so my daughter is going through what we think is a cold. she had a fever Friday through Sunday. it is nearly impossible to get meds in her or anything. she starts gagging and freaking out at the sight of an oral syringe and will not take anything if she senses the medication in it. we have held her down and shot the medication between her teeth but 50% of the time she'll throw it up.

even with her congested I can't get the nose frida anywhere near her. she's even freaking out when I try taking her temperature under her armpit or whiping her nose. any suggestions on getting her to calm down with anything? she hates being messed with.

Pics: https://imgur.com/a/RVhCc8Z

Our sweet rescue girl Jenny (with us for 4 months now) is extremely anxious, she doesn't do anything but cower, and we can't seem to find anything to do that will help. We have read so many articles, videos, r/dogtraining wiki and posts on fearful dogs and desensitization but she is so much worse than any of the examples or techniques could deal with so we don't know where to start. If we verbally praise her or pet her she gets scared, if we toss a treat she won't eat it until we are in another room and have been ignoring her for 5-10 minutes. She never leaves her mat/table den other than to pee on her pee pad in the dead of night when both humans are asleep. Trying to take her out for walks, get her moving around the apartment, or do any other kind of enrichment only makes her more scared. We have tried prescription meds and over the counter supplements but none have made any significant difference. If we ignore her completely she gets more sensitive to her triggers (us humans moving, talking, etc), so I (female human) have been giving her gentle daily pets on her terms. She seemed to enjoy this a couple months ago, but now she's becoming less and less comfortable with it. Please share any advice you may have, we have no idea what to do to help her, and this is no life for a dog.

r/microdosing Disclaimer

First Draft

• Looking for constructive feedback.
• May repost with new post title.
• This is probably an over-simplification of what probably involves many cascading processes with downstream effects.
• Although some may think if this is an over-simplification, I wouldn't like to see something more complicated. 😅

Introduction

• Citizen science 🔬 primarily based on non-human studies, AFAIK, and very little, if any, clinical research on psychedelics and tolerance.
• So more correlation, which does not imply causation:

[1]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

FAQ/Tip 021: Appetite ↕️; Insomnia ⤴️; Mood ⤵️ AFTER Microdosing

• 🚧 Work-in-progress 👨‍💻💭
• Working Title: Have changes in appetite, insomnia, decreased mood after microdosing? Then you could be microdosing with tolerance.
• Follow-up to this FAQ (time-permitting) and looking for anecdotal evidence examining the possible symptoms of having fewer serotonin receptors available for serotonin to bind to.
• Taking too high of a microdose does not necessarily imply a negative outcome. e.g. with a higher microdose suppressed emotions may come to the surface; which you will need time to process and may require the help of integration skills/therapy.
• Too much serotonin receptor agonism before the receptors are essentially recycled (and available again for binding), could lead to disruption to the serotonin pathway.
• Serotonin is a natural appetite suppressant, a precursor to melatonin (sleep hormone) and involved mood, cognition and memory. So negative symptoms associated with theses areas after microdosing could be a sign of tolerance.
• Sub-threshold dosing which is guesstimated to result in 20% 5-HT2A receptor occupancy^([a]) could be a factor in tolerance, i.e. a low enough percentage for tolerance to return to bas

Hi! New poster on reddit but I have been lurking since I got my Shiba. He is 4 months about to be in two weeks. I train him every day and touch his paws, ears, wipe his but on walks, pet him overheard etc.

He hates it when I pick him up, but he does jump on my lap to chew his yak or antler which I will take. For those with similair experiences or have known someone, did it ever click for your Shiba?

Hi guys,

So I have a Rhodesian Ridgeback approximately 45kg, 18 months old. He's such a beautifully natured dog. Good with all dogs small or big, babies, kids and people. Unfortunately about the age of 4 and a half months I noticed he was very itchy all the time and beginning to lose hair in spots.

Of course after going to the vet we had a environmental allergy test done which he basically blew the test up, being allergic to everything from grass, flies, tobacco, pollen, dust, yeast (and more).
He has been on desensitization for about 11 months currently, he is definitely a lot better in autumn/winter compared to spring/summer, but this season (summer currently) seems like he's reacting even worse then last year when he wasn't taking anything at all. He's constantly scratching and biting himself everywhere. He also has a double shot of cytopoint to help with the itching every 4-6 weeks as needed, which is seeming to not be as effective this time of the year. Also I might add we did a food trial to find out luckily he isn't allergic to any food.

