#Mental Engagement

[becomingahumanbeing9]

Dissecting Boredom

What is boredom? According to the A.I.s of the world, boredom is a state where the mind lacks interest, engagement or stimulation. I fell like this is like saying the mind is seated in a corner of the mind staring around at the system working and wondering if it should jump off a cliff and let everyone figure themselves out. I mean, this would make sense considering that when I get bored I want…

[stars-obsession-pit]

Following an accident, Danny wakes up in Gotham City in a DC universe. Lacking any forms of ID or possessions beyond the clothes on his back, he’s forced to commit some crimes to survive. Minor crimes, but still.

And then he gets caught.

During the court proceedings, they come to the mistaken conclusion that he’s a Meta suffering from some psychiatric issues such as Cotard’s Syndrome (a real rare condition where a person holds the delusional belief that they’re dead/don’t exist/etc).

Thus, between his “need for mental treatment” and the concerns about housing someone with his unique physical traits, he is sentenced to spend time in Arkham Asylum. He’s under pretty low security aside from the anti-Meta stuff and has more freedoms than some other inmates, but it’s still not a great experience. Even at the best of times, Arkham is hardly a nice place.

Some of his fellow residents are decently chill all things considered, but lots very much aren’t.

[nicollekidman]

the thing with chappell is that it’s important to be principled, it’s admirable to be outspoken, it’s a good thing that she’s saying what she’s saying in the space that she’s in. but you can’t be those things and also unprepared and unable to take care of yourself when your chosen profession is Public Person. i’ve never disagreed with anything she’s said but if she keeps taking it this hard then her team needs to figure out a way to change the way she currently operates otherwise her career is going to be short and have longterm damage

[theoddvet]

Sometimes adhd is like using a reminder app where you set a reminder to do or remember something but then when you save the reminder it just disappears and you can't see or edit it again until it goes off at a randomly appointed time in the future

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

people always talk about edwin being an older ghost, and he technically is, but he doesn’t have any more experience being a ghost than charles. he was in hell from the moment he died to the night he met charles. he died at 16 and then did not get a chance to go through any growth or learn anything in hell other than torture—he lost those 70+ years. functionally, neither of their afterlives start until they meet, and they have to (get to) learn how to be ghosts and how to exist in this form on earth together every step of the way. anyway, what are you procrastinating right now? i’m procrastinating an essay that was due 4 days ago AND an essay that’s due tomorrow 🤠

[cogentranting]

The thing that almost never gets brought up in "banned books" conversations but that I think is essential to address, is the distinction between "students shouldn't be allowed to read this" and "students shouldn't be required to read this".

There is a wide gulf between removing a book from a curriculum list and removing a book from a library but I almost never hear that acknowledged.

[swimmingchicanes]

Carcar is so delicious when you factor in Carlos Sainz’s serial schemer tendencies.

In any situation he’s in, Carlos is always trying to gauge everyone else’s emotions and motivations (and how he can leverage them) (generational trauma response). Carlos Sainz being faced with Oscar whose own mother calls “conservative”… I can see Carlos initially being uneasy around Oscar because he can’t get a read on him. No motivations. No sore spots. Nothing. And then Carlos’s unease turns into annoyance when he wants a response from Oscar and he can’t figure out what levers he needs to press to get Oscar to do what he wants.

Hilariously, I can see Carlos getting kind of flattered that Oscar, immovable Oscar, only gets seems affected a few times the entire 2023 and it’s because of Carlos? Carlos’s lizard brain betrays his tightly run ship of a forebrain and jumps to the conclusion that Oscar thinks he’s special and gets very giddy over the idea.

Carlos’s lizard brain insisting he tries to provoke a response from Oscar so he can get a hit of the “im special :)” validation cocaine. It will become very addictive because Oscar wouldn’t take the bait every time so the times he does the dopamine hit is crazy. (Also if he did respond every time, Carlos would feel like he cracked the code and he was in control and that would be boring).

Meanwhile, Oscar just thinks Carlos is annoying but also hot.

[glitter-stained]

Look, I'll say it: Zurr isn't a magical demon that took over Bruce's body, it's a vilifying, demonizing take on induced DID. I can't keep seeing people fight to defend Bruce's honour in Gotham War by saying "it wasn't actually him so it's not his fault", reject the Lazarus Pit Madness headcanon because "Jason and he alone did his crimes and he has no excuse", and then we're talking about how Bruce's or Dick's trauma is what made him a hero, one post later on my board it's "the lazarus pit madness headcanon is unnecessary because Jason's behaviour is completely explainable and logical if you just take in account that he has cptsd" (or bpd depending on the post) and then that fanfic I had to stop reading because a character literally was screaming at Jason "so what you died get over yourself but you weren't magically controlled by the pit so you have zero excuse and justification for being angry" and then a post about "wow why is Batman punching down on all these mentally ill people", and then in the replies "are you dumb it's because those crazies are bombing orphanages..."

I'm still thinking about that moment in "dumpster slasher" where Batman is like "the killer is still free while poor Elmore [a homeless guy with substance use disorder and major neurocognitive disorder] is being shipped off to Arkham... This doesn't sit right" yeah buddy I'm sure if you ponder that for a while, the reason why the fact the only mental health facility in your city is also a prison for dangerous criminals with no apparent mental illness doesn't sit right with you will appear to you eventually.

Maybe it's time to confront the fact that the difference between a hero and villain in dc is often whether their mental illness is demonized, glorified or minimized. Or the fact that attenuated circumstances and responsibility exists on a gradient and there is such thing as "altered responsibility due to mental illness" in a trial. Maybe it's not "oh it was this evil Zurr/Batman entity, not Bruce/Batman, so there is no responsibility to be taken and anyone condemning those actions as abuse is talking in bad faith" maybe it's "this is a terrible representation of something that exists and should be treated respectfully" and "I don't have to accept this terribly harmful rethoric and fucked up depiction into my conception of my fav's characterization in such a dislocated, often incoherent canon if I don't want to."

