#which has lead to a massive burnout

[doppel-doodles]

That illustration is making me want to slam my head against solid concrete, Art block said no, and I know when to pick my battles so fuck it we ball-

A normal post about Matthew Hallard from Poppy Playtime

I briefly mentioned this in the Jack post, the fact that I didn't think I had anything new or particularly interesting to say on Matthew as I always thought the Fandom had a lot of the bases covered.

But the more I actually thought about him, the more I wanted to talk about one thing in particular:

Let's talk about Doeys tape.

In game we find a vhs tape recorded by Doey, talking about how he almost ditched everyone in favor of running away, ultimately deciding to go back for them instead. It reveals a lot about how he truly feels about the responsibility that has been given to him.

I think it was so important to include this and the reason why is quite simple:

It humanises Matthew for me.

Why I point him out specifically is due to reasons I mentioned in my other analysis, Jack's control is mostly passive, Kevin only really comes to the forefront when he feels like there is a threat to assess or deal with and it has been confirmed that Matthew is the oldest of the children as well as having been a leader of sorts since he was still a human child, so in the tape it's basically him venting.

Which is great as it makes something crystal clear: He is not a perfect saint.

Matthew is a teenager who has been parentified from an incredibly young age, places immense pressure on himself, is suffering from more burnout than a college kid and not to mention the horror that is his current existence and life-

He doesn't WANT this responsibility, he only takes it on because nobody else will or can.

And nobody even thinks to ask him ONCE how HE is doing, no,no it's him who has to do that, he is not allowed to have breaks.

For godness sake he literally tells us in the tape that he is recording it because he feels like he can't talk to anyone about his problems!

The toys- The children having someone like Doey or more accurately Matthew is not a guarantee, it is a privilege but it's a privilege Matthew needs to!

And you rarely ever see kind characters COMPLAIN about having to be kind all the time, truly looking after everyone else drains you, it's exhausting to fulfill the needs of others, more often than not you'll have to put aside your own and when you really pull the shit end of the stick you get more complains then appreciation for your troubles.

It is such a CHORE and I think a character struggling with being so selfless actually can have such a massive impact instead of just being able to handle everything, it's that tiny bit of realism I love.

Despite how exhausted and miserable Matthew was over being stuck in this position in the end he turned back. Because he loves his friends that much, and he should get massive props for that.

And to think he still did so much but didn't think anything he did was good enough is just painful, like no honey you are enough, more than enough-

Also Poppy having once been the leader makes you think that maybe Matthew might have been hurt the most by her disappearing.

Like her leading was the closest thing to a break he ever got- and then she just up and disappears?? And it's all up to him now? Not to mention the concern? The worry??

Boy it speaks volumes that he doesn't seem to display more hostility towards her considering Poppy doesn't even EXPLAIN herself on why she left or why she couldn't come back.

He is even civil in discussing the fact that she demands for them to be okay with being blown up(also correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Poppy also include in her plan that SHE will get to live? If I heard that I would be flabbergasted.) But that's something I should discuss in another post.

For now that is everything I have about my boy, if you want to see what I have to say about other characters here is Kevin annnnnnd Jack, plus some extra stuff on Doey

[anim-ttrpgs]

A.N.I.M. Patreon Rewards and Progress Reports May 2025

Man it feels like it has been forever but it’s only been a month since last time, and a lot has gotten done despite me feeling like I haven’t gotten much done.

Editing progress on Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy has finally crept up to the speed it was before our slump. Plus, lots of polishing and tweaking of the rules has been done thanks to lots of helpful feedback.

The Eureka game jam mystery modules are being playtested and polished as well.

Eureka: The Fanservice Files has received some pretty extensive updates and tweaks in both art and actual rules content.

Not much to report on Silk & Dagger: A Sesible Drow RPG besides the fact that we have gotten a lot of good and useful feedback which I am continuing to collect in preparation towards shifting focus back towards it.

Meanwhile our lead designer(me)’s focus has been on Death Bed: An Impenetrably Medieval Dungeon Game. Previously, this was called Death Bed: A Souls-like RPG. The changelog for it is absolutely massive because I’ve been building it from the ground up, progress you can follow in real-time if you join our Patreon discord server. It isn’t yet in a state where I would call it playable, but you can see an awesome preview on the patreon.

None of this is set in stone, but at the moment I am thinking that the pre-alpha for Death Bed will release as a demo to the public some time in June, after which I will keep focus on Death Bed until I am able to consider it in alpha stage, which, for a classic dungeon crawl type of game, means it will need a dungeon. Actually, for the kind of game Death Bed is trying to be, it needs two. I am thinking of converting Tomb of the Serpent Kings for Death Bed at least as a playtest dungeon to test out how the game actually works in a dungeon before creating my own. If I can get permission, I might release that conversion to the public.

The rest of the team is hard at work on Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, either editing, working on art, or working on the third adventure module we promised would come with the Kickstarter.

Anyway, here’s the changelog for all our team’s major projects.

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

Copy-editing Progress: Thoroughly copy-edited up to p. 356.

CHAPTER 1 

Clarified only one exacerbating factor applies at a time. 

Added sidebar to “Composure” explaining that the system doesn’t simulate ordinary life, it tracks mental state during adventures (which are high-pressure and stressful).

Clarified the purpose of the Quick Terms section

Added a note that Eureka really works best with 3 or fewer players and you really should not go beyond 4. 

CHAPTER 2

Changed how the Burnout Trait works. It is now an ability that can be activated each time the investigator earns a Eureka! Point, and lasts until they take Penetrative Damage as a result of the Trait.

Temporarily took out the Ask Questions Later Trait.

CHAPTER 3

Removed a special thanks credit per that person’s request

CHAPTER 7

Removed certain things like “spotlighting” and other basic Narrator principles for review and rewrites. Some of this is probably going back in once we re-evaluate it.

Removed “How We Play Eureka.” Playing by the rules in the book should already outline the intended experience, and many options given in that section are just RAW now.

CHAPTER 8 

Added several more fan-submitted hunting table entries. 

Eureka: The Fanservice Files

Clarified Sharp Teeth

Clarified some parts of maneater’s severity levels 

Added a Severity Level 5 and adjusted the time both maneater stomach types take to digest, making them all a bit longer.

Silk & Dagger: A Sensible Drow RPG

Changed the page color of An Unforgettable Banquet to more of a grey to match the new grey page color of the main rulebook and be slightly easier to read.

Death Bed: An Impenetrably Medieval Dungeon Game

CHANGE LOG

WHOLE BOOK 

CHAPTER 1

Added Moving Silently Section

Changed Hollowness Rolls to Despair Rolls. 

Changed most instances of strugglers automatically reducing Hollowness to instead be Morale rolls, which are like the opposite of Despair rolls.  

Changed how HP works so that it is now the Vitality Bar, separate from the Vigor stat. Vigor increases Vitality the fastest, but other stats can also increase it a little now.

Wrote out and codified Sex and Sexuality

Wrote out rules for Healing Flask.

Clarified how hollowness affects attention

Drinking from healing flask causes disadvantage to defense and dodge rolls on the following monster turn. 

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3 

Added Stats section

Added stats and what they do

Explained how to roll starting stats

Explained Traits 

Explained Truth

Explained how starting equipment is determined

Added very rough burial item tables. 

Added very rough notes/outlines for the Trait List

Sorted Clothing into Masculine and Feminine, and Fine and not Fine.

Added 19 more Traits

Added Trait Pre-Plotting section. 

Added rough outline of Sex and Expressions of Sexuality section. 

Added Wearing Armor section.

Added Donning Difficulty section. 

Gave different types of clothing donning difficulty. 

