#self-help tools

[shy-guru]

Too Shy for Therapy? How AI Offers a New Path to Mental Wellness

In today’s fast-paced world, discussing mental health has become more commonplace. Yet, many still find it challenging to seek traditional therapy. Whether it’s due to shyness, privacy concerns, or lingering stigma, the barriers are real. But what if there was a way to access support that feels safe, private, and judgment-free? The Rise of AI in Mental Health Support Artificial Intelligence (AI)…

[bixels]

As cameras becomes more normalized (Sarah Bernhardt encouraging it, grifters on the rise, young artists using it), I wanna express how I will never turn to it because it fundamentally bores me to my core. There is no reason for me to want to use cameras because I will never want to give up my autonomy in creating art. I never want to become reliant on an inhuman object for expression, least of all if that object is created and controlled by manufacturing companies. I paint not because I want a painting but because I love the process of painting. So even in a future where everyone’s accepted it, I’m never gonna sway on this.

if i have to explain to you that using a camera to take a picture is not the same as using generative ai to generate an image then you are a fucking moron.

[boarloved-art]

trust and believe the chaser gang's unofficial coworker christmas parties went crazy. qiren goes home after an hour, xichen immediately decides this is the perfect time to get hammered, guangyao is babysitting, wen qing is losing her mind a little bit, yu ziyuan is fighting between Wanting To Leave and Wanting To Outdrink Wuxian, huaisang and mingjue show up at some point and wuxian is too drunk to remember it - which he DOES weep about when wen qing tells him the next day. they have the worlds most british karaoke session. the buffet features mini sausage rolls, cocktail sausages, and a beautiful array of picky bits. mr brightside is playing for 50% of the event.

[taldigi]

I think Yosuke should be allowed to be mad and hurt about "I don't understand why Yu would like someone like you". As a treat. For me.

[27spoons]

guys if i wrote a multi-part au fic that was nat/reader based on the song crush by ethel cain would yall read it or nah

[demon-country]

One thing I like about Stolas is that he learns, and then he takes action of his own accord. He's not stagnant. Sure, he can be a bit oblivious and lost in his own head, but once he's finally informed that there is a problem he always makes a real effort to reflect on it and then do something about it.

We see it as early as Loo Loo Land, where he misses all the cues that Octavia is upset, but once she actually tells him what's wrong he immediately reassures her. He then promptly leaves with her, asks her what she wants to do instead, and takes her there despite not understanding the appeal. His focus is on her the whole time from the moment he finds her crying. He even carries her like she's a small child again the entire way back to the van, and she lets him because physical comfort is something she needs and he knows it.

We see it again after Ozzie's, where Blitz is finally honest about his belief that Stolas wants him for nothing but sex. After a night of heavy drinking, he immediately starts to reflect on things and comes to the correct conclusion that their deal needs to end, because in hindsight Blitz didn't seem happy or like he was having a good time like Stolas previously assumed, and then he tries to find Blitz a way to stay in business without relying on him. He gets a little side tracked because of the divorce, but he never gives up on getting Blitz an Asmodean Crystal, even when it requires him to wait several hours in Asmodeus' waiting room fresh out of the hospital.

We also see it in Apology Tour, where he reflects in his song and starts to realize that his behavior early on wasn't taken as him being cute and playful like he intended, but pushy and overbearing. Despite how Blitz hurt and yelled at him both that morning and the night before, he acknowledges that it wasn't malicious and doesn't try to put the blame for things going wrong on Blitz, although he doesn't yet realize that it's not because Blitz doesn't care, it's because he cares too much and is scared of that.

Stolas is learning and changing, but it's a slow process. It comes in pieces. Which is generally how it goes in real life, too. People don't usually change overnight, it can take years and years to fully unlearn bad behaviors and do better, but fuck if he isn't trying.

He needs problems spelled out for him though. He's been extremely sheltered and socially isolated his whole life, and there are a lot of things pointing to him being autistic as well. He's going to miss or misinterpret things that are just implied, there's simply no getting around that. For example, he was never going to realize that there are problems with how he treats imps in general without prompting, because that's been normalized for him and he's high enough on the food chain that almost no one is going to correct his unconscious bigotry. That is, until Blitz, who is perhaps the only person of a lower class Stolas knows who's not intimated by him in the slightest (other than Striker, who was torturing him at the time, which is yet another trauma barrier that will make it hard for him to reconcile with his racism/classism), tells him in a fit of rage. 

I'm sure he'll reflect on Blitz's words and what they mean about how he acts when it's not less than 24 hours since he got his heart smashed to pieces. I don't know about you guys, but I know firsthand that the humiliation and betrayal he likely felt after having his feelings mocked not once, but twice (first on accident, but the next very much on purpose. Oh Blitz, the self-sabotage is so painful to see) take a little while to get over. Let him reflect on how his over-enthusiasm had him running roughshod over Blitz first for a bit, which he's already in the process of doing, then when things aren't so fresh he'll be in a better headspace to consider his overarching biases.

