Social Media and Relationships Daniel Dashnaw Social Media and Relationships Daniel Dashnaw

Derry Girls: A Neurodivergent Reading of Chaotic Catholic Girlhood

Let’s begin with a confession appropriate to the setting. The recent British historical sitcom: Derry Girls is not about autism.

At least, not overtly.

It’s about Catholic girlhood in 1990s Northern Ireland, the final bloody chapters of the Troubles, and the universal humiliation of adolescence rendered in a dialect so quick and poetic it deserves subtitles even if you speak English.

But like all great shows about misfits, outsiders, and the socially erratic, it is absolutely haunted by autistic tropes—whether it knows it or not.

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What Happy Couples Know Daniel Dashnaw What Happy Couples Know Daniel Dashnaw

The Burned-Out Therapist’s Supplement Stack: What to Take When Holding Space Feels Like Holding Fire

Let me be blunt: therapists are the emotional sanitation workers of late-stage capitalism.

You hold other people’s pain all day while trying to remember your password for the EHR system, drink enough water, and somehow keep your own frontal lobe from melting into compassion fatigue.

The clients cry, the insurance claims glitch, the Zoom lags, and you start asking your cat reflective questions.

But what if you didn’t have to run on cold brew and unresolved idealism?

Here’s a science-backed, sincerity-soaked, slightly reverent supplement stack for therapists who want to feel less like a burnt offering to the trauma gods and more like a grounded, well-resourced human with a working vagus nerve.

This isn’t medical advice. This is nervous system harm reduction. It’s how I get through my days in the clinic and my afternoons and occasional evenings of private practice.

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What Happy Couples Know Daniel Dashnaw What Happy Couples Know Daniel Dashnaw

UMZU vs. the Field: How It Stacks Up Against Ancestral Supplements, Thorne, and the Wellness Arms Race

If UMZU is the slightly rebellious honors student of the natural supplement world — smart, independent, wearing a hoodie with Latin phrases on it — then Ancestral Supplements is the primal kid who eats raw liver and refuses to wear shoes, and Thorne is the kid who took AP Bio and interns at a genomics startup.

All three brands traffic in the same basic dream: that with the right nutrients, you can feel more like yourself, only better.

But they have very different strategies for getting there. And for those of us trying to find a supplement routine that doesn't feel like cosplay, this matters.

Here’s a breakdown of how UMZU compares to two of its most philosophically interesting competitors — Ancestral Supplements and Thorne — along with a deeper look at how science, branding, and purpose intersect.

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What Happy Couples Know Daniel Dashnaw What Happy Couples Know Daniel Dashnaw

UMZU and the Science of Natural Optimization: A Sincere Fan's Deep Dive

Some supplement companies pitch themselves like snake oil salesmen with better branding.

Others hide behind vague wellness buzzwords and stock photography of people doing yoga in cornfields.

But UMZU? UMZU takes a different tack.

They want you to believe in science — and not just the cold, clinical kind, but the kind that’s been lived, tested, and passionately defended by a man who rewired his own hormones with nothing but broccoli, research papers, and stubbornness.

Founded by Christopher Walker — a neuroscience student who turned a pituitary tumor diagnosis into a lifelong mission — UMZU is a company devoted to natural, evidence-informed supplements designed to optimize hormone health, brain function, and digestive resilience.

Yes, there’s boldness in the branding. But once you dig into the ingredients and research, the surprising thing is… a lot of it holds up.

This is not a parody. This is not a paid endorsement. This is a love letter. I’ve Been trying supplements like UMZU for most of my adult life. I’ve found UMZU to be among the very best.

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Social Media and Relationships Daniel Dashnaw Social Media and Relationships Daniel Dashnaw

Therapist Handout: Rebuilding Connection in the Age of Screens

A Weekly Practice Guide for Families Who Want to Look Up Again

Because every parent says they want more connection.
Because every kid is quietly starving for attention, not entertainment.


Because every therapist has watched a client get an “urgent” Slack ping in the middle of a breakthrough.


Because healing doesn’t need to be perfect—it just needs to be practiced.

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Social Media and Relationships Daniel Dashnaw Social Media and Relationships Daniel Dashnaw

Parents on Phones, Kids on iPads: The Disconnected Family in the Age of Screens

Let’s begin with a now-familiar domestic scene:
Dad scrolling Reddit in the kitchen while muttering about the economy.


Mom toggling between work Slack and Pinterest recipes while standing next to the fridge.


The toddler, luminous-eyed, watching Baby Shark on repeat while instinctively flinging cereal to the floor like it’s part of a ritual.

And no one—no one—is making eye contact.

We are now, collectively, living inside an eerie remake of The Stepford Wives, except the robots are us and the glowing rectangles are our gods.

