Diagnosed Narcissist Shares The Riddle That Can Allegedly Determine If You're A Psychopath - YourTango

Personality disorders are a particularly complex part of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, published by the American Psychiatric Association. While it’s become fairly common to hear clinical terms related to personality disorders pitched around TikTok and Instagram, not everyone wielding the terms is doing so in the correct context. 

A diagnosed narcissist shared a riddle that can allegedly determine if you’re a psychopath.

Jacob Skidmore posts on TikTok under the username “The Nameless Narcissist.” He uses his clinical diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder as an entry point to creating content about the various nuances of narcissism. He explains how he enters and experiences the world, focusing mostly on how his diagnosis affects his ability to maintain relationships. 

Skidmore filmed himself sitting in a beige room, sparsely decorated with a map on one wall and a calendar on the other. In the TikTok post, he proclaimed, “If you can answer this riddle correctly, then it is a major sign that you're a psychopath.”

He offered a caveat about the nature of the riddle, noting that “there’s no research to validate it.” Still, Skidmore said, “If you do get it right, don’t get all in a panic. However, that being said, the only people in my life who are accurately able to answer was me, a diagnosed narcissist, and my sister who is diagnosed with ASPD, aka sociopathy. So, take that as you will.”

RELATED: This Personality Test Shows How Manipulative Someone Is In A Relationship

“So, a woman goes to her mother’s funeral, and she meets a guy there that she’s never met before and they really hit it off,” he introduced the riddle. “Like, this woman is thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this might be my soulmate.’ But she doesn’t realize until the funeral is over that she forgot his name, forgot his number. She has no idea who this guy is, and whoever she asks, they don’t know either.”

“The next week, she murders her sister,” he proclaimed. “So the riddle is, why did she do it? Why did she murder her sister?” 

He offered up the answer to the riddle, saying, “Because if she murders her sister, given that the sister and mother are related, there’s a good probability that that man will also show up to this funeral.”

Skidmore went on to clarify that the answer seemed obvious to him and he was able to answer quickly. He mentioned that his sister, who he claimed has a diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder, “answered it really slowly because she thought it was a trick question because she found it so obvious.”

He clarifies that according to his perspective, the woman in the riddle doesn’t seem particularly psychopathic, stating, “It sounds more Machiavellian traits rather than psychopathic ones. But still, I think it’s a fun little riddle.”

RELATED: 5 Personality Traits Of Psychopaths Who Are Ordinary, Everyday People

Being able to answer the riddle isn’t a diagnosis in any form.

The riddle is more of a thought experiment than any legitimate clinical tool.

A majority of the comments on the post proclaimed the riddle’s answer obvious, as most people came to the same conclusion, that the woman killed her sister in hopes that the mysterious man would come to her funeral.

“Oh, we’re thinking in realistic terms?” Someone asked. “I was like, ‘the man is death.’”

“I immediately said to see the guy again,” one woman explained. “But I feel like this just indicates good logic skills. Because knowing the answer doesn’t mean thinking it’s moral.”

Her comment on the morality politics of the riddle raises a valuable point, one that touches on the issues of empathy and psychopathy. An article published in March 2022 by the American Psychological Association noted that various aspects of psychopathy include “low empathy and remorse, grandiosity, impulsivity, and sometimes aggressive or violent behavior.”

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In the article, the APA stated that “about 1.2% of U.S. adult men and 0.3% to 0.7% of U.S. adult women are considered to have clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits.” They explained that “psychopathy is not a diagnostic category” within the current DSM, having been “replaced in the third edition by antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), which focuses mainly on the behavioral aspects of psychopathy, such as aggression, impulsivity, and violations of others’ rights.”

There are significant social and cultural stigmas held against psychopathy as a concept and diagnosis. Some clinicians believe that psychopathy exists along a spectrum. While not everyone in the mental health community agrees with that assessment, most do agree that “the area tends to be both underfunded and undertreated,” and ultimately, not fully understood.

RELATED: 1 In 100 People Are Psychopaths — The 3 Personality Traits That Give Them Away

Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers mental health, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.

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Ultra-processed food raises risk of heart attack and stroke, two studies show - The Guardian

Ultra-processed food significantly raises the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, according to two studies that one expert says should serve as a wake-up call for governments worldwide.

Global consumption of heavily processed items such as cereals, protein bars, fizzy drinks, ready meals and fast food has soared in recent years. In the UK and US, well over half the average diet now consists of ultra-processed food (UPF). For some, especially people who are younger, poorer or from disadvantaged areas, a diet comprising as much as 80% UPF is typical.

