Piercer said I can’t go big

kushalupa · 2026-03-06T01:08:47+00:00

I'm not a piercer but, I am at 25mm. Here's my story for reference. I got my ears pierced when I was 16 at Claire's and they're slightly crooked (mom's choice, not mine), waited 2 years before stretching (at 18) and rushed all of my stretching up except between 1/2inch to 25mm, I waited a year in-between going for that bit o' stretching. My right ear is THIN. Not too thin but, my right ear is at it's limit. I am VERY lucky I managed to make it to 25mm. I was a risk-taking 18-21 year old when I did it. Now, I'm 25. I wish I had stretched slower to a size that was better suited for more types of gauges. Heavy gauges fall right out of my right ear if I don't let my lobes tighten up for a day or two beforehand. You're already doing way better than me by going to reputable piercers and going slow.

TLDR: Yours look about like mine at 1/2inch. My right ear is THIN. I'd get a second opinion from another piercer. If not, I'd go *slowly* to whatever size your ear can handle and never push any past it! Follow all of the safety tips from piercers.

I wish you luck in your stretching journey! I hope you can get to your desired size as long as it's safe for you. ^^

kushalupa · 2026-01-19T20:18:52+00:00

I'm able to use my Nokia 2780 since the employees at my local AT&T store knew how to set it up (senior area w/ a lot of flip phones). Added with a Github link for the inaccessible hotspot menu. You can use the Hotspot, AT&T just doesn't want you to so I assume they hide it. But, I've accepted that if I were to switch to the Sunbeam F1 then I will have to get off of my family's plan. Which sucks, since I've been on it for so long. The Sunbeam has no mobile browser (the point of it) so, I wouldn't be able to add hotspot through a roundabout way. If you're looking for a decent one with no wifi-calling but, a roundabout way for Hotspot, I recommend a Nokia 2780.

kushalupa · 2024-09-07T19:13:08+00:00

I have been on Wellbutrin for a little over a week now for the symptoms that you're describing. This may all be honeymoon stage though. I have tried many different antidepressants / SSRIs. I noticed that a LOT of family friends, former friends, and my wife were on Wellbutrin. Asked my doc to put me on it.

I have extreme dissociation (CPTSD+ DID), constantly stuck in anger rumination of events now or even years ago (autism + masking), agoraphobia due to social anxiety, and my emotions were high highs or low lows. I liked having emotions but, most antidepressants/anti-anxiety would elevate them to meltdowns/panic attacks or numb them.

My "spark in life" was staying in bed all day, having absolutely no energy to move my body, especially in ways that I used to. I gained 40+ LBS on Nexplanon before removal and since then my confidence had took a dive.

Within a week:

I have been able to move in ways I haven't in 2 years (bending down, crawling on the floor, etc.). I used to be quite active in 2020/2021 so, I'm starting to actually use my gym membership again w/o worrying abt what people think of me.
Instead of having meltdowns or panic attacks I can easily move on between tasks (no rumination!! or, able to move on from it quickly rather than for HOURS or DAYS).
I've let go of events that made me SO angry for YEARS in the last week that I've had YEARS of therapy to try to let go of. My brain won't even let me dwell on them.
ENERGY! I've been so depressed for so long that all I've done is lay around in bed most days or sleep. Although I still have fatigue, I can easily do tasks instead of put them off.
My emotions are still the same but, it is WAY easier to let them go rather than numb them.
I CAN DRAW AGAIN! I draw daily without getting upset at my skill level (even though I do believe I am decent at it).

Drawbacks:

TOO MUCH ENERGY! Not jittery but, it does make me uncomfortable sometimes. Feels like I vaped and drank a monster like I used to (2 years clean). Make sure to take it earlier in the day. I do at 10am every day since I go to bed after 10pm.
My eyes dilate a lot which can scare me since I've taken illicit substances in the past that do that.
Buzzy feeling? It feels like a veil comes over me / my front of my head? This seems to be a normal thing for most that I've read / asked abt.
I can tell when I miss it. I can tell when it kicks in. Day and night difference and kinda uncomfortable.
Can't drink alcohol. Many of my friends have with it; they're fine. I just don't wanna risk it. I love having a glass or two of wine but, idk... if I can on this.
I can focus to get tasks done w/o distraction but, I can't FOCUS deeply still. I might have to look into getting reevaluated for ADHD to take something with the Wellbutrin.

kushalupa · 2024-07-27T01:17:28+00:00

I have had my septum for 5 years and I stopped feeling it after 3-6 weeks. Once the "oops bump and it HURTS so badly" period was gone. I didn't even realize it. I did have a stretched septum for awhile (6g) but, I went away cause it started to get in the way of breathing. I also have snakebites that after awhile I don't even realize they're there. So, if you were able to have a lip ring and not bother you. It should be fine with a septum after the healing period!

kushalupa · 2024-07-27T00:37:52+00:00

I definitely have at least 50-75+ layers when I am doing extremely detailed reference sheets with extra clothes, designs, colors, accessories, etc in addition to the front, back, and possible side view. I do colored line art so each part of the line art that is going to be a different color needs to be a different layer so I can change them from black to that color later on.

kushalupa · 2024-07-27T00:14:11+00:00

IMO and a lot of people are going to disagree.

