#I'm not a psychologist tho!

[l-in-the-light]

Hey 😊, thinking about Laws mental health (poor boy 🥺) . We know he's traumatized, with anxiety, depression and nightmares. I often ask myself what a psychological therapist would recommend/ how threat him. 🤔 3 times Luffy a day maybe 😅

Hi! Thanks for the ask! Okay, since it's a serious ask, my answer will also be serious: what I would reccommend him is a freaking good therapy. There's no way someone who isn't a specialist can help him recover. Like yes, staying with people who care for him, like friends and family, is helpful and needed for longterm recovery (to create good environment in which a traumatized person is loved and accepted), but it won't help reduce the symptoms on it's own.

I'm not a psychologist, but I do like reading about psychology. What I think Law is suffering from is PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. It occurs in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event or series of events (like a natural disaster, assault, bullying, homicide, mass murder, war etc.) that affect their mental, emotional, physical, social and spiritual well-being. People with PTSD may avoid situations or people that remind them of the traumatic event, and they may have strong negative reactions to something as ordinary as a loud noise or an accidental touch. Does it sound familiar, with Law experiencing mass genocide in Flevance and then witnessing Cora-san's murder (reinforcing unhealed trauma), and as the result avoiding contact with people? Because it totally should sound like him.

People with PTSD have intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings related to their experience that last long after the traumatic event has ended. Symptoms of PTSD include things like:

intrusive thoughts (repeated involuntarily memories, vivid flashbacks: like the traumatic event happened mere moments ago instead of in the distant past);

avoidance of triggering situations (places, people, acitvities, objects or situations) because it can trigger distressing memories;

altering mood and cognition which leads to negative thoughts and feelings about oneself or others (low self-esteem, self blaming for the event occuring even if there's nothing the person could have done realistically, ongoing feelings of fear, anger, shame, guilt, less interest in things one previously enjoyed, feeling detached from others, unable to experience positive emotions like happiness or satisfaction);

altering reactivity like being prone to angry outsbursts, being irritable, behaving recklessly or in self-destructive way, hypervigilance, having problems concentrating or sleeping. There can be also physical symptoms like tremors, headaches etc.

As a result people experiencing PTSD often resist talking about what happened or how they feel about it, and withdrawing from people, so they don't have to relive those symptoms over and over again. Which is kinda a vicious circle because by avoiding it they don't really help themselves heal and instead completely isolate themselves, both from others, and their own emotions.

Symptoms can last months or years or decades, if unhealed. PTSD can occur with other related conditions, such as depression, substance use, memory problems and other physical and mental health problems (for example impulsive behaviour or anxiety). Why is PTSD even a thing? Psychology tells us it's because brain tries to cope with what happened. Human brains are very problem-solving oriented so they will relive the traumatic event over and over again to try to find a solution to it, to make sure such situation won't happen again. And it usually won't stop till it finds a satisfying answer. But traumatic events aren't the fault of the victims, so it becomes a self-tormenting overfixation as the result.

Besides medicaments (usually antidepressants), there are three therapies that are reccommended to help one recover from PTSD. Apparently the therapies are more helpful than meds. They also probably bring best results when combined instead of focusing only on one or two methods.

First therapy method that is apparently quite effective is Prolonged Exposure. In Law's case it would mean exposing himself to a triggering situation, like for example practicing touching other people again, in safe environment. It has usually two phases: imaginary in the therapy session and outside of therapy, kinda like a homework exercise. It sounds very easy, but of course it's anything but, because all the feelings of anxiety, stress and physical symptoms aren't going anywhere, and the therapist would be helping to develop healthy ways of coping with them whenever that happens. The goal is to get used to the thing one was avoiding because it was too triggering. If done wrong I believe it can make the PTSD even worse.

