i feel passionately about the need to enfold people experiencing (or diagnosed) with "just" depression or anxiety into the mad pride project. the more people who view themselves as mad, the better. much as the rhetorical move from "neurotypical" to "neuroconforming" emphasizes the artifice & social construction of "neurotypicality," so too will expanding identification as "mad" expose the sane/mad dichotomy as a false one.

it's true that (some) people with "just" depression and/or anxiety have an easier time navigating the psych system than people who have more stigmatized diagnoses. but this is not to say that they necessarily have an easy time — the carceral psych system is hostile to everyone subsumed by it, even the most "privileged" patients. we should of course critique & examine how our experiences are shaped by various intersections of privilege, but we cannot forget or ignore how someone with "just" a depression/anxiety diagnosis can still experience the full force of the carceral psych system brought down upon them (including but not limited to involuntary institutionalization, police intervention, & forced medication or other forced treatment).

we must encourage, if not insist, that those with the least-stigmatized diagnoses view their difficult experiences navigating the psych system as bound up with the liberation of people who have more stigmatized diagnoses &, often, a more violent experience of the psych system. we need more people to drop the "i have anxiety/depression but i'm not crazy" line and say loudly, "i have anxiety/depression & i am crazy. my access to just treatment is linked to the conditions of all other crazy people, who are my allies, peers, & friends. we are united in our cause & we all deserve a more liberating system of care."

Thank you. Rambling about ODD ahead, please let me know if there's anything I've said weird:

ODD is supposed to note to professionals that there is something creating worrying behaviour in a child/teen. The most common reason someone develops ODD is that they aren't being parented well. There are tables of what is likely to cause specific dysfunctional behaviours and he majority are based on poor parenting skills and/or abuse. The most effective treatment for ODD is working with the parents on their parenting or removing the abuse from a child's life.

In some of these cases it's poor parenting based on an underlying condition, most commonly ADHD or autism, where treatment is essentially just teaching parents how to help their neurodivergent children.

The biggest thing child psychologists get from an ODD diagnosis is what to look out for in the future.

ODD is split into different types of behaviour:

Irritable/angry, Defiant/argumentative and, vindictive.

The biggest worry is vindictive behaviour as it is a flag for the potential development of antisocial disorders. Irritable/angry behaviour can indicate or develop into anxiety and mood disorders and defiant ODD symptoms most often link with ADHD.

Diagnosing ODD is supposed to be a way to improve the life of the child that has been diagnosed and a warning of what disorders they may be susceptible to.

The problem is, and this is where your views on it are completely correct, many psychologists and parents take the label and decide that it is enough. ODD has been given the moniker of "bad child disorder" which seriously harms all kids with ODD! It is used more often as a way to dismiss the children who are suffering when it is supposed to be the red flag of "this kid needs help"

This is why you stop making up new disorders and start telling parents "Your child is being abused. This is a natural response to mistreatment."

This is what all that "over-diagnosis" stuff from the 2000's was about. Using overly clinical language to obfuscate a very straightforward concept, when you KNOW shitty parents are going to take a diagnosis as carte-blanche to do whatever they want.

"How are terrible people going to react to this" needs to be factored into the creation of new diagnostic criteria. It's why shit like "Antisocial Personality Disorder" and "Narcissistic Personality Disorder" desperately need to be renamed yesterday. Because the words "Antisocial" and "Narcissist" mean things that are completely anathema to how those disorders actually work. Whoever approved that name should be hit with a stick.

90% of the stigma around mental illness is based around the fact that they have such ominous fucking names.

Here's a crazy idea: Rename Oppositional Defiance Disorder to "Battered Child Syndrome." Because that's what it is.

Rename NPD "Compulsive Insecurity."

Start naming shit in ways that is both not inflammatory and actually conveys what it fucking does. Like we do with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. That's the greatest name in the world because it's clear, it tells you exactly what it is, and it's so boring-sounding that nobody could ever stigmatize it.

Everyone understands "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."

I'll give you a life hack, there is nothing wrong with being a little bit "crazy" in the presence of someone who doesnt want to control you, use you, demean you, or take away your rights as a result.

Why do I say this? Because I struggle with some very hard traumatic symptoms. Paranoia, DID, situationally mute, and involuntary age regression, just to name a few.

In the past I've been stigmatized by medical professionals & also my family for this kind of stuff. And that's kinda shitty, considering my trauma history has some of the most abhorrent, dark, abusive shit known to human history. Im talking, shit that would make you vomit if you knew.

And in my experiences with living in a society that will glorify "murder all abusers" but will never actually acknowledge the fact that a lot of survivors exist & walk among them side by side every single day, most of society is not prepared to have a conversation on how to recognize & help a loved one who struggles with severe symptoms like this.

No. What we get instead, is a society that loves to point the finger at you and yell at you to get your shit together.

Which, is a huge fucking blow when even medical professionals are either not trauma informed & trained on how to recognize & help someone who has been severely traumatized, or they are trauma informed & just straight up don't care.

And in my life I have been severely privileged to have found a therapist who not only helps me manage these symptoms in safe, healthy ways, but who also cares enough to help me be patient with myself and recognize when I'm being too hard on myself for it.

And this... I mean... ???????

BLOWS MY FUCKING MIND ON A DAILY BASIS.

Because that is NOT what everyone else around me says!!!!

What the fuck.

So I guess more than anything I have come to realize. That. It actually DOES matter how the people around you view mental health, how informed they are about your symptoms, and how willing and patient they are to not only educate themselves but also help you remove the shame and humiliation when they hit.

Because, yeah, you know, ultimately we do have to manage our symptoms.

But HOLY FUCK DOES IT HELP TO HAVE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS FEELS LIKE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT TABLE. The empathy and compassion and patience that others can extend to you in return????? One of the most priceless things imaginable.

And I hope hope hope and wish wish wish that for literally EVERYONE who has to experience these types of things.

You deserve patience. You deserve compassion. You deserve empathy and understanding. You do not deserve to be shamed for your symptoms. You are a living, breathing human being. You can still be respected at the end of the day.

i've been agonizing for a long time over whether or not i should tell my girlfriend that i have DID. we've been together for a small handful of months, but she doesn't seem particularly experienced with severe and complex mental illnesses. she thinks she's crazy for having anxiety for talking on the phone, meanwhile my main social outlet is going to work and i prefer it that way because i have a diminished desire/capacity for relationships with other people, and i can barely have my nephew give me a hug around my upper leg without jumping and wanting him off of me because he's touching me in a place that triggers me. i can hardly be touched in many places because of that.

half the time i don't feel attached to her at all, and the other half of the time i do, but i don't really remember it.

she's just not familiar with severe, complex and stigmatized illnesses, and if her roommates think she's a nut because she has obvious PTSD (she is aware of this) then they're going to think i'm even crazier. she's probably going to be accepting, but i don't know in what way she's going to be accepting about it.

the way she's said the word 'plural' a few times here and there has me suspecting that she may already know about this sort of thing, but due to that preconceived notion, i don't know how exactly she's going to react if/when i decide to tell her that i have DID. i don't want to be treated like 30+ separate people in one body, but if that's all she knows then that's all she knows, and i'll have to spend a lot of time un-doing that damage to tell her that not every plural/multiple/whatever preferred term person wants to be treated that way.

there's not necessarily anything wrong with wanting to be treated this way, i just don't want to be, and i'm sick of it being treated like the default way to treat plurals/multiples/systems/etc. i just don't want her to feel like she can only date one alter or thinks that getting into a relationship with a multiple means she has to suddenly be polyamorous or whatever when that is very far from how i view my multiplicity personally.

i just don't know how she's going to react.

i would say that's the biggest and only reason keeping me from telling her but frankly an even bigger reason is just plain shame. for being traumatized, for being mentally ill, for having been abused in unspeakable ways as a child.

i use that word, unspeakable, for very particular reasons. because i can't talk about it. it feels as if the shame or a manifestation of it is physically keeping me from talking about it. it makes me feel awful in ways i can barely even begin describing in words. it's just the kind of shame that only comes with having this experience.

she was sexually assaulted as a child, so i'm partially sure that she would feel a similar way, but knowing i'm not alone in an experience doesn't make it any easier, any less shameful, it doesn't make me feel any better about it. maybe it's related to my diminished desire for social interaction or relationships or whatever, but someone experiencing the same thing i have has never made me feel better, it doesn't show me how to deal with something.

i just, i don't know. i want to tell her but more than pretty much anything else, shame stops me.

Neuroessentialism and mental health

Hi!

Time for a little rant about neuroessentialism.

The aim of this post is to provide the opportunity to be conscious of the things that influence us when it comes the way we think about mental health and to challenge stigma around mental health.

First off, I’m not a doctor and the information here cannot serve as medical advice. Always consult your doctor before changing your medication or treatment approach.

Secondly, a lot of the information I present here is elaborated on and further discussed in an episode of the Psychiatry and psychotherapy podcast called “Free will in psychotherapy and psychiatry Part 3” and while I will link to as many things as I can, you can also find a lot of the source material on the website for the podcast. https://www.psychiatrypodcast.com/psychiatry-psychotherapy-podcast/2020/7/22/free-will-in-psychiatry-amp-psychotherapy-part-3

So, I see a lot of people talking about mental health on here through a neuroessentialist perspective in memes or text format and I don’t think they’re aware of it so. I’d like to talk a bit about it.

First, I’ll offer a definition of neuroessentialism:

" Neuroessentialism is the view that the definitive way to explain human psychological experience is by reference to the brain and its activity from chemical, biological and neuroscientific perspectives. For instance, if someone is experiencing depression a neuroessentialistic perspective would claim that he or she is experiencing depression because his or her brain is functioning in a certain way.” - Schultz, W. (2018)

I see people talk about, for example, depression in this way often: in memes when people say "I have a literal neurotransmitter deficiency, Karen." or " God forgot to add serotonin when he made me".

Now, why can this be problematic?

Before I get into the issues with this perspective, I will first acknowledge that one of the reasons this view has become so prominent lately is because it aims to reduce stigma around mental health issues.

In the podcast episode mentioned above they point out that “Efforts to reduce stigma should be praised, but they should also be critically analyzed to determine if they meet their goal.”

And that’s the thing neuroessentialism, while aiming to reduce stigma and shame it only does so short term and ends up contributing to stigmatizing attitudes about mental health.

I want to say that it's great to see people fight back when it comes to stigma around mental health. That's what I see people do in these memes. But the effects of neuroessentialist perspectives end up othering people; making them inherently “bad”, “defect” or “helpless”.

Here the deterministic aspect of neuroessentialism comes up - it tells us that there’s something wrong with our brain that we can’t change. It alienates people because it chips away at their and our belief in their ability to change. If you believe that someone's mental issues are rooted exclusively in brain biology, you're less likely to believe that they can control their behavior and so it is less worth the effort of getting them better. This brings about more stigma.

Another thing that’s important to talk about is how neuroessentialism is an extremely simplistic perspective on mental health. And that’s also one of the reasons it has become so big- because it offers a simple explanation to very complicated illnesses.

Here, I want to add a quote by Psychiatrist and psychotherapist Dr. David Puder:

“There are prominent theories out there that we know just aren’t true anymore and that get propagated because they are simplistic ways of explaining things; for example, depression is because you have low serotonin in your brain. That’s just not true. It’s a whole lot more complicated than that.

You could probably show 20 or 30 things that are going on in the brain during depression. Inflammation. Like initially I thought ‘oh depression is inflammation!’

