Wow! This is the most incredible site! If you’re disabled and trying to figure out (in the U.S.) disability, food stamps, section 8, other benefits, accessibility resources (wheelchairs, etc.), affordability of everyday stuff (phones, cars), etc. this is THE site! I wish I’d found this years ago. I hope lots of people get to see this.
Tag: note to self
Reminders for the Anxious/Depressed Creatives
- You’re more than what you make.
- Your productivity does not determine your value.
- It’s okay to do nothing sometimes.
- Not everything you do has to result in a product.
- Not everything you make has to be important, significant, or even good.
- You can make things just for yourself.
- You can keep secrets for yourself, whether it’s not posting some of your projects or not sharing your techniques.
- You’re allowed to say no.
- You’re allowed to rest.
searching for that fine line between “i need to stay informed” and “i can’t take any more of this.”
Pick the latter. Always pick the latter.
I realize how absurd, even unnatural that sounds. Your reflex response is probably something like, “but then how will I {various terms for maintaining positive self image}?”
But here’s the thing.
You have almost certainly been conditioned to stretch yourself way past what is actually mentally healthy.
The fact that you’re even thinking about needing a break is a surefire sign that you do need a break. That instinct to ask the question is pretty much all you’re going to get (unless you’re a cis, straight, white, abled man worth over 100 million dollars). Anything else has probably been crushed out of you by the pressures of living in this world, and the worst way to find out you should have been listening to that nagging voice that said “take a break” is by having a nervous breakdown because you physically cannot handle the stress anymore.
We’re taught from day one not to recognize our own stress, and not to deal with it. Suppression is the only thing most of us ever get the chance to learn. Everything else is written off as being needy, or not caring enough about other people, or just not being good enough.
In much the same way that “diet culture” convinces people that they aren’t actually hungry until they’re on the verge of passing out, a culture of being expected to serve others before ourselves convinces us that we’re not actually stressed until we start having random emotional boilovers at the sound of a door closing too loudly across the hall.
And one of the first signs of stress overload is memory problems. The kind that leave you feeling like no matter what you do, you can’t quite process everything and remember the important bits, so you just overcompensate and look for more, and more, and more.
Take the break.
What you need to worry about, basically always, is yourself.
You are the only person who can ever actually put your needs first all the time. No one else can be expected to, so it is of absolutely critical importance that you do it.
Once you break out of the pattern of obsession and actually recover, you can return to politics, or social media, or what the fuck ever with a clearer head, and be more productive and more comfortable.
don’t feel guilty for not being able to handle everything, for needing a break. you need to look after yourself, too. self care is not selfish.
This is not for you.
This is a post aimed at me and other people who constantly fall into guilt spirals over all the things they can’t do, and feel they should somehow magically be able to do anyway.
For me, and for the others, this is a gentle reminder:
– Posts asking for monetary donations are speaking to people who have money. Not your broke ass, still worrying how to buy food next month.
– Posts asking you to care about [extreme injustice of the day] are speaking to people who have energy to care. Not you, hanging onto your sanity by the fingernails.
And, most importantly: posts telling you that you are horrible/cheap/awful/rude/unworthy/unlikable if you don’t pay/reblog/signal boost/care? Those posts can fucking die in a fire.
TL;DR: Posts asking for shit you are not physically or mentally able to give?
THOSE POSTS ARE NOT FOR YOU.
hey let’s normalize doing little things to help ourselves!
opening a window sure won’t cure my personality disorders but it will cool down my room and give me fresh air if I haven’t left the house for a while! taking your vitamins won’t cure your depression but it will prevent you from getting vitamin deficiencies if you forget to eat! going outside for a while won’t cure mental illness but it does feel nice!
little things won’t cure us but they will help manage things. these things aren’t “neurotypical”, they are ways of surviving!
So regarding the mint discourse, I’m an absolute fan of plants that I have to wage war on. Which is why I plant the mint without any sort of barriers and let it do its thing. It’s invigorating. Do know what other veg/herb plants also do this? I want to have a garden that’s constantly at war with itself.
Raspberries/blackberries.
Strawberries.
Tansy. It’s lovely, and forms a neat clump, and then seeds itself around your garden with about seven million tiny seeds, 150% of which germinate. Please help, I’m drowning in tansy over here.
Iris. Old fashioned iris, to be specific. Orris root, dried, is used to fix perfumes in potpourri and perfumery.
Soapwort.
Many old-fashioned roses, which will sucker all over the place into an impenetrable thorn hedge. (My Goal around the yard, and why I planted Hansa, which is doing a lovely job of it. Also, tasty hips and flowers.)
Zucchini. Any squash, to be fair.
Daylilies.
(All parts edible, buds and root bulbs particularly tasty. Form neat clumps and will outlive you, your house, and possibly the human race)
Hollyhock. Decorative and edible. Ground root is a good dress for bruises, swellings, and ulcers.
Ostrich fern. Loves shady damp spots like Genghis Khan likes conquering, and the fiddleheads in spring are absolutely delicious.
Wild grape.
Chives.
Wormwood; similar situation to the tansy. Please send help.
Fennel and dill, which, if you let go to seed, will seed themselves like tansy.
