u/bluejessamine

I have about a hundred small scabs/sores on my body at all time (arms, legs, shoulders, back, chest, face, scalp, basically everywhere) and I'm worried about getting an infection. I'm 34f and have been picking since I was a child, and never had an infection (or at least, anything serious. The worst I've had is a scab was a bit yellowy instead of the usual dark brown of dried blood). I'm surprised I've managed to last 30ish years without any infections because I've read so many stories on here and from other places of people getting giant pus filled sores that need to be lanced and have antibiotics etc. I have no idea how it could get that bad, but I'd like to avoid it if possible.

I also have dermatillophagia, so I sort of "eat" (really I just obsessively chew) the skin and scabs I've picked, so my fingers are always in my mouth, which I'm guessing isn't the most sanitary place, and obviously I end up with lots more germs on my fingers than normal.

Sometimes I dedicate time to picking, it's a calming past time (though I hate it) but other times, I do it without realising it. I'd like advice on what products would be good to use to clean the picked areas, and also advice on what I can do when I'm not in a position that I can just apply some sort of disinfectant, like if I'm in public or driving or something. Away from my medicine cabinet, basically.

I also have really bad ADHD, which makes me forget to do basic chores, like brushing my teeth, brushing my hair, eating, etc so it may be really difficult for me to remember to clean my wounds even when I am home and purposefully picking. Does anyone have any tips on how to navigate ADHD laziness/forgetfulness when it comes to looking after your body, especially in terms of remembering to disinfect stuff.

Tw: animal violence (very minor description of an example of my thoughts, I've tried very hard to make it as least graphic as possible)

One of my symptoms of OCD is violent intrusive thoughts. Usually I can get them under control, but when I'm in a bad place, I get bombarded with thoughts from this foreign part of my brain telling me to do bad things or with images of me doing violent things. The most common thoughts/images are me putting my cats in the microwave or pouring boiling water from a kettle onto my partners face while he's sleeping.

And as anyone with violent intrusive thoughts knows, it's so fucking scary having them, not knowing if it's really you thinking that or some bad part of your brain.

I've recently been in a really low place, and have been fighting suicidal thoughts and cravings to self harm, so these intrusive thoughts have been bombarding me at least once an hour. "What would happen if you put your beloved cat in the microwave? What would it look like? Do they really explode? Come on, do it!" Followed by images of my cats in the microwave and exploding or whatever would happen if you put a live animal in there.

Once, when I was driving, I had an intrusive thought tell me to run over a cat that was walking across the road while I was driving home from work.

It's getting to the point where I can't cope and I'd like some advice on grounding and on how to tell these thoughts to fuck off.

I'm on 200mg of clomipramine for my ocd, which I know is already a really high level.

Tw: abuse, suicidal ideation, self harm

First off, I live in Australia.

My (34f) mum (66f) mum has schizophrenia, but is in denial of it (that's a part of her symptoms (will go into more detail)) and refuses to take medication and have therapy. Three times in my childhood she was put into forced psychiatric care, which is how she got diagnosed in the first place, but I don't want to force her into that situation because I know from a lot of people that it can cause more harm than good, and from my own observations when she was there, she was much worse for the most part (she was HEAPS better when they forced her to take medication, but here in Aus, the law states that once the drs deem her to be mentally stable enough, then she can choose to take herself off the medication, which is what she would do and would end up showing signs later on. But I support her choice to take herself off them, because she says that the medication makes her feel ill, and I think that's a perfectly reasonable reason to take yourself off medication).

The first time she had a breakdown, she attacked my father with a knife because she had voices in her head that were telling her that he was sexually abusing me and letting his friends abuse me. I was about 3 or 4 at the time. She ended up cutting his palm so deeply that it required many stitches and 30 years later it still hurts for him to open and close that hand. That was when he called the police on her and they took her to the hospital because she was ranting and raving and not really making sense, and that was how she was diagnosed.