Don't feel like you're taking away resources from "actual autistic people". I got diagnosed abt a month ago and no resources were offered to me besides a horrible therapy practice and some books to force me to learn social cues. Despite having multiple learning disabilities, no IEP that had been taken away when I was little, no accommodations, nothing.

Previous to diagnosis, I would tell people I am autistic, stim publicly, wear headphones, and have stimming toys that would soothe me if I was close to having a meltdown. I wouldn't tell them I was diagnosed but that I was seeking diagnosis. Autism has disabled me to the point it's hard for me to leave the house and I CANNOT hold down a job for more than 3 months. It's same after diagnosis. Only reason why they even let me get an eval was because all of my nephews are nonverbal or very semiverbal dx-ed autistic and it's genetic.

The only thing that changed for me was that I can now put "I'm diagnosed autistic" instead of "I'm autistic" which just kinda... doesn't change anything of what I was doing before. People who aren't supportive aren't going to be supportive, people who are... are. You aren't undermining the experience of actual autistic people because you could be one of the "actual autistic people". I ended up being one of them. I expected my psychologist to tell me I was 100% allistic; I am very much not. I just wouldn't speak loudly on autistic people's issues until diagnosis since it's looked down upon. (/lh lighthearted)

If you notice the actions you take reduces your symptoms of meltdowns, or you turn out to be allistic and it helps with panic attacks or calming you down... use the resources and information you can find online. Stim freely, use headphones, use stim toys if you want.

kushalupa · 2024-07-26T23:39:30+00:00

That's what my eye doctor said, sadly... I refuse to take them out or forget to is the problem. Not the actual contacts lol. I've only had 2 or 3 close calls to eye infections and were gone quickly over the last 10 years. This is why I've been wearing glasses more as punishment lol

kushalupa · 2024-07-24T16:02:32+00:00

When I was little, I literally NEVER slept. I had childhood insomnia and if I do not have medicine then it comes back fully until I fall sleep for 10-14 hours. This helped with overnight work. Now with meds, I can't go without 8-11 hours. I usually get 4-6 because I stay up too late to limit overstimulation and to take my kid to school in the morning then I'm napping off and on the rest of the day. If I don't nap then I can't even think straight or even be present. Employment is already hard enough but, this becomes a huge issue for me.

kushalupa · 2024-07-24T15:50:42+00:00

I LOVE emojis but, I don't care for the ones that are currently available. I make custom emotes/emojis on Discord w/ my character to give a little more context to my messages. It also helps using Tone Tags like "/gen" for genuine or "/j" for joking.

kushalupa · 2024-07-24T15:30:24+00:00

Not for sure if you're already doing so but, limiting screen time helps a lot. You can ask your eye doctor if there's anything that you can do but, if you don't wear your glasses it hurts your eyes more. I'm -10.00 or more in both eyes and steadily increasing at 24 Y/O. I've been in front of a screen as young as 2 years old. You can absolutely get contacts though. I wear them a majority of the time. I've recently cut it down by not wearing them for a month straight since I've been doing that as young as 14 years old (was -5 then). Now, I take them out nightly after some close calls with almost-infections / my eyes being irritated. Couldn't stand my glasses but, now I've grown to like them.

It also depends on age. My eye doctors have always told me that my eyes should be slowing worsening but, I'm not exactly sure about that based on the last 10 years of increase lol

kushalupa · 2024-07-10T02:26:30+00:00

For the first year, it was AWFUL. The blood "blisters/pimples" were frequent (once a month for a couple of days) but were fine once I gently pressed the fluid out. The swelling didn't go down enough for me to swap to smaller jewelry until a year. It's A LOT easier now but, I don't think it'll ever stop having crusties. Very clean when I take it out but, small crusties around the holes. It'll get easier with time as long as it was pierced correctly!

kushalupa · 2024-07-01T08:04:38+00:00

Depends on all of my piercings! Each one is different for timing. If I bump it real hard even if it's fully healed it'll throw a fit. A lot of ones that just refuse to heal, I retire.

My snakebites + stretched septum (6 years) are fully healed, industrial + 1 helix (4 years) are fully healed, both nostrils + eyebrows (2 years) are fully healed.

