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Sometimes the caption makes all the difference

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I only know about this because my parents talked about his tactics while I was growing up cause they're lefties through and through - he's one of those people you'd want to target as a time traveller

Please Learn About This Bitch.

Sup, I just found out something and this needs to be talked about more. Rupert Murdoch. Owner of Fox News, Sky News (basically the Australian fox news) and the Sun in the UK. This man has influences all over the world. Whenever something fucks up in Australian, American or British politics you better fucking believe this bitch had something to do with it. Brexit and Trump getting into office are both linked. More people need knowledge about this outside of Australia. We can’t have a couple people just talking about it because it’s too easy to shut down. Our former prime minister here in Australia has already said that we should look into this more but Rupert has too many people in high places. I only learnt about this yesterday. FUCKING REBLOG THIS. 

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Today is a good day to remind people that Queen Liliuokalani was deposed by the US Government because of sheer greed, racism, and misogyny. 

The Hawaiian Islands were made a territory and then a state because of greed. Because of coffee and pineapples and sugar cane. Because the US gov’t did not want to be beholden to a Queen of Hawaii, or any Hawaiian leader for that matter. And neither did the people wanting to sell those products so they pressured the US gov’t (like they continue to do). 

The Hawaiian islands are seeking to become a true sovereign nation with political recognition of their sovereignty. Please consider purchasing goods from Native Hawaiians rather than the haole, outsider corporations that are selling the same thing and undercutting. Also consider supporting the various Native Hawaiian organizations (NHOA) found here and here. 

Mahalo.

Hui`ia, Lawelawe, Maika`i loa, A`o, Ho`ike

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i know all eyes are on the presidential candidates for this election, and rightfully so, but some very wonderful and important things are happening statewide that should be celebrated and highlighted, so here’s a few:

Florida passed Amendment 2, which will raise minimum wage to $15/hour by 2026

South Dakota, Montana, Arizona and New Jersey all passed an amendment that legalized marijuana 

Utah will now be removing gendered language in the Utah Constitution and will replace it with gender-neutral language

California passed Prop 17, which restores voting rights to previously imprisoned citizens

Delaware elected Sarah McBride, the first ever openly trans state senator

Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones are the first ever openly gay black members of congress

Cori Bush is the first ever woman of color to win a seat in Congress in Missouri

Mauree Turner became the first non-binary state lawmaker in America and the first Muslim member of the Oklahoma state house

Oregon has become the first state to decriminalize all drugs (small amounts of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs will have lesser punishments, similar to traffic tickets, and no jail time.)

Kim Jackson is the first out LGBTQ+ state senator in Georgia

UPDATED WITH MORE GOOD NEWS:

Shevrin D. Jones is Florida’s first opnely LGBTQ+ state senator

Jabari Brisport became New York’s first gay Black member of the house

Arizona flipped blue for the first time in 24 years

Michele Rayner-Goolsby became the first Black LGBTQ woman in the Florida Legislature

Voters in Colorado overwhelmingly rejected Prop 115, a state ballot measure that would have banned abortions after a fetus reaches 22 weeks gestational age. In rejecting the initiative, Colorado remains one of the most progressive states in the country on reproductive rights

Arizona will now send two Democrats to the Senate for the first time since 1951, thanks to the win of ex-astronaut Captain Mark Kelly.

Democrats have flipped the senate seat in Colorado, with the win of former Gov. John Hickenlooper

Mississippi is removing the confederate flag from their symbology

Marie Newman, who has been titled ‘a leader of the pro-choice movement’, will now represent Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District in Congress

Nevada became the first state to protect same-sex marriage in it’s constitution

Immigrant rights activist and former public defender José Garza won the race for District Attorney of Travis County, Texas

Michigan passed Proposal 20-2, which requires police to have a search warrant to access a person’s electronic data and electronic communications.