Added many new Traits 

Gave almost every Trait an added EXP bonus. 

Removed the rough outline rule that strugglers having Traits that do not match their perceived gender causes them to make regular Despair rolls. This kind of thing is now handled by the Social Status mechanic.

Added Social Status mechanic.

Assigned a Social Status value to all Traits. 

Changed how starting Social Status is determined. 

Added a section showing how to make a not-quite-level-1 character to help with early playtesting.

Added a new Trait. 

Tweaked wording of Eponymous Companion Trait. 

Added “scaling” to all Stats. There are now cross-over benefits to all stats. 

Changed the Social Status roll for a character starting with no clothes from 1D6 to 1D6+4.

Fixed mistake in Method 3 of character creation that still said not to roll any dice.

Reduced Vitality scaling for Arcane, Attunement, and Scripture. 

Reduced number of D6s that Method 3 character creation gives. 

Adjusted various things about the burial item tables. 

Changed it so there is now a specific table for picking items for Method 2 and Method 3 characters 

New trait for women 

New trait for anyone

New Trait for women

Protector/Protectee characters can move in tandem with each other no matter the distance between them.

Lady/Lady-in-Waiting pairs can move in tandem with each other no matter the distance between them.

Tactician strugglers and the strugglers they are ordering can move in tandem with each other even if they are far apart.

CHAPTER 4 

Added Gap Finder special weapon attribute. 

Removed the Light Attack from some weapons and removed the Overswing Attack from others. 

Increased the Str requirements of all melee weapons by 2 and increased the Dex requirements of all melee weapons by 1. 

Added some projectile weapons and rules for how they work

Added Bundles for ammunition and other small items

Wrote out Hook special weapon attribute

Decreased the damage of all projectile weapons by 1 degree. 

CHAPTER 5 

Added Non-Combatant Status section.

Changed the amount of Wounds that Profuse Bleeding causes each turn to 6 instead of 2.

Tweaked the stances a little. 

Added mob attacks and flanking bonuses

Added tandem movement so strugglers can move on each other’s turns to a limited degree. 

Reloading guns and crossbows causes disadvantage to defense and dodge rolls on the following monster turn

Dodging now causes 2 fatigue and resets Stance back to Balanced. 

Changed how having allies in the node affects mob attacks. 

Strugglers can use their shields to add to the block rolls of allies in their same node but it causes 1 fatigue. 

CHAPTER 6 

Started on this chapter. 

[itsabouttimex2]

Hi would it be alright if I request a yandere Platonic Noodlefam Headcanons please with a cherry on top 🙏

MK sets an impossible precedent for you to match. He’s stronger and far more skilled than you, serving as the mentee to the illustrious Monkey King, inheritor of compliant golden-hooped rod known as the Ruyi Jingu Bang.

When Pigsy and Tang see that one of their kids is constantly under attack from demons and monsters, it’s only natural for them to be worried about the other. MK becoming a local hero who regularly endangers himself also means that it’s entirely plausible for his friends and family to fall into the crosshairs of his enemies.

So your fathers; legal and surrogate alike, start to place new restrictions on you. No going out before or after designated times, no going out alone, they get to vet all new friends, so on.

You already weren’t allowed to date, but after their run-in with the Spider Queen teaches them that enemies will even try to seduce them to their demise, the two double down on that deal.

Sure, there were always rules to follow, but never on this level. You never minded rules like “text when you get there”, “be back before ten,” and “don’t leave Megapolis”. Those made sense, and you made sure to abide by them. And your diligence and responsibility have not only not been acknowledged, but instead tested with more rules than ever before.

This quickly breeds resentment from you to MK, because you very accurately surmise that it’s only because of your brother’s antics and adventures that your personal life has grown suddenly stifled and restrictive.

MK, obviously, is devastated. He just wants to keep you, his family, and everyone else safe, and seeing you blame him for how you’re getting treated kind of breaks his heart. Still, he doesn’t dare argue with Pigsy or Tang, in part because he actually does agree with them.

He’s your big brother, after all. Is it really that bad that he and your fathers want to keep you safe? Sure, it can get a bit lonely and frustrating for you, he won’t try and deny that. It must suck to be kept inside most of the time, especially when he runs all over and gets into incredible adventures. MK gets to cause trouble and stop evildoers on a weekly basis, and the most exciting thing you do is deliver the noodles that he was supposed to be dropping off. (The noodle cart is tagged, and so is your phone. They can’t ever be too careful, after all.)

MK is the “fun, happy kid” and you’re the “good, quiet kid”. You dutifully tend to your surrogate father’s noodle shop, biting back resentment as it swells in your chest. MK sneaks out with Mei to visit arcades and bust skulls.

A hard worker, a good listener, a skilled chef… these are all the great things that you become over time. But also, you’re bitterly jealous, overworked, and slowly grinding down to nothing with all the effort you put in.

Eventually, the exhausting duality of being put on a pedestal and held to it with shackles takes it’s due toll. All of it leads up to a massive burnout or breakdown, which shifts the dynamic severely.

If you end up burning out and end up fatigued and unmotivated, you get grilled a little too hard by your fathers, both terrified that something might be wrong or that someone might be hurting you.

It’s them. They’re the ones hurting you, but you can’t really say that. Since you can’t answer their questions honestly or explain what’s wrong, they have no idea about what they should do. Pigsy settles for treating you like you’re sick, forcing you to take several days off to stay in bed. It’s a bandaid solution, but it does accomplish something by giving you time to recuperate from the prior mentioned burnout.

Breakdowns are treated with more care and more severity. One little straw breaks your back, and then MK is getting a vicious/distraught earful about lending his duties to you without your permission, and Pigsy for allowing him to do so. Tang gets off easier on account of not being personally involved in the noodle shop’s affairs, but you call him out for calling himself your father and still allowing these things to happen.

The responses are… split, to say the least.

MK will genuinely apologize for the strain he’s been putting on you and admit that he hasn’t exactly been the greatest brother. He’ll give you a big hug and drag you to his room to hang out, ignoring your complaints and protests. You’re upset that he’s been going out too much? Then the solution is to spend more time with you! (It’s not, but at least he’s trying.)

Pigsy won’t stand for it. One of his kids, yelling at him? Absolutely not. Go to your room and calm down. (He’ll whip you up a bowl of noodles while you’re off stewing/sobbing.) Once you’ve eaten and cooled off, he’s open to an actual conversation- the end result is most likely him appointing Tang to take you out once a week or so, giving you an actual break from the monotony. Once again, not the best solution, but it’s definitely an improvement that lifts your spirits.

Tang validates your concerns by listening to them and comforting you, but doesn’t try to solve the problem at all. He offers to be your shoulder to cry on, but also acknowledges that what MK runs off to do is usually important, and can’t be avoided. But! He’s always here for you, dear. Now, come sit with him and have a bowl of noodles. Maybe he can read to you?

It’s not always so bad for you, thankfully. You’re still allowed to leave, under admittedly strict rules, for one. Pigsy also provides you a steady job, whether working with him in the kitchen or running deliveries. You interact with customers regularly, so not only are you never too lonely, they also allow you to keep in contact with customers they trust.

It could be worse. It could be better.

But it’s good enough to feel like home, to feel safe and loved, and that’s what makes it so hard to leave.

[sanshofox]

Just me pondering I guess… I feel like what really irks me also about the current entertainment/gaming industry debacle (with the massive layoffs, or AI being art and job theft or the irrational greed of business people) is that it now openly excludes and casts out one group of people w/o shame and in a way denies them being able to enjoy life (like free job choice) and what’s even worse is that it has become a threat of existence for those now out of a job, but also to those that still have one. It's more layoffs than job openings currently, which therefore almost completely denies access and those few that remain in the industry get cycled through one project after another, each time one step closer to burnout.