The second time she was hospitalised was when I was about 10, my dad went camping/hunting with his friends for a week and my mum kidnapped me, essentially. She was sure that we were being watched, and had been implying that for months leading up to the inciting event, but dad and I didn't really know what to do about it, and even when we called CATT (Crisis Assessment Treatment Team) for advice, they said that they legally couldn't do anything unless she out herself or other people in danger. Fair enough. So anyway, dad was camping with his friends and mum used this as an opportunity to force me into her car and we drove all around the city of Melbourne (where I live) for five days straight. The only time we stopped was at McDonalds for bathroom breaks and to get food. She did not sleep the entire 5 days, was driving non-stop and erratically, changing lanes and directions if she thought a car was following her. If she saw too many silver cars, for example, she would freak out and go through back roads until we were on a completely different suburb. Finally, she decided to go to the police for help, and told them that she needed government protection or something because people were following her for some reason (I don't know what her reasoning was, too young to remember). (At that time we also had a cat and a dog that she left alone at home the entire time with only a bowl of water and a bag of kibble she'd cut open and emptied onto the middle of the kitchen for them to look after themselves. So, she was also involved in some minor animal neglect at the same time).

Thankfully my dad was on his way home when the police called him and told him that mum and I were in a police station hours away from our home so he came and picked me up and told them that she had schizophrenia that was untreated. That's when she was hospitalised again.

The third time she was hospitalised was when I was 19. I was still living with my parents, because it's very normal for Aussie kids to live with their parents after 18. She started having an obsession with UFOs that started about a year or two before the inciting incident. Basically, she was convinced that aliens had put a chip or something (she couldn't even be sure herself) in me, she she drugged me with sleeping pills that she had from her Dr (she had severe insomnia, was up at all hours of the night, but never actually took any pills to help, so I'm assuming she told her Dr that she wanted sleeping aids for this ourpose) and while I was passed out, cut open my sternum. My dad had come home early, thank God, and wanted to talk to me about something and saw her standing over me with a knife. To this day, I have a 10cm (5inch) long scar on my chest that's given me a lot of insecurity about my body image and I don't wear revealing clothes, always have a t shirt on top of my swim suit when at the beach or pool etc. I recently got a tattoo to cover it up, and that has helped things a lot, but that's off topic, sorry. Obviously, we called the cops and they took her to the hospital.

She's had other episodes that were terrifying. My dad and I are huge animal lovers, and he had an aviary as big as a bedroom with about 50 finches. It was several thousand dollars worth of birds that both he and I adored. One time when he was camping, mum poured some sort of poison into their water fountains and mixed rat poison with their feed and they all died very painfully. It was awful watching them vomit blood and struggle to fly and crawl on their wings, some of them going through that for a few days before passing.

Most of the time, her delusions are very minor, like worrying about her reputation (like she's very worried about what the average stranger would think of her to an almost obsessive degree. I wouldn't call it narcissistic, but she's wants to maintain the image of the perfect housewife. If she were to know that I'm telling you any of this about her, she would probably have a huge breakdown because her image of being the perfect woman would be tarnished.

I also want to add that she's very religious--Catholic, if it matters--and has sometimes claimed that she heard Jesus, God, or Mary talking to her.

I don't live with my parents anymore. I've been moved out for about 7 years, but invite my mother over for tea once a week because we have a good relationship and I don't hate her for the things she's done to me, even though the (unintentional) abuse has left me with BPD and PTSD. I know she didn't do any of that on purpose, so I don't blame her for any of what she's done to me. It was 100% outside her control. I know a lot of things would have easily been avoided of she had come tinued taking the medication prescribed to her and if she saw a therapist, but she genuinely doesn't think she's sick, and she thinks that the drs who diagnosed her are in on a conspiracy to ruin the perfect image she sets out to have.

But recently things have started changing in her personality that make me worry she's going to have another episode. She and my father are married but separated. They sleep in different rooms. Last year she got rid of all the furniture in her room: bed, bedside table, wardrobes, most of her clothes, and most of her belongings. She now only has about 4 sets of clothes that she hand washes because she's suddenly suspicious that laundry detergent has poison in it.

