u/funkyfuturediabetic

okay i’m aware that susie changed so drastically between chapters 1 and 2 because she “let go of the tough girl facade!!” but there is a HUGE difference between a character putting up a front for the sake of self preservation versus actively showing the audience that you kind of enjoy reaping the benefits of being an asshole to others — not saying these two can’t be intertwined or that susie doesn’t know when to NOT go too far — but what she does in chapter 1 is a little too over the top for her to be doing it purely for the sake of a facade:

and this isn’t BAD writing obviously — it’s not bad writing to have a character do morally wrong things — but holy shiiittttt the difference between ch1 susie and ch2 susie is so jarring that sometimes they feel like completely different characters to me. it’s like the story isn’t even trying to do straightforward character development either — it’s like it’s trying to convince you that susie “was actually a good person underneath the front!” (even though her behaviors in chapter 1 tell a slightly different story) and it almost kind of gaslights you into believing that ALL of the shitty stuff she did was purely for the sake of self preservation and that she was never a truly morally grey person in the first place?? like yes i know you aren’t actually evil and it was wrong to bully kris regardless but you literally boasted about making them do your half of the project like bitch you did NOT have to do all of that 😭😭😭

and even if this is purely a facade problem (disregarding the “how” and “why” aspects of her character) it is still super incredibly jarring! oh my god! like at least spread it out across like… 3 chapters. that would have been okay. she definitely developed in chapter 1 but noottttt in a reasonable enough timespan to get to where she apparently was in chapter 2.

also the way suselle is set up is incredibly melodramatic and stupid to me and doesn’t really make sense… there were not enough hints whatsoever before chapter 5 that susie was into her too and it feels a little far fetched to believe she’s into her to the EXTENT that she is in chapter 5 given previous events. like she plays guitar at her house and whatever, but the FIRRRST thing she says to kris after they get kicked out is “damn we didn’t get the shelter code!” when this happened i was like “wow i guess susie really isn’t into noelle then! she doesn’t gaf a lot about what just happened apparently…” idk it just feels out of nowhere given the way she acts around her entire chapter 5. okay. thank you for coming to my ted talk.

hi. okay here’s what pisses me off about nay nay mixed voice exercises and how i personally found my mixed voice after like 5 years of learning to sing on and off (emphasis on “off!”) also im not a teacher whatsoever so take all of this with a grain of salt. this was just my journey personally and id like to help out other people if possible.

when i was a little 13 year old chud learning to sing, all i would see online are youtube tutorials on the “mixed voice” and how you should do a “bratty nay nay” or “cartoon voice” in order to access it. when i did this, it did not feel effortless at all and strained a lot and my larynx would shoot up like crazy and it sucked. i knew i was doing something wrong, but i didn’t know what to do since it was literally ALL i saw online and it seemed to work for people learning to sing like i was.

however, i ALSO saw a bunch of people saying that you can’t “unlock” the mix and that you actually have to train it??? so i did a bunch of these mixed voice scale exercises to “train” it but it didn’t make any sense to me because i would have to switch from chest voice to head voice as i got higher or else i would crack… wouldn’t that mean that i was just training them separately and not actually mixing anything??? how the heck do i ACTUALLY mix???? also those scale exercises sometimes used the nay nays too and i didn’t like that very much.

anyway, rinse and repeat that for like 4 years with large gaps in between. one day im scrolling le instagram vocal coach videos when suddenly i come across this video.

at about 0:40, sophie (this isn’t an ad for her or her course btw. i heavily disagree with her sentiment that mix is a separate register, however this video was incredibly vital to my journey) covers her nose with her finger and sticks her tongue slightly out while doing… okay you saw the video just watch her dude.

anyway i saw this and was like “oh gee ive never seen this technique before. i guess ill try it?” and while maintaining both chest and head resonance and traveling through my passagio seamlessly, i was amazed that i had actually MIXED my registers for the first time in like, what, 4 years?

however, when i tried to go louder to not exactly belt, but actually project how i would onstage as if i was singing as a disney princess, i started feeling my break again and was like crap. BUT. it was still a totally new sensation to me and when i tried again slightly below my speaking tone, (GIGANTIC EMPHASIS ON *SLIGHTLY*) it totally worked and no break was to be seen.

