He loves disabled people, too

Uhm.. Actually, you can be. There's a lot of people who are honest when answering that question. They just do it in ways that don't come across so upsetting or depressing.

Many people sugarcoat their answers to be more palatable for a greeting, or for a start of a conversation. It can also just be a polite way of giving others an out for a potential depressing conversation they may not want to be a part of.

These responses usually come in forms like, - "How are you?/How's it going?" - "Could be better." "It's definitely going." "I'm still alive." "I'm getting there." "New day, new problems." "Well, I'm still here." "Same old." "It's not all sunshine." "It's moving along". "It is what it is." "Not great but I'll survive." "Hoping tomorrow comes quickly." And many more responses like this. These are all ways of basically saying "Things are kinda/very shit at the moment for me". But they just don't go into detail about it. They are being honest, without the extra information.

If the other person doesn't want to go further into this then they may just responed with something like "I feel you", or "That's relatable", or "Yeh, that's life". Which are basically ways of saying "I acknowledge things aren't easy right now", without having to go into a conversation about it. Not everyone has the emotional energy to deal with conversations like that in that moment and that's okay.

Trevor Noah has a great tip, that when he craves ice cream at night he breaks it down into parts: I want something cold, I want something sweet. He drinks a glass of cold water then waits to see if he still has the ice cream craving. Usually he doesn’t.

So listening to your body isn’t “follow every urge” but “decompose the urge to discover the underlying need.”

If you always feel like getting cozy in bed you may be: cold, dehydrated, and/or malnourished (maybe a need for high calories that are bioaccessible…not processed).

If you do not feel tired at bedtime you may: need to eat dinner earlier because your body is still digesting, need to exercise or go outside more during the day, get the fuck off your screen for an hour so your brain can enter sleep mode.

Hope this helps someone.

I periodically think my milk is filled with slugs and larvae, even though I know rationally, that's not the case. Most days, I can work through that by reminding myself that I live with other people who also drink the milk, and if there were bugs in it, someone else would have noticed, so it's more logical that I'm just hallucinating.

However, the worse psychosis gets, the ability to logic like that can become more difficult. I might start thinking things like "they're only pretending to drink the milk to trick me" or something. They're not, and the milk is fine, but... the brain fills in the gaps of the logic with whatever it can to preserve the delusion.

Delusions often sound completely ridiculous on the outside, but when you're in the delusional state, it feels completely rational, often in ways you can't fully explain.

2) any vegetable is better than no vegetable

dude.

i feel like the problem with this question is best illustrated by a conversation i had with a friend a while back, where i said something like, "i feel very safe with you because you don't do subtle hints and you are always very straight-up with me about what you are thinking and feeling."

in honor of my nearly two week long flare up, let's discuss a condition i literally never see talked about, costochondritis!

costochondritis, also known as costosternal syndrome, is a condition in which the cartilage in the joints connecting the sternum to the ribcage becomes inflamed, causing chest pain. it often follows strenuous repetitive activity, like exercising or coughing, and in rarer instances can be caused by an infection, but it's often exacerbated by conditions like fibromyalgia and eds. in my case it gets triggered when i stretch too hard in juuuust the wrong way.

the main obvious symptom is chest pain, but it specifically usually presents on one side, usually the left. the pain can radiate down ones arm or up the neck through to the jaw. it mimics many heart attack symptoms, to the point where ~30% of people who go to the er with chest pain/heart attack symptoms are actually experiencing costochondritis.

unfortunately theres not a whole lot of options treatment wise other than pain meds and potentially steroids to help with the inflammation, but it's benign and usually goes away on its own eventually.

if you're having concerning chest pain it could be this, but it's best to still get checked out in case it is something more serious that presents similarly.

descriptive transcript:

Haben, a Black woman in her thirties with long dark hair, speaks to the camera, a vibrant blue wall behind her.

Haben: If you're a creator, add transcripts to your videos. I can't see videos, I can't hear videos, but I can read transcripts.

Pins on a Braillenote Touch pop up and down in their Braille cells. Each cell has eight pins that are either positioned up or down depending on the specific Braille letter.

Haben: Braille displays connect to phones and laptops, allowing Braille readers to access the internet this way. Descriptive transcripts should have both the visuals of what's happening on screen and speech and key sounds for the video. Really good descriptive transcripts captivate readers just like the best novels.

The Braille display disappears and the video shows Haben in the same room.

Haben: Once we have widespread accessibility, it'll be easier for deafblind people to share our stories and also participate in conversations. I love learning from lives different from mine and in order for me to do that, I need transcripts. I look forward to reading all your transcripts!

end transcript.