#diagnosis || answered

[heart-of-gotham]

🍽: Our characters’ orders are mixed up at a restaurant and they’re given each other’s meals by mistake.

[ First meeting starter prompts! - ACCEPTING ]

Oh, well, this wasn't exactly what she would have ordered. In fact, it wasn't. Oh no.

"Miss, I—"

The waitress had already hurried away as fast as she could, her arms laden with about two other tables worth of orders and another three up and ready in the window. She heaved a sigh.

Well, that was not going to do her any good then, was it? Not like she could help it, the poor girl was already in a state-and-half rushing back and forth during lunch rush. She'd been there. She was already dearly tired from her own big rush of patients back at the clinic, the cold wet weather lingering around had left too many people victim to catching (and ignoring) bad colds. So she did the next best thing: cut out the middleman and look around for any similarly confused patrons staring at a very incorrect order of her carrot ginger soup. Hopefully untouched.

Thankfully, she saw only one other person who had said soup placed in front of them. With a weary sigh— she really did just want to have lunch, and she was not wanting to barge into a strangers', but it was what it was— she carefully slipped her hand under the plate as to not touch the food, just on the off-chance they were willing to make an easy trade.

"Pardon me, you didn't happen to order this, did you?"

[wtftaylr]

I MAKE MY TRIMPHANT RETURN with a bunch of outfits. I'm very happy they're finally done!! Click for higher quality!

A few notes under the cut bc i did not work on this since October to not yap about my thought process /silly (i say with peace and love)

Bounty Hunter's Duster: Her first love. She liked being able to shoot that guy right in front of Gomorrah on behalf of Francine Garret. She was loathe to part with the cool hat, but anything for Francine fr.

Daniel Sadie's Outfit: Sadie is the founder of the He-Man Daniel Hater's Club (most of the companions are part of it despite not knowing who Daniel is. It's difficult to get anything more than a sneer and, "a fucking asshole," from Sadie when asked, but for some reason we trust Sadie's opinion). Anyway, despite Daniel being Daniel, we like his outfit. I like to think she stole it off his back in the night before leaving Zion.

Dr. Mobius' Scrubs (+ Glasses): Something she wears a lot post-game while researching the Tunnelers. I just love this outfit. Also the glasses are, through some miracle, her exact prescription. She's never seen clearer.

Vera's Outfit Redux: I redesigned Vera's Outfit bc Sadie would not be caught dead with a giant flower on her hip, respectfully. I referenced a few of Marilyn Monroe's dresses! The jewelry is designed after the Tops logos, gifted by Benny. Sadie doesn't wear much jewelry but, unfortunately, she likes Benny enough to make an exception.

Courier's Duster + Wasteland Designs: Sadie sews and assembles clothing! Expanded on here, but tldr: she's 5'0" so she has to adjust a lot of things to fit her. The only outfit that's ever fit her without her needing to adjust it was the Courier's Duster that Ulysses made for her. She was both surprised and just a little creeped out. Anyway, she'll take parts and pieces from some outfits and combine them together, as seen in the last two designs.

She also made the other two New Vegas outfits from scratch, using fabric and clothing she found throughout New Vegas. A lot of clothing from the Ultra Luxe conspicuously went missing, but don't worry about it. If you tell on her she'll tell you on Benny (not the biggest threat in the world but if you piss off Benny, you piss off Sadie by extension so... not worth it.)

[askthehedgehogs]

have either of you been to the chiropractor for any reason because hot DAMN there is no better feeling than having some stranger snap your neck and voila your pain is gone

(shadow idk if your pain is caused by the chaos energy?? or immortality?? or something?? but it could be something to look into! juuuust saying!)

My chronic pain is caused by a mix of my body not handling the strain of excess Chaos Energy well, and mobility issues. Chaos Energy is managed, in part, by the inhibitor rings, while my airshoes help with mobility.

