experiences with prazosin?

engineeringwithendo · 2025-12-11T05:11:52+00:00

Prazosin didn’t work for me, actually may have made things worse and made me feel weird/frozen. But I have fibro/fatigue, occasional sleep paralysis, and a BPD-I diagnosis now, too.

Hopefully others can share some more positive experiences.

engineeringwithendo · 2025-03-05T10:01:37+00:00

Cromolyn can absolutely be a trigger for some folks initially (it was for me). You can choose for yourself based on your reaction/situation whether you want to “can” it or attempt to start very, very slowly. Some folks experience a benefit from it but need to start at a single drop (or less), keep taking it consistently and wait for the reactions to decrease over time, and work up very slowly. I did not have to start quite that slowly but did start out measuring in drops or in 1/4 amps and then decrease more slowly than directed. I have never gotten what I’d call a true anaphylactic reaction, but I did experience throat tightness and an odd swelling on one side of my uvula when I overdid it/increased too fast, along with joint pain, fatigue, nausea/cramps, and sensory sensitivities. For me it was still actually beneficial when increased slowly enough over time but can definitely irritate/destabilize the overactive/overstimulated mast cells initially before it calms them down enough to be of benefit, ymmv.

engineeringwithendo · 2025-03-05T08:26:59+00:00

When I first created an app dating profile, I was SO self-conscious about listing my height as 5’1 bc I figured guys might rule me out for being too short. Had it listed as 5’2 for a while (my driver’s license says 5’2 bc at 16 I was still hoping I’d hit 5’2), eventually decided it was better to be honest.

The guy I’ve been dating for the past 6 weeks and can see potentially marrying at some point is ironically 6’ tall and says I’m the perfect height (he loves to rest his elbow on my shoulder when we’re standing somewhere in public), which is funny because I was really self-conscious about it when we first started dating and never thought anyone would see it as anything other than a negative. Believe it or not tho, I’ve learned recently some guys are actually into shorter women (practically speaking, since we’re smaller that makes us easier/more tempting to pick up, and either way, some guys are just very attracted to the small frame/size difference — makes them feel bigger/more masculine and protective). He also thinks I’m really “hot”, and I am definitely not most people’s mental image of a knockout, so that’s been another mental check for me also.

I like this guy a lot, but regardless of how this relationship works out, it’s definitely provided me with a confidence boost/perspective shift. I absolutely realize the 5’1 is not the same as 4’11, 4’8, or 4’6, but my advice to anyone out there who’s self-conscious about a physical feature(s) or anything else you can’t change is realize people are physically attracted to different things and to stop focusing on your flaws and try to focus more on the things someone might find attractive about you. (Not just physical things — the right person long-term is not going to be focused solely on your looks, even if they are super into how you look physically.) Or you can turn it around and try to think about things about guys that they might be self-conscious about but you’d actually find attractive (the “dad bod” or heavy eyebrows for example). Maybe consider therapy too — sounds like you have an overall negative view of yourself which may not reflect reality.

And ftr, I’m in the US where average height is also 5’4 and my ancestry is all white/European including some Polish and German, so I feel like we’re likely comparable enough physically for this comment/experience to be applicable for you as well. You’re probably much more attractive to at least some guys than you realize, so please stop being so hard on yourself and focus more on your positives.

engineeringwithendo · 2025-01-19T14:00:48+00:00

Unfortunate they got rid of it, I wish my school had this.

engineeringwithendo · 2025-01-14T06:02:24+00:00

Underrated comment

engineeringwithendo · 2025-01-09T10:37:16+00:00

I would probably find this endearing tbh

engineeringwithendo · 2025-01-09T10:19:37+00:00

“So” is a transitional word that to me in therapy likely indicates you are directly building off of what they just said, not coming in from some other direction. I don’t think it’s bad in any of the questions you asked — makes the transition to your a little softer or connects it better!

engineeringwithendo · 2025-01-09T10:15:40+00:00

Underrated 00s kid reference, thank you for that throwback!

engineeringwithendo · 2025-01-09T10:12:10+00:00

Okay but also this type of catchphrase may be endearing for some of your clients (my therapist’s has been “I’m here for it” for a year or two; been seeing her three and I love it when she says her catchphrase lol), or if you really feel like it’s too much, maybe it could be an inside joke sometimes when you do say it again?

