tatterdemalionamberite:
neurodiversitysci:
fierceawakening:
star-anise:
God fucking bless the “worried well” who seek psychotherapy. They can mostly keep their lives/jobs/families running, but want an increase in their mood or quality of life, and come to me for a tune-up. They talk about existential questions and childhood dreams and personal fulfillment, and worry that they’re “whining” or “taking up [my] valuable time.”
I like them for them, of course; I find their lives and worries interesting and valuable, and enjoy the work we do together. But also?
They make the more “serious” work I do possible. People with the greatest need for therapy are frequently the least able to pay for it. When one of my clients loses their job and benefits, they need therapy more, not less. And in private practice I can only afford to keep treating them for free if I have enough people on my caseload who are paying me full price. My ability to volunteer at a homeless shelter and talk to them about grief and trauma is strongly dictated by how many upper-middle-class people pay me $200 an hour to talk about optimal job performance.
And emotionally, it is an honest fucking joy sometimes to get out of a session with someone whose childhood abuse makes their entire life difficult, and spend an hour talking to one of my worried writer clients about anxiety management and creativity and nothing too deeply painful.
So if you’ve ever paid a therapist but felt self-indulgent or whiny or like your problems “weren’t serious enough”: please know you’re valuable and important. Not just for yourself (though you are), but because your presence in that therapy room makes a lot of other things possible.
i was tense because as someone who has trauma in her history but looks to a lot of people like “worried well” (to the point it took me years to be properly diagnosed with PTSD, ugh) i expected bashing from this post
THANK YOU for doing a very different thing <3
I mean, once upon a time the worried well had confession with priests, or village elders/wise old men and women, or shamans/people in touch with the spirit world to listen to them and advise them on how to lead a happier, wiser life. Now that we’re a secular society that treats shamanism etc. as superstition, and locks old people away? All the worried well have is self help books, psychotherapy, people they know in person who are probably no wiser than they are, and talking to people on Tumblr. Of all these options, psychotherapy seems the most likely to actually help. Going to psychotherapy when you’re not severely mentally ill fills an important need that society isn’t otherwise filling, so it’s not shameful to go.
Also, the boundary between “worried well” and mentally ill/traumatized can be blurry sometimes. At one point I was in therapy for severe depression. But now, with my lower grade trauma, social anxiety, excessive shame, and just Needing Someone To Talk To In Order to Deal With Emotional Stuff And Reflect in General? That’s “worried well” compared to a lot of people here on Tumblr.
A related idea (which I’ve had before) is that if you do have a serious trauma, you’re wasting your/the therapist’s time if you aren’t talking about the most traumatic thing possible every single moment of therapy. But sometimes you’re not ready to go there, and that’s okay. Sometimes, your work or family need you to focus on more minor problems, like anxiety management or writer’s block. And getting unstuck on something like that can make you feel so much better about yourself, and more capable of change in general. I would think that could only help you deal with the serious trauma.
Thank you for writing this, @star-anise.
*cheerful neurodivergent yelling* Curb-cutter effect! Curb-cutter effect!! CURB!! CUTTER!! EFFECT!!
Also, I want to point out that someone might objectively be the “worried well” but still be in distress, and as was so astutely stated above, those people need somewhere to go to ease that distress. And therapists offer that.
(via cthulhu-with-a-fez)
helookslikeafriend:
i love that Baze’s cynicism is totally divorced from negativity
he’s like god is dead so we all gotta be extra good to each other y’hear?
(via dubiousculturalartifact)
Anonymous asked: What about... T and U? (for the fandom meme)
From this ask meme!
T: What are your favorite M/M or F/F ships?
Um…Enjolras/Grantaire from Les Mis, Baze Malbus/Chirrut Imwe from Rogue One, Waverly Earp/Nicole Haught from Wynonna Earp, Hamilton/Laurens from Hamilton and also HISTORY, Legolas/Gimli from LotR, and Aziraphale/Crowley from Good Omens, probably. Those are the ones that come to mind. Oh, and of late Napoleon Solo/Illya Kuryakin from The Man From UNCLE. And Breq/Seivarden(/Mercy of Kalr) from Ancillary Justice.