Stark new research adds to a growing body of evidence that experts say exposes a “tidal wave of harm” being caused directly by UPF. Two large studies presented at the world’s largest heart conference showed the devastating impact UPF is having on cardiovascular health.

The first study, which tracked 10,000 women for 15 years, found that those with the highest proportion of UPF in their diet were 39% more likely to develop high blood pressure than those with the lowest. This was the case even after academics adjusted for the effect of salt, sugar and fat.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, increases the risk of serious heart conditions including heart disease, peripheral arterial disease, aortic aneurysms, kidney disease and vascular dementia.

The second study, a gold-standard meta-analysis of more than 325,000 men and women, showed those who ate the most UPF were 24% more likely to have cardiovascular events including heart attacks, strokes and angina.

Increasing daily UPF consumption in calorie intake by 10% was associated with a 6% increased risk of heart disease. And those with UPF making up less than 15% of their diet were least at risk of any heart problems, according to the research led by the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an, China.

The findings were revealed at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Amsterdam, where thousands of the world’s leading heart doctors, scientists and researchers were briefed on the studies. The results prompted calls from experts for urgent action.

Ultra-processed foods are products that have gone through multiple processes during manufacturing. They are often high in salt and sugar and may contain additives and preservatives. Often, the foods are low in fibre and lacking the nutrients present in fresh or minimally processed foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, plain yoghurt and homemade bread.

Previous studies have linked eating high levels of ultra-processed foods with a range of health problems including obesity, type 2 diabetes and cancer.

Speaking to reporters in Amsterdam, one of the researchers behind the first study, Anushriya Pant, of the University of Sydney, said many people were unaware that food they assume is healthy, such as shop-bought sandwiches, wraps, soups and low-fat yoghurts, were in fact UPF. “It could be that foods you think are healthy are actually contributing to you developing high blood pressure,” she said.

Women typically eat more UPF than men, Pant added. Further research is needed to establish whether this is driven by the marketing of ultra-processed diet and low-fat foods at women.

Dr Chris van Tulleken, one of the world’s leading UPF experts and the author of the bestselling book Ultra Processed People, said: “The findings of these new papers are entirely consistent with a large and growing body of work showing that increasing consumption of UPF is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

“Much of it will be familiar as ‘junk food’, but there’s plenty of organic, free-range, ‘ethical’ UPF which might be sold as healthy, nutritious, environmentally friendly or useful for weight loss. Almost every food that comes with a health claim on the packet is UPF.

“There is now significant evidence that these products inflame the gut, disrupt appetite regulation, alter hormone levels and cause myriad other effects which likely increase the risk of cardiovascular and other disease much in the same way that smoking does.”

Van Tulleken called for black warning labels to be added to UPF packaging, as is already the case in Chile and Mexico, and said there should be a clampdown on marketing of UPF, and in particular adverts aimed at children.

The UK Department of Health and Social Care said it had already introduced legislation to restrict the placement and promotion of certain products in supermarkets to discourage unhealthy food choices.

Henry Dimbleby, the government’s former food tsar, said the studies presented in Amsterdam were among the first to suggest that the harm caused by UPF may be more than just because of the high fat, sugar and salt content of the products.

“This indicates there is something else going on,” he said. “Given that UPF represents 55% of our diet, that should be a wake-up call. If there is something inherent in the processing of foods that is harmful, then that is a disaster.

“Britain is particularly bad for ultra-processed food. It is storing up problems for the future. If we do nothing, a tidal wave of harm is going to hit the NHS.”

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, an associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said more research was needed to understand the links between ultra-processed foods and cardiovascular disease.

“For example, we don’t know to what degree this is driven by artificial additives or the high levels of salt, sugar and fat that these foods tend to contain,” she said.

“We do know that the world around us doesn’t always make it easy for the healthy option to be the accessible and affordable option. On the contrary, less healthy foods often take centre stage. To address this, we need a comprehensive strategy that creates an environment that can support people to live long and healthy lives.”

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How we see the world | UdeMNouvelles - Université de Montréal

Thomas Brown, Christine Jolicœur et Michel Cayouette

Credit: IRCM

Scentists in Montreal have identified a key mechanism involved in the growth of nerve cells that are critical to mediate binocular vision, which allows people to see the world in three dimensions.  
 
The work was led by Université de Montréal medical professor Michel Cayouette at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute's cellular neurobiology research unit, and published this month in Cell Reports. 

