Medical coding audit exercise

My partner has started snoring and I feel like my life has shattered

2024.05.19 01:44 rioichi4 My partner has started snoring and I feel like my life has shattered

Getting a good night sleep is the ONLY way I have found to not experience daily burnout. I have worked SO hard on making our bedroom the ideal sleep environment: black out curtains, humidifier and air purifier for white noise, no electronics in the room at all, handmade pillows, expensive mattress cover....
My partner and I have been together almost 6 years, and over the past year or so they've slowly started snoring. Now, any given time they're asleep, it's like an 85% chance they are snoring. And LOUD. White noise doesn't cover it. I even bought some really nice sleep headphones thinking that having white noise directly in my ears would help, but I turned it up so loud I got a warning and my ears hurt and I could still hear the snoring. I also tried several different ear plugs. Most were not comfy enough to sleep in, and none of the ones that were actually blocked out noise. (Well they blocked out the white noise but not anything else so).
My partner goes to sleep before I do, so it makes sense that they go in the bedroom and close the door so they can sleep while I'm still up doing things. And I just sneak into bed quietly when I'm ready. But now when my partner is there, that place that was so quiet and peaceful, a sanctuary from the world, now feels hostile because of the noise. So, I end up on the couch, with only room for one pillow, unable to stretch to the sides, in the living room with all the electronics and no blackout curtains.
I know my partner isn't doing on it purpose, but I FEEL like it's a personal attack, like every time they snore, it's a personal "f*ck you" just for me. I don't know how to not feel this way. I don't know how to accept the snoring, if I even can. And I don't know how to sleep well outside my sanctuary.
As for WHY they are snoring, they seem to think it's because of allergies or a sinus infection or something like that, and are taking medication and nasal sprays, which...maybe help a LITTLE? I personally think it's because we're both getting into our 30s, have become lethargic after moving into a better living situation 2 years ago, and have thus gained weight. With much convincing, they've started exercising, but refuse to cut out any sugar, and they won't drink anything that isn't out of a bottle or can, which means soda and I haven't been able to convince them that sugar free soda actually isn't bad. So. If this is the problem, it's not going to change very quickly.
submitted by rioichi4 to AutisticAdults [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 01:33 me1s So I didn’t KNOW I was in labour… a positive birth story.

Hi,
In the lead up to giving birth I was told you’ll KNOW when you’re in labour. Well… I didn’t! So here is my story to show how some symptoms can look/feel different.
My brith plan was for low intervention, but not against pain relief and medical inputs as required.
I had 2 x stretch and sweep, one at 39 weeks, and one at 40 weeks.
For my 40 week stretch and sweep my “spotting” was heavier than the 39 week one. Also the period like cramping was worse.
I didn’t think much of it, until 5 hours later the spotting got a bit heavier so I called the hospital for advice.
After a series of questions they suspected my waters had broken and I went in for a check. And yup - was my waters. For me it was only a trickle and pinkish.
I was given the option to go home so I did.
A few hours later I passed a small clot, so again went back to hospital for some monitoring. Baby was fine. Pre-labour surges were manageable. But we stayed overnight as it was 1am and we were too tired to drive home.
I put my TENS on and tried to get some sleep. I didn’t really sleep due to the strong surges, which I felt were about 30 mins apart.
In the morning I was told if my labour hadn’t progressed by midday I should consider and induction to avoid infection (nearing 24 hrs since waters broke). I agreed.
I went for a walk to get a tea at around 11am. I stopped a few times as it hurt and breathed through it.
I was disappointed at midday that nothing seemed to be happening. So we put in a low dose synthetic oxytocin drip and checked my cervix…..
Turns out I was 7cm dilated!!!!!!
After that my partner and I put on a movie to watch, but things moved quickly.
About 30 mins into the movie I was in active labour.
Around 2 hrs later we had a baby!!!!
All up from waters breaking to delivery was 25 hours.
Labour was manageable with TENS and gas. I had a great team around me and lots of support.
My partner played some music, and helped with massage and changing positions.
I managed only minimal tearing, no stitches.
We did do quite a bit of prep in terms of calm birthing type classes, breathing exercises, and perennial massage. I’d also done pre natal yoga.
I was very scared of the pain, but almost 2 weeks later it’s only a distant memory….!!!!
Anyway I just wanted to share this as I have heard so many negative brith stories, and I’m a very ordinary person with narrow hips, advanced maternal age, who wasn’t convinced I could do it!!!! But here we are!!!!!
Good luck ladies x
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2024.05.19 01:31 2buckbill Dad had a good day and I really kind of needed it

My dad, after a consistent and very slow decline, finally had a pretty good memory day today. He has what I guess is a "run of the mill" vascular dementia. I'm far from an expert.
A bit more than 2 years ago his wife passed away in early 2022. I didn't know, at that time, that he had any unusual health problems. They didn't tell me about any mobility issues, they didn't tell me about some of the conditions he had developed, and they didn't tell me about the dementia diagnosis. When she passed my dad just stopped taking care of himself, and he spiraled pretty fast. He spent a couple of weeks in the hospital while we got him sorted out and I was finally clued in to how far he had declined in the previous couple of years. I was able to get POA for his health and finances to help make decisions. A couple of weeks later the doctors said that he was OK to go home on his own with help from some occupational therapy, and a nurse visiting a couple of times a week. This was in mid to late April of 2022. By early June he was getting some pretty serious notices from utilities, credit card companies, and others wanting to be paid. Dad thought everything was paid automatically (said his late wife had set that up), and had been ignoring every bill that came his way. This was when I really found out how bad things had become. There hadn't been a bill paid in months, his wife had been using HIS credit cards for HER purchases, and as I recall it there was about $11,500 in credit card debts that she had left for him. On HER OWN cards she had about $19,000 in credit card debt (I never paid that, my dad was not a guarantor on her accounts). My dad's credit score tanked, and was flirting with dipping into the 500s. So I stepped in and took over. I'd never had to take over someone else's finances before, and thus began a whole lot of change in both our lives. There were mysterious bills that were getting paid from his accounts, his cell phone bill was in the hundreds, there were debts she had created; some he knew about and some he didn't. I had to do some very basic financial forensics to figure out what was happening. The list of her dumb-fuckeries is sadly extensive, she was just a financial-fucking-idiot. He had a few thousand dollars remaining in his accounts, but he had a consistent pension and Social Security coming in. I started prioritizing the debt into utilities versus credit, and started getting him set right. It took about a year or year and a half, but my dad became debt free, and developed a substantial savings. His credit score is in the mid / high 700s again.
He is good enough to live mostly on his own still. I call most nights to check up on him, run through the list. "Did you eat enough? Did you take your medicine? Did you get any exercise? Did you visit with any friends? How you showered recently?" And on Saturdays I go over to his house to refill his medications, take him shopping, take a rudimentary inventory of his physical and mental condition, and I take him to lunch, usually with my wife and daughter. I take his blood pressure, and report it to his GP via an online portal. I do a bit of picking up in his house, maybe clean some things. Remind him about upcoming appointments. This takes up most of my Saturdays. I also get him to most of his medical and dental appointments, work with his doctors and nurses, and manage most of his life. But I also have a house, a demanding career (where I have a full team to manage and lead), a wife, a four year old, and pets. Everyone and everything deserves attention, of course, but these days I feel like I am constantly trying to pour from an empty container. I'm always exhausted, and I wake up nearly every night afraid that I missed something. Did dad take his pills? Did we miss any bills? Is my daughter OK? Did I hear her coughing? Did I miss something at work? Did I miss a page out? I have to get up and check my work phone. I'm just exhausted, and burnt out on all of it.
But today... He remembered my daughter's name, my brother's name, my wife's name, and even the names of cousins. He remembered his friends' names, he remembered his bills, and where he put them. He was even a bit spry when I took him shopping. He cracked jokes. He was in the best mood that I've seen him in in.... hell, maybe years? He understood everything that I was telling him, and HE TOLD ME about an upcoming appointment that he remembered. And man... I needed it. I needed an easier day. It is like a little bit of the weight lifted. I know that it is just one day, and he might be having these good days on the days when I am not over there to manage his home, but I usually see more difficult days. It isn't a whole lot, but tonight it feels like the vessel I am trying to pour from finally has a bit of something in it, it doesn't feel so empty.
submitted by 2buckbill to dementia [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 01:24 EitherCoyote660 6 Months In

This medication has been a fantastic tool for me. I went on Wegovy in October of 2023. Started at 0.5 as prescribed and moved up to 1.0 where I stayed for a few months as it was working well at that dosage.
Last month I decided I'd move up to 1.7 because I felt like it wasn't *quite* working as well. I wasn't overeating but I was making not great choices and slacked on my protein intake a lot. I paid the price for it let me tell you. I had no side effects the entire time I've been on the medication but I in recent weeks had 2 instances of truly terrible bowel troubles and at first I thought maybe I'd had a stomach bug or ate bad food but looking back I am sure it was side effects from not eating as good as I should have since it happened both times the day after I did the injection. That taught me a big lesson at least and I immediately went back to eating as I should again.
Today is my first injection at 1.7 and hoping going up isn't going to kick my butt LOL.
Anyway, the only changes I've made to the way I eat is I eat, a LOT less. Every meal is half of what I would have eaten before. I already had been making dietary changes before the medication and do watch the macros but I allow myself to eat pretty much whatever I want just within reason. I do avoid very high fat/fried foods now. I find that my food tastes have changed a lot in the past months too - not sure if it's the medication or me but whatever the reason is I'm happy for it. I don't exercise other than going about my daily routine and some walking.
Something I Discovered: I HATE anything with fake sugars. I never ate a lot of sweet foods before so trying to force myself to drink protein shakes was just too much for me. I tried to get on board with protein drinks but honestly, a big YECH to all of them. Thankfully I LOVE plain milk so I switched over to Fairlife nonfat and make sure to incorporate at least a full glass of that into my daily foods. Good for protein and for calcium. I also love whipped cottage cheese so between those two things and whatever I eat the rest of the day I manage to get my protein needs met without resorting to plastic tasting shakes.
Last May I weighed 247+. Today, exactly 1 year from the same date in 2023 I weigh 202 so 45 lbs. are gone. Most of the weight was lost since starting Wegovy in October though and I've averaged about 5 lbs. per month since on it. Some more than others, some less. I've gone down 2 sizes which is fantastic. My last bloodwork was great. I still have a lot more to lose but I think by end September I'll be down one more size which will put me in the weight range I've been in most of my adult life.
The one looming thing I worry about is I am retiring in December (possibly January if they beg me nicely) and my medication will have to end then because Medicare does not pay for weight loss medications at all. The cost will not fit into my retirement budget from what I know (I currently pay $0 between my insurance coverage and manufacturer coupon).
Anyway I thought it would be helpful to give an update in case this is helpful for anyone in the community. Best to everyone on their WL journey.
submitted by EitherCoyote660 to WegovyWeightLoss [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 01:18 Public_Entrance_4214 Break for vacation or no?

