protist

I worked in a hospital for a long time and oversaw an entire team of people whose only job was to interface and argue with insurance companies. For my small hospital, we had 7 people doing this averaging $85-$90K per year each.

And don't get me started on unfunded care. Since we live in Texas, which has not expanded Medicaid, there are a ton of people who end up in the hospital with no insurance and who will never pay a cent because they literally can't. Hospitals try to make up that funding gap by raising rates on everyone who does pay. We're already paying for other people's healthcare this way, I wish we would just nationalize health insurance and eliminate insurance companies entirely.

The tricky part about anxiety is it could have many causes, but the most common cause by far is just accidentally developing a pattern of thinking that creates anxiety and getting stuck there. You've identified what the problem is, you've decided you want to change it, and now you're gathering information before you make plans and take action to begin changing it.

None of this will be as applicable to your specific situation as you would get from seeing a therapist. Consider doing what we call "opposite action." If you have the urge to doomscroll, intentionally do the opposite and go outside for a walk. If you want to spend the day alone in your room, instead go to a restaurant and eat by yourself but in public. Small things like this will help you break out of your patterns and begin to realize the world is not a very scary place. One of the most common misconceptions is that all the people out there will notice all your faults. In reality, most people couldn't care less about your faults, and you would be surprised how many people out there would love to connect with you. There are always going to be negative interactions sometimes, but try not to let those get to you and just move on.

Also, set a strict cutoff time at night for your devices, and stick with it. If you have trouble sleeping, take a melatonin, read a calming book, drink something warm, whatever you need to do, but keep your phone off. It's hard to overstate the negative effects doomscrolling and a lack of sleep are probably having on your mental health

My grandfather was a landlord back in the 80s-90s. He owned several small homes and duplexes in a big city, and he did all the maintenance and upkeep on them himself. I saw him work his ass off, how would his tenants paying him rent not be compensating him for his labor?

Only a crisis for continuing unsustainable economic growth. By any other measure, reducing the number of people on the planet is a good thing.

It makes sense in the context of all the other Oglaf comics

I have not

The infamous "they"

Their family name is Armadillidae (arm-a-dill-a-dee) which also just sounds silly

I read all the way to when he mentions John Boehner before I realized this was written 10 years ago, and things have only gotten worse since.

The ability and willingness to laugh at yourself is evidence of self-awareness and intelligence.

Completely missing the point, and thinking someone laughing at themselves is instead "complaining" or "whining," is evidence of a lack of self-awareness and intelligence.

I had a conversation with management and they told me I don't open up, which is fair and true and told me to be more empathetic with my coworkers.

Except that I can't and I don't care about most of them. As said, I just want to work and go home. I consider most of them childish, gossipy and immature. Of course I didn't tell management this.

It seems possible to me you've missed the message delivered by your supervisor. You plainly state here that you despise your coworkers and your supervisor is saying you need to approach your coworkers with more empathy. To me, that sounds not like you're just trying to keep to yourself, but that you're probably acting like an asshole somehow in giving the cold shoulder to everyone.

I think you're really struggling with "black and white" thinking here, to think that you would have to debase yourself and pretend to have a bright and bubbly disposition in order to be pleasant and respectful toward your coworkers. You don't have to be mean and disdainful in order to maintain your personal boundaries at work. Your supervisor might have been on to something, because developing empathy with your coworkers can help you let go of your disdain for them and will probably help you function more effectively in your role.

I worked in healthcare a long time, and the field is certainly dominated by extroverts, but I've known plenty introverts in all hospital roles who got along just fine. Healthcare is not a job you can do by yourself. You are always going to have to function as part of a team. If you hate other people so much that you're just going to move from job to job hating everyone you work with, and you feel like you have no other option than to do this, maybe consider speaking with a therapist to try to develop new ways of relating to the world instead of just being miserable.

Evolution can only build off what came before, and in this case, all the parts were already there, they just needed to be fine tuned. Beetles across the world manipulate wavelengths of light to iridesce using variable reflective layers of chitin.

Nature as a whole is way beyond our present understanding of math and science. In fact, math and science only exist as concepts for humans to try to explain elements of nature