of course i had to maneuver through it and really focus on my control, but it basically worked and i had “found my mix” and it was a completely new sensation to me. however, this will ONLY work and actually count as you mixing as long as you maintain CHEST and head resonance even when you’re ***SLIGHTLY*** below your speaking voice. this is why i keep emphasizing the slight-ness of it — you absolutely need to be loud enough to maintain CHEST resonance. otherwise? you’re just in head voice!

at this stage, if you’re a beginner and have never belted or mixed healthily before, you cannot use too much power and this isn’t even really usable in a musical theatre setting (sorry this post is slightly biased towards theatre or choir people.) and i’ll explain that now.

using this technique made me realize that the “training wheels mixed voice” is something that anyone can access as long as their head voice and chest voice is developed. and by that i mean if you can do a really good sounding stern low note and a pingy head voice note you’ll be fine and you’re ready. you CAN unlocked the ability to mix and move through your passagio, however, if you want to get louder you actually have to develop that volume using chord closure exercises and just training your volume over time.

now you’re probably wondering — how the heck do i get out of the “covering my nose” stage of all this? well, let me tell you about my second dramatic realization scene that quickly followed after my new discovery.

one night, when i was doing a production of romeo and juliet, me and the rest of the cast were ogling at the tech crews balcony they made for the. cough. balcony scene. and then we started making evita rachel zegler jokes because theatre kids suck and we are obnoxious.

anyway, i was singing “don’t cry for me argentina” to myself in a hushed manner (the same “1% below your speaking voice” manner i was previously doing. this is called foreshadowing.) at the far end of the auditorium before we began running scenes. the actual chorus part was in chest voice for me but when i got to the “neeeever!!!” part i just randomly mixed and i suddenly realized…

THE REASON WHY BRATTY NAY NAYS AND NASAL EXERCISES NEVER WORKED FOR ME!!!!!

some beginners (some!) who try bratty exercises like these will see these coaches do nasal, pingy, high notes effortlessly and then try it for themselves so they can hit a high note.

what will result (sometimes!) is them trying to mix their vocal registers and adding a belty or even at minimum a projective weight to it when they’re not ready yet. this will result in it feeling like crap. i sang “neeeeverr!!! left you!” on a NEH and it completely worked for me in that moment because…

1. i wasn’t being super loud and was slightly below my speaking volume while maintaining chest resonance!

2. i actually knew how to mix my registers and one specific exercise (da nose finger thing.) allowed me to actually use nasality.

NAY NAY’s, and MEOWS, and NEH’s and all the other stupid exercises vocal coaches use for teaching mix actually do work and NOW i use a select few of them now that i understand and can feel the nasality and mask sensation and everything else they’re talking about. i just don’t use them while projecting like crazy because projection and adding volume to the sound involves training it which i’ve LITERALLY just started doing like a couple days ago — aka im not ready to project like they can yet!

anyway, if you want to remove the finger and use “nuhs” or “nays” on their own, do the hunngggguhhhh thing sophie does and then just continuously say “nuh nuh nuh” (preferably on a note in your passagio, and reminder, 1% less volume than your speaking voice.) and then remove your finger. i went home immediately after this rehearsal and it worked well for me!

as for actually adding weight to the sound, that’s something which again i just started worked on so i can’t speak from “experience” too much yet. i would heavily implore you to do chord closure exercises because those will be vital in helping you not only add power, but also actually train yourself to extend your belty notes upwards!

the roadmap that’s transpired for me so far and how i envision it to look like is organized something like this…
- do sophie jolls hunguhhh weird nose crap with 1% less volume than my speaking voice in order to find mixed resonance
- transition from finger to actually finding this feeling through nuh’s and neh’s/nay’s (prefer nuh…) and be able to tap into the mix without the nose stuff
- use chord closure techniques and train these nuh’s on scales and slowly (slowly!) raise volume over time to add le power

okay yeah that’s been my mixed voice journey and “plan” so far i guess. i’m hoping to update this one day with my progress… stay tuned. also again i’m not a vocal teacher this is just me using my knowledge over the course of years to paint my own picture of the mixed voice and how to theoretically grow it into something usable and cool and will allow you to belt. again the latter half of this essay about chord closure is all theoretical and i can’t guarantee anything past the “training wheels stuff”. okay peace

ASIDE from wanting to know more about the intricacies of SBURB’s mechanics (not trying to redo this thread again) what are some things you deem missed potential/wish had more narrative attention in Homestuck? (Preferably characters arcs, loose threads/unanswered questions, abandoned story beats, etc.)

