#Anxiety Disorders

[chronicsymptomsyndrome]

*displays textbook symptomatic behavior of my own disorder that I am well educated on* what’s my deal why am I like this

[can-i-give-up-now-please]

I hate when you know it's getting bad again

And you see the warning signs

But you're still powerless to do anything about it

There's no one to turn to

So I'm just going to observe myself from the outside, like it's not me, as my whole life derails again

23.07.24

[ametistapp]

Want to be part of a group blog on how to write neurodivergent characters?

[Large text: "Want to be part of a group blog on how to write neurodivergent characters?"]

I've found Tumblr blogs on writing physically disabled and POC characters, but nothing specifically for neurodivergence.

Maybe there is something I just haven't found yet, but even if so, I think the most resources the better.

So, hi! I'm Amethyst — amateur writer and neurodivergent, and now looking for people to help me out with this project.

I could try this on my own, but I would rather have other neurodivergents with me (especially with different conditions from mine)

Does anyone want to help me make a change?

[misciaspossessed]

How to Properly Self-Diagnose (Mental Illness)

Find the diagnostic criteria, don't look up symptoms (search eg. adhd diagnostic criteria).

a. Make sure you know what illness you mean before searching (eg. you may search for the bpd (borderline personality disorder) criteria when you meant bd (bipolar disorder), do some research of what they are first in case you have it wrong, I recommend Verywell's List Of Psychological Disorders to go over several examples at once with links to extended descriptions (not an exhaustive list, for others, use Mayo Clinic or simply look at the criteria of specific disorders)).

b. Be aware of names like SAD and ASD, both mean (1) seasonal affective disorder and social anxiety disorder, (2) autism spectrum disorder and acute stress disorder. (Tell me if I missed any others)

2. Pay attention to the diagnosis instructions (don't think you need to meet all points, or again, not enough points) (eg. must meet at least 5 of the following 9 symptoms).

3. If you're confused, want to take extra precaution measures, or have questions/I missed something (which I probably did) contact me on Instagram (I won't see my Tumblr messages) (not a professional, just educated myself very much and have good discretion and logic skills (for most)).

a. Though I don't have perfect knowledge either, I have the ability to know and admit that I don't know 100% what I'm talking about if so (which some don't) and can give you instructions on what to do instead or help you go over the data personally instead of trying to translate an article just giving information, I could look at your symptoms specifically and help decode them.

b. If you said f that, I advise against asking a professional or medically diagnosed person, honestly, because it's unbelievable how often doctors don't know what they're talking about, and I wouldn't immediately ask other self diagnosed people either because of how ridiculous it can get (plenty stray far from these instructions), it's best to use good reasoning and know how to research topics, do as much research as possible, use several different sources and try to get the best answer.

4. If you don't know what you have but think you do have something you can message me directly also and I can tell you what your symptoms sound like and anything it could be.

Formatting was kinda weird but it works, hope this helps, don't hesitate to ask further or correct me.

[mischiefmanifold]

Can you have ASPD and have social anxiety?

yes, you can!

it's fairly well-documented that individuals who have ASPD often also have anxiety disorders, and the National Comorbidity Survey of the late 90s found ASPD and anxiety disorders to have about a 50% comorbidity rate. additionally, anxiety and anxiety disorders are very frequently comorbid with antisocial behavior and disorders related to antisocial behavior

[therealcodfather]

How to help anxiety attacks, methods I've discovered.

(my credits? I've dealt with them for the past two years. I have found ways to help. They may not help you, but they might help someone out there and that's enough for me.)

1. The ice cube. This is the one to use if you need to stop it NOW. Go to your freezer, grab an ice cube with your bare hand. Do not stop if it starts hurting a little, only stop if you can't take it anymore but try and withstand it for as long as you can take. Your body goes into shock and starts caring more about the ice cube than the anxiety, it's not expecting something cold so try not to prepare yourself and grab it without thinking.

2. Problem solving. At some point, it's going to stop. Time is not frozen in place. Let's say you have an anxiety attack at 10 p.m: okay, in 10 hours it's going to be 8 a.m. Do you think you'll still be having an anxiety attack by then? Because you'll probably pass out from exhaustion, or even if you don't then when you get up you'll have to get on with your day anyway. Even if you do quite literally nothing, at some point time will progress and the problem will have resolved itself.

