u/Legal-Law9214

I practiced Kajukenbo for several years as a child and really enjoyed it. I remember that the classes I took were heavily focused on self-defense. We did some light sparring but the contact and intensity increased with your level - I remember watching a black belt promotion exam where the examinee had to defend themselves against several attackers at once and thinking it was very cool and impressive. I also enjoyed the "forms" in addition to the more practical elements of the classes. 

I got busy as a teenager and dropped karate for other activities but now as an adult I'm interested in going back. I can't find any Kajukenbo classes near me. There are several karate and martial arts schools in my city and as far as I can tell it looks like my options are Shotokan, Shorin-ryu, or other types of martial arts entirely like jiu-jitsu.

I am wondering which of those styles is the most similar to Kajukenbo with a similar emphasis on self-defense and actual combat but with some of the more dance-like, performance-based elements as well. Has anyone practiced multiple of these styles and can offer some comparison?

For context, I don't have a specific hypermobility diagnosis. I've known some of my joints are hypermobile for most of my life but only recently started to realize the ways in which it impacts my life and started going to physical therapy for some of them - mainly right now its a lot of neck pain and tension that I'm trying to treat.

Sometimes when I extend my right leg in the right/wrong way I hear a kind of crunchy sound. It doesn't hurt but it definitely feels weird and sort of unsettling. I have a lot of joints that make popping and cracking noises all the time with no apparent negative consequences so I never thought much about it.

Right now though my right leg feels... Weird. I don't remember exactly the last time that specific crunch happened but last night I started noticing that it just feels strange and different than my left leg. It doesn't hurt at all and I can still walk and do all of my other movements normally - even a pistol squat with no pain or anything. But something about my leg feels kind of strange and I have that sensation in my hip like when it feels like you need to crack your back but can't, if that makes sense.

Could this possibly be a slight subluxation? Should I be worried about it? I'm paranoid about long term damage due to loss of blood flow or nerve compression or something like that if my joint IS out of place. But it feels silly to go to the ER or a doctor over something that isn't causing me any pain or interfering with my movement. It's just a strange, subtle, somewhat distracting sensation. I've been having a lot of health anxiety lately so it's been hard to not worry about every little sensation that I notice. And it's bugging me that I can't get that satisfying crack and feel normal again.

Does this sound familiar? Does anyone have any recommendations? Or am I just completely overthinking and worrying about nothing?

M25, drink occasionally, smoke weed daily, no tobacco/nicotine.

I had 3 fillings done a little over a month ago, June 23rd. All were on the upper left side. One of them, I think 15, was apparently much deeper than my latest xray had shown. The dentist said it was pretty close to the nerve and to come back if I had pain that lasted longer than a week or two. At first I had some pain and sensitivity when chewing and with hot/cold temperatures, but that faded. However, I continued to experience intermittent, random pain. Probably not more than a 2 or 3 on the pain scale, but enough to worry me because the dentist had warned me that it was possible I'd need a root canal.

I went back last week and asked them to check it out. They did another xray and didn't seem concerned with what they saw. The dentist drilled a tiny bit of the filling down to adjust my bite, I didn't even need to be numbed up, he basically shaved a small amount of filling off of the surface. He also did a couple of diagnostic tests but he didn't really explain what he was doing, he was moving kind of fast, I think I was the last appointment of the day. Ultimately he said he thought I was still in the healing stage because the filling was so deep and to come back if the pain got any worse.

I don't think it's gotten worse, but it also hasn't really gone away or gotten much better. I'm continuing to experience random bouts of pain. Occasionally it will be like jolts of sharper pain that only last a second or two, and sometimes it's a more constant ache, but still will usually fade within 10-15 minutes. I notice the pain probably once or twice every two or three days.

I guess I'm just worried because it seems like it's taking a long time. Everything I've seen online says fillings might be sore for a few weeks but now it's been almost 6 weeks. Does anyone know how long I might expect this to continue? Even if it doesn't get worse, should I go back again after a certain amount of time if it hasn't gone away?

I'm scared of having to get a root canal, never had that procedure before, but I'm also scared of getting an infection and letting it progress too far. I'm not sure what is normal in a case like this.

I guess this is half just a vent and half looking for support/advice.

