can_you_change_your_username

  • 3 Posts
  • 153 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: September 9th, 2024

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  • They misunderstand what the change would be (y’know, happy)

    I love most of your comment but I don’t like the common concept of antidepressants as “happy pills”. It’s the same issue as depression means you’re sad. Depression is a complex illness with a large variety of potential symptoms. In severe depression people are more likely to describe themselves as numb or emotionless than sad because they’ve become emotionally exhausted. Sadness also isn’t the only negative emotion linked to depression. People with depression experience higher levels of guilt, shame, agitation, and anger.

    For my subjective experience, I couldn’t tell a difference when I started taking SSRIs. They were making a difference because family members told me that I was easier to be around. That I didn’t snap at them or brood as much. I didn’t realize that I had been snapping at them. Bupropion on the other hand made a big difference to how I felt almost immediately. It eased the physical symptoms of depression, gave me more energy, and made the agitation of dealing with people build slower. Neither made me happy, they made me less depressed.

    Feeling better about myself and being happier with my life took much longer and involved therapy and life changes. That’s why I don’t like “happy pills” concept. Antidepressants are just one piece of the puzzle. They’re a tool but recovering from and/or managing depression requires a toolbox.


  • About 60% of people prescribed antidepressants take them for a little over 2 years and less than 15% take them for more than 10 years. The recommendation is that they be taken for six to twelve months after major symptoms subside but there are exceptions to the recommendation depending on the particular diagnosis, persistence of minor symptoms, risk of relapse, etc. So you may be on them for a couple of years, maybe longer, maybe for life. Only a qualified medical provider who has evaluated you can tell, and even then they can only give you a best guess. Health is complicated and subject to change, mental health only moreso.

    From your comments I get the impression that you’re not actively suicidal, it sounds like you’re in that emotional spot where you don’t want to die but just not waking up doesn’t sound so bad. I’m pretty familiar with that spot. You should be aware that when antidepressants start to work they often restore energy and drive before their effects on mood brings your unconscious thoughts to a less dark place. That’s why they list suicide as a potential side effect. It’s important to have social and emotional support, maybe even be in active therapy, during the first couple of months after you start antidepressants.

    I’m not a doctor or therapist. Beyond recognizing your username I know pretty much nothing about you. I can’t tell you what’s right for you or your situation. What I can tell you is that antidepressants were life changing for me. I’ll almost certainly be on them for life, and that was not a fun thing to deal with considering that I was born with multiple disabilities and medical anxiety/the thought of taking medication just to function close to normally everyday of my life was one of the bigger issues I needed to deal with. Mental health is no less real or valid than physical health. It’s not weakness or failure to have an illness. Antidepressants, like any other medication, is a tool. Don’t let social stigma or family pressure or your own anxiety stop you from picking up the tools you need to build the best life you can for yourself.


  • Sorry for the delay in responding, I was figuring out what device I was actually going to try setting Linux up on. I was originally going to just put it on the laptop that I use but I thought it might be better to test it out and learn on something else first. I got a Microsoft Surface that a family member was getting rid of to try it on. It’s an older one, they think it’s a 2017 model. It’s got a 100Gb hard drive and a Pentium processor. Since it’s a new to me device I’m not worried about saving anything on it so I can just overwrite everything and won’t have to worry about partitioning or anything like that.

    I have not messed with the windows registry for anything. I think one AV would be fine, the redundancy was probably no longer necessary on windows, so I won’t worry about replacing malwarebytes. I do prefer free software but I only hate giving corporations more money than I have to. I don’t mind paying extra to shop local, I donate to the fedi instances I use, gog’s preservation fund, Wikipedia, and a few other similar things. If the money is primarily going to the people who are actually doing the work or to the cost of equipment and maintenance then I feel a lot better about paying for something so I’m willing to consider paid software if it’s better and will probably make some kind of donation to any FOSS projects I get software from if it’s free.

    I’m not worried about keeping up with feature updates or always having the absolute newest version. I want it to be stable and functional so once I have it set up security updates will be the thing I’m most concerned about. I’m fine just setting an alarm and checking for updates every Friday or something like that. Background updates are nice but it’s not a big deal to keep up with it manually if it’s centralized into a repository. I use the desktop sites for discord and fedi so there shouldn’t be any issues with those. I use open office because it’s what I found when Microsoft started charging to use Office and it’s always worked fine for me but switching to LibreOffice or something similar isn’t a problem if it will work better.

    Thanks for taking the time to respond and give me all of these links. It makes the idea of switching less daunting. I’ve read everything you’ve sent me and will happily continue to do so.



  • I’m closer to the average user than someone who has built a fortress. I use Firefox with ublock, ghostery, and privacy badger. I use the free tier of proton vpn. I run avast daily and malwarebytes weekly.

    I think that I should already be close to best practices but I’m not sure how changing OS will affect that. I’m not really worried about being targeted for anything. I don’t think that I really do much risky beyond the occasional torrent or downloading a patch for a game. I get games primarily from gog, don’t open strange emails or click strange links, and use a password manager to generate secure passwords. One of the things that I’m most unsure about is keeping everything updated. Microsoft manages keeping everything updated for the most part on Windows and the last time I needed to find a driver anywhere except from Microsoft it came on a 3.5" floppy.

    I use my computer primarily for single player gaming, discord, and fediverse sites. I need a spreadsheet and word processer, I use open office for that right now. I do financial and work related things on a different device.






  • Not my most controversial take. Mace Windu never had a chance against Palpatine. Palpatine let Windu take an advantageous position in the fight as his final ploy to turn Anakin. I offer three points as evidence for this.

    First, Windu went to Palpatine’s office with three other Jedi masters, all of whom were members of the council, to arrest Palpatine. Despite having four of the most powerful Jedi, knowing that Palpatine was a dangerous Sith Lord, and having every opportunity to choose the place, time, and manner of the confrontation two of the four Jedi were dead before Windu even got his lightsaber activated and a third died almost immediately after.

    Second, Windu got the upper hand just as Anakin arrived in the office. Palpatine appears to be a weakened pitiful old man as Windu turns his force lightening back on him and then decides to execute him instead of arresting him but as soon as Anakin attacks Windu formalizing his turn to the dark side Palpatine is on his feet and both his force lightening and his trademark cackle are at full force.

    Third, despite his supposed grievous injuries, a day after the duel with Windu Palpatine fought Yoda to a stalemate.