The Real Cure For A Hangover

Monday, and more or less this entire weekend, is a big drinking holiday.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yeah, we won't be doing anything special to celebrate it (a.k.a. leaving the house to drink), but that doesn't mean we can't talk about it.

Now, of course we're not going to advocate drinking. (that would be irresponsible...)

No. But we are advocating for not getting hangovers.

We found this video today, and thought you might like it.

HOW TO CURE YOUR HANGOVER (important stuff!)

Now, if you can't afford the guaranteed cure that this video promotes, which costs $250 (no, it's not an advertisement), we have a NUMBER ONE TIP to cure a hangover...but first, watch this video...

HEED THE DISCLAIMER. THERE IS VOMIT.

So here it is...our big reveal...

WHY CURE A HANGOVER WHEN YOU CAN PREVENT A HANGOVER
The solution is clear.
WATER. (ha, see what we did there...)
Drink lots of water before and during.
About 22oz within the 3 hours leading up to your binge drinking, and then at least 8oz every hour*. [Yes, you'll probably pee a lot, but at least you won't feel like a zombie who was the victim of a bloodsucking vampire the night before.]
This has long been a tried and true method that we've tried to promote for years in order to help friends we were drinking with (back when we had a social life) avoid those debilitating sometimes two-day hangovers. It even got us the nickname of "Water Nazi" at parties because people didn't appreciate constant suggestions that they should drink some water. Yeah, we hung out with some really mature people.
Honestly though, it had more to do with the fact that a) who wants to listen to a hungover person bitch about being hungover anyway and b) being the only person not hungover after a long day and night of drinking, especially on vacations, is a real drag.
Of course, they hardly ever listened, and even after realizing it works, would go back to the same bad behavior. Don't be dumb like that. Drink water and feel human the next day.
Another good tip is:

• Avoid excessively sugary drinks, and make sure to eat a little something during your evening out. Even if it's just a handful of chips.

For more tips see How To Hold Your Liquor -> http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/how-to-hold-your-liquor

Now you know, the real cure for a hangover is prevention...and it's a damn site cheaper than an IV.

Have a Happy and Safe St. Patrick's Day! Drink responsibly.
Cheers!

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*There should be an implied disclaimer. But some people need things spelled out for them, so...
If you go out and drink and this doesn't work, or if you have adverse side effects, that's not our fucking problem. Take some responsibility for fuck sake.

Dueling Depression

Like a "virus" it gets under the skin, can't locate the source, or even, many times, how it even happens. All of a sudden enjoyable things, like writing, being awake, things previously obsessed about doing become a chore, become tiresome, become too much. Sleeping twice as much becomes the way to get through the day. Eating patterns change. Everything changes for the worse, everything becomes forced to attain a normal feeling that doesn't end up feeling normal, only heart breaking.

We've felt it coming. We staved it off with thoughts of moving, the anticipation had grown. Whenever we had a bad day we just mentally put ourselves into our new home...and think of all the things we were going to do with it. Pictured painting in our new studio, and gardening in our beautiful gardens, and canning and cooking in our new kitchen. It was our retreat.

And then we lost it, it fell through. Interesting to know, they actually reduced the price by $5000 today; given that we just had to pull out of the sale this last week because they wouldn't accept our amended off after the property inspection, we're not ready to try to deal with them again right away. We've been burned, and we need time to deal with it. Some of us figure that the property will continue to stay on the market, even until after we find an alternative, and in the end be sold for what our final amended offer was.

Now our "safe place" is gone. There is nowhere to mentally put us when a place is needed. We don't like creating fake places to get by, because fake is...well...fake. We want a real place to put ourselves into, a home, a destination...a dream place based on reality and the future.

We've been mourning it in numbing fashion, sliding deeper into the hole we'd been poised above for months, understanding we are depressed, but not clinically depressed; there are marked differences between the two. Over the past couple of weeks we've worked on decreasing our drinking habit again, by about 50%, even though it's our only pain killer for back pain. So far so good, we suppose.

To combat the depression before it gets worse, because it's gotten exhausting to pretend we are mentally fine and dandy, some of us have been doing it for month. We plan to start working out again. The distraction of the gym and exercise will be healthy, both mentally and physically, and is needed.

