioritizing physical and mental well-being (sleep, nutrition, exercise) and treating oneself with kindness helps build the necessary energy and resilience to cope with challenges.
  • Mindfulness and Reflection: Engaging in self-reflection through methods like journaling helps identify negative patterns and work through emotions.
  • Purpose and Action: Focusing on solutions, contributing to the well-being of others (kindness), and engaging in goal-oriented behavior can provide meaning and purpose during difficult periods. 

Ultimately, this skill is about acknowledging the dualism of light and dark within human experience and developing the psychological tools to navigate this balance effectively for overall well-being. 

Why Learning from Mistakes is Crucial

A repeated mistake is like running around on a giant hamster wheel, exhausted and weary not knowing how to step off the darn thing or where the stop button is or not knowing when or how to press the stop button or how or when to step off. Repeating the same mistakes again and again while not learning a thing from them is defiantly a mad idea!

To repeat a mistake is often described as making a choice rather than an accident the second or subsequent time. 

Common sayings and proverbs related to this concept include:

  • “A mistake repeated more than once is a choice.” – Paulo Coelho
  • “You can never make the same mistake twice because the second time you make it, it’s not a mistake, it’s a choice.” – Unknown
  • “If you make the same mistake twice, it is no longer a mistake, it is a habit.”
  • “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” (Often attributed to Albert Einstein, but likely not his)
  • “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
  • “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly” (from the Book of Proverbs in the Bible). 

The underlying idea in these expressions is the importance of learning from past errors and taking responsibility for one’s actions and the resulting consequences.

It seems to me politics is the biggest field of play, where this type of collective irresponsibility tends to take place.

Where an elected wealth of political officials, wish to control our finances and keep people within poverty instead of lifting them up out of it, maintain and enhance their own wealth crying foul to those from abroad that might no longer wish to be impoverished . Hmm what would Jesus think of such monetarising people and forces? From what I have read of the bible and learned from my religious teachers then those that choose to enrich themselves at the expense of others such as billionaires, wealthy politicians, using their own power to line their pockets with even greater profits, would repulse the son of god and if you believe in monsters heading to your definition of hell then that is what they likely are too.

What attracts, tempts or even provides people with conviction to vote for such inhumane politicians is hard to know what thoughts go through their heads or try to contemplate what they believe in and why they have those thought thought for such hateful people and views I do not know and will (god willing) likely never know or have.

Life is precious and time is short and for each of the power-hungry politicians voted into power across the globe chosen by their peers or people – Trump, Putin, Xi and Netanyahu are all incredibly dangerous political beasts we will be incredibly fortuitous to escape this time in the worlds history unscathed. Sadly each leader will be thinking from their own perspective, that they must be strong men in order to fight and conquer their own monsters. But what happens when they are the monsters that should instead need to be stopped or in someway fought.

They each poses within them the capability to light a match that within their hands could then set fire to million trees and sadly it takes only one of these four to strike first to make it all come crashing down.

When we are born into this world we arrive with nothing and when we depart this earth we depart with as little as when we arrived. It is what we do with our time here that truly makes our existence all worthwhile.

The National – ‘The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness’

Scientists have confirmed that Schizophrenia “voices” are the brain mishearing its own thoughts

In late October 2025, researchers from UNSW Sydney published a study providing the strongest evidence yet for the long-held theory that auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia result from the brain misinterpreting its own inner speech. Using brainwave analysis, the study showed that the brains of people experiencing hallucinations reacted to their own internal monologue as if it were an external voice. 

How the brain typically processes inner speech

In a healthy brain, a mechanism called “corollary discharge” helps to distinguish internal thoughts from external sounds. 

  • When a person thinks to themselves, a corollary discharge signal is sent to the auditory cortex to quiet the “inner voice”.
  • This signal informs the brain that the thought is self-generated, so the auditory cortex does not react to it as an outside sound. 

What happens in a schizophrenic brain

The recent EEG study revealed how this process breaks down in people with schizophrenia who hear voices. 

  • In those experiencing hallucinations, the normal suppression of the auditory cortex does not occur during inner speech.
  • Instead, the brain reacts more strongly to the person’s own internal voice, similar to how it would react to someone else speaking.
  • This confusion leads the brain to perceive internal thoughts as external voices, which can feel incredibly real and intrusive. 

Implications of the discovery

  • A new biomarker: The brainwave measurement used in the study has the potential to serve as a biomarker for the development of psychosis, enabling earlier detection and intervention.
  • Improved treatment: Understanding the biological basis of these hallucinations is a critical step toward developing more effective and targeted treatments beyond traditional talk therapy.
  • Reduced stigma: The findings emphasize that auditory hallucinations are not imagined or an indication of “losing touch with reality.” Instead, they are a result of complex changes in how the brain processes and attributes thoughts. 

