For me realising that I care for people (as a job) and if I don't get it right my patients could get hurt means I'm much more likely to ask for help for anything from little simple things to bigger my mental health is suffering and I need more support from all aspects of my life.

Asking for help isn't easy, everyone wants to be strong and self sufficient, remember we are a social species and evolved to work in groups and help each other. Think how you feel when you can help someone or if you've been asked to help and remember that when you seek help.

Bohemian Rhapsody. Every time.

My Dad's gone totally off the rails conspiracy theory nutty.

Fake moon landings, fluoride in the water is mind control, vaccines cause autism and maybe microchips and mind control again, foreign people are simultaneously lazy stealing benefits and stealing all the jobs, my god the racism. He fell into an echo chamber during COVID and hasn't come out again.

The best one was when I was telling him as a healthcare professional on the front lines watching patients and colleagues die that COVID was serious and we should take any opportunity to avoid it and make it better, he told me it was just flu and all fake news.

Yeah I don't talk to my parents much anymore.

The Lord of the Rings. Aragorn is a perfect example of positive masculinity. Strong, brave, a good leader, emotionally available and connected to all his friends. Sam and Frodo are also very positive. Books and films are good. Cinema Therapy YouTube channel has a few episodes on the lord of the rings and they are all good watches. The Aragorn one covers positive masculinity I think.

The general measures of things like this are: is it causing a negative effect on you or others?

In a similar vein to pooping some people do every day, some twice or more, some a couple times per week. There's a range of normal. If it's not bothering you or anyone else it's probably fine. (Though see your Dr if you only poop once a week, something's weird there).

Sounds like you're getting a house at some point. That's great for you. Regarding the whole landlord issue you are struggling with: not all landlords are bad, in this circumstance your basically just offering extra space your not using in your house to someone else. That's pretty reasonable. If you really don't vibe with being a landlord in any capacity you could always sell up once it's your house and buy something smaller just for you.

We don't as far as I know. St John is usually pronounced Saint John. Though English is weird and you might have come across a local pronunciation. Do you know where abouts in the UK that one comes from?

I know where your coming from. My parents feel right down the racist conspiracy theory rabbit hole during Brexit and COVID. I was working in the hospital watching people and colleagues die regularly and my dad was telling me it's just flu and all a hoax to scare people, they convinced my 90 year old grandma to not get the vaccine. We had a lot of fights. Eventually after a lot of reflecting I decided that having a relationship with my family was more important than winning an argument so now we just have a selection of topics I refuse to engage with, just say let's move on and change the topic. I found it really hard to see the people who raised me fall into racist rhetoric and conspiracy theory thinking, these people taught me to be a good person and now have some glaring holes in their compassion for others. I struggled with that for a long time.

I love how many dicks have been drawn in historical artifacts by the people who built them. I remember reading about an engraving at the very top of an old column which the building was too unstable to get close enough to see for a long time. I think when they got up there and translated it it said something like "this is very high". It's nice to know people have always been people.

I'm not sure I'm getting the big picture on this, they are on strike because the government wants to train more doctors? Surely that's a good thing?

Dark souls. Everything after Anor Londo is a bit of a slog. Once you've beat Snorlax and Pikachu the game gets a bit worse in terms of quality.

My dad: "the earth goes through natural temperature cycles, I've got some good scientific sources who say it's all natural and climate change is just scaremongering"

Guess that's another topic along with the EU, immigration, COVID, vaccination that I can't talk about with my family.

Makes it hard and frustrating to continue to have a relationship at times.