The Coloring Doesn't Work, That's For Sure! I Tried It, Really I Did, But I Soon Became Obsessed With

The coloring doesn't work, that's for sure! I tried it, really I did, but I soon became obsessed with how it looked and what colors to use for the best effect... yeah, I fell down deep into the rabbit hole.

As someone who has lived their entire life with anxiety, I am glad that this post exists. Thank you so much for sharing this bit of helpful information!

Why "doing something relaxing” does not help your anxiety

A lot of the time when people give advice intended to relieve anxiety, they suggest doing “relaxing” things like drawing, painting, knitting, taking a bubble bath, coloring in one of those zen coloring books, or watching glitter settle to the bottom of a jar.

This advice is always well-intentioned, and I’m not here to diss people who either give it or who benefit from it. But it has never, ever done shit for me, and this is because it goes about resolving anxiety in the completely wrong way.  

THE WORST THING YOU CAN DO when suffering from anxiety is to do a “relaxing” thing that just enables your mind to dwell and obsess more on the thing that’s bothering you. You need to ESCAPE from the dwelling and the obsession in order to experience relief.

You can drive to a quiet farm, drive to the beach, drive to a park, or anywhere else, but as someone who has tried it all many, many times, trust me–it’s a waste of gas. You will just end up still sad and stressed, only with sand on your butt. You can’t physically escape your sadness. Your sadness is inside of you. To escape, you need to give your brain something to play with for a while until you can approach the issue with a healthier frame of mind. 

People who have anxiety do not need more time to contemplate, because we will use it to contemplate how much we suck.

In fact, you could say that’s what anxiety is–hyper-contemplating. When we let our minds run free, they run straight into the thorn bushes. Our minds are already running, and they need to be controlled. They need to be given something to do, or they’ll destroy everything, just like an overactive husky dog ripping up all the furniture. 

Therefore, I present to you: 

THINGS YOU SHOULD NOT DO WHEN ANXIOUS

–Go on a walk

–Watch a sunset, watch fish in an aquarium, watch glitter, etc.

–Go anywhere where the main activity is sitting and watching

–Draw, color, do anything that occupies the hands and not the mind

–Do yoga, jog, go fishing, or anything that lets you mentally drift 

–Do literally ANYTHING that gives you great amounts of mental space to obsess and dwell on things.

THINGS YOU SHOULD DO WHEN ANXIOUS:

–Do a crossword puzzle, Sudoku, or any other mind teaser game. Crosswords are the best.

–Write something. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. Write the Top 10 Best Restaurants in My City. Rank celebrities according to Best Smile. Write some dumb Legolas fanfiction and rip it up when you’re done. It’s not for publication, it’s a relief exercise that only you will see. 

–Read something, watch TV, or watch a movie–as long as it’s engrossing. Don’t watch anything which you can run as background noise (like, off the top of my head, Say Yes to The Dress.) As weird as it seems, American Horror Story actually helps me a lot, because it sucks me in. 

–Masturbate. Yes, I’m serious. Your mind has to concentrate on the mini-movie it’s running. It can’t run Sexy Titillating Things and All The Things That are Bothering Me at the same time. (…I hope. If it can, then…ignore this one.) 

–Do math problems—literally, google “algebra problems worksheet” and solve them. If you haven’t done math since 7th grade this will really help you. I don’t mean with math, I mean with the anxiety. 

–Play a game or a sport with someone that requires great mental concentration. Working with 5 people to get a ball over a net is a challenge which will require your brain to turn off the Sadness Channel. 

–Play a video game, as long as it’s not something like candy crush or Tetris that’s mindless. 

THINGS YOU SHOULD DO DURING PANIC ATTACKS ESPECIALLY:

–List the capitals of all the U.S. states

–List the capitals of all the European countries

–List all the shapes you can see. Or all the colors. 

–List all the blonde celebrities you can think of.

–Pull up a random block of text and count all the As in it, or Es or whatever.  

Now obviously, I am not a doctor. I am just an anxious person who has tried almost everything to help myself.  I’ve finally realized that the stuff people recommend never works because this is a disorder that thrives on free time and free mental space. When I do the stuff I listed above, I can breathe again. And I hope it helps someone here too. 

(Now this shouldn’t have to be said but if the “do nots” work for you then by all means do them. They’ve just never worked for me.)

Ao3 is actually massively culturally important and very very good at being what it is. I’m so serious when I say that ao3 needs to be protected as the anti censorship, by fans for fans, nonprofit, volunteer run, expertly designed archival site that it is. You don’t have to read or like fanfiction to understand that on principle, ao3 is a site that should be defended.

I have Schizoaffective Disorder, does that count as ND? I saw that Schizophrenia was on the list, and I WAS originally diagnosed with that when I had my mental breakdown.

For those who don't know about Schizoaffective Disorder, it is a mental disorder. There are three types: Bipolar (Manic) Type [mix of Schizophrenia and Mania], Depressive Type [mix of Schizophrenia and Depression], and Mixed Type [a combination of all three].

