chosensilence

I am very confused. RIP to Jesus and what an awful disease AIDS is, but.. huh???? Everything I read about this death tells me it was sudden and unexpected. Jesus definitely did not look like he was dying of anything pertaining to AIDS. Also, how does somebody even progress to AIDS in the US in 2025? Especially a rich famous hairstylist? It would be more understandable if he were underprivileged or had difficulty finding healthcare and treatment, but there's literally no way that was the case for him lol.

You're telling me Jesus had HIV for however long, didn't know about it, and then it became AIDS and weakened his immune system to the point where he died of a fungal infection? I find that incredibly hard to believe. Either he kept this hidden from literally everyone and ignored his HIV and kept all his physical symptoms a secret or this isn't an AIDS related death and the suggestion that it must've been an AIDS complication comes off as a homophobic implication.

Can anyone give me some insight? Maybe I'm missing something? I am gay and know a bit more about HIV/AIDS than the average person but what is going on here? Can AIDS develop silently and without symptoms? I hope not because that is horrifying and doesn't seem to make sense given what HIV does to the immune system. You can't hide severe illness much.

I have been prescribed tirzepatide by my primary care physician of 12 years since last November. In the approaching 7 months I've been on Zepbound I have lost a total of 91 lbs (or ~40kg) and I am noticing significant improvements in various aspects of my physical and mental health. My doctor gave me this medication to treat me for my morbid obesity. I weighed 363lbs at my heaviest and struggled my whole life to lose and keep the weight off. My sleep apnea was also a cause for treatment with Zepbound but that was an added bonus as far as me and my doctor were concerned.

I was on public assistance up until very recently as I started a new job and had to purchase my own private insurance (none offered by my ER). Obtaining prior authorization while on state funded care was rather simple and straightforward. Nobody fought with my doctor and agreed the medication was necessary. I figured the switch to Chorus would go the same. Unfortunately, Chorus began dicking me around with prior authorization. I had to call a bunch of people to figure out how to obtain proper approval and was informed that Chorus is careful with prior authorizations for these kind of drugs because people have "found out" about an "unintended side effect" causing weight loss and all the shortages have taken them away from people who REALLY need it like people with sleep apnea (literally used that as an example).

Firstly, the shortages with Zepbound are over and have been for a while lol. Secondly, how would Zepbound treat sleep apnea if not for weight loss? I would like to know Chorus' explanation for that. It is not a sleep apnea drug. It is approved to treat obesity which treats illnesses caused by it, like sleep apnea. It incidentally treats sleep apnea. That's the unintentional side effefct, not the weight loss.

I am so enraged, honestly. Because now I feel no support from them! Should I consider myself lucky I have hypertension and sleep apnea? I'm worried once these issues are controlled they're going to take the drug away from me even though it is a life-long medication. Once you stop taking a glp-1 drug it's likely you will regain the weight. You can alternate every other week but you need to take the drug eventually. As it currently stands, these drugs are forever.

I can't stick with Chorus next year. I sent them a message basically saying all of this and told them I would be choosing another insurance company next year. They're all crooks but fuck, one of them has to be greedy enough to want all the money Eli Lilly is making lol. "Yeah take all the Zepbound you want! Fuckin' shove it up your ass I don't care!"

i have had ADHD ever since i was a child. i grew into a very depressed and anxious teenager and my mental health worsened over time as a young adult. fast forward to November 2024 when i start picking at the wounds healing on my skin. i've done this before. a lot of us have. however, this time i couldn't stop. i would pick until it bled, let it heal, and pick it all over again. then i'd move on to another spot and repeat the process. weeks turned into months and i was still picking at my skin. the areas impacted were spreading. i knew about dermatillomania and assumed i was having an episode for some reason i wasn't yet consciously aware of, but being the curious person i am i did some internet digging and learned way more than i thought i would.

it turns out that skin picking, or excoriation disorder and no longer referred to as dermatillomania, belongs to a newly described category of psychiatric conditions called "Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders." much like how there are several disorders pertaining to anxiety and depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder is a spectrum not limited to classically presenting OCD.

huh.. interesting. wait. this is a form of OCD? i thought to myself.

i continued to read more about OCD related disorders (OCRD) when i made a personally intense discovery. while there are many conditions thought to pertain to the wider spectrum of OCRD there are generally considered to be four primary disorders that are unquestionably obsessive-compulsive: body dysmorphic disorder, hypochondriasis, tic disorders, and body focused repetitive behaviors. when considering the list of wider OCRD disorders, i suffer from seven of 17 common conditions. however, narrowing it down to these few four actually makes things worse for me, because i live with three out the four disorders.

it seems i have been going about the world with untreated OCD my entire life. i couldn't help but immediately reflect over past scenario after past scenario. i spent the next several hours consuming as much information as i could about obsessive-compulsive related disorders and uncovering why i was avoidant and pathologically shy and reserved around others. i was finally finding answers that i had spent 35 years working towards. i was closing in on why i was the way i am.

when i thought i couldn't possibly learn anything more significant about myself i read that people with both ADHD and OCD have higher rates of autism than the average population. in fact, it's a good indication you have autism if you have both disorders.

oh. hm. uhhhhhhhh. fuck. i have wondered over the years if i was on the autism spectrum but never really gave it much thought. things were clicking even deeper. like with OCD i looked into autism and it was like reading a summary of my lived experiences. everything felt right. everything made sense. this is what's going on with me. it's this right here.

i was floored. the very next day i made appointments with professionals who met with me and agreed that i was likely correct and set me up with a psychiatric assessment for June. i will soon be given confirmation of what i know likely to be true: i have ADHD, OCD, and autism. and it took until my mid 30s to put it all together.

if you are struggling and still can't make sense of yourself, it isn't for nothing. this could happen to you too. keep pushing forward because the alternative is to give up. the alternative is you lose.