Prosecutors allege that he used a seven-inch baton to beat a woman in the head on Oct. 13, 2024 at the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station. The woman told police that her attacker had been yelling derogatory things to other women present at the station, and had said, f you b-, shortly before hitting her. She went unconscious, causing a concussion and a brain injury, according to police.
Roam the wide-open halls and cavernous showrooms of the Colorado Convention Center during Psychedelic Science, the world's largest psychedelics conference, and you'll see exhibitors hawking everything from mushroom jewelry, to chewable gummies containing extracts of the psychoactive succulent plant kanna, to broad flat-brim baseball caps emblazoned with "MDMA" and "IBOGA." Booths publicize organizations such as the Ketamine Taskforce and the Psychedelic Parenthood Community, and even The Faerie Rings, a live-action feature film looking to attract investors.
A concussion is a form of traumatic brain injury that can occur when a blow to the head or force that shakes your body is strong enough to cause your brain to hit the side of your skull. Myriad symptoms can occur, including headaches, decreases in cognitive function such as confusion or amnesia, sleep difficulties such as prolonged feelings of drowsiness, and emotional dysregulation such as irritability and mood swings.
In the 1980s, one of my psychology professors at the University of Toronto advocated against using labels for psychological or psychiatric diagnoses. "Why not?" I questioned. "How else will we know what illness they have? Labels being bad sounds like psychological mumbo jumbo." By the end of that school year, I understood how labels stigmatize and limit recovery. Humans use labels to distinguish between themselves and those not like them.