That's fair. It got most of my stuff without issues, but there were a fair few I needed to fix.
However, compared to Plex, I've found the remote experience (through Tailscale) to be a lot easier and better performing than the Plex equivalent for me personally. I never have any issues connecting externally now, whereas I did all the time with Plex. Maybe I just needed to get Plex running over Tailscale but it seemed to fight that a bit.
Really? I've never really had this. I occasionally get a "huh, is this right?" in person but even that is rare now. And in the past decade, I've had my email rejected by a form maybe, once? twice?
And most of the confusion in person seems to be down to my choice of TLD: .es and .io (I'm neither from Spain nor the Chagos Archipelago).
With the exception, maybe, of whole wheat bread (it seems they sometimes add extra wheat gluten, technically an additive but yes, silly), these all seem right to me? Especially meat replacements, they're often incredibly highly processed.
Yoghurt is one you seem to be mistaken on. Yoghurt can be considered group 1, it just often contains thickeners, sweeteners, flavourings, etc. Especially if low-fat.
You're right of course that hyperpalatability is a bigger problem. And you don't have to agree that UPFs are something you need to avoid. But I don't think that makes it a silly category.
It’s a silly category to relate to health because, for example, meat replacements are UPF but are also typically much healthier than meat. Obviously that’s not always true, but most of the time it is. Basically all Americans can benefit from eating less meat, especially red meat.
Ultra-processing is not just used to make more calorie-dense palatable food. It’s also used to make less calorie-dense food and enrich food with vitamins and macros you need for healthy living, like fiber.
I mean, compare the ultra-processed high fiber tortillas to the natural tortillas. The high fiber ones have less calories, less carbs, are more satiating, and are overall healthier. They also taste worse, I.e. are less palatable.
Ultra-processing and palatability are really orthogonal IMO. You can use processing to make palatable food, but you don’t have to. Look at traditional fast food - burgers, fries, fried chicken. You can trivially make any of that with no processing. It’s still unhealthy and ultra palatable. Cutting up a chicken at home and deep-frying it doesn’t magically make it healthy.
Or go one step further, and look at the frying itself. We have access to processed refined oils. But if you don’t use them and go the old fashioned way, with lard frying, is it healthier or less palatable?
No, actually, it’s tastier and much less healthy. You get 10x the saturated fat and way more calories.
And I’ll get ahead of the anti-science anti-seed-oil people who just read that. We know, for a fact, that eating more saturated fat increases your risk of heart disease and cancer. Just because something is naturally or minimally processed does not make it healthy, health is much more complex than that.
Your response seems to imply those people are irrational, but it's really just different priorities. Yeah, you need to make sure you don't lose the domain. With Google/etc, you need to make sure you don't break any of their usage policies across their suite of apps, etc. Neither are super likely to happen. Neither are impossible, either.
Personally I like having a custom domain as I like the idea of being able to move between providers. So far, over the past decade, I've hosted my email with Google, Fastmail, Hey.com and then Fastmail again. I like being able to move it around if I find one provider better than another. Others won't care, that's fine too.
There's a difference between controlling the domain and self-hosting. You can still use Gmail and Outlook (I assume, I don't know for a fact) with a custom domain. But the difference is if any of those services become less reliable or whatever, you can move your email across to another provider. You can't do that if you're stuck on an @outlook.com address.
But also, even if you're self hosting on a server in your basement, you can still use SES to deliver your mail. Delivery is not an issue here.
Can anyone help me understand the benefits of joining a private tracker? I get it for music, or ebooks, etc. More niche stuff can be hard to find (even less niche stuff, in fact). But for TV or movies I don’t think I’ve ever really had trouble finding something. Always able to find something high quality, always with plenty of seeders. Even old obscure British shows, etc.
Also, unrelated, but I set up Claude with some tools for searching for torrents and managing my downloads. It’s interesting. If I word my request bluntly, it’ll refuse on copyright grounds, but if I ease it in and get it to search for info about the show first, “does there happen to be a good download available for this”, etc, then it’ll happily suggest the best rip, the source with the most seeders, even “the one it would pick”.
