quick n easy list of gentle coping mechanisms for bad mental health days / neurodivergent understimulation episodes!! some are more applicable to one or the other but when i'm feeling particularly like a tiger in a too-small enclosure i find doing at least a couple of these things helps me so much

drink water. basic, but annoyingly effective

eat a snack. same as above

stretch! even just some laying down stretches like pulling on your arms and knees (in fact, here's a great tiktok series for "depression stretches" and workouts/physical stimulation you can do laying down/without much movement)

music/podcasts/video essays. your favorite playlist you haven't listened to in a while, a podcast you like/have been meaning to start (i listen to podcasts while i'm drawing!)

draw/color! if you don't wanna draw, a coloring book is always fun. i actually prefer kids' ones.

read a book. i prefer physical books bc i know i'll get sucked back into the social media scrolling for hours if i try to read on my phone. i also recommend a nice tea/hot chocolate/juice with this one.

video games. this can be anything from minecraft to destiny 2, but i usually never give myself time for these, even when i have it (stuck in that phone scrolling). a more action-packed game for mental understimulation, maybe a more mellow one for a bad depression episode.

shower. i am fully aware this tends to take a lot of spoons but even just sitting under running water ALWAYS makes me feel better when i can manage it. it also helps me with adhd overstimulation!

clean/organize. this sounds counterintuitive but i actually do enjoy organizing stuff for understimulation, and cleaner workspaces help with the depression. even if it's something as simple as "put all the pencils on the desk back into the pencil cup."

puzzles/brain games. this one is almost exclusively for mental understimulation but once i get going it makes my depression SO MUCH BETTER, TOO. my niche is getting myself some algebra sheets but this can be anything from math to jigsaws to crosswords to word searches!! some kind of problem solving that engages your brain and requires focus. this one is my favorite because i find it really grounding.

playing an instrument. this is in the same vein as the last one! again, my personal niche is the piano, but this could be any sort of thing. in fact this could even be substituted for some kind of alt hobby all together, like knitting or crocheting or something! again, mostly for understimulation, but gives me the serotonin boost to get through the depression stuff as well.

this is all i have for my list, but i'd love for anyone to reblog and add their own stuff!!

Hello! My brother in law has set up a gofundme to get a mobility van for my niece. You can donate here.

Copy and pasted from the page:

Hello, my name is Andrew and we are looking to fund a Mobility Van for our sweet daughter Evelyn. She was born in Japan with a rare pathogenic mutation of the ASXL1 gene named Bohring-Opitz Syndrome. We almost lost her at birth and on the medical evacuation to Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego 48 hours later. Due to BOS, she has a myriad of symptoms but the ones that drive the need for a mobility van are low muscle tone and abnormal corpus callosum development in her brain. This causes cognitive and motor functional development to be slowed greatly. She is not mobile, has no head control and is ventilator, oxygen and feeding tube dependant. While she can still fit in her car seat she will outgrow the rear-facing seat by next year and will require head support for forward facing. Currently, her wheelchair capable of head control and is an approved mobility device to be used in an accessible van but insurance will not cover the cost. While some potential grants and charities can help, there will still be a heavy out-of-pocket expense. The price ranges from modifying our current van at >$21000 to buying a new van at >$60000. I have set the goal of this fundraiser to $60k for a new van with a fallback plan of purchasing a used one or having our current van modified, which has a 4-month turnaround. If we chose to have the current van modified, we will need another van in the interim to meet her appointments.

Head control aside, with a mobility van, we would be able to easily wheel her and her equipment straight into the van to make it much easier to get her out and about. Her Wonderfold Wagon we use to haul her in a special chair and her gear to and from the van. While it is just fantastic, she is quickly outgrowing that as well and soon will not fit in it. This is another reason for us seeking funding for a mobility van.

We humbly ask your assistance in purchasing a mobility fan for our sweet Evelyn.

Thanks for donating and/or sharing! 💝

Falling back in love with your craft

I love Rosekiller cuz it’s like. They’re friends. They’re enemies. They’re lovers. They’re exes. They’re in a queer platonic relationship. They’re in an unhealthy relationship. They’re married. They’re divorced. They hate each other. They love each other. They tolerate each other. They don’t know each other. They know each other too much.

I watched Shubble's vod talking about abuse a few days ago and she said something that stuck with me. She told a story where her abuser bit her really hard in front of their friends. She yelped in pain and they laughed.

Men, when we see our friends make jokes about hurting women, don't laugh. Make it uncomfortable. It's not funny. This isn't a joke. You may not think your brothers and friends are abusers, but it doesn't mean that any of this is funny.

I'm certain their friends didn't think there was anything going on behind the scenes, but they should have. I could never even imagine joking about bringing harm to my partner. I'm sure most of them couldn't either. We need to stay vigilant and critical of the ways we carry ourselves around others. What does our laughter signal to the women around us?

