#this post is about having an anxiety disorder

[scrumpledorph]

Want to add a little here as an example from my personal life. I'm fairly confident, if not officially diagnosed (within an antipsych context, I would certainly hope that's not considered an undermining of my argument) that I have a delayed sleep schedule. When left to my own devices, I tend to gravitate towards a very late sleep schedule (five a.m. to one p.m.).

However, because society is de facto structured around being awake in the morning for things such as doctor's appointments, school, and most obviously employment - I can't stay on that schedule without seriously inhibiting my ability to do things that I need to do to survive. I'm in a class right now that starts at eight thirty every morning, and it's an hour away - so I'm in bed by ten pm the night before to be awake at six.

I get by presently with the side effects of an anti-anxiety medication I take that also makes me deliriously groggy, but even with that unnatural assistance to my sleep - if I get eight to nine hours of sleep at a time my body is fighting me not to sleep during, I will be plagued with restless, fitful bouts of sleep that are peppered with nightmares about sleeping through my alarm, and be struck with a general lethargy for the duration of the day. (I do not take any stimulants to mitigate these effects)

This isn't a disorder because there's some incurable problem I have. I know the cure, and it's letting my sleep schedule orient itself closer to going to bed at five a.m. and waking up around one p.m. Society just refuses to accommodate that solution.

I can't find jobs that are primarily in the afternoon to evening where I live. There are blue collar jobs with fixed schedules that start anywhere between seven and nine a.m and often end around five, part time retail and customer service work that jerks you around anywhere within a twelve hour window, or jobs I'm not qualified for.

Even if I could, the knock on effect of working those hours would be to obliterate my ability to socialize with my friends, whose schedules loosely coalesce between noon and midnight. So, I'm left with imperfect solutions, none of which satisfy me. Presently, the solution is 'be unemployed', which comes with the knock on effect of leaving me alienated from my community and entirely dependent on my parents, who I'm lucky are financially stable at present.

This is not a problem because there's something 'wrong' with me. I'm capable of getting restful sleep, either by taking more of it or by taking it at odd hours. It merely doesn't fit into the expected routine of segmenting the day into three chunks of eight hours. The way society is structured, and its unwillingness to make room for people for whom that structure doesn't work, makes it a problem.

That's the heart of the argument. I know I haven't stated anything that wasn't stated in the original post, but hopefully grounding it with a walkthrough of how it manifests in real life will provide clarity to some.

what do u think ab the whole ‘mental illness wouldn’t exist under a different political economic arrangement’ line of thought

this is a really common point of misunderstanding with regards to both anti-psych critiques and the 'social model of disability'. although there are some specific forms of affective distress that would probably be drastically reduced or eliminated in a communist society (for example, stress and alienation that people experience as a direct result of poverty), anti-capitalist critiques of psychiatry are not promising to eliminate all mental / emotional suffering through political action.

rather, if you hear someone say that 'mental illness' per se wouldn't exist in a communist society, they're usually making the following argument: all humans experience distress, including mental distress, and have limitations, including mental and emotional ones. what makes these things disabling, or an 'illness', is living in a social context in which we are denied support or accommodations for them, and are expected to function in specific ways and conform to specific social expectations, particularly standards of capitalist productivity. in a non-capitalist society where people are valued intrinsically rather than on the basis of economic productivity, we should provide for one another and accommodate each other's unique needs and experiences.

therefore, things we currently identify as 'symptoms' of 'mental illnesses' (eg, anxiety, hearing voices, self-injury, &c) would still exist as part of the spectrum of human experience, but would not prevent us from having our material and social needs met. rather than (as we do now) assuming a very specific set of experiences and abilities as a 'baseline', with a wide range of other behaviours designated as pathological aberrations, we would expect human mental experiences to be varied, including sometimes in ways that are potentially distressing or that limit certain abilities and functionality. so, this line of critique isn't saying that the experiences we currently identify as 'mental illnesses' would all vanish outside of a capitalist context, but that we would treat them as value-neutral variants in the incredibly wide spectrum of human experience, and would create a society that is not hostile to them, or to providing for people's many and varied needs.

[galaxyedging]

Personal post TW:anxiety, depression, disordered eating.

I'm openly about my struggles with anxiety and depression. They stem from my ND conditions and my medical ones.

The one thing I'm not so open about is my disorder eating. I am a binge eater. I have a compulsion to eat sugar and junk food even when I'm not hungry. I plan my day around making sure I have access to junk food. When things are really bad, I will get stressed out if I don't have at least two different types of food to binge even if I have a large amount of one.