And also maybe it's "if we accept this event/depiction as canon it doesn't mean that we have to either bash the character completely or erase his mental illness into something vaguer/mystical that would somehow absolve him of his place in this situation".

And maybe it's "what does accountability for your harmful actions looks like when your judgement was heavily impaired by mental illness, and what judgement can be placed upon you and who decides where people are placed on that continuum of responsibility and how do we acknowledge and go forward into repairing things when severe harm/abuse was done under impaired judgement and also how do you reconcile all of this with your sense of self, (especially in conditions like bpd/cptsd and especially did where the sense of self is already so altered/complicated) with what your values are, what you want to be, what you are capable of doing and what you thought about yourself before the bad thing happened." I don't know any simple, correct, good answer, especially not a one size fits all. All I know is: the desire to be a good person, and be able to distinctively separate people between bad and good, is profoundly human and, at times when lines of responsibility get blurry, profoundly unhelpful. Most people who are going to hurt you aren't mentally ill. Most people who do terrible things aren't mentally ill, and sometimes people are mentally ill and hurt people and the two have nothing to do with eachother. But it is also a reality that sometimes judgement is impaired and behaviour is altered due to mental illness, and then you need to figure out where to go from there. Acknowledging this while also fighting stigmatisation is a complicated business. It's messy. Mental illness often is. I'm weary of any rethoric that pretends it's simple.

[thecottageinthedark]

Dashboard: shows me someone quoting this post again

Me, taking hold of OP's collar: listen. listen. you are letting the fact that you think liking naruto is at least mildly embarrassing affect your judgement. the important thing isn't that naruto is a cartoon ninja it's that for a hypothetical person who IS into that story he's someone they care about and trust to be encouraging and kind. naruto is someone to whom they can attribute a level of kindness and understanding that they might never have received from Real People but nonetheless need and deserve. none of this is mental illness. it is not maladaptive and it does not necessitate having delusions (such as 'naruto is literally a real person', to name one possibility that is often brought up). Do You Understand, OP.

[traumacatholic]

I would really appreciate some prayers. I've been having so much money problems recently and I'm just not sure what to do. Every month I end up either in the negative or close to the negative. And it doesn't help that each month I have ended up having to make some big spendings because something essential has broken which needed replaced or whatever else. I can't currently get any help to cover my rent, because I'm still couchsurfing. The landlord of the place that I'm couchsurfing at isn't happy with my finances, and may refuse to add me to the tenancy, which would mean I would have to leave here. I don't even know why the landlord has an issue, because the rent has been getting paid on time without any difficulties. If I were to get added to the tenancy, I could finally ask for extra benefits to help me with the rent which would give me more money for living. But right now rent takes away from most of my benefits. I've been trying to cut spending where I can, but it's so stressful and miserable and overwhelming. I hate that I'm still in the same position I was in, where I'm just couchsurfing and trying to catch a break. I'm not currently in a position where I can save any money at all. And there's still the possibility that I'll be in a worse place housing wise if I'm not allowed to stay here. The fact that this has dragged out for so many months, and I'm still in the position of losing so much has me constantly depressed and suicidal. I just don't know what to do. Everywhere I have reached out to has been unable to assist me

[canisalbus]

“Semi-sad” anon here, sorry I didn’t mean to upset you! I find the lore intriguing and beautiful. Forgive me, I have trouble properly expressing the emotions I mean to convey through text, but I find the sadness beautiful because it means that I am still human, I can empathize/sympathize with your characters. I love the tragedy because it makes me feel “real” or like I’m not a robot. And the modern AU is a little heart throb of joy to see the gay dogs being adorable together.

Ah it's okay! It can be hard to convey tone and subtlety through text. I just hated to think that someone who was already feeling low was getting even sadder just because of my posts! I know the lore that I devise for these dogs can be a little bleak sometimes but I don't want to make people feel actively bad.

[shouts-into-the-void]

I don't know if I can properly articulate the deep disgust I have for how "ace/aro people can still have sex and/or relationships" and "asexual/aromantic means little-to-no attraction" have been co-opted by non-aspecs in order to dismiss and ignore those identities, not even just in cases to justify shipping characters.

[uncanny-tranny]

Part of harm reduction is recognizing that abstinence or sobriety, whenever these terms are applicable, is not the inherent goal for so many people. Forcing complete abstinence or sobriety can absolutely be detrimental, which is why we must not idealize either one or force it on people. It should be an option, yes, but that does not mean it is the only option or the only option worth pursuing.

[handageddon]

"Do it scared anyway" "be more afraid of not having done it than you are scared of doing it" "skate or die" "buy now or miss out on this deal" "skate or die 2"

Homies, Amy G. Dala has been the guiding lady of my life since before I can remember. That hasn't turned out well for me. Can we suggest some motivational quotes that engage my theoretically functional thalamus. For once.

[caduceus-tealeaf]

They noted this on her chart: 8:38 A.M. After which, according to their records, Annie lapsed back into her impenetrable isolation and did not utter another word. The doctor on call noted this on her chart:

“May have been responding to auditory hallucination.”

[emptyjunior]

i'm so glad that episode three happened so everyone is empathising with kristen because as an ex-catholic kid it felt uhh strange when people were looking at kristen Bouncing from faith to faith, being messy and sad and Rude about her own religion and going, uhh what's Wrong with kristen. Kristen says she likes god and picked that god and yet she's being a dick to them? Why can't she just make up her mind? Why's this character STILL unhappy?

Like I don't know what to tell ya man😭Like yeah I wish I knew why too😭