If you want a cat or need a cat or you have a cat but your cat has its own cat business to be getting on with and does not want to sit and purr for you for hours at a time, good news!
A group of rough looking boys walked past me today and all I heard of their conversation was “he’s got that anxiety disorder bro so I went with him so he’d be more comfortable” and it made me realise the world isn’t all that bad
The pet store I worked at had a pen with rabbits near the front door. On every side of the pen were huge signs saying “You can pet me, but don’t pick me up!” One day two absolutely huge guys came in and one immediately reaches into the pen to grab a rabbit. Before i could say anything his friend grabbed his arm and asked him “did you see the sign?” He said “yeah! it says that you can pick them up but don’t pet them!” Then he went quiet for a moment and softly said “I didn’t read it right did I?” And his friend just puts his arm on his shoulder and said “its ok, i know you’ve got that thing where words get mixed up. Let just pet these cute lil shits” And I still haven’t gotten over that interaction.
I was walking my dog through Boston bc he likes the likes car rides. He’s a little thing tbh we call him short and long. So this huge scary man with a full beard approaches me like “hey can my buddy and I pet your dog? He gets nervous around dogs but your’s is so small I think it’s a good place to start.” Ofc I was like “yes he’s very friendly!” So this guy brings his equally big friend over and they sit on the floor while this man looks terrified of my tiny dog so big man number one asks “can I pick him up?” And i say yes so he picks him up and puts him on man number two’s lap and man number two is abt to freak out and his friend straight up just goes “hey man, it’s okay just relax I’d never let anything hurt you. He’s a good boy.” I’ll never forget it ever bc I know that man looked at me (5’3 , glasses, probably wearing a sweater vest) and my dog (kinda goofy looking little thing) and was like ‘ah yes the two least intimidating living things I’ve seen in Boston all day he’ll feel relaxed around them’ and went out of his way to help his friend. It makes me so happy
There are days in life when you can spend the entire day doing and saying everything correctly. All of it, down to the wire, 100% correct–
–and someone is still going to tell you that you’re wrong about something.
People that grew up in healthy households can run into this, choose to walk away from the situation, shake it off, or figure out a way to explain to the other person that either a) they’re wrong or b) it doesn’t matter, depending on how unreasonable the person is being.
People that grew up in abusive households, or survived abusive relationships?
When we do everything 100% right and then someone we care about comes along to tell us, INSIST at us, that something we’ve said/done is wrong?
It’s not something you can shake off. It’s not something you can just make Not Matter in your head. Parts of our lives–significant parts–are us being told by people we care about/love that we’re wrong. No matter how well we do, no matter how perfect our facts, no matter that we’re 100% right? We’re wrong because the other person says so, and they will tear you down until you admit that “no, of course, you’re right, I was wrong” or you walk away sobbing while they mock you for being so emotional for something so insignificant, aren’t you so immature, not like a Real Adult would act, isn’t that funny?
Once you’ve told us we’re wrong, we don’t shake it off. We retreat, curl up in a corner, and have a full-blown PTSD meltdown because a loved one has just stomped all over what little sense of self-worth we’ve figured out how to build.
If we’re lucky, we get to do this while being left alone.
When we’re not lucky, the loved one who did the stomping will come along demanding to know what the fucking problem is while you’re having your PTSD meltdown.
In both situations, they’re going to get frustrated that you spend the rest of the day unhappy, irritable, sad, in tears, and/or angry. What created that trigger wasn’t their fault. You both know that.
I’m reposting this, with original tags, not because I need hugs or things (though those were awesome and appreciated) but because I think there are people who need to hear this who might’ve missed the post the first time through.
When you struggle with your mental health on a daily basis, it can be hard to take action on the things that matter most to you. The mental barriers anxiety creates often appear insurmountable. But sometimes, when you really need to, you can break those barriers down. This week, with encouragement from some great people on the internet, I pushed against my anxiety and made some calls to members of our government. Here’s a comic about how you can do that, too. (Resources and transcript below.)
Motivational resources: There are a lot! Here are a few I really like:
Sharon Wong posted a great series of tweets that helped me manage my phone anxiety and make some calls.
Kelsey is tweeting pretty much daily with advice and reminders about calling representatives. I found this tweet an especially great reminder that calls aren’t nearly as big a deal as anxiety makes them out to be.
Informational resources: There are a lot of these, as well! These three are good places to start:
Have you ever been listening to Rainymood and thought, “Yeah, this is good … but it would be nice if I could customize the sound more, or if there was a little more choice.
MyNoise is a customizable sounscape looper with so many options, even within each soundscape. So say, for instance, you really love rain sounds when you write or study or relax. Anything. I know I’m a big fan of rain sounds. They have a page for that.
But say you like really high, pattery rain, and LOTS of low thunder. Here’s where MyNoise really stands out: you can customize that. See those sliders with all the cute colors? That is your equalizer. You can adjust the levels based on what you want to hear more and less of. Here’s how it looks when you want high, pattery rain and low, rumbly thunder:
But say rain isn’t really your jam. Say you want something a little more ambient, a little more background noise-y. Something with people. Well, they have customizable coffee house chatter that even has the levels listed for things like “kitchen,” “babble,” and “table”:
Or say you miss the ocean.
Or say you miss your cat.
Or say you miss your spaceship.
Or say you miss the dungeon where you and your team of scalawag adventurers used to explore and face off against, say, dragons. In the dungeon.
This site is seriously so helpful, and those are just a fraction of every kind of sounscape the site has to offer. The best part is that if you want to layer it with music (for instance, I’ll layer a playlist + rain + coffee shop if the scene I’m writing takes place in a coffee shop), you can adjust the master volume, meaning all of your layers stay at their respective volumes, just louder or quieter.
rice questions – answer simple questions and donate free rice to people in poverty!!
click to give –
just click a button to donate (it costs nothing) food to animals
shelters, people in poverty and homeless veterans; mammograms to fight
breast cancer; therapy for people on the autism spectrum; alzheimer’s
and diabetes research; a book to a child; protect wildlife habitat
Steel Phoenix Studios 
