I'm not a tax professional but this hardly seems necessary. Have you consulted with a tax professional to confirm that this is all necessary? How much of a difference does it actually make, i.e. how much tax do you actually pay to MI?
In terms of the amount of tax to MI, it's not a whole lot. A couple hundred dollars. And it doesn't change my total taxes paid, because I get a tax credit for that against my CA taxes. MI's tax rate is lower than CA's.
Are you using autosale? It sounds like you’re manually selling, perhaps that is why it’s so complicated. I used autosale while I worked at Google and had no problems
I used to use autosale back when it existed. Now it no longer exists, and has been replaced by an ETP program.
It's been a while since I used autosale, but I think the problem still existed then, because I think even with autosale the sale price wasn't identical to the vest price, so there were still loss sales, which could be washed. But I think since the sale happened the same day as the vest, the problem wasn't as bad, because in 31-day months, the loss sale couldn't be washed by the next month vest. So there wasn't the case of constantly increasing complexity, because the complexity would reset in 31-day months.
I tried ETP back when it was introduced. I didn't like it. It's been a while, so my memory of why I didn't like it is a little foggy. For one thing, when you're enrolled, you're not allowed to buy or sell any Google shares manually. One of the biggest problems was that there's a cooling off period, and the shares that vest during that period don't get autosold right away, and you can't sell them manually. I think they get autosold a month or so after vesting. My memory might be wrong, but I think that's what happened. Another thing that annoyed me is that my sells got split across 2 1099-Bs: the 1099-B from my individual Schwab account and the 1099-B from my EAC Schwab account. I think shares that vested during the cooling off period went on one 1099-B and the shares that vested during other times went on the other 1099-B. And somehow in the confusion I ended up with some shares that never got sold at all.
This is not true. I have had ~15 drinks on Naltrexone which definitely qualifies as a binge although I never "truly" binged as I never blacked out after starting treatment via The Sinclair Method. It wasn't a great time especially the next morning but I didn't get sick at all.
Not meaning to diminish the role that 12 step recovery plays in the lives of many but given the impact that alcoholism medication had on my own life I can't help but mention it here. I used Naltrexone through The Sinclair Method and rewired my brain by continuing to drink for a year using the medication. I'm now multiple years sober. It took some extra time to deal with some emotional stuff, 12 steps will help you more there. But addressing the chemical addiction first worked well for me. See my comment history for more details.
I think most 12 step people who find success actually acknowledge what the psychiatrist is saying. Addiction isnt just one thing, often it can be a bunch of things, a big one being un-treated mental health problems like depression, anxiety, or even add/ADHD. It can be as he said feelings of powerlessness and displacing problems, like chemical procrastination of emotional processing. If that is a source of the issue it would make sense that addiction would be more common in society where emotions are not discussed or stigmatized but alcoholism is not.
This is all to say 12 steps isn't enough by itself and as far as I know most addicts in recovery stress that. I have known heroin addicts who are in recovery who go to meetings, but they also take meds, changed where they live, who they hang out with, media they consume, I even think they went to behavioral health therapy for a while to help change how they approach problems like stress, anger, communication, etc.
I run the risk of becoming a single topic commenter but The Sinclair Method has had such a profound impact on my life that I cannot resist. It turned me from getting fired from FAANG for blacking out at work events and getting into trouble to completely sober in one year. If anything, I am too sober now, I had intended to continue to drink socially using Naltrexone but at this point I don't have the urge to drink just one beer even while knowing all that I need to do is take the pill and it is ok to do.
Highly recommend reddit.com/r/Alcoholism_Medication has a next step for anyone interested in learning more. Not only is the community extremely supportive, the sidebar links out to great resources including a free/legal PDF of the aforementioned Espaka book. That book was my starting point, highly recommended, it is a quick read and lays down the foundation for The Sinclair Method in the first few chapters (it is an incredibly simple system and that is why it works).
You're not alone, your story is similar to mine. I was feeling the same as you last summer and also quit my big tech job. I tried my own thing for two months and realized more work wasn't the solution. I ended up moving out of NYC into my hometown, getting a remote job, and picking up some new hobbies like golf and tennis. I feel better but still haven't fixed everything. It will take time.
> No addiction specialists back the 'the Sinclair Method' but do back daily use of Naltrexone.
This is definitely not true having worked with addiction specialists on TSM myself. Plus I think it is safe to consider Sinclair himself as an addiction specialist
I am part of the 26% that has done this, although in the past few weeks I have finally found some momentum in changing this habit.