Hi all - week 9, 17 lbs lost (inc. big diet changes and exercise upped), so slow and steady not mad at. But I go to Europe for 2 weeks on Thursday and having a lot of anxiety about continuing medication abroad.
Each week has been slightly different for me. I'm on 0.5 (been on that dosage 5 weeks). Nausea, headache, appetite, anxiety, bloat, gut issues, etc. Some weeks low others vastly different. Not head in the toilet bad, but discomfort is best description. Also have seen alcohol taste change, as have hangover effects day after 1-2 drinks only.
Do I stick with this while traveling, (i opted to continue same 0.5 dosage this month), battling anxiety of if my physical symptoms interfere with enjoyment of trip? Finding a bathroom, having energy, appetite for amazing food and drink? Or am I overthinking?
What happens if you take a 2 week break, are there withdrawal symptoms or is starting again really tough? Consulting my doctor too but anxiety fearing the worst has me struggling to truly embrace my excitement to travel. Thank you!
submitted by Public_Entrance_4214 to WegovyWeightLoss [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 01:06 hidefromthe_sun Some advice on starting to tailor my program towards activity specific training - I'm a cave diver.

So currently I work a four on four off shift pattern. Four days on are 12hr shifts in a sedentary role. On my four days off I hammer it right up to and sometimes a little bit beyond what's recoverable because I have four days off.
Routine at the moment is a bastardised 531 program for three of my four days off. I'm untrained following six months of depression. I've been working hard for the last 10 weeks since getting medicated for ADHD. It's night and day - I actually have consistency. I'm making decent progress and feeling stronger, looking better. I've been able to recomp at this point.
Gym days are as follows:
Day one: Deadlifts/overhead press then I work on accessory lifts mainly around the posterior chain.
Day two: Squats/bench press then accessory lifts based around my anterior chain.
Day three: Deadlifts/overhead press again with posterior chain accessories.
I'll alternative on each set of four off one set of four off it's as above, then the next will be squats/bench/anterior chain twice and DL/OHP/posterior chain once.
I also do around 5-6hrs of steady state easy cardio during that time. I use my four days working to recover. I'll do some light work with dead hangs, some pressups and pullups, static holds, some kettlebell work and a lot of stretching and some light walks.
I want to be the best cave diver I can be. I'm reaching the end of this cycle of building a good fitness base - I'm stronger, my cardio has improved.
So my goals are:
I'm approaching the time when I start to add more volume and also a program more aimed towards the activity I'm training for.
Hard carries into a cave with 40kg on my back so I might start with heavy farmers walks. We often rope into pitches and ascending a rope is hard work. The movements are very similar to climbing a rope so I'm thinking pull ups/narrow grip lat pulldowns and work on some squat variations. Rows and back extensions to strengthen my back.
I hit max heart rate getting the steel gas cylinders into a cave a lot.I'm going to dial down the zone 2 cardio and get a couple of HIIT sessions in a week. Cold water immersion for staying calm during the dive whilst under a lot of pressure.
Finning in the water comes from your ankles and calves so calve raises would work well too.
I'll continue with some dialled back compound exercises to maintain strength but that will already be a lot of volume.
What adjustments can I make to this plan? It's a very rough idea in my head and I've never programmed before so I need some advice or reading materials on getting this right.
Once properly structured, will this improve the areas I need to work on?
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2024.05.19 01:05 Vast_Drop1408 3 pounds down in 4 weeks

Hi all! I’m new to Reddit in general but particularly this community. For reference, I (24F) am 5’2” and 157 pounds. Growing up I never struggled with my weight. I used to eat like absolute crap but never weighed more than 125 lbs up until 20 years old. Then something changed around 2020/2021 in me. (No the pandemic didn’t change my exercise or eating habits. I’m a dancer and kept very active even through the shutdowns).
I’m in the process of being officially diagnosed with both narcolepsy & PCOS😵‍💫. I know both of which can cause weight problems. Not to mention my brother was killed a year ago and really took a toll on me (as one could imagine).
Over the past 2 years I’ve been eating well and in a deficit while also maintaining exercise. The problem is I haven’t been able to lose more than 8 pounds in YEARS.
I’m going to spare you all the details since it’s a lot to type out. HOWEVER…
I’ve made some serious lifestyle changes in the past 4 weeks with what my doctor recommended we try before going on any weight loss medications. It isn’t much progress, but I’ve lost 3 pounds in 4 weeks! I’m proud of it and the work that I’ve put in, and I hope I keep improving instead of plateauing. Just wanted to share because it’s not a big enough accomplishment to text my friends about, but I’m proud of it nonetheless!
submitted by Vast_Drop1408 to loseit [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 01:04 ludwigkonrod Strange scenario in school entrance test

So I seated for the PCP entrance exam in a Calgary school last week. It failed - I didn’t expect them to ask so many high school mathematics questions. I had been solely focused on the medical questions - but what was most memorable about it was the scenario test. It was wild. I am not sure if I did something wrong or the instructor intentionally made it that way. Obviously I made some mistakes, but perhaps there’s something else I did not catch. Let’s see what you guys think about it.
The patient is sitting on a park bench. It is a sunny day. He complained of a shortness of breathe. Initial assessment found rapid and shallow breathing, rapid HR, pale and clammy skin, cyanosis on extremities (15L O2 given), and some kind of hive/rash on the skin. Strider was heard but the airway was patent.
I suspected anaphylaxis and went for the EpiPen. (First mistake made: I forgot that as EMR I was only supposed to assist the patient in taking their own medication) The patient did carry EpiPen and a Ventolin puffer. I went through the whole sequence of drug administration (6 rights > Color, Clarity, Concentration, Expiration, etc) and assist the patient in self-administration on the side of his thigh.
But the pt’ vitals were unchanged. So I continued with the head to toe. Wheezing was noted on both lungs. Of interest was that there was no pulse on the patient’s feet, but he could move them.
The pt was unable to stand, so we transferred him to the stretcher via rescue seat. Due to compromise in ABC I called it a load and go. Upon moving on-board, reassessment found no change in patient’s condition. Vitals were taken and revealed no change. HR and RR remain very high. SpO2 is low. BP and BGL are both normal.
I chose not to use the Ventolin because it would have worsened the tachycardia. 15L O2 remains on. I am also unsure of the patient’s condition. Regarding the shock-like condition, I chose not to put the pt in the Trendelenburg position - the pt was already in respiratory distress and was being transported in high Fowler position. Beside the O2, the only thing I could do was to keep the patient warm. (2nd mistake: I didn’t call medical control. Though I m not sure if it is even an option to begin with.)
En route, pt suddenly went unconscious. I found no breathing (3nd mistake made: I assessed in the ABC order instead of CAB). At that point I didn’t realize it was a code, so my initial reaction was to check gag reflex > inserted the OPA > BVM at 5-6 BPM. But then I got to the pulse and found that he actually had no pulse as well. Shit. I instructed my partner to go light and siren and sped up, while I began one-person resuscitation.
(Potential mistake: prompt transport is not in the life chain. So perhaps I should have stopped the truck and have my partner assisted me?)
I put on the AED first before I worked on the CPR. For rescue breath I opined for the pocket mask in lieu of the BVM. I justified it on the ground that I won’t have time to work the BVM while I was working on both the CPR and AED.
Two shocks from the AED and more than two minutes of CPR later, the pt achieved ROSC. He is breathing 4 time a minute. I replugged the 15L O2 (mistake) but then I realized the mistake and then immediately shifted to the BVM, giving breath at 5-6 BPM.
Eventually, the patient made it to the hospital. Scenario was over.
So that’s it. It’s very unlike the scenarios I undertook in EMR school, where the pt usually had only one condition. This pt seemed to have multiple conditions at once. And I really could not fathom which single medical condition could cause all those respiratory distress and a loss of pulse in both feet.
Any help before I retake the test three months later is greatly appreciated.
submitted by ludwigkonrod to NewToEMS [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 01:00 SubstantialPut6708 🌎A Natural Way to Enlarge Your Penis.🌎

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submitted by SubstantialPut6708 to growthmatrixUK [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 00:59 GoAheadMMDay UPDATE 3: Torment Techniques Used by Canadian and US Militaries

