Pocster

Leak might be drying out I.e fixed

My stack is the bollocks !

He’s now pissy with me as I haven’t paid him . 3rd time he’s been to this property . I’ll get good photos Wednesday….

Roofer now says not condensation but he flaunched neighbors …

There is a tank in the loft - but it’s miles away from stack . Will take a look Wednesday in loft . Roofer sent me photos - he stripped roof around stack and it’s bone dry .

Here’s the room below the stack

Not in use a pot thing I think there’s no air vent in the stack anywhere ( or if there was it’s plastered over ) Been like this for years and only started showing signs of a ‘leak’ end of last summer .

Iv’e got this so called leak on a rental . Roofers been a few times and basically rendered the stack - change the pots . Still appears to leak I.e in room beneath damp on ceiling / wall on stack . Today stripped that part of the roof back . Bone dry ; no sign of any water ingress . He’s suggesting it could be condensation coming through the stack inside 🙄 That feasible ? . How do I fix that ? Roof has no insulation .

Expanding foam ?

15mm to every outlet .

Crucial evidence for this came from a 2014 study in which participants with and without OCD were trained to develop new habits in the lab. To avoid getting a shock to their wrist, they pressed a pedal when they saw a square on a computer screen. Later, the shocker was disconnected from their wrist, so there was no longer a need to press the pedal to avoid pain. Strikingly, those with OCD – but not those without – continued to press on the pedal when they saw the square, even though they said they knew it could no longer harm them. When questioned about their persistence in pressing the pedal, some volunteers with OCD invented explanations for their behaviour such as “I thought it could still shock me somehow” even though they earlier said that they knew they wouldn’t be hurt. One rationale for this disconnect is that when we carry out an action that no longer makes sense, our brains can invent a story that makes our behaviour seem more logical. This still begs the question of why some people are more prone to OCD than others. Here, too, the underlying factors are becoming clearer. We have long known that genetics plays a strong part, because OCD tends to run in families, with the immediate relatives of affected individuals having a four to eight times higher risk of developing the condition. What is thought and how does thinking manifest in the brain? We can describe different kinds of thought and how they arise, to some extent, but the relationship between neural activity and the nature of what we are thinking isn't well understood In fact, half of the risk of developing OCD is down to our genes. A paper from March that has yet to be peer-reviewed pinpoints some of the finer details. This examined the genomes of nearly 40,000 people with OCD and identified 15 genetic signatures associated with the condition, including ones for proteins that influence brain function and development. Intriguingly, one of the other signatures identified was associated with the genes for the major histocompatibility complex, a region of DNA that plays an important role in the immune system and has also been linked to other mental health conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This finding fits with a growing body of evidence that the immune system is one of the factors driving OCD. It seems to have this effect by influencing certain brain networks that, in turn, enhance compulsive behaviours. A case in point is two related conditions called PANS and PANDAS in which children can suddenly develop OCD symptoms, anxiety or tics seemingly in response to infection. The immune system and OCD “In PANS/PANDAS, severe OCD symptoms can present within hours and from nowhere,” says Fulvio D’Acquisto at the University of Roehampton, London. It appears that an immune reaction may cause inflammation and impair a brain region heavily implicated in OCD called the basal ganglia, of which the striatum is part. Further support for the role of the immune system in OCD comes from the 2023 discovery by a team of researchers, including D’Acquisto, that people with the condition have increased activity levels in a gene for a protein produced by immune cells called immuno-moodulin, or Imood. D’Acquisto and his colleagues had found this protein by chance a few years earlier while working on mice that exhibited high levels of compulsive digging, and discovered that this behaviour was linked to high levels of Imood. Their soon-to-be published research will set out a proposed mechanism for the protein’s effect: an infection leads to temporary increases in Imood, which then accumulates in the brain, altering the functioning of neuronal cells, says D’Acquisto. What’s more, antibodies against Imood reduce the compulsive behaviours in mice, raising the possibility that they might work in humans too. Efforts to develop a human version of the Imood antibody are currently under way, with the aim of testing them as potential new treatments for OCD. But this is just one of many avenues being explored in the hunt for new ways to tackle the condition. These include brain stimulation techniques, phone apps and even changes to diet, as there is emerging evidence that gut microbes play a part in the condition too (see Do microbes cause OCD?, below). New medications One of the many new ideas is to use ketamine. This anaesthetic and rave drug causes feelings of disassociation, and is undergoing a surprising conversion to being used to treat brain and mental health conditions. For instance, a randomised controlled trial carried out by Carolyn Rodriguez at Stanford University in California and her colleagues found that taking ketamine resulted in a rapid improvement in OCD symptoms. In a study due to be published soon, the researchers found that a single intravenous infusion relieves symptoms for about three weeks. Rodriguez is now exploring the biochemical mechanisms through which this drug works. However, the addictive nature of ketamine and its side effects mean it is no magic bullet. “These things give me pause. I’m not advocating people with OCD rush to use ketamine,” says Rodriguez, who is a strong proponent of CBT treatment for OCD. To use an analogy, if a person broke their arm, they would need a cast to support it in recovery, she says. “I think of CBT as the plaster cast and ketamine, in the short term, to alleviate pain while doctors cast the break.” The psychedelic drug psilocybin is in clinical trials for treating OCD Ketamine is thought to work because it increases neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to remodel itself – and, in so doing, it loosens the characteristically rigid thinking that