My brothers, hurting women is not a joke. Don't laugh.

imagine a small town having an annual mechanical bull riding contest but for overdue pregnant people

my partner is disabled, and though we're waiting on disability benefits, me and my other partner's incomes aren't really covering many of our bills. we're getting help from our families, but my partners aren't able to receive much help and my parents have communicated to me that they don't want to assist us financially for much longer. if anyone would like to donate to my ko-fi, it would really give us some extra room to breathe

new prints are up on my inprnt shop and cuz today is my quarter of a century bday im offering 25% off until the 31st! the code is: OTUVBHOF

the whole set of the triforce trio skykids is up and as a variant where all 3 of them are on one print

okay wait stop. okay wait for me, okay just- (steps around my mountains of garbage and slime)

Listen we all love Malorn Ashthorn (as we fuckin' should) but I just realized. okay, just how much undeserved mess that poor blessed soul went through

Like okay think about it for a second. He's introduced early on in the first arc as Malistaire's former top student and now impromptu Death Professor at Ravenwood, okay so we all know that. But the implications man. The implications, I didn't think about the IMPLICATIONS.

He's like this 12 year old kid, okay. Already even BEFORE his official appearance in the game, imagine being a straight A student, one of the very best (to the point where it's noted and revered amongst the other professors AND your fellow students), under THE Malistaire Drake, who, even before his villain arc, was also one of the most esteemed and powerful Death professors ever. Like I couldn't even keep a C in school that shit must be wild

AND THEN. And then, your professor literally commits several war crimes, causes irreversible damage and trauma, and becomes a national criminal against.... the universe???? Like Malistaite commits heinous terrible shit, and sinks the entire Death School along with him. And then it falls to Malorn Ashthorn, once again who's like a teenager, to PICK UP THE METAPHORICAL PIECES because he had no choice. He was literally the only candidate to fill in Malistaire's place, a legend turned monster, to teach and guide GENERATIONS of new children that are HIS AGE or even OLDER THAN Malorn is.

And then the actual changes in the school. Malorn, former student, now has to learn how to become a professor with his limited knowledge of Death Magic. Like imagine filling in for the college astrophysicist teacher when you've only graduated 6th grade. He has to change his SCHEDULE, from waking up early as a student to get up and get ready even EARLIER as a professor to prepare the classes HE comes up with. Not to mention late nights grading hundreds of papers from multiple students??? AND he either is the ONLY tutor (which means more overtime and work for him, to personally help individual students with different Death lessons), or he has to actually call upon help from other students to help him get his job done.

And then there's like the relationship aspect of it. Malorn is literally just a child, like any other student, but adopting a role as a professor, an adult, means that he also has to adopt a certain mindset. Malorn literally HAS to be patient, HAS to be guiding and nurturing, HAS to be the adult in every situation in order to be a GOOD professor. Malorn has to train hard not only in magic to be ahead of the others in order to teach them properly, but has to retrain his mindset to be ABLE to handle to teach properly. Like you can't be a regular tween teaching other tweens.

And then it's just the pressure after that. The PRESSURE GUYS, of not only living up to one of the most talented and accomplished the school has ever seen, but deal with the fact that the very same person also became a tyrant and war criminal and left Malorn, his most promised student, in his place. Like I could easily imagine the rumors, the judgement, and the fear surrounding that boy, wondering if he would ever turn out to be the same as Malistaire.

No one asked for this. This soap opera I mean, nobody asked me about Malorn Ashthorn or this long ass post but I don't care because I'm crying. Girls I'm crying my entire bed is wet with tears of despair and snot. Malorn is literally a sweetie oh my God he does not, and never will deserve this shit I'm so sorry honey. Sweetie Malorn baby I'm so fuckign sorry, i'm so so sorry,

Someone needs to write my favourite ships in a Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen setting and by God that person better not be me.

im supposed to be asleep yet i'm here already invested in the premise of that last hermit horror snippet despite fully knowing its a one shot. but like MAN youre so incredibly good at setting up incredibly tense and intriguing scenarios and absolutely delivering on the horror while you're at it?? genuinely so impressive.

I'M GLAD YOU LIKE IT. given that's the one where i went. "oh you know what i'm not gonna skimp out on the horror and the graphic detail this time."

anyway incidentally if you're invested in the premises of these i would also like to say i have a blanket permission statement and that at the end of the week these will all be on ao3 also so. you know. always free for other people to play in that space too,

Random headcanon

Sonic as werehog suffers from back pain and is generally more comfortable moving on all fours instead of walking on two legs because the transformation is more suited for quadrupedal movement and not bipedal

That's why he looks like he's slouching all the time he physically cannot stand up fully straight without being constantly uncomfortable

How do I convince a suicidal 17 year old that she needs to go to school and can’t play roblox all day

May I solicit... A few kind words from anyone willing to send me a little bit of encouragement..

I'm feel incredibly depressed about my art and it would mean a lot to just hear someone tell me I should keep going

sometimes looking at like Self Help Strategies lists for the symptoms I'm having is always just like:

thing that I already do

thing I have tried 10 times

thing I already do

thing that I don't have the money to do

thing I already do

thing I've been doing since I was 10yrs old to no avail

thing that is impossible given my situation

thing that doesn't apply to me

thing that I already do

thing I have already tried

hrmm, oh wait, maybe finally- OH, yeah.. okay. thing that I already do but it was just phrased slightly differently

thing I have already done