And from a narrative standpoint, the fact that it's taking a while for him to work through everything is a good thing. Expecting him to just Know Better is unrealistic and would cheapen his character arc. He's fighting to do better for the people he loves despite his trauma and implicit biases making that hard for him, and if he is autistic then there are just some things he will always struggle with, like reading social cues. But for any of his improvement to feel satisfying for the viewers then it has to move at a reasonable pace, and unfortunately that kind of change takes time. It's difficult, but he's actually doing a pretty good job so far. He's making a real effort to fix his behavior. But you gotta be patient, he's basically fumbling blindly through this alone.

Anyway, I just really love that, slowly but surely, he's learning. He's not being babied by the narrative or the creators, he's holding himself accountable and changing himself for the better. If you want realistic characters with nuance and depth then you have to let them actually act in the messy, imperfect ways real people do. This is true for Blitz and his character arc as well, but that's for a whole other post.

[squarebracket-trickster]

Oh my god for the last time

DO NOT USE AI FOR RESEARCH. DON'T TRUST ANYTHING IT TELLS YOU.

Do not use AI for research even if it cites its sources. Have you verified the credibility of those sources?

Do not use AI for research even if its sources are credible. Have you checked to make sure they have the most up-to-date information?

Do not use AI for research even if the sources are recent. Is this information generally accepted by experts in the field, or is it a controversial stance? Did AI source the 9/10 dentists or the 1/10? You don't know. You have no way of knowing unless you do your own fucking research!

DO NOT USE AI FOR RESEARCH. for the love of god people

"But I'm just doing research for my novel. It's okay if it's not 100% accurate."

ChatGPT told a person to glue the cheese on their pizza to make it stick. It told someone else a poisonous mushroom was safe to eat. It told another kid that Greek was a combination of four different languages. It thought there were 2 r's in strawberry.

Your information will probably not be 100% accurate. It might not be 50% accurate. It might be so completely and utterly false it would make a flat eather look informed. Just use Wikipedia of you want something quick and dirty. It might not be 100% accurate either, but it won't tell you to eat glue.

[fernhelm]

PT 2: FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE🦌

pt 1

*this part has to do with harry hearing lily’s voice. until i looked through the books for this, i totally forgot that he was in the torture nexus of hearing his mother beg for his life. in the third book, her death screams haunt harry as his worst memory every time the dementors come near. it's torturous, but he also wonders if its better than never hearing her at all. the only things lily says in the series that aren't memory are "hold on your father's coming" and "you've been so brave." she never says i love you. she's the sacrifice. she was on the altar. she has no mouth but she must scream.

[theoldwhisky]

What would you advise people to be aware of before reading MDZS or any MXTX books, for that matter? I'm serious.

I would warn them before reading or engaging with any of MXTX's books about the extremely dubious consent content, including elements that lean toward sexual assault. Additionally, I would warn them about the, in my opinion, very clear depictions of eating disorders and malnutrition, as well as physically and mentally abusive types of relationships of any kind that arise, alongside the classic themes of violence, gore, and blood.

Furthermore, topics such as suicide, self-harm, teacher-student relationships, stalking, abortion, and gambling, etc.

I know some of you might say insensitive things like, "One should expect such things in books," or comments like, "It's not that deep." To those kinds of people, I would like to remind you: FUCK OFF!

It is that deep. You don't know someone else's trauma and mental health struggles; warnings are necessary, and not just in the form of jokes or comments like "Just read it and find out." Trigger warnings exist for a reason and are essential. Just because you don't need them doesn't mean that others don't.

If you don't care about this, that's fine; move on. It's clearly not meant for you, but I'm tired of people across all kinds of fandoms, including MXTX, downplaying these issues and acting as if it's acceptable to belittle them simply because you personally might not share the same problems.

Sidenote: I recommend that you always Google the TW (trigger warnings) for the specific MXTX work you are about to read before purchasing it. Additionally, adaptations are usually much more censored and may not be entirely free of specific content in some regards.

[moldycalico]

I decided to step out of my comfort zone and draw something new for once this time you guys/s

aka 10293930th mafioso fanart from yours truly (i can help it ok his design so fun to draw) SHOUTOUT TO WHOEVER MADE THE PROCREATE ROUNDBRUSH FOR IBISPAINT YOU SAVED MY LIFE FRFRFR🙏🙏)

This honestly started as a "oh i should update my pfps the ones i use old af" and i got this full fleshed out thingy whatdahell (defo not an excuse to draw him for the 103949493th time you guys)

probably one if my better finished results in terms of rendering n everything doe

also blood version under here cuz i tho it looked cool and i wanted to test a brush out

[bilboyagathechickenfootedhobbit]

Things my son and I randomly talked about today: justice, equity vs equality, are boys naturally meaner or is it a choice, and zombie tag.

