the birdbrained collective

birdie, blue, snow, or swallow; we're plural. will try to tag who specifically posts what. bodily 23 y/o

[yorubaby]

The way my life changed when I took control of it vs. let it happen to me was crazy.

I feel like I spent a lot of young adulthood (late teens to mid 20s) with a mentality of "Everything bad always happens, everything is out of my control, my life will always be like this and nothing will ever change. I have no hope, so why even try?"

And, while I can definitely say that unchecked mental illness + trauma definitely played a big part in my feeling like that, I also have grown into a place where I can hold that and the reality of the fact that I kind of did not help shit not be so... awful?

My life changed when I stopped letting awful shit happen to me and me not check the situation.

Like, awful shit happened but instead of wallowing in how awful it made me feel... I changed it; and if something couldn't be necessarily changed, I dealt with the way it made me feel and why it made me feel that way and coped with it in ways that helped me vs. ways that kept me stuck in a loop of horrible feelings.

I lost my health insurance a few years ago when I lost my old job, and when that happened I was forced to lose access to my therapist, my psychiatrist, and also all my medication.

When that happened, my life did not stop happening, but the support that I had to help me manage how awful everything felt did, and that sent me spiraling.

As the primary earner in my marriage, I could not allow that and I had to figure out how to make life feel bearable, and that forced me to have to face a lot of things that contributed to my mental pain and fed into toxic/unhelpful/sabotaging/victimizing etc. patterns of behavior.

Things began to feel better once I did that.

Things began to feel better once I allowed myself to cut away things that hurt me.

Things began to feel better when I used coping skills my therapist had given me when we realized that I would lose my health insurance.

The pain was still there, but the way I was dealing with it changed how it impacted me.

I get asked by some of my friends how I've managed to flourish with everything terrible happening to me, and I tell them "The things I can't control, I can't control. The things that I can control, I control." and one thing I can control, is how I handle things and that sometimes that's enough to change entire situations.

[yorubaby]

To add onto this, do understand that if you ever see me say sumn crazy and out of character to someone... Do understand that person really pushed me. 😭

[whoopsie-collective]

okay so in response the media preception of ocd being funny cleaning disorder lots of folk on tumblr talk about moral ocd

but lots of folk on tumblr only talk about moral ocd, so now we have the reverse problem where people think ocd is the moral dilemma disorder, and i'll see folk say that intrusive thoughs are always about morally reprehensible things

so reminder that ocd don't necessarily have anything to to with morally, and intrusive thoughts can be about anything, the only criteria is that they are distressing to you and uncontrollable

[somesecretpie]

Greetings bugs and worms!

This comic is a little different than what I usually do but I worked real hard on it—Maybe I'll make more infographic stuff in the future this ended up being fun. Hope you learned something new :)

If you are still curious and want to learn more about OCD, you can visit the International OCD Foundation's website. I also recommend this amazing TED ED video "Starving The Monster", which was my first introduction to the disorder and this video by John Green about his own experience with OCD.

The IOCDF's website can also help you find support groups, therapy, and has lots of online guides and resources as well if you or a loved one is struggling with the disorder. It is very comprehensive!

Reblog to teach your followers about OCD

(But also not reblogging doesn't make you evil, silly goose)

[forestgreenandgray]

Hey do you know what rumination is?

Rumination is probably the most common type of OCD compulsion, but I rarely see anyone talking about it. I've talked to multiple people diagnosed with OCD who didn't even recognize it as a compulsion.

Basically, if you have OCD you have terrible intrusive thoughts. They can be about anything, but common themes are fear of being a bad person, fear of hurting someone, fear of contamination. etc.

Rumination is when you get stuck in a spiral. Rumination is when you spend hours catastrophizing, overthinking, analyzing, telling yourself it's going to be okay.

I'll say it again:

Rumination is a compulsion.

Rumination is a compulsion, and that means you have to stop doing it.

I did ERP (exposure response prevention) for my OCD with a therapist! For 9 months! And it did help, but the idea didn't really click until I found this website a couple years later.

And Oh My God. It made things make so much more sense, and I was able to pull myself out of an episode even though I wasn't in therapy or on meds at the time.

Genuinely if you have OCD, or even if you suspect you have OCD, I'm begging you to read some of these articles.

Like this was genuinely life changing for me.

Here are some of the ones that were most helpful to me:

Defining Rumination

How to Stop Ruminating

ERP Exercises for Compulsive Rumination

What to Do When You're Triggered

[nonbinaryjudean]

OCD things that you don't hear about:

episodes of paranoia, delusions, and dissociation

cyclical thoughts/spirals

magical thinking

episodes that can be very similar to psychosis or mania

attributing human emotions to inanimate objects

dermatillomania and trichotillomania

false sensations (like bugs crawling on skin)

paying way too much attention to very small things

physical health issues caused by compulsions

symptoms that are "problematic" (doing things that are considered "wasteful", needing reassurance or validation from others...)

extreme, deep, dreadful fear of things that can't truly be explained

disconnect between emotional and cognitive/logical responses or thoughts

contamination fears

problems with addiction and dopamine regulation

other people trying to force exposure therapy onto you without your consent and it making your anxiety way worse

list making

[stochastic-shieldmaiden]

The best piece of advice I ever received was this: When someone tells you they have OCD, ask them what it means to them.

Everyone’s experience with OCD is different. Sometimes, opening up to the wrong person about it, especially someone who also says they have OCD, can end up hurting you.

I told someone who says they also have OCD that I went through several water bottles last year and got upset because it felt wasteful, but if I put my water bottle down and turned away from it so I couldn’t see it, I would convince myself someone had put bleach in it. Now, I can’t drink from that bottle anymore. No matter how much I clean it, I still think it’s poisoned.

