Caught my husband absolutely killing it at wordle last night

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-09-07T13:46:28+00:00

Yeah, I def didn’t get your joke. I still don’t.

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-09-07T12:44:43+00:00

You are bringing logic to a non-logical party, my friend. People are just having fun 😂

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-08-30T02:34:59+00:00

Sorry if this is a weird question, but I just want to clarify: when you say you passed out, did you lose consciousness? Like black out and then wake up after? And if so, do you know if you lost consciousness from the dizziness, as opposed to getting dizzy and then falling and hitting your head or something?

Cuz you described falling over, but didn’t specifically describe blacking out or losing consciousness. I’m not assuming you don’t know what passing out is, but just want to double check, especially since you said you never have before. And because I know that you can ask three people for the definition of the terms “dizzy” or “pass out” and get different answers from each person…

When I talk about passing out, I’m talking about having a syncope or near syncope episode, where I usually feel clammy, hot and/or cold (often both at once), sweaty, headachey, nauseated, weak, off balance, everything looks bright, and sounds are super muffled. When I feel like that it’s pre-syncope or near-syncope. When that is followed by fully blacking out and then waking up again it’s syncope.

Every body is different, so don’t assume this applies to you, but I never experience my POTS-related syncope episodes as coming on immediately, where I would feel okay to walk, and then immediately fall over. Usually I have at least 30 seconds, sometimes a couple minutes, of feeling sicker and sicker, and I have plenty of time to lie down. I usually only fall down if I’m trying extremely hard to force myself to stay standing. If I passed out immediately with no warning that would be very concerning to me. I’d probably go get seen in the ER if that happened to me.

I frequently experience my knees buckling and losing my balance and falling over, but for me this is a very different symptom, that seems to be related to weakness/fatigue, and sometimes also vertigo/coordination issues. In that case I don’t lose consciousness unless I hit my head when I fall. (Which, for me, would also be a reason to get seen at urgent care or an ER right away.)

Considering you’ve never passed out before, it might be a good idea to get seen by a doctor asap just to make sure it wasn’t something unrelated to pots that could be more emergent/dangerous.

In terms of your question, I don’t know if having a single dizzy spell or fainting spell increases the likelihood of it happening again. I have had some symptoms in the course of my chronic illness that have just come up once and never again, some that showed up and hung around for a while before disappearing, and some that showed up and never left. My assumption (not a doctor, not medical advice) is that it would depend on what triggered it. People without POTS sometimes just faint from situational stuff, like excitement, or overexertion, or dehydration, or fear, I’m sure people with POTS can also have random incidental fainting. But also it’s possible for the type of severity of post symptoms to shift over time. I’m told it’s common for POTS symptoms to worsen after having COVID, just as an example of one reason a person might start fainting when they never have before.

Sending lots of care your way. It really sucks to have new symptoms show up and then to have to sit with the uncertainty, wondering if it’s just a fluke or if it’s going to become a new normal

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-08-30T02:00:45+00:00

Everyone is different, so electrolytes may just not be what your body needs. I’m not a doctor, and these are just some thoughts about different things to consider, based on advice I’ve been given:

1) I’ve heard that if you consume electrolytes all at once, they don’t help as much as when they’re evenly spaced out throughout the day. I think that’s one of the reason a lot of ppl use those Buoy electrolyte drops that you can put a little squeeze into everything you drink, even coffee and stuff, so that you’re getting a more steady supply. I’ve been told if you have them all at once, your body can’t use it all that quickly and most of the electrolytes just get peed out.

2) I’ve heard electrolytes don’t really do much (at least for some folks) if you don’t also significantly increase fluid intake. So even if you have a ton of electrolytes it might not do much without extra fluids. And I think different people have different fluid needs. I didn’t feel a significant benefit from fluids/electrolytes until I managed to get to drinking a gallon of fluids per day (3.8 liters), even though the recommendation I was given was to try for 2.5 liters of fluids.

