zoec's recent activity

  1. Comment on Going to work in South Africa, with a depression prescription in ~health

    zoec
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    I found something! According to the Health24 website: Coupled with my previous history of diagnoses I think this will be fine. It means at least I have access to the prescription from a GP. In...

    I found something! According to the Health24 website:

    GP's generally have basic training in psychiatry and should be able to make the diagnosis and prescribe antidepressants.

    Coupled with my previous history of diagnoses I think this will be fine. It means at least I have access to the prescription from a GP. In case infrequent specialist referrals may be needed, they can be at least partially funded by the health insurance.

    Thanks all around <3

    2 votes

  2. Comment on Going to work in South Africa, with a depression prescription in ~health

    zoec
    Link Parent
    Thank you! <3 Thank you for the very nice wishes.

    Thank you! <3 Thank you for the very nice wishes.

    1 vote

  3. Going to work in South Africa, with a depression prescription

    ~health Ask
    Good news: I'll be starting my new work in Cape Town, South Africa soon. Not so good news: I have depression, and is currently on the antidepressant Sertraline. My question would be the following:...

    Good news: I'll be starting my new work in Cape Town, South Africa soon.

    Not so good news: I have depression, and is currently on the antidepressant Sertraline.

    My question would be the following:

    How are prescriptions of the antidepressant handled in the South African health care system? Can I obtain, from either a GP or a Specialist, a sort of "long-standing" prescription, valid for (say) a few months, that will allow me to refill at pharmacies or dispensing GPs, without me having to be referred to a Specialist each time I need a refill? I understand that recurring examinations by a Specialist are likely necessary, but I don't expect those to be frequent, as my condition is fairly stable now.

    Also a related question: I'm otherwise young and physically healthy, not affected by chronic conditions except depression. However, it seems that any health insurance schemes there that cover my condition would be rather expensive. Those policies typically include a broad coverage of chronic conditions, most of which I don't foresee a need. For one like myself, what suggestion would you give in terms of health insurance selection?

    Many many thanks <3

    7 votes

  4. Comment on How do you define your masculinity/femininity? in ~talk

    zoec
    Link Parent
    It's totally good to ask! I think the younger me in their insecurity would try very hard to police themself. This of course only made me more nervous and confused. As I grew and the experiences...

    It's totally good to ask!

    I think the younger me in their insecurity would try very hard to police themself. This of course only made me more nervous and confused. As I grew and the experiences widened, I gradually came to terms with myself and the fact that those boxes are hella leaky.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on How do you define your masculinity/femininity? in ~talk

    zoec
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    I don't think masculinity/femininity/otherity are "mine" per se. I see them as belonging to social categories, being "containers" for a variety of traits and behaviours that a person shows while...

    I don't think masculinity/femininity/otherity are "mine" per se. I see them as belonging to social categories, being "containers" for a variety of traits and behaviours that a person shows while interacting socially. They're very vague, fluid, many-faceted stuff, and subject to a lot of interplay between the personal and the social.

    To delve a bit into the physiques, I'm AMAB, possessing XY karyotype, and those facts predispose me toward certain inner experiences, such as details of sexual pleasure. Meanwhile I think gender identity or traits are more about what those experiences mean to me personally and interpersonally. Perhaps to say that I don't feel I fit into the "masculine" stereotype/identity is to say that I attach different sort of meanings and values to my collection of gendered experiences, as compared with other AMAB persons.

    For me, I feel that the physiological aspect of my gender identity is just one of nature's happenings, like eye colour or hair type, but even less noticeable. Sometimes it gets in the way, but that's it, and I can mostly manage -- as myself and a social being.

    P.S. I'm back on Tildes! And it's really nice to have this discussion and hear your own stories. This is an interesting thread and we owe it to @clerical_terrors :)

    2 votes

  6. Comment on What are you reading these days? #10 in ~books

    zoec
    Link
    L'Opoponax by Monique Wittig, Éditions de Minuit 2018 re-printing. Partly for sharpening my French, partly intrigued by the theme -- childhood.

