I’m pretty happy with the one in my country. I once mixed up some medication times and they escalated to a doctor that then put me on hold to consult a pharmacist just to be sure. I would have spent 7 hours in ER just for a doctor to tell me that I was fine, and instead I just waited a bit on the phone.

USA, Land of the free to pay 🤷 in my country it’s all completely free. Once I had a bad cold they even called me back the next day to check in if I was doing better.

Since you’re in the US I imagine my method won’t apply to you, but just in case, or for other people reading: in my country there is a phone number you can call in situations like this. They have doctors, nurses and specialists on call, initially you talk with a nurse that asks triage questions once you’ve explained your problem they give you advice for home treatment, if relevant, or send you to the correct urgency level care, including already sending the information on the triage questions to wherever you are going.

Thanks for the reply, it hasn’t fully clicked yet, but I’ll get there once I think about it some more.

Happy to help! Now what I don’t get under this knowledge is double and triple rainbows. If anyone can explain that to me I would be very grateful.

You’re almost there. It has to do with the angle of the sun and the water drops relating to the view point. Rainbows only show when the sun is behind you, and if you imagine a cone going out from the viewpoint outwards you get the possible paths of the rainbow (different radius different wavelength and therefore color)

A similar concept happens in certain reflective surfaces (metal pots and pans, car hoods and much more). You always see the tiny scratches in circles, but if you alter the angle in any way you keep seeing different scratch circles. This is because the circle you see in any given angle is the exactly the scratches that are turned just perfectly to reflect the light in the perfect way. It does not mean that the scratches you see at any given moment are the only ones. It means there are plenty, and only a few more visible at a time.

To me, playing around with the second concept (much easier to manipulate yourself and see) made me understand rainbows much better.

The way I’ve explained it before is that it’s like the autocomplete on your phone. Your phone doesn’t know what you’re going to write, but it can predict that after word A, it is likelly word B will appear, so it suggests it. LLMs are just the same as that, but much more powerful and trained on the writing of thousands of people. The LLM predicts that after prompt X the most likelly set of characters to follow it is set Y. No comprehension required, just prediction based on previous data.

To me a formal diagnosis gives you access to try medication if you want. Even if you’re not interested or ready for medication, a diagnosis (formal or not) can make it easier to find strategies and tools that work for you. Lots of general productivity advice just don’t work for ND folks, and looking for specialized tips makes a big difference.

To me having and accepting my diagnosis helped me accept me as I am and stop thinking I’ll magically be better next week or next month or next year. I now put systems in place to help me with my weaker points and that’s OK.

In my eyes that distingueshes a “normal” friendship and a life partner is the planning for the future and being a team. You make big life decisions (moving house, career changes, medical decisions) together thinking of the best outcomes for both as a team. You could be a life partner with a non romantic totally platonic friend, but that’s usually not the case you see represented.

There’s been plenty good shows since X files came out, maybe it’s more of a problem that you’re in a different head space than you were and not as open to like new shows anymore. Happens to me with video games, I keep going back to the ones I played in my early twenties when I had more time over the summer to invest into games. Now I have much less time to start a new game and get over the boring introductory bits before getting to the good parts.

Thank you for your kind words of understanding. I think gatekeeping acts of kindness will result in less people doing them. Even if the person I gave the fruit to doesn’t like it or can’t eat it for some reason it’s still kindness from a stranger and being treated respectfully for a change. It’s still better than the people who just ignore them and walk away.

The type of fruit I was talking about does not get stale at all. It’s completely sealed until it’s opened to eat. I eat them all the time myself, why can’t they? I let them choose what they want when I offer to buy something for them. IMO if that’s the way I’m confortable giving it’s better than nothing at all, and someone that’s confortable giving them money can if they want. Not to mention that I very rarely carry cash anymore

One compromise I use is to give them food instead of money. I usually carry with me one of those mashed fruit packets (usually marketed for kids to take to school) in case I get hungry and if I come across someone asking for money I just give them that. Or ask them if they want something from the nearby convenience store/cafe/vending machine. That removes the argument of “they’ll just use it for drugs” that I hear and honestly believe is true to some people. Addiction is hard. Everyone has to eat, it’s always useful to get them food (especially if it’s non perishable)