#How anxiety lies to you

[queerpyracy]

imo a lot of people would benefit from thinking about their own queerness less in terms of naming every aspect of their nebulous inner experience to make it easily categorized and more in terms of who they want to be in relationship with & how

like. "am i ever under any circumstance attracted to men" is a wildly different question from "what kind of relationships do i want to have with the men in my life." this applies to gender too but my feelings on that are less easily articulated

[chamerionwrites]

A thing about adulthood (though not exclusive to adulthood) is that now and then you will find yourself involved in a conversation in which the only truly reasonable response is to say “Even if I were a terrible person with no conscience, I would simply not admit to being a terrible person with no conscience. Out loud. Unprompted. In public.”

And then you have to decide whether to be the person who actually says it, thus taking the heat for Making A Scene

[specialagentartemis]

I have gotten probably a hundred tags on my Hobby Lobby post saying “oh yeah I love shoplifting from Hobby Lobby I do that all the time” and tbh for what I know of tumblr’s general demographic attitude:

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Asking For A Friend

middle grade contemporary about a kid who’s been lying to their mum about having friends so she doesn’t worry about them - since they lost their only friend when they came out

but when she saves up to throw them a 13th birthday party - suddenly they have to try befriend the kids they’ve been pretending are their friends

they quickly discover that making friends is easier than they thought - especially when discovering they’re all queer - but their anxiety increases as the little lies keep building up

nonbinary bi ace MC, trans, lesbian, genderqueer side characters; discussions of mental health issues, single parents, and foster care

[saberboi-2]

Resumes are the worst

This Workhorse Will Do Any Task 🫡 They Are So Qualified 🙂 They Can't Write Any First Person Pronouns In Their Resume 🤓 Lest You Be Reminded Of Their Humanity 🤣 You Aren't Even Looking At This Resume 🙃 Because the AI You Trusted To Narrow Down Your Candidates 🥶 Didn't Like The Vibes Of This Resume 😱

[pretentiouswreckingball]

I’m being so so so brave about this

[bowofbalance]

It's definitely a warning sign when you start to catch yourself repeating patterns of behavior that you only learned as a way to survive in a deeply deeply bad situation with people you definitely can't avoid

[reminem69]

hi brain can there just be one of me? thanks <3

[disregardandfelicity]

Starting to really get the Internet discourse about like asking ppl are you in a position to hear vents cause I’m kinda tired of having my day ruined by internalizing other ppls struggles

[theood]

I love seeing my grandma interact with my baby cousin its so healthy!

[orcelito]

do u ever just like. have little moments that make U remember u r not entirely mentally sound

[vaguelyhauntedcornfield]

twitter’s really just letting people spread misinformation and fear monger about the covid vaccines.

saw someone say “pfizer started testing their mrna vaccine in 2017, 2 years before covid! they’re responsible for the pandemic!”

that was probably when they started testing the safety of general mrna vaccines, which is also the reason they were able to forego the regular extended clinical trial process and get rush authorization...bc there was already data proving safety and efficacy...they weren’t just out there with the covid virus...

im tired.

[dancedance-resolution]

so! my job just subtracted a whole dollar per hour from my pay without even fucking telling me (in addition to the $60+ in conveniently ‘lost’ tips)! i feel as though i am going insane!

[erisolkat]

i dont wanna sic dad on mom cause she never gets any goddamn proper alone time (he thinks when she says shes going to bed it means he's meant to go with and he works from home and barely ever leaves) but also im finding it harder and harder to focus with him still downstairs

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

HOW TO WRITE A CHARACTER WHO IS IN PAIN

first thing you might want to consider: is the pain mental or physical?

