I like that you’re asking this question, but you really need to be a lot more specific.

Like negative self talk vs obsessively ruminating about something vs world pessimism vs constant anger at others vs. etc. are gonna have to be tackled in different ways. One of the reasons why therapists want you to name your feelings is because you’re going to have to do different sorts of things to help with different sorts of feelings and emotions.

Do you mind expanding a bit, OP?

If you are gaming with your friends online, does that really make you alone tho?

All I see online anymore seems to be bitter takes. Yours is a refreshing view and I’m finding myself wishing I could find a lot more of it.

Glad to hear your slower taper is helping out! Oh man…on one of my worst days of zaps and dizziness I decided to go for a walk jamming to music then play with my cat. HUGE MISTAKE lmao. Trying to dance around would have definitely put me further on my ass than that already made me, but I’m glad it helps you lol!!

The second sentence always pissed me off when someone would tell me it. But it is true lol.

Hope the best for you guys!

How are you doing now, OP? My provider had me decrease mine much quicker than yours. It was about a week of dizziness and brain zaps to the point where one day it was actually quite disabling (luckily it was a weekend day so I wasn’t at work). But it gradually eased up. I tried taking Dramamine or something like that to see if it would help but I don’t know that it did anything.

Did you end up switching meds or just not going to be taking anything anymore?

I echo therapy if it’s doable, but it’s not really a “cure-all”. I went through a LOT of different therapists and then finally went through a traumatic event before the traumatic event (with the background work of one of the therapists) oddly enough made that self-hatred click off like a light switch. The hope with therapy is that you find someone who clicks well with you and can help you dive into this.

I will say this…

I suddenly realized that I was a human being.

It sounds weird to say that I never realized it before, but that’s how it is. I would talk about myself like I was some sort of evil monster…a demon even.

But take a step back for a second. You’re a human being. You fucked something up? Guess what, you’re a human being. You have a character flaw? Guess what, you’re a human being. You’re not an automaton. You’re not an android. You’re not a robot. You’re a human being. You are flawed. But your flaws don’t make you any less of a human being…they make you MORE human and MORE worthy of love for it, not less. You are no different from me or any other poster here. We are all flawed beings. Always expecting that you should just know better or do better are just setting yourself up for failure.

There is a Japanese concept called kintsugi. When a dish or other piece of glassware breaks, it isn’t just glued back with super glue. It is glued back with gold…reforming a functional dish, but putting its flaws on display as something beautiful.

I know that I’m babbling on with things that may or may not help or anything, but it’s where my path went and you can eventually end up there too.

Here’s a bit of a breakdown with specific steps that were involved with mine

1. Tried out a bunch of therapists, medications, etc. I stuck with one therapist for a while to be consistent even tho it didn’t feel overly helpful. But one of her exercises she had me do was to write down all of the positive things about myself. I thought it was stupid but I did it anyway.

2. I said the positive list out loud.

3. The traumatic event happened and I angrily said the positive list out loud again…this time to someone who hurt me.

4. I realized that I was a human being. (And so are others!)

5. For many months, I would occasionally repeat this affirmation to myself: “You are a human being.” I have given this affirmation to others as well. I like it because it is NOT pretending that you are better than you are, but it’s very positive in its own way. Haven’t needed to do it anymore, but it helped a lot for like 6 months.

6. I bought some wristbands online with positive affirmations and I have worn them nearly daily for the past maybe 8-10 months. I keep the words on the inside so that only I can see them. It sounds incredibly cheesy because it is, but it honestly has helped me a lot. I have different ones so I can be more mindful of what affirmation I want at any given time.

7. I continued therapy and changed medications several times until I was more stable. I have been on the same medication for around 6 months now and only see the therapist occasionally to check in.

So in all, my combo was intense therapy + traumatic realization + doing cheesy things to try to uplift myself + meds. Long fucking road.

I’m sorry I know this is long and rambling and maybe an intimidating read. Have you ever sought therapy before?

I thought we moved to SSDs because they were more reliable?

I think you’re missing my point. People love to give random “corrections” of things that may or may not be correct themselves. It seems like people just love to mindlessly parrot things.

My mom has a small dog that isn’t a yapper. They are companion animals. I don’t get what confusing about that. It’s the same as why someone might have any other type of pet. I’ve actually much preferred small, non-yappy dogs over large dogs because they are super easy to handle.

Wow it’s been a while since I’ve seen these chonky bois

I feel like everyone just makes this shit up

What I’m getting at is these large plastic jugs of water are not just purchased routinely by the majority of the population when grocery shopping.

I don’t think I buy the diet thing at all.

In the US, it’s commonplace for people to “get a tan” and people in general are not as protective over sun with the use of sunscreen or long sleeves/pants.

In many Asian countries, whiter skin is more desirable. People are a lot more diligent in wearing long sleeves and pants when spending time in the sun and etc.

The sun will age you a LOT.

Have you never heard of such a concept? Some people do it because they are going camping or in case the water goes out in a storm or rarely if the water from the tap is of dubious quality.

Is the infuriating part supposed to be that someone got to the butter before you? Or is it that you don’t like how it was scooped? What is the “correct” way if this is “incorrect”? Genuinely curious.

Yeah I suspect it is something benign but similar like that. Problem is that I really don’t know that I have a way to know for sure. And anecdotally, my recurrent stomach issues significantly reduced once I stopped drinking my tap water. Mine smells like pond water tho instead of garlic lol.

No, it’s not my water heater. I had it replaced and the new heater smelled the exact same even when brand new before any possible sediment accumulation.

My tap water goes through months of smelling funny at a time where I get nervous that it is unsafe to drink. I thought about buying a filter for the tap like a Brita filter or something…but my (admittedly very minimal) research showed that these only filter out things like mineral contaminants. Bacteria and other pathogens don’t seem to get filtered out by most standard filters that people are using. It’s just that they filter out the hard water.

What do you use?

I definitely feel the same. For years I had watched hone renovation shows with my mom and they looked nice but at the end they started to feel all soulless. Stumbled into this one home reno show several years back that was totally different. I was practically in awe…colors, wood tones, reasonably priced remodels! Idk if the show is still like that or not, but it really felt like a breath of fresh air.

I’m a Millennial, so I get that this stuff has been trending with people my age for the past decade or so, but I’ve just not been into it either.

Needed to buy a car several years ago and I went out of my way to try to find a car with a COLOR. It was a bit more of a hassle, but I’m glad I did.

How would I be able to tell if something is blocked? The rubber hoses look ok to my untrained eyes.