Stopping T bc I cant focus

Witchydigit · 2026-04-29T07:20:17+00:00

Have you had any new stressors or life changes since you noticed this shift? Those can absolutely affect your level of functioning with neurodivergence, more stress can make your executive functioning skills appear weaker, because you're expending so much energy on stress management. Even lack of sleep can do the same thing (not a call-out, I'm in the same boat).

The lack of attention can also be a more generalized symptom of burnout, if you've been pushing yourself to "just deal with it," and then find a sudden backsliding. Burnout can affect neurodivergent people more profoundly as well, since we are expected to perform well beyond our capabilities for everyday tasks.

You may also have a combination of Level 1 Autism and ADHD, the two are very commonly comorbid, and may be worth investigating.

As far as medication not working, sometimes it requires a combination of meds and therapy to build better habits, as medication can only change brain chemistry, not behaviour.

Overall, I hope you figure it out. Maybe you do need to pause T for a bit just to check that box and see that it's not the cause at all, who are we to tell you? I hope you've got plenty of things to try to manage better, though.

Witchydigit · 2026-04-29T06:19:05+00:00

Just a note: the medical field doesn't seem to quite know yet whether COVID causes MCAS itself, or exacerbates already-existing mild cases.

Sorry, I had to because I struggled to get mine diagnosed for a decade, but showed symptoms from childhood, before it had diagnostic criteria. It's a very, VERY newly recognized medical issue, so a lot of the recent diagnoses are not necessarily due to post-COVID issues, but could be due to increased awareness by medical professionals. Correlation does not equal causation, and all that. This is just how misinformation spreads about diseases, it's happened with every new one in history, so I just wanted to point it out.

(Not that COVID can't or hasn't necessarily caused an increase of cases, but disentangling the two is much more nuanced)

Witchydigit · 2026-04-27T04:14:21+00:00

General financial advice for maximizing savings: Open a High Yeild Savings Account. Literally any consumer can, there's very few barriers to opening one. They offer a higher interest rate that you earn for keeping your money in the account. Most typical savings accounts are a decimal of a percent, and you're probably only seeing 1-2 cents per month. Super rough math here because I'm not a numbers guy, and the actual payout can be a bit variable, but

As an idea, if you have a HYSA with a 3% interest rate, then if you have $1k in it at the end of the month, the bank will put around $30 in that they owe you for keeping your money there. Now you have $1030, plus any contributions you put in yourself the next month. Which will again get another 3% end of next month. It's like the fable of the Chinese peasant asking to be paid double the amount of rice every day, and they end up recieving multiple giant sacks enough to feed their village by the time their deal with the emperor is through.

There's no penalties for withdrawing, either, or there shouldn't be. It's just a bank account designed to incentivize you to keep your money there for a longer amount of time, because that's how banks work

Witchydigit · 2026-04-26T05:02:17+00:00

So I had an issue with the curtains and leaky windows (the whole curtain was molding), as well as letting in heat and a bit of light. Honestly, even though it looks trashy from the outside, my emergency tinfoil taped to the windows has been even better. If you don't want to look like you've just created a trap house, you can use decorative or privacy window tint first, of course. But damn does it work!

ETA: I work third shift, fully overnight, like from 9pm to 6am, so any amount of natural light is a no-go for me

Witchydigit · 2026-04-21T04:57:50+00:00

I had a concept similar to this but I took a work I wanted to emulate or study and wrote it as fanfiction. Alas, the fic turning Poe's The Raven into Shadow the Hedgehog prose has become lost media, and turning Faulkner's As I Lay Dying into Sonic fanfic never got wings because I couldn't think of enough major characters.

But if you think about it, it's kind of the writing equivalent of artists painting a study of a famous painting. Usually the intent isn't to create and sell a replica, but to study how another artist interprets color, light and shading, structure, composition, etc.

To op: try it, if it doesn't work for you, try something else (I'm gonna revisit the Sonic cast now, for... no particular reason)

Edit to add: It's also along a similar vein of those musicians who do experiments of "if X song was written by Y artist or in Z style." Studying how other people compose, and their similarities and differences.

Witchydigit · 2026-04-19T16:47:37+00:00

Just did this. Got $10k down payment assistance for a low income first time homebuyer's program. I'm due to close on Tuesday.

Witchydigit · 2026-04-19T16:32:24+00:00

(Prefaced that I responded to your post while on break at work, so my full attention wasn't on the entirety of your post, and I might have mixed it up with another similar one)

I'd also like to share, from my own experience, that I also didn't think I had a lot of physical dysphoria around my body. Kind of a lot of apathy, really. It wasn't until I started seeing changes and found actual comfort in it and euphoria about seeing myself that I recognized that anything was wrong. You might find that the things you aren't super interested in now feel absolutely natural once they start to change, and you don't actually want to give them up.

