my Dr said to expect a couple weeks when I go off it, if I ever do. and supposedly the all the way off is worse than just going down

oh my gosh. I was starting to think this was something I made up. you totally made my day.

when I was a kid, we had Biggles taped from TV so we could play it (vcr) all the time. it was one of the movies we could all agree on, and it just had part of a label with something that I was pretty sure was Biggles scribbled on it. the time travel shtick is definitely why my mom taped it, and probably why we enjoyed it (not exactly war movie kids, but we’d watch anything vaguely science fiction).

but now no one else in my family remembers it, so I thought it might be a Mandela effect thing.

I finally switched away from the across the street Walgreens because they never filled a prescription until I stood in line to pick it up. online refill of anxiety meds, never notified they filled it but the notifications are glitchy, go in 2 days later and it’s not filled. call for refill of the same meds, same issue. and it seemed like every other person in line had the same problem.

Bartells is more of a walk, but I don’t have to beg them to fill my prescriptions.

my guinea pig herdleader likes when everyone gets to eat a treat.

she didn’t really get why the cat liked meatpaste, but she’d yell until I put out a treat for the cat. I often grab a little something to eat while I sit next to the pen with them while they eat their veggies. it makes them feel like I am part of their little herd. i get all the positive reinforcement grooming and nuzzling affection.

she’s just a little too greedy to give me her food, though.

I’ve got a couple guinea pigs. one assumes the tarp is the limit of his territory, whether or not there’s fencing.

the other one regularly goes wandering, but respects the areas I’ve said are off limits. and she knows she has to get back to her territory - the tarp - to get any treats.

so it’s entirely possible this bunny recognizes his “room”, as defined by the new rug.

ferrets are like kittens that never become cats. they get a little slower with age, but given they start like they’re running 3 times faster than the rest of the world, it’s not noticeable until you get a young ferret again.

my grandpa used commode, but i haven’t heard it from anyone younger. grandpa was a Depression era kid, and the family was poor to begin with.

he also said “shorts” instead of “underpants”, which caused my brother who only wore long pants some confusion and trouble.

if one of these just ramps up the anxiety, skip that sense and do the others. trying to pick 5 things i can see is. …not useful. …in a panic attack. but closing my eyes and doing the others does help. it took a very long time before someone suggested skipping sight to me, so i share the insight whenever this method is suggested.

my cat loses it if she wakes up and can’t see me. I live in a studio. there aren’t a lot of “out of sight” options. at one point, there was just a screen between me, in my computer chair, and her, on the bed. we still did the whole call and response.

she doesn’t look for me, she just starts yelling until I respond.

what a cutie!

yep. I self-select out of dog friendly offices. if that’s a “benefit”, I can’t work there.

mostly, yeah! it was a very dysfunctional childhood, but we’re all mostly functional adults.

my HS graduation was on a Saturday, and my mom’s attempt was the following Monday. so I guess this has that beat for awful.

chronic depression really distorts your view of things. my mom honestly didn’t think it would taint my graduation or change my plans. sort of, like she was already gone from my life, so she was just trying to wrap things up?

unsurprisingly, even though she wasn’t successful, she still managed to screw me and my younger siblings up for a fair bit. it’s been 20+ years, and only one of us still is in contact with her.

my cat thinks “up” and “down” both mean “get off my lap”.

she also recognizes that when I sit and talk to myself (voice chat) is perfect petting and cuddles time. she’s well known to my therapist and team because of zoom meetings.

and both guinea pigs and the cat have all decided that we do cuddles about 830pm. I thought it was “after work and dinner, sometime before bed”. but the number of times I look up to see what the fuss is, and it’s 830 and all 3 are looking at me expectantly… I assume they figure the time by daylight, because it’s not consistent when I get home.

for a lot of people in long term polyamory, it’s about intimacy, which sex is part of. even if you have relationships that are primarily about fun sexy times, you’re probably going to do a lot of scheduling to maintain those relationships, or find new ones.

cults often practice polygamy as a few men in power “marry” girls (teenagers or younger), and control the assets. this is a power imbalance that can easily be abused.

polyamory as a modern term is trying to differentiate from that. proponents emphasize enthusiastic consent (from all parties) and communication, and often will warn against any rigid hierarchy among the polycule members. that’s an ideal, so it’s certainly possible to find examples that fail, but the intent is that people are all equally respected.

for me, it’s seeing how similar we are. I went low contact and moved away almost 20 years ago. getting to know my now-transmasc brother when we’re both adults is wild. he’s dealt with things differently, but despite 8 years age gap and 18 years not talking, we have a lot in common still.

I’ve always had anxiety issues, and got to the point of panic attacks before I got help. my psychiatrist says that breakthrough anxiety is normal, when there’s something especially stressful. it’s not something to beat or get past.

since it seems like part of what is causing (perfectly natural) anxiety is that you don’t know what to expect, why don’t you reach out to the dentist to ask what to expect? maybe do a little research, if that won’t send you panicking about the worst case scenarios you come across?

anxiety helps us look and plan for all sorts of future scenarios. if you can’t eliminate it, try to direct it into things you can plan and prepare for. and if it’s still interfering a lot with your life, talk to your Dr about changing the meds.

that’s not what’s meant. they mean, how long you’ve had an account with them, whether you have multiple accounts or loans with the institution, if you’ve been late in paying or carried very minimal balances or have a history of harassing customer service to the point customer service felt the need to record it.

it’s your relationship with the institution, not the ceo, and whether you’ve been a good customer or not really.

as long as you don’t think the function bar is a search bar. coworker opened my excel spreadsheet and I guess thought it functioned like Google?

I was right behind her to train so no formulas were injured.