To see the world in 3D, our eyes look at an object from two different parts of the retina, a thin layer tissue at the back of the eyes that transforms light into biological signals. The overlap between these two fields of vision allows us to determine the depth, distance and speed of an object and make fast, sometimes lifesavings decisions. Crucial for this process is the proper growth of nerves from the eye to the brain.

When these nerve cells – called retinal ganglion cells – send projections to the brain via the optic nerve, they either remain on the same side or cross over to the other half of the brain. It is the balance of these projections that allows us to see the world in 3D, but until now how exactly this is controlled has remained poorly understood.

The work of Cayouette and his colleagues marks an important advance towards solving this mystery.  

A new gene is discovered

In their study, the scientists identified a gene called Pou3f1.

It acts as a major regulator controlling the expression of dozens of other genes, which together generate the full instructions to ensure retinal ganglion cells send projections that cross to the opposite hemisphere of the brain.

The researchers showed that expression of Pou3f1 in retinal stem cells is sufficient to force them to become retinal ganglion cells sending projections to the optic nerve.  
 
“Our work identifies Pou3f1 as a critical regulator of processes underlying binocular vision in mammals and as a potential candidate for the regeneration and repair of the visual system,” said Thomas Brown, a doctoral student in Cayouette's lab and the study's co-first author with former student Michel Fries.  
 
“Nerves are roads for information, and if they cannot send information to the appropriate area in the brain, then it leads to serious problems, as observed in blinding eye diseases like glaucoma,” added Christine Jolicoeur, a senior research assistant in the team and co-author of the study.  
 
“Our work helps understand how the roadmap of visual information is constructed and sheds light on how nerves reach the right area of the brain, which is essential information to help develop regenerative approaches for various neurodegenerative diseases,” Cayouette concluded.

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Growing concerns for back-to-school as data shows rising COVID-19 cases in B.C. - CBC.ca

A grassroots group of health professionals are calling for British Columbia to reinstate mask mandates in schools and hospitals to prevent a repeat "tripledemic" of COVID-19, RSV and influenza infections that pushed the province's hospitals to the brink last fall.

And with data showing rising COVID-19 cases in B.C. and two new viral subvariants on the horizon, Protect Our Province B.C. says the province should act sooner rather than later.

The group is composed of more than a dozen doctors, nurses, researchers, teachers and professionals who advocate for evidence-based pandemic policies.

"We know from last year kids and schools were hit hard and if the goal is to keep kids learning in school we need to do what we can to prevent virus spread this fall," said Dr. Lyne Filiatrault, a retired emergency room physician in Vancouver and a member of the group.

Masks should be required in schools and health-care settings, Protect Our Province B.C. said in an August 8 open letter, and the province should prioritize air filters and ventilation in classrooms to reduce the chance of transmission. 

"If really, the goal is to keep kids learning in school then we need to do everything we can to prevent viral spread both of COVID and other airborne viruses this fall," Filiatrault said.

WATCH | COVID-19 cases expected to rise:

Late-summer, early fall COVID-19 wave likely

9 days ago

Duration 2:00

Experts say signs including wastewater testing and hospital admissions are pointing to the start of a COVID-19 wave in Canada heading into the fall.

While new data from the Canadian Centre for Health Information shows COVID-19 sends fewer people to the ICU this year compared with 2022, hospitalizations rose nearly 20 per cent between April 2022 and March 2023 compared with the previous year.

And wastewater data reported by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control on Aug. 23 shows viral concentrations declining since January have levelled off across the province and appear to be rising in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, as well as in other regions across Canada.

"It does look like cases are going to go up and we are going into the fall when kids are going to go back to school and more people are at work," said Dr. Christopher Labos, a cardiologist in Montreal with a degree in epidemiology.

"And with hospitals becoming overwhelmed [last year], it's not unreasonable to think that a very similar thing could happen again this year."

But with the vast majority of the population at least somewhat protected by either vaccination or a previous COVID-19 infection, it's not yet clear whether new variants EG.5 and BA.2.86 could cause infections to explode the way the original Omicron variant did. 

Early evidence about EG.5 doesn't show it causes more severe illness, but it could be more transmissible that previous Omicron subvariants circulating in B.C.

It made up about 28 per cent of cases across Canada during the week of Aug. 6, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, however the World Health Organization says the global risk level is "low."

But less is known about the highly mutated BA.2.86 variant, which has been identified in just a handful of countries in recent weeks but not yet in Canada.