I'm just wanting to know, is there any light at the end of this tunnel? It's becoming harder and harder mentally to be paying all this money (15k so far) and not seeing any results. I will never abandon him or put him down no matter how bad or expensive it gets, I just need someone to help me with a bit of hope, does it get better?

Thanks in advance for any comments, positive or negative as I just want to know what to expect over the next few years.

Cheers.

[potential trigger as i go in depth about types of porn]

i have ADD and a very impulsive, indulgent personality

started watching porn when i was 9 or 10. 20 now. been trying to quit all my life. throughout puberty i learned sexual intimacy through porn videos. all throughout my teenage years + adult years sex life has involved performance anxiety, difficulty maintaining an erection, and taking hours to finish, if at all.

i've seen so many naked bodies on my computer and cell phone that seeing a girl's naked body doesn't do anything for me. my porn preferences got more specific over time. never watched much sex porn, always just got off to the female body and it being touched. from massage porn to hypnosis porn to animated 3d porn to futanari and even trans porn in my most recent years. mostly just cuz its so taboo and weird that its exciting. i'm straight but found i have a porn-induced penis fixation? only if its on a woman. don't think i'll ever fulfill that sexual desire in real life but i often suck dick in lucid dreams because im so desensitized to everything else and it gets me off. i've also always had a deep sexual kink for body swapping.

always told myself that once i had a girlfriend and i could be comfortable with her it would all be solved. but i've had a girlfriend for 6 months now. i love her deeply, she turns me on, and she's my exact body type. we're extremely comfortable with eachother's bodies, and i still go soft every time we have sex. some days are worse than others. the first two times we ever tried having sex i couldn't get it up at all. we've been very open and i've told her about my history with porn, sparing details.

we have great sex to completion just about every day, but sex for me is mostly reminding myself to enjoy what i'm looking at and feeling and concentrating on bringing myself to an orgasm. its a bit of an out of body experience every time and always comes with anxiety.

i feel robbed of my ability to preform sex and experience the full pleasure of it. things are exciting until we are fully naked, then i often find myself staring at her body and grabbing it and feeling no excitement. it sucks to see her face go from "turned on" to that knowing smile when i go soft inside her. she's super supportive but it ruins the flow of it. its a total mind fuck and unbreakable cycle.

sex therapists are expensive and i can't see one in person anyway due to covid. what the hell do i do? i'm probably gonna book one anyway but w

Hey guys,

I'm into the process of desensitization for 8 months now, unfortunately it's not so easy as you have to keep 2 weeks distance to the Covid shots (and it's a bit difficult to plan those in advance here).

But everytime I get the shot, I'm getting a strong feeling of fatigue and illness that lasts for several days. In my amateur medical view I assume that my immune systeme is going bonkers because of the allergic substance that was inserted.

But is this normal that this is happening every time after 8 months? If you google it, it's always about reactions to the syringe, but I'm good with that. I only get a bump on my arm that lasts for several days. It's about the effect in the next days and I cannot find anything about it.

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and I would love to hear some other people's opinions.

The youth being desensitized to violence has been a thing people have loved to debate about forever. Usually blaming it on various games that are deemed violent like video games and, at one point, D&D but while I believe it is very real I also believe that the source is (at least as a much more primary contributor) news networks. The ability to access news around the world is just growing and the speed you can get it isn’t going to slow down. Of course, there are benefits to this but that’s not what I’m looking to discuss. As Long As I can remember I’ve been hearing about shootings, crime, war, climate change, and everything else at once. I have literally seen videos of people getting violently attacked or (an example from just the other day) a boat being crushed by a massive rock falling on it which resulted in the death of a person. These are all very real events that I’ve heard about for as long as I can remember and it is hard to care about any of this when there is just so much pain happening that I kinda had to become desensitized to survive.

