#genuinely any advice is appreciated

[loveistrueblue]

hi guys, this is a post seeking advice from anyone who has experience with going nonverbal. my experience in particular is due to PTSD/trauma (possibly undiagnosed autism, i truthfully am not sure, i do not have the resources nor money at this moment in time to be able to get a diagnosis, but it’s something i have hoped to look into when i am able), but advice about going nonverbal in general, regardless of reason, still would be appreciated. i just genuinely don’t know where else to seek advice at the moment.

as i’ve mentioned in passing a couple of times here, i experienced a sexual assault a little over a year ago. it has been really difficult adjusting after that kind of an experience and it’s been a very slow process of trying to get my life back.

one of the things i have been struggling with has been this: my fight or flight feels, constantly, like it is activated. i truly feel like i’ve been stuck in fight or flight since the night it happened. i often feel extremely disregulated emotionally and like i’m living in extreme fear a good 80% of the time. this causes me to become easily overwhelmed. now, when i become overwhelmed, i have started shutting down and dissociating and i have started going nonverbal. i am unable to speak, even though it’s like i’m internally screaming and trying to. if i’m able to talk, it’s very few words, barely a sentence or two i’m able to get out. i’ll usually stutter or fumble or trip over my words in trying to get them out, if i’m even able to do that. it truly feels like a disconnect between the words in my brain and being able to articulate them out loud.

it’s been happening a lot in group settings, with my friends who i spend most of my free time with. they’re safe people to be around and i trust they want to help me how they can. the issue is, we are having a hard time navigating what to do/how to approach me going nonverbal. it often happens randomly, just when everything in my head starts becoming overwhelming and i start shutting down. it can be mid conversation and i just start going quiet and i don’t mean to, it’s like something out of my control, making it even scarier. i would sometimes experience this as a teenager/kid, but the difference then was i was a quiet child where it was less noticeable. now i am an adult who communicates verbally way more than i did when i was a kid. i guess i am in part struggling with the embarrassment of feeling a bit childish for being unable to communicate out loud too.

for further context, at this point, my friends know it is me going nonverbal and that it is an involuntary response. we are all collectively pretty much at a point we are trying to figure out how to navigate it happening though because we’re all a little new to it.

my questions/advice i am seeking is this:

what are ways you can communicate with the people you love when nonverbal and you’re all occupying the same physical space? is there resources/maybe any apps to help navigate a situation like that?

how do you talk to your friends about going nonverbal/is there anything you find helpful when you are nonverbal, especially if it’s from a flashback/disassociating due to trauma?

how do you handle/cope with feeling embarrassment and shame around going nonverbal?

any advice would be so so appreciated. thank you. 💙

(if the tone of my post is really formal, i apologize, i feel like i get more formal and serious when i’m nervous lol)

[thelaurenshippen]

HI HELLO DO YOU LIKE AUDIO DRAMAS, WOULD YOU LIKE TO MAKE YOUR OWN AUDIO DRAMA well do I have news for you

for quite some time, I have been working on putting every bit of practical information I have about making a podcast into some kind of readable resource and I'm very happy to say that, by george, I think I've done it.

that link will take you to our resource page which has links to a 35-page handbook that takes you through every step of podcast production (on our merch page, but you can download for zero dollars! do it!) and a direct download of a 15-page pdf about how I take an idea from development through scripting.

this is by no means the be-all-end-all definitive correct guide on how to make an audio drama. as I emphasize many times throughout, this is just how I do things, but it's a pretty thorough rundown of how I do things. if you've been too overwhelmed to start your own show, I sincerely hope this helps you!

[princessmyriad]

Any lovely witchy friends out there have advice for reaching out to a deity?

[faggotstump]

So. I need advice. About going to homecoming for the first time (with a date, even though as far as i know it's just between acquaintances/friends). My most basic question is: What Do I Do?