I feel like a common theme I see when people talk about their ADHD is only being able to be motivated by anxiety/impending deadlines. I feel like it's usually the opposite for me and I'm wondering if anyone can relate.

I'm medicated, prescribed 20 mg vyvanse per day but admittedly don't take it every single day and rely on caffeine some days instead. The vyvanse certainly helps a little bit with this but it doesn't really solve the problem because I still default to taking care of the less overwhelming or "easy" tasks first and putting off the hard, scary stuff. Vyvanse kind of just makes taking care of the easy stuff much more seamless but that almost makes the avoidance worse because I can completely focus on the easier tasks without thinking about what I'm avoiding.

At work or in general, if a project is interesting and feels manageable with plenty of time to get it done, it's not very hard for me to tackle. But with the big stuff if I'm not sure exactly where to start I get anxious and avoid starting. This gets worse and worse as a deadline gets closer because I start to think about how much time I've wasted and how it will be harder and harder to get it done the longer I wait, so the anxiety increases and so does the avoidance. If I get really overwhelmed and scared it feels like I'm completely stuck.

I know the classic advice of breaking things into smaller steps and taking it piece by piece and I can do that somewhat. However, just chipping away at the low-hanging fruit doesn't really help much with actually tackling the large, complex tasks. I get to a point where I can't picture what it looks like to go from point A to point B and the project just looms like some big scary monster that I don't even want to think about. I work in a field where I'm expected to self-direct and reach out when I have questions and that kind of makes it worse - I avoid reaching out for help because I get embarrassed about how little progress I've made and how behind I feel. The whole thing just snowballs and the more anxious and stressed I get the harder it is to do anything at all. Even on meds I just end up hyperfocusing on something easy and completely avoiding the thing that's scaring me.

I think part of the problem is I have this stubborn need to be independent so it's already really hard for me to ask for help. When something is really intimidating me it's even harder because that task avoidance anxiety gets multiplied by the asking for help anxiety. I just isolate myself and dig a deeper and deeper hole instead of being able to admit that I'm struggling and reach out to someone who can help.

I don't really expect there to be an easy fix for this, I know it's mostly just building up a tolerance for that anxiety and learning to push through it anyway. I am getting a little better at it - a couple of years ago I hit a point of complete burnout and overwhelm and had to take a couple of months off of work to reset. I can feel that stress building back up but I have been able to make some progress on the project that's currently the most daunting to me, which is an improvement. It just feels really slow because I still waste so much time avoiding it and only get very small pieces done each day. It's like I can't build up momentum at all and whenever I can focus a little bit and make some amount of progress it just reminds me how much more there is to do and the anxiety increases. I'm scared of getting back to that point where I completely shut down. Possibly the worst part is I know it's all in my head so I kind of beat myself up for it which definitely doesn't help at all.

I'm frustrated because I feel like I can see the whole problem from an outside perspective. I recognize what's going on and what I need to do (reach out for help, take things step by step, learn to live with and work through discomfort and uncertainty, forgive myself for not being perfect), but putting those things into practice is so difficult. And then I see people talk about how anxiety is a motivator for them and I don't understand at all. It's a self-reinforcing cycle for me where anxiety shuts me down which causes more anxiety because I'm so aware of what I'm not doing. I feel like I need to be feeling happy, relaxed, and confident to be productive and when I'm stuck in this procrastination loop I just get further and further from that good place. It gets to a point where it's hard to even relax and take breaks because I can't stop thinking about what I'm avoiding. So I'm both unproductive AND stressed and there's no end in sight - and it's completely my own fault.

Any words of support, advice, or even just validation would be helpful right now. I know I also need to get back to therapy but sometimes that just stresses me out more because it takes up so much time and emotional energy. It's one of those things that's probably helpful in the long run but never feels helpful in the immediate moment. I normally come out of therapy sessions feeling kind of drained and have a really hard time refocusing and getting back to my normal routine. I've never been able to build a comfortable rapport with a therapist to a point where a session brings me relief and is something I look forward to. It always just feels like hard work and becomes another thing I'm avoiding.

Anyone else a klutz who keeps hitting their head on things?

I've always had kinda bad awareness of where my various body parts are. Walking into doorframes, tripping over cracks in the sidewalk because I'm dragging my feet, you probably know the drill.