AI CEOs admit wanting to rid creatives of their job with reasoning that make them look like toddlers with a temper tantrum in adult suits that held a grudge for too long. And I feel like I am back in high school with my friends where you got bullied for being artsy nerds. Like god forbid people develop a passion and skills for smth and later enjoy their jobs. It's immensly dismaying for me. Because this feels like high school behavior, it’s the same damn scheme, but those are actually adult people in leading positions with huge impact. This is where behavior and decisions count and it’s ruining lifes. There’s an unhinderend amount of irrationality in business we haven’t seen like that before.

[birdiedoesdc]

1, 6, 9, 31, 41, 49!! :^) hi bestie

HI BESTIE <3<3 thank you so much for this absolute treat of an ask >:)))

(questions for fic writers!!)

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

HM GOOD QUESTION. you know what i might say yarn over, pull through. extremely niche and jason-centric, both of which are hallmarks of my larger oeuvre. it's pretty goofy and light throughout, but i did try for some moments of actually meaningful character connection. a fun romp overall if i do say so myself :))

6. What’s one fact about the universe of [insert fic] that you didn’t get a chance to mention in the fic itself?

since it's the most recent one (and it's also very dear to me) i'm going to go with the night watch fic. i sort of nodded to/implied this in the fic, but i didn't get the chance to flesh it out or make it super clear SO. at this point in the cmad timeline, jason has massively fallen out with the bats. which would be a killer fic to write At Some Point but that's not where i'm headed. the fallout was nasty enough that bruce entirely pulled out of all of gigante territory, leading to an uptick in crime, leading to increased danger for, say, emts, leading to heightened turnover leading to ems shortages. percy, because he's absolutely crazy, volunteered to fill this role in this section, even though that's not where he usually works. and that's where jason met him. so if it weren't for this massive, absolutely devastating jason-bat fallout, jason and percy never would have met at all.

9. How do you find new fic to read?

sometimes i'll just go through the most recent fics with a few basic filters but there's uhhh. a LOT of dc fic. so this often isn't productive. probably the best way to i've found to do it is by going through the bookmarks of authors i like!!

31. What’s your ideal fic length to write?

probably like 4k?? short enough that i can finish it relatively quick, but juuust long enough to get into some fun character dynamics. the goldilocks of fic lengths.

41. Link a fic that made you think, “Wow, I want to write like that.”

you guys SHOULD know this already but @havenesc's rancher au has some absolutely gorgeous fucking description and characterization. i'm not even saying this to be nice!!! it's honestly very awe-inspiring!!! also to an athlete dying young by SonoSvegliato balances really original humor/plotlines with a crazy deep understanding of character and character dynamics. absolutely check it out its so fucking good.

49. What are you currently working on? Share a few lines if you’re up for it!

well to keep it real post-school burnout has uh. Hit so i've been spending a lot of time batting off an impending existential crisis. when i'm not doing that, i'm working on a fill for the women in comics reverse mini-bang and ALSO an outsider pov fic about jaybin that mayhaps features another familiar face:

"Right," Conrad says, still annoyingly strangled. "Because the right Robin has those dorky little bangs." "They're not that dorky," Percy snaps, even though he's definitely called them dorky in the past. "They're like—heart-shaped. Or something." "Wow," Conrad says, grinning like an asshole. "You spend a lot of time staring at his bangs?" "Shut the fuck up." Percy shoves at Conrad's shoulder, hard enough that he almost tumbles into a potted tree. Good. There's no need to call Percy out for printing out a bunch of Robin pictures off at school and keeping them in his homework folder. It's better than staring at stupid worksheets, alright? That's all. "Your face is, like, so red right now," Conrad says, rebalancing himself. Percy scrubs at his too-hot cheeks, shooting Conrad the very worst glare he can muster up. It must be pretty bad, because Conrad leans back. "Okay, Jesus. It's cute, alright? Your little crush on Robin is cute." "I do not have a crush on Robin!" Percy hisses out, so loud and shrill that a senior couple passing by turns to look.

[jungian-julie]

Pregnancy and spiritual development

I believe that I had to get pregnant and have to have children to continue my spiritual development.

Stagnation was plaguing me, I felt quite lost after breaking my animus possession. When using the heroine's journey cycle as a guide, you could say that during my "girlboss era" I had the illusion of success.

I followed all the steps in "Nice girls don't get the corner office". I had that corner office. Well only sometimes because nobody exactly had a main place they could sit tbh, it would change constantly. My hair was cut very short and I was wearing suits everyday, which did cause people to take me way more seriously.

It came naturally to me, because I have had to lean on my animus, my inferior function, for most of my life. It's not easy being a woman in this society, especially while navigating a traumatic upbringing.

So I have a very well developed animus, which can easily take over. Yet even though I could do it - I could be a great lawyer, a great martial artist, I did not need a man - it was unbeknownst to me taking a massive toll on me. It lead to a burnout and a whole host of health problems. Some have me dealing with permanent damage.

It was like waking up from a dream. The illusion broke and I was aimless. My career felt like a fraud, my job felt like a fraud. I realized I wasn't actually adding anything to society and my work was meaningless. I had given up the chance to become a teacher, which I rather wanted, just for money and prestige.

I spent years doing nothing, just recovering and trying to recover myself. Find who I was before the longest stint of trauma, before the animus possession. I tried joining a convent too to become a nun, but they rejected me. They thought I was running away from life and challenges, which was true.

The reality is that I was deeply afraid of relationships with men and pregnancy. I stayed a virgin until my mid 20's because of that. My mother had a post partem psychosis and nearly killed me as a baby. I've always been afraid that I would go insane like her and end up killing the baby if I did ever get pregnant.

Sure, I could've continued avoiding all that, not face my deepest fears and traumas. I went completely through the fear, imagined the worst possible things and made it so that I created a situation where I can accept even those risks. Like surfing and managing a very bad trip.

I've seen so many professionals over the years who have said I'm not that much at risk of PPD/PPS. Plus being aware of it and telling doctors about it, means that they'll keep a better eye on me anyway. I have also been extremely picky with my partner choice, brutally picky, so I know that I'll get the support I need.

I know there's so much potential for suffering, but life is suffering anyway. I'd rather take meaningful suffering which feels more martyr-like than aimlessly floating in the wind like an autumn leaf. I needed to stop fencesitting. I needed to get off the pot or shit.

By orienting myself on motherhood, I have made more progress in processing my trauma than I've done in a decade. It has forced me to face what's in my shadow and also recover the positive things which were hidden in there.

It has helped me find a healthy form of femininity and find a place for my masculinity. It has freed me from superficial femininity pressures. I can't escape society, but I can choose to not let it affect me and to fight against it. While also not falling into the trap of admonishing femininity in favor of masculinity.

I'm not becoming a "trad" sahm homeschooling mother because I think it's easy, sunshine and rainbows. I'm becoming one, because that is what I feared the most and it's what I need to challenge my soul and make a diamond out of coal.

At the same time, it allows me to do what I always wanted to do and so many people gaslit me out of in favor of money. Which is working with children, teaching, cooking, baking, cleaning etc. I would rather clean piss and shit, which I have already done plenty while babysitting and when I volunteered at animal shelters, than manage one more manbaby in a suit.

Plus I am ready to just not be the main character anymore. I'm done with it. I'm bored, I'm not all that interesting and everyone loves the sidekick anyway. It also feels a lot more chill and peaceful and I'm still important and necessary in my own way. Plus there's less of a focus on me, so I can just do my own things.

