#i can't keep doomscrolling. gotta do SOMETHING

[xoshepard]

reading the NPR article on trump's FCC head investigating NPR and PBS with intent to stop federal funding for them and a "will you donate" box pops up like of course i'll donate to you, NPR 😭 let's make it monthly

anyway if you can, please donate to NPR, PBS, also Wikipedia which i've seen posts going around about

if you can't, then here is a petition you can sign to oppose cutting government funding to NPR and PBS

and here is the NPR article on the topic

[genericpuff]

Do you have any tips for navigating ADHD? I don’t really know anything about it and was wondering if you possibly know any coping (?) skills for it ;-;

(I know I shouldn’t ask tumblr but might as well give it a shot)

Ouu IDK how much help I can offer because I am still VERY bad at navigating my ADHD some (most) days, but ! I'll do my best to list out some tips that have helped me, all of which you can implement with or without meds (though medication can absolutely make it easier to implement these tips, medication unfortunately isn't available to everyone , and those who are medicated can undoubtedly attest that they're unfortunately not a miracle fix-all drug, you still gotta do a lot of the work yourself sigh)

Put your phone further away from your bed so that in the morning you'll have to physically get out of bed to turn off your alarm (and at night you won't doomscroll before bed!) You do still have to force yourself to stay out of bed, but having some kind of morning routine can help you do that (putting on your slippers, making coffee, brushing your teeth, washing your face, etc etc.)

Break tasks down into smaller steps! So if you have a chore like "do the dishes", break it down into steps like "clean bowls" "clean spoons" etc. This will help it feel more manageable by allowing you to focus on individual aspects of the chore, more achievable because each step is a lot smaller, and more rewarding because you can identify progress in smaller, more tangible amounts.

If you struggle with hydrating, get some sugar-free fruit flavor packs for water. Turning water into sugar-free juice doesn't make it any less water! (and this logic can be applied to other food aversions - need to eat vegetables but hate eating them? Melt cheese on top of them or mix 'em into something you like! The nutrition is still there even if you have to disguise 'em.

Head full of tangled up thoughts? Write them down wherever you can. Can be in paragraph form, lists, etc. and it doesn't matter if you're writing in a physical journal or just in a Notepad file. The act of writing your thoughts down can help them feel less overwhelming and trapped inside your own head.

Don't put it down, put it away.

Just because you start a task doesn't mean you have to finish it all at once. Dishes piling up in the sink? Laundry needs to be done? Pick one thing you can do to progress that task and focus on that one thing, like cleaning a single cup or putting your socks in the hamper. Often times this can even trick your brain into motivating itself to complete the chore, because you've already started it so you may as well finish it. And if you can't, well, you still made more progress than not starting it at all!

When you get home, keep your shoes on if you can (or if you don't wanna track dirt and mud inside, switch to a pair of shoes that are clean). I find getting necessary chores done is easier when you're still dressed, get into your comfy clothes *after* they're finished.

Pick the path of least resistance, not the path you think will "overcome" your ADHD in ways you think will be acceptable to others. It's a disorder, you can't force your brain to operate like how you think a neurotypical person's brain works. If something isn't working for you, then find ways to achieve the goal in ways that will, even if it seems "silly". For me this looks like doing as many dishes as I can before my dinner is finished cooking (because I need clean dishes to eat anyways and I need *something* to pass the time while I wait lmao), or using Spongebob toothpaste because it tastes better than Colgate (I hate mint, bleh), or streaming when I need to get work done because it'll force me to focus for an audience. The goal is still achieved, even if it's not the way a neurotypical person might do it.