While I’m sure movies, books, and games do contribute in some way (at least when I was too young to tell reality from fiction) I don’t think they can contribute the same as looking at the statistic for black trans women who were murdered or learning about the rates of SA as an Afab person. The internet certainly did a lot to desensitize me but primarily in presenting me with all the bad facts about the world and giving the whole world access to me, although the ability to find people like me who will listen and help me is a comfort I wouldn’t trade for almost anything but is also not the thing I'm looking to discuss.

Maybe it’s just me as adults who have always labelled me as someone with high empathy but I’m really curious about what other teenagers think. Both if they think Gen Z is really desensitized at all and what the reasons we are/aren’t.

First time poster, new to the journey. I’ve been watching porn since about age 13 (now 19).

I’m so sick and tired of this broken record of pure pleasure-seeking hedonism we’re all trying to kick for good. Like many; my dependency on porn for an orgasm and dopamine release, has progressed overtime to more, and more of a need for increasingly taboo, and extreme genres. I hate it, the shame only gets worse, as I’m sure many of you could relate.

I had a few girlfriends in high school, but never really had true intimacy or real sex. I had one experience where It basically took me forever to get an erection, and it was basically two strokes in and out and I lost arousal and obviously this experience was very off-putting for my girlfriend and extremely awkward. (so essentially I’m still a virgin). And other attempted experiences with sex were the same, except with no intercourse whatsoever. I would be able to gain an erection during foreplay, but as soon as the clothes came off and it was game time I just couldn’t get it up and the intimacy was nonexistent.

There’s a girl I’ve met recently that I like, and is very attractive, and I can tell it’s a mutual attraction. But I’m consumed by fear that I’m going to sabotage everything by the deep neural desensitization that I have caused by my progressing dependency on porn as it has in my past experiences. I’ve wanted to rid myself of my addiction for a long time but now that I’m approaching my 20’s it’s just setting in more and more that if I’m going to find TRUE love and regain my ability to have intimacy with a woman and not stuck on a 10 second dopamine release from pixels on a screen; I have to quit.

To all the former addicts out there that began at a young age, from the damn near start of puberty, is it possible to rewire the desensitization ? Even if it takes months-years ? I know of course it’s possible to kick any addiction, and I know I can quit. But I worry myself to death that this is so deep that I’ll never quite be the same. I want to find love one day with all my heart, and I know I’m a good person, I hate the fact that I watch all this disgustingly extreme shit just to get a dopamine rush and a lousy orgasm. Just really looking for some hope and advice here, I’m so thankful that there is a community out there like this one for how little this issue is spoken of in day-to-day life.

Thanks for reading, hope everyone has a happy new year.

Im in Canada and it’s -30 to -40. I try to walk my dog and train him with his reactivity but I’m finding it hard to train him especially because my hands and fingers will freeze each time I try to feed my dog treats to distract him. I don’t want him to forget about his training because we can’t go out as much and get worse at his reactivity (if that’s even a thing). Anybody tried to desensitize their dog/small animal reactive dogs by showing them videos of dogs playing and squirrels running around.. etc?? Or any other tips on doing similar reactivity training indoors?

So me and my dad have noticed that when he's playing (usually consists of pass the ball, tug of war, playing in water, digging up stuff) he for the most part, will ignore a dog that passes by him unless they engage him, even then sometimes he's so focused on what he's doing he pays no attention to the dogs. A lot of this has also happened off leash. If he wasn't doing these things, he usually runs up to dogs then starts running around.

For the record, he already does pretty well at a distance in terms of reactivity, and only starts reacting if a few meters apart unless in our neighborhood.

Someone recommended EMDR therapy for treating codependency.

Just curious if anyone else has tried it and if you have any useful advice.

Whether it was helpful, how to know if a therapist is properly qualified etc.

Remember LMC was ready for awesome September production? Then it became verrryyy limited Swptember production. Then it became no production. Then it became selling off the factory.

Ask yourself, was limited production ever actually planned for September or was it just a way to string investors along for longer? What you're seeing happen is straight up fraud which, we hoped, would end with Burns leaving.

It did not.

