General Discussion

unless or until they are tested. "Congenital" syphilis. A spirochaete, like Lyme, the borrows into tissues and the brain. Both can be asymptomatic for long periods of time. And both can produce vague yet dramatic symptoms -- fatigue, brain fog, periodic fevers, sore throat, weight loss -- stuff which is not automatically thought of STD or syphilis. Btw, my vet says Lyme can be transmitted sexually. I believe her because the mechanism is the same as syphilis AND she's the best vet I have ever met.

The stigma of syphilis and questions about HOW someone got it, naming partners, etc. can be a barrier to seeking treatment also.

I think the term "narcissism" is used too generally but I know what I think you mean. So no matter what we call it, I think it is useful to go down one level and look at what's under that. Trauma. And wanting to reinvent yourself because of that trauma. That's often true for stalkers and it can be true for actors. IOW your own childhood was so shitty and traumatic that you want to be someone else. Or, you feel so thrown away that you have to imagine yourself as someone well known and loved. Your denial is proportional to the trauma so it can be much less extreme. For example many actors are the children of alcoholics so they learned acting and self-denial as survival skills.

>Why do you think LA is so crazy, and NYC is more sane?<

The true history of L.A. is not very long, 1900 to the present, and not well known. It was run for decades by something known as "The Combination" as in combination of organized crime and corrupt law enforcement / elected officials. There was/is a lawlessness that turbo charges itself. The film business has always been a good way to launder crime money. Until very recently it was a cash business with no auditable merchandise. The IRS and everyone had to take their word for it. If they said they sold 1000 tickets or 10 tickets there was no way to prove otherwise...until the Feds audited DeLorentis by sending an agent into sit through 6 showings of a film and count how many people were there. Delorentis was laundering coke money through the film business.

Anyway, this corruption / underground stuff continues the present there. But Hollywood is the kicker. It is a distorted fun house mirror. And it attracts lost people daily. There are huge walls around the studios but the hordes are right outside the walls. So there is this weird polarized co-existence but it all feels a bit dystopian and dangerous. Darkness isn't "on the edge of town" -- It's right in the middle. When OJ or Nick Reiner did their crimes they bought meth from street dealers, not from celeb dealers. Long story but there is a whole dynamic that exists because drug use is so social. If they are buying meth it means they are too broke to buy coke therefore they don't want their friends to know therefore they go to street dealers. That is how they arrested Nick Reiner -- he was went to South Central (near USC) to buy meth and they didn't know what he had done in Brentwood, they just arrested him for buying.

NY on the other hand is full of rich people, most of whom are 1) not in the entertainment industry and 2) want to remain unknown to the general public for many reasons but often including everything I have detailed above. It is a much older city, much more european than LA. Big families, roots, connections, neighborhoods that are social. Rich kids and upper middle class kids are very social, competitive and professional. There is a big sobriety and health trend.