I think it definitely applies to relationships. It does you and any of your partners a disservice to say your relationship was only a success if one of you died.

A person isn't a thing you possess. They have needs that grow and change with them. If those needs ever stop being compatible with the relationship, then the relationship should end. That's not failure. It's wanting the person you love to be happy.

I often play dumb about little details I've noticed or remembered. I got in the habit when I was a kid and people would react weirdly like, "why do you know that?" So I'd just pretend I didn't even when I did, and I never really stopped. I might notice what car somebody drives, for example, but if it comes up I just act like I don't know unless they've specifically told me. I barely realize I'm doing it anymore.

I have never met my limit for how long I can go without human contact (outside of incredibly minimal "contact" such as posting here). I never measured specifically, but I know I've gone at least a month without contacting anyone and been perfectly content. When people were going nuts after a week of lockdown, I truly did not get it. I could have done that forever. I'd prefer it.

I might be kinda broken.

It's internalized ableism related to being told their whole lives they're so smart and talented if only they weren't so lazy. We're extremely capable - sometimes. The rest of the time we struggle at the most basic of everyday tasks that normal people find trivial. Now combine that with late diagnosis. That's a lot of years being told you should be better and wondering why you're not. At the very least, it's an extremely specific kind of low self esteem.

It may not be solely caused by dopamine levels, but the experience is common among many ADHD sufferers and our brain chemistry does predispose us to responding to that in certain ways (which is why we can break out of that pattern more easily when medicated).

I like how all three of them have wildly different body language, and the guy on the left is not using his inside voice.

I'm not normally one to point out a spelling mistake, but there is a very important difference between someone with deficits in lots of areas and someone who defecates in lots of areas.

Live content has lots of downtime and dull gameplay moments. It can't compete with polished, edited videos - except in the one area it shines: human interaction. That works better when you can see the person. So most streams feature a person or at least an avatar, while edited videos often place a higher emphasis on gameplay. Each format is simply playing to its strengths. The ones that don't you rarely see because they're buried at the bottom of page 726 with four views.

Stories like this always make me think: that dude probably rarely thinks about what he did that day, but to the person writing the story it's a treasured memory. We do countless kindnesses like this, big and small, then never think about them again or know how important they were to the person receiving them. It might be paying for somebody's groceries, letting them go first when they're in a hurry, or something you said without realizing the impact your words made.

I think about this because I'm one of many people that will scroll past a meme saying "you matter" and instantly know that it's wrong. But this idea is the closest I get to seeing the truth in it. We'll never know how many people are out there telling a story like this about us without even knowing our name. But they are out there - and that feels pretty nice to think about.

I pointed out to the doctor that tested me how I could answer many questions as a 1 or a 5 depending on how I interpreted it. For example, "have problems with being on time." I could say never or almost never, or I could say the overwhelming fear of losing track of time and being late ensures I'll do nothing beforehand and leave way too early out of boredom/anxiety.

In the end I put 5 because what they're looking for is if you've struggled with these problems for your whole life. Learning and implementing coping mechanisms isn't an argument against that struggle, it's evidence for it.

But for what it's worth, I answered 1 the first time I took one of those and went 12 more years without getting diagnosed. I think about that a lot.

The first several times I tried edibles they did nothing. I didn't know that can just happen to people. So each time, I waited a few days and tried again. But, figuring the last one did literally nothing, I doubled the dose the next time.

I paused at 40mg, wondering if that was really a good idea. It wasn't. When it hit, time literally stopped. A minute felt like an hour. But I had only myself to blame and I was super high, so I thought it was funny as fuck. I got ready for bed, giggling to myself constantly, then passed the fuck out.

It's still funny to me, and it always reminds me that mindset is huge. That was the first time I ever tried weed and I could have freaked out, but I just accepted my mistake and laughed at how stupid I was. It makes it a good memory.

That's the one thing I appreciate about Death Note: making the normal looking guy the psycho is common enough, but it goes a step further to give a little positive representation for us weird loners.

I've always felt the Game Boy is the biggest icon of old Nintendo, before their more modern and less consumer friendly form. Its portability and low price also made it a more accessible system worldwide for many years, making it a good symbol of worldwide gaming for that era in general.

I see white/gold too, and this always fascinated me because I'm wrong. The real dress is black/blue. It's very hard for me to perceive that way, partly due to the bad quality picture, and particularly the background lighting.

