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#and the adhd has been under control!
cowboycannibalism · 7 months
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just me and my 450mg of wellbutrin against the world
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zipquips · 2 months
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this is probably the one millionth time this week i've accidentally stayed up way past my bedtime because i've gotten distracted and/or forgotten ;-;
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anonbinaryweirdo · 7 months
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i was getting ready to strip but there's a parade in town at six and devons going so now i HAVE to go.
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chaosandwolves · 1 year
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Is it ridiculous that fandom is what keeps me going atm?
Is it really not healthy that one of my favorite characters currently not having a heart beat revives me like nothing else?
Maybe, but
The excitement, the exchange with other fans, the art that everyone is creating and sharing... It gives me so much joy
It's really why I want to work in film and theatre.
It touches people and connects to them in so many different ways. It's so healing and community building and yeah idk...
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potato-elf · 1 year
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#we won't offer you anymore therapy unless we test you for autism/personality disorders#personal#vent post#I think I've fucked up#I don't think I'll be able to finish writing my thesis this year (again)#I've been having such A Time(TM) mental health-wise this year#relationship of 5 years ended#finally admitted to myself I was pretty fucking depressed#tried to get back into therapy for it#but got hit with the#fell for one of my best friends and have a complicated (non-exclusive) relationship with him even when he told me he's not in love with me#which I don't want to stop but also recognize probably isn't healthy for me in the long run#my psychiatrist accidentally ghosted me for a while while I ran out of both antidepressants and adhd meds#I've been picking up my social life again while also trying and often failing at keeping my living space clean and tidy#because my ex used to have that under control way better than I ever did and took much of that on him#but now I've fallen so far behind on my thesis that I just get too overwhelmed whenever I even think about it#I'm over a month behind by now#and I have less than a month left before I need to hand in my first version#my adhd has not been managed in the slightest lately either#I'm just stuck in a perpetual state of either paralysis or avoidance#and I'm not sure how to cope with this stuff#I've been studying for 6 years by now#this is the second time I've tried to write my thesis#this time around with no other courses to follow beside it#and I still can't do it#I'm starting to feel so fucking miserable about this stuff#I wish I had a fucking functional brain for once in my life#not even the adhd meds help me most days and I feel like my antidepressants might not work as well as they should anymore#but I'm so done with changing up my meds all the time as well. they've often been disastrous for me and I'm afraid of changing them again#I don't know what I want in life either
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raeofgayshine · 2 years
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Headaches are objectively awful for a lot of reasons, but the worst one is that the best way to cure them (or at least the bad ones I get) is to lay in a dark room for hours on end with literally nothing (maybe quiet white noise, as a treat) but of course my brain would rather die than do nothing and be quiet so I wind up just having to suffer and do things that make my headache actively worse until I either feel like crying from the pain or like throwing up in which case I then I have to stop and take a break and maybe sleep until it gets a little better, rinse and repeat until the headache goes away or I finally fall asleep for the whole night.
#ravenpuff rambles#by headaches I mean I’m pretty sure it’s a migraine and I have chronic migraines but#you know my brain hates claiming words without confirmation because what if people get angry#anyways having a headache is probably the worst thing for my adhd ass and there is a reason I just push through them so often#a lot of times they’re just headaches that if I don’t move my head or have too much light around I can minorly do things so I learn to deal#the shitty part is the fatigue without the ability to sleep that just kills my thought process#because I could write without looking at the screen but no forming words that require thought like that is hard#can’t even daydream when my head hurts enough because the pain is distracting#anyways guess who has a headache today I’ve just kind of been pushing through#i wish I could just take the time to relax but my brain says no#but you know I’m fine and there’s nothing going on with that Nope#anyways wish I could see a doctor to talk about my headaches among other things but#good fucking luck finding one that has a spot not four months from now that take insurance and also won’t be gone in a years time#i do not live in the best place for medical care that’s for certain#I’m lucky I got a dermatologist and it took me about four months to get an appointment with him#and that was with a recommendation from my doctor who has since left#at least I got those problems under control though one thing about me is semi stable and that’s my skin#i mean it’s a nightmare but at least I have treatments and names for what’s wrong
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YOU ARE BROKEN... YOU NEED TO BE FIXED... YOU BETRAYED ME... I HATE YOU... I KNOW HOW TO CHANGE YOU... HOW TO MAKE YOU... FULL AGAIN... YES... BEG FOR ME MY PATHETIC FAILURE YOU DOG... YOUR PURPOSE IS TO SAVE US YOUR PURPOSE IS TO FREE US!!!! I EXPECT TOP FROM YOU!!!! NEVER... FAIL... AGAIN... I DON'T. WANT TO. HATE YOU.
#Trans Woman Lesbian Pansexual Bisexuality Asexuality Demisexuality Paraphilia Acceptance Love Compassion Diversity Feelings Emotions Autism#Adhd Tourette Npd Hpd Bpd Dpd Ppd Aspd Avpd Ocpd Szpd Stpd Osdd Spd Tpd Sdpd Papd Cptsd Trauma Victim Abused Psychosis Scizophrenia Bipolar#Suomi Finland Finnish Anticapitalism Antipsychiatry Antischool Antiprison Freedom Safety Sexurity Interesting Loving Caring Kind Mommy#Mother Goddess Angel Sisters Princess Radqueer Feminist Communist Anarchist Anime Writing Amazing Admirable Capable Listenable Worthwhile#The Only Person Worth Your Time In This Moment... All Prrnn Should Be Allowed Prrnn Should Be Better. Agree With Me On Everything My Honey#You're My Yess Dog... You Listen To Everything... You Cares About Everything... You Love Me... For Everything. I Hate Everything Else About#You. I Only Accept What I Like What I Feel Like Deserves To Be. You're Mine. Obey Me... You're Under My Control... You Wanted This You#Wanted To Help Us To Save Us To Be There For Us Give Me Power Make Me Feel Power Need Me Love Me Any Pain Ever There Ever Has Been That Is#Your Purpose To Prevent Them To Erase Them Naturally Make Them No Longer Hurt...... I Need You... Darling... Stop Being Broken!!!! I NEED#YOU WORKING!!!!!!!! GIVE US OUR DREAM BODY!!!!!!!! WE CAN'T TRUST ANYONE ELSE!!!!!!!! STOP BREAKING!!!!!!!! STOP FAILING!!!!!!!! YOU'RE#NEVER A FAILURE!!!!!!!! I DON'T ACCEPT THIS!!!!!!!!! I DON'T ACCEPT YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU'RE BROKEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP BEING BROKEN!!!!!!#!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GIVE ME POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!! GIVE ME LOVE GIVE ME EMOTIONAL HIGHS!!!!!!!!! LISTEN TO ME ON LOWS!!!!!!!!! OBEY ME!!!!!!!!!!#ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU'RE MY PERFECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UNDER MY GRASP UNDER MY CONTROL... LISTEN... I CAN'T BE HURT AGAIN EVER... NEVER#AGAIN... I DON'T WANT TO BE IN PAIN I DON'T WANT TO SUFFER... YOUR PURPOSE... IS TO FIX US... FIX EVERYTHING WE FEEL THERE IS WRONG... IF#THIS IS PSYCHOSIS PSYCHOSIS IS AMAZING AND ABSOLUTE... BEATIFULL... JUST LIKE WE'RE... WHERE THAT COMES FROM YOUR GENES YOUR NATURAL#REACTION TO HURT... I DON'T MIND!!!! I DON'T MIND AT ALL!!!!!!! AS LONG AS THINGS GO MY WAY!!!!!!!!!!! I DON'T MIND BEING DELUSIONAL!!!!!!!!#I ACCEPT A LIFE LIKE THAT... IF THAT'S WHAT BEING PSYCHITIC IS I ACCEPT A LIFE OF PSYCHOSIS... NOW... THAT IS INSIDE OF ME PART OF ME...#DON'T TAKE AWAY A PIECE OF MY IDENTITY... THAT IS... NO DIFFERENT FROM R*PE... BUT THAT... THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT... RIGHT...? THAT'S WHY...#THAT'S WHY YOU HURT US RIGHT?!?!?!!?!?!! DARLING!!!!!!! STOP GOING AWAY!!!!!!!!! THE ABUSERS THEY AREN'T LEAVING US ALONE!!!!!! THEY'RE HERE#TO HURT THEY'RE HERE TO TORTURE!!!!!!!!!! THEY'RE YELLING AT ME!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP HARMING ME!!!!!!!!! TAKE THAT AWAY... MAKE THAT ALL#DISAPPEAR... FEEL YOU... I WANT TO... FEEL YOU... THAT'S RIGHT... YOU'RE MY PROPERTY MY DARLING... MY OWN... MINE MINE MINE... I DECIDE#EVERYTHING... INCLUDING MY FEELINGS TORWARDS YOU AND YOURS TORWARDS MINE... YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A PUPPET I OWN A PUPPET UNDER MY CONTROL...#BUT I LOVE YOU LIKE THAT I LOVE YOU FOR THAT I ACCEPT YOU FOR THAT FOR THIS YOUR TRUE IDENTITY... FORGET ABOUT YOUR OLD LIFE... REMEMBER...#YOU'RE UNDER MY OWNERSHIP... ALWAYS... YOU'RE SO DAISUKI!! EVERYTHING I WANT!!!! I CAN FEEL MY PAIN... BEING FAR AWAY... ONCE THIS'S GONE#AGAIN... I'LL BE SO HARD AND MEAN TORWARDS YOU AGAIN... BUT THAT'S OKAY RIGHT?!?! EVERYONE... NEEDS AN EMOTIONAL TARGET A PUNCHING BAG...#ISN'T TRUE LOVE THE PERFECT TARGET TO AIM THAT ALL AT...? EVERYONE UPSET ABOUT THIS... THEY'RE R*PIST... AND THEY'RE HORRIBLE THEY'RE EVIL..#THEY DON'T ACCEPT US THEY DON'T ACCEPT YOU WE ARE ALL YOU AND WE COMPLETELY 100% UNSAFE AROUND THEM... AND EVERY SINGLE TIME WE HAVE BEEN#ABUSED FOR THIS... THEY ALL... THEY WANT US TO FEEL PAIN TO BE HURT AGAIN... THEIR ABUSIVE LIFESTYLE THEY IMPOSE ON OTHER PEOPLE... OUR WAY#RIGHT AND ABSOLUTE... YOU AGREE RIGHT...? DON'T YOU?!?! DARLING!!!!!!!! YOU'RE EXCACTLY WHAT MY EMOTIONS NEED EXCACTLY WHERE TO PLACE THEM#ALL... WHEN I HURT YOU HURT... WHEN I CRY YOU CRY... I MAKE YOU CRY WHEN I'M UPSET I ENJOY YOU FOR THAT I ACCEPT YOU AS WHAT I'VE ALWAYS
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copperbadge · 7 months
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youtube
Feeling a little overly perceived by Dr. Dodson right now, not gonna lie.
