Do you have adhd? And if you do can i please ask you something about it? I'm sorry if this sounds rude and i understand if u don't wanna talk about it.
Hi! Yes I do!
I’m not really good at explaining because ADHD is different for everyone.
A lot of people can be misdiagnosed for it since depression and anxiety can be common for people with adhd so instead of adhd they get diagnosed for something else
I recommend looking at trustable websites (like Mayo Clinic or Cleveland clinic) as well as blogs, instagrams, or other websites that are specifically for ADHD
to everyone who's lost a mom, has suffered abuse from their mom, has no or a strained relationship to their mom, is struggling to concieve, or anything else that makes today hard, i see you. you have every right to take today for yourself. you have no obligation to call your mom or do anything for her, if she hasn't earned it. sending everyone struggling today so much love.
let's have a discussion about trauma dumping and why it is not okay.
to preface:
Initially, I had wanted to make this post purely informational and remain vague as to why I was posting this. However, as the situation progressed and some of my mutuals began kind of talking about it, I felt it was important to be honest; yes this is regarding a situation of trauma dumping in which many creators were tagged repeatedly by someone they weren't even familiar with, expecting sympathy and a response from them.
I had hesitated to mention this because I didn't want it to seem that I was belittling mental health issues, especially as someone who has dealt with similar things as this person was claiming. But my belief in their situation continued to drop as they kept posting harmful content, so I no longer feel I am stepping out of line by saying this.
Warnings: in depth discussion about trauma, mention of triggers, manipulation and mental health
If this is too long to read, there is a summary at the end with the key points and takeaway from this post.
what is trauma dumping and why is it different from venting?
While there is no relative definition, it can be classified as the literal act of someone laying all their trauma on you non-consensually. A great example of this that I'm sure a lot of people have seen is anons who treat creators' blogs as their diary and send unsolicited paragraphs about their trauma. Usually it lacks the consent of the creator and trigger warnings despite going extensively into very harmful topics.
But what is the difference between this and venting? Aren't people allowed to vent about what they're going through without fear of judgement?
The main difference is that venting is a healthy coping mechanism that done consensually by both parties. Going into a stranger's inbox to lay your unasked for life story before them with the expectation of some kind of sympathetic response is not venting.
the necessity of trigger warnings:
With the case of virtual interactions, there also comes the issue of trigger warnings and why it is they are so important. When you are facilitating an online interaction, you have no way of knowing what may be harmful for others to read about, especially if it is being posted publicly.
With that in mind, you have a responsibility to be courteous and maintain a safe environment for those who may see what you write. This means including trigger warnings in both the beginning and in the tags.
the expectation of sympathy and treating others like your therapist:
In an online environment, when you are making the conscious choice to speak about your struggles, you have to do so without the expectation of attention and sympathy. When you are making posts upon posts about your trauma and tagging mutuals only to proceed to get angry when they do not respond to your liking, that is manipulative and disgusting.
What you are doing is explicitly putting others who barely know you in a compromising position in which they feel obligated to respond. You are manipulating a situation to garner sympathy and holding others responsible for your own problems.
Guess what? People are not your therapist. They have their own lives and you are not entitled to their time, especially when your pattern of behavior suggests that what you're saying isn't even true. Regardless, we have a right to put ourselves and our safety first and you are not owed a response.
how this plays into adult minor relations:
As always, it is important to acknowledge how it plays into adult minor relations. If you are an adult, you have to be careful in the way you interact with minors, ensuring that it is in no way harmful to their health.
There is an all too common theme of adults treating literally children as their therapist and stepping ground. This is often because minors are more vulnerable and easy to take advantage of. We don't all necessarily have to guts to speak up against an adult or set boundaries.
This can lead to a very parasitic relationship in which the minor is emotionally drained and forced into a position in which they feel obligated to care and be there for someone. And while this can happen to anyone, the power dynamic between an adult and a child puts them at a much greater risk.
too long; didn't read/conclusion:
Stop trauma dumping on minors.
Stop trauma dumping on others period.
Stop treating people's inbox as a playground for your unsolicited and triggering stories.
Stop creating situations as a way to garner sympathy and interaction; tagging all your mutuals about your trauma so they feel obligated to respond is manipulative.
People do not owe you a response because they are not your therapist and have a right to put their mental health FIRST.
stop making up fake stories based off real life events that could fucking happen !!!
just stop, take a breather, and log the fuck off !!!
i’m so tired of hearing your fake ass sob stories, seeing this disgusting shit on my dash.
at this point, your behaviour is not just affecting minors, but adults as well. i am a adult, i can’t speak for the entire community but your ‘stories’ have not only disturbed me, but have ruined what i considered my safe place.
listen, from a person that has had a friend go through majority of the things you’ve posted about and made up, i feel deeply disrespected and offended.
our stories, our past, our lives are not for you to spread and claim as yours. they are not here for you to share with the internet for a little less than 40 notes. i am tired.
you can click on this button once daily to help palestine and support other causes in the middle east for free. it takes literally 5 seconds and could help save lives so please take the time to click and share this link.
1. You are responsible for your own media experience.
2. There is such a thing as a healthy level of avoidance towards topics that make you feel unwell or even (in a real-life clinical definition of the term) trigger you - but you are the one to actively take care of what you view.
3. Avoiding does not mean policing others.
4. You have no right to tell artists to censor themselves - you may criticize what others do, you may dislike it, that’s fine - but actively asking for censorship when you could easily unfollow or block a person just makes you look incompetent in your use of the internet.
5. Do not give people on tumblr or /any/ website the responsibility for your emotional well-being. Because these people do not even know you so no, you have no right to ask them to take care of you.
6. Content creators are not your parents and owe you nothing, not even a breakdown on why their content isn’t problematic. You don’t get to demand a dissertation denouncing any and everything unhealthy in a piece you don’t like. Move on.
7. Tagging is a nicety but not an obligation. You can message people, politely, and ask them to tag things, and many people will, but understand that it’s their blog and they aren’t obliged to say yes. Unfollow and block when you need to. Circling back to number 1, you are responsible for curating your own experience.
8. Don’t be a jerk. Remember at the end of the day, there are actual living, breathing people behind each screen name. Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say to someone’s face in real life.