u/lets-snuggle

ITS NOT THE BRAND IT SAYS- I MADE IT AND STORED IT IN HERE.

Hi everyone! I made this strawberry vinaigrette yesterday. It has strawberry vinegar (made by storing strawberry tops in vinegar for over a week), olive oil, lemon juice, kosher salt, a little bit of ACV, and honey in it. It was great yesterday then I refrigerated it and today it was hard like frozen solid but not frozen. I shook it a lot and it separated but there’s still this white foam even after shaking. It smells normal.

Is this safe? If so, how do I get rid of these white clumps?

Hi everyone!

I’m going to try to make this short but here’s the gist:

\- growing up, I was always a great sleeper. I slept 12+ hours, could sleep anywhere anytime, fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow, and slept so deeply I slept through my house alarm, fire alarm, and a storm where a tree fell less than a foot outside my cabin. Like I slept so well I was scared to sleep in the house alone bc I wouldn’t wake up if something was wrong.

\- I’ve also had chronic illnesses my whole life but wasn’t diagnosed until I was 14. I was also anorexic from around 10-early 20s on and off so the need for sleep came from all of that. I was also a very overscheduled child with dance 30 hours/ week, Girl Scouts, cheer, basketball, drama club, and a very packed social calendar, etc.

\- I was on an anti-psychotic from age 14-21 that I didn’t need to be on. The dr in the hospital gave it to me and it was maintained until a new psychiatrist said I never should’ve been put on that and that it wrecked my development and I don’t have any diagnoses or symptoms that warranted that high of a dose of that med.

\- when I got taken off of it, I struggled with sleep and tried 3 diff sleep medications which didn’t work for varying reasons, but gradually, I slept well again and went back to my normal self

\- when I was 23 or 24, I got my last concussion and my sleep has never been the same unless I was actively going through a flare of my chronic illnesses or “normal people sick”.

\- In winter of this year, I had a very bad flare and I was put on multiple medications that I think overcorrected my issue.

\- I am now dealing with:
\- overactive mind at night. I’m someone who’s mind never ever stops during the day and that’s now leaked into night, but it’s not like anxious thoughts. It’s planning the day, meals, work related, ear worms of songs, etc.

\- neck and body pain causing tossing and turning

\- temperature dysregulation (sweating, then cold, sometimes cold sweats and night sweats)

\- air hunger

\- high heart rate when trying to sleep (90-110s. So not super high but high for sleep)

\- headaches at night

\- getting up to pee a few times in the beginning of the night

\- all of this leads to anxiety when I realize it’s late and I’m not asleep and I have to get up for work in the morning

I’ve tried
\- meditating
\- sleep sounds
\- affirmations
\- eft tapping
\- melatonin (makes me very constipated and causes stomach cramping and pain)
\- Benadryl (lowers my bp too much)

Idk what else to do. I’m screen free for 1-3 hours before bed and I was trying not to eat 2-3 hours before bed as well but I was starving and that was keeping me up so now I eat a snack before bed

Is this worth a sleep study or is there a diff doctor I could see?

In the winter, testing showed parasympathetic excess and my sympathetic nervous system not kicking in at all. I think the medications / treatment have overcorrected and there may now be sympathetic excess, which is helpful during the day bc I’m not fainting and my bp is normal during the day but at night, I’m still in fight or flight/ having adrenaline dumps.

Has anyone else experienced this after a concussion? I think that’s more of a trigger since this was happening after my last concussion and went away on and off as I was sicker and sicker from my chronic illnesses but now that they’re under control, I’m back to this terrible baseline and idk what’s going on.

I had a sleep study when I was in high school because I was sleeping so much but it didn’t show anything so idk if it would show anything now. I’m 26 so it was probably 10 years ago.

I also don’t snore. I do talk in my sleep sometimes though

Hi everyone!

I’m going to try to make this short but here’s the gist:

- growing up, I was always a great sleeper. I slept 12+ hours, could sleep anywhere anytime, fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow, and slept so deeply I slept through my house alarm, fire alarm, and a storm where a tree fell less than a foot outside my cabin. Like I slept so well I was scared to sleep in the house alone bc I wouldn’t wake up if something was wrong.

- I’ve also had chronic illnesses my whole life but wasn’t diagnosed until I was 14. I was also anorexic from around 10-early 20s on and off so the need for sleep came from all of that. I was also a very overscheduled child with dance 30 hours/ week, Girl Scouts, cheer, basketball, drama club, and a very packed social calendar, etc.