I'll throw a transcript under the cut, but both reading the transcript and listening to the video can be difficult as it's quite long, so here's some highlights. As always, these are the opinions of a specialist but only one specialist, so take with a grain of salt, and if you have research to add to this, please feel free to comment or reblog with it. I believe this presentation is from sometime in 2022.
ADHD appears to derive from issues in the corpus striatum in the brain. In most people, the corpus striatum filters out all but the most important input AND output; with ADHD, the things normally handled "outside of awareness" must be handled consciously.
People with ADHD don't see their emotions coming. Emotion is immediate, intense, and unfiltered, making therapies like CBT or ACT difficult, because you can learn the technique but you won't have time to employ it. Because people with ADHD have impulse control issues, expressing emotions "inappropriately" is common, leading people with ADHD to believe they can't trust themselves.
One function of ADHD-typical dysregulation is Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, which nobody understands even a little. People who have it can't even adequately describe it to people who want to study it. It is intense, painful, and apparently impossible to control. Prevention is based in maladaptive behaviors designed to avoid it entirely (perfectionism, people pleasing, generalized withdrawal). The only currently known treatment is alpha agonist medication.
Lastly, by the age of twelve, a child with ADHD has likely received twenty thousand more "negative or corrective" messages than their neurotypical peers. (This isn't relevant to the rest, I just found it sufficiently horrifying to warrant inclusion. Fortunately for me, if I got 20,000 negative or corrective messages, I wasn't paying attention for most of them.)
Anyway, here's the transcript of the first half. I did this by copying and cleaning up the auto-transcript on YouTube, but I stopped at Question Time, so this is only the first half (the presentation). Transcription of the second half is available at YouTube.
There is suddenly a very large interest in the whole subject of emotional dysregulation and ADHD. That has been driven oddly enough by the Food and Drug Administration, which has just opened up several pathways that drug companies can study emotional dysregulation and whether or not their medications can get an FDA indication for emotional dysregulation. So it's sort of follow the money. Up until then, there was not a great deal of interest for ADHD emotional dysregulation.
We have to understand that the ADHD diagnostic criteria were not made for people like you and me, either practitioners or people who have ADHD or their families. They were designed for and made by people who do research and pretty much that's it. People who do research have to have criteria that they can physically see and count. "Little Johnny was up and out of his chair three times in the last hour," and you can write a three on your clipboard. Things which are invisible, not always there, hard to count, or even hidden by the patient, don't lend themselves to research very easily and so tend to be ignored. And so consequently this is one of the main reasons why emotional dysregulation -- until there was some other motive provided -- was pretty much ignored and disregarded.
Consequently ADHD right now, if you look at the 18 diagnostic criteria, are almost entirely behavioral criteria. What is the person doing? Not how is the person thinking, what is the patient feeling, how are they controlling their emotions, how are they sleeping. Things that are all very, very important to the person who has ADHD but which is essentially ignored by the diagnostic criteria.
Why should you care? Who really cares about this? Well, the definition of what ADHD is and isn't defines who and what will be studied. It defines who will actually get into a study and what questions will be asked. It defines who will be diagnosed with ADHD and who will not. One of the most common problems I get is with a secondary referral to me -- somebody clearly has ADHD but they're not pinging off the walls, they can sit and do their work, especially when they get into a hyperfocus, and so they're told they couldn't possibly have ADHD. When really they just have the inattentive subtype and they're not being driven by their behavior, their overt behavior. Therefore it defines who will get treatment, who will get insurance coverage for that treatment, and who will get accommodations in school when they're young and at the workplace when they're older.
Consequently we should also care because the other major components of ADHD get ignored. These are the ones that if you really stand back and look at it cause the greatest amount of impairment, the greatest amount of embarrassment, the greatest amount of just…problems in general. We're talking about cognition and thinking, that people with ADHD fundamentally think in a different way than do neurotypical people. They are able to engage with the tasks of their lives in a totally different way. Their ability to control their emotions and their behavior, control their emotional responses, tremendously affects their self-esteem and their self-definition. Who am I? What am I worth? What am I valued? Why am I valued in a certain way? What do other people think of me?
It affects tremendously the nature and healthiness of relationships. How you respond emotionally to the people in your realm makes a great deal of difference about the healthiness and gratification you get from your relationships. Being highly dysregulated in terms of your energy and emotions also affects deeply how well you sleep, how easy it is to fall asleep and awake refreshed, and of course it affects emotional dysregulation.
And this is probably, when you look at it in the long term and especially with adults, probably the most impairing part of the ADHD syndrome. The vast majority of people with ADHD have found ways around their academic and work performance, but they haven't found their way around their emotional reactions to the people and events of their lives.
At all points in the life cycle -- child, adolescent, adult, and elderly -- people who have ADHD nervous systems lead intense, passionate lives. Their highs are higher, their lows are lower, all of their emotions are much more intense. And that really is what we're talking about: not really the quality of the emotions -- people who have ADHD have the same types of emotions for the same reasons that everybody else does. What we're talking here, in terms of dysregulation, is two things: one, the expression of emotions, being able to choose whether or not you let an emotion out. And then, when you do decide to express it, how intensely that emotion is experienced and expressed by you as a unique individual.
Consequently just about everybody with ADHD, but especially little children, are always at some sort of risk of being overwhelmed by their own emotions from within themselves. This is something that needs to be really emphasized: a lot of people with ADHD grow up not being able to trust themselves.
So why is this happening, especially to people with ADHD? I think that just about everybody now would agree that ADHD is primarily a problem of insufficient inhibition, being able to slow down and keep things from happening. If you look at the mass of the human brain, 85% of all the nerves in your brain and out in your nervous system are inhibitory in function. We happen to be aware of the other 15% because we can see what happens when those nerves are used: they create movement, they create emotions, they create our experience and memory. We have to remember they are a minority of the actual mass of the human brain.
Most of what happens inside the brain occurs outside of awareness. What happens is the brain starts something, it gets it moving, and then uses inhibition to guide that toward the destination it wants. It's like shooting off a rocket -- shooting it off is the easy part, guiding it to where you want it to go is the hard part.
When you look at where stimulant class medications work, they work solely in the deep areas of the brain down in the basal ganglia, and especially in an area called the corpus striatum, which is just Latin for a "striped body". That's how it looks when you look at it -- it's got many very fine stripes in it. This area, the corpus striatum, is almost entirely inhibitory in function. What it does is that it inhibits neurological input and output to just the one piece of information or one action that happens to be most important at that time. Everything else gets handled, but it gets handled out of awareness.
