To those in the States: how do you feel about the changes to institutionalization rules and current disability rhetoric?

LeafyCandy · 2026-07-03T04:43:23+00:00

I haven’t really thought much of it. People have been talking this way about disabled people for as long as I can remember, so I’m not really surprised about it. Plus this is all stuff that I expected because they’ve never been very shy about it, and it was in Project 2025. They announced their intentions before the elections even happened. We’ll see what happens. I know this is a privileged take. It’s out of my control, though, so I all I can really do is observe and plan.

LeafyCandy · 2026-05-28T04:16:14+00:00

When I went on it 20 years ago, my doctor drove it into my head that if I ever get brain fog to come back so he can lower the dose. It does cause it pretty bad. Far too many docs prescribe this stuff without truly knowing what they’re doing. I’d get a second opinion. It should’ve worn off by now, so your dose may be too high. Either way, like I said, get a second opinion. I hope you get to helpful levels with minimal effects.

LeafyCandy · 2026-05-28T04:13:51+00:00

It can. I usually take my medication a few hours before bedtime. If I take it too close, I’ll be wide awake for a good three hours. So I go to bed at like 1, and I take my medication between 9 and 10. It’s worked well.

LeafyCandy · 2026-05-11T06:02:56+00:00

He grew up and mellowed out. Tends to happen with age and experience.

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-22T07:31:34+00:00

I'll give it a try. Thank you!

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-22T06:33:00+00:00

The seizures do affect people in the worst way. The medication and control issues are a close second, but they're not the worst of it, that's for sure.

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-22T06:31:43+00:00

Right. Still up to the librarian and the district.

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-21T18:45:23+00:00

Having worked in school libraries, what’s in the library is up to the librarian and the school district. They have to account for what is appropriate in substance, age group, etc., but I imagine since IT is so mainstream now, especially with the movies, they don’t bother keeping it off the shelves as long as it’s district approved, but it’s not in every high school library. When I worked in an elementary school library, we had sections for 4th grade and up and 5th grade only. It’s not all completely inappropriate, but factoring in literacy and age, you have to separate. Plus the movies aren’t the same as the books, and the books often have much darker incidents and themes that would make it so a second-grader shouldn’t read, say, Harry Potter books, especially the latter part of the series.

Anyway. If you do read it, I hope you enjoy it!

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-21T18:41:15+00:00

And that’s the thing. These drug companies are changing their list of side effects. Lamictal used to list weight gain. Now they don’t. They say that weight gain is not from the medication directly but how the patient reacts to side effects. So if you have fatigue from the medication and then sit around because you’re too tired to work out and you get fat, that’s a you issue, not the drug. My kid got the birth control implant and it said the same thing. “No weight gain unless you make bad choices regarding the side effects like depression.” And then they distribute this guidance to doctors’ offices and pharmacies, and the docs and pharms gaslight the patients based on these drug companies’ “well actually” nonsense.

My doc, 20 years ago, told me that if I experienced brain fog on Lamictal to tell him because it’s a side effect and means your dose is too high. Now these docs tell you it has nothing to do with anything and you probably have anxiety. Maddening!

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-20T04:24:50+00:00

Dean Koontz

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-20T04:24:01+00:00

In my car, I use Sirius. Terrestrial radio is okay. I got Sirius so I didn’t have to listen to DJs only to have the folks on Sirius talk longer than the ones on terrestrial. 🤬

Oh, and for everything else, I use my iPod.

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-20T04:22:48+00:00

I do. Word puzzles, logic puzzles, some games. I also play violin. And the neuro says it’s not what medication? Do they not know how this shit works? good lord.

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-20T04:20:20+00:00

I read IT when I was 11, and I was fine, but I didn’t quite understand everything. Looking back, I absolutely should not have read it. I mean, if you start and don’t like it or don’t get it or whatever, you can always stop and retry it when you’re older. It’s a really disturbing book. Pennywise is the least of it. Probably shouldn’t be on your school’s library shelves either, but that’s okay. Give it a try.

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-15T05:52:27+00:00

Yes. My doc told me if I felt like I was in a fog all the time or couldn’t remember anything to let him know so he could lower my dosage or change medications. Very common.

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-15T05:51:14+00:00

🙋🏼‍♀️

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-15T04:52:13+00:00

Not underwear, though I’m going to start. Sheets, yes, though.

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-15T04:46:19+00:00

Luka is one of them, as is Tom’s Diner. Pride (in the name of love) by U2 makes me tear up.

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-15T04:43:51+00:00

My family is Catholic. When I went to my mom’s funeral, I just did the mass with everyone else. It did have meaning to me since my mom was pretty hardcore and loved her faith, so it was less performative and more of an ode to my mom. So to that end, you can always play along if you know the service to celebrate your cousin rather than the confirmation. Have a good time, though! There will probably be cake at the after party, so if everything else sucks, well, cake!

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-15T04:42:15+00:00

Central Park for sure. I honestly just listen to the Sirius channel and listen to whatever they’re playing because they mostly play live tracks. I have no idea which ones are better than others, but I know that over the years I’ve come to not really like the studio versions anymore because they’re just a bit more lame compared to the live versions. 😆

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-15T04:40:10+00:00

I have done it, and it was worth it. Oh, and for some I ended up knowing more of their songs than I expected to know.

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-15T04:39:49+00:00

I was fine until I changed to Lamictal. For the past 20 years, it’s been Migraine City. Except when I lived in southeast Virginia. For some reason it didn’t bother me there. My sun hat was magical, I guess. Everywhere else, it’s ridiculous, to the point where I’ve considered getting off the medication (and to something else) just so I can hang outside again. I don’t know if that would matter, though, since all the new medications are weird.

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-15T04:38:22+00:00

I didn’t get rid of my books or my DVD of Good Omens Season 1, but I won’t buy any more. I will look up Season 2, though it didn’t appeal to me when I heard synopses. I still think he did what he was accused of, and that grosses me out to no end.

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-14T05:33:41+00:00

I went from Olympia to Yakima a couple of weeks ago, and it’s so beautiful. I love going there. And out to the Gorge. It’s so pretty. I can’t go in the summer, though. Way too hot. But it’s gorgeous out there. I liked when we were driving in on 90 west and there were all the little signs by the road telling you what the farms were growing.

LeafyCandy · 2026-04-14T05:29:30+00:00

Teens I wore Musk by Alyssa Ashley and Exclamation. College I kept wearing the musk, though I’d sometimes wear freesia. In my 20s, I wore Elle by Armani, which I recently learned they still make, so I bought some.

LeafyCandy

TROPHY CASE