Well, it turns out not all depression has inflammation. Maybe, only one third [of patients with depression] have inflammation markers in the brain.”

We have been looking to neuroscience for an explanation when it comes to mental health and been satisfied with the idea of a simple "chemical imbalance" but truth is that there are many more neurotransmitters which significantly affect our brains when we talk about depression – it’s so far from just serotonin.

Another example of how neuroessentialim can oversimplify mental health is with brain scans. So, in the podcast episode mentioned above, Dr. Puder talks about how he was really interested in emotions and especially studying anger and he was looking at all this research on the different areas in the brain involved in anger. After a while, he says, he began to understand that it’s really complex and you can’t just point at one area and say that’s the area that’s involved in the emotion anger. There are several areas involved in just that one emotion and different studies show different things.

The truth is that the manifestation of mental illness in the body is a very new area of research and we haven’t found physical manifestations for most mental illnesses and the important thing to note here is that despite this we still do have ways of treating all of them.

Alright, all this can seem quite removed from us so how does neuroessentialsim affect us?

In the episode the guest star, Mathew Hagele, further discusses the article which provided the definition on neuroessentialism above: “Shultz looked at studies investigating how patients viewed their own prognosis and later the same with professionals.

The study found that biochemical or genetic attribution scores were a significant predictor of longer expected symptoms duration and lower perceived odds of recovery.” (Lebowitz et al., 2013, p. 523).

Now, this means that the more a patient attributes symptoms of their psychopathology to genetic (inherited disorderes) or biochemical (serotonin deficiency for example) factors, the longer they expected to struggle with their disorder and the smaller the belief that they can recover.

If a person doesn’t believe they can be helped or get better they’re a lot less likely to try and a lot more likely to feel scared and hopeless.

The other side of this coin is the effect the neuroessentialist narrative has on clinicians which Matthew Haegel dives into in the next part of the quote:

“Another study shows that clinicians believe psychotherapy to be less effective when shown biological descriptions of mental health pathologies...

They took a couple different disorders that these clinicians were looking at and one group had a biological explanation and the other did not- had a different type of explanation. And [in] the results that were across disorders, the biological explanation yielded significantly less empathy than the psychosocial explanation. They also did some additional analysis and they found that biological explanations yielded less empathy than the psychosocial explanations among both MD’s and non-MD’s…..”( Lebowitz, M. S., & Ahn, W. K. (2014). )

So, in these studies we see that a neuroessentialist perspective lowers empathy for the patient in medical health professionals and people who weren’t medical health professionals.

Okay, so how does this perception of the patient’s illness affect the patient’s treatment?

I’ll start with a quote where Hagele elaborates further:

“…and finally, that clinicians perceive psychotherapy to be significantly less effective when symptoms were explained biologically than psychologically…[ Lebowitz, M. S., & Ahn, W. K. (2014). ]

basically, linking the idea that the diminished importance of psychotherapy among mental health professionals ascribing to the concept of neuroessentialism is doubly harmful when considering the multiple contexts in which psychotherapy matches or outperforms pharmaceutical interventions.”

What Hagele points out here is the way neuroessentialism can lead to a less effective and ethical treatment of mental illness. It makes us approach an issue in one manner only- fix the brain, fix the behavior. But sometimes what can treat he issue in the brain is, working on the behavior. This can be talked about in terms of meds vs. psychotherapy.

So, seeing mental health from a neuroessentialist perspective, completely excludes the effects of psychotherapy. A classic example is CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) in which we have “Cognitive restructuring”: a psychotherapeutic process in which a person learns to recognize maladaptive or distressing thoughts and teaches their brain to consider other perspectives or different thought pattern. This is an example of “work on behaviour to better brain” rather than “working on brain will fix behavior”. According to strict neuroessentialism therapy shouldn’t work as well as it does but there is a really big body of science backing psychotherapeutic intervention and its efficacy compared to psychopharmacological intervention.

I feel I should address the discussion of Meds vs. therapy before I continue, (it is a whole topic worthy of a post on its own) but to be brief, they work best together and if you’re weighing one against the other psychotherapy has more long-term effects and barely any side effects compared to medication. There are other factor affecting what would be the most effective treatment approach that further nuances this discussion.

Now this is all a pretty big picture but how is this seen every day?

Well, its seen in the downplaying of the importance of therapy. Often, I see this as people normalize behavior where they kind of devalue the importance therapy or put off working on their issues in therapy with the excuse that it’s only for “crazy” people or not something worth the effort.

Therapy then increasingly is seen as this unimportant, extra thing rather than, in most cases, the most effective and safe treatment. And the less crucial therapy is considered, the less accessible it’s going to be – in the U.S. it can often be easier to get your insurance company to cover for a doctors visits where the treatment would be for your GP to prescribe you an antidepressant than an inpatient or outpatient treatment with a mental health professional.

Another point I wanna put out there is that that neuroessentialist narrative is incentivized by pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Puder talks about his own experience in the podcast episode and makes sure to stress that practitioners are humans too and will of course be biased towards something if that something writes them a check or pays some of their expenses. In the episode they discuss a way in which we have seen the neuroessentialist narrative progress:

“Second, there is evidence that the significant increase in direct-to consumer (DTC) advertising for antidepressants is related to rising prescription rates (Park & Grow, 2008). Such advertisements portray depression as a biological medical condition that can successfully be treated with medicine (Lacasse & Leo, 2005; Leo & Lacasse, 2008)” (613).

Now, medicine is an important tool in psychiatry and there is a lot of unnecessary stigma around medication for mental health conditions. I am under no circumstances arguing that medication is bad and therapy is the only right way to treat mental illness. That would be an extreme simplification and invalidation of human experiences. I also wanna acknowledge that being able to go to therapy in many places in the world is a matter of privilege. Therapy simply isn’t accessible for everyone and people can choose an “only medication approach” for many valid reasons. And if that’s the only treatment that was accessible to you I’m really proud of you for taking care of yourself and doing what you can.

If your doctor has prescribed you a medication please take it and know that the purpose is to help you and that you are worthy of help and good health care. The situation where I would suggest to be a tad critical is when people come in with disorders and issues that they have dealt with for years and most of their life and they are just prescribed an antidepressant and sent home. That simply isn’t effective and ethical care. In that case it is worth investigating getting access to a mental health practitioner as well as continuing with medicinal treatment.

I could talk about this for hours but the last thing I wanna get across is that this is a societal problem. I don’t suggest we turn away from pharmaceutical intervention which saves thousands of lives and helps people get better, rather that we work to make psychotherapy (which can be and is crucial for long term remission and recovery) more accessible for when it’s appropriate.

When your doctor tells you that this invisible illness is because of your biology most people feel validated and experience less shame. The fact that people feel like they need to have a tracible biological “anomaly” in their brains to be worthy of treatment and care speaks to an invalidation that many feel. But the issue here is that we're taught to invalidate invisible illness in society which in the end makes people delay critical treatment or blocks access to ethical and effective care.

We also have to acknowledge that with the technology we have now we are not able to know whether all mental illness manifests in the brain in a way we can see so hinging our worthiness of help and care on the definition is in the end harmful.

TL;DR

" Neuroessentialism is the view that the definitive way to explain human psychological experience is by reference to the brain and its activity from chemical, biological and neuroscientific perspectives. For instance, if someone is experiencing depression a neuroessentialistic perspective would claim that he or she is experiencing depression because his or her brain is functioning in a certain way.” - Schultz, W. (2018)

Neuroessentilism can validate a patient and bring relief of shame short term but ends up contributing to stigmatizing attitudes and thus doesn’t help reduce stigma overall.

The neuroessentialist narrative can downplay the efficacy and criticalness of psychotherapeutic intervention

Neuroessentialist perspectives foster lower empathy levels for patients in medical providers and non-providers alike.

Neuroessentialist perspectives of a patient significantly increases levels of prognostic pessimism which leads to worse treatment outcomes

Neuroessentialism arose because of a real invalidation people feel around their mental health and it is a societal issue we need to work on

We can combat neuroessentialism and stigma by working to make psychotherapy more accessible and talking about our experiences openly as well as giving each other kindness and empathy.

This text for people who suffer from anxiety

Anxiety can be present in many everyday situations. Who has never felt anxious before a first date, a job interview, an important meeting? But when it stops being temporary and starts to negatively impact someone's social life, extra attention is needed. In this case, it may be a clinical condition called “anxiety disorder” or “social phobia”. However, despite its seriousness, it is not always taken seriously from a social point of view. That's why Daniela*, from São Paulo, decided to vent on the networks and shed light on a reality common to many people, but still stigmatized. In a text posted on her Facebook, she tells how she has been dealing with her condition in a sincere and touching way. No wonder, the post has been shared more than 40 thousand times. “Anxiety isn't cool, it's not a source of pride, it shouldn't be romanticized,” she asks. "In the end, we're all trying to survive ourselves and this big world, but some people have bigger battles than others." Next, check out the full text... “I reflected a lot until I had the courage to expose what immeasurably afflicts me. We need to talk about anxiety disorder.

Waiting too long for something, keeping an eye on your cell phone to see if the person you like responds, counting the minutes until class time or work is over... None of this is being anxious. Some people may think it is, but no. Anxiety is not cool, anxiety is not a source of pride, anxiety should not be romanticized. My anxiety hurts my mind, it hurts my body, it won't let me breathe. I lose control over my feelings and everything seems to be chaos... Anxiety makes me prepare myself all day for something bad to happen, because somehow I feel that something bad is going to happen. Anxiety comes with a tightness in my chest, it creates a lump in my throat, it makes me vomit, and my whole body aches. Anxiety dries my mouth, makes me shiver and my body tingle. It makes me prone at any moment to be able to burst into tears, and that crying is uncontrollable.

Having anxiety deprives me constantly, makes me cancel things I scheduled at the last minute, things I wanted to do, things I want to be able to do, but sometimes I can only be alone. Anxiety makes me apologize too much, makes me feel awkward. And it's common to agonize days and days wondering if I said something I shouldn't, it makes me unable to ask for help because I think my pain is not valid. Anxiety keeps me awake all night, and having nightmares when I finally sleep, waking up with my heart out of step, unable to breathe. It's not nice to have. Anxiety makes me think too much, rationalize too much... I'm always mincing words, thinking too much before I act.

It makes me look dramatic, crazy, for those who don't have it. People can't understand what's going on inside me. It makes me lie every time someone asks if it's okay. Even when my mind is killing me, I say it's great because I don't want to have to explain that I don't have control over it, not yet. Anxiety strains every muscle in my body as I deal with internal issues and I try to keep my face serene so no one notices. It makes me feel every second that someone is upset about something I did or said. The weight of everything is doubled and I feel like I need to take care of everyone, but I don't let anyone take care of me.

I don't want to hear that I'm being ridiculous or exaggerating. I just want you to understand that my qualities are above anxiety, that it doesn't determine who I am. If you also struggle with anxiety, know that you are not alone. Some days are really difficult, but at one point, peace will come for everyone. And for those who don't, but know someone who does, for those who know me, respect that person, respect me, don't judge us. In the end, we're all trying to survive ourselves and this big world, but some people have bigger battles than others. Be kind, you don't know what the other is going through.”

What Im thinking about today: BNHA n stigmatization of psychology.