3. Deadlines. So you went out and you're afraid you might of caught Something. I want you to look up how long it takes for the symptoms to start. Let's say 24 hours, Make a calendar note for 24 hours from now. Now, since you've already done it: just relax for 24 hours. Yep. I pulled the ole "Just stop being anxious" card on you (joking joking ofc I didn't) but now you know when it would start, and if it's not right this moment you don't have to worry until you check back at the deadline. If it hasn't started by then, you're fine.

4. Distractions. Download a shitty mobile game. The brainrot ones, yeah just hyperfixate on it. I have been doing this when I had my mild anxiety attacks since I was what like 11? Definitely not the BEST option but it gets the job done. Different types of anxiety calls for Different types of games. You just got something at the back of your mind that's making you nervous? Play a slow paced game like solitaire or something. Having a reaaaal bad one? Something you have to really think about like piano tiles. I really reccomend Tetris or columns for that if you have it on a gaming system, but if you can't and only have a mobile game that works too!

5. Talk it out. Find someone you trust, talk their ear off. Whether it's irl or a voice message, just talk as much as you can. Don't worry about sounding stupid, just talk about whatever comes to mind. Talk about your plans for the week, or what you want for your birthday, or a show you watched. Anything works.

6. I've always found if I'm only mildly anxious, putting on a show with a plot helps. I'm one to get into something and never want to miss it. Sometimes my anxiety dissapears if I'm too invested in a show it's just like oh nvm guys I wanna see what happens..

7. This is specifically for ocd but I think it may help with general anxiety, This is the very first thing I got told when I started therapy. Give it a name, give it a persona. Fighting anxiety isn't the answer, it just makes you both tired. It's just misunderstood. Anxiety is a response your body makes when it thinks you're in danger, sometimes though: it can trigger a false response. Something that doesn't endanger you may trigger it instead. Your anxiety isn't your enemy, it's just trying to keep you safe. This is going to be hard, but sometimes you need to reason with it. Tell it that it's wrong, you appreciate the concern but there's nothing to worry about. I reccomend playing/watching the game Celeste if you haven't. It is quite literally exactly that.

Feel free to add onto this with any methods or tips and tricks, or even just a different point of view to keep in mind! Anything you think might be helpful!

[traumatizedjaguar]

Abusers never getting their story straight:

I spoke to one abuser who said that he wasn’t an abuser because he lacked self awareness about his behaviors during the time he abused women he had relationships with. So being mentally ill let him off the hook for abusive behaviors. But he still had a right to get revenge and abuse people in extreme ways who minorly hurt him as I was given details of those situations… but nobody has a right to hurt him back.

I spoke to one abuser who claimed he wasn’t the only abuser in the relationship and that him and his ex gf were 50/50 when it came to splitting up the role of being the abuser. So he went on to tell us in the chat that it’s a good thing bc now it’s a “fun” war where he’s justified in doing whatever he wants to his ex girlfriend and nobody can talk him into thinking differently. I asked for details and he told us, so fucking clearly, that his ex-gf just reacted to his abuse…. He drove her “crazy” basically.

I talked to another abuser that said he had NPD and his ex had CPTSD, OCD and BPD and he laughed about how they “made a beautiful mess of everything” when they dated. Red flag. From all the details, he had no self awareness of describing that he abused her first, but he thought “so what” bc “she’s bad too”, dragged her through horrible and stressful situations, justifying it bc “he had childhood trauma” causing her to react to him in such intensity and horrible behaviors back. He blamed her BPD and his NPD saying they were both abusers, but everything he described had absolutely nothing to do with her BPD, and more so to do with his treatment of her, and her simple reaction to that which can get either confused or overlap with BPD symptoms coming out. Why not blame her CPTSD? CPTSD had a lot of symptoms about flashbacks, emotional dysregulation, even anger issues sometimes and when she displays these symptoms why is that not automatic “she’s the abuser” with the CPTSD? Why not blame her OCD? Anxiety around loved ones too. He admitted without realizing it probably that he gaslit her and she did not gaslight him; he gaslighted her in extreme ways I was concerned that he will never change his way of thinking.