Another method is Cognitive Processing Therapy. It's the "talking therapy" many would probably imagine as a standard procedure. The goal of it is to become more aware of the relationship between thoughts and emotions and begin to identify “automatic thoughts” that may be responsible for the PTSD symptoms. It's basically deep-diving into oneself, scrutinizing thinking patterns and associations one makes about the traumatic event and how one perceives oneself as the result of it. The patient talks about their experience and their feelings, while the therapist helps by asking questions and pointing out maladaptive thinking (like self-blaming thoughts) in order to modify harmful beliefs about oneself. In Law's case, his belief of having failed Flevance and selfblaming himself for not being able to save anyone, and his low self-esteem as the result, would be one of examples of his maladaptive thinking. There's no way a 10 year old child could have done anything to save the country or city, no matter if he's a child of doctors or not. It's not his fault any of this happened, not his fault that he tried his best to survive, and not his fault he had no means of helping anyone. Even as an adult, he also wouldn't be able to do all of that.

The goal is for the patient to develop skills to identify and address unhelpful thinking and beliefs. Next step is to adapt this skill outside of treatment to improve daily life. The therapy is often focused on such fields as safety, trust, power, control, esteem and intimacy, which tend to be affected the most by traumatic experiences. In Law's case it means helping him learn how to open up to people again, creating and maintaining friendships and other kind of relationships, how to deal with feeling vulnerable around people, how to not be overwhelmed so it doesn't prevent him from talking about his experiences and thoughts, how to trust people again, how to get control over his own traumatic responses, how to achieve the feeling of safety around people etc. He would have definitely a lot to work through.

Third possible therapy is EMDR (Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing). The basic idea of it is to use stimulation (most common is side-to-side eye movement, or alternating sounds or taps, timed to the patient talking about their feelings) to reduce and hopefully eliminate PTSD symptoms. It sounds a bit like magic, but it's actually a behavioral therapy, it's based on the belief that stress symptoms caused by trauma are due to memories not being correctly processed inside the brain. When a person with PTSD is experiencing a triggering event or emotionally charged situation, their brain can feel like it "froze" or got "stuck", overfocused on the trigger. It's especially harmful when it's so severe that the patient can't tell what has happened in their past and what’s happening in the present.

EMDR therapy makes use of both the left and right sides of your brain (one responsible for processing the movement, the other for thinking), enhancing the natural ability to heal and process information. This allows to separate intense emotions from the memories, so the emotions by themselves can be “reprocessed” or "reassigned". The therapy begins by teaching you how to ground yourself, and then gradually breaks down the tough stuff into smaller, more manageable chunks. I'm always sceptical whenever I read about EMDR, but one of my friends went through it and said it was indeed effective and helpful, so who am I to doubt it? Apparently the biggest advantage of the EMDR is that it doesn’t require people to speak about the intolerable, triggering events or explain to a therapist why they feel in particular way (that sounds like it would really help Law who doesn't seem to want to talk about his emotions). It still needs proper preparation stage, so it's not like the patient won't have to speak *at all* about his trauma, and the session ends with reaffirming the results. I'm not gonna lie but many behavioural therapies sound like they could be used for malignant purposes, if in the wrong hands. It basically teaches the patient that a certain assiociated behaviour is connected with a specific action.

There are also other complementary and alternative therapies for people with PTSD, that require less talking and disclosure than psychotherapy. Examples include acupuncture, yoga (and possibly other physical-based activities) and animal-assisted therapy. I'm sure Bepo already is exactly that (and more, since he's also Law's best friend) for Law, and Chopper could be as well. The case with Chopper would be a mutual benefit, because Chopper has his own PTSD symptoms as well, so he and Law could both help each other to heal. Peer support group is also usually reccommended, and I'm looking at you here, Robin! After all those two share many similar symptoms of their traumas and their experiences are also quite similar.