For TV or movies the benefits of a private tracker are minimal. You can definitely get by with only a public tracker.
The slight advantages are:
- On average I find the download speeds faster and the seeders more reliable. Say for example a torrent has 2 seeders 0 leechers -- on a public tracker I might not even attempt it, but on a private tracker that has a good chance of being a very fast download.
- A bit more selection if you're picky about formats, size, etc. If you're trying to download The Godfather Pt. 1 for instance, you can find that anywhere. But if you want a specific file format of a specific size to quality ratio, you're more likely to find that on a private tracker.
- Private trackers usually have some sort of request system if you really can't find something anywhere. Presumably someone will eventually satisfy that request. This can be hit or miss though since not every tracker has appropriate incentives to request fulfillers.
I mostly only torrent ebooks/audiobooks, and I use MAM. I haven't run into anything on MAM that I couldn't find on Anna's Archive or a public tracker like AudiobookBay. But I still use MAM since it has a higher chance of having the specific file format I prefer (m4b), and being a very fast download.
There's a lot of content on private trackers that's not available on the public internet, especially when it's more local or obscure content. You'll always find the latest US tv shows or Hollywood movies everywhere, and will for many years but when you want to look for things like Austrian movies from the 80s, a specific country edition of a given CD or a vinyl ripped with a specific turntable and needle you'll need to be on a private tracker or private forum.
If that's not what you are after, it's not worth it. It's just a very specific hobby.
I recently downloaded all 10 seasons of The French Chef. I doubt it would have been possible to find them in consistent quality, or at all. They are from the 1960s.
Movies? If you want Blu-Ray remuxes or ISOs (you do, cf 2nd paragraph) of non-mainstream stuff, it can be a bit hard on public trackers.
But I do somewhat agree with you that you get less for you effort with TV/movies, since in my experience, there's less focus on quality: encoders really don't know what they're doing compared to the anime world and metadata is often partial/absent (I rarely see the BD provenance and almost never internally hosted screenshots).
Here in the balkans, if you want anything local, you must find some private sharing site/tracker/forum with magnet links/etc., since no one really leaves stuff seeding on eg. piratebay for a long time (private trackers force you in a way), so much of the stuff becomes unavailable very soon.
The new avengers movie or whatever "globally popular" will always be available on every public tracker, but trying to find a good quality version of "Hajde da se volimo" is a pain :)
And ok, fair. But to be clear I’m not just downloading avengers-tier stuff! e.g. I’ve been downloading some French films from the 70s recently and had no trouble at all. But yes I can imagine that it’ll differ a lot by region. Thanks.
To provide one additional anecdote: I came off escitalopram with no taper after taking it for about five years (10mg). I got brain zaps for a while, got very irritated at times, but largely was fine after a few weeks. Not downplaying the withdrawal effects for some people, but they’re not as catastrophic as this article suggests for many (perhaps most).
And overall I’m very glad I took it! It got me through a rough patch, and seems (in combination with therapy, and some life changes) to have rewired me a little. Symptoms I had for a decade prior have not returned. And I’m not sure I could have made those life changes without it.
It can be catastrophic if one is managing family life, kids, taking them to and from activities on top of one’s own work. Then come misc stresses like tax returns, some expensive home repair, etc. Also dealing with depression without the anti-depressant. Switching mental health medication is no fun.
I am glad your experience was tolerable but it’s a whole arc and everyone’s tolerance + circumstances are unique which makes it all the more challenging (even for doctors).
Withdrawal effects, like the beneficial effects, are highly individual. I had no withdrawal effects from escitalopram after being on it for a couple of years but I know people who’ve had the issues described in the article.
This. If there is one thing I've learned it is certainly not that you can generalize from yourself to others, especially for medication and its side-effects and withdrawal effects. I get so sick from taking novalgin that its a medical emergency (Agranulocytosis). Apparently, this occurs in like 1 case in a million. Conversely, I've heard of horrible side-effects or withdrawals from other medications where I experienced absolutely none of them.
I also went cold turkey from escitalopram about a decade ago, and my experience was not as tame as yours; my ideation kicked into 6th gear, with paranoia, nausea, and insanely intense and vivid dreams every night. That was while on a 10mg dose.