Infectious disease experts say a high number of mutations may make BA.2.86 more severe, but that can't be known this early and with so few identified cases.

WATCH | Subvariants continue to spread:

New COVID-19 subvariant on the rise in U.S.

8 months ago

Duration 1:47

A new COVID subvariant, XBB 1.5, is surging in the U.S. with health officials predicting it will make up close to 40 per cent of cases soon. Though its mutations make it easier to catch and spread, experts are cautioning people not to panic.

Protective measures can help: experts

Labos said it would make sense to require masks in schools and and health-care settings as cases rise and we learn more about the new variants.

"It's not just the properties of the virus or the variant, it's also the environmental situation that we put the virus in and how easily we allow it to spread, and if we have any public health measures in place to stop it from spreading," Labos said.

University of Toronto infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch stressed that parents should keep themselves and their children home from school and work if they are sick, whether or not a test says they have COVID-19.

"It doesn't matter what the virus is, just let's prevent illness in the community by doing that simple measure," Bogoch said.

Bogoch, Labos and Filiatrault also encouraged parents to get their children vaccinated for COVID-19 and influenza, as vaccination rates for children under 12 lag far behind rates for teens and adults in B.C.

Adults should also get boosted themselves, said Filitrault, particularly once the updated vaccines tailored toward more recent Omicron strains become available later this fall. 

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Updated COVID-19 shots will become available for those at high risk - The Jerusalem Post

The Health Ministry is preparing to provide dedicated vaccines this coming winter against the new COVID-19 sub-strains and recommends that people in high-risk groups get vaccinated. 

The ministry spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post that it will be possible to get vaccinated with any vaccine updated and approved by the ministry, which continues to monitor the morbidity situation and will update its guidelines as necessary. 

However, the ministry said that everyone from age six months and over should get an influenza shot when the health funds offer them to members.

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New COVID Booster Vaccine Will Be Available Next Month: Reports - Yahoo Canada Shine On

Updated COVID-19 booster shots will be available to the American public in mid-September, government officials told some media outlets on Friday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the new vaccine dose, designed to target currently circulating variants of the virus, in the coming weeks, officials from the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN, speaking on the condition of anonymity. An unnamed CDC official also confirmed the details with NBC News.

“Our goal, our imperative, our task is to make sure we’re using those tools,” the CDC official told NBC News of the new boosters. “Vaccination is going to continue to be key this year because immunity wanes and because the COVID-19 virus continues to change.”

Updated vaccines are expected to be available for people 12 and up from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax, the officials said. All are reportedly designed to fight the XBB.1.5 subvariant, which is slowly losing its dominance, but testing shows that the doses are also effective against the newly dominant EG.5 strain.

Officials are hoping for a higher uptake of this vaccine. Just over 20% of adults received last year’s bivalent booster.

The timeline reported Friday would bring vaccines to market slightly sooner than officials have previously indicated. Earlier this month, CDC Director Mandy Cohen told NPR that health officials “anticipate there being a new COVID booster available probably in the early October time frame.”

Friday’s news comes as the U.S. experiences a late-summer uptick in COVID-19 cases, though the count is drastically lower than last summer’s surge. Still, the number of new COVID-19 hospitalizations leaped 21.6% this past week, marking the fifth straight week of climbing admissions, the CDC said this week.

The CDC also said earlier this week that it expects hospitalizations to climb over the next month, with “1,100 to 7,500 daily COVID-19 hospital admissions likely reported on September 18.”

Those figures have prompted some places to revive dormant mask mandates, including several hospitals, at least one university and a Hollywood studio.

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First West Nile Virus case of the year found in Manitoba - CTV News Winnipeg

The Manitoba government has flagged the province's first case of West Nile Virus (WNV) this year.

The patient is in their 40s and lives in the Winnipeg health region.

The province said the person was brought to the hospital after experiencing neurological symptoms.

"They were most likely exposed to WNV sometime in late June to early July," said a news release.

The province said it's investigating three other possible cases of the virus. If they are confirmed, information about the cases will be posted on Manitoba Health’s WNVirus web page.

In 2022, Manitoba saw seven cases of the virus, five of which needed hospitalization.

This year, the province said it has found 45 mosquito pools infected with WNV, eight found in the last week.

Manitobans are reminded that weather conditions have been favourable for the type of mosquitoes what carry WNV. This, in addition to high trap counts means the risk of exposure to WNV is considered high.

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