EVEN MORE UPDATES:

Washington approved Referendum 90, which requires all school districts to provide age appropriate, comprehensive sex ed at all grade levels

Colorado passed the first paid family/ medical leave program

Mississippi passed an ammendment that legalized medical marijuana

Denver overwhelmingly voted to pass Ballot Measure 2J. which lifts the city’s more than 30-year-old ban on pit bulls

New Mexico became the first state to elect all women of color to our House delegation

Vermont elected the state’s first openly transgender legislator, Taylor Small

Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, all won re-election in the House

Nebraska passed a constitutional amendment to the state constitution that closes the loophole of the U.S. Constitution’s 13th Amendment that allowed slavery as a punishment for crimes

Rhode Island passed a measure to rename the state, officially naming it Rhode Island and not The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, due to connections to slavery

Oregon passed measure 109, the first state to legalize psilocybin (mushrooms) for mental heath treatments

Hawai’i elected native Hawaiian Kaiali’i “Kai” Kahele, a Democrat, to the House of Representatives. He is one of 6 Native members of the House who will be sworn in in January

Utah passed legislation that removes language from the state constitution that allows the use of slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments (no more prison labor!)

Multnomah county, where most of Portland sits, just voted for tuition-free preschool for everybody ages 4-5 

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tragic that i laughed at this

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Honhon

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Bernie’s gotta break some kneecaps!

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No matter what the ultimate Electoral College result turns out to be, a majority of voters have cast their ballots for the Democratic nominee in seven of the last eight Presidential elections.

This statistic is being mentioned everywhere, but it bears repeating in order to emphasize the fact that the majority of the American people are continually being held hostage by a literal interpretation of a document written 233 years ago by a group that included people who owned other human beings as property. 

Many of the most glaring problems with governing this country in the 21st Century are the result of a powerful minority of American leaders who interpret the Constitution as if it were some secular version of Sharia law instead of a living document meant to evolve and be shaped by time, growth, experience, and modern necessities. Any rational examination of the framing of the Constitution – and the amendments which have followed since ratification –clearly demonstrates that the intent of the Founders was to build a foundation for an always-changing nation to develop upon. They didn’t intend for future Americans to be handcuffed by outdated systems that make little to no sense for a massive, diverse, modern, industrialized, economic and military superpower. 

The size and constant growth of this nation and the pace of the lives Americans live today would overwhelm the Founders if they showed up now and tried to understand it. During their time, America’s remote northwest was present-day Indiana and Ohio!  It’s ridiculous and irresponsible to continue to believe that literally interpreting the Constitution as they drafted it for a fledgling, newly independent nation isn’t overwhelming our system of government at every single level in increasingly significant and dangerous ways. It’s time for a new Constitutional Convention in order to reinforce our nation’s foundation and breathe some life into a Constitution that was never meant to be chiseled in stone in 1788 and can no longer meet the challenges of the country that we have built since then.

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To anyone pissed at Nevada right now,

I get it. And the memes are hilarious. However, as a native Nevadan, I also think y'all deserve an explanation. Trump is currently suing Clark County, the most populous county in Nevada, for voter fraud. So every single disputed ballot is being reviewed by a judge, and a lot of the actual counting has slowed down for diligence sake so his suit has very little to go off of. That's why it's taking so long. Keep making the memes, they're hilarious, but the actual villain here is still the shitstain in the White House.

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No matter what the ultimate Electoral College result turns out to be, a majority of voters have cast their ballots for the Democratic nominee in seven of the last eight Presidential elections.

This statistic is being mentioned everywhere, but it bears repeating in order to emphasize the fact that the majority of the American people are continually being held hostage by a literal interpretation of a document written 233 years ago by a group that included people who owned other human beings as property. 

Many of the most glaring problems with governing this country in the 21st Century are the result of a powerful minority of American leaders who interpret the Constitution as if it were some secular version of Sharia law instead of a living document meant to evolve and be shaped by time, growth, experience, and modern necessities. Any rational examination of the framing of the Constitution – and the amendments which have followed since ratification –clearly demonstrates that the intent of the Founders was to build a foundation for an always-changing nation to develop upon. They didn’t intend for future Americans to be handcuffed by outdated systems that make little to no sense for a massive, diverse, modern, industrialized, economic and military superpower. 