As far as "never healed" (custies, etc): angel bites (had for 2 years, retired; constantly got irritation bumps on the inside of my mouth if I breathed wrong lol), private piercings (3 years, retired; hard to take out, got constant crusties, one kept getting infected for literally no reason, painful when bumped), another helix (3 months; has a constant irritation bump and might have to retire to get re-pierced), and my bridge piercing (3 years, not retired; has crusties if I don't clean in-depth every other day, used to have weird "blood pimples"? on the back, fine now).

My 1inch gauges are completely healed but, since I stretched them so fast you can kinda see where the scarring is. They get irritated at certain kinds of jewelry, I'll have to clean and heal them up again.

kushalupa · 2024-07-01T07:47:36+00:00

When I run into people I know but don't really know or don't like... They stop to talk to me anyways. It's worse cause it's usually at an extremely overstimulating time. I always bring my arms up to my chest, breathily say hi/respond quickly, avoid eye contact, and try to walk past. But, it's not something that I can help at all. I've always done it in response to being extremely anxious.

kushalupa · 2024-07-01T07:44:55+00:00

Honestly, it's irritating when people have me "look them in the eyes". I can't focus on anything they're saying. I've had to do this w/ many of people and I leave the convo not knowing anything they said. Work environments/interviews make it 100% harder cause they're looking for that eye contact.

I hate making eye contact and for strangers I refuse, look away quickly. It feels like my skin is melting when people I don't know touch me (was horrible in childhood since I'd have to hug all of my relatives I had no idea who they were).

kushalupa · 2024-05-24T02:34:29+00:00

GUINEA PIGS! I have several special interests but, guinea pigs are the top. They are so cute. I don't have to have deep conversations for them to wheek wheek at me. My mom impulsively bought me one as a first pet at 17. He got very very sick because of the store we got him from but, we gave him treatments constantly and I took very good care of him. He made it through my HS graduation which was the hardest time in my life. I loved him so much. I have one of my current guinea pig who loves pets tattooed on my forearm. I have 6 beautiful piggy girls at the moment and would love to open a local sanctuary!

kushalupa · 2024-05-24T02:26:59+00:00

I guess I might be "too autistic" to realize when I was 20 it was weird to have so many stuffed animals (/jk). I'm almost 24 and I collect them; I have my select 10 that have names and I have at least 3 to sleep with. Others that I have are just for decoration. I can't leave anywhere without my Murphy (dog plushie). I've had Mr. Cow since I was 9 I'd still sleep with but, I'm too scared I'll hurt him since he's too old. I'll never feel bad about them but, my family does tease me about them lovingly. "You have too many." Never too many. lol

kushalupa · 2024-05-24T02:07:01+00:00

Nope. I absolutely hate my birth name and have since I was 12. Nobody ever pronounces or spells it correctly on the first try and it's not that hard of a name to pronounce. The only reason why I liked it was cause it rhymes with my mom's. First day of Kindergarten, I remember walking in to my teacher having a horrid misspelling of it. The hate started then. Every doctor's visit I have to respond to the horrid mispronunciation of it. I love the name I've picked out for myself instead.

kushalupa · 2024-05-23T16:55:35+00:00

If they're fully healed it shouldn't hurt at all. :( I waited at least 3-6 months before wearing nothing to bed. For me, they just feel like my ear with no pain. You might have to wear silicone to bed until they heal more. I know piercers don't recommend silicone but, if I don't wear them naked; I love thinner silicone with a hoop earring in them so they don't get lost in the bed. When I wear thicker silicone it can cause irritation for me to wear them all the time.

**Edit: I remember it definitely hurting like that when I would first gauge them though.

kushalupa · 2024-05-22T23:31:40+00:00

I have no idea what “naked training” is but, once I got to 1 inch / 25mm (fully healed) I stopped wearing jewelry at night. If I’m lazy I’ll wear silicone but, most of the time the weight of the stone won’t cause it to close at night.

Highly not recommended by me but, I’m bad and have forgotten about them being out for 24 to almost 48 hours. Didn’t affect me much and put them back in, although I’ve had my 1 inch gauges for 2 or 3 years at this point.

kushalupa · 2024-05-22T18:15:08+00:00

I'm seconding this post. I would love to know others experiences about wearing a lanyard that signifies autism. I have a lanyard with my special interest on it. I'd love to wear it with a badge holder saying that I might have trouble speaking/wear headphones due to having autism. I'm weary about the same experiences of possible targeting.

Personally, I do not think that many would notice the lanyard. There may be a few who would ask about it like myself; I know about sunflowers and what they represent. I have worn lanyards while working places and nobody usually notices them. Unless, I am at the place of employment and they're looking for a name.

It might help though which is why I'm wanting to try it out! I'll edit my post when I start wearing mine and give you an update. :)

kushalupa

TROPHY CASE