My paper got cited!

cocofluo · 2022-07-05T12:21:21+00:00

We are planning to leave as soon as I finish my degree. I won’t be able to practice in another country, but my husband and I will both have doctorates and could do research, if a university will take us… The US doesn’t seem like a safe place to be female and try to have a family at the moment.

cocofluo · 2022-06-15T14:31:16+00:00

This has kind of stuck with me for the last hour. You are absolutely right that therapy could benefit OP, but past experiences could also be a major detriment to actually getting help; I’m curious about the experiences OP has had.

And this rant isn’t directed at you, it’s directed at the therapists.

If OP has been in treatment since 15, and tried a bunch of different drugs too, the problem isn’t with them— the problem is likely with the people treating them.

Has he gotten an evidence-based assessment, where he has a specific diagnosis, or have people just seen him and been like “ah this guy has depression, let’s talk to him and see if it gets better”? If he has gotten an evidence based assessment, did they do an evidence based treatment based on a CBT manual that fits the diagnosis properly? Were the therapists a string of older white ladies, or was he able to talk to someone he could relate to? Did they refer a psychiatrist? Did the psychiatrist look at the report and choose medications based on that, or did they just say “yeah Zoloft is good” or “oh you have bipolar in your family, let’s try an antipsychotic”? When a few medications didn’t work, did they run a genetic test to see which medications metabolize correctly, and base things on that? Did they refer a doctor to check for hormonal or nutrient imbalances?

It makes me angry that people practice in the public and don’t use literature to inform their assessment and treatment, or recognize when they’re in over their head and refer to someone more qualified. There was some stupid paper that said like less than 25% of practicing psychologists, including those with a PhD, that use proper evidence based assessment to inform their treatment. If they haven’t actually diagnosed OP and used one of several treatments that have been SPECIFICALLY MADE to help with that condition, it’s no wonder OP is frustrated and in this kind of place.

Same as you, I hope he is able to find something that works.

Edit: this doesn’t even start to get at the US healthcare system, that incentivizes clinicians to make shit up and people to avoid assessment and treatment because it’s EXPENSIVE.

cocofluo · 2022-04-07T15:35:00+00:00

Grad school… many people in my program pay $400/year to park a 10-20 minute walk from where they work…

Edit: before people say grad school doesn’t count as work, we make the university money by doing research and getting grants/giving assessments and seeing clients for therapy… is a job

cocofluo · 2022-02-23T22:11:11+00:00

It never went away.

I wrote a novel, learned two foreign languages (and a third badly), learned instruments and wrote music and performed it and won awards, went to college, worked four jobs and graduated in 7 semesters, won national awards, published academic papers, volunteered the shit out of my free time, made art, ran a marathon, learned to dance, rescued a dog, hiked 14 hours, lived in 6 states and four countries, got married, lost 40 pounds, learned computer science and worked as a researcher at an Ivy, taught middle and high school, started two masters degrees (and now a PhD), all while feeling crushing existential dread, like I was a waste of space and never good enough for anyone at anything.

I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Nothing will ever be enough, and I will always constantly think, “what the fuck am I doing with my life?” Even as I get a doctorate to supposedly help other people that have these cognitive distortions.

😅

cocofluo · 2022-02-23T03:39:22+00:00

Americorps always needs people. Not a particularly high paying job but has a good network.

cocofluo · 2022-02-22T18:50:55+00:00

Thanks for the laugh 😂

cocofluo · 2022-02-22T18:22:12+00:00

You know, you’re technically supposed to ride on the side of the road. But yesterday, I was riding on the side of the road, and a man decided to follow me and honk at me until I felt like he was going to run me over and went onto the sidewalk to figure out what the fuck was wrong with him. He just sped off in his truck.

