Great except I wrecked my car.
Damn sorry to hear that. What happened?
Not much point in telling it really - totally my fault, somehow I made a turn across in front of somebody, didn’t even see them coming. Nobody hurt and the other car just had a busted front corner, but my car was undrivable and the insurance company totalled it. It was a 2014 Nissan Leaf. I loved driving that thing - instantly felt completely at home in it, it felt like a little spaceship.
Im glad you’re safe. Hang in there man. At least you’re brave enough to try driving. Im too anxious to drive.
In my late 20s I had anxiety so bad I constantly walked around feeling like I was about to have a heart attack. Inspired by the movie Fame, I signed up for a community college acting class in the evenings. I forced myself to jump in with both feet on the first night. Getting through that was all it took - it turned out I was actually good at it and it was a blast. I became a total theatre guy - had big parts in a couple plays, designed and built sets, did props, ran lights, became stage manager… And almost immediately I had a thriving social life - going out in groups for food, going to parties, throwing my own… theatre became my life, my job was just something I did during the day. In all this my anxiety COMPLETELY faded away.
Besides all the fun there were other benefits. Learning to get into character transformed job interviews for me - I would just reframe the situation so it wasn’t a job interview - I already worked there, I had just been away for a while and it was my first day back. It was going to be great to see the people again! It was a great group and our manager was awesome, I couldn’t wait! So I would get into that character and walk in genuinely feeling glad to be there instead of being nervous. That’s 90% cultural fit right from the start. My success rate skyrocketed (I was a contractor doing software jobs, so I had to get new jobs quite often).
Theatre led directly to eventually meeting my wife, and gave me the confidence to become a dad. I wouldn’t be the person I am if I hadn’t taken that first step. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone with anxiety!
Personally it’s about the same, which is good.
But I wake up every morning worried about all the stupid nazi shit that’s going on in the currrent government.
Going awesome 😎
Inflation is going down steadily, prices are not increasing as fast as before and more credit is available now, I have an offer for a credit to buy my own home now. Let’s see how that goes
All of this decade has been the worst time of my life, but this year has been very slightly better than last at least. Really need people to start actually hiring again and for the economy to stop being the worst, but no hope there. I’m just begging for the reaper at this point.
The boulder gets bigger every day.
It’d be absolutely grand if it weren’t for the collapse of democracy. There really are a lot of things coming together for me right now and I’d be so happy if I weren’t worrying about having to flee the country.
I mean there’s all this *gestures vaguely*, but if I zoom into just my personal life, it’s been pretty good?
I adopted an amazing kitty on Jan 4. I’m still grieving the loss of my soul cat last year but the new girl has been a great gift in my life.
My job is very seasonal and 2025 was the most calm season of all 8 seasons I’ve done it. I work on software creation and support season, so most calm = the best season ever.
Then I went on medical leave to yeet my uterus and confirmed that I had adenomyosis, so pretty psyched to see how much this reduces my pain after I finish recovering.
So even with the shit show going on in the world, life goes on at the micro level and so far 2025 is shaking out better than ‘24.
Honestly pretty great. I love my relatively new position at my company, my career track is great, and it seems like people above me might be aware of the good job I am doing. Plus it’s more money than I have ever made in my life, so while I’m still underpaid for my role, I get to WFH wherever I want, and this has all allowed me to buy my first house in rural northern Maine, with almost 11 acres. I close in 27 days and then I can GTFO of my parents’ house, where I have been for 15 months. With any luck I can then find a Canadian wife and get dual citizenship, the better to flee when the trump gestapo come for me for whatever made up reason they come up with.
It’s interesting
I moved to another part of the country for a change of pace. I just managed to buy a house here, I’m a couple of months into an entirely new job, my fiancée and I are making a few plans for our wedding (which will still be a while away)
It hasn’t been easy, but it’s worth it
I’m in a beautiful place, I get to see amazing views every day that I work, I have a sound financial position, a woman I love deeply and things are pretty damned good
I hope all of you are as lucky
Yep
It’s actually going not too bad compared to last year. This time last year I was living in my mom’s basement, anxiety ridden, lonely, and had no money. Now, I’m in my own place, have some money to spend on myself finally, and my anxiety has gone down significantly. Still lonely but now I can distract myself and have a lot of online people I talk to no so…better than nothing. So far, I’d say not too bad.