UPDATE 3: Torment Techniques Used by Canadian and US Militaries
Update #3 appears at the bottom.
Due to numerous disparaging comments by multiple individuals, I have reposted my article.
Heckling does not change what occurred. People need to know these truths, especially those who have experienced the same. They need to know they are sane, that such things are indeed being perpetrated, and the perpetrators use shame to silence them and protect their activities.
I write to encourage them not to listen to disparaging people who speak without knowledge.
February 10, 2024
I am Joseph Cafariello, a Canadian citizen and ex-member of the Canadian military. Of sound mind, not on medication, not a drug user, not a marijuana smoker, not an alcohol drinker, with no mental disorders.
I recently posted to this Liberty subreddit experiences of harassment by Vancouver's police and fire departments (Vancouver, BC, Canada). I’m the fellow who was repeatedly ordered by police to stay out of Vancouver’s Stanley Park, and was continually harassed whenever I visited the park (which I do every second day on my early morning walks).
Immediately following that post, I changed some of their techniques in my case. They were either informed of my post or found it themselves, seeing as my internet activity, and phone activity for that matter, are under continuous surveillance (plenty of proof which I will not include here to avoid running off-topic).
In this post, I would like to shed some light on other harassment which is still ongoing, since it occurs in private, away from potential observers. It involves the Canadian and US militaries.
Havana Syndrome
In 2016, numerous employees of the Canadian and US embassies in Havana, Cuba, started experiencing head injuries ranging from mild headaches to concussions. It happened in their sleep, and came to be called Havana Syndrome.
Wikipedia explains (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana\_syndrome):
“Havana syndrome is a cluster of idiopathic symptoms experienced mostly abroad by U.S. government officials and military personnel. The symptoms range in severity from pain and ringing in the ears to cognitive dysfunction and were first reported in 2016 by U.S. and Canadian embassy staff in Havana, Cuba. Beginning in 2017, more people, including U.S. intelligence and military personnel and their families, reported having these symptoms in other places, such as China, India, Europe, and Washington, D.C. The U.S. Department of State, Department of Defense, and other federal entities have called the events "Anomalous Health Incidents" (AHI). Of over a thousand purported cases, the majority of US investigative bodies found only a few dozen cases to be suspicious.”
Ladies and gentlemen, I can tell you exactly what happens, because I have been experiencing this since I first joined the Canadian military back in 2002, and am still experiencing these “torments” (as I call them) to this day, already 3 years after leaving the military.
I go to bed. In about 15 minutes, just as I am on the cusp of falling asleep, a hear and feel a heavy thud reverberate and ultimately strike my skull. My body releases a sharp burst of adrenalin, my heart starts racing, and my blood’s circulation speeds up significantly. Depending on the severity of the blow, it can take me anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to fall asleep again. Though there have been times I could not return to sleep for more than 2 hours.
A strong headache is felt immediately, and lasts for hours. There have been times when my heart felt like it was going to burst, having been startled as such.
The pulse to the head sometimes reverberates through the wall and my bed’s headboard. I distinctly feel as though I have been hit on the top of my skull. At other times, it feels as though the pulse has come through the air, striking the side of my skull.
This is not a sleep disorder, for it does not occur regularly. At times, my sleep is disturbed in this manner 3 or 4 days in a row. At other times, there is no disturbance for up to a week. But they never let me go more than a week without such interruptions to my sleep.
Neither is it sleep apnea, as I do not awaken gasping for breath. The pounding headaches, sudden release of adrenaline, and heart palpitations I experience are caused by external impacts of sound waves or air bursts.
Sonic Weapons
How these pulses are produced is not easy to identify. As Wikipedia explains:
“Once the story became public, various U.S. government representatives attributed the incidents to attacks by unidentified foreign actors, and various U.S. officials blamed the reported symptoms on a variety of unidentified and unknown technologies, including ultrasound and microwave weapons.”
Sonic weapons have been in use for many years by militaries, and by police in crowd control. As Wikipedia explains (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic\_weapon):
“Some sonic weapons make a focused beam of sound or of ultrasound; others produce an area field of sound. As of 2023 military and police forces make some limited use of sonic weapons.”
(Do not believe the 2023 timeline. The Canadian military has been using these weapons since the early 2000’s at the latest.)
Wikipedia continues:
“Extremely high-power sound waves can disrupt or destroy the eardrums of a target and cause severe pain or disorientation. This is usually sufficient to incapacitate a person. Less powerful sound waves can cause humans to experience nausea or discomfort.”
The users of these technologies must also be using thermal detection equipment to monitor the target’s sleep. As I mentioned, I most often feel these blows the moment I am falling asleep. Body temperature drops when we sleep, and brain activity slows. Heat-detection equipment is likely being used to identify the point at which the target is falling asleep.
Why they prefer to strike at the start of someone’s sleep as opposed to the middle of their sleep, I do not know. Perhaps their intent is to deprive the body of early sleep, limiting the amount of deep sleep available to the person before their alarm rings in the morning.
Ordinary Hammers
Not all such “torments” (as I call them) are caused by high-tech equipment. I have heard and felt distinct hammer strikes running along the 2x4 beams inside my walls. These strikes can be a single hard strike, or several strikes in a row. It is definitely caused by a person with a hammer because the intervals between strikes are equidistant in time; that is, the time spacing between strikes is not random and does not change from strike to strike, but is constant between strikes, exactly as when someone is hammering. And no, it is not someone hanging pictures at 1:30 am, multiple times a week, for years.
On one occasion, when I was standing at my kitchen sink, I felt the floor-board directly under my feet pulse so sharply it felt like a brick had struck the soles of my feet. In this case, my military neighbour likely used a hammer to strike the floorboard on his side of the wall. It is the only plausible explanation.
Surveillance
This leads to surveillance of one’s activities at home. I have plenty of proofs of that. They seem insignificant on an individual basis. But when you put them all together, they present a clear picture of home surveillance.
My laptop computer’s lid cracked one night, at the bottom left corner of the screen. The next day at work, I heard my military supervisor relate to another co-worker that the night before, his laptop computer’s lid cracked at the bottom left corner. I swear to the Lord in Heaven, I am being truthful.
I tested my suspicion of being surveilled. At home one night, I blurted out-loud, “VW Passat. What an ugly sounding word, ‘Passat’”, I said. A few days later, my military colleagues at work started playing a card game at lunch, invented by one of them. The name he gave his game was “Passat”, and when he spoke it, he looked at me for a reaction. If you ever contact the Halifax military base, ask for the Claims Department and ask them if they are still playing Passat.
On another occasion, at a time when I frequented the gym every second day for a few years, I suspected my van had been fitted with a listening device. I suspected so because a number of things I had spoken with people about on my phone while in my van (nothing illegal) were repeated by people at the gym in conversations among themselves. Too many times, parts of other people's conversations matched parts of conversations I had had with others while I was in my van.
I already knew my phone was being tapped, but I also suspected my van was bugged. So one evening while driving in my van, I blurted out-loud a number of things I said I hated. "I hate (this or that)"; "I hate it when...". One of them was, "I hate when people chew gum with their mouths open." I then vocalized an exaggerated gnawing sound, "Gnaw. Gnaw. Gnaw."
The very next time I went to the gym, 2 days later, while I was at an exercise, a fellow sat at an exercise directly behind me. And sure enough, he started chewing with his mouth open, vocalizing that gnawing sound, "Gnaw. Gnaw. Gnaw." I didn't look behind at him, because I knew what was going on, and I wanted to avoid playing into his hand. So he repeated himself again and again until I was done and moved to a different station. Now, honestly, who chews gum at the gym? You can't. Or you run the risk of choking for the heavy breathing, not to mention when laying down on benches. And with precisely the same exaggerated vocalized gnawing sound I had made in my van just 2 days prior.
Their whole intent is to let you know you are being surveilled. They want you to know, as both a warning and a provocation. They want you to say something, to launch accusations, which they would readily deny, making you look paranoid. If you react too strongly, they could even have you diagnosed with some kind of disorder, and put you on medication, which further plays into their hand. (More regarding medications in the last section of this post.)
This is why, as I mentioned in my previous post, they would park their cars shining their high beams on me as I walked past them during my morning walk. And why on some occasions, a group of 3 or 4 would exit their cars and stand on my path just as I approached, forcing me to go around them. They would then remain standing on the path until my return trip through, and after I had passed by the second time, then would then return to their cars - making it absolutely clear I was their interest.
Their intent is not only to make me aware, but also to present themselves in close proximity to me, within easy reach, in the hope I would confront them, resulting in an altercation that could land me in a lot of hot water - 4 witnesses against me, all pleading innocence.
Again, it is all designed to make you look bad, and to warrant some kind of legal measure against you - preferably a medical diagnosis, discrediting you in everything you say about them. If they can't refute your claims, their only remaining option is to discredit you. That's what all of these tricks are designed to accomplish. Who would believe anything you say, once you have been diagnosed with a disorder?
There are plenty more examples. But who would really believe them? I’ll save them for the future.
Home Invasion
Both during and after my military service, I have had my apartments entered without any signs of break-ins. How? Lock-picking and duplicate keys. Indications? Missing objects; ie: money, phone adaptor, etc. Nothing major. Just something to make us understand we are being watched, and to make us understand what they can do.
But it is always something small, something for which you would be ridiculed for divulging.
Two more examples: I found my razor, which I always lay-down razor-end to the wall, turned around, razor-end toward me. Also, in one of my house slippers I found a small shoe sticker on the up-side of the heel. I had those slipper for years, and never had any shoe stickers on them. Yet there it was, clearly visible on the top surface of my slipper, not the bottom. Could I have stepped on a shoe sticker when barefoot in my apartment, only to have the sticker transfer itself to my slipper when I wore it? How many shoe stickers do you have laying around your apartment that you can accidentally step onto?
If I had stepped onto a sticker in my apartment and had it stick to my heel, that means the sticky side was up against my skin. This means the sticker would have had to flip upside down such that the sticky side would then be down, allowing the sticker to stick to the slipper. Do you really think that happened? That sticker was not there when I left my apartment, but it was there when I returned. And it was the wrong sticker, wrong brand, wrong size.
Again, what is their intent? To make someone look ridiculous so no one will believe them should they speak of other more sensitive things.
Staged Incidents
The above incidents clearly point to coordinated and staged events (at my work, my home, on my walks, etc). This is so frequently met with incredulity. "But that would require coordination on the part of so many people," the public dismisses. "They wouldn't do that."
Oh yes they would, and they have, as explained in https://fightgangstalking.com/. Note the documented cases involving the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, Canada's equivalent to the US' CIA) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP, Canada's national police force) in the second quote, which were reported in national newspapers.
From https://fightgangstalking.com/:
“Disruption operations often involve tactics which are illegal, but difficult to prove. These tactics include – but are not limited to – overt surveillance (stalking), slander, blacklisting, “mobbing” (intense, organized harassment in the workplace), “black bag jobs” [home invasions], abusive phone calls, computer hacking, framing, threats, blackmail, vandalism, “street theater” (staged physical and verbal interactions with minions of the people who orchestrate the stalking), harassment by noises, and other forms of bullying. Many of these tactics were used by the FBI during its illegal COINTELPRO operations, as documented by stolen official documents and subsequent Congressional investigations.
"Although the general public is mostly unfamiliar with the practice, references to “disruption” operations – described as such – do occasionally appear in the news media, even though that fact would apparently be news to the editors of The New York Times. In May 2006, for example, an article in The Globe and Mail, a Canadian national newspaper, reported that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) used “Diffuse and Disrupt” tactics against suspects for whom they lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute. A criminal defense attorney stated that many of her clients complained of harassment by authorities, although they were never arrested."
She can add me to that list too.
For the Benefit of Others
The experiences I have recounted here seem so trivial, so insignificant, they make you look ridiculous if you talk about them. But if we don’t talk about such things, no one will ever know about them. Other people have experienced the same, and are forced to endure such torments in silence. They need encouragement to talk about their own experiences, and so I write about mine in the hope they will talk about theirs, even if I do look ridiculous. The perpetrators are more ridiculous for doing them.