I'm also really looking forward to becoming a granny and letting everyone else do the worrying while I stuff their faces with cakes.

[sapphire-weapon]

i know most people don't know anything game dev and even i don't know much but some of your anons really need to documate themselves about what it takes to make a game and especially AAA games

because anyone knowing the strict minimum would know it's like impossible to have perfect work life balance when working on a AAA games... that’s not the kind of job where you clock in at 8 and clock out at 4, with plenty of time to unwind… and that is true for most artistic jobs actually

that's sad but it's like that

i was literally just ranting about this to @godtier lmao

here's the reality of what we're looking at with RE9. either:

the project has been scrapped and rebooted multiple, multiple times at this point due to a lack of coherent vision by management (which is kind of what the director told us -- that it took them a long time to decide what to do next after RE7), leading to dev burnout and an underwhelming, patchwork product as pieces of the old versions of the game get slapped together in order to save on dev time and cost, or

the team keeps trying new ideas that aren't working, leading to massive changes in narrative direction, level design, enemy encounters, and gameplay flow and mechanics that will eventually erode the core message and experience that the game was supposed to convey

or both.

i've said it before and i'll say it again:

if we do not see RE9 by the end of this month, you should be very, very nervous about what that product ends up being.

[dailyanarchistposts]

The paradigm of government

Where does rigid radicalism come from? Surely there are a multiplicity of sources. Ultimately, we think it is an inheritance of Empire. It has been suggested to us that rigid radicalism is primarily a Euro-colonial phenomenon: that is, it is most intense in spaces where whiteness, heteropatriarchy, and colonization have the strongest hold.[129] These divisions induce habits of relating based in crisis and lack, as capitalism constantly pits people and groups in competition with each other. But rigid radicalism does not exactly mimic Empire; it emerges as a reaction to it, as an aspiration to be purely against it. When we spoke to adrienne maree brown, she suggested that it is an outgrowth of terror and violence:

Nick and carla: What sustains it? brown: The culture that there is only one way to be radical in the world, one way to create change. Nick and carla: What provokes or inspires it? What makes it spread? brown: Terror. We are dying out here. So much destruction is in motion. I think there is a feeling of urgency, that we need discipline and rigor to meet this massive threat to our existence—racism, capitalism, climate, all of it. It feels like we need to be an army.[130]

Empire’s destruction in motion can trigger desires for control and militarized discipline. It can lead to a monolithic notion of the right way to be radical, hostile, and suspicious towards other ways of being. It forces out the messiness of relationships and everyday life in favor of clear lines between good/bad and radical/reactionary. In this sense, rigid radicalism imports Empire’s tendencies of fixing, governing, disciplining, and controlling, while presenting these as a means of liberation or revolution. In this sense, many radical movements in the West (and elsewhere) have been entangled in what Spanish intellectual Amador Fernández-Savater has called the paradigm of government:

In the paradigm of government, being a militant implies always being angry with what happens, because it is not what should happen; always chastising others, because they are not aware of what they should be aware of; always frustrated, because what exists is lacking in this or that; always anxious, because the real is permanently headed in the wrong direction and you have to subdue it, direct it, straighten it. All of this implies not enjoying, never letting yourself be carried away by the situation, not trusting in the forces of the world.[131]

In the paradigm of government, one always has an idea of what should be happening, and this gets in the way of being present with what is always already happening and the capacity to be attuned to the transformative potentials in one’s own situation. Under the paradigm of government, people are never committed enough. Silvia Federici spoke to this when we interviewed her:

This is why I don’t believe in the concept of “self-sacrifice,” where self-sacrifice means that we do things that go against our needs, our desires, our potentials, and for the sake of political work we have to repress ourselves. This has been a common practice in political movements in the past. But it is one that produces constantly dissatisfied individuals.[132]

Because rigid radicalism induces a sense of duty and obligation everywhere, there is a constant sense that one is never doing enough. In this context, “burnout” in radical spaces is not just about being worn out by hard work; it is often code for being wounded, depleted, and frayed: “I’m fucking burning.” What depletes us is not just long hours, but the tendencies of shame, anxiety, mistrust, competition, and perfectionism. It is the way in which these tendencies stifle joy: they prevent the capacity for collective creativity, experimentation, and transformation. Often, saying one is burnt out is the safest way to disappear, to take a break, to take care of oneself and get away from these dynamics.

[darkness-falls-tarot]

Joe Locke: what’s next for his career, potential for awards and also sneaking in to my cards; how is his relationship with James now?

All readings are alleged and for entertainment purposes only; please take each reading with a grain of salt.

What can we expect from Joe in the next coming weeks: the wheel of fortune reversed, the emperor, the high priestess - for Joe he is going to have a lot of massive changes coming his way but not all of them will be positive. I think these changes are to his life in general like privacy; he may distance himself from Social Media platforms or try to take some time between those he cares for and himself. He wants some normalcy in life again and he’s planning to take control of that where he can; but he’s also walking with this feeling gnawing at his insides saying that there is something he needs to be aware of and cautious about.

What is this issue Joe needs to be concerned about: death reversed, 3 of cups, king of pentacles - something has been holding Joe back from his true potential. He’s been avoiding this situation for a while and doesn’t want to admit to it but it’s time to let go of whatever this is. in doing so he will find more time to be with friends and family to enjoy his success in the industry. He wants to go out and celebrate his success like he should and he knows it’s possible but only if he finally breaks his tie to whatever is holding him back.

What is Joe’s potential for awards this year: the lovers reversed, king of cups, queen of wands reversed, the magician - I think this year he isn’t trying for that and trying instead to find his place in the industry. He’s been involved with someone who’s promised to show him the ropes but I don’t think that worked well for him and he’s lost now. I get the feeling Katherine may be his person to lean on and help him find that courage to try and get himself out there to get awards and show his true talent. For now he’s withdrawn most likely from this other individual who has lead him astray but he’s more than capable of winning awards; he will get back into that rhythm he had before and find himself working hard to get his name out there again.

What future roles can we expect from Joe: night of cups, knight of pentacles, 10 of wands reversed - I think Joe is going to try for a romantic film role. While he’s shown that in Heartstopper I think he wants to try for a feature length romance film. This will be a lot to undertake because he’s aiming for an LGBTQ romance film and Hollywood is still weary on that subject; but Joe is looking for this and perhaps a script has landed on his desk that he’s going to do, but he will have to put a lot of effort to make sure the world see it. That is going to be a lot of pressure though and it may give him a sense of burnout so his enthusiasm for the movie may not be what it was at the start because he spent so long trying to get an audience that he feels a little hurt because they should see it for the story alone. (Honestly this kind of movie is pay to see, we need more queer love stories on the big screen).

How is Joe’s relationship: judgment, 7 of pentacles, the chariot - they seem to be entering a new phase in their relationship. It’s been a long time coming but they have worked very hard to make each other happy and have been patient with each other over the past several months. With this new phase I feel they will be going further and further in the relationship. I’m sensing this may be a sign they’re moving in together or buying a home together; their end goal is marriage which they both want. For now it seems they are seeing if this will keep going as it has been.

Oracle card for Joe’s career: cavern of secrets - I think Hoe does know what is next role is but he’s keeping it a surprise. You may get an announcement on instagram, a TikTok or something. He’s already been cast but he’s waiting until he’s given the go ahead to tell everyone.

Oracle card for Joe’s love life: golden mirror - is his relationship one sided? This card can show either there is too much love from one but not enough from the other; they may keep things going to save face but deep down it’s not what they really want.

Does Joe want out of his relationship: yes. The card pulled also says he’s just winging it and not sure what to think about this relationship. He’s not familiar with what his partner wants.

