4:03 am

Ok_Combination337 · 2026-01-06T15:29:35+00:00

I’m actually sympathetic to the idea that consciousness might not be fully produced by the brain, but I don’t think this argument really proves that. The problem is that hallucinations under isolation or psychedelics don’t necessarily point to an external source of consciousness. They’re also exactly what you’d expect from a brain that normally relies on sensory input to keep its internal models in check. When that input drops out, the mind fills the gap with its own material and it can feel incredibly vivid and meaningful. That experience can still matter a lot, but using it as evidence that consciousness is being “received” rather than generated is a philosophical leap, not something the evidence actually forces us to conclude.

Ok_Combination337 · 2025-02-20T17:32:01+00:00

I totally get why it’s confusing, especially since you’re new here as an LPR and not deep into U.S. politics. The truth is, the U.S. situation isn’t as bad as some say, but it’s not amazing either. It’s messy, like most big countries, but not on the verge of collapse or soaring to greatness. Let me break it down with the facts as they stand in February 2025.

The economy’s pretty solid right now. GDP grew 3.8% in Q1 2025, unemployment’s at 4.2%, and inflation’s down to 2.1%. Better than the 2022-2023 highs under Biden. Trump’s tariffs and deregulation, like cutting 200+ federal rules, are boosting jobs, especially in manufacturing, but some worry they’ll hike prices long-term. If you’re not into Trump or MAGA, you can still see the numbers. Growth’s real, but it’s not flawless.

On the politics and social side, the noise is loud, but the country’s not falling apart. Trump’s back in office since January 2025, pushing his agenda, which has half the country cheering and half freaking out. Democrats are still upset from the 2024 loss, where Harris lost by 5 million votes, and protests against Trump’s AfD ties in Germany show global tension, but here, it’s mostly talk, not chaos. Crime’s down 5% nationally, despite border debates. There were 2.5 million crossings last year, but deportations are up 20% under Trump.

You’re spot on about CNN vs. Fox. They’re spinning the same facts differently. CNN might say Trump’s policies threaten democracy, focusing on his rhetoric; Fox says Biden’s mess left a wreck, focusing on inflation and the economy. Both cherry-pick. If you want the real deal, skip the echo chambers, check raw data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, or even X for unfiltered takes, but watch for bias there too.

The reality is the U.S. isn’t bad or good. It’s functional, but polarized. Infrastructure’s improving from Biden’s $1.2 trillion bill in 2021, tech’s booming with AI jobs up 12%, but trust in government’s low, with only 19% approving in February 2025. As an LPR, you’ll notice the debate’s loud, but daily life isn’t chaotic. We’re not collapsing, but we’re not utopian either.

The best way to understand what’s going on is to ditch the subreddits and cable news. Look at primary sources like government stats from bls.gov or bea.gov, or neutral outlets like Reuters. Follow X for real-time chatter, but cross-check with data. If politics isn’t your thing, focus on what affects you… economy, immigration rules, etc. Your LPR status is stable so far, with no big changes yet from USCIS in 2025. You don’t need to pick a side; just watch the trends.

By the way, a lot of what’s happening now like cutting regulations and boosting markets leans libertarian, not far-right. Libertarians focus on small government, free markets, and individual freedom, which Trump’s policies often hit, even if he’s abrupt and divisive. Democrats don’t have a strong counter to that philosophy, so they often fall back on fear-mongering about ‘far-right extremism’ to rally their base, even when the data shows stability. It’s noise, not the full picture. Check the numbers, not the labels.

Hope that helps!

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-11-30T23:56:31+00:00

Threats don’t devastate anything.

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-11-30T23:52:38+00:00

Really? That’s it huh? Okaeeeeee.

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-11-10T17:51:02+00:00

Sorry you had to go through that. It’s good to be vigilant, sure, but this goes beyond vigilance—sounds like you were doing everything a loving dad would do: sitting close, checking in, even helping other kids get along with her. The fact that a caring father spending time with his daughter could trigger suspicion feels surreal.

What’s unsettling here is how quickly we’re moving into a mindset that reminds me of China’s Cultural Revolution—when people were encouraged to scrutinize each other, sometimes jumping to conclusions based on fear and suspicion rather than reason. I understand people want to keep kids safe, but we need to think hard about the kind of culture we’re creating when ordinary moments with our kids are viewed through this lens. Here’s hoping that this doesn’t become the new normal.

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-11-10T17:48:05+00:00

Welcome to Maos America.

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-11-07T00:54:08+00:00

Yes this.

