u/EthosUnharvestedClay

Hello! I've been lurking for a while and this subreddit is making me keen to try more teas. The problem is that I'm very sensitive to caffeine and I need to be careful with it.

I love houjicha, and I know it's one of the least caffeinated teas out there, but what others do people recommend? I've mostly tried green teas over the years, as well as barley tea (which wasn't to my liking) and some tisanes (peppermint is my current favourite but I've found a really nice lemon balm & lavender one recently too).

I'm open to trying anything, including more tisanes. As long as it has no or little caffeine I'm good 🙂 I'm a complete noob so any info is appreciated as well.

(I plan on buying a proper tea infuser soon. We have a small one that does its job (I've tried it on loose leaf rose hip & hibiscus tea and it was definitely strong enough in terms of flavour) but I've read it's better to have something bigger/wider. For the most part I use tea bags but I find loose leaf fascinating and am not opposed to that!)

Thanks in advance for any ideas! I wish I could be more adventurous but oh well, at least I can still enjoy tisanes and low caffeine teas if nothing else so I can't really complain.

Lately I've started joining more animal subreddits. I tend to stay away from the main ones and I don't look at anything cat related because the RIP posts upset me too much.

But the ones of slightly more niche animals (ie ones that aren't cats or dogs) have been amazing. As someone who lives in a country that doesn't really allow exotic pets I've been having a lot of fun admiring cute/cool animals from around the world 🥰

This isn't an exhaustive list, but these are some of the highlights:

• r/RATS
• r/snails
• r/snakes and r/ballpython
• r/Cows
• r/jumpingspiders (yes I'm serious, they're super cute)
• r/sheep
• r/birding
• r/NewZealandWildlife (local wildlife shoutout)
• r/Rabbits
• r/stupiddovenests

Much better than being bombarded with politics and infighting! Obviously there are still posts about animal death on most of these but I still really enjoy learning about all of these different animals and the love people have for them.

I don't have a lot of the common issues like low calcium or hearing loss. But that's compensated with having a complex heart condition that's so rare it's never listed on any basic symptom list and I've only ever seen it in full lists of the ~200 possible symptoms. Also, ironically, I have super sensitive hearing.

I was the first person to be diagnosed with 22q (Deletion) in my country in the mid 90s, back when it was called VCFS. My parents had to fight the geneticist for the test. A few years ago I decided I should get the newer test done just to confirm things and yep I definitely have the standard microdeletion.

My entire life has been dealing with medical issues. For a long time it was my heart -- I've had two open heart surgeries, the last when I was 12. I had surgery to repair severe scoliosis when I was 14.

I've also dealt with autism, GERD, insomnia, iron deficiency, depression, sensory issues, suspected IBS, and a whole lot of other things. Including people not taking my health issues seriously.

Nobody understands this syndrome or how it works. Research is very new and back when I was diagnosed it was hard for my parents to find information on it. Nowadays there are multiple organisations devoted to the syndrome.

However, in recent years, I've finally gotten a lot of my bigger health issues sorted out. Turns out most of my problems with fatigue and discomfort, along with brain fog and shortness of breath, were because of the low iron levels. Which I've had my entire life. But a doctor finally suggested that I get an iron infusion and it's worked wonders. Six months later I can actually DO THINGS. Life doesn't feel nearly as overwhelming anymore. I don't get achy just sitting on the sofa for more than 30 minutes. No, the shortness of breath wasn't my heart condition or compromised lungs. It was the goddamn iron.

And my chronic insomnia was fixed by another doctor suggesting medication that actually worked for me. Everyone's been scared to put me on sleeping pills because of my heart but I really should've been on these forever ago.

For a long time I hated living and found getting through the day to be exhausting at the best of times. School got so bad that I quit in my last year.

I'm in my early 30s now. For the first time in my life, I can say that my health is stable. I haven't magically been fixed or anything and things are still hard at times. I'm still physically disabled. I'm still autistic and I still struggle with depression. But I'm able to help around the house now. I can take care of myself a bit more.

All of this to say: For anyone struggling to navigate this syndrome, whether you also have it, or you know someone who does, or you're a family member... Please don't give up. It's hard. Some people have it a lot worse than I do. In many ways, I got lucky, but in others, not so much.

People don't know what medical advice to give because everyone's different. Nobody really knows how this syndrome works, despite our understanding of it on a genetic level. Society has no idea what to do with those of us who have complex medical conditions.

But it's SO much better for us than it was when I was diagnosed 30 years ago. Long-term research actually exists. Studies are being done. There's (in some places) better access to healthcare and more knowledge about what medications work.

A few days after I was born, a doctor realised I had a heart condition. After it was diagnosed, my parents were given grief therapy as the experts in my country thought I would live for only a year. Then once I got past that year and had a thoracotomy at the age of 2, their estimate became 10 years.

Once I reached 10, they didn't know any more. The heart surgery I had when I was 5 was extremely risky. Over 50% mortality rate. The repairs I had done when I was 12 were significantly less risky, but still a major risk and I still could've died.

Here I am, 20 years later, and my heart is doing perfectly fine (well, as fine as it'll ever be). My cardiologists have no idea how I've made it 20 years without needing more repair work, but I have. And it's still holding up.

If I'm still around, despite all the setbacks in my life, then that says something. The world may be scary right now (trust me, I'm unsettled by everything going on too), but in my opinion we're all alive because we're too stubborn to let the universe rob us of our existence. So keep on being stubborn and keep on living.