We went to the gym today and did 30 minutes of cardio, just to start, on the cross-trainer mostly; it's always been our favourite piece of cardio equipment (it burns the most calories per minute while being gentle on joints). We had to decrease the amount of time we run because of our knees and back and so found love in the cross-trainer. It's been two years since we've been to the gym. We used to be frequent (4-5 times a week) gym members. It felt great getting back into it today, until we stood on the scale for the first time in a year...and then a desire to return each day, or at least three times a week, was put into drive. It went from feeling great, to feeling essential. As our weight has been an issue almost most of our life.

So, while trying to figure out where to move, how to move, and when to move, given we don't want to compromise too much on the dreams we have laid out; and with a bit of a new distraction of going to the gym and focusing on our body a bit with a goal of hopefully losing 20 pound before the Tweetup we are (planning) on (co)hosting in May 2013 (that's about as much as we can lose without looking ill); we hope to keep a stiff upper lip, and not let the wrenches tossed into the spoke of our dreams get us down. It's not easy, but we're many-times-survivors, and we can duel this depression like a pro...hopefully soon.

~ Frankie et al

Drinking In The Presidential Debate

That's right, a drinking game based on the first Presidential debate of 2012.

It's tonight, by the way.

You should know that, if you are American.

The debate starts tonight, October 3rd, 2012, at 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on your local channels. (Click for Time zone map for the time-zone-challenged) Tonight's debate focuses on DOMESTIC policy, that means things that will effect you and your fellow Americans on the home front. Social and economic issues: Equal rights (women's reproductive rights and fair pay, gay marriage rights, healthcare, ect.), economy (jobs, stock market, small business, big business, etc.) and education. From watching the weeks leading up to this debate, it's going to be sloppy, entertaining and, hopefully, informative. The Republican debate trainers has been touting it's "bag of zingers" for days...that Romney has been practicing some for months (maybe that's why he has no idea how to define his economic plan in specific numbers, to busy memorizing "zingers") - clueless as to how childish and petty that seems. The debate isn't about personal jabs and zingers, it's about the information people need to make an informed decision at the poles. There will likely be a couple heated moments. American people love theatrical drama, how else can you explain the "reality television" craze.

(Note: The Foreign Policy debate is October 22, 2012)

Yes. We're trying to make politic seem fun, because it's important. Some might disagree the importance of the government, but at this point in America, if we didn't have a government like we do we would surely be attacked by increasing amounts of "enemies" on our homeland.
If you don't think we have something that other countries want, you're kidding yourself.
And no, that thing they want it NOT freedom. There is actually a lot of freedom in a lot of countries, and a growing amount at that; it's narrow-minded, false-nationalistic, and xenophobic people who don't educate themselves that don't understand that. Who don't understand the atrocities and violence that are carried out each day in our own country, the ever increasing limit on personal freedom; who focus on the sensationalization of limited and targeted coverage of other countries by the television news organizations to juxtapose their own country. That thing that other countries want is land. Not the people, not the freedom.

BACK TO THE DRINKING GAME!

You should watch the debate, because word is the Mitt Romney is finally going to tell you what his plan it to help America, not simply that they have a "framework" that you should blindly trust. It's all well and good to claim you are going to help, but a growing number of people want to hear exactly how. Tonight has to be the night he tells us. It's a month until the election. (November 6, 2012)

Speaking of framework, that's one of the key, or buzz, words.

The list, in no particular order:
Economy
Jobs
Framework
Middle Class
Numbers

The "rules":
So, you take a drink when you hear these words. Simple as.
(For a get-you-drunk-faster-game, scroll down).

ALSO: No harassment if you are playing along on-line (we will be on-line with our usual snark). That's it. Don't be a fucking dick to people on Twitter (or Facebook, or G+, or whatever social media entity you use), try to be an adult, encourage discourse...and pay attention. Try to refrain from name-calling. Swearing is obviously okay, because we're all adults here, in theory.