He just randomly brings shit like this up and opens the door for me to talk about it and explain it and he just listens and is like “okay but the boys at school ARE meaner than the girls, so like…..facts?”

I worried so much when I was pregnant about “how do you have these difficult talks as they get older without sounding staged and forced?” So it’s nice to find that the opportunity presents itself more often than I’d realized it would.

[roninsae]

“I’ve made my choice regarding where my Justice leads.”

An independent take regarding a Phantom Thief Sae Niijima, codename Ronin, taken from the fic Hour of Judgement. P5/P5R, adored by Lew. (he/him)

Mun 21+, Caard!

[yoccu]

Time for my regularly scheduled post about breathing and stretching apparently. Because I think a really important thing about stretching that I rarely seen talked about is the role of breathing.

TLDR: When stretching try to focus on fully and slowly exhaling DURING the stretch, this is what allows them to actually stretch best. If they’re particularly sore apply ice DURING the stretch as it will allow the stretch to not cause inflammation. I’ve had like five physical therapists tell me this is all accurate but if it sucks for you don’t do it. Many ways to exist in this world are real and I’m not your doctor.

When I started working on my breathing while doing stretches bc I have chronic and pretty severe muscle stiffness in my neck and shoulders that has caused TMJ and migraines for decades, I didn’t realize for a long time I wasn’t breathing like. Normally? I also have pretty constant CPTSD symptoms and I think this was one of them, a subconscious CONSTANT rigidity and inability to relax that crossed into being Medically Significant. I’ve had MULTIPLE physical therapists insist for MINUTES that I was “not relaxing” when I thought it wasn’t possible to relax any further. I figured this out eventually.

Anyway when I’d start working on my breathing like six years ago I’d notice it would like. Catch and feel weird. A lot. Idk what made me realize but eventually I realized I was inhaling deeply but NOT exhaling deeply. So I just always had like too much breath???

So I started doing that “blow out of a straw” kind of breathing because I realized I couldn’t rely on the SENSATION of exhaling to be accurate. That method meant when I stopped feeling air leaving my mouth I was actually done exhaling and it took like. Five times longer or something it’s nuts.

BUT THIS IS IMPORTANT because inhaling and exhaling relate to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems! And if I recall correctly, your muscles relax on the EXHALE.

This is why sometimes if I can’t stretch I literally just sit with my back straight but not rigid and just focus on my posture being self sustaining WHILE relaxing every muscle as best I can. Breathing very deeply and slowly the whole time. It makes a HUGE difference. I did this for like MONTHS before incorporating stretches and exercises when I first started out.

But I can’t stress enough, focusing on breath is the best way to get the most out of stretching, and also stretching for a LONGER time and MORE GENTLY. When you want to stretch some elastic you don’t just tug it a few times and go that’s good enough! Even the mildest stretch held for two or three REALLY deep slow breaths is better than a bigger stretch for less time. Some days I can barely tip my head to the side but I hold it there for a minute or so and over that time I can FEEL the muscle letting up just a little. And that’s exactly the progress you want! Too much progress at once and you’ll cause all sorts of pain and pain is basically backwards progress to your physical body. It wants to avoid that even if your brain is thinking no pain no gain. You can’t help your body by working against it.

So that’s my PSA! Remember to breathe while stretching. If that is difficult, literally just practice breathing fully and deeply in and out (to your ability! I get that ppl have breathing problems and you’ll know yourself better than I can) and then add stretches to that. I’ve lived through a looooot of different physical issues where almost invariably being able to breathe deeply in order to trigger relaxation has helped tremendously. It’s a great skill especially if you have really bad anxiety that affects how you breathe (which was my case and I didn’t even know it until like. My late 20s.)

Also if the therapy breathing techniques don’t work for you don’t worry they don’t fucking work for me either LOL. I figured out what does work for me (the straw breathing so I can feel and hear when I’ve inhaled and exhaled completely) and it’s way better for me that counting in my head which has often made my anxiety much worse.

I’m inspired to stretch before I draw now so that’s a net positive anyway

[n0sewise]

followed my own advice today and thought about my anxiety carefully. like where was it in my body, why am i feeling this way, what are the solutions?

and ughhhhh it does kind of work. it does help to take a second and think about it and make the problems smaller

[dizzybevvie]

WOE SELF INSERT REDESIGN BE UPON YE!!!!!

[phantasticalcreator]

I will read a really esoteric, otherworldly description of an angel and be like ‘that is such a guy!!! Such a wonderful silly guy. I want to be their friend and make sure they’re okay.’