I remember a military colleague being hauled away by military police one morning, as she was struggling and having a violent fit. A fellow on her floor told me she was throwing chairs at her walls screaming, “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!”. When he mentioned that, I knew exactly what they had done to her. She was considered unruly, and was being watched intently. They wanted her out, and that is how they accomplished it. Through wall tapping and sleep deprivation, they push you to the breaking point. And when you finally lose control and do something rash, they pounce on you, and you’re out. Now she has a criminal record, considered a criminal when in reality she was a victim. Welcome to the Canadian military, and other militaries besides, I am sure.
There are dozens upon dozens of experiences I could present. But who will really read them? Worse still, who will really believe them? I overheard my military supervisor in Halifax whisper to another, “Do you think he knows?”, after I had mentioned one of the many “coincidences” I experienced, but with a tone of my being aware it was not a mere coincidence. As I turned my face to my computer screen, I whispered under my breath, but still loud enough for him to hear, “Yes, (rank) (name), I know.” A few minutes later, as he walked past my desk, he leaned in by my ear and whispered, “We’re just trying to help you.” I should have pressed him for answers right then and there, but you just don’t know how much trouble you can get into when making such accusations in the military. So I let it go. But I will never forget.
Should anyone reading this ever decide to launch some kind of inquiry, I can mention names of over 100 people to contact, including military personnel, family members, neighbours, building managers, and others who have been contacted by military personnel with false narratives about me. They flash their ID’s and other credentials, and people believe anything they say. They turn family, friends, co-workers and neighbours against you, even recruiting their participation. Your acquaintances not only participate, but actually feel justified and emboldened playing tricks on you. It isn't their fault, though; they have been misled. I would reference them solely for corroboration.
As a final thought, here are explanations of two military programs in which certain persons (sometimes military, sometimes civilian) are kept under constant surveillance, and are in some cases subjected to conditioning in an attempt to turn them into what is called a “sleeper agent”. Almost all of the tactics presented below have been experience by me, including constant surveillance (ie: my previous post here regarding being harassed on my morning walks) and sleep deprivation (as per the top portion of this post, which other military members in Cuba and elsewhere around the world have also experienced).
Pentagon’s Signature Reduction Program
See Newsweek’s article: https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-inside-militarys-secret-undercover-army-1591881
Some excerpts from that Newsweek article, plus more background information on the Pentagon’s Signature Reduction Program, can be found here: https://fightgangstalking.com/
“The largest undercover force the world has ever known is the one created by the Pentagon over the past decade. Some 60,000 people now belong to this secret army, many working under masked identities and in low profile, all part of a broad program called “signature reduction.” The force, more than ten times the size of the clandestine elements of the CIA, carries out domestic and foreign assignments, both in military uniforms and under civilian cover, in real life and online, sometimes hiding in private businesses and consultancies, some of them household name companies.
“…a little-known sector of the American military, but also a completely unregulated practice. No one knows the program’s total size, and the explosion of signature reduction has never been examined for its impact on military policies and culture. Congress has never held a hearing on the subject. And yet the military developing this gigantic clandestine force challenges U.S. laws, the Geneva Conventions, the code of military conduct and basic accountability.
“…The signature reduction effort engages some 130 private companies to administer the new clandestine world. Dozens of little known and secret government organizations support the program, doling out classified contracts and overseeing publicly unacknowledged operations.
"Federal spy agencies are using Americans to spy on their fellow citizens – the same approach to governance famously employed by communist East Germany."
How to Develop a Hypnotic Sleeper Agent
By Dantalion Jones / Masters of Mind Control
The following “was” on the web, but has been removed. Surprise, surprise. But I saved its web files to my computer years ago, knowing that sooner or later it would be removed. I made a jpeg image of the web page as it once appeared, attached here.
Note that I have experienced almost all of the tactics described below, including the stalking I mentioned in my previous post here (regular walks in the park), the sleep deprivation noted at the top of this post, and the surveillance and intrusions described here as well.
Quoting the now-removed webpage: “How to Develop a Hypnotic Sleeper Agent” (from here to end of post):
Amid all the conspiracy theories one of the most feared is that there exist "sleeper agents" in our society who are programmed to come into service when they are triggered by a phone call or key word.
These alleged sleeper agents don't even know they are programmed to become saboteurs, soldiers, suicide bomber, etc because of the thoroughness of their programming. They are the feared "Manchurian Candidate" that the movies portray.
The question is "Are they real?"
If they are true sleeper agents there is no way of telling until they are activated. One can however theorize exactly how they are made.
Indoctrination
Using indoctrination a person can be made to embrace a religious or philosophical belief that would make becoming a sleeper agent possible.
This would be a person so committed to an ideal they would be willing to wait patiently as a member of society until they are called into action. These people would know their mission and consciously hold it secret while interacting with the rest of society.
Conditioning
Conditioning is a repetitive process where the desired responses are enforced and rewarded and unwanted responses are punished. This can be done consciously as part of training drill and it can be done subconsciously using hypnosis or drugs to create amnesia.
Hypnosis
It has been demonstrated that hypnosis can create "amnesia walls" in which the subject has no conscious memory of what happened in the hypnosis session. It has further been demonstrated that hypnosis can give post hypnotic instruction to be carried out automatically in the waking state without the subject knowing it or questioning the behavior.
What follows is conjecture and theory based on testimonials of people who were alleged to be sleeper agents and soldiers.
Continuous Supervisions
Continuous supervision doesn't mean that the subject is cut off completely from society. It means that they are constantly overseen and every aspect of their lives are managed (without their knowledge or consent) to support their hypnotic programming.
This would include:
• Repeated reinforcement of all hypnotic conditioning.
• Handlers. Handlers are people who help maintain the subjects environment to maintain all the programming. They can play the role of family, friends, lovers, psychologists, coaches or any roll the subject perceives as supportive. The truth is the handlers are their to support the successful fulfillment of the programming and not the subject as a person.
• Minimal sleep so that the mind/brain does not process all the sleeper conditioning during sleep.
• Creating constant environmental challenges like unemployment or poverty. This gives the subject something other than their programming to focus on.
• Frequent hospitalization. This gives overt opportunity to sedate the subject for conditioning. If the subject has a history of hospitalizations for mental disturbances all the better. No one will take them seriously.
Joseph Cafariello
PS... Today is the second day after this post (February 12, 2024). A garbage truck just slammed into my parked car.
PPS... I finish writing this post because I am satisfied with its shape and content; not because of what happened to my car.
It is similar to when you are reaching for your coat, and someone tells you, "Take your coat." Since you have to take your coat, your brain tells you it's ok to obey them, and you comply. They just created an instance where they led you, and you followed them. And your brain accepted it.
It's a technique the military uses all the time. It trains you to accept instructions from that person or group. Done enough times, you become comfortable obeying them.
I just say, "I take my coat because I choose to, not because you tell me to." It's important to make that clear, to block the conditioning and affirm our self-governance; not just to them, but to ourselves as well. Now our brain realizes we took our coat by our own choice; we are still in command.
So too, I say regarding today's event. "Thanks for the warning, but I had already finished writing my post. I finished by my own choosing."
UPDATES 1 & 2: February 26 & March 07, 2024:
My apartment was once again entered while I was out. Either a key was used or the lock was picked. This may or may not have included assistance from building staff. Home invasions are included in the list of their techniques noted above, referred to as "black bag jobs".
All tenants on my floor received new fridges a couple of weeks ago. I removed the tape securing the bins inside my new fridge, and also removed all styrofoam pads from the corners of the glass shelves when I repositioned them.
The person(s) who have been invading my living space on a regular basis have struck again. As you can see in the photo below, the styrofoam pads on the corners of my fridge's shelves were restored when I was out of my apartment. I had removed all pads when I repositioned the shelves. Yet now they are back.
It is a tactic used to undermine our observational awareness in an attempt to make us second-guess and doubt ourselves. The aim is to cause people to feel less sure not only of the things we have done, but also feel less sure of the things others have done. They want us to question the accuracy of our observations and memory.
The idea is to train you to dismiss any anomalies you may observe as being your own misperception of things. Once they convince you not to trust your own judgement, they are free to do whatever they want to you, and you will simply accept it without questioning.
UPDATE 3: May 18, 2024:
Confrontations with individuals keep occurring, at times potentially violent. Following are just 3 such encounters as of late.
1 - Kick-boxer in the park:
As I parked my car in one of the parking lots in Vancouver's Stanley Park one night, another vehicle drove up behind me and parked several spots away. A tall man exited that vehicle, and walked hastily along the path I always walk, down some steps to the water's sea wall path. I took my time and followed my usual walk, also down the steps down to the sea wall. The man knew my routine, and was in a hurry to get ahead of me.
As I walked along the sea wall, I saw the same man sitting on a bench, playing a loud Persian-sounding religious sermon on some device I did not clearly see. As I walked past him, he called out to me to stop and chat. I ignored him and continued walking past him. He rose and started walking behind me.
I opened my umbrella, turned, and walked past him the other way, returning to the stairs back to the parking lot. He also turned and continued following me. I started running. He also started running. I ran up the steps, as did he.
Being taller than I am, his legs are longer than mine, and he quickly caught up to me on a grassy patch at the top of the steps. I turned to him and asked, "Why are you following me?" He did not reply, but stood profile to me, the same stance a kick-boxer uses when ready to kick someone. He was tall, thin, and in excellent physical shape as you would see in a kick-boxer.
He did not speak at all, but was just waiting for me to make a move. I turned, entered my vehicle and left. The encounter continued with a chase through the park in our cars. Yes, that is correct. He chased me out of the park in his car.
2 - Told to keep quiet:
The perpetrators need to operate with as little detection as possible, and they repeatedly warn their subjects to keep their mouths shut about their experiences.
On another of my recent nightly walks, a man stood on the sidewalk ahead of me about half a block away, looked at me, and shouted into the sky at nobody, giving the appearance of being a homeless person shouting for no reason. He then started walking in my direction. I continued walking straight. As he passed me, he leaned into my face and shouted into my ear, "Shut the f_ck up!" I continued walking in my direction, and he resumed walking in his.
The idea is to make it seem as though he is just a deranged man wandering the streets at night, shouting at nothing, so that when he shouts at me, any observer would simply dismiss his actions. But in reality, he was sent to send me a message to stop publishing posts like this, which I had done many times on many sites, and continue to. They don't like it when we reveal their methods. But the truth must be known.
3 - You'll be sorry:
On another occasion, while returning from grocery shopping one afternoon, I walked past a man sitting by a storefront. He was clean-cut, wearing clean clothes, without any carts or wagons or any belongings of any kind. As I passed him, he asked me for some spare change. I replied, "I'm sorry," and continued walking past. He replied, "You will be."
There are numerous other experiences, like two seemingly unassociated men standing on the sea wall about 100 meters away from each other, each of them spitting just as I walked past each one.
There are too many experiences to mention. Looking at each experience individually, one would easily dismiss them as being unrelated and simply coincidental. But put them all together and a picture starts to form, like putting together the pieces of a puzzle.
As I hand you each piece of the puzzle one by one, you dismiss each piece, saying, "This could be anything." And you discard it. You keep discarding each piece as I hand it to you. By the end of it, you look down at the table and say, "You have nothing." That's because you looked at each piece as a separate item and threw it away. But if you leave the pieces on the table as I hand them to you and do not hastily discard them, you will see they form a clear picture when put all together.
We must look at all these events as a whole. Individually, each one could be anything. But when all of these experiences are put together and considered as a whole, they form an undeniable picture. Do not be quick to dismiss each piece. Leave the pieces on the table and look at the whole. The picture I present is sound. Remember, I have all the pieces; you do not. I see the picture more clearly than you do.
https://preview.redd.it/we31ymcsm91d1.jpg?width=966&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3d56ac3dd3558a60d477ba9315104d1b66b139f8
submitted by GoAheadMMDay to Liberty [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 00:58 DesperateTry2694 My friend thinks I have an ED