- I was on an anti-psychotic from age 14-21 that I didn’t need to be on. The dr in the hospital gave it to me and it was maintained until a new psychiatrist said I never should’ve been put on that and that it wrecked my development and I don’t have any diagnoses or symptoms that warranted that high of a dose of that med.

- when I got taken off of it, I struggled with sleep and tried 3 diff sleep medications which didn’t work for varying reasons, but gradually, I slept well again and went back to my normal self

- when I was 23 or 24, I got my last concussion and my sleep has never been the same unless I was actively going through a flare of my chronic illnesses or “normal people sick”.

- In winter of this year, I had a very bad flare and I was put on multiple medications that I think overcorrected my issue.

- I am now dealing with:
- overactive mind at night. I’m someone who’s mind never ever stops during the day and that’s now leaked into night, but it’s not like anxious thoughts. It’s planning the day, meals, work related, ear worms of songs, etc.

- neck and body pain causing tossing and turning

- temperature dysregulation (sweating, then cold, sometimes cold sweats and night sweats)

- air hunger

- high heart rate when trying to sleep (90-110s. So not super high but high for sleep)

- headaches at night

- getting up to pee a few times in the beginning of the night

- all of this leads to anxiety when I realize it’s late and I’m not asleep and I have to get up for work in the morning

I’ve tried
- meditating
- sleep sounds
- affirmations
- eft tapping
- melatonin (makes me very constipated and causes stomach cramping and pain)
- Benadryl (lowers my bp too much)

Idk what else to do. I’m screen free for 1-3 hours before bed and I was trying not to eat 2-3 hours before bed as well but I was starving and that was keeping me up so now I eat a snack before bed

Is this worth a sleep study or is there a diff doctor I could see?

In the winter, testing showed parasympathetic excess and my sympathetic nervous system not kicking in at all. I think the medications / treatment have overcorrected and there may now be sympathetic excess, which is helpful during the day bc I’m not fainting and my bp is normal during the day but at night, I’m still in fight or flight/ having adrenaline dumps.

Has anyone else experienced this after a concussion? I think that’s more of a trigger since this was happening after my last concussion and went away on and off as I was sicker and sicker from my chronic illnesses but now that they’re under control, I’m back to this terrible baseline and idk what’s going on.

I had a sleep study when I was in high school because I was sleeping so much but it didn’t show anything so idk if it would show anything now. I’m 26 so it was probably 10 years ago.

I also don’t snore. I do talk in my sleep sometimes though

Hey everyone!

So I have POTS, MCAS, EDS, and Lyme. I’m on medication, wear compression socks, drink 4-5L / day, eat 10G salt/ day, and I’m usually very good. I got a job recently that’s like 90% remote, but when I drive I have to drive over an hour and I do some physical work. I’ve been okay until last week bc I had diarrhea.

I still flare at times and last week, I almost fainted but didn’t but clocked out around 1pm and had to make up those hours by working 9 hours the rest of my days, then I went to the beach and then I fainted there and still wasn’t feeling well.

They had to go through all these appeals to let me take an unpaid day off today bc I’m not at 90 days yet, but I really needed a day to rest and someone is taking over my in-person day on Thursday since it’s a physical laborious day and a lot of driving that I’m not capable of this week.

They asked me if I needed accommodations and I wasn’t sure what to say. I explained to my boss that I’m okay most of the time and can go months without fainting, especially if I’m only in person once a week. Daily would be a diff story, but as my job is now, I’m totally fine usually.

Has anyone had like sporadic accommodations that say if you can’t handle a certain task here and there, it can be excused? Like I just have no idea how to word it / what to ask for so that it’s there legally, but I’m not being over accommodated and they don’t say “well she can’t do the job, we’ll fire her.” When I can do the job 90% of the time.

Hi everyone!!

TLDR: I’ve had a Tik Tok account since March that was doing well in the beginning but almost all of my videos have flopped in the last month or so and I want help avoiding that. I’ve already tried leaning back into trends, using trending audio, and posting while my followers are most active. Any advice is appreciated!

I am an aspiring content creator. I am mainly focusing on Tik Tok right now (I have instagram too but I don’t post as much- I know I need to get better about that).

But I started my account on March 11th and I have 311 followers, 62 posts, and 125.4k likes. My most viewed is: 328.8k.

I was averaging about a few hundred likes on each post, with one getting over 50k likes, one got 20k likes and one got 8k likes and then I have a few with 1-3k likes and some with 700-900 likes. But most of them have around 100-200 likes.

