#writing a book about mental health

[curiousbristories]

Photo by Stormseeker on Unsplash

Ember

[melloncolliegalaxies]

[deoidesign]

HI I think I sent an ask a while back about having recently found TaTA and a) if it came off as trying to rush/guilt you. I am so sorry because that was NOT my intent, and b) I can hugely guarantee you have at least one person who will eat up any return, no matter when it happens, because I care about the guys so much 🥺 really looking forward to whatever comes next!!

Oh, I appreciate this a lot thank you!

Tbh it's a stress I would have regardless of anyone asking me about it, I'm probably the biggest one rushing and guilting myself on it. Which might contribute to some of the burnout I had...

My complaints are more about people who are demanding "more content daddy" or asking me if I'm dead or asking on every single post I make where it is... Wondering when it's coming back is completely reasonable, it's been a long time! but there's definitely a line haha

my editor also keeps randomly scheduling me and then saying "oh, btw you're scheduled to return in 3 weeks. Is that alright?" And I have to keep saying no, that's not alright??? And then dealing with that process...

I could write an essay about all the reasons it's not back yet, but that doesn't help me feel any less pressured, and it doesn't help you all get the rest of the comic any faster...

As of right now I'm scheduled to and trying to return october 21. No official announcement yet cause I have to do a lot of work in that time, but it's my official goal at least. When we get closer I'll be able to say for sure whether it's coming back on that date!

[findmeinthefallair]

I know Dana and co. would've pushed for the mid-October release date of Thanks to Them because it's close to Halloween, but it's interesting that the official poster release, to kick off the hype,

was in September which is Suicide Prevention month (10th September is World Suicide Prevention Day).

The episode itself was released in October, which is not only our beloved spooky month but also Mental Health Awareness Month (10th October is World Mental Health Day).

It was massively anticipated and was the first of the three specials, and had a profound impact on countless people who felt a connection to the characters, especially Luz and Hunter, at a new level, shedding more light on darkness to create more understanding.

There are allegories of mental health, especially in this part of their arcs (one example is Luz telling the group that she had set the events linked to the Day of Unity into motion, the other is Hunter being possessed), that are truly impressive and which come with fantasy elements.

[monstersinthecosmos]

gotta stop checking tumblr before I have caffeine because all my principles fly out the window and i feel like i'm gonna start being an obnoxious asshole when i see people citing events in their book posts that literally did not happen :SOB:

[usefulquotes7]

Tell me about every bandage, every wound, pain, scar; and let me love you anyway.

[puddingvalkyrie]

Reading massively improved my mental health and I want to talk about it in case it can help others!

Y'all, I think we all need to read more books.

I know I'm an author so I WOULD say that and in fact, I DO say that to children at every opportunity (my dyslexia would be a LOT worse if I hadn't read so much as a kid) but hear me out.

So back in ...March/April I was pretty miserable and it was partly because Norwegian winter will do that to an unprepared foreigner but also because it was the anniversary of The Bad Thing so I felt miserable and alone.

I had no way to really remedy the situation.

But one thing I did do was... Finally crack. See, I'd been DYING to reread my Discworld books, but they are in a different country and I can't afford to go get them or have them sent to me. I have a few paper books here though - I mainly took my fairytale collections, because what did you expect? Actually I guess hardly anyone on Tumblr knows me - Alicia does two things. Vampires. And Fairytales. Didn't bring my vampire encyclopedia, too big and heavy. Anyway.

I have a part time job with an hour on the train each way. I started taking my paper books, my fairytale collections. They were full of short things I could finish easily in a train journey.

Some info. I had managed to sour reading for myself some years previously... I mainly read for research purposes, hardly picking up anything just for the fun of it. PSA: Don't do this. Do not do this. Don't. Do NOT.

And then I reread one of the few paper fiction books I had with me. I enjoy fairytales but they do still fall under 'sort of work' for me. This did not. This was a book I am eagerly awaiting the finale to.

Anyway, I finished it quickly, reading it both on and off the train. You know. For fun. Not just fill time I was stuck somewhere.