My friend just told me I need medical help. I am a young woman. I had quite a bit to drink and confessed my father was often making snide comments about my weight and she revealed he had done so behind my back. I have gained probably 1-2 stone within a year. She says it is not visible but I disagree as since these comments have started I have felt massive. As if I pound the ground as I walk with a large obnoxious thump. As if there is some inconceivably red letter stamped on me marking me as fat that only other people can see and judge me for. Due to exams, regular exercise has been impeded. I have every intention to return to regular exercise. I know my eating habits have never been up to par and it is something I will forever need to work on due me stress eating and comfort eating however due to monetary issues I firmly believe this can be worked on within the near future. I admitted that for me being hungry and eating and feeling sick is a never ending cycle. I feel hungry so I eat and then because I enjoy eating I feel sick from eating too much and because i feel sick I eat to feel better.
Personally I don’t feel like this is an eating disorder merely a bad relationship with food due to a lifetime as a picky eater which my parents hated. I never actually throw up it is impossible for me to throw up without it being absolutely necessary.
submitted by DesperateTry2694 to offmychest [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 00:42 BeachbodySurivivor WE ARE NOT FAT BECAUSE WE ARE DUMB AND HAVE NO WILLPOWER

I am absolutely so tired of everyone, including a new doctor I recently saw, assuming that people on these medications are fat/obese/whatever you want to call it because we do not know how to eat or move our bodies. We understand that eating salads gives our bodies nutrients and moving your body helps with longevity. Most of us already were doing all the “right” behaviors before these medications, but our bodies did not want to let go of weight or made it mentally/physically impossible for us to limit our calories without venturing into eating disorder or unhealthy behaviors.
This recent doctor just assumed I had not been doing these things (I.e. eating proper protein and veggies and nutrient dense foods, etc and exercising) before the medications, and said “oh well be sure to continue them when you come off”. First, I have no intention of coming off these meds unless medically necessary because of the lack of food noise. But second, why not ask me if I had done those behaviors for YEARS prior to starting a GLP-1 instead of just assuming fat people don’t know how to take care of their bodies?!
Okay, rant over!
submitted by BeachbodySurivivor to antidietglp1 [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 00:42 irlabuela depressing doctor visit

I (23F) have had PCOS diagnosed since I was 16-17. I was 190 pounds until I started college, went on birth control and antidepressants, and went up to 260. This shit SUCKS and I feel like its contributing to the deterioration of a disc in my back and has limited my mobility. I currently am using birth control and metformin (500 mg in the process of bumping up to 1500) to treat the PCOS.
I went to a doctor my dad recommended and although the guy was very informative and matter of fact, it was depressing as hell. Basically I got told that I can work on preventing diabetes but it may be inevitable when I’m middle aged, I have essentially no hope of losing weight due to the medications I’m on (especially the SSRI, which I need to be a functional person), and that even if he prescribed me ozempic he had no way of guaranteeing it would work. He said even if I exercised and dieted (I do/have done both) losing weight with PCOS is an uphill battle and he rarely has seen people who have been successful.
So I’m just here like, what? I appreciate honesty but now what. I WANT to lose weight, I wanna be able to walk as much as I want and wear the clothes I want without worrying that I’m too fat to pull it off. very very frustrating and sad visit. also found out I’m pre-diabetic (barely, but still) and that was another punch in the gut.
this condition is so frustrating and hopeless, id love advice on how to manage. i wanna workout without knee and back pain i miss playing sports!
submitted by irlabuela to PCOS [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 00:41 Strikerzzs [Student] Looking for my first Software Engineering Internship in Canada

[Student] Looking for my first Software Engineering Internship in Canada
Hello, I am looking for my first software engineering internship in Canada. I am in my second year at my University in the Geomatics major and Computer Science minor. I know right away this will get be rejected but it is what it is right now. I wanted to start applying for internships (mostly in web dev since that's what I did most my projects in) in Fall or Summer of next year and wanted a resume review before I start applying. I have applied previous years with less stuff and have gotten interviews for things but unfortunately didn't take it serious enough to practice and pass them. I have only one work experience (2 months) for a coding instructor job I did over the summer. Most of my resume is projects I built.
One problem I think I have on my resume is all my projects are web dev focused and some of the internships are not like systems / low (C, C++), machine learning intern, data science, and so on. So I would think that would be an instant rejections for those.
Also, would I have to get a internship some other way than applying online to a bunch of jobs since I don't have prior internship experience?
Resume
submitted by Strikerzzs to EngineeringResumes [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 00:32 Short-Interaction-34 Getting off Pristiq - post to hopefully help others.