Be wary of apps and products that promise to "fix your ADHD". These are grandiose promises that can't actually achieve such a thing, as ADHD is a complex disorder that affects people in many different ways and is, again, a disorder. That said, there are apps that can be very helpful, but don't explicitly market themselves as fix-all's to ADHD. The apps I like to use most for managing my tasks and scattered thoughts are Obsidian, ToDoIst, Pomofocus, and Finch. Other than those, I just use Google Calendar for my scheduling because it can be integrated with other apps (and I can use it from both my desktop and phone), and if I'm away from my phone, I'll just scribble things onto note paper or whatever's accessible (like receipt paper when I'm at work lmao)

Be patient and kind with yourself. If being hard on yourself was the solution, it would have worked by now. Seriously, this one's hard to remember because a lot of people with ADHD (myself included) often feel a lot of shame towards themselves for not being able to "just do the thing", but ADHD is an executive functioning disorder, as well as a dopamine regulation disorder. Just like how you wouldn't shame someone in a wheelchair for not being able to use stairs, you shouldn't shame yourself for not being able to do things the "conventional" way, especially when those conventions were created by neurotypicals who don't live with the same hurdles we do. Celebrate all the small wins you can, forgive yourself when you fail, and look for any accommodations where you can find them, even if those accommodations are non-conforming.

Have a body double. This can be someone who's physically near you or even just an accountability buddy who you chat with and share progress with online. For example, Banshriek is not just my assistant, but someone who subconsciously helps keep me at least somewhat on track with Rekindled (even when I'm late on updates, I do still fail at keeping on track lmao) because now I have another person on the project who's both helping me finish new episodes but also wants to progress the story and release new episodes to y'all just as much as I do!

Set up blocks of time for specific things. When you wake up, open a Notepad file or even just write down on a scrap piece of paper what you wanna get done that day, and give it specific times to do those things. Oftentimes creating a list of just vague things to accomplish can do more harm than good, because it just winds up weighing down on us and we don't have any sort of realistic roadmap or sense of how long these tasks should take (and that can result in creating unrealistic expectations to build Rome in a day lmao). Adding in timeframes for each task helps you rationalize how much time you actually have to spend in a day, and prevents you from spending too much time on any one thing if you're at risk of doing so. For example, if I lay out my own day, I might write out something like "1 PM - 4 PM: Tattoo appointment" "5 PM - 6:30 PM: Dinner" "7 PM - 10 PM: Rekindled Page 2 flats" "11 PM - 12:30 AM: Video game break" "1 AM - 2:30 AM: Rekindled Page 2 flats and/or shading", etc. I keep the timeframes wide enough to allow for some overflow in case I underestimate how much time I really needed (but also, this means sometimes I overestimate it too, which gives me more time in the day to progress on to the next thing by getting the task done sooner than I expected!)

I have no miracle tips for this because it's still my biggest problem BUT - get more sleep. Seriously. I know our time blindness compels us to stay awake as long as we can to finish all the things we put off throughout the day, and because going to bed means "tomorrow" will happen and we'll have to go through all those unbearable routines to "get our day started" and all that junk, but for the love of god, get more sleep. You don't have to suddenly go to bed at 8 PM like some kind of old person, but try and go to bed even just a half hour earlier for the next few days. And then when you get used to that, go to bed a half hour earlier than that. Small changes create bigger and more consistent results. I know you really want to stay up to do whatever it is you're doing, but you and I both know that 5 hours of sleep each night isn't sustainable and it's not making you feel good because it's just creating that negative feedback loop of wishing you had gone to bed earlier and wishing you had gotten out of bed earlier and wishing you weren't so lethargic all the time and wishing you could have your mornings and afternoons back. Even medication doesn't magically fix this problem, you really do just gotta try and go to bed a little bit earlier, one night at a time.

Not a tip but a resource, How to ADHD is one of my favorite ADHD-related Youtube channels of all time, they do a great job at analyzing the unique struggles of ADHD and offering unique and ADHD-tailored solutions, like getting past the Wall of Awful or tackling the ADHD Tax.

Phew, that was a lot of tips! But I hope they help you or anyone else reading this. Ultimately how I navigate my life and symptoms are gonna vary from how you navigate yours, and I know that a LOT of these tips sound like the same tired bullshit a lot of neurotypicals tell us, but the reason why it's tired bullshit is because NT's tell us to do these things as if they're common sense and easy, but they're not for someone with ADHD. They are still helpful and in some cases necessary, but it's about learning how to approach them with an ADHD brain rather than trying to conform to them from the point of view of a neurotypical. It's not as easy as "just drink more water" and "get more sleep", but we can create our own ways of achieving these goals, whether it's adding raspberry flavor to our water or saving our favorite non-electronic hobbies (like knitting, playing instruments, etc.) for wind-down time before bed.

