#the proactive solution is to read the tag and not read the fic because we know it will upset us | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

techmomma · 11 months ago

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There is a degree to which we are responsible for our emotions. And certainly, we are responsible for our reactions and behavior.

In situations that we have control, situations where a friend is hurting us, like yes, maybe they shouldn't be hurting you. But there are also actions you have to take on your part.

Think of it like an ocean wave. If you go to the beach and a wave surprises you and gets you wet, and you're upset by this, that is perfectly reasonable.

If you keep standing there, letting yourself get wet and get more upset, when you can move away, then that's on you. I mean, it's your choice to do so. If you don't like getting wet and you just stand there getting wet when you can take a few steps back, you can do so. But it's also unnecessary stress, and you give up your own agency. Saying "I can't control this" when there are very much parts you can control denies your own responsibility in this situation. You can't control the waves from crashing, but you can step away from them.

If you know that a friend is going to keep disappointing you, there are two different actions we can take here: a proactive, and a reactive action.

A reactive action looks like knowing they're going to disappoint you or upset you, they do so, and you react to this. Nothing changes, and it keeps happening, and you continue to be upset. Your anxieties remain unaddressed and continue to hurt you.

A proactive action looks like knowing they're going to disappoint you or upset you and taking the steps to mitigate stress in anticipation of this. And THAT can look like setting down a boundary, removing yourself from the situation (no longer participating in the thing that your friend disappoints you about or no longer asking them to do X when they won't), or accepting that they will disappoint you--meaning you are at peace with the idea of them disappointing you, not "I am going to continue letting them disappoint me but it's going to upset me every time."

It means addressing the source of your stress and what upsets you before it actually does. And like. That's hard! It fucking sucks!

Especially for those of us who've grown up in situations where we didn't have any choice but to be reactive, because oh I don't know, we were children and didn't have any other options. And now we've grown up into adults who feel like there's no other option but to sit there and take it. Like there's no other choice but to be stressed and upset.

Part of healing from this kind of abuse, managing our stress in proactive, responsible ways means we no longer settle anymore, for being hurt. "Just taking it" when people hurt us and won't change. And as adults, that is kind of our responsibility and no one else can really do that for you. That's kind of part of being emotionally mature, is understanding yourself, and being responsible with your own emotions.

We sometimes can't change what other people will do. But we can change what we do, in response. And we can take care of our stressors before they stress us out.

#for those who like to read fanfic:#the reactive response to seeing a fic with a tag that upsets us is to read the tag then the fic and be upset #and deal with the fallout of being upset #the proactive solution is to read the tag and not read the fic because we know it will upset us #or to read the fic and take the appropriate measures to emotionally support ourselves or lessen how upset we will be seeing the upsetting c #or say you read fic from an author who makes great stuff and sometimes you can read their work #but sometimes they throw out a fastball and they don't tag things properly and there's some things you can't read #you ask them to tag and they don't #you can continue getting upset every time they don't tag properly and you see things you don't want to see #or #you can be proactive #and either stop reading #or find a friend to read it for you and point out where the upsetting parts are #or do a browser search for specific words so you'll have an idea of where the upsetting material might be #or do some emotional buffering to prepare yourself #we can't control that they won't tag it #but we can protect ourselves from being hurt in the future

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triangularz · 18 days ago

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just a couple things about frustrations with searching for fanfics: doing the rant thing is so necessary and welcome on tumblr, but in terms of really, actually finding fics you enjoy, I think:

can anyone share fics or authors who write [character] oc/fluff/angst/lmnop? I've searched and I'm having a hard time finding anything

gets you to fic/author recs and gives authors more confidence to share that they write the very kind of thing the user is looking for, rather than:

I'm so sick of seeing [description] fics, nobody writes [character] oc/fluff/angst/lmnop

because that can be discouraging; the authors writing those fics can feel less seen, having done what they can to share their work via tags, self-reblogs or taglists. I've experienced that. what they write might not be the flavor you're looking for exactly, but they have an opportunity to put it out there (by commenting on your post or reblogging your post with their info) when they have a sense the user really wants to find particular kinds of pieces and read them

And again, for real we all have to rant, but if you're genuinely looking for those fics, (and you may not be which is fine) proactive language might help. or use both problem and solution language (yeah I'm a nerd phrasing it that way)

then reblog the fics or comment (yes! even just like! there I said it; it isn't satan's button) so those writing them are encouraged to write more of it ♥️

#hazel.etc

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