I just moved into a house where the optimal place for our couch just happens to be right in front of a bricked up/painted over fireplace. There's a mantelpiece still attached to the wall which is great for lamps, display pieces, etc., but it's basically just above where my head is. My head isn't directly under the shelf but it's kind of right in front of it. I've already bonked myself a couple of times this month, luckily not hard, but I'm nervous that one day I'll really not be paying attention and it'll be worse. I would hate to give myself a concussion while literally relaxing at home but it seems like a possibility with this set up.

Due to the shape and dimensions of the house there's really no other place for the couch. Everything about the room set up right now is perfect except for this shelf so I'm trying to figure out how to pad it or something so it's less dangerous.

I just realized there's a whole industry out there dedicated to making padding for furniture corners because babyproofing is a thing. Babies though are a lot smaller and lighter so they're not hitting things with quite as much force. If I lose my balance or something and fall over I'm falling a lot harder than a baby would. So I'm wondering if there are any products out there specifically designed for adults or for heavier-duty use than babyproofing. Or do you think the stuff made for babies would work just as well in this case? Does anyone else have experience trying to do this kind of thing?

I have a community garden plot where I have about 6 okra plants. It's part of a seed saving project so some of the pods will go to that but I'd like to also eat as much of it as I can. I know that if you keep them on the plant too long they get woody so I try to harvest often, but I didn't realize how short their lifespan is in the fridge. Last week I thought I had a good amount saved up and went to make fried okra but had to compost about half of it because it had been in the fridge too long and gone soft.

I get 2-4 pods every few days. Other than making small batches of fried okra frequently, what should I use it for so that I actually get to eat it? Or can I freeze it or save it for eating some other way so I actually end up with a good volume? I guess I could throw a couple of pods into a soup every now and then but I'm interested to see if anyone else has any better or more interesting ideas. Do I just need to grow more okra plants next year so I get more pods per harvest?

I remember several years ago the doordash app was just a simple list of restaurants. You could filter by category or you could just see all restaurants in the area, sorted by distance, average price, delivery time, etc.

It's steadily become a worse and worse user experience. At some point they removed or hid that basic list and now I can only click on the seemingly algorithmically generated categories - "new to you" "local favorites". Today I opened the app and it's giving me a bunch of categories based on random dishes that it has decided I might want? "Beef pho" "burgers" "chicken with cashews". It seems like these categories just get generated and presented to me. I feel like my choices are being arbitrarily limited by the app algorithm trying to anticipate what I'm looking for and pre-sorting my options without just giving me the ability to sort and search the way I want.

Why can't I just look at a map or a basic list anymore? The categories they present me now are always changing and shifting around and it feels like the same 4 or 5 restaurants are at the top of almost every category. I want to be able to just scroll through a list of all the nearby restaurants without having to click on all of these different categories just to see all of my options.

I know I can just use google maps to find a restaurant and then order through doordash or another delivery service, but I used to only need to use one app for the whole process. If your app requires someone to use a completely separate app for full functionality, it's a bad app. Just let me see all my options in one place and sort and filter them how I choose, like a normal list.

Genuine question.

I was diagnosed with asthma as a kid. I would have attacks of wheezing and feeling like I could not breathe at all. Gasping and struggling to take in a breath. Was prescribed a rescue inhaler.

The thing is, I lived in a house with a pretty bad mold problem. We moved out when I was 7 and I have not had one of those attacks since. I am now 25.

I genuinely thought I did outgrow it or that moving away from the house cured me. I have been exposed to so many common triggers in the time since and have never had an attack since. Sports, dancing, marching band (playing a wind instrument!), singing. Smoking - cigarettes socially for about two years in college, weed daily for the last 6 years at least. I've had COVID twice and while both cases made me very mentally fatigued and caused other acute illness symptoms, I had no real trouble breathing at any point.

I had a bout of what I thought was shortness of breath a few years ago after starting a new ADHD medication. I genuinely think it was a mental anxiety thing because I went to an urgent care, got a new albuterol resuce inhaler, and it didn't change the symptom at all. What did work was getting on a different ADHD med that caused less anxiety and doing diaphragmatic breathing exercises. I'm pretty sure actual asthma isn't just in your head and can't be managed with anxiety remedies - right?