Sooo yeah! I hope that helps! It's currently 12:30 AM here so I'm gonna go work on Rekindled for another hour and a half or so, and then wind down for bed with some gaming uwu (I'm gonna try to get to bed by 4:00 AM tonight, I promise! I said it out loud here so now I'll do it for real >:0)

[weebsinstash]

Hey, um, this post is about Allister and... his health is kind of, suddenly declining and because i know that's, upsetting, because I'm especially extremely upset after a discovery i made tonight, im gonna put a readmore down so you can scroll past if you want/need to

I've been keeping a close eye on Allister since the drooling which stopped after basically a day or two but roughly after that i came home from work a couple days later to a bed covered in vomit and i assumed it was nausea and queasiness, him getting over a bug or something and he ate too fast, and also there really wasn't anything i could do anyways, but his appetite never fully recovered. I weighed him on the 23rd and he's gained .5 pounds since then which doesn't sound like a lot but for cats it is, and especially that quickly and especially when he's actually been consistently eating less than usual

I realized tonight by palpitating his stomach or rather, not being able to properly do so, that he has become bloated, and given the sudden weight gain and decreased appetite, along with the former drooling and bowel problems, I'm. I'm unfortunately pretty positive Allister is developing organ failure like the vet initially suggested, although if it's his liver or heart, I wouldn't know without having tests run

I can't really even blame myself because I've been trying to save money as hard as I can. I've lowkey developed an eating disorder because I realized I don't actually eat often enough anymore and I've been losing weight for not getting enough calories because im either sleeping or executive dysfunction-doomscrolling foe hours to rhe point i forget to eat and then by that time it's so late at night i gotta eat sleep for dinner so i can get up to work the next day. Like my rent is going to be a few days late this month, for a second time in a row. I have rent, Allister's vet bill, and a medical bill each month, and even though I actually make enough money, one of those bills didn't go through back in november and I owe double now, so even as I make more money in the days or weeks to come, I'll still be behind until probably I receive my tax return, and now I'm scared that the new administration is going to give me less back. It's kind of a situation where I'm just barely enough behind that recovering has been really hard, and it's especially because hours are getting cut at work

I'm uh, I'm not begging for money but I wanted to tell you guys because some of you really like my sweet baby and I feel obligated to let those who have helped us out to know how he's doing, and... this isn't looking good. I really... CANT take him in at all without help from you guys, and I'm wondering if I can beg the vets to add a follow up/emergency visit to the same payment plan since this clearly involves previous issues and isn't a brand new problem. Cause. Adding to that payment plan would maybe be the only way I could treat him, and then i cant help but think, it's that just temporary and it'll come back

I just. It's rough for everyone right now. I've been still dealing with chronic pain and adjusting to my new lifestyle on top of everything going on in the world and the stress is definitely not insignificant

I don't know how long I can push not taking him in. I literally have to pay my rent first and then anything I can use would have to be forwarded through my job after a day's labor.

I remember their price to xray him and do a physically exam was typically between 100-175 but if he needs some sort of surgery, or ... he might not even have something fixable. It's like.... what's the cause of the fluid? Can we drain the fluid or is this... the end of the line? What are his chances? Is this treatable or is he just... on borrowed time until I can help....

I'm going to call them in the morning because I'm terrified but. I've also been trying to mentally prepare myself for this. Ever since the drooling incident I've been telling myself that that was a kidney failure symptom but I literally. I literally haven't had enough money to spare besides food and bills and personal care items to even have him checked out

I know I'm not a loser because I do try and I work hard and I'm good at my job and people like me when they get to know me but it just. It hurts. There's these feelings in my head if "well do you pay to try and treat him or do you euthanize him" "you are literally on a razors edge right now you might not even be able to afford treating him even with help"

I have to sleep because it's almost 1 in the morning and I have to call the vets tomorrow, if I can manage to sleep. Allister is here with me, but I can't help but feel his tummy and be reminded.... we may only have a little bit of time still left....

