this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
80 points (96.5% liked)

Asklemmy

44148 readers
1403 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Have you went down any internet rabbit holes only to come out with a deep set existential crisis? If so, what are they?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] DaleGribble88 29 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Toxoplasma Gondii - a parasite bred through cat poop. It is extremely common, easily spread through undercooked food (especially meat). It can affect your mental state to engage in riskier and more self destructive behaviors. Testing for Toxoplasma Gondii is not standard, but it is believed that 10-15% of the US population is infected with the parasite at any given time.

[โ€“] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago

That's actually my favorite parasite! Toxo really wants to live inside a cat's digestive tract, so much so that, when a rodent gets it in their blood, the baby toxos produce cysts in the brain (and liver and muscles) that hypnotize the rat into being attracted to cat poop. This leads to the rat hanging around where cats poop, and therefore getting eaten by the cat, and ending up happily back inside the cat's GI tract.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

Oh I've been there too! Read about it while planning my pregnancy. It made me feel so paranoic that I got the test done twice just in case. I never got sick with it, but paranoia was a removed.

Since then I have gotten mental health help to deal with anxiety etc.