#NOT FROM THE DEPRESSION FROM MY CHRONIC ILLNESS

[nostalgiclittlespace]

Age Regression takes many forms.

Extra big shoutout and lots of love to my regressors who don’t have ’typical, active’ pastimes while regressed.

The regressors who don’t crawl on the floor with their toys because they have chronic pain

The trauma regressors who are burnt out by their regression

Littles with sleep disorders, disabilities, or other circumstances that leave them always too tired to play

Littles who live in hostile situations that prevent them from feeling safe enough to enjoy activities

Regressors who have allergies, autoimmune, ED, digestive problems, or other conditions that prevent them from having typical ‘kid snacks’

Littles with depression, primarily impure regression, have tantrums, or other emotional dysregulation that makes them unhappy when regressed

Physically disabled regressors who can’t run around outside and/or don’t have accessible park equipment

Neurodivergent Littles who find certain play and activities uncomfortable for whatever reason

Regressors who struggle with psychosis, delusions, or intrusive thoughts—especially scary ones

Littles who are frequently hospitalized, have to undergo procedures, and/or take medications that make regression difficult

Regressors who can’t afford to buy gear

Littled with disabilities, chronic pain or illness, and autoimmune disorders that leave them constantly feeling sick

Whether it’s due to a disability, chronic pain, depression, living situations, etc, regression is different for everyone, and that should be recognized. Whatever it is, your regression is valid and important. You are welcome here and you are a valued me ever of the community, even if your little space doesn’t look the same as someone else’s. So much of agere is advertised around things like playing with toys, going to the park, having snacks, etc. But that’s not how regression works for everyone, and their experiences shouldn’t be erased because they aren’t a certain ‘aesthetic.’

In fact, you’re really awesome, brave, and strong—and I’m proud of you! Keep on regressing, everyone!

-Marty ❤️

[mapsareforbraindeads]

feel like i shouldn’t be left alone with my huge ass bottle of meds idk

[romantichopelessly]

“Was Ronan justified in his actions in td3?” “Should Declan/Adam/etc have forgiven Ronan after td3?” I’m team ecoterrorism isn’t even that bad.

[halloweeneva]

I remove my mask (ADHD) only to reveal a second smaller mask underneath (Chronic Fatigue)

[thatonebabybat]

Hey btw having depression is not a requirement for being goth and if you think it is I don't like you. That's a whole chronic illness, not a part of your "goth mindset"/"aesthetic". Please reflect on that.

[caterjunes]

i keep feeling guilty about the like. state-sponsored employment counseling/resources i'm getting. (i basically have a case manager for job-hunting or continuing education, a work-health counselor to help me balance my disability/health needs with whatever work i end up doing, and uhhhh maybe a couple others i forgot.) but then i remember of the 10 years i've been out of school i've actually been full-time permanently employed for roughly 3 of them, and fully unemployed for about 3 of them as well. and i'm like oh yeah okay. i do actually need extra support & assistance.

[journalsouppe]

My spread for To The Moon! A friend recommended me this game and although there were a lot of things I really liked about this game, I really really don't like sad stories so this particular game just wasn't for me. The storytelling and art and music was all super well done!! I just hate reading or watching something that will leave me depressed afterwards.

So I do recommend this game if you like sad stories and my score is very subjective to my personal tastes, so don't let that deter you if you are interested in this game. I also gave Celeste a low score even though if I had watched a playthrough instead of playing it, it would've been way higher (I hated the mechanics but loved the art and storytelling). It's just not for me and that's totally okay!

Writing typed below! + extra blurb

rating: 7 played: su 2023 port: pc (steam) fave? N replayable? N recommend? Y

Comments:

"he likes cats" "why does the world have to be so complicated"

i'm worried this will turn into a horror game lol. the art reminds me of the witch

so many rabbits

"you neurotypicals" i... don't think this convo has anything to do with neurodivergency

the environments are so gorgeous

repetitive gameplay- slows down storytelling

i like river's expressive eyes

cute lighthouse scene

if i had known the gameplay was this simple i prob wouldve watched keith or a similar lets player

aww pretty horse

oo it's getting creepy

why is neil missing

^ LMFAO NVM

OH SHIT

fucked they made him forget his own brother

NOT JOEY THIRD WHEELING

damn i do not like the mom

the fair is really cute

the river name scene is pissing me off (as someone who has such a rare name ive never met another person with my name irl or online, river is not that uncommon of a name T_T_T_T_TT_T)

awww his brother's back

the memory tech stuff is very confusing

idk why eva was so sketch i think neil wouldve agreed to it

why was the pill addiction relevant?? did i miss something??