The size and constant growth of this nation and the pace of the lives Americans live today would overwhelm the Founders if they showed up now and tried to understand it. During their time, America’s remote northwest was present-day Indiana and Ohio!  It’s ridiculous and irresponsible to continue to believe that literally interpreting the Constitution as they drafted it for a fledgling, newly independent nation isn’t overwhelming our system of government at every single level in increasingly significant and dangerous ways. It’s time for a new Constitutional Convention in order to reinforce our nation’s foundation and breathe some life into a Constitution that was never meant to be chiseled in stone in 1788 and can no longer meet the challenges of the country that we have built since then.

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I wound up reading an article about binge drinking, and how a single night of binge drinking can cause acute pancreatitis, which often turns into a devastating chronic condition if the person keeps drinking (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/may/30/one-weekend-bender-can-ruin-your-life-pancreatitis).

Found myself wondering what happened to this guy, so I googled him. He needs help - I’d be grateful if you could pass this around. He’s suffering a lot already and deserves to live in conditions as decent as possible.

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@fuckyeahyonicsymbols

木のあな

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“The Week In Tory returns for the second time in 4 days.

The weeks grow shorter, but the days last forever...

1. The consultant who advised the government to look for "alternative arrangements" on the Irish Border is in line for a £200m contract if alternative arrangements go ahead.

But to facilitate this, the government has to break international law with the Internal Market Bill (IMB)

Nobody can tell us what the "alternative arrangements" are, but the IMB passed through parliament anyway.

2. The UK’s highest-ranking law officer in Scotland resigned over the IMB

& The UK’s special envoy on media freedom, Amal Clooney (yes, that one) quit over IMB

3. The former (Tory appointed) ambassador to USA said the IMB was "hugely damaging to our international reputation"

4. Those snowflake liberal Remoaners Toby Young, Peter Hitchens and Tim Montgomerie turned on the govt over IMB. As did every living former-Prime Minister.

5. Joe Biden said there would be no UK/US Trade Deal if the IMB went ahead

But, Iain Duncan Smith said "we don’t need lectures" from Joe Biden

Trump’s special envoy to Northern Ireland also said there would be no Trade Deal

Apparently, Iain Duncan Smith does need lectures. Who knew?

6. Oh, and IMB also includes a provision allowing the government to break absolutely any law, absolutely any time!!!!!

7. Unrelated, I’m sure, but the number of "problem drinkers" in England doubled this year

So the government cut funding to alcohol addiction services

8. Dominic Raab, whose job it is to understand the Good Friday Agreement, admitted he hasn’t read the Good Friday Agreement

His excuse is: "it’s not a novel". True. Novels tend to be longer than 35 pages, aren't vital to solving conflicts that killed 3600 people

9. The Prime Minister, who literally voted to break a deal he signed with the EU, said the EU was "not negotiating in good faith"

The next morning, Northern Ireland minister and arch memo-misser Brandon Lewis went on TV and said "I believe the EU is negotiating in good faith"

10. It was revealed the Smart Freight System to handle post-Brexit trade won’t be ready until at least April 2021.

That’s at least 4 months without a freight handling system, during the time of year we rely on food imports the most

11. The Road Haulage Association said a meeting with Michael Gove to discuss border checks provided "no clarity" and was "a washout"

12. An official report says 2-day queues at Dover in January are "a certainty"

So the government closed a Covid test site in Kent, to convert it into a lorry park, in what experts (well, me) are calling "the world’s shittest game of whack-a-mole"

13. The government said people would be fined £1000 if they don’t self-isolate after getting a positive test

And then all tests ran out in the 10 worst-hit Covid hotspots

And then all home testing kits ran out, nationally

And then the website for booking tests broke, and just showed a series of error messages.

