I am surprised-the UK is loaded with it (English gardeners liked the look in fall), So I can imagine that birds dropped the seeds in Holland. Are NORWAY MAPLES a problem over there? They grow like weeds here (NE USA). Are Dutch winters mild enougth to have palm trees there?
Hmn. My sources suggest no Jerusalem artichoke grows in or near the Biesbosch. So that’s one theory out the window. Ask you friend about the " bietencampagne"; if that is a factor near you, he will know.
Maybe you could buy an extensive Dutch “pollen-kalender” (that’s the word in Dutch) and find out what flowers in late October. If you post the name, I’ll dig up some practical information about that plant for you that can help you avoid it. But maybe you and doc were richt all along and it is something in the house. Are the neighbours (same house, presumably, or downwind from the same factories) also afflicted by the allergy?
Norway maples (Acer platanoides) is not a problem here at all. It is cultivated in gardens and parks and so far hasn’t escaped yet. 
Palm trees (often used in pots near homes and beach bars) can remain outside in a typical Dutch summer, but they have to get inside a home or hothouse in fall, winter and spring, or they run the risk of freezing. We have had winters with just a few days below zero, but you never knwo beforehand if it will start to freeze.
The really big one in my neighborhood must have a ten-foot circumference at chest height and be a good 80 feet tall. It’s clearly been there a while. There are plenty of others around that, while not quite as big, must be decades old. There are a bunch on the Harvard campus, for example. In fact, I can’t recall having seen a diseased or distressed elm anywhere around here, in fact.
But maybe they’re all the so-called Princeton elm, which is said to be more resistant.
AIUI a local landmark in my hometown had been killed by Dutch Elm Disease: The Treaty Elm, in Stow, had been planted at the time of the treaty ending King Philip’s War. And it died in the late 60s, early 70s. Obviously, I can’t guarantee that it was a victim of Dutch Elm Disease, but the timing is suggestive.
What’s the best way to find a good psychologist/counselor?
I’ve updated my post in this thread a bit.
Finding a therapist is in some ways like finding a friend. Even although many people are decent, helpful folks, that doesn’t mean you will feel at ease to confide in everyone you meet. It isn’t easy to find someone that listens to you in the right way for you, and then say the things *you * need to hear.
Therapists are, of course, trained to be far better listeners and helpers then most decent, helpful folks. So the chance of connecting is much, much bigger. But it still takes a bit of trial and error. Your perfect therapist might be another guys mismatch, and the therapist recommended to you by a friend or by your family physician might be just not your type.
So, on a more practical note, expect to talk to at least three (I’d recommend you try five) therapists before you “click” with one. A very practical way is to look up a few in the yellow pages and talk with them on the phone a few minutes while explaining your situation and your complaint, and asking them what sort of therapy they provide for those kind of problems. Do they subscribe medicine? How much and how do they charge? Etcetera. The important thing (besides getting some practical information) is determining if you feel a “click” with that particular therapist. Is it easy to talk to him/her? Do you feel intimidated by him/her? Or, do you feel instead you have to spell out everything in little words? Do you feel bombarded with jargon and clichés? Or do you feel you and him/her speak the same language? Do you get a bit of positive energy from that talk? Does the talk make you feel a little bit better about yourself, and realistically hopeful that something can be done about your problems? Do you feel understood, accepted? If the answer to these questions is “no”, then thank them for their time and move on.
Many counsellors will ask you to come in for an “intake”, of an hour. Politely decline that offer, unless you feel, in your gut, good about talking to him/her. Otherwise you might waste an hour talking to someone, and accomplish nothing more then the feeling (which is probably already lurking in your mind) that therapy isn’t for you, when in reality only that therapist is not for you.
There is a bit of consensus as to what kind of therapy works best for what kind of problems. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, combined with antidepressants, works best with depression, and seems to work best in general. Phobia’s can be quite easily and quickly helped with behavioral therapy like “flooding"and systematic desensitisation”. Psychodynamic talk therapy (spending years talking once a week about your youth) is currently discredited as an inefficient form of psychotherapy. Nevertheless, some people still find it a good aide in “finding themselves”. I had psychodynamic talk therapy for the past two years, and while I gained quite a bit of -often unpleasant- insight, it very emphatically did NOT make me feel any better. Group therapy, besides being cheaper, also has its uses, especially problems with a social side, and especially with addictions (other addicts are merciless when it comes to calling one of their own out on any bullshit excuses).
And then there are the new trends, (currently it is eye movement therapy) that everyone gets enthusiastic about, but which effectiveness can only be estimated after a few years.
The consensus about the match between problem and therapy stops about there, I’m afraid. In my personal opinion, apart from the above considerations, the match between the personalities of the therapist en the client is more important then the qualifications (s)he has and the type of therapy offered. Most therapist, when asked, will say they work “eclectic” anyway, which is fancy psychologist talk for “oh, I use a bit of this kind of therapy and a bit of that, as I see fit”.