I personally find the fact that other people aside from the main cast played SBURB before the beta kids session really interesting…

what it says on the tin… tell me what you liked about it!

For the people who cured their Anhedonia via finding out they had to take medication for a vitamin deficiency, which one(s) did you have a deficiency in and which ones do you generally see other people have deficiencies in? Also, which ones are most linked to neurotransmitter performance too?

17F — I want to find the root cause of my anhedonia before trying any attempts to cure it… I’m going to crack open “Feeling Great” by David Burns soon, (as I saw it work for another person struggling with anhedonia), however, I’m not sure whether mine stems from unresolved cognitive issues/thinking patterns (can be solved with therapy) OR some kind of biological vitamin deficiency/AKA I need actual medication. I’m now going to rattle off essentially the CliffsNotes version of my anhedonia “journey” as of now.

In the fast of last year I was incredibly happy, and most importantly, I was capable of feeling joy and passion. However, I became a bit obsessed with perfecting every facet of myself whatsoever to the point where it kind of got into (sometimes) self-hatred territory… emphasis on sometimes. Again, I could still feel joy.

Then (around November) I become extremely obsessed with this guy in my mutual friend circle. And obviously if you’re feeling like crap, you’re going to basically exploit anything that gives you joy to the extreme — I developed a dopamine addiction and all of my thoughts, goals, and actions just revolved around this one guy. Just being around him made me very happy.

However, my GOD did my self-hatred issues absolutely skyrocket. I’d write down so often in my journal that I was trash and worthless and unlovable etc etc etc. Like it became an actual issue ever since this guy came into my life.

Both of these things persisted until February. That’s when I truly lost all feelings of joy whatsoever/was the start of my prolonged anhedonic episode. I couldn’t stop taking “dopamine hits” (zero joy from this point onward) from him, but every time I even thought about him my stomach churned so badly. I started to lose interest in all of my passions and began viewing my very hopeful future career with this weird sense of dread, as if my life would be over in a few years or something. It’s hard to describe.

At one point or another (February, still), the problem climaxed and I just kind of sat myself down and told myself to stop with the self-hatred and start viewing myself from an objective lens. I stopped feeding heavily into the thoughts, but I never really spoke to anyone about it or resolved them fully, I just stopped entertaining them. My internal value system didn’t really change regarding myself, though, imo, even if I wasn’t feeding into it.

My dopamine addiction lasted until late May when I found out he had a girlfriend and seriously had to do a self-intervention. I was completely over him in a week or two… but even after that, my condition didn’t change. Then I thought that my dopamine receptors were ALSO fried because I had a scrolling addiction (which was actually also true and has now been resolved) so I abstained from instant gratification and kind of lived like a nun for over a month.

This has definitely improved my quality of life, but again, I am still not capable of joy whatsoever and I’m beginning to get worried. I don’t really feed into negative thoughts that often aside from worrying that I’ll never get better, but it doesn’t happen often. I don’t have any symptoms of depression. I’m at my most productive I’ve ever been, yet I’m kind of only doing it because I have nothing better to do (better than laying around in bed for 12 hours a day, I’m practically the OPPOSITE of a depressed patient.)

Here’s some extra info about me if this helps: I’m diagnosed with mild ADHD and have been off meds for about 2 years, however I was able to experience joy loooong before this entire debacle off meds. I was previously on a depressant medication, however I have seen success with stimulants before (concerta was great for me in the 4th grade…) however my mild Tourette’s didn’t take a liking to it. To be fair this was also 9 ago so I’m not sure how I’d respond now. Again, I never really resolved my weird self-hatred complex FULLY and kind of just told myself to forget about it as if it never happened.

