#silly symptoms

[nonbinarymlm]

We Need to Accept that Silly Things Can Hurt People

Please allow me to ruminate a bit more on mental health on this blog. I have ADHD and OCD, both disorders commonly stereotyped and conflated with minor, silly behaviors like yelling SQUIRREL when you see a squirrel and organizing things by color. These stereotypes can often minimize and erase the genuine difficulties and harm that these conditions can cause. That’s very true, and it often causes intense sensitively and knee-jerk denial around stereotypes around this. I don’t think that’s necessarily the best reaction, because sometimes people can have symptoms very similar to these stereotypes.

I think we need to accept that silly things can hurt people. Silly, ridiculous symptoms can devastate people’s lives. People shouldn’t have to react into their painful past and trauma to get people to take their symptoms seriously when those symptoms are silly on their face, because that turns things into a pain competition and can result in gatekeeping how much people must suffer before their seemingly ridiculous symptoms get taken seriously.

I think we just need to, as a society and culture and social norm, accept that silly things can genuinely, sometimes intensely, hurt people. Yes, I do have the impulse to tell an animal’s name when I see that animal, and yes it’s part of my symptoms that makes it harder to me to drive and hold conversations and do basic functioning. Yes, I do worry about incredibly tiny and silly things, that the world’s tiniest cut means I’m literally dying, and this has at times been incredibly miserable to live with and severely inhibited my functioning and nearly lost me a job. Also I’m going to joke about it sometimes because it’s funny. I’m not going to find a joke about it from a stranger with no OCD funny, because they have no idea how much pain it can cause me.

Sometimes these conditions are absurd in ways that are funny. That’s true and people with the conditions should be able to joke about it. But everyone needs to understand, just because a symptom is absurd doesn’t mean it can’t also devastate you and ruin your life. So if you don’t have these conditions and aren’t super close to someone who has them, I think you should be sensitive and avoid joking even if it seems silly and funny. I think there is where true destigmatization lies: accepting that the silly brain can also really hurt.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

when you dissociate and don't remember travelling to an unexpected place but you're still thinking about fish. call that being in a fugu state

[moominvalley-state-of-mind]

Okay it’s like midnight but is it a nurodivergent or aroace thing to be like why is *insert action* romantic/sexual

Edit: okay so this was poorly written cause it was super fuckin early and i wanted to clear sum stuff up + I have no clue how to like idfk pin a rebog or smth anyways

I know I'm autistic, so im just wondering if this is something that i should expect from having ASD or if it could ALSO be a sign that I could be aroace

Yeah thx :]

[bookshelfdreams]

americans learn what the middle ages are challenge

[scri--bble]

Weak. Something's wrong with his left eye.

[vixensofdeath]

don’t trust me while driving I’m either gonna run people over, drive off a cliff, or crash all on purpose too

[nightmun]

Here's a few more goofy Connectifia related sketches! Also introduction to Kit since I've barely talked about it in general. Basically Kit is Haniel's version of Connectifia (Haniel gets to join the sentient virus gang YIPPEE). Kit takes the form of a little spicy kitten in Haniel's head who is responsible for their poor reaction to other forms of the virus. Kit is very scared of and hateful towards other Connectifias, and in the process of being angry ends up inadvertently hurting Haniel, causing their sick-like symptoms. Haniel isn't aware of Kit at first, only learning about it after seeing it in dreams several times after an event where they nearly die messing with Connectifia. At first they think Kit is some kind of monster but they eventually learn that it's just a scared little kitten of a creature. Kit has the ability to affect technology around Haniel, so once Haniel befriends their little brain cat they're able to use Kit's powers and control technology from afar.

Hope you enjoy this little intro to Kit though! Also small cameo from @pokeblog123's Connie!

One more drawing below cut (spoiler for mild eye strain):

[symptomsofdeceit]

Hey,I just finnished your demo,and i can't wait till the full game is out!The plot is so good! I just wanted to ask,,Is Nalis inspired by anyone?His i want your full heart attitude reminds me alot from Yuzuru Saeki from Collar x Malice lol.

Hello, & I’m so glad that you enjoyed the demo!!

You’re completely right with this actually 💕

Kei Okazaki & Yuzuru Saeki are two of my favorite characters ever. Thaumo is lightly inspired by Kei, and Nalis is lightly inspired by Saeki.

They obviously have a lot of differences too! A lot of Saeki’s issues come from being way too empathetic, while Nalis’s come from not being empathetic at all. I actually think Saeki would hate Nalis xD but they could understand each other’s desire to feel their MC’s hate at least!

