#different medical focuses

[cam-the-orange-cat]

It's more common than you think. People are very wary and distrustful, and it's easy to buy into conspiracies when those theories are being perpetuated by people you consider educated and reputable. And especially if they're your boss. Quite a few of my medical field coworkers were antivax.

As a whole, though, my coworkers were incredibly superstitious. To some degree, I compare it to the level of superstition that professional athletes and sailors experience. But it's a whole new level listening to a surgeon explain how he got his surgery room Spotify playlist curated and blessed by his dog's psychic. That particular interaction lives rent free in my head to this day.

Whatever your position about the vax, I just want you to know that mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt in Memes 5

Once more, have a prompt entirely in memes because I'm too lazy to properly write one right now lol.

[gxlden-angels]

I don't know entirely how to explain this, but I think an important part of healing from religious trauma is learning about substance use disorders and shifting your views on drugs to neutral

[mars-ipan]

kinda funny when ur brain’s gut instinct is repression so you just kinda watch while your stress and emotions get bottled and corked and the whole time ur just like “that is going to bite me in the ass so bad later but i can’t seem to open the damn bottles without getting glass everywhere so! guess we’ll wait”

[quiet-admirer]

I love fat transsexuals' chests, I love everyone's different decisions and preferences for what makes them feel like themselves and I think all of you are very hot

[orcelito]

Remembered I have an Eyebrow Wound rn and honestly. Hfkshfks I have a doctors appointment tomorrow and I hope they don't comment on it 😭😭😭 like pay no attention to the gash on my eyebrow or my slightly raw nose. Don't even worry about it.

[lightbulb-warning]

local audhd having idiot has to do something not related to their hyperfixation and fuCKING EXPLODES!!1!!!!!! /j

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

AHA

I am not going crazy. Having excess beta brainwaves IS correlated to ADHD symptoms (in children and adolescents), specifically metacognition issues, inattention, and irritability:

[thetreetopinn]

My ADD Medication Journey - Mar 15, 16 & 17, 2024

Oops... got distracted by other things (visiting the parents over the weekend). Forgot to make an entry here.

Friday, March 15th

Slept a little better then the previous night. I'd guess I managed somewhere between 4 and 6 hours. Not quite enough for my liking but it was sufficient to get me through the day.

I had taken a sleep aid--some over the counter antihistamines repackaged and rebranded as a sleep aid--and put on some soothing stuff to listen to while I lay in bed. It seemed to do the trick. I hope I don't have to keep taking the antihistamines every night I've taken my ADD medication.

Woke up feeling tired, but I'm used to that. Took my medication as soon as I was able to get something to drink--around 8:30am.

Work wasn't terrible, not as productive as I might have liked, but I did get enough done to still feel accomplished. The workload has eased down substantially now that A) we've kind of streamlined the process a bit and B) the backlog is effectively gone.

There's still some older stuff sitting there waiting for me to tackle it, but it's not super critical, and I've got other matters to address.

Tremors weren't as bad as the previous day, but still enough to notice.

I was able to focus enough on the things that mattered such that the most important things got taken care of.

I left to go see my parents immediately after work. For a not small stretch of the night, mom sat with me to go over my taxes so that we could both be reasonably sure I hadn't missed anything. I'm not super fond of the tax preparation services, and my state doesn't offer a proper free-filing method... because... well... fuck this state.

I got notice that I've been approved for my new apartment, and had to deal with some paperwork with that. More will be coming soon.

Went to bed later than I would have liked, but such is life.

Saturday, March 16th

Had trouble sleeping, but I got something like 5 or 6 hours of sleep I think. I always have trouble sleeping in a new bed, even if it's one I've slept in before, just not in a while.

Not taking my medication on the weekend so that I can guarantee a good night's sleep.

Got up early enough to eat breakfast with dad at a local place. Came back in time for him to go with others to go see a movie while mom and I babysat. That kid has waaay too much energy for me to keep up with.

Energy level was markedly lower than the last couple of days, but not low enough to make me need to nap as hard as I had during the weekends while on the previous run of medication.

Ended up napping anyway, but not for very long.

Finally came back home later than I would have liked but oh well. It didn't take long for me to start feeling drowsy enough to want to crawl into bed. Fell asleep fairly quickly.

Sunday, March 17th

Slept pretty well. Got more than 8 hours, which helped with the sleep debt from the week.

Took the day pretty slow and lazy, didn't have a lot I needed to get done, but of the things I should liked to tackle, I only got some of it done--such is life with ADHD and you don't take your meds.

I ended up feeling pretty tired at about 1 or 2 in the afternoon, to the point where I fell asleep in my computer chair for a little while.