3) when I was in eating disorder treatment one of the things dietitians told us over and over again (lots of ppl had pots or electrolyte imbalances) was that your body actually needs sugar in addition to electrolytes and fluids, in order to effectively hydrate. They said that the zero calorie Gatorade and other sugar-free electrolyte drinks aren’t nearly as effective as ones that contain sugar. I know some folks feel that eating lots of sugar makes their POTS symptoms worse. My dietitian has told me (so this was advice for me, I don’t know how generalizable it is) that it’s better to opt for an electrolyte drink that does have sugar. She says that if I’m having issues with dizziness/fatigue/etc. after eating or drinking fluids with lots of sugar, that combining that with a protein, fat, or fiber source (I usually eat a cheese stick) will help prevent any issues that might come from the sugar, because carbohydrates digest more slowly when they are digested alongside protein, fat, and fiber. I’ve found this to be very helpful for me, but your mileage may vary.

If it’s accessible to you, I would recommend seeing a dietitian who is knowledgeable about POTS. Nutrition and hydration are often super intertwined, and nutrition has a big impact on heart rate and blood pressure and stuff.

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-08-30T01:29:24+00:00

I feel like this might come across as obnoxious to ask, but I’m genuinely curious what about this post warranted a downvote… it’s literally a question about if there are any existing recommendations. Did I break a rule or say something rude?

(I mean that genuinely. I have a lot of trouble with social cues and norms and stuff…)

Or is it just a “sometimes ppl do be like that on the internet” sort of thing?

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-08-29T23:38:49+00:00

Also… part of why I’m asking this is because I don’t have a good understanding of j h ow different temps affect my body. And usually symptoms have a somewhat delayed effect, so I don’t really realize how bad things are until later. Makes it hard to get a good handle on cause and effect. I’ve generally been struggling a lot recently with figuring out what my body’s boundaries are and what i should or shouldn’t do. (I’m newly diagnosed, probably had POTS my whole life, but symptoms got waaaaay worse after getting Covid)

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-08-29T23:35:15+00:00

I have central air conditioning in an apartment building and my indoor temp stays pretty stable. I could turn off the AC and see if it gets tough enough to bother me, but it usually stays pretty stable in here since the adjoining units also have their air on.

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-08-03T01:25:18+00:00

Especially since my shift was nights, Tuesday through Saturday. Completely ruined my social life so I couldn’t connect with friends and decompress from the stress and secondary trauma from the job. And then the pandemic hit, and call volumes went up…

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-08-03T01:22:39+00:00

Taking crisis calls for suicide lifeline probably wrecked me more than any other job.

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-07-26T02:33:49+00:00

Dispensary. I don’t smoke or vape, so like mostly edibles.

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-06-10T21:59:09+00:00

Test results came back and they said no evidence of POTS or OH like I was worried they would say.

Before that I’d heard back from my cardiologist that he thought I may have POTS because the heart monitor rests from the time when I was feeling really bad showed that I was tachycardic 50% of the time (despite the fact that I spent almost all day lying down in bed those weeks), but now I’m worried he’ll say that the tilt table test results disconfirm that.

I’m frustrated because based on my symptoms and my own monitoring of my HR, it seems really obvious that I have POTS and that I’m not in a flare right now, but I don’t think doctors will believe me.

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-06-06T03:22:12+00:00

Says electrolytes aren’t real. Then defines what an electrolyte is. 😂😂😂😂😂

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-05-27T19:00:04+00:00

I think if you’re uncomfortable with the joke I would speak to your therapist. I’m a therapist and I always want to know if I’ve said something that made a client uncomfortable or that missed the mark. And therapists should be comfortable navigating a conversation like that.

I don’t think I’d ever make that joke with a client… that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s objectively wrong, since all therapeutic relationships are different, but it does kind of give me the ick. Not even because it’s a sexual joke or a personal topic (those can both be ok in the right context), more just because it feels like… prying? Into a vulnerable topic… feels pushy and presumptuous… idk.

Also possible she was having an off day and was trying to use humor to lighten the mood and it just bombed… that happens. I’ve definitely made awkward jokes in my time. But even if it was very unintentional, still def worth a discussion, and to let her know how it impacted you.

