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Someone may have a special interest in a show, but instead of that meaning that they will talk about that show often, it may mean they watch that show extremely frequently.

my worst relatives try to sneak meat or meat products into my food despite the fact that I'm a vegetarian

my ex's brother gave his mother an edible without her knowledge and when she got freaked out and paranoid they laughed, and people I've told that go "yeah that's shitty but it's just weed"

when I go to the doctor and ask them to describe what they are going to do before touching me they get frustrated

when I ask a friends of a friend who is a small influencer to keep me out of frame in videos they film for social media in public they look at me like I've pissed in their cereal

My mom told me a story today about how, in her last semester of high school, she had 4 study halls, calculus, and PE. She told me she skipped her study halls and just showed up for calculus and PE so she could graduate. She told me on her senior skip day she went to the lake with nearly her entire class.

I'm not saying this is like, incredibly awesome and educationally productive, but she was a teen. And she did teen stuff.

My school doesn't have study halls. Punishments for absences start once you dip below 95% attendence rates. 3 tardies count as an unexcused absence. We got several emails about how senior skip day was not approved and that anyone caught to be participating would get in school suspension. 45 minute lunches are a "privilege". Skipping class is an in school suspension, which are sent along with grades to colleges you apply for. Speaking of which, the majority of my classmates are still spending hours everyday studying, and failing that, doing part-time jobs, clubs, sports, and volunteering -- all in hopes of getting into the college they want.

Everyone is fucking wiped! Barely any of us enjoy school (+or life, to some extent), many of us are actively suicidal because of school. One of us didn't make it to graduation. This is seen as an "us issue", a matter of mindset (don't worry! Today's quote of the day is another variation of "good mindset = good day, bad mindset = bad day"!!) Most places actively bar or discourage teens from being there (hanging out in a mall = loitering, no minors allowed without parent supervision basically everywhere, walking around with no real goal is "suspicious", etc etc). When we stay inside and go on the internet, we are told that we are the problem, we need to stop spending so much time online, and the solution is social media and phone bans. As if excessive use of electronics by younger people isn't a symptom of a much larger issue. As if bans will solve the problem. As if we like spending our teenage years scrolling.

My friends tell me how their mom took their inheritance money and bought a car. How their dad flipped their shit, verbally and physically, when they dyed their hair. I read stories about people getting messages from online friends that say "I think my parents found out I'm queer" and then never hearing from them again. Have you ever read about the troubled teen industry?

And that isn't even, like, the basics!!! That's barely even scratching the surface!!

Like, my mom has a lot of health issues and should really be using aids all the time. But she's really stubborn and believes all the stigmas, so she never would use any.

Then I started to use a cane occasionally and she started talking about using one. So I got us matching canes, and now she uses it often. She'll brag about it to me too. Like I'll walk in and she goes "I used the cane you got me while I was at Disney this weekend. It was really helpful"

Today I decorated my plain black cane with stickers and brought it in to show her and now she's all excited because she wants to put stickers on her cane.

i was wondering how i could fix my sleep schedule? i’ve had a bad habit of going to bed around 4:00 or 4:30 am currently and i want to fix it before i start having classes

i believe my phone is one of my major problems when it comes to my sleep but it’s hard to let it go

what should i do to make sure i have a healthy sleep schedule?

Oh there's a lot of different things you can try!

First though I have to specify that it depends heavily on where your circadian rhythms naturally fall. Everyone is different and some people are legitimately wired to be more nocturnal. If your circadian rhythms don't align with an earlier bedtime, it is going to be tricky.

We cannot change our circadian rhythms, but there are some things you can do to compensate

But first let's talk about ways to adjust your bedtime in general. These will be much more useful if the issue something more like "revenge bedtime to procrastination" or other psychologically motivated bed time delaying mechanisms.

Go in increments, don't try to jerk your schedule by several hours all at once. If you're going to bed at 430am now, I would try to go to bed no later than 4am for a week. When you're successfully getting to bed by 4am for 7 consecutive days try to move it back to 3:30, again trying until you can get 7 consecutive days at the new time and so on, taking 30min steps back like that until you reach your goal bedtime.

It may also be useful to set a "winding down alarm" so if you know you want to be in bed by 4am, you might set alarms for 3 and 330am to remind you to disengage from your activity and start getting ready for bed.

You can also do these incremental steps from the other direction. Setting your alarm for 30 minutes earlier in the morning for a week the same way. Some folks will have an easier time adjusting their bedtime by changing their wake time first.

Things you can do in the winding down period before bed to help shift your brain into relax and sleep mode:

Adjust the temperature of the room if possible. Turn on fans or open a window or whatever you have access to. Whatever temperature you find most relaxing, try to get your room closer to that temperature in the hour before bed.

Reduce lights and screen time. Switch to soft light instead of harsh light. If you can transition from screen activities to something like a book or drawing/coloring book or something like for 30-60min before bed this may help.

If putting all screens away before bed isn't feasible use a program like f.lux to change the color of the light from your screen to make it less stimulating before bed.

Use a screentime control app on the apps you feel are creating the biggest problem so that you can still use your phone for some wind down activities, but you're removed from the more problematic apps.

Consider eating about 3 hours before bed. Eating too long or too soon before bed can make sleep difficult. You don't want your food to be settling but you also don't want to be hungry. If you eat dinner much earlier in the night, consider having a little snack a couple hours later so that your body isn't starting to look for more energy during the window you're trying to fall asleep.

Cut off caffeine 4-8 hours before bed. Everyone has a different sensitivity to caffeine so this may or may not be a factor for you, but it's just something to bring your awareness to, especially if you do tend to drink caffeinated drinks at night.

If it turns out that your circadian rhythms are naturally wired to sleep later the things above may still help to some extent, but disrupting your natural rhythms is fighting against your body, and that's usually not going to be easy.

If you're doing all the things above and nothing is really working, or even if it is working you're just still feeling tired or getting poor quality sleep, this may suggest that the issue is your natural circadian rhythms or potentially a medical sleep disorder, not your bedtime routine.

If you suspect a sleep disorder please see a doctor, it's unlikely anything will significantly help if there's an issue that needs treatment.

If you suspect your natural circadian rhythms may trend later some things to consider:

Take naps. If you're not getting enough sleep at night try to prioritize taking a nap sometime throughout the day. It's not ideal, but it can do a lot to mitigate the effects of sleep deprivation.

people look at wheelchair users and think "well you're sitting down all the time that doesn't take effort" no actually it does. pushing a manual chair takes a lot of fucking effort, especially without a power assist. repetitive stress injuries are a huge problem manual chair users encounter all the time. going up hills and ramps is so deeply fatiguing.

this doesn't just apply to manual chair users btw. power chair usage can also be really exhausting, especially for people with complex seating needs. going over bumps and cracks can trigger many symptoms such as spasticity, pressure sores are common, even just sitting upright can be exhausting for many people.