deerstalker

I’m sure by now you’ve heard about the toxic relationship drama that’s stirring with Rob Kardashian and his ex-fiancé Blac Chyna. One would hope that love has everything to do with it—but even if it doesn’t, as the story unfolds, there is still so much to learn here.

Everyone has gone through the aches and pains of heartache, rejection, and deception but add social media to the mix and things can go from bad to worse in zero to 60. We now live in a world where sliding into someone’s DMs, screen shots, video recordings from phones, and reposting have become the norm and everyone now has a platform to comment on your situation. So keep it off of social media! And even if something does leak, don’t succumb to social pressure and allow the comments of other people to egg you on or interfere with making decisions that are not in your best interest.

As a nurse, my job is to help people find ways to live happy and healthy lives. When I see all the Arnold Palmer (drink made of ½ tea and ½ lemonade) going on social media with this couple it urges me to remind people of the more important issues. Don’t allow hookups and heartbreaks to compromise your health.

A Heartbreak Can Literally Break Your Heart

Broken heart syndrome is a stress-induced heart ailment also known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy, which can happen even if you’re healthy. It can occur when the body is overwhelmed by a surge of stress hormones that can be caused by an emotionally stressful event. These hormones damage and weaken the heart muscle and often mimic the signs of a heart attack and/or heart failure. This is partly why you feel pain in your chest when your heart is broken.

If your physical well-being is deteriorating or you have chest pains, get medical attention right away to make sure it isn’t a real heart attack. Don’t isolate yourself. Your doctor can be a great resource and help to ensure your physical and emotional needs are being addressed. If you find yourself in stressful situations, quickly surround yourself with positive people who love you and will make sure that you’re doing well. And if you see someone you know going through this, be kind. Instead of saying I told you so, which may only exacerbate their feelings, help them to get through these tough times.

Mental Health Problems Are Real

Conditions like depression, grief, anxiety, anger, and low self-esteem are very prevalent despite what social media will lead you to believe. According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 4 people suffers from these and or other mental illnesses. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices.

Over the course of your life, if—or rather when—you experience mental health problems, your thinking, mood, and behavior could be affected. If heartbreak goes unchecked or unmanaged, it can lead to both emotional and other physical harm, which can be complicated by disrupted sleep and eating patterns (too much or too little), an inability to concentrate, and lack of energy or focus. There are established ties between depression, mental health and heart disease. Many factors contribute to mental health problems, including:

• Biological factors, such as genes or brain chemistry
• Life experiences, such as trauma or abuse
• Family history of mental health problems

Mental health problems are common but help is available. It is possible for people with mental health problems to get better and recover completely.

STDs Can Disrupt Your Life

Just because someone is well-dressed, has money, or appears to have their life together doesn’t mean they don’t have a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Unprotected sex or sex with multiple partners carries the risk of contracting and spreading diseases. These can make a permanent impact on your life physically, emotionally, financially, and even spiritually. Not to mention that not all STDs or STIs (sexually transmitted infections) are treatable such as:

• The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the most commonly transmitted sexual infection.
• In the United States, about  1 out of every 6 people aged 14 to 49 years have genital herpes.
• Human immunodeficiency virus, (HIV) weakens a person’s immune system by destroying important cells that fight disease and infection.

Although these are no longer considered death sentences, why would you knowingly put yourself at risk to acquire these. Strap up! Be monogamous. Be celibate! Say no! Or do it yourself. Don’t play with your life or the life of others. Especially if there are children that you are responsible for.

Be Good to Yourself

These are only a few of the pressing issues that immediately come to mind when I see this story. So take it from America’s Favorite Nurse, please take care of yourself. Loving someone doesn’t have to hurt but it also has to start with loving yourself. Set boundaries. This is not the time to laugh or put yourself above the situation. Take this as an opportunity to re-evaluate yourself, your physical and mental well-being, and your relationships.

I don’t have to know Rob or Chyna personally to know that they are hurting themselves and others by engaging in such risky, impulsive, and petty behavior. I get it, love (or what we think is love) will make you do silly things but it should never come at the expense of your own sanity or physical well-being. If you find yourself in a toxic relationship like this and you’re struggling with what to do next, here are some words of advice from one of my Instagram favorites @KendallKyndal, “Find yourself. Take care of yourself… Build yourself back up.” (pardon the language)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWLsMAXlNFm/?taken-by=kendallkyndall

Nurse Alice is a nationally board-certified and award-winning cardiac clinical nurse specialist with nearly two decades of experience in cardiovascular health. She is a community health activist and freelance media health expert. She has appeared on various national radio and TV shows including Dr. Oz, The Doctors, Dr. Drew, News One with Roland Martin, Tom Joyner Morning Show and more. She is also the author of “Curb Your Cravings: 31 Foods to Fool Your Appetite.”

You can follow her at AskNurseAlice.com and on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @AskNurseAlice

Mario is one of the most popular game characters in the world, so it’s no surprise that you see all kinds of merchandise dedicated to everyone’s famous plumber. You’re probably a fan yourself. […]

The post 1-Up Your Friends With This Super Mario Gift Guide appeared first on Geek.com.