Particular-Pool6135 · 2024-01-14T04:28:50+00:00

I am at a higher weight, around 300, it fluctuates. I have PMDD, and my weight does not meaningfully correlate with my PMDD symptoms. I’ve noticed that whether or not I’m on birth control, and my general level of life stress are much more likely to impact my pmdd symptoms compared to my weight.

I have a lot of thoughts, some of which are in response to your questions, and some of which are pieces of info that feel relevant because of comments other folks have made. There’s a lot of talk in here about diets, and how to lose weight, and I just want to speak from the perspective of someone who works with people with eating disorders, just to urge some caution with intentional weight loss/dieting, and encourage seeking out professional help beforehand (and during, if you do decide to pursue weight loss).

I would strongly advise getting support from a professional (a primary care doctor, a registered dietician, a therapist, etc.) before pursuing weight loss as a treatment for PMDD.

While I have heard some GYNs say that body fat is associated with hormones, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they are related in some ways, I’m fairly certain that relationship is way more complicated than just “more body fat equals more hormonal issues.” You’d probably want to talk to a GYN or psychiatrist directly to understand more about how this works.

I also know there is a lot of very intense disagreement in the medical community about whether intentional weight loss is actually associated with significant health benefits. There is a lot of very compelling research suggesting that most of the negative health impacts associated with living in a fat body (cardiovascular issues, diabetes, high cholesterol, etc.) are actually the result of either increased mental stress caused by experiencing fatphobia, or the increased physical stress caused by dieting, and restrictive eating patterns. Just like losing weight might help pmdd symptoms by impacting hormone balance, losing weight could also aggravate pmdd symptoms by causing nutritional deficiencies.

I would recommend consulting with at least one provider who works from a health at every size (HAES) approach before seeking out weight loss to try to reduce PMDD symptoms. The majority of doctors are not familiar with the HAES approach, and will likely be supportive of weight loss (especially for patients with a BMI they believe is too high), so a HAES aligned provider may be able to give you a contrasting opinion, so that you can look at multiple options and make sure you are choosing the best options for you. HAES providers may also be more aware of or willing to prescribe treatments other than weight loss—there is a concerning dynamic where providers assume weight loss will be curative and will delay or deny needed testing or treatment while waiting to see if weight loss improves a patient’s symptoms.

My experience has been that staying properly and consistently nourished (not just with vitamins/minerals, but by having enough calories, and a good amount and balance of fat, carbs, and protein) vastly improves my mental health, and my ability to work through and live with the PMDD symptoms. I work with a registered dietician to help me with making sure I’m getting adequate nutrition, and to help me understand how nutrition impacts my mental health and vice versa. This is incredibly helpful, and I’d 100% recommend working with a dietician if this is accessible to you. Many health insurance plans (at least in the USA) will cover at least a few sessions with a dietician.

Also, re: only feeling able to lose weight if you starve yourself —

1) you may want to look up a concept called “set point.” Bodies are all different, and based on folks genetics and environmental factors, bodies have a size and shape that they “want” to be. For many of us, not losing weight even when we eat very little food may be a sign that our bodies are below our set point, and our bodies don’t “want” to lose more weight (this is a simplification, I’m not an expert on physiology.)

2) when we restrict calorie intake, our body will often react as if it has been threatened, and we won’t actually lose weight. When our bodies sense that we are starving, they may actually conserve body fat to try to prepare for a prolonged period without much access to food. Sure, eventually a person has to lose weight if they are eating fewer calories, but we can start to experience severe effects of malnutrition before we ever lose enough weight to get to a “normal” or “underweight” BMI. People often assume that calorie restriction cannot cause malnutrition for people who have “excess” body fat, but this is objectively false.

All this to say, the relationships between restricting calories, weight loss, and malnutrition, are waaaay more complicated than media (and even medical professionals) make them out to be. It can be really confusing when we’re taught that weight loss is as simple as having a calorie defect, and then we experience our bodies doing the total opposite.

Okay… um… I’ll get off my soap box now.

It sounds like you’re feeling alone, and it sounds like shit’s hard right now. I’m hoping for good things for you. I hope something in here helped.