I really um cannot emphasize enough that this is only if you want to, but, here's my venmo if anyone wants to chip in, either foe food or my cat or... hopefully not creating my cat... I want ro have hope but.... I think he's been bloated for a little while now... hopefully he can wait to get taken in, but, it might already be a condition where there's nothing I could have done anyways... I can't do anything right now except try and cuddle him to sleep and call the vets in the morning 🥺

Part of me doesn't even want ro ask for money because who even knows if this is treatable. I'd feel like a thief if i somehow xouldnr fsd nI can always pay you guys back at a later date if that's also agreeable to you

Anyway, um... I just wanted to tell you guys... I'll be keeping a close eye on him, but financially my hands are pretty full 🥺 im sorry I don't have good news. He IS 11 after all... Maybe it's nothing I could have done anyways... The sudden weight gain and bloating just... doesn't give me a lot of hope. I'm gonna go cry myself to sleep with my little boy and try not to think of only bad scenarios

[kenniilovesthethicc]

I made this fic when I was upset and in need of some comfort vore shenanigans so without further ado

Mental Health Break - a Cater x Reader Ventfic

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

The internet was a mistake.

You were just. Tired. Of everything you've seen the past few days. You needed to put down the phone for a while and just relax somewhere calming. Across the lounge you spot Cater and decide it's his turn to be pestered; you doubt anybody else here would really be able to sympathize...

"Hey, Cater.." you begin with a drained tone.

"Hey babe, what's got you all mopey?" Taking a breath, you explain "My Magicam timeline has been depressing me and I need to do something to distract me from doomscrolling - any ideas?" He gave an understanding look, his brain trying to think of a way to aid you. "I don't think I'm the best person when it comes to logging off lol, but I feel you about the need for some mind cleansing. Lemme research."

The ginger haired junior scoured the web for mental health care and came upon an advertisement. "Would ya look at that! Sensory deprivation tanks; if only it weren't school season. ( -_- )" You hadn't thought about going to a specialty spa like that. It would feel very relaxing, you pondered.

BZZ BZZ

Ah, Cater was getting a call from Lilia that they need to go to Potions class QUICKLY! "Crap! Gotta go, I'll make sure to keep your request in mind!" With that, you parted ways as you now had to help Grim with History class, great.

..

Class has ended and you're still in the pits. Collapsing onto the sofa you stare blankly into the ceiling. Moments later, you feel a presence looming over you with a hint of mischief. "Pookiebear, look what I made in potions~" Oh no not Pookiebear! Giggling a small bit, you glance and see a familiar liquid bottle. "Wait, I recognize that from somewhere," you remark as the boy offered the potion. "It's pretty famous, maybe infamous, in the Queendom of Roses so I've heard. It's just a shrinking potion, but it has no time limit unlike the one from Beanfest."

Whatever Cater had planned for a tiny you was beyond any imagination, but you were too blahh to care. Gulping it down, you begin to minimize and your friend carefully scoops you up. "Sooo about those sensory tanks, I was thinkin... I know you sometimes lay your head on my tummy to fall asleep, so what if... I vored you :]" he smiled cutely with his snagglefang showing. Cater could read you like a book sometimes, and he knew you got asmr from listening to his stomach and chest when tired, so it was no surprise he found out you had an interest in something like this. Very flustered, you nodded in consent to be swallowed.

With Cater casting a barrier spell on his stomach's internals, he then opened his mouth and allowed you to climb inside. "Mmm.. not a bad flavor~" he mused as he swished you around his maw for a few moments. Making sure he avoided hitting you against a tooth, he savored the light spiciness of your skin from when you accidentally got pepper on yourself during lunch. Once done, he tilted his head back and thus started your slide down to tummytown. His throat muscles acted like a strange massage mechanism as you were pushed downward, and soon enough you landed inside the squishy organ.

