This is one of the benefits of being on non-stimulant meds, the hoops to jump through are way less (I still had to fight insurance for a prior auth, which took nearly a month). I use an online Psychiatrist (Talkiatry) and have been really happy with my doctor. I also only need to see him as often as we think is medically necessary since atamoxetine can be refilled. It’s been shown in trials to be as effective as methylphenidate and works well for me so far.

The diagnostic piece though is indeed hard, but I can sort of understand that. It’s a pathway to drugs with a high probability of abuse, and no sure fire way to diagnose. So from a liability and care viewpoint I get why psychologists do due diligence in evaluating people (especially adults) for ADHD. It still sucks if you need help, but in theory you only have to deal with that process once to get a diagnosis. Also, as many people have pointed out, many PCPs are willing to fill scripts for controlled substances if needed, especially once you are on a stable dose that you know works. Like many things, the start up is the hardest and it gets easier once you hit steady state.

Yeah, it’s okay when the work isn’t super challenging or you can stay on top of the workload coming in. But when the work becomes actually challenging and/or you start getting too much to stay on top of naturally it leads to burnout really fast which just sucks (like I’ve contemplated quitting a job I generally really like from it).

You assume is was organized or focused in school or college as opposed to just generally curious enough to know tons of information while also being able to focus on lectures (because most were in topics I was interested in, especially in college) without taking lots of notes that made me pretty good at tests.

The reality? I got diagnosed and on meds and looking to therapy to close the gap. It turns out my grades were driven by good test taking and an ability to churn out a BS ridden paper that should have taken weeks in a day or two of pure panic. I have never needed to take a test at work to get my job done, and have grown weary of the panic fueled rushes to get things done by deadlines.

I take it you don’t know much of what the federal government actually does or how many of those things benefit you both directly and indirectly.

I won’t argue that the federal government is anywhere close to as efficient as it could be, or that there aren’t bad/lazy workers. But to just make a sweeping generalization shows real ignorance to why so much of these services are truly critical to why the US has been a world power, with a secure, comfortable populace compared to what it will be if those services are cut.

Goal setting is really hard, it’s an entire skill itself that takes practice. One way to start is to look at others around you and ask yourself who you want to be; whose job are you actually jealous or envious of. That’s a good jolt towards answer.

In the same way, look at the people you rely upon as the rocks that hold things together at work and try to determine what sets them apart from everyone else, why are they the go to people and no the person sitting next to them?

Yeah, we almost always owe a tiny bit (usually less than $100, often less than $50) to the state. I don’t really understand how I can get so close but still miss it every year but overpay federal taxes when it’s all based on the same W-4 I give to my employer.

The school districts get part of our local income taxes which is separate from what municipalities get (technically municipalities run wholly on property taxes, and the schools get a portion of that plus a portion of local income taxes that are split with the county. It’s convoluted IMO). It depends on where you are employed and where you live, since your employer remits taxes to the municipality you work in and that municipality remits taxes to school districts based on where each employee lives (at least that’s how I understand it, it all is mostly transparent other than needing to include various location codes on forms for your employer and for your local tax return).

This is great advice, and all points I’ve learned as well over the years in IT. I worked help desk as a T3 for a bit and it’s sucked. Even when people were not asses (honestly most weren’t, they were generally professional but frustrated) the shear amount of effort to fix small things was awful and it kept me from working on projects I wanted to actually put time towards. I now work in cybersecurity compliance and essentially just tell everyone they need to fill out more paperwork, slow down processes, and then tell them no. It’s soul crushing. But I like my company and the people I work with (this hasn’t shared been the case everywhere I’ve worked).

For OP:

I think the keys are write down everything, and account for all of your time. If you helped someone there needs to be a record of it. Without metrics your management can’t get you more help if they want to, though it sounds like they don’t want to. Those metrics also give you the ammo you need to defend why things are slower than management wants, or why customers are unhappy.

I am also a big proponent of a strong work life balance. I work 7:30 to 5, at 5:01 I lock my PC and am done for the day. Problems will still be there in the morning, or in Monday. I try hard not to complain shoot them or think about work much outside of that 7:30 to 5 period.

Finally, consider your life plan. Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10? 20? You have to begin with the end in mind, otherwise you wander aimlessly and never get traction towards your goals. For me it’s moving towards management so I can effect better changes in my workplace and company, for others it’s being a true SME that knows everything about a specific topic. It’s likely not working help desk still though (as you note it’s the bottom of the IT barrel, or the trench’s as many call it; good for getting a foot in the door and cutting your teeth, but a really shit career). If you want to stay in IT, then it’s worth specializing. Learn AD, networking, PKI, software deployment, virtualization, or whatever skill interests you, and learn it hard. Then make yourself indispensable (which it sounds like you’ve already done with help desk). Those skills are portable, and most enterprises need them and will pay well for them. That gives you the leverage to negotiate better pay, benefits, working conditions, etc. with management. But don’t be afraid to look elsewhere. Keep your resume polished and apply to things that look interesting. Our world isn’t our parents, it’s a rare company that rewards following the 40 year tunnel. It’s expected that you will jump from company to company and job to job to move up, and IME that helps with avoiding the burnout since at least the people and surroundings change.