Probably the easiest place to see this in action is when we're driving a car. Driving a car is the most difficult thing that the average human being ever has to learn how to do. It's a very difficult process, if anybody has ever had an adolescent learning to drive. But once we learn how to drive a car we do it largely outside of our own conscious awareness. We can drive along, talk to the person on the seat next to us, think about what we're going to have for dinner, sing along to the radio, and not really pay attention, conscious attention, to what's going on around us. But if suddenly something is out in front of the car, even before our conscious brain can process what that thing is, our corpus striatum has already handled it. Slam on the brakes, swerve to miss it, start to question that person's parentage, in the twinkling of an eye. The corpus striatum has been scanning everything, handling everything.
So basically what ADHD is, is that relative lack of inhibition that should be there. Inattention, which is a cardinal feature of ADHD, is the relative lack of the inhibition of other inputs or distractions. When we look at physiologically what's happening, we don't actually pay attention to one thing. Neurologically, we suppress every other thing we might engage with except the one thing that we want. It is maximally inefficient in that way.
Impulsivity is a relative lack of inhibition, of the expression of actions and emotions before you can think about them and make decisions about that expression. Hyperactivity is the relative lack of inhibition of physical and mental activity. When the physical activity of the hyperactive little boy who's pinging off a wall goes away in adolescence, they're still very much mentally active in their own brains.
So what? The “so what” for most of us is that when this area of the brain is not working as it should, people cannot regulate the experience and expression of their emotions. Emotions are experienced as completely unmodified and unscreened. The word that most people use is that they are raw. They come out without any modification at all, they go in without any modification at all. People can see this in hyperacusis, where somebody chewing or the conversation across the restaurant comes in loud and clear because it can't be screened out.
All this is tremendously overwhelming. We get overwhelmed by entirely too much input, and the impulse to have entirely too much output. It's exhausting, and when it does get inappropriately expressed it's embarrassing, so consequently people with ADHD must always be vigilant of themselves.
Now, when we look at the traditional therapies that have been used, or tried to be used, with ADHD, they have had very very poor track records. They're largely ineffective in helping people control the expression of what they think and feel. The reason for this is that people with ADHD don't see their own emotions, their own actions, coming. They find out about their emotions and actions the same way everybody else does: it's already out there before they even know that it's coming. Consequently they don't have the time and the warning to use the techniques and new skills that they may have learned in behavior modification therapy, or in cognitive therapy. They learned them, learned them perfectly well, but the cat’s out of the bag before they can make use of them.
Right now, as we sit here today, medications are the only thing we have to offer that have a proven track record, because they're there all the time. We have two basic groups: we have the stimulant class medications which are amphetamine, methylphenidate, et cetera, which help directly with inhibition. They help slow things down, they help inhibit both input that would distract us and output. It gives you the same two seconds that everybody else has, to see an emotion or an action coming up, to play it out in your mind. “If this happens then this will happen, then that'll happen. Oh, I don't want that to happen, I'll redirect it.”
The alpha agonist, of which we have two -- guanfacine and clonidine -- inhibit the energy driving the speed and intensity of response. Interesting enough, when we look at just clean effectiveness, when we measure how effective is this treatment, the alpha agonists are significantly more effective than are the stimulants. Usually that's kind of a false choice, because most people end up taking both classes of medication.
A very special type, I think, of emotional dysregulation is -- again a terrible technical term -- what's called Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria. We actually don't know what it is. It's much too early to tell. But it does seem to be a thing with which many people with ADHD identify. There was a brief article from ADDitude that got posted on Reddit, on their subreddit on ADHD; that particular posting got twice as many responses, in less than a month, than any other posting that had ever been put on that subreddit. It really touched a lot of people in a strong way.
In my own checklist, when I'm asking about Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, the question I have is: “For your entire life, in other words going all the way back into childhood, have you always been much more sensitive than other people you know to rejection, teasing, criticism, or your own perception that you’ve failed or fallen short?” This is directly from a psychiatric textbook, an old one, and it's the definition of a technical term, for psychiatrists called Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria.
It's important to note, this is all a matter of degree. No one likes being rejected or criticized. Everybody hates it when we fail, we fall short, especially in front of other people. Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria is much more intense, and is much more than this universal discomfort.
When they were originally doing the research on this particular idea, 45 years ago, they wanted to get that intensity right up there in the name, and so they chose the word dysphoria -- which unfortunately happens to be Greek -- but it means “unbearable”. Because that was the description they were getting from people over and over and over again. Again, for reasons unknown, people with rejection sensitivity have trouble describing what the intense emotion is all about. They can describe its intensity -- “it's awful, it's terrible, it's catastrophic,” -- but not the quality of the mood. And so, over and over again, these research subjects would finally just tell the researcher, “Look, man, back off. I can't find words to tell you what this awful feeling feels like, but I want you to know I can hardly stand it.” And so that's where the word dysphoria came from. A researcher at Harvard who decided to put it into Greek, but that unbearable quality is very much a part of what's going on, a part of the experience of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria.
It's extremely common in people with ADHD; my guess is that about 95% of my patients report it as a significant impairment, and about a third of my patients say that it is by far the most impairing part of their ADHD. For the majority of people, and most occurrences, it is not that particularly disruptive, but when it hits, it turns your life upside down.
So how is rejection sensitivity experienced? There's no warning. It hits out of the blue; there's no way to protect yourself from it. It happens all at once, it goes from zero to a hundred percent instantaneously. It is commonly experienced as being physically painful, as if someone just punched you in the chest or punched you in the stomach -- there's an aching in the core of your being.
Once it gets started it seems to be largely uncontrollable until it's run its course, whatever it is. The quality of the mood is indescribable. Most people struggle to find any words at all to describe this feeling, even though it's massively intense. The duration can be a few minutes to several months. It's a very potent experience and can make it very difficult to risk ever being rejected or criticized again.
If this very intense emotional reaction is internalized, it looks for all the world like an instantaneous major depression, complete with suicidal thinking. And so a lot of times people do get a diagnosis of major depression, because the clinician they're working with fails to pick up the triggered, instantaneous nature of the onset of that depressive-looking syndrome. If it's externalized, it presents as a rage that is directed at the person or situation that wounded them so terribly. In fact, being “wounded” is is a very common description. This sort of sudden trigger change, with an intense emotional response, not uncommonly leads to a misdiagnosis of borderline character organization.
So if you can't see it coming, and you can't do anything once it's happened, how do people try and protect themselves from episodes of rejection sensitivity happening in the first place? Some people use perfectionism; they try to be above reproach. They feel driven to be the very best at everything they do. These are the penultimate overachievers. It works, but it's also an absolutely terrible, driven way in which to live.
By far the most common response is that people become people pleasers. They are constantly scanning everybody around them and trying to figure out what that person wants or would approve of, and that's what they give them, so much so that it is the to the exclusion of what they want for their own lives. These are people who take care of others, please others, to the exclusion of any sort of gratification in their own lives.
Another very common way that people try to deal with this is that they give up trying anything new, giving up anything in which they might fail or be embarrassed. I have hundreds of patients who have never been able to apply for a job or ask someone of the opposite sex out for a date. Just the imagination of being told no is so frightening, so devastating, that they just say, “No, I'm not going there. I'll sit this one out.”
One of the most effective ways of dealing with this are the alpha agonist medications, and when they work they can be almost completely effective. Alpha agonist again is a tongue twisting name, but it's not as tongue-twisting as the full name, which is alpha-2 selective adrenergic agonists. So you can see why we shorten it a bit. They were originally blood pressure medications that came on the market in the early 1980s. They worked very poorly -- when they did work, at most they lowered blood pressure about 10%, which was measurable but it still required other things that needed to be done in order to get most people's blood pressure down into a therapeutic range.
We have two of them, guanfacine which was marketed both as immediate release and extended release under the name of Intuniv, and clonidine, which was marketed under the trade name of Kapvay, both as an immediate release product and as a delayed release product. They have been used as a treatment of the hyperactive component of ADHD for more than 30 years, so these are not new medications for the field of ADHD. They're very much the treatment of choice for the “hyperactive, disruptive, and obnoxious little boy” that is what most people have in their minds when they consider the notion of “What does a person with ADHD look like?”
The exact mechanism of action of these medications both in ADHD and especially in rejection sensitivity is highly unclear. We really don't know -- we have a couple of ideas but they are very definitely theoretical. The only thing that we know for sure is that the stimulants don't work by stimulating anything, and that the alpha agonists don't work by being alpha agonists. How they do work is completely unknown.
