> You aren't getting into an Escalade, but typically a Toyota or Honda.
Keep in mind that popular cars in the US can be luxury cars in Brazil. My Brazilian friends' first reaction when I tell them I have a Honda Civic here is "damn, freaking awesome, you're loaded!"... and then I tell them that's a pretty basic car in America :)
> Actually apply maths, including algebra and geometry, to real-life scenarios.
I very much agree with this. Back when I was in high school we had some overlapping topics in Math and Physics. But in the Physics class we'd actually see things applied to the real world (e.g. a quadratic equation representing the trajectory of a cannon ball), and that made the stuff learned in Math a lot more interesting to me.
> Unfortunately, learning how to take care of your own body,
This should be fixed in PE. I only got interested in being active after I was already an adult (and a very sedentary one). For years I hated the thought of doing physical activity because I associated it with PE class and all the bullshit I had to endure (bullying and having no option but to play sports I didn't really like).
Would be nice if we were taught at school about body composition, nutrition, different results you can get from exercise (strength, hypertrophy, endurance, that kind of thing). PE is often instead a bunch of random stuff with no explanation of what results can be expected.
To make it worse I tend to start stuttering when asked things on the spot, even though I know the answers or could easily look up whatever info was asked for. I'm painfully aware this makes me look like I don't know what I'm doing. People generally don't have the patience to let me gather my thoughts and give a coherent explanation/answer.
Now I'm wondering if I have some degree of that. I've just commented on a sibling comment that while I love exercising, I just feel terrible right after it.
I also have this funny thing where I can't build endurance. I've been doing push ups on every work out and I can't for the life of me do more than 20. But I have no trouble increasing difficulty (putting hands closer, elevating feet, etc.) or weight (for things with weights like squats).
After insisting on it for quite some time I am at a point where I love working out and hate missing a day in my routine. But I definitely DON'T feel great after exercising. I get this horrible feeling like I'm close to passing out, my whole body shakes and I just want to curl up in a corner and wait until that feeling is gone. I look forward to exercising and making progress but definitely not to how I feel right after it.
I'm confused. I thought Jantelagen (mentioned in a sibling comment) was all about not promoting oneself above the collective. Maybe someone explained it completely wrong to me?
Also, I though the idea of Lagom was that one should not pursue material wealth and success above what is "good enough".
The problem is the implication that "fun and gaming strategies are legitimate pursuits for a child" are only present in games with in-app purchases. That makes no sense at all.
I used to work for a company that did software development work for the local subsidiary of a multinational corporation. The corporation was their sole customer.
At some point the corporation decided it wouldn't outsource software development work anymore. They hired some of the key people at my former employer (by then I had already moved somewhere else), and almost overnight they had to close shop because they didn't have a source of revenue anymore.
I just do. I used to do psychoanalysis before coming to the US and that helped a ton. I haven't looked for a therapist here, so it's a little worse now.
One thing that helped me deal better with it was getting married, and specifically getting married to a woman who had a child. This suddenly took a lot of my focus out of myself, since now I have to care for others. It also puts me in a "I can't fail" mental mode which has me worrying somewhat less than in years past. But it's still pretty bad, I just don't panic as much anymore.
Another thing that made a significant difference was starting an exercise routine. It makes me feel healthier and therefore less worried about coming down with a terrible disease.
Are test scores calculated relative to the top performer - so that there will always be bottom performers - or is there a bar that everyone could clear so no student would be shamed?
> It's mind boggling (no pun intended) how far psychosomatic illness can go, even as far as resulting in blindness, seizures, and paralysis.
While I don't have physical symptoms as severe as those you listed, that's pretty much how my health anxiety manifests. I don't just have obsessive thoughts over being sick. I actually feel things. And my anxiety is not thoughts -> symptoms, it's the other way around. I start having a bunch of symptoms, give it some time hoping they will go away, but they don't. So I can't help but think something is seriously wrong. There are instances where I've dealt with a set of symptoms for a whole year.
A few examples:
- When I'm anxious over a brain aneurysm or brain tumor, it's because I started having visual distortions, tingling, my mouth won't widen on one side when I smile, etc.
- I was once worried about carotid artery dissection, because I could hear my pulse in one ear and it would stop when I pressed against my carotid on the same side (a telltale sign of CAD). MRIs in the ER revealed nothing.
- My heart acts up with PVCs every now and then, and they are so unpleasant that it's nearly impossible not to think I have a serious heart condition. PVCs can be common when people are really anxious or stressed out, but in my case they just come about in my most serene moments it seems.
- I start worrying about colon cancer whenever I get alternate bouts of diarrhea and constipation, coupled with frequent abdominal cramps. This particular anxiety gets to the point where I see blood when inspecting my output in the toilet, only for it to disappear when I blink. Mind you, it's not "hm I think that tiny spec might be blood". I actually see streaks of blood when I first look at it.
- At some point last year I started having sudden weakness in my right arm. I couldn't hold parts of it flexed, and things just seemed heavier. I was sure I had a degenerative disorder of some sort. But then it just went away after several weeks.
I could go on and on and on. It's horrible. Friends and family don't understand me, no matter how much I try to explain to them that I'm not just thinking about being sick (I'm actually trying hard NOT to think about it), but I'm really feeling a whole bunch of stuff. They always revert to "stop thinking about it and it will go away". So frustrating.
Keep in mind that popular cars in the US can be luxury cars in Brazil. My Brazilian friends' first reaction when I tell them I have a Honda Civic here is "damn, freaking awesome, you're loaded!"... and then I tell them that's a pretty basic car in America :)