accompanies OCD and makes those with the condition more receptive to CBT. For similar reasons, the psychedelic drug psilocybin – the active ingredient in magic mushrooms – is also in clinical trials for OCD in the UK and the US. In the body, it is converted into a molecule that binds to a specific receptor in the brain for the neurotransmitter serotonin, so it can act in similar ways to SSRIs and, in turn, may help unstick thought patterns. “If you boost serotonin, it makes you more flexible,” says Robbins. We are also seeking fresh treatments by looking at existing drugs designed to treat other mental health conditions, especially those that work on the brain’s glutamate pathways, which we now know are implicated in OCD. A case in point is the drug riluzole, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat motor neuron disease. Early studies found it helpful in treating OCD that is resistant to treatment with SSRIs and CBT. A patient undergoing transcranial magnetic stimulation, which can help alleviate OCD Marc Bruxelle/Alamy Now, the pharmaceutical company Biohaven is working to develop a related drug, troriluzole, with fewer side effects. It is in a phase III trial in humans and is, according to Rodriguez, “the closest we’ve been since the 1990s to a new FDA-approved drug” for OCD. New treatments are sorely needed because, for the 10 per cent of people with severe OCD whose symptoms don’t respond to CBT or SSRIs, invasive surgical procedures are currently the main alternative. These include anterior cingulotomy, when a permanent lesion is made in area deep in the brain involved with OCD behaviours. Alternatively, deep brain stimulation (DBS), where thin electrodes are inserted into this part of the brain to deliver electrical currents, is a less permanent way to mimic these lesions and disrupt information flow. Brain stimulation Around two-thirds of people receiving DBS for OCD see a marked reduction in symptoms. However, it is a last-resort treatment as it is invasive and comes with risks such as infection, seizures or bleeding. But this may change if a newly developed non-surgical technique to stimulate neural activity deep in the brain called transcranial temporal interference stimulation (TTIS) proves to be a viable alternative. In this, electrodes attached to the scalp deliver signals at different frequencies to a particular deep brain region. When these signals interfere with each other, they alter neural activity. A randomised trial in May found this technique could selectively target the striatum. Meanwhile, a number of other non-invasive techniques to alter the neural pathways in outer parts of the brain – through magnetic or electrical stimulation – are becoming increasingly common, with the first such device approved by the FDA for OCD in 2017. Nerve fibres in the brain could generate quantum entanglement Calculations show that nerve fibres in the brain could emit pairs of entangled particles, and this quantum phenomenon might explain how different parts of the brain work together Just like for TTIS, these devices are composed of electrodes or electromagnetic coils that are placed on top of the skull. The effect – felt as a buzz – can be tailored to the brain circuitry of the individual, something that can be done with ever greater precision now that we have a clearer understanding of the brain networks associated with OCD symptoms. A 2023 meta-analysis of 25 trials of so-called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) found that it “exhibited a moderate therapeutic effect… on OCD symptom severity”. The effects are small, says Fineberg, but it has value “perhaps in helping to loosen the brain up so you can do your CBT”. However, Robbins is more optimistic about the potential of TMS, especially since studies are under way to establish the best brain areas to target and the optimum doses for alleviation of symptoms. “The exciting thing about TMS is that it adjusts the so-called excitatory/inhibitory balance in the cortex, which we’ve recently shown is affected in OCD,” he says. The upshot of all these investigations into the mechanisms underlying OCD is that, in future, clinicians should have some much-needed new tools to treat this distressing and sometimes intractable condition. “OCD is not a neurodegenerative disease where you’re losing the brain,” says Robbins. “It’s just that the brain has been modulated – it’s not in the right state. I think it could be made to function better.” Rodriguez is also optimistic for the future. “I’m so hopeful for the patients I have now for when they are older,” she says. “The technology is coming on in leaps and bounds.” When I ask my daughter what she thinks about these new possibilities she, too, is hopeful. “Knowing there may be things within my reach that can ease OCD symptoms is really helpful,” she says. “It makes me feel more in control.” Do microbes cause OCD? Evidence is mounting that the microbes in our gut play an important role in mental health conditions, and new research is revealing that this is the case for obsessive-compulsive disorder too. Key evidence comes from a study published this year, in which a team at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, transplanted faecal gut microbiota from humans with OCD into mice. Two weeks later, the mice began to exhibit repetitive behaviours and signs of anxiety compared with animals that didn’t receive a transplant. The researchers also found inflammation in a key brain area implicated in OCD called the medial prefrontal cortex, probably due to the accumulation of a substance called succinic acid driven by the proliferation of transplanted microbes. This not only indicates that gut microbes might be a causative factor in OCD, but opens up potential routes to treating the condition through diet or manipulation of the types of microbes in our digestive system. Yeah like I read all that ffs !

Well , guess I’ll let off . Next time though , we will invade Wales ! . We English need those rare minerals and teenage pregnant benefit claimants.

You saying my tilings bad ? ’cause if so we’re gonna have a spat that makes the Oval Office look tame .

Fair enough . The only issue is your ‘ acceptability ‘ ( ocd tolerance ) might be lower than the tilers . So he thinks it’s fine and you check and he’s 2mm out … The thing with tiling is it is how it looks not necessarily how perfect it is . I had an issue ( no ; not putting a photo up ! ) - if I put a vertical laser on the tile beading in 1 place you can see it’s out . Take away the laser , grout it all , then look . I can see it because I know where to look , to an untrained eye it’s not noticeable. What I’m saying is you can get away with murder !

No issue . Your ocd will get far worse once you start tiling .