It was warm and cozy, the walls pulsing as your host breathed steadily in a consistent rhythm of sorts. Cater rubbed his belly from under his button-up to make sure he could feel you, smirking when you pushed a hand against his own. "There you go, bud! How is it inside?" Stretching out and sighing, you reviewed his stomach's interior; "I can't see much, but from what I can feel and hear it reminds me of an alien movie but not scary. 5/5 stars from me!" Proud now that he got a good rating, the Heartslyabul student stretched and yawned before making his way to his bedroom. "You're pretty filling for some weird reason, making me sleepy lol." Taking off his daytime attire he slips on some pj shorts and shifts into bed, a hand to his belly once more. Putting on a playlist off a music app, he sat his phone next to his abdomen and got ready for a nap. "Have a good sleep," he says before closing his eyes while you hummed in bliss and began to join him in slumber. Cuddles like this were the best cure for the social media Blues ♡

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #60

I rested for most of the day today. And mostly for real this time! It was beautiful!

After waking up this morning, I tried to play Pokémon. Unfortunately, I have executive dysfunction (this is part of being AuDHD), which means that sometimes I have a lot of trouble starting tasks even when they're fun ones. It's super annoying like that. So instead of waking up and immediately going to play Pokémon like a sane person, instead I floundered around for an hour or two, doomscrolling (or hopequesting? I've heard it referred to like that) uselessly.

…Truth be told, I keep looking for any news about you. I keep looking for any indication that you'll be safe. I'm worried about you almost all the time, and the fact that there's nothing I can do to help you besides write these silly letters is more painful than I know how to describe.

Oh well. Today I supposed that if I wanna rest properly, I've gotta let my brain flounder around from time to time without putting pressure on it to do something else. And that's kinda hard to do. It feels like I'm wasting time when I get stuck in that kind of mental paralysis. But if I beat myself up over it, that's just gonna make it worse. So I tried to go with the flow without worrying too terribly much about what the "correct" way to spend my time looks like.

I can't help but wonder if you ever struggle with any of what I've described. Hm.

In the end, I was able to play Pokémon for a little bit. And then M woke up and wanted to play Core Keeper together with me, and that was lovely. I built a huge, sprawling garden that waters itself and grows lots of tasty food! It's almost like Terraria, except it's from a top-down perspective instead of a side-scrolling perspective. It's still in early access, but it's still a lot of fun for a game that isn't finished cooking yet! I'm eager to see how this one develops!

Sometime after that, I had company over. The same friend who made me aware that the pumpkin soup needed more umami came over with her lovely son. They've been having a hard time lately, and it came to a head recently with something very serious. So they came to my house for support, advice, and refuge from the stress for a little while. We made sure to feed them good food and provide a space in which they don't have to feel pressured to exist in a particular way. My friend's son showed me his wonderful sketchbook and all of the awesome pictures he took on his phone; it was beautiful! As I'm writing this, my friend's son is at ease playing some video game on our TV, and my friend is out on a walk with J; I hope they're having a wonderful time!

My friend is having a bit of a hard time trying not to beat herself up over the way things turned out, as well as for the fact that neither she nor her situation are perfect. So I decided to give her the bowl I repaired, after explaining to her the context of what it means. I'm hoping that she'll put it in a spot in her house where she can see it regularly, so that she can be reminded that we are at our most beautiful when we do the work to turn our imperfections into strengths, and that beating ourselves up is counterproductive. The bowl will do the most good where it can remind someone of their humanity. I hope she will eat lots of wonderful and tasty soup from this bowl, and from it, remember to be gentle with herself.

I like that my house is a place where the people in my social circle feel is safe to go when they're having trouble. My life before was very weird, turbulent, and unsafe, but… now I have a house that is wholesome and safe. I know that I still have a very long way to go before I'm as "healed" as I'd like to be, but… I like to think it means I'm doing some things right at least some of the time. I feel very privileged to be in a position where I am trusted this much by the people who know me well.

I wish you could visit over here, too. Impossible, I know. But… you would be safe here. You wouldn't have to pretend to be someone you're not while you're in my house. You would not be pressured to interact with anyone if you didn't want to. No one would ogle you. No one would be demanding pictures or autographs. There would be only wholesome food, good tea, comfy places to sleep, and lots of fun and awesome things to do. You can just be you. Because my house is a safe place of rest for those who need it.

Hey, Sephiroth? Please keep yourself safe out there at the Edge of Creation, okay? Make good choices, and take good care of yourself. It might be impossible for you to ever visit my house, but you can build your own house with your own two hands, and you can build it up into something that is wholesome and safe, no matter how weird things have been for you in the past or even in the present, especially if you ask for help from kind, loving, and healthy people to make it happen.