I’ve been on Pristiq for two years. The first year I was on 25 mg(I know that seems low, but I’m really sensitive to medication so that’s where my doctor wanted to start me).
When I first started the medication, it instantly helped me with my depression and anxiety, which was something I really needed at the time. After about a year I felt like the 25 mg wasn’t working as much so we decided to up to 50mg. I’ve been on 50mg for the past year.
Fast-forward to today, last week, I decided that I wanted to start my journey of going off. The real reason I wanna go off is because I’ve started to feel really numb and really out of touch with my emotions. If something bad happens I don’t really react and the same if something good happens.. I’ve felt so meh..
I’ve also gained 20 pounds on Pristiq with no real lifestyle or diet changes. It hurt when my Psych told me that the weight gain was probably just due to aging… btw I’m only 27. I don’t think it’s normal to gain 20 pounds in two years between the ages of 25 and 27 if you’ve made no lifestyle changes..
When I talked to my Psych about going off she wasn’t very supportive. She told me it would probably be better to transition to another medication as going off of SNRIS has been known to be challenging. This is something I wish I would’ve known when I first started the medication. I guess I never really thought that going off could ever be more challenging than what it felt like before I was on.
The original plan was to reduce from 50 to 25 for 3 weeks and then 25 to 0.
The main symptoms from going off, I’ve had really bad stomach issues rushing to the bathroom basically accidentally almost pooping my pants on multiple occasions.
My head has hurt and it honestly just felt like a really bad hangover, Psych wanted to stay on the 25 mg for 3 weeks before trying to reduce down to zero but after reading through hundreds of Reddit threads, I decided to just go to 0 mg three days into taper. I know this i gonna get a lot of backlash but from what i read it seems the tapper from 25 to 0 is horrible so i wanted to just push through. I also know im strong enough to handle it and id rather not extend how shit the 25 to 0 is gonna be.
I’m on day seven now and I’m feeling a lot better. Here are a few things that have really been helping me. I hope posting this helps other people because none of this information was accessible to me.
  1. Prioritize sleep I’ve been trying to sleep at least 10 hours a night and that really seems to help.
  2. Exercise as much as you can that’s been really helping with the headaches the nausea and just overall feeling better mentally.
  3. I’ve been tracking all my calories and not eating any processed foods or carbohydrates other than fruits and honey. I’ve been prioritizing protein, focused meals, and trying to drink tons of water. Also drinking electrolytes.
  4. I’ve been taking a bath every day with Epsom salts and baking soda. Baking soda helps naturally remove any toxins in your body. Make sure to keep water with you because sitting in there for a while sometimes I get nauseous.
  5. Because your brain will probably feel really out of whack I make a list every day of just five things I need to get done. I’ve definitely found that my brain is constantly rushing with new ideas and a lot of the time. I’m just on the brink of crying for no reason. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I refer back to the list of the five things I need to do and just focus on those that’s really been helping me get through it.
  6. Having some type of bubbly water has also really helped me with the nausea. I have been drinking the energy drink Celsius and just sipping on it throughout the day it seems that the caffeine and the bubbles have really just helped me be able to have some type of energy and focus. I don’t drink the whole thing at once, but instead just sip on it throughout the day keeping it cold in the fridge.
Anyways, those are the main things that have been helping me. I know that it’s really hard when you feel like you have to get off of antidepressants and you remember how challenging it was before them but I’m praying for all of us and I know that will get through it. 🤍
submitted by Short-Interaction-34 to Pristiq [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 00:15 Medium-Wing-4710 The harrowing experience of a cancer-surviving partner turned abuser

Over the course of my 4 year marriage to my partner, I have arrived at the position that I was abused, manipulated, and functionally enslaved to a mentally ill partner.
In simplest form, the progression is apparently observable. She was diagnosed with cancer in October of 2019 while we were engaged. Due to the diagnosis, we moved up our actual marriage date (our wedding was still set for mid-April) to December 1, 2019. Her surgery was December 13, 2019. In my compassion for her, I agreed to move our wedding date up to offset her anxiety around who would be responsible for her if things went south with her surgical treatment.
Our first month of marriage was straightforward; she was on pain meds recovering from surgery, so the main engagement that occurred was me walking her up and down the hospital hallway as she recovered and trying to meet her base physical needs of hygiene, food, and presence. We stayed in the hospital for 2-3 weeks (with recurring hospital visits for complications).
Quickly after we figured out our marital living situation in her small 3-bed apartment with 2 roommates, our relationship devolved. Specifically, she was irritable because of the pain she was in, causing her to lash out at me with regular frequency for small things. If I didn’t put clothes away in the right place, didn’t anticipate her needs (without her communicating them), or ate the wrong food in front of her she would shout at me and decry me for my thoughtlessness.
These small, critical engagements were wounding and created a distance between us – and there was no upside. She was never kind, never paid mind to needs I might have, and started down a path of cultivating a root of bitterness in her soul. She quickly revealed herself to be venomous, hateful, and vindictive when she felt like she was wronged — and any observation of concern about our marriage resulted me in being accused of being mean or insensitive, even if I spent hours or days calculating the best way to share my concern (and I have a master’s degree in communication where I focused in studying disagreement — I know how to carefully package concerns).
During this time, I worked hard to provide for us, foreseeing a significant time period where I would have to be primary financial provider and caregiver. I increased my income each year we were married by around 25%, finishing our marriage at >$80,000 in yearly income, compared to starting our marriage at a modest $42,000 salary (including dramatically improving our healthcare). Frankly, I increased my income to provide for us in spite of the lack of support at home.
But to be clear: I don’t think it would have been particularly difficult to provide financially if I had an ounce of support at home.
However, the relentless criticism and expectation of mind-reading continued through the years. I rationalized this abuse for the first year of our marriage because of all the excuses to be cruel, she had a good one – she had cancer. I hung onto a hope that it would stop. Contrary to my hope, as the years went on – and our expenses climbed – and I continued to work myself to the bone – she continued to relentlessly critique and even started being more emotionally demanding, expecting me to take responsibility for her inability to cope with her emotions – I was drowning. She was asking too much of me. There was no deliverance from her abuse.
I was exhausted. In the peak of the abuse I endured at her hand, I was working multiple jobs, sleeping 10+ hours a night and napping frequently during the day around meetings and work, then coping with alcohol to numb myself to the abusive dynamic and fall asleep with no support from her. The only time I could approach her sexually was when I was intoxicated, with inhibitions lowered. The only time I could have a conversation with her was with a counselor in the room. Without something to mitigate opportunity for her to be cruel to me, either a mediator or self-medication, I was scared.
I lived at home in a constant state of alert and cognitive fatigue. No matter how I tried to make sense of my home life, I couldn’t. When she looked at or touched me, I would recoil in fear, anticipating some sort of incisive critique or demand expressed. Then she would criticize me for not responding warmly to her, exacerbating the cycle.
I couldn’t meet her needs – I was utterly exhausted. When I would tell her of the exhaustion I experienced in marital counseling, her responses were typically something along the lines of not believing me, denying what I was saying was true, or calling my exhaustion an ‘excuse’. I could interact happily with my friends… why not her?
I did not deny her demands were legitimate; rather, I expressed my inability to meet them because of how fatigued I was. I said ‘I can’t’ so many times. I realize her demands were small; affection, saying ‘i love you’, complimenting her. But it’s disorienting to be consistently berated and belittled by a person and then asked to compliment them and tell them you love them.
The push and pull of abuse is exhausting to a person who is not mentally because it does not make sense.
Further, in counseling I realized that I have forgotten that I have needs. I have lost the tools to even evaluate what my needs might be because, implicitly and explicitly in my marriage, I was told my needs don’t matter.
My marriage made no sense; I was obviously drowning, exhausted with the demands our life imposed on me. I was doing everything I could to get straight. I was in individual therapy, marital counseling, pastoral counseling, trying different antidepressants (4 in total – all with no effect), changing eating habits, trying to reduce my drinking, getting medical tests to see if I had health issues causing my fatigue, and being vulnerable in my friendships in an attempt to invite others in to process and move forward and figure out my marriage. I desperately shared everything I could about my marriage, hoping someone else would crack the code where I couldn’t.
None of my efforts worked. I could not get out of the exhausted state I was in. It’s worth noting here that within weeks of separating I almost completely cut out alcohol, got into a regular sleep schedule, was waking up at 6-7am every day and reading multiple hours (which I couldn’t do in marriage due to cognitive fatigue/distraction), and experienced a resurgence of energy. I have felt the duress I was under lift and lift and lift and the weeks and months have went on.
In retrospect, I was experiencing cognitive fatigue because I was taking the demands my wife was placing on me seriously, but no matter what I did I could not make sense of them. How could she not see that I was doing everything I could to make ends meet – the ends which she was imposing on me? I did not have additional energy left. She would ask me ‘Do you love me?’ and I didn’t know how to respond. How is my work not at least some symbol of love? My dream was to be a poor professor, which she knew – instead I was grinding myself to the bone, working in digital marketing with multiple freelance projects, picking up a bartending gig and a teaching gig on top of full-time employment.
The last straw was when she accused me of abuse. I took that accusation seriously, and weighed it against my experience. ‘Am I an abuser?’ I asked myself. I sorted through my behavior and how I treated her. I came to the conclusion that I may be a poor husband in serious ways; but I am not an abuser. And the abuse question opened the door to the question… ‘I may not be an abuser… but is there abuse in our marriage?’ And the answer quickly became ‘Yes.’
When we were married, I understood that she wasn’t going to work much for a while. However, she worked the bare minimum she could for 4 years, earning at most in a single year $18,000. As the years went on and my income climbed, our debt continued to climb as well. She was still contributing the same, yet spending frivolously on useless knick knacks for our home and a cat. As I packed up our home to sell, the majority of items were dozens of boxes of useless junk she’d accumulated.
She lived a life of mania around finances. We would go to marital counseling and she would regularly express, ‘I would rather be poor and happy than rich and sad’. We were poor and sad. Sure, my income was the highest it’d ever been – but we were still drowning, with debts climbing. At the end of our marriage, we’d accumulated about $20,000 in consumer debt between credit cards and personal loans.
It was traumatizing (and abusive) to go to counseling and be told by my partner she would ‘rather be poor and happy and than rich and sad’ when the factual scenario we were living was neither. She actively denied reality – both my lived experience and the reality of our finances – at my expense. It was killing me, trying to make sense of what we were going through but being unable to make sense of what I was being told and what I was experiencing.
Throughout this time, it is worth adding that she also leveraged my spiritual leadership to ‘set me straight’. I was in a conservative Evangelical space, believing that men are the ultimate provider in a family unit and primarily responsible for the status of the marriage. Because I was not doing what she wanted me to (lavishing her with affection), I was muscled into multiple groups and meetings where pastoral care intervened to restore our marriage. In the moment, I submitted to my pastoral care because of my trust for them and my faith in God. Now, I believe this dynamic was abusive; my pastoral care did not care in any sense for my soul; they only cared about fixing my marriage. No questions around ‘why’ my marriage was so bad were asked; only what was going on and how it could be fixed. I relish the thought of my pastoral care being held accountable for the abuse they exercised upon me during this time on judgment day, albeit through a shaken faith in a God that would enable this dynamic.
With my spiritual community, I shared that I felt like she was my tormentor; that she it felt as if I were on the ground due to exhaustion, and she was standing on my throat, telling me to ‘get up’ and ‘tell me you love me’; that our metaphorical life was a boat, sinking, and I was desperately bailing out water. All the while, she stood at the other end of the boat, desperately bailing water in and looking at me like I was a maniac.
And yet, because there was no adultery, there was no category for divorce. We had sworn an oath before God and were required to fix this.
As I reflect upon my marriage (and the ongoing divorce proceedings), a few things are clear.
She is an abuser. I don’t think she intends to be, but impact matters. She is mentally ill and unable to reckon with basic reality.
She is a manipulator. She manipulated my spiritual community against me. I was viewed as someone to be corrected while begging for help from my trusted friends and pastoral care, whom I now regret being vulnerable with due to their abuse and denial of my reality because I didn’t fit neatly into their thin theological categories.
She is an enslaver. In divorce proceedings, she is doing everything she can to get every dollar from me, leveraging student loans I did not co-sign, my continually increasing income due to my hard work, and denying every claim of dissipated assets she can.
It is truly a mind-breaking experience to see your compassion leveraged against you for money. I had to sit under an attorney proclaiming to a judge that, since I consented to move up our marriage date before her cancer surgery, ‘I knew what I was getting into’. That she is entitled to large sums of money (that do not exist; we never had more than $3000 in our bank account during marriage) due to that decision.
Even apart from the abuse, I did not know what I was getting into. Including the abuse, I am full of remorse for having invited such an evil, hateful person into my life.
This experience has been the most challenging to my faith. As I endured abuse from her, I trusted God in a few ways. That the compassion I showed would maybe be rewarded – or, at least not punished. That my spiritual community wanted what was best for me. That God was not a punitive, hateful God (like my partner). I do not believe this trust was well placed, but am open to shortcomings in my views here.
I struggle to consent to a God that allowed my experience to occur. I’m open and processing in some kind of faith, but I really don’t know what it looks like to find a place to put this pain and betrayal that I’m experiencing.
I am a survivor of abuse, and the abuse I endured was mind-shattering. I sacrificed everything to support a partner diagnosed with serious bodily illness, which drove her to hate me and deny my lived experience because she could not reconcile it with the hatefulness she cultivated over our marriage, choosing bitterness over any positivity for four years, poisoning my well-being in the process.
What I envisioned to be the most compassionate moment of my life — marrying a person with cancer and promising to support and love them — has become nothing but a symbol of pain and remorse. I envisioned a life where my partner and I would fight against the terror of cancer; instead she hopped to the other side, choosing her ongoing health issues as the ally and myself as the enemy.
It took me 4 years to realize it. And as she drags me through court to leverage every dollar out of me I can, my only regret is that I didn’t leave my abuser to her own devices sooner; self-pity, hatefulness, and a sheer disregard toward taking responsibility for anything.
I am grateful but drowning. As we are negotiating settlement, the end is near, and my abuser will soon be unable to execute any influence in my life.
submitted by Medium-Wing-4710 to abusesurvivors [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 00:02 Savings-Pitch-4107 Upcoming Hackathon: Phystech 2024