If I try to cut down on food, it is all I think about. It changes my moods. I become stressed and agitated. I can't rest until I eat again. I feel empty and starved even after food if it isn't junk or sugary.

I don't normally speak about it because I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed of my lack of self-control. I tried to reach out for help and was dismissed by my GP.

That was my rock bottom. That's when I decided to stop letting the battle overwhelm me. I stopped being ashamed and started being kind to myself when no one else would. I unpicked all my needs and health issues and put things in place.

For my poor interoception, 2-3ltrs of water a day so I don't confuse hunger and thirst.

For my ADHD: Ashwagandha to help curb my cortisol levels. A low dose of SSRIs to keep my serotonin up so I don't crave quick fixes.

I take medication and supplements to manage my medical conditions so I don't feel tired or sad and go for quick fixes for energy or to cheer me up.

I don't eat any of my trigger foods. (I've found that if I need a treat, ice cream doesn't set off my need for more sugar.) I prioritise protein to keep my energy levels steady.

I keep away from my usual 'all or nothing' mentality. If I slip, I get back to it as soon as possible. If I can't exercise, I don't let my nutrition slip.

Every day is still a battle. Some are worse than others, but I'm hopeful that it will get easier with time. Last time, I made it to 90 days without over half of these things in place.

[shybreadgarden]

The problem is I’m an apex predator who acts like a prey animal. Ya get it? I have forward facing eyes and long range stamina and the ability to make tools but I act like everything is going to kill and maim and harm me. I think I should get into knitting.

[ewwww-what]

thinking about how difficult it must’ve been for Adaine to navigate her disorder without any support from any adults, and how jawbones reassurance (confusing and intense as it was) took an absolutely massive weight off of her back. Like sometimes just knowing that someone actually hears you is enough to make life easier.

[orpheuslament]

[shouts-into-the-void]

No, actually, my pet peeve is when I am consistently very upfront and transparent about the fact that I'm not this super sweet angel of a person and I have Severe Mental Health Issues and instead of listening people decide that they somehow know better, only to turn around and get pissed off at me when I turn out not to be a super sweet angel of a person and show symptoms of severe mental health issues—

[takemetodragonstone]

okay i’m going to be a bitch for a second but hear me out. i hate posts like this. i hate them so fucking much. they’re branded as “self-care” but they just assume so much. and if the things they’re assuming as givens happen to not be true for you, they make you feel even worse.

“everything that has ever felt like a hurdle, you’ve passed through”. except what if you haven’t? what if life has knocked you down, and you still haven’t figured out how to get back up? what about us?

i’m still afraid of the same things i was afraid of ten years ago (and five years ago and two years ago). i haven’t overcome anything. i haven’t pushed through. i’m alive, but that’s pretty much all i have going for me in terms of survival. i’m actually probably worse off than i was ten years ago.

posts like this have a place in the discussion of mental health, i’m not denying that. if this kind of thing makes you feel better, that’s great. i’m genuinely happy this resonates with so many people. i’m just exhausted with seeing this kind of message presented as The standard of mental health everywhere. this “look how strong you are! look how far you’ve come!” message just rings hollow to me. idk i just think when it comes to mental health we need to get more comfortable talking about people who genuinely aren’t progressing and “overcoming” too.

[starcharmed]

i hate when people write swap au's and don't give a character the illness or disorders they have and/or have symptoms of in canon because . just because things are different or better in the other universe does not mean things like that just disappear 😭😭😭😭😭👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽

[inevitablestars]

the stars that bind us, eighteen

He knows that he needs space, he just doesn’t like it. He doesn’t want Regulus to isolate himself. It’s not that he doesn’t trust their friends, he just knows he would help, that he cares more than anything and that can be enough. He just wants to hold him and tell him that everything will be okay. He’ll just have to wait. For the storm to pass, for the dust to settle, for the tide to roll out, for the fire to go out.

happy two year anniversary to this fic... starting writing it in 2022 and posted the first chapter in 2023 (for gabbys birthday!! gonna keep saying happy birthday ily) and now here we are years later and its not done - goal is to finish this in 2025, no idea if ill be able to but i want to!