[spottyissleepwalking]

I’ve been so sick for almost three weeks now

Vomiting nearly every day, liquid diarrhea, this weird stabbing pain in my gut, nausea, constant discomfort and pain… I can’t even lay down flat anymore; once I sit upright again it’ll just make me feel absolutely awful

I don’t know what’s going on. I have an appointment in late January. I’m scared and sick and I just. I don’t know

[aster-aspera]

Fuck

[avengers-rule103]

i've asked this before, i'm gonna ask it again, is there anywhere i can read the anecdotes from the game outside of the game? everything about them in game hurts my eyes to read. i'm an avid reader irl, i can read pretty fast, but trying to read 10 of those small pages in-game took me an embarrassingly long time and also gave me a horrible headache. i wanna read them. i wanna get those stories. but i do not wanna put myself through that headache again.

[breathetoburn]

guys i actually fucking suck i have this consistent problem with like leading people on who are flirting with me when i think they just want to be friends -_- i met this girl at work who was really sweet and complimented me and asked for my insta and i added her and we've been chatting and i like her a lot and she's trans and i want more trans friends so i'm excited to be friends.. but now that we've been talking for a while she's starting to like seriously flirt with me and i have no idea how to shut it down without like offending her or hurting her feelings or something. Like how do i politely tell someone that i have a boyfriend and i'm not interested but i also still really like you and want to be friends. Is that normal. i'm afraid she's going to be angry and think i led her on because now that i'm looking back she was totally like flirting with me even when we first met at my job ugghhhh HELP MEEEE I'M TOO AUTISTIC TO MAKE FRIENDS

[can-of-w0rmz]

Sometimes after months and months of stressed induced illness progressively getting worse while feeling very alone and isolated, you’ve just got to read about two 18th century Swiss gays, one of which facing months and months of stress induced illness while NOT feeling very alone and isolated.

Thank god after tomorrow I’m off on study leave, I don’t think I can force myself through one more school day while progressively getting more and more out of it mentally and generally physically worse.

[murphyzzz]

any suggestions on how to do digital art without spending any money? I have a drawing pad that I can plug into my laptop I got as a gift… any free or cheap programs you would recommend?

[sea-buns]

How is it that you can write what is essentially character introspection about emotional manipulation and people automatically read it as you treating the character like a child/a woman "with no agency"? Literally, genuinely, how? Please, I would like to know where the hiccup in my wording was so I can avoid this complete misinterpretation in future posts. I cannot comprehend.

[moist-gore]

I.... have no idea what to do with my art blog, @eggdis right now.

I want to post to it again, but at the same time I'm afraid that it'll go into the AI database, with the other data tumblr sold to Midjourney. I also don't have the (mental) resources to glaze and nightshade all of my art from now on....

So what do I do now? Simply delete it and continue posting my art to Furaffinity/toyhouse? Live with the fact that eventually all of my art will get stolen anyway???

What do I do???

[stars-captain]

Does anyone with severe anxiety have tips for not worrying literally constantly? I'm working on setting aside "worry time" because I really can't live the way I do anymore, constantly on edge and unable to let my guard down pretty much 24/7. Even with doing that, though, I still catastrophize and always find myself uneasy....

[dreamlandsystem]

Is it okay to make a system podcast even if we:

- have only known about our system for around a year

- received a diagnosis literally like 2 months ago

- are not experts or research professionals in the fields of plurality or osddid

- don’t have a full understanding of how plurality or even our own system works

- have covert switches (literally 80% of us sound like the same person irl)

???

We don’t want people to think we’re making something light of a serious disorder (even if we use goofiness and silliness to cope sometimes).

We don’t want people thinking that we’re offering sincere medical advice.

We don’t want people to think that every system goes through and experiences the things that we experience.

We’re worried we may get something wrong on the podcast or share details that may give people the wrong idea about plurality.

Are these genuine reasons for us to stop working on the podcast/put it on hold? Or should we keep working on it and release it despite these shortcomings?

[ecstasydemon]

does anyone here know how to deal with grief

[can-of-w0rmz]

Sometimes I remember that my sanity is actually dependant on a few fictional characters from 200 years ago, like not a silly haha joke but that I genuinely don’t have any other support system or healthy coping mechanism other than reading about and engaging in fan content for these fictional Victorians, and then I am like “uh oh. Goodness me. I may be in a bit of a sticky situation. A pickle, if you will.”

Anyway ahahahah something something humorous tumblr post as a coping mechanism ahaha something something