Putting this as its own post because it deserves to be its own post.
If you want to be good at any kind of art you have to take the part of your brain that tells you “everything must be a wholly original idea formed in a perfect clean room environment” and you have to rip that synapse out of your skull, put it through a shredder, stomp on it, light it on fire, then pour it into acid, because it’s a liar and will never ever help you.
hey y'all – if you have a buck, consider donating to help a friend of a friend open a permanent shop to stabilize his livelihood. more info:
Please help us secure a permanent home for our friend Ismail and his amazing food truck! Ismail is from a small town near Hebron in the West Bank of Palestine. Since his arrival in Franklin County in 2020 he has made friends and community wherever he goes. He opened the Mohawk Felafel and Shawarma food truck in Greenfield in 2022 and it immediately became a favorite destination for people looking for a friendly interaction and a tasty meal.
He has tried multiple locations for the truck over the past year and half but the difficulties of not having a permanent place to run the business have been an impediment to his success. We know he is capable of great things, both with his truck and with his ability to bring people together to build community and a better world wherever he goes. Being able to purchase property is unfortunately a privilege that is getting harder to access. We believe our community is generous and will come together to share resources to make this dream possible for our friend. Please join us and dig deep! No contribution is too big or too small.
[ID: a tweet by National Park Service. It reads: “Did you know if you hold an ermine to your ear you can hear what it’s like to be attacked by an ermine?” Below is a photo of an ermine on its hind legs. It is a weasel-like creature. /end ID]
[ID: an ermine(?) with an expression that looks like they’re plotting something /end ID]
I would be the worst spy of all time because on one hand I overshare like hell, but on the other hand I also have THE shittiest memory so it’s really a lose/lose scenario for everyone involved.
guy interrogating me: What’s the passcode?
me: Ah fuck. I think it might be 792…..4?
me: Actually no I think it starts with a 2.
me:
me: Yeah I usually just rely on muscle memory for it. Do you think you could get a keypad in here? That might be faster.
guy interrogating me: who do you work for?!
me: Okay, so this is super embarrassing. I know he told me his name when we first met but I forgot and at this point it would be weird if I asked him for his name again, right? So I just kind of go with “sir” whenever I have to talk to him. It might be David though. He looks like a David.
me, after being extracted: bad news guys, I totally blew Dave’s cover.
my boss: Wait, what?
me: Yeah, like they had knives and shit and it was kind of stressful so I just told them that my contact’s name was David Johnson. Really sorry about that.
boss: We don’t have a David Johnson working for us. Are you thinking of James?
me:
me: Good news, guys, I did not blow James’ cover!
Enemy 1: So, how did the interrogation go?
Enemy 2: We got nothing. All they did was ramble on about their childhood trauma for two hours.
Enemy 1: Hmm. maybe lower the dose of the truth serum next time.
My face is having uncontrollable spasms. Great. It hurts really, really, really bad.
I think part of why I have trouble explaining pain to the doctor is when they ask about the pain scale I always think “Well, if someone threw me down a flight of stairs right now or punched me a few times, it would definitely hurt a lot more” so I end up saying a low number. I was reading an article that said that “10” is the most commonly reported number and that is baffling to me. When I woke up from surgery with an 8" incision in my body and I could hardly even speak, I was in the most horrific pain of my life but I said “6” because I thought “Well, if you hit me in the stomach, it would be worse.”
I searched and searched for the post this graphic was from, and the OP deactivated, but I kept the graphic, because my BFF does the same thing, uses her imagination to come up with the worst pain she can imagine and pegs her “10″ there, and so is like, well, I’m conscious, so this must be a 5, and then the doctors don’t take her seriously. (And she then does things like driving herself to the hospital while in the process of giving birth. Probably should have called an ambulance for that one!)
So I found this and sent it to her. Because this is what they want to know: how badly is this pain affecting you? Not on a scale of “nothing” to “how I’d imagine it’d feel if bears were eating my still-living guts while I was on fire”.
I hate reposting stuff, but I’ll never find that post again and OP is deactivated, so, here’s a repost. I can delete this later, i just wanted to get it to you and I can’t embed images in a chat or an ask.
This is possibly why it took several weeks to diagnose my fractured spine.
Pain Scale transcription:
10 - I am in bed and I can’t move due to my pain. I need someone to take me to the emergency room because of my pain.
9 - My pain is all that I can think about. I can barely move or talk because of my pain.
8 - My pain is so severe that it is difficult to think of anything else. Talking and listening are difficult.