    L'Opoponax by Monique Wittig, Éditions de Minuit 2018 re-printing. Partly for sharpening my French, partly intrigued by the theme -- childhood.

    1 vote

  7. Comment on Your ideal smartphone in 2019? in ~tech

    zoec
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    I wish I could do away with one.

    I wish I could do away with one.

  8. Comment on A few weeks ago I made a thread about my discovery that I am transgender. Today was my first day starting HRT, and I was kind of forced to come out to my mother. She took it very well. in ~lgbt

    zoec
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    Thank you for sending us the positivity from your treasure of an experience! You have a cool mom and she's now blessed with (another) cool daughter :D

    Thank you for sending us the positivity from your treasure of an experience! You have a cool mom and she's now blessed with (another) cool daughter :D

    7 votes

  9. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

    zoec
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    I was listening to the release Born Again in the Voltage by Caterina Barbieri. I first came to know about the musician from Tildes! I'm a fan of minimalist music, and I can get that very isolating...

    I was listening to the release Born Again in the Voltage by Caterina Barbieri. I first came to know about the musician from Tildes!

    I'm a fan of minimalist music, and I can get that very isolating yet fulfilling sensation.

  10. A prayer

    ~creative Text 52 words
    A very short poem in 28 words, originally written on the fly for personal reasons, and shown to another audience. Revised for metrical harmony. O night and secret morning, come to me Invade this...

    A very short poem in 28 words, originally written on the fly for personal reasons, and shown to another audience. Revised for metrical harmony.

    O night and secret morning, come to me
    Invade this body, use my strange desire
    To reenact the birth of midday sun
    Contained in cold, recurring, starless nights

    6 votes

  11. Comment on What is the most recent thing you consumed? in ~food

    zoec
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    Souchong (小种) black tea of Assam. It's smoky and has a crispy aftertaste, reminiscent of burned fields after harvest on a misty day.

    Souchong (小种) black tea of Assam. It's smoky and has a crispy aftertaste, reminiscent of burned fields after harvest on a misty day.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    zoec
    Link
    I like good old find -- it's a time-saver and occasionally life-saver. As an example, sometimes a file's name got corrupted and becomes unprintable or garbage. To rename the file from the command...

    I like good old find -- it's a time-saver and occasionally life-saver. As an example, sometimes a file's name got corrupted and becomes unprintable or garbage. To rename the file from the command line, we can find the file by its inode number and tell find to execute the mv command on it.

    There's also cscope which is very helpful for browsing large source code directories, especially from the vim editor. I usually work with C and Python, and the latter is supported by the pycscope program.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    zoec
    Link Parent
    I like "the silver searcher" (ag) a lot. It interact with other tools (such as git and the vim editor) very nicely.

    I like "the silver searcher" (ag) a lot. It interact with other tools (such as git and the vim editor) very nicely.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on How did you discover your sexuality? in ~lgbt

    zoec
    Link
    I'm enby (non-binary). From pre-teen and teenage years I've always been prone to misgendering, which confused me a lot. Probably it was my voice pitch or the way I present my gestures, emotions,...

    I'm enby (non-binary). From pre-teen and teenage years I've always been prone to misgendering, which confused me a lot. Probably it was my voice pitch or the way I present my gestures, emotions, attitudes, etc. I felt rejected by both genders (we're a very conservative and close-minded society). So in the end, about one year ago, I decided that it was I that was OK, and I didn't need validation by the (often unnecessarily and oppressively) gendered and patriarchal society. I'm not reducible to a binary bit in either 0 or 1 state. I don't want the externally graded masculine or feminine points in the gender ledger book. First of all I exist, and everything else comes after that. And I am the most intimate to the truth about myself.

