is having a "comfort creature" another common ND trait?
someone on another platform mentioned having over 500 sloth items and i said i was audhd and asked if sloths were a special interest or comfort creature
then i realized i wasn't sure if i'd ever heard the term "comfort creature"
i couldn't find much online, but that doesn't mean the concept hasn't been explored or doesn't have another name. to me, a comfort creature stands separately from a special interest or hyperfixation, but there could be overlap
let's use dinosaurs as an example. i know someone (also audhd) who has dinosaurs as their special interest. they can talk about paleontology facts for hours, enjoy watching dino movies but also enjoy point out all the inconsistencies, like cute dino things, but love learning about dinos
me? i like dinos bc they are cute or bc they are amazing. they make me happy and fill my heart with the same sort of joy my special interest does, but i only care about the aesthetics of the dino and the feelings that gives me. i do own some dino things, but not as much as my special interest and i don't feel the need to compulsory buy (as often) the way i would for a special interest or hyperfixation
unicorns are another comfort creature of mine
or would this just fall into the realm of "collecting"?
[looking at people younger than me] you have your whole life ahead of you [looking at people older than me] you have your whole life ahead of you [looking at myself] its over
I'm fascinated by how the animators for TADC handle Caine's impossible anatomy so well. There's so much to balance and they've somehow engineered a solution for his expressions to hold during speech.
I also traced Caine answering the phone from episode 4 to demonstrate his phonemes and mouth shapes.
ngl life is significantly weirder when nobody in your life knows how to handle autism so you're just handling meltdowns alone and have to also take the reaction to your irritability to the chin because it gets tiring to explain to a person with access to Google that sensory pain is literally hurting your physically
You get up in the morning and realize they've both slept terribly and are cranky and tired from the start, but you have a full day ahead of you and won't be able to even let them nap today.
The toddlers get into screaming matches the entire day.
One toddler is tired and wants to go home and have their stuffed toy and favorite blanket and everyone is mean and everything is too loud and terrible.
The other toddler is boooooored and why is the other toddler so boring and why do we have to do stuff that is boring and go places that are boring and can we do interesting stuff now, PLEASE?!
And meanwhile you have to get groceries and drag them to a doctors visit that they both hate, so instead of screaming at each other they're now screaming at you.
Oh and you also have to go to work today and take the toddlers. Your coworkers get annoyed at you the entire day, because why are you so distracted all the time and why can't you just do the thing they asked you to do and why aren't you listening and what the hell is your problem, just focus for once!
Your coworkers cannot see the toddlers. They just see you and you're clearly not doing enough and not trying hard enough and why are you so childish, you're an adult, grow up already!
The toddlers actually wake up like that every day. The toddlers will never grow up. You'll never get a babysitter for the toddlers, not even for a few hours. Sometimes, very rarely, you get lucky and they actually both want to do the same thing and you get a few, precious moments, where they're happy and things are quiet.
The toddlers are actually just both you and they're stuck in your head. You don't even know that not everyone has those toddlers, you just think you're failing terribly at raising yours and being a proper adult.
And that's what undiagnosed AuDHD is like, basically.
if you liked this and want a pdf I have it on itch. my health and mental health has been in the trash and I havent had income for a sec so it would mean a lot and I would b able to make a big lasagna :^) I will also be putting this on patreon eventually.
(no spoilers up until the cut, you have been warned)
so first of all, seeing this show grow from the first episode on YouTube to being on a giant screen in a theater brought me so much pride. I hope more indie artists get the chance to grow like this! I love original art so much. I highly suggest watching it in its full glory in theaters if you're able to. I think it hit me so much harder that way than it being on my phone or computer.
they dove into the characters more and definitely cleared some stuff up. I am definitely satisfied with the ending. I cried a couple of times, everything was really well done.
DONT SPREAD THE LEAKS PLS GO WATCH IN THEATERS OR SUPPORT ON YOUTUBE WHEN IT COMES OUT
ok now for the spoilers and unfiltered thoughts on what happened.
I really wanted to like Jax. I thought I would see his (her?) backstory and finally understand why he was such an asshole and understand why so many other people liked him. he's a troubled character that needs compassion, sure, but I ended up just hating Jax even more after I saw the backstory.
like yeah, ok, your parents sucked. your dad wasnt validating and your mom projected her thoughts of your dad onto you. you made a mistake and hurt your mom. that was cinema. that was great storytelling. I loved how they portrayed all of that and really brought us through his mind in how he saw that moment as well as how he saw everyone at the circus (after going through his masks, very well done, shows how he's bad at really seeing what's in front of him. just projection after projection, wall after wall in order to emotionally protect himself. "oh noooo someone saw my true feelings and now they'll use it against me bc everyone hates me" grow uppp).
I was fully ready to accept this poor abused bunny with open arms, ready to add him to my collection of emotional support mentally ill characters. I, instead, added him to my opps list. this fucking asshole had the audacity to open up about everything WILLINGLY and immediately put walls up again right after, out of fear. oh no!! Ribbit is gonna use this against you and make everyone hate you?? NO DUMBASS SHE CARES ABOUT YOU. it absolutely shattered me to watch Jax gaslight her, make her seem crazy for caring about him, taking the light out of her eyes until there was nothing left and she was just gone...
I get it, hurt people can hurt people. I get it, he had a bad childhood. I get it, he was homeless. I know, all of that is hard to go through. but you're stuck with all these people. you're here at the circus until who-knows-how-infinity-long??? is it really that bad to finally just find someone you can lean on? I truly dont understand how someone can just not feel bad after making someone feel how Ribbit felt. it was honestly triggering for me, as someone who was in love with someone that gaslit me to a dangerous point and is unwillingly around someone with narcissistic tendencies. I'm not diagnosing Jax as a narcissist but if you're sensitive to that kind of thing, just be prepared, it's like a direct POV from a person that's fucked up. and im glad he's still abstracted because, like he said, he did this to himself.
that being said, I loved that storyline. it was, again, incredibly well done. creatively presented and really made me feel like I was inside Jax's head. very very good.
moving on, there was character development from Cain (bc what else are you gonna do when you're stuck in a void) and I thought it was interesting that he gained humanity once he wasn't as powerful as he was. him and blue dot thing (I still think that's bubble bc he didnt show up when Cain went back) were just not meant to be together. blue dot needed his own space to exist, there should only be one.
biggest thing about the movie: holy shit they pulled a black mirror. what do you mean they're not the real them oh my godddddd. when Cain first mentioned the brain scans I was confused, I dont think I even heard him really, but then I figured it out when everyone was really depressed. that's so fucked up. genuinely the most messed up part in this whole thing. they dont really exist. they aren't people. they're just copies of personalities and they didnt even really know who they were a copy of. I think that's actual hell.
watching them watch the details on who the real version of them became was still healing to me. I burst into tears when they got to Kinger and said that he's a good dad. idk why that line specifically got to me but it did. they got to connect who they were/who they came from and could finally get closure on all this stuff that they couldnt get answers to. I would've abstracted right there tbh so good on them. they got to take control of their stories after that and fulfill the dreams that they wanted to fulfill on the outside. Gangle made manga. Zooble had a bar. (Zooble and Gangle were official btw, how cute). Ragatha had true friends and Pomni was Pomni. I would've liked a bit more on Kinger's feelings about knowing their fate. i guess he was just fine with it idk. i thought he might have more to say bc he had a part in creating Cain but he's chillbso im chill. I wasn't expecting that to be the "resolution" to all of this but I think it's fitting to the absolute purgatory that is The Amazing Digital Circus.
turnnoffyourmind
andulkaphoto
yousharknotpass
ellievsbear
izzy806
