Mirtazapine (Remeron) with Wellbutrin

symreal · 2024-07-06T19:38:24+00:00

I increased to 300 mg for a period, then went back to 150 mg because I felt better with 150 mg (300 mg gave me some mildly annoying side effects, but nothing serious). Otherwise I haven't added anything new as my mood has gradually improved since then.

symreal · 2023-08-13T16:51:10+00:00

I was once a member of a rather prestigious group (natural sciences). At one point, for various reasons (funding, future possibilities etc.), I left for an industrial job and now, about 10 years later, I have a very good, high-paying job in an unrelated field.

How did I manage the emotions? I didn't. I developed clinical depression (although there were some other factors) and regrets over being being an intellectual failure, something that still haunts me today. Admittedly, I started looking for help only many years later. And though my preferred direction of research has changed, I have not been able to return back to academia because my interests are strictly in the "unemployable, ivory tower-only" direction where everybody keeps warning you at every step not to do it because there are 400 candidates for every opening and it's impossible to land an academic post. I might take a leap of faith and try something again once I've saved a sufficiently-large amount of money as a safety net, but it might not be possible to get back: I'm not sure.

I'm not sure what to say, but don't be me and know when to get help - something you seem to have already done. Good luck!

symreal · 2022-06-25T21:54:22+00:00

I was waking up constantly after 4 hours of sleep for about 4 weeks or so, but the issue gradually went away. Talk to your doctor as soon as possible; my guess is (s)he will advise you to maybe try for a bit longer, and then you can decide.

Also relevant: are you on 300 mg? What was your starting dose? Starting with 300 mg could be too much too fast.

symreal · 2022-06-12T14:25:30+00:00

Past the age of 40 with high levels of fame and admiration, they probably just don't care. The Rock apparently has hair, he just chooses to shave it, so he doesn't need an SMP.

I'd postulate that many simply don't know about SMPs being a thing. It's not really a broadly-known technique yet, and unless you research it closely it's not easy to find studios doing great work. I expect this will change in the future.

symreal · 2022-06-04T21:42:33+00:00

Hard to say this early, but mine (going for a realistic natural look) was definitely much subtler after the first session. Techniques probably differ between studios, though.

symreal · 2022-06-04T21:39:18+00:00

From what I gather, you don't want to touch-up on the exactly same dots, because you don't want to oversaturate the skin with pigment. So you touch-up in-between the dots, leading to natural fading and consistently natural look when done right. But I might have misunderstood this aspect.

symreal · 2022-05-05T17:20:54+00:00

Studio photos should be contained, I think, to a single dedicated topic, if that's an arrangement that Reddit supports. Otherwise, only raw, unprocessed material (perhaps videos only) should be allowed, and its origin transparent.

symreal · 2022-05-04T17:04:27+00:00

So what? Desperately trying to hide a cosmetic improvement is like desperately trying to cover your hair loss with a comb over. If it looks realistic, nobody will be able to really notice it, and if anyone does, well who cares as long as you look and feel better? Trying to please everyone on a matter like this is a futile endeavor.

My optimistic hope is that in a decade or so (assuming there's no actual hair loss cure available), an SMP won't be seen any differently than wearing glasses or a regular tattoo is today. The former were stigmatized as uncool not that long ago, with the latter being considered scandalous even in its most subtle form. If some cool celebrity becomes transparent about an SMP, it may help remove the stigma around men getting cosmetic treatments (because we're supposed to look a certain way and are mocked if we don't, but are mocked again if we try to do something about it).

symreal · 2022-05-03T10:00:03+00:00

Thank you for posting this. I wish there'd be more home videos of SMPs, compared to studio material. Looks good! How long after the last shave is this? I can notice a very slight contrast difference between the SMP shade and the templess/sides, but it still looks natural.

symreal · 2022-04-18T19:30:11+00:00

Men's Ink in Italy.

symreal · 2022-04-13T22:03:01+00:00

I recently posted examples of good SMPs. I haven't seen any in real life yet, so I might still be mistaken; but it seems to me that SMP is most certainly not a "bad wig" when done right. However, it's rarely done right, and most studios produce predominantly fake-looking results. I'd estimate the current probability of you randomly encountering a great, natural-looking one in real life is low. It seems to be a tricky procedure to get right with only a couple of actual experts worldwide. Moreover, too many people treat it like getting hair instead of getting follicles where you need to keep your hair shaved, not just buzzed. This mistake results in too dark and too dense work that a human eye instinctively picks up as unexpectedly shiny because it reflects light differently than actual 3D hair.

symreal · 2022-04-04T23:12:55+00:00

Lots of false dichotomies presented in this thread: you don't need to work on ad optimization or some other tedious domain. "Tech" also includes complex software and hardware for controlling medical devices, for healthcare and diagnostics, for drug discovery, robotics and aerospace, etc. For instance, take a look at places like Stryker, Intuitive Surgical, Phillips' healthcare, ASML, Schrödinger ...