The thing is, we as humans are very ready to help each other (most of the time). Thats why we try to rehabilitate prisoners, thats why we volunteer, thats why proffesions such as doctors, social workers and psychologists etc exist. I think we talked here before how most villains in the series havent been failed by heroes, they've been failed by societal safety nets that were meant to catch ppl like them, just like social workers try to catch endangered kids and psychologists try to catch people with mental problems.

Now i study psychology so ill concentrate on that. Obviously it depends from place to place but mental care is still very often looked down upon as 'something for crazy people.' I have personal expirience with that as when i suggested to my dad that maybe he should look into a psychologist too (after my brother started going to one) cuz he has some issues that he could use a hand dealing with, his response was 'what? But im not crazy'. I study psychology and he still often makes jokes about me treating crazy people in the future. I interviewd a school psychologist for a class and she told us that one of the first things she has to do in a school is get students to relax and feel comfortable coming to her with problems cuz there is a very clear stigma in everyones mind that asking for help with your mental problems is something bad, something wrong, something that means you are crazy, wierd, other and people do fear that stigmatization. Going to a psychologist doesnt mean you are crazy, it means you are having problems that you cant deal with on your own and that you need proffesional help with. Nothing more, nothing less. Those problems can be depression or they can be helping you to deal with lingering emotions from your divorce. Big or small, psychology is simply there to give you support and tools you need to feel good again. You wouldnt stigmatize someone for going to the doctor for a soar throat or cancer so you shouldnt stigmatize someone seeking p much the same help for mental illness.

But people still do because things ingrained in society are very very hard to uproot and things are going for the better with every generation but its a painfully slow process and there is no telling how many people fall through that net because they dont seek help when they still can because they think 'im not crazy im not gonna go to those mumbo junbo psychologist that mess with your head' which is very much like going 'im not gonna go to a doctor for my infected wound, they would mess with my body'. Untreated infections spread and get worse and people fall through.

This is what leads me back to bnha. We dont know exactly how long the world of quirks existed, i think i saw a post breaking it down to be for about 100-300 years but for the life of me i cant remember. We know its not terribly long. 100 years may seem long until you remember a single human can live to 100 years old. Now my question is, if a science such as psychology that has been present since like ancient greeks n egypt n stuff can still be stigmatized.

How accepted would quirk counseling be?

Lets not forget that quirks were heavily discriminated against in the begining, treated as monsterous and the other and the acceptence of them is still something fresh and more extreme mutations still face hate groups. Like its completly canon that there are people alive now in bnha whos parents or grandparents faced discrimination or died because of quirk discrimination (cough redestro cough).

Imagine being Togas parents.

Your child displays a quirk like that. You still have in memory your parent or grandparent who was discriminated and monsterized because of a similar quirk. Quirk counceling exists but why should you take your daughter there. Shes not a monster, this isnt something you should get someone else involved with, its a family matter and what do those counselors know anyway, they will treat your daughter as a monster and make everything worse. You can handle this yourself, you can teach her to supress it. Shes not a monster.

The wound festers.

This especially goes hard for japan whos big on the keeping things in the family aspect and not discracing the family. The stigma is still fresh in the memory and you dont want to be that family whos kid goes to quirk counseling. You shut the doors, you shut the windows, you deal with it within the family.

I think that while quirk counseling exists in bnha, it would most likely be seen as something thats shameful to atend, a admitance that you dont have control over your own quirk. Your friends might say 'what the fuck man why are you going there, you arent a monster' even if a quirk that has negative effects should be treated as shortsighted eyes that need glasses. Just because it doesnt function well, doesnt mean its bad. But well stigmatization of disabled is a whole nother thing our society also has problems with and that also connects to bnha (cough aoyama cough). I think thats why its so easy for people in bnha to fall through those safety nets. I do belive they exist but they are new, probably not the most super effective as most new things tend to be and are probably looked down upon.

And hate to break it to shiggy and the crew but thats the kind of a problem that can only be fixed my longterm education and normalization of asking for help rather then burning the systhem to the ground.

I hope that made sense i always get a little loopy with my points when i write a long one fgdgff

No, it makes sense.

Mental health is still stigmatized everywhere, even here in the UK where we’re supposed to have some of the best health care available (which is debatable). To bring something a little personal into this, my flatmates and I were playing a guessing game where I had to describe a word with other descriptions being taboo (in my case it was headache) and as my flatmates know I suffer from chronic headaches, I said as a clue that it was something I get often. Well, a flatmate who was a little tipsy at the time who knows about my depression shouted depression to my other shocked flatmates (I didn’t mind, in fact I found it hilarious). But after we had all calmed down, one of my flatmates said something that stuck with me: “Maybe you shouldn’t overshare things”.

Now, I don’t see telling people I have depression as something I’m oversharing. It’s not private, it’s a mental health condition I suffer from that can kill me if it goes unchecked (before starting medication again, I was very suicidal). In fact, it benefits both me and my flatmates to know that I have depression just in case. And yet it was viewed as something that I was “oversharing”.

This attitude has only arisen because people treat mental health as something that is shameful and should only be known among family members. In fact, I had no clue that DASS (a disability service in uni) was actually also for mental health issues because we’ve been raised with people treating mental health as something “in our heads” and so isn’t as important as physical disabilities, it was only until my uni pointed out that it was there for every condition, physical and mental.

The point I’m making is that I can totally see mental health in BNHA be treated as a shameful secret. Japan doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to mental health anyway (don’t they have some of the highest suicide rates?) so it wouldn’t surprise me if the BNHA universe is the same. In fact, the only mental health issues we’ve seen in BNHA currently are the extreme examples of it such as Twice and Dabi’s mania.

I would love to see Horikoshi delve a little more into quirk counselling and the potential stigma behind it. I know it’s been brought up once or twice (UA treats it as something normal but as teachers who see mental health issues all the time, it’s no wonder that they do) but not enough in my opinion when it’s probably one of the most important stop gaps between making villains.

I don’t have much hope, admittedly, but it would be something fun to explore in fanon too!

I know this is a little different than your usual content, but why do people act like people who do crazy things "aren't mentally ill"? Like of course people are responsible for their own actions regardless of mental illness, but I don't understand this trend of seeing someone do something bad and saying their not mentally ill? Again obviously someone who has a mental illness isn't automatically going to do something bad or anything like that, but the argument doesn't seem to make any sense.

*TRIGGER WARNING: references to violence/mass shootings ahead as an example*

I don't mind diverging from the content I usually do from time to time, especially nowadays!

There are two reasons, in my view, why we should not refer to people who do bad things as mentally ill. The first is that the majority of us who are not mental health professionals, myself included, should not get into the habit of diagnosing strangers over the internet based on the limited knowledge we have of their behavior online. Even actual mental health professionals are hard-pressed to come to any conclusions about the state of someone's mental health on the web, because that is such a small sliver of who they are, and it isn't even close to the understanding one would need to build an accurate mental health profile of an individual.

The second reason is that there are a vast majority of the people who have any given mental illness that would NEVER commit the actions of someone who happens to have the same one. What people who have a mental illness do is not JUST a result of their condition, but many many other factors, including history and ideology. It's important to understand that we're dealing with a whole person who decided to do something based on a sort of internal logic, just like we all do. Whether their mental illness played a role and how much of a role it played isn't really the point, as much as what the train of thought is that led to the action.

For example: the perpetrator of a mass shooting should not be referred to as "crazy" or "insane". Regardless of whether or not they have a mental illness or how severe it is, their mental illness isn't the point. Their motivations are stated, their train of thought is in a manifesto, their history has been investigated and it turns out that they have a habit of abusing women (a real, honest-to-goodness link between most mass shooters in the USA), so our discussion should be around the ideology they acted upon, because THAT was the catalyst for their violent actions. The mental illness the shooter may or may not have isn't relevant, because not everyone with that illness will even be tempted to perform a mass shooting. If we start pontificating on the mental illness, then others with that condition will be marginalized more than they already are, and the REAL issue of misogyny will slip under the radar, allowing more individuals to shoot again when we fail to identify their risk by a mental illness.

Obviously, there is a lot of nuance to the issue, and I often slip-up myself and use ableist language myself, which I have to apologize for. But overall I prefer not to speculate at ALL about someone's mental health, just to err on the side of caution. It is important that we not further stigmatize our siblings with mental illness in an attempt to hastily and neatly condemn someone who committed a wrong. People with mental illness are not monoliths any more than those of similar skin color, and we need to acknowledge people's actions in terms of their core motivations, not the pathologies that can contribute or detract from the manifestation of those motivations.

||| ooc; does every character on this blog have bpd symptoms? is this problematic, considering they’re all villains or would-be villains? is there a way to give a villain a mental health disorder without stigmatizing the disorder? well--

OH AND BIG TRIGGER WARNING FOR A WIDE RANGE OF MENTAL HEALTH TOPICS SUCH AS: eating disorders, mental illness, stigmatization of mental illness, self harm, suicidal tendencies, and a fuckload more. I don’t go into detail. There are just mentions. I’m not gonna say a bunch of graphic shit, I promise! If I went into graphic detail, this would turn into a PhD thesis proposal, and that’d be WAY too long to be worth writing. Also I have BPD, but I’m not going to pretend that I’m an expert on the subject. I’m not. My word is not law, but it’d be nice if my word was taken into consideration.

this post got so fucking long and disorganized jesus christ

The answers are: yes, not inherently, and absolutely.

I want to get into the mental health of all three characters in a second, but I think it’s important to talk a little about the other two points first. That said, though -- yes, they’re all borderline. All three of them! And they all experience it differently! I will come back to that. Anyway--

I feel like it’s important to talk about villains, mental illness and stigma. There’s a really common (and insanely lazy) tendency for writers to explain a villain’s villainy by simply saying, “oh, well they’re a psychopath,” or, “they’re just crazy.” This is not only lazy and offensive, but it contributes to an unfair stigma against the mentally ill.

Mental illness might, say, compel someone to steal a chocolate bar or snap at someone out of anger. It might make a person’s emotions volatile. It might make someone unreasonable. They might suffer delusions of abandonment, of some plot against them, of people’s secret intent to humiliate them, etc. They might suffer and handle their suffering poorly. They may cause harm. But that doesn’t make them... evil. It makes them complex. And how they react to and handle their negative actions says more about them than any diagnosis could.

When you have a villain with a mental illness, you need to examine how the illness is hurting them. Write about how it hinders their progress. Write about how isolating it can be for them. Write about the impact and struggle. Not how the illness makes them so evil or so irredeemably awful. The illness should be what humanizes them and helps to make them relatable. No matter how untouchable and powerful your villain is, they have some personal struggle that is independent of their villainy. When done correctly, it can go a long way in fleshing out your villain and adding interesting inner conflict!

I know, I know. You might be asking, “yeah, but don’t people with mental health issues sometimes cause harm directly related to their symptoms?” To which I say: yeah, duh, of course. Just like a depressed person might say something mean when they’re having a bad day. Just like someone with ADHD might make someone feel like they aren’t being listened to. Just like someone who has social anxiety might make a friend feel unloved. Just like mentally healthy people also occasionally cause harm.

I’m not saying mental health issues don’t cause problems and maladaptive behaviors. I’m just saying it doesn’t... make someone inherently bad -- real or fictional. And I need people to internalize that.

ANYWAY ON TO THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR BPD

(i know, you’re probably like, “dude oh my god shut up and get on with it” sakjlfdkjsa)

I’m going to be referring to the four subtypes. I know these are controversial to some people. Some really don’t like these labels, others feel comforted by them, etc. They’re just to make it easier to talk about this whole thing. No one fits neatly into any one subtype! Some people don’t resemble any particular one! Everyone is different! Don’t box people into these subtypes if you haven’t been given consent, thanks!

