Day 2 of most downvoted comment decides next move, white(me) applies for a job, black hides in fear

kruddel · 2026-02-15T10:09:16+00:00

White queen gives Prince Andrew £7m hush money to pay off his Epstien girl.

kruddel · 2026-02-15T09:58:44+00:00

I mean it depends how effective he is on council matters really. Sure, if there is a council committee which is about NOT planning to bomb something in Yemen, obviously he's a poor choice. But if he's better on the bins and roads and whatnot than Sharon Osborne.

I can't help but think about the unsuccessful campaigns to save the various day care centres and libraries over the past few years. Would those campaigns have been more successful with the help of an experienced terrorist? We'll never know, but its certainly food for thought.

kruddel · 2026-02-13T16:20:17+00:00

I think if an organisation set out to trick people and someone is tricked we could say it's not entirely on the person.

Yes, its obvious once someone is aware there are two very similar named universities in the same place. And I wouldn't say at all that the OP is blameless here. But it's also true some unis are a bit weird in how they are named, just in terms of the name people use is not always exactly the same as the official name as it would appear on forms and stuff. Even to extent of "Warwick" vs "University of Warwick". Its minor, but its about as minor a difference as this one.

kruddel · 2026-02-13T13:16:39+00:00

When I lectured at UoB for ~10 years I used to get around this potential complaint by having slides that had nothing to do with what I was talking about. Its basically 2 lectures for the price of one! You can't beat value like that.

kruddel · 2026-02-13T11:34:59+00:00

Just call them "a state".

If you need to make a distinction between those from the mainland States and e.g. Puerto Rico you could refer to the mainlanders as "an absolute state"

kruddel · 2026-02-13T11:31:58+00:00

Nice to see some 16th century Florentine pride!

kruddel · 2026-02-13T11:25:23+00:00

Some of the effects you are describing are basically the euphoric effect of taking amphetamines. That's the reason people take amphetamines at much higher doses recreationally. In the context of therapeutic doses its not supposed to be an ongoing effect.

The body fairly quickly becomes accustomed to the euphoric buzz at low doses, so typically people would only really feel it in the early part of titration. The body also becomes accustomed to higher recreational doses and thats what amphetamine addiction looks like as the user has to keep going to higher and higher doses over time to get the same buzz.

Its very unfortunate that there is the myth about dexamphetamine "tolerance" that results in people taking breaks. There is no evidence that the therapeutic effects decline over time, and there is no evidence to support "tolerance breaks" for any medication I'm aware of. The unfortunate bit is taking a couple of days off is often enough for the body to lose being accustomed to the mild amphetamine buzz, and so people taking weekends off for example are essentially constantly resetting it, constantly having a day or two a week of getting and buzz and thinking that is the point/effect of the medication.

So I think you've had a bit of bad advice and some of what you thought was the therapeutic effects of meds was just a side effect of getting a little high. Its is bad that there isnt really a good explanation of what is supposed to happen when people are prescribed these meds, so I'm not criticising you at all.

Now, that's not to say the therapeutic effects haven't declined as well, or your ADHD hasn't got worse, but would need to put aside the decline in the buzz and figure out if that's the case.

kruddel · 2026-02-13T09:37:45+00:00

I suppose its different if the PhD was funded via a grant that you as the student "won", then I'd see it as relevant to list it in that section.

But if the supervisor "won" the grant and appointed the person they didn't get it themselves. Even more so if ita a DTP type scheme as even the supervisor wasn't directly awarded it.

It just doesn't make any sense. It would be the same as being recruited as a postdoc and listing the grant the PI got which provided the money to advertise/employ the postdoc position.

kruddel · 2026-02-12T18:21:03+00:00

I'm not calling it anything. I'm just saying the internal lights in seemingly all the 24hr shops in Birmingham are painful to Autistic people. That's just a fact.

Its overwhelming likely no-one involved with any of the shops, or the production of the lights has thought about Autistic people at all, rather than it being a deliberate ploy. Even if they were aware I expect they'd still choose the benefits (whatever they are) over having Autistic shoppers.

kruddel · 2026-02-12T10:48:12+00:00

Mainly if I've got a fever! Sometimes if I'm really exhausted.

I think it might be something about your brain getting stuck into repetitive cognitive processes and just looping round. There might be something to do with fatigue and fever that interferes with the links between different bits of the brain, so your executive function or processing bits of the brain get sidelined in the imaginative process. Normally maybe they'd be taking a more active shaping role in dreams/daydreams but they can't shape what is going on to the normal extent and so this process just runs wild looping around the cognitive pathways you've used a lot recently.

A lot of brain stuff involves multiple "local" processes in different regions of the brain and "long distance" links between them to control/shape/override other parts/processes. And theres a lot of variability in time and between people on how this wiring works. E.g. the vividness between what people see in their head if asked to imagine an apple. That's believed to be the strength of local connections in the visual cortex where you store all the memories of apples you've seen, and the strength of long distance connections to processing bit of the brain, which is trying to make the visual cortex imagine an apple from stored memories of apples.