Then on Friday, we were on the phone having a relatively normal conversation and then I mentioned that I was going to a concert the next day. I'm on the disability pension because of my BPD, PTSD and other mental stuff (autism, OCD, ADHD). She got mad that I bought a ticket to a concert (the first time in 4 years that I was going to go to a concert, and it was a band I really loved, and not a lot of the bands I like come to Australia. They usually just tour the states over and over, so this was really important to me and I figured that I'm allowed to treat myself to something nice for once. I saved up for months for the ticket, budgeting very carefully so that I could afford it) for the next day. And in her anger she said a lot of abusive stuff that was 100000000000% out of character for her. She is a very polite person. She hates when people swear. She hates gossip. She hates when you say something negative abiut someone else, yet here is what she said:

"I hope Layla (my 15 year old dog with arthritis and the early signs of dementia) is in constant pain from her legs. I hope every step is agony and that you know you're the reason she's in this pain. I hope her dementia gets so bad that she doesn't recognise you at all anymore and every time she looks at you, she sees a stranger and is scared because why is a stranger invading her space, why is a stranger constantly there? I hope that she dies a painful death like Bruno (Bruno was my childhood dog who died on boxing day in 2010. Boxing day is a public holiday, so all the vets were closed. I found him bleeding from his anus, so we were calling all the vets nearby hoping for one that was open, and finally found an emergency vet that was open (emergency vets weren't as common back then) but about 15 minutes into the drive towards the veg (which was an hour away), Bruno started screaming in pain for about 15 seconds and then immediately died. The pain still haunts me to this day) and that your last memory of Layla is of her in such pain and that you'll be forever haunted by the fact that you've failed her.

"I hope that Luna (one of my cats who has a cavity in her tooth and needs it removed as well as a general dental cleaning. We've got almost all the funds for that surgery, so it'll happen within the next month or so) will think you've abandoned her when you drop her off at the vet and that her last thoughts before they put her under anaesthesia is that she's scared and all alone and that you don't love her anymore. I hope that she won't survive the procedure and that you'll be haunted by the thought of her thinking you've abandoned her in her last moments.

"I hope that Selina (my other cat) accidentally escapes and gets caught by a fox (we live in a very fox heavy neighbourhood, and we've seen a lot of mangled bodies of cats that have been caught by them) and that we find her ripped up body on our porch and that I'll never be able to get rid of that image from my mind.

"I hope James (my partner of 13 years) cheats on you with someone prettier and thinner and who isn't an emo (yeah, I haven't grown out of my teen emo phase. Oh well) and that within a few weeks of being with her, he decides that he does actually believe in marriage (we've both agreed that we don't want to be married for a few reasons (weddings are expensive etc) but also, we don't believe in it. We don't think that we need to have a ceremony to prove to our friends and family and government that we love each other) and you won't be able to find a new boyfriend because you're so fat (140ish pounds... so not fat. But I've had a serious eating disorder in highschoo and she knows that my weight is still something that bothers me) and you'll be alone forever.

"I hope that your ataxia (it's a sort of mobility issue I have, another reason I'm on the disability pension) gets so bad that you need to have constant care and have to be forced into a hospice care facility because I refuse to look after someone like you. And I hope that while you're there, a nurse or a caretaker rapes you, and because your ataxia is so bad, you physically can't fight him off or call for help. You'll be trapped in a body that doesn't work. And I hope this happens every day for the rest of your life, which will hopefully be a long long time"

This is not my mother. Just last week, she gave Layla Eskimo kisses (rubbing her nose against Laylas sloppy wet nose), and picked up Selina and kissed all four of her paw pads before blowing raspberries on her belly (she didn't do anything affectionate with Luna because Luna is scared of anyone who isn't myself and my partner, and hides the entire time thay mum is over at our place) This is not the person I know. I know something is going on in her head to make her act out like this, and I want to help her but I don't know how. I can't call CATT because she hasn't hurt anyone or herself yet, but even if she did, should I? Because like I said, I know forced hospitalisation can be worse for some people. It was worse for her, but that's mainly because she was convinced that the drs were plotting against her. I'd like advice from people with schizophrenia on what I should do to help her while she's in a bad place, and what I could do if she gets worse.