Another anecdote if this helps: In October of last year, I experienced a repressed memory in which I kind of realized >!that I got m*lested/gr*ped by a pediatrician while my father was in the room at the age of 8 years old!<. I had kind of always remembered it (barely) but it actually hit me fully last October that holy shit I got >!SA’d by a doctor!<. I will note that I only told a friend about it and never worked through it in the emotional sense nor did I ever choose to think about it again until now. Whenever I did, for some reason I would just start speculating whether or not I was imagining it/it really happened.

Even if I don’t actively experience negative thoughts or emotions now, can I still heal unresolved ones and thus the root cause of my anhedonia? Or is none of this really indicative of a root cause and should I opt for medication instead? Please help!

haven’t seen anyone have similar experiences so i’m posting about it now — ever since i quit quick dopamine hits (mainly scrolling and instant gratification/no media of any sort aside from researching dopamine detox stuff from time to time, i live super understimulated) but ever since i started my second detox like 10 days ago, i haven’t had ANY cravings or thought anything like “damn i could REALLY use some instagram reels right now…”

not just because they’ve lost their “oomph” (my receptors are fried probably… couldn’t do any journaling for more than 20 secs without going back to scrolling before my detox) but also every time i DO use said dopamine hits i get this hoooorrrrible feeling of dread and get no joy out of said hit. it’s very strange. whenever i go about my day on my boring-ass nun adjacent schedule, on the other hand, i don’t really get anything like that other than an excruciating feeling of boredom… but like a good excruciating. not like the feeling of wanting to crawl out of my skin and insert other various bad thoughts here like i do with youtube, scrolling, etc.

don’t get me wrong, my quality of life has changed for the better since i restarted, but i’ve heard a million times that i have to “feel worse to feel better” and honestly it’s the opposite. which i’m not complaining about — im just scared that im not making an actual change if im not feeling the effects at all and i think it’s a bit weird that the sensations i get from both “lifestyles” seem to be switched around. then again i am 10 days into this…

EDIT: forgot to emphasize this part but it’s still basically impossible for me to feel any emotion of any sort/i have a complete and total loss of joy and passion etc etc

(The title is definitely representative of the fact that end-stage screen addiction should be classified as a public health crisis imo…)

A little over a week ago, I totally quit reels and YouTube shorts cold turkey in order to cure my dopamine addiction/supposed screen addiction — mainly because of the fact that I literally haven’t felt joy in about 5 months because of it. The first day I confined myself to no online recreational media whatsoever (including long-form content) and only spending my time either doing chores, drawing, or reading Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (about 1200 pages long). It was whatever.

On days 2 and 3 I did a bit more research on my various addictions and reintroduced long-form content like Earthbound and YouTube videos over 20 minutes long (not in the background, stuff I actively payed attention to).

I spent most of Day 3 doing career research stuff for myself and playing piano — that’s when I felt joy for the first time in like 5 months. And it was great! There was nothing super uncomfortable for the first five days, but now, for some reason, I’m sinking back into that weird, apathetic person I was when I was reels-addicted even though I’m abstaining from short-form content and quick dopamine hits. I’ve still regained all of my willpower and productivity back (surprisingly quickly, might I add), but my happiness is moving in weird ebbs and flows right now.

Am I experiencing withdrawals? How long did it take you guys to experience consistent joy again after quitting short-form content?

I currently wear a retainer every night and clean it every morning (can’t go more than 2 days without wearing it). To anyone who wore overnight retainers in BMT — how were you able to clean it in between wears?

I recently reconnected with a fellow alumni from SPX and we had a lengthy conversation concerning our experiences there. It’s difficult to find many reviews on the school online (not surprised, there were only 50 students alongside me in my graduating class; it’s always been a small school) and I was wondering if there were any other alumni on this subreddit willing to talk about their experiences there and overall thoughts on SPX. Specifically former students — but parents totally work as well.

im a spry young adult and i really want to go on some sort of road trip to a small town in indiana this summer! i live here but i live near indianapolis/the center and id really like to find some sort of charming small town far away from Indianapolis, preferably one that i can have #unforgettable memories with with my friends

Hi. I, 17F, have recently come to the realization that I have had runner’s knee for about 2 years now. I’m going to get into my symptoms, what I think is the root cause of it/how I think this even happened, and how it conflicts with my daily schedule + my current basic military training prep. This specifically has been happening with my right knee and sometimes right ankle.