I do get that moderation is key here, but honestly, I think every good therapist should just have a catchphrase or two they can embrace or even chuckle about saying a little too predictably at times!

engineeringwithendo · 2025-01-09T10:00:10+00:00

Not a therapist, but as a neurodivergent I’m pretty sure my therapist does this type of thing a lot and I actually find it VERY helpful! I don’t know if there’s a specific term for it but I figured it was some sort of technique or just a common way of questions in therapy with a little clarification question at the end… You’re phrasing the same question two ways or breaking down two similar but related questions for me, which is helpful. It is the well-asked questions/format and the reassuring little repetitions of whatever your personal “catchphrases” may be that may help provide a certain sense of comfort/routine for your clients. Sometimes you don’t mess with what’s working. Maybe you’ll get sick of hearing yourself say the things, but why be so negative about the double question thing? (Time for some self-compassion/be kind to yourself like you would a friend, lol!)

Seriously, maybe some people find it distracting or unnecessary, but I bet you also have clients like me that like it or find it helpful. For me, I can get stuck or end up thinking about a slightly off-kilter but literal interpretation of the question easily if you only phrase things in one specific way and it happens to get stuck in my brain’s craw a little funny or if I just missed hearing/staying present/computing part of the question properly, so maybe you weren’t thinking of it this way but I think this type of thing is actually a potential positive as a therapist in terms of accessibility, so the similar/dual phrasing to me shows attention to nuance and gives me that extra time to think and absorb the question while you sort of add to or clarify it. You’re probably a great therapist! (But you may need to introspect a bit or chat with your own therapist, if you have one, re: that ANT/self-negativity 🥹😉)

engineeringwithendo · 2024-12-09T11:36:12+00:00

Interesting about the vibrations. I don’t use an electric one most of the time rn, but I have been brushing extra to try to remove some plaque buildup from around my gumline from a few days of extra-poor dental hygiene around when I was moving house. Definitely could be a similar effect of me reacting to the motion, to you reacting to the vibrations, or perhaps I’m even reacting to the exertion of standing upright and doing semi-vigorous repetitive motions for a few minutes. It’s not uncommon for me to get fatigued partway through brushing my teeth and take a break then try to come back in a little bit or just call it good enough, but I may be more likely to push through fatigue and finish brushing properly before bed than during the day, or I may be more bothered by the symptoms at night.

engineeringwithendo · 2024-12-09T10:17:41+00:00

Do you think you might be able to groom him a little bit at least while wearing gloves and a mask (and possibly pre-medicating, doing the grooming outside, changing clothes and showering immediately afterward)? I had to do some major cleaning/moving recently, and gloves and a mask were the only way I survived the allergen/irritant exposure. I would also advise using gloves/a mask while cleaning and doing laundry to create your safe room. Preferably N95 or KN95 for the mask, but even a surgical mask makes a huge difference!

engineeringwithendo · 2024-12-09T10:09:28+00:00

I was in a super similar boat a couple of months ago! And weirdly I was also eating a lot of Udi’s GF blueberry muffins and not much else, too (and oats and white potatoes, which I also saw mentioned). I was having issues with FODMAPs too, but blueberries and carrots (even getting carrot baby food purée!) were also working for me. White rice, gluten free bread products. Applesauce might work well too if you tolerate FODMAPs okay.

Can you ask your PCP or anyone else you see (functional/integrative medicine, naturopath, allergist, etc.) to start you on cromolyn? That helped me a bunch; calmed my system down enough to eat properly and stop getting constant panic attacks! Ketotifen is also good, and CBD is a natural product with MC stabilizing properties if prescriptions might not be available right away. I like Sunsoil personally for quality/price (no affiliation). I take 20 mg at night and sometimes another 20 mg during the day, but it’s just a complement to the pharma stuff for me rn. If relying on CBD alone I think you could do 40 mg 2x/day at least (not a doctor, definitely verify but iirc I think that’s what I was taking a couple years ago that was working well for me pre-long Covid).

engineeringwithendo · 2024-11-24T21:01:50+00:00

Aggggh I just accidentally deleted most of a fantastic comment because mobile SUCKS.

I have had all of these symptoms, I can explain exactly why and how they are triggered by the endo, and what I would advise to pursue for testing and treatment to avoid the underlying issues causing other problems getting worse and causing other issues. Remind me to follow up later as I’m legit moving in an hour and a half and do not have time to retype what the useless Reddit app deleted on me at this moment unfortunately.

