#It's a... Balance

[manwiththemagic]

The teenage mutant ninja turtles are autistic. NOT ALL OF THEM!! and it depends on version but yeah

Except you Donatello. Autistic in every version.

[dailydivergent]

There’s no such thing as work-life balance for neurodivergent & chronically ill people.

This is because everything in my life requires work:

maintaining friendships

keeping up with my hygiene

managing bills

making money

remembering my basic needs

sleeping regularly

outputting creatively

All requires some aspect of work for me.

And when everything in your life requires work, your balance goes out the window.

If you're neurodivergent and overwhelmed — I see you.

If you're chronically ill and overwhelmed — I see you.

You're not dysfunctional.

You're not incapable.

You're doing your best.

[zegalba]

Hadi Rahnaward: 'Fragile Balance' (2023) rug sculpture created with matches

[kosmogrl]

I was born in the right generation I love phone in bed time and complaining

[spookberry]

🌲 Oregon Miku 🌲

[leviathan-supersystem]

it's important to talk about how pop psychology sucks ass. but that shouldn't distract you from also talking about how Serious, Official, Legitimate Psychology also sucks ass.

[vnberry]

The twins

[strangersees]

Breaking news, Mabel Juice is denser than water

[inkskinned]

i have chronic pain. i am neurodivergent. i understand - deeply - the allure of a "quick fix" like AI. i also just grew up in a different time. we have been warned about this.

15 entire years ago i heard about this. in my forensics class in high school, we watched a documentary about how AI-based "crime solving" software was inevitably biased against people of color.

my teacher stressed that AI is like a book: when someone writes it, some part of the author will remain within the result. the internet existed but not as loudly at that point - we didn't know that AI would be able to teach itself off already-biased Reddit threads. i googled it: yes, this bias is still happening. yes, it's just as bad if not worse.

i can't actually stop you. if you wanna use ChatGPT to slide through your classes, that's on you. it's your money and it's your time. you will spend none of it thinking, you will learn nothing, and, in college, you will piss away hundreds of thousands of dollars. you will stand at the podium having done nothing, accomplished nothing. a cold and bitter pyrrhic victory.

i'm not even sure students actually read the essays or summaries or emails they have ChatGPT pump out. i think it just flows over them and they use the first answer they get. my brother teaches engineering - he recently got fifty-three copies of almost-the-exact-same lab reports. no one had even changed the wording.

and yes: AI itself (as a concept and practice) isn't always evil. there's AI that can help detect cancer, for example. and yet: when i ask my students if they'd be okay with a doctor that learned from AI, many of them balk. it is one thing if they don't read their engineering textbook or if they don't write the critical-thinking essay. it's another when it starts to affect them. they know it's wrong for AI to broad-spectrum deny insurance claims, but they swear their use of AI is different.

there's a strange desire to sort of divorce real-world AI malpractice over "personal use". for example, is it moral to use AI to write your cover letters? cover letters are essentially only templates, and besides: AI is going to be reading your job app, so isn't it kind of fair?

i recently found out that people use AI as a romantic or sexual partner. it seems like teenagers particularly enjoy this connection, and this is one of those "sticky" moments as a teacher. honestly - you can roast me for this - but if it was an actually-safe AI, i think teenagers exploring their sexuality with a fake partner is amazing. it prevents them from making permanent mistakes, it can teach them about their bodies and their desires, and it can help their confidence. but the problem is that it's not safe. there isn't a well-educated, sensitive AI specifically to help teens explore their hormones. it's just internet-fed cycle. who knows what they're learning. who knows what misinformation they're getting.

the most common pushback i get involves therapy. none of us have access to the therapist of our dreams - it's expensive, elusive, and involves an annoying amount of insurance claims. someone once asked me: are you going to be mad when AI saves someone's life?

therapists are not just trained on the book, they're trained on patient management and helping you see things you don't see yourself. part of it will involve discomfort. i don't know that AI is ever going to be able to analyze the words you feed it and answer with a mind towards the "whole person" writing those words. but also - if it keeps/kept you alive, i'm not a purist. i've done terrible things to myself when i was at rock bottom. in an emergency, we kind of forgive the seatbelt for leaving bruises. it's just that chat shouldn't be your only form of self-care and recovery.