I had an emergency therapy appointment with my therapist because all this was so triggering (the whole conversation with mum has caused me to relapse into self harming again, which I hadn't done in over a year, and I had to miss out on the concert that was the cause of this whole mess because I've been put into a suicidal spiral that I was so sure that I would step in front of a train or something to make the pain stop), and she said that I should cut all contact with my mother and I should stop making excuses for my mum just because she's mentally ill. But I feel that's really unfair. But my therapist also brought up that my mum might escalate and actually hurt me and/or my animals, which I guess?

From your perspectives, what would you want your loved one to do in this situation to help you? I'm mostly interested in the answers of people with schizophrenia because you're the ones who deal with the negative stigma and such and you're uniquely more experienced in this than people without.

That being said, I am still very happy to hear from people who have loved ones with the illness, but your answers won't be the priority.

I would also just love kind words because this has been really hard and now I'm paranoid thay all the things she's said will come true.

Edit: the band I was going to see is Escape the Fate if anyone is curious, lol

I saw a post a few days ago on the vegan subreddit (they make so many posts that its been buried and o cant find it anymore, and im also on my phone, and it doesnt give me the ability to link posts, so unfortunately i cant share it) about someone asking if they can put their pet cats on a vegan diet and the amount of people who said that of you feed meat to your pet cat, it's just as bad as eating the meat yourself.

So many people were bragging about how they put their cats on plant based diets and "my cat acts just fine!" If a good vegan person asked if they've had the cats get any blood work done, they're immediately down voted and told that vets push food brands on patients all the time, so they don't trust them to make the right decision because they're being paid by "big pet food industry".

There were a few vegans who were genuinely very good and explained that cats require things like taurine and high amounts of protein that cant realistically be gotten from plants, and even posted studies that showed that cats suffer under plant based diets, but they were called fake vegans etc and were just as bad as the people killing animals in slaughterhouses. Those same good vegans said that if labgrown meat was more widely available, then they'd feed their cats that, which I find completely understandable. If you do want to minimise your footprint and labgrown meat is available, then that is totally fine, because it's still meat.

Unhinged quotes that stuck out to me that I have to share are: "I think it's at least feasible that if plant food is processed and supplemented to provide ideal nutrition a carnivore cam thrive and even be healthier on a plant based diet"

Excuse me? Healthier??? Why is that always their go to excuse for veganism? Also, a carnivore is not going to be healthy in the slightest on a plant based diet. Taurine is essential to cats, which the majority of plants do not have, with the exception of seaweed, but even then you'd need to feed them a hell of a lot of the stuff to give cats the amount of taurine they need.

And here's the absolute winner of unhinged quotes:

"You're basically choosing between killing 10+ animals per year or at worst abusing 1 cat per year"

Holy crap, so they care more about factory farming than abusing pets that they chose to adopt and take responsibility over. Anyway, most pet food is comprised of offcuts, so it's not like slaughterhouses are killing animals with pets in mind.

If you're a vegan and want to completely avoid having animal products in your life in any context, then get a herbivore for a pet, like a rabbit or a Guinea pig.

I just had to vent because this made me so upset. The fact that they claim to be for the protection of animals, only to turn around and eagerly brag about neglecting (aka abusing) their pets is hypocrisy at its finest.

Background info on me:

I (34f) grew up in the Roman Catholic faith, went to church every Sunday as well as Sunday school afterwards, and have 13 years of Catholic schooling (private school). I also have a degree in theology, so religion is very important to me, but the problem is, I have never been able to have faith to believe in God, and it's not for a lack of trying.

I eventually left the church because I couldn't stand the hypocrisy of most of the followers I came across because they claimed to believe in Christ, but never attempted to follow his teachings (Jesus spoke out against judgement and condemnation (Luke 6.37 as an example, but there are dozens more that follow that line of thought), but never followed his teachings on mercy for those you don't agree with (aka sinners, and we know from the story of Simon the Pharisee where a woman who was a sinner (presumably a prostitute) washed his feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, and then perfumed his feet was forgiven to him despite the outrage by Simon that Jesus would let a sinner even touch him (of course, there is more to this story than that, but I just wanted to touch on the forgiveness towards a sinner aspect).

Matthew 5.7 says "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy", for example. I was taught during my time at the church that showing mercy calls us to respond to the needs of others with genuine compassion and love, regardless of who they are.