Trying to avoid Bitdefender’s antivirus autorenewal trap

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – oops no that’s the wrong time, though the sun is shinning and the outdoors is warm and not to hot but its definitely not THAT time of the year.

Instead it’s antivirus renewal time for my PC or at least I am getting a lot of emails from Bitdefender telling me to renew my antivirus or sit back and let them automatically take out of my bank in September £80 (HOW MUCH).

Which to my mind is far to expensive and so I have decided that whatever I do I will not be automatically renewing it with them. Normally I purchase my antivirus software on another site on the internet more often than not on Amazon. It cost me £30 last year so I am in no hurray whatsoever to have exactly the same cover for £80 instead!

I have already found a replacement package of Bitdefender antivirus for 12 months for just £20 which I will be using for the next 12 months. But I was annoyed and disappointed by the fact they have set up an autorenewal for £80 for me which I am finding very difficult to cancel.

So I have been following the online instructions on how to cancel the autorenewal and when I get to the correct page on their software the cancelation button is just off screen making it impossible to cancel both on my pc and phone, very convenient for Bitdefender and a royal pain in the behind for me.

I have contacted there customer services team asking them to cancel my rolling subscription and they just emailed me back offering more ways of spending lots of money with them and not cancelling my autorenewal. So I have emailed them again asking politely for them to cancel the dam autorenewal.

I am still waiting for a response from Bogdan C. a Bitdefender Retention & Loyalty Specialist to get back to me on this matter.

Pink Floyd – Money

Three wise Monkeys, a western spin!

The three wise monkeys are a Japanese pictorial maxim, embodying the proverbial principle “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. The three monkeys are

Mizaru (見ざる), “does not see”, covering his eyes

Kikazaru (聞かざる), “does not hear”, covering his ears

Iwazaru (言わざる), “does not speak”, covering his mouth.

There are at least two divergent interpretations of the maxim: in Buddhist tradition, it is about avoiding evil thoughts and deeds. In the West, however, it is often interpreted as dealing with impropriety by turning a blind eye. Turning a blind eye is an idiom describing the ignoring of undesirable information.

I think over the next four years there will be lots of turning of blind eyes to Trump actions and inactions in both domestic and international politics.

The KLF – America: What Time is Love? – 1991 – (Full Uncensored 12″)

Mind over Mutter!

To mutter to speak quietly and in a voice that is not easy to hear, often when you are anxious or complaining about something: He muttered to himself as he walked or I heard him mutter something.

A week from tonight our polling stations where people vote will be closing about now and the councils will begin the count to determine which MPs are local neighbourhoods, towns and cities decide to elect and send to parliament. When I was 18 I studied Public Policy at Southampton Institute, I had learning difficulties and it was the first place I got offered that offered a course I really wanted to study.

It involved the study of UK contemporary Politics, Economics, Sociology and Constitutional Law. The course gave me a good understanding of and an ability to interpret political views and issues, while  developing my own views and perspectives on politics too.

Sadly though due to a serious mental health issue and drug addiction I only lasted on the course for about 18 months then crashed and burned. But in that time and to this day it gave me a good understanding of learning – not just about the power of education the importance of politics and breaking down concepts and rebuilding them back up again in my mind. But also the addictive and damage nature of illegal drugs the limits and fragility of my mental health and mind.   

After some real life altering choices which I mainly had to force upon myself due to the sad truth of the fact that for me illegal hallucinogenic drugs and any forms of cannabis are just seriously damaging to my mental health and an absolute no go zone for me and my head. From the age of about 16 up to about the age of 25 I still did not realise or believe the damage that certain illegal drugs could do to me ,I just did not want to accept it. I don’t advocate abstention for everyone and think many forms of drugs should be licensed or legally controlled not simply banned. But just as an alcoholic should not touch a whisky, I should not touch hallucinogens or cannabis due to the impacts on my mental health and life.

I have a form of mental health condition which means I have been on a form of medication that prevents or dampens down hallucinations’ for over probably 20 years or more now. The form I am on at the moment works really well for me and keeps me balanced and well enough to hold down a job and function having only had a few blips in my mental health road over the years and managed to stay on track with my life, job and home.

When I occasionally have, for want of a better word had a mental hiccup I have had enough incite to know what was going on and to ask for help and hold on for dear life and look after myself and all I am and have as best as I could until things calmed down and imporved. But saying all that if I knew what triggered these mental health incidents then I can’t promise I would try to do those things that increase the risk of them not happening again.