Other things that help include heat, rest, specific exercises, and a chiropractor. Unfortunately, painkillers don't work.

It can be hard to figure out what helps with chronic pain or illness. Try taking note when you have good days and bad days, see if there's any correlation with anything you do on those days.

Nooo way, I’m never going to a chiropractor, I’ve heard the sounds Shadow’s bones make in there!

Oh, the cat’s name is Darkness. She’s staying with us while we look for her owner.

[canisalbus]

I've been curious about this for a while, and after finding your Tumblr and reading up on Machete lore I'd love to know; Is Machete autistic? I myself am autistic and I see myself in him quite a lot at times while reading your posts... If not, are there anything other disabilities or ailments he has? What about Vasco?

I'm hesitant to assign either them a lot of labels, but I think it's justified to say he has enough autistic traits to place him somewhere on the spectrum. Of course they hadn't figured out neurodiversity in the 1500's, if you knew him well enough you might call him a little eccentric. Even then he's reasonably proficient at masking and trying to appear normal to others. Having impressive self-restraint and an unhealthy degree of self-awareness helps with that. His surroundings are formal, rigid and impersonal and he has learned to navigate that specific social climate reasonably well. In addition to difficulty in socializing his main issues are sensory related, he's sensitive to textures, loud sounds and environmental overstimulation and has a low pain threshold, but can tolerate a surprising amount of discomfort in order to keep his face and not appear weak or unprofessional.

I'd say most of his physical health issues are related to anemia in a way or another, a condition that hasn't been discovered yet and thus can't be treated effectively. In their terms he simply has a weak constitution and is susceptible to mystery pains and illnesses. Unfortunately the catch-all medical care at the time is bloodletting, which, as you can imagine, only worsens his symptoms. Albinism affects the development of your eyes so his sight isn't the best and he's very sensitive to bright lights, to the point he prefers to stay indoors on sunny days.

Vasco, in comparison, has always been healthy as a horse, apart from recurring childhood ear infections. He exhibits some traits that could align with inattentive adhd, but probably not enough to justify a diagnosis. He can be a little disorganized, forgetful and has trouble starting and completing tasks, and has hard time forcing himself to stay invested in things he doesn't care about all that much.

[vesna-v-irkutske]

How is this nigga studying law behind bars?? 😭🤦🤦my guy ain’t finna represent no one LMAO /j but also /srs

SAME QUESTION. Very "I'm bored as hell and I don't wanna work like the rest 😠" of him. And at the University of Latvia. Wow, okay, fancy pants "rich" McGee over here. 🙄 Serious answer & context. Anoufriev in a report to NTV's infoshow "Правда Гурнова" (True Gurnov) (released on February 10th, 2017): "I'm studying, uuuh, law at the University of Latvia. Well, that's the most important, what else right now. Need to find something to do, man, not getting into a noose... after all." Why? Because apparently, after 25 years, he can hope for parole (and in 2014, he said that his family was taking various measures to get him released on parole, but he wasn't counting on it (but maybe he became more hopeful)).

But there's another interview. In 2017, the crew of the TV program "Честный детектив" (Honest detective) also interviewed Artyom. I'll translate it one day, because it's SO BAD. LITERALLY the most SHAMELESS gaslight, gatekeep, mansplain, manipulate. It's not even funny, it's kinda scary. But I respect the grind. 🔥 I wonder if he really thinks that someone will believe what he's saying, or is he just trolling people with a straight face? He wasn't very fond of journalists in 2014, and he said he would only talk to members of the press if he was paid for it. Maybe it was him being a bitch and saying crap on purpose again, just not giving them the information they came for. Don't know what's worse: this or the possibility of him ACTUALLY trying to gaslight and convince everyone (and maybe himself too) that it was all a mistake. Imagine saying the dumbest and craziest shit with the most unflappable face and in the flattest tone. You're either very mentally ill or a very good actor. UPD. In another interview, he says something completely different about where he studies. He's taking a correspondence course at a branch of some philological university. So yeah, the law school was bullshit (yeah, the law school for a lifelong convicted murderer and (allegedly) former Neo-Nazi, SUUUURE), this is at least believable. But still take everything he says with a grain of salt.