I’m spoke to another abuser who said he kept pushing a girl into a relationship and would never leave her alone and didn’t count this as emotional abuse and potential stalking. She non stop would run from him and tell him to get away and stop bothering her. He genuinely believed coercion isn’t abusive if he spread out his coercive behavior over the course of months as in: “coerce her for 3-5 minutes, then leave her alone, repeat for months every other week or so”. Which made no sense like “people change their minds especially if every week I can come up with something good to get her to turn her no into a yes”. He harassed her, stalked her, and coerced her into things she didn’t want to do and claimed she abused him when she reacted so badly to him one day at school and embarrassed him in front of all their classmates. Which he said he had a right to get revenge on her and bully her for embarrassing him; obviously he does not have a right to abuse her because he abused her first, she reacted and told him off in front of everybody, then he claimed to be a victim.

Mutual abuse is non-existent.

[serenityquest]

[neurodiversepolls]

This is a redo because the first time I accidentally messed up the poll answers

* professional relationship as in business & client, employer & employee

[kyofsonder]

I saw someone learning about their own dissociative tendencies and taking the DES-II (Dissociative Experiences Scale) test as a first step in seeing if they want to really dig in and learn to navigate their experiences.

It's only 28 questions, so it can't cover everything -- and some of the terminology it uses is a little outdated. Even so, it's interesting and useful and can be helpful even when your answers are uncertain.

If there are others with (un-dx'ed, self-dx'ed, pro-dx'ed, etc.) anxiety disorders, PTSD/CPTSD, BPD, DID, non-plural dissociative disorders, non-traumagenic plurality, autism, ADHD, etc. who want to check out their dissocation levels as a first step toward further exploration or as a confirmation of a diagnosis or just for fun, I recommend giving it a try. It shouldn't be taken as an official professional diagnosis or the final say on your experiences, but it might offer some perspective of some kind.

[atla4art]

a little post about me

you guys don’t actually know me apart from the content i make and my bio so here’s a little introduction

editing a bit when things change etc 1/10/24 - 10/10/24

i’m isis, i live in the netherlands (it’s a normal name here) i’m mixed dutch, surinamese and aruban (part of the antilles above venezuela) i’m a 16 year old cis girl and use she/her pronouns

i’m on the ace and aro spectrum, i feel like i fit into many of the sexualities on the spectrum but i identify as aroaceflux, aegosexual/romantic, quoisexual/romantic + questioning/unlabelled/idk (instead of bisexual) the last sexuality i’ve identified with is bisexual and i have had phases with different sexualities and genders over the years (btw not in the way like “you’ll get over your delusions” or “your swinging between labels is invalid” phases, just that my attraction has varied a lot)

i’m autistic (neurological disability), i have a cleft palate (birth defect but still disabling) (look it up), i have hearing loss (physical disability as named by wikipedia), speech and language processing disorder (physical disability as named by wikipedia) and i have ocd (mental disorder) (which i use medication for)

living with these disabilities and disorders is literally impossible even if you remove all and leave autism and ocd, it’s still impossible. it is disabling in everyday life but not exactly like elhers-danlos syndromes disabling for example

my voice is a bit nasal (i’ve had surgeries but still), i’ve had hearing aids but they suck (for the explanation just ask), the speech and language processing disorder is hard to explain though but you can ask. being autistic makes me overstimulated etc, but some things are bc of neurotypical things which aren’t even logical for everyday life and other things like clothes or fabrics that feel which is more personal and ocd (obsessive compulsive disorder) is the most disabling actually (look up the word compulsive). i have a hard time getting things done bc some things have to be exactly a certain way

some characteristics/traits overlap too

now you’ve learnt more about me, have fun on my blog

bye :)

(i don’t like using caption if you’ve noticed)

[kiindr]

Do not say that you have a 'phobia' of something when all you feel is disgust or mild fear upon encountering it.

Phobias are real, debilitating anxiety disorders that have a profound impact on a person's life. Please be mindful and sensitive when you're using mental health terminology.

It's not that hard!

[clowningcrows]

being transmasc with anxiety SUCKS what do you mean i have to have boobs again because i’m too short of breath to keep my binder on

[thisisocd]

SUDs Check-in!

What are SUDs?

SUDs stands for Subjective Units of Distress. It's the fanciest way possible of saying "Rate your emotional pain". Some people use a scale of 0-100 (yes, really), but I prefer 0-10 when I work with students. I think that, otherwise, it gets way too overwhelming!

Note: if you clicked on option 10, you might want to check out my crisis tips.