It's worthy to mention that some patients also report feeling tired or experiencing more vivid dreams following reprocessing sessions as the initial result of the therapy. Sometimes things need to get worse before they can become better. Also it's normal for healing process to not be linear, it's usually marked with ups and downs, and can take months or even years (with exception of EMDR which is said to bring really fast relieving results). At times things get so good the patient doesn't need therapy for a while, but after a particularly awful flashback or going through very triggering situation they might need it again, because the symptoms came back. As the result of the therapy the patient also knows themselves much better, know how to cope with certain triggers and how to deal with the aftermath, regulate their breathing, how to sooth physical symptoms, recognize the uncomfortable situation and remove oneself as fast as possible from it etc. Also it helps them gain confidence and stop negative thoughts about themselves (shame, blame, low self-esteem). It also gives them the tools to reimagine themselves and their mind's frameworks so even if a trigger happens again, at least they can fight against their very own selfguilting trips about that.

But will the triggers ever truly go away? Maybe yes, maybe not. The goal of therapy isn't to "fix" someone like the bad event never happened, but to deal with the results of it in better, not self-harming ways. But there is a high chance for triggers to happen less often when the patient has a safe environment around him, like family and friends, who are there for him and make sure to avoid their triggers, support him whenever he needs that etc. That's why, eventually, Luffy three times a day (or rather: spending time with Strawhats and Hearts every day) is gonna be essential in Law's longterm recovery. Still, this is healing process we're talking about, no matter how successful the therapy is, Law might still experience nightmares (even really nasty ones) from time to time, and occassionally even regularly, after he experienced something like almost losing someone important to him again, stuck in a helpless situation, or suddenly grabbed violently, or people telling him to not come any closer or not touch them. Therapy helps so the PTSD doesn't dominate daily life, but it can't really make the triggers stop being triggering. Take sexual assault for example, no matter the amount of therapy, it will never make you feel okay with sexual assault. And it's also not the point.

Sometimes, I feel like people sending me questions about Law's intimacy expect Law to get "completely normal" and never experience any trigger again, just cuddling happily with people for the rest of his days, like nothing terrible ever happened to him. Yes, he might get to that point when interacting with people he trusts and feels close with, like touching or hugging, but no, it doesn't mean he will be okay with just anyone and everyone touching him. And sometimes touch will feel bad and wrong no matter the intention, and make his symptoms return, maybe even for no clear reason whatsoever. And for example, being touched out of the blue, unexpectedly, like on a wrist (that's how Doflamingo grabbed him in Dressrosa), can make everything come back to him. It's normal for people with PTSD, even after they healed, because trauma is a bitch and doesn't just disappear. You just learn how to deal with it better. He can learn again how to allow others to touch him and touch them back, but it doesn't mean touch will never become bad again; in fact it still often can and will. Think of it like a permament scar - it will always be there, but you can learn to accept it as part of yourself and be less bothered about it, but it might still terribly hurt at certain times and there's nothing you can do about it. And it doesn't have to be a bad thing that makes you or others think like you're "broken" or "worse" in any way. It's just who you are.

Also, I think canon-wise, Law did some working through his trauma. Obviously touch is still a big issue for him (that trauma must be really severe), as well as helplessness or experiencing someone nearly dying, but he seemed to work through the self-blame around Vergo, for example, to some extent (he doesn't blame himself anymore for delivering Cora-san's message to him, his trigger doesn't overpower him and he can oppose and fight Vergo himself). Also Bepo's care and closeness must be doing really good things for Law. So props for the boy, he's actually doing what he can! And I'm certain spending more time on Sunny with Strawhats would make him get even better!

And one day we will see him as comfortable as on this double spread image and it will be one of the biggest victories in his healing process ❤

Still won't mean he will be 100% okay with any touch at any time, even from people he loves and who love him back.

[tabellae-rex-in-sui]

I'm new to Sade so sorry if this is a stupid question, but was Sade gay? I'm currently reading Justine and noticed the passionate, semi-romantic descriptions of m/m sex, which contrast with the crude descriptions of f/m sex. I've not read all of Sade's books, but the ones I have read also feature characters who're mostly disinterested in women, who give off self-insert vibes (e.g. Dolmancé). Am I reading too much into it? IDK but I was wondering if you could shed some light.

