I am absolutely in your shoes as well, right down to time frame and age. I think I have been slowly pulling myself out of the worst of the slump (you know, the bit where you just stare at the ceiling all day and don't do basic life functions, let alone job functions? That bit.) A few things that have helped: When we were superachievers, we were fueling ourselves with some part of ourselves we have just burnt right through. The fuel is not there now, because we just lit it all on fire and took off like a rocket. In my case, I think I burned up some parts of myself I would like back, but there is no use in comparing what we can do now to then. We can grieve that loss, but we can also try to find and gather different fuel. We also need to recognize that the fuel is not unlimited, and we have to REST to refuel.
It's the stress of getting lunches ready for your kids every night and making sure to do the right laundry so the kids have the right clothes to wear to school every day.
That just looks like irritation and inflammation to me. Do you wash your face in the shower after you shampoo? I ask because my skin is ridiculously picky about surfactants, so I have learned to wash and conditioner my hair first, rinsing away any hair stuff that got on my face, then use my gentle face wash. It helps prevent my face getting all irritated. Also, I don't think glycolic acid is supposed to make you purge, but it can definitely irritate your skin if it's too strong or used too often. The irritation could cause more comedones to form. Maybe step it back and work on your skin barrier? My absolute favorite for barrier repair is Stratia's Liquid Gold.
...Austin is definitely a bigger city than Fort Worth. Not bigger than DFW, but Fort Worth itself is not that big. It's also not known for its cutting edge hospitals...even people in fort worth go to Dallas (~45 drive east with good traffic) for medical care when needed. Or Houston, even better.
well, I have to disagree with you. Fort Worth and Austin have comparable "city" populations...at least according to google. Both are just over 900k. Expand that out to the county levels, Tarrant County for Fort Worth and Travis County for Austin, and Tarrant is over 2 million while Travis is only 1.3 million. As you say, Dallas/Dallas County and surrounding areas balloon that even more.
By the way, I have just been reading some Mariana Zapata books and very much appreciate her grasp of Texas geography. Her characters live in Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, and drive between those areas fairly frequently -- with accurate drive times!! Eg, FMC lives in Houston for work and only gets over to San Antonio to see her family for special occasions when she has time to stay overnight with them.
Huh--shame on me for not fact checking that! Austin FEELS bigger, but maybe that's more traffic related than population. And labor market related, I guess...I have lived in Tarrant county for 12 years and never managed to get a job in Ft Worth. All Dallas county!
Ring of fire will always mean childbirth to me (it's a term used to describe the sensation of your skin stretching when you finally manage to push the baby out). I mean, also Johnny Cash, but it brings up some very specific, very intense images of pain. So ....I guess my ADHD must not be that bad?? Because it sucks most of the time but has never been quite as intensely debilitating as, ya know, childbirth.
I am biased, because I do this for a living, but you need a qualified accountant as soon as possible. I'm a fractional CFO and Controller and have some very small clients. I have done so much clean up, though, for clients who were DIY'ing their books until suddenly a funder required audited financials, or they needed a loan and the bank couldn't make heads or tails of their financials. It's very expensive to clean up years of messy books so you can get a clean audit opinion. Having someone highly experienced spending 1-2 days per month, or quarter if you're really tiny, getting your books in order and producing accurate, GAAP compliant financials saves thousands down the road.
When my barrier was a complete disaster, Stratia's liquid gold saved my skin. It's the only thing that always works for me. If you need to work up to it, though, maybe try just straight squalane oil? Another suggestion might be straight aloe vera gel (no additives). It's gentle and hydrating. Also, are you sensitive to lanolin? Since you can't do petrolatum most occlusive are out, but lanolin really seals in moisture.
Listed is one of the few books I have a direct inspiration for. And that's the novel The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. I've read that book many times, but one time I read it after several years and I was lying on my couch thinking about it after I was done and thinking what a fascinating premise it was! Then I decided to write my own marriage-of-convenience when the heroine thought she was going to die! That's exactly where that book came from, and it's still one of my favorites.
You might look into shielding. I think of it as a mental practice of protecting my energy. I can envision a bubble, cloak, light, or whatever around me, that only lets positive energies come to me. My own energy stays inside the shield unless I willingly drop the shield. It really helps me remember that I don't have to let other people's negativity upset me, whether it's their own stress, unhappiness, or malice.