Mr. A / Clark Donovan Mr. A is a classic example of the Quiet Borderline. Someone with quiet BPD mostly directs their symptoms inward. It’s harder to detect than other types, as the symptoms that are most prevalent are mostly expressed, well, inwardly. Self-esteem issues, self-blame, insecurity, withdrawing emotionally, pretending you’re not angry when you are, self harming tendencies, suicidal thoughts, etc. He’s also kind of clingy. Mr. A is an extremely loyal person to a fault. He is a people pleaser and will go to the ends of the Earth to make his loved ones happy, even if it hurts him. This is of detriment to him, as he often finds himself getting hurt on behalf of people who might not care as much as he does. He’s let a lot of bad people into his life solely because they made him feel loved, wanted and useful. He views everyone he loves through rose-tinted glasses and only takes them off long after he’s been laid to waste by them. He has terrible issues with self-image and has thus developed an eating disorder. He also has severe depersonalization/derealization disorder, which is a result of how his mental health interacts with his reality-warping powers. It creates a lot of anxiety with him, watching himself phase through things and bend the world around him on a whim. His motivations in life are connected to this, but his motivation to do evil things is not. He wants to bring other superpowered people together as a united front against humanity, as he feels that humanity is a threat to their continued existence. This has nothing to do with his mental health issues. The part of it that does tie in is that he’s painfully lonely and has chronic feelings of boredom, so being surrounded with a shit ton of different people mitigates that. It’s a motive for him bringing people closer to him, but it is not a motive for him to launch an attack on all humanity. He’d be really offended if you tried to accuse him of doing this on the basis that he’s just a bit ill. His illness literally just makes him crave contact with other living beings just like him. He sometimes does bad or stupid things because of this, but it literally has nothing to do with his motives as a villain. As an addendum of sorts, Mr. A’s alias and reluctance to use his given name (Clark Donovan) are a result of identity issues he suffers due to his BPD. He finds it hard to maintain a stable sense of identity, so he just... doesn’t.

Ivan Chanteur Ivan closely resembles what we like to call an Impulsive Borderline, comorbid with ADHD. He is an impulsive person, as the name of the subtype suggests. He’s a thrill-seeker who suffers from extreme levels of chronic boredom, which he desperately tries to combat by any means necessary. Staying still and doing repetitive tasks is literal torture for him. If he cannot get up and move and do whatever it takes to keep himself feeling fulfilled and occupied, he is probably going to fucking lose it. When he is actively vocalizing his boredom on a regular basis, this means the chronic feelings of boredom have reached critical mass. It’s not just boredom. It’s anxiety, it’s agitation, it’s existential dread, it’s an inability to focus, it’s pent-up energy that needs to go somewhere and can’t just stay in him anymore. If he can’t get it out in healthy ways, he usually resorts to self-harm or less-than-healthy pursuits. He’s been known to dabble in drugs, self-harm, occasional promiscuity on a bad night. While therapy’s helped him get a handle on it, there’ve been a lot of stressful and traumatic things going on in his life have have made it a lot harder to keep himself in check. Ivan is pretty charismatic, able to cast a wide net and catch all sorts of people in his social web. He has a sort of natural magnetism that, on a superficial level, should make him quite popular. But underneath it all, he has difficulty trusting people long enough to actually let them into his life. He’ll act like an open book, only to slam himself shut and reshelve himself before anyone can get anywhere near the end. He’s easy to befriend, but difficult to get close to. This has caused him to feel lonely and frustrated. He wishes he could easily form deep connections, but it’s hard and it hurts him. In addition to all of this, he engages in a wide variety of attention-seeking and risk-taking behaviors. He often spends time with people who are not good to him, simply for the thrill of it. This has often gotten him hurt, but he finds it hard to cut this habit in spite of everything. This leads to a lot of frustration and self-hatred, as it makes it hard for him to protect himself. Every time someone hurts or betrays him, he beats himself up over it and tells himself he should know better by now. All that said, though, he’s come a long way in therapy. He’s not quite able to keep a handle on all of it all the time, but he’s managed to secure one or two decently stable friendships along the way.

Eve Laurier Eve is particularly difficult to talk about, but I’m going to try my best. Eve is what happens when you make a conscious decision to be bad. He knows beyond a shadow of doubt that what he’s doing is wrong, but he feels so wronged by the world that he just cannot seem to motivate himself to care. This... again... has nothing to do with his BPD. If anything, it’s his struggles with this disorder that keep him at least somewhat... grounded in reality. Eve suffered a personal tragedy -- the loss of his twin sister in a housefire. Though ruled an accident, he cried foul play. Consumed with grief at the loss of the only person he felt could truly understand him, he vowed to find the culprit and make them pay. This set him down a path of vengeance that would make John Wick blush. Eve grew up as the heir to his family’s criminal enterprise. This put him in a position of power the very moment he was born. This also left him exposed to a lot of terrible, violent crimes from a very young age. Because this was normalized by his family, he internalized and compartmentalized any misgivings he had about violence. By the time he was ready for university, he had been thoroughly trained to carry out hitjobs on behalf of the family. He was a weapon from the moment he left the womb. He was groomed to do terrible things, and it’s because of this ongoing and continuous trauma that he developed his particular cocktail of mental health issues. He mostly fits in with the label of Petulant BPD. Repeated and violent trauma did a number on him, leaving him angry and hurt over what his parents let him fall victim to. He also experiences feelings of self-loathing over the part he feels he played in his own trauma, despite the fact that it started in early childhood. He is self-defeating and self-blaming. He has a difficult time expressing his feelings and has angry outbursts fairly regularly, often resulting in self-harm and suicidal ideation. He’s been known to reach for the nearest mind-altering substance just to get out of his head for a bit. His mood swings are intense and leave him feeling fatigued and anxious. He has severe social anxiety that sometimes manifests as cold indifference. He also has issues with control, has paranoid delusions about the people in his life and doesn’t often believe it when people say that they care for him. He will find any and every piece of evidence that points to the contrary, even if he has to make it up himself. This usually ensures that he’ll end up alone again. He doesn’t have very many close relationships, if any at all. His BPD is not the reason he hurts people. Any hurt caused by his BPD is directed at himself, not at others. His BPD is a direct result of what actually has primed him to hurt people. It’s a direct result of trauma. He’s traumatized. And no, trauma is no excuse for what he’s done -- but his BPD didn’t make him kidnap and torture Ivan while he waited for Ivan’s parents to send in the ransom. That was all Eve. That was his conscious decision to make, in spite of everything in his head telling him how awful and wrong he would be to do such a thing. He knew it was wrong and ignored it, as he was under the impression that Ivan’s family had a hand in his sister’s death. If anything, his BPD aggravates his feelings of shame and self-loathing when he does precisely what his parents had been training him to do his whole life.

Anyway-- I hope this was helpful or at least interesting.

The point I’m trying to make here is that mental illness isn’t some kind of ultimate litmus test of good and evil. A disorder doesn’t make you good or bad. It’s just another facet of who you are.

So... to that end... please for the love of fuck stop using personality disorders as the reason for someone’s villainy. Please. I am begging.

I wrote a bunch of BPD villains in various stages of villainhood because I have BPD and this disorder often makes you feel like you’re evil, a monster, etc. Honestly, on good days I feel like an inherently bad person who consciously chooses to do good. That’s very flawed and I know that logically I’m not inherently bad, but that’s kind of what stigma does. It makes you feel like you’re inherently bad. And that feeling influenced how I write all three of these characters.

This is an incoherent mess but today’s the day I find out if I have coronavirus and I’m so fucking stressed out and hopped up on DayQuil. Thanks for reading any of this, I guess?

The Dark In The Light: Mental Health

CW: Mental Health - brief discussion of suicide/self-harm

Something I have noticed, both with it being mental health awareness month and with the timing of my own struggles, is that many discussions regarding mental health in the public eye do their best to remain palatable to the masses. We are too hyper focused on being accepted that we are less honest about the realities of mental health. 

More celebrities, shows, and various media outlets are putting a spotlight on mental health awareness as a whole. Highlighting the importance of talking about our problems and engaging in dialogue; both to educate and help those impacted feel less alone. Talks about the progress society has made and peoples’ willingness to have difficult yet needful conversations and somehow we are still keeping many aspects of mental health hidden.

Anxiety and depression seem to be the most widely accepted diagnoses to discuss within mental health. While they are two of the most common mental health issues many people face, they do not paint a full picture. The wide range of mental health means that conversations must be broadened to include a spectrum.

I want to preface this by saying - no two mental health issues are comparable. Everyone’s mental health journey is unique to them and therefore two people presenting the same criteria of symptoms can have very different experiences. Broadening discussion to include more under-represented individuals that feel stigmatized by their diagnosis is essential while not making claims that any specific mental health problems are more difficult than others.  

Recently, I was lucky to have an open dialogue on my Twitch channel regarding mental health. Everyone in chat was overwhelmingly willing to be respectful, chime in, and share their experiences of dealing with mental health; whether that be from supporting themselves or someone else. There seemed to be a consensus when it came to diagnoses such as PTSD, Schizophrenia, Borderline, and OCD: people felt judged preemptively by their peers. 

I rarely find myself speaking about my PTSD diagnosis and how that has affected my life over the years. I don’t want to talk about what happened or how I got here, but rather how we can begin to incorporate conversations around mental health that show the more debilitating aspects. This would provide the necessary tools, resources, and concepts to embolden the support system of mental health sufferers. For me, the most difficult aspect of my mental health is  the accompanying dissociations. Both terrifyingly real and uncontrollable, they are a major part of my life. I typically have kept that to myself, though, as I never want someone to look at me with pity or concern. And while mental health disorders are a part of me, they do not encompass the entirety of who I am. I think that becomes the crux for many suffering or working through psychological issues; the idea that they will either be looked at as broken or with a level of fear from others due to a lack of trying to understand. 

We need to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. We need to talk about the depression where suicidal thoughts become prominent or self harm is contemplated. We have to realize that schizophrenia comes in many different forms and just hearing that diagnosis doesn’t make you “crazy” or a danger to society or yourself. The stigma is what stops people from talking.

I remember speaking with a close friend recently as they learned new information regarding their diagnosis. They were fearful to hear the words and be faced with the reality of what they have. But a diagnosis is just a tool in helping you seek assistance and recognizing a path to living your life. Your life will unlikely be as it was before your illness. My life changed each time I received a new diagnosis and I have learned to view those moments as a step in the right direction towards getting ahead of your struggles. A label to what I have is not a death sentence; it is an opportunity to try different therapies, medications, courses, and skills to help make the symptoms more tolerable and less consuming. This does not mean that once you put in hard work you will never deal with your illness again, just that you will have resources and abilities to tackle it each time - making you stronger and more capable every instance

*Big thank you to Kraus for editing - if you are interested in hiring an editor she can be contacted on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kraustastrophe

Pandemified

The Present

Over three months ago when I left the office on a Thursday, I intended to work from home for “a week or two.”  That was the thought I had as I looked back at my newly renovated office and looked at the new tablet on my desk, thinking, “I’ll be back in a few days, I won’t need it.”  

