Saying this as an ethnically Chinese person who is not being racist… I had a eufy robovac and when I discovered it was Chinese-owned and had a video camera installed on it… I immediately got rid of that thing. I don’t trust any technology company owned by China to be able to see into my home.

Thank you! I am tough. The last 3 years have been harder than I could’ve ever fathomed, but I’m still trucking on. There’s a lot more to me than depression, even though it swallows everything sometimes.

I literally fantasize about having enough space in my home for a chest freezer.

This week is the first week I’ve felt halfway close to being a human being in a really long time. My rTMS treatment for depression is finally starting to kick in. This is my 3rd round now and each time I see significant improvements, but they only last 4ish months and I relapse horrifically after.

My most recent relapse lasted 3ish months while I was scrambling to get treatment (and an unsuccessful Ketamine trial). I finally found a hospital willing to treat me, and also give me maintenance treatments so hopefully I don’t relapse again.

It’s just been hell for a while. Last weekend I finally felt the gears in my brain “click”. I am capable of experiencing positive emotions again. I still feel emotionally dead a lot of the time, but at least I don’t want to die anymore (for now).

It feels good to not be in excruciating pain. It feels good to have less disordered thinking. I look back and it feels like I was a different person, I don’t even understand or recognize that person.

Anyways, I’m just… Trying to take a breather. Trying to fully experience the moment. I don’t know how things will go in the long term, but I know the next couple of months will continue to be livable. Trying to be grateful for that, and not think too much about what comes next.

Agreed, in my opinion asking for safe spaces is not entitlement. It’s people who feel most comfortable (safe) with the status quo, who think others are entitled for also wanting to feel safe.

I’d tell me in high school to get treatment for depression instead of white knuckling my way through life and ending up with treatment resistant depression at 28 because I went without for so long.

As a Chinese person I actually think they’re more Korean-inspired, not Chinese. And the devs are Korean, so it doesn’t seem disrespectful.

Honestly I played it for the first time last year and… It’s good but I don’t understand the hype? The story in 2022 didn’t blow my mind. Definitely fun and I still recommend though.

I adore cats and I could not agree with you more. Better the wild cats die than hundreds/thousands of potentially endangered birds.

I stopped drinking 3.5ish years ago. I didn’t have a choice, drinking always made me super sick and vomit. In uni I thought it was normal to “puke and rally” everytime you drank. As I got older I wouldn’t even be able to get very drunk anymore, because I’d vomit before I could even get there.

The final nail in the coffin was I had a heavy night of drinking and was vomiting for a MONTH after. So I finally stopped. 6 months later I had a single shot and vomited for a week.

Since then every now and then I’ll try having 4 (literal) sips of wine, and I’ll have gastric distress every time.

The first year or so was very difficult because I missed social drinking and didn’t really know how to be social otherwise.

Now I’m just used to it. I don’t even miss it anymore. I’ll just chill with friends sober, or high. My friends don’t give me shit for it, and when randos do I’m just super rude and blunt and tell them “it makes me shit myself” and maintain aggressive eye contact until they go away awkwardly.

I don’t know if this will be helpful, but I wrestled a lot with dealing with despair/fear from upheaval as well. Mostly climate like I said, but I used to cry for days thinking about kids starving in Venezuela, for example (that’s a crisis from many many years back).

Studying history actually helped me cope. Just learning about the past like 5000 years of human history and how much upheavals and famine and war and civilization collapses there have been.

I kind of realized that feeling like the world is ending (as we know it) is the NORM rather than the exception for most of human existence.

We’ve been exceptionally lucky in Western countries for the past 300ish years. But that caused us to believe that’s what’s to be expected. It’s not.

It just helped me understand that humans have survived through lots of things. And the turmoil comes with being alive.

I understand your desire to stay informed but also grounded. I have actually fantasized about a newspaper exactly like that - tells the world as it is, but also helps the readers cope. My biggest thing is climate change and climate despair. I ended up googling how to deal with climate despair and came across a number of articles that were really helpful.

Hooe you find something similar for Russia/Ukraine.

First week into rTMS treatment for depression. Been struggling a lot recently but know that I’ll start feeling better in 2-3 weeks, so there’s a light at the end of the tunnel (I’ve done this treatment 2x now, and know it really helps me… But only lasts 4-5 months).

Have a driving test tomorrow that would normally be a piece of cake, but I’m so depressed it’s difficult to drive. This is the last possible test before I lose my license… I kept on putting it off (because, depression). Hoping I pass!

Hang in there ❤️. The cloud will dissipate. Change is the only constant.

I’m not saying that I got downvotes consistently. Just that it has happened for really innocuous reasons, and in general the threat of downvotes keeps me from engaging much at all.

I can understand how you might think that not knowing who I am, but I assure you I really do try to be genuinely nice and don’t court controversy (I haven’t the energy for it). It’s fine if you don’t believe that though, I’m just a random person on the internet.

Exactly! I once posted about a particular TV show, and how it really helped me view my personal trauma in a different way and empowered me. A really long and emotional and sincere post. After around an hour I got scared and deleted it because I had 0 comments and like 15 downvotes. I just felt embarrassed for not sharing a meme or something and instead being earnest about it.

Absolutely. Your only choices for not getting downvotes was to say something everyone will agree with, or cloak yourself in 1000 layers of sarcasm and jokes so no one can shut you down anyways.

And as I mentioned I am extremely sincere and don’t care for defensive irony. Not for me.

Always just stuck to the smaller, interest/specific topic focused subreddits as a result.

Agreed! I tried it and found it so boring.

There’s one opinion that I’ve been afraid to say out loud forever because people are so passionate about it… Disco Elysium. I love rpgs and I love choice-based, narrative-driven games. But there were two main things which drove me crazy:

1. I really didn’t like the writing. Honestly it felt like some fresh English lit major suddenly discovered big words and angst and went crazy with it. It was really cringy to me.
2. I didn’t like the false paradigm of choices in terms of world views and beliefs, when the game very clearly sets them all up to suck. With a strong preference for communism. Like when you try to be measured and moderate the game actively negs you for being weak. Why give me the choice when you’re just going to punish me for it? And what if I have some anti-capitalist beliefs but don’t want to kill the landlords? It was just so extreme and off-putting.

Thank you for this super measured response. I’ve plenty of reservations about reddit and am here for a reason, but end of the day I zoom out and think this is a pretty niche issue in a niche corner of the internet that’s not as morally evil/extreme as a lot of people make it out to be.

I think it’s totally appropriate for other people to have their own opinions, or even not care at all.

For example one of my most frequented subreddits, depressionregimens is still active. And I’m so glad they are. They are a really important resource when I (and lots of others) are feeling hopeless or even suicidal. I wouldn’t want someone who doesn’t know/care all this is happening, to go into that subreddit for help/info/support and then find it gone dark.