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Have you gone down any rabbit holes that gave you an existential crisis? (discuss.online)

submitted 4 months ago by Jobseekers@discuss.online to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Have you went down any internet rabbit holes only to come out with a deep set existential crisis? If so, what are they?

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[–] DaleGribble88@programming.dev 28 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Toxoplasma Gondii - a parasite bred through cat poop. It is extremely common, easily spread through undercooked food (especially meat). It can affect your mental state to engage in riskier and more self destructive behaviors. Testing for Toxoplasma Gondii is not standard, but it is believed that 10-15% of the US population is infected with the parasite at any given time.

[–] stewie3128@lemmy.ml 17 points 4 months ago

That's actually my favorite parasite! Toxo really wants to live inside a cat's digestive tract, so much so that, when a rodent gets it in their blood, the baby toxos produce cysts in the brain (and liver and muscles) that hypnotize the rat into being attracted to cat poop. This leads to the rat hanging around where cats poop, and therefore getting eaten by the cat, and ending up happily back inside the cat's GI tract.

[–] Truffle@lemmy.ml 8 points 4 months ago

Oh I've been there too! Read about it while planning my pregnancy. It made me feel so paranoic that I got the test done twice just in case. I never got sick with it, but paranoia was a removed.

Since then I have gotten mental health help to deal with anxiety etc.