Happy deathday to Sade!! lol

Really all that can be said with certainty is that he definitely wasn't straight lol. Like anyone who died before modern queer theory, Sade's sexuality can be difficult to label with today's terminology. He was certainly attracted to both men and women, so for simplicity's sake I just say he was bisexual. But really, who knows...

Characters that he uses as self-inserts like Dolmancé in PitB or Bressac in Justine are pretty exclusively attracted to men. Like you said, there's multiple times in his writing where characters will praise m/m sex and show blatant disgust towards sex with women. But if you look at Sade's life, there's only one known* male sex partner and many women. There's also several women Sade was in love with throughout his life, but there exists no letters of him professing love to any man. Could this be because male victims were less likely to go to the police, therefore less known to us? because women were easier to pursue in public? because even he felt the pressure of societal norms? because he kept relations with men better hidden? because any such letters or records were selectively destroyed by a relative? Who knows! It could be some, all, or none of these things. It's really up to the interpretation of the reader. The misogyny, philosophical extremism, and very culturally different ideas about sex add so many different variables to Sade's sexuality.

To add further confusion: gender and sexuality were much more correlated in Sade's writing (and seemingly in the time period in general, I mean look at the bisexual Lord Hervey being referred to as "the third sex"), male characters who get sodimized call it them "becoming women", women who put on strap-ons "become men", even women who get sodimized are masculinized: Saint-Ange says she wants to be a "Ganymede" to Dolmancé. So sodomy seemed inherently gay to Sade, regardless of the sexes involved or what roles they played. Whereas today, that's definitely not the case. Beauvoir follows along with the sexuality-gender correlation and suggests that Sade felt more feminine than masculine and his written contempt for female genitalia was a product of his own gender frustrations. From what I've read, most modern historians tend to avoid labeling Sade with anything other than "sodomite" and "libertine" only using "bisexual" and "homosexual" to label certain actions he performed like "homosexual sex" "bisexual orgy" etc. This is when the word queer is godsent.

Tldr; He's too 18th century libertine for modern labels. Colloquially, I default to calling him bi, but we'll never really know. Maybe he would have preferred gay due to his preferences/philosophies. Who knows. Safest bet is to just call him queer.

*Should go without saying but, there were obviously more. Latour is just the only named one with recorded proof.

[mimiso-soup]

if anyone sees me playing as either these three and i suck at them, i'm sorry in advance. i've only been playing this game for a little over two months and i'm very silly-brained when it comes to games like idv ;w;

[jonny-b-meowborn]

Call me the protagonist of Black Box Warrior the way CBT don't seem effective

[hiddenmoonbeam]

love waiting for a phone appointment and the clock ticks past the set time....... 15 min now.... is her day busy and delayed, will she call in a sec or in half an hour instead? is she for some reason not calling at all but I didn’t get notified? has she forgotten? no idea and there's no way for me to call so I just have to wait.....

[astrxealis]

hiii :333 i think i am alive !! ( small update in da tags )

[mellyoraa]

if you ever think that psychologists are people who have their shit together mentally, just remember that this soon to be clinical psychologist is having public meltdowns on a tumblr near you

[verysadlesbian]

Something that captured my attention in the last episode was the substance Lottie chose. Phenobarbital is used in assisted suicide (with doses of 2 to 10 grams), yes, but I knew I recognized the name, because it's also an anxiolytic and anticonvulsant. It's used to prevent withdrawal symptoms in people with a chemical dependency as well. It's anaesthetic too and it can also cause a coma, so... I don't know, but... what if Lottie knows Nat's going to be chosen again (the unfinished business of "The Wilderness" and all that) and she put less than 2 grams of phenobarbital in the solution? What if she thinks she can fake Nat's death and runaway with her because the both of them are now accomplices in the murder of two people (Nat more than Lottie cause she helped cover for Shauna)?! Is it too much to ask for? Maybe they can go somewhere with all the money Lottie stole, maybe Greece??! Maybe she thinks she can escape "The Wilderness" or at least she hopes she can escape jail with her new spouse, Nat?! Or maybe I'm just very delusional?! Yes, that's very possible. Oh, and phenobarbital consumption is not recommended if the person is consuming other drugs, like alcohol, for example; Nat was the only one sober... again: i know i'm delusional.

