Fuccing hell
That said, real schizophrenia is pretty rare. Perhaps the role of cats as an everyday depression avoidance aid outweighs their dangers in splitting personalities.
Then again, maybe dogs are liable to make you paranoid.
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I think you need to go to a veterinarian
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There’s actually not a particularly strong association between toxoplasma infection and cat ownership in most studies. It’s a pretty small risk factor. Tho it makes sense that toxoplasmosis would be a risk factor for shizophrenia, in either the person or their mother (because other infections and biological stressors can be)
I’ve not looked carefully enough to see if studies of toxoplasmosis vs cat exposure were stratified by age; perhaps toxoplasma infection is more likely if you’re a child in the company of cats, because it’s actually through exposure to cat faeces directly, eating unwashed vegetables… Undercooked meat as well.
It also could suggest it’s something to do with low level congenital toxoplasmosis, since if you had cats when young, good chance they were there before you were born.
Or perhaps it’s because the onset of schizophrenia is around 25 (but younger for men, but older than women), and in the population studied, many lost the chance to have cat ownership after that point because of the characteristics of the local social supports available?
But ultimately, I think we can neither exclude toxoplasma as the reason for the link, but nor should we simply assume that it’s toxoplasma out of convenience. People with schizophrenia are neurodivergent in their own right - perhaps there perculiar characteristics of that divergence that attracts to cat ownership? Or some interesting coincidence of social factors?
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That’s a common misconception. That doesn’t happen with schizophrenia.
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Well, duh. Obviously the cats have already got to them.
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I stand corrected
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Yes, antibody blood test. But getting your insurance to cover it, …no doctor can cure that problem.
SELF TEST: I noticed that I lost the ability to smell plexiglas solvent-glue. Acetone as well. Also, pistachios to me taste like almonds. And gasoline smells like engine oil. I’ve only been like this for about 15 years. Suddenly in 2020 I regained it all! I COULD TASTE PISTACHIOS AGAIN. And methylene chloride would stink up the whole room, when before I had to put the bottle up to my face to even detect the odor.
I think I know what happened.
In 2019 I had a brief encounter with gas gangrene: a weird dry wound which, when flooded with iodine, would continuously bubble like soda. A painful dry would which was expanding constantly, and no antibacterials had any effect. (I even tried thimerosal.)
That’s when my ability to smell gasoline etc. all came back.
While researching Clostridium perfringens and others, I thought to add keyword Toxoplasma (since mice famously experience brain-changes, which cause cat pee-stink to become attractive.) Maybe T. Gondii figured out how to alter mammilian scent-sense? BINGO, one of the gas-gangrene toxins ( the alpha toxin ) it kills the cat-lady disease organism.
So, it’s a big stretch, a data-point of one, but IF Toxoplasma Gondii causes humans to no longer smell cat-pee (that’s one of my symptoms,) to no longer smell acetone and methylene chloride, then I’ve been infected roughly as long as I’ve had cats. And also, IF our sense of smell comes back rapidly, after wiping out the organism in our bodies, then I’ve just observed that even a small gas gangrene wound will innoculate me for T. Gondii. (But the basic effect was already known to be true. I just may have observed it working, first hand. Also, in order to be true, the required amount of Clostridium toxin must be incredibly tiny! )
Don’t mess with this, of course, since Clostridium is flesh-eating bacteria, and also a small infection of C. Tetani will kill you.
I’ve done a lot of crackpot physics experiments, but this one was my first in crackpot biology. I only messed with this because, after multiple attempts, the Dr. at the med ctr was not halting the continuous growth of my wound-crater. I eventually figured it out myself.
W. Beaty, amasci-com
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Maybe it’s the cats that choose? They are, after all, energy vampires that eat your sadness and distress. Just look at how fast they get cuddly when you’re feeling bad.
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My cat tells me this study is horse pucky.
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sKITsophrenia? Also, sorry.
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I thought I leave this here.
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I don’t know about that. The cat is a total pest when I do yoga. It’s an invitation to climb on me apparently.
The dog is less bad.
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See also: piano practice
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