#positive behavior support

[autball]

Yes, the new-and-improved “positive” stuff still sucks.

(Image description: A 4 panel cartoon by Autball.

1: Two figures (one red, one yellow) are in an empty classroom. Yellow is putting something we can’t see on the wall and says, “My kid saw a reference to dunce hats in a Youtube video the other day, and she asked me what they meant.”

2: Same scene. Yellow grabs a blue bin while saying, “I told her what they were about and that they actually used to be a thing in schools, and she couldn’t believe it!” Red is carrying a poster over to the wall and says, “Oh man, yeah, so cruel.”

3: Same scene. Red is putting their poster on the wall and says, “And then there was a time when they’d make kids write lines over and over on the chalkboard about what they did wrong, in front of EVERYONE.” Yellow pulls a clothespin out of the blue bin and replies, “Ugh. So embarrassing, and not even helpful!”

4: Same characters, but we can now see what they’re been working on. They stand in front of a decorated bulletin board which has: a poster of a child sitting “properly” at a desk entitled “I’m Ready to Learn!;” a poster of the classroom rules; a rewards chart with the names of all the children in the class on it; and a rainbow colored clip chart covered in clothespins with the children’s names on them. While attaching a clothespin, Yellow says, “I’m so glad we don’t use public shame and humiliation in the classroom like that anymore.” Red, finishing up with the rewards chart, says, “Totally.”)

[stuffieautism]

i love you autistic people who can’t do anything outside of your special interest <3 especially higher support needs people. you’re not a bad person, and you don’t need to feel guilty or ashamed. regardless of if you’re not everything other people want you to be. autism is a disability. and i hope your special interest is bringing you joy!

[psychotic-tbh]

Huh, I don’t think I ever posted about the color-related coping mechanism I use

Basically I give myself three options for colors, one bright (orange, red, etc.), one easily found in nature (green, brown, etc.), and one neutral (white, black, grey). It’s okay if you need someone to help you choose!

Once I pick a color I look around wherever I am in that moment and try to list off things of the color I chose

You don’t have to count unless you want to, and it works almost anywhere!

If it doesn’t work the first time, that’s okay! You can do it a few more times (assuming it proves helpful for you. Everyone is different so it’s possible it won’t work for all)

I find it most helpful for anxiety, dissociation, and hallucinations

I also found this on my own, and outside of therapy

Sorry for the wall of text, I hope you’re all well!

[kyouka-supremacy]

We should talk more about Akutagawa seeing Dazai in Atsushi and being revolted by him, that's such a juicy concept to explore

[starryoak]

I think the reason I differ from a lot of Akechi fans (and I am sincerely a fan!) is that I don’t find his backstory all that sad or for that matter interesting. It might be because I see it more interesting analyzed as a warped reflection of Ken Amanda’s backstory rather than a unique story of its own. And his plan, I find it pathetic more than anything else, sad only in its level of sheer stupidity, shortsightedness and miserable ineffectuality of self obsessed teenager-hood. But that’s what’s compelling about it and him! in my eyes, what’s interesting and unique about his character and has the potential to tell new stories that haven’t been done before has nothing to do with his pain or his redemption, except when kept in conversation with the undeniable fact that his plan was an ass-backwards idiotic and selfish plan fueled on nothing but spite by a deeply self-centered child who grew into an egotistical young adult without any reckoning of how completely stupid and impossible it all was.

[sveetbabied0ll]

i forgive myself for all the times i begged to be loved by people i didn’t realize couldn’t care less about me. for all the times i tried to wiggle myself into the hearts of people who didn’t want mine. for all the times i allowed myself to be hurt, betrayed, and treated poorly because i wanted love more than safety. i forgive myself for doing more harm to myself than anyone else ever could. i forgive myself for seeking the love from others that i could have been giving to myself the whole time.

[trichy-jadie]

Reblog this if you want to show trichotillomania awareness!

[benjaminallhope-fulltimemind]

I'm so sorry that you've been getting anon hate. Nobody deserves to be told what you're being told.

Even though I don't support Lily I don't think any of her fans or even she deserves this treatment.

Thank you so much and yeah it's perfectly okay to not like a YouTuber, hell people disliked Dream and for some reason they had to justify their dislike when that isn't the case. While people have a deeper parasocial hatred of Lily the same rules apply, in fact I have an idea that the more you hate someone the more likely you are to believe and propagate accusations, I'm using Dream as an example again because he was someone who had horrible accusations levied against him that people believed uncritically and it took an entire hour long video to disprove everything. So yeah thanks for the support give me a like and a follow if you could I'd appreciate it.

