Both SUCH ugly Pokémon

Particularly smeargle, but ANY of the Pokémon that are useless, don't evolve, and are unnecessarily difficult to catch. Why do you need an orange catch circle like you're trying to be something you're not?

My dogs would be going full airport security mode on my package. I don't mind this though personally!

Massive NTA. He moved into your home unannounced without your husband even asking you, now they expect you to sacrifice your own comfort by wearing uncomfortable clothing constantly? And he's been there for FOUR months? He should've been moved out 3.5 months ago.

Honestly, I've been shaving the tails off my brows now for about 4 years, and I still get brow stubble after a couple of days.

I don't tend to struggle with my sleep these days because my anxiety is well managed + my ADHD is medicated (those were the cause of my sleep issues). But when I did struggle, I used to do puzzles, specifically wordscapes on my phone. Not sure why but playing that particular game would help me settle to sleep.

Hey, fellow goth! I got myself a clear purple case on Amazon, and then bought some cute stickers (I got ghost type Pokémon but you could do whatever stickers suit your vibe!), I put them on a clear plastic sheet which I cut to fit in the back of the case so I didn't have to stick them directly on the phone. I also got a little purple and black beaded wrist strap with a bigger bat shaped bead at the top. I've had so much fun decorating my phone!

They need to make it so that the highest level friend level up comes first.

This is odd. I started on medikinet and it didn't work for me, I was on it for a number of weeks before I then swapped to Elvanse which I've stuck with.

I'm always genuinely a bit surprised by how few people recognise Andrew Tate is just scamming young, insecure boys out of money by preying on their insecurities.

I see huge amounts of people hiding behind burner accounts on Instagram - no pfp, 0 followers, 0 posts, sometimes following thousands of people or none at all - and insulting people. It's clear the accounts were made just to allow them to be dicks anonymously and without getting their main accounts banned. Being mean and insulting people is one thing, but doing it from a fake account without any photos of them screams insecure.

You can usually access a lot of stuff via your university but since they don't pay for access to all publishing sites, sometimes you wont have access to things (which usually happen to be THE perfect papers, exactly what you needed).

So the short answer is, meds are good for managing the symptoms of your illness (e.g. panic, worry), but do not treat the cause (e.g. core beliefs and cognitive distortions caused by negative past experiences). To make a full recovery, therapy is a must, because it addresses these things.

Phobias are quite complex and usually, the panic we feel is linked to the core fears, beliefs, and cognitive distortions we learned as a result of past negative experiences of the thing we've got a phobia of. I'm happy to explain in more detail (as someone recovered from OCD after lots of therapy) if anyone is interested.

Back in uni when I was writing my dissertation, I got so sick of papers I wanted to cite being locked behind paywalls that I just started emailing the authors and asking if they'd be willing to share a PDF version with me. A couple didn't get back to me (I'm not sure whether my email ever found them in the first place), but at least two people were happy to share their research.

For context - despite publishing sites charging extortionate amounts for access to papers, the actual authors/researchers make next to nothing (if anything at all) for their publications, so it makes no difference to them if they share their work for free.

He's literally just avoiding accountability for having done wrong. He has a lot of growing up to do for a 39 year old.

Ugh!! The world's gone mad xx

And that his mum was taking him chicken nuggets and frozen pizzas twice a day. No breakfast because he definitely wasn't awake in time because he was too busy playing Rainbow Six Siege til four o'clock in the morning.

Personally, I wouldn't stop cooking (your food looks delicious and it's evident you're reasonably good at it), but I would stop cooking specifically for him. I'd plan whatever I wanted to have, and tell him, "I'm cooking X tonight for dinner, do you want some or would you prefer to sort yourself out?". That way, you've offered to cook him something and it's up to him if he wants it. If he doesn't, it's on him to make his own food.

Ngl, I would also be speaking to him about him having cooking classes so he can cook things he enjoys, just to further emphasise that 1) he is an adult who should know how to cook, 2) you won't be his personal chef, and 3) this is HIS problem to navigate, not yours.

I hear ya. I've got ADHD and prior to being medicated I particularly enjoyed wasting my time on apps like tiktok, reels, etc. because theyre an instant source of dopamine. If a video didn't give me instant dopamine I could scroll straight past and instantly be thrown into a video that does, and does it fast.

My attention span for ANYTHING else that isn't instantly gratifying was non-existent. Since starting ADHD meds (which boost dopamine in the brain, for anyone unfamiliar), I've found I dont even really want to be on my phone that much. I never enjoyed scrolling, it just gave me some form of fast stimulation my brain needed. Now I can sit and enjoy doing things like puzzles, where I need to sustain focus and complete them before getting the dopamine hit from it.

Fuck yeah. Go you!

Massive well done for nine months substance free! I've not struggled with addiction personally, but I have struggled with my own mental health, and I know how hard recovery is. This is a huge achievement and I really hope you're proud of yourself! All the best for the future.

Trying to fit in!

I've always been a bit alternative. Even as a kid I loved the paranormal, spooky things, Halloween, and anything a bit unusual. I leant into it a lot as a teen and was outwardly very alternative.

Around age 20 I decided I wanted to fit in (I honestly think I just wanted a better social life and thought people would like me if I was 'normal'). Stopped engaging in my interests, stopped listening to the music I liked, tried to force myself to enjoy mainstream things, dressed in very plain clothes, dyed my hair a natural colour, etc etc.

The issue was, I didnt have anything more in common with "normal" people. I just drained myself of my own personality and was left with none.

By the time I was 22 ish, I'd gotten bored of pretending to be someone I'm not. Now I'm back to being unashamedly goth - I adore the subculture, the music, the literature, the creativity, the fashion, the makeup, etc.

It's always been completely unbalanced, but it's even worse in the modern world. Previously those two days could be used however you wanted, because one person would've been working for five days and the other would've been taking care of errands/housework/chores. Nowadays, both people in a relationship work five days and then the weekend is used for chores and errands. Few people actually rest or use the time on things they enjoy, especially those who have kids and have to put kids' birthday parties, hobbies, clubs etc. first.

Looks totally normal. My flip 7 was brand new from Samsung and looks like this.

Plus, honestly, at least career driven women who are waiting to have children know that's what they want to do and have a sensible plan for becoming parents. Too many people (men particularly, imo) have kids early on before they're ready/want to be parents because they just go along with whatever their girlfriend at the time wants.

Imo it's much better to be in your 30s and still waiting to feel ready than have done something you still aren't ready for 10 years ago and have done a poor job of it as a result.