For me, it felt as though the content of my work is what drove me to do this. Building CRUD applications, refactoring legacy code, writing exhaustive tests, etc were all things that I would get stoned for, saving things like writing design docs and meetings for the non-stoned days. Combine this with a decade of using cannabis to make mundane tasks more interesting in my personal life (playing a video game I have already logged 1K+ hours in, watching a TV show I have seen 10x times, washing dishes, etc) and it's easy to see how I got to this point. The reality of adult life and software engineering as a career is that a lot of it is just boring. Now, whether or not smoking pot actually fixed that boredom is a different question...
As I comment on many HN posts, I cannot exaggerate the impact that alcoholism medication has had on my life. It is only tangentially related here, as this comment is not about disulfiram but rather naltrexone, a drug with similar goals but a very different mechanism of action
This is all to say, if you or a loved one is struggling with alcoholism, I highly recommend looking into The Sinclair Method. Check out /r/alcoholism_medication or this accounts recent comment history. That community supports those that use disulfiram as well, but I cannot comment on that medication myself
I'm currently on a naltrexone/wellbutrin combo. I started it to try to finally end an infinite binge/purge cycle I find myself stuck in (an eating disorder). I also have depression/insomnia and had been self-medicating with alcohol (really, I just drank to relax -> drank to fall asleep -> didn't fall asleep -> drank more). I wouldn't say it was a lot compared to what you think of when you think of an alcoholic but it definitely fell under the category of binge drinking nightly (~3 beers a night). I had reached a point where I figured it'd be good to stop (after reading about how easily one can develop a Thiamine deficiency) but found it... not easy. I could go a few days but living alone, wfh, etc made me really enjoy my post-work/before-bed beer ritual - it felt like the only thing distinguishing night and day.
The medication has helped all 3 issues, a lot. How much it's worked is incredible. I don't know how hard it would've been to stop alcohol without it, but I'm sure I would've failed more before succeeding. Honestly, I'm more impressed by how it's helped me manage my relationship with food. I've spent the last 15+ years obsessing over food. I still think about it far more than people without eating disorders, but my self-worth is not tied to whether or not I eat. I think my mood was better managed on my old antidepressant but things now feel... how I think "normal" is?
That said, I do need to get a medical bracelet of some sort. My doctor didn't mention exactly how naltrexone worked and it wasn't until I stumbled across /r/alcholism_medication that I realized that if I got hit by a car or had some other accident, was unconscious and administered opiates - they wouldn't work, and being on naltrexone could have harmful effects if I underwent emergency surgery if the medical personnel were unaware of my prescription.
Probably good to have an alert bracelet, but if you were undergoing emergency surgery, the anesthetist would monitor close enough to know something is off and respond appropriately.
Pretty much. Naltrexone is a competitive antagonist against the opioid reception (u being the important one).
They would give the standard amount of opioid (say fentanyl) and if they don't see the desired response they'll up it. Eventually you can "out compete" the naltrexone for the opioid receptor and get an effect.
If they do give 2-3x the dose, they'll be sure to monitor closely after to make sure everything goes well.
Good to hear it .. I've been sober 12 years (cold turkey after years of attempts) and when I was struggling I tried to get a prescription for Antabuse and doc said no. I see no reason not to try whatever tools are available to save someone from a terrible life (or death).
"Antabuse can lead to death or dangerous health problems."
So can a slew of other drugs. You should see the drug risks for stuff folks take for autoimmune disorders. It isn't just up to the doctor to mitigate the risks: Patients must do their part as well (blood tests and so on).
And most importantly: So can alcoholism. Alcoholism kills slowly. Withdrawal can kill not-so-slowly. Somehow, do you think the doctor is not responsible for refusing help when the alternative risks include death as well?
That said, I'm not a doctor and there are generally (but not always) good reasons to avoid a drug or another. The risk of drugs by itself usually isn't it, though, as it depends on effectiveness compared to other drugs/methods and comparing the risk of cure to the risk of continued disease.
Sorry if you already know this, but the difference with disulfiram/Antabuse is that these side effects are intentional and are supposed to act as a deterrent to consuming alcohol. The fact that it can kill you if you mix it with booze is why people take it, as far as I understand it
Dr. isn't legally liable if they act within the norms of the profession with with informed consent. Almost any drug can cause death or dangerous health problems.
I just wanted to say thanks for you mentioning this. I had never heard of naltrexone before and it's something I'm going to talk to my doctor about next week. I've been drinking way more than I want to and I'm finding it difficult to tone it down.