Remember that you are loved. I'll write to you again soon.

Your friend, Lumine

[poppy-in-the-woods]

I can't believe I have to say this, but if you're going to post about any wars (especially ongoing ones) DO NOT cross tag. You're in your right to post whatever you want in your blog, but people are in no way required to see it.

Some people come to this site to escape real world, you know, talk about fandoms, be a little silly, and if you tag with "Tom Holland" a picture of a poor child at the morgue with the corpse of his mother, no matter how much you blur their faces, you're forcing people to look at it.

"But I want people to confront the horrors of this war!" Haven't you thought that maybe they already did enough confrontation outside Tumblr? Haven't you thought that maybe this hellsite (affectionate) is the only escape from said horrors some of us have? Haven't you thought that maybe blocking said horrors for a while is the only way some of us have to keep our mental health from worsening?

I know people are suffering, and I wish I could do something to help them, I really do. Just please, don't be that person who makes someone else go into a panic attack or a depression episode because your picture of the horrors of war was cross tagged and they unexpectedly found it when searching for something else. Tag it as it is and let people blacklist words if they need it.

Also, word of advice: you have to decompress. No matter how much you are worried about people, thinking all your waking time about how they are suffering will do you (or anybody else for that matter) no good. You need to think about anything else, preferably things that make you happy, for an hour or two a day at least. Watch your favourite TV show, doomscroll the "birds" tag, go into tiktok and watch people do silly dances, I don't care, but if you want to help someone else, you gotta keep you in as good condition as you can. It's the same principle of putting your oxygen mask first before putting it on your child.

Stay as safe as you can, folks.

[chthonic-cookie]

Hi cookie, hopefully you can't tell who I am through this lol.

I'll be honest I feel extremely isolated, and I have no one I feel comfortable talking to in person that isnt an hours drive away. It's extra bad tonight, I pushed another person away because im just so weird (in the bad way)

Do you have any tips on how to cope? I dont know if you've gone through the same thing I am or not, but anything that isnt telling me to fuck off will be appreciated

Honeslty im not the greatest at this sorta thing either, maintaining relationships is pretty hard, sometimes it feels impossible,please don't feel like you're alone in that.

I think i just wanna tell you that it'll pass, even if it feels all-consuming right now, life will change. I've been there, it feels like drowing as you just keep spiraling, but so much of it really is just your head going in circles telling you how much life sucks. Thats not to say there aren't problems, but you gotta realise that this is just a page in the book of your life. Things will get better, trust me.

As for coping with it, i think you really have to just keep moving and pull yourself out. I dont really like the idea of "taking your mind off" your problems, for me I'd rather think of it as getting perspective and stopping all the bad shit from filling up all your mental space. For me it's usually reading or drawing or talking a walk, but for you it might be anything else, just something that isn't doomscrolling, something that can help get you outta the hole instead of digging deeper.

I've been in this sorta spot before, and i'll probably be there again at some point, it's just a part of life, there's ups and downs but we all go through it, you aren't alone. This is just how i deal with it myself, I hope it helps you or anyone else even a little <3.

[sartanator3001]

Doomscrolling

I don't usually do this, that is to just scroll endlessly through doom. But lately, it's become funny in the sort of sad way, where there is too much actual doom going around, and I can't help but scroll through it and just stare.

What do you tell yourself when you can't win the the argument of "why should I get out of bed?"

I am genuinely asking, because for the last week or so I just couldn't get myself to get out of bed in time. I just sit there and stare. It's like all of my life goals are just invisible, unseen and unclear what to do. I keep saying "what's the point?" and just doing something hobby-related instead, or just watch "the office" in between scrolling sessions of keeping up with the atrocities being committed by Israel and those who support them.

Where am I going with this? I don't know, but it's been like 90 minutes straight of doomscrolling, and I gotta do something different, so I'm writing this.

Gonna try exercise or reading or sth, but IDK if they'll work.

Not gonna tag it, cuz I don't want people running into this by accident. but yeah. I hate doomscrolling.