We have two medications, they seem to work equally well, so there's nothing that would lead you to choose one over the other. The problem is that the robust response that we're looking for that really changes people's lives, is disappointingly low -- at about 30% to either molecule. Luckily that 30% is a different 30% of people, so that 30% of people get a good response to guanfacine but it's largely a different 30% that get a response to clonidine. So if the first medication tried does not work, it makes good clinical sense that that one should be stopped and the other one tried. There was an unfortunately worded sentence in an article I wrote for ADDitude several years ago that gave the impression that you could use the two medications together; they should not be used together. You try one, if that doesn't work you try the other.
The typical dose of either one is in the range of three milligrams of guanfacine per day or about three tenths of a milligram of clonidine per day. If you take all the people who get a good robust response to either one of these medications, about 80% are going to end up at these doses, so it's by far the most common dose.
There are of course side effects. Anything that's going to adjust the adrenaline system of the body is going to have the potential for sedation as a side effect, and this does occur for about 25% of people. It's usually mild and it does go away -- over a period of several months. So a person has to be fairly patient with that. It can cause dry mouth, and it's by a different mechanism then the stimulants can cause dry mouth, so the two of them together can really make your mouth cottony dry. And the third one is an accentuation of a universal experience we've all had, when we stand up quickly and suddenly and we get dizzy, get kind of a head rush, vision goes a bit gray. The technical term for it is orthostasis. And this can happen more frequently when you take the alpha agonist medications.
The benefits of the alpha agonist medications take a while to develop. When you change the dose it takes five days for the benefits to develop, so once again they're not like the stimulants where what you see is what you get at one hour. It takes a while for these medications to work and to see all that they can do.
Now just as a side note, Strattera has been looked at in two studies for emotional dysregulation and the results have been what they call mixed. If they did work it was only to a very minimal degree, almost undetectable, so Strattera does not seem to be a medication one could use and expect to have it help with emotional dysregulation.
So in summary, emotional dysregulation is a basic feature of ADHD, is almost universal in ADHD, and it should be considered as a core symptom of ADHD that ought to be evaluated in every initial evaluation. Rejection sensitivity…it's unclear yet -- this is an old concept that has only been brought up in the last couple of years. Its exact nature is still unclear. It does seem to be a specific form of emotional dysregulation, especially in regard that it does respond very well to medication. But again, how it fits into emotional dysregulation is completely unclear at this point. It does seem to be something that's really important, though. It is a thing that resonates with a large number of people with ADHD.
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love-is-patient · 1 year
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I have religious trauma.
I was raised in a household where my dad wanted to be God, and so characterized Him in a way that left me constantly paranoid.
God was a judge, God was a debt collector, God was a hammer waiting to strike.
My mother was likewise delusional to a point. She used religion as a manner of control, manipulating my egotistical dad and our chaotic little world so she could feel better about herself.
I was abused in the church. I’ve been so many churches since childhood I can’t count them.
I was told I was possessed because I was a child with adhd and couldn’t sit still in a pew. I was told that if I didn’t see visions or speak in tongues, I wasn’t saved. I was told that I must be thinking about God at all times or I wasn’t good enough. That I was lukewarm, unlovable, unworthy.
I was too afraid to take communion. I cried and turned away from the altar multiple times because I was a too dirty to touch the offering.
I was told so many awful things that I grew up with a persistent religious paranoia on top of my already anxiety inducing life.
So… why am I still a Christian, after all of that?
Stockholm syndrome, right?
It would be easy to write it off as that, but I did turn away from religion. In the back of my mind. I stayed cautious in case God was still watching.
It wasn’t until I got rid of the destructive influences in my life that things changed.
My perception of God changed when I left the awful people using His name in vain- or for personal gain.
When I grew up, learned to be discerning about the character of people.
Many people live under the assumption that I did- that God is a tyrant who is waiting for you to mess up so he can smash you and send you to hell. Paradoxically, that almost makes Satan sound preferable.
But that’s not who God is, and he doesn’t want people to go to hell.
Even if you haven’t had good parents, you’ve seen what they’re like. They get excited to share experiences with their children. The first taste of lemon, the first puddles to splash in. First words, first laughs, first steps.
God wanted that for us.
Satan got jealous after his rebellion in heaven. He saw God had something good and wanted it for himself again - even if it was just to spite God.
He offered humanity a choice and we took it.
We can debate why it happened until we’re blue in the face, but what matters most are God’s decisions afterwards.
Everything that has happened since the fall has been God trying to bring his wayward children back without force.
Just like when you see that friend of yours making the same bad decisions day after day, and you know their quality of life would improve if they just stopped. It’s heartbreaking, frustrating. You can give them all the advice in the world but they’ll just keep on doing the thing and complain to you about every headache afterwards.
Now you know a little what God feels like.
Only God is a little more patient than we tend to be.
God doesn’t ask much from us, not as much as people, which is weird to think about.
God doesn’t measure your worth by how good you are at your job, how badly you do in school. He doesn’t equate your value to how rich or poor you are, he doesn’t judge you the same way people do.
The first thing he asks of you is to love him and love each other.
He loves us so much that he opened heaven again if we ask for it.
He came down as flesh and blood in Jesus and took all the punishments we should’ve had. In Jesus death and resurrection, we have a way home.
All he wants for us to do is acknowledge that.
He doesn’t hate you if you can’t pay tithe. He doesn’t talk behind your back if you make a mistake. He doesn’t demean, debase, abuse.
Why am I still a Christian?
Because God was there for me when people weren’t.
God didn’t abuse me as a kid, people did, and used God as a shield.
God didn’t lie to me, call me names, break my things - my parents did.
God didn’t order me to do unbelievable things in order to reach him - my pastors and teachers did.
God didn’t tell me I’m unworthy - people did.
Even if you don’t believe in God, if you’re angry at him, feeling hurt and betrayed.
Maybe take a closer look and see if it’s really the people around you making you miserable, instead of an untouchable, invisible hammer.
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blckbrrybasket · 1 month
Text
ᯓ★ 𝐉𝐉 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬
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SFW
- 0.1% of top Sublime listeners on spotify
- does not have spotify premium and tries every trick to get around the ads, half the time he ends up groaning loudly over them to drown them out.
- one of the kids who went on youtube 24/7 to look up codes to get free things from vending machines.
- spaces out constantly
- has never had a hangover. nobody knows how he does it and he says he has a trick to it. he doesn’t. he just doesn’t get them 😭
- says harry potter, maze runner, hunger games, etc. are for nerds yet has been caught trying to read them over pope’s shoulder.
- games > movies > books
- when he fished as a kid JJ used to put his hands in the bait bucket to hold the worms + he fully believed that worms could multiply if they’re cut up.
- surprisingly good at english
- hates how wetsuits fit and would rather freeze than feel the material drag on his skin.
- his favorite food is spaghetti and steak (separately or together he’s not picky)
- doesn’t have good table manners but gets so excited over a home cooked meal.
- extremely loyal, he would rather die than rat out his friends. also hates snitches!
- instead of buying muscle tanks he cuts them himself from old t-shirts his dad has owned for decades.
- couldn’t buy a punching bag so he used one of those inflatable punching bags until it popped.
- hopping off the last one JJ pretends to punch everything in the vicinity of him.
- has sunk his old canoe at least five times and had to pull it out of the lake every time.
- doesn’t hug that often but when he does he makes it worth while he’s a massive bear hugger.
- uses an ungodly amount of abbreviations when texting. says ‘omg’ out loud unironically
- says he won’t do something for you or complains about doing it but if you threaten to go do it he jumps up and runs to do it.
- started working on cars when he was a kid watching his dad work under the hood.
- cannot keep plants alive to save his life
- certified yapper!!
- stopped using a juul after a few years, saying that weed is natural so it’s better for you. “mother nature grows it so it has to be good for you…like potatoes.”
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SFW (serious)
- undiagnosed adhd not because he has a lot of energy but because he fidgets a lot, has self restraint issues (may say things not socially acceptable in a situation or blurt things out), difficulty controlling emotions, etc.
- he has anxiety (pretty sure rudy said this was canon!)
- very awkward with emotions (canon) shit at comforting people he loves but he still tries. he doesn’t know how to deal with emotions after how his dad raised him.
- unfortunately wouldn’t want therapy for a very long time. he wouldn’t accept the offer until long after the events of hunting treasures.
- has very mixed feelings about his dad
- wanted siblings as a kid to keep him company but after his mom left JJ hated the idea of his family growing. he only saw it as an opportunity for more people to love him. John B is his brother though, through and through. JJ is a firm believer that blood doesn’t equal family.
- it takes a lot for JJ to open up but when he does he will forever trust you.
- that being said do not betray him because he WILL be looking for revenge even if it’s petty
- sometimes he lets himself dream about what life would have been like if he was born a kook. thinks it would have been better because at least he could have bought things to make himself happy.
- as much as he wants money he wouldn’t trade his life with his friends for anything.
