[advice-from-the-archive]

Why is it so important?

Content Warnings:

Depression.

Memory-loss.

Non-medical/Common terms.

Bathroom/stomach-related health.

Stuffy nose.

Itchy (and maybe hot).

Feeling like you're sweating, but wipe your forehead and it's uncomfortably dry (aka "clammy").

Dry spot in the back of your throat (trying to swallow something that isn't there).

Constipation and/or dieharrea.

Memory, attention/focus, coherent thought process gets worse (aka "brain fog").

Brain fog will make you forget:

- To drink water.

- To pause your game (pee break).

- Whether or not you used soap when you washed your hands.

Nauseous in a steamy shower (and more likely to pass out and/or vomit).

- "Did I take my meds today?" "Did I eat today?"

- That phone call/appointment you meant to "get to" earlier.

- Doomscrolling. Yes. Brain fog (aka brainrot) will cause more doomscrolling.

Headaches & migraines.

"I am so uncomfortable, but why?"

All of these can be solved by drinking roughly two full bottles of water *every day* for a week straight.

Spacing out.

Unclench your jaw, please.

[trans-axolotl]

why does the "pour milk on your eyes for tear gas exposure" myth pop up like clockwork every time...please do not do that please only do eye flushes with water. please please please

[cheesetitan]

Because it used to be a common strategy against pepper spray because in theory it does work pretty good for pepper spray ONLY, but it has risks and strategies have evolved away from it. Basically milk has a lot of fat, pepper spray is an oil based spray. The fats from the milk bind the oils and wash them away more effectively than water or saline solution but turns out saline solution is still more than good enough and has no risks.

Another issue is: tear gas. Tear gas is a powder, it is not oil based, milk has no benefits when facing tear gas. Tear gas has been increasingly used over the past years in protests over pepper spray. That is a more or less new development, which is why the strategy changed to using water/ saline solution too.

Tl;DR: Not a myth, just an outdated strategy so that’s why it keeps popping up. Use water or saline solution to wash out eyes after being hit with pepper spray or tear gas! You can add washing out with soap to better counteract pepper spray specifically. And rinse yourself, your clothes, anything that was hit in the shower or outside too before touching anything after you are back home or throw those objects away if possible. Focus on eyes and hands as first aid.

[basil-lemonade]

shit is hitting the fan in the us once again so it is time for me to start beating the drum that has been my trademark across past accounts and platforms:

use water for eyeflushes!

any time shit starts popping off there's advice going around about this. i been a street medic over two decades now. i been taking care of folks in the streets from iraq war protests to today. ive trained hundreds and hundreds of other street medics. from then to now, i hear lots and lots of Stuff every time a new swell of people gets fired up to hit the streets and i want y'all to stay safe out there!

use water for eyeflushes!!!

[basil-lemonade]

i will not tell you there's nothing else that works but what i will tell you is,

water is effective. it works! it works. that is the number one thing. people will say you are trying to neutralize the chemicals or whatever as explanation for why other things work better. this is untrue, you are not -- it's a mechanical flush that is trying to get the contaminant out of the eye. go to any chem lab and you know what comes out of the eye wash station when dangerous contaminants get in your eyes? it's water.

water is safer. there are very few people who are allergic to it. it's less likely than many other options to cause long term infection or damage to eyes. it does not spoil when left in a car trunk for months or on a sidewalk all day. water is in nearly all cases a least-harm intervention.

water is simple. it is, most of the time, easier to fill up a water bottle with water than to find milk or liquid antacid or any of the other things i see suggested. it does not require people to remember formulas or proportions to mix. confusion or uncertainty sometimes balk people from acting and we don't need to make caring for each other more abstruse and confusing than it needs to be!

water is available. i am speaking from the context of the united states because that is where i have been active, and i know this comes with a considerable amount of privilege on this fact, but in large swaths of the country water is readily available and free or cheap.

water is clear. in ferguson, in baltimore, during the whole 2020 uprising, i would see well-meaning people putting milk all over dark-skinned people, and then i would see police specificaly targetting folks who had those very telltale milky streaks all over them. this impacts dark skinned folks far more than others but water does not show up the way cloudly or milky solutions do, especially on dark skin. don't make your comrades more of a target!

[basil-lemonade]

how to do an eye flush:

get consent. "hey do you need help? i have water and can flush your eyes". if someone's got a face full of chem weapons they will often be eager for relief.

put on gloves. i carry my medic kit to all protests but you can cram a few pairs in a ziplock in your pocket before you hit the streets.

ask the person if they have contacts. if they do ask them to take them out. do not flush eyes with contacts in, this can push the contacts deeper into the eye and be dangerous. ask them even if the person is wearing glasses.

if they are wearing glasses, ask them to take off their glasses and hold onto them. don't hold them yourself, these situations are often chaotic and we do not want to separate a person from their eyes!

have the person kneel if possible, having them hold onto their knees will reduce the impulse to reach their hands back into their eyes.

tilt their head back and to one side. hold their eye open -- this will feel uncomfortable for you and for them but people with a face full of irritant will often be scrunching their eyes tightly closed which will keep the water out. they will often need assistance (in the form of you physically pushing their eyelids open) to keep their eyes open enough for the flush.

whatever side you've tilted their head towards, start with that eye. begin at the inside, nose-bridge corner of the eye and moving outward, squeeze a firm stream of water from inside to outside across the eye.

tilt their head back + the other direction and flush the eye on that side.

repeat this process several times until they can see. it usually takes me 2-4 firm flushes before someone is able to see. it will often still burn like a motherfucker at this point but we aren't doing a full decontamination in the streets -- we are trying to get people back to a baseline level of function so that they can navigate the world.

