The Dunning–Kruger effect and something strange about reading psychology stuff

I came across this effect and had to look it up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect

This is the first paragraph from the Wiki page.

"
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which an unskilled person makes poor decisions and reaches erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the metacognitive ability to realize their mistakes.[1] The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority. This leads to the situation in which less competent people rate their own ability higher than more competent people. It also explains why actual competence may weaken self-confidence: because competent individuals falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. "Thus, the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others.
"

It's the effect of reading it though. I'm reflecting on where I've been incompetent but thought I was competent. It's made me self-aware and it's made me want to change. I just wonder if finding out about this effect has the same effect on other people?

Mental health and buildings

There's a Mencap campaign at the moment to get changing rooms for
babies as something mandatory in all public buildings.

I was wondering if there was something that could be done for those with
mental illnesses and for everyone.

I'm sure there'll be simple things already in there like ensuring
sunlight is available for everyone. It's an important thing for
everyone's mental health. Plants and greenery are also good for mental
health, and often not seen around enough. CCTV is the bane of the
paranoid. There's little that can be done about them apart from perhaps
hiding the devices. A "time out" or rest room which is made as calming
as possible may be useful in every workplace and large building.

I'd call for proper daylight lighting instead of those horrible
fluorescent lights. They're a little bit more expensive and would be the
same price as fluorescent lights if it became a mandated thing. It would
help a lot of people during winter I would guess. It may have the
benefit of improving productivity in winter too.

An anthem for those resilient to misery

Hard knock life by Jay-Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekomM8aobQo

That's the thing about misery. After a while you just get used to it. It's just life.

I just don't want anyone else to have a hard knock life. Not like mine.

A fascinating site and an interesting quote

This is a great site full of snips from various mental health professionals across the years.

http://www.psychquotes.com/

‎"…Jesus Christ might simply have returned to his carpentry following the use of modern psychiatric treatments."William Sargant, British psychiatrist, 1974

At least I'm not totally paranoid

This image takes belief. It takes the trust that I didn't photoshop
this up and this genuinely happened. It is so unusual that it must be a
delusion or a lie....or it may have happened to me.

It did just now. There's no way I can prove this happened. I'm aware
that by putting this up and claiming that it happened I will be accused
of being a liar and...perhaps...faking my paranoia.

I was posting an image which had an important message on my Facebook
profile. As I flicked a couple of keys this came up. It's a Facebook
thing that normally pops up when there's unusual activity to check it's
a human rather than an automated program.

This one was most unusual. I didn't type the text in the box that says
"STOP BUGGING ME" and the message disappeared as quickly as it appeared
upon a key press.

Yes. I could have typed it there myself and done the screen capture or
faked the image. As you can see from some of my other images I'm fairly
competent with image editing programs. I don't have many readers who
trust me enough to know that this isn't faked.

Or better put, it's as fake as this image.
http://imaginendless.blogspot.com/2010/06/hardest-photos-ive-had-to-edit-in-while.html

What just happened to me would freak the shit out of anyone who hasn't
survived psychosis. The sad thing is that this sort of control or
manipuilation is not quite like real psychosis. There is a non-corporeal
force that does this stuff, and the most dangerous thing is to fuck with
that which fucks with my life. It'll fuck you right back.

A little on loneliness

People can assume that loneliness is a lack of social contact. It goes
deeper. I can feel isolated in a room full of friends. I'm not the only one.

The use of antipsychotics in children in America

This is from the blog of the International Hearing Voices Movement.
There's lots of things that could be taken from this but I'm taking what
i want to take from this.

it's a nicely balanced piece. The words of the health service manager
showing the positive impact of psychotropic medication is enough for
anyone to think that psychiatric medications should be used on chidlren.
I seem like an ogre to say that they should be denied anything at all
that can take them away from their terrible lives.

Children in foster care have suffered, and suffered like you'd never
know. I want to punch and hit me just thinking about this injustice. I
am thankful there is a system to help them but I still would want them
to be given a full life and not drugs.

But maybe a full life isn't available for these children and the misery
and pain experienced by children in the UK and in the US is just beyond
the sort of pain that anyone should suffer. If there is no money and no
compassion then drugs make sense.

It's the lives of these children that make me know I'm right to be an
antitheist. Maybe humankind's chemical answer to god's mistakes is the
only solution in a sick and fucked up world.

http://hearingvoicesmovement.blogspot.com/
"
In Florida, 81,961 children covered by Medicaid were on psychotropic
medications from January to June 2009, compared to 76,358 from January
to June 2008, according to the state Agency for Healthcare
Administration. Numbers for private health insurance companies are not
public.

Local agencies are seeing a rise in the number of children with
psychiatric problems, from severe anxiety to depression. They're also
seeing more young children who are 5 or 6 years old. The concern is
especially high in foster care, where a higher percentage of children
are given psychotropic drugs than in the general population.

The April 2009 death of a South Florida 7-year-old foster child, Gabriel
Myers -- who was prescribed several mind-altering drugs and hanged
himself in his foster home -- sparked a statewide review and
recommendations in November that will result in new rules and
legislation in the coming months for children under foster care.

"We must do better for our children," said Alan Abramowitz, former local
DCF administrator and state director of the DCF Family Safety Program
Office. "Medication is not the cure-all."

Adderall is the psychotropic medication prescribed statewide in foster
care to the largest number of children for attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, DCF records show. Locally in foster care, the
main psychotropic drug being prescribed is Seroquel for mental/mood
conditions.

Some child advocates question whether medications -- some of which have
serious side effects such as suicidal thoughts -- are being used as a
quick fix to behavioral problems that children will grow out of because
their brains are still growing.

"It shouldn't take mind-altering medications to help children grow up,"
said Karen A. Gievers, a child advocate and an attorney in Tallahassee.
"It takes good parents to help children grow up."

Others say some children need medications to help them concentrate and
succeed in life. Some are being exposed to more violence at home and
dealing with issues not seen a decade ago.

"We get children who haven't giggled or laughed or smiled in years,"
said Shirley Holland, department manager at Halifax Health Behavioral
Services, the local community mental health provider for children. "Once
we add medication, it's like the light goes on. They experience life in
a completely different way. It doesn't mean the burdens go away, but
life is not so heavy."

MORE CHILDREN BAKER-ACTED
Halifax Health Behavioral Services has seen the number of children
admitted under the Baker Act as a danger to themselves or others almost
triple in Volusia and Flagler in a three-year period. The agency treats
about 3,000 children in all its programs -- more than half are on
psychotropic medications.

The reasons behind the rise are unclear, but some point to children
being subjected to more stress at home.
Holland said it would be unusual about 20 years ago to see a 12-year-old
who was psychotic, hearing voices and hallucinating, but "they are
younger than that now."
"