Does James want out of the relationship: no. The card also says dangers in stillness so I take that as James will try to keep things going but in time Joe may get tired or realize he wants something or someone else.

I may do another reading on Joe and James’ relationship this week.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Is 6.5% enough?

Today, there was a leak in the Times that said the independent body who make recommendations on teacher pay has recommended a pay rise of 6.5% for teachers in England for September. Obviously, we don’t know all the details, and funding is a key issue, but is 6.5% enough to save education?

Anecdata, but I recently met up with some friends from my teacher training course. We’re close to hitting the 5 year mark- by which point 1/3 of teachers apparently quit. Except I’m going to be the only one out of five of us teaching in England in September, an attrition rate of 80%. And I don’t think that attrition rate is so unusual, any more.

Right now, on one of the main websites which schools use to advertise vacancies, there are over 12,000 teaching/education jobs being advertised in England. It’s very roughly one vacancy for every two schools. These vacancies won’t be evenly distributed between all schools, so there will be schools in September with huge staff shortages. It’s not an exaggeration to say education is in crisis.

If we got 6.5% (and if it were funded, ensuring all teachers could receive the pay rise), would it make any difference? It’s lower than inflation, after all, and many of the things that we regularly need to buy have gone up by more than inflation in the past year.

As a brief explanation, most teachers in England are paid according to one pay scale. People get a bit more in Inner/outer London and the surrounding areas, but otherwise there’s one set of pay for the whole country. All teachers progress from the starting point M1, to M6, usually at the rate of one pay point a year. The 6.5% would be added on to all of these paypoints.

6.5% would bring M1 (the starting pay point for most qualified teachers) very close to the original Tory promise of a £30,000 starting salary for teachers. At the top of the main pay scale- M6 (which is the point at the pay scale where this would have most impact) it would increase salaries by over £2000 to £41, 332. This would be noticeable in pay packets, enough to reduce people’s financial stresses- which can enable them to cope better with a stressful working environment.

I know some of you will say £40k is a lot, but bear in mind we are talking about a postgraduate qualified professional with at least 6 years of experience. For someone with a chemistry, physics or maths degree, that could be their starting salary in industry. It’s about equivalent to the average salary of a pharmacist. In a capitalist system, pay has to be competitive.  

After M6, to increase your pay, you either need to get onto the “upper pay scale” or take on an extra responsibility payment known as a TLR. Getting on to the upper pay scale used to be relatively automatic, but now it’s much harder. It can certainly take people two or three years to progress from M6 to upper pay scale, and you’re expected to take on “whole school responsibilities” which can amount to a lot of extra work, with not that much of an increase in pay. Increasingly, in England, teacher pay is capped at M6, although there are a lot of older teachers who are on the upper pay scale, and sometimes, they find themselves getting pushed out because they are too expensive. If you move schools, there’s no guarantee of getting a UPS pay point at the new school.

TLRs are even worse in many ways. This is the way that people like heads of department and heads of year are paid. It’s a figure set by your school, within a national range, and there’s no consistency between schools. A Head of Science in one school may get £5000, whilst another only gets £3000. It’s worth noting that it’s also much harder to get a TLR in primary. Because TLRs are often the only way to increase your pay, a lot of people rush to take them on, sometimes in the second or third year of teaching. This often leads to burnout, because people take on massive responsibilities before they are ready, and the consequences can be damaging to everyone around them as well.

I do think 6.5% might be just enough to keep some people who are looking elsewhere from leaving. But the main reason people leave is often work related stress, often euphemistically called “workload”, which is largely being driven by the collapse in other services such as social services, the NHS and social care. “Workload” is also often made worse by being in a short staffed department, so it becomes a vicious cycle. I’ll write more about workload in another post.

However, the point is, the profession is on the brink of collapse. I really do believe that. I think the only way to save education would be to tempt a lot of the recent leavers back in. And 6.5% won’t be enough to do that. I don’t think 10% would be enough to do that. Without tackling the systemic problems within teaching, and without a pay system that really rewards classroom teachers doing the key, every day job that makes education functional, pay increases that don’t even match inflation aren’t enough.

[izztreme-art-n-stuff]

So I said I'd elaborate on my headcanon of Jack and Whyatt being autistic, and now here I am to talk about it. In list form. I'm sorry.

Whyatt:

He's a severe creature of habit. He really doesn't like things being completely out of his control, so he makes routines to try and make a safe and controlled environment for himself. This, however, comes with him unintentionally showing control freak tendencies that bother others.

His stims are rubbing his hair, which usually happens when he's deep in thought or stressed out, and playing with his shirt collar and/or cape, usually when he's nervous.

He gets very hyperfixated on books and sometimes gets so fixated on one that he constantly rereads it and it becomes all that he talks about. He only infodumps to his friends and family because he's insecure about how everyone else would think about his current fixation.

He's very sensitive to light and tends to avoid any place that is far too bright for him to bear. He also doesn't like being around crowded places and likes to keep to himself unless he's with his friends.

He keeps a calm and collected demeanor, partially because that is how he is as a person, but also partially because he feels that's what everyone expects of him. He has a massive restraint on most of his emotions as he feels that's not what anyone wants from him, and he only shows his true feelings once he gets pushed far enough, as SRATSOR chapter 3 will show.

Jack:

He actually masks his autism, which is a severe pain to himself. This was caused by his toxic friend Peter Rabbit when he was still with him during his Super Reader days and it pretty much stuck since as he's terrified of what people might think of his true self. This masking has caused him to have many burnouts and meltdowns that he hides in his own room most of the time. Needless to say, he hates masking, he just doesn't know if he should unmask or not.

His stims are bouncing his leg, rubbing his facial hair, and clicking his tongue. These are usually suppressed due to the aforementioned masking and it only crops up when he's really excited, impatient, or nervous.

Music is actually his hyperfixation, and one he's partially open about as he decided to make it his career, but he tries not to infodump about it as much as he would as he knows way too much about music and its history than he feels he should know. He also has a lesser fixation on plants, having been spawned when he gained plant powers for the first time, but he tends to keep that on the down low too.

He has a sensitivity to sound, which is good when you're a musician, but really bad when you're stuck in a room full of people talking about stuff you don't really care about. He also gets bothered by sounds that no one else can hear/pay no mind to. Of course, because he's masking, he often forces himself into social situations where a lot of noise is created, which becomes very stressful for him, but he feels obligated to try and make a good impression on everyone. This is the main reason he keeps getting meltdowns in the privacy of his own room, as he lets his stress build up and only lets it all out once he knows he's fully alone.

He has a terrible habit of bottling up his emotions, to the point where he's at the brink of blowing up on someone and having a meltdown. He believes that everyone sees him as one of the cooler guys that don't show much emotion, and tries to keep up the persona that he built up in his head when, in reality, he's actually a very emotional person and it's pretty hard for him not to feel an intense amount of feelings. So far, he found a healthy coping mechanism of venting his emotions through song...but that's the only one, and not something he can do all the time, so he just defaults to bottling them up again. He also tends to react with his emotions first and then think about it later, which leads to a lot of regrettable moments for him, especially in the case of him feeling angry.

And a couple that apply to both are them constantly talk to themselves, though Jack tries to keep it more of a mumble, and they tend to talk with their hands a lot, with Jack keeping his hand gestures close to his personal space while Whyatt likes to do more grander, outwardly gestures, which is especially the case when he's getting very emotional

So...thoughts?

[os-mapmaker]

I have received an extra plush version of the Messiah. I only have need for one, so I would like to gift it to you as something to keep yourself occupied with. The task you have set yourself on is daunting. While acknowledging its massive scale does help to a degree, that acknowledgment won't carry you through the entire process. Take it from me, burning yourself out won't do you any good.