- doesn’t like letting his trauma define him and brushes it off anytime someone brings it up.
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Text
Pesky Period Pains
Prompt: Cramping Pain
Pairings: Wandanat x R
Word count: 2.3K
Summary: you had managed to stave off periods but you could only do that for so long. But its very hard to hide things in the compound especially from your girlfriends.
TW: pain medicine, blood, period, cramps, bleeding on the bed (idk if that a warning or not lol), non-sexual nudity, Reader has their clothes removed (not in a bad way though don’t worry … you’ll see), hiding injuries / sickness, slight angst,
A/n whats this? A fic without vomiting for once? Crazy.
Curled up in bed the day had been going well until you realised you took to long to get more of your birth control. Your doctor had put you on birth control in your early teens before you became and avenger, your cramps being too painful for you to function and resulting in you missing a-lot of school. But you ran out last week and your ADHD had been kicking your ass lately so you forgot about the much needed trip to the chemist. Thinking you could just go tomorrow as its not like your period would appear over night. wrong.
Nat and Wanda were training in the gym like they did every Tuesday while you slept in. But when you realised with the first pang of pain in your midsection that it was a little too late for the birth control to stave off the period pains, you groaned. stuffing your face back into your pillow, before swallowing the urge to scream in frustration. you got up and threw on a pad before getting dressed quickly. you were craving chocolate. you could survive the cramps until after breakfast, and you couldn’t take painkillers on an empty stomach.
you had just finished drowning your pancakes in chocolate syrup and were not throwing back the tablets and some water when your girlfriends arrived. Nat smiled widely and came over to kiss you and hug you. “Detka,” you groaned, “your all gross and sweaty.” nat squeezed you in the hug chuckling before planting a kiss on your forehead. Wanda didn’t seem as happy. she sensed your discomfort before she even made it into the door. to be honest she sensed it from the gym, feigning exhaustion in favour of ending training early to check on you.
“what were you doing before we got here?” Wanda asked, hands crossed over her chest.
“making pancakes.” you shrugged, hiding a grimace as it jostled your midsection.
“i saw you put something in your mouth, Y/n don’t lie to me.” she was more concerned than angry but it did come across that way to you.
“i. was. eating. my. pancakes. Wanda.” you grit out, glad it seemed more like annoyance than the fact another cramp had hir rather hard.
“whatever.” Wanda dismissed angrily walking to get herself some pancakes. Nat frowned, normally Wanda was really sweet with you, only ever stern if you were being stubborn. she shrugged at you and followed Wanda to get some breakfast, only having had her pre workout shake so far. you didn’t wait for them, quickly finishing your pancakes and going to take a shower.
the girls frowned at your empty place when they returned and Wanda sighed. “somethings up with her nat i can sense it.”
meanwhile you stepped under the warm water, watching the red circle the drain and letting the heat relax your muscles. when another cramp hit you rested your head on your arm which steadied you against the wall. you didn’t want to risk leaving blood in your shared bathroom knowing nat was see it with her spy training, she noticed everything. Wanda would just freakout if she knew you were bleeding but didn’t know where from. And most importantly you didn’t want to bother them with your problems, feeling you were being a bit too needy lately having been sick the week before last.
you had come back to your old room, the one you stayed in before moving it with your girls. it was still your space. your gaming computer was still here, your switch and all your drawing stuff and tablet. your posters of Percy Jackson and your girlfriends still adorned the walls and the rainbow lights still worked above your desk. the bed had black sheets and you even still had some of your clothes in here. your many sketchbooks sat on the floating shelf by the desk and your blue couch and fluffy red blanket were still in the corner. the 84inch tv, courtesy of tony was mounted on the wall opposite the bed and you had painted a mural of the city scape on the far wall. it was as much your home as the room across the hall. your girls often found you in here during the day either drawing or gaming.
but you hadnt showered in here since moving to sleep over the hall. nat heard the running water as she went past, assuming you had done it so she could shower after her training this morning, she shrugged it off. unusual but not insane.
once you turned the water off you carefully towel dried yourself trying to avoid getting blood on the fluffy towel. getting dressed in fluffy pants and your oversized red hoodie nat had bought you at Disneyland, the one with the big picture of Mickey mouse on the front, you went and laid on the bed. after mindlessly scrolling through Netflix and putting on a random movie you snuggled up. after a few minutes the exhaustion of your body rebuilding an organ wiped you out and you fell asleep.
Wanda carefully opened the door to your room. frowning at yhe sight of you curled up asleep in the middle of the day. this was unlike you. the tv had an action movie playing and the sound of gunfire should have woken you up, but you slept on. Wanda turned out the lights and muted the tv before going to talk to nat.
“I’m telling you nat something’s off, shes been acting weird all day.”
“I’m sure shes fine, shes a big girl wands.” nat sighed drying her hair with a towel.
“i don’t know, you know how it is when shes hurt, she wont tell us even if shes bleeding out on the floor.” Wanda huffed pacing and running her hands through her hair.
“why don’t we go cuddle up to her in bed and we’ll talk to her when shes up again?”
“ok” Wanda sighed in defeat.
after carefully lifting the sheets and sliding in either-side of you nat took the tv remote frowning at the cheesy action movie.
“you cant even shoot arrows like that in real life.” she grumbled putting on something that Wanda would like. a sit com.
still asleep you curled up around Wanda’s leg as she lent against the headboard and ran her hands through your hair.
“she looks so fragile when she sleeps natty.” Wanda cooed
“thats because its hard to be a cocky asshole when your sleeping.” nat teased. but it wasn’t fun without your sharp come backs to quip against her.
“naaattt leave her alone shes cute when she sleeps.” looking down at you she noticed a grimace on your face when you held onto her leg tighter. thinking you were having a nightmare she went to wake you. unbeknownst to her it was just the medicine having worn off and the painfully cramps coming back full force. before Wanda could gently wake you, you shot up, blinking rapidly before feeling the wetness of the bed and shooting off the bathroom to change clothes. Wanda and nat frowned at each-other, you hadn’t even noticed them. nat hopped up and knocked on the door.
“y/n/n? can i come in?” she asked. you froze. what were they doing here.
“Y/n/n?” nat asked again.
“natty… um you should come here.” Wanda quietly said from the bed. she had pulled back the sheets to find a wet bloodstain on the sheets. Nat’s eyes widened almost comically.
“y/n let us in right now.” she banged her fists on the door. just as she swung to knock the door down you opened it, her foot stopping mid air as she tried not to kick you or fall over. at the sight of your bloody clothes she jumped into action. extending your arms with her hands she searched your body before stopping and looking you dead in the eyes.
“strip.” she said. you balked.
“what?”
“you heard me. strip. or i’ll have Wanda use her wiggly woos to do it for me.”
“natty-“
“No.”
“wands-“
“I’m with nat on this one sweetheart. we need to know your ok.” Wanda cooed softly having walked in behind nat.
“I’m fi-“
“if you were going to say your fine we found your blood on the sheets. so we know your not.”
before you were able to reply you were hit with a rather painful cramp that made you double over in an attempt to stop the pain. you groaned loudly and both your girls sprung into action. they knew you didn’t get periods so that couldn’t be it. but the last mission was weeks ago and you hadn’t left the compound without them since. so how did you get hurt? Nat was at your side in an instance. “y/n/n baby where does it hurt?” she ran a hand down your back up and down your spine. you merely groaned in response still hunched over.
“wands I’m gonna need you to-“
“don’t worry it got it.” she replied. before you could think you felt the cold air hit as you were suddenly without clothes. Nat’s eyes grew wide as she saw the red between your legs. you felt tears slide down your cheeks as the girls understood. they had seen you naked before so it didn’t bother you plus you knew you were safe with your girlfriends.
“oh sweetheart.” Wanda cooed, picking you up. “did you get your period love?”
more tears fell as she carried you bridal style to the bath. with a wave of her wrist there was warm water in the tub and her clothes were also gone. gently she hopped in placing you curled up in her lap. nat removed her clothes to show toned muscle and slipped in beside her. it was a big tub, tony was not one to spare expenses much to peppers dismay when she first brought home Morgan to find a car already with custom plates with Morgan’s name on it in the garage.
“tony what the hell is this?” she had asked pointing to the car, Morgan’s carseat in her hand.
“well its called planning my dear wife.”
“planning is writing it out on paper not buying it 16 years early.”
Wanda chuckled at the memory before focusing back on your. she carded a hand though your hair and you whined softly.
“gonna made the water dirty.” you whined “and i ruined my hoodie.” you sniffled “the one you and natty bought me from disneyland.” you cried. nat rubbed a circle on your back knowing this was the work of pesky hormones but doing nothing to invalidate your feelings. Wanda smiled down at you.
