Okay my girlfriend and I were discussing a very... *ahem* efficient practice from my childhood. I'll concede their point that it might be unhygienic, but the 2 seconds of effort a day saved might be worth it. Surely. Right? So I seek a tumblr second opinion-
Is a communal toothbrush drawer* a good idea?
Yes absolutely! Toothbrush anarchy!
It's alright if you kiss or erstwhile swap saliva with your housemates anyways
Perhaps if you are close with your housemates, but not otherwise
Under no circumstances everything about that is horrific wtf
Other (please elaborate in tags I am very intrigued)
Voting ended onJan 17, 2024
*ie, drawer where all members of a household pool their toothbrushes and people use the first brush they grab without discriminating.
Have you read Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia
No, I looked it up and I might just listen to it while I ID mushrooms in the herbarium! It’ll be atmospheric.
Speaking of symbiotic fungi… every person has a mycobiome (the fungal subset of your microbiome), the one in your lungs is a blend unique to you! The community could be symbiotic too, we need a diverse microbiome to train our immune system with lots of data on microbes (they get a place to live, we get a better immune system). It’s called the Old Friends Hypothesis, which I love.
thinking abt my ocd again... smth i am rlly proud of myself for is keeping this tumblr account for so long without moving... ive had it for i think two years now? and that is a really huge deal for me.
d.nt r/b... mutuals i implore you to read on
i struggled heavily with mental/emotional contamination growing up. i never necessarily knew it was a thing, never had the words for it. but i very often found myself feeling Wrong over things that realistically had nothing actually wrong with them.
if i had drama between a friend and me, i needed to move accounts because it was unbearable. the bad experience i had while on the account made me feel disgusting. the account was now contaminated with a horrible memory. and the feeling only festered until i moved accounts and gave myself a clean, blank slate, untouched by the icky experience.
this intense feeling of contamination wasnt only triggered by dramatically bad events. there were times i would need to move accounts because it felt like it was contaminated by an old interest i no longer liked. there were times it felt like the "memory bank" on that account was full - that i experienced and spent "too much" time on that account, and i no longer had room for new memories. sometimes i simply felt the need to move because it felt like my life was improving, and i wanted to put sadder times behind me and start anew. there were even times where nothing happened, but i still felt the need to move.
like a horrible itch you cant scratch, itd sit in my mind and make me feel highly anxious, uncomfortable, and wrong. and there is this intense stress and fear that, if i were to keep that contaminated thing in my life any longer, i would become contaminated too. these feelings would fester endlessly, until i'd finally move accounts. and then that overwhelming, devastating, nagging feeling would disappear almost immediately. i'd finally have a sense of clarity, like i could finally breathe freely again.
its damaging. its debilitating. this intense feeling of dread and fear. this inherent Wrongness. it takes control over me, it becomes my most present thought, and it is extremely stressful to deal with. and it can not be shaken off easily. my brain tells me that it has to be dealt with in the Exact Right Way - otherwise, the awful feeling and the thoughts will not go away, and it will worsen with every passing moment. its something i have to fight against constantly. ocd is a constant battle against yourself, against your own brain and what it tells you. and hopefully, hopefully, you'll eventually win against it... but only enough for it to then manifest in some other way. this process never stops. it is a constant cycle of this, present in so many different ways, tons of them, always, all at once. and all you can do is just keep fighting at every chance you get.
i still struggle with mental/emotional contamination, it still manifests in other ways. i am still ocd.
but with this? i have made progress. ive had this account for two whole years... and i am culminating memories, both good and bad on here, and im staying put. there have been so many times over the last 2years where ive wanted to delete my account and start all over again, erase every memory i could - good and bad. but i havent. and im still here, on this account, after two whole years. and that is something i am so proud of myself for.
That one fucking phone game ad on tumblr is going to give me fucking issues STOP SHOWING ME FRUIT ROTTING WITH LIKE WORMS ON IT AND SHIT!!!!! S T O P!!!!!!