Finishing it annoyed me. I wanted more stories. I wanted more than fairytales. And so I cracked. I bought Equal Rites as an ebook. See, I'd previously decided I would not buy anything I already owned in paperback as an ebook because... Well, waste of money, something I don't have enough of. To buy my entire discworld collection in ebook format would cost as much as getting on a plane and bringing my paper ones back.

But just ONE book would be alright, wouldn't it?

So anyway I finished the book.

Of course I'm not going to read just ONE discworld book.

So I carefully ration myself ebooks, making a condition for myself that they are mainly for the train, but I am allowed to read them at home too.

And gradually... The fog lifted. Nothing much has changed besides that I'm reading books regularly again. I still have the same problems that were upsetting me in March. I was also HORRIBLY BURNED OUT until last week. But my mood is MASSIVELY improved. Like, hugely improved. And yeah, yeah, it's summer now, so the weather will have helped also. But I can pinpoint my recovery to when I started reading regularly again. And that is to say that while I was burned out, I wasn't ALSO sad.

So from now on I will be making an effort to keep reading books for fun.

It's kind of crazy that I had stopped for so long. I mean. I write books people are supposed to read for fun. Kinda hypocritical of me to like.. not do that.

I think maybe I have created this problem for myself with many of my hobbies. I tried to make drawing into a business, tried to do too much too fast, and since then I've barely drawn. I love cartoons so I watch them in Norwegian to help me learn - means I was never just relaxing while watching a cartoon for a few years. Recently started just watching cartoons in English/Japanese if I darn well feel like it.

...enough tangent, back to Why Reading Is Good.

Don't quote me on this, I am just scribbling down thoughts I've been meaning to write down for a month, therefore, am too lazy to track down any sources, but I'm pretty sure reading books is actually scientifically proven to help your brain?? I seem to remember reading your hippocampus shrinks if you don't exercise your brain enough and reading long stories does that. And a shrinking hippocampus causes depression?? I don't know anything much about brains and psychology so I must have read that somewhere.

I think a hippocampus is also like... A horse mermaid.

Again, no source, might be thinking of something from Mermaid Melody.

I'mma go read more of my current book now. It's a history book this time.

Yay books!

[fluentisonus]

idk how people find les mis boring when i'm like tearing my hair out on the verge of tears for most of the hundreds & hundreds of pages the main character is one the page (<- only slightly an exaggeration.)

[leavemeslowly]

I wish I had enough power and self-restraint to hold my life firmly with two hands and never let go, never let my mind wonder and think about other possibilities or different outcomes.

[sharry-arry-odd]

But the challenge of coming up with a fresh look for one's psycho is really just a cover for a deeper dilemma: evil has no face, except perhaps in the mirror. Let's say, for example, that you're reading this book on the train to work. Now look around. Who among you is the liar, the adulterer, the thief? What about the arsonist, the psychopath, the cannibal? Really, it could be anyone. History is full of ordinary folks doing horrible things for no good reason. In stories, however, this homely truth strikes as unconvincing. We don't buy it. At least not in trade paperback. So fiction is left with a paradoxical task, one that religion, psychology, and the daily news all fail to achieve: to make reality believable.

The Serialist, by David Gordon

[omnist-angels]

Does anyone have any book/documentary/whatever else recs about mental illness + religion that has a neutral/positive attitude towards both? I think it's so interesting how mentally ill people find religion, how our neurodivergency informs our theology, and the different ways religion makes our mental health worse and better. I'm particularly interested in autism, anorexia, and agoraphobia cause that's me, but I'll read about any and all neurodiversity and any and all religions cause I'm an omnist thank you in advance ��

[curiousbristories]

Photo by blocks on Unsplash

Rory

[froggywritessometims]

ive been thinking about writing a story about a person in a psychiatrist hospital and it would be told from their journal entries and notes by doctors (like therapy notes and nurses observations) about psychiatric abuse and anti psychiatry

[elodieunderglass]

I really like the idea that one of the weird lurkers of your blog (like me) just hangs around looking for inspiration to write papers about. Like I realize that's not how it probably actually went down, but 2017 to 2022 seems like a pretty reasonable lead time from reading your post to conducting the research to writing and publishing the paper.

In reference to this:

It’s amusing that the original post only got 22 notes (likes), but when I looked at it again it had 19, which I’m choosing to interpret as the authors sheepishly withdrawing their likes in order to preserve their anonymity.

