#casual Katie

[violetsandshrikes]

i have been laughing at this for 5 mins

[claraoswalds]

BEN SHAKIR + being called "Benny"

+bonus

[larmepilled]

Katie

[megahorous]

Katy and Lammy at work [HD Remake] !

[lovefortayley]

"And I thought maybe I'll change tomorrow but if I don't..."

-Casual Drug Use, Katie Gavin

Textless version below!

[1000-year-old-virgin]

Katie Gavin - Casual Drug Use

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

Favorite Pacey/Joey Moments Per Episode: 5x19 100 Light Years from Home

[yokai-watch-fashion]

Fumi's winter outfit

[ghoul--doodle]

I forgot to post this!

This was for a flag design assignment for my coursework- where we had to design a flag for something we aspire to make! So for me that was Nebula Quest :}

This is actually going to be printed onto fabric at some point so I’ll post about that soon!

[scentedinksandwhackedseals]

she’s got plastic flowers on the dashboard and her wardrobe in her trunk i’m not sleeping tonight i-know-i-know i did not need that last one something something i was apprehensive about taking this trip some days you do your best some days you do what gets you outta bed she was smiling and i was thinking IT’S A LITTLE UNNERVING HOW FAST I FALL BACK IN TO FIXING MY ISSUES WITH CASUAL DRUG USE BUT I’M NOT GONNA LOSE IT CAUSE WE’RE NOT GOING TO GET WHEREVER WE’RE GOING RIGHT THIS MOMENT

[lunarlicorice]

KATY!!! hii

[violetsandshrikes]

How do you even end up in these situations? Not in a bad way, but the idea of talking to people in public like that little girl with the makeup or yelling back at that lady is so terrifying, my social anxiety could never, but I wish I could?

Hard to pinpoint. I think for context, you have to know that at 18, when I was first starting out in university, I had such bad social anxiety that I couldn’t stand in a crowded lecture theatre to go pee because the idea of people looking at me was so scary to me. Medication didn’t help, and therapy worked up to a point. I sympathise, because social anxiety is literally the devil. It made my life so hard, and I remember being really frustrated with people around me who could just…do things.

Things that personally helped me:

• Majority of my friends are major extroverts. I find having extroverted friends, at least a few, is really helpful because the majority of the time they’re happy to bring you along to whatever they’re doing, they basically act as social lubricant (introducing you to people and vice versa, softening the scary parts of initially meeting people) and you can learn a lot by watching how they interact with other people and conduct themselves.

• In the same vein: joining any sort of hobby group, or group that has at least semi-frequent meetings. Easier said than done, I know. The good thing about this is that with similar or shared interest, again, you shave a lot of that awkwardness off of first meeting people and trying to establish initial contact.

• Similar but not quite the same: volunteering. Volunteering helped me a lot, because volunteering groups and movements tend to be an incredibly diverse mix of people. Especially older people, people in retirement, quirky old women, etc. A lot of these people in volunteering won’t even blink if you are a little shy or socially awkward at first, and much like extrovert friends, are great to observe and see how they do it. Plus, I find regular volunteering really helpful for confidence.

• This might be controversial but: I worked a shitty retail job for 3 years while studying, because I financially had to. If you’re young, you can physically handle it, and you’re in a good place to do so, even some casual or part time work can be a game changer. I’m not going to lie: 9 times out of 10, these jobs suck. The general public can be a nightmare. However, you are quickly forced to adapt. I view it almost like in the Sims, levelling up charisma, because you have to deal with people. In the right kind of workplaces, it’s also an okay place to meet other people and socialise more.

• I wish I could remember what she said to me word for word, but my mother had sat me down in my later teenage years when my social anxiety was at it’s height, and broken down some aspects of what I was doing. A lot of the time, I was curled in on myself, eyes down, head down, frowning (if not outright glaring), and generally giving myself a very hostile aura. At the time, I was pissed about this advice don’t get me wrong. Once I started actually using it a few years later though, it worked. She had pointed out that the vast majority of people are actually pretty friendly or genial in their day to day lives, and it really pissed me off when I realised she was right. I smile at pretty much everyone - most people, even people who look hostile or angry, smile back. I would say an easy 80-90%. I hold doors open for people, I say please and thank you, I ask cashiers and things how their day was. These little social interactions cannot be taken for granted, because yeah, sometimes someone is in a bad mood, or not interested in engaging, but the vast majority of the time people respond positively, and that feedback is an incredible tool for building social ability. This is pretty much how I’m able to strike up conversation with random strangers now - once the little interactions got familiar and stopped being scary, the idea of turning and talking to a stranger in an aisle becomes less of terrifying task.

I say this about a lot of things, but again, I think a lot of times, people mistake social skills for something inherently innate, and not a skill you can build much like a muscle. It’s especially really hard for those of us who suffer/have suffered from social anxiety, because there’s a whole other mental health aspect to it, but even trying little things if you can will pretty much guaranteed help you feel a little more secure.

(One of my best friends since early teens is autistic, and has always struggled really badly socially. Around mid-university, she began to transform into a social butterfly; she’s involved in so many committees, groups, parties, events. People love her. I asked her curiously once how she’d facilitated that change over coffee, and she shrugged and told me she basically decided to project the same energy as a golden retriever or Labrador, and go from there lmao.)

[spammingloveletters]

vibing to this makes work bit less insufferable

[humofbumblebees]

sanitized is so good you guys

[a-birdhouse-in-your-soul]

adam saying “she’s going for a fully clean free skate” is funny because 1) isn’t everyone doing that?? and 2) the she in question completely splatted 0.2 seconds later