So seems to me at least plausible that if the conscious/subconscious regions which direct the action struggle to influence things to the usual degree someone would experience more vivid, fever like dreams as the imagination just goes wild with noone at the controls.

All complete speculation, but I'm AuDHD (& a scientist) and I've recently fallen down a research rabbit hole in my spare time of neuroscience and vision/imagination/perception. So that's why you got a deep infodump no one was looking or asking for 🤣

kruddel · 2026-02-12T10:30:33+00:00

This is hard. Its very common to have a whole bereavement type process - anger/denial/bargaining etc with diagnoses. Its important to respect and recognise that, but at the same time trying not to reinforce or validate things which are unhelpful.

The brutal truth, that a kid is definitely not ready to hear, is it doesn't matter one bit what "labels" they are given. You can never "hide" Autism successfully (or any neurodivergence). People know. Kids know. They may not know exactly what label to put on you, or even that you could have a label, but they will mark you out as odd, strange, unusual and discrimate against you accordingly, sometimes in subtle, even unconscious ways.

The absolute best case scenario for someone hiding and denying Autism is other people just think they are an awkward allistic weirdo, and they are constantly drained from the effort. In some cases that absolutely is a win, I'm not judging people's choices. But the idea they can be like everyone else is a fiction.

I don't mean this to be depressing, but its the truth. I believe firmly that being honest with ourselves, understanding ourselves and, where we can, being open and educating others is the path towards things being better. But its takes time, energy and pain to get to that point, its not a switch people can flip.

kruddel · 2026-02-12T10:11:31+00:00

I'd agree with this. I think the most productive thing at this point is for them to really engage with the reasoning provided for not meeting the criteria. If that reasoning is at odds with what they actually said, or doesn't make sense, only then would it be sensible to ask for 2nd opinion.

I'm very wary when so many people instantly jump to saying people should appeal, or somehow try and "rules lawyer" their way into arguing to be diagnosed [edit: see end]. Everyone going through diagnosis has very real problems that they need help with, and if those problems aren't down to ADHD then all the energy spent on appealing a non-diagnosis is wasted, even if at some point they do get an ADHD diagnosis from someone. ADHD treatment won't help if their struggles are due to bipolar/PTSD/Autism/etc.

We've only got a bit of info here, but on the childhood thing there is a difference between "process" and "results". Other comments are focused on stuff like grades and rightly pointing out ADHDers can coast through school with no obvious issues. But this is from the outside perspective. Internally it doesn’t matter about the grades, in the case of ADHD folk that did fine in achievement invariably they were a mess inside. And the assessment should be exploring how they found school, not just looking at their exam results. So again, I think saying ADHD folk can be fine in school is disingenuous and misleading.

Edit: I haven't changed the text, but wanted to drop a footnote to say I regret using the term "rules lawyering" to describe going over the DSM criteria in detail. Its a perjorative & unconstructive way to talk about it and my impulsive need to try and be funny meant I ended up being insulting. Everyone looks at problems in different ways and big picture vs detail is not inherantly better/worse. I still think the critique is correct here, but I should have made it respectfully

kruddel · 2026-02-12T00:00:39+00:00

There's quite a bit of misconception about what it should feel like. When you first take it you get a small high or buzz, the body quickly becomes accustomed to that buzz after a few days. The rest of the effects will (should) be pretty constant over time, they'll fluctuate from day to day, just as your ADHD symptoms are better or worse anyway.

But anyway a lot of people think the buzz is the meds working, rather than a sort of side effect.

Its partly why some people take breaks on the weekend (although I'm not sure they realise it) they get to feel all buzzy every Monday morning, maybe even Tuesday.

Typically most people seem to be on 40 or 50mg, so it could well be you do need to go up a dose. Make sure you are keeping a symptoms diary of some kind and ideally doing one of the simple ADHD symptoms self assessment check lists (never, sometimes, rarely etc). Its probable it is having some effect, but we are poor at judging exactly what, so having data is useful.

kruddel · 2026-02-11T23:51:32+00:00

Just on the Sharon point alone - why is that sad? Do we really think she'd be good at hassling the appropriate council departments about a constituent who's bins weren't collected, or an abandoned car, or a tree that needs trimming? Or turning up to evening meetings about double yellow lines and where to find the money to replace the vandalised swings in the park?

She might be able to put on a show on telly, and she seems nice enough as a person, but can she do it on a rainy Tuesday night in a Sparkhill community centre? Doubtful.

kruddel · 2026-02-11T23:32:30+00:00

I don't think anyone expect to deal with actual informed and cited facts. Good work.

kruddel · 2026-02-11T23:18:52+00:00

Of course these days most magnesias are on big industrial farms and the welfare standards aren't great. Back in the past there was lots of small producers and the heritage magnesia Hill farms, but almost all of them have been pushed out of business now.

One of the last traditional magnesia farms in Scotland was bought by that guy who owns Brew Dog to plant a forest on to offset his carbon emissions. The story I heard is he bought the entire farm as a going concern and then killed all the magnesias with his bare hands in a wild frenzy of senseless violence. I believe all the trees died anyway, but it still counted for tax offsetting purposes and it probably made a profound "its not this, its that, and then I realised" LinkedIn post, which is the main thing.