A month passed, my husband and I started doing projects at home.  His company paid the entire staff full pay the entire time, even though they couldn’t go to work.  They were incredible, but it was a little worrisome to think of how long they could or would decide to continue the practice.  Those projects were deliberate on my part to provide a productive focus for both of us.  There were a number of things, lighting, a bigger TV, furniture, the patio, and several more, all designed to improve the comfort and appearance of our home.  It worked.  

My husband and friends had moments of uncertainty, as we all did.  

The Perspective

I’ve seen a lot of unprecedented, world changing events in my life.  To many, this was the first “Pandemic” they were really aware of.  But for a gay man, who came out during the height of the AIDS crisis, before any effective medication, it is not.  At 18 I moved to LA for college.  During High School I had both a boyfriend and a girlfriend and truly did not understand my sexuality.  Society equates sexuality with sex, but it is really about feelings. So, sex for me didn’t have an exclusive link to the other person’s gender, and because sex alone was society’s measure of sexuality, I was confused.  I came to understand that I’m just gay, period.  Because i feel complete sharing my life with a man.  

When I came out it wasn’t a big announcement.  It was more repeated attempts to bond with one person, some men, some women.  One therapist called it, “serial monogamy.”  During the time, sex was very scary.  The idea being that you were at risk for HIV and if you became positive, there was no effective treatment and a high percentage of people with HIV were dying.  HIV became politicized quickly.  “President” Reagan seemed to deliberately ignore the pandemic, and even mocked people who were sick, even though his own son is gay.  It was brutal to watch.  “Gay Rights,” as it was called at the time, no initials added just yet, had made enormous progress to that point in our culture, and this event set us back decades.  

Some History

The stigma of HIV extended to all gay men, not just those that were positive.  We were viewed by many, in the larger culture, as lepers.  They assumed every gay man had the virus and their ignorance and fear fueled their prejudices.  It increased the difficulty of coming out, because many didn’t want a gay man around for fear they’d somehow become infected.  I remember many conversations where someone expressed that fear and my glib reply was, “Unless you’re sleeping with him, I’m pretty confident you’re safe, so I wouldn’t worry...”  Discrimination in housing, jobs, social settings, and more was rampant and people felt “justified.”  Things like dentists wore masks and gloves for the first time to “protect themselves.”  The idiotic premise that magically disappeared as the pandemic became less a part of public consciousness.

The Change

When CO-19 started, it was far away.  A city in China was quarantined.  It reminded me of SARS, also a “corona virus,” which happened during a period in my life where I was traveling on planes every week.  People from other countries were wearing masks on the plane, but not us.  It seemed excessive.  It was concerning to be next to someone on a plane who was coughing and had symptoms, but that happens all the time.  I’ve had bronchitis and even pneumonia during this period, getting little rest and being exposed to all sorts of things on planes and hotels and being in different cities every week.  But, I took care of myself, went to the doctor and recovered.  

You can’t be a gay man over 40 and not have some knowledge of virology.  You also have knowledge of minimizing risk.  The idea that something as important as sex was as dangerous as it was for the first decade of my adulthood for me was a great teacher.  I have known many gay men during that time who decided not to have sex at all.  I found this sad, but respected their decision.  Sex is life-affirming and necessary for me, so I followed the recommendations, until I was in a monogamous relationship.  I’m still negative even after three long term relationships with HIV positive men.  

So, I stayed home.  I work about 60 hours a week, and it was fantastic to delete the commute from that equation.  My husband was home for 3 months and we have yet to celebrate our first wedding anniversary, so that time together was amazing.  We have made our home as comfortable and attractive as possible.  This matters.  To have options for places to go at home, different spaces for different activities.  If you work at home, you have to be able to “get away” from work.  Even if that is a corner where you work, only do work in that area, when you walk away from it, you are no longer “at work.”  

My company always had an ambivalent attitude about working remotely.  Personally, I really care about the people I’ve worked with for over two decades and like to see them in person, work with them live, and even eat together, most days breakfast and lunch.  Some of us have traveled all over the world together.  So being apart is a loss.  The corporate world can be a swirl of opinions, attitudes, changes, and plans.  The traditional way to understand ones place is to being around, to interact with people, and to share information.  Being physically distant makes this less possible.  

Adapt

So we adapt.  My counterpart at the office and I had breakfast together nearly every day for years, and we now do a call every couple of days.  My boss and I have a weekly call and talk every couple of days.  My husband is back at work on a limited schedule, so I plan my day around when we can be together.  

We have food delivered, which costs a few bucks more, but is pretty cool.  I have driven exactly twice during the quarantine.  I’ve left the house about once a week on average, with a mask, and social distancing.  The cats are thrilled to have us around.  

Unlike HIV, we as gay men, are not stigmatized, this pandemic affects everyone equally.  We are in it together.  I’m not surprised by all the conspiracy theories and the resistance to basic, common sense ways to protect oneself.  It’s a very strange experience and people try to make sense of it however they can.  Denial is not a surprise to me.  But like HIV, it’s hard to be willing but simple to protect oneself.  

Rumors, Theories, Fears

The most important thing to know about conspiracy theories is, if you can’t prove it, it literally doesn’t matter.  If it makes you feel better to believe it, that’s OK.  We can drive ourselves crazy trying to distill the truth and the facts out of all the ideas, exaggerations, “statistics” and “news.”  But, those of us who survived the AIDS crisis had one, very simple, idea to deal with all of that.  We assumed every person we would be intimate with was positive.  They could be positive and lie, they could be positive and not know, they could be positive and not be willing to talk about it.  So asking that question was meaningless, you had to take responsibility for yourself, and act accordingly.   CO-19 is the same in this way, you do not know who is infected, and they may or may not know either.  So act accordingly and take care of yourself.  Period.  This nullifies politics, fake news, exaggerations, and denial.  It’s simple.  

Action

We do not know what is next, but here’s something to consider.  Fear and denial are the biggest enemies to happiness.  We are all going to have moments of doubt and fear in our lives, regardless of things that affect us globally.  The way we respond is the difference between depression and despair, and hope.  Action is the best solution I have found.  Creating projects at home, keeping in touch with family more closely, learning to work well from home, if possible.  My husband started a weekly call with his best friends and they have been getting together on a call every Friday since the beginning, screen sharing and gaming together.  I’ve done every project, including new plants and furniture on our patio and a water feature, to make a safe place to go outside.  Be creative, what is important to you?  Who can you help?  How can you connect with the people in your life who aren’t with you right now?  We...have...options.  Forget the politics, pay less attention to the “news.”  Don’t ignore it, but get the facts that concern you and leave the rest.  You will feel better.  Avoid drama and exaggeration about what is happening.  Make your own life better, act as if you don’t know who is infected, and focus on protecting yourself with the basics, mask, wash your hands, don’t touch your face, and live your life.   Namaste

idk if i’m missing something but why does everyone hate jkr so much? i feel like everyone says it all the time but i’ve no idea what’s gone on lol

*cracks knuckles* ok so! (this will have reciepts!) 

1. cultural appropriation in her ilvermorny houses. read more here. horned serpents, thunderbirds, and wampus are all found in the native american culture. the fact that she used them as the houses for a school that was founded by a white person was just wrong. if the school had been founded by a native american, that would be different. however, it was founded by a white Irish immigrant, which makes the house names very much culturally appropriated. 

2. the casting of johnny depp as grindelwald. this is problematic as johnny depp has been accused of physical and verbal abuse by his ex-wife amber heard. though he denies these accusations, there is physical proof of such. as producer of the fantastic beast films, she had direct authority on the casting of depp. she defended this casting choice. 

3. she has a habit of adding bits of representation AFTER the series has ended and when explicity asked by fans. example: dumbledore’s gayness, anthony goldstein’s jewishness, hermione’s blackness. all in tweets. all following the final installment of the harry potter series. 

4. (i’ve just read into this one) nagini, in the fbawtft: cog, is discovered to be a woman trapped in a snake’s body. basically, she is an animagus that cannot leave her form. it is especially troubling as she is played by an asian woman. essentially, she is a pet snake for a white man. this is a stereotype of a submissive asian woman as well, which is very obviously problematic. also one of her only two east asian characters is a animal for the majority of the series!!

jkr defended her casting, claiming that snakes were a part of indonesian culture and tradition. and while that is true, why did she cast a south-korean actress and not an indonesian one?

5. and, of course, her other east-asian character, cho chang has issues of her own. both “cho” and “chang” are korean surnames. cho is described as chinese. while some people have stated they can be considered two separate chinese names, they are not cohesive when put together, and it was EXTREMELY lazy on rowling’s part. her characterization can be considered iffy as well. she is described as the “weeping girlfriend” and many people believe that she was placed in ravenclaw to fufill the stereotype that eastern asians are geniuses. further promoted the view that has already gained much traction in western society. 

6. there are approximately 10 CANONICALLY POC characters in the entire universe! and all (considering hermione was never confirmed and was basically written as white) were minor characters. 

7. only 11 wizarding schools?? in the entire world! 3/11 are situated in Europe. about 742 million people live in Europe. 1.06 billion live in India and 1.31 billion live in China. yet, neither of those countries posess a school. Actually, the only wizarding school set in asia, which has 4.55 BILLION people is set in Japan. If fact, if using the same standards as Europe, Asia would need 18 wizarding schools to accurately suit its population. 18! Austrailia does not have one. the entirety of South America has one. Africa has 1. North America has 1. this is so unrealistic. and very, very, very whitewashed. do wizards only exist in Europe or something? 

8. all female characters, execpt for hermione (who is placed on a series-long pedestal) is degraded in some way. often, jkr wrote her personality to be “i’m not like other girls. i’m smart! i’m unique! my only friends are boys!” and while, 90% of the fandom adores hermione (like myself) there is a very obvious flaw in this characterization and a very bad message that is being sent to girls around the world. especially when harry and ron (no hate to them) fed her this concept for the duration of the series, calling her brilliant, etc, but commonly tore down other girls at hogwarts. not a good thing to teach kids. 

also, other female characters: ginny weasley: degraded for her romance life, fleur delacour: degraded for her sexuality/beauty, told that her worth came from her looks, lavender brown: clingy, whiny, boy-crazy, and constantly looked down upon by ron, luna lovegood: isolated for most of the series, called weird, looked down upon by hermione, pansy parkinson: cliche “mean” girl, though she was given no backstory or reasoning as to why she acted the way she did, cho chang: weeping girlfriend, villianized in the film version of ootp by ratting on the da, ETC, ETC. for someone who claims to be a feminist, she is sure a stranger to the concept of girls supporting girls and how internally misoginistic it is to base a girls personality on its face value! 

9. wrote this ableist tweet and said this about personality disorders. 

“J.K. Rowling: Well, I believe that almost anyone can redeem themselves… However, in some cases, as we know from reality – if a psychologist were ever able to get Voldemort in a room, pin him down and take his wand away, I think he would be classified as a psychopath (crowd laughs). So there are people, for whom, whatever you’re going to callit – personality disorder or an illness – for whom redemption is not possible. They’re rare.” 

THIS. IS. STIGMATIZING! For her to claim that people with personality disorders are inherently bad people and to regard it in such a careless manner is extremely problematic. 

10. Though she denied it, she liked a blantantly transphobic tweet. 

so that’s all that comes to mind! but i hope that helps clear up the confusion a little bit! while the harry potter fanbase adores her series, she is an extremely problematic person. so remember! enjoy hp all you want but please, please, please, acknowlegde that it has its problematic aspects! xx 

also, if you guys find anything to add to this, please do!