Looking for some advice/resources in regards to harness desensitization. Some background info: I have a 1.5 year old heeler mix I got from a rescue at 8 weeks. Ever since I brought him home, he has been really fearful and uncomfortable with wearing a harness and to a lesser extent being on leash. This also goes for any type of dog clothing (winter coats, neuter onesie) etc. I have tried different techniques trying to desensitize him to it: putting it on for meals, luring him to put his head through it with high value treats, rewarding him for choosing to come close to the harness, putting him on higher ground so that I don’t have to tower over him intimidatingly with the harness to put it on, wearing the harness for playtime only. Nothing has made an effect. Every time we go for a walk and he sees me pick up the harness, his ears go back, he slinks away from me hiding under tables or chairs. To him it must feel like some sort of punishment.

The harness and leash have never been used as a punishment against my dog. They are for safety and training purposes, and I strictly use positive reinforcement with him and always have.

The trainer I’ve been working with told me that my dog views wearing a harness and leash as confinement, and because of his breed mix, his freedom is of utmost importance to him. I’m coming to understand that he views walks as a stressful experience (even pre-reactive behaviour) and I know that the harness plays a big role in that. When he was a puppy he would either freeze during walks or pull, all in a state of panic while not being able to listen to commands. This has progressed to barking and lunging towards strangers at times, although with the help of our trainer we have seen a lot of improvement on that with some days being great and the odd off day. Going for walks without a harness is not an option, as he sometimes pulls and I don’t think it’s safe.

The harness we are using now is a Rabbitgoo harness that I clip at the front. I’ve tried several other harnesses and this is the one he seems to tolerate the most.

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions here. This sub has been extremely helpful in terms of gathering knowledge but also to know I’m not alone in being a reactive dog owner.

Hello all!

I am not great at reddit, bit of a luddite, ha! But I have found a wealth of information and experience from first hand accounts, so I very much would love any input from your lovely humans!

I am a Care Giver (and freelance artist, but... covid. eh) for a super awesome dude, family friend really. He is a 37 year old Male with an incomplete spinal injury. C4 C5

The injury occurred in 2005, and of course co-morbid conditions come along with it. Many, as a consequence of malpractice, and I would think lack of specialists at times.

Until you have worked with incomplete spinal injury patients, you really don't have any context on the slew of pain and unknowns. It's nuts. It has personally taken me a long while to connect so many dots with pain management, Autonomic Dysreflexia, Pain Management, and Sexual disfunction.

It's so very brutal, there is a lot of unexplored territory, and Thank fucking God for communities that do their best to share their experiences, it is priceless, truly. So an advanced thank you!

I am, I suppose, soliciting experiences had with desensitization. There are so many variables that affect it. Its difficult, personally for me, to ensure our focus is on one area, when pain is so systemic. Specifically we are on the journey of working on sexual function, and by way of that, various desensitization techniques and Pain mapping. I have come to understand the complex nature of Incomplete injuries and sexual function..... The constant looming threat of AD, spasms, the pain to just find any sort of relief... I understand it is a different complicated experience for everyone. Especially as it ties to sexuality. Trauma is both physical and mental, so I try and weigh that against pain relief and the need for dignity. We are entirely familiar with all of the different vibrator devises, medically advised, and otherwise. We have had positive outcomes with the Keon, paired with the Feel Good app.

I could write about all of the different complexities, and worries I have in assisting with this, but I would love to hear from any of you and your experience. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. <3

I will try to keep it short.At ~7 YO I got chased by a puppy.

Overtime I got pretty good and I'm barely afraid 20 years later, but there are some situations where I still dare not to encounter (Groups of Dogs, Really dark places, etc..).

I got a couple of bad incidents recently where dogs came running at me as if they're attacking, knocked back to square 2-3 in terms of progress made. since they were near my Gym and where I live in places I frequent a lot, my anxiety shoots to the roof when I am preparing to leave my house and/or go to/back from the Gym. and Since I go to the gym really late due to work..it aint pretty

Additionally, there are now 3 permanently residing dogs (~6 mo old, harmless, and I even fed them twice to gain courage) at my Building's entrance because some Asian residents feed them

For me this was the tipping point, I was terrified of leaving my house after ~8pm. It was like a mental mountain to climb. I eventually do it everytime but I feel like screaming everytime as well. This is the closest post on this sub that resembles my case

So I went to therapy, the psychiatrist said I had a typical case of phobia that is treated in 4-6 weeks/sessions using " Systematic desensitization" and no medication needed. I had my first session this week.