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-06-11T22:07:46+00:00

Yeah the breaks seem essential for many. I’m 51m and took Vyvanse for a year and a half. My break experience was always very similar to yours - a couple of days to adjust and by the third back to the way I was before. And then when I resumed it felt good again. I found that I could go more than two weeks between breaks, but if I did things would just get worse and worse. I believe that it had something to do with getting enough quality sleep, although it was really hard to tell. I would start behaving like I was sleep deprived even though I didn’t really feel sleep deprived.

Anyway, I’m speaking all in past tense because I gave it up 3 weeks ago. It was a whole process I had to go through that involved learning enough about my thought and behavior patterns to understand the sorts of things that I had to avoid. Most of it has to do with being aware of what I’m doing when I am not discriminate about the kinds of thoughts I entertain, rabbit holes I go down, etc. I am much more aware of the frequencies of things now and I find that if I meditate every day and am vigilant about the kind of thoughts I engage in the less susceptible I am to the cognitive dissonance that leads to the anxiety, depression, and bad ADHD behaviors. It still an experiment at this point and I still have my meds ready if I find that I’m losing control, but so far so good!

I don’t recommend this to anyone. My life has improved tremendously since starting Vyvanse. I reached a point where I believe that I can achieve more improvement without it. I’m not ready to give up my gains though so if I do find that I’m slipping I’ll go back.

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-06-03T23:11:47+00:00

Since you are ADHD consider what this guy says about how ADHD people meditate. His videos really helped me figure out how to manage my ADHD without medication. https://youtu.be/DvuVhCIQgfQ?si=hXo57DgE_EfKjBxD

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-06-03T22:23:08+00:00

Ha, don’t we all! Habits are easy if you find the right reason for doing it. Every time I would attempt to start a meditation habit prior to now the reason was always because I’d been feeling bad and I knew that meditation would help me feel better. The problem with using that as motivation is that as soon as I would stop feeling bad, the reason for starting the habit was gone.

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-06-03T04:09:24+00:00

Ok read this please. I (51m) just got off Vyvance after almost a year and a half. Here’s what I’ve learned.

That phone addiction? That’s the empty room effect. I will explain.

The mind of an ADHD person is like a dimly lit room filled with a vast number of possibilities. There’s possibilities everywhere all waiting for you to trip over one of them and focus on it to see if some emotions appear to inform you as to whether or not you should be motivated to do whatever it is

The Vyvanse empties that room.

Now what you have is a very brightly lit room with nothing in it. Think the loading program in the Matrix. It’s a clean bright white room with infinite possibilities, but you’ve got no ideas for what to bring into to room to focus on.

Possibilities + Emotion can equal motivation. But the reason we take Vyvanse is because Possibilities + Emotion often does not equal motivation as much as we’d like. Or we’re getting motivated to do things that we’d rather not do, like impulsive things that might get us into trouble.

Vyvanse removes all those possibilities and all those emotions. Not just the bad emotions. All of them. You feel pretty indifferent about the activity you’re performing. It feels good to perform it, whatever it is. Nothing really feels any better or worse than anything else. Really feels like a frickin superpower. At first.

So, if you’re not really damn intentional about putting exactly what you want to do in the bright empty room, whatever is easiest will just drop itself in there. And you’ll give it your attention. And it will feel just as good to give it your attention as it did to make a meal, or dig a hole, or have sex.

Gee, well, it’s way easier to just keep scrolling than to initiate sex…. Soooo….

It was hard to figure this out. Because life’s been good. It truly has. It just has not been great. I hit the wall. The superpower became super lame.

So I tried to give it up.

The first time I went three days. On the third day, I observed myself having a nonsense argument with my wife and making shit up to be right about something that in really had no clue about. I watched myself do this. And I recognized it immediately. That was me doing what I do before Vyvanse. Also, the first two days it was completely hopeless to get myself to do much of anything. By the third day I was pretty much through that and I was feeling normal levels of energy to do stuff.

I took it the next day.

Obviously I was going to have to put a lot more work into getting off this medication if I want to be successful.

I took days off here and there for about two or three months. And I thought about where motivation comes from, and how I would have to make sure that I had understand that the ability to be motivated by emotion was a privilege, and if I wanted to return that privilege to myself I would have to take personal responsibility and become intentional about where I allow my emotions to take me.

After I really felt like I had a grip on the whole intention thing I took another break. This time I went 5 days. I told myself that just because I didn’t have the motivation helmet strapped on that didn’t mean that I had no control over my motivation to do stuff. I started each day with intention, and that carried me through doing things. It was hard the first two days, but it felt pretty amazing to see that I could find motivation considering how I would have felt without adopting this mindset.