Today I got a bipolar diagnosis

edit: btw, nobody was injured when i crashed. it was into a light post and nobody was around.

There is confetti everywhere around my room. And I am confused why there is such a mess and why it’s so pretty to me and also why despite seeing beauty in the mess I feel uncomfortable with my space having little shit all over it and I want it to be clean. Today shit hit the fan and the shit was a balloon and when it hit the fan it erupted and confetti flew everywhere. I got a bipolar diagnosis today. After nearly 10 years of clinical diagnoses from major depression, generalized anxiety, ocd tendency, mania, psychosis, to a literal thought disorder called delusional disorder, as well as PTSD, today I heard something that felt like it contains all of me and there is room for me to be me and not feel so confused and like my identity is all over the place depending which disorder is showing it’s face most. I am Cassidy Jean Gardner, and I am bipolar with PTSD. I feel terrified and so confused and Im crying while I write this but the tears feel like a relief a sweet rush of acceptance from and for myself that I have been yearning for for a long, long time. My therapist believes I have mixed manic-depressive bipolar called cyclothymic bipolar, not to be confused with a less “emotionally intense” cyclothymia diagnosis. With my understanding so far, I understand that Bipolar 1 is characterized by more manic tendencies with depressive stints. Bipolar 2 is characterized by more depressive tendencies with hypomanic bursts. The difference between these types of bipolar and the one have been experiencing the spectrum of for the last 2 and a half years years for sure is that BP 1&2 symptoms of mania or depression last several days, weeks, or months. Cyclothymic bipolar experiences of mania and depression can last hours. I have been so confused by my own mind for so long, and like my emotional responses to things were never valid, true, natural, and in my manic times, not even human. I can go from being manic to then coming across something that doesn’t fit my manic ideology and having an extremely depressed, hopeless response, to, sometimes it feels like minutes later, come up with a new “solution” that helps me feel better and relieved of the shame i feel about my manic beliefs and world view that I go right back up there again, and the cycle repeats. Thinking myself in and out of mania it can feel like. The days when I am not crippled or at best, so far, consistently hindered, by the accompanying anxiety of not having much of a sense of emotional normalcy or “neutral” perspective on things are my best days. The days when I am hypomanic, and I decide to scrap everything I’ve been working toward and stop identifying with these things in the name of authenticity libration and creativity, are my favorite right now, and that is hard. because it’s not super helpful to be this way- so passionate and “righteous”- that i throw out the window regard for any sort of routine i have worked hard to establish myself in the name of having “figured out something better”. It’a hard to feel so happy I can’t listen to my rational self because I feel so intoxicated by the feeling of happiness motivation and productivity I so crave. I am not sure what is harder. Being so manic that I become psychotic, completely delusional to the point that I literally believe I am Satan or Lucifer herself and that everything around me is confirming this horrible burden yet somehow “karmic blessing” that I never asked for, the the times when my depression is so bad I sleep for 16 hours of the day, have no motivation to even fathom life becoming better ever, and prefer to dream than live waking, walking life. I have lived in ambivalence for years, and as a coping mechanism I convinced myself I thrived in this arena. I see myself in front of the pendulum that is my mind. Every day it swings and I try to control it. It doesn’t stop swinging. It swings so roughly and rapidly that it flys out of the bars holding it up often. It’s like there is a wind pushing it that is the devil itself tricking me by being “invisible” aka not existing. When it’s on the manic side, I try to grab it and in the process get picked up off the ground and everything around the pendulum gets knocked over in my efforts to hold the pendulum and keep it on the “happy” side. Like the things around me are my life that I’ve built and they will fall as easily as bowling pins. There is no weight to keep them stable when I hit them. The foundation is slippery. On the depressive side, I rush over angry that I wasn’t strong enough to hold things on the manic side and desperately try to push it back toward my “happy” side, but it is so so fucking heavy. and I don’t remember it being that heavy and I cannot believe I ever fathomed loving the pendulum I was clinging to sometimes minutes earlier. Shame guilt self loathing. compared to my visions of grandiosity, of the world revolving around me, of having a sense of self worth and confidence and the courage to claim it and say hey i deserve to feel good about myself. to god how dare I ever think that. I am the most selfish person on the planet the sheer vain and foolishness to believe everything even anything really could possible be about or for me. I like to believe that I am somewhere in the middle. I prefer the hypomanic side, and this is a detriment as well, because i can easily get too high. but the hypomanic can be so... fun. The bits of excessive energy, the slightly inflated sense of self worth, the belief that I can follow my dreams and the ability to use my mind to direct my thoughts toward ways to create strategy to get where I want and build stepping stones. The fear of fallibility. the anxiety that comes with ever feeling good about myself from the ptsd of that abusive relationship and that night especially. I shouldn’t plan, because they will be foiled, if not by me by a man most likely. nowhere is safe, especially not my own mind.  thats’s where I perceived love, and oh hasn’t god shown me how powerful that is. being so manic that I confuse the feeling with someone being my soulmate, twin flame, my destiny. telling that person and responding to the rejection emotionally by going psychotic and fully delusional. How afraid I have been to love, of my own love, being truly loved that i don’t feel the need to constantly prove myself, and certainly the idea of ever loving myself for being who I am. In 2016 when I got PTSD and no longer was the “high functioning” “mentally ill” girl I was before, many people treated me like I had fallen from grace and it was my fault. Thank fucking god for the people who have been here for me. So many people took this as an opportunity it felt to slander me. “ha, I knew she wasn’t so wonderful, look how crazy she is. She intentionally crashed her car. who does that?” a person who is so confused with their undiagnosed bipolar and the fact they are going through a manic episode as a response to intense trauma therapy does that. I was told my whole life I was wonderful for being pretty and intelligent, and what a special combination. what a bitch of a “gift”. The two things I was naturally both with and did not earn, my intelligence and my body and my face. What about my humor? What about my ability to be a good friend? What about how hard I work? I was told I should never dare praise myself for these things because I was already “lucky enough” to be praised for the things I never asked for but was given by either genetics or fate- god knows. I have so many feelings. and I’m so grateful to know that I am impulsive. Sure, I’m “spiritually gifted”, but not necessarily everything has to be a blaring call from god or synchronicity that I must act on immediately if I want to see the “right things”, see the world the “right way”, and “be where I am to be”. My perfectionism has nearly killed me. Seeking to be spiritually perfect because I sure has hell was not physically or mentally perfect, I mean, look at those guys and girls more “beautiful”, look at those men and women more “accomplished”.  And the brainwashed peers (not their fault) for idolizing me, giving me a sense of power I never fucking sought. Sure. Maybe you can make the argument that my “soul wanted this”, but suffering was never in the deal. and I have suffered. I have been so miserable I didn’t even know how to fathom the energy to put together a plan to kill myself. and thank god for that level of depression, because I didn’t die. because I’m supposed to be here and finally I feel I can make some peace with my singular identity as Me, Cassie. someone who is fun, funny, smart, relatable, bipolar, and so much more. I feel terrified of stigmatization even though I know it’s fucked up that it even exists. At least, I think, with the delusional disorder diagnosis, even though it was similar to a schizophrenic diagnosis just lacking frequency of symptoms, hardly anybody knew what it was. Oh I have a thought disorder and the propensity to think in delusional ways sometimes. NBD tho as u can see I’m perfectly fine :). So many more people know about bipolar. And many have strong opinions. The plus here is that there is more push to end stigmatization and more research into ways to cope manage and accept this diagnosis which I am so thankful for, and more easily accessible community. There was nothing on delusional disorder. It was so uncommon that when my psychiatrist in the rehab told my therapist what my diagnosis was she handed me the DSM to read about it because she didn’t know what it was. Yeah, I went to rehab. Last november (2017) I had a psychotic break, though it was not my first experience with delusion. I became manic as a response to feeling rejected by a guy and it escalated to me hardly sleeping, doing a lot of cocaine and other drugs, and having a full blown psychotic break. I experienced psychosis for 2 and a half months. The first 3 weeks of this stint it was all i could feel or think about. At first it was fun, until it wasn’t. I legitimately thought that there was a secret society the illuminati that had been made to “illuminate” me, that all art had been inspired by me, the energetic muse, lucifer “finally reincarnating” back to earth in the age of aquarius and dawn of immortality, and nobody around me was safe because I was all that was valued by this illuminati and the people who I loved most were in danger because while I loved them most and the illuminati knew this, the illuminati was angry that these people has hurt me, someone who was so impressionable, “born schizophrenic and able to hide it in order to learn about ‘normal society’”, and were responsible for the pain I felt which I  handled with negative coping mechanisms like addiction. So it was my job to create worldly and spiritual circumstances to keep them safe from disaster and accident or murder because they all felt so bad about hurting me subconsciously that they had less of a will to live, and this was a dangerous way to think, subconsciously of course. That I was everyone’s higher self in the 4d’s favorite 3d person other than their person, and that they all were working to send me messages from the consciously unaware around me. I was fully out too my mind. I legitimately thought I was lucifer, the most hated person on the planet but god’s favorite angel, ready to ask for entry back into heaven. And the only thing that was me was my fear response to my thoughts and the way I read into everything. no I can’t dare think this this can’t dare be true but somehow everything around me is telling me it is. Literally fuck this. I felt that I needed to be with loved ones constantly to “keep them safe” and I understandably was simultaneously scaring the shit out of my family due to my mental health, and exhausting them. my mom and I both agreed the best thing was for me to go into a treatment center, the rose house. A “dual-diagnosis” rehab that treated mental health and addiction. Cool, well when I got there apparently every single reason I had mental health problems was because I had used substances, not because I had struggled with my mental health since becoming conscious in light of my father passing when i was almost 9 and eventually found drugs as a coping mechanism. I felt shamed for my addiction to marijuana and 100% misunderstood and ostracized. out of the 15 women there all of the girls my age were in primarily for addiction and the only woman who was there for first mental health was an older woman named Kathleen, and she wasn’t an addict. The delusions never stopped I got better at hiding them. I was heavily medicated, afraid, fearing homelessness if i didn’t follow my family wishes to finish the 90 day program, and still pretty insane. After I got my diagnosis I left the treatment the night I got onto “transition” 67 days in and got my phone back, called a friend, and got brought up to fort collins where thank god emma was willing to let me stay with her. Miraculously, the delusions stopped within days. I was no longer so stressed and afraid that I couldn’t think for myself. I was bipolar this entire time. and my mania was “so irrational and unrecognizable” that they didn’t even know to recognize that this was my issue, it was more like I was “almost schizophrenic” without the visual hallucinations or auditory hallucinations. I wasn’t hearing other voices, but the voice in my head wanted me dead just as much as it told me I had a special reason to stay alive. I had a “sane reaction to insane circumstances”, and I temporally lost my mind. and I was petrified and anxiety ridden to the point I couldn’t function for months. I couldn’t make a single decision for weeks without going into full blown panic. I felt like everyone knew something that I didn’t and that they couldn’t tell me what I thought I knew, just give me hints, because otherwise they could be punished and also because they “believed in me”. I felt horribly betrayed while simultaneously fearing abandonment and isolation so much I felt I had developed Stockholm syndrome.  