It bothered me that there were so many Christians who refused to show mercy and compassion to their fellow man, for example queer people, even though we are taught to show forgiveness to sinners (because the bible calls them sinners. I personally dont find anything sinful about it, but I don't follow every single rule in the bible, and most Christians don't follow every rule in the bible, either, , otherwise they wouldnt wear clothes made of two different fabrics, or would have the death penalty for women who arent virgins on their wedding night (I reference this specific rule in the next paragraph of you want a source as evidence).

But the thing is, I still believe in a lot of the teachings of Christ, and think that he has a lot to offer us in terms of mercy and forgiveness and how its wrong for us to judge, since that is Gods job to do, not ours (and before people come here saying that Jesus was pro the death penalty for women who weren't virgin's on their wedding night (Deuteronomy 22:13-21), I do want to point out that we live in very different times than he did, he followed Mosaic law, which Christians aren't expected to do. He did so because he was Jewish and such was the custom of the time. There are certainly many flaws in some of the things he says). But I digress.

My biggest problem that I've been struggling with is believing in God. I've tried so hard for over 20 years, and the internal pain of not being able to believe caused a lot of depression, causing me to attempt suicide multiple times because I thought I wasn't good enough or strong enough because the belief didn't come as naturally to me as it did others.

Now, thankfully, one of my priests told me that faith can't be forced, it either happens or not. He said I can go up to anyone and try to fall in love with them, but that's not how love works either. His perspective really helped me when I was in a low place, but I've talked to a lot of other religious people who said he was a bad priest for saying that, and that faith absolutely can be forced and that I just wasn't trying hard enough. And honestly, that hurts a lot. I want more than anything to believe, but it's the same as me not believing in ghosts, for example. It just doesn't affect me.

So I want to know people's perspectives: do you think faith can be forced, that you can will yourself into believing in whatever God of whatever religion you follow? Or do you agree with my priest? (Alternatively, do you think he was just saying that to get a kid to stop beating herself up and attempting suicide? Which is what I've had a lot of people say).

Please respect my belief (or rather, lack of) and don't try to convert me. It is very triggering and when people do that, it causes me to relapse back into suicidal thoughts. I just want an honest discussion on the idea of faith in God and belief in him.

For some reason I really like the smell of chemicals.

I go swimming regularly because I have severe fibro and it's the only way I can exercise without being in extreme pain. And one of my fave things about swimming is how much I like the smell of chlorine. It just smells... pleasant to me. When I leave the pool, I spend so much time just sniffing my skin and hair and it feels like a shame to shower it off.

Same with petrol. I love filling up my car because I'm surrounded by the smell of petrol and it just smells so good.

I don't huff the chemicals, by the way. I just really like how they smell. They're my favourite smells.

Is there anyone else who likes the smell of chemicals?

Does anyone have any theories on why they smell so good to me?

It had never occurred to me until recently that animals obviously need transfusions sometimes.

How do you get the blood? Like, what are the sources? Do regular civilians with cats sign their cats up to be donors and such? If so, how often would an animal need to donate, because I know that blood doesn't last long.

Also, do animals have different blood types like humans do, and if so, does that affect the donation process?

Does every surgical procedure require blood transfusions, since cutting open an animal (for example to desex a female) makes them bleed? Or is the amount of blood lost in a spay not enough to warrant a transfusion?

What is the process like when an animal donates blood? How much blood is taken? Can any animal be a donor? Can I go to my vet and offer my animals to be donors? Do you have many donors?

Because I often see ads targeting people saying that donated blood is on high demand, but I've never seen anything in relation to animal blood being in demand.

To start off with, I'm an ex Catholic. I have 13 years of Catholic schooling as well as a bachelors in theology from a Christian university. I fully believe in the teachings of Christ in that we should care for others, but I find it hard to believe in God (not any real reasons, I just don't know how to make myself believe. And believe me, ive tried). So, I like to call myself an atheist who follows the teachings of Jesus.

This is going to be a long post, full of bible quotes to prove I'm not just pulling things out of my ass just to prove my point. If other Christians want to debate me on this, please do. I've read multiple versions of the bible several times and know many verses off by heart.