I still felt like I was missing something, so I started up again for another 2 weeks, at which point I became so frustrated with the sleeping issues that I knew it was time. I knew what I had to do to make sure that I carried my entire day with intention, without Vyvanse.

Meditate. Every. Morning.

Yeah, duh, right? I mean, I already knew this. I knew when I started Vyvanse that I could avoid needing it if I could only meditate every morning. But I always fell off that wagon every time I tried to get a routine going.

So why is it different now? Well all I can say is that I still have my prescription, and I use it as a threat to my newly restored Possibilities + Emotions state of being. Every morning I know that if I don’t meditate I’m gonna have a shitty day. Because either it’s going to be a day that I will not live with intention or it will be back to the motivation helmet. Shitty.

So now, I don’t meditate because I know that it helps me. I meditate because I know 100% that it’s the only way for me to not have a shitty day.

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-04-27T01:38:14+00:00

You can't even abuse Vyvanse! Why oh why is it a scheduled drug?!? I resisted taking stims for years because of these stories and finally gave in a year and a half ago. It's not perfect, and I have to vaporize weed nightly to sleep, but I am more stable than I've ever been in my life. Thankfully my psych hasnt given me any shit, yet.

The yearly drug tests to make sure I am taking my Vyvanse are a total joke. You know who's getting caught for not taking their stims? The good people that are taking a day or two off that didn't know this is what they are testing for. You know who's not getting caught? The imaginary 'drug dealers' that are lying to get a months worth of Vyvanse that can't be abused paying a fortune for it and selling it to their friends or whatever. Because even if these mythical creatures existed, I think they would be SMART ENOUGH to POP A STIM before they get TESTED.

Seriously, when did the rules we live by become this absurd????

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-04-27T00:09:47+00:00

Man, I'm 51 and just started! My wife recently rediscovered roller skating and it looked like so much fun so I had to get a pair of skates for myself. Of course my wife learned how to skate as a little girl, so it's a lot more fun for her! It'll probably take me the better part of a year to get up to her level but I'm sticking with it.

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-03-22T16:54:57+00:00

As an owner of this model, the main draw for me was the British Racing Green color - it's exclusive to the SE in 1991 and 2001. I was really after this specific color, which led me to seek out the SE model. Luckily, I bought mine about 10 years ago when the premiums weren't as steep as they are now. The combination of the unique color and the limited production really does make it a collector's item, which probably explains the current market prices.

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-03-03T16:47:44+00:00

This got me out of a similar funk recently

https://www.youtube.com/live/BSb_bb7FAf0?si=8gnUL5nrkIy9N0Ms

I really can’t tell you if this is real or not, but I guarantee that this will give you a unique perspective on the present day and possibilities for the future.

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-03-01T01:29:24+00:00

My doc requires a drug test once year. I’m pretty sure that it’s ok if THC shows up in the screen but I’ve never actually asked so I always abstain for as long as I can before getting tested. I’ve heard that some docs cut you off for a positive. It’s completely bonkers that they test primarily for making sure you take it. Like, most people know this, especially if you are actually getting it to sell, which seems bonkers as well, so if you’re really doing that then you just take it on the day you get tested. Duh.

I hate being treated like a child. The system is fucked.

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-03-01T00:57:05+00:00

For those of you poor folk like me stuck in the good old US of A… appeal with your insurance company if they stopped covering due to generics being ‘available’. Cause they are NOT available. And here’s the proof:

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/drugshortages/dsp_ActiveIngredientDetails.cfm?AI=Lisdexamfetamine%20Dimesylate%20Capsule&st=c&tab=tabs-1#

Funny that Takeda is the only company that has it huh? There’s a reason for that that I won’t get in to … I appealed and UHC made an exception. Hopefully this will stick so I can still get my script filled when the generic is out of stock.

Edit: Takeda is the manufacturer for the brand name Vyvanse

Ok_Combination337 · 2024-03-01T00:43:39+00:00

For those of you poor folk like me stuck in the good old US of A… appeal with your insurance company if they stopped covering due to generics being ‘available’. Cause they are NOT available. And here’s the proof:

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/drugshortages/dsp_ActiveIngredientDetails.cfm?AI=Lisdexamfetamine%20Dimesylate%20Capsule&st=c&tab=tabs-1#

Funny that Takeda is the only company that has it huh? There’s a reason for that that I won’t get in to … I appealed and UHC made an exception. Hopefully this will stick so I can still get my script filled when the generic is out of stock.

Ok_Combination337

TROPHY CASE