I’m just thinking about how literally insane it is that you (and the collective “we”) are essentially forced take this coverage because your employers offer and purportedly cover part of the premium. Sure, you could shop around elsewhere but would end up paying full MSRP on premiums, including in the ACA marketplace where you wouldn’t be able to utilize any income-based premium credits.

And so you “accept” this coverage (are forced into it because it’s the “best” deal you’re gonna get) and then have payroll deductions taken out, 1/5 of your pay that could have bolstered some kind of medical savings account, aaaaand after all this they call it a BENEFIT?!

Goddamn, being any kind of worker in the USA where your employer is large enough to require an offer of insurance makes the vast majority of “consumers of health insurance” the captive audience of the entire fuckin rigged industry. Insurance tied to the workplace is such a scam. Anybody who says there is a “free market” within the the health insurance industry is full of stupid.

But why would I want a truly free market for healthcare anyway? I don’t want options like I do for buying furniture, running the gamut between IKEA particle board and hand-turned solid mahogany, cheap to bougie and everything in between.

I don’t want to settle on the “silver plan” just because I’m fine with mid-tier, real wood-veneered furniture. I want one option and that is the standard of care for whatever health thing is necessary at whatever point.

Single standard, single payer.

I’m so fucking tired of stupid shit like cancer which nobody asks for just ruining people’s lives because even if they beat the absolute shit out of the cancer they STILL PAY FOR THE CANCER one way or another, be it with actual money, begging for donations or forgiveness, or simply ruining your financial future with medical bankruptct. Jfc I hate everything about all of this.

Man, this is the only explanation for the closure of the lone Italian place in town a few years back.

No Italian restaurants currently exist in a 50 mile radius.

Town’s haunted now.

Zpoopa del giOHNO

Alright. As I yield to yet another cannabis-laced existential crisis, picking idly, furiously, at my own damn identity and supposed role in whatever this place, space, realm is … Well, this hit me (pun shockingy not intended) and my current mental state so close to home, it’s not even funny. Except it is. In a bittersweet way, I love it.

I love this style of webcomic (bookcomic? lul) and I feel like I’m about to dive headlong into another beautifully depressing, identity-shattering rabbit hole like I did with Elan School.

Edit: I’d never seen this or the full book before, so if you do check out Elan School (which is non-fiction btw, at least in this reality, hahaha), be warned, it’s a lot longer than 22 pages. So worth it though. A wiiiild ride.

Holy sheeps, I’m not the only one?! I know I need to get my butt off Windows, but oh my lordie, the slowness of typing feedback gets so bad on Word or Mail that it literally sometimes refuses to graphically acknowledge an entire short word, leaving the screen void of the word I know I just typed, until I backspace one measly letter and the word (minus the letter) finally shows up.

It is absolutely, unironically infuriating.

Don’t forget the rectum bleacher! You’ve gotta whiten up all your pearly bits when grooming personally with these here personal grooming products! From teeth whiteners to skin toners, nipple brighteners and our ever-popular melanin relaxers, they’re all conveniently listed in this one incredibly inconvenient list! No matter which parts of your body, which orifices, which end of your digestive tract you reeeally want to whiten up: Lighten Up, We’ve Got You (Un)Covered!®

I wonder if the effect would be akin to mixing every paint color and getting “super dark greyish black-brown” as a result.

My guess would be “super icy horrifying franken-fruit.”

It is just laziness and they have a blanket scapegoat to use to get out of doing their job if you walk in and are overweight.

(Please take the following as pondering general discussions of obesity between doctors/patients and not specifically directed at you.)

This was a really thought-provoking summary for me, your belief that doctors are telling people to lose weight out of “laziness.” If a suggestion like this is lazy, are patients who don’t listen to their doctor somehow not lazy?

The idea that doctors make weight a scapegoat seems prevalent in American healthcare (probably because we’re generally obese). It feels a lot like projection of one’s “laziness” (mentally it’s much more complex than that) onto a doctor, even though that doctor has probably seen hundreds of cases with the same predictable outcomes and knows that appropriate weight management would head off more serious treatment.

Frankly, I think doctors are anything but lazy when they are “forced” to order and perform risky and invasive treatments on a patient who refused to meet them halfway before the treatment became necessary in the first place. I get it, nobody likes being told what to do, especially when it seems (and literally is) so personal. But doctors also don’t like to be told what to do (“fix me!”) when a patient deigns even the gentlest suggestion to take some control of their issues at hand.

I am now 30lbs below my highest weight. The severity of my issues (joint pain, lethargy, depression, etc.) has palpably lessened losing that 30lbs very inconsistently over the last four years. If anything, I think doctors need to better read the psychological resistance many people have with weight loss and then illustrate to, rather than tell, patients how to attain weight loss in ways that don’t seem restrictive.

That 30lbs of mine, could I have done that in 30 weeks or fewer? Sure, but I didn’t want to feel perpetually hungry. In fact, I never even set a goal weight. Instead of thinking “Idgaf about my weight” or “I must lose 20lbs by Christmas!!” I just made the tiniest changes, the biggest one being taking advantage of times I wasn’t hungry by (gasp) not eating.

… Shit, I guess lazy weight loss works, too!

So I am still tapering off Zoloft since this “aha” realization only happened this week… Everyone please take my extra serotonin, please!!! (/s)

For real though, being depressed was its own terrifying animal and I hope anyone suspecting it gets the help they need. I’m glad I could work through it with meds and now therapy, but it’s crazy how delicate the balance needs to be with brain chemicals!

I had definitely thought that as well! But then I googled it and found there can be “major interactions” between Adderall and Zoloft, and that Adderall can actually affect serotonin (not sure if it promotes more serotonin or inhibits reuptake). It must be some kind of compounding effect?

But great point on the Zoloft! It seems it was definitely an OD factor, especially if there is more serotonin floating up there “naturally” and the re-uptake inhibition becomes way more effective. 😬

(I’m still actually dealing with tapering off Zoloft, but oh my gods I am so much less physically anxious already.)

On the flip side, too much of that sweet, sweet serotonin will fuck you up. At the very least, it’ll make you sweat like a stuck pig while you (unknowingly) begin tiptoeing toward the precipice of full-blown serotonin syndrome.

Source: Was on Adderall 30mg plus tiny 25mg Zoloft dose “for anxiety maintenance” for two years. Well, at some point this past fall and spring, I must have started making more serotonin naturally or magically idk, not a doctor or witch doctor. And I only recently reread the serotonin syndrome symptom shortlist and finally put two and two together. One’s face should not literally drip sweat walking around a 74° house to grab laundry and one’s heart rate should not be spiking to 160bpm merely attempting to put gotdamn makeup on that very same face, the face full of fuckin sweat fountains.

I wasn’t just maintaining my anxiety, I physically manifested my anxiety in all the worst ways.

Noooo!! You’ve managed to both unlock a core memory about some unnameable PBS show featuring clock-loving clown ladies AND INSTANTLY RUIN IT!!!

wot in the nation of tarn

I was sure that was a young Seinfeld until I zoomed in. Mixed feelings on this dude’s sexy sharpness now.

… He’d probably say he’s too young for me.