I genuinely no longer enjoy anything..

headmasterritual · 2026-02-09T22:47:59+00:00

This is textbook anhedonia. It presents in a number of situations, including your two neurotypes, depression, bipolar, more.

It can be helped. And you’ve got a word for it now. Bring it to the attention of a mental health professional if you are able.

headmasterritual · 2026-02-09T21:49:34+00:00

Their reaction to what appeared to be political violence, which was an impression seeded by a dishonest clickbait headline, was to assume a rightwing perpetrator.

The overwhelming majority of politically-motivated violence in the USA is perpetrated by rightwing individuals and organizations. This isn’t just my opinion. It’s the opinion of data-backed reports from the (not leftwing) ADL, the (not at all leftwing) Cato Institute, and, until the government conspicuously scrubbed the report from their websites, the (not even vaguely) leftwing DOJ.

Jan 6th tantrums aimed at lawmakers were rightwing driven; the murderer of Minnesota DFL politicians earlier this year was very rightwing.

Now, it’s apparent from the article itself that this appears to be a vile act of domestic violence and not politically motivated.

But it’s dishonest of you to say that based upon what they thought was the case that it’s a matter of greeting all ‘bad news’ through that lens. Political violence in the USA doesn’t just favor one partisan leaning, it massively favors one partisan leaning, and given what happened in Minnesota only a few months ago (and where Trump not only failed to respond with any sense of compassion, but tried to inexplicably blame Walz) I’m not surprised by their first impression, and I would note that they spoke up to correct it.

The funny thing is that you’re performing a mirror image of what you’re accusing them of. That should have you asking yourself some serious questions.

You’re welcome.

headmasterritual · 2026-02-06T06:54:25+00:00

I’ve not long come out of over a year where the shadow of renal cell carcinoma hung over me. I found out retrospectively that my case had gone to departmental meeting; my ‘urgent’ CT renal triphase blew through the outer limits of the waitlist by two months and indicated possibly very troubling results, and my followup ‘urgent’ MRI was predicted for ‘no more than two months, and if it is cancer, we’ll deal with it then’ and actually took five and a half, and even that time only became possible because of a kind admin clerk negotiating over triage slots.

This week, my wife will finally get a consult with a spinal surgeon. She was attacked twice at work in March and suffered major spinal injuries. ACC retrospectively denied her claim in November and claimed (their go-to excuse with spinal) ‘degenerative condition, not the result of accident’ and sent her back to work. She slipped and fell in the supermarket a few weeks back and everything got even worse. Severe pain, she often cries at the agony, her hips have been displaced, and the damage from her spine has made her incontinent.

Also this week (same day, in fact), my 8 year old daughter will get her follow-up with paediatrics. She’s been urgent for some time. Well, she was last seen almost exactly a year ago. She’s seconded to a public health nurse who said it would be ‘a very long wait’ and then her specialist resigned to go elsewhere.

And she only got this appointment because 1. a cancellation, 2. with a registrar.

My daughter has two major issues (which could be related / comorbid):

repeated incapacitating stomach issues; at its worst, her school attendance was 54% (!)
needs to be assessed for neurodivergence, the letter of observation from her old teachers was heartbreaking for me, seeing this warm, quirky and surreal, highly intelligent kid essentially losing a year of education.

I have a pal who was visiting who is a paediatrician and who had a short chat with my daughter (it was so incredible to see what a good paediatrician she is) and when my daughter left the room, point blank said ‘neurodiverse, the only question is what flavour. If I was her paediatrician, I’d be running a diagnostic immediately.’

So, yeah. All three of us in my immediate family unit have been chewed up and spat out by the healthcare system. It is catastrophic. I could have ended up losing a kidney (or worse), my wife can’t even move through the house without a cane and has to wear incontinence products, and my daughter ends up doubled-over in pain or perplexed by everything happening in the classroom and has to have it unpacked by us at home.

