Dealing with migraines for years now. No big underlying cause, they just show up and leave whenever they feel like it. I’ve gone through every specialist you can think of—eye doctors, ENT, neurologists, psychiatrists, orthopedists, physical therapists. After endless scans and tests, the verdict is basically that I'm just prone to them, plus my bad posture from sitting all day and daily stress really mess with my carotid arteries.
If I manage to "catch" a headache early—like when I feel that dull throbbing in the back of my head—everything's fine and I can just knock it down with some regular Advil 500mg (honestly, hard to believe!). But if it starts (which is usually how it goes) around 5 AM and I don't catch it right away, nothing helps later on. Light is annoying, sound is annoying... actually, even noise itself feels like this constant ringing. I end up vomiting even when there's nothing in my stomach... honestly, hitting my head against a wall would probably feel better. Everything finally settles down around 3 or 4 in the afternoon.
Again, if I don't stop it early, things like Voltaren, Tylenol, or even Dexa injections... yeah, nothing works. Just nothing.
Sometimes my mom gets hit with migraines so bad she ends up in neurology getting meds via IV under supervision. My girlfriend also gets slammed by nasty migraines almost once a week, mostly during her period.
My girlfriend is going to her first acupuncture session tomorrow, so we'll see if it does anything. For my mom, acupuncture is the only thing that works for prevention and keeps her steady. If she goes about 8 months without a session, the migraines just come right back.
So yeah, we just keep getting poked with needles, popping pills, and complaining...
Yeah, my girlfriend has one of those magnetic bracelets, but we haven't noticed any difference at all (kind of what I expected, being a skeptic myself).
I never had issues waking up before I joined the military. You could’ve dragged me out of bed at any hour of the night and I’d be wide awake, brain firing on all cylinders. But the service? Yeah, they absolutely wrecked my sleep cycle, and even ten years later, I'm still feeling the fallout. Honestly, I’ll probably be dealing with this until I retire. 😁
Nowadays, if I have to get up just an hour earlier than usual, my whole body just goes into shock. It’s gross—I get nauseous, feel this weird internal shaking and trembling... plus some other minor stuff. Basically, I just crash into that textbook definition of a stress response.
If work has been particularly brutal, it gets even worse because I can't even fall asleep properly, so I end up conking out just two hours before my alarm goes off.
The thing is, there are mornings where I wake up actually feeling like jumping out of bed and tackling the world, but most days? Total zombie mode. I just drag myself to work with zero enthusiasm, ignoring calls and staying silent on everything until I hit my first cup of coffee around 9 AM. That's when I finally start functioning. Until that caffeine kicks in, please don't even try talking to me—I won't understand you, and I definitely can't think. Look, it's not like I'm an idiot, it's just that nothing matters to me in that moment.
Maybe I’m just being slow, or maybe I totally missed the point, but I read this:
slyviper47 said:Man, what a mess.😢 It's because today is the funeral for this young woman who was my neighbor—she was in the next bed over in a coma and just never woke up.
Look, I’d love to tell her mom and kids about her final moments, but honestly, it’s just physically impossible for me to do that.
So you decided to vent here because there’s nowhere else to go? Or am I wrong?
Sorry if I misread the vibe, but this feels pretty tasteless to me. Posting someone else's final moments on a forum...
Dealing with a massive headache. It’s the only thing that actually helps my mom when they won't quit. Now it's my turn to try it out on my wife, so we'll see if it works for her too. Fingers crossed.
And as for staying chill... yeah, obviously. That's pretty much why I'm still around. 😁
You guys totally killed a great discussion by overthinking it 😠
Seriously, if you want to hawk your "miracle" gadgets, go find a Craigslist or some shady classifieds board. Let's actually use this space to swap useful info about acupuncture instead.
Anyway, my girl's appointment is set for March 20th, 2005, so we'll see how it goes. I'm probably gonna get the most out of it since she lives in a nearby suburb and will basically be crashing at my place for a month because commuting just isn't worth her time. 😉
At our local hospital near Chicago, they actually have a dedicated pain management clinic. It’s run by about four or five anesthesiologists from the main hospital. And honestly? A doctor can write you a referral for acupuncture without even blinking. My mom has been dealing with these brutal migraines for years—like, seriously bad ones where her whole body just freezes up from the pain, and she ends up stuck in neurology getting meds through an IV drip and all that stuff.
Anyway, she goes to that clinic for acupuncture roughly every ten months. She usually does a round of 10 sessions (every other day), and the headaches just... vanish. It's like they were never there. Even if one pops up, it’s so mild she doesn't even need a light painkiller. If ten months pass, sometimes she gets about eight headaches back, so she just repeats the whole cycle.
My girlfriend deals with similar headache issues too. She’s from a different state, but she managed to get a referral, so we’re gonna send her in for some needles. We'll see if it's just a placebo effect or whatever.
But man, I’d much rather go to a real doctor—specifically an anesthesiologist—than deal with some sketchy roadside healer with half-closed eyelids.
Look, saying IVF is somehow "unethical" is just like saying... well, it's nonsense.
