luvbug724

[luvbug724]

the problem of fandom reducing characters who are women and/or people of colour to sexist/racist stereotypes is definitely aggravated by the fact that a lot of fans simply do not pay very much attention to these characters in the first place then subconsciously paper over the gaps in their perception with things they’ve been culturally conditioned to believe are true about people in the same category as said character

[luvbug724]

Why don’t we let the guy whose every plan could be reasonably construed as an abstract suicide attempt take a crack it

[luvbug724]

i think everyone should get more aromantic about andreil. and by that i mean let them have a weird relationship. let them not say i love you ever and not get married and not label their relationship but still be so incredibly devoted to each other and be life partners until the day they die. let them care for each other so very much and be on the same page about it even if they don't express it in a conventional way. don't force them into amatonormative rules of what a relationship should/has to be like!!! the fact that it breaks expectations and it's unique and their own thing is the best thing about ita

- signed, a tired aromantic (andrew and neil are both demiromantic and i will die on this hill)

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[luvbug724]

i am calm and normal and i do not need to be medicated for anything at all

tumblr reblog so Bad and so Wrong i pull up the National Library of Medicine dot gov

[luvbug724]

tumblr reblog so Bad and so Wrong i pull up the National Library of Medicine dot gov

[luvbug724]

okay sorry to beat this dead horse six feet under but i was reading the older replies to the post and this is quite genuinely just ignorant & wrong. this absolutely happens.

according to a 2006 article based on research from 1994-2000 (for reference, andrew's "diagnosis" happens in 2003, and aftg takes place in 2006!!!), 69% percent of bipolar patients were initially misdiagnosed with the wrong condition. likewise, 40% were misdiagnosed with unipolar depression, and other studies found that the mean time to correct diagnosis fell between 5.7 to 7.5 years (Singh and Rajput).

i would like to cite more recent statistics here, but i literally cannot find them. one paper uses 2003 statistics to claim that "misdiagnosis of bipolar depression as MDD occurs in 60% of patients and only 20% of patients with bipolar disorder are correctly identified within the first year of seeking treatment" (Rolin). the reason this happens is because manic and/or hypomanic episodes often go unrecognized, and a diagnosis is only made off of depressive symptoms; the diagnosis of bipolar cannot be made until a manic episode happens.

i'm happy to show grace towards people who do not know but frankly denying reality like this is irresponsible & kind of disgusting.

works cited

Rolin, Donna PhD, APRN, PMHCNS-BC, PMHNP-BC (Clinical Associate Professor and Director)1; Whelan, Jessica APRN, PMHNP-BC (Owner, Chief Executive Officer)2; Montano, Charles B. MD (Director, Principal Investigator)3. Is it depression or is it bipolar depression?. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners 32(10):p 703-713, October 2020. | DOI: 10.1097/JXX.0000000000000499

Singh T, Rajput M. Misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder. Psychiatry (Edgmont). 2006 Oct;3(10):57-63. PMID: 20877548; PMCID: PMC2945875.

begging ppl to stop saying andrew’s meds are unrealistic bc that shit happens all the time. you’re bipolar, you get diagnosed w depression and go on antidepressants, and you become manic bc you’re only medicated for your lows and not your highs

[luvbug724]

happy kevjean thursday

[luvbug724]

STOP finding old posts of mine they’re long and i haven’t vetted them for cringe

[luvbug724]

knock on wood. pray to god. it can’t hurt.

[luvbug724]

Speaking as someone who works in health care, I’m going to say something that I previously disagreed with when I read The Foxhole Court for the first time. However, reading it now as someone who has been in healthcare for almost a decade and works in healthcare equity, I have to share my thoughts.

I don’t think Andrew’s meds in tfc and trk are that far fetched.

The lovely @korakos has said that Andrew’s meds was the plot point that required the most suspension of disbelief (and def not the yakuza using a sports team as a front, thats literally happened in US Hockey). And while it’s true theres really not a med out there that does what Andrew’s meds are written to do, there are some that come…kinda close.

Several antidepressants cause withdrawal. Not to the extent that Andrew’s meds do, but it does happen and it can be pretty severe.

If someone has bipolar disorder, antidepressants can induce mania.

Knowing the things I know about the American carceral system, the pharmaceutical industry, and the medical autonomy of teenagers, I don’t think it’s that far fetched that a court “expert” said that Andrew needed a high dose of antidepressants and it kicked him into mania. Usually mania sticks around once you come off the drugs, BUT I could also reasonably believe that they put him on an experimental drug, a newer drug, or a drug that just really didn’t mix well with Andrew in particular and didn’t really come up with a clear plan to help him if it hurt him. The justice system and psychiatric care in this country sucks, and if Andrew had an apathetic judge and an apathetic parole officer, they probably wouldn’t give a shit about one troubled foster kid not liking his meds.