The gold is black and the white is a dark blue irl, but in the bad coloring/lighting of the picture, the deep blue is quite washed out. Know that the colors are very washed out, know that the "gold" is black. Focus on the lower left where the colors are closest to true and block out the rest, especially the bright parts. The thick black stripe in the middle can also be a good spot to start to see it.

But realistically, we all know you can get divorced. While we might hope it'll be forever, we also know we're still not gonna stick around if things get too bad (nor should we). Nobody has the shocked pikachu face when marriage isn't forever after all. No matter what the vows say, in practice we pretty well accept that it's a big commitment, but not a permanent one.

That is a very unkind thing for somebody to say to you and it's not okay. You deserve somebody who will appreciate you for who you are and not resent you for who you're not. Somebody who will see your effort and thank you for trying, lean on your strengths and make up for your weaknesses. Somebody who will treat you with kindness all the time, not just during the good times. Your struggles are valid and not a weapon to be wielded against you.

I also had an ex who said she was leaving because of my autism. It really hurt to hear, and I don't think I'll ever forget that pain. So I just want you to hear that you're great the way you are. I'm sorry that somebody you care about said that to you, and I know how much that hurts even if you know deep down that they're wrong. And they are wrong. The truth is they held themselves back, but want to blame it all on you. They agreed to care for you as a whole, not just part of you. They don't get to blame you for changing their mind.

I'm kinda in this meme. I went through one of those big bottles roughly every 1-2 months for 20 years. Sometimes 12 pills in one day, with 4-8 acetaminophen on top (they do giant double packs of those too). Chronic migraines, but every doctor I asked for help just told me to lose weight so it went untreated and got worse and worse. Our health care suuuucks.

I did lose the weight. It didn't magically fix my migraines, or affect them at all. Insurance dicked me around for another year and a half while my neurologist tried to help every way she could, but we finally got it down to only one migraine a week. I'm truly glad for that, but I still think about the years of unnecessary suffering, and how much better it might be now if I'd been treated sooner.

The mute system is a little confusing. Basically, Twitch auto scans the video for what it thinks might be copyrighted audio, then it mutes that section for you to prevent you from getting a copyright strike. This is all automatic and set to extremely paranoid because when a big wave of copyright enforcement went around a few years ago, that was equally paranoid and ridiculous. People got copyright strikes for 2 second snippets of something you could barely hear in the background. It was bad.

But the auto mute isn't a strike or even a warning. It's no authority at all. It's just a random automated guess at what companies might be looking for when doing their scans. It's there to protect you in its weird and uncomfortable way.

You can dispute, but that puts the responsibility for any claims on you. You're waiving the protection. It might be fine, but if it isn't you suffer the consequences. So generally it's usually not worth the risk to bother. But a mute is no big deal. It doesn't hurt you or count against you in any way.

tl;dr: nobody is actually claiming that audio is copyrighted, except some robot scan thought it might be and better safe than sorry.

They're not hurting animals. Even if you want to focus just on the sex, consider: one has no control over their sexual preference and fetishes. By commissioning artwork and engaging in roleplay with consenting adults, they have a healthy outlet for their desires which harms nobody, nor any animals. You don't have to understand it or like it. But it's just nsfw art and adults having sex. It's nothing to clutch your pearls over.

The advice to socialize offline is good and well meaning, but it's also not what you're asking.

I've found a lot of very positive communities through smaller Twitch streams. I mean like under 50 average viewers tops, usually quite a bit smaller than even that. It's easy if you like gaming, but there are channels for everything. The nice thing is you can just drop into a channel and lurk for a while to get the vibe, then leave if it's not the kind of energy you're looking for.

There are plenty of downsides. Even if it goes well, most of the people you meet will be far away. Parasocial relationships are something to be aware of to make sure you don't fall into that trap, especially if you're lonely. Also, there's good and bad like anywhere else. But, it's also common to hear people in these spaces express gratitude for the support and friendship they've found there that exceeded their expectations.

I don't want to undersell or oversell it, really. It's an option that's easy to try and might work, but be careful like with anything. Making an effort to get out more is good, too, whenever time and energy permit. I don't think offline and online spaces can replace each other - they each excel at different things. I hope you find your community. Or several.

I used to get Taco Bell like twice a month because it was tasty and cheap, even if it was garbage. But when fast food prices exploded the last few years, it really lost its appeal. The quality and variety dropped, too, and it just doesn't make any goddamn sense to drop $15 to eat at fucking Taco Bell. There are countless better options for that price. I think I maybe ate there once in the last year and nothing about it made me feel like I missed it. A bit sad since I used to enjoy it, but in the end I'm better off.