Oh this happens to me a lot actually I specialize almost specifically handling this kind of patient as a nurse (I started out on a unit for criminally insane men and now work lower acuity using that experience to mostly help and educate other nurses when they occasionally run into it).

Basically you do everything you can to look like you’re ignoring it while actually keeping yourself safe, then let the natural consequences slap them in the face like a cartoon character stepping on a rake.

So for me that looks like doing my assessment / negotiation (what looks like) alone a few steps into the door but I actually have two people outside on either side of the doorframe. I then also have multiple witnesses to all of the bullshit they spew and write it down for someone to read to the judge at their hearing.

For you it’s more likely something like recording your interactions then giving those to someone who can make their life suck.

They know it’s not abuse, they have a high horse they wanna ride on someone else’s post.

I guess the elevator pitch is 10y experience inpatient psychiatry including forensics (“criminally insane”), now I teach restraint classes 1x a month and other units in the hospital have a special version of a code they can use to summon me (kinda like a code blue except the patient is still, and literally kicking).

My husband just woke up and said the exact same thing unprompted. Literally this exchange almost word-for-word.

“That’s a rat though.”

“HOW CAN YOU TELL?” - more emphasis on my part due to hearing this for the second time today

“Just how it is. That’s a rat.”

After additional discussion and googling, the actual answer is, my dear people, mostly size, but also more subtly the proportions of the ear and tail to the rest of the body.

I’ve had to handle dogs and cats and when I was younger occasionally livestock. As an employed adult though I’ve mostly had to handle other humans, but many of the same concepts of how to be nice when you have to do something objectively uncomfortable still apply (namely, do it as fast as you possibly can without causing more damage). Restraints are actually kind of not just my specialty but also one of my subspecialties, but that’s a whole different conversation. To this conversation the answer is “usually velcro and plastic buckles, on cotton fabric for the little old ladies and neoprene for people with actual muscle.”

There’s a lot of reasons a lot of things happen and the history and ethics of animal experimentation is a particularly long winded subject of which I will not be getting into any more of a debate than I have somehow gotten sucked into already.

idk ask a vet most of the animals I’ve worked with are larger than that

Please also enjoy these images of a hedgehog and a human baby getting an x-ray and a bird being weighed:

ooc how can you tell?

Temporal bedroom divorce. I’m only in it during the day he’s only in it at night. Sometimes I try to snuggle up to him while he’s sleeping for a midnight nap and he gets up to move to the couch and I cry a little inside. Nice to have no sleeping disruptions but a lot less cuddles.

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You’ve got it reversed; less insecticide = more ladybugs = less aphids. Ladybugs are their natural predator and can actually be bought from breeders along with stuff like tomato worm wasps as a natural non-chemical pest control.

I was also taught as a kid to only kill the tomato worms without eggs laid on them:

You let those ones live because the eggs are gonna hatch and eat it then make more wasps that will eat more tomato worms.

Source: grew up rural.

Yeah convenience culture will have to die. To keep food not in plastic and not shipped halfway across the world you’re going to gave to give up getting your favorite flavor of dorito from the gas station at 2am. They won’t be able to package specialty flavors at a plant 600mi away then seal them in airtight nitrogen and ship them all over the country to that stores that are open 24/7 where they’ll be shelf stable for the next few months. You’ll have to order them by mail yourself or make do with local / regional variants made with different ingredients. The kids who stop eating when their dino nuggies have a different breading are just gonna starve (had an ex like that at 25y/o he was exhausting.)

similarly with working in mental health. my first job was also with criminally insane men so in addition to the low pay it was also stupidly dangerous. but now that I’m an RN on a lower acuity unit and one of the few nurses with that kind of high acuity experience so it did give me something valuable? 😭

I found out because of the us media?

I feel like the answer to “how old are you” is going to add a lot of context to this question.

people have been pointing that out just as long

exactly

Eh that’s relevant to the discussion since OPs argument is that they’re worse.

My arguing point is that at least the US has a free enough press to keep track of most of their bullshit.

The therapy was integral; it helped me contextualize the experience properly. Not everyone can afford it and that’s important to mention.

I did a horrible and dangerous job for 2 years while undergoing the most intensive psychotherapy that exists. It improved my social skills, developed a skillset that’s rare and highly valued in my chosen field, and completely recalibrated my sense of hardship.