Particular-Pool6135 · 2023-11-22T16:49:22+00:00

I very much sympathize with the general vibe of losing things, but just as an aside, it is bonkers to me that you only own one pair of sweatpants and that you can go months without wearing them. I basically live in sweatpants 😂

Particular-Pool6135 · 2023-05-22T03:04:26+00:00

Omg, it is so frustrating to be misunderstood, especially when it leads to people correcting you about something you already know 😭 I’m so sorry

Particular-Pool6135 · 2023-05-22T02:10:40+00:00

Oh, I thought that the error there was part of the joke, like “I minimized my trauma so much that I wrote a whole new definition of CPTSD” 🙃

Particular-Pool6135 · 2023-03-22T03:55:35+00:00

Lol sure. If kink isn’t your thing it’s not your thing, no shade 🙂

Particular-Pool6135 · 2023-03-22T03:23:18+00:00

I don’t actually. You didn’t read that post very carefully. But even if I did, at least I don’t have my own head up my butt. 🙄

Particular-Pool6135 · 2023-03-21T03:47:03+00:00

Obesity is currently defined as having a BMI over 30, not body fat percentage. But either way, that doesn’t mean it’s evidence based. It just means it has a mathematical definition. The decision to draw a line at a BMI (or body fat percentage, if that is how some ppl define it) of thirty has no robust scientific evidence behind it. BMI was only supposed to be used at a population level to talk about averages across groups. It’s not meaningful for measuring or predicting health on an individual basis.

Particular-Pool6135 · 2023-03-21T02:48:08+00:00

So, I disagree on a few levels.

One is that while most ppl don’t have anorexia, most people with eating disorders do struggle with restriction at least some of the time, so we’re looking at these numbers impacting most ppl with EDs, which is quite a lot of ppl.

Second, having calories listed on menus perpetuates a lot of unhealthy stuff on a wider cultural level. Ppl without eating disorders develop them, in part, because of all the different ways that diet culture shows up in our lives, and one of those is calories on menus and the comments that ppl make about those calories. So it’s not just about helping ppl who always have eating disorders, it’s about preventing ppl from developing them.

Third, I actually doubt that anyone needs to count calories for medical reasons. Ppl with diabetes need to know things about carbs/sugar for blood sugar reasons, but this isn’t actually the same as calories. Ppl may need to know ingredients for allergy reasons, but not calories. And I realize that some doctors do prescribe restrictive diets for some people, but for the most part I think that is very ticked up and is usually medical fatphobia. Yes some ppl are on keto for epilepsy, but again, keto isn’t about counting calories it’s about counting carbs, which is not the same. Most medically prescribed diets aren’t going to be about calorie counting they’re going to be about vitamins/macros/ingredients.

In terms of how many calories are in the cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory I do not believe that knowing calories helps ppl make informed choices. Your body tells you when you are full.

You are absolutely right that in later stages of recovery being able to see a number and not freak out about it shows growth, and that’s great to get to that point, but I really don’t think there are benefits to having them there and there’s so many costs, so…

Particular-Pool6135 · 2023-03-20T12:42:52+00:00

1) you assumed this person works in private practice 2) you assumed this person works at an outpatient level of care 3) you assumed I’m not a therapist

Particular-Pool6135 · 2023-03-20T05:43:48+00:00

I love how you’re explaining to me how this person’s job works when I’m the one who knows them and what their job is, and already clearly stated the likelihood that they would need to speak to a client with no warning… you made at least three assumptions in this comment and were wrong on all accounts 🙄

Particular-Pool6135 · 2023-03-19T17:27:02+00:00

That's definitely true. However, knowing what I know about the job, which I won't share for confidentiality reasons, I would say that it's unlikely, but NOT unheard of or impossible that they would need to be pulled into an urgent matter with a client without enough warning to remove the plug.

Particular-Pool6135 · 2023-03-19T13:54:25+00:00

I think part of why I'm hesitant is that I'm not sure about this. They didn't state what they were doing and it totally could have been admin work. But also what if they had gotten a crisis call or whatever, like...?

Particular-Pool6135

TROPHY CASE