I am assuming she may have webmd'ed it, but then the doctor confirmed the diagnosis. I had kawasaki syndrome / disease, and most doctors have never heard of it. My mom went to 3 different doctors in our very small town before the 4th doctor, a pediatrician diagnosed me. He only recognized it because his own nephew had…

SO AMUSING. But definitely more creepy than amusing... I have nightmares that look like this!

LOL

ditto.

You live my life? Add cooking into the mix... except NONE of my fellow grad students can identify with the cooking...

We never did the crate over dead animals thing (though I wish we would have thought of it!). We moved into the middle of the woods next door to a farmers field. Apparently they would just drag dead cows into the woods and let them decompose, my sister and I found entire cow skeletons, as well as raccoons, rabbits,…

SO HARD!

This is a picture of the first pet my husband and I had together. His name was [ :( ] Copernicus, in this picture he is mid nom. His favorite way to be held was like a baby. No joke, he LOVED it. He also loved all fruit, especially bananas (they are like rabbit crack). He was SO smart. He would come when you called…

I laughed so hard I cried. Thanks for the Wednesday pick me up!

This column is so FREAKING great! Sarah Benincasa, you are awesome at this.

Seconded!

In Canada I believe most provinces will not tell you the gender of your baby until you are 18-21 weeks along (though I don't think it is illegal for them to tell you sooner), even though they can determine the gender much earlier. I think this is supposed to help prevent sex based abortions... but I really don't know…

That was pretty much my childhood. I had a relatively rare illness as a child and had to get bloodwork once a week for a few months... hence a phobia is born (along with some other pretty traumatizing injection experiencess). My doctor gave me ativan and I still can't make myself go get vaccines, or regular checkup…

All I really want to say, is that not everyone reactions to different emotions in the same way, unless these reactions harm another person, they are innocuous. Starting to cry in your office once or twice a year does not imply that an employee is inadequate, immature or emotionally unstable. It indicates that they…

As a grad student in psychology, PLEASE see a psychologist or psychiatrist if you decide to get meds. NOTHING irritates me more than GPs suggest psychology related meds without doing any sort of professional psychological assessment. GPs have zero (or like 5 hours) training on clinical psychological assessment…

Twins!

Uncontrollable physical response is a little but of a strong descriptor for my liking, but emotions are certainly difficult to control. Most people can't control many aspects of their emotions, getting flushed when embarrassed or angry, hands shaking when nervous or angry, etc. For people who cry easily, especially…

Exactly! Try suppressing stuttering, your cheeks flushing, your hands, sweating, or your hand shaking.

I also have a border collie. When we rescued him we had to take him on 2 walk/runs a day for an hour each (minimum) with a dog backpack on him (with weights to make it heavy) just to even make him just a smidgeon tired so that we could train him. He has since calmed down a lot and now is fine with normal walks, and…

I agree and disagree. I agree that manipulative criers tend to do it in public, whereas emotional criers in private, BUT sometimes you can't go cry in private if you are in the middle of a meeting, or some other task, discussion, argument etc.. I think we need to stop associating crying with weakness, and instead see…