Seriously, though, is it also "unethical" to strap someone to a bed with a seatbelt? Come on.
The thing about the conscious mind is that you can't force something into it if the person fundamentally rejects it. But hypnosis? That bypasses the conscious guard and hits the subconscious, where you can actually use suggestion without fighting that constant conscious resistance. All those sudden gut reactions, defense mechanisms, and raw instincts—that stuff lives in the subconscious. In certain moments, your subconscious reacts way faster than your conscious brain because it’s trying to protect you. That's why people have these weird reactions they can't explain, or why they just do things on autopilot.
It just doesn't work that way; we have built-in biological safeguards. What you're describing sounds more like some staged scene from a Hollywood movie or a reality TV show.
Hypnosis isn't some scary, mystical thing. It’s just about getting into an "altered state," which is something we all drift into like 5 or 6 times a day anyway. You know that feeling—when your mind just kind of wanders off? That's it. It works by basically putting your conscious mind on the back burner so you can actually talk to your subconscious.
The conscious mind learns through induction, while the subconscious works deductively. That's why the subconscious is such a fertile ground for suggestion; it pretty much takes everything at face value.
People have this totally unfounded fear about being "implanted" with bad suggestions. But look, the mind has its own built-in defense mechanism (the conscious part) that rejects any suggestion that doesn't sit right, even at a subconscious level. This means that those creepy "hypnosis" tropes—like someone telling you that you're gonna strip down or get possessed or whatever—just won't work unless you explain to the person while they're still fully awake that you're going to ask them to do those things under hypnosis.
And people worry about getting stuck in some zombie-like trance where they're just sitting there like a plant. Nah. The mind automatically snaps back out of that state; usually, we just fall asleep and wake up later.
There are tons of books on this if you're interested. Personally, whenever I get the chance, I practice auto-hypnosis just to clear my head and declutter my subconscious a bit.
Anyway, that's my two cents. And seriously guys, keep reading.
My bad, I actually did a deep dive through the forums before starting this thread, but I couldn't find anything useful. Just stumbled upon some stuff way back in the archives by accident.
Anyway, I'd really appreciate it if someone could give me some actual info—like, who specifically has cleared this recently?
Mod, if you think this thread shouldn't be here, just go ahead and delete it. No biggie.
Alright, question from the title. I know a lot of you will probably tell me to just go talk to some "official" government agency, but I’d much rather hear from someone who actually went through this recently. What does it actually take? What are the requirements, what kind of pay are we talking about, where do I even go, any restrictions or perks I should know about?
Honestly, I'm just done. Five years of grinding away at this company and I'm ready to finally launch my own small business. Professionally, I'm an electrical technician. I basically handle everything—systems engineering, programming, design, electronics... whatever needs doing. I've hit my breaking point. I'm tired of losing sleep over someone else's success; if I'm gonna be stressed out and working late, I might as well be doing it for myself.
So, I'd really appreciate any suggestions, ideas, info, or advice you guys can throw my way.
Yeah, I’m actually curious about this twitching thing during sleep. Like, someone is sleeping right next to you and they just jerk every few minutes, but they stay totally asleep. Is that some kind of disorder? What's actually going on there?
As for me, I’m waking up every couple of hours. Sometimes I can’t even drift off, other times I’m just wide awake in the middle of the night. And man, I dream about real life stuff constantly—scenes that feel so real I’m basically making actual decisions and thinking through things while I'm out. It’s not just some random "movie" playing in my head; I’m genuinely living it. Honestly, work has been a total grind lately, plus there's just a lot of other stuff weighing on me in my daily life.
Haha, Darth... yeah, right. It stops growing once you're six feet under, I guess. 😁
From what I’ve heard, tried, and actually felt myself, those contacts helped slow things down, but man, the vision still keeps slipping. And honestly? I’m super skeptical about all those surgeries. Sure, maybe they knock your prescription down a bit, but it’ll probably just crawl right back up. I follow a few people online who got LASIK, and most of them end up needing more work because their vision regresses. It makes you wonder... what do you even do then? What's the move when there's nothing left to fix with a laser?
As for the eye exercises thing—no, I’m dead serious. You see a lot of basketball players dealing with astigmatism. It usually comes down to the eyeball not developing quite right, which messes with how light hits your retina. All that intense training and heavy physical strain is proven to worsen the shape of the eye, basically shifting your prescription. Extreme exertion and pressure changes can even cause blindness, but that's a whole different level of scary.
I want to ask something more on the psychological side, though. How do you guys internally deal with the fact that you can't see, or that you're slowly losing your sight? Like, how do you handle it when someone—even someone you love—is like, "Can't you see that?" or "Are you blind?" Do you just sit there thinking, "...Yeah, I guess I am"? Or do you think, "Yeah, one day this might get even worse"?
Honestly, I'll probably be headed to the great beyond way before I lose any more sight anyway. And hey, maybe I'll just end up in a nursing home, so whatever.
Honestly, people always give me grief about not wanting to get "bulky." But for me, the whole diet obsession is what's actually getting on my nerves. I hit the gym because I want to be agile, feel strong, and have actual energy—I don't really care if I pick up a little extra mass along the way.