Most Christians I know are hypocrites. One of Jesus's major teachings was to not judge. Luke 6.37: "judge and ye shall be judged, condemn and ye shall be condemned, forgive and ye shall be forgiven." Simple translation: mind your business when it comes to other people's lives, beliefs etc, or all the judgement you put on them will be put on you when you die and God judges whether you're fit to go to heaven. In this case, majority of Christians would not qualify to go into heaven because of how harshly they judge people in the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, people who want abortion, are other religions, etc.

You don't have to agree with them, but you shouldn't judge them and especially shouldn't make laws to make things harder for them. Jesus called for respect.

That is my biggest issue, but there's also the social issues that Jesus taught that people ignore:

Giving your money to the less needy, for example. My fave story about this is the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector (Luke 19: 1-10). Basically a wealthy tax collector was too short to see Jesus as he was walking through Jericho, so he climbed a sycamore tree to see him. Jesus stopped at the tree and told Zacchaeus to climb down because he wanted to stay at his house as a guest and get to know him. The crowd was angry, saying that jesus had gone against his teachings to go to the house of a sinner. But, being so humbled by being singled out by Christ, Zacchaeus said to the crowd that he will give half his possessions to the poor, and if he has cheated or wronged anybody, he will pay back four times that amount. That is what Christians should strive for. This radical change highlights Jesus's teachings that true liberation comes from a desire to right wrongs and uplift others, not simply to avoid sin.

Jesus was a protestor. In John 2:14-17, Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, and Luke 19:45-46, he started a protest when a temple was being used as a market/gambling den. It's commonly known as the time he threw tables in the temple, saying that they "turned it into a den of robbers". Jesus didn't turn the tables out of anger, but put of protest at corruption. It was a symbolic destruction at an unjust system. Christians arguing over the Black Lives Matters protests turning violent and having buildings burned and such have clearly never read those passages. He caused wanton destruction, purposely destroying businesses to prove a point.

In Matthew 10:34-35 he states "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." If Jesus were alive during the BLM protests, he would be throwing Molotov cocktails at the forefront.

A story that feels very apt to our current times is in Luke 7:36-50, when he dined at the house of Simon the Pharisee. Pharisees were a small but powerful group of people who tried to enforce their strict understanding of the old testament and often felt they were elite (sounds familiar?). It is the concept of the Pharisees that make me think of modern times, as it feels like a lot of politicians (and fake Christians, really) would fit into that group.

As they were dining, a woman who was a known sinner (most likely a prostitute) came and washed his feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, kissed them, and then anointed them with perfume. Simon thought to himself that if Jesus really were the prophet, then he would know thay the woman was a sinner, and he wouldn't have let himself be touched by the likes of her. Then Jesus turned to Simon and said, "Do you see this woman? When I came into your house you gave me no water for my feet, yet she washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss of greeting, but she has been kissing my feet since I came in. You did not put oil on my head, but she poured perfume on my feet. I tell you that her sins are forgiven, as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little." (For context: the washing of feet, kissing in form of greeting, and the oiling of the head was the custom when entertaining guests in your house. So that a sinner did above and beyond while a well respected man in the community did not speaks volumes about Simon's hypocrisy). If Jesus had been concerned about his reputation like the Pharisees, he would not have let this woman touch him. The fact that Jesus not only allowed her to touch him, but also so fervently defended her shows how much he loved this woman. It was more important to love the woman than to strictly obey the Old Testament.

His concern for the oppressed:

In Luke 4.18: "The Spirit of the Lord is in me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recover of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free."

1 John 3:17: "But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brothers in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?"

Racism is very heavily discussed in Jesus's teachings:

In Luke 17:11-19, he heals 10 lepers (whether this miracle is true or not is irrelevant [though I personally dont believe that any of his miracles were real, nor any other magical things in the bible]). He was travelling between the border of Samaria and Galiliee and outside a village saw the lepers (lepers were legally required to live outside of communities because they were considered unclean and sinful (as in, they got the disease because they were bad people)). When they beg for his mercy, he tells them to go to the priests and they will be healed (Levitical law required a priest to verify the healing of a leper before they could be allowed back into society). When they go to the priests, they are miraculously cleansed of their leprosy in front of the priests, giving the priests no choice but to allow them to live in the town again. Of the 10 lepers, only one of them praised Jesus, and it is revealed that he is a Samaritan. The Jewish people hated the Samaritans, claiming they were heretics, barbarians, savages, and unclean. Just regular racist stuff. By highlighting this lepers race, it shows the inclusively of Jesus' mission and breaks down the barriers between the Jews and the Gentiles.