And then the government said the system was under strain because people were asking for tests when they didn’t know they were infected

So [deep breath] you must self-isolate after getting a test that doesn’t exist, and you can only get a test if you already know the result

14. Naturally, honesty no-fly-zone Home Office Secretary Priti Patel went on Radio 4 and announced tests were available everywhere and there were "no problems getting tests"

Same day - same hour, in fact - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the testing system "has huge problems"

Jacob Rees-Mogg, who simply cannot shut up about fish, said we should stop the "endless carping" about not being tested for a fatal infection

15.Prime Minister Boris Johnson went on national TV and announced a "£100bn moonshot" approach to Covid, which would test "10m people per day"

Three days later, in front of a Parliamentary Committee, said he "didn’t recognise" the figure of 10m a day

And it was reported his half-brother is on the board of the business that would get most of the £100bn budget, which I’m sure is just a massive coincidence

Officials branded the moonshot as "Moonfuck"

16. And then Health Secretary Matt Hancock had to ask other cabinet ministers to stop referring to him as "Matt WankCock"

Despite appearances, these are not 7 year old boys

17. Food news, and Tory MP Douglas Ross said "I have seen the difference free school meals can make, and I want to make sure nobody falls through the cracks"

Douglas Ross voted against free school meals

18. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said we cannot put punitive restrictions on food imports from the EU (to force them to give up on Ireland), or we will starve

And then, minutes later, he agreed with a Brexiter MP who said we SHOULD put punitive restrictions on food imports from the EU

19. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said "I venerate our civil service" after sacking the innocent heads of multiple departments to protect friends including Gavin Williamson and Dominic Cummings. And as a result, people leaving the civil service rose 14% in a year

20. Planning-ahead news: an international conglomerate pulled out of a £16bn power project because the government hasn’t performed its part of the deal for the last 20 months

21. Funding cuts since 2010 meant the government had to inject £700m to prevent further education going bankrupt

22. This week it was found the government– which last week voted not to implement the recommendations of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry – has also failed to deliver its promise to remove the same dangerous cladding from at least 2000 tower blocks. Sleep well.

And then the government said files on Grenfell were "lost forever", after a laptop was wiped. Because everything is always stored on a single laptop. We all know this.

The government runs G-Cloud, its own dedicated cloud backup service, which has been active since 2012. So... yeah.

23. At a committee in parliament, an MP read out the Covid test figures. Dido Harding, in charge of testing, said “I’m sorry, that’s just not true, I don’t know where that number is from”

It was from her own report. Page 8. In bold type.

Dido Harding said "nobody could predict" a rise in demand for testing

Government scientists predicted it, and in a July report sent to Dido Harding – maybe it was a different one? - said "July and Aug must be a period of intense preparation for a September resurgence in Covid"

Oh, and standard advice says the NHS must always prepare for cold and respiratory infections to spike immediately after the return to school in September

Dido Harding wasted £13m on a "world-beating" testing app that cost £12.3m more than the German app, and didn’t work

She is now in charge of the test-and-trace service which has collapsed completely

So naturally, it was reported the government wants to sack the head of NHS England and install Dido Harding instead. Let's make the most of that successful record, eh?

24. In June the government tweeted "grab a drink and raise a glass, pubs are reopening"

The Prime Minister said "it is your patriotic duty to go out and enjoy yourselves"

This week they said the public is responsible, and "people going to the pub fuelled the rise in Covid"

So the government closed pubs at 10pm, because it’s well-known viruses only pop out for last orders.

25. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government "threw a protective ring around care homes"

A leaked document said care homes are now being asked to accept patients who are known to have Covid

26. Hospitals were banned from launching their own testing regime for staff and patience because… nope, nobody knows why. Just because.

27. There hasn’t been a meeting of COBRA (the government’s committee for national emergencies, headed by the Prime Minister) since 10th May

28. As Covid infections surged, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said restrictions are increasing, and pointed to a chart showing the government has "moved to alert level 3". Level 3 is "a gradual relaxing of restrictions". Not only can't he remember his own alert system, he can't even read it.