I can’t agree with this enough, though I think part of the problem is that it isn’t what’s easy to complete your W-4 accurately, there is an entire worksheet to use if you file jointly that is sorta difficult to do well, especially if both people make fairly different amounts. If you just choose the basic withholding it’s very likely the bigger breadwinner isn’t withholding enough and you’ll end up owing about what the comic shows (at least that is my experience, as well as some friends).

I think the real problem in the US is that everyone is left to do their tax paperwork from scratch every year when the IRS could send you a personalized return prefilled that you then claim the deductions and credits you’re due and account for any descrpenices (which sure, is what your W-2 is supposed to be, but it isn’t really that, you still need to use the worksheets on the 1040 or pay someone/some software to do it for you; a prefilled 1040 would be a way better system).

It also doesn’t account for the huge variations in state taxes. Many states have income taxes, some are reciprocal with nearby states and others aren’t, the deductions and credits and even what is taxable is all different. The whole thing is a mess. Then lord help you if you live in a state with local income taxes or one where your local taxes are different than school taxes(like PA) and the whole thing is a half day exercise in frustration to complete and you’re still left wondering if you did it right.

Agree 100%. Most of the former Plex users turned Jellyfin users I have come across did so better Plex was broken in some way for them. For me it was the general lack of care in creating/maintaining a good Apple TV app. Over the past few years it’s just gotten buggier and buggier with a lot of complaints on the Plex forums where devs would essentially stop by to say they weren’t working on any fixes.

Jellyfin doesn’t fix 100% of the issues, but at least there is active development on Swiftfin that showed a desire to fully support all devices.

Honestly, the majority of key points to talk about can be found online from respectable sources (for example, this article from Johns Hopkins, though there are many others). There is a better than even chance he has shady looked up the “Is this normal” stuff himself if he has normal internet access.

From a social standpoint it’s going to be different for everyone, teenage years are hard and kids are often cruel. I’d advise to just be there for him on this front, but don’t be pushy. He is going to be moody, lash out sometimes, and act differently. That is all normal. He is going to want to push boundaries and get in trouble (rather do things that will get him in trouble, most folks don’t actually want to get in trouble). Give him safe room to explore who he is and to try new things without letting him fall down too hard.

Lastly, you say there are no trusted male figures in your life, but that doesn’t have to be family. Good friends can also fill that space. I have to imagine there is some guy in your life that could have heart to heart, even just with you to then talk to your son. It’s worth trying to broaden your expectation of what a trusted male figure is perhaps.

I would guess they are looking to use it with pagent to support login with PIVs which is likely required by the servers they want to access. It’s a pretty standard login setup in federal IT honestly.

Yeah, I grew up in that era as well, and was one of the kids in middle school funneled into a GT class. I enjoyed it of course, but it for sure contributed to masking my ADHD until recently and that was a real kick in face.

The school district where I live straddles a wealthier, predominantly white area and a poor, predominantly black area. The idea when it was formed was because rich parents want good education for their kids, and contribute more taxes via bigger homes, the schools could provide better education to the poorer areas and over time help to improve the socioeconomic balance.

In reality, all the rich parents around us just send their kids to Catholic or charter schools, which fungus money from the school district which makes it unable to provide a decent education at all, screwing over the poorer area wise than if they had two different school districts (since the public schools need to have the capacity to in theory at year accept all the kids in the case none went to charter schools). Just more proof voucher programs are racism by another name.

I do exactly this. My bank will try to use ACH or a one time debit card automatically, but inevitably ends up sending a check each month. What’s better is if I use the bill the water company sends and mail it back with a check there is a fee, but they don’t charge it when my bank sends a check.

And I will continue to use it until they take it away

Honestly I wouldn’t care so long as they do it right. Around here you’re lucky if PennDOT drives over the asphalt with their truck once after the haphazardly tossed it in the hole still full of rain water. And they wonder why they have fixed the same pot hole in front of our drive way every spring for the 5 years we have lived here.

I use a few timers, especially during the holidays. My favorite though is probably tying motion sensors to lights; we have them in the basement, our sunroom, and our bedroom closets. In terms if full automations, I have a wake up routine I built in Node Red the slowly turns on the bedroom lights and shifts them from red to white as a sunrise alarm. It works really well now that I’ve gotten good lights and tweaked the automation over the last year or so. It takes into account holidays to not activate on days we have off.

US Aid, that is how it’s word mark is stylized as well (and well, it’s Aid from the US so the branding works)

Don’t make me like Delta, I really hate flying Delta flights but I may need to consider them going forward if they are going to be slightly less shitty corporate citizens…