However, in the last month or so, my views and likes have gone down A LOT. So much so that some of my videos from this past month have 3-20 likes.

I’m posting about Bridgerton, books, shows, other niches, travel/food/recipes (this is doing the worst), some videos of me talking about random stuff, and trends.
I understand at first the videos of travel/food/recipes may not do as well because I’m posting about a new niche, but I posted the “my fav color is pink btw” trend with trending audio and it flopped terribly.

I even started using the creator insights and saw my followers are most active at 6pm, so I started posting btwn 5:30-6:30pm and I feel like it’s almost made it worse?

My main goal is to be able to post about travel/food/recipes/hosting, chronic illness, niches like dance moms and bridgerton, books, and me talking about stuff. I want to get to 1,000 followers and some good engagement by the fall because I want to be a small creator and make some money and be able to post in Tik Tok shop.

I’m also planning on getting engaged in September and morphing into an engagement / wedding focused account (not fully, but adding that in a lot).

If anyone has any advice please please let me know. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.

Hi everyone!!

TLDR: I’ve had a Tik Tok account since March that was doing well in the beginning but almost all of my videos have flopped in the last month or so and I want help avoiding that. I’ve already tried leaning back into trends, using trending audio, and posting while my followers are most active. Any advice is appreciated!

I am an aspiring content creator. I am mainly focusing on Tik Tok right now (I have instagram too but I don’t post as much- I know I need to get better about that).

But I started my account on March 11th and I have 311 followers, 62 posts, and 125.4k likes. My most viewed is: 328.8k.

I was averaging about a few hundred likes on each post, with one getting over 50k likes, one got 20k likes and one got 8k likes and then I have a few with 1-3k likes and some with 700-900 likes. But most of them have around 100-200 likes.

However, in the last month or so, my views and likes have gone down A LOT. So much so that some of my videos from this past month have 3-20 likes.

I’m posting about Bridgerton, books, shows, other niches, travel/food/recipes (this is doing the worst), some videos of me talking about random stuff, and trends.
I understand at first the videos of travel/food/recipes may not do as well because I’m posting about a new niche, but I posted the “my fav color is pink btw” trend with trending audio and it flopped terribly.

I even started using the creator insights and saw my followers are most active at 6pm, so I started posting btwn 5:30-6:30pm and I feel like it’s almost made it worse?

My main goal is to be able to post about travel/food/recipes/hosting, chronic illness, niches like dance moms and bridgerton, books, and me talking about stuff. I want to get to 1,000 followers and some good engagement by the fall because I want to be a small creator and make some money and be able to post in Tik Tok shop.

I’m also planning on getting engaged in September and morphing into an engagement / wedding focused account (not fully, but adding that in a lot).

If anyone has any advice please please let me know. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.

Hi everyone!!

TLDR: I’ve had a Tik Tok account since March that was doing well in the beginning but almost all of my videos have flopped in the last month or so and I want help avoiding that. I’ve already tried leaning back into trends, using trending audio, and posting while my followers are most active. Any advice is appreciated!

I am an aspiring content creator. I am mainly focusing on Tik Tok right now (I have instagram too but I don’t post as much- I know I need to get better about that).

But I started my account on March 11th and I have 311 followers, 62 posts, and 125.4k likes. My most viewed is: 328.8k.

I was averaging about a few hundred likes on each post, with one getting over 50k likes, one got 20k likes and one got 8k likes and then I have a few with 1-3k likes and some with 700-900 likes. But most of them have around 100-200 likes.

However, in the last month or so, my views and likes have gone down A LOT. So much so that some of my videos from this past month have 3-20 likes.

I’m posting about Bridgerton, books, shows, other niches, travel/food/recipes (this is doing the worst), some videos of me talking about random stuff, and trends.
I understand at first the videos of travel/food/recipes may not do as well because I’m posting about a new niche, but I posted the “my fav color is pink btw” trend with trending audio and it flopped terribly.

I even started using the creator insights and saw my followers are most active at 6pm, so I started posting btwn 5:30-6:30pm and I feel like it’s almost made it worse?

My main goal is to be able to post about travel/food/recipes/hosting, chronic illness, niches like dance moms and bridgerton, books, and me talking about stuff. I want to get to 1,000 followers and some good engagement by the fall because I want to be a small creator and make some money and be able to post in Tik Tok shop.

I’m also planning on getting engaged in September and morphing into an engagement / wedding focused account (not fully, but adding that in a lot).

If anyone has any advice please please let me know. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.

Hi everyone!!

