Smoking

Momma got my a copper infused wrist brace hoping it will help with my Carpal Tunnel. In with the brace a mini booklet came in the packaging as well. It is from Dr. Arthritis. (doctorarthritis.org)

In the booklet it gives helpful information about the wrist and ailments specially in the wrist. At the end he shares his; Top 10 Tios for Arthritis.

1. Take your medication regularly, not just when you're in a flare-up.

2.Treat any underlying Depression. Arthritis can get you really down. Therefore should not be treated as a physical problem.

3. Consider alternative treatments: Acupuncture, Aromatherapy and Yoga.

4. Use hot and cold therapies. These target inflammation and combat pain.

5. Stretch. This helps to lubricate the joints and enhance range of motion.

6. Gentle exercise in the evening. Before bed, just walk through your house or adjusting yourself on the couch a couple times can works wonders in terms if reducing morning stiffness.

7. Eat a healthy diet

8. Maintain a healthy weight. Extra weight puts more strain on your joints.

9. Manage smoking. Smoking puts stress on connective tissue. So try and cut back or quit.

10. Know your limits! Don't over do it. Rest when your body tells you to.

Not sure if this will be helpful to anyone, but thought I'd share just in case!! Stay strong!!

My BF of 2 + years, broke up with me. During the time of our relationship, he suffered with a Gaming & Smoking Addiction. Prone to Anxiety. He Works at a Casino as Blackjack dealer. His environment normalizes the Win/Lose behavior. His moods go Up & Down, it affected our Relationship. I would become emotional and take it to Heart. I’m susceptible to depression. In the last 6 months, I morally supported him while he decided to remove those vices from his life & become healthy. I wholeheartedly Believed that once he decided to get healthy, it would bring us closer together. Instead, he became narcissistic, cold to my needs, grouchy, would make future plans with me & go ahead on his own, or cancel last minute. Say things like I was ungrateful. It would leave me speechless & crying. Refuses to get help, watches YouTube videos. Now Here’s the confusing part, he would Text me Cute memes every AM & PM. Say I Love You, All the Time. We would talk on the phone everynight for about 2 hours. He would spend the Night at my place 3xW. Drive 45 mins each way to see me. Fix things around the house. Be Loving with my Cat. We go on Enjoyable walks in my neighbourhood. Hold my Hand. Loving when our plans did Manifest. We shared Uplifting Vacations. Those are the Moments that left me longing for more. This went on for over 2 years. Felt longer. Truth is I didn’t want to Break Up, I genuinely Love & Care for him. When I read the Break up text, it has mixed messages. He said he was blocking me but I could email him if I wanted to talk. Shocked! Felt lost & dizzy when I read the message. For my own Peace of Mind, I decided to block him. It hurts so much. Going through a gambit of emotions. Feeling that No Contact is Best. Resisting doubt. Replacing my time by going out with friends. Doing my best to keep busy. It’s when I am at home, the quiet times is when Thoughts comes in. Listening to Soft Music to help ease this feeling. Taking Deep Breaths. Thanks for letting me vent.

I've never felt more like shit in my life. I've had very unpleasant moments before, but this surpasses them all; I'm deeply depressed. I would never kill myself—I find it a stupid solution to a temporary problem and a lack of appreciation for life. However, I was on the bus on my way to the cardiologist, listening to this Lil Wayne song, “Let It All Work Out.” When I heard those last bars, I felt, just for a second, how miserable I am with such clarity, as if all those barriers between your conscious and unconscious mind that protect you from losing your sanity had disappeared. I wondered what it must feel like to end it all. I think it would probably be a beautiful inner peace, something I haven’t felt in many years.

For a couple of years now, I haven’t felt like a healthy young person. It all started around my first COVID vaccine, about three and a half years ago, I think. I began to get sick every two months, had myocarditis, and I slept through half of my classes in school—a very demanding French school that caused me even more stress because I couldn’t keep up. Also, I’ve never been mentally at peace; since I was a kid, I’ve had a lot of OCD. My mind was always overwhelmed with obsessive thoughts, preventing me from acting normally. I was able to control it with medication, but that doesn’t take away the constant, irrational thoughts that stop me from ever being completely calm.