Game notes:

beautiful music and pixel art

point and click walking

collect orbs to unlock memories

puzzle grid for memories

whac-a-mole with pretty janky controls

apparently you can move with arrow keys T_T

"combat" scene with dodging and shooting

Summary:

Although I liked the story and thought the thing was very wellmade, this game just wasn't my particular cup of tea. Similar to Celeste, I prob would've liked it if I had watched it instead. It's a depressing tale esp after realizing all the work you do is just some simulation and joey still died and river still died heartbroken. It's absolutely a game I'd recommend for people who like sad/sappy stories but it's not something I'd personally replay. Idk if I'll watch or play through the extra content, again this story just made me kinda depressed and i don't enjoy this feeling. I'm also confused why they acted like river's diagnosis was taboo or smth, she had smth like autism right? Why did they say so... The art style is very cute and the animations were done incredibly well. The environments were especially superbly made. The controls were a little odd esp for the mini games. A little disappointed I didn't learn to use the arrow keys until the last ten minutes of the game. Eva and Neil were fun characters, i liked their dynamic. I understand the structure of the story and finding key pieces of their life, but the gameplay got pretty repetitive and tedious until the switch in act 2/3. Overall, a good game with beautiful designs and simple mechanics. If you like sad/tragic stories then I def recommend. This game reminds me a lot of UP (the movie) so I think MC would really like this game (an old teacher of mine).

Also a little note on my comments for autism, I also have autism so it just felt a little weird playing this game. I'm sure the attitudes around autism were much different in the time they were depicting (probably around the mid to late 20th century) but it still rubbed me the wrong way that it seemed everyone treated river poorly, especially her husband. And I also just hate miscommunication tropes so bad so part of that really played into some of the diagnosis and storytelling. Again, not a game for me personally and these were just my critiques but I'm not actually or seriously offended by this game, I just hate sad shit!!!!!!

[standfucker]

not gonna lie yall, it feels like all I do is either work or recover from work and it's bumming me out big time

[threnodians]

sometimes my brain won’t stop screaming at me that my f/o’s wouldn’t even like me at all were they real and it’s probably just my period exacerbating those thoughts but it’s like my brain’s out to get me today or something 🥲

[rosicheeks]

I get mad about Fb posts too!! I struggle with being jealous of others and it makes me hate myself. I wish I wasn't like this lol

I relate to this so much omg

[insomniaticvoids]

Have an insomnia Malenia wip

I am very much happy to say the more I study the more details I find and the rot around malenia's face reminds me of scales of sorts which I think is very cool also the leaf and flower detailing on her arm makes me so so happy to sketch in.

[stergeon]

for the writer ask

💭🚦💛 💌

💭 What inspires you and your writing?

this is a real marketing major-ass answer (from your local marketing major), but i love sharing knowledge and telling stories. writing’s one of those things that’s a bit of a compulsion for me—i’m always writing something. i took a five-year break from fiction writing before i stumbled ass-first into fanfic last year, but even in those years when i was focusing on my career, i was writing guides and trainings and a ton of other stuff—just not anything fun, lol.

writing is also so cathartic. sometimes i set out to tell a specific story, but at other times, a particular emotion gets me in a vice grip and i have to put it to words before it’ll go away. my stories tend to wind up as emotional dumping grounds as a result.

i don’t write things pulled directly from my own life, but there are bits and pieces of myself and things that have happened to me scattered throughout stuff i’ve written, and usually when i’m about 75% of the way through a piece, i’ll realize it’s absolutely related to something i’m currently going through. funny how art works that way, even when you don’t intend for it to.

and occasionally i just have a fire lit under my ass about an issue and i get so hot about it that i gotta compile my thoughts. looking at you, silver snow

🚦 What sort of endings do you prefer to write: ambiguous, bad, happily ever after, etc.?