[venompeach]

Sketching wit symmetry tool cuz symmetry is my enemy

[some-pers0n]

I think Mastermind should've been a giggly evil bastard who laughs maniacally and enjoys doing his little sciency things a bit too much. As a treat.

[icewindandboringhorror]

sometimes looking at like Self Help Strategies lists for the symptoms I'm having is always just like:

thing that I already do

thing I have tried 10 times

thing I already do

thing that I don't have the money to do

thing I already do

thing I've been doing since I was 10yrs old to no avail

thing that is impossible given my situation

thing that doesn't apply to me

thing that I already do

thing I have already tried

hrmm, oh wait, maybe finally- OH, yeah.. okay. thing that I already do but it was just phrased slightly differently

thing I have already done

[lacunazai]

the disorder faking in this generation is genuinely wild. like.

[adhdandcomics]

adding to my tags because i’ve been thinkin a lot about the post i just reblogged and have more thoughts:

i’ll be real, the more i saw ‘hey adhd influencers are so annoying’ the more i worried that i was unconsciously contributing to the spreading reputation of adhd folks as annoying and over-pathologizing every symptom they experience

and then i realized. i am not a goddam influencer or life coach or representative. obviously i have some obligation as someone who cares about myself and the people that like my comics to not spread harmful ideology or blatant misinformation but i never intended myself to be a “’increase your productivity!!’ blog OR a ‘if you have XYZ you have adhd!’ blog. and i do this for fun, and originally started this blog bc i had a lot of internalized shame and self loathing about my adhd and thought if i could make it funny i might have less of that. let’s get real! and it worked!

i’ve obviously done this kind of thing— (hey these symptoms might be adhd!) a lot before in my life & on this blog, but there’s more to it than trying to be an “influencer” or whatever. a term that didn’t even exist when i started this blog!

i felt very isolated trying to find out if i had any mental problems & what have you originally because of large advice (etc) blogs with staunchly anti self Dx views at the time

so i overcorrected when i DID get dxed and tried to validate everyone who was like me. and of course. not the best course of action always for the ol mental health. tried to be the source of positivity and jokes that i didn’t see because the online adhd presence was near non-existent.

and anyway. i make a lot of fun of myself & the way m brain works in my comics obviously but it is not my obligation to... how do you say.... not be annoying online.

because if folks interpret MY little jokes as a strict guide to diagnosis. that’s on them, really, not me. i also believe “making adhd your entire personality” is a non-issue. so what if people find out they have it and get over excited with identifying as adhd. saying this as someone who DID do it. criticism of this gives the same vibes as people being annoyed that young queers make “being queer” their whole personality. im very obviously more than a guy with adhd, and id reckon other adhd comic artists are too. (im friends with a lot of them!) it’s fine to post about it online.

anyway. i just don’t take myself too seriously and i’m a comic artist for myself first! and you know what, i’ve been considered annoying my entire life. what do i care if a few more folks think i’m annoying. neurotypical or not

[threepoint14art]

weird cat

absolutely weird cat

[computerboyboobs]

hi ..

[certainlyceleste]

i always thought i had adhd but i got tested and got a negative. in retrospect i believe that it was a false negative and so does my therapist but at the time i assumed that i was just neurotypical and needed to suck it up.

then fairly recently in the grand scheme of things i met my boyfriend and he is autistic and through lots of observation he came to the conclusion that so was i, but since i had been tested for adhd and exist in an environment where we don’t look out for neurodivergence i didnt believe it. but then i really thought about it and came to the conclusion that yes, im adhd, and yes, im autistic.

looking at my life through that lens explains a lot, and helps me cope with a lot of Previously Unexplained Phenomena that i had to deal with. before, i just thought that it was all me being messed up in some way, that i should just itnore the problems because i was, externally, doing well. but i always knew something was up, and finally figuring out what was incredible for my mental health.

then, i see a whole bunch of discourse about self-diagnosis. i cannot get a diagnosis for a plethora of reasons, so it is likely that i will only ever be self diagnosed. people who say that self diagnosis isn’t valid are attempting to take this away from me and other similar people, and it is horrifying that some people can be so out of touch with reality that they think that self diagnosis isn’t a useful tool and that nobody who doesn’t have an official diagnosis is valid.

i shouldn’t have to wrestle with myself about why i can’t understand people, or why i can’t deal being in some clothes or bright lights or dense sounds. self diagnosis has helped me understand who i am and it’s wonderful and you can’t take that away from me