What really helped me was simplifying my life and putting myself first. Let’s take your statements one at a time:

Ex-Boyfriend - does not care about you. Don’t waste your energy there. It helped me to mute these people on socials and put them on limited view of my posts if you don’t want to block or remove.

Girlfriend - decide if you want to stay in this situation. What would need to improve to make it better? Will your partner accept these improvements? This should be your top priority. I don’t know you and I don’t know your background but the boyfriend breakup -> new sexuality -> open relationship jump seems confusing, complicated and a lot to take on. Take a hard look and make sure you’re doing this because it’s what you want - not from a place of looking for validation/acceptance or chasing someone.

Long-Time Friend - cut contact fully and take some space. Not now does not mean not ever. I had to have a difficult conversation with a friend recently where they really bought into rumours someone was spreading about me without asking me about it and wanted to make it up to me and I had to tell them I’m happy to be on friendly terms but don’t have the personal emotional capacity for more at this time. You don’t even have to tell the friend this much. You can just decide it and answer or not when you’re ready. No one has you at gunpoint forcing you to talk to people. See above on muting them on socials so you’re not tempted to interact.

Then, fill your time with things you enjoy. Take a fuck it attitude and get out there. For example, I found a group on meetup who had a common interest and went to some nights. It wasn’t expensive - the price of a cup of coffee - and it got me out of the house and interacting with new people. Look for low commitment things so you don’t overextend.

Exercise is good too. I find when I’m in crisis I tend to potato to weather the storm. Then when I’m on the mend I tend to get back into my routine.

Try to notice the way you talk to yourself in daily life too. You’ll get stuck longer if you’re down on yourself. For example jokes like “I’m dumb” become reality and your perception of yourself really quickly. I write one positive line about myself every day in my planner/journal.

I also found finding one to two “hype” people on social media who said positive things to be helpful. You mentioned your anxiety. If you’re not already doing so, seek out healthy, positive content to help you with that. It’s 2025 and therapy is expensive. This is a good first step.

Controversial, but there is a chatgpt therapist extension (not sure if free or paid). If I really feel emotional and stuck, and in my case I couldn’t vent to my friend anymore, I turn on temporary chat and let it fly with the chatgpt therapist. It is helpful to get validation/perspective on my situation in the moment and without judgement.

I know this is a lot but you can get through it by taking small steps. We all go through difficult times throughout life and each one is going to help you build resilience. Again, I don’t know you, your age or your circumstances but your post reads like you are younger. I know it’s cliche but the things that seemed like the world was ending when I was younger don’t even seem like real challenges now. Life really is one crisis after another.

They’re making it harder and harder to do so apparently and to download the books that you buy from their store.

I don’t trust that they won’t make a strong push to lock you into the Amazon ecosystem.

And, bluntly, I don’t trust Bezos, especially after all of this election bullshit he pulled with WaPo where he personally got involved. The chances are now non-zero that Kindle could censor books. If a tyrannical regime told Bezos to remove a list of books from Kindle devices I think he’d roll over and do it. And that’s not right. They’re the customer’s books - they bought them and they get to decide what they read without censorship. And to be clear, I don’t care which way the censorship goes. We shouldn’t be censoring books - full stop.

I used to be such a kindle Stan but I don’t think they will let me have full control over an expensive device that I buy and books that I buy on their platform.

I de-drm every book I buy and side load it onto my devices because no company in the future should be able to tell me what books I can read. I’m currently using a Kobo but if they start fucking around too (no signs of this yet…) I’ll find a device that will respect my freedom.

If you want to sideload your own books and continue to be able to do so, steer clear of any Amazon device.

Canadian commentary:

I know it’s difficult with corporate greed and price gouging right now, I’m not debating that.

I’m worried that the food that people gravitate toward is unhealthy, ultra processed and cheaper on purpose. You need to buy MORE of this kind of food to stay full.

The US has, in my understanding, a lot of food deserts where healthier options are not available and people are pushed to eat empty calories.

The late-stage capitalist system wears people so thin that the effort to find and cook cheap healthy meals can be overwhelming if you don’t usually do this.

Portions in North America are HUGE.

There are ways to eat for cheaper but I understand that takes effort. For example, I order a $23 CDN all in produce box to my door of oddly shaped/sized produce that feeds two adults for a week. The largest box at $49 easily feeds a family of 4. It takes effort to find and locate services like this. Only available in big cities too.

I guess what I’m trying to say is it seems like the structure of society and capitalism makes the impact of corporate greed RE: groceries SO much worse.

Not to mention the wars, gas, and housing prices.

I know a lot of people are low information but since this issue in my perspective is aggravated and accelerated by so many factors, it still baffles me that people accept the solution is more Republican trickle down economics and tariffs which seem like they’re just going to make the problem worse for everyone.

Not trying to fight you but I think people should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Abortion isn’t a culture war it’s literally my life at risk as a woman.

The campaign was just not explicit enough and America is ill educated by design on the topic of reproduction.

And I’ve come to the realization that most people don’t want to grapple with horrific things until it happens to them and it’s too late. See the pandemic - all the people who were boasting on fb about not protecting themselves and not getting the vaccine until their families were posting about those same people being dead.

Dropping this here - no woman wants to tell that story.

Well and like… all women were just confirmed to be second class citizens.

If we accept the premise that God doesn’t condone abortion care even in instances where women miscarry or the baby dies then surely dick pills aren’t natural either.

It seems to be that the popular vote in America is saying that women are whores who can die and everything men do gets a pass including sexual assault and cheating on their wives.

Timothy Snyder - On Tyrrany

For my friends in America who did not want this or deserve this.

The ones who supported this can reap the karma that they gave sewn.

Bracing for impact in Canada.

Americans don’t realize we have our own lil JD primed and ready to take over here as well, funded and helped by Republican strategists and think tanks oh boy.

Here you go - link is active for 1 week! https://www.transfernow.net/dl/20240214YfukrZIF

Let me look into this.

Yes I ended up emailing the seller for the original driver - it’s 54.1mb so they had to send via WeTransfer. Google Drive wouldn’t accept the file.