Oliver’s Travel

03/01/2021

Unfortunately for some, winter isn’t so merry after all. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a form of depression that people experience during a particular season and is most commonly felt during the winter months. It is recognised as a mental health disorder.

1. Know that your not alone
2. Eat foods to increase your energy
3. Work out!
4. Spend time with people who make you feel happier
5. Get all the natural light you can
6. Plan ahead and avoid stress

01/01/2021

The name Oliver is thought to have roots in the French name Olivier or the Late Latin word olivarius, which means “olive tree.”

The root of this can be found in the Bible, Genesis 8:11, when a dove comes to Noah with a freshly plucked olive leaf at the end of the Great Deluge. The olive leaf thus became a symbol of impending peace.

I have changed this page name in memory of my late grandad Oliver, a wise, noble and humble man whose plight will never be forgotten. 💜

11/09/2018

11/09/2018

11/09/2018

It's important to listen to our symptoms of stress. We often ignore the warning signs of stress. Stress symptoms are the body's way of telling us, "Hey, there! Something isn't working quite right in your life and you should try to help yourself feel better ASAP!"

I recommend writing down your particular symptoms of stress. Looking carefully at how stress manifests itself in your body, mind, and life is a great starting point for figuring out your causes of stress. Here are some commonly experienced stress symptoms to get you started. See if you recognize any of these in yourself.

11/09/2018

People who have chronic illnesses frequently end up suffering alone in silence. Today, with the omnipresence of social media, many of us “scream” into the empty void of the world by posting these “invisible illness” or “silent epidemic” memes hoping that other people will see them and understand the unobservable suffering that we experience. At least as often as these memes effectively communicate such messages, they become an annoyance for the types of people who want their Facebook universes to be hubs of happy family photos, self-celebrating selfies and inconsequential spats about my team versus your team. Whether it’s a football team, a basketball team, or a political team, social media unquestionably has made these tribal affiliations even more polarizing. Everyone belongs to an affinity group. One of those affinity groups nowadays, for better or worse, is comprised of people who live with chronic illnesses.

10/09/2018

Psychosomatic means mind (psyche) and body (soma). A psychosomatic disorder is a disease which involves both mind and body. Some physical diseases are thought to be particularly prone to be made worse by mental factors such as stress and anxiety. Your current mental state can affect how bad a physical disease is at any given time.

10/09/2018

People stay in these relationships partly because they are trying to win back the abuser's affection. However, Thomas told Business Insider that victims also become biologically attached to their abusers through something called "trauma bonding."

It's like an addictive drug.
It's a bit like becoming addicted to a drug. A psychologically abusive relationship is a rollercoaster, with punishment and then intermittent reinforcement of kindness when you "behave." This means the body is going through its own turmoil, with high levels of the stress hormone cortisol, paired with dopamine when given affection as a reward.

"You have this back and forth, and the body becomes addicted," Thomas said. "When we're looking for something that we want, that we once had, which is a connection with somebody, and they are playing cat and mouse where they are pulling it back and forth, then the body really does become dependent on having that approval."

This hormonal rollercoaster really takes its toll on someone's body. Victims might find they break out in acne, even though they've always had good skin. They might have chest pains. Thomas has said that in her practise she has even seen her clients develop autoimmune disorders.

"Their bodies start to shut down, and they start really struggling with chronic pain, migraines, and some arthritic type pains and conditions, and they just can't fight infections as well," she said. "The body really can only take so much stress."



Victims stay in these relationships despite of the stress on their bodies, because often it isn't clear to them what the problems really are. Through gaslighting, control, and intermittent love, the abuser has their partner backed into a corner of self-blame and desperation of trying to win back the affection of the person they love.

10/09/2018

The narcissist can filter through each of these descriptions and might even present as two or three. All that matters is that they will do whatever they can to get supply, so will adapt their personality traits to acquire supply.

Here is the list of behaviors, some of which tend to be more dominant than others.

😑Exaggerate their accomplishments
😑Obsessed with their uniqueness
😑Consumed with finding romantic love
😑Excessive entitlement behaviours
😑Devious and exploitative
😑Obsessed with fame and success
😑Believe they should get special treatment
😑Behave in a selfish and uncaring manner
😑Cannot relate to others feelings and desires
😑Behave in an envious or jealous manner
😑Behave in an arrogant or haughty manner
😑Excessively concerned with how they are perceived by others
😑Excessive need to have high status friends or other status symbols to impress others.

10/09/2018

BABY BLUES

The baby blues usually begin early in the first 1-2 weeks after birth. The symptoms may last a few hours or as long as two weeks. The blues are transient, although they occasionally develop into PPD. They will not be as severe and they will pass more quickly if you consume your placenta, receive lots of support and nurturing, and take good physical care of yourself.

POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION (PPD)

PPD can begin anytime from two weeks to one year after birth, although many parents do not acknowledge how they’re feeling, delaying diagnosis well beyond the first year. In general, PPD can be distinguished from other types of depression by fluctuations in mood: a good day followed by two bad ones and back again to feeling good, for example. This constant fluctuation can be very confusing. The symptoms listed below may be experienced frequently or only periodically, but if they are consistent enough to impair ability to function or to cope with the baby, they indicate PPD. Appropriate treatment can help evaluate and alleviate symptoms of PPD.

POSTPARTUM PSYCHOSIS

Postpartum psychosis often begins between days 3-14. 70% of parents who experience postpartum psychosis have never had any prior mental illness. Postpartum psychosis can start off similar to PPD, but the symptoms become more severe, with periods of clear thinking interspersed with periods of thought disorders and not knowing what is reality. Thoughts of harming oneself, the baby, or anyone else may be constant. Postpartum psychosis is a serious and dangerous health emergency and requires immediate evaluation and treatment.

10/09/2018

The only way you can describe how you feel is that you feel minimized. You feel crushed and smothered. You’re constantly second-guessing yourself; your feelings, your perceptions, your memories, and a small, suffocated part inside of you wonders whether you are actually going crazy.

If you can identify with what I just wrote, you are most likely experiencing a sophisticated manipulation technique known as Gaslighting. This technique undermines your entire perception of reality and can slowly creep into your relationships, friendships, family life and work life.

Gaslighting, at its core, is a form of emotional abuse that slowly eats away at your ability to make judgments. Essentially, a Gaslighter spins their negative, harmful or destructive words and actions in their favor, deflecting the blame for their abusive deeds and pointing the finger at you. This is often done by making you feel “overly sensitive,” “paranoid,” “mentally unstable,” “silly,” “unhinged,” and many other sensations which cause you to doubt yourself.

Commonly adopted by psychopathic, sociopathic and narcissistic types of people.

Gaslighting tends to eat away at you slowly until you realize that you’re a shell of the former person you were.

10/09/2018

The drama triangle is a dynamic model of social interaction and conflict developed by Dr. Karpman when he was a student of Eric Berne, M.D. father of transactional analysis.

[Karpman and other clinicians point out that “victim, rescuer, and persecutor” refer to roles people unconsciously play, or try to manipulate other people to play, not the actual circumstances in someone’s life. There can be real victims of crime or racism or abuse, etc.]

The three roles of the drama triangle are archetypal and easily recognizable in their extreme versions.