if it’s physical, what type of pain is it causing? — sharp pain, white-hot pain, acute pain, dull ache, throbbing pain, chronic pain, neuropathic pain (typically caused by nerve damage), etc

if it’s mental, what is the reason your character is in pain? — grief, heartbreak, betrayal, anger, hopelessness, fear and anxiety, etc

because your character will react differently to different types of pain

PHYSICAL PAIN

sharp and white-hot pain may cause a character to grit their teeth, scream, moan, twist their body. their skin may appear pale, eyes red-rimmed and sunken with layers of sweat covering their forehead. they may have tears in their eyes (and the tears may feel hot), but they don’t necessarily have to always be crying.

acute pain may be similar to sharp and white-hot pain; acute pain is sudden and urgent and often comes without a warning, so your character may experience a hitched breathing where they suddenly stop what they’re doing and clench their hand at the spot where it hurts with widened eyes and open mouth (like they’re gasping for air).

dull ache and throbbing pain can result in your character wanting to lay down and close their eyes. if it’s a headache, they may ask for the lights to be turned off and they may be less responsive, in the sense that they’d rather not engage in any activity or conversation and they’d rather be left alone. they may make a soft whimper from their throat from time to time, depends on their personality (if they don’t mind others seeing their discomfort, they may whimper. but if your character doesn’t like anyone seeing them in a not-so-strong state, chances are they won’t make any sound, they might even pretend like they’re fine by continuing with their normal routine, and they may or may not end up throwing up or fainting).

if your character experience chronic pain, their pain will not go away (unlike any other illnesses or injuries where the pain stops after the person is healed) so they can feel all these types of sharp pain shooting through their body. there can also be soreness and stiffness around some specific spots, and it will affect their life. so your character will be lucky if they have caretakers in their life. but are they stubborn? do they accept help from others or do they like to pretend like they’re fine in front of everybody until their body can’t take it anymore and so they can no longer pretend?

neuropathic pain or nerve pain will have your character feeling these senses of burning, shooting and stabbing sensation, and the pain can come very suddenly and without any warning — think of it as an electric shock that causes through your character’s body all of a sudden. your character may yelp or gasp in shock, how they react may vary depends on the severity of the pain and how long it lasts.

EMOTIONAL PAIN

grief can make your character shut themself off from their friends and the world in general. or they can also lash out at anyone who tries to comfort them. (five states of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and eventual acceptance.)

heartbreak — your character might want to lock themself in a room, anywhere where they are unseen. or they may want to pretend that everything’s fine, that they’re not hurt. until they break down.

betrayal can leave a character with confusion, the feelings of ‘what went wrong?’, so it’s understandable if your character blames themself at first, that maybe it’s their fault because they’ve somehow done something wrong somewhere that caused the other character to betray them. what comes after confusion may be anger. your character can be angry at the person who betrayed them and at themself, after they think they’ve done something wrong that resulted in them being betrayed, they may also be angry at themself next for ‘falling’ for the lies and for ‘being fooled’. so yes, betrayal can leave your character with the hatred that’s directed towards the character who betrayed them and themself. whether or not your character can ‘move on and forgive’ is up to you.

there are several ways a character can react to anger; they can simply lash out, break things, scream and yell, or they can also go complete silent. no shouting, no thrashing the place. they can sit alone in silence and they may cry. anger does make people cry. it mostly won’t be anything like ‘ugly sobbing’ but your character’s eyes can be bloodshot, red-rimmed and there will be tears, only that there won’t be any sobbing in most cases.

hopelessness can be a very valid reason for it, if you want your character to do something reckless or stupid. most people will do anything if they’re desperate enough. so if you want your character to run into a burning building, jump in front of a bullet, or confess their love to their archenemy in front of all their friends, hopelessness is always a valid reason. there’s no ‘out of character’ if they are hopeless and are desperate enough.

fear and anxiety. your character may be trembling, their hands may be shaky. they may lose their appetite. they may be sweaty and/or bouncing their feet. they may have a panic attack if it’s severe enough.

and I think that’s it for now! feel free to add anything I may have forgotten to mention here!

[insanechayne]

~ ~ ~