Have you looked into switching birth controls? I'm on Sprintec continuously (orthocyclen) and it has done wonders for my skin, which used to look a whole lot like yours. It was only getting worse in my 30s. I am taking it for my PMDD, not skin, but it's also recommended for hormonal acne. Otherwise, the only thing that ever worked for my hormonal acne was a Curology prescription of Azaleic acid, tretinoin, and Clindamycin. Everything my dermatologist prescribed directly was a bust. Now that my bc is keeping my skin clear, I am just using Tret directly every few days for anti-aging and for the glow. I did use spironolactone, and it helped my skin, but it gave me major brain fog. I have ADHD and depression so I do not need any extra brain fog! I don't think that's a very common reaction, though, so it's worth trying.
I don't know about you, but I had approximately zero energy to put into skincare from third trimester through the infant stage. I am not going to say I didn't purchase skin care products, because I definitely did, but they did me no good because I didn't actually use them. I did finally get smart enough to put a bottle of micellar water and some cotton pads next to my bed so I could take off my sunscreen when I realized I hadn't washed my face. My main skincare that actually got onto my skin was my usual LRP SPF, Vanicream moisturizer and CeraVe healing ointment, because I had those around for me and for baby and I could just slap them on when I felt dry. Sunflower seed oil was also really nice for itchy belly skin. I think I used jojoba oil too. If you have rosacea concerns, azaleic acid is widely available now and really helps, while being very pregnancy and nursing safe. I also used salicylic acid when I got early pregnancy breakouts.
I have both, and I take medication for both. The depression makes the ADHD MUCH worse. Depression alsop saps motivation, energy, etc, so couple that with executive dysfunction and I just sit around being miserable and angry. It's taken me a few years of medication adjustments to get to a good place, but getting the depression under control makes a massive difference. Your psychiatrist should be able to give you separate evaluations for anxiety, depression, and ADHD symptoms to see how medication changes help your various symptoms.
Speaking as a DFW native, those stickers are insanely hard to get rid of. The only thing we have found to work is to pull them up by the root (wearing gloves!) before the prickles turn brown, basically every single day in the growing season. Then carefully dispose of them. Do not till them or they will just come back. It will be much harder to deal with them after you get your flowers put in, so I would recommend spending this spring and summer aggressively tackling the stickers and then next year or in the fall planting the flowers.
NTA! I am so much like your wife, though not with water in particular. I would also suggest signs and other reminders, along with multiple towels and maybe bath mats, as long as she knows they are kindly and lovingly meant. I would honestly not recommend locking the door unless she's okay with it, though. You need to talk to HER about strategies to stop the deluge.
By the way, as someone in the same boat, I thought I was gonna be on these because my blood work always shows normal folate levels. My doctor explained that we can have the folate in our bloodstream but it doesn't mean we can convert it to the methylfolate our brain actually needs.
My neurotypical husband absolutely cannot understand why sometimes I love bananas for weeks at a time and sometimes I want to gag just looking at them. He just wants me to love or hate bananas. Meanwhile, he eats precisely half of a banana every single morning without fail. I have no idea why.
QBO Advanced also has Spreadsheet Sync to import journal entries. I use Saasant on clients that will pay for it, and Spreadsheet Sync on those who won't.
I have purchased SO MANY 24 packs of pens. When I worked in an office I blamed my coworkers for their rapid depletion, but now I work remotely and I have no idea where the pens go. Not on my desk or in my drawer or my purse or my car or anywhere else I actually want them, that's for sure.
I have found Vanicream is great over a lighter lotion, but it's not rich enough unless I add oil. I currently add a couple of drops of Stratia Fortify to mine for the eye area and it is magnificent.
For PMDD, according to my doctor at least, you tend to need a high dose, not a low dose. I am on Sprintec (ortho-cyclen) continuously. I do have a little brain fog with it but that is light years ahead of dealing with PMDD every month.
I am absolutely in your shoes as well, right down to time frame and age. I think I have been slowly pulling myself out of the worst of the slump (you know, the bit where you just stare at the ceiling all day and don't do basic life functions, let alone job functions? That bit.) A few things that have helped: When we were superachievers, we were fueling ourselves with some part of ourselves we have just burnt right through. The fuel is not there now, because we just lit it all on fire and took off like a rocket. In my case, I think I burned up some parts of myself I would like back, but there is no use in comparing what we can do now to then. We can grieve that loss, but we can also try to find and gather different fuel. We also need to recognize that the fuel is not unlimited, and we have to REST to refuel.
