It Can't Rain All The Time

alltheverses:

autisticpride:

xxxcastielx:

slow-burn-sally:

Someone in an autism facebook group I’m in just asked “How am I supposed to earn enough to make a living without burning out?”

Someone replied: “You’re not. Even neurotypicals can’t right now in the system designed for them. We’re the canaries in the coalmine. When we start failing, they know something is wrong.”

People keep saying, “Oh, everyone thinks they’re neurodivergent now!” or they’ll say it’s the foods or chemicals or whatever other nonsense they’ve fallen for, but to me the answer is so obvious?

We’ve gotten to a point that more and more people are being left behind by the system, making it so that neurodivergent parents who could get by fine *enough* in decades/centuries past are bringing children into a world that cannot and will not attempt to accommodate them. There’s nothing in the water and people aren’t faking, it’s just that this is no longer sustainable or livable and of course people with disabilities will be hit first and hit the hardest. There aren’t more people with it, it’s just harder to go through life without being aware that you’re not functioning the way your peers seem to be able to.

Something that a lot of people miss is that in diagnostic manuals, everything, in order to be diagnosed, must cause problems. That’s what makes it a disorder.

This is usually phrased, in the DSM, as “Symptoms cause clinically significant [distress or] impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of [current] functioning.” with very little variation, and seems more varied in the ICD, but is still present.

This is a requirement for diagnosis. You can have all the symptoms/traits of something, but if it doesn’t cause problems, it isn’t a disorder, and can’t be diagnosed.

The pressures of society have been increasing, and the ability to take time for yourself has been decreasing (see: the expectation that everyone is available all the time), as has privacy.

That is why “more people” are neurodivergent now. Because more people are hitting their threshold.

——

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This is both a place where the medical model of disability fails people AND a thing to keep in mind if you have been diagnosed

That is:

Not having a diagnosis is not proof that you don’t experience something, it may merely mean that the clinician does not believe it to be causing (sufficient) problems

AND

That if you DO have a diagnosis, kill the cop in your head that says it “isn’t that bad”

(Also there is no threshold of suffering you must endure to relieve help or relief)

(via adarkroomandawallflower)

sasoreo:

Saturday night sketching funtimes🌙

(via telurin)

allthecanadianpolitics:

Manitoba PCs promise expanded parental rights in schools if re-elected | CBC News

The Manitoba Progressive Conservatives say they want to expand parents' rights over what their children learn in school if re-elected this f

CBC

The Manitoba Progressive Conservatives say they want to expand parents’ rights over what their children learn in school if re-elected this fall.

While some community members applaud the move, which they say would address concerns over materials they consider inappropriate, others worry it could lead to a chilling effect on teachers.

“The teachers and school staff do incredible work educating our kids, but parents want to know what’s going on in the day-to-day lives of their children,” PC Leader Heather Stefanson said at a campaign announcement in St. Vital Park on Thursday.

The Public Schools Act enshrines seven basic rights of parents. Those rights include the right to be part of a parent advisory council and to consult with teachers about academic achievement.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

(Source: cbc.ca)

animate-mush:

I have said it before but I’ll say it again because it’s topical: it’s very important to me that Stoker consistently spares his characters the hard choices. Heck, he flinches so hard at times (like here) that it almost becomes a flaw in his writing, but the upshot is: no one in this novel is punished for love.

Dracula left Whitby two days ago, on the 17th. Lucy is doing so much better it’s not even funny. Arthur is at last on his way. Mina’s duty is discharged. And now, only now, does the letter from Hungary arrive. Only now that Mina is free to act on it.

Mina is never forced to choose between Lucy and Jonathan

Mina leaving now does not influence Lucy’s storyline in the least. (The dates for the rest of the month are a MESS, but we’re gonna blame Dracula for that). Mina and Lucy were always going to part ways at the end of the summer, Lucy returning to Hillingham to prepare for her wedding and Mina presumably to Exeter (three hours away by train) to prepare for hers. Lucy’s sleepwalking has ceased and all her color and gaiety has returned - there is no advantage to Mina staying in Whitby and finishing out her vacation (except, maybe, catching a break and having a nice time) now that Dracula is gone.