PhysTech is a student-organized online hackathon for anyone who does, watches, analyzes and promotes any physical activities - including sports, workouts, fitness exercises, casual hobbies/pastimes and recreational adventures.
PhysTech welcomes any types of physical activities. Sports and physical training are in. Yoga, pilates, ballet? Of course. Swimming, kayaking, cycling, dancing, skateboarding, rock/mountain climbing, hiking, horseback riding? Sure. Fishing, bowling, paddleboarding, scuba diving, rafting, cheer leading, outdoor bird watching, gardening, kite flying, disk golf (frisbee), or cornhole? Why not!
Not only athletes and recreational players/practitioners, but fans, coaches, referees/judges and analysts are also welcome.
PhysTech offers you a platform to address various needs, wants and challenges in physical activities and produce creative solutions (hacks) with technology.
PhysTech welcomes anyone of all ages and all technical skills, from limited experience to advanced.
Entry is free.
Expected project topics include, but are not limited to:
* Monitoring and enhancing performance
* Logging and tracking practice, training, and exercise
* Recording, analyzing and communicating activity data
* Applying data analytics to physical activity
* Enhancing fan experience
* Increasing participation/engagement in physical activity
* Promoting health and wellness though physical activity
* Preventing and helping heal from injuries
* Improving dietary and nutritional assistance
* Protecting and improving the environment for physical activity

Solutions can take many different forms such as apps, games, social platforms, web sites/services, devices, sensors, robots, audio/video, data collection/storage, data analysis/forecasts, data visualization, information retrieval, and 3-dimensional modeling/printing. PhysTech is hosted by Binnovative, a nonprofit organization in Massachusetts.

REQUIREMENTS


Each participant/team is required to complete ALL of the following 3 retirements:

* Submit your project to Depost by 12pm on June 29 (Sat), EST.

* Register your project presentation by 12pm on June 29 (Sat), EST.

* Give a project presentation online at June 30 (Sun), EST.

Note that the deadlines are firm. No extensions will be given. Failure to meet the above requirements will disqualify you (and your team) in award judging.

A link for presentation registration will be shared in the PhysTech 2024 channel in Discord. To register your presentation, you will be asked to submit:

* Your name and contact info

* Your project presentation title

* An abstract (short one-paragraph description) of your project
* A publicly accessible link to your project placed on a cloud-based code repository (e.g. GitHub) or hosting service (e.g. Google Drive).
We will announce the schedule of project presentations (i.e. what time each presentation starts) by early morning of June 30 (Sun), EST. A Zoom link will be made available in the PhysTech 2024 channel in Discord.

submitted by Savings-Pitch-4107 to hackathon [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:46 cowboykiller420 Substance Abuse

Hi I'm 23 and I found out I was austistic/adhd about three years ago, when I started therapy. I tired to get a diagnosis around that time and ended up never going through with the process because of money and fear of rejection. I've been living with heavy guilt and shame around my substance use of thc and nicotine/vaping, I can understand why i use them to self regulate/ medicate however I cannot get myself to stop. I currently an on my 3rd round of medication, I'm not sure if I want to continue on them, and this is now it usually goes. I have an eating disorder that is currently flaring up after awhile, I still exercise and go to the gym regularly when I'm not in bed and still manage to go on walks when I can. I don't work right now and I suspect the lack of routine and creativity I've been experiencing could be correlated, but working for me has only led to burnout at least with the jobs I'm use to working which require a highly masked state for several hours, even by hobbies have not brought me joy for several weeks now, I'm currently enrolled in community college and taking courses in art and moving into my own place soon which I am very excited about, I just want to stop falling into substance abuse & isolation cycles
submitted by cowboykiller420 to AutismTranslated [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:44 tbonehaj Hope This Helps, I Think It Helped Me. 54yo Male.

TL/DR version: Dr. wanted me on low dose of statins (Diagnosis = Familial hypercholesterolemia - FH). I said give me 6 mo. I drank green kale juice almost daily and substantially reduced sugaalcohol intake. Moderate exercise 1-3x a week. Cholesterol improved. Avoided medication (statins) for now.
Longer version: In 2018 I was walking about 2-3 miles a day at work and on my feet almost the entire time. This was giving my heart a decent workout 4 days a week. Lipid panel was ok.
In 2023 my lipid panel levels worsened and lifestyle factors were part of the reason (imo). My alcohol intake increased and between 2020 - 2023 and I was probably consuming several drinks a week on average (hard alcohol) and my tolerance was only improving with time which meant it was easier to drink more if I wanted. Also, I became more sedentary. My exercise/walking routine stopped.
During my doctor's visit in 2023 he suggested I take a low dosage of statins for my FH. I wanted to try lifestyle changes first and he said 'ok, come back in 6mo.' He admitted to me, right there on the spot, that he didn't think the lifestyle changes were going to lower the cholesterol.
In addition I find the following extremely interesting...over the summer of 2023 I consumed a lot of sugar in the form of movie theater candy (going to the movies a lot) and I remember my skin breaking out (upper torso and arms). I self diagnosed Eruptive Xanthoma. I'm not a doctor but from what I learned online this is exactly what I had over the summer and up to the doctors appointment in December of 2023. I think that a culmination of poor lifestyle choices (diet in particular) led to my cholesterol levels increasing to a point where I had visible symptoms on my skin. This condition comes and goes for me over the previous decade or so and I've also been diagnosed with psoriasis in the past. The psoriasis is managed by my diet and right now I have zero symptoms.
During all of this my heaviest weight was 183 pounds and now I'm down to 158 pounds.
Also, I intermittently took milk thistle, magnesium, and vitamin c.
https://preview.redd.it/z30ho6p3991d1.png?width=2796&format=png&auto=webp&s=5e4ba6d1a9323cf6f7a7394685032ef68d933fe2
submitted by tbonehaj to Cholesterol [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:33 Crazy_Temperature987 APRN IOP BH and Medical Coding Q&A

Hello MedicalCoding!
My colleague and I started a SUD IOP program in KY our of our office (POS 11). Can anyone chime in on the accuracy & likelihood of payment of the following coding? These would be Medicaid MCO claims (Anthem, United, Humana, etc.) We are reviewing our first week of claims and have questions on coding.
Any other advice you can give on billing is appreciated. We are both NPs and we have one peer support with no NPI. Thanks!
submitted by Crazy_Temperature987 to MedicalCoding [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:30 Ambitious-Win-67 Reaction to Diclofenac?

