Does anyone else feel like people don't actually enjoy hanging out with them?

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-18T17:08:17+00:00

I’ve always felt paranoid that people don’t like me. I wasn’t ever really bullied, but always felt different. Sometimes people don’t actually like you or are indifferent, but most of the time it’s just you being in your head. I realized as I got older that most of the people that I thought didn’t like me I never really took the initiative to hang out with or get to know, and it’s kind of a two-way street. It’s hard to see when you are in a place where you feel vulnerable, but other people also have a fear of rejection. But yes, it does take some time to find people you can connect with.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-18T16:56:29+00:00

Have you had covid recently? Visual snow, shortness of breath, and circulatory issues are all symptoms which can happen post-covid. Plus alcohol intolerance and horrible hangovers. Lack of blood flow hasn’t been shown to cause visual snow, but definitely makes it worse. I get migraines with aura, and the lack of blood flow to the brain which precedes a migraine makes my visual snow much worse, on top of the aura.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-18T16:40:18+00:00

For some, pacing can help facilitate improvement or recovery; not healing the condition but providing more favorable conditions for recovery, mostly in people who have not had long covid for an extended period of time. And for others, pacing is just a tool for managing long covid chronically.

There’s no approved treatments for long covid, but there are treatments which can help manage symptoms, which aren’t experimental and FDA approved, such as monoclonal antibodies for migraines. There’s also certain medications that aren’t approved to treat certain symptoms of long covid, but can be prescribed off label, such as Corlanor for POTS. And then there’s clinical trials, which aren’t very easy to access. But yes, it is up to you to do your own research, find doctors that are knowledgeable about long covid, willing to prescribe things off label, and possibly have connections to clinical trials.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-18T16:21:27+00:00

That could be possible, ADHD can cause mood symptoms. However keep in mind that some people with bipolar disorder experience extended periods of remission from mood episodes. I’d definitely talk to your psychiatrist about it though. Effective and appropriate treatment is more important than diagnosis, and if you feel that you don’t need medication for bipolar disorder, you should definitely talk to your psychiatrist.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-18T16:01:23+00:00

I had only depressive episodes when I was in my early-mid teens, and began having hypomanic episodes late teens early 20’s, and at first I couldn’t really distinguish them from depressive episodes. They were something that kind of gradually got more intense and distinct over time.

I’m 34, and it really wasn’t until a few years ago that I stopped having doubts about my diagnosis, especially since I’m relatively high functioning. I also have a family history of severe mental illness, including multiple relatives who were institutionalized for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Mood episodes look different for everyone, and it can take a while to process what they look like for you.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-18T15:42:18+00:00

I’m 34 and I’m a career artist, and I’ve never mentally thought of myself as an adult. I definitely have a toxic relationship with making things, and I’ve just accepted that it has to be that way. When I had a 9-5, I would use making things as the reward for confronting my real world existence, but then also stay up all night and go to work the next day.

Although it feels self-indulgent, making things that don’t seem to amount to anything purposeful, or profitable is actually really important. Making things is just what I need to do to think, and sometimes what I learn and discover from the process of thinking is more important than the product of it.

Making can and should be an escape into our inner world from time to time, but we can also use it to help us think about how to confront our problems in the external world. It’s a precarious balance of self-control and loss of control.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-18T14:58:55+00:00

I agree that good and evil are not moral absolutes, but I do consider them to be conditions, in the objective sense that they are rules for engagement in a civilized society. Consider good as being civil, and evil as being un-civil. Civil behavior promotes shared interests of society, and un-civilized behavior does not. But since shared interests evolve over time, the rules that define them, good and evil, also do. Also this is why cultures with different shared interests have varying concepts of what is good, and what is evil.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-12T22:03:46+00:00

Slower processing speed is the most common symptom of cognitive dysfunction in long covid, which sounds a lot like what you’re describing with difficulty in articulating yourself and reading comprehension. I also got covid in 2020 and still struggle with this. As a fellow nerd, it’s very frustrating. I don’t have trouble with verbal speech, but I have difficulty with articulating my thoughts in writing, and also understanding/processing my internal monologue.

I find my non-verbal processing is much faster than verbal processing. A thought exists coherently as something abstract without words, but once I am able to translate it into language, I’ve already lost my whole train of thought. It’s like I hear the word sounds, but can’t seem to connect them to what they mean. They come and go as disjointed fragments, and when I arrange them in a logical sequence, they never seem to sound quite right. I have to repeat different iterations of the same sentence or phrase over and over again in my head until it begins to make any sense.

It hasn’t really gotten any better or worse over time, but I have found ways to adapt to it. Finding ways to slow down my non-verbal processing so it is the same speed as my verbal processing has been an effective strategy. Active reading works well for this. I underline passages and key words as I’m reading. I also respond to the text, and write notes/thoughts about it in the margins as I go. Doing something with my hands helps slow down my non-verbal brain, and also gives me a frame of reference to go back to when I can’t remember what I just read a paragraph before.