REMEMBER: Tomorrow (Thursday), when you wake up... research things you've heard..and keep researching, keep reading, be informed, it's a few hours out of your life in the grand scheme of things. Ask questions, demand answers. Be informed.

RECOMMENDED FACT ✓CHECKING RESOURCES
Fact Check.org
Media Matters Action Network
Media Matters for America
Open Secrets - Center for Responsive Politics
PolitiFact

OR, alternatively you could play by this guideline, it's far more involved and you won't make it off the floor at the end of the night:

Thanks goes to @IAmTheCrew for sharing this today on Facebook!

Have fun, be safe, watch the debates.

Random "Fun" Facts

Little known fact about DID/MPD, and we agree it makes no sense, but among our alters is a varied alcohol tolerance. And just like the tolerance, if there is switching while drinking, sobering up can be equally as varied, and can come quick, sometimes unexpectedly, and over and over.
Some nights it's an impossible amount of alcohol just to achieve the desired...feeling.
Other nights, nary two drinks.

It's irritating.

Maybe that's just one of those "fun facts".

You don't need to tell us we shouldn't be drinking anyway. *shrugs*

Drinking...again.

So, we're having a bottle of wine. We might actually finish this one. It's been awhile (since we've been able to finish a bottle - without the company of a friend [Kerry] anyway). It's been nice not drinking like we used to, but what with the aching pain, and searing pain, and the general stress of the unknown these days...well, we deserve a drink, don't we? Sounds like an excuse.

You can catch up to this weeks "fun" posts over there (Recent Posts)

Or down there (over to the left) (What We've Been Up To)

And then of course there's the Recommended Post up at the top.

You might like something you find there, or not. We write a lot.

Meanwhile, check out the animals we saw today!

Alpacas, and chickens....there were also baby goats...

We went for a walk and petted some horses behind the hotel, and then took a footpath around the countryside (which is beautiful) where we found these guys! We have more pictures, but they'll be going on our travelouge blog (Our Frank Adventures), eventually.

Bleh.

Goodnight!

Mild Travel Anxiety

*As usual, all text links are to our blogs, unless noted otherwise, this is an Ad Free blog...*

Twelve days and roughly four hours until we take off to England. We have a countdown ticker on the travel blog dedicated to this years travel adventures, so it's not like we sit here and manually figure that out all the time...but we have to keep trying to remember that we're leaving soon, though we try to forget to ward off the anxiety...it's only slight so far.

We started packing this morning. trying to figure our how to pack three months of clothes, etc. in under 50 pounds (23kg).Yes, we started packing twelve days in advance, out of necessity, it's not the easiest thing to get ourselves packed if whoever ends up out* the last few days before the flight is a procrastinator, and a couple of of us are HORRIBLE procrastinators. The packing is not easy, packing never is, because we all have different tastes in clothing style, and preferred colors and fabrics. So this morning I had to take in account what I know of everyone's favorite outfits and pack those first, the rest is filler, which is basically plain t-shirts that dry quickly and are a range of colors acceptable to most of us. Then there was weather variant considerations (especially if we travel to Spain) and shoes...shoes, shoes, shoes...(we settled on three pairs to pack, and one to wear).

We don't all love fashion or shoes, and most of us hate shopping, so don't fucking dare call us girly. Cassandra is the most girly of them all...and she loves to shop.

It's sort of scary to think we will be in another country for three months, honestly we still don't know where we will be staying, mostly because we don't have the funds right now, but that just makes it more adventurous, right? Right?!

Most of us are accustomed to not having a lot of funds, and making do with very little, as well as "couch surfing" out of necessity. A few years ago when we were living in the country where we were going to school (where we just moved from the end of october), but not allowed to work, we ended up having to compromise our comfort many times after we ended a relationship that was providing us shelter right before our first year of culinary school started. For several months all of our belongings traveled with us back and forth to school in our car, we lived in 4 different places in under seven months.

So we know we can do this, or at least we think we can, even though the idea of staying with anybody is already making us anxious. so I'm not saying James won't hear at least one of us whine on occasion,  but he'd hear that no matter the situation anyway.

Not to mention he's told a few of his family members about our mental "illness"...and that alone makes us uncomfortable and anxious.