I read several novels every week, sometimes multiple a day. It's maybe a problem! I run out of books to read all the time.
How did you survive without laundry and lunches? I'm confused
It's the stress of getting lunches ready for your kids every night and making sure to do the right laundry so the kids have the right clothes to wear to school every day.
If only the MMC's name was Ichabod Inflation or something. Then I'd assume this was meant to be satire.
Gunther is nearly as bad, frankly.
That just looks like irritation and inflammation to me. Do you wash your face in the shower after you shampoo? I ask because my skin is ridiculously picky about surfactants, so I have learned to wash and conditioner my hair first, rinsing away any hair stuff that got on my face, then use my gentle face wash. It helps prevent my face getting all irritated. Also, I don't think glycolic acid is supposed to make you purge, but it can definitely irritate your skin if it's too strong or used too often. The irritation could cause more comedones to form. Maybe step it back and work on your skin barrier? My absolute favorite for barrier repair is Stratia's Liquid Gold.
I was thinking I might eliminate the toner for now and keep with my Ordinary squalane cleanser and pair it with a salicylic acid CeraVe lotion.
I know my dermatologist always recommended using only cleanser, SPF, and moisturizer along with the prescription topicals, to prevent irritation.
...Austin is definitely a bigger city than Fort Worth. Not bigger than DFW, but Fort Worth itself is not that big. It's also not known for its cutting edge hospitals...even people in fort worth go to Dallas (~45 drive east with good traffic) for medical care when needed. Or Houston, even better.
well, I have to disagree with you. Fort Worth and Austin have comparable "city" populations...at least according to google. Both are just over 900k. Expand that out to the county levels, Tarrant County for Fort Worth and Travis County for Austin, and Tarrant is over 2 million while Travis is only 1.3 million. As you say, Dallas/Dallas County and surrounding areas balloon that even more.
By the way, I have just been reading some Mariana Zapata books and very much appreciate her grasp of Texas geography. Her characters live in Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, and drive between those areas fairly frequently -- with accurate drive times!! Eg, FMC lives in Houston for work and only gets over to San Antonio to see her family for special occasions when she has time to stay overnight with them.
Huh--shame on me for not fact checking that! Austin FEELS bigger, but maybe that's more traffic related than population. And labor market related, I guess...I have lived in Tarrant county for 12 years and never managed to get a job in Ft Worth. All Dallas county!
We’re all seeing “Ring of Fire”, not just me, right?
Ring of fire will always mean childbirth to me (it's a term used to describe the sensation of your skin stretching when you finally manage to push the baby out). I mean, also Johnny Cash, but it brings up some very specific, very intense images of pain. So ....I guess my ADHD must not be that bad?? Because it sucks most of the time but has never been quite as intensely debilitating as, ya know, childbirth.
Watch the movie! I mean, it's not a romance, but the characters are all delightfully wanton.
I am biased, because I do this for a living, but you need a qualified accountant as soon as possible. I'm a fractional CFO and Controller and have some very small clients. I have done so much clean up, though, for clients who were DIY'ing their books until suddenly a funder required audited financials, or they needed a loan and the bank couldn't make heads or tails of their financials. It's very expensive to clean up years of messy books so you can get a clean audit opinion. Having someone highly experienced spending 1-2 days per month, or quarter if you're really tiny, getting your books in order and producing accurate, GAAP compliant financials saves thousands down the road.
When my barrier was a complete disaster, Stratia's liquid gold saved my skin. It's the only thing that always works for me. If you need to work up to it, though, maybe try just straight squalane oil? Another suggestion might be straight aloe vera gel (no additives). It's gentle and hydrating. Also, are you sensitive to lanolin? Since you can't do petrolatum most occlusive are out, but lanolin really seals in moisture.
Listed is one of the few books I have a direct inspiration for. And that's the novel The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. I've read that book many times, but one time I read it after several years and I was lying on my couch thinking about it after I was done and thinking what a fascinating premise it was! Then I decided to write my own marriage-of-convenience when the heroine thought she was going to die! That's exactly where that book came from, and it's still one of my favorites.
I have so rarely run across other people who have read The Blue Castle over and over! I need to go find Listed. It's such a wonderful premise.
You might look into shielding. I think of it as a mental practice of protecting my energy. I can envision a bubble, cloak, light, or whatever around me, that only lets positive energies come to me. My own energy stays inside the shield unless I willingly drop the shield. It really helps me remember that I don't have to let other people's negativity upset me, whether it's their own stress, unhappiness, or malice.