For the past two years, the pain hasn’t become unbearable/intense to the point that I can’t walk, but it varies a bit (not to mention it’s been growing slightly more intense each year.) At best, which is most often, I’m able to walk around school and home without an issue aside from slight weird feelings/extremely MILD pain near my right knee and sometimes ankles. It’s usually unnoticeable when I’m walking normally. I can usually work out decently and it won’t bother me too much.

However, sometimes if I walk around for too long or go for runs (which I’ve recently started doing in preparation for BMT), my right knee and right ankle will experience a weird, slightly uncomfortable to almost moderate pain that’s kind of sometimes akin to a bruise? But it’s not a bruise obviously that’s just best way I can describe it. It’ll make me stop running pretty quickly before I call it quits out of fear I could seriously injure myself. I also sometimes get pain to the point of slightly limping whenever I wear the wrong shoes with it. A few months ago, I had to wear these crappy/unsupportive shoes for a theatre production I was in and on the FIRST DAY of dress rehearsal with them, I started having to limp slightly within 15 minutes because of the pain. This doesn’t usually happen and it specifically affected my right ankle, that’s where I felt the pain. This was also during/after a day of walking around school for 6.5 hours and rehearsal for 3 hours total.

Extra info before I get into the backstory: The reason I’m making this post is because I JUST started running about a week and a half ago and the pain from that made me realize I seriously have to fix this before BMT. That’s months out from now and from what I’ve seen I likely have enough time. I’d also additionally like to add this — this morning I could barely walk around the house without swinging my right foot and limping (extremely rare occurrence!) but after I put on my new ASICS, like 80% of the pain immediately went away and I could walk normally. Not sure if that helps.

You’re probably wondering right now, “How the hell did this happen and why did it go on for 2 years?” Essentially, during my sophomore year, when I was about 15 years old, I got this horrid, gaudy rolling backpack for school. It had this function where you could shift down the handle via a button to carry it around, which I used often to carry up the stairs. This is my second year using it as a senior. Over the course of a semester, I’ll typically roll it around like usual, but as it gets heavier and heavier, it’ll start to make this loud squeaking sound whenever you roll it on anything that’s not carpet, so I’ll usually opt to just carry it around by the handle whenever it gets too heavy. This is the important part.

This thing will get like. So. Freakin’ heavy oh my god dude. Like maybe 40 pounds but I’m not sure. Anyway, the reason this entire runners knee thing happened in the first place, in MY opinion, is that for 2 years, I’ve been carrying this heavy ass backpack using my left hand and walking around the school with it for extremely long periods on end. I used my left hand EVERY time for 2 years — and every time I did that — it would shift a lot of the weight to my right foot. So for 2 years I’m putting all this pressure on my right foot and walking around and going up stairs and shit while carrying this heavy ass backpack. It’s like it shifts my entire center of balance it gets extremely heavy even early into a semester. And I’ve been doing this for 2 years and it’s been getting progressively worse on my right leg. ALSO. Oh my god I forgot to mention this. ALSO! I’VE BEEN WEARING 1 INCH LOAFER BLOCK HEELS TO SCHOOL EVERY DAY WHILE CARRYING THIS HEAVY ASS BACKPACK ON THE SAME EXACT SIDE EACH TIME AND PUTTING PRESSURE ON MY RIGHT FOOT! WITH GODDAMN 1 INCH LOAFER HEELS ON! EVERY SINGLE DAY! FOR TWO YEARS! Combine that with zero stretching for the first 1.5 years and you’ll get what I have now.

Anyway, I started doing this in fall 2023 and only began noticing when I experienced the same weird sensation in my right foot when wearing different shoes (converse high tops) one time during summer 2024. It only started becoming noticeable throughout fall 2025 and it became clear to me very recently as the sensation has grown more intense to how it is now.

The reason I’m making this post is 1) I’m not sure if my circumstances would entail any form of special treatment/certain things I should opt for for treating this condition (I’m not a huge runner and I only got into fitness recently for the military!) and 2) I already know I’m screwed for BMT if I don’t do anything about it right now, even if I can function on a day-to-day basis, the problem is going to spill through the cracks eventually if it’s not corrected.

Please advise!