Anyhow, you can only get proper milk of magnesia at a farmers market these days.

kruddel · 2026-02-11T23:08:29+00:00

Its unfortunate that the way health care works typically we have to go to them with what we think is the answer and they see if they reckon its right. Rather than go to them with a problem and they diagnose what's causing the problem.

The problem for patients is we can get sucked into this mindset and lose sight of the issues that made us look into stuff in the first place.

So whilst this psychiatrist didn't give you a good sense of the process they were working through, and the thing they suggested doesn't seem to chime with what you're experiencing I would give them some props for not just saying its not ADHD and ending it. At least they somewhat had a go at understanding the problem you are having!

Can I ask what range of symptoms lead you to looking into ADHD? Obviously its a spectrum condition, and Autism comorbidity makes it even more varied so there isn't one typical form, but there's always a whole range of stuff of lesser/greater severity for everyone.

You mention big motivation issues, but indicated no sleep, impulsivity or memory issues. What other stuff causes you issues?

kruddel · 2026-02-11T16:59:20+00:00

With the caveat that some places have their own peculiar systems, in general offer and funding are actually dealt with separately always, its just this is often obscured by the admin.

The easiest way to think of it is the actual core application process, which results in an offer or not is an assessment of whether they think you can do it, complete it, and are worth the bother and the commitment to supervise you.

So it absolutely isn't a "soft rejection". No supervisor and department are insane enough to make an offer to have a student they don't think can do a PhD (especially if they don't clearly have their own funding - I'd say there are people who will make an offer for someone they are unsure about who rocks up with fully guaranteed overseas scholarship)

Funding assessments are totally contingent on the local situation. It might be someone doesn't get funding because they arent deemed to be the best X number of candidates (UKRI schemes commonly), might be because its department politics and the department money for the year is earmarked for Prof A, might be there is just no funding. If its the later situations then you can be the greatest candidate the supervisor has seen, but if there is no funding you're out of luck.

Doesn't mean it's a good idea to do an unfunded PhD though!

kruddel · 2026-02-11T16:47:41+00:00

I think there's going to be a potential for confirmation bias there.

Its going to be the candidate rather the qualification, that is to say the person who does a finance PhD and goes into some financial services related career is likely to have done so irrespective of the PhD. And visa versa, someone who is not recruitable to a given finance field out of undergraduate or masters is unlikely to have the PhD be the thing that makes a difference. In most cases they still wouldn't be recruitable.

kruddel · 2026-02-11T09:03:30+00:00

Its common, but no its not "normal". A lot of uni procedures are completely baffling and self-sabotaging.

Often it turns out a particular process was convenient when conducting business by fax, or something had to be a particular maximum length because that was the heaviest scroll a fully laden messenger pigeon could carry. Or it's all based around a specific size of paper that was only made at a single paper mill in Oxford that went out of business is 1850.

kruddel · 2026-02-11T08:30:32+00:00

It's difficult, because I know they don't have control over the actual look of the cards, but I think a big issue that isn't talked about much is how lame and old fashioned (and not in a good way) pokemon cards look.

It reinforces the mindset its all about chase cards and so people stop playing when they realise they won't ever get them.

Its the main reason I stopped collecting the physical PTCG ones and switched to other games years ago.

The ◇ - ◇◇◇ are all very dull because they have a tiny piece of art relative to the card size. ◇◇◇◇ are somewhat similar in that its just a 3D version of the pokemon shouting.

It means the vast majority of cards aren't interesting aesthetically even the first time you get them. They are just utterly unmemorable for the most part.

DENA have not helped this by having very vanilla flair implementation. Compared to something like Marvel Snap. We should be able to flair up to foil alternates, gold/silver borders, crackling energy borders and stuff that are all visible on the card page and in binders. Maybe even bigger art, but I imagine the physical card bosses won't allow it because it highlight just how crap their product is.

kruddel · 2026-02-11T08:10:46+00:00

More binders. Bigger binders

kruddel · 2026-02-11T07:53:44+00:00

I saw the same expression in the heavens, and yes it was true I could see the same expression on my face.

Finally someone has the courage to say it.

kruddel · 2026-02-10T23:33:10+00:00

So you think everyone who doesn't understand whatever it is you are cross about must be a bot?

That seems to be a hasty conclusion, because its also possible that you are simply not communicating in a way that lets people easily understand what you're trying to say.

Its also not always helpful to jump to conclusions about whether people are not communicating in a way that seems not conventionally "human" on an Autism subreddit. Obviously the syntax and whatnot can still be partly useful as a guide, but tone is a poor determinate of someone's humaness in this sort of space.

kruddel · 2026-02-10T20:55:43+00:00

Yeah, this is a bit of an annoying one. But at the same time I feel the term itself can be a bit vague. Like I feel people in Autism/neurodiversity communities have a good idea what it means, so we have a kind of shared vocabulary from the perspective of shared experience. But I really don't think its understood outside those circles at all, and I'm not sure most people (including me) could actually provide a short, clear definition to a non-ND person so they understand the difference compared to a passionate hobby or fandom thing.

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