There are more stories about Samaritans, the most famous being the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). In this story, an expert in the law tried to test Jesus by asking "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus asks what the law says, and the man responds with the usual loving God with all your heart, but also, loving your neighbour as yourself. Jesus tells him that he is correct, and that if he does this, then he will live forever in the kingdom of heaven. But the man wanted clarification, so asked "But who is my neighbour?"

In reply, Jesus said "A man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, saw the man, and passed by on the other side. So, too, did a Levite, when he came to the place, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came to the place where the man was. When he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he out the man on his donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii (a danarius was the average daily wage for a labourer) and gave them to the innkeeper. "Look after him," he said, "and when I return I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have."

Jesus then asks the man which of the three men in the story was the neighbour to the victim, to which the man replied "the one who showed mercy". While on the surface this may not seem like a story abiut racism, but when Jesus told this parable, it shocked and angered a lot of people that Jesus would dare suggest that not only a Levite, but also a priest would ignore a man dying on the side of the road. That the hero of the story is a Samaritan, was unthinkable to most people, because of the racism between Jews and the Sanaritans. To the Jews, a Samaritan was more revolting than a Gentile: a half-breed pagan. (Interesting side note, Samaritans still exist to this day. Samaria exists in what is now the northern part of the West Bank and there are several hundred Samaritans living in Israel to this day. Though they aren't treated very fairly, unsurprisingly). In the context of this story, Jesus used the backdrop of the Jew's hatred for Samaritans to show that everyone was their neighbour, including those considered an enemy.

Finally, in Galatians 3:28, we are told "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Meaning that racism, sexism, and--dare I say it?--transphobia has no place in Christianity, as we are all loved by him. Any Christian who displays any of those symptoms aren't following in Jesus's footsteps.

Anyone that disagrees with any of the quotes above should have the title Christian ripped from them. These are the direct teachings of Christ, yet I see so few people follow them.

I want to upgrade to a water pik because everyone says they're better than flossing, but I have very crowded teeth and was wondering if it would be effective in cleaning between them. Flossing is kind of hard as it is because of that.

I (35f) have severe anemia. My body, for whatever reason, doesn't want to absorb iron. As a result, I have several chronic illnesses.

I eat a 99% vegan diet, with the exception of beef liver 4 times a week, as made by my dietician. They were referred to me by my Dr, and they sent my blood tests back and forth to each other. Honestly, I hate it. It makes me miserable. If you think regular meat is bad, liver is so much worse. It's tough but also grossly spongey.

Blood tests taken both immediately after, and then 2 weeks after a 3 month course of iron supplements (ferrous sullfate) indicate a huge drop in my iron levels between the two tests, but my follate levels are really high, probably because I eat a lot of spinach (it's my fave veggie, so I eat it every day, with almost every meal). So, it's not follate levels that are causing my body to fail at absorbing iron. After a lot of trial and error and so many blood tests my dietician has basically commanded me to eat liver and says that it's unrealistic for me to be on a full vegan diet unless I want to have constant iron infusions, which is financially and realistically not possible for me. Even with all the liver I eat, my iron levels are at an average level.

Unfortunately, all my vegan friends have also turned on me because of this because they feel like I should just deal with it and I don't know what to do. I feel like a bad person because I still eat meat, but I have to?

Edit: taking iron supplements have been really awful on my gut, so I'd like to avoid them. They give me chronic diarrhoea so severe that I've had to go to the ER a few times and had gut cramps so bad I couldn't walk.

A while ago I made a post asking if it's possible to get an infection from picking, even if it's just small surface wounds. I've been picking for 30 years and have dozens of sores all over my body at any given time, and people said it's likely I had infections without even knowing about it, so I was wondering how to tell if you have one.

