#We have the self diagnosed ones

[confused-spood]

literally me when I think I have a crush on someone

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

wanna ask how you feel about the eridan bpd headcanon/theory(?? not sure what to call it!) you're so good at your character analysis and i'd love to see your outlook on it

Since I don't have a degree or any formal training in psychology, I feel deeply uncomfortable diagnosing characters. I've made an autism joke before but only because I'm on the spectrum. He's definitely traumatized and anxious, but I mean those as descriptors of his behavior rather than capital-D Diagnoses. I try to focus on those when I can - the cause and effect of cognition, self-image, and behavior - and those factors may very well match up with DSM criteria, but I try not to touch an actual diagnosis with a ten foot pole unless the author has explicitly stated that X character has Y condition.

[ratwithhands]

I'm curious. I've seen your art and something that's come to my mind is what actually got you attached with the Subway brothers. Your narrative on their different AU forms is so unique which is what brought me to that question

Alright, rat history time.

So basically back in 2021-2022, I was working on an old OC storyline (about 3 years old by then) and I was in grade 9 so I was like “A new Pokémon game? Pfft, like I care” and just didn’t watch any of the stuff related to PLA when it dropped. I still got recommended Twitter posts about it on Instagram and I ended up seeing this one.

I tried looking up Ingo cause I was like "oh, funky design, looks like a captain or something" but I didn't end up finding anything so I didn't press further. Anyways in March break of 2022, I got bored and decided to put some game streams on in the background while I drew. I saw Alpharad's PLA video and decided to watch it for a bit when I saw Ingo.

I was like "Hey you're the guy from Twitter!" and since I knew his name now, I looked him up and found his Bulbapedia article. I found him much more interesting than the rest of the PLA cast since he had history outside PLA, and I ended up reading up whatever I could find on him. I also by extension discovered Emmet this way, which only served to suck me deeper down the rabbit hole. By the end of March break I had a fan OC and 2 AUs made with more on the way, as well as a YouTube recommended page with nothing but theory videos on Ingo and decade old Submas content.

Around May I decided to decommission my OC storyline for personal reasons, and by this point Submas was starting to occupy more of my creative work anyways. Since I didn't have my storyline to put my energy into, I started funnelling literally any story ideas into Submas. This led to nonstop content for a shockingly long time, and ofc I'm still coming up with stuff now.

Long story short, I got attached to them by accident! It was a "right place, right time" sort of thing since they came in as I was starting to get sluggish with my original content and I ended up being more interested in writing for them.

As for narratives, I am effectively playing dolls with these guys. Usually the kind of stuff that I write for them is meant for OCs, but I dumped the 60+ person cast so I put that energy into them instead.

Most AUs will either have a core theme, an out of pocket idea, or both to make things interesting. Usually I just come up with a dumbass idea like "what if we brought ReBURST back for a rerun" or "what if Emmet signed a contract with an eldritch space spider" or "what if Submas could see into the future" and stuff like that, then it picks up themes as I keep writing. For some silly examples:

Burst is based on Pokémon ReBURST and the idea of human-Pokémon fusion, but there's focus on skill, how characters misperceive it, and resentment as a result. There's also a spotlight on inferiority complexes, bottled up guilt, and blind confidence depending on which main character you look at

Journal is about a diary that helps Ingo to regain his memories, and it focuses on remembrance and regret as a result of him reading it. Spotlight on lacking awareness vs hyper awareness and the monotony of living as people around you leave

Oracle is exactly what it sounds like, with the twins being able to see into the future. It focuses on cooperation and the importance of working together, but also learning how to work alone. The spotlight's on jealousy and gratitude for this one, though the latter greatly outweighs the former in this case

I also just have AUs I made to try deranged shit for funsies, like Sapioflora, Cybernetic/Z-Λ, Team Supernova, and Idol. Those are mostly for exploring goofy ideas that may or may not go anywhere.