I have been on over-max-dose venlafaxine for nearly a year now. I think it has been an enormous improvement in my life on nearly every axis, but if I miss a dose by even a few hours I get zaps, confusion, and dizziness. What happens to me now if I become unable to access my meds for more than a couple of days really keeps me up some nights.
Venlafaxine has also been a godsend for me. My doctor started me on ut first and past the two weeks of rebalancing (big ideation swings and so much calling to act on it...) and all kinds of pains (digestive mostly), it literally allowed me to smile again, which my wife realized hadn't happened in over a year.
I can relate to the feeling when missing a dose. No tolerance for being forgetful. Lots of anxiety brought by this tether... and the permanent anorgasmia (in my case) is sad but I was dying...
Sadly I built tolerance over 2 years and had to stop, taper off (horrible experience) and try others (most that were cited in this comment section). All had painful and very annoying side effects and tapering was a pain after trying and each time feeling so disappointed and tired. Most worked on reducing ideation but the costs (inability to concentrate, brain fog, sometimes inability to work) were too high.
Turns out tolerance to venlafaxine ebbs out after some time, so after a moment I was able to restart for a year until I didn't need antidepressants anymore.
I've learned reading forums of the gamut of experiences with antidepressants and just want to add a voice to 'they can work, great even, not perfect' and between dying and trying them (with clear open eyes about the tradeoffs) I'd advise trying.
Venlafaxine has a small half-life so that might be why if you miss a dose by a few hours you'd get withdrawal symptoms. Drugs is leaving fast you body and so concentration is quickly decreasing. Apparently there's a extended-release, don't know if it's already what you have but maybe you could ask to try another SNRIs that has a longer half-life.
Yep I’m on XR, I’ve tried taking half my dose twice daily instead, which did smooth out the effects a bit but also made me much more likely to miss a dose. Not really any other solution other than tapering afaict.
Yes, or you could ask your doctor to go on another one with longer half-life.
At least that would give you more room to miss by a few hours a dose and not going haywire into withdrawal. Especially when anxiety is already a problem and withdrawal symptoms kicks back the anxiety stronger...
It's been years since, but I too had brain zaps coming off of it. It took a few months for those to go away.
I tried to describe it to my doctor and he seemed like he never heard of it before and sort of look at me like I was crazy, or at least that is what I sensed. But I ended up researching online and found it was a thing that happens.
Interesting is your doctor a general practitioner or a psychiatrist? A psychiatrist definitely knows about this stuff. GPs in my experience know almost nothing about anything beyond what seems like a script they operate from.
A GP nowadays is a triage person and nothing more. Sadly. My old school GP back in the day was a proper doctor. My current one is a really really nice guy who knows less about anything than I do. I literally tell him what to prescribe me and he doesn't know what it is.
Whenever I have some issue he never diagnoses it but sends me off to radiology because those doctors will come up with a diagnosis for him.
He then might treat if simple or more likely triage me to see a specialist.
I kind of find it cute to be able to be paid for this. I could do it easily and better but I would have to spend years studying medicine, which at 50 is not an option anymore
(this is just to my modern GP's job. I could definitely today NOT do my old proper full-on-doctor GP's job)
A psychiatrist definitely does not always know these things. Mine told me there should be no Citalopram withdrawals and that I should taper by cutting my dose in half over a 2 week period.
They were absolutely wrong as I have serious withdrawal reactions to Citalopram. It took me a month of micro-dosing down to safely get off a drug I was on for 15 yrs. And even then I was having constant brain & body zaps, that feel like short circuiting, for a full month after I dosed down to nothing. 6 mos later & I still can't sleep more than 6 hrs.
How did I know this was going to happen? Going cold turkey when my script ran out. I even told my psych about it numerous times but they just brushed it off.
Honestly, this is where chatbots and AI come into play and make an astonishing difference. I’m an AI realist/pessimist but its usefulness in general medicine is going to save millions of lives due to doctor ineptitude. They are after all just well read mechanics
Good news, exposure therapy is quite effective for arachnophobia and is the first-line treatment. SSRIs do not have the same level of supporting evidence, and the effects are not as durable.