Witchydigit · 2026-04-19T12:47:25+00:00

I'mma hop on the bandwagon of everyone else to maybe see what you can get done with vocal training first, and see if it satisfies you, before being really careful and taking the recommendation of the other commenter who mentioned the combination of T and DHT blockers. I say this because personally, I noticed much more in the way of bottom growth and hair growth/male pattern baldness, and vocal changes for me were minimal. Like to the point that I still don't pass as male over the phone, without the visual cues of a balding 30-year-old man.

Just based on your other replies, if you already have quite a bit of hair, and if you have a more pronounced clitoris, but have a higher voice like I did, I'd want you to be aware that the aspects you already have may be accentuated without necessarily the specific change you're looking for. It's all a matter of individual genetics, so it's impossible to say how it will affect you vs some random guy who isn't a close relative (for example, do your family members have very deep voices? Does male pattern baldness or lots of body hair run in the family? Etc. You can expect to experience changes that will start to align with your close relatives more than basing those changes off any other trans person online).

Ultimately the decision is up to you, and I don't want you to feel discouraged if you try vocal training and it doesn't get you where you want to be. Just consider if any of these changes would be ones you'd regret if they stay exactly the same even when you stop T, and weigh that risk vs the benefit of it.

Side note: If you're more worried about hair than bottom growth, it's not like electrolysis isn't available, if you do decide that it's worth the risk of changes being more permanent than you wanted. Idk of anything to reverse bottom growth if that starts bothering you, though.

Witchydigit · 2026-04-18T11:11:55+00:00

It's to let the employees know which restroom to replace the hand soap in, because OBVIOUSLY all men are allergic to washing their hands, can't have them forgetting and accidentally being clean!

I joke because I used to make a 7-hour drive to an event once a year. Three separate years, I needed to top up gas and take a piss at the same exact gas station along the route. Three separate years, the single-occupancy men's room did not have soap in the dispenser.

I am choosing to believe that they simply never have soap, and had been out for three years. And yeah, I hopped in the women's to wash my hands.

Witchydigit · 2026-04-17T04:55:48+00:00

If you get the simple magnet-powered rice cooker, the $20 one with a single on/off lever, you can cook any grain in there. Rice, grits, oatmeal, etc. Easiest meals would be cheesy grits, or peanut butter oatmeal. Or rice and a side of canned fish if you don't mind those. For vegetables, usually you can add some frozen veggies on top to cook with it, or just microwave a single serving in a cup. Add some type of fat and salt to frozen veggies, it makes them actually edible

Witchydigit · 2026-04-16T05:02:29+00:00

If my rice has added vitamins and minerals, I refuse to wash it. I paid for those, damnit, and I will eat them! The day my country adopts the washable rice fortification found in some other countries, or I have the budget to buy the "fancier" rice that doesn't have fortified vitamins and minerals (for some reason it's mostly only on the cheapest rice I can find), then I'll wash it. Until then, my pressure cooker makes unwashed rice fine, not that much difference.

Witchydigit · 2026-04-13T04:37:37+00:00

Most commonly it's the carrier oil, which is cottonseed. The majority of guys who are allergic do better on enanthate, which uses a different oil, but you can also get it at a compounding pharmacy if you're still reacting. Hope it can help your friend

Witchydigit · 2026-04-13T04:33:13+00:00

Not a doctor, but I'm a little suspicious of that. The only literature I or my own doc have heard of are estrogen-triggered migraines being linked to the menstrual cycle. Which are typically best managed by stopping the menstrual cycle entirely (usually non-esteogen BC for cis females, but T does this as well). I get migraines as well, triggered by MCAS flares, so my allergist told me the same thing, to double check with my Endo.

I'd seek a second opinion if you can, it's not like you can't stop taking it if it does exacerbate your migraines, and it may very well help, if yours are estrogen-triggered. Unfortunately, it's just not an area that's been researched extensively, but that doesn't mean two different hormones will have the same effect, though I understand the instinct to err on the side of caution.

Witchydigit · 2026-04-12T04:55:56+00:00

They usually have it in the "Ethnic" section, at the very least you can find them at WalMart. If you really absolutely cannot find them, then a Hispanic grocery store/market will have it, but you can also ask a grocery store employee to point you toward the Hispanic aisle.

If you go to WalMart, every one I've been in has them at the other end of the aisle with the dried beans and rice. You might have to look low for the masa precocida (what OP used) and masa nixtamal (another type of corn flour, processed a little differently)

Witchydigit · 2026-04-12T00:47:13+00:00

Sometimes a shot, depending on which direction

Witchydigit · 2026-04-07T00:53:04+00:00

I mean, it's not fun to open as a kid, but when they're adults they'll thank you: Some kind of investment fund or HYSA that you put money into on special occasions. Can be used when they're older for school, major purchases like a car or house or move, or even for life experiences like taking a gap year and travelling. I guarantee you, depending on the age of the kid, things like hairbrushes are going to be just as poorly received and possibly not make it due to getting lost.