@thethirdromana calculated that a letter from Budapest to London should take two days and a bit, plus another part of a day down to Exeter and another up to Whitby. What if Jonathan’s letter had arrived the 15th, instead of the 19th, when Mina is too stressed to even diary and Lucy is “as weak as water” and crying in her arms. What would she have done then? And either decision she would have had to live with the guilt of abandoning someone. (Personally I think she would have chosen Lucy, who is actively dying, since Jonathan’s situation is stable and he’s being actively taken care of. Going to Jonathan is the “selfish” choice. So I think she would stay, and hate herself for it).

But Stoker (big ol softie that he is) spares her the choice. She can do the “selfish” thing with no consequences, because our man Bramothy refuses to punish his characters for loving each other

thatgirlwithadhd:

thatgirlwithadhd:

Me gritting my teeth and clutching a pencil: everyone making amazing art on tumblr also had to go through a phase of making terrible art that was objectively crappy and didn’t live up to their expectations. It’s just that they did it when they were 13 and I’m doing it when I’m 25. My beginner art is just as good as anyone else’s beginner art

ALT

You relish what you can do regardless of where you’re at. I know that sounds like a cop-out but it’s the conclusion I finally arrived at.

Storytime: last year I had all kinds of medical issues going on and at the worst point I had what I think of as my ghost season. I was mostly stuck in bed and could be upright (in the worst weeks) ~4 hours a day total, spread out. Most of which went to pet care and feeding myself. I had to stop almost all my hobbies—drawing, singing, birding, baking. I didn’t go out. Most of my plants died. I barely wrote. I kept piano as my one upright hobby and even that got dusty. My activities were lying in bed sleeping, doing nothing, or listening to audiobooks (that I’d already read, bc I was too brain foggy to follow new stories).

I could hear kids playing outside, my neighbor playing guitar, could smell my other neighbor baking! I started feeling like a dead person just lingering as a ghost, because life was going on all around me but I couldn’t participate in any of the activities that make up living. I bitterly regretted not making more shitty art and doing other “living” activities when I had the ability. (Looking back, that’s really what I was gritting my teeth about in the original post.)

I’m doing better now but what I learned from that time is that just being able to make shitty art (of any kind) is a gift. A finite one, that can be taken away at any time. The quality of the final product doesn’t matter, the act of doing and creating is what makes me feel alive. I got a second chance, you know? My initial health disaster could have been fatal and I had no idea if/when the lingering stuff would improve. I could’ve died or remained in that living ghost state. I was 25 years old. I’d thought I had more time.

I now try to do at least one thing every day that makes me feel alive. That’s my goal with any kind of art I make (writing, baking, music, visual art, fiber art) or with physical activities (exercise or something as simple as a nature walk or repotting a plant). I’ve taught myself tin whistle and I’m learning crochet. I suck at most of my hobbies. That’s fine! It turns out the finished product is! Not! The! Point! Just doing stuff is the point! Because I need to do this stuff to feel like an alive human person. Any finished products are just bonus.

Anyway yeah art is not homework and there’s no bar labeled “good enough” you have to pass. If you want more practical advice, go back to fingerpainting for a bit, because it’s impossible to make a “masterpiece” with fingerpainting but it’s also impossible not to have fun.

rubyisms:

someone redraw this as vax and percy

(via dent-de-leon)

olowan-waphiya:

A FIELD GUIDE TO IDENTIFYING AND DISMANTLING THE ROMANTIC INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

The Book Group to Dismantle the Romantic-Industrial Complex

A FIELD GUIDE TO IDENTIFYING AND DISMANTLING THE ROMANTIC INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

bogleech:

only-tiktoks:

Human hair is being used to clean up oil spills | CNN

San Francisco-based Matter of Trust takes human hair and animal fur and makes it into mats that are used to soak up oil spills.

CNN

Projects – Hair Mats & Oil Spills | Matter Of Trust

matteroftrust.org

This is fascinating and I love the part with the mushrooms and the worms if this really works but my favorite part is that we spent decades like “oh no….oil is soaking into fur and feathers….if only we had something that could soak up all this oil”

(via olowan-waphiya)