A bit more about what psychotherapy is and isn’t can be found here.
[Nods vigorously] Preach it! [Stops nodding]
As an amusing aside, an Aussie colleague confessed that when she came to the UK she was not aware that Stinging Nettles existed. She discovered them while experimenting with al-fresco sex. :eek:
Not knowing what to do about the head-to-toe stinging sensation, she yelled a lot and then sat naked in a stream. Where she was found by a family who had heard the yelling. :eek: :eek:
In true aussie style she gave them a good telling-off for nto warning visitors about the fact that the countryside was overrun with homicidal plants 
So what "home grown "do you recommend then?
How about mushrooms ?
How do you mean?
In my botany classes, I recommend that people taste the various members of the non-poisonous plant families. For instance, plants from the Labiatae family, that includes common kitchen herbs like sage, lavender, thyme, majoran and mint, all have a very distinct, similar but subtly different taste. So do the members of the Cruciferae family. Think horse radish, radish, cabbages. I do warn against tasting members of the Umbelliferae though. While there are very tasty herbs in that family (aniseed, fennel, dill, parsley) the family also hosts quite a bit of the few plants in the Netherlands that are lethally poisonous. Hemlock, and the above mentioned giant Hogweed, for instance.
I let my students taste plants (some are quite reluctant at first, they think it strange) to use all the possible different ways of learning I can in my class. I want my students to look, feel, taste and smell plants, look at schematic drawings, snippets from documentaries that capture the growthe of plants with high-speed camera’s, as well as hear the differences explained in words. And some students learn best by explaining what they’ve just learnt to others. The old “See one, do one, teach one” learning cycle. 
Quite a few people have an, imho, almost religious belief in the “goodness” of nature. They believe that herbs, being “natural”, are always beneficial. I don’t share that belief. To me, plants in the wild contain complex combinations of chemicals, like all living creatures do. Some of these are used by the plant as resource, some for defence (like the etheral oils in the mint, sage and lavender families; cattle hate those and will avoid eating the plants). Some of these chemicals are just the plants by-products or waste products. The combinations of these chemicals in plants differ from individual plants, time in the season, and growing conditions. It is almost impossible to do any reliable dosing of any truly medically active ingredient using plant material gathered from the wild. I wouldn’t take my medicine from homegrown or wild plants, but I do enjoy the vegetables a good friend of mine grows in his garden and gives me.
Of course, I hate spoiling the fun. So when I guide a group of sweet old ladies who want to believe in the goodness of nature, I tell them that *"This plant was used in in the olden time to cure Such-and such disease, and in remembrance of that, the Latin name still has the affix “officinalis” ". *They always look so happy when they hear those kind of things, like they are now “in the know” of some ancient obsolete knowledge that makes sense in an archaic, human sized way.
If you are referring to homegrown soft drugs, it is semi-legal in the Netherlands for anyone to homegrow up to five “weed” plants in their garden, or balcony. When, years ago, I had a friend who was addicted to smoking pot, and couldn’t really afford buying it, I asked another friend of mine, who is an excellent gardener, to grow five plants for me. I bought the young plants in a " grow shop" (shops selling pot-seedlings and pot-growing paraphernalia are also legal in Holland) and my friend put them in fertile soil, gave them manure and sunshine and the same tender loving care he gives his pumpkins and tomatoes. When harvest came, each of the five plants were over man-height, about nine foot tall and big and bushy as well. Picking just the tips, I ended up with two big pillowcases full of weed ! (My nephew, then aged 14, found the whole thing quite interesting, and the main thing* he* learned from it is that anyone asking 25 dollars for a small packet of weed is seriously ripping him off (He’s in college now, having suffered no ill consequences of watching pot grow).
It turned out I had picked the pot too late, seed had already started to form, so the pot was low-quality. But it did what I hoped to do; it kept my addicted friend in pot for over a year, kept him out of money trouble, and it kept his mind a bit of his addiction (because he didn’t have to worry about getting enough pot, and because my pot was so bad he inhaled less THC when smoking his usual amount of joints. As a result, that year he ended up less stoned, and less obsessed with pot then before. That was the year he found another, better job then the one he had before, and finally entered therapy. He’s doing a lot better now, having a steady well paying job he loves, no more money trouble, drinking far less and with a steady girlfriend for over four years.
It is possible to grow mushrooms (both edible and hallucinogenic) in your basement. There are all sorts of mushroom growing packages for sale. They consist of a pressed block of medium (often manure) impregnated with the spores of the fungus. I tried growing shi-take that way once; I got maybe an ounce of fresh shitake mushrooms from it before the whole block became an unpleasantly smelling thing of Ew. I threw it out real fast after that.
For the record; I love plants, but can’t grow them to save my life. I can’t keep any but my hardiest houseplants in leaves. 
I also don’t smoke pot. I tried it, like most Dutch and American teenagers; didn’t like it, like most Dutch and American teenagers.