Bogdan

I suspect the following thing could be part of the explanation for why some people get addicted to weed, while others don't: My current explanation for why i got addicted to weed and is that I simply was taught to use addictions and coping mechanisms since I was very little. When my mom was feeling emotional she would eat sweets and she would come and give me some as well, lol. She made me witness her bad mood, and how sweets make it go away. Also dad was basically an alcoholic. Every time I was sad or emotional, my mom would freak the fuck out and my dad would get angry. They basically taught me that I have to get rid of difficult emotions, at any cost, through external means. This made me feel socially anxious and depressed and insecure. I literally can't remember a time where I didn't feel those things. Even my first memories include the feelings fearing my dad's anger and being addicted to, and later on disgusted and annoyed with my mom's smothering. And me hating to interact with other kids, teachers, other adults, family, etc. I felt inadequate in any context, with some fleeting exceptions. So I think this has a whole lot to do with it. Being so fucked on this front since a very young age, I observed makes it really hard for me to short circuit all that inertia, and to keep a stable baseline of consciousness. And as a final point here, that's actually one thing that weed ended up helping me see - it was amplifying just how wildly volatile my state was day to day. For so many years, every day I switched from moments of bliss and looking at things and tearing up from the beauty of existence, all the way to feeling extremely heavy and inadequate and wondering if I am retarded or something and if it's actually a good idea to end this life. (Which I know I wouldn't do, but those are the states I have been dealing with)

Yknow, an interesting thing that I don't quite understand yet, is how the body seems to adapt even to those blood sugar spiking carbs. Rice, sugar, honey etc can spike someone's blood glucose, and in a few months of adaptation (to what exactly and I'm what manner i don't understand yet) that same person's metabolism can deal with those foods extremely well. Kinda like the opposite of fat adaptation on keto. Just that low carb forces gluconeogenesis, which requires stress hormones, which is not a good idea long term. Were you on keto for a while, or did you try weird stuff with your diet? I'm also curious if/how much do you exercise, cardio and lifting wise

Why not exercise? I observed most people that don't exercise at some points tried, did way too much, and stayed with the impression that it's way too hard and simply not for them. Or they have some problem that needs a more simple way of training at first, etc. The yt channel I currently recommend for sound gym advice is Jonathan Warren (I'll link him below) On the issue of diet, I tried many diets and keep searching for something that keeps my weight, energy level and health issues in check. Currently, I am really into the advice of Jay Feldman (I'll also link below) and I have to say that my body composition is stabilizing, but more importantly, my energy and hormone levels are actually feeling quite satisfactory lately. In summary, what seems to work is this: - at least 1 gram per kg of bodyweight in fat, at the very least 10g of fat per meal. Prolly closer to 30g is better. 80kg man, 3-4 meals a day, you get the point. - somewhere between 1 and 2 grams of protein per kg of body weight. More is not better. Perhaps around 30g to 50g per meal is more than enough. - carbs probably should be at least twice the grams of protein per day and per meal Carbs too low seems to be a big problem for our metabolism, and although is can alleviate some symptoms short term, it's not a long term solution. The important part seems to be regaining the health of the metabolism, and the actual food choices. Here are the links:

He had a congenital heart defect. But I'm sure steroids didn't help.

Besides basics such as sleep, exercise and healthy diet, do you still think detoxing heavy metals is the most potent thing that lifts brain fog? And could you remind us of the top most important things that you found help with brain fog?

@Yimpa 😆

Such an amazingly beautiful answer I'm tearing up

My period of addiction to it was about 10 years. I am currently almost 8 months sober from it. During these 10 years I tried quitting dozens, perhaps hundreds of times. A few times I managed to go 3-4 months without it, and I had many, many attempts that lasted weeks and even more that lasted days. What finally shifted my mindset was a combination of many things... One of the most important pieces of advice for me was that if you've been a long term addict, do not delude yourself that you "beat" the addiction after only a few months. Not even after a year or two. Just accept that you'll gonna probably have to go quite a few years, and potentially for the rest of your life without it. I realized that for me personally, sobriety has to become my single priority. Total focus. If that's not in place, then everything else is just fantasy. There are also many other crucial mindset stuff like that that have helped and continue to help me go through the difficult, and also the stimulating parts of life, sober. I highly, highly recommend the channel Addiction Mindset for this. But ultimately, what Leo keeps repeating to us rings true - when the pain is big enough, you'll change. Last year this pain finally became way too much. Even though it was pretty bad for years before that! It became so painful - couldn't believe how it's as if for years I was asleep to just how addicted I was. I was completely deluded, drowning in fantasies, beliefs etc. It was shocking to realize that I'm living like a miserable, lazy, deluded, narcissistic, unconscious addict! I started realizing that I'm in real danger of totally wasting my entire life. And so after a few months of fiercely searching for the information/help that I specifically need, i finally gathered all the tools, that combined with a certain painful and scary experience, allowed me to step into this completely different era of my life. Also it took 10 years of Actualized for me to finally see how I am being a textbook zen-devil, falling in every trap possible. While fantasizing of becoming one of Leo's best students, I was IN TRUTH making a mockery of this work. My last 5-10 years were spent half-assing meditation, contemplation, pickup, career, business, sobriety, learning, having new experiences, psychedelics... I was destroying my health... And poof, I'm 30 now. That's one of the main dangers of weed. But at I am SO GLAD that now I can see the truth of my foolishness. Truth is worth all the pain. I also have compassion for myself, and i understand why my sad Romanian ass had to go through all of this. It is ultimately so Beautiful and Perfect! I am putting Truth at the top of my values as best as I can. I credit my (currently still unimpressive) breakthrough into sobriety to valuing Truth. I will continue doing so and I will see where that leads me. I wish you good luck, and may you break free from the chains of addiction!

