u/Certain-Working1864

I’m about to enter into a turbulent time with health insurance. I currently have coverage, will soon have different coverage, and a couple months after I’ll need to get a different insurance again. All of that to say therapy isn’t a viable option right now because there’s no guarantee I can continue it during all these changes. Finding anything in network with 3 different plans when I don’t know which carriers they are yet isn’t likely, so I’d have to stop therapy once they’re out of network. That includes apps with telehealth OCD programs. The most popular ones are expensive without insurance.

As a result, I’m looking for alternatives to having a therapy relationship until my health insurance gets stabilized. I primarily have real-event and morality/legality OCD with a hint of health OCD. I’m interested in resources that are similar to ERP but I’m also open to ACT or other modalities.

Any books, guides, workbooks, or other resources you all can recommend for self management?

I found either a louse or a nit tonight while doing a comb through. I don’t have a photo, but it was a small, dark grey oval shaped thing with a tail. Could have been dirt, or my towel (since it’s black), but I’ve been air drying my hair recently so likely not the towel.

When I google what to do for a nit, everything I read says NOT to treat it. What do I do, then? Wait for it to become a live infestation? I’m going on vacation this weekend and need to deal with this now.

EDIT: never had lice before

I have doctors who have confirmed that I have very flat feet and that I cannot wear anything inside my shoes due to other skeletal issues that it would impair. So that means no inserts.

The shoes I was wearing every day for a year just broke. These were the only ones that didn’t hurt my feet and I could wear them for several-mile-long walks. They looked like Converse or Vans but were neither (both of those brands hurt my feet and Converse causes bleeding and open sores beyond blisters).

I bought shoes recommended to me by someone who works at a restaurant and I cannot walk anymore. Ny feet hurt so bad I have to uber home from my walks now. I don’t drive and walking is my main form of transportation, so this is a big deal.

Which shoes are good for flat feet?

I see AI use as giving away my clients’ proprietary info, and I fear legal repercussions for using it in my service-based business as a virtual assistant. However, I also fear that not using AI in any capacity is holding me back.

I don’t think clients will work with me if I let AI read our emails or incorporate it into workflows that use their proprietary data. But I get burnt out easily and need to do something about it.

How do I incorporate AI in a way that honors client confidentiality and doesn’t share sensitive client info with a third party?

My understanding is that I cannot avoid having Messenger’s AI summarize my messages with real-life peers just by not chatting with the Meta AI bot itself. I want to disable this feature, as my chats are to remain private. I thought end-to-end encryption protected me, but my friends have been receiving AI summaries for my messages and to me, that deems this privacy protection useless.

How do I keep Messenger’s AI from reading my messages?

EDIT: moving to another platform won’t allow me to communicate with family and friends who will not follow me to that platform. Everyone uses Messenger; they will not use two platforms. I’ve tried.

Before anyone ask: I’m on meds and under the care of a doctor, but there’s only so much that can be done. I failed too many meds so we’re now solely working on prevention.

My migraines cause nausea, vomiting, confusion/inability to focus, and slurred speech. As a result, I can’t work in any capacity when I have one. Even a mild one causes too much brain fog to work. The average migraine leaves me bedridden with no lights or screens.

I know this is common among migraine sufferers. Thankfully I have a job, but I also have a business that want to scale so I can have more income without worrying about losing money from migraines. But I’m not there yet.

How are other business owners with migraines managing to stay in business?

Reform Jew wanting to start a consistent Shabbat practice having never observed before. I live in a non-Jewish area and don’t have a Rabbi, for context.

I know the answer is “just do what you can.” I’m more looking to know specific ways other Jewish people with jobs and home responsibilities are observing Shabbat when sometimes, Friday nights and weekends are the only opportunities to clean, meal prep, and run errands. In my case, these are also my only chances to apply for better jobs that will increase my quality of life and ability to pay rent.

While it’s absolutely necessary, it feels irresponsible to take 24 hours of rest when I’m barely getting by and this would be procrastination.

I went to school for marketing, had marketing internships, freelance in marketing, and volunteer in marketing. I’ve always had some form of active, ongoing marketing work, but never a W-2 job. Because I was doing customer service work to pay the bills while I tried to get a marketing job, it seemed I was never being selected for marketing jobs because I was pigeonholed as a CSR. in fact, I’d even apply for marketing jobs with CURRENT marketing experience in the form of volunteer work and an UP TO DATE portfolio and be told to apply do their call center roles instead because THAT is my actual career. I nearly gave up and then got hired for a marketing job at a nonprofit.

