#mania /

[shrimpbat]

rrrrrrromance

[why-i-love-comics]

Venom War: Deadpool #2 (2024)

written by Cullen Bunn art by Rob Di Salvo & Dono Sanchez-Almara

[paytato435]

writing some of my favorite lyrics on my jeans part 1!

"About to go Tonya Harding on the whole world’s knee"

[deep-dark-fears]

Late night searches. A fear submitted by Jackie to Deep Dark Fears - thanks!

You can find original art in my shop!

[goodtimeswithlife]

I would say Joel has actually gone insane, but he’s already insane to begin with

[giritina]

A small thought for disability pride month... There's a stereotype/myth/common perception that mental health meds make people's art worse. Sometimes, it's portrayed as people being incapable of making art at all. Other times, they simply don't have anything interesting to say now that they're "happy." Some people even avoid going on meds because they worry about not being able to make art.

I want to share some pages of a comic I made during a manic episode, before I was on any proper medication.

I think this comic is very interesting, very raw and unique, but this was my attempt to be understood by other people. I made this art thinking that other people would know exactly what I meant by it. I thought this was incredibly clear, that it would communicate everything I was going through and had experienced without any ambiguity. When people didn't react how I wanted, when they couldn't parse it in the way I intended, it hurt me. Here was my best attempt to be understood, and I remained alone.

Now I'll show some comics I made after being on a mood stabilizer/antipsychotic.

You can say what you like about the artistic merit of it compared to that raw, abstract work I made before, but what matters to me is that I was actually able to connect to other people through this art. When I showed this work to people, their reaction was in line with what I intended. They saw part of me. I made it to show a side of myself I was incapable of expressing without art, and when people read it, they actually saw that side of me.

Without medication, I was trapped in my own world. I couldn't even begin to fathom how to connect to another person because we weren't using the same vocabulary. You might be "interested" or "compelled" by my suffering, but part of that interest comes from the mystery of my delirium. No matter how unique the result, it still represented a failure of intent. Learning to make art again after exiting that delirium was difficult, but I promise you it was and is worth it.

[herpsandbirds]

Swallowtail Moth (Mania lunus), family Sematuridae, Nicuragua

photograph by Jaime Navarrete

[mariposas8494]

Haha yasss

[tsunamis-for-uzumaki]

"mania is a bad album because there's pop '" don't care + didn't ask + I was just an only child of the universe + but then I found you

[tombstoneswerewaiting]

something about how ioh, folie, mania, and smfs are all connected and i’m not normal about it

[traumakid-hideout]

An episode of mania almost always always always starts out so euphorically, makes you feel like you’re on the perfect drug, makes your confidence and motivation sky rocket and has you romanticizing all the fun it baits you with. It feels so amazing, you feel like nothing can hurt you or get to you.

Then the irritability comes, genuine rage, such an uncomfortable and overwhelming increase in libido, dangerous impulses, social behavior to be humiliated from by the time you crash, severe sleep deprivation that disorients the fuck out of you the longer you go without it, without even feeling tired at all. But feeling completely out of control. And if it escalates, Lord help you. Hallucinations, bad paranoia, black outs, substance abuse (or relapse if you happen to be recovering), delusions, everything that could get you into a psych ward. It isn’t fun at the end and any pleasure you feel is completely illusionary.

The worst part is I still normally never want it to stop. Because the depression after, which gets so ugly and terrible the longer, more intense the mania is, is something I’m not looking forward to at all. That, and mania can really sometimes convince you that you love it. I’m not wanting to go there though, because I have a lot to lose. Even if I don’t lose anything, I’m tired of this cycle and just can’t afford to desire it anymore. So I’m managing where I can, but wow it’s just scary to watch it take you higher and higher into it, and further and further away from yourself.

This is precisely why I despise any sort of stigma toward bipolar disorder. It’s so misunderstood, misquoted, and mistreated. I just really want and need some help. My hands are so sweaty and shaky, my heart and my mind are racing, I can’t stop talking, I can’t eat. I can’t focus, I can only fixate. And it’s just so overwhelming already.

[fu11-t1mepr0b1em]

When are we as a society gonna stop acting like mania has a single skip?? 🧍‍♀️

[ear-to-the-speaker]

Anyone else thinking about how Pete wrote “confidants, but never friends; were we ever friends?” and “part time soulmate, full time problem” and “all your flaws are aligned with this mood of mine” and “you say please don’t ever change, but you don’t like me the way I am” and “I’m struggling to exist with you and without you” and “call you up and demand you have no fun without me” And “the chemistry is a mess, it seems” and “I got all this love I’ve got to keep to myself” and “if there were any more left of me, I’d give it to you” and “let me, let me trash your love”and “i think I’ve been going through it, and I’ve been putting your name to it” and “awash in your love, falling in and out” and “I never meant for you to fix yourself” and “baby we should have left our love in the gutter where we found it” and “give up what you love before it does you in” and most especially “what is there between us, if not a little annihilation?”. You guys get it right.

[fallasleepatthedisc0]

[attackedastoria]

I'm sifting through the sand, sand, sand, sand, looking for pieces of broken hourglass...