[mjrtaurus]

Cw: Body horror

One of Crocodile's favorite pastimes is to cause his flesh to melt into sand in a way that shows his facial muscles and skull while he's talking to captive marines to gaslight them into thinking they're losing their minds. He knows how to do the Uzumaki eye spiral too. Buggy thought he was just bullshitting everyone and then puked into a wastebasket when Crocodile showed him.

Unsurprisingly, Mihawk thinks it's hot.

Very surprisingly, so does Dragon. He said it looked like a grape going down a toilet.

Dragon and his way with words 🤣

Crocodile has so, so much fun breaking marines like this. Making them think they’re losing their minds. Filling their silly little heads with nightmares.

He’s taken his face off like a porcelain mask. He’s had deadly scorpions crawl out of his skin. He’s cloaked himself in heat mirages. He’s let the tiniest flicker of candlelight reduce him to a pair of gleaming eyes in the dark. He’s been a corpse in their cell that’s got up and walked. He’s every fear. He’s every nightmare. And he LOVES it.

He’s a twisted man. A truly twisted man.

[thelaurenshippen]

question about my favourite tbs character: did you intend to write damien to seem borderline or did that just come about unintentionally? i have BPD and holy shit damien reads as SO borderline to me it’s kind of insane. there’s that entire final letter in SFP, but the line “i think maybe i’m supposed to hate all of me” hits so, so close to home for me. maybe i’m not as self destructive as damien, but i do understand him. he makes me feel so seen and maybe that’s a grim thing to say given his behaviour, but�� damien absolutely reads as borderline to me. his unstable relationships he manages to sabotage intentionally or unintentionally, his barely-there sense of self that balances on the fact that he thinks he’s this horrible monster, his impulsive decisions that somehow never work and always bite him in the ass, his intense mood swings, his genuine terror of being abandoned to the point where he will beg someone for even a scrap of love as soon as he’s not immediately hated, and the part about not knowing what wants are his or what wants deserve space — maybe he’s a villain and historically, BPD is used as a villainous trait, but damien doesn’t feel like a moustache twirling, witch cackling, murderous and irredeemable villain to me. he just seems like someone who’s made of bad decisions and ruined relationships. he seems like someone who’s in a lot of pain and doesn’t know how to live with himself so he constantly searches for someone to fill this massive, emptiness inside him that won’t ever be filled because no one taught him what it felt like to be whole — not until he kidnapped met mark and predictably enough, that relationship crumbled to dust. damien hasn’t had much, so he holds onto things and people so tight that they end up getting crushed between his fingers and somehow he loses everything he gets even though he could have anything he’d ever wanted. maybe i’m completely misinterpreting damien but i do absolutely love him and he’s SUCH a well written character. i could easily talk about him for hours to anyone who will listen.

sorry for waxing poetic about damien in your ask box but i love him so much and who better to vomit my thoughts about him to than the person who wrote damien, right?

I love that you love Damien!!! I really love him too, and it means a lot when people relate to him or see him as more than just a mustache-twirling villain because he is more than that. he's someone who makes the same terrible decisions over and over again, someone who has been corrupted by his power, and who wants connection but doesn't know how to get it. that doesn't excuse any of his actions, of course, and he's not irredeemable, because no one is, but he would need to be way more active in his own redemption to really get there. he's a very complicated person and it means a lot to me when people appreciate all those complex, human dimensions.

all that said, I'm always glad to hear that people headcanon any characters with anything they feel like they share, but I've written very few characters with specific conditions. even though she's never actually technically diagnosed (Dr. Bright does not do traditional diagnosis), Sam has anxiety and a panic disorder. I have those diagnoses myself, so I feel confident in saying that's what she struggles with. the other major one would be Frank's PTSD - I knew he had PTSD from the get-go and always wrote him with that in mind. but, of course, that's not to say other characters don't have diagnosable PTSD, just that I haven't necessarily thought in those terms with a lot of characters.