[void-chara]

My gift for the @technoblade-gift-exchange !! i was assigned to @simplepotatofarmer who asked for dsmp rivals duo. i hope you like it Loyal!

rambling about headcanons, designs, and my process and stuff under the readmore, because i wanna talk about it but dont want the post to be super long !!

i had originally planned to not have a background and then at the last second i decided to speedrun drawing one in a few hours so um. quality difference but its fine. also unrelated but im pretty sure everything about how i draw animals and anthros makes it very obvious i used to be in the warrior cats fandom lol. anyway onto the designs!!

the gold on techno is scars from the totem at the execution, which i think is a pretty common thing for techno designs. he isnt supposed to be a piglin, but rather similar species of anthropomorphic pig. also his mane and tail fluff are naturally brown but he dyes them pink ^_^ so cool !! um. i maaayyy have forgotten the crown until i was way too far into the piece to add it. haha. oops. pretend its missing because. uuh. hes in a casual outfit. "but he still has the cape" yeah its comfy. "but dream has a mask thats not casual" dream is dream he does Not relax fully ever. see entirely intentional i would never make a mistake.

dream is an original shapeshifter species i came up with because i couldnt decide what i wanted him to be. i havent decided on a name for the species yet but i plan to make almost every solid-color or nearly solid color mcyt into this species. theyre mostly involuntary/unconscious shapeshifters. so like they change slowly over weeks or months to adapt to their surroundings, with little conscious control. basically i wanted him to be like five different things so i shoved them together lol, rabbit ears but in a pattern that looks like an axolotl, a cool tail, TOE BEANS tho you cant see them. this was actually the first time ive ever had a dream design im happy with so thats really nice.

i um. i made full use of my time lol, i spent a bit over a week on the lineart, another week on the coloring, and maybe a week and a half on rendering. unless i suddenly became shit at math(which is possible) that adds up to roughly the amount of time i had to work on it. im really proud of myself actually since i usually take a while to do art, and i wasnt sure i would be able to make something id be happy with in this amount of time. but i did! woah!! this was my first time participating in a fandom gift exchange and it was so fun, and also helped motivate me to draw more instead of getting distracted like i usually do (classic adhd moment) lol. anyway super cool!!

Loyal if u decided to read all this for some reason then again i really hope u like it!! u are so cool and i really love ur rivals duo opinions and creations so i hope u like this! i know theres been shit happening lately, i hope ur doing ok!!

[eru-vande]

It's been a year of 2024, almost 2025, people still be looking at someone who's clearly neurodivergent as fuck and be assuming they just taking drugs

[penumbralwoods]

next person to moralize phobias gets to be chained to a rock and thrown in the lake

[musical-chick-13]

I haven't seen this take a WHOLE lot, but I have seen it enough to get. Frustrated. About it.

So for anyone who doesn't get it: no, symptoms of mental illness are not, in every case, majorly or solely the result of Dealing With Capitalism. Sometimes, they can be! Sometimes the symptoms are situational, and those situations are heavily related to how much capitalism sucks! But many times they are not. I am sorry, but mental illness and trauma and neurodivergence are still going to exist even if capitalism completely goes away. We still have a responsibility to treat the people affected by and experiencing these things with compassion and understanding. We still have to. You know. Acknowledge that their life experience is going to be a lot different than many other's is.

[porblematic]

Here's a thought. How about we work on making these disorders less stigmatized so people would be able to get accurate information on how these look like and what self-help strategies are available for these or that symptoms, including but not limited to anxiety, instead of focusing on how teenagers are sometimes, god forbid, wrong about own mental issues?

[milimeters-morales]

Miles being a bit hesitant and embarrassed to actually talk to anyone about the side effects of E that they don’t like such as how itchy they get, the chest & other body pain, having to pee more often, sleeping problems, mood swings, etc. but Gwen has gone & is going through almost all the same things, so she gets Miles to be less embarrassed by talking with them about her own issues, and it might not always work all the time, but she’d rather Miles be a little embarrassed for a moment than in pain/danger because they didn’t speak up. It’s one of those things that are kind of an outlier because Miles is an outspoken person who tends to know when to actually say something, but it’s to be expected bc this is completely new territory for them and they don’t have many other people who would completely understand their situation ^_^

[pa-pa-plasma]

i don't think i'll ever get over how people treat kids that aren't good in school as worthless no matter what. "oh it can't be that bad" my guy idk how to tell you this but the last time i went to a normal high school the principal called me into his office to brag about how he failed me in all of my classes before the semester was even finished & i should quit while i'm ahead cuz i'm too stupid ("officially" diagnosed as such by a school counselor & a psychiatrist!!) to succeed. & this is considered normal