7 - I am in pain all the time. It keeps me from doing most activities.
6 - I think about my pain all of the time. I give up many activities because of my pain.
5 - I think about my pain most of the time. I cannot do some of the activities I need to do each day because of the pain.
4 - I am constantly aware of my pain but can continue most activities.
3 - My pain bothers me but I can ignore it most of the time.
2 - I have a low level of pain. I am aware of my pain only when I pay attention to it.
1 - My pain is hardly noticeable.
0 - I have no pain.
It’s also really important to get this kind of scale to people who have chronic pain, because chronic pain drastically lowers your perception of how “bad” any kind of pain actually is, and yet something like this pain scale is extremely user friendly.
For example, if someone asked me how much pain I’m in at any given time, I’d say hardly any, and yet I’m apparently at a chronic 2.5, and it only goes up from there depending on the day.
1 - Everything is a-okay! There is absolutely nothing wrong. You’re probably cuddling a fluffy kitten right now. Enjoy!
2 - You’re a bit frustrated or disappointed, but you’re easily distracted and cheered up with a little effort.
3 - Things are bothering you, but you’re coping. You might be overtired or hungry. The emotional equivalent of a headache.
MODERATE
4 - Today is a bad day (or a few bad days). You still have the skills to get through it, but be gentle with yourself. Use self-care strategies.
5 - Your mental health is starting to impact on your everyday life. Easy things are becoming difficult. You should talk to your doctor.
6 - You can’t do things the way you usually do them due to your mental health. Impulsive and compulsive thoughts may be hard to cope with.
SEVERE
7 - You’re avoiding things that make you more distressed, but that will make it worse. You should definitely seek help. This is serious.
8 - You can’t hide your struggles any more. You may have issues sleeping, eating, having fun, socialising, and work/study. Your mental health is affecting almost all parts of your life.
9 - You’re at a critical point. You aren’t functioning any more. You need urgent help. You may be a risk to yourself or others if left untreated.
10 - The worst mental and emotional distress possible. You can no longer care for yourself. You can’t imagine things getting any worse. Contact a crisis line immediately.
These are so important! SO SO IMPORTANT SHARE THIS AND SAVE IT TO SHOW YOUR DOCTORS!
This is the first time I’ve seen the fatigue scale, and HOLY MOLY that’s a revelation!!! These should be on all hospital and doctor office walls.
I’ve never seen the mental health one! or the fatigue one! I printed out the pain one and gave it to my GP.
[ID: a tweet from user Cydni Beer that reads, “We just waited an hour to see our pediatrician. As soon as he walked in my toddler took his hand and pointed to his watch and said ‘This is a clock.’ Which was the most passive aggressive thing I have ever witnessed.” -end ID]
Tumblr: Only neurotypical people do X. Neurodivergent people never do X. It’s literally never necessary to do X, and if you do, you are by definition acting out of malice.
Neurodivergent person whose neurodivergence primarily expresses itself as X:
Example –
Person A: Why don’t people just tell you when they want you to do something?
Person B: Well, very direct requests are likely to be misinterpreted as orders, and it’s often not appropriate to give a person orders, so couching the request in indirect language avoids that possibility.
Person A: Why would anyone interpret a request as an order? Only neurotypical people do that. That’s crazy. Neurotypical people are crazy.
Every single autistic person who needs the phrasing of requests to thread the needle like Luke Skywalker blowing up the fucking Death Star because if it’s too indirect they’ll take it as an observational statement, but if it’s too direct their brain immediately goes into “fuck you, don’t order me around” mode and refuses to do anything at all:
Example 2 –
Person A: Why do people who don’t like you pretend to be cool with you, then make up excuses not to hang out with you?
Person B: Well, people often experience being told they’re not liked or not welcome as a form of harm, and react to “defend” themselves from that harm, so a person might make excuses either because they want to avoid hurting you, or because they want to avoid a confrontation.
Person A: Why would anyone be hurt by being told to go away? Only neurotypical people do that. That’s crazy. Neurotypical people are crazy.
Every single person whose ADHD is comorbid with rejection-sensitive dysphoria:
I’m not sure what’s more predictable – the people seeing this post and coming to me like “okay, but I’m the exception, my communication style really IS objectively correct and everybody else is either crazy or evil”, or the people who are clearly going up the thread to reblog a version without the RSD example.
[ID: A gif from Blackadder, of a man in Tudor clothing looking confused and irritated. All three gifs are the same. End ID.]