Then there are the stresses of my relationship with my mom, with whom I clash often due to our very different personalities, and my dad, whom I barely see because he lives in another country, so we have to keep a long-distance relationship. My self-esteem was always low if I wasn’t with someone, but I could never maintain a relationship because my interest never lasted, so I’d have to move on to someone else. Despite all this, I wasn’t entirely unhappy because I thought I’d eventually reach my goals, live amazing experiences, and that everything would heal with time.

But then my whole lifestyle fell apart. Last December, I got sick the day before my graduation party, which I attended anyway. A week went by, and I was still sick. I went to the clinic, and they told me I had COVID. I thought, “No wonder I feel so bad,” and that I’d be fine in a week. That never happened. Since then, I’ve felt sick every day, every damn day. Some days were worse than others, but it was like that 24/7. I went to 20 different doctors, took an absurd number of tests, and no one knew what I had. I spent 11 months like that, with the uncertainty of not knowing what could be wrong. Despite this, I managed to stay relatively patient because I refused to think that whatever I had wouldn’t be curable.

Then a cardiologist gave me my first clue. I had already seen two other cardiologists, but this one specialized in dysautonomia and told me I had all the symptoms of this condition. "Condition" means there’s no cure; you can control it with medication, but it’s not immediate. It’s a process of trial and error, as there are many types of dysautonomia. When I found out a couple of days ago, I honestly didn’t know if my future would be as fantastic as I thought. Now, I’ll never be able to drink recklessly, will have to limit my smoking, will never do MMA again, and just won’t have the energy of a normal person anymore.

And the cherry on top is that just a month ago, I met a girl I felt comfortable with. She stayed at my place four times; I was enjoying the process and looked forward to seeing her each time she left. Then she messaged me saying she didn’t want to meet up as often and wasn’t looking for anything serious. #I am completely defeated by my existence; I can say I’ve hit rock bottom. I don’t know what’s next for me. I haven’t been officially diagnosed yet, but it’s pretty clear what I have since I’ve ruled out most other possibilities.

I don’t know why I’m writing this; maybe it’s because I want someone to listen, or simply to archive my story on the internet. What do you think? What would you recommend? I’m all ears.

By the way, my name is Teo, I was born in the United States but grew up in Chile, and I’m 20 years old. Cheers!

P.S. I understand English perfectly, but writing is hard, so I asked ChatGPT to translate this from Spanish to English. I hope it makes sense.

His life was one failure after another until he ended it, once and for all. Or so he thought. Why would a man who couldn’t live successfully die successfully? In the eternal span of milliseconds before he emerged as one of the wretched undead, he wondered what kind of undead he would be. A shambling cliche of a zombie, trapped in the same brain devouring mediocrity that had defined his life? A vampire? Too ridiculous to think that he could be that suave. No blood in the wineglass, pinky tastefully extended for him. He was a guzzler. He wanted to become a revenant, unable to rest until the world shook beneath the fullness of his vengeance. Everyone who had hurt him would join a trail of corpses distinguished by the smoking handprints covering their mouths. Silenced in agony as searing as his silence had been. But that was not to be. He became a poltergeist, but not one strong enough to move furniture about, or even to misplace keys or turn framed photos upside down. Given to him was the power, at the appointed hour of three in the morning, to rustle the blinds. A poor soul awake at that hour would assume the wind did it, but wouldn’t care enough to get up and check the weather report for a mild breeze. So he shuffles impotently through eternity, dreading the advent of polarizing light technology that makes window blinds obsolete, taking away even the small bit of haunting he can do.

Moral: Don’t eat gas station burritos while reading about optical instrument repair and then fall asleep as a Dracula movie transitions to infomercials about window coverings. #Suicide #Depression #MentalHealth #Trauma #PTSD