ungrounded anon back, thank you for not hiding my confession, I really need advice and I appreciate it. I know this crowd is really mean to people with more sensitive brains who can get like mine and I just need help, it’s a cry for help I think.
I've noticed a lack of care towards sensitivity in this fandom. Horrorporn is not an excuse to be a bully and I'm tired of that being the scapegoat when confronted with certain behaviors, because at the end of the day it's just a fandom and worse content is created in mundane spaces every single day.
That being said, let's dig in.
Try going into your settings and utilizing the Filter tools. There's two types, one for tags and one for posts. You can learn more about the differences here, but in summary, Tag filters block posts containing certain tags, and Post filters block posts containing any trace of those tags/words. These are my filtered tags.
I blocked every variation of tags I don't want to see. It doesn't matter if they were used tags or not, if it was a way to spell it, it went in the list. It may be tedious, but I recommend doing this in both Tag and Post filters, that way you can stay in the spaces you enjoy without the burden of broken boundaries.
(Blocking users especially guilty of those posts would also help. It doesn't have to be personal, it just has to be.)
A healthy diet of content is necessary if you engage in taboo or darker media. If you have one foot in BTD, make sure the other is somewhere safe. Not as a fall-back, but something you are actively engaging in. Follow blogs of all your tastes and make sure your dashboard is catered to you in balance.
If it's the characters you're attached to, never be afraid to rip them from their source material in favor of your mental wellbeing. Gatobob stated herself that everything that transpires in the games is only a possibility and that she personally likes to explore the darker outcomes, but that doesn't mean you should. Somewhere, Ren's date only arrived late. Somewhere, Lawrence's absence was noticed and he was caught before going under in the lake. Somewhere, Strade swallowed his pride long enough to wonder what was wrong with him and got the help he needed. Derek recognized he was following the bloody path of his family name and diverted. Celia thought ten, twenty, thirty years down the line and decided that's not a life she wanted. Mason embraced Sandy's opinion instead of rejecting it.
(Removing them entirely is also an option. Really into Animal Crossing? What would Strade's role on your island be, or is he just a villager? You like Elder Scrolls? Well, where does Ren fit? Is he his own species entirely? Your own OC world would even do.)
Try new things. New shows, new games, new movies, and indulge in that fandom. Make friends there. Create a distance between yourself and BTD/TPOF. It won't be fast, it usually isn't easy, but shattering your fixation is the best way to remove yourself, and the best way to do that is to find another place for yourself elsewhere. Remember that one fandom you enjoyed 10 years ago? Would you still call yourself a super-mega-fan of it? Do you still occupy the fandom like you did when it was fresh? Make that BTD/TPOF. You can't force it, which is why I recommend media-surfing. Find something that does the trick. (For BTD, I would recommend something horror but not too brutal. My first recommendation is Marble Hornets. It can be watched on Youtube for free, and there's plenty of video essays and documentaries on it to get yourself started.)
Leading from a previous note, Make new things. Get into more OC oriented work. Find someone who is also very into their OC's and trade amongst each other. Create your own world to build and explore, publish work of said world, explore other peoples OC work, curate a space of friendly creativity where your word (regarding your work) is final. Deviantart and Toyhou.se are flush with original designs to be sold or given away, like a marketplace of characters to reiterate into your own if you're worried about designing one.
And finally, find other sites to scroll that are less horrorporn inclusive. Sometimes removing yourself altogether is for the best.
Horrorporn fandoms are just fandoms. They don't have to be more or less than that. And if they are, if they're no longer entertaining, there's no reason to stay. But that doesn't mean you aren't accepted here. Having boundaries in an extreme space doesn't make you less than others who can stomach it. Being sensitive doesn't make you small.
I hope you're able to figure things out and rid yourself of what does nothing for you. Keep well, Anon.