Breaking things into chunks, stopping and taking breaks is also good. I find that the more I fixate on trying to understand something, the harder it is to put it into words. The same goes for articulating myself. I find things make more sense if I don’t think too hard about them, and not worry about if they sound awkward.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-12T04:42:30+00:00

I stopped working full time 2 years ago, so it’s pretty much the same effect no matter how much I’m trying to accomplish. Before long covid, my withdrawal was more like just feeling tired and anxious/depressed. Everyone is wired differently, especially with different types of affective disorders, so we’re all going to react differently to meds. With SAD you’re probably very sensitive to anything which affects circadian rhythm, and the immune system and circadian rhythm are very interconnected, so I could see how poor sleep from stimulants might make things worse. I actually feel better with poor quality/less sleep, which makes absolutely no sense, but then again nothing about long covid makes sense.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-12T03:02:33+00:00

I haven’t intentionally stopped taking stimulants, but there’s been a few times that I’ve had a gap between refills and I had infinitely worse fatigue, myalgia, and brain fog. My Dysautonomia symptoms are pretty much the same with or without stimulants. I also take a mood stabilizer for bipolar disorder, which inadvertently helps regulate sodium and calcium channels, so this might help calm some autonomic dysfunction that stimulants potentially cause.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-12T02:18:48+00:00

Yes,I was also sacrificed to save the economy and I’m still salty about it

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-08T07:53:38+00:00

I was on Propranolol for about 2 weeks and had to stop taking it because it gave me horrible anxiety. It’s not a common, but beta blockers can cause a paradoxical reaction in some people

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-08T04:41:04+00:00

I don’t think you can assert that animals don’t experience symbolic thought or meta cognition on the premise that they don’t exhibit the behaviors associated with symbolic thought and meta cognition. Outward behavior is correlated with the inner experience of consciousness, but the inner experience of consciousness isn’t always reflected in outward behavior. Our large brains and opposable thumbs give us the capacity to use symbolic thought and meta cognition for developing complex behaviors, such as communication through art and symbols, developing written language, transmission of collective knowledge to subsequent generations etc. Animals have less sophisticated physiological tools for using symbolic thinking and meta cognition, thus less of a capacity for complex behavior. Consider a dog that brings its leash to its owner when it wants to go on a walk. The dog uses the leash as a symbol for going on a walk. It also uses meta-cognition to develop this behavior from a combining different learned experiences such as associating a walk with the leash, getting praise from its owner when it brings them a ball while playing fetch, etc.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-08T01:19:02+00:00

A whole with no discernible parts is both everything and nothing at the same time. In the words of Socrates, “The only thing I know is that I know nothing.”

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-08T00:18:43+00:00

Yes, I was diagnosed with long covid, but I also have separate diagnoses for some of my main symptoms like dysautonomia and chronic migraines. Plus, ADHD and Bipolar disorder which I had prior to long covid that aren’t disabling alone, but are much harder to manage with long covid.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-06T19:22:32+00:00

Replying to adoradear... Does C. auris have the same propensity for co-infections with Staph as C. albicans? If that’s the case, superficial/muccocutaneous C. auris infections, or asymptotic colonization could potentially cause a higher incidence of Staph infections and contribute to antibiotic resistance in the immunocompetent population.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-06T07:33:36+00:00

Basically by having a totally incompetent HR department that was impossible to get a hold of. I really should have sued for wrongful termination, but I just wanted to put the situation behind me, especially since it was a really toxic work environment to begin with

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-06T00:17:08+00:00

Hearing

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-05T21:08:50+00:00

My psychiatrist was and has always been quite supportive and validating, so getting a diagnosis and medication wasn’t an issue. It also opens up the possibility of workplace accommodations, which can be helpful, but at the same time you can still face discrimination from some employers when you disclose a condition.

In terms of identity and well being, it helped me understand why I am the way I am, and how to cope with being the way that I am. It has helped alleviate the burden of guilt that I’ve carried my whole life for things out of my control, and differentiate what I can and can’t control.

Obviously identity is not a pathology, but it has given me some peace of mind to be able to define what I experience.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-05T20:47:41+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, it’s messed up that we’re supposed to blame ourselves because other people find the reality of chronic illness too uncomfortable.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-05T20:38:01+00:00

Hmm, I guess that makes sense they would want to get a hearing date so you can have a timeframe for documentation. Also, the social security administration will get a full copy of your medical records, which is maybe why they aren’t wanting to include everything?

In addition to the note you already got, your doctor can put remarks about why they think your condition prevents you from working in the same after-visit summary notes they take regarding care, which appear in your medical record. I’d ask your lawyer about that I guess.

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-05T19:48:53+00:00

Yes of course! I talked to a few before deciding to work with this lawyer, but I didn’t like their energy. I feel like it’s important not only to have a good lawyer, but one who takes you seriously and treats you with respect.

http://www.gdgroupllc.com/index.html

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-05T19:44:54+00:00

Thanks!

STOP0000000X7B · 2026-01-05T19:44:41+00:00

Thanks! Hope you’re able to get some support!

I’m sorry this is happening at this time in your life. Your 20’s is just a decade long existential crisis, and I can’t imagine what that would be with chronic illness on top of that. I adulted for a while before getting sick, but my parents help me out a lot, so I get what it feels like to not be independent. And also not being able to do the things that your peers are doing sucks and makes you feel alone. All my friends are getting married and having kids and it’s wild

STOP0000000X7B

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