u/AtTheEdgeOfDying

It's mosquitoe season and EVERY bite on my arms and legs is getting scratched open, scabs over, scratched open, scabs over, etc. Until it's yet another little white dot scar like I have so many. I'm sick of it.

Putting bandaids over the scabs really helps, but they're not healed after a week (which is just unfair really) and I really don't much enjoy being covered in bandaids all the time.

I really like the trend of people not being afraid to cover their pimples with pretty patches! I want that! I want my scabs to be covered so I can't pick them (like the bandaids do), I want to not feel like I'm covered in bandaids and I want some of that pride ig that I'm not trying to hide the scabs. Plus just having arms covered in stars sounds a lot more pleasant than the current bandaids situation. I also fear the bandaids look more severe like "omg, what has happened to your arms?".

Is it safe to put pimple patches over scabs? Don't they have product on them? I've also hoped I could put just normal (but strong) stickers on them, could that work with some kind of barrier in the middle maybe so it doesn't stick directly onto the scabs?

I just want pretty arms instead of horror arms

I'm audhd, anxiety, all that stuff. Going to the store is hard, fulltime school was too hard, why did I ever think I could do this?? And then I just did!

Had 0 expectations of passing today! I think I stressed out so bad last night that I had nothing left, because I drove SO DAMN CALM but my hands and literally my head was shaking looking in mirrors lol.

I passed!

Honestly my first worry is even *getting myself to the exam*. I know my stress response to acute hard things like this exam and I know I will start to shut down, I'll get incredibly nauseous and really feel like I need to throw up (even though I never actually have), It'll feel like every little bit I move or breath will push me over that edge of throwing up or crying so I'll feel like I can't move or breathe properly.

I need to walk to the driving school, drive too the exam center with my instructor, go over some last stuff and then do the exam. ALSO I just got a freaking BE-alert (national alarm/alert system) on a code orange for heat tomorrow as It'll be fucking 35°c so me, my instructor and the examinator will also just be cooking and burning in this car probably and I'll already arrive soaked in sweat at the driving school before the exam. Sensory nightmare.

Things I've put in place already to give me the best shot possible:

- my mom will help me all morning to get to the exam. She's really great at knowing how to get me to keep going. She'll be my back up for waking up on time (not that I'll sleep, but just the reassurance that she'll watch the time too), makes sure I've eating something, make sure I've got everything, make sure I leave on time, etc.

- normally you also drive back with your instructor, but my mom will meet me at the exam center near the end of my exam which is just because whatever happens I WILL have be having big emotions that I can just express way better with her then having to hold everything in on a whole ride back next to the instructor lol. I am a bit nervous that my instructor will find it weird that my mom is picking me up, but that is what I need and I can't stop masking infront of anyone else to let out whatever disappointment or excitement I'll have

- right now we are fully going with the mentality that I am going to fail. 100% fail. This is just a practice exam to see what an exam is like for next time(s). This is really no big deal because I won't be relying on driving for the next 2-4 years maybe longer. I *voluntarily* chose to try driving now so I'm doing this exam just for funsies right?? So it's NOT actually important at all and I'm going to fail. Also I've looked it up and numbers from late 2025 said for my country only 47% passed their first exam, similar for the second exam and at the third attempt it was 60% passed so it's literally less than a 50/50 so it wouldn't be shameful or weird at all to fail. And pretty much everyone in my life with a license has told me their horrible exam fails before which was semi unhelpful and semi dropped the bar a bit for what I could possibly mess up.

So it's fine. Except for the small detail I might still rather die than go.

I really really hate the nausea the most. I always get so fixated on it and even swallowing a tiny anti nausea pill becomes so hard from the first second of stress. I know I'll need to eat for how I'll be gone too and I always make myself late on top of everything by needing to repeatedly go to the bathroom or being afraid to move. So if ANYONE HAS ADVICE FOR ACUTE STRESS NAUSEA. That's really my biggest enemy.

And yet.. I know that I always go over some kind of threshold where my stress boils up so much till the second before the stressy thing and suddenly everything floods over and gone and I turn into the most social, excited, calm?? person I've never met. Always happens. I've been really nervous for every driving lesson to almost throwing up and as soon as the car starts I'm always just a calm confident driver.. but surely that won't happen this time!

I'm also expecting that the stress will be unbearable, then it'll all calm down in that hour preparation with my instructor and I'll gain confidence again.. and then they make you sit in the waiting room for all that progress to be undone and your panic to build up again by the start of the exam.

Help me.

It's been over 10 years since I went to DLP and I was a kid then, so I don't remember a lot and probably didn't go on much. However I did just recently go to the "Efteling" again and since I'm autistic and I really like things being as predictable as possible, I think a comparison with some Efteling rides I *have* done would be amazing!

I've watched a lot of ride-along and read people's description before, but that's still not as tangible as comparing it to something I've actually experienced.

So mainly, BIG DOUBTS about crush's coaster and still some reservations about big thunder mountain.

BTM: I've seen on the ride along that it's pretty flat with some turns and speed, which is fine. But the drops in the dark are getting quite different descriptions from people I think. Mainly that they are supposedly not actually that far down and that the darkness and the rattling makes it most intens? In the Efteling, Joris&de draak is my absolute limit. I will still go on it if friends want me to because I know what's going to happen now, but I don't actually like the ride.. the drop on joris&de draak is a bit too much and I don't like the feeling at all, but I will still do that one because it's just 2 seconds for the rest of the ride yk? So are the 2 drops on btm more intens than that one? How do they compare? And if it's mainly the darkness and speed making those drops intens, do you still get the physical "stomach drop" feeling or just the nerves/excitement? (The stomach drop part is the most important part I hate. I don't breathe on the j&dr drop lol)

Crushes coaster: now I don't actually believe I'll be convinced to go on this one, but I wanted to ask since I've just started going on the "vogelrock" fairly recently (like the last 2 times I went) and that honestly became an instant favorite for the Efteling. It's much milder then j&dr imo because it's fast and dark and intens, but just the fun kind, not the physical dropped stomach part that I hate. Mainly because there's no drops in there probably. So since I like it so much, I still was hoping someone could tell me how similar they are/how they difference? Even those "in the light" ride along video's can only tell you so much about how it actually will feel, they're too chaotic. Does the turning shell add much intensity? Are they're drop feelings? How much does it turn? And how does it compare to the vogelrock?

Lastly, I've only very recently learned that the pirates of the Caribbean and new frozen ride have drops in them?? I always assumed they were flat boat rides like fatamorgana and probably it's a small world (right??). But I've resolved to not look at any ride alongs for those because I knew they'd be safe and mostly to look around so a video would spoil it. But I can't lie that this new information has made me just a tiny bit nervous... I'm still going those definitely, but I might sneak a look at just the drop part in potc.. surely a frozen and even pirates ride can't be that scary? Boats can't drop far, right?

So I geuss my questions for those are: Does anyone get the drop feeling in those rides? How many drops are in pirates and frozen? And are they at obvious "drop incoming" points or more unexpected?