When I experienced full blown psychosis that was so scary, my whole life went to shit. I lost my scholarships. I lost my house in boulder so my family could afford rehab. everything changed while I was in panic and when I “returned” to a “normal” state of mind I couldn’t recognize anything in my own life, even myself. When I was on medication I gained 70 pounds in 2 and a half months. I went into rehab 95 pounds. I was so manic for months, either full blown or hypo, that I would forget to eat. And I was 165 when I left. I hated my life and the months following I was more depressed than I can ever remembered. I relapsed in april. april to september was a mix of drugs and romance that I don’t really care for. When I got sober again, prompted by a really scary night of returning to psychotic thinking which I thankfully learned reality checking skills for, I feel like after 4 almost 5 years of using drugs I was finally ready to stop feeling so out of control, at least with my substance use. Thank god for today, no matter how afraid i am of my future. I am just as hopeful. I have for hate myself for the ways I have treated people in my manic episodes, my family in my depressive episodes, and how I can hardly even remember it. but I do not deserve to feel this hate. I was suffering. I was living in a world I hadn’t found the words to describe. and now I know. That I am beautiful. truly. inside and out. and I have a beautiful mind. I love fiercely. I believe I can make a contribution to help “save the world”. That those who are mentally ill should be hugged tightly when they need it, that schizophrenic people especially, imo, are horribly and unfairly understood and deserve to feel cherished and accepted just as much as anyone else, not to be feared and casted out of society. I believe every single person no matter what deserves to know they are not alone, no matter how lonely they feel, and so much more good. I am not the ugly or the bad. I am a motherfucking survivor. And thank god I didn’t die the day I re-enacted my dad’s car accident. Because I do have a purpose, and it is special. Most importantly, it’s just as special as everyone else’s special purpose. We are all in this together. And I’m excited to find a community of people who have fought similar battles. Who I can laugh about my “a trillion under the sun” delusions with and find humor in the ways my mind sought to preserve a will to live. and how other people have done the same. I am me, and today I became free of my own condemnation. I will struggle, but now I know there is community and resources that I don’t need to scour the earth to find. I have a home, and it is here, proud to be me. There is confetti everywhere around my room. Who knew that balloon I had been so afraid of letting go of was my own attempt to celebrate myself. I may feel late to my own party, but I’m here now. And there is no problem with not wanting my room to always look like a wild rave. I can always make more confetti, anyways :) 

To end with some gratitude, thank god for my true friends and my family. Emma has never left my side as my best friend, even in the distance of living in different parts of the state.  She is my best fucking friend. My other close best friends as well, who have not been afraid to hug me when I swore to them my entire body was covered in needles. My mom, who has done everything for me to make sure I know I am never truly alone, no matter how much my mind tries to tell me otherwise. For my little brother, for putting up with my craziness and still being willing to love me and laugh with me at the end of the day. Everyone in my life now is so beautiful it’s hard to deny that there may be some beauty in me, too, then, if they all tell me they like when I’m around. I’m grateful to know that my father, who i have idolized though gone now, was whole loved by the people around me. Whose described as “large than life” personality and substance abuse may have been a way to mask bipolar symptoms, was still a loved personality and loved person. This I know. This people have convinced me. and that I am of him just as much as I am of my mother. I’m grateful for the mental health professionals who have not given up on me, even when they required i be medicated in order to be able to be worked with, even when i was misdiagnosed, these people have helped to save my life too. so many times. And I am so grateful for my higher power, for prayer, the only thing that felt safe to think that sometimes I would just repeat the serenity prayer for hours for the sake of at least having a way to direct my anxious energy and not be in panic from my own delusional thoughts. God, who has always shown me that i will never be truly abandoned or given up on, who has helped me understand my higher power as something that is absolutely not punitive. My family and friends have been my lifeboats, and god, the universe, gaia, the god in every person, has shown me how to survive the storm. I am. I desire. I see. and i am free. 

This has been such a clusterfuck of emotions coming out that I have been wanting to feel for a long time and as messy as this is i’m grateful as well for the will to sit through this and write about these experiences, no matter the feelings they bring up. Because know I feel free to understand that the feelings will pass, sometimes more quickly than others, and that I can always survive. Even when that’s all I “manage” to do. Today. I stayed sober. I laughed. I put up the christmas tree with my mom and brother. I talked on the phone with my best friend. I told close friends what I learned about myself today. and I got diagnosed with bipolar. and I found a hope and interpretation for my mental narrative that I never felt was right for me because i don’t understand the words for what i was experiencing. I have learned today. And I have grown. and I am smiling as i finish typing this with tears rolling down my face, because I believe I can be happy. Sustainably happy. and sustainably grateful and hopeful when it’s hard to get to feeling the happiness. I believe and I survive. and I become<3 I am 21. I am brilliant. and I am bipolar. 

It's about 2 years now since I started taking an interest in and practicing hellenic polytheism. Right now I'm very distanced from the religion and from the practice. I would say I believe in it, but failing to practice it. Mental health got too much in the way along with laziness, and I need to be honest about that.

I wish I could be honest about my mental health issues here, to perhaps get reassurance and advice from others, and maybe represent for others that you don't have to hide. But the mental illness I have is a particularly stigmatized one or at least one that people tend to keep to themselves if at all possibile. But it's affecting the way I view and perceive religion and Gods as a whole. Which makes it very hard to pick back up and get worshipping.

And I'm not really sure what to do about that. So I'm continuing to wait and see. Wait and see. Wait for what? To see what? I don't know really. For a time when I can believe again? For when it feels real again?

I want to believe it very badly and I want it to be real. I was at a point where I could handle the cognitive dissonance much better but my mental condition has made that feel almost like a joke. And admittedly I'm far, far more concerned with my mental condition than with any God. When they feel so far away and unreal what does it matter? I know that's a case of, well, if I put in the time and effort they'd probably feel closer and more real. Buuuut, its hard for me to take any of it seriously right now.

Also when you're faced with so much pain in the real world I can see why it makes people atheists. Pain with no explanation, with no reason. It's just depressing. Some religions paint it as if it was "God's plan" which is inevitably disturbing. God intended for children to be hurt? God intended for my whole life to be a struggle because of someone else's actions? I don't fucking think so. But what do I think? And how can God from so long ago help with this thing?

Part of me plays with the idea of coming out about my mental condition but even then I don't think it would benefit me any because would i find others with the same? I doubt it. And I'm also afraid of how people would then judge me. If they would judge what little original content I do put out and always see it through the light of "she's crazy." even if they never said that.

So it sucks. I was hoping to get here and write some awesome posts about what I've learned growing into hellenic polytheism but I regularly fail to practice it and I don't believe a religion can be had unless you practice it.

Relief of Depression & Anxiety types with Magick

First of all, let’s begin by saying that mental illnesses are vastly stigmatized. It’s a worldwide phenomenon across global cultures..

The Vietnamese believe in karma and consider mental illness as a form of punishment.

The Japanese view mental illness as a form of weakness.

Many Christians and Muslims have strong religious principles that prevent them from seeking medical help.

In older Indian regions, mental illnesses are also believed to be “from the devil”.

Even if you do not fall into one of these cultural groups, chances are you have come across some form of stigma associated with mental illness.

If you suffer from a mental illness, you can probably recall remarks such as “pull yourself together” or “sort yourself out” or “she’s just looking for attention”. These remarks are all examples of the stigmas and misconceptions about mental illness.

It’s important to realize that mental disorders are treatable and real ,just like any other disease.

Some people may choose medicines to treat it, others will turn into natural calming sources like herbs, natural recipes and practices like yoga.

One great way to help eliminate depression is by being involved in The Craft, either by combining it with other methods. I’ve met many people that choose this path after being repeatedly let down by prescription drugs and therapists (including myself). However, it’s important to understand that before you get into magick for depression and stress issues, you should always seek professional help first.

Now that doesn’t mean one has to contact great spirits or buy tarrot cards - these are just other types of Magick that may or may not appeal to someone in general or specifically as a way to cope with depression and that is completely up to the person and fully respected. 

Some people may even think that regarding the emotionally ill sorcerers, anything beyond gentle work could harm the practitioners & the others around them, which is something that actually applies to everyone that is not well informed or self controlled and not only valid for depressed witches.

So, if someone is just getting started due to the fact that they want to calm down their negative emotions, it is advised that they begin this journey by studying some very basic information about The Craft and its types.

In this post, as a non psychologist / professional, I will describe some of the methods which can be used to improve emotional illnesses for the better and for good.

Crystals For Emotional Healing

Crystals For Emotional Healing – Many people suffer all around the world from emotional issues and traumas. These are harder to treat, then a physical wound. Most traumas take years of therapy and huge amounts of medication. But there is an easier way to find a cure. Crystals hold powerful healing energies. The crystals are able to heal the soul, the mind, the emotions and even the physical body. These 10 Crystals For Emotional Healing will help you to heal and to see the world from a more optimistic perspective. These crystals heal you emotionally, and transform the negative energy around you in positive one. Some of them are:

Amethyst – this powerful purple crystal is one of the most popular and powerful healing crystals. It is helpful in emotional issues such as: addiction, acceptance, aggression, bitterness, burnout, anxiety, depression and grief. Amethyst brings calm and it also calms your ego. This crystal brings harmony and removes the negative energy. It is a great choice when you suffer from OCD. And even when you feel stressed and overwhelmed. Amethyst also heals emotional traumas and rage. And it fills you with tranquility &also heals physical illness

Rose Quartz & Rainbow Quartz –  These quartz are your best friend when you feel abandoned. Because they make you feel loved, also healing aggression, blockages in your emotional level, conflicts, criticism, ease and even stops you from crying. Quartz helps you to find acceptance, emotional balance and comfort. It helps you to love yourself. And to release all the negative emotions, envy, frustration, grief, jealousy, loneliness, negativity, rage, rejection and the emotional traumas. Those crystals fill you with happiness. They help you to forgive others, heal your soul when you are feeling guilt, bring emotional healing, joy, kindness, positive energy, self-confidence, self-acceptance and even emotional tranquility. 

Citrine – this amazing yellow crystal holds the energy of the sun. It is filled with positive energy and optimism, happiness, joy and love. It is the crystal of good mood. Citrine calms your emotions and brings you comfort. It brings enjoyment. And fills you with happiness and hope. It inspires you to be honest with yourself and others. It brings inspiration and joy. Citrine is the best crystal for removing negative energy. Because it transforms it into positive energy. This beautiful crystal helps you to be more self-confident.

Lapis Lazuli – this beautiful blue crystal is filled with healing energy. It is recommended for those who experienced emotional or physical abuse. Because it heals repressed emotions. Lapis lazuli also helps when you are in grief and you need hope. It absorbs and heals your melancholy. And it is very helpful in OCD. This is the only crystal that can give you comfort when you have panic attacks. It motivates you to persevere and to believe in yourself.

Carnelian – this powerful red crystal is very helpful for those who suffer or suffered from abuse. Carnelian will heal all the scars and those horrible memories. This crystal will help you to accept yourself and your life. And it gives you comfort. Also, Carnelian is the only crystal that can heal delusions. It will guide you in moments of indecisiveness. And it fills you with happiness. Carnelian also heals rage.

Agate – it has many colors and forms. And their healing energies differ. For example, Blue Lace Agate heals conflicts, and eases crying. It also heals frustration. And fills you with hope and honesty. On the other hand, Moss Agate brings compassion and helps you resolve your relationship issues. Crazy Lace Agate heals emotional pain. And Botswana Agate balances your passion.

Calcite – it is a powerful healing crystal. It appears in many colors. Blue calcite calms your mind and emotions. It heals your emotional pain and it works like a sedative. But Green Calcite heals rage and brings you joy. Also, pink calcite brings hope. And Honey Calcite helps you to create and keep some boundaries.