I'm positive that one day, there will be more knowledge about 22q and similar syndromes. And I am determined to be around for that future.

Please love yourselves. Please enjoy the things in life that make you happy as much as you can. Please take care of your health where that's possible. It's okay to struggle. It's okay to resent being born with this stupid syndrome. You don't have to be proud of it or want to show it off -- just know that it doesn't make you any less of a person. It makes you you.

I may not be able to help most of you out there. But I hope that, by talking about my own experience, I can reassure somebody that things can get better. It's taken me 32 years to get to this point, so it doesn't happen overnight. But it's possible, and I want people to know that.

I wish everyone reading this peace, safety, good health and happiness <3

This year I've decided to be more visible in little ways (having badges on my purse and wearing a bracelet etc of my identities) and I also wanted to make the effort to go to my smallish town's Pride event.

I've never been to one before. It was really reassuring seeing just how diverse this place is. This town has a reputation for being very redneck and very conservative so it's good knowing that I'm not the only person here who thinks others shouldn't be judged for their identity.

I bought a few things, like stickers, a couple more badges, some jellybeans in the asexual flag colours (they're delicious btw), an earwarmer bandana thing, and a couple of other knickknacks.

Someone was there with art deco stuff doing bedazzling and braided my hair and put some little gem stickers in it which was fun.

They had a ton of booths and lots of different things for sale so it was good seeing the variety. I'd say there were a couple of hundred people there and I went early on.

I dragged my mum along (she's an ally but wouldn't go to something like this by herself) and she said she enjoyed it too.

I'm glad I made the effort and I'll definitely try and go again next year! I wish I could handle the bigger events and parades and such but this is as much as I can cope with. Still, it's a lot of fun and I'm pleased that I was able to support local LGBTQ+ vendors and interact with people who are under the same wonderful umbrella as me <3

I can't cook, other than using a microwave but like that doesn't count imo. I've always found it really overwhelming and have physical disabilities that make it hard to lift heavy pots & pans etc.

Last year, I had an iron infusion and it's made a lot of things easier for me, including lifting stuff and now I don't get overwhelmed but things quite as much.

The past month I've been able to make pasta -- which is mostly just boiling ravioli or tortellini. I find the ravioli easier since it doesn't take as long to cook as the tortellini and there's less of it (they're different brands).

It's not much, but I'm proud of myself for actually learning how to cook something and being able to do it on my own without having to ask my mum to cook dinner for me every night (which is rather embarrassing since I'm in my 30s. Also, for clarification, I live at home due to my disabilities).

My next goal is to learn how to use the air fryer, as my other staple meal is chicken nuggets & fries. I like a few other things cooked with the air fryer too and I want to learn how to roast things with it as well.

Baby steps! Sometimes the simple things in life are hard when you're disabled but hey, I'm slowly getting there :)

As a kid, I was a huge fan of Hamtaro and wanted hamsters of my own. However, I live in New Zealand where hamsters are illegal (they'd cause too much damage to the native ecosystems) and instead I had pet mice for a while. I loved them, but they're not quite the same! (Both are good animals though)

I've recently decided to look at more animal subreddits, and this was one that Reddit recommended to me. I've been subbed for a few weeks now and I'm really enjoying it. It's made me remember just how much I wanted a hamster 20 years ago!

So, thank you for all the cute photos and anecdotes. And my heart goes out to the people who have had to deal with sick hamsters or who have lost their little friends. Those posts are part of the reality of owning any pet, and I appreciate learning about that side of hamster ownership as well.

TL;DR: This subreddit made me remember my love of hamsters, you guys are great <3

They just keep recycling through either songs I've already liked or the most popular songs in my region which have nothing to do with the playlist. There's no way to get rid of irrelevant songs either.

Like, I have a playlist for a specific umbrella of JPop artists. Instead of showing me more songs from those artists or related artists, I tend to get:

• English-language songs from artists I have never or will never listen to
• Anime songs (It seems to shove anime songs on every single Japanese playlist I have)
• Songs that are already in the playlist
• KPop (I listen to some KPop but like... it doesn't belong in a JPop playlist)

Ideally I think playlist suggestions should be overhaulled to include songs by artists already in the playlist you haven't listened to + songs by similar artists with a way of telling YTM that a song isn't relevant. There's probably some method of disliking and then undisliking a song to reset it but the problem is when there are songs you actually do like in the suggestions.

Spotify has much better playlist suggestions. Or it did when I last used it over a year ago, I have no idea if their algorithm has suffered as well.

For many many years (well over a decade and I'm only in my 30s) I would have 1-2 cans of Coke a day. Which might not be nearly as much as what some people drink, but it was affecting me badly and not helping my various health issues (as it turns out, Coke is not good when you have a congenital heart condition).

Finally made the effort to stop as part of a larger effort to lose weight, which has been going pretty well given my limitations and disabilities. Still need to be better about that.

However, I'm pretty proud of myself for quitting Coke! I've cut out all caffeine (although I did have an iced tea yesterday, which is the first caffeine I've had since I started this) and have hardly had any sugary drinks either.

The first few days were awful but after that I adjusted well, and now I only occasionally crave Coke when I'm tired. It helps that it's autumn here so I'm not wanting the coldness of it at the moment either.

PS I've always drank plenty of water, I was drinking the Coke in addition to my water intake. So don't worry, I don't need to be told to drink more water! I drink 3-4 litres a day.