29. Despite travel restrictions, it was reported the Prime Minister flew off for a long weekend in Perugia, where his friend the Russian billionaire Evgeny Lebedev lives. He denies it, but the airport has his landing documents. So either he’s lying or... no, that’s the end of that sentence

30. In June the government spent £500m on a GPS satellite system to replace the one we lose due to Brexit

In July it was reported "we bought the wrong satellites"

This week the government cancelled the programme and began asking the EU if we can keep on using their GPS system

31. A cross-party committee of MPs found nurse-Ratched cosplayer Home Office Secretary Priti Patel "bases immigration policies on anecdotes and prejudice"

It found her dept has "no idea" what its annual spending achieves, and referred to "the wreckage that [Patel’s department’s] ignorance caused"

She is one of the favourites to replace Prime Minister Johnson

32. This is because it was reported the Prime Minister is thinking of quitting because he’s worried about his personal finances: the poor man has to "pay tax", "buy his own food" and "support 4 of his 6 children". Oh, the humanity!

33. And Jonathan Aitken – look him up – continues to get privileged access to parliament despite a ban on MPs who have served more than a year in prison. Which he did. And it was hilarious.

34. And finally, because he always needs a guest appearance, Chris Grayling, the man who awarded a ferry contract to a company with no ships, has got a £100k appointment to advise ports”-Russ

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I made a chart.

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Incredibly useful!

Lets’ Talk About OCD

Alright. I’m going to make one post about this. It’s difficult for me to open up about, but years ago another Tumblr post about intrusive thoughts quite literally saved my life. If I can give that back in any way, I’ll try my best.

I’m making this post because the misinformation I see about OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) on this website especially is rampant and deeply troubling.

Let’s talk about OCD and common intrusive thoughts, according to the international OCD foundation:

Our thoughts center around what we fear the most, what disgusts us the most, what we personally view as the most “monstrous.”

It’s why some people suffer terribly with religious intrusive thoughts (lusting after saints is one example), whereas someone nonreligious wouldn’t have trouble with that. If I thought an image of a saint was sexy, I’d think it was funny, so there’d be no risk of that turning into an OCD thought-loop for me. But to someone religious who sees that as sinful, it could plague them for years.

Someone who had intrusive thoughts about hurting say, their pets may give all of their beloved pets away in a fit of self-hatred and fear. Someone with intrusive thoughts about hurting children or the elderly may avoid their young cousins or their grandparents at all costs. It will look like they’re being callous, rude, or even downright mean to others who don’t know what’s going on, but the person is actually just desperate to avoid triggers at all costs.

Which is where we get a common word in OCD: “avoidance.”

Contamination is where we get the hand-washing stereotype. 

I could go on.

So here we get to the most painful crux of the matter:

The only way out of OCD is through.

Most notably, I think about the viral post telling the story of a woman who was late to work everyday because she couldn’t remember whether she unplugged her blow dryer.

I am only using this story because it demonstrates a perfect example of “checking” behaviors in OCD. This story may be unique and successful for the particular patient, and I’m using it only as an example for the larger problem of OCD.

She was afraid it’d start a fire, so she would drive home to check it. The story ends with her doctor telling her to simply bring the blow dryer with her to work so she would know it wasn’t plugged in. It notes that other doctors criticized her doctor, who then nobly stated that it’s their job to give the patient her life life back by any means, a statement for which they were praised by people reblogging the story.

Of course it’s wonderful to have a doctor advocating for the patient’s needs so passionately, so what’s my problem with it? I can’t speak for that case specifically, since I am neither the patient nor the doctor.

But I can speak as someone who has been wrestling the beast of OCD for 18 years now.

If my doctor had given me similar advice, I wouldn’t have gained my life back.

OCD is an illness rooted in uncertainty and fear. Fear is at the very core of it. Our intrusive thoughts are based in and born of our fears.

Living in fear is maddening. For years, fear was my most intimate relationship. Always at my bedside, in my passenger seat, it commanded every aspect of my day. It consumed me.

So of course I implemented what are known as “checking” and “avoidance” behaviors to alleviate that fear and anxiety in any way I could, for however long I could.