I don't know if it's specifically the sleep debt thing because of the medication, or if it's also a function of just getting older.

Feeling a normal amount of tired as I'm looking at going to bed here in just a minute. Hoping to have a normal night's sleep.

[strawberrybyers]

my stranger things fixation has died down a lot :(( i should probably plan a rewatch of the entire show to kick it back into gear again because i miss thinking about it lol

[creamecream]

“There was this girl who was broken by the world, ‘cause every day at school they’d push and shove her,

But she had a plan,

One day she would get her revenge, and those cheerleaders and jocks would be six feet under,

But behind those angel eyes lies a devilish surprise,

The prom queen has killed for her crown,

Every boy and girl she seeks never comes back in one piece,

So be careful when she tries to ask you out,

She’s a motherfucking killer queen,

A psychopath at seventeen,

A beauty in a blood-stained dress,

She’ll fill your heart with kerosene and light you up ‘til you can’t breathe,

If you break her heart, you just might lose your head,”

[we-re-always-alright]

okay the misinformation on the original reddit post AND in the reblogs is driving me bonkers I have to correct some things. (thank you @froginakettle for inspiring me to bring this out of the tags.)

I work in this industry. I’ve worked in this industry for almost a decade in a variety of departments. this whole post is bunk. (obligatory disclaimer: these comments are my own and not representative of my employer whom I also will not name)

to start: credit karma is not a credit bureau. it’s basically an advertising site masquerading as a credit website. sure some of its tips and tricks are identical to the big 3 bureaus but with a sole goal of a: collecting your data (not private data) and b: sending you offers. it’s how credit karma makes money. what is an offer? it’s an ad (or email or pop up or WHATEVER) that is dependent on your credit score offering you a great rate on whatever (or credit monitoring or identity protection, it’s truly dependent on your score and the goal of the offer). the ads you see on the sidebar and as part of marketing emails from credit karma are there because you’re using the site and authorizing the data to be shown. they eat the cost of providing you a free score so they can advertise and/or sell marketing data. (not necessarily bad, just want to offer perspective).

which brings me to the next point: there are thousands of credit scores. probably tens of thousands. what do I mean? each bureau has their own set of scores (ex. TransUnion and Equifax have VantageScore 3.0) then there’s FICO scores (FICO 5-9 iirc), and then each of those scores has flavors. are you getting a car loan? check your credit karma Vantage Score and it says one thing. maybe Toyota will pull your FICO 8 Auto score. is your loan being serviced by the bank instead? then Bank of America will probably use their FICO 7 Auto score, or Experian’s FICO 7 Auto score. decide to go to your local First Community Bank for a loan instead? they give you their Equifax Auto Vantage Score. each of these scores has variations on it. different applied factors, alternative data, trending etc. think of it as different levers that amplify and nullify certain factors. (I’m not here to debate if this is good or bad. there’s arguments to be made for both, especially around underserved populations. I’m just explaining how it works.). this is also how the bureaus make their money. by offering different best fit scores for the dozens of different credit scenarios, they sell their ability to score and model more consumers, more accurately, as well as verify identities for critical transactions and prevent fraud based on previous patterns.

next: not every job requires a ‘hard pull’ on your credit (hard pulls/hard inquiries can sometimes affect your credit score (sometimes) because it’s what you do when you’re actively gaining credit. soft pulls do not affect. the bureaus have more info on this). typically, though not the same in every state and/or country, a hard inquiry generally is for government jobs OR highly regulated jobs. why? well. who caught the mob??? the IRS and the Postal Service. a good way to do a sniff test on someone who might be handling money in large quantities, handling PII (personally identifiable information), handling HPII (health PII), or be responsible for acting ethically might be to see if they have huge amounts of debt from gambling, mysterious payday loans, dozens of credit cards, etc. if you have a lot of debts, mysterious payments, funky stuff, you might not be the safest choice. (again, not saying it’s good or bad. just presenting the industry logic.)

next: some of the info about disputes IS correct. the bureaus are required to respond within 30 days. HOWEVER, they are only required to correct something if it is FACTUALLY incorrect.

example of a bad dispute: I don’t like that I have a high interest credit card. I missed some payments but generally pay on time. I file a dispute because that reddit post said I should. conclusion: they don’t drop it off. what the bank is reporting matches the credit report. there is nothing to correct.

example of a good dispute: it says my car loan is for 40,000 but it’s actually for 38,500. this post inspires me to review my full credit report (free annually for each bureau at annualcreditreport.com) and check for inaccuracies so I file a dispute. conclusion: they correct the information in the report, provide notice of the correction, and make sure any time your report is pulled (and the debt is on your report) the correction is mentioned.