    Like @pamymaf I feel easier and more at home with enbies or any non-masc queer folk. I feel understood in their companion. The "masculine" masculine people are valid, too, but I feel there seems to be a great distance between our willingness to accept and understand each other.

    3 votes

  15. Comment on How did you discover your sexuality? in ~lgbt

    zoec
    Link Parent
    Nice to meet you, fellow enby :) I think it's quite normal and fine and valid to become your sexuality/gender, both in inner identification and behaviour in the society, as you grow. It's all part...

    Nice to meet you, fellow enby :) I think it's quite normal and fine and valid to become your sexuality/gender, both in inner identification and behaviour in the society, as you grow. It's all part of the growth.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on China can’t afford a cashless society in ~finance

    zoec
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    I use cash and refuse to pay with mobile whenever I can, because I don't like colluding with surveillance-authoritarian-capitalism. I do this as nicely as possible. But this is really not about...

    I use cash and refuse to pay with mobile whenever I can, because I don't like colluding with surveillance-authoritarian-capitalism. I do this as nicely as possible.

    But this is really not about me. I'm just one of many and I chose this. It's a privilege to be able to choose, and there are many who can't. It's good to be reminded of this -- that's my main take from this article.

    Older users are another critical demographic targeted in cashless platform promotion campaigns. Because older users tend to struggle learning to use mobile devices, for example, Alibaba takes advantage of filial piety to encourage children to recruit parents and elders into getting on the apps. In a recent campaign to get more elderly users up to speed on using Alipay, Alibaba mimicked the language of a heartfelt child-to-parent note as an introduction to a tutorial on setting up mobile payments.

    Alibaba is very good at using coddling and pampering languages in its products, which adds to my contempt. The aggressive infantilization is bad enough from any commercial player, but from this gigantic commerce-surveillance-finance conglomerate, it just feels gross.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on I find that actively trying to not sound rude is much better than saying "I don't want to sound rude", even if you get it wrong and end up sounding rude anyway in ~talk

    zoec
    Link
    And not only is it "better", it's easier too. It's more relaxing and empowering to own my emotion and express how I really feel (which includes silence, the absence of expression). If I feel...

    And not only is it "better", it's easier too. It's more relaxing and empowering to own my emotion and express how I really feel (which includes silence, the absence of expression). If I feel angry, offended, irritated, or otherwise just not OK, it almost always work better if I express the feeling as it is. In this way, I

    • get to know my own thought or feeling better, by asking myself what is it?
    • may understand the other party better because I'm less loaded and worked up
    • am more likely to move the conversation forward constructively, and
    • fully own the emotions and take responsibility for expressing them in the manner I choose.

    It almost always ends up easier to speak our minds.

    3 votes

  18. Comment on What are the "scents of your people?" in ~talk

    zoec
    Link Parent
    Thank you so much. You're very kind. It means a lot to me to hear you say so.

    Thank you so much. You're very kind. It means a lot to me to hear you say so.

  19. Comment on What are the "scents of your people?" in ~talk

    zoec
    Link Parent
    Thanks for the really emotional description, the fresh feeling as if in every cell! I tried raki once, without ice. It was after some good amount of wine already... I was too tipsy to take good...

    Thanks for the really emotional description, the fresh feeling as if in every cell!

    I tried raki once, without ice. It was after some good amount of wine already... I was too tipsy to take good notice of the scent. But what memory... with those good people. We danced off our energies that night. Now I want to try raki again, starting with the olfactory faculty intact. But that must wait after I get off the meds completely.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~comp

    zoec
    Link Parent
    I came here to say basically this. To "look into the mirror" is hard emotional and intellectual work, and it's one of the most awesome things about humans. Linus can use all the time and patience...

    I came here to say basically this. To "look into the mirror" is hard emotional and intellectual work, and it's one of the most awesome things about humans.

    Linus can use all the time and patience he deserves. I hope he'll be with supportive and caring people, too, which will make a lot difference during the journey of self-reflection.

    10 votes