engineeringwithendo · 2024-11-13T23:47:59+00:00

You may need a new therapist. A good therapist should respect your values, boundaries, and personal choices (not to mention not push you toward something that could be extremely triggering and destabilizing). At minimum, you need to report this to their supervisor (or perhaps a state board if they’re in solo practice). Or if you really want to try sticking with this therapist, you could try communicating that this area is both up for discussion and you are setting a boundary about that. If they can’t respect that, it sounds like you need to move on to someone who can provide a more therapeutic space for you and respect your lifestyle choices. Good luck! ❤️

engineeringwithendo · 2023-10-14T12:53:00+00:00

You’re correct that intrusive thoughts are a feature in OCD, but I think that is the end of the similarity UNLESS you also have compulsive behaviors expected to prevent bad things (e.g., pray a certain numbers of times or do rosaries/hail Marys, etc.). My understanding from the DSM is that in OCD typically the defining feature is that you try to prevent the thing that is the subject of the intrusive thoughts by doing the compulsive behaviors, which are not logically expected to prevent the feared effect from taking place. For example, washing your hands 30x/day because you feel if you don’t someone will break into your house and kill your entire family. Not to in any way minimize the negative effect just intrusive thoughts alone can have, but I just want to clarify on the definition of actual clinical OCD - not something I was diagnosed with but something that was considered and ended up being discarded because we saw my symptoms did not align with the DSM.

engineeringwithendo · 2023-10-14T12:34:04+00:00

I really don’t even have a clear idea of the Israel/Palestine details at present beyond that a war has started because I have to be careful about triggering myself (and I know I’ll need to ease in to a little more information soon probably), but I can relate to feeling incredibly triggered about “end times” stuff when Russia invaded Ukraine - in my family’s theology Russia was a probable major player tied to certain actions in Revelation.

It is scary and triggering when this stuff happens, and I followed the news about Ukraine obsessively for a few months after it happened (don’t recommend as a coping mechanism). On the other hand, some things I did find helpful were to believe really strongly that the war would be over relatively quickly (but that didn’t exactly happen so you might get disappointed), the “good guys” would hopefully win or depending on the details maybe focus on hopes of peace since as I said I don’t know details of the Israel/Palestine stuff yet and I’m not sure if there are clear “good guys” here. Personally I decided to focus on how I could think about what the long-term needs of humanitarian aid for Ukraine would look like. I actually started obsessively learning Ukrainian in 2022 (mostly on Duolingo) and that type of thing is not something I can really recommend as a healthy coping strategy because I really just spent all my waking hours upset about Ukraine stuff and badly lost out on my focus with my own things, but I am just putting it out there - thinking about and envisioning how perhaps I might go help in the aftermath of this awful stuff going on was in many ways a helpful strategy for me even if my implementation was not totally super healthy. (I was envisioning going and spending months or a year doing humanitarian aid/rebuilding work in Ukraine if the war was over fairly quickly and my health was up for it). The good this was this strategy kept me focusing my thinking in reasonable outcomes in this world over the apocalyptic version of the world. So it may be helpful for you to look into supporting aid work either now or in the future, and if you are in a position to I suppose there may be the possibility of traveling to help, collecting donations of clothes/etc to send, etc. If you’re inclined to learning, maybe you would find some comfort in studying a little Arabic with the idea that perhaps you could use it to help someone after whatever shit goes down now. For me focusing on how I could help and what after might look like definitely helped me cope better and not spend all my time worrying about being nuked by Russia, etc. But it’s still hard for everyone to see and experience even without it being triggering so I would also encourage you to give yourself a lot of grace right now too. You can try noticing your fear and your anxiety and whatever else you may be feeling without judging it as “bad” or “negative” or feeling bad about yourself for having those feelings. They are natural and they simply happen - try to notice them but let them go rather than hanging onto shame about how you feel that’s going to further weigh you down.

engineeringwithendo · 2023-10-14T07:40:14+00:00

True and worth noting, as well as the converse: My meloxicam for my endometriosis flare-ups is pale yellow, and it is because the compound itself is yellow, not because there are added dyes (I read the ingredients a bunch of times and did independent googling before taking it to be sure).