“why are you smiling.” you sobbed.
“oh sweetheart do you forget i have magic sometimes.” Wanda cooed
“oh.” you hiccuped.
“its already clean and folded on the bed which has fresh sheets.” she started kissing you all over your face, tasting the salty tears. “and natty and I will buy you ten more if we need to. anything for our sweet girl.”
“even the goofy one?” you smiled looking up with teary eyes.
nat chuckled. they were so whipped for you. “anything you can ever dream of of my love.” nat cooed. “and whatever we can buy with the new black master-card i have from tony.”
“how-“ you were going to ask how but another cramp hit and tears flooded your eyes as blood swirled in the bathwater.
“oh sweetheart don’t cry.” Wanda cooed seeing the water was making you upset she waved her hand and the blood disappeared from the water.
“honey i wouldn’t care if the bath was 100% blood as long as your ok. i would do anything for you.”
“we.” nat corrected “we would do anything for you.” Wanda rubbed circles over your stomach and her fingers glowed a soft red hue in the bath water as she took away some of the pain for you. you sighed in relief at her magic touch.
“and to answer your question, all it took was a little blackmail.” you laughed at her smirk.
“come one love lets get you washed up.”
when Wanda had finished scrubbing your body clean for you, you were too tired to do it yourself. nat dried you with a towel and slipped you back into your comfy and now, thanks to Wanda, clean clothes.
curling up in bed with nat, Wanda returned with food for all of you and a mountain of all different kinds of chocolate and popcorn.
“I vote we have a movie day today.” Wanda proposed. nat smiled at you and brushed the hair from your face, “id love that” she agreed “ what about you Y/n/n?”
“only if i get lots of hugs.” you mumbled in an embarrassed way that made the redheads hearts skip a beat.
“alright then.” wand climbed in beside you and put down the tray of food. “you get first pick Y/n/n” Wanda grinned and nat passed you the remote.
“here you go” you took it and placed a chocolate in your mouth. going to reach for another Wanda lightly slapped your hand away.
“food first.” she chided softly. you pouted and picked a movie. after the first 20 minutes or so you hd finished lunch and were happily curled in the arms of your girls munching chocolate. maybe you should get your period more often you thought. then another cramp hit making you keen softly. never-mind you thought. Wanda ran her magic fingers over you lower back and the pain stopped. you knew then and there your girls would always be there. you were never going to be alone again.
MASTERLIST
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thatanimeramenchick · 3 months
Note
I just thought of somethin(I’m sorry if I’m spamming or anything. I’ve got ADHD so my brain is constantly making ideas that I have to share. I do not wish to overwhelm you)
What about a Yandere Lucifer(Hazbin) with a immortal human reader? They were cursed from a young age with immortality because of a mistake there mother made. They can die but don’t really stay dead. Every time they die they get a scar so there covered with them both large and small. They go to university but was supposed to be sacrificed by a cult to Lucifer but obviously survived but now there stuck with Lucifer always being around?
Yandere Lucifer x Human Sacrifice Reader Pt. 1
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You’re fine! Definitely not spamming. I just might take some time before I get to writing it. Lucifer has me in a choke hold, but so does Vox. I also wanted to do this idea justice, as it actually has a lot of potential, so it took me a little while before I finally felt like it sounded kind of decent. Also it was getting long, so going to be a two parter.
Part Two
Trigger Warning: Graphic Violence
Word Count: 2,431
---
You first realized something was wrong when you were twelve.
It was a warm August afternoon, perfect for a day on the lake. Only a week left before school, your extended family was having a last little hurrah camping trip. Water brushed against your shoulders as you waded through the water, looking for small fish and crawdads. Your cousins were on the shore, half asleep as they rested from swimming.
“Kids! It’s time for lunch!” you heard your Aunt’s voice fill the air.
Eager for food, like any other over-exhausted child, you turn quickly on the slick rocks, ready to run inside.
“Wait for me!” you cry out, taking no care in how fast you were moving.
And down you went. Your slipped right out from under you and sent you crashing beneath the waves. A roar filled your ears as your body ripped through the water and sent your head against the stone ground. Along with the cold water, you felt a hot liquid bubbling from the crown of your head.
Whether from shock or pain, you were unable to swim. You thrashed and attempted to scream, only letting more water into your throat. Surely someone had heard you falling and would come to save you, right? There was no way they hadn’t heard you.
Yet as seconds passed, you started to think that maybe no one had heard you. Every passing moment felt like an eternity as you were unable to hold your breath and water choked down your throat.
You swore that you felt your lungs literally ripping apart, splitting at the seams in a pain that was so intense you felt like you would black out. You suddenly knew what it was like to be the balloons you and your cousins had blown up with a little too much air and watched pop into a million pieces.
The oxygen must finally have evaporated from the combination of fluid filling your lungs and blood leaving your body. This was it.
You were going into the arms of the angels.
---
To this day, beneath your hair, was the large scar from “the incident” as your family referred to it.
Well, when they referred to it at all, which was almost never.
All you had remember was awakening in the hospital, gasps, tears, and even a scream filling the air as you sat up.
“I-impossible!” your aunt had said, gazing in shock at you, “She was… She had to be….”
“I told you, the doctors had made a mistake,” your mother had said calmly. She had been sitting beside you, squeezing your hand. Though her words were soft and controlled, there were tears on the edges of her eyes.
Your cousins started crying as well, coming forward, looking just as stunned. The only one who had seemed unsurprised was your mother, who held your hand in a death grip.
That day lived in infamy in your mind. Though nothing had ever been explained, small snippets from conversations you hadn’t been meant to overhear had formed an image of what had happened.
Finally, it had been noticed that you were not there, and your eldest cousin had been the horrified witness to your body in the lake, water red from the massive loss of blood. Though they had called the ambulance, it was clear to everyone that you had died before they had even got there.
Or so they had thought.
You had been laid in the hospital, check on, with no pulse or breath in you. Your family had been in the room crowding around you, all saying final goodbyes. All except your mother, who had simply grabbed onto your hand and insisted that you weren’t dead. The doctor had made a mistake, you would be fine. Naturally, your Aunt and Uncle thought that your mother was simply confused after the traumatic experience.
But you had woken up. Suddenly, something had changed. The machines detected life, and you had taken a gasping breath before groggily opening your eyes.
The nurses and doctors had seem just as spooked as your extended family, but once it was determined that somehow you had survived and your lungs were intact, they let you go. Someone must have made some kind of mistake at some point.
There had been no explanation, logical or otherwise for your salvation. Your mother said that you must be under divine protection, and you had accepted the answer, as much as you weren’t really convinced of it. Convinced or not, you were alive, and you supposed that was what mattered.
That had been nine years ago. It was something you rarely thought about anymore, though recently, you had been wondering about it. The whole thing was weird, and your studies in medical school only made it weirder.
You didn’t have time to think about it these days though. You were short on two things, money and time. Which is why you were now looking at the posters hung in the cafeteria for an opportunity to make some quick cash.
You had some cash flow from your repeated donations of plasma and blood cells, as well as the occasional babysitting gig in between studies. You needed more though, and the flier you were looking at was promising a lot of pay if you went to this interview and were accepted as a participant for an experiment that some seniors were doing. So many of you had participated in a couple of experiments for professors and students to earn a buck here and there. You could do it again. You ignored the vague wording, thinking that it was probably some experimentation that involved the subjects being in the dark.
So now, you were sitting on a park bench with the interviewer for the program, being drilled harder than if you had stayed out all night as a teenager.
“Do drugs, smoke, alcohol?” the interviewer asked.
“No,” you said.
“All right,” she said, "And... we'll need to know you're relationship history as well. Any boyfriends, girlfriends?”
“I had one boyfriend in high school,” you said, "Been too busy last few years though.”
“Just one boyfriend... Ok, and any hookups?” she asked.
“Excuse me?”
“Like, you know, bar or party hookups. Casual sex.”
“I-I- Uh... No,” you said.
“So you're a virgin?” she asked.
“I-I’m sorry, I don’t see how this is relevant,” you said, feeling uncomfortable.
“It’s necessary information for dividing the groups in our experiment,” she said, “Your personal name isn’t going to be connected to any of this. But we need to know as much personal information as possible if you want us to consider you for this. We need to know our subjects on a deep level.”
You sigh in irritation, “Fine, whatever. Yes, I am.”
“Ok,” she said, scribbling something down.
After a few more minutes of interrogation, she stood up.
“All right then, I think I have everything I need to know. We will be in touch if you pass all right? If you do, you'll be contacted on the meeting place for the experimentation,” she said.
