growth, self compassion, art

"you'll be surprised by the many talents hidden within you if you gave yourself the permission to be a beginner"

socialization, relationships, boundaries, trauma, abuse

"just because i treat you right doesnt mean im the one.
im just doing what im supposed to do.

fuck. this is the realest shit i've read today. like its ok to feel special to be treated nice but you have to remember that you deserve that. you SHOULD be treated well. dont latch onto someone just because they're doing what should be required. acknowledge it and keep it flowing"

chronic pain, mental illness, impostor syndrome, body

"if your condition stops you from doing something, then it is a disability.

if your condition makes it difficult for you to complete a task, then it is a disability.

dont let others tell you you "arent disabled enough" and invalidate your experience.

if your condition allows you to do something fine but then spend days or weeks in agony reconvering from it, then it is a disability.

just because you are "technically able" to do the thing, doesnt mean the consequences arent disabling.

also, a disability does not have to be 'everyday' to be a disability. even if you may have weeks or months between flare ups, your disability does not just disappear on the days you feel well. you should not feel guilty over having a 'good' day"

depression, invisible problems

"apathy, its actually one of, if not THE, worst aspects of things like depression.

see, people see depression and they think "really, really sad" mainly because thats the only part the media shows them, but apathy, thats what will get you in the end, the sadness is mostly a side-effect of the apathy.

its not that you CANT do something about your situation, its that you DONT CARE enough to do something about it, which in turn makes you sad and angry that you dont care, which in turn makes the apathy deeper.

you dont care about yourself, you dont care about your health, you dont care enough to eat, to go out, to do all the things that might help you in the long run if you did them more.

it all culminates in the solid fact that if the cycle of apathy continues, you eventually simply do not care about living, and if it gets really bad, you dont care how it will effect others if you do give up, which is what will eventually cause you to believe that others dont care about you, giving you that tiny push, that voice that goes "it doesnt matter, go ahead"

someone with real, actual depression will not be simply sad all the time, they will simply not care or really react to things, they have to consciously make an effort to do things you would simply do practically on automatic"

unscheduled
resources, crisis, phone numbers (usa)

self care, rest, society, activism

"i used to rebel by destroying myself, but realized that's awfully convenient to the world. for some of us our best revolt is self-preservation"

health, emergencies

"SERVICE DOG PSA
so today i tripped. fell flat on my face, it was awful but ultimately harmless. my service dog, however, is trained to go get an adult if i have a seizure, and he assumed this was a seizure (we're training him to do more to care for me, but we didnt learn i had epilepsy until a year after we got him)

i went after him after i had dusten off my jeans and my ego, and i found him trying to get the attention of a very annoyed woman. she was swatting him away and telling him to go away. so i feel like i need to make this heads up

if a service dog without a person approaches you, it means the person is down and in need of help

dont get scared, dont get annoyed, follow the dog!"

relationships, patriarchy

"dating a guy that wants a girlfriend and dating a guy that wants you are two completely different experiences"

anxiety, guilt, socialization

"you will live and you will say the wrong things and make mistakes and people will love you anyways.

i made this post because i've got so many friends that think saying something wrong in a conversation is the end of the world. it isnt. you'll be okay. you dont have to be embarrassed about every little thing. you are alive and doing things and speaking to people. you will make mistakes and you will live."

laziness, depression, rest, self compassion, adhd, burnout

"thinking about how my therapist didnt even realize she was altering my brain chemistry by casually telling me "there's a difference between executive dysfunction and laziness, if you really were lazy, you'd be enjoying yourself. you wouldnt be feeling sick to your stomach with shame, guilt, and anxiety" "

chronic pain, neurodivergence, normativity, health, disability

"people who are fully healthy, fit and neurotypical seem to think they are that way because they're doing something right that the rest of us havent thought of, and not just because they got lucky

"you are one stroke of bad luck, common viral illness, or traumatic event away from being just like me" is honestly the most terrifying thing you can tell an abled person - and you should. i was healthy and fit and doing everything 'right' too - right up until some inner switch flipped and my body crumbled right out from under me""

art, rest

"my dad likes to call the stretches of time where you're not creating "dreaming periods" and says that they're meant to allow you to absorb all of the beauty, life, and inspiration from the things around you so that when you're able to create again, you will have fanned your spark back into a flame. sometimes its hard to see those moments as anything but stagnation, but he always says that they're natural and healthy and needed - things that should be embraced rather than feared"

activism, politics, social, digital

"a little advice from someone studying extremist groups: if you're in a social media environment where the daily ubiquitous message is that you have no hope of any kind of future and you cant possibly achieve anything without a violent overthrow of society, you're being radicalized, and not in the good way.

if the solution to your problems sounds like "we need a blank slate" its a lie. there are no blank slates, and the closest approximation people can generally imagine is "burn it all down and let god/fate/history sort it out"

thats not problem solving. its barely catharsis, in practice. it doesnt just create more problems than it solves, it destroys more solutions than it creates.

put the apocalypse down, and back aways slowly.

real solutions to complex, systemic problems are not so easily reduced to "us good, them evil; kill them."

guilt, unrealistic age expectations, time

"my boyfriend didnt go to university until he was 28 because he didnt feel anywhere near ready when he was 18. he graduated with first class honours, went on to do a masters, and is now a history teacher. its so much more important to do things when you're able to fully commit to them and do them to the best of your ability than to rush to do them by an imaginary deadline"