#medication and maintenance

[animatedtext]

requested by laying-in-star-dust

[crimeronan]

been thinking about the rabies condition in writing lately, which is a GREAT post about stakes and characterization. basically exploring how if there's a 100% chance a character is doomed, then they can and will do extremely dangerous/damaging/contraindicated things for the slimmest hope of survival. which is one of my Favorite narrative devices

but while we're using health metaphors, i've been thinking about another somewhat complicated means of introducing character stakes, which i'm tentatively calling 'the autoimmune condition' for reasons that are. obvious

the premise itself is simple: the character has Something that they need to survive. they either can't live without this thing or they will lose something vital about themselves if they lose this thing. there is no replacement or alternative for the thing. what's most important are that the consequences for losing it are Extreme, rabies-condition-style

in the real life allegory, this is the immune system. which is great for being alive!

then the problem is introduced when this thing starts killing the character.

the character still needs it to live.

so: there is a 100% chance that you will die if you destroy the thing killing you. if you impair it through other means, there is a 100% chance of consequences, though the severity of those consequences is up to the author. (these are medication side effects in the real life allegory.)

if you do everything you're supposed to then you'll PROBABLY survive, but you're gonna have to play lifelong tug-of-war to balance everything, and you are often going to have to choose between two shitty options. bc there is no alternative.

this is a counterpart to the rabies condition in terms of stakes; with this condition, your character has to make complicated and difficult decisions about what they're sacrificing for their future. it's not the immediate life-and-death stakes of rabies, it's a slow decay instead.

what side effect consequences are they willing to take on?? and what are they NOT willing to take on?? where do their priorities lie in terms of symptom management?? what other solutions are they looking for?? what are they willing to sacrifice??

and perhaps most importantly: what exactly do they need to lose before they'll Accept the side effects / sacrifices that used to terrify them?? how high do the stakes need to be??

at what point is this character going to look back at the choices they've made up to this point, and realize that they no longer recognize themselves??

[shamebats]

The new episode of Matt Bernstein's A bit Fruity podcast, which had Aubrey Gordon of Maintenance Phase fame as a guest to discuss Ozempic, made so many really good points but the one I can't stop thinking about is how we're now in a spot culturally where people are becoming conscious of the fact that dieting & exercising doesn't do much in terms of weightloss, that's why the appetite suppressing drugs are so popular to begin with & why ppl pay so much money to be on them, but we still have to pretend that losing weight "naturally" with diet & exercise is the good & virtuous thing to do. So you have celebrities going yes I'm on Ozempic but I exercise 5 times a week! I'm losing weight the right way unlike the other LAZY fat people (who are also on Ozempic & losing weight the same as I am because the exercise doesn't actually contribute much).

It's really revealing how much of diet culture is just proving your worth as a human by making yourself miserable to the point where even when there's a solution that works much better than the "hard work" we're supposed to be putting in at the gym & with how we eat ever could, people will still insist that they both work just the same. Even if they've spent their entire life dieting & exercising but were never able to actually lose weight & keep it off until they started taking the drug. They know that if they went off the drug but kept up the exercise & dieting, they'd gain the lost weight back. They know that weightloss is not a natural process and that the body will reverse it without medical intervention.

But it's still too early for the medical system & the media to start admitting that dieting doesn't fucking work & they've been forcing it on fat people for no reason other than bigotry, traumatizing everyone & killing many in the process.

[blurred-antics]

the election happening when I am in my pre-period and have crippling pmdd is. well it's certainly something

[pioneer-10]

The main characters of my story, Connection Lost! I'm not going to post too many details atm as I'm still putting everything together, but I'm excited to share it with you all!

[karokawwo]

also recently ive gotten the urge to redesign kari since I've been thinking about him and his background a lot lately

[nerdynanny]

mfw i see a cringe ooc post i made over a decade ago.

[clonefandomevents]

Announcing Specialist Bingo Card!

This month's new Bingo is a little different to the others, in that there are no prompts to choose from. Instead, it will be the 25 different specialties the clone troopers have, and to make a fill you will have to create something for the specific specialty. They can be oc's or canon clones, as long as they suit each category.

Specialties are:

Snow, Sand, Flame, Dive/Aqua, SpecOps, Slicer, Heavy Guns, ARC, ARF, Commando, Medic, Pilot, Maintenance, CommTech, Bridge Crew, Riot Trooper, Paratrooper, Bomb Squad, Flight Crew, Cadet, Mess Crew, Trainer, Officer, Security, Shiny.

[snarp]

Kept hearing an irritating, high-pitched sound somewhere in the house since the 2nd day of floor work. It sounded like the wind droning in a cracked door or window, but I couldn't find the source. Finally figured out last night that it was the HVAC intake: the filter had gotten so choked with sawdust and other debris that one of the gaps had created a whistle.

[crimeronan]

I TESTED POSITIVE FOR LUPUS ANTIBODIES

[myrtaceaae]

I don't actually realise often how much anxiety I have because it's been my reality for like 15 years at this point.

But my therapist suggested today that possibly the fact that I'm constantly alert to triggers and to what my brain identifies as dangers is exhausting to me.

And like I never really thought that hard about it because it's my baseline normal but yeah. Much to ponder.

Anyways lmao I need to take PRN (anxiety medication) for the third time today haha

[stormyoceans]

MORK LOOKING AT DAY LIKE HE'S GIVING LOVE HE'S GIVING HUNGER HE'S GIVING DEVOTION HE'S GIVING YEARNING HE'S GIVING EVERYTHING

[little-eye-guy]

ohhhh this is about to be a real pain

[papookwrites]

Me: augh why does my body ache so much??

Also me: has not done the things that make my body functional for several days

*Headdesk*

[psychoticallytrans]

Me: where's that passive suicidal ideation coming from this time Me: wait I'm three days late on my shot. that'll do it.

[fvckw4d]

Still trying to come up with a somewhat professional way to say "hey, this should either be an entry level position or you need to pay $75 an hour because you want someone with a masters degree/multi year apprenticeship in a trade and 2+ years of experience, and the fact that youre trying to fill the position with someone who has the latter but will accept the pay of a former means your only applicants will be underqualified, be unable to land a $75/hr job for a fucking reason, or the position will just sit there unfilled for 9 months, or all three, which seems to be the case for you."