Violets; delicious and indestructible.
Yarrow.
Cucumbers ARE a squash, btw.
Note to self: plant chives in the center of the garden this year.
(Because I don’t know what to do with some of the rest, it’s a low garden and all food stuffs, and squash are not this year damnit after last year’s too many cucumbers to eat them all. Also, yarrow is a little bastard that is never allowed in my garden again because around here it outcompetes mint, and I already have a very persistant enemy in the ground ivy.)
I am imperfect. I am enough.
3 Defining Features of ADHD That Everyone Overlooks
“When we step back and ask, “What does everyone with ADHD have in common, that people without ADHD don’t experience?” a different set of symptoms take shape.
From this perspective, three defining features of ADHD emerge that explain every aspect of the condition:
1. an interest-based nervous system
2. emotional hyperarousal
3. rejection sensitivity”
Oh
I’m reblogging first, then clicking through to read the article (less likely to lose it or forget to do either), but just from the piece quoted – oh. Yes. That does lay it out rather succinctly, doesn’t it?
I needed this when I was fucking TEN.
Things I never knew about depression until I finally had a doctor explain the disease to me
helly-watermelonsmellinfellon:
Depression can manifest as irrational anger.
My complete and total inability to keep anything clean or tidy for any amount of time is a symptom of my depression. I may never be able to do this. It’s important that I remember that and forgive myself when I clean something out (like my car) and it ends up trashed within a week.
Depression IS A DISABILITY. Requiring accommodations is okay.
Medications don’t make you better, they don’t cure your depression. They serve as an aid. Their purpose is to help you get to everyone else’s minimal level of functioning.
Depression can cycle through periods of inactivity. This doesn’t mean it’s gone away.
The reason I don’t feel like other people understand me is because … well … other people DON’T understand me. They can’t. They don’t have my disability.
Paranoia is par for the course.
Depression can and will interfere with your physical mobility. Forgive yourself when you can’t physically do something.
It’s entirely possible that I may never be able to live by myself. I can’t take care of myself. I need help to do it. And that’s okay.
As someone who suffers from depression and who experiences all these things as well I think this is important and needs to be reblogged.
Depression is a very difficult thing, not only for people who suffer from it, but for everyone who knows a depressed person. My family doesn’t know how to deal with it, my friends try their very best to support me and I have tried to pretend I was fine until I was in ninth grade.Everything makes so much more sense
Depression is a disease of the brain. The brain is an organ. When organs are not functioning properly, you are advised to see a doctor and get help. So why is it so hard to understand that the brain can suffer as well, and that we need help for it?
The brain controls the body. A sick brain means a sick body.
….
Shit.Don’t disregard it as just sadness. Depression is life threatening.
The day I rebuked someone for saying “depression is in your head” with the comeback “Yes. And there’s an organ in your head called the brain – or at least in MY head, sounds to me like you don’t have one at the present moment – and a brain is a physical component of the body, therefore depression is a Physical ailment”…
that day was the day I took my first step toward accepting it as a disability and forgiving myself for having to live with something so stigmatized
and;
when people attribute depression to being “all in your head,” what they’re really doing is connecting your illness to an expectation of sufferers being virtuous and having enough willpower, almost making it an issue of personal integrity, as if fostering and growing those is the only – or even the most effective – “cure,” and if you’re weak in those areas and not persevering hard enough, then it’s a moral failing
it’s not
I do all this and regularly forget it can be the depression and fall back into berating myself. Its good to remember
Also, you will be exhausted. You cannot work long hours no matter how much you’d like to because it will start pulling on your immune system and physical health a lot sooner than it does for other people. So stop comparing yourself to other people when it comes to how long you can work and start listening to how long it takes before you are exhausted. The added benefit of doing this is, when you find a medication that works, you will suddenly notice yourself getting more energy.
Depression is “all in your head” like hepatitis is “all in your liver.”
Its important to note that most bouts of major depression last no more than two years constant, if you have reoccuring depression it may not be major depression and idk that was a big thing for me to discover. I was always confused because other people I knew had gotten better and I just didnt… I had periods of being ok but at most a few months to a year then I was back to being depressed again.
I’m just starting to come out of another major crash I think… I hope.
If you can and are comfortable, if you have reoccuring depression, or treatment resistant depression it is worth talking to your doctor about any concerns for how long its been lasting.
Note: – Im not saying if you’ve felt depressed for more than two years on the go you arent depressed, Im saying the type of depression it is may not be what you originally thought. Dysthymia is a form of long term low-level depression, that is often treatment resistant though not always.I suffer from Dysthymia with bouts of major depression.
I have beaten myself up over and over again to a very dangerous place because of the fact that I don’t have my own place. I had to move back in with my folks when things got so bad I ended up homeless. I suffer from G.AD. (generalized anxiety disorder), depression, and bipolar and I get scared and still do with the reality that I may never be able to live alone. How do you cope with that, especially if you might possibly be asexual and will may not have a partner or family member to help you out?
@evilkillerpoptarts anyone ever tell you that you are amazing?
@ravynfyre thank you.
Depression is fucking exhausting.
There's a Mirror on the Wall 