Right anyways basically I just saw Submas after watching PLA gameplay and found the twins more interesting to write about than the project I'd exhausted by then. The narratives are like that because the AU ideas I make are actually OC concepts that I modify to fit Pokémon specifically for these two or ideas about the two that I'd like to explore. Hope that answers the question ^^*

[porblematic]

Here's a thought. How about we work on making these disorders less stigmatized so people would be able to get accurate information on how these look like and what self-help strategies are available for these or that symptoms, including but not limited to anxiety, instead of focusing on how teenagers are sometimes, god forbid, wrong about own mental issues?

[certainlyceleste]

i always thought i had adhd but i got tested and got a negative. in retrospect i believe that it was a false negative and so does my therapist but at the time i assumed that i was just neurotypical and needed to suck it up.

then fairly recently in the grand scheme of things i met my boyfriend and he is autistic and through lots of observation he came to the conclusion that so was i, but since i had been tested for adhd and exist in an environment where we don’t look out for neurodivergence i didnt believe it. but then i really thought about it and came to the conclusion that yes, im adhd, and yes, im autistic.

looking at my life through that lens explains a lot, and helps me cope with a lot of Previously Unexplained Phenomena that i had to deal with. before, i just thought that it was all me being messed up in some way, that i should just itnore the problems because i was, externally, doing well. but i always knew something was up, and finally figuring out what was incredible for my mental health.

then, i see a whole bunch of discourse about self-diagnosis. i cannot get a diagnosis for a plethora of reasons, so it is likely that i will only ever be self diagnosed. people who say that self diagnosis isn’t valid are attempting to take this away from me and other similar people, and it is horrifying that some people can be so out of touch with reality that they think that self diagnosis isn’t a useful tool and that nobody who doesn’t have an official diagnosis is valid.

i shouldn’t have to wrestle with myself about why i can’t understand people, or why i can’t deal being in some clothes or bright lights or dense sounds. self diagnosis has helped me understand who i am and it’s wonderful and you can’t take that away from me

[torchickentacos]

you ever scroll past some sort of discourse that you didn't even know existed, and you have to take a second and realize that, while none of us are superior to others, some of us ARE much better at choosing which dumbass hills to die on? because I think sometimes you deserve to go 'huh. at least I'm not getting involved in all that'.

[ratcandy]

grounding techniques sound like such bs until you’re actually in the thick of it and suddenly find yourself counting shit you can touch and hear n etc and suddenly it’s like oh ok. Horrors are done

[crypt1dcorv1dae]

Apollo yelling "I'm Apollo justice and I'm fine" is literally just him stimming ok? Ok.

[yippie-madness]

my parents are finally getting round to making a doctors appointment for me! yippee! hopefully doctor is competent and doesn't gaslight me about how normal teenagers are or call me just depressed again (i love doctors /sarc) (most ableist people i know)

[muthafuckinaro]

lowkey cried while reading that lord

[lesboylycan]

annoying how when people hear about hallucinations, especially related to schizophrenia, they only think auditory or visual, meanwhile all of our most vivid hallucinations are tactile and somatic. like, sure, auditory and visual may be most common, but they're not the only hallucinations that can be experienced, nor is it mandatory that hallucinations be auditory or visual to be diagnosed

[valewritessss]

I feel like I came out of the womb with raging anxiety

[sp00ky-scary]

sometimes i think about how early this year i was talking to a friend who has ocd about some mental brain things and she told me that what i was describing very much sounded like ocd (something that has been said to me many times by many different people) and then later that day i had a mild breakdown over the concept of potentially having ocd and was very very in denial about even maybe having it, but in retrospect that breakdown/meltdown whatever does not help my case

[kimetsu-chan]

My dad told me there was something weird going on in my brain(jokingly) while we were on our bike ride 0-0

[seventh-district]

it’s finally getting cold enough that i can bring my cardigan collection back into rotation without feeling like i’m gonna melt into a puddle the second i step outside!!!

[outlying-hyppocrate]

i am not used to novelty, and i don't think i ever will be; i am used to cold limbs, white eyes, sharp teeth, soft brown sepia, liquid in the taste, the taint is what now fills my blurry eyes, everyone is sclera when the pupils cry (everything is merciful and everything is soft and we are all marshmallow candy on the 31st of the new month expiry is an option not an option but the sell-by-date corroborates strange things whenever we can come across)