Thanks, yeah, but if I’m honest I don’t really care enough to go through with it. I almost did once, years ago, the London Zoo have a programme.
I mentioned it though as one of the most stark changes I noticed after getting on an SSRI was pretty much immediately losing my fear of spiders. It was the first sign I had that showed it was doing something.
I used to literally, on occasion, launch my phone across the room if I was scrolling and came across a spider (sometimes drenching myself with coffee or whatever in the process!) and then one day, shortly after getting on it, I stumbled across some awful tarantula video or something and I just stared at it like “huh, why am I not freaking out”.
> SSRIs do not have the same level of supporting evidence, and the effects are not as durable.
To the extent that we can measure depression, SSRIs have been widely proven in gold standard phase III clinical trials to help with the treatment of major depression. What exactly is supposed to be lacking in the supported evidence?
Unfortunately many of the trials look like this : https://study329.org/ - the ghost written study concluded “Paroxetine is generally well tolerated and effective for major depression in adolescents.”
The reality of the actual trial data was very different - with catastrophic results for many.
Same experience early this year but I did halve the dosage to 5mg for a month, which was of near zero difference. But the full withdrawal? Oh man it is no joke.
I think you are the flip side of what you mentioned about the article. I don't see the article as saying withdrawal is catastrophic, in fact I see it being well balanced when stating numbers. But you just said many or most people don't experience that.
If I were to take your approach, and make generalized statements based on my own experiences, I would say many if not most actually do experience significant withdrawal symptoms for an extended period of time.
You need to take into account: dosage, age, health, life circumstances, and I would think even more before you can suggest even the slightest correlation or "average" experience.
I get what you're saying and I'm very glad it was easier for you than others, clearly. I think though, it's dangerous to others to make claims based on one person's experience.
For sure. That’s all I wanted to provide: an alternative anecdote from the article which led with an anecdote of perhaps the worst case for withdrawals. If I’d read an article like this five years ago, I might not have gotten the help I needed.
Me too. I was prescribed escitalopram along with other SSRIs when I lost my mom. Even with tapering, I had brain zaps for a while. Before I could stop it all completely, I was ramped up again after I lost my wife. I'm not sure if I'd be actually functional or even be here if it weren't for these meds.
It was monthly. I don't remember the order of the medications, but I remember the effects. The most prominent one were the brain zaps and some confusions, especially in the mornings. On the bright side, I had some creativity coming back to me and I started back on some of my creative outlets (mostly my wife and therapy helped me come back to reality). And my biggest relief was when my brain fog (sometimes I even forgot my colleagues' names) cleared up. But yeah, before I could stop it completely I was fast tracked back up on a different regimen of SSRI combinations after my wife's accident.
Sure seems like it to me, but my doctor seemed bemused when I mentioned it to him and I don't think they're routinely prescribed for them. I reckon if I'd have paired the SSRI with some exposure therapy, it would have cured me of it long-term. I do have an additional phobia however (I'd rather not say which) and it didn't make any impact on that at all, so YMMV.
Worth noting as well that I had no expectation of any changes to my arachnophobia going in. It didn't even cross my mind.
What seems most broken is that medicine apparently didn't have a great way to predict which group you’d fall into, or much of a plan for the people who had a really bad time stopping. Also, RIP the anti-spider benefits
Same! I’ve quit Reddit, TikTok and Instagram this year without any effort whatsoever. I’ve tried unsuccessfully in the past but have always been dragged back. But all three have become so utterly boring and full of AI slop recently that I just stopped visiting.
I used to like watching animal videos of some sort or another. They’re all AI now. I also used to like long posts on Reddit with some sort of story or problem or whatever, inviting discussion. Now that’s all AI too.
HN still pulls me in, but I can maybe feel that slipping a little too. We’ll see.
However, compared to Plex, I've found the remote experience (through Tailscale) to be a lot easier and better performing than the Plex equivalent for me personally. I never have any issues connecting externally now, whereas I did all the time with Plex. Maybe I just needed to get Plex running over Tailscale but it seemed to fight that a bit.
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