look, i would love nothing more for them girls (pick whichever girls you please) to have a happy ending where they kiss and are stupid in love for the rest of forever. i love reading those kinds of stories. but in my heart of hearts, i love an ambiguous ending. i like when there are still questions after the story ends. i like thinking about where things could go or how the characters will go on after the events of the story. like, shared space could be read as having a happy ending, but i don’t really think it is. and with the victors; the vestiges, well. you’ll see :0)

come to think of it, i’m not sure i’ve ever written a happily-ever-after, but i don’t think i’ve ever written a 100% bad ending, either. i read too many bury-your-gays stories and watched too many sad european queer coming-of-age films in my youth to ever be happy putting that kinda thing out into the world. i want to write about love with all its ugliness, but not despair or hopelessness. i think what most appeals to me about an ambiguous ending is that lingering feeling of hope. it’s not the same as the kind you get from a happily-ever-after, and something about it speaks to me.

💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing?

honestly? how to take criticism. i took a creative writing class in high school where we had to read our work out loud and then receive feedback on it from the other writers in the class, and that did a lot for me. going into that class, i’d already been writing for forever and had won some little local writing contests and such, so i was a wee bit of a pretentious douche. but i’d never gotten real critique before beyond, essentially, spelling and grammar checks. it humbled me lol. it made me grow so much as a writer, and i could see where i needed to improve or where my head was wedged way too far up my own ass for others to follow. it also helped me recognize strengths i didn’t know i had, and that was huge. it’s easy to get into a self-doubt spiral when making creative work, and good, constructive criticism can do so much to help avoid that.

to this day i love critique. i like knowing what worked or didn’t work so that i can continue to improve as a writer and do better next time. did my themes land? did something really work, but another part fall flat? i’d love to know!! i try to treat everything i write as practice for the next thing, and frankly that’s helped take some of the pressure off so i don’t go into total Perfectionist Mode.

i know critique is kind of a sensitive topic in fan spaces, but i think that’s because a lot of people have gotten unsolicited criticism that is purely critical and isn’t constructive. but getting good, constructive criticism will do so much to help a person grow as a writer. it’s scary, and sometimes it hurts! writing is very personal for most people, and it stings when things aren’t received the way you think they will be. but i know i’ve grown more from having my failures pointed out (and, very importantly, having the good things about those efforts acknowledged) than anything else.

💌 Is there a favorite trope you like to write?

actually Just answered this in another ask!

[represseddepressedqueer]

How do people deal with being in the minority of people in their twenties who no one has ever had a crush on? Knowing that I’m functionally undesirable and that NO ONE has ever looked at me and had a serious romantic+sexual, non-fetishising crush is really fucking bumming me out.

Like I can’t talk about this with friends because they don’t believe and just say that I’m putting myself down, I can’t afford a therapist to talk to about this, and now I’m no longer aroace so I’m getting crushes and finding people attractive while knowing that I’m never going to experience those feelings reciprocated.

I’ve been through objectively worse things in my life but knowing that I’m always going to be yearning for a connection that I’ll never get is enough to make me wanna truly end it all.

Any genuine tips for dealing with this???

[jennifersbod]

i just have this irrational (or rational idk) fear that my time for being a regular young adult human is running out and no one around me cares and it feels like i’m suffocating. Anyway

[astralazuli]

??????????

[seasonallydefective]

Something that happened twice now in my life is able bodied people saying they want to help me, that they’ll take care of me in some capacity, coaxing me into situations where I end up reliant on them in some way, and then getting ANGRY and violently trying to get rid of me when it’s clear that my chronic health issues are difficult and not going anywhere.

And this isn’t a thing I’ve ever downplayed. Like many people suffering chronic illness, I have days where I seem pretty functional, and days where I need a mobility device or just plain can’t get out of bed. I also have days where I am putting all my energy into getting things done that Need to Get Done, but at the expense of everything else (I can work, but then I’m not going to have the capacity for conversation or feeding myself later that day). This is my normal. I’m pretty vocal about how much it sucks.

So when able-bodied people tell me that I’m being a downer, that I’m just laying around and doing nothing for my health, that they don’t see me actually trying, that me being honest about how I’m feeling is hard on them and they don’t want to deal with me any more …

It’s all really impacted the way I view myself and the treatment I feel like I deserve. Especially since these weren’t people I had some emotional distance from — this was a long term partner and a friend who called me family.

And just pure proximity to me was enough for them to decide that I’m a burden, my illness is my fault, and I deserve to have nothing because of it.