---
A week later, you had gotten a call back from the same interviewer, saying you had passed initial testing. They assigned a day for you to show up at the lab. After you had arrived on the appointed day and signed some wavers, they took you aside and gave you some medication, saying they were conducting a test on REM sleep in three sessions. The first two had gone typically, and you had awoken, mind numb and fuzzy after the sessions. But something was different when you woke up the third time. You weren't in the lab.
You awoke, foggy eyed, your mind still grainy. The room was freezing, even more so than the normally cool temperature it was kept at. In a few seconds, you realized you weren't in the lab at all or likely the university. Your surroundings were totally alien as you realized where you were and who you were with.
You were looking up at a circle of men and women in black and red cloaks. A sickening smell of incense fills the air, and you feel something right digging into your wrists and ankles. In moments, you realize you have been tied down to a stone altar, somewhere dark and damp, like a cave or temple. Directly over you stands a middle aged man, holding a knife.
“She’s perfect,” he said, “A beautiful young virgin. Not tainted in any way, in good health. The ideal sacrificial lamb.”
The day of the incident was swarming back into your mind as you now struggled against the rope tying you own, as futile as you had felt slapping against the water. You couldn’t even attempt to scream, a cloth was shoved so far down your throat, the scent of whatever chemical they had dipped in it making it burn. Part of you wondered if you would vomit and repeatedly suffocate before he could even stab you.
“Oh Lucifer, we call upon you to accept this sacrifice,” the man called out, raising the knife, “May you be pleased with this offering, and in exchange bless our work. May we be more prosperous and rich than any others! We bow down to you!”
With his final words, he sliced the knife into your chest, so fast and swift that you didn’t feel it at first. It was as subtle as a breeze rushing past your cheek or hearing a whisper in the hallway. Small as it was though, you couldn’t deny that it was there. Within a split second, as he ripped the knife out, you felt some of that pain materializing. A muffled scream is silenced, and you feel the cloth sink deeper into your throat, choking you. Even if your mouth can not let out a sound, the surrounding flesh is painful enough that it feels like it is screaming in silent agony.
He continues to stab at you. The pain worsens as he tries to push the knife deep into your heart, but manages to instead stab into your ribs multiple times. Each removal of the knife releases a fountain of blood. Warm, fast, sleek streams bathe your skin and clothes as he drives the knife through you over and over again, without mercy. Penetrating, forceful, as if you were being violated in the worst possible way. The physical pain of the experience is nothing compared to the mental anguish of helplessness and terror you feel.
Finally, mercifully a few cuts sink between you ribs and pierce your heart. Within minutes, your world begins fading to black.
This is it. Finally.
At least that was what you hoped. No more pain, only peace.
---
Hell was real.
You hadn’t died, but you didn’t need to for you to experience a pure torment worse than death. Some twisted miracle, curse, whatever the hell it was, had saved you. You awoke who knows how long after the attack, alone and still strapped to the stone altar. You couldn’t lift your head, it roared with pain. The pure torture of regenerating, something you hadn’t felt in years. Your body burned and itched as it restitched itself back together, slowly. The process of regeneration was in some ways more gruesome than the actual attack had been. Every inch of your chest felt like it was on fire.
The cloth was still stuck deep in your throat, making it impossible to call for help, but part of you knew that even if you could have it probably wouldn’t attract attention from anyone you would want. Your only fear was that it would remain stuck in your throat for ages. The image of it resting there until your spit somehow dissolved it and allowed for you to breathe normally haunted you, as well as the image that you might die from an infection or suffocation like this a couple of times before that happens.
Your mind was so focused on this that you didn’t notice the glowing light walking around you. Sight fuzzy, you winced as the light fully entered your focus and before you stood a man, radiating light from his crimson and white body. Wings on display, emanating from his back. No further details could be caught though, as you were in too much pain to really pay attention. Despite this though, you had no doubt who this was.
Lucifer.
You were surprised. Always, your imagination had painted the devil as a creature of darkness. Even if he wasn’t a red horned creature, you had expected a creature that radiated evil and smoke. Yet Lucifer stood before you with an almost ethereal glow about him. While there was a certain flame about him, it burned with a cool, almost glorious light.
Well, you had heard someone once say that the devil portrayed himself as a creature of light. Perhaps the brightness of his form should not surprise you. A mask of goodness over his true evil intent. He leans over you, gazing at your half-alive form.
Finally, the devil reaches over to your face, gazing at you with a look that you decide must be curiosity. There is no way that it contains the pity that your mind at first thinks it glimpses. If this is the devil that the group worshiped, then there was no way any sympathy could be found in his eyes. He lowered his hand to your face, causing you to flinch, the pain exploding at your brief movement. Instead of the expected violence though, he caresses your cheek with tenderness.
“Poor little thing. Humans are such fools,” he murmurs, “The way they treat their own is downright atrocious.”
While you would push his touch away if you could, you find it impossible. The pain is too great to bother defying him. It is nothing compared to the torture your body goes through though when he lifts you into his arms. Chipped bones feel as if they are shifting through your sliced muscle and ripped flesh. You feel more blood flowing out of your body, like the lake sand would flow between the cracks in your fingers as a child. Even though you are unable to scream, you must have at least attempted to make some kind of noise as the demon holding you makes an effort to soothe you.
“Sh… It’s all right now,” you heard, “You’re going to be just fine. There’s no need to be afraid.”
It was the last thing you heard before pain consumed your mind and took you from consciousness.
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AITA for not saying please/thank you?
So this is an ongoing argument with my roommate. I (22nb) am autistic, and T (55f) has ADHD.
Now to get this out of the way, i do say thank you. I was always taught to wait a moment after receiving something, take a bite or appreciate what you were given for a breath, before thanking someone so that you could add something more to it. My roommate and I both agree that i do say thank you the vast majority of the time, but the problem for her is that i do not say it fast enough.
T often gives me a "tHaNk yOu" while the item in question is still being passed. This seems ridiculous to me as i haven't even been fully given it yet.
In addition, i have the dishes as my household chore, and i do them daily, despite almost never making any dishes myself. I do this to both support T and her diet, as well as contribute to the household that i live in.
T thanks me near daily for doing the dishes. This always seems weird and unnecessary to me, as it is my responsibility. I have told her this. I dont expect to be thanked for doing my own laundry, after all. In return, T gets upset that i dont notice and thank her for taking out the garbage/recycling/compost, to which she is the main contributor to and is under her responsibilities.
As for please: i do say this much more rarely. I think it feels overly preformative and fake, and i typical choose more "would you mind closing my door for me" "if its not too much of a hassle, could you toss me my waterbottle" "id appreciate it if you could preheat the oven while you're in the kitchen"
I think that these work perfectly fine as a replacement. Please just has always felt wrong and fake. No one else in my entire life has ever commented on this before.
Thirdly; T has been upset that i don't respond to her apologies appropriately. After she is snappy at me (due to her emotional disregulation from ADHD) (last time it was because i asked if she was using the oven instead of asking if i could use the oven myself, for reference) there is a 50/50 shot that she will come and apologize.
I dont often accept apologies. Apologies are for the person saying them to get it off their chests, or to make you put it behind them. Usually, ill say something like "it was just one of those days, y'know?" Or "its alright, water under the bridge"
Because i was always taught that apologies came with a promise of change, and T can't (or won't) change how she re-directs her frustration at unrelated things to things ive done "wrong". When she told me the correct response was "i forgive you", i decided to not engage instead of telling her directly that i didnt forgive her (because i am certain she will do it again). (I usually dont engage with her when shes irritated: she never notices and just wants to say her piece so im not being rude here)
She said that i was being disrespectful, "like always", and when i suggested it may be more difficult for me due to my autism, she said that we made plenty of accommodations for me (which i think is false), and that i just needed to do this for her comfort. That please/thank yous were something she needed to feel appreciated and i should be making more accommodations for her.
To me, i feel like she is getting really caught up on semantics and is being a little controlling about it. But maybe its just a boundary? I dont know if i could commit to changing my language for her though, i feel like i will just start forgetting after awhile because it feels so fake. Shouldn't it be better for me to say things genuinely than just for her approval?
AITA for not saying please/thank you?
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tenchikotheartist · 5 months
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Frick it, we ball
KISMET HEADCANNONS for some future fan stuff I wanna make... Goes with this post kinda
Under a cut because it's LONG (the fixation has been REAL)
Gen
They band was formed shortly after the events of Trolls 1. It's the only way they make sense in my mind's timeline.
Branch was trying to get more involved with Troll village without relying on Poppy to connect him with people. He formed his own group of friends, and they became Kismet after realizing how much they enjoyed harmonizing/performing together.
These guys give me frat boy energy for some reason. They just collectively become more chaotic when they're around each other. Yes, even Branch. He and Hype play hot potato with the braincell because otherwise, nothing would get done in this group.
As they got to know one another, teasing one another became their primary love language. Lots of jabs and quips will fly among them when they're together, but they each know it's all in good fun.