TLDR: I’ve had a Tik Tok account since March that was doing well in the beginning but almost all of my videos have flopped in the last month or so and I want help avoiding that. I’ve already tried leaning back into trends, using trending audio, and posting while my followers are most active. Any advice is appreciated!

I am an aspiring content creator. I am mainly focusing on Tik Tok right now (I have instagram too but I don’t post as much- I know I need to get better about that).

But I started my account on March 11th and I have 311 followers, 62 posts, and 125.4k likes. My most viewed is: 328.8k.

I was averaging about a few hundred likes on each post, with one getting over 50k likes, one got 20k likes and one got 8k likes and then I have a few with 1-3k likes and some with 700-900 likes. But most of them have around 100-200 likes.

However, in the last month or so, my views and likes have gone down A LOT. So much so that some of my videos from this past month have 3-20 likes.

I’m posting about Bridgerton, books, shows, other niches, travel/food/recipes (this is doing the worst), some videos of me talking about random stuff, and trends.
I understand at first the videos of travel/food/recipes may not do as well because I’m posting about a new niche, but I posted the “my fav color is pink btw” trend with trending audio and it flopped terribly.

I even started using the creator insights and saw my followers are most active at 6pm, so I started posting btwn 5:30-6:30pm and I feel like it’s almost made it worse?

My main goal is to be able to post about travel/food/recipes/hosting, chronic illness, niches like dance moms and bridgerton, books, and me talking about stuff. I want to get to 1,000 followers and some good engagement by the fall because I want to be a small creator and make some money and be able to post in Tik Tok shop.

I’m also planning on getting engaged in September and morphing into an engagement / wedding focused account (not fully, but adding that in a lot).

If anyone has any advice please please let me know. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.

So I’ve decided to hire a VA from the Philippines and didn’t realize she wouldn’t be able to make calls to USA or use a Google Voice number.

So now I am looking into a dialer. My budget was $600/mo for the VA and I can’t change her rate or cut her hours, so I need to stretch my budget to $700/mo and add $100/mo for a dialer.

I’ve been looking at a lot based on some information and past forums from this sub, but they’re all over $100 or they charge per minute of phone call / per text message.

I was going to go with Go High Level/ GHL, but it seems like their $97/mo plan means you need to pay per text and per minute you’re on the phone. That will probably add up to a lot if our goal is to have her call 150-250 numbers per day.

Has anyone been able to use a dialer successfully for $100/mo?

Has anyone used GHL? If so, how many numbers did you have it call per day and how much did that cost you? Has anyone done a VA for calling and SMS blast? How much did that cost with the charges per minute/ text?

Thank you in advance!!

Hi everyone!! I am soon to be engaged! (Basically engaged without the ring lol) and me and my bf are looking at bridal expos to go to because my friend is getting married in March and said she got a great discount on her DJ and photographer from one, as did a friend of hers. She went to 2 or 3 and loved them, got ideas, got an idea of vendor pricing to help her budget, and the discounts.

I’ve looked on multiple websites and I’m only seeing bridal expos from 7-9:30pm on weekdays (mostly Wednesdays for some reason). Is this normal?

Is there somewhere I’m not looking? I looked at NJweddings.com, Americanbride.com, newjerseybride.com, planitexpo.com, and elegant bridal productions as well as a NJ wedding expo instagram page.

I’m also only seeing north and south of me. I am in Princeton, NJ and the closest one to me is 40 minutes. That’s far to drive so late on a work night. I’m seeing a lot in cherry hill / south Jersey area and a lot in Edison area.

I am willing to go anywhere in Mercer or bucks county.

Has anyone gone to any bridal expos in this area on a weekend and if so, how did you find them?

TIA!

So I am diagnosed POTS, orthostatic hypotension, hEDS, MCAS, anemia, and lymes disease. I faint / full syncope often, but way more in winter.

I cannot survive in the winter at all. I feel like I can’t breathe in the cold weather, I am so stuffed up and my throat hurts and I can’t breathe. All of my bones and joints and muscles feel so so so stiff and I am actually in pain when I am cold. I can’t focus on anything. I feel sick and nauseous and I also get sick all the time with flu, stomach flu, strep, etc. constantly in the winter, which makes flares worse. I also break out in hives and rashes constantly in the winter and not summer.

In the summer (75 and sunny to like 95 with some wind) is perfect for me. I can even handle 100 and sunny with some wind and no humidity. The humidity is what makes me more dizzy / lightheaded, but just heat is fine.