…You want to gift this to me?

I…I greatly appreciate it.

And, regarding your concerns about my work… Well, you have likely noticed that it has been moving at a very slow pace. I know that improper pacing can lead to increased stress, which could result in burnout. So I am trying to keep my work at a slow, steady pace.

I appreciate the concerns though.

. . .

Thank you so much for the gift.

[destinygoldenstar]

Jo Minamino ; The Ultimate Musical Sensation (Danganronpa The Privileged Traitor)

Jahan Oishi Minamino (Yah-han Oi-she Mean-ah-mean-oh) ; 21 Years Old ; From Bollywood, India ; The Ultimate Musical Sensation

Jo Minamino is a student of Hopes Peak College Class B-3 in Danganronpa The Privileged Traitor.

Jo is a celebrity in the Bollywood industry since childhood. His main career specialized in musicals, stage and movie, and gained massive popularity all over the world for his incredible singing voice and acting skill. He’s had lead roles most of the time.

Music itself is a huge part of Jo’s life and what he’s defined by. It used to be his great passion, his entire world, and what he felt he was made and born to do in this world.

Emphasis on ‘used to be’.

See, Jo is actually a very soft spoken person in real life. He’s a rather gentle fellow who likes modak and hates getting into fights and likes to keep to himself when he can. If he can’t keep his emotion in check at the moment, he REALLY can’t, but it’s more getting upset at himself than anyone else.

For years his sleep schedule has been non existent, he has habits of making self deprecating jokes, and he gets nervous around peers, especially those that recognize him from his shows.

This is all due to trauma from the very career that got him famous in the first place.

He never had a say in his fame or his job. His parents just heard him singing to himself one day and put him in auditions in a “I’m not asking I’m telling” way. He landed a big part despite just being a newbie kid at the time and his fame just grew from there.

What followed was an entire childhood worth of isolation from other kids his age, pressures of perfecting his singing and acting for multiple performances at once, people putting him on pedestals like an object to display, and severe burnout from the music he used to love.

Did the adults care? No. They kept using him.

It got to a point where his own parents used their kids fame for their own egos, became heavy drinkers, and sent him to live on his own at fourteen because they would be too drunk to take care of him.

It led him in the hands of a theater director that would take him in, but only so he could be used for more shows.

And let’s just say the director would be arrested five years later for exposed abuse of many kinds on minors. They found Jo in a beaten malnourished and sleep deprived state that was masked with makeup and stage glamour for awhile before anyone even noticed.

For the next two years before Hopes Peak, Jo had been stuck with no authority figure, taking medications for his PTSD from his harsh childhood, and taking a break from life in general. He had quit the spotlight, which got backlash from the fans of him that kept him distant from others emotionally. He continued to say ‘screw the spotlight’ when he decided to do nothing about his lack of hairbrush and his major weight gain.

His love for music? Very much killed off. But deep down, he hoped that Hopes Peak would at least help him rediscover what he loved about music in the first place.

Guess what it did instead? Undo pretty much all of his progress.

Turns out, he’s stuck there forever in a killing game. It’s kill or be killed.

Victim? Killer? Survivor?

See my other profiles; The Protagonist ; The Mastermind; The Ultimate Good Cop ; The Ultimate Bad Cop ; The Ultimate Scientist ; The Ultimate Archer ; The Ultimate Environmentalist ; The Ultimate Arsonist ; The Ultimate Vigilante ; The Ultimate Violinist ; The Ultimate Renaissance Student ; The Ultimate Dance Streamer ; The Ultimate Video Game Modifier ; The Ultimate Poetry Writer

[morilucidstories]

In your pinned post, I'm curious to know what's going on with the bat dragon person and who might be you holding your cat? Poking around the blog hasn't gotten me answers. Or maybe answers are there and I'm just hungry and tired.

I had this whole thing written with pics on my phone, and then the wifi flaked and the whole things became lost into tumblr's void when I hit post, so this is the 2nd version. ;-; But this version has more images so it's objectively better.

That's not me in the image. That's Lily Mills, the main character of one of my original comics I post on Tapas and Webtoons Canvas. Pine Barrens Super Natural is based on the legends I grew up hearing from my family about the New Jersey Pine Barrens/Pinelands, and shojo romance comics. Lily is a mix of me and my sibling from when we were young -that's why she looks like me (and Lyly if you know what they look like from MtW.)

The series blurb & summary of Ch 1&2: Lily Mills and her dad, Don Mills, have just moved into the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. On their first night there, Lily is attacked by monsters that should only exist in legends. Luckily, another super natural monster also rescues her. There's definitely some connection to the super natural hidden in Lily's past, and it's going to a lot harder for it to stay hidden now that she finds herself surrounded by all sorts of Super Natural things.

Here is the full version of the cover with the logo:

This comic is actually a reboot of the original comic I started when I was 15-16 in my Sophomore year of Highschool. (It was made on notebook paper.) When I started it I didn't really have a plan for where it was going until around chapters 15-20, so this reboot is taking a lot of loose ends and either cutting them out or adapting them to work with the plot. It's taking me so long to make because I'm struggling with burnout, and I'm now past most of the mental issues I was using it to process so sometimes working on it puts be make into that worst head space. With Lyly's help as my editor we have rewritten and redesigned the parts that cause me problems so once I get back into it, I should be fine.

The little kitty thing is Mascot. He normally appears at the bottom chapters with the credits, in the cover images, and sometimes pops up in chapters with author's notes and comments.

((If anyone wants to head canon any of my characters as neurotypical just know that it is head canon and not supported by anything in the plot -or me))

Below this point are more character descriptions, but just know that most involve spoilers for things that happen after Ch2. I didn't spoil the biggest things just a few things that lead up to them.

The devil catboy is Damian Leeds the son of the Jersey Devil (TJ) and a human (Nancy). I grew up hearing many different stories about the Jersey Devil with many different depictions so this version is a polymorph, and so is his son. Damian is able to change between human, Neko Mimi, and full furry forms. Lily does not know that the Kitty Devil that saved her is Damian. Damian gets a massive crush on Lily. He's very emotionally secure which makes him a great support as a friend, but he also struggle with recognizing that others won't respond to stress the same way he does.

Nancy Leeds works at the local Super Natural Animal Wildlife Reserve. She is also Don's new boss. SN stuff is kept secret from the populace.

Even though Lily and Damian are the central 2 characters, the readers have pretty unanimously voted Erik as the fan favorite. They are a mix of many of the friends I had growing up. She is nonbinary and uses all pronouns. He is a huge nerd, lover of chaos and cringe. When not in the school building, Erik wears a beanie their brother made them that reads "I ♥️ Emo Boys." She's the heart of the group without question.

Alex is Erik's older brother. He is a huge anxiety gay, and introvert. He prefers letting others take center stage while he watches. This does mean he's prone to bottle things up. Luckily he's the type to go to his friends for help after isolating to process. He hasn't had many appearances yet, but what has been revealed is that he really likes fashion and sewing. He has also been weirdly touchy with Lily and even he doesn't know why. The most recent chapter and the next few will have him as a focus.

(Alex and Erik are half Italian, half Columbian American. This hasn't had an opportunity to be brought up in the story yet. I had a bunch friends that were Columbian. Their extended family and specifically their grandparents were very like my Italian grandparents. So I made these two a mix of those just like they are mixes of many friends I had growing up. Even though I've had these characters for half of my life, I have never been able to decide on a last name for them.)