Aquamarine – this beautiful light blue crystal brings calmness. And it helps you to center or focus your attention. It is the best crystal to wear in times of crisis and nervousness. It brings inner peace, harmony and inspiration.

Obsidian – this powerful crystal is recommended for those who have emotional blockages. And those who have been abused. It is also very helpful in healing addictions. Obsidian heals your repressed emotions. And it helps you in conflicts. This crystal is helpful in fears, grief and loneliness. It removes negative energy. And, also fills you with patience.

Turquoise – this beautiful turquoise crystal helps you to improve your communication skills. And also to talk about your emotions. It fills you with empathy. And helps you to forgive yourself and others. Turquoise also fills you with kindness and peace.

Click here for more on how to choose & use crystals

Herbs for Anxiety & Depression

Herbs for anxiety and depression are useful because they can be effective treatments without forming habits or altering the chemical balance in your body to a dangerous level. There are many different herbs that can be used to treat these conditions, so even if you are overly sensitive or allergic to one method, there is likely another option that can help provide relief. Herbs have many of the same effects on hormone levels, metabolism and neurotransmitters that more traditional drugs provide, but tend to cause less negative side effects. Herbs for anxiety and depression also have hundreds or even thousands of years of anecdotal evidence backing up their ability to improve mood and relieve the signs of these mental conditions. 

Passionflower - Primarily used to help people get uninterrupted sleep, this ancient sedative is known to counter the feelings of anxiety and can provide a sense of relief from overwhelming emotions. This herbal remedy can be primarily used as a tea, although there are also tablets and herbal supplements available for its calming effects.

Chamomile - Numerous studies have been done on the effects of chamomile on stress hormone levels in the body, and it has been found to soothe the nervous system and help to induce sleep and feelings of calm. This can be consumed in the form of a tea or a supplement, and its anxiolytic effects are well known.

Gingko Biloba - It can counter the negative hormones that cause feelings of anger, sadness, anxiety, and loneliness that often accompany anxiety. As a mood booster, it can provide energy and aid you in overcoming negative thoughts.

Valerian Root - Many of the same active ingredients present in valium anxiety drug can be found in natural form within valerian root, and it is frequently recommended as a sedative, helping people achieve deep and restful sleep. The chemical compounds in this herb can settle the central nervous system and balance your hormone levels.

Lavender - is packed with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds , but it is perhaps best known for its scent, which alone can help calm down a busy mind and release physical and mental tension. Even a few drops of this essential oil on your pillow can work wonders, or lavender tea can be brewed and consumed regularly.

Kava - For people who suffer from social anxiety disorder, using kava can be extremely effective. Also known as kava-kava, this natural solution  to feelings of nervousness, anxiety or stress has been used in traditional medicine as a sleep aid for centuries. You can steep a chopped up bunch of kava root, as you would a tea, and then drink this soothing beverage at any time of day.

Ashwagandha - is widely praised for many health conditions, but it is particularly well known as an adaptogen, meaning that instead of regulating certain hormones or metabolic functions in one way or another, it helps the body adapt to different stressful environments and improve our natural response to anxiety triggers.

Lemon Balm - Formally known as Melissa Officinalis, lemon balm improves appetite, aids in healthy sleep, and can cure the inflammation or discomfort that often accompanies depression. It is known to uplift mood, while still allowing enough peace and relaxation to induce healthy sleep.

California Poppy - Used successfully for mental and physical exhaustion, as well as acting as a general analgesic in the body, this little-known herb is often recommended for people suffering from depression. It can provide a better mindset by altering neurotransmitter levels, while also stimulating the metabolism and energizing users.

St. John’s Wort - One of the most famous herbs for anxiety and depression, St. John’s Wort has impressive antidepressant powers, which can help clear the mind, without impacting cognition, unlike so many pharmaceutical solutions for depression. For severe depression, however, professional help is recommended.

Skullcap - If you are suffering from occasional bouts of serious depression, you can take skullcap to reduce inflammation, soothe the stomach, and stimulate cognition in a positive way, which can help with depression. This herb should only be used for short periods of time, as continual use could result in a worsening of your symptoms.

Green Tea - Packed with many antioxidants, particularly L-theanine, green tea supplements or green tea as a beverage can stimulate the production  of GABA (Gamma-aminobutyric acid), which controls a great deal of our central nervous system activity, including the release of “feel good” hormones.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids - Many studies have linked low levels of omega-3 fatty acids to higher rates of depression and anxiety. You can get your fill of these critical  fats in certain types of fish, such as salmon, as well as herbal supplements and tablets.

Hawthorn - Capable of calming deep-seated emotions of fear, anger, sadness or uselessness, this powerful herbal remedy for depression is packed with saponins, catechins, and anthocyanins that can positively alter the chemical balance in your body.

Essential oils

Lavender Essential Oil For Depression - There are several valuable qualities of lavender essential oil that can be used to help depression including its natural analgesic, relaxing and anti-anxiety properties.

Several clinical trials have noted that inhalation of lavender essential oil may help reduce anxiety, lower perceived pain, improve mood, promote sleep, lower feelings of frustration and promote relaxation. For its ability to address a number of depression symptoms and pleasant aroma, lavender essential oil is often considered the best essential oil for depression and postpartum depression.

Bergamot Essential Oil for Mental Health and Wellbeing - If your depression symptoms include fatigue, anxiety or muscle tension, bergamot essential oil’s beneficial qualities may help provide relief. Bergamot essential oil has been shown in several scientific studies to reduce muscle tension, alleviate stress, reduce fatigue and decrease heart rate through inhalation.  If you are planning to inhale essential oils, we would recommend using a high quality diffuser, or, a newer nebulizing diffuser.

Frankincense Essential Oil and Depression Treatment - Believed to have spiritual significance for thousands of years, science is beginning to discover the many benefits of frankincense essential oil. In a recent clinical trial, frankincense essential oil was shown to reduce depression symptoms in test subjects. It’s believed that inhalation of frankincense essential oil may improve mood by opening up an ion channel in the brain that helps regulate emotions. This points to a powerful connection between essential oils and emotions that may be significant for further essential oil depression studies.

Ylang Ylang Essential Oil for Depression and Mood Swings - Notable benefits of ylang ylang essential oil include stress reduction and the ability to promote a sense of calm. If anxiety is a symptom of your depression, essential oils made from ylang ylang may help you calm down, reduce heart rate and even lower cortisol levels. In a 2012 study, users who inhaled a blend of essential oils including ylang ylang were observed to have lower cortisol levels than a control group. When individuals are stressed, cortisol levels increase and may stay elevated in a constant fight or flight response. When this stress response stays on for long periods of time, it can lead to health complications and compromise the normal functioning of the immune system, digestive system and even growth.

Rose Essential Oil for Mood Swings and Depression - The pleasant aroma of rose essential oil can have an uplifting psychological effect, which may make it an effective alternative treatment for depression. When diffused, rose essential oil’s therapeutic properties have been shown to induce feelings of calmness, sedation and help reduce muscle tension. In laboratory settings, rose essential oil has been shown to reduce muscle contractions, which may help support its calming effect. Rose and lavender are considered excellent essential oils for postpartum depression.

Vanilla Essential Oil for Depression Treatment - One valuable benefit of vanilla essential oil is its natural anti-depressant activity. Vanillin, a compound found in vanilla essential oil, has been shown to have anti-depressant like effects similar to Prozac in a recent study.

Nutmeg Essential Oil as an Anti Depressant - Known for its distinct aroma, nutmeg essential oil’s benefits include natural anti-depressant activity. In a study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, nutmeg essential oil was administered to test subjects for a three-day period. Researchers noted significant improvements in terms of mood and mobility and were comparable the effects of traditional anti-depressants.

Spells

Here I have four lists from different websites & blogs that have some great mood uplifting spell collections for healing, you can click on each to view it:

Depression & Anxiety List

Mental health List

Spells  for Anxiety

Worry and Anxiety Spells

Communication with entities

Guardian Angels - If you are unfamiliar with your Guardian angels, you can check this page by clicking here, on who they are & how to ask their help

Angels - If you want specific angels to ask for help from, recommended are Archangels Raphael, Metatron, and Michael. Raphael is a healer and is also a gatekeeper, opening the way for other angels. He can attune himself to anybody very easily. He really pours on the unconditional love, too. Metatron is a master of communication and you need to relearn how to communicate with yourself. Michael is for protection and is the chief negativity buster. 

More about Angels here

There are many ways to cope with negative feelings. Help is always out there and experimenting is the key!

The Stigma of Depression

By Ashley Lederer

The stigma of depression is alive.

When we have depression, we are “lesser people.” We are incapable of living a “normal” life, holding down a job, or keeping a relationship. We are the ones that “normal” people don’t know how to deal with. They keep away, because we are contagious. They don’t want to contract the “crazy.”

At least, this is what many people think. None of it is true, of course. This is the stigma that follows us around daily when we suffer from depression — like a mosquito we keep swatting away that keeps coming back to bite us.

On whom can we place the blame for the creation and longevity of the stigma? Our friends and family who don’t fully understand depression? The media? Society as a whole?

Probably all of them — they work together to form an unfriendly soup of stigma. Media portrayals of depression are not always so accurate, for example. Take the massive Internet backlash surrounding the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why — which included some unfortunate stereotypes about depression and suicide. Another thing to consider is that depression presents so differently in different kinds of people, so it’s almost impossible to depict every type.

It’s 2018. Why is there still such a stigma surrounding mental illness? Even depression, which is scarily common, is seriously misunderstood and stigmatized. According to the ADAA, 16.1 million adults in the US are depressed. Thats 6.7% of all the adults here, making it pretty prevalent compared to other mental illnesses and physical diseases.

The stigma results in so many misconceptions. The stigma can also be dangerous for the person who’s suffering from the condition. Why? The negative stigma can make someone embarrassed to confess the way they’re feeling or reach out to get help for fear of being shamed and being labeled pejoratively as something like a “basket case.” Also, we can stigmatize ourselves, feeling shame simply for being who we are because of the way that society makes us feel.

The reality is that depression is not one size fits all. It can be completely obvious that a person is depressed, or the case may be that you’d never in a million years guess that the person was depressed. Many people find it difficult to wrap their heads around the concept of high functioning depression.

If you’re feeling depressed, remember that:

You can be beautiful and depressed.

You can be successful and depressed.

You can be young and depressed.

You can have everything going for you and still be depressed.

Depression is a disease and a disability. It’s not a choice, and we can’t necessarily control it. Other chronic diseases like heart disease or arthritis aren’t looked down upon or stigmatized, so why is depression any different? Why do people condemn us for being depressed? Depressed people have enough on our plates already!

So, if you suffer from depression, I have a challenge for you. Make a conscious effort to help break the stigma. You can start by sharing this article! Post stories on Facebook or retweet things on Twitter that are informative so your friends and followers become more familiar with mental illness and get the facts.

If you don’t suffer from depression (lucky you) I have a challenge for you, as well. Be an ally! Educate yourself about depression, the symptoms, the risks, and the statistics. Ask your friends/family members who are sufferers what you can do to help them personally, and how to help on an even larger scale.

If we band together and do just a little bit of fighting each day, we can slowly but surely rid society of this stigma. Imagine a world where having depression is viewed just for what it is? A health condition like any other. Let’s make it happen.

Source: https://www.talkspace.com/blog/2017/09/the-stigma-of-depression/