additionally, you’re also required to be involved in this process. you’ll need to provide documentation, follow up calls, emails, etc. that the bureau needs from you to investigate your dispute. then multiply that by 3 if the item is on all 3 reports. a dispute is not a magic wand. also if there’s an error with the banks data, (ex. your balance is wrong) disputing it at the bureau will not do anything since the data in the report and the data at the bank matches. you’ll have to get the bank to fix it before you can dispute it with the bureaus.

next: volume. oh my god this one gave me a laugh. do you know how much data these companies ingest and spit out??? we’re talking a few petabytes for each bureau, every year. it’s not just you make a payment and they add it to their list. it’s everything, it’s addresses and name changes and driver’s licenses and payments across thousands of sources for everyone in the country (hundreds of millions, not to mention if they’re international). times 3. I’ve been in the NOC (network operations center) for one of the big three and it looks like fucking nasa. dozens of people on 12 hour, rotating shifts making sure the data flows at 99.99% uptime. they don’t have a ‘slow’ period. even if everyone on this post sent in a dispute, which would also be extremely hard considering the amount of thin files, they wouldn’t bat an eye. this is their every day. their sole purpose is a: making sure the data is safe and correct. and b: making sure if they get a dispute they resolve it quickly. plus, the more you use their services, the better they look, because they’re doing what they’re supposed to.

side bar: thin files. a lot of people are thin files, more than you think. basically it means the bureaus have info on who you are but next to no info for which they can score you with accuracy/best fit score. basically you don’t use credit, you don’t have debt, but you also don’t have a high score because there’s nothing TO score. weirdly, the ultra wealthy have this problem, since they pay in full vs on loan. it’s good and bad. bad if the company doesn’t use alternative data and you really need credit to survive (alternative data like renting history, cellphone payments, soon to be added BNPL, etc can turn a thin file into a better score) and good because you want to stick it to the industry and don’t use credit at all.

secondary sidebar: your small local credit union gets all their stuff from the big three. it’s expensive, data intensive and time consuming to do what they do (update, aggregate, collate, verify, etc etc). way easier to just supply small local credit union’s data to the big three and get specialized info back.

addendum: this is US focused. other countries have similar but NOT identical systems. think cousins but not twins. they have their own systems, bureaus, regulations, the whole nine yards.

second addendum: you can work with debt collectors to get them to forgive/drop debt. doing it at a busy time might help, I have never worked with collections. but it won’t affect your credit score necessarily. debt collectors are not legally required to report a collection to the bureaus. however, the bureaus are legally required to report accurate information supplied to them from debtors (banks, dealerships, etc including debt collectors). debt collectors choose to do so so you are incentivized to pay back the debt. paying it back does not mean your credit score will change, and definitely not immediately. (Experian has a great article explaining this. again, not making a good/bad statement on this. it’s how it is. if you want it to change, talk to your congressperson.)

last: some general tips:

freeze your credit if you’re not using it (actively applying for credit, loan, job, rental, etc). this prevents people (manipulative family, strangers, criminals) from being able to use your credit. a freeze can last for up to 10 years and you can temporarily lift (and re-freeze) for specific dates. if you have kids, this is great for fighting synthetic fraud or in response to data breachs

do you actually NEED credit monitoring? it’s truly up to you. in my experience, freezing is usually good enough for most people. if you’ve had your identity stolen OR you have malicious family members, it’s probably worth it to be proactive rather than reactive.

just go look at the bureau’s websites. they tell you how to improve your score. they explain the stuff I said but with more stock photos. I will warn you: it’s not as fun or sexy as trying to ‘pull one over on the establishment.’ it’s mostly low debt to income ratio and low revolving debt and making payments on time

don’t want to use an evil bureau’s website? go look at the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) website. it’s the same info but with a .gov and different stock photos.

Queuing this for January too.

[riding-with-the-wild-hunt]

a whole bunch of gazan mutual aid projects and nonprofits. if the decision of which individual fundraiser to give to feels too daunting, or if you just want to help as many people as possible in one go, these are great initiatives to support.

care for gaza - focuses on providing food and essential supplies. donate here or here.

connecting humanity - securing internet access via donations of virtual sim cards (esims). if you can't afford a whole plan yourself, crips for esims is a communal pool that will use your donation to purchase and maintain esims

gaza soup kitchen - provides food, medical care, and classes for children. also has a gofundme

glia gaza medical support initiative - provides medical care through field clinics and tents at hospitals. donations can also be sent through their website.

