It’s a probably a cop driving it.

I think he might be Taz.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on glue.

Not a lady, but I could use the twelve bucks.

Spontaneous reply. Just happened automatically, without any thought.

…no, wait

Indeed, my username stands on the shoulders of giants.

What a tastefully named gentleman. Thank you kind sir.

You know what keeps coming up in my saved searches? Gubmint contract jobs. Yeah… I don’t see that panning out any time soon.

I’m a crusty old fart

Well congratulations, you found the channel of another crusty old fart (at heart). Technology Connections is almost always worth the watch. Dude knows how to make dishwashers fascinating.

The topics which feel like I know the information being asked for but the specifics are slightly beyond my immediate reach seem to have a near-100% overlap with being put on the spot.

In other words I suck at trivia 😅

“You know how a popular time travel question is, if you could go back and kill Hitler, would you? People are going to be asking the same about Trump and Musk (and Vance and Thiel and a whole mess of others) if the dust ever settles.”

Good move bailing on that therapist. When their only tool is a hammer, everything becomes a nail.

I’m one of those lucky folks that has classic anxiety. And severe depression. And a handful of other things, all filtered through AuDHD. And it’s really fucking hard to tease out one of those threads because the knot just pulls tighter. A knot soaked in lived experience, seasoned with copious amounts of self-reflection. Sometimes I know what’s coming and actively avoid it, sometimes to the point of dissociation. Sometimes I don’t know what’s coming, and my brain goes haywire with possible scenarios, most of which are awful and self-spiraling but induce anxiety regardless. But it’s all intertwined, feeding off of each other and everything else to create that Gordian knot.

I feel like I got really lucky finding my current therapist/clinic, because that was the first place that wasn’t completely useless. That said, there are still periods of frustration. As knowledgeable as he is, he still struggles to grasp the extent of things. And because I’m “high functioning” (we both hate that phrase but it was agreed that it would be used as a placeholder for “lived my entire life being intelligent enough to mask my way through most situations until the mask fails and I go into a tailspin”), the mask gets taken for granted sometimes, as if it’s an outside support structure I can lean on as opposed to something I dedicate great effort (and lots of mental duct tape) into maintaining.

It can be difficult finding the correct fit for therapy. The more layers people have, the harder it gets to find someone that can handle all of them. That said, take this as a learning experience. Bring this knowledge to the next therapist and be upfront about it. The process sucks. But for most of us, it’s all we can do.

Best of luck to you, truly. You’re not alone.

If I’m trying to work through a problem, then yes, a call is better. It lets the thoughts flow and you’ve got someone else there to help fill in any blanks.

It also takes me forever to write emails. That said, if I’m discussing something work related with someone higher on the crab bucket, I am 100% going the email route. All that time and effort I’m putting into exact wording and tone? That’s gonna be on record, and it’s gonna be to my benefit. As are the vague one-sentence replies (if any) by management. I’m sorry, you’re asking why project X is on fire? Here’s 6 months and 5000 words of documentation, of which your contribution was, “ok.”

Believe me, I totally get where you’re coming from. I just had to learn the hard way that I needed to weaponize my literary elephantitis as a way of self defense.

Mental stuff needs an in-person evaluation.

Not having met me hasn’t stopped them from denying me twice.

Why are you here?

Because it hit /all and ableists can’t help being assholes.

That sounds like the kind of thing I’d reply, “Oh, no thanks, I don’t like bowling” to.