As an insanely loyal fan of the “shoot other people to accumulate sometimes useful but mostly cosmetic loot” PvP genre of gaming, I got addicted to Overwatch faster than it took for Black Twitter to drag Umar Johnson for whatever new fanfiction he wrote about himself last week. For a game that is a pretty barebones arcade-y FPS, it’s maybe the most addictive way that Blizzard could have thought to combine the comic bookish fun of Team Fortress 2 with the Smeagol level hoarding of Farmville. I’m saying all this to get my hypocrisy out of the way and admit that it’s pretty likely I’ll keep playing in spite of the following gripe.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m as elated as the next blerd that we’re finally getting to play as the long hyped villain of Overwatch mythos, Doomfist. I mean, the trailer looks hardcore as hell (He killed Tracer so he’s already my favorite). The test playing looks like this dude is probably the closest you’ll get to playing Overwatch with a Street Fighter villain. Odds are I will spend an embarrassing amount of money on every skin they have to offer. I’ll probably add whatever awesome quote he says to my Twitter bio. I’m so excited, I might tattoo it on my damn arm (don’t judge…one of our writers has the Green Lantern emblem, so there’s that).

I don’t know if there was more money than Blizzard was willing spend involved. I don’t know if there were scheduling conflicts. I don’t know if they even truly asked him, but Doomfist isn’t being voiced by Terry Crews and damnit, I feel a certain way about that. I mean, I’m not usually okay with these campaigns where a celebrity goes on social media and low key begs for a role. After all, there’s a degree of privilege, resources and access that come with life in the A and B list which sort of catapults you to the front of the line when opportunities like this arise.

That’s how we end up with Chadwick Boseman essentially playing every prominent black character ever apparently. But I’d call this case an exception. Crews had been trying to get Blizzard’s attention for a while to the point where he won the fandom over along the way. I mean, look at this guy. If that’s not a bionic Terry Crews looking like he sold enough Old Spice to evolve into his ultimate form, I don’t know who is. So, yeah, thank you for Doomfist, Blizzard. But also…do better, Blizzard.

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Look here fam, there are few titles that when mentioned instantly show your video gaming credibility from the jump. Castlevania is one of those titles. Symphony of the Night still putting numbers on the board if you got the right hardware. So when it was announced that Netflix was cracking the bullwhip on a Castlevania animated series written by gawd scribe Warren Ellis, you know the nerd streets was talking bout this shit.

Since Ellis has written so many things that have translated well to the screen (Red, Iron Man: Extremis, Trees in development), then him writing a show felt like going straight to the source. It also meant, if you know Ellis’ work, this shit was going to be dark. But yo, we talkin’ bout fuckin’ Dracula my monster hunter, so you knew what this was.

Speaking of which, the show begins showing Dracula, having withdrawn from the human world and lined his driveway with the most morbid of holiday cheer (read: lots of fuckin’ skulls). When Lisa Teppes dares to enter Dracula’s home in search of knowledge, never showing any fear for the vampire, Dracula finally indulges her, then presumptably falls in love with her. When the church accuses Lisa of witchcraft (with the predictable sentence), its fair to say that Dracula is fed the fuck up. He wasn’t even fuckin’ with you humans anyway, man. He promises to take his wrath out on the world in a year’s time for their crimes and ain’t nobody ever call Dracula a liar, b.

The biggest crime of Castlevania is that it’s only four episodes long. I KNOW RIGHT?!?! But I get it, budgets, risks and all that. It was green-lit for a second season before most people watched the first one, so it’s safe to say we got a lot more coming. The first episode is admittedly slow with some weird pacing.

There are two different time jumps in the first episode and is intentionally ambiguous in introducing a lot of characters, so it feels a bit disjointed. But the story becomes streamlined in episode two and centers on the shows’s protagonist, Trevor Belmont, member of the exiled Belmont lineage who were the monster slayers that kept the creatures at bay.

And fam, Belmont is a badass. Belmont out here putting up A-Rod Mike Trout numbers fam. Your boy out here crackin’ the whip like Vampire Hunter Indiana Jones. Like, non-Halle Berry Catwoman. Like, that dude The Rock went up against in The Rundown. Look fam, there still ain’t a whole lot of whip references that aren’t racist af, so you gonna have to let me work through this.

Also mixed up in the story is the less than noble members of the Church and the Speakers, an organization that kind of does what the Church should be doing to support the commoners, but are instead more prepped to be the scapegoat for the horrors released upon the world by Dracula. The true tragedy of the very short first season is that these characters were just starting to get fleshed out when you reach the season’s end. Dracula who is prevalent in the first episode is mostly a boogeyman in the subsequent ones, but a foe that will definitely be present in season two.

Have I said yet how adult this shit is? Cuz this shit mature like the backroom of your favorite video store fam. When Dracula’s Army shows up, them cats ain’t just “terrorizing the town folks.” They out here severing limbs and disemboweling people, man. And when Belmont start putting the whips, short swords, and paws on people? They be leaving with less appendages than they came with. Not to mention the language is R rated fare. This ain’t no Voltron nostalgia built for your partner’s sister’s step kids. Shit is all the way real out here. Just brutal in all the right places.

End result? If it weren’t for the fact that Spider-Man Homecoming just dropped one of the hottest verses of the year, I’d say this is the best way to spend a little under two hours right now. And then, cuz this shit so short, watch it one mo gin. Or however many times necessary until that season two drops.

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