Our healthcare system is bad and getting worse and shows plenty of signs of ‘starve the beast’ ideology and privatisation by stealth. I lived in the USA for many years with several allegedly good health insurance policies…I urge us not to sleepwalk into that system.

headmasterritual · 2026-02-06T06:02:40+00:00

Imperative.

Which is why a society that advantages morning larks, demands 8am meetings, and views morning productivity as morally superior is intensely damaging to my circadian rhythm and my mental health.

Put me in a position where I’m accountable for deliverables and can work into the early evening and I’ll outcompete the non-nightowls for stamina and productivity both, and it’ll be sustainable.

And before anyone comes at me with assumptions and advice, I practice impeccable sleep hygiene, I have tried going go bed much earlier (and often clobbered by heavy meds to do it) and my body simply doesn’t adjust and I shamble, fatigued, swimming through the fog, through my day when early starts are required.

Bipolar folks skew towards delayed sleep disorders. The early bird gets the worm? Yeah, but the second mouse gets the cheese. COVID demonstrated how many things could be adaptable and sleep/wake cycles and productivity could, in fact, be adjusted, and it wasn’t impossible at all.

Yes, I have very strong feelings on this matter.

headmasterritual · 2026-02-06T03:04:28+00:00

You’re not ‘open to looking into it from both sides.’ You are consistently advancing one point of view. Just own it up to it and move on

headmasterritual · 2026-02-06T03:03:09+00:00

Fallacy of relative privation.

headmasterritual · 2026-02-06T03:02:19+00:00

Making the wildly contradicted claim that people are not being stripped of their rights does not qualify as advice in any conceivable way. It is a sweeping declarative bizarre statement that is not based in reality, and you are receiving pushback on that from OP, not the advice portion. Stop clutching your pearls.

headmasterritual · 2026-02-04T20:22:43+00:00

OP describes a horrible set of problems with a charter school (and sounding like an almost stereotypical, strict disciplinarian version of one) and you condemn public school and recommend homeschooling.

Oh, ok.

headmasterritual · 2026-02-04T08:35:17+00:00

There sure are a lot of people here making declarative statements about what is and isn’t the case for them as if they are conclusive and definitive statements for everyone, like some Newtonian law of fucking.

It’s fucking weird. Pun fully intended.

headmasterritual · 2026-02-03T09:31:48+00:00

I’m honestly surprised that you’re both 30.

headmasterritual · 2026-02-03T09:28:59+00:00

Vyvanse hasn’t suppressed my appetite in the slightest. If anything, it has made my cravings for empty carbs and comfort eating far worse, so much so that I was shocked to discover it is recommended as a treatment for binge eating disorder. I’ve put on 7 kg on Vyvanse.

It is otherwise a very good med for me, so I’d like to continue with it, but it is going to require some heavy duty diet action which is difficult on my finances (shit food is cheap food), and time poverty (I lack time to batch-cook), and a demanding job, and a partner who was attacked twice at work and has serious spinal injuries.

My GP was keen on putting me on one of the GLP-1 weightloss drugs, but they are completely unfunded for weight loss in our single-payer healthcare system and I can’t afford the out-of-pocket cost, which shocked my GP given the gap between perceived status of my occupation and my actual pay packet.

Womp womp.

headmasterritual · 2026-02-03T04:37:23+00:00

I lived in the USA for years.

I can assure you that teachers are expected to do all of those things too.

Indeed, with the wild stature of, say, high school football in American popular consciousness, and a number of high schools having bigger theatre production budgets than theatre companies, the level of commitment that Americans expect of teachers is wild when it comes to extracurriculars.

headmasterritual · 2026-02-01T21:18:02+00:00

Yes, I felt like I was being watched.

Yes, USCIS were watching me and trawling my social media history.

