I thought it was a good idea at the time

"I feel like my penis/my Manhood as a symbol is smaller than Black man's" becomes "Black men have oversized penises and are sexually insatiable beasts."

"I am sexually attracted to, fetishizing, and feel entitled to Black women's bodies" becomes "well she's asking for it, look at how she looks, Black women are always more openly sexual."

"I am afraid of approaching Black men" becomes "Black men are a threat."

"I am afraid of approaching Black women" becomes "Black women are always angry."

"I am not smart enough/not qualifed enough/can't beat my white counterparts professionally" becomes "DEI and affirmative action are letting those Blacks steal my position in school/jobs!"

The way I explain it to my patients is that our neurons don’t regenerate. They make connections with each other and that’s it. If you don’t use your brain, they make fewer connections and, if one of them dies, you’re gonna miss it, because that was the only one that knew how to do X. Now, if each one of them has many, many connections, you won’t notice the difference when one of them dies. The others pick up the slack.

As of 2024, 45% of dementia risk factors are modifiable. Relevant to this conversation, 5% for less education and 5% for social isolation.

We absolutely are going to see the reflection of this, but it’s gonna take decades and it’ll be too late. So, for the love of your brain, pretend that it’s a muscle and make it work. People complain about “when am I ever gonna use this maths formula in my life?” You’re not. You’re teaching your brain to think logically. Those sinapses will be there for when you need to figure out your week’s schedule. English classes taught me how to interpret data and how to convey it in this text so it’s clear and you understand what I’m saying, not because I needed to justify why the curtain is blue.

Make your brain know how to do different things. Logic games, puzzles, taking care of a garden even if small, planning a church’s event or birthday, learn a new instrument, learn a few words in another language, look at a calendar every day, do some manual labor if possible. Do not, I repeat, do not let your brain get rid of sinapses by letting AI do everything. Your brain uses 20% of your body’s energy — do you really think it’s going to maintain connexions that aren’t in use?

Most cases of Alzheimer’s are sporadic, meaning no family history. Family history of a first-degree relative with Alzheimer’s starting before they were 80yo increases your risk in 2-3x on average.

The most important aspect of RGU, to me, as a story that centers on grooming specifically, is that it does not shy away from the fact that its victims can "enjoy" many individual moments of the process. The entire point of grooming is to make the victim okay with what is happening, to convince them that this is what they want too. When grooming is successful, they do, even if their feelings change later with more awareness. It's normal to be curious about and enjoy eroticism as a young person, but abusers will take advantage of that. They will try to convince you that your desires are the same as their desires.

Its so important because this aspect is weaponized against victims by those who should be helping them as well as the groomer themself. It's why Anthy is a "witch" according to the world. Utena tells Anthy that for a moment she felt betrayed by her, as if they were rival women competing for the same man. Akio tells Utena she's just as bad as him because she didn't reject his advances. Akio tells Utena that this is what Anthy *wants.*

Countless young people have been successfuly labeled as "obsessive" or "sex-crazed" and forced to take the blame while their abusers live freely. Countless young people have been convinced that is who they are because they didn't hate every single moment spent with their abuser.