[autball]

I just got done with my kid’s annual homeschool evaluation, which means it’s the anniversary of when I pulled them from school. 

This right here is from the last meeting I had with the school. Spoiler alert: their plan did, in fact, not work, and they suspended my kid within the week for behavior that was a direct result of said plan being completely inappropriate for the situation.

The real problem was that they were being bullied, constantly. The real problem was sensory issues that no one wanted to accommodate. The real problem was that my kid was PDA in one of the demandiest places on earth, school.

The real problem was that the school saw my kid’s completely understandable reactions to their completely distressing and unsupportive environment as “the real problem.”

And this is the problem with behaviorist approaches. More often than not they assume the problem is in the kid, not their environment. (This is especially true in schools where lack of resources leads them to do everything they can to avoid accommodations by putting the onus on the child to “adapt.”) More often than not they don’t even attempt to ask the kid what’s up. More often than not the “function” they assign is bullsh!t, and so is their attempt at a solution.

So yeah, happy homeschooling anniversary to us. I only wish I had put a stop to the trauma sooner.

(Image description in Alt Text.)

[whumpfish]

The true psychotic experience is loads of people liking your posts about your experience with psychosis but never reblogging them

[unsolicitedadvicecatlady]

It takes exposure and experience to evolve and grow. New is different, intimidating, a little scary. Change is hard. Growth takes a lot of breaking down what you were to become something more. It doesn't have to be a lessening or a weakening. How do you let your exposures shape your experience? Do you continue to experience joy, bliss, ecstasy? Or do you let every new exposure and circumstance dictate your life's experience? Do you continue to be determined, steadfast and resolute to enjoy whatever this world throws at you to deal with?

CAN YOU ENJOY YOUR LIFE?

[revenantghost]

I’ve never been a part of a fandom with so many queer (and especially genderqueer!!!) headcanons, but Trigun is absolutely slaying in this department and everyone is so right and valid

[gayvampyr]

Do you support prison abolition /paying prisoners a living wage / making being able to vote more accessible to everyone?

I like your stances and opinions and your jokes but I'm genuinely curious on this one.

(This is inspired by some of the comments under one of your posts talking about how we should just make democracy more livable under capitalism, and while I disagree with that being the ONLY thing we need to do, it does kinda make me think about how many people think we need to get better without abolishing prisons or at least treating our prisoners better than we are treating them currently.)

hi! i'm not sure which post you're referring to but I'm actually anti-capitalist. I think we need to dismantle capitalism as a system because it is inherently inhumane, working exactly as intended and therefore cannot be "fixed" without restructuring it entirely from the ground up; the devaluation of human labor and environmental destruction for profit is not a bug, it's a feature. i could delve into the kind of economic system that i think should replace it after dismantling it, however it's more of a thought exercise and until it becomes a plausible reality, i would rather focus on how we can make capitalism livable for the time being because we have no other choice. for example we could start by lowering rent, instituting a 4-day work week, and establishing support networks for homeless people. i'm not an economist so it's not like i have all the answers but according to the results from other countries who have applied these practices, it improves quality of life and the economy significantly.

as for prisons, i'm pro-abolition. you can check out my prison abolition tag for more information, but essentially prisons exist in this day and age as an industry that profits off of slave labor. many of our laws and their enforcers unfairly target minorities and lower class people, and the denial of convicts the right to vote is just another way our government strips vulnerable communities of their political power, autonomy, and supposedly inalienable rights. aside from the conviction of innocent people and people who did commit a crime but ultimately did no harm, i don't think it's the right of any individual (or government, for that matter) to imprison others. i think people tend to forget that "criminals" are human beings and deserving of the same rights as everyone else, and it is human nature to make mistakes. the important thing is the opportunity to do better. militarist propaganda has done an incredible job of convincing us that convicts are amoral and undeserving of our sympathy, turning society in general against them and destroying any sort of safety net they might have had or needed otherwise. and people are too busy clinging to the notion that criminals are subhuman and deserving of whatever punishment is dealt that they can't see that this is a slide into fascism, and that they can just as easily become "other" should they find themselves on the receiving end of the system. we are very close to living in a surveillance state, which means any minor offense or slip-up has the potential to completely decimate your chances at getting a job, applying for college, getting a loan, receiving housing, and especially being able to have a say in elections. it also makes you more likely to be arrested again on account of "suspected illegal activity", so your record follows you around for the rest of your life.

sorry this got so long but yeah, essentially capitalism and the prison industry are inhumane and should be abolished.