Sound like huge wins to me.
We have a moron rapist criminal running the country raising our cost of living. My ex wife left me six years ago and it still hurts today. I can’t believe I’ve not gotten over her. On the positive I get to live my life loving my cat. So grateful for him. Even if he bites me when he thinks I’m starving him to death but I just fed him a bit ago. lol
My employer was taken out of commission by a ransomware attack for nearly a month.
About when that concluded, my fiancée contracted severe pancreatitis from a fairly routine surgery and has been fighting for her life ever since.
My doctor chalks down all the extreme dizziness and sleepless nights I’ve had down to stress. I have to hope she’s right cause I really don’t have the energy to spare for being ill right now.
So in summary, less than great so far.
I’m sorry you’re dealing with so many stressful things at once.
I just recently learned about some causes of vertigo along with a super quick thing to try to relieve it, and I thought I would share it under the chance it might provide some relief to at least one of the awful things. It came from a newsletter by a chiropractor I saw who many years ago. I know some chiropractors are quacks, but this one was incredible at recognizing patterns and was able to provide me extreme pain relief mostly just from simple stretches he taught me, so I have high respect for what he shares.
What are the causes I find that trigger vertigo?
- Tight suboccipital muscles at the base of the skull.
- Blocked sinus cavities not draining, backing up mucous and fluid into the middle ear cavity.
- Fluid imbalances in the inner ear due to NSAIDS and antihistamines being used in excess.
- Tight jaw muscles causing abnormal tracking of the jaw when opening and closing the mouth.
- Very rotated fixated first cervical vertebrate pinching off the eustachian tube of the middle ear that is responsible for allowing drainage to occur to the back of the throat.
Then he provides this 1m video with a tapping technique that tracks 20 seconds.
Doesn’t speak to the sleeplessness and I’m not a medical professional. I’m just a concerned stranger who recently gained knowledge that could maybe be helpful to you?
It sucks as I’m a black, autistic and bisexual woman, whose rights are slowly taken away by Nazi Germany 2.0 (aka America) and live in a very red state. I wish can flee, but I’m broke and jobless. So I’m forced to stay.
But hey, at least I lost 10 pounds this year!
As a German, don’t bring Germany into this please 😂.
But seriously, sad to see it all. Best wishes.
Quadruple whammy. You rolled a D1
I started to argue that it would be a Nat 1. But then I realized that if a D1 existed, it would only be able to roll Nat 1’s… Which feels apt.
Yeah sorry, I meant a nat 1. Brain not functioning
What kind of job are you looking for?
The state of things is devastating. Actually getting out is the best option, I know easy for someone else to say. Right wingers love to point yo companies moving to red states for lower taxes and no employee protections, when people start leaving the states is when that narrative will change.
Not sure where you are but Colorado has paid family leave and is generally fighting a good fight and may be closest to you, depending on your red state location. Depending on the type of work you donl or want to do, securing employment in advance of relocating or looking at WFH options may be the best option to allow you to get a job and then move and not have to worry about the job location piece. Coastal places with better protections and rights are expensive as hell and probably less of an option for you but depends.
Hope you can get someplace at least measurably better and safer for you.
Thanks for replying!
I’m currently living in Texas with my family and are planning to move to Vermont in two years, even thought the state is very expensive. But at least if things goes VERY BAD in the next few years, we can flee to Canada since it’s only a few hours north of Vermont and we have passports.
I have tried to look for a WFH jobs in the past (and having a Bachelor’s Degree helps), but all of them either require years of experiences or are scams. Instead, I’ll do basic house chores to help out.
Lots of support jobs and customer service (if US based) are moving to remote. If you have any tech/software/computer background you might be able to swing that.