Do Andrew’s meds fit any drug that currently exists on the market or did in 2004? No. But like. Could Nora make up a drug, say they put Andrew on it, and then eventually took it off the market because of how much it increased the risk of mania, suicide, and violent outbursts? Heck yeah. There’s definitely drugs that have had their approval revoked because they induced neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Also have you seen outside?? I think if the current US government found a drug that made us all manic and happy and complacent they’d put it in our tap water. It’s unfortunately not that surprising that they’d try it on tiny teen criminals first.

What it boils down to, for me, is that there is a clear statement about how our justice system fails troubled teens with mental health issues in Andrew’s meds even if they aren’t the most medically accurate. And I’ve come to really like it over the past several years of loving these gay sports books. Even though it is so so painful to read.

[luvbug724]

YOUR POSTS ABOUT ANDREW’S MEDS ARE SO GOOD. i wrote something similar but you explained it way better. https://www.tumblr.com/singerofsimplesongs/777309673536847872/i-dont-think-andrews-meds-in-tfc-and-trk-are

amazing post!!! yes i think the key to the meds is that the specific medication does not exist & there's nothing currently on the market with those symptoms, but. like. there could be

[luvbug724]

the thing that never fails to make me laugh is when ppl try to do morality discourse about ships like kevriko. i don't know man i dont think all the kevriko warriors in the chat are worried about proper communication and abuse of power

[luvbug724]

and ANOTHER THING. this fandom gets very odd in how they reach for cause to explain how every sexual or romantic encounter a character has before their endgame is somehow lesser or wrong. this is not the 1940s. you can have sex before marriage. a breakup or a new relationship does not automatically mean there was fault/blame to be placed anywhere in the last one

[luvbug724]

“it sounds like you’re justifying their actions-“ i am. they’re a fictional character. i’m okay with anything they do all the time. hope this helps.

[luvbug724]

I have never been on the same page as fandom’s clear communication fetishists and I never will be. I love miscommunication, concealment, pigheadedness, and lies. I think characters should talk around what they have to say and ignore each other and impute needs and beliefs onto others that have nothing to do with those other people and everything to do with maintenance of the ego. A little clear communication is fine but it should come at the end and be earned by repeated instances of snobbery, tomfoolery, self righteousness, or blockheadedness. If you decide you hate a character just because that character isn’t communicating in the way a therapist might coach them to, well consider that people don’t actually talk like that at all and that most of us get things wrong many times before we inch our way out of the labyrinthine darkness of our own heads.

[luvbug724]

two slow dancers, last ones out

[luvbug724]

i feel like people forget that sometimes characters in fic are written like that because it's a reflection of real life.

people have sex without setting boundaries. people have unprotected sex without talking about their sexual histories or producing recent sti tests. people play with kink without discussing it ahead of time or establishing a safeword. they have anal without 'enough' prep or lube—they may even prefer it like that.

and none of this is really a fantasy. it's all pretty normal. you can feel that it's inappropriately normalised, and you'd probably be right! but it is normalised: one study found that 58% of female undergraduate students on the campus studied had been choked during sex. 20% of those students said that they'd never been asked if it was ok; another 30% said they'd only sometimes been asked if they consented. fully half! (non-paywalled journal article on choking during sex here, including these numbers.) despite a rise in stis of all sorts, condom use is declining. (pdf link to the full text of this study about declining condom use in the us; aidsmap article about an australian study with similar results.)

even when people do talk about things—sex or anything else—they communicate imperfectly. 'yeah, but don't go too far' is consenting and setting a boundary, and also relying that the person you're talking to has the same metric for 'too far' that you do. for some people, 'the trash needs to go out' is a neutral, factual observation; for others, it's a request that the person they're speaking to take out the trash.

even when people understand each other perfectly, people react unpredictably to things sometimes! we behave irrationally! people laugh uncontrollably at funerals, or get angry at the straw that broke their back rather than the enormous load they were already carrying. they get scared and lash out at people trying to help them. when hurt, most people do not instinctively reach for therapy-approved grounding exercises and 'i feel' statements.

pretty much any bad choice that characters could conceivably make is a choice that people make in real life, on purpose, all the time. people do things that can have catastrophic, life-changing effects because it felt like a good idea at the time, or they're leaning into the vibe, or they just didn't think about it all that much, or an infinite number of other reasons.

fiction isn't intended as a guide on the best, safest, and most responsible ways to live your life, and fanfic isn't any different. it's not a narrative flaw to let characters do things that are messy or harmful or downright stupid—it's a reflection of what people are actually like, and not something that authors should feel they have to apologise for.