I have Bipolar Type, personally. If you want more information, I will put some links to various sites explaining the disorder.

Mayo Clinic

Schizoaffective disorder - Symptoms and causes

Here is a list of famous people with Schizoaffective Disorder:

 Brian Wilson

Catherine Zeta-Jones

Britney Spears

Vincent van Gogh

 Louis Wain

Virginia Woolf

Allison Schmitt 

John Nash

Jordan Burnham

Michael Angel

And there are more famous people with this disorder than this!

OC87 Recovery Diaries

Medication Adherence and my Schizoaffective Journey - OC87 Recovery Diaries

Life with psychotic symptoms, hallucinations, delusions and paranoia is hard enough, but when coupled with suspicions of medication; it can

This is the story of a young woman who has struggled with Schizoaffective Disorder. It advocates the need to stay on your meds unless a psychiatrist says it is safe to do so.

Sorry for the really long re-blog, but I felt the need to teach people about this.

fuck it. shout out to "high functioning" neurodivergents

the ones who can mask easily, the ones who can get social cues, the ones who have managed to go most of their life not even knowing they were ND because they didn't present as the stereotypical ND person.

the ones who can pay attention in class, understand social etiquette, who understand societial expectations

the ones who don't feel neurodivergent enough bc they don't struggle in the same ways/areas a lot of NDs do, or they can't relate to other NDs' experiences because they always understood these things easily

the ones with high empathy, the ones who DO get the joke, the ones who are constantly told that they can't possibly be neurodivergent because they don't act like what you'd expect a neurodivergent person to act like.

you are neurodivergent enough. you are valid, and so are your experiences. not struggling as much as others do in some places doesn't mean you dont struggle at all. your condition and diagnosis is valid. your symptoms are valid. YOU ARE VALID. not checking all the supposed boxes doesn't mean you aren't neurodivergent. you are enough. you are valid. you are loved. you are valued. you matter. you belong in neurodivergent spaces, you deserve to use whatever resources are available to you, you are allowed to take up space in these communities. and i am so, so proud of you.

feel free to, and actually, i encourage you to reblog this with your experiences. we belong in this community as much as anyone else. please also tag this w/ any neurodivergent conditions i may have forgotten 💙

since this is getting lots of notes I'd like to add, even if you're undiagnosed or maybe self diagnosed, for whatever reason, (i.e. can't get access to a diagnosis, not being taken seriously, or just not wanting an official diagnosis, etc.) this still applies to you. actually especially to you folks. don't think for a second you're not valid just bc you don't have the paperwork or whatever to say it

If you're reading this, you've won The Game. It's over, it's done, and you can breathe. Now any time you see posts telling you that you lost The Game, you can smile, shake your head, and feel sorry for all of those OTHER people who are still playing The Game, while being glad that you yourself are free.

"But that's not how The Game works-"

If someone can arbitrarily decide that everyone on Earth is playing The Game, someone else can arbitrarily decide there's a way to win.

Congratulations on your win!! Celebrate with a treat of your choice.

I agree, he would make a great Dad. Yeah, he wouldn't really know where to start, but he would definitely treat the kid(s) the way he wanted his own dad to treat him. I think he needs an understanding partner to help him sort things out and help care for the kid(s)!

NOTE: I am NOT a fan of Dabi x Reader Fics. I feel uncomfortable picturing myself doing anything romantic/sexual with any character/anybody. That being said, I am okay with reading smut between two characters. In fact, I ship DabiDeku. I know that it would never happen in canon, but who cares?

So my hot-take fanon of the week is this.

A lot of people say Dabi/Touya does not want kids, because ✨daddy issues✨

I honestly believe the opposite, I think the compulsion to out do Endeavor includes the idea of having kids, he knows it’s not a good idea, but that doesn’t stop him from wanting it.

To be the dad he never had. He doesn’t know the first thing about parenting (obv) but he does know what not to do.

Not saying he would be the best Dad in the world but he would try his damndest. He would do everything he wished he could’ve done with his dad, giving his kid(s) a fun time while healing his own inner child.

He’d definitely be one of those dads that is like the wife/baby mama/ s/o has a adult child. He’d be just as dumb as the kids, and they’d all get in to trouble like ‘fuck mom is gonna kill me’ causing the kid(s) to giggle themselves half to death.

He wouldn’t care about how powerful their quirks were, or if they even had any, he’d love them no matter what and would in a second jump to burn the world for his family. The family he chose and that chose him.

just my two cents tho.

smutty p.s : totally has a breeding kink, man stuffs you like a Twinkie and you can’t tell me otherwise. possible breastfeeding kink, cus you know mans also has mommy issues. (same tho)

i’d literally die for him.

OMXL!!!!! This looks amazing! I love cosplay, but I'm not good at making my own. This is just...amazing! I didn't think Dabi could get any hotter...I WAS WRONG!!! Who is this cosplayer? I need to know so I can check out their other cosplays!

ALL YOU DABI FUCKERS LOOK AT THIS COSPLAY

@dabislittlemouse