The last of the friend group is Mike Sasha Keith Apple Gate. In the OG version I made in Highschool, I had 3 characters that all played the same role at different times throughout the story so I mixed them into 1 person and introduced him in the plot much sooner. He too hot to remain single and keeps ending up in unwanted romantic relationships. MSK has anger management problems while also completely failing at defending his own boundaries. He has a grudge against Damian and the why hasn't been revealed yet. He's author's favorite and you can tell because of how much effort I put into his outfits and hair. Lastly, it has been revealed that MSK can see Super Natural Energy. It is through his eyes that it's also revealed that Alex's behavior around Lily is cause by an energy around her.

((Since I've been making it slowly over many years you can easily see the evolution of my art through this comic))

[itashiro-hitsuchiha]

New RWBY OC

So as you guys may or may not have noticed, I've been musing over a character based off of shadow the hedgehog. Naturally just doing a one for one comparison isn't much of a character creation deal so I'll be making my own adjustments as needed. Let's get started!

Name: Onyx Erebus

Age: 24

Height: 5'9"

Species: Grimm enhanced Faunus (hedgehog)

Home Region: Atlas

Affiliation: White Fang Captain

Aura color: Yellow

Personality: Distant, troubled, compassionate, confrontational

Weapon: Nyx Blades- a weapon similar to Penny's that can split into multiple short spears that he manipulates with his semblance through wires and can channel his energy into them to make them projectiles or shields. He rarely uses them for close quarter combat as he usually uses his martial arts instead.

Semblance: Quantum Field- Onyx's body can generate quantum energy which allows him to accomplish multiple different things, he can make energy blasts, enhance his speed, and even teleport for a limited distance. He often wears wrist cuffs that help him store the energy into an inbuilt Mobius strip that allows it to move about endlessly without overloading. If they are undone he generates a massive amount of energy that can grant him a massive boost to his physical abilities, however this risks a heavy burnout after some time and can even make him comatose for a time.

Backstory: Being a faunus in Atlas, Onyx has encountered plenty of hardship that comes with that. Although he had it a bit worse than others as he was involuntarily dragged into an experimental program that looked to create the ultimate soldier. At first it was nearly unbearable and he was close to being deemed too weak to endure the treatments. That is until he met Marie, a human girl around his age that befriended him during his off time. They were nearly inseparable and her encouragement allowed him to improve at a tremendous rate. For awhile the scientists in charge let them be as they were seeing promising results.

After a couple years of this word got out to the boss upstairs and thinking that their friendship would lead to an attachment that would prevent Onyx from being a perfect soldier they decided to separate the two in the most horrific way possible. They attacked the compound to wipe away evidence of the place but also as a test for the subjects to see if they could fight back effectively. Onyx was the only survivor and after witnessing the execution of Marie he grew a hatred towards humans for their barbaric ways. He used this as his chance to escape and eventually he came into contact with Adam Taurus who led him to the White Fang. Since then he rose to the same rank as the one who found him and they worked at different ends of Remnant. Since then he worked mostly on his own to accomplish tasks given to him by Sienna herself.

After the fall of Beacon and Adam's take over of the White Fang Onyx began to have doubts. He may never trust humans completely again, but his friendship with Marie still lingers within him and with her example he may still have hope for humans yet. He now wanders the land mostly lingering in Atlas to try to correct the wrong that were done to him and to other faunus that live there.

[nursingwriter]