and i worry that the influence chat has is expanding. more and more i see people use chat for the smallest, most easily-navigated situations. and i can't like, make you worry about that in your own life. i often think about how easy it was for social media to take over all my time - how i can't have a tiktok because i spend hours on it. i don't want that to happen with chat. i want to enjoy thinking. i want to enjoy writing. i want to be here. i've already really been struggling to put the phone down. this feels like another way to get you to pick the phone up.

the other day, i was frustrated by a book i was reading. it's far in the series and is about a character i resent. i googled if i had to read it, or if it was one of those "in between" books that don't actually affect the plot (you know, one of those ".5" books). someone said something that really stuck with me - theoretically you're reading this series for enjoyment, so while you don't actually have to read it, one would assume you want to read it.

i am watching a generation of people learn they don't have to read the thing in their hand. and it is kind of a strange sort of doom that comes over me: i read because it's genuinely fun. i learn because even though it's hard, it feels good. i try because it makes me happy to try. and i'm watching a generation of people all lay down and say: but i don't want to try.

[eldritchdilf]

The "frustration tolerance" post has generated a lot of reactions and I wish I could keep up and read all of them, but it got me going into a lot of introspection and how I got over the "inaction due to perfectionism" issue.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I'm autistic but I don't have ADHD. It came as a surprise to me that several people were new to the phrase "frustration tolerance" and it is worth mentioning that this is a concept I learned during my time as a clinician in occupational therapy when working with kids on the spectrum, which yes, absolutely involves autism and ADHD, and you should know it's not your fault, but this should also give you a clue that this is something that can be worked on.

Tough self-talk (tough, not derogatory mind you) may not work for some of you, but it does for me, and the next lines might be unpleasant to hear. Also a disclaimer that this is all very specific to me and my experiences so take it with a grain of salt.

I found that the root cause of the "inaction due to perfectionism" is ego. I think about myself too fucking much. Drawing is just another problem that can be solved with a logical series of steps (practice, study, repetition). Deep down you know this. The problem is that this logic breaks down if you think of yourself as an exception to the rule for whatever reason, for instance if you were like me and was told at a young age that I was naturally gifted at drawing and didn't need further studies (I didn't start actually studying until I was 21-22). Well! Tough shit. But also I'm a grown-ass man who gives a fuck what my high school teachers said about me. The faster you get your head out of your ass about the gifted kid bullshit and just think of yourself as just another average schmuck the faster and more efficiently you can put in mileage and get things going.

An extension of point number 1: Did I really think I was the only person on earth who gives a shit about perfectionism? Of course not. Every other person who put out a creative piece of work is just as concerned as me and just as bummed out about the mediocrity of the results. The only difference is that they tried and they got something out of it. If the idea is really just that good just fucking go back to it later. Again and again, better this time. It's not a big deal.

I promise so much of this is just rooted to tempering down your ego and it genuinely is nuts how low self-esteem and being full of yourself are concepts that just feed into one another but I believe that once you're aware of this you can find some balance. Not everyday, some days are just bad. It happens. But just keep that in mind. OK!

[cutetanuki-chan]

there's a beast in the pool

jaws theme starts playing in a homoerotic way

[hinamie]

quick megumi style study

[mahgyu]

DIVINE TRINITY

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

so important for every character to be an idiot, but each in their own unique beautiful way

[ohsweetflips]

“here there be gerblins” is like what if you couldn’t save everyone. “petals to the metal” is like what if the love was there and it couldn’t save everyone but the love was still there. “crystal kingdom” is like what if the love was there and it couldn’t save everyone and it actually made things worse but the love was there. “the eleventh hour” is like what if love started all of this but you couldn’t save everyone (you couldn’t save everyone (you couldn’t save everyone (you couldn’t save everyone (you couldn’t save everyone (you could save everyone))))). “stolen century” is like what if you could try again (what if there was love) (what if you could try again).