The person I told, who also has OCD, shouldn’t turn around and tell me that’s really paranoid of me or that I shouldn’t be that obsessive… As if the O doesn’t stand for obsessive.

It’s good to open up to people but it’s also important to protect yourself so ask them first what OCD means to them.

[fruity-mond]

Barbatos and his children I suppose

[inimoose]

There's just too much that time cannot erase

[sqrteleven]

Isokania Witch Hat Atelier AU 🦋🦜

i kept making changes oml, but i can finally share this :3

[reasonsforhope]

You don't have ever to choose between being a boy or a girl

You don't ever have to use a specific label or term

You don't need anyone's permission to call yourself queer or nonbinary or trans or enby

In fact, you don't need anyone's permission to call yourself any of those words almost by the definitions of the words themselves

There's no judge. There's no tryouts, there's no membership card, there's no applications or fees (and thank goodness for that!!!)

In fact, because gender and queerness are both, at their core, about the ways people feel inside and want to interact (with each other, with society, with their own concept of self, etc.), there are very few hard boundaries at all

And you certainly don't have to figure out a specific label or a specific gender identity in order to figure out want you want - in life, in queerness, in gender, in general - and start to move toward it

[hiiighpriestess913]

Y’all I’m being so serious when I say this: go to the library for witchcraft reasons.

You can usually find books on witchcraft, yes, but there’s also field guides on local foraging and wildlife, cookbooks, books that teach you how to craft and DIY, books about environmental protection and stewardship, books on how to use herbs medicinally, books about other religions, cultures, and spiritual practices. My favorite local library even has a seed swapping program and fantastic resources to research your own family history!

Go to the library for witchcraft. Please. :) <3

[rimonoroni2]

what people don’t understand about how adhd is disabling is that it’s not just getting temporarily distracted from, like, school work or hobbies. it’s getting distracted/being unable to motivate yourself to go to the doctor, eat regularly, do hygiene tasks, etc. it’s not knowing when or how long it will take you to do something, ANYTHING, and in many cases that thing is taking a shower or keeping your house from turning into a biohazard. it’s about being fundamentally incapable of controlling your attention and focus on anything, even and especially things you need to do to survive.

[the-gangaridaean]

Absolutely be political in your worship.

Aphrodite isn't called Pandemos (of All People) so you can sit around and let the big names capitalise love and serve it only to those who can afford to pay past the persecution. Hermes isn't called Oeopolus (Shepherd) so you can sit around and let a bunch of power-hungry wolves lead a flock of influencable sheep. Apollo isn't called Paean (Healer) so you can sit around while wealthy corporations serve healthcare only to those who can afford not to die. Athena isn't called Ambulia (Counsellor) so you can sit around while the people are being fed propaganda against each other to divert them from the real enemy at the top. Dionysus isn't called Eleuthereus (the Liberator) so you can sit around while freedom is only granted to those whose skins have the acceptable colour while the others die in chains. Zeus isn't called Xenios (of the Foreigners) so you can sit around while the borders are closed to those who need it and only open to those who can give back the money.

The Gods stand with the oppressed, and so should you.

[endof-an-era]

In prayer, I feel them

Weight on my left

Buzz on my right

War and Trickery must be

A silly thing to worship

And yet, I'm kneeling

And I'm offering

And I feel them

The Lord of War sits at my left

Heavy like a weighted blanket

Dark and Still and Silent

He never speaks unless he has to

Speaks when I need to hear Him

The Lord of Travel is at my right

He bounds and is bright

An electric tingle I know as his

Chatty as ever, a roar of a car

Of course, the Messenger will talk

I ask of War to be my brother in arms

A brotherhood of protection

Steady as they come

I ask Trickery to keep my wits about

Weave intricacies on my tongue

Help me speak up

He does not stand behind me

He does not have to

I can keep myself upright

My left is my weakest

My blindside, but I'm not worried

Guard my side with the shield

Fight with me

He does not walk in front of me

But sits beside me on the bus

He leans against me like his kin

New destinations are my oldest friend

The road less traveled is familliar

I start everything with my right

He'll guide me home either way

I'm okay, I'll always be okay

I know from such a simple thing

My gods stand beside me

- And at my altar, they are arranged that way. War sits at my left, Trickery is at my right. The gods I pray to are proud of me. My gods don't let me walk alone.

[kaputtsolvi]

What I feel people frequently forget about autistic special interests is that they aren't always information based. They may simply be visual or mental

Someone may have a special interest in a show, but instead of that meaning that they will talk about that show often, it may mean they watch that show extremely frequently.

Special interests are ways of regulating, not simply encyclopedias we have in our heads. Sometimes it's watching something frequently. Maybe only listening to one genre of music, maybe it's a collection, maybe it's an action. I'm tired of it only being seen as autistic people's personal encyclopedias

[m1dori-fangirling]

The diagetic writing in Blue Prince is honestly incredible. Reading 'Red Prince' and looking at the illustrations has genuinely made me cry multiple times, which is SO hard to explain to people who haven't gotten to Room 46, because it's objectively a children's book about a kid who likes the color red, but like AUGH oh my god. Mary's disconnect with Simon, her battles against nationalism separating her from her family, censorship taking away the ending where she talks about her deep love for her son and the fact that SIMON READ THE CENSORED COPY OF HIS MOTHER'S OWN BOOK FOR HIS ENTIRE CHILDHOOD AND NEVER KNEW THE ORIGINAL ENDING, it's all right there. He had a red crown made of rubies and a red castle made of stone. Don't even get me STARTED on Swim Bird. Fuckkkk.

[biblicallyaccuratemoth]

I sketched this ages ago and never got around to finishing it. And since it’s now about a place I don’t work at, no point. So here, everyone. Have a bonus comic sketch.

Remember to check out the Patreon and support your unemployed queen. K thx!