[stupittmoran]

[the-davest-of-uncles]

Move somewhere porkless?

[beardedmrbean]

I went to Qatar and couldn't get a BLT and beer, how should I solve this issue.

Seriously though there's a very ready solution for her problems if she wants to access it.

Chabad Lubavitch of Japan, Tokyo

The official Chabad of Japan website. We support the Jewish community for Shabbat and holiday meals and services, kosher food, adult and you

Kosher Japan - Chabad.jp

just make sure not to order any alcohol from the places listed by the Chabad and I bet if she were to phone them or stop in and ask they would have even more information to help them out finding halal food, pretty much the only thing that's kosher that isn't halal is the previously mentioned alcohol.

Kosher is much more strict honestly, so if the Jewish community of Japan can manage the muslims should be fine.

[advice-from-the-archive]

What does "battling addiction" actually look like?

Fighting the feeling of doing it, then failing and feeling horrible.

Winning: "I reach for my phone out of habit. The moment I realize what I'm reaching for, I snatch the water bottle and take a drink instead."

- PH (My friend.)

There are many days along the way.

All you need to do, is remember when you chose better.

[mysterioussinkhole]

Hey just a general PSA from someone officially diagnosed and documented:

Now is not the time to seek out an autism diagnosis.

RFK's plans have been made very clear and any diagnosis you do get will get you put on this "national disease registry" they're proposing.

Trust me when I say I completely understand the need for accommodations and a better understanding of yourself, but if you have gone this long without being diagnosed, you will be better off waiting.

Furthermore, listen to and advocate for folks who are diagnosed, especially folks with higher support needs. They'll be the first ones targeted for whatever bullshit "experimental treatments" the government tries to push.

Stay safe and look out for your neighbor.

[advice-from-the-archive]

In your mistakes, I see that you're able to learn.

In your courage to try again, I see your potential.

Let your attempt be a rough draft, not an obstacle.

[omgthatdress]

Just a reminder.....

In light of some recent allegations that came out about Neil Gaiman, it's okay to have complicated feelings when a beloved celebrity does something shitty.

It's okay to feel betrayed and let down when a beloved celebrity does something shitty.

It's okay to have to re-consider your relationship with a shitty celebrity and their work.

It's okay to have once loved and looked up to someone who turned out to be a huge piece of shit.

It's okay to still love a shitty celebrity's work while recognizing that the celebrity is a shitty person.

The shitty and unhealthy thing to do is to dig in an insist that your fave celebrity did nothing wrong.

/this is why we can't have nice things meme

[anneapocalypse]

A little piece of advice for Americans navigating what will be an increasing number of posts about US politics in the coming year:

If a post makes you feel angry, upset, and hopeless, while offering no actionable information, scroll on and don't reblog it. I know that is going to feel harsh in some cases. But it's important to spend your political energy on what you can actually do and not be sunk into helpless rage and despair that benefits no one.

[stele3]

Helpless rage is exactly what social media companies want you to feel. It boosts engagement. Don’t give them your time.

[erisnsn]

[comedownstairsandsayhello]

Did you guys know there's nothing inherently wrong with selfish thoughts and desires and there's no such thing as thought crimes or thought sins and a balanced amount of selfishness is healthy and adaptive for living things to have and it's fine to act selfishly as long as you don't harm others

[comedownstairsandsayhello]

Let's parse the word "harm" here: asking for things is not harm. mildly inconveniencing others on occasion is not harm. wanting things is not harm. talking a lot is not harm. ordering in a restaurant is not harm. disliking someone is not harm. sexual attraction is not harm. rejecting an unwanted advance is not harm. letting others see unlikable sides of yourself is not harm. you would not believe how many things your parents disapproved of when you were little you've construed as harm are not, in fact, harm

[comedownstairsandsayhello]

I think maybe our entire societal problem is what I'll call an "abstinence-only" approach to selfishness. We treat all selfishness as if it's inherently bad and harmful and always to be shunned. It's defined as an interior trait; acting selfishly "reveals" who you "are" and so who you "are" must be disciplined. So then some people self-efface themselves into oblivion in an effort to be good, while others resent being controlled and rebel by acting like entitled assholes. Nobody learns how to be selfish safely and ethically and skillfully. Please, send me back in time so I can kill Paul the Apostle with hammers unlearn the idea that goodness is achieved by self-negation

[shamebats]

"There's no thought crimes and no thought heroisms" is honestly such a good piece of life advice.

You could be having the most fucked up problematic thoughts 24/7 but if you treat people with kindness, the good you do is the only thing that matters. But if you have only the purest thoughts and all the correct beliefs, it doesn't matter one bit if you spend most of your time being an asshole to people.

[advice-from-the-archive]

I believe that a reason for all the recent frustration in communicating stems from the newer generations having more screen-based lives.

There's all these jokes about how 'oh, reality is actually a simulation, none of this is real!'

Seems it's never actually occurred to them that life isn't a simulation.

Aesthetics aren't a bad thing, but dreamcore-related statements like 'this isn't real' can do some harm. Continue whatever you wish; I simply encourage keeping yourself grounded more often. (And trigger warnings, of course.)

So, this is your reminder, your sign;

-This is a good time to drink water-

The place your body is in? It's real. The objects around you are not 2D or intangible, or off-limits. Your eyes are moving and nostrils widen and close with each breath. It may not be pretty or pleasing, but that's real life. It's messy, chaotic, random, and uneven.

Wait to see the wind move something, and observe the different sides. This place is real. Life on the screen is not. Your body and mind are real. They are a part of all life on this planet. You are real.