Have you looked into switching birth controls? I'm on Sprintec continuously (orthocyclen) and it has done wonders for my skin, which used to look a whole lot like yours. It was only getting worse in my 30s. I am taking it for my PMDD, not skin, but it's also recommended for hormonal acne. Otherwise, the only thing that ever worked for my hormonal acne was a Curology prescription of Azaleic acid, tretinoin, and Clindamycin. Everything my dermatologist prescribed directly was a bust. Now that my bc is keeping my skin clear, I am just using Tret directly every few days for anti-aging and for the glow. I did use spironolactone, and it helped my skin, but it gave me major brain fog. I have ADHD and depression so I do not need any extra brain fog! I don't think that's a very common reaction, though, so it's worth trying.
I don't know about you, but I had approximately zero energy to put into skincare from third trimester through the infant stage. I am not going to say I didn't purchase skin care products, because I definitely did, but they did me no good because I didn't actually use them. I did finally get smart enough to put a bottle of micellar water and some cotton pads next to my bed so I could take off my sunscreen when I realized I hadn't washed my face. My main skincare that actually got onto my skin was my usual LRP SPF, Vanicream moisturizer and CeraVe healing ointment, because I had those around for me and for baby and I could just slap them on when I felt dry. Sunflower seed oil was also really nice for itchy belly skin. I think I used jojoba oil too. If you have rosacea concerns, azaleic acid is widely available now and really helps, while being very pregnancy and nursing safe. I also used salicylic acid when I got early pregnancy breakouts.
I have both, and I take medication for both. The depression makes the ADHD MUCH worse. Depression alsop saps motivation, energy, etc, so couple that with executive dysfunction and I just sit around being miserable and angry. It's taken me a few years of medication adjustments to get to a good place, but getting the depression under control makes a massive difference. Your psychiatrist should be able to give you separate evaluations for anxiety, depression, and ADHD symptoms to see how medication changes help your various symptoms.
Speaking as a DFW native, those stickers are insanely hard to get rid of. The only thing we have found to work is to pull them up by the root (wearing gloves!) before the prickles turn brown, basically every single day in the growing season. Then carefully dispose of them. Do not till them or they will just come back. It will be much harder to deal with them after you get your flowers put in, so I would recommend spending this spring and summer aggressively tackling the stickers and then next year or in the fall planting the flowers.
NTA! I am so much like your wife, though not with water in particular. I would also suggest signs and other reminders, along with multiple towels and maybe bath mats, as long as she knows they are kindly and lovingly meant. I would honestly not recommend locking the door unless she's okay with it, though. You need to talk to HER about strategies to stop the deluge.
By the way, as someone in the same boat, I thought I was gonna be on these because my blood work always shows normal folate levels. My doctor explained that we can have the folate in our bloodstream but it doesn't mean we can convert it to the methylfolate our brain actually needs.
My neurotypical husband absolutely cannot understand why sometimes I love bananas for weeks at a time and sometimes I want to gag just looking at them. He just wants me to love or hate bananas. Meanwhile, he eats precisely half of a banana every single morning without fail. I have no idea why.
QBO Advanced also has Spreadsheet Sync to import journal entries. I use Saasant on clients that will pay for it, and Spreadsheet Sync on those who won't.
I'm also a 36-year-old woman with adhd, and I'm hot as fuck because stimulants.
So hot. So sweaty. I am fighting my husband to keep the heater at 64 all winter.
Omg how does this happen?!? I swear I've never even bought expo markers but they're the only writing implements in my junk drawer right now!
I have purchased SO MANY 24 packs of pens. When I worked in an office I blamed my coworkers for their rapid depletion, but now I work remotely and I have no idea where the pens go. Not on my desk or in my drawer or my purse or my car or anywhere else I actually want them, that's for sure.
Vanicream Moisturizing Cream! It is thick af.
I have found Vanicream is great over a lighter lotion, but it's not rich enough unless I add oil. I currently add a couple of drops of Stratia Fortify to mine for the eye area and it is magnificent.
I just slather my face in squalane oil sometimes especially around the eyes. It's very hydrating for me at least.
Same! It's too much for my cheeks sometimes but my eyes loooove thick layers of oil.
What kind of birth control worked for you?
For PMDD, according to my doctor at least, you tend to need a high dose, not a low dose. I am on Sprintec (ortho-cyclen) continuously. I do have a little brain fog with it but that is light years ahead of dealing with PMDD every month.