You still must live your life because you are still alive you can’t completely block yourself of from the things that you fear or hurt you in the outside world. To experience life is to experience a range and spectrum of emotions and experiences some positive and sadly some at times negative. The only constant that seems to appear in life is change and those that best adapt and act on that change are the ones that tend to survive and thrive.

Amy Macdonald – This is the life

Feb-Stress-you-very

Or February as some others like to call it

I feel like my body and soul was so eager to jump out of January, whilst not exactly sure what I was jumping into with February coming right up. I felt a little like my mind was racing and could more easily get stressed or snap at people and when you start researching stuff on google about issues such as why am I feeling stressed this time of year? Or why can I sleep like a hibernating bear and still feel tired? Or any other form of googling about negative emotions and this time of year then well to be fair your goner make yourself probably feel worse, a little informed perhaps but generally a lot worse too in the short term.

Although one good tip that I picked up from a colleague in work (and on err google) is that due to the ongoing lack of sunlight and lack of vitamin D in the body it can increase in seasonal affective disorder or SAD making you more tired, stressed and feeling flat or depressed. So I was recommended to and started to take some vitamin tablets and through either actually helping me or even just feeling better from trying to make some positive changes I am feeling less stressed and brain is racing around less.

I did not go out to a bar last weekend either a lot of my friends were going to a karaoke night and it’s quite busy and I feel a little uncomfortable getting up and singing there. So I did not go, it’s weird putting your name down their to sign on to sing feels like getting up and working there sometimes, as its a bit mad busy and hectic for me.

On the good news front though our wonderful landlord of the now shut Exeter Arcade is trying very hard to plan the opening of his as yet location not announced or revealed third bar. God bless him and all that drink at his future venue (when it finally opens). I have also booked a ferry, trains, a plane and automobile tickets for a visit to Ireland with my Dad which will be very exciting trip in March, to be sure, to be sure!

Lord Huron – Not Dead Yet

Hoping for an end to the January Blues

Well this month has been a strange one some nice things happened but some strange emotions and stressful times experienced too and I guess the January blues have just slowly creeped up on me as the month has gone on. I am normally good at providing support to others but not great at receiving support or asking for it myself. I often find it better to write about stress and challenges after the event when I have processed the event and come to terms with it myself.

I had just booked a week off over Christmas which did not feel long enough and then I booked off another week in the 3rd week of January. That was nice and relaxing but felt quite out of my depth when coming back to work, which had got busy and I started back with a very early start after a night of not sleeping well. There were things I had to try and deal with that were stressful and challenging as soon as I walked back through the door into the office. I am hoping that February will bring in a little more calmness, stability and cheer but there will be hard work ahead too.

I get restless sometimes at this time of year and want to try changing things that I don’t think are working or healthy for me.

Ella Grace – Wild Roads

Friend’s digital meltdowns

Well not a cheery title but I am struggling to know how else to express the view I wish to share. There are a number of friends that have been in crisis this year and in order to express themselves and communicate in these situations post messages on social media (mostly on Facebook, posting  messages such as “I’m done” or “I can’t do this anymore” or “Tell my family that I love them” with out further clarifications on why they are stating this leading to other friends then having to chase them around social media asking them what is going on or providing them with reassurance or trying to prevent a potential suicide.

I find these crisis messages deeply distressing having lost my brother, an aunt and nearly a cousin all to suicide, if I can help someone face to face, I will but I just don’t know how to react to Facebook messages with people expressing hurt, anger and pain while in crisis. Some people do it so often to them it’s just a form of communication which is very confusing and worrying. I assume some people like to let off steam and express anger and frustration online (and that’s what I am doing right now!)

My Bro Andy

It would have been my brothers 51st birthday this Wednesday 29th November and having lost him, he has left a huge hole in many people’s lives and left an imprint of both pain and joy on many a good soul. When other’s are prepared to hurt themselves an their own family and friends the way my brothers suicide hurt us, I do wonder if they have a lack of insight on the pain that their death will cause others and also a lack of insight into the benefits of living not just for one self but in order to help and be of assistance to others too.

Trying to commit suicide, threatening to kill yourself or sadly succeeding in committing suicide are all irreparably damaging decisions and acts that have a serious consequences on you and all those that know and love you, which if done can never be taken back.

Surely if there is an obstacle in your life you can either break it down, move it out the way or if too big to move you turn change direction and go another way.  Nobody said life will or should be easy but it is still worth living and having an experience within.

Life can and does get hard at times but life and the people within this life are also amazingly beautiful. I think we all underestimate our own inner and outer beauty that others see in us and also the amount that we are loved. If we knew just how beautiful and loved the world and our friends and family feel to us from having each other in our lives then we might not need to put all that we are and have at risk and threaten to ourselves and others of the need to take that beauty and love away.

Mumford and Sons – Awake my Soul