The organization is restructuring and outsourcing all admin roles. Although I have clear and proven results with many work samples, I’ve been moved to being a direct support professional because that’s where staff is needed. Not only is this not marketing and not where I see myself long term, but DSP roles typically pay very little and my income is pretty much stunted at poverty wages if I continue that work. I have to pay my bills, and I cannot accomplish that in my new role.

Because all marketing at my job has been deprioritized, our social media hasn’t been updated and weeks and no visible activity is occurIng. It feels detrimental to say I’m still responsible for tasks I don’t do anymore because it looks like I’m not doing that job (I’m not).

However, if I list my new responsibilities on my resume, I feel like there will be questions as to why I was moved. Poor performance? Other issues with me? Why did I CHOOSE to leave marketing? I don’t think recruiters read cover letters, so my only chance to tell my story is my resume, and my resume would paint a picture that I am in a different career if I include the new role. I fear that honesty will lead to no new jobs because the recruiters will say “this is not a marketing professional; this is a direct support professional.” Just like what happened when I was in customer service.

The other issue is I have not been given any new job title or job description. DSP is what my title would be if I had one, but I was given no formal acknowledgement of this role change. So listing my new role is also technically lying.

How do I get a new job in marketing while remaining honest? Important to note: my job will not vouch for me if I write a different job title or duties. They confirm word for word.

I can’t function like this. I’m sleeping regularly now, honestly my sleep quality is great and I’m not waking up throughout the night. 8-9 hours per night as per usual. But unlike other times when I’ve been sleep deprived, sleep isn’t helping at all. Neither are energy drinks, which at this point are required if I want to go to work and pay my bills. I’m all out of PTO from the sinus infection. And the energy drinks aren’t even working. Normally I’m very caffeine sensitive so I don’t drink them much.

I finished a 10-day course of antibiotics a few days ago. How long will I be this tired for? I can’t function and will have to miss more work if it continues because I’m so tired that I just tripped going up the stairs.

I have a friend at an Alsea school, but there isn’t an Alsea sub so I’m posting here. She received a very vague message from the school district saying a message was disseminated at school that the district didn’t know about or endorse. She has no idea what this information might be, and her child doesn’t seem to know either.

I’m not sure how parents are supposed to respond to this information without knowing what the message is that they need to disregard as false.

Does anyone know what it’s about?

EDIT: she received the message at 5:27pm, at which point I imagine the schools are closed for the day.

I swear so many of my friends only hit me up when they want or need something from me. When I ask to hang out, the answer is no. But then not only do they ask to “borrow” my (expensive) stuff, ask me to buy things for them (either cigarettes or household items), or ask me for money; they get upset and impatient when I say no. I was just asked to lend a video game controller. I wasn’t home. I was asked when I’d be home to let them have it.

My friends (who are also poor) resent the little I have and that I won’t share. I’m going to have to cut so many people loose when I raise my income because they use and abuse.

It’s not “selfish” for me to not buy you shit because you can’t afford it, that doesn’t make me a bad friend. Fuck you. I can’t afford to buy other people things.

I am so beyond tired of being used and only worthy of people’s time for money I don’t even have. Ironically, I only started meeting people like this when I stopped having a decent income.

Where are all of us apartment dwellers having yard sales? I caved and listed stuff on FB Marketplace, but it’s so time consuming and usually doesn’t even get seen for months

I have various disabilities and health issues. There are some things I can do without an issue, other things I can do but it’ll take longer and more effort, other things I can’t do right now but can work towards gaining that ability, and some things I absolutely cannot do safely and can’t expect to ever be able to do.

Along the way, I’ve picked up learned helplessness and I think I’ve assumed more barriers than I actually have because I crave validation and have always been lacking it. I’m starting to work on this in therapy now that I finally have a therapist who recognizes that having more internal than external validation is a healthy goal. But in the meantime, I underestimate myself. Importantly, other people do too.

With disabilities, I can’t push myself too hard because I can get injured or burnt out to the point of psych hospitalization. It’s important that I honor those limits, but it‘s equally important that I know what they truly are.

How should I approach learned helplessness from a realistic mindset, one that considers that there are some things I truly can’t do independently if at all but also acknowledges that I can probably do most things eventually?