ele elna elak - provides clean water, food, clothing, and shelter. they also have a gofundme

life for gaza - raising money for the gaza municipality to repair water and waste management infrastructure

taawon - partners with local civil organizations to provide food, water, medical care, shelter, and basic supplies

the sameer project - running various initiatives providing tents, medical care, and necessities. they have their own encampment project focused on sheltering families with children, sick and disabled members, or members in need of perinatal care

islamic relief worldwide's gaza emergency appeal - provides food, water, hygiene kits, medical supplies, and psychological support

baitulmaal - provides a variety of necessities, including food, water, shelter, and medical supplies

gaza mutual aid fund - distributes food, hygiene products, water, and other essential supplies, including financial support. run by @/el-shab-hussein's amazing friend Mona. updates can be found on her instagram.

hygiene kits for gaza - provides hygiene supplies including menstrual products, wipes, and toothbrushes/toothpaste

anera - provides a variety of necessities, including food, water, hygiene supplies, medicine, blankets and mattresses, and psychological care

palestine children's relief fund - provides supplies and support with a focus on children. also has an initiative for lebanon

dahnoun mutual aid - provides water, food, tents, baby supplies, financial support, and other necessities. updates can be found through their instagram

certainly this is not an exhaustive list, so please feel free to add on other projects or organizations that i didn't include. and as always, please take the time to donate if you can and share. it truly makes all the difference.

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

An adaptation of Sherlock Holmes set in a world in which the fictional character/literary juggernaut Sherlock Holmes, and all the subsequent adaptations thereof, still exist.

Sherlock Holmes (pronounced Holl-mess, as he is constantly reminding people) just had the misfortune of having parents who really liked the books, and his attitude towards his fictional counterpart is pretty much the same as that of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Sherlock runs a Youtube Theory channel called Mysteries Unwrapped with Sherlock Holmes. He has received no less than seven cease and desist letters from the Conan Doyle estate, all of which he has so faded managed to rebuff by pointing out that that's literally his name.

(No he won't change his name. He's Sherlock Holmes the real live human person. Let Sherlock Holmes the non existent fictional character change his name.)

John is Sherlock's flatmate. Sherlock almost refused to live with him once he realised that it would mean staying with a medical student named John, and only gave in once John pointed out that: a) he's a biomedical student, which is completely different from an md, and b) his surname isn't Watson.

It's now been three years, which is long enough for them to have developed a genuine friendship, and for John to have a) started working towards his PhD in biotechnology, and b) for him to start dating somebody with the surname Watson.

Sherlock can feel the narrative closing in.

His Youtube channel is meant to be focused on lost media, fan theories and stuff like that, but he keeps accidentally stumbling upon and then solving genuine crimes.

His brother Mycroft may or may not have chosen that name after he transitions specifically to annoy him.

He doesn't even live in London, but somehow the only flat they could afford was on a street named fucking Baker Street.

Sherlock Holmes and the Unescapable Power of the Narrative.

[knoxiating]

ADHD sucks so bad... you'll have something you want and need to do and instead you spend six hours playing a game you don't even like and thinking about how much you want and need to do the other and how much you suck for not doing it.

[bigeyedchangelingchild]

Tagging @fierceawakening because it's thoughts regarding mostly the prison abolition argument I've been reading on your page, but not about any specific thread that feels reasonable to reply to.

So personally, I don't really think about this too much because in practice I'd much rather focus on specific achievable harm reductions I can currently fight for, however, I have another complication with prison abolition.

I agree that involuntary confinement is problematic, but I've also seen it work? Like my grandfather went to prison, and he says it saved his life and I believe him. I don't think he should've gone to prison in a just system, what he was convicted on was absurd and not reasonable evidence, and it was a non-violent drug crime, which pretty much everyone in the reform to abolition spectrum agree is bad.

At the same time, my grandfather is likely an undiagnosed autistic man, who struggled intensely with adulthood and prison gave him a structured space to learn how to manage himself.

He was lucky enough to be imprisoned in a place where he was given access to education and life skills, similar to what my dad got when his parents paid for a private rehab facility, which was also a form of involuntary confinement. Both of these men in my life returned from these experiences far better able to handle themselves in the world, they both learned important life skills for caring for themselves, and improved their ability to function in employment.

I don't think prisons currently look like this, I know they don't, and I'm pro-reform because of this. I also think that if a fair system were in place it's likely my grandfather should not have been involuntarily commited. (My father had proved a danger to me so he would be comitted in systems advocated by people more on the reform end of the spectrum.) However, it's hard for me to reconcile the idea that all involuntary confinement is inherently bad and that it's only going to make the individuals life worse no matter what. Because the two people in my life who were involuntarily commited (though both very lucky in what services were offered to them in these institutions) both improved their lives significantly because of it.