The symptoms I felt as a child that led me to my diagnosis were so severe and distinct. I've never felt anything at all like that after moving away from that house. Could I have had some kind of acute condition that was misdiagnosed as asthma? Or does it really go completely dormant like this in spite of exposure to triggers? How would I know? I go to the doctor regularly. I think I've even told them I "had asthma as a kid but haven't had symptoms in years". They never tell me to do anything medication-wise and never say anything about hearing wheezing or anything when they listen to me breathe.

I guess it wouldn't cost me that much to just keep a rescue inhaler prescription up to date and carry it around just in case, so I'll ask my doctor about this at my next appointment in a few months. I guess in the meantime I'm curious about what could have caused my childhood symptoms if they weren't asthma, or if they were, why haven't any of the triggers and risk factors listed above ever caused it to come back?

25 M, do drink (occasionally) and smoke weed (daily, but not yet today). Take 20 mg vyvanse per day (not every single day) for ADHD. Hypermobile joints. No other known health issues.

I just got three fillings done this morning on molars in the upper left quadrant. I think it was 13, 14, and 15. They said 15 in particular was deeper than it looked on the x-ray and pretty close to the nerve so I should look out for pain in that tooth that doesn't go away after a few days in case I need a root canal.

However, I am now having a fair bit of pain in my lower front teeth, mostly on the left side as well - like the two or three teeth just to the left of center. It seems too far away to have been impacted much by the filling process, so I'm confused. Is there a simple explanation for this, or should I call my dentist back? Is it maybe bite related? I already had crowded teeth in that area and other areas. My dentist has previously recommended Invisalign which I was considering pursuing in the future, but I've never really had acute, sharp pain in my lower teeth like this until today. It feels like a stinging, very sensitive sensation, sort of like cold sensitivity but it is not related to temperature.

My upper left gumline is fairly sore right now too but I figure that part is to be expected from all the jostling during the filling procedure. That soreness feels like a distinctly different type of pain than what I am feeling in my lower front teeth.

Usually this isn't an issue when I'm going to the office because I'm sort of in a rush so the adrenaline makes everything more automatic. Take my vyvanse, get dressed, grab something to eat, run out the door.

The problem is, when I work from home or if its a weekend but I still want to get things done such as cleaning/other chores, I am often so sleepy in the morning that I actively don't want to take my meds because I'd rather be lazy and sleep all day than get anything done. I know taking my meds, or even just having a bit of caffeine if I want to take a break from the vyvanse, would likely make that feeling go away, but I'm so resistant to doing any of that in the first place.

Does anyone else relate to this? Are there any tricks you use to like force yourself to take your meds when you're staying home but still want to be productive in theory?

Everything I'm seeing is like "put barriers on your bed posts so they can't crawl up" but they are already in the frame. Obviously actually getting rid of the infestation is going to be a project but how do I sleep tonight?

Had anyone had their surgery done at the Johns Hopkins Chief Resident plastic surgery clinic? I was considering calling for a consult but it seems they charge a $100 fee just for the consult and don't take health savings accounts for some reason? I am already planning on paying "out of pocket" because my insurance won't cover it, but not being able to use my HSA to pay is a barrier, so I'm hoping to gather some information first. It looks like the surgeon who supervises the program isn't one of Hopkins' gender affirming surgery experts so I'm not even 100% sure they do these kinds of surgeries through that program.

I go to two different gyms depending on my schedule and lately I've noticed that the cable machine at one gym feels way harder than the machine at the other. I assume the pulleys are configured differently at each gym but it's annoying because I'll select the same weight and it feels totally different than I expect. It makes tracking my progress on those exercises feel kind of useless because I can't really compare to my previous session if it was at a different gym.

I'm mainly doing tricep pushdowns and seated cable rows on these machines.

I don't think it's just my own fluctuations on different days because I have multiple sessions at each gym to compare now and my other exercises with free weights generally feel much more consistent.

Does anyone else have this problem? Am I crazy? Is there any quick and easy way to make a conversion between different machines? I could draw diagrams of the pulleys on both machines and do out all the math, but that sounds like more thinking than I want to do for my lifts, to be honest.