Stress Management This portfolio project was created to explore the ideals of stress and how important controlling it is. My real life experience deals with my full-time job working as a team leader in a manufacturing plant and many stresses undergone daily. To accurately understand stress management, the idea of stress must be examined. Stress will be studied from a conceptual and application basis. Related topics will include job-related stress leading to burnout, smoking, and obesity, and health risks (heart disease, hypertension, cancer, and diabetes). Finally, the conceptual ideas of dealing with stress and stress management will also be explored. The idea of a portfolio paper on a real life experience is an exhilarating one to me, as a writer. Many different daily experiences that can be drawn from. The learning experience that I will delve into is from my full-time job. I am a team leader in a manufacturing plant; this job is very demanding and causes me a massive amount of daily stress. As a team leader I am expected to produce results for my manufacturing team. When the team struggles to reach a goal or has a bad day, the responsibility of poor production is thrust upon my shoulders. Every constant question and demand is sprung on me and oftentimes without prior notice. Leading people is demanding and I do not have time to have an off day. My employees look to me for guidance and leadership. The constant stresses have become a major strain in my life. I have recently become more aware of attempts to manage the stress on a regular basis. The experience of being a team leader in a manufacturing plant will be the focal learning point of this argument. The topic of stress management is a study of stress and other related health topics and their effects upon human behavior (Cartwright & Cooper, 1997). To accurately understand stress management, the idea of stress must be examined. Stress will be studied from a conceptual and application basis. Related topics will include job-related stress leading to burnout, smoking, obesity, and health risks (heart disease, hypertension, cancer, and diabetes). Finally, conceptual ideas of dealing with stress and stress management will be explored in depth. What is Stress? In general terms, stress is defined as a reaction by an individual to internal and external pressure that is self imposed and gives light to the idea of physiological, psychological, and behavioral changes (Ward & Abbey, 2005). Stress in not anything new but has grown dramatically over the past few years with raised levels of awareness (Ward & Abbey, 2005). In today's society stress recognition is as a problem that needs to be researched more in depth. The idea of stress is viewed differently because people have a different way of comprehending and understanding ideas and concepts (Ward & Abbey, 2005). According to authors Jane-Cranwell Ward and Alyssa Abbey "people react to situations differently and, therefore what can be a source of stress and a negative experience to one person can be a very positive experience to someone else (2005)." Generally speaking four categories are recognized for stress by psychological and medical experts in the area. First, there is Hypo-stress, which is caused by lack of pressure or boredom and is often displayed via pent-up feelings, apathy, and depression (Ward & Abbey, 2005). The second type of stress is Eu-stress, this is when people are excited by the pressure of stress and perform at higher levels. Next, is Hyper-stress, and this is the point in which an individual can panic, lose control, and even struggle with coping to a situation (Ward & Abbey, 2005). Finally, a major category is the idea of distress. A prolonged period of stress and the point in which an individual may begin to suffer health issues or a stress related sickness is when distress occurs (Ward & Abbey, 2005). Job Related Stress Work-related stresses are one of the more common types of stress experts study. Being a team leader in a manufacturing plant can be stressful. A manufacturing plant may operate at a rapid pace causing stress levels to rise at different time of the day. As a team leader, a certain level of control is necessary to perform the job at the highest ability. The four previously mentioned types of stress can negatively affect an individual in the workforce. When an individual performs a job or a function he or she can be bored, excited by the pressure, struggling in certain situations, and even experience distress. The job-related stress from being a team leader in a manufacturing plant can be the combination of Hypo, Eu, or Hyper. Susan Cartwright and Cary Cooper report five factors that are leading contributors to increased stress in the workplace. They are working conditions; shift work, long hours, new technology, and work overload (1997). Working conditions can include physical surroundings, shift work that can require working around the clock, long hours that can be shifts up to 16 hours, new technology requirements can cause learning stress, and work overload that is too much pressure over time. At the manufacturing plant all five conditions exist in some form or another. The physical surroundings can lead to a lack of communication and shift work can lead to everyone on the team working around the clock. In the manufacturing sector, workers and team leaders can work long hours, especially when a machine is broken and work has lagged behind. The manufacturing plant often adds new technology components that require training in which causes new stress for the workforce. Work overload also occurs when machines are working at a slow place or when there is a rush job that need to be completed as soon as possible. Burnout from Job Related Stress When an individual has a massive amount of stress from work, he or she can encounter a burnout. A burnout occurs when an individual encounters a series of ongoing occupational stressors (Cartwright & Cooper, 1997). Stressors over time that can lead to burnout include but are not limited to mergers, culture, role ambiguity, role conflict, responsibility, and relationships at work (Cartwright & Cooper, 1997). Burnout leads to a number of health issues but most importantly psychological factors. When an individual has a burnout from job-related stress it can cause a total mental breakdown that can lead to a physical outburst or a complete shutdown. An example of this comes from a family friend who had many job-related stressors. For the sake of this story, he will be called David. His job was at a mechanical plant in which he performed a variety of jobs. David was the manager of the mechanical plant and oftentimes had to do mechanical work because of a lack of staff. Eventually the task of performing two jobs on a regular basis wore on David. The stressors had built up over time and began to affect David's ability to show up to work. Over the course of several years David had progressively became worse and started demonstrating signs of burnout. One-day David had an issue with a coworker and could not keep his emotions in check, thus causing him to throw a wrench. David eventually had a complete mental breakdown that the doctors and psychologists believed were from being burned out at his job. Smoking and Obesity from Stress Many smokers will tell people the habit of smoking helps them deal with the stresses that come from life. According to psychologists Rick Bevins and Anthony Caggiula, "links between stress and smoking are abundantly clear (2009). Smokers have reported they smoke at higher volumes during stressful times and believe that they deal with more stressors than people who do not smoke (Bevins & Caggiula, 2009). First, it is only a myth that smokers have more stress than non-smokers and smoking during a stressful time or situation is a cope out. Stressors are a part of life, work, sports, etc. But just because an individual faces stress does not mean that smoking will help fix or solve the dilemma. Smoking from stress will eventually lead to many other health-related issues. Along the same lines of smoking, the concept of obesity is related to stress. Most cases of stress eating are done by obese individuals. Doctors Rachael and Richard Heller report that individuals under a superior amount of stress often believe eating (especially snacking) will make them believe that they feel better (2010). Doctors Rachael and Heller offer a stress eating cure from their research and believe that stress eating is more biological than a matter of willpower (2010). Oftentimes at work when stress levels are the highest people eat fatty foods and drink soda from the vending machines in the break room. One time a teammate became so stressed out that he went to the break room and indulged in multiple packs of Ho-Ho's and Twinkies. This case of stress eating is common in the workplace because people are often so stressed they eat, smoke, or both to try and relieve the pain caused by the stressors. Health Risks from Stress-Heart Disease, Hypertension, Cancer, and Diabetes Many health risks are associated with stress and health experts believe that extended stressful situations are the cause many health related issues. Michael Olpin and Margie Hesson report that stressors contribute to a variety of illnesses and 70% to 80% of all doctors visits are due to stress-related events (2007). The main health issues associated with stress are heart disease, hypertension, cancer, and diabetes. There are 180,000 deaths a year that can be attributed to stress on an individual's heart (Cartwright & Cooper, 1997). Over 70 million work days lost a year from heart disease related from stressors (Cartwright & Cooper, 1997). This would indicate that high levels of stress are bad for a person's heart over both the short- and long-term. Heart issues are closely related to smoking and obesity and the triple threat of the three are damaging for the well being of an individual. Hypertension (HTN) or high blood pressure is another disorder closely related to stress. Many cases of HTN are primary with no true medical cause, but those ones that are of interest to stressors are the secondary cases. Secondary cases of HTN may be caused by the heart or kidneys. The common bond is that HTN and Heart disease are closely related and if stress is bad for the heart it is simply as bad for someone with HTN. When looking at stress and stressors caused at work it is easy to see why heart disease and HTN cause many illnesses and deaths. Cancer and stress are two words that most people do not want to hear. Stress may not have a direct correlation to causing cancer but will not help an individual who has been diagnosed with cancer. A family member was recently diagnosed with cancer and the first words from the doctors were to try to avoid stress. The medical staff working with the family member said on several occasions that people who have more stressors have a harder time battling cancer. Cancer may not be caused by stress but unfortunately it can be the stressors that make fighting cancer a more difficult task. Diabetes is an illness that inflicts many people. Stressors help to lead people to bad eating habits and poor lifestyle choices. The lack of eating right and limited fitness can lead to an individual to developing adult-onset diabetes. Stress may not cause this dreaded disease, but it plays a major part in it. Stress also may cause diabetes to grow worse especially in the case of rising blood sugar levels. Several family members and friends have diabetes, and they have all stated that high levels of stress make the dreaded disease more debilitating. Dealing with Stress Stress affects everyone in all walks of life. Whether male or female, or young or old, stress is a part of everyone's life. Dealing with stress is an important aspect in life because of the consequences that can happen. If stress is a negative for so many there has to be a bevy of ways to deal with it. In researching stress and the ills from it many experts have written guides and advice to cope with it. These helpers are called stress management techniques, and they are meant to help people alleviate or reduce the amount of stressors they have. Stress management techniques When dealing with stress the best way to cope is with techniques in managing stressors. Experts state that muscle relaxation and positive thinking are two ways to deal with stress (Smith, 2002). Muscle relaxation usually obtained in massages can be extremely relaxing and help to break stress. The power of positive thinking is another technique to help deal with stress. Thinking positively and trying to avoid the negativity of stressors can be beneficial. Other techniques include deep breathing exercises and meditation often found in exercises like Yoga (Smith, 2002). The relaxation offered in deep breathing and Yoga is therapeutic to some and relieves stress of daily life (Smith, 2002). Exercise and fitness are two physically ways to relieve stress and can be done at any time of the day since most fitness centers have extended hours. Physical exercise like weight lifting, running, boxing, etc. can help break stress at the highest levels. Many employers offer fitness memberships as one outlet for employees to be healthier and to relieve much of the stress in their lives. Time management is another factor in dealing with the stressors of life. The ability to manage time by using daily planners and calendars to prioritizing key events help to alleviate stress in people's lives (Smith, 2002). Stress relief is ultimately up to each individual. How people deal with stress is in actuality all in what works best for that person. Many psychologists have come to the belief that stress management is key to a happy and successful life in modern life (Smith, 2002). Many demands in life may be overwhelming, but good stress management techniques are the best way to deal with the stressors (Smith, 2002). Conclusion In short, the portfolio is based on one of my real life experiences dealing with stress. My work is as a team leader in a manufacturing plant. This experience is my focal point behind the exploration of stress and how to manage it. Being a team leader is very stressful as many of the failures on my team are bestowed upon my shoulders. One of the most common forms of stress is work related. Stress from the job causes burnout and can eventually lead to major psychological issues. Stress causes people to make unhealthy choices like smoking and eating that contributes obesity and eventual health issues. Health risk from stress are not limited to but are highlighted by heart disease, hypertension, cancer, and diabetes. Recognizing stress and developing techniques to deal with it are necessities in life. When an individual learns to master his or her stress levels he or she can truly enjoy the finer aspects of what life has to offer. References Bevins, R., & Caggiula, C. (2009). The motivational impact of nicotine in tobacco use. New York, NY: Springer Science and Business. Cartwright, S., & Cooper, C. (1997). Managing workplace stress. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc. Fink, G. (2000). Encyclopedia of stress. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Heller, R.F., & Heller, R.F. (2010). The stress-eating cure. New York, NY: Rodale Books. Olpin, M., & Hesson, M. (2007). Stress life management for life . Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Smith, J. (2002). Stress management: a comprehensive technique and strategies. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company. Ward, J.C., & Abbey, A. (2005). Organizational stress. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. https://www.paperdue.com/customer/paper/stress-management-this-portfolio-project-44747#:~:text=Logout-,StressManagementThisportfolioproject,-Length10pages Read the full article