Did I remember to lock the doors? I’ll check. (checking behavior)

I want to wear a shirt I love, but it’s blue, which reminds me through a chain of absolute mental gymnastics of a triggering intrusive thought, so I just won’t wear it anymore. (avoidance behavior)

It sounds simple enough, but anyone who has dealt with this monster knows where this is going.

Checking the doors once wasn’t enough. 30 minutes later, 10 minutes later, 5 minutes later, I had to check them again. Eventually when I got tired of getting out of bed to do that, I thought of a great solution! I would simply take pictures of the locked doors, and then I would know for sure that they were locked.

Perfect solution. Until it wasn’t. I got worried that I somehow only “thought” I took photos, but they were actually photos from last night, and my doors were unlocked, leaving my family in danger!

OCD transforms, it mutates, and latches onto new fears. With the door locking checking problem temporarily photo-solved, it became a problem of whether or not every window in the house was locked. was I going to take a photo of every window in the house, every night, for the rest of my life? And how about when I’m staying at a friend’s house? Will I do it there?

The avoidance didn’t stop at that single blue shirt. Next it was a pair of pants, and then some shoes, one by one, until I couldn’t wear anything I owned. Until I missed days of work because I couldn’t get dressed. I didn’t eat for days, because I wasn’t “allowed” to have any of the food in the house based on my avoidance behaviors.

I almost didn’t survive.

So taking the blow-dryer to work may have worked for her. But for most OCD sufferers, next it would’ve been whether she left the stove on. And that won’t fit in her purse.

Here’s the ugly truth about OCD: there are no simple fixes, short-term coping mechanisms based in checking or avoidance, and there isn’t an easy way out.

I say this not to frighten people, but to encourage them because it’s important to realize that no matter how much you are struggling, no matter how scared you are, no matter how many times you fall, you’re not a lost cause, not even close.

It’s not easy for anybody to deal with OCD, so if you feel that you fought as hard as you could, done all you can, and that there isn’t an end, I’m here to tell you that’s not true.

OCD is an extremely misunderstood illness, and often it’s not talked about it all.

Again:

The only way out of OCD is through.

ERP (exposure response prevention) is a type of CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) that is specialized for OCD sufferers.

It is what the name implies: the sufferer exposes themselves to their triggers and must sit in, stew in, and grow to understand the fear, the panic, the self-loathing, the disgust, so that we can finally let it go.

Avoidance only makes that fear stronger, because our brain starts to believe that the fear has foundations.

Our intrusive thoughts are based in and born of our fears.

Living in fear is maddening. For years, fear was my most intimate relationship. It commanded every aspect of my day. It consumed me.

The only way to final train my brain that my fears were unfounded, that my thoughts were nothing more than that–thoughts, was through ERP. I had to expose myself to the situations which triggered me in order to get my life back.

It’s baby steps at first, but if you give up before facing the Final Boss (your worst fears, usually the intrusive thought that has plagued you the longest, most people have one), you won’t be free.

People with violent, sexual, or otherwise “scary” intrusive thoughts aren’t dangerous. And the absolute LAST thing they should be doing is participating in avoidance tactics to make ANYONE–them OR you–feel more comfortable.

OCD is a monster of a mental illness to deal with, but it’s possible to conquer it.

Whether you have OCD and didn’t know any of this, or you don’t have OCD and didn’t know, now you Do. Don’t encourage avoidance tactics, and CERTAINLY don’t require it as a form of moral responsibility.

In the same way we’ve discussed that it’s wrong to feed into someone’s delusions or hallucinations, it’s also wrong to verify an OCD fear.

Please, now that you know, do better.

READ MORE ABOUT OCD AND ERP HERE AT THE INTERNATIONAL OCD FOUNDATION WEBSITE.

If you’re living with OCD, check out the Peace of Mind Foundation. They once gave me a scholarship to go to a weekend-long OCD support group workshop, something that quite literally changed my life.

You are NOT bad. You are NOT alone, and you CAN recover. I love you. I really do. For the person I once was, the younger me who almost didn’t survive, I have so much love in my heart for you. Hang in there.