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Signs of Trouble Daniel Dashnaw Signs of Trouble Daniel Dashnaw

When They Don’t Want to Heal: The Quiet Crisis of Uneven Growth in Families

It’s a Tuesday night.

Your therapist has just helped you reframe a lifelong shame spiral.

You’re proud.

You’ve learned the difference between a boundary and a punishment.

You understand how your nervous system works. You can name your triggers without blaming anyone. You’re... dare we say it... evolving.

Then your phone buzzes.

It’s your sibling in the family group chat, forwarding a meme about how therapy ruins people.

Your mother follows up with a reminder to “just let things go already,” and your uncle weighs in with anunsolicited opinion about how “you kids just need thicker skin.”

And just like that, your healing becomes the most threatening thing in the room.

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Social Media and Relationships Daniel Dashnaw Social Media and Relationships Daniel Dashnaw

No, I’m Not Asking you to do a Favor for Me, or for One of My Clients…

Dear clients, former clients, and anyone who’s ever thought, “Wow, therapy with Daniel is cheaper than a nervous breakdown,”

Let me interrupt your regularly scheduled existential dread to clear up a little nonsense: I did not ask you for money via a sketchy hushmail.com address.

I did not go off-grid, fake my own death, and start a new life as a low-budget Nigerian prince. I’m still here. And still me.

The offending address was:
danieldashnew@hushmail.com

I know. It sounds like me after a few glasses of Malbec and a rebrand.


But it is not me. It’s some imposter bot in a basement somewhere, trying to make a quick buck off the trust you and I built over months of crying in chairs.

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Social Media and Relationships Daniel Dashnaw Social Media and Relationships Daniel Dashnaw

What Is a Micromance?

The word micromance sounds like a marketing ploy for bite-sized Valentine’s Day candy, but make no mistake—it’s the emotional equivalent of playing with matches in a room full of kindling.

What is a micromanage?

A micromance is a fleeting, often ambiguous romantic interaction, typically short-lived, emotionally charged, and never quite defined.

It’s not a relationship. It’s not even a situationship. It’s a vibe that gets under your skin.

If love bombing is a flood and ghosting is a vacuum, micromance is the humid stillness before the storm—a moment saturated with tension that never resolves, but still rearranges your emotional furniture.

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Signs of Trouble Daniel Dashnaw Signs of Trouble Daniel Dashnaw

What Is Looksmaxxing? A Deep Dive into the Mirror-Cracked World of Facial Microscopy, Dating App Darwinism, and Digital Dysmorphia

“Looksmaxxing” sounds like something your gym-bro cousin would shout while deadlifting a car bumper. In reality, it’s much weirder, much sadder, and very, very online.

At its most basic, looksmaxxing refers to the obsessive pursuit of physical attractiveness, usually by young men, often in forums that resemble a CrossFit cult led by a depressed algorithm.

This isn’t just “glow-up” culture or “self-care” with a protein shake.

This is jawline micrometers, skull shape tier lists, and people earnestly discussing whether they need leg-lengthening surgery to improve their Tinder matches. It’s a slippery slope paved with retinol and despair.

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Signs of Trouble Daniel Dashnaw Signs of Trouble Daniel Dashnaw

8 Examples of Inappropriate Flirting — And How to Avoid It (Without Becoming a Robot or a Lawsuit)

What Even Is “Inappropriate Flirting”?

Let’s be clear upfront: flirting, in and of itself, is not a crime.

It’s a dance, a glance, a linguistic wink. It’s been with us since people figured out how to lock eyes across a firepit. But inappropriate flirting?

That’s something different. That’s when the dance turns into a stomp, the glance into a leer, and the wink into an HR complaint.

Unappropriated flirting isn’t just about bad timing or awkward delivery. It’s about ignoring context, consent, or common sense.

It’s when one person thinks they’re being charming—and the other person’s nervous system hits the eject button.

So let’s walk through eight modern examples, complete with breakdowns of why they miss the mark and how to avoid stepping on social rakes with your big flirty boots.

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Couples Therapy Daniel Dashnaw Couples Therapy Daniel Dashnaw

The Heroic Client: Why the Real Work of Therapy Belongs to You

Therapy often looks, from the outside, like a carefully choreographed exchange: the therapist leans in, the client sighs, and together they nod through the fog of unresolved history.

In this familiar script, the therapist is the guide, the authority, the narrator of progress. But this framing misses something vital.

The true protagonist in the therapy room is not the clinician in the chair. It’s the person across from them—the one who shows up even when it’s hard, who keeps talking even when it’s painful, who keeps hoping even when the past says not to. This is the heroic client.

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