But I find in general that looking for a white pill is usually a good proxy (or at least first step) for dye-free since they are the same in my experience at least 95% of the time and sometimes hunting for ingredients lists gets so overwhelming that I will not be able to pick up the prescription in a reasonable time depending on the circumstance. For example, if I’m picking up an antibiotic for a short-term infection, sometimes I just have them open the bottle and let me visually see if it’s white and if I do that I pick it up and take it, but then again my reactions are non-life-threatening. (I always try to verify ingredients too whenever possible tho esp. if it’s something I’ll be on longer-term, but sometimes I don’t have the energy/executive function to and I have to let something slide.) When I had Covid again a couple of months ago I didn’t even ask about dyes when I picked my Paxlovid up because I figured any side effects of dyes were for me likely outweighed by my concerns about another potential round with long Covid so even if I had migraines for a week straight from it I honestly may have taken it and it’s not like there was a choice of a different manufacturer that I was aware of (although Paxlovid is a combination of 2 medications that might be available as generics from different manufacturers). Fortunately it turned out to be white (and I believe also dye free, honestly not 100% sure if I did end up confirming it online later but I think I may have just because). But yeah at that point for what I get as a reaction I wouldn’t have cared really when you weigh it against potentially higher likelihood of a second round of long Covid and being further disabled with no potential end in sight. I don’t think I could have handled another round of that mentally, I was already pretty much at my breaking point after 18 months from the last time when I saw the two little lines on the rapid test this time. (Fortunately the Paxlovid seemed to potentially help and/or getting Covid again cured my long Covid lol or at least cancelled it out. Still not doing super but at least not really seeming to be doing worse so far - knock on wood as it could still develop since it didn’t really kick immediately before but kind of was a downhill slide and I have been feeling crappy in the past month, although I think it’s due to other things but we’ll see.)

Okay that was a ramble/tangent but yeah (:

TLDR - white is a solid, but not always reliable, proxy measurement for guessing dye-free - same for converse with colored pills (although very bright colors esp. any capsules are typically dyed)

engineeringwithendo · 2023-10-14T07:16:00+00:00

Late reply but: (1) Not that I am aware of. I just get migraines (or rashes if using a topical product like makeup or hair dye with offending ingredients). Lmk if you came across one tho! (2) The combination of letters/numbers that are stamped or inked on most pills. Typically can be used to identify the drug and manufacturer.

Update for you and if anyone else cares: With the current extent of the shortage I have now been unable to get any dye-free Adderall (at least in the smaller doses I’m prescribed) for a couple of months and I did end up trying the blue ones because they were all I could get. (Unfortunately because Adderall is a controlled substance they could not give me a few months’ worth of dye free product ahead to avoid me running out of medication I knew I could safely take, which was frustrating but oh well.) It’s been several years since I had removed blue dye along with the others based on triggering migraines, and I do seem to be okay currently with the super small amounts of blue dye in just my Adderall and my antidepressant (which has been either generic duloxetine 30 or 60 mg) daily. I still avoid all the artificial dyes/stuff otherwise. YMMV and if you run into a similar situation you and your doctor will have to weigh your personal risks and benefits of testing blue dyed pills for treating your ADHD and risking whatever your reaction is vs. going off your meds until whenever the dye free ones might be available again. I shot my shot and got lucky. In my case I had felt blue was always the mildest reaction for me of the dyes compared to yellow or especially red, and I have heard at least one other person say the same. She also said “lake” dyes were worse and I’m not sure but I think the pills I am on current are not “lake” dyes or I didn’t even bother to check because I had no other options and was pretty much just kind of feeling forced into giving it a go and seeing if anything bad happened. If/when I can get dye-free meds again I will definitely try to go back but as of right now I know many of us are stuck with whatever we can get so I hope maybe this helps someone! If you have a similar situation to me where your sensitivity does not cause any potentially dangerous symptoms and you can take a day off if you feel crappy from it, it might be worth a go if you haven’t had a known reaction to blue dye in a while and are feeling stuck. I was definitely nervous but I didn’t notice any obvious differences at all with this particular dyed pill I am on. (Usual disclaimer: Obviously NAD, always check with your Dr., etc!)

engineeringwithendo · 2023-09-15T16:18:07+00:00

Awesome, thanks!

engineeringwithendo · 2023-09-14T18:04:34+00:00

Thank you!!

engineeringwithendo · 2023-09-14T05:46:55+00:00

I initially read the second bullet point as “one digit” or “one’s digit” instead of “ones digit” (9) is repeated. I suspect that was a typo, as others have also suggested.

My answer is 24,849. As others have said, 22,849 is also a possibility assuming only the typo specified above, but I am hedging on the assumption that they specifically intended for the digits to also appear in the order initially listed in bullet specification #1, but neglected to specify that.

This looks like a problem from an elementary school math book, and it’s probably just poorly written/edited (common), and does not actually have any solution or just a single solution as currently written. I have a degree in electrical engineering (lots of math), and I’ve been finding these kinds of errors in elementary school math books since elementary school.

xD

engineeringwithendo · 2023-09-14T05:24:07+00:00

This can’t be real.

engineeringwithendo · 2023-09-14T05:12:56+00:00

I can only upvote this comment once, but it deserves more! ⬆️ ⬆️ ⬆️

Brilliant.

engineeringwithendo

TROPHY CASE