[todayisafridaynight]

huh...wuh..accidentally hit daigo with the bpd beam (unintended projection is scary) in sumn im writing but now im thinking daigo could totally have it chairman daigo is better at managing it but 2006 daigo is already doing bad whats another thing on the pile hes got the risky behaviour he's got the impulsiveness maybe the unstable relationships (im reaching i think)..maybe im just smarter than everyone and right and awesome wow..

(i rambled sorry) (my bad) (headcanons are so fun for me sorry)

you come into my house and proclaim yourself smarter than me when it comes to daigo dojima i will make your execution quick and painless

unfortunately you're right in this one instance cause i dont know a licka anything about BPD so i'll SIMPLY have to take your word on it. whats another trouble for the boy yk

[noxtivagus]

prom. dress. 🫣🫣

[extremely-iced-squid]

I know this post is only joking, and in the grand scheme of things, the terms we use to describe phenomena often change and words evolve to have multiple meanings, but I have the answer to your question.

The reason an ADHD evaluator would look at you funny for implying you have object permanence issues is because in the study of developmental psychology, it really is just a baby thing.

In the field of psychology, object impermanence refers to that phenomena where you hide an object from a baby right in front of them (without broken attention) and the baby gets confused. Now, an ADHD evaluator who has studied object permanence in school likely operates under the same definition of object permanence taught to them. They're thinking about Piaget's studies on cognitive development and their definition is exactly the scenario laid out in some of the studies: babies don't know an object is under a blanket when you hide it from them. It might be relevant to explain that according to Piaget's studies, when a baby does develop object permanence, they will try to uncover an object obstructed from view (proof they know something is there even if they can't see it).

I'm guessing that most ADHD adults probably know an object exists, even if someone attempts to throw a sheet over it right in front of them. What ADHD people have is other, unrelated issues with working memory (the part of memory you're actively using to store and process information at the present moment). So you might forget something in the moment if you have a single moment of broken attention, but according to a psychologist's definition, you don't have issues with object permanence.

The issue with psychology is that a lot of terms are rather easily adapted into popular usage. (Pop psychology, hah.) So you get obfuscated meanings rather than the concrete, operational definitions professionals rely on. It probably leads to a lot of people feeling like their experiences are invalidated by professionals. I do understand that in the ADHD community, object permanence is probably a really useful concept to describe experiences with forgetting. People struggling with ADHD might not forget an object like a baby might, but they might be a millisecond of distraction away from completely forgetting an object exists.

Psychological terms becoming adapted into popular vernacular is nothing new. It's unavoidable. But it would be nice if professionals were more cognizant and forgiving of language discrepancies (especially a person who is in charge of evaluating people). I mean, patients obviously would have done research about a condition they might have. The thing is, not all resources are perfect (not even legit studies) and definitions might be misinterpreted through the passing of information. It's like a game of telephone.

There might be a better conversation about how some psychologists have a distaste for inaccurately used psychology terms (when terms aren't "by the book") and how they let it bleed into their interactions with patients. Anyways, I hope my rambling is clear enough.

[kerosene-saint]

yknow what I'm not sure my anti depressants are doing anything at all

[mimiso-soup]

hehe :3

[estelle-eternal-enlight]

i have two hopes for this life. either to be loved or to be dead

[lord-of-the-noodles]

I need to be studied

[notcatherinemorland]

I'm sure this will mean absolutely nothing to nobody, but this shit is my magnum opus:

My little cleric's D&D spell list: broken down into V/S/M; curtailed relevant components agreed with the GM; specialisations, and casting time. I have won at d&d 5e, where the e stands for Excel