Dr. Andrew Belaveshkin

Three duck rules for mental health. 1. Duck and gaslighting. The duck test (reality check).  This rule sounds like this: "if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it is probably a duck." This rule helps establish a fact based on our direct observations and indirect evidence. Sometimes the rule sounds like "maybe he talks like an idiot (abuser, fascist, manipulator, etc.) and looks like an idiot, behaves like an idiot. But you shouldn't be fooled: he really is an idiot." The duck test helps us trust ourselves and be capable of independent judgment despite verbal manipulations – this is an important skill.  After all, nowadays, the weapon of propaganda, abusers, and criminals is gaslighting. The essence of gaslighting is an attack through denying your conclusions manipulation to undermine the sense of reality and one's own adequacy. It includes  attack (are you in your right mind? Are you sick? What's wrong with you? You are...

Propaganda attack through "russian culture." I see on Facebook another wave of admiration for the adaptation of "The Master and Margarita" and indications that this is just another form of propaganda, met with fierce resistance. Unfortunately, we are so saturated with this that we no longer even smell it when we consume it, and that is why this film was made now. Here are just a few facts for you to think about.       1. Bulgakov is one of the most fiery anti-Ukrainian Russian writers (alongside Brodsky and Solzhenitsyn). He was the son of a tsarist censor from Oryol who lived in Kyiv and was involved in censoring and suppressing everything Ukrainian, banning any works in the Ukrainian language. Bulgakov absorbed this hatred from childhood.   2. Many of Bulgakov's works are permeated with mockery of Ukraine. In his works, Ukrainians are always grotesque and unsympathetic characters. He repeatedly mocks the Ukrainian language, Ukrainian independence and never des...

Cultural quarantine, not cancel culture. The main criterion for the success of genes is the increase in their reproduction. Similarly, cultural memes (ideas, beliefs) are also replicators (they copy themselves for reproduction), and they can reproduce beyond the will of their carrier or control their behavior (as many parasites do in nature). Often, a short-term impact is enough for memes to completely mutilate the mind (for example, induced psychosis).   Since ancient times, it has been noted that the spread of mental epidemics obeys the same laws as epidemics of infectious diseases (they can be stopped by physical and cultural barriers). Dawkins calls them "mental viruses," and other researchers - parasitic memes ("certain systems of misbelief can be fruitfully treated as cultural parasites"). The reproduction of a meme is its evolutionary success. It doesn't matter whether you ridicule it or reminisce - the meme-parasite has achieved its key goal, it has surv...

  Three paradoxes of vitamin D and how to overcome them.   1. The paradox of vitamin D supplements.   In many studies, high levels of vitamin D are associated with a reduced risk of many diseases, from cancer and autoimmune diseases to obesity and diabetes. The quality and reliability of these studies are beyond doubt. However, conversely, vitamin D supplements do not reduce the risks of diseases almost anywhere. Why? Two possible explanations for the paradox: 1. Vitamin D is a surrogate marker of health, meaning it is higher in those who spend more time outdoors, meaning they are more physically active, socialize more, etc. 2. Sunlight (ultraviolet) induces the formation of about a dozen beneficial compounds besides vitamin D (such as nitric oxide, beneficial for lowering blood pressure and for erection, or proopiomelanocortin, etc.) – one supplement cannot replicate their synergistic effect. What to do? Prefer sunlight, even in winter countries.       2. ...