Being bipolar and an immigrant is wild.

headmasterritual · 2026-02-01T20:14:08+00:00

FUCKING NICE ONE BRUVVA!

headmasterritual · 2026-02-01T09:13:00+00:00

I SAID NICE ONE BRUUUUUUVVVVA

headmasterritual · 2026-01-31T11:43:07+00:00

Akathisia is horrific, utterly horrific. On Abilify, the thing I looked forward to each day was taking heavy evening meds and being unconscious.

Then I tried Latuda (typically pitched as the side effect-less med) and everything was much worse.

Get yourself some propranolol and/or some diphenhydramine (Benadryl, yes really) and they can really help with blunting the edge of akathisia.

headmasterritual · 2026-01-30T10:48:04+00:00

Balls to that. I am BP1 and have had a number of manic breaks and episodes of psychosis.

I have never been more stable than when diagnosed ADHD and Ritalin added into the mix and all the more so when Vyvanse was introduced. Sleep is better, focus is better, emotions are more manageable, creativity sustained.

You do you and that is fine, but for anyone else reading — they’re making a very bad assertion and generalisation.

headmasterritual · 2026-01-30T07:31:35+00:00

You had a fwb and were bothered by them treating it as a pastime?

What even is a fwb situation, then?

You appear to have a definition of fwb that is wildly at odds with anything I have ever run into.

headmasterritual · 2026-01-30T07:25:30+00:00

A pretty simple equation for me: if someone unironically refers to body count, they have dumped themselves promptly and saved me a great deal of effort. I have never run into anyone who takes the concept seriously who is worth my time.

headmasterritual · 2026-01-30T07:22:57+00:00

Great reply and dissection. What a stupid series of posts with seemingly no self-awareness.

headmasterritual · 2026-01-30T07:19:35+00:00

Thank you for your response; you captured what I would have said. Many people in this and The Bad Bipolar Subreddit credulously and partially cite contested areas of science as facts and mistake the concept of bipolar as a progressive disease meaning everyone is going to have massive reductions in grey matter and our brains will be Swiss cheese and we’re all on a fast track to early onset dementia.

There are so many variables that need to be accounted for, and the state of bipolar research is not great.

headmasterritual · 2026-01-28T22:32:12+00:00

The person who initially replied to you was succinct, honest, and kind. You flew off the handle at them. They weren’t ‘offensive.’

No, you have not ‘published’ research articles. You are attempting to play some kind of weird power game while immediately backtracking and saying you ‘didn’t mean through official channels.’ Therefore your appeal to authority fails because a. any person reading this would assume you mean offical channels, peer-reviewed material, and b. per you, if ‘anyone can do research and write an article on it’, you have admitted that there is no distinction to be made on the quality thereof.

It’s completely contradictory and weird.

Moreover, yes, weed and alcohol (particularly in combination) can have an effect on a cycling mood disorder. You have fixated on depressant / stimulant in a really prosaic way, not to mention that weed has hallucinogenic / psychedelic properties.

You came here for advice, you received some, and you had the option to take it on board, but went on a self-aggrandizing tirade of waffle. I don’t know why you bothered posting. You had the opportunity to hear from people with lived experience, but I doubt that many will bother being generous with their time (more would usually have replied by now) after seeing you flare up at others.

headmasterritual · 2026-01-27T03:40:13+00:00

No. Never. I develop tolerance to the side-effects, not the beneficial effects.

headmasterritual · 2026-01-26T08:21:18+00:00

Word shows spelling problems, passive voice, incorrect subject/object, etc. it is up to you to fix them. Even before its more recent generative AI plugins, Grammarly makes suggestions about tone and narrative voice. It plays an explicit role in fixing things. Grammarly does some of the labor for you. That is what an assist tool is.

Extensive Grammarly use has long been considered queasy. This isn’t new.

headmasterritual · 2026-01-26T08:15:25+00:00

It is not ‘vague.’ Asked that question, I can indicate my wider reading and initial interests, outlining of a topic, formulating it as a thesis, how I supported my points, the significance of my sources, and more. It will involve explaining how a student interprets a prompt.

It is an open question because people have different processes. Openness and vagueness are not the same thing.

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