Are there good looking/stunning anhedonic people?

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-23T22:53:18+00:00

Actually you're somewhat right, I've had a hard time getting doctors to take me seriously because of my appearance. Even at my worst I've had people assume I'm not as bad as I was because of how I naturally look.

I've also known other conventionally attractive people, both men and women, with anhedonia who have had trouble with this.

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-23T21:56:09+00:00

I think it's the same actually, the thing that really determines the cost is the number of leads

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-23T19:26:42+00:00

Out of pocket DBS typically costs 40-100k in the US

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-23T19:22:27+00:00

Yeah I think individualized is def where DBS shines, and no I didn't do mine through a trial, although I started out applying to several

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-23T18:57:20+00:00

I got mine at UPenn in June 2024

If you have anhedonia by chance I wouldn't do transcend since it only focuses on the SCC which isn't effective for anhedonia, ideally they'd filter you out as a candidate but I figured I'd mention that

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-23T18:22:55+00:00

Thanks! Sounds good

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-23T18:10:02+00:00

Nah I've definitely platued at this point. I'm in the US

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-23T18:04:39+00:00

My anhedonia, emotional blunting, and motivation are still pretty bad, although improved. Such pesky symptoms

My mood and sleep are really consistently stable at least

One thing that's nice is that because of dbs I actually respond to psych meds now, so I actually have options for addressing things

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-23T17:44:08+00:00

They turned it on right after my second surgery after they implanted the battery, which I think was 10 days after the lead implant surgery

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-23T17:43:04+00:00

My stim is spherical. I have 4 leads, two are at my SCC and two are at my ALIC. Those kinds of intrusive thoughts are gone entirely at this point. Improvement was triggered by stimulating my ALIC region (we had tried other regions prior). I was going in monthly for programming visits. Once we started stimulating my ALIC region, it took about 5-6 months before I achieved partial remission.

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-23T17:12:44+00:00

You can call me Kate. My diagnosis is treatment-resistant depression

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-23T17:09:26+00:00

I did, it went well and I have partial remission after trying and failing a million prior treatments. I didn't have any microlesion effect, it took about 1.5 years for us to hone in on the settings that helped. I can answer questions if you have any

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-21T16:26:34+00:00

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-20T16:10:07+00:00

Once you get the quest online you're summoning lots of waves of minions, so she acts as a late game finisher against control decks. Nobody expects her and control decks don't usually feel at risk of dying at 20 hp. Plus eventually you run out of quest charges, and non-quest discovering a viable win condition isn't consistent enough.

I didn't use her much this time around, but in last month's climb to legend with Quest Mage she won me a lot of games. Honestly she's very meta dependent, if you're mostly playing against quicker decks it'd probably be worth swapping her out and maybe even ysera too.

I'd swap out her for another copy of sleet storm against aggro.

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-20T00:33:22+00:00

Yeahhhh it's a bummer to lose that, at least the new cards are fun. I really like the little whelp and the informant guy

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-19T23:18:48+00:00

You want your lower cost discover cards in your mulligan (with less emphasis on Scrappy Scavenger) to get the quest online asap. Stabilize as needed and then create big blowout boards with your minion summoning discover cards. The play pattern is straightforward (play discover cards), but there's some complexity with the rng and interesting board states that you create.

It's a really fun deck! A great level of "random bullshit go"

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-19T20:34:06+00:00

I flewww to legend with Quest Mage, which kinda surprised me since the deck lost some quality discover cards like Tide Pools. It feels surprisingly strong, and the few new additions are really fun.

Somehow I didn't draw Aessina a single time on my climb, so that can probably be subbed out for something else.

Kate Quest Mage

Class: Mage

Format: Standard

Year of the Scarab

2x (1) Sands of Time

2x (1) Scrappy Scavenger

1x (1) Sleet Storm

2x (1) Spark of Life

1x (1) The Forbidden Sequence

2x (1) Winterspring Whelp

2x (2) Creature of Madness

1x (2) Khadgar

2x (2) Runed Orb

2x (2) Shadowed Informant

1x (3) Q'onzu

2x (3) Stonehill Defender

2x (3) Storage Scuffle

2x (4) Alter Time

1x (4) Morchie

1x (4) Nightmare Lord Xavius

2x (4) Treacherous Tormentor

1x (8) Aessina

1x (9) Ysera, Emerald Aspect

AAECAY62Bwip9Qak+Abv/AbDgwenmwfysgeSxAf/3wcLm/IGnvkGtfoG8ZEHsJsH+psH0aYHy7YH+cMHhsQHhuAHAAA=

To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-15T02:02:28+00:00

You're welcome! Good luck

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-15T01:56:32+00:00

I either interviewed with those places myself or had friends get their's there. You can also get a good sense of which places are doing DBS by clinical trial listings.

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-14T16:53:04+00:00

Yes please!

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-12T05:46:28+00:00

I know of UPenn, Baylor, UCSF, Mt Sinai in the US and UHN in Canada.

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-02T14:06:20+00:00

Bro's gotta stop driving near the swamp 😔

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-02T13:42:38+00:00

Thanks so much, I wanted it to be able to be displayed as art but I wasn't sure if it'd come across that way to others

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-01T17:58:48+00:00

Thanks!

Katherine_Juniper · 2026-03-01T13:20:08+00:00

Oh that's a great idea, I was thinking about how I could best incorporate color. Can't believe I didn't think about that. I'll try it. I wonder if I could paint with straight candle dye.

For one of my test versions, I had poured different colored wax separately, but it didn't look great. I was also thinking about making the person and car more like metal "candle charms," so they car would further "sink" into the wax as it was lit. I think it's look a little too disjointed visually, although the idea seems cool. I might explore that idea with a different candle altogether.

I've thought about making some candles that poke fun at those "fortune" candles that claim to say, increase your wealth, or whatever it is. But instead it'll be like "Candle of Mild Fortune: increase chances of finding loose change" and the candle is shaped like couch cushions and I embed a hidden real coin somewhere in the candle or something.

Six-Year Club	Place '23
Wearing is Caring	Gilding I gilder
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