in general, I don't find it particularly useful for my writing purposes to get formal with how I'm thinking about my characters and their mental health. I focus instead on how they feel, how they behave, their relationships, etc. and because of who I am and who I have in my life (which includes people with BPD as well as bipolar, anxiety, depression, PTSD, autism, adhd, etc.), a lot of traits of various conditions pop up here and there. a professional psychiatrist might be able to look at my characters and the DSM and match things up, but that's not my expertise nor particularly useful to me personally!!

but again, I love headcanons! I have my own relationship to the bright sessions and its characters, but from the moment I released the first episode, they ceased being mine. they're yours to do with what you choose!

[fella-lovin-fella]

guess who got diagnosed with ocd a couple weeks ago

[say-hi-intrepid-heroes]

having anxiety but also frequently dissociating is wild cause i'll be anxious about Events or Emotions or Relationships or Things That Are Happening Imminently but then my brain just goes "no no, none of that. there's no reason to be anxious. instead we're going to forget the next two hours."

but hey i'm not anxious anymore!

[rivenantiqnerd]

If this gets 1,000 notes, I’ll try bringing up the topic of an autism diagnosis with my mom

[heart-of-gotham]

👜: My character drops their bag and yours approaches them to return it.

[ First meeting starter prompts! - ACCEPTING ]

A lost bag in Gotham did not stay lost long. Then again, it wasn't always the person who lost it who found it.

Thankfully, a more honest soul had found it first. "Excuse me, are you looking for this?" The older woman, wearing her doctor's coat still, held out the bag carefully towards the young man. She'd seen the poor thing drop it in the sea of comers and goers wading around the area this time of day, most on their way home from day jobs and on their way out to night ones. A rough hour for anyone in-between, really.

But Leslie just gave a warm and understanding smile. It's not like she didn't learn the lesson the hard way back in her college days, no shame in it. Keep the loops of your bags and clutches wrapped around your wrist, straps cross-body, put your money in the inside pockets, keep your purse in front of you, always get a bag with a zipper. "I saw you from across the street, dear, you looked to be in an awful rush. I almost didn't catch you in time."

[chericheribaby]

you don’t feel like dying after you overshare? no? just me, then? 🫠

[ragnarokhound]

hey i saw ur tag on the executive dysfunction post where u said ur meds allow u to punch a hole in the wall and access the internal well of motivation or some such. can i ask how that works as in can you just do things after that?? you like have a task you gotta do and you up and do it? sorry to break into ur askbox like this i was just very curious because my executives do not function

Hi! Sure, I don't mind :)

Short answer: yes. :') I take my meds in the morning, and over the course of the day, it is much easier for me to add tasks to my mental list and then knock them down like the most dutiful Sim in the world. I forget to do things sometimes still - but those are usually due to other barriers like 'I would like to schedule this appointment, but I'm at work right now so I can't do that yet.' and then hours later I will have forgotten that I needed to do that. WHOOPSIES. Not necessarily an ADHD problem, just an average human one.

Also, the meds make it easier to access the well. That doesn't mean I always CHOOSE to use the well, haha. Sometimes I am just sooo comfy in bed and think 'i should get up. But I bet I could get away with another 25 minutes of dozing UwU' and then after my alarm goes off because my 25 minutes are up, I'm cursing my past self for being a hedonistic sloth because I really do have to get up now or I'll be late. I CAN choose correctly. That doesn't mean I do.

Long answer getting into the nitty gritty of my ADHD med journey below the cut:

So just remember that I'm not a doctor, I'm a stranger on the internet, so I don't know quite how it works, and not all medication will work the same for everyone. Executive function is huge for folks with ADHD, but it might be something else! ADHD often shakes hands with other conditions.

