Freya of OCD

If corn thins were stale, how could you tell?

I grew broad beans in winter in Adelaide, South Australia - we basically never got frost there, and it rained so I didn't have to remember to water. I didn't like them, so I never ate them, but dad loves them so I'd take him a bunch every time I visited :-)

When we dug the trench for the internet cable to the shed, we found the metal things midden. Cubic metres of dirt that was riddled with rusted nails and the remains of a record player.

When we replaced our front porch, we had to deal with chunks of (bonded) asbestos that had been disposed of by burying it in the midden that was the dirt that the concrete porch was poured on top of, as well as the chunks of concrete.

I've used that one too. It feels silly to say it to myself, but it works - something about the ritualistic repeating of the words helps bring me out of my spiral.

By the time I found the docs who believed me, I was on the maximum dosage of sertraline for someone 3-4 times my size. ADHD meds did more for the general fog of anxiety than the sertraline did, and then when we weaned me off it, the panic attacks became visible enough to get help for those too.

My GAD was apparently undiagnosed ADHD and ASD and the associated maladaptive coping mechanisms (like OCD), plus a bit of PTSD-C from going nearly 40 years without help. Finding docs who believed me was absolute magic.

Adult female wombat sitting down at the edge of the mown grass area between road and river. The steep slope down to the river behind her is not visible. She is spotlit with a torch; it is night time.

Sub-adult wombat walking away from the photographer down a slope at the edge of the mown grass area between footpath and river. The steep slope down to the river behind is not visible. They are spotlit with a torch; it is night time.

Sub-adult wombat sitting down in the middle of a mown grass area between road and river. They are spotlit with a torch; it is night time.

Walking the dog this evening, and no platypus sightings *sigh*

BUT: four wombats! FOUR!!! And a rakali!

(Photos are of two teenage wombats and one adult female; the adult male was spotted cos he ran away through the shrubs while I was recording a frog going off for FrogID)

#wombats #queanbeyan

One of my friends has to be certain her meds are gluten free; pills that have certain colourants make me nauseous. (We've tested - the pill casing minus the meds makes me throw up, the meds in a different colour casing do not)

So if you're sensitive to anything, or if there's an unintended reaction, or if it's got a different absorption rate due to the fillers, then that has an effect on the efficacy of it.

It's 100% a thing. Here in Australia, prescription forms have a ticky box that the doc can tick to say "don't give this patient a generic, even if they say it's ok to when they ask". They're required to have the same active ingredient(s) in the same dosage, but everything else can be different.

Just the cost of one movie theatre ticket here in Australia covers the cost of a month's worth of ad-free Netflix.

In uni I knew someone who had to do the recovery after someone accidentally deleted Windows.

Thank you internets, changing the angle helped the stabbities go in much easier. Also, icing the spot beforehand hurt a lot, but honestly less than the stabbities, so yay!

Sarcastic yay, the post stabbities nausea just hit and I'm not asleep yet yaaayy

A wombat is standing on a grassy riverbank, spotlighted by a flashlight/torch. In the background, the lit up buildings on the other side of the river are reflected in the water, but this side of the river is dark. The photo is poor quality due to the poor lighting.

Wombat down by the river yesterday.

It is ridiculously difficult to get the injection thingy to break skin and I don't wike it.

But the second med doesn't come in an auto-injector pen version in this country, I checked. So the bigger tip it is.

I still don't wike it.

Re: second injection. I don't wike it.

I don't like how these meds are making me feel. I persevere. And tonight, I get to add a second one to the injections!

Sarcastic _yay_.

A brown stick insect is hanging off the underside of an arm, pretending to be a stick. Her body from head to tail is about the same length as said forearm from elbow to wrist.

One of the cool things about it being school holidays is that there are all these fun things that are totally intended for but not exclusive to kids. Like the bug show I went to today at the Botanic Gardens.

This stick insect as long as my forearm is native to the Canberra area 😁

Just finished having the post-stabbities panic attack sads. Shorter this time. Yay.

This. If I weren't a citizen already, I wouldn't qualify for immigration to either of the countries I hold citizenship for (Aotearoa is one of them), even though my skills are in demand and there's a shortage of people doing my job.

A large brown dog is staring at the camera from his curled up position on a couch. All four legs are visible or partially visible but look deformed from the way he is sitting in his pillow nest.

I want my teddy bear.

Thanks must go to the dog, who slept on the couch through the whole thing and therefore I did not have to negotiate his usual reaction to someone sitting on the floor (is it playtime? Investigate!) while also dealing with the stabbities.

I dislike how long the injector pen is relative to my hand and the way it hurts when I adjust my grip from middle to end.

Took three goes but stabbities completed. Sitting on the kitchen floor is 100% the right place to do this because when I feel like I'm going to pass out, I'm already on the floor and can pull out the needle and just lie down.

The docs switched one of my meds for something that gets injected and I'm terrified. I know things are going to be better and I'm nowhere near as phobic as I used to be but I'm still petrified.

And I'm still going to do the stabbities anyway.

I am so bored. Waiting at the doctor's offices. It's 40 minutes past the time of my appointment and 10 minutes past when Google says the offices close for the day, and I'm still waiting. And so very very bored.

The Australian who was convicted earlier this year of murdering three relatives and attempted murder of another by serving them Beef Wellington laced with deathcaps got sentenced today. Three life sentences; non-parole period of 33 years.

A large brown dog is lying with his head on a human's chest. One of the human's hands is holding a phone up so that they can talk on speaker. The other hand is resting next to them and not petting the dog. The dog looks exhausted by the tragedy.

Snuggling while his favourite human talks to their parents