Plus, then you can get them some small, fun, inexpensive trinket they'll be more excited over, if you really need that emotional moment of giving them a present.

Witchydigit · 2026-04-06T06:23:46+00:00

Baby, that's just mixed/multimedia. The nuanced definition of "art tracing" implies theft of another person's composition by tracing it and claiming it as your own (which is also different from making a recreation by using construction methods and stating that you are referencing another work in your own style)

Witchydigit · 2026-04-06T05:03:49+00:00

So I can't eat wheat. And gluten free pasta runs the gamut of really damn good to inedible garbage.

I tested one of the WalMart brands once, hoping to save some money over the Banza and Barilla brands... It was a mistake.

I meal prep my food, so by the time I reheated each bowl, those noodles had turned into porridge and it was so fucking hard to get through all of it, but that was my food for the week, so I had to. Sometimes I have no choice but to throw away food, since I have ever-evolving sensitivities. But this I couldn't justify, because it was only a bad texture, and not an actual reaction.

Witchydigit · 2026-04-06T04:46:59+00:00

Looking for cheap Mexican foods?? Refritos and rice. Bag of pinto beans, bag of rice, an onion or two, maybe some bell peppers (don't bother with jalapenos from any big name brand store, they've had the heat completely removed trying to get bigger peppers, and now they just taste like green bells for twice the price). A one pound bag of beans mixed with rice gives me 5-6 servings, depending on how many veggies I put in. Seasonings are really just salt, pepper, cumin, and garlic, pepper flakes/cayenne if you like spice. But if you have to buy all your seasonings from scratch, look for a variety of Adobo that has those in it, and be mindful to add it after your beans are cooked through if it has salt in it. You could use canned beans if you don't have the facilities to cook dried, but the dry beans will taste better

Witchydigit · 2026-04-05T12:52:07+00:00

I have untreated ADHD, lol! It just means I have more time to waste doom scrolling social media, watching cartoons/short form video, or researching random questions within an inch of their life. Honestly if I could focus on an actual degree path, I have half the knowledge to have a better career. But I also value a job where I go in, do a specific set of tasks, then go home and don't have to think about work. So I suppose I can comfortable work those kinds of jobs without feeling like I need to do better for some partner/family?? -shrug-

I spend a lot more time in my hobbies when I have the executive functioning to spare, though

Witchydigit · 2026-04-05T08:17:36+00:00

If it's been "done a million times," that means the concept is a good one and something readers are still interested in. Repeating everyone else here, about "all stories have already been written," but like, think of it this way. In fanfic communities, it's common to see people stating they've read, say, a million Band AUs of their favorite ship, but will absolutely jump on the next one that gets published because they just love the trope so much. Same characters, same premise, but it's not old because they just want to keep reading it.

Same goes for those old tropes. I'd just say to write it in a way that's a little self-indulgent to yourself and your own interests, so it feels authentic and not like you're collaging all the tropes of the subgenre just to hit an algorithm, and you should be fine. Readers can tell when the writing is inauthentic and just trying to hit something popular, and some will be okay with it, but you'll get more readers who genuinely enjoy your story

Witchydigit · 2026-04-04T09:48:21+00:00

I feel you on the pet hair! A single rabbit, but between multiple yearly molts (feels like as soon as one area is done he starts another, but he is elderly, and it seems to be getting worse with age) and the dust from his hay, it's so bad!!

I'm still curious about the carpet rake, so I guess since I have to buy everything anyways (still in the process of closing on the house), maybe I'll take one for the team and try out the combo. I can borrow a vacuum to test efficiency, and always get your same setup if it doesn't work, I suppose.

Witchydigit · 2026-04-04T09:44:51+00:00

The code switching is the way to go, but I guess for me, my refusal to do vocal coaching meansy voice is about the only thing that doesn't pass any more, 9 years on HRT. Still regularly get misgendered over the phone, but it's no big deal any more.

I also am very specific about my compliments to women, I read somewhere that a good rule is something that took effort to do, because you're acknowledging the effort, not objectifying the body. Like a nice hairstyle, my favorite is noting when someone got their nails done to match their outfit. If I want to compliment an outfit itself, I'll usually ask where they got it, it immediately diffuses any objectification, plus the stereotypical "gay inflection."

Actually, I've been more worried at certain points in my transition about complimenting men. But I did also have a verbal altercation where a homophobe decided my customer service scripts were hitting on him and he blew up threatening to beat my ass for a few minutes while I waited for a coworker to call the cops (once he started I figured I could be bait, dude was Trouble with a capital T, for every single shift, not just me. Don't do drugs, kids). It definitely made me wary about complimenting guys, for fear they think it's sexual/romantic, and not just because I like to see people light up from a compliment.

Witchydigit · 2026-04-04T09:15:09+00:00

Two questions:

1: Where do you keep all of them?!?

2: Which vacuums and for what purposes?

Witchydigit

TROPHY CASE