BUT - in my experience, I was diagnosed with combined ADHD (both the hyperactive bouncy kind and the laser focus, sit still for 12 hours doing one thing kind). A lot of my own executive function problems stemmed from not being able to choose what I hyper focused on, for how long, or if I even could. :')

There's a few different medications available to choose from once you get a diagnosis, including a fast-acting stimulant and a slow-release stimulant. The one that helps me is a slow-release - I take it in the morning, and it'll start to kick in after an hour and gives me a steady stream over the course of the day, wearing off about 8 hours later.

People with ADHD don't make as much dopamine on their own, and stimulants help your brain produce more of it. If you find yourself feeling calm and more able to focus or task-switch after drinking coffee, or soda, or other uppers, you might be self-medicating, and a diagnosis and meds may be helpful (but definitely talk that out with a doctor).

It took a while for my "storage" of dopamine to build up, and it wasn't pretty the whole journey there. There were multiple days in a row that I had to force myself to eat because the meds suppress appetite, so it was easy to skip meals I shouldn't have. (I embraced snacking over the whole day as a solution until my humors were balanced and I'd built up the habit of prepping a lunch hours beforehand lol)

But the benefits were immediate. Some things are normal, and habits are something every human has to figure out how to build regardless of whether you make enough dopamine - but I was immediately calmer. I would think 'i need to take out the garbage. I will do that now' and I would, in fact, take out the garbage? I'd just get up? And do it??? It was that easy. I find it much easier to stop in the middle of what I'm doing without getting annoyed, and to task switch without it completely breaking my flow. I'm CAPABLE of task switching at all. It's easier to remember that mug I left in the microwave. I can sit or work in silence and it's fine, I don't need music to be playing in the background to focus.

I still have to convince myself sometimes to do things when my executives don't want to function - a big coping skill I like is giving myself a crossroads moment. If I'm reading, the crossroads moment is at the end of a chapter, or a scene break. If I'm playing a game the crossroads moment is when I lost or won a round, or when I completed the task I was in the middle of, or reached a safe area.

At a crossroads moment, you can either choose to keep doing whatever you're doing, or do something else. It's why being on Tumblr and other social media is difficult to get away from, because there is no natural stopping point if you haven't turned off infinite scrolling. If that's hard for you, see if you can change your dash settings to only load a page/set number of posts at a time. You'll get a crossroads moment every time you reach the bottom of that page.

This is all my own experience with ADHD and stimulants, so again, I encourage you to think about whether this sounds like you and bring it up to a doctor if it's having a really big impact on your life.

I hope this helps! I also suggest this video from Jaiden Animations - she talks about her own experience getting an ADHD diagnosis, and funnily enough, this video dropped within the same week as I got mine, haha.

[canisalbus]

Counterpoint to the possession ask: you've been possessed by one dog for a very long time, but then a another dog who's broken edges fit wonderfully into the first dog's found you and they shuffled around to both fit possessing you because now they can't let go of each other. They're two halves of a single star and you're their galaxy :)

.

[taamlok]

every time someone calls taash "basically a teenager" i lose a year off my lifespan

[pseudophan]

what is it with doctors/psychologists and being like yeah you have this thing but it’s not harming you so i won’t diagnose you?? 😭 literally what my doctor said to me about autism like cool it didn’t effect me when i was 16 but it sure as hell does now in 26 ???

it's literally so stupid lmao like they're so afraid of setting a wrong diagnosis they just won't diagnose people at all unless they deem it absolutely debilitating

i've had the same thing happen with autism several times but i'm not too fussed about that one cause like whatever who cares i can't do much about that anyway, whereas with adhd i need a diagnosis if i want to try any meds. i did the raads-r again recently and my psych was like yeah you're probably autistic but lets ignore that and focus on the adhd because i don't think they're gonna let you get diagnosed with both lol