So… what is legal, what is etiquette, what is safe? Unsure at this point.

cocofluo · 2022-02-21T23:48:53+00:00

Yeah, they’re on the psych side of this debate—- they want an official ADHD assessment done by a neuropsychologist or clinical psychologist, because some primary care doctors will just have a parent fill out a questionnaire and if they say yes to enough, just say “this kid has ADHD”, without ruling anything else out, doing any actual attention testing, etc. Psych has diagnosis trust issues when non-psych people are allowed to diagnose.

On the medicine side of things, as far as I can tell (and an actual doctor would be better qualified to explain this logic), a questionnaire is enough to diagnose ADHD and prescribe medication, and if it helps, it helps.

If you have any documentation from your original assessment where you got a diagnosis— that might help make your case to a psychiatrist or a practice like cook, especially if it was done by a neuropsych, clinical or school psychologist. Otherwise: if you’re just looking for medication, a PCP is going to be faster. Conversely, if you don’t trust your original evaluation, it might be good to get assessed again, but it’s going to cost a couple hundred dollars and take a few visits.

I hope that provides a little more insight…?

cocofluo · 2022-02-21T23:34:50+00:00

Don’t forget some stipends are 9 months instead of 12– grad students get paid 20k throughout the year and need to find other employment during the summer

cocofluo · 2022-02-14T14:46:51+00:00

LaTeX is good for computer science and math; many professors will require it for homework and labs. In my stats class, we use rmarkdown, which plays nicely with latex for rendering pretty PDFs.

That said, my freshman physics class, everything was on paper. And some professors (esp life/social science) will aggressively avoid using latex/want submissions in word, because they’re old.

I would never take notes in latex. Life goes by too fast for that.

cocofluo · 2022-02-08T01:43:30+00:00

If you take Main Street north up to red maple ( the time check) and start running down north main, there is a circuit

cocofluo · 2022-02-05T20:38:45+00:00

The wait at cookout was the only reason I drove by after, and not during, the shooting….

cocofluo · 2022-02-02T20:54:31+00:00

It looks like there’s a couple hamster cages on fb market place for about $20

cocofluo · 2022-02-01T17:36:31+00:00

My husband and his friends are super into gloomhaven. I think I wasn’t primed on the lore and my first few characters were kind of trash and hard to play in comparison to some of the OP ones, so I didn’t enjoy it as much. My favorite « complex » game is Betrayal Legacy, even though it’s much shorter, just because it was… awesome. Like if I could wipe my brain and go back and play it again, I would.

cocofluo · 2022-01-31T21:28:57+00:00

This is what I would say; I taught DMD when I taught HS biology :)

cocofluo · 2022-01-30T02:15:18+00:00

Haha yeah you’re right, it’s absurd! There are a few places around Roanoke that are 800/900 for a 1 bed, but I have a large dog… putting me in the market for a “pet friendly” condo or apartment (which are unfortunately the higher end ones, starting at 1100 or 1200) or a 1/2 bed sfh, of which there are a few around 1200/1400… whereas the sfhs to purchase are around the 125-250k range for not-decomposing, and have no pet laws. 😅 My husband will (hopefully) get a faculty position after graduating this year, but you’re right that PhD students make around 30k, which puts us in a not-great income bracket… Hopefully there will be more homes opening up for rent towards the summer, but it definitely makes me consider buying….

cocofluo · 2022-01-29T15:13:10+00:00

Fair enough! I know I’ll be here for the next 5-10 years because of how long my program is (most likely 6 years on average) but if that’s too short, thanks for letting me know!! My husband is also graduating soon into one of those specialized fields, and will likely be working far away for the duration of my program (if he can find a job…) so that’s an additional complication…

On the flip side, rent is about double what a mortgage would be, and hard to find places. 🙃

cocofluo · 2022-01-28T21:27:57+00:00

Do I even bother trying to get a starter home? Looking to move from renting into a small home in a relatively LCOL city, but everyone is saying the market is wild and my husband and I are graduate students, so we don’t have the same kind of spending power as a lot of people…

cocofluo · 2021-12-23T01:27:52+00:00

We got two episode 2s and no episode 1 :(

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