I am absolutely out of commission in the winter and in the summer I feel almost normal again. Now, I can’t walk and walk forever. I haven’t been able to survive a summer as a camp counselor bc of it, but if I have breaks, lots of water, liquid IV, salt chews, snacks often, and my compression socks, I am fine. All those things don’t help me as much in the winter.
Swimming is also something I do often in the summer and that helps, but yeah it’s a world of difference to be in the heat vs the awful cold

Is anyone else like this? I feel like I’m an alien and I can’t relate to any of these posts about not being able to survive summer bc that’s when I thrive.

TL;DR: skip to the questions part

wanted to post this in the therapists sub but their weekly student thread is NOT at the top of the page like the FAQ’s said so I came here. I hope this is appropriate.

Long story short I graduated college in 2021 with a BA in psychology. I went into an MSW program in 2022 and dropped out within 2 weeks bc I hated social work. I am interested in the brain/ science behind psychology and social work was very macro/ urban renewal focused, not individual trauma focused. I then got into a school psychology program for the following year and didn’t go when I didn’t get a residential grad assistantship bc I couldn’t afford to live in the area. Finally, last year I started a different school psychology program. However, I am chronically ill and had a huge flare where I was bedridden for all of February so I had to take a medical leave of absence. I don’t think I’ll be able to continue because of the rigid schedule and the internship that I have to be with kids every day all day for 600 hours. My immune system is terrible and I benefit from a hybrid schedule and being around adults bc of that. It’s a shame because I love kids and the school environment.

I’ve been a teacher at 2 diff private schools, a paraprofessional, an RBT, a substitute, camp counselor, case manager, and held a grad assistantship.

My questions about switching to a clinical mental health counseling program and getting my LPC are as follows (if you are in NJ or have experience / knowledge about NJ that would be the most helpful!)

1. Are accredited online programs like Walden or Capella seen as lesser/ more difficult to get a job with?
2. Were your internships and practicum able to be hybrid or remote? How many days a week were they?
3. Were you able to work for a non-profit such as outpatient for a hospital or government facility (ex. VA) that paid for your supervision and is eligible for student loan forgiveness? If so, how competitive/ difficult was it to get that job and how long did it take and where did you find it?
4. Same questions as above but for any job (did you pay for supervision? How long did it take? Where did you find it?)
5. What is the pto/ vacation/ sick time / benefits like?
6. What were you paid as a fully licensed therapist right after supervision?

For context, my therapist is through a NJ hospital system and is hybrid (in office one day), works one long day a week & leaves early on Fridays & she has 5 weeks of pto/vacation/sick all out of the same bank. It’s a non-profit so her loans are forgiven and it’s where she did her internship so she just has stayed there forever.

I would love a job like this.

She also said they have 2 interns rn and one is hybrid and one is fully remote.

I’m just wondering if she has a unicorn job/ unicorn company or if it’s common/ easy to get a job like this and if the remote/ hybrid internships are available readily in other companies as well.

TIA I know this is a lot

Hey everyone! I am wanting to buy a tankini or two for this summer as they seem to be in style and I’ve gained a little weight from a health issue I had from Feb- a few weeks ago. I’d probably be a size medium rn, possibly large in the bottoms if that helps narrow down stores.

I really want to try on in store and be able to mix and match top and bottoms bc my bottom is bigger than my top & all the ones I’ve bought online I either overestimate or underestimate my size or just don’t like how I look so I really want to try it on.

I’m in NJ in the USA & not looking to break the bank. If anyone knows anywhere I’d appreciate it!!

Hey everyone so I had my 24hr urine test as well as my blood test. Histamines were elevated. Tytrase was actually low (the dr told me it was probably because I was overhydrated & my pee was too diluted. I filled 2 jugs and most people barely fill 1) & that since I have all the symptoms, my histamines were high & cromolyn helped a lot of my symptoms within 3-3.5 weeks, I have MCAS and we will continue to treat it as such.

I’m a little annoyed they didn’t tell me to get tested on a high symptom day and to drink less water on the day of for accurate results. I had to find that stuff out online too late. And didn’t even see the thing about not drinking a lot until she told me, but it doesn’t matter.

However, my dopamine was really elevated. Like 15 points higher than the highest number in the normal range. Has this happened to anyone else and did you find out why?

Hi! So me and my boyfriend want to go to Cheesecake Factory for dinner tomorrow and both get the free cheesecake slice reward from downloading the new app, but we’re not sure if we will both be able to get it with one order?

Would it work if we split the check or do we have to order it separately on the app and do take out?