So, we'll be off on the start of our adventure soon. I started assembling the art supplies I can put in a carry on, mostly mechanical and sketching pencils and one of my sketch books - just to make sure they get included.

We're borrowing a digital camera from The Mother, and started working on streamlining the music on our iPod (we have over 85 GB...it needs to be organized), some of us have also started downloading digital books (primarily non-fiction) to our HTC smartphone...James will be working a lot (with any luck) when we are in England, and so we'll need entertainment and creative outlets in order to make it through the day - most of our Twitter followers are in the states, and we'll be 6 hours ahead of the game there...meaning...we'll be spending more Twitter time with our European followers, which we don't have many of.

While in the UK we'll be meeting Kerry Stott (@kerrystott) our guest blogger, as well as @serenity_x and Tom Foolery (he keeps changing his @ so we're not linking to him), as well as some of the followers we trust more (hopefully our friend wubanger5). Yes, some of us are nervous and apprehensive about this.

It's been awhile since I've been around (out*)...third day now (though not consistently)...and I am pretty sure I am not in agreement with this new sobriety kick the rest have put us on. So far so good...though I really want a nice bottle of wine...not even a nice bottle, any bottle will do.

*sigh*.
Mostly it's because of regular joint and muscle pain, but also pain from stretching canvas. Last time I stretched canvases, about 7 months ago) I was drinking scotch, which made it easier to ignore the pain it causes in our hands, and the rawness in them from yanking on canvas and gripping the steel stretcher pliers and staple gun, that we experienced yesterday. Oh well. It's for the best, right?

Oh, we've got info on the upcoming podcast interview airing time that was recorded Thursday with Last Podcaster Standing ((http://thelastpodcasterstanding.com/), it'll go live on Wednesday, but I'm not sure what time yet.

~Ivy

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*Dissociative Identity/Multiple Personality Disorder common terminology

Personality Specific Terms

Alter: alter states, selves, parts (a subjective term); distinct personalities; fragments alternate personality, personality state, or identity with its own unique perspectives, abilities, memories or other traits that differ from the Host or Executive personality.

The Core: The original birth personality.

Host: is the alter personality who dominates the control of the body most of the time and is often unaware of the other personalities. The host is usually the alter personality who will initiate after experiencing symptoms of mental distress, such as, anxiety, triggers or recovered memories.

Executive: When a personality (alter ego) has control of the body.

Switch: To switch from one personality to another. The process of an alter coming out from the subconscious mind into the consciousness mind while the other alter (who was already in the consciousness mind) slips back into the subconscious mind.

Who's out? A common question used to determine which personality is executive or host.

Co-conscious(ness): A state of being aware of what the other personalities are doing and saying.

Other Common Terms:

Acquired: Anything that is not present at birth but develops some time later. In medicine, the word "acquired" implies "new" or "added." An acquired condition is "new" in the sense that it is not genetic (inherited) and "added" in the sense that was not present at birth.

Triggers: Hysterical conversion symptoms or body memories. Physical phenomenon such as pain, smells, tastes, etc.; re-experienced again.

Dissociation: In psychology and psychiatry, a perceived detachment of the mind from the emotional state or even from the body. Dissociation is characterized by a sense of the world as a dreamlike or unreal place and may be accompanied by poor memory of the specific events, which in severe form is known as dissociative amnesia.

Re-live: A total memory recall (includes visual, emotional, physical and all other senses).

Losing time: Also known as a Dissociative Fugue, is the period of which an alter personality is in the subconscious mind and has no recollection of the time that is being utilized by the alter personality who is occupying the conscious mind. Therefore when the alter switches into the conscious mind they realize that minutes, hours, days, or even months and years have passed since they were last aware of time.

System: is the structure of relationships between the alter personalities who live within the internal world of a survivor with D.I.D. Every system is created and operates in it's own unique way, just like every family living in their own homes run their households different from the next door neighbour.

Inner (Self) Helper: is usually the alter personality who has a good understanding of the system and how it works. The I.S.H. is also among the typical group of helpers or protector personalities.