I saw nobody posted it here yet so here it is:

I'm confused. What do you mean? Fan fiction usually means something positive, but then I saw he has a negative view of Trump. Why would him posting a skit in which he makes fun of Trump be an example of his flaws?

I started learning more about neurodivergence and neurotipicality. I thought I'd leave Sam Vaknin's perspective to add to the discussion, as I find him being pretty up to date with "stuff" in general. Right in this moment I'm not able to recall all of this thread's or the video's points, but from the top of my head it seems like: - NTs flock together with other NTs - same for NDs with other NDs - people use the term ND too loosely, wrongly equating it with mental illnesses that may have nothing to do with ND - NTs should learn that NDs function differently and should learn how to let them take their proper place in society

I'm learning dutch right now. I'm using AI to translate sentences I wanna know, then I listen with text to speech programs until I can read them by myself, and eventually memorize the whole thing. But I do think it's ultimately about learning the words themselves. It's just that this is the best way I've found to do so. By learning them within the sentences you actually are interested in learning. Simple and direct. Easy, even. Wikipedia has lists of the most common words for any (or most) languages. In theory, learn the first 2000, you can speak. Learn the first 5000, you are fluent.

This conversation has been super eye opening for me. I'm realizing indeed I am being way too cynical, and also that I actually am able to extract the good and leave the bad. At least moreso than in the past. In fact, what Teal teaches has been truly life transforming for me. Like the parts Leo was mentioning, and reciprocity, and others. Funny how in the moment I was stuck in the negative. I think I've been falling in the trap of becoming alergic to new agey stuff, cause I'm finally getting rid of all those beliefs myself. But I shouldn't throw away everything that has a worse noise-to-signal ratio than Actualized, lol. Damn, I almost fell in the trap of thinking "I'm better" than Teal for a sec 😆 when in fact I'm just starting to make sense of all this stuff, after (only) a decade of Actualized.

I just read what y'all have replied on this topic. I find it interesting how all of us have more or less the same view on Teal. Makes me curious about why that is! I wanna add this regarding Teal's teachings - from what I understand she is big on not bulldozing aspects of self. Not letting one need or thought dominate another. She seems to be dogmatic about there always being a 3rd common ground option, and that there is no need for "zero-sum games". And that bulldozing always leads to repression or something. I think the paradox there is that this common ground option ends up dominating over zero-sum games in your worldview. It's a damned if you do or if you don't situation. At the time I was searching for advice that would help me with my crippling weed addiction. And for me this kind of advice was not useful at all. The opposite, even. One super important thing that ended up helping was Leo clearly communicating that sometimes you just need to fuckin use brute force, keep focus, vision and fuckin bulldoze through. Some things just require that. So thank you Leo for that also. 💪😎

@Miguel1 imma write this and go to bed, but tomorrow I'm looking forward to reading all of you guys' thoughts From what I've seen, she might have useful stuff for people who are on the brink of suicide. I personally know someone that claims Teal's videos helped her in not making that decision. But honestly, I think Teal is too lost in her own imagination with some stuff. She claims she has extra sensory perceptions, which.. fair enough. But then she makes claims about different types of aliens. And also about AI being a sort of being from another dimension.. She keeps having opinions about how WW3 is already happening blabla. She told some person attending a retreat that their friend (or someone else) is possessed by an alien ... where muh epistemology at? 😆 I seeing a lot of new agers parroting this type of stuff, and I suspect a lot of it originates from her. People that follow her tend to believe she is a super special being, sent to be a sort of high level priestess of this world, and I think she perpetuates this narrative. Also I personally found some of her ideas about trauma, and therapy harmful for my journey. But probably that's not on her, but on me. So I am currently finding too much of her content wacky, schizophrenic and not nuanced enough. Too much noise vs signal.