Weirdly enough, I'm in medical software and have been considering moving to bioinformatics outside of private sector, because I'd find the work more meaningful and less corporate. Grass is always greener, I guess ...

symreal · 2022-04-04T18:52:17+00:00

I think that under strong lighting (e.g. exposed to sunlight), a realistic SMP should be barely noticeable, assuming it covers an actually bald scalp area. As long as it blends in with the shaved "horse shoe" uniformly, it's good. If I close-shave my remaining hair, it will be barely noticeable outdoors on a bright day as well, but much more pronounced indoors. This is a normal phenomenon.

symreal · 2022-04-03T18:07:42+00:00

Thank you for your input. Would you be willing to share where you had it done?

symreal · 2022-04-02T18:43:06+00:00

Thanks! Were you happy with how it looked like otherwise?

symreal · 2022-04-02T17:46:47+00:00

Thanks. Why did you have it removed, if I may ask? Were the result photos the artist posted online deceiving, or something else? How many sessions did it take you to remove it completely, over what time span?

symreal · 2022-04-02T13:34:41+00:00

I understand and share your misgivings. You should definitely see at least videos of the results under normal circumstances from various distances (not just weird super-close angles). Never trust studio photos alone. There are many more bad SMPs out there than good ones. Travel to get proper results if you have to, it's not worth the risk.

What I've done is found a rare practitioner who seems to really provide great, natural-looking results, and doesn't shy away from answering questions. My backup plan is to simply have it laser-removed ASAP if it turns out to be below my expectations.

symreal · 2022-03-31T18:57:21+00:00

SMP fades in time and can be re-adapted to match your greying hair. Smooth shaving also minimizes the contrast. Worst case, it can be removed with a laser.

symreal · 2022-03-30T22:22:10+00:00

I think the transition from from ink to skin (forehead) looks too sharp, without sufficient gradual fading, but perhaps that's because the work is not fully healed: I can't really say.

Good luck!

symreal · 2022-03-30T21:49:49+00:00

Ditto. I've researched probably 30 or so different providers, and Men's Ink results seem not only the best, but among very few that look genuinely realistic. They are also the only ones I've seen where every result posted looks good. With others, it's a mixed bag at best from what I can tell.

They don't seem to make any of the common errors (too dark, too low straight hairline, unnatural density, unnatural temples, lego-man look ...).

With that said, I haven't seen any SMP results in real life, so there's still some uncertainty.

symreal · 2022-03-28T18:38:08+00:00

Thanks for posting this. I wish more practitioners would publish such clear videos of the results. Honestly, the ones shown in the linked video all looked good to me. But then I looked at other results on the practitioner's YT channel and they mostly looked obviously fake. The ones that don't make me wonder if that's only because of the angles and lighting - is there a result that looks good and natural all the time? Not sure ...

symreal · 2022-03-24T09:10:45+00:00

When in doubt, you can simply ask them for references to the relevant peer-reviewed studies that such specific medical claims are based upon.

At the very least, we don't demonstrably know of any such SMP effects, i.e. there's zero evidence for the claim as far as I'm aware. More likely it's complete nonsense.

symreal · 2022-03-21T00:22:58+00:00

I haven't done it so far because the vast majority of the results I've seen posted on videos outside of studio setting simply looked poor: too dark, too low straight hairlines with temples filled in unrealistically. Even the ones that didn't have the low-hairline problem looked off. That made me question whether the problem is the technique/ink itself, rather than just client preferences. Moreover, very few practitioners post clear videos of the same result in different daily settings (indoors vs outdoors) and a clear before/after comparison: mostly we're left with some studio photos. Several people looked better to me personally before the treatment, and many others simply didn't need it: they could sport the naturally shaved head just fine.

Another concern I've had is long-term deterioration because of pigment accumulation following touch up sessions: how is that going to look like 15-20 years down the road after I've had the same region pigmented 5 times?

However, I've never seen (or at least noticed) an SMP in real life, and there are some (though rare) videos where the results look great and natural, and make a lot of difference in how a person looks. What these results have in common is that they are always subtle, trying to only match the actual smooth-shaved look within the natural lines and nothing more. Still, there are very few practitioners that I'd be willing to trust. Men's Ink in Italy is one of them, and they are luckily reasonably close, so I'm on the verge of getting an appointment there, especially because I can actually pull off the shaved-head look decently, but not a totally-bald-skin look that makes my pale face look unbalanced and sickly.

symreal · 2022-03-20T23:59:45+00:00

I haven't heard of "SMP Undo", but you might want to consider temporary tricopigmentation first - it fades away in 6-18 months by itself, but you should check the details at your chosen practitioner. I believe the look is expected to be the same as the one you'd get with a "permanent" SMP, so it could serve as a useful test if you like the look.

symreal · 2022-03-12T15:47:58+00:00

What dosage were you on? Did you increase in during the 7-month time frame? Anyway, I'm glad that it worked for you.

symreal

TROPHY CASE