I think they probably just googled the phrase “friends to lovers pathway” before using it as the title of their paper and pulled up my post, or the other alternative being that the post popped onto their timeline when they were in the early stages of manuscript prep, and it was a moment of academic serendipity. I definitely don’t think I inspired the work in any way - just the quote and title. But it’s funny to imagine being studied.

I should say that I don’t necessarily expect permission to be asked if people intend to prosper or advance their careers from my words or art. However, I do appreciate the courtesy of being told that it’s happened. So far I’ve been quoted in a published book, quoted to name an academic paper, a person is actively selling plushies and other merchandise based on a post of mine while claiming that it’s their intellectual property actually, and screenshots of my work are regularly considered hilarious enough to steal but not pay me for. (the cricket post in particular was screencapped, went viral on Twitter some years ago without reference to me, was shared around BBC journalist twitter, and hundreds of people in the media industry said things like ‘lol we should pay this person to write’ …. in the apparent ignorance of the fact that if they had asked I would probably be open to…. Being paid to write……… and all the other times my posts have broken containment to go viral on other platforms for other people, with comments about how I should be commissioned to write a book; obviously that’s a normal part of online journalism and media, and I’m not naive about it, but it’s a bit much to for these people to be enriching their platforms with screencapped content, without the OP’s knowledge let alone consent, and joking about how they should pay for it or would read a whole book about it, when they’re the only people who could actually do something about it in the nightmare media landscape.) And nobody told me about any of these examples, I always find out by trying to retrieve links to my own stuff, or by friends telling me that someone else has gone so viral with my recognisable work that it got around to them.

Anyway if you do use my stuff in your own stuff, do let me know! I’m not here to prosper, but I am here to connect, and I’m quite willing to link your paper (and write a lay summary for free), buy your book or art, make your acquaintance, promote your work, or just add it to my portfolio - because if I ever DID want to prosper from my work here, which I wouldn’t usually consider except that it is evidently peer-reviewed good-enough-for-others-to-prosper-from, all of that would be valuable and helpful for me to know.

[throughdarkeningskies]

trying to write a book about the same 2 characters for like 5 years except I never figured out what was wrong with the story and now I have mega turbo writer's block that I might never recover from. the two of you are never getting out of here, but neither am I. do you want to get ice cream

[crayonurchin]

So yesterday marked what I think might be a new chapter of self healing and growth in me, and with my inner child.

You hear it a lot- 'heal your inner child', and tbh I always just thought it was a nice sentiment about accepting hurt in your past.

Yesterday, I had a very severe mental health episode with my OCD, and I realised I couldn't handle it, and had to have an emergency session with my therapist. She guided me though the panic attack and helped me untangle the web of intrusive thoughts that had me trapped in a loop. I'm so fortunate to have such a brilliant longterm pyschotherapist working with me.

Anyway. She used a mixture of emotional guidance and science to finally show to me how the inner child is behaving when you're in a crisis. That kid is panicking, they're doing anything they can to survive, they're using the skills they had to learn to stay alive when they were being hurt.

And then there's you. The adult. You're also there, but, you're still letting this child look after you. And that is not fair to that poor little kid. They should never have had to suffer, struggle and survive the way they did.

Well, you're an adult now. For better or for worse, that kid is yours. And your job is to protect them. Validate them. Let them know that you will personally never let them be hurt the way they were again.

I was a victim of online grooming from ages 10-19. I was forcibly shown sexual content, made to be peoples therapists, forced to stay awake for literal DAYS just so a grown adult could have a power play with me. And the child in me adapted to make sure that never happened to her again.

And it won't. Because I will take care of her. She doesn't have to fight anymore, an adult is going to look after her.

My OCD is severe, but it is not impossible for me to thrive. All my intrusive thoughts and feelings are valid, my mistakes are okay, my worries aren't evil and my condition will not rule me. I accept it. I thank it for showing me I still have work to do. And I love my inner child, exactly as she is, trauma and all. We're gonna enjoy the little things she loved, and my job is to look after us both.

Yesterday I felt like a failure for reaching out for help. Today, I want to give yesterdays me a big kiss on the forehead and thank her. I'm nowhere in the clear but I'm ready to keep pushing on.