u/northbound879

Hoping there's some former students still lurking here who can share when theirs were released. I'm really nervous lol

It annoys me when I'm having a discussion with people about a social issue and we're talking statistics and someone decides to bring up their own personal experience, as if it has any bearing on what we've been discussing. I'll give an example as I'm afraid what I've said could be misinterpreted.

To avoid sensetive examples, lets say there's a discussion about favourite colours. I might say that "Globally, blue is the most common favourite colour." Another party may argue back that actually, red is their favourite colour and everyone they know socially agrees that red is the best colour, so what I have said must be wrong. I am talking about what reliable research has found, and the other party is talking about their personal experience. My issue is not the other party sharing their experience, but them presenting it as a genuine rebuttal to academic finings.

I've been on the other side of this too, of course, an example being the statistics on Gen Z drinking. I heard discussion about how Gen Z drink alcohol much less than the prior generational conorts, and I had the knee-jerk reaction of "That's weird, because I go to bars often and they're always packed with people my age." Logic then kicks in of course, and I understand that obviously a drinker is more likely to know drinkers. And you're certainly going to find young people drinking in a bar, because it is a bar. So I remind myself that my experience is but a drop in the bucket and move on.

My pet peeve isn't even necessarily when people struggle to follow a similar line of thinking, such as the prior example of understanding influences on their life that makes their experience divergent to the trend, but when people instead refuse to admit they could be wrong and sort of insist that their experiences overshadow what studies indicate.

Yes, I am aware conclusions derived from academic studies can be just as unreliable. However, statistics drawn from research are much more likely to come from a place that has considered and controlled for environmental factors- for example, a researcher may be less inclined to gather data on Gen Z drinking behaviour from interviewing bar attendees because they will likely all be more open to alcohol. As such, as long as the person engaging with research understands the surface level of methodology and bias, the statistics quoted are significantly more likely to reflect facts than one individual's personal experience.

Spent 5 years in CAMHS, only got progressively worse despite medication helping a bit. The psychologist I was seeing dropped me at 18 without moving me onto other support. I waited ages to be seen by adult services, who told me there was no point and I needed to wait until uni to access support there. I emailed for help because I needed it and she told me I wasn't her patient anymore and I was in hospital shortly later.

When I finally got to see the MH team at my uni town, the care I recieved was disgusting. Nobody was sharing notes, so every session was my 'first session' and I felt so frustrated having to repeat myself on really sensitive issues. I disclosed a sexual assault to a worker who proceeded to misgender me, I tried to explain why my legal sex and appearance don't match and she became fixated on this rather than my actual problems. I decided never to return after that.

I'm in a really dark place right now. I really desperately don't want to go home from uni this month because I can't bear to live in that home environment anymore. I feel like I will do *anything* to avoid going home, if you get me. I saw the uni support services who basically told me I'm screwed and there's no way to avoid going home which has pushed me towards actively suicidal territory. I don't know where to go for support when every single service has let me down.

Not an Indian in UK but I have a question I hope you guys can answer. Partner used to clean caravans at holiday park and would take home food that the guests left in fridge, he brought home some frozen South Asian flatbreads once. I think they might have been in a green and white box but I'm not sure. I really enjoyed them. I thought they were called roti or paratha, but I bought something frozen labelled roti from a corner store and it wasn't flakey/buttery like the ones I had before. So, I now think I didn't properly understand what the ones I had the first time were or maybe there's different kinds of roti.

I would be very grateful if someone could tell me what to look for in the shop. I'm looking for a flatbread that is flakey and buttery and I seem to recall it was in a spiral shape almost? Thanks in advance

I'm mainly thinking about the very first time you get perscribed SSRIs, and they start you off on one and then see if you get along with it. Sometimes people are perscribed sertraline, or fluoxetine and so on.

I wonder what factors into that initial perscription. Is it patient factors such as certain symptoms or demographics? Is it more clinician preference, where the psychiatrist simply prefers one? Or is it just a guess?

Thanks!