My problem is that I can't see this technique just completely solving my fear? the thing is I freeze/get slight panic attacks, and can only imagine being mauled! I cant see even 100 sessions solving that without medication of some sort. And that medication is "Courage Inducing", "Brave Pills" if you will lol, or at least being drunk/high even

my question in the end is.. did someone with a fear of dogs/knows someone tried Systematic desensitization and it actually cured them? I don't want to imagine the end of my life everytime I see a dog on the way to/from the gym

So my doctor prescribed me lidocaine to be applied outside only at the entrance of my vagina because I have nerve pain at the entrance which worsens my vaginismus/muscle and pain response to attempted insertion. She doesn’t want me to try any insertion or penetration (which is fine with me haha) until I’m done using the lidocaine every night for about 6 weeks. She said it was to desensitize my nerves but I’m a little confused because I thought lidocaine only numbs for the time being? Has anyone had success with this method of lidocaine use? I’m not opposed to it (except for it isn’t enjoyable to touch that area at all for me) but I’m not sure how it works long term I guess?

I also won’t be starting pelvic floor pt for 6-8 weeks at her recommendation of doing this first.

Editing to add: this was at my diagnostic appointment, it was my first time at the gyno and she is a specialist. I have vaginismus and primary vulvodynia (diagnosed due to the nerve pain before attempted insertion)

I've got a 14 month old poodle. Since before I got him he's been groomed, his breeder did it and then I started taking him to get groomed once he came to me.

As a poodle grooming is very important.

On the 5th or so visit to his groomer, they commented he didn't like getting his feet shaved and that I should work on that with him.

Since that comment, I increased brushing and handling my dog. Brushing is about 20 mins with a slicker and comb. During that time he gets treats or a bully stick. He doesn't fight me or even really try to mouth at me during this time since he has his bully stick. If he does try to mouth at me, I put my hands down give him a second and continue.

I get a call today from his groomer that they had to use a muzzle because he didn't like them messing with his legs. He snapped at them. They commented he has never done that before and the behavior was out of the ordinary.

Am I doing something wrong? Brushing was not as much a routine previously but now I've moved it to being something we do at least 2x a week.

I will note that he didn't have breakfast before the groomer so that may be an element but may be not.

I have been doing EMDR therapy for a few years now, and recently dedicated a session to my migraines AND re-processing all of the negative self beliefs that go along with them. I’m sure I’m not alone in having self-doubts and self-blame when a migraine is triggered. My session helped IMMENSELY with all of that. It was three weeks ago, and I haven’t had a migraine since. It’s the longest I have gone all year between migraines!! I was skeptical when my therapist suggested it, and I don’t think this cured my migraines completely, but just this bit of relief from the physical pain and the emotional distress is amazing.

Just wanted to share in case anyone else is in EMDR, or considering starting it. A history of trauma is common for migraine sufferers, and I have found EMDR to be a super effective treatment for many of my non-migraine PTSD symptoms as well.

For more info on EMDR (it’s fascinating!): https://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/

I have a female beagle who is 9 months old.

Sometimes she hears a sound outside at night and starts getting very alert, which usually escalates to barking. We have been working on using a desensitization playlist (this one) to get her used to loud sounds, but lately if she starts barking and we play the noises, that calms her down.

Is that okay, or is she relying on it for comfort instead of learning that loud sounds aren't scary?

So my wife and I have 1.5 reactive dog who has a fear based temperament. My puppy is very reactive and a high jumper. She doesn’t react to sports or some YouTube videos, but will be reactive to action movies with sudden movement. I am wondering for any strategies to tackle this. Today I used a licky pad and played the engage disengage game…any ideas would be great…she’s also reactive to kids on tv (she hasn’t been around kids).

So in the megathread of solutions, one of the case cited used rapid desensitization, which seemed highly effective once I read the article.

So how on earth does this rapid desensitization with autologous sweat work? Where can I get it? Or is it just a fancy way to say sweat theraphy?