Last October my psych prescribed me on the lowest dose of vyvanse (I can't remember the number) and I got weird side effects that included my saliva becoming frothy and I would swallow it a lot, causing me to burp a lot (because I was essentially swallowing air), and the constant movement of swallowing would make my tongue rub against my teeth, causing me to have ulcers on it.

I was only on them for about 3 months until I begged my psych to put me on something else, but I still haven't taken my new pills (concerta 18mg) because I couldn't handle the side effects, and since then, I've still been experiencing those side effects. My tongue hasn't felt normal in months, its riddled with ulcers, I can't stop burping, and it's just awful.

Vyvanse has permanently fucked me up, it feels. I don't know what to do

I've been picking for 30 years, thousands of scabs with dirty fingernails or unwashed hands etc, and I've never once gotten an infection, and I was wondering if that was a real thing or how likely it is to happen.

My (34f) partner (36m) of 13 years has been depressed for some time, mostly because of finances. We live just at the poverty line because he has a very minimum wage job at a factory and I'm on a disability pension.

Because of this, his depression has spiralled and he has admitted to me that it's caused anger issues towards a lot of people at his work that make his life difficult, and that it's made him suicidal.

I don't know what to do to help him.

He's firmly against the idea of therapy because he had a bad experience about 10 years ago because the therapist told him to dump me because at the time I was suicidal. Because of that one bad experience he actively refuses to see a therapist, even though it would help him greatly. It's also a money issue. We can't afford to see a therapist. I've got some savings, and I'm happy to spend it for therapy for him, but he just actively doesn't want to go.

He's not self harming, which, thank God, but he told me that he thinks about killing himself every day, and my heart just can't take it anymore.

My partners cat is about 17 years old. He had her since he graduated from high school. He wasn't very popular, and once he graduated, his friend group either dissolved or formed even smaller groups. So since he got her, he was all alone until he met me. But that was several years of just him and her, and she was the closest thing to a friend he had for so long.

He begged his parents not to make her an outdoor cat, as they live in an area full of foxes and just wildlife in general, and sure enough, before her 1st birthday she was attacked by a fox and almost didn't make it. Yet his parents still let her out. So every night, once it started getting dark, he would go out and roam through his neighbours gardens and crawl under cars to find her and bring her inside because she would have stayed out all night if she were given the chance. This means that he grew a really deep bond with her, deeper than normal people would with their pets, because every day he had to go out and physically make sure she wouldn't get hurt.

We moved out together about 6 years ago, and ever since then, he'd been anxious that she'd be caught by a fox again because his parents are irresponsible and wouldn't do what he would for her. But as she's aged, she's grown more chill, thankfully, and now barely goes outside. She'd rather just sit by the fire or sleep on a nice warm blanket. Maybe 10 min outside to sit in the sun, but that would be the most of it.

She's so old that she's deaf and has to scream to hear herself. It's kind of silly and cute. But lately, he's been dealing with his own unrelated depression, but that's made him grieve pre-emptively for her. He's going through a point where he's not really talking to his family, and as a result, he hasn't gone to see her as much as he'd have liked. Before this, we'd go to their place every few months for a family dinner and we'd play with the cat, and it'd be nice.

Well, he recently had the chance to go see her for a few hours alone because his parents were out of town, and he still refused to go because he felt like he didn't deserve to see her, and that he didn't want to ruin his last few times with her with him being an emotional mess, or seeing her be visibly old, and acting old. He wants to keep her in his head as she always was.

He won't see a therapist because he had a really bad experience with one several years ago with one who told him to break up with me because I was suicidal at the time and just in a bad place. Awful therapist, right?

So yeah, I'd just like some advice on how to prepare for her eventual death, and how to help him when she does pass.

On an unrelated note, I have a dog who's over 14, and he might also be pre-emptively grieving her, as well. I know I am. I keep crying whenever I see her arthritis act up on cold days, or when I call her name, forgetting for a moment that she's deaf, that sort of thing. So I get what he's feeling on some level, but I need help for when it does happen. I'm going to have to carry the both of us when either animal passes, because he's going through a huge depressive, kind of almost suicidal phase right now, and it's a struggle trying to help him as is.

If you have any resources or something, that would be a great help.

Thanks in advance ❤️