Grounding: is the process of disrupting a dissociative episode and is accomplished by tugging on an earlobe, rubbing the hands together, or shuffling the feet back and forth. This type of physical stimuli can bring the survivors mind back to awareness of their surroundings, and helps to make them feel less animated.

It's Been Awhile...

It's been awhile, but we're not blogging (okay, technically this constitutes blogging, whatever) ... because we had a tough day (switching stuff...:-/) and we've been drinking some wine, and we just don't have the energy to be interesting in more than 140 character bits, if that (and if you ask the right ones of us they'd tell you that we're not that interesting anyway).

Tough day? Yes. We'll be writing about it, and so will James (@mr_jmm), probably. We're lucky that somehow we've found a really understanding boyfriend, who is okay with us being us, and who claims to love all of us; we're also glad that when he goes back home for a month in a few weeks we'll have our support group, and our friends and entertainment that is Twitter (and some of us will be happy for the solitude, and time to just be with each other...hopefully we find a job by then though)

In the meantime feel free to read some of the stuff that's been posted in the last few weeks (which we haven't had time to add to the archives of "highlights"), and our 'Recommendations', which are posted below the next paragraph.

If you want to learn a lot about Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID/MPD) this blog is a good place to start...we'll be writing soon (with any luck) on an important topic regarding what has been occurring on Twitter lately more and more which is the "alter ego" phenomenon of Twitter accounts...which should not, NOT, be confused with Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity Disorder, a "severe" mental disorder that starts primarily in childhood due to traumatic events/experiences. Sam (he's one of us) has written about it in the past, how pissed off about the jokes he gets, but we plan on approaching it from more of an educational and comparison angle.

Anyway, read, learn...or don't...whatever. :) Cheers!

_________________________________

Some of our writing on this blog we like to promote (consider them highlights), these are those entries since mid-January 2011. There are bits of writing in this blog that we do not actually promote due to embarrassment over things that some have written - they are here for our own tracking - they are angry, mean, scary, sad things. If you feel like it you can find them on your own. Here are the highlights of what we have written so far this year...

The Mental Health Entries:
Dissociative Identity Disorder/Multiple Personality Disorder

• Mental Health Awareness Month: Our Introduction
• The Other Girl
• The Other Girl: Her Final Journal
• We Chat With The Father About DID (this post contains information on what DID is)
• Frank Gets Candid (We talk about Catherine, one of our alters)
• **We Freak Out** (this was a very important day, the day we met Marisa, recoverer of DID)
• We Are Fragments
• We / We Get Random / We Have Questions
• Marisa Answers Our Questions
• Frank Gets Candid, About Memories...and Bethany (we talk about one of our alters)
• A Note From Frank, and ONLY Frank (actually not written by Frank)
• Standby and The Death of the Other Girl: Part 1 of 3 (we start talking about the death of one of our alters [our core])
• Our Ears May Be Burning (we talk about what people we recently knew might be saying over Easter)
• We Just Need A Good Map (Mental Health Awareness Month Post - Frank talks about DID mapping)
• We Don't Do A Blog Post (we talk a little about mapping, Bethany, unicorns & stuff)
• We Discuss Three Mis-Diagnosed Mental Illnesses
• A Day In The Room (Writing done by those other than Frank (et al)
• We Have Nothing To Lose (Cassandra talks about the death of a mentally ill "friend")
• Frank Lets You Know Bitch (me!) (Bethany got to write her very own entry about herself)
• Sam Gets Angry About Ignorance (Written by Sam)
• A Little Bit Of Emmie (Written by Emmie)
• Sam Gets Set-Off (written by Sam)
  
  The Other Girl - Stuff She Wrote:
• The Other Girl: A Travel Journal: Canada to Berlin
• The Other Girl: A Travel Journal Part II: Berlin, Germany
• The Other Girl: A Travel Journal Part III: Munich, Germany
• The Other Girl: A Travel Journal Part IV: Germany -The Final Days
• The Other Girl: A Travel Journal Part V: Germany In Photography
• The Other Girl: A Travel Journal Part VI: Amsterdam In Photography
• The Other Girl: A Travel Journal Part VII: Cairo, Egypt

Health:

• When Anxiety Attacks
• Franks/Our 100 Pound Weight Loss Story
• Collision: The Other Girls/Our Terrible Car Accident
• Stress and Expediential Weight Loss
• New Pain and Old Fear

Family:

• Why Most Of Us Dislike Our Mother
• We Chat With The Father About DID (this post contains information on what DID is)
• A Few Hours With The Father and Baby Brother
• Father's Day, It's All About Our Father

Relationships:

• Relationships, Frank...and Love
• Our First Girlfriend
• The First Boy We Liked, That Liked Us Back
• An Ass-Face Comes A Texting
• We Go To University, We Take A Lover
  
  Standby:
• To A Human, If Indeed That Is What You Are (1 of 3)
• The "Death" of Standby and the "Birth" of a Villain (2 of 3)
• Standby: The Final Chapter (3 of 3)
• Standby and The Death of the Other Girl: Part 1 of 3 (to be continued)
  
  Fuck Face:
• A Mistress Without Cutlery
• What Become Of The Broken Hearted
• Fuck Face: Who He Is (also work related)
• The Demise of Fuck Face...Part 1
• The Demise of Fuck Face...Part 2
• The Demise of Fuck Face...Part 3
• The Demise of Fuck Face...Part 4
• The Demise of Fuck Face...Part 5
• The Demise of Fuck Face...Part 6
• We Have Drinks With Fuck Face
• To Send, or Not To Send...The E-mail Is The Question
• Situation Stand Still
  
  James:
• 50,000 Tweets and All We Got Was...
• A 'State of the Union' Re: The Visit of Our Twittercrush James
• James and the Giant Peach Pit...Of Despair
  
  
  Friendships:
• Friends: A Tale of The Non-Bestie
• Our Ears May Be Burning
• We Have Nothing To Lose
• Girl Crush Gets The 411 on Us
• A Frank Evening With Fabulous People and The Pup

Work:

• All In a Days Work
• All In a Days Work II
• All In a Days Work III
• A Day In The Room
• Another Day, Another Dollar; Fuck Our Life
• When The Job Gets Fuckity
• We Get Fired From Our Job (THIS WEEK)
  
  
• Life:

• Please Don't Let Us Be Misunderstood
• All We Have Is Hope
• Cooking With Frank
• A Distraction, In The Form of The Jeans
• Seriously...And @NickSilly Answers Some Questions
• We Get A Guest Blogger - Kinky Sex!
• We Have Nothing To Lose
• How We Feel About Advice...and We Ramble
  
• Sometimes Karma is a Bitch for a Reason (1 of 3)
• Life Kicks Us in the Ass at Every Turn (2 of 3)
• ...More Ass Kicking From Life... (3 of 3)

Opinion:

• Religion, You Say? We Have A View On That
• Growth and Change; An Artist Standpoint
• Birds of A Feather, on Twitter, CAN Flock Together
• For Us, It's All About Team Awesome...and Twitter
• Reading We Recommend: Casey Hannan
• Hell Ride: A Film Review

Art/Poetry:

• Evil of Three: A Painting
• Saviour: A Painting
• Deadly Catch: A Painting
• Untitled Vision A: A Paiting
• Pretty Things: A Poem
• Erase This Poem
• Envisage of We: A Poem

Humour/Random Fun:

• The Tale of the Barbie Massacre Trail/Part 1
• Happy Zombie Day A.K.A Happy Easter
• Love Juice...We're No Cosmo Magazine But...
• The Flavours of Emotions
• We Talk About Listing People On Twitter

Guest Bloggers:

• Our New Guest Blogger (Kerry Stott @kerrystott)
• We Get A Guest Blogger (The Single Mom @singlemomdate)
  
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Resources for You - facts, figures and personal stories of other people can be found on these sites:

National Institute of Mental Health: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml

American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org/index.aspx

Canadian Mental Health Association: http://www.cmha.ca/bins/index.asp

Mental Health Europe: http://www.mhe-sme.org/

World Health Organization - Mental Health: http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases/mental-health

Mental Health America: http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/go/may

World Psychiatric Association: http://www.wpanet.org