I never thought about botox to assist with muscle atrophy/shrinkage! It’s not something I’d feel comfortable pursuing (as I can’t even figure out navigating FFS), but I would say my muscle definition is a large contributor to my dysphoria… curse my bodybuilding pursuit to try to feel better about a body that never felt right 😭

Also super interesting to read that they believe laser hair removal is permanent! I love reading that and do follow their reasoning, but it almost sounds too good to be true.

It stimulates my brain, and I enjoy the randomness of it all. It’s like how in nature things can be perfectly imperfect - random and still beautiful - unintentional and still emotion-inducing. Sure, I see the ethical issues with how an AI is trained and how capitalism cares more about profit than people leading to job loss or exploitation; however, those are separate issues in my mind, and I can still find joy in the random output of an AI. I could easily tunnel on the bad parts of AI and what’s happening as the world devours a new technology, but I still see benefits it can bring in the medical research and engineering fields.

This broke me for a few weeks after my last session 😭Dysphoria was already bad that week. Technician and I decided to increase the strength of the laser - previous sessions maybe a pain level of 4, but the last one was like a 7. Face was so swollen and irritated… I didn’t leave my place for over a week until everything calmed down and I was able to trim/shave. I hope your face and skin heals soon and those remaining hairs disappear 🩷

You’ll find that in queer culture, there’s not just top/bottom but a wide spectrum to define or describe preferences; I’m sure this all also applies to the BDSM world as well. There’s a variety of tops and bottoms and preferences like Bambi lesbians who don’t want sexual dynamics beyond cuddling and kissing.

It’s still in Closed Beta, but they’ve been sending out waves of invites, so if you sign up you may get one!

After an incredibly emotional and difficult couple weeks, this week was a relief. I was invited to a girl’s night with pumpkin painting and nostalgic Halloween movies (Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus, etc). Just soooo thankful to have some super supportive women in my life 🥹. I’ve started to feel oddly lonely around my normal friend group - queer men who are very supportive and who I love, but idk… there’s just been this growing disconnect inside me lately. The way they talk, try to comfort, connect… I’ve been feeling guilty about it, but I feel worse ignoring my feelings and trying to force myself to be somewhere I don’t want to be. Like, how does the girl at the coffee shop I visit throughout the week know exactly how to comfort me, pick me up, include me, and make me feel seen, but my long-time friends don’t 😭

Oh! I’ve also been playing Infinity Nikki and losing it over how cute and cozy the story, world, and clothes are! Suuuper recommend it!!

The combination might not be causing nausea, but nausea is a potential side effect with Lamotrigine. When I was being treated for Bipolar Disorder, I had to switch mood stabilizers due to random vertigo spells. I hope it’s something else if you’ve been feeling stable (mentally) with your current prescriptions since changing psych medications is a huge pain!

I’m a little over 6 months on hrt and haven’t noticed any appetite changes. I’ve actually been eating far less and more sporadically. I was eating for performance reasons pre-transition, so I’d say I’m eating more normally. How are you receiving/dosing your estrogen? I use patches, but I could see fluctuating hormones from injections/pills affecting appetite.

I hope your appointment goes well! If things don’t click, I suuuper recommend Folx Health. It’s an online doctor service, and you never have to do anything in person outside the blood work. They made the process so easy- one appointment over video chat, and then boom, pharmacy had my hrt the same day. Good luck!!

I still really enjoy Phasmophobia and all the games which came out after that have similar mechanics/gameplay. The Dark Pictures games are all really great experiences. There’s also indie games like Little Nightmares and Dredge! Alan Wake, Outlast, Still Wakes the Deep… Honestly there’s been so many amazing ones which have come out. For days/nights where you want a lighter experience, the Observation Duty type games can be fun!

The interview process is what is causing me the most anxiety right now. Lost my job at the end of June, and I KNOW I need to be looking harder, but I’m just dreading the whole interview process. I’ve been procrastinating like crazy…I just don’t want to relearn a whole culture of a new team; it’s so mentally draining. 12 years somewhere and the idea that I have to start all over again…😭

That has been my experience as well! Prepaid for 6 sessions so I set my expectations around that. Two weeks after my first, one morning ~90% of my hair wiped right off during my skincare routine. I was sooo excited! I seem to just have a few small active patches left which I’m hoping the second session helps with. Definitely putting money down for my legs and arms next time I go.

Been all about this recently. Somehow feeling both under and overstimulated by everything.

They must have changed it! There was the option for a monthly subscription as well as a lifetime purchase.

https://help.niagaralauncher.app/article/104-price-of-niagara-pro

I feel that! I ended up buying the premium license. I figure if I use it as long as I use Nova, it’ll pay for itself. Also will hopefully help the creator and prevent them from selling it to some advertising firm.

It was my go to launcher for years, but this weekend I decided it was time to see what else there was. I ended up on Niagara Launcher and have been liking it! Took about a day to get used to it- it’s definitely different. There’s not really an app drawer, and as far as I can tell there’s only one home screen and one place for widgets (you can have more than one, but you flip through them). I like how simple it is and how quickly I can get to everything.

Yes same! My appointment was so sudden - quickly shaved 30 minutes before going with no other prep. I was honestly surprised how much it didn’t hurt. They did explain that their laser had a fancy cooling tech which I definitely felt working. The first few times I tried to shave after were strange! My razor just wasn’t cutting the hairs since I don’t think they were really rooted. I learned that it’s pretty common, but no one really explained that to me!

Up and down! Definitely lonely and can’t seem to catch any of my friends when they’re free. I had my first laser session for my face a few weeks ago. I was disappointed that it only seemed to irritate my skin, but on Tuesday, when doing my morning skincare routine, hairs just fell from my face; had a full shadow with a few days growth waking up, and then about 85% of it just wiped away. Not sure how much of it will be growing back, but it was sooo exciting!

I don’t even understand what’s being asked. Women can be gay, so the title itself is baffling. Implying that men wearing pink or any type of physical presentation implies anything about someone’s sexuality is just weird. Yes, as society moves past its weird obsessions about people’s sexuality, we’ll see more of every type of couple and relationship dynamics.

Get into something - hyperfixate, become part of community, wake up one day with zero interest in thing, become lonely as you no longer enjoy thing with other people, cry, find new thing and repeat… Look back and realize you have no foundation other than this cycle- now too traumatized to get into anything new and feel completely gray.