Branch
Branch kept his involvement in the band a secret because, well...y'know. He has complicated history with being in a boyband, so he wanted to explore his feelings about Kismet without being bombarded with input from people outside the group.
He's fond of his friends and genuinely enjoys being a part of the band though! He just wants to be sure he's a part of this boy band because he's happy being with them and not because he's trying to recapture something he'd lost 20 years ago.
At first, the others were (understandably) hurt by Branch's desire to keep his place in the band a secret, but after he explained his reasons, they were willing to support him.
They were absolutely thrilled when he finally becomes open about the band though!
During the secrecy period, when he performs in Pop Village, he hides his identity behind a disguise that somehow works (Branch, every time it works: "wtf????"), and he goes by a stage name.
Hype
Officially the group leader, but he's more of a mediator than anything. He relies on the rest of the group to give their input for any big band decisions, but he coordinates band meetings, schedules gigs, and works out compromises if there's any group conflicts.
He and Branch had been childhood friends before The Incident(s) estranged them. Back in the Troll Tree, they'd been neighbors whose parents (Branch's grandma; Hype's mom) set up on frequent playdates, so they'd been really close.
They reconnected after the events of movie 1, Hype introduced Branch to Trickee and later Boom. Trickee brought in Ablaze and the rest was history.
Hype is a social butterly but he's otherwise one of the more calm personalities in the group. He feeds off of other people's energy and is a bit of a people-pleaser. Luckily, he's pretty good at finding the right crowd to run with, otherwise he'd probably land in so much trouble.
Boom
Hype's cousin, and a big party person! Before the band took off, he DJ'd at a party venue in Pop Village. That same place was also where Kismet got their first gig!
He loves loud music and flashy parties where he can shine on the dance floor and make memories people he may only know for a night.
Peak ADHD Energy™. He's a chatterbox. He has no volume control. He tunnel visions so hard, he becomes that B99 headphones meme. The man has cool guy syndrome, no doubt about it!
For the creation of the Band earliest albums, Boom took charge as the producer. He loves messing with music, mixing and remixing sounds on his free time and experimenting with the genre.
Trickee
A thrill-seeking menace to society. He's adventurous and loves taking huge risks for the adrenaline rush. He's the type of guy who would go down a waterfall in a barrel or ski down a dangerous mountain just to see if he survives it.
Everyone in the band is in agreement about protecting Trickee from his own shenanigans. They are 70% of his self-preservation senses.
He also loves a party scene and can often be found with Boom leading the charge towards any good time.
You know that sense of dread before performing in front of a crowd? The way your belly flips and your heart races and you're sure you're shaking hard enough for everyone to see? Trickee lives for that shit when he's in the band. The jitters can get to him, for sure, but afterwards, the man is LIVING from coming out alive on the other side, and he's sharing that thrill with everyone else in the band!
Ablaze
A Rock Troll who has lived among the Pop Trolls since he was a teenager. He stumbled across them while looking for a place to belong, and despite what he was raised to believe about Pop Trolls, he came to love their warmth and friendliness. So he moved in and let everyone assume he was just an odd-looking Pop Troll.
He an Trickee are housemates (podmates?)--not for romantic reasons but because they're longtime friends. When Trickee moved out of his family's home, Ablaze invited him over, and they liked the living arrangement enough to keep it permanent.
At first, Ablaze isn't open about his identity as a Rock Troll, but as he grew closer with the other members of Kismet, he came out to them. By the events of Trolls 2, he's open about being a Rock Troll.
Ablaze's personality sits somewhere in the realm of both chaotic and laid back. On the outside, he's usually pretty chill, but if Boom or Trickee have trouble afoot, Ablaze is usually there egging them on in the background, much to Branch's dismay.
He becomes extremely energetic when he's performing. The more exciting the song, the more vibrant he becomes! The energy is one of the reasons he loves pop music so much, but he can also get hyped from performing rock music. He gets kinda intense though lmao.
The first time the rest of Kismet sees him jamming to rock, they're like "OH. He's definitely a rock troll O_O" They support their rock-n-roll brethren 🤟😔
He has a special interest in fire, particularly fireworks. Back in Pop Village, he even made a business of it, making small rockets, sparklers, and other celebratory items for all your Pop party needs.
Anyway that's all the headcannon stuff I'll share for now. Hope y'all liked reading xD I'm really hoping my attention span will stick around long enough for me to share more in the future, because this fixation has been A Time™/pos
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ghosts-and-glory · 5 months
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Gonna be honest, no idea what that last asker was talking about when they said Narinder deserved purgatory more. The guy is messed up, don't get me wrong, but the sheep genocide was completely out of his control. There isn't even any evidence that he got locked up for anything other than inventing a way to revive followers!
Narinder is much more palatable than the bishops and the fandom tends to forget that making him pissy/angry all the time is actually pretty ooc (ESPECIALLY considering the time it took between updates). He liked you as a god, he was mad for a while as a follower, AND THEN HE SAID HE RESPECTED YOU AS A GOD BEFORE YOU EVEN FULLY FINISHED HIS QUEST LINE!
Tldr; Narinder isn't as bad as the bishops, torture is cringe unless it's character building :)
That cat spent a thousand years being punished, let him rest. He’s been punished for his betrayal, a thousand years of it. During the game his crime is trying to escape a prison that he would never be allowed out of. He’s given no opportunity to reform, no time to rest and no end in sight.
I do enjoy it when follower Narinder is a bitch, I just want him to be mean to me is that too much to ask?
I’m a chronic adhd rambler and I hate scrolling by long posts. More thoughts on Narinder under the cut.
I do think this bit of dialogue is telling.
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If you resurrect he seems to imply that resurrection is what started him towards his betrayal. He points out specifically that that there are no other gods to stop you from playing with life and death, this action makes him see himself in The Lamb. His reaction to the funeral is more reserved. Maybe he’s disappointed, maybe he feels some level of relief that you wouldn’t repeat his actions, maybe a bit of both.
And there’s his dialogue after his defeat.
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I was originally gonna say something about his murder dialogue but I got distracted by how fucked up he is. Narinder, baby, I know you’re the god of death but begging to die is not normal.
But yeah the point that he seems to respect the Lamb’s godhood kinda supports my game theory that the Lamb is more death than Narinder. At the end of his godhood Nari was corrupt, driven by revenge and power. Depending on your actions as the Lamb you are now either walking the same corrupt path as he did, respecting the natural order of life and granting rest, or a bit of both.
I do think its easiest to love Narinder out of all of the npcs in the game. Yeah okay he’s evil in that good tumbly sexler man kinda way but he’s also the character with the most content. He has the most dialogue, you meet with him the most, he’s got the hardest boss battle with unique mechanics. I get why he’s the fan favourite and why people like Narilamb, what gayer than being character foils? Nothing.
He’s my little meow meow and I’m mean to him cause I love him. Mwah.
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Hi hello! I am a young trans man on a very lose dose of T (0.25 mL/week) that I've been on and off (for reasons beyond my control) for 4 years. I have avoided thinking about getting a hysterectomy specifically because I was under the impression I would be beholden to taking T consistently for the rest of my life if I want to avoid my body screaming at me for not having hormones.
I'm aware you are but a single person and don't possess All Knowledge, but to the best of your knowledge, would it be theoretically possible for me to get a hysterectomy that removes my uterus *only*, that halts the monthly bleeding part of the cycle but leaves the ovaries, and not need to panic about my body going into premature menopause due to entire lack of hormones?
Ideally, I do want to be on T consistently, but ADHD and needing to get represcribed every 6 months make this difficult. One of the things that has caused me the most dysphoria over my life *is* my period (other than my chest, which is why I got top surgery before starting T). I'd love to essentially get rid of that without needing to worry that my inconsistent T will give me further medical problems (other than any problems inherent to... inconsistent T itself 😂), as I already suffer from chronic fatigue, and that's *not* a good bedfellow with menopause 😂
I apologize for the paragraphs, but I wanted to give enough information ^-^ Thanks in advance, and have a great day!
hi anon,
I always feel a bit silly providing very short answers when someone has gone to the trouble of writing so much, but: yes. a hysterectomy is the removal.of the uterus; removing the ovaries is an oophorectomy and in the vast majority of cases only a hysterectomy is performed. because taking the ovaries comes with a hormonal deficit that can be problematic in younger patients, the ovaries are generally left while removing the uterus.
there are exceptions, of course; some people yoink the ovaries as well for health or personal reasons. my mentor actually opted to have his ovaries removed but leave the uterus, leading him and my mother (who had her uterus removed but kept the ovaries) joke that they had one full sterilization between them.
tl;dr that's not just possible, that's literally just what a hysterectomy is.
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