48F, 4’11”, 130 pounds Non-smoker, occasionally drink beer (maybe 3 pints per week at the most?)
Hashimoto’s (1x daily: Armour thyroid 60mg & Unithroid 50mcg) Psoriatic Arthritis (2x daily: Otezla 30mg)* Hemochromatosis (iron panel levels currently normal, last checked 07May2024) Endometriosis (laparoscopy decades ago, currently asymptomatic) Exercise-induced asthma (albuterol inhaler as needed) Vitamin D (1x weekly: 50000IU)
*Medrol injection 09May2024 *Diclofenac, started 09May2024 (2x daily: 75mg)
I am currently in a PsA flare and have been for a few months. My doc first put me on a short course of prednisone. While that got rid of most of my pain, my left middle finger continued to be painful and swollen. A short time after the course of prednisone was finished, I was dealing with a lot of stressful events and my PsA flare got worse (fingers in both hands (especially left middle finger), toes in both feet, right knee, right hip, plantar fasciitis). My doc then prescribed a single Medrol injection (in my arm) and oral diclofenac. I guess I should mention that this is my first time ever taking diclofenac.
I got the Medrol shot on 09May2024 and started the diclofenac the same day. I have been taking the diclofenac without issue until last night. A few hours after dinner, my throat started to feel funny and then I got a sensation similar to my exercise-induced asthma. I did have farro for the first time in my life with dinner, so I assumed it could be that even though I’ve never had any reactions to wheat before. Well today, a few hours after taking my dose of medications (Otezla & diclofenac), I experienced the same sensation (I did not consume farro today).
I did some googling (not the best, I know) and learned that NSAIDs are contraindicated in people with asthma; however, I have never had an issue taking NSAIDs (Ibuprofen, Naproxen). As a little experiment, I decided to take two puffs of my inhaler and within 15 minutes, the sensation went away.
Could this indicate some sort of reaction to the diclofenac even though I’ve been taking it for a week without issue? Could it be something else? I’ve never experienced asthma outside of exercising. I’m a little hesitant to take it tonight for fear that any reaction could get worse. Should I just not take it tonight? Could I just take ibuprofen instead? I’m reaching out here now since I won’t be able to reach my doctor until Monday.
submitted by Ambitious-Win-67 to AskDocs [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:28 Tesa_Tesanovic1988 Exploring Performance Boosters: Synthetic Equity vs. Tokens – Which One Fits You?

In the ever-evolving landscape of modern business, companies face a critical choice when it comes to rewarding and motivating their key talent.

The debate between adopting traditional token distribution models and embracing Synthetic Equity with deferred cash payments based on performance continues to shape the compensation strategies of organizations worldwide. This expository essay aims to shed light on this important decision-making process, offering insights into the advantages and pitfalls of each approach.

Token Distribution:

Pros:
  1. Immediate Ownership: Token distribution provides immediate ownership, aligning team members with the project’s success from the outset.
  2. Strong Incentive: Tokens are potent incentives, as their value can soar if the project prospers.
  3. Transparency: Blockchain-based tokens often offer transparency and traceability in ownership and transactions.
  4. Avoiding Ownership Dilution: Tokens allow companies to avoid diluting their cap tables.
  5. Payment Efficiency: Salaries and performance-based bonuses in token form can conserve cash reserves, with employees seeking liquidity in the market.
Cons:
  1. Market Volatility: Token values can be highly volatile, creating uncertainty for team members.
  2. Limited Liquidity: Token liquidity constraints make converting tokens into cash challenging.
  3. Tax Implications: Transferring token value can trigger income tax obligations.
  4. Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Issuing tokens, especially in countries like the US, often involves legal, financial, and administrative hurdles.
  5. Access to Top Talent: High-caliber talent may be hesitant to accept tokens due to market volatility.

Synthetic Equity:

Pros:
  1. Performance-Driven: Synthetic Equity and deferred cash payments link rewards directly to individual or team performance, fostering a strong work ethic.
  2. Predictable Rewards: Cash payments offer stability and predictability compared to volatile tokens.
  3. Flexibility: Synthetic Equity and cash incentives can be customized to align with specific performance metrics and goals.
  4. Avoiding Ownership Dilution: Tokens allow companies to avoid diluting their cap tables.
  5. Value for Investors: High-performing organizations often deliver greater value to shareholders.
  6. Utility Token: Synthetic Equity tokens, being a derivative of work, carry no inherent value, making them utility tokens with fewer legal implications.
  7. Bottom-Line Impact: Additional payments are derived from bottom-line growth, directly rewarding employees for business expansion.
  8. Tax Implications: Specify payouts such as “time certain” and separation of service, all of which are 100% compensation expense for tax purposes. Have the lowest predictable cost to the company based on after- tax cash flow.
Cons:
  1. Performance management system set up: Synthetic Equity requires strong expertise in establishing performance management and incentive structures.
  2. Delayed Ownership: Synthetic Equity lacks the immediate ownership associated with tokens.
  3. Administrative Complexity: Implementing and managing a comprehensive incentives program can be administratively intricate.
SyntheticEquity.io combines innovative compensation strategies designed to simulate the value of actual equity shares.
Synthetic Equity offers an alternative to the traditional token issuance model, integrating performance management seamlessly. It aligns stakeholder and shareholder interests, encourages innovation, and rewards high performance. Furthermore, it addresses a common challenge faced by startups—creating and measuring key performance indicators (KPIs). Our unique performance plan methodology enhances teamwork, promotes a healthier work environment, and ensures individual productivity by emphasizing collective success.
Synthetic equity is ideal for companies committed to thriving and nurturing top talent. Individuals who meet their KPIs are rewarded, while those failing to contribute positively to the business unit’s performance forfeit part of their compensation.
The decision between token distribution and Synthetic Equity hinges on an organization’s objectives, risk tolerance, and the preferences of founders and team members. Some organizations may choose a combination of both to balance immediate ownership and performance-based incentives. Legal, regulatory, and tax considerations, as well as project dynamics, must be carefully weighed. Consulting with legal and financial experts can prove invaluable in crafting an effective and compliant compensation strategy.
Synthetic equity is a powerful tool for attracting, retaining, and rewarding top talent, especially in owner succession planning. However, many business owners and advisors possess only a rudimentary understanding of synthetic equity and its design. This essay defines synthetic equity, explores its appropriateness for specific capital and tax structures, illustrates its flexibility and benefits in owner succession, and showcases its potential through a compelling case study.
Synthetic equity, unlike traditional equity plans, is a compensation approach that grants executives and contract-based employees the right to a defined portion of enterprise value without requiring them to invest their own capital. It offers exceptional versatility and can be tailored to meet specific criteria related to who receives what, when, and under what conditions in terms of value sharing.
Outlined below are six fundamental examples of synthetic equity programs:
  1. Phantom Stock:
    • An executive is entitled to a percentage share of the company’s value. (For example, Joe holds 5% of the company’s value expressed as phantom stock.)
  2. Phantom Stock Over an Owner’s Threshold:
    • An executive has the right to a percentage share of the company’s value beyond an initial fixed threshold value or formula. (For instance, Joe has 5% of the company’s value above $10 million.)
  3. Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs):
    • Executives are granted the right to share in a set percentage of the company’s value exceeding its value at the time of the grant—similar to employee stock options. (For instance, Joe has 5% of the company’s value above the current valuation of $20 million.)
  4. Value Band Plans:
    • Executives are entitled to a graduated percentage share of the company’s value based on predetermined thresholds. (For example, Joe has a baseline right to 3% of the company’s value and can earn an additional 1% for every $10 million in growth, with a maximum share of 7%.)
  5. Sales Bonus in Event of Change of Control:
    • Executives are entitled to a percentage share of the company’s value payable exclusively in the event of a change of control. (For example, Joe has 5% of the company’s value expressed as phantom stock, payable only if a change of control occurs.)
  6. Simulated Equity Plan:
    • Executives are entitled to a percentage share of the value of a specific division or segment of the company, determined by a predefined formulaic breakup value of the company. (For instance, Joe holds 5% of the European division’s value based on a preset formulaic breakup value of the company.)
These diverse synthetic equity programs offer flexibility and the ability to tailor incentive structures to meet specific business objectives and circumstances.
The possibilities are virtually endless. Synthetic equity is akin to a sculptor’s clay for incentive structures—it can be molded into a wide array of forms to suit a business owner’s preferences. It can transform from a tracking stock to a pure performance-based incentive.
Of significant significance to business owners, synthetic equity operates independently of the company’s shareholders’ agreement and related buy-sell terms. This independence grants a high degree of flexibility, particularly concerning payout. Synthetic equity agreements must adhere to IRS code section 409A, which outlines rules governing plan payouts. According to 409A, synthetic equity plans can be triggered by six permissible events or plan termination. The three events that cannot be predicted are death, disability, and unforeseeable emergencies, while the three strategic triggers are change of control, time certain, and separation of service. Consequently, business owners have the authority to determine when executives can realize the value of the plan. This contrasts with a typical employee stock option plan, where executives decide when to “exercise” their stock options independently. In summary, synthetic equity plans provide business owners with enhanced control and flexibility in terms of plan design and payout.
In conclusion, synthetic equity stands as a compelling option for organizations seeking to optimize cash resources, empower succession, and reward high performance. It offers a robust and flexible framework, ensuring that top talent remains motivated and aligned with organizational goals. Embracing Synthetic Equity can truly set a company on the path to sustained high performance and success.
Authors

Paul Lalovich

submitted by Tesa_Tesanovic1988 to Open_innovation_model [link] [comments]


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