The thing is, I’m just not about that life where you’re eating six or seven times a day, chugging protein shakes, glutamine, and some weird grain mush meant for chickens. My job gets crazy, so sometimes I only eat twice a day, sometimes even just once. I wouldn't mind grabbing a quick shake or a snack on the go a couple of hours before or after a workout, but I refuse to overhaul my entire menu. I’m not ditching all my favorite grilled burgers, BBQ, pizza, or sausages just to replace them with some tasteless sludge.
It seems like once guys have been hitting the weights for more than two months, nutrition turns into this total obsession, and suddenly everyone is acting like everything else is just "junk food."
So, I've been at it for about two months now, but between being slammed with work and catching a nasty cold, I've started missing sessions. Usually, I hit the gym three times a week on alternating days. By the time I finish my cardio warmup and get through my initial sets, I'm looking at about an hour and a half total. Honestly, I’m not much of an athlete, so it actually caught me off guard when I felt that muscle soreness—and it was that delayed kind that doesn't even hit you until two days later.
If you show up to the gym without any guidance, you pretty much have yourself to blame. Is anyone actually forcing you to go solo? It’s like deciding to go dragon riding without an instructor, or maybe skydiving. Okay, maybe that’s a bit extreme.
As for how long workouts take, it really just depends on what program you're following. I stuck to a basic beginner routine for the first 10 or 12 sessions just to get my body used to the strain, then switched over to an antagonistic AB split. I've noticed some solid progress since then—I can actually feel my muscles working, they're starting to show a bit, and I just feel firmer overall. And I haven't even fixed my diet; if anything, I'm eating poorly because I skip meals and just eat whatever's around.
Anyway, that's just my humble take on things.
Regarding all that "gym fashion" stuff... look, there are always trendsetters. Don't sweat it too much. In about six months, this whole look will be totally washed up and everyone will have moved on to the next thing.
In a place like Des Moines, you've got this crowd aged 18 to 40 made up of kids from wealthy families, social climbers, the rich guys themselves, and all the suck-ups. A few years back, tennis was the big thing. Everyone was waving rackets around just to look cool, mostly annoying the actual players who were just there because they genuinely love the game. Then, suddenly, it was all about the aero club. You had to show up to the BBQs even if you didn't know the first thing about planes. Some people would even try to tag along on flights like cargo; those "ultra-cool" types would start flight school but never actually get past the theory part. After that phase died down, they all migrated to the equestrian club. Even the mayor, Gertrude, rides horses occasionally, so being seen there was a smart move. Everyone was out at the local stables. But once the new age craze hit, that same group pivoted straight to yoga. Now, the latest fad is Pilates, with everyone twisting and turning in studios everywhere. The guys are a little worried that Pilates isn't "macho" enough, so they grab some dumbbells to compensate. I mean, can you imagine some guy with pomade in his hair and driving a black diesel Golf doing Pilates?
Yeah, that's basically how it goes... You should worry more about people doing exercises wrong or wasting their time on movements that are useless or even counterproductive. And as for creatine, I don't see the issue with it based on what I know. There are plenty of much worse things out there that those self-proclaimed "experts" will try to sell you.
Started wearing glasses when I was 7, now I'm 28. My prescription just kept climbing this whole time. Think I started at maybe -1 or something, but now I'm sitting at like -6 or -7 in my right eye. That’s counting the -3.5 cylinder and the -2/-2.5 sphere.
For the last two and a half years, I've been on contacts. Honestly, they struggle with me as much as I struggle with them. My left eye stayed pretty steady, and the right one only went up by like 0.25, but lately—the last 6 months—it feels like my vision is slipping again in that right eye. Kind of scared to actually go see an eye doctor and find out what's happening. I spend all day staring at monitors and do a lot of night driving. I wouldn't jump into LASIK though; there's just too much life ahead of me and I don't know what else is coming. Feels way too early to go burning off tissue.
I'm not a weak or unstable person or anything, but man, it really hurts deep in my chest after I take my contacts out and suddenly realize—how can I not see?
I'm curious about something else—is it true that hitting the gym increases your prescription? It seems logical that it would, like any other physical strain or body changes.
Also, has anyone noticed a difference between contacts and glasses with the same prescription? Okay, there's that basic difference where contacts feel better, but after a while, everything looks fine through the contacts, yet things look super blurry through my glasses.
So, I’ve been hitting the gym about three times a week for the last month or so. For the first ten weeks or so, I was just doing full-body routines to get my stamina up, throwing in some standard crunches and reverse crunches on one of those huge stability balls. Honestly, those are killer exercises because you're engaging way more muscles and working on control compared to just lying on the floor. That ball is a total game changer.
I’ve moved on to more targeted workouts now, splitting things up between upper and lower body. Right now, I'm focusing on reverse crunches on the ball and 45° hyperextensions using a 5lb dumbbell. Man, I can really feel my lower back muscles working during that extension move.
Basically, I'm running 4 sets of 8-10 reps, except for my warm-up stuff which is more like 12 + 15 + 12. I try to keep a steady 4 - 0 - 2 tempo.