U: What are your favorite M/F ships?
Rachel/Tobias and Elfangor/Loren from Animorphs, Jareth/Sarah from Labyrinth, Clint Barton/Natasha Romanoff from Avengers, Raleigh Becket/Mako Mori from Pacific Rim, Aerin/Tor and Aerin/Luthe and Harry/Corlath from the Damar series, Jame/Torisen from the Kencyrath series, and any arrangement of Rey/Finn/Poe Dameron from Star Wars. I’m also currently watching B99 and feeling a great deal of affection for Amy Santiago/Jake Peralta.
Anonymous asked: D For the fandom meme?
From this ask meme!
D: What was the first thing you ever contributed to a fandom?
Pretty sure the first thing I ever actually contributed was THIS Scarlet Witch/Vision post-Civil War fic, which is entirely fluff originating in a conversation I had with my best friend about the lack of fic for the two of them and the fact that no one had written a mid-air kiss for these two FLYING SUPERHEROES.
An excerpt:
Vision’s hand reached out, hovering just over her shoulder. “Are you having nightmares again?”
“Nothing shocking,” she said. “The same.” The wreckage of her house, her brother’s body. Strucker’s failed experiments. Straitjackets inside cages inside prisons. The Avengers, twisted and shattered in red light. “Some new.” Men without limbs, and sinking into the sea, and Vision, turning his clear cold eyes and terrible power toward her.
Vision lingered for a moment, then lowered his hand so that his palm was up, an invitation. “Come with me. Just for a little while. I promise to bring you back.”
I love this ship, y’all.
diannaofthemyscira asked: When I was younger, I only read to book 13 of Animorphs before my mom told me that I should read more mature books and my school library didn't have past book 13 so I stopped but I found your blog and book overviews and now I'm reading it again and what the fuck. This is not for children, I mean, it is, but it's not. And I love all my children so much and I completely adore your Animorphs tag. I don't have time to read during the school year, so I'm trying to get as many books in
over the summer as I can, and I am just now caught up on #13, but I just wanted to say I love your blog and your thoughts on Animorphs so thanks so much. <3
Honestly bless? I love this comment so much, I hope you don’t mind me publishing it so that I can keep it forever? I’ve enjoyed watching you go through my Animorphs tag so much, tbqh, and I’m frankly honored to have dragged so many people into this series with me. And you’re so right, these books are not for children, but they’re for kids, but also I would never be allowed to give them to a child. (I would give them to a child, let’s be honest, I’m a mess of a child tender. But those of my friends who would be the kid’s parents would probably stop me.)
If you’re in the market for other Animorphs folks, my one-stop-shop is @chromatographic as well as @derinthemadscientist, also @incorrectmorpherquotes is fucking hilarious, trolling Chroma and Derin’s stuff can point you to other people (I say as I use familiar nicknames like I’ve ever exchanged more than a couple words with them I’m so sorry y’all).
Please feel free to always always come talk to me about Animorphs more at all times. ESPECIALLY my sad bird boy.
Anonymous asked: ANDALITE. AND-A-LIGHT WOULD BE GREAT!!!!!!!! HILARIOUS. TOP QUALITY. I LOVE IT.
AND A LIGHT. LISTEN I WENT ALMOST TEN YEARS WITHOUG READING THESE BOOKS (long story) AND WHEN I REREAD BOOK 12 I LOOKED AT THE COVER AND THE FIRST THING THAT POPPED INTO MY HEAD WAS “CASSIE I’M SO PROUD OF YOU YOU’RE SO GOOD” LIKE LISTEN THAT LINE STUCK WITH ME COMPLETELY INTACT AND WORD PERFECT FOR A D E C A D E.
Also, if anyone wants to hear my headcanons about ADHD Rachel hit me U P.
abrightshiningstar asked: D, for Star Wars!
For this list of fandom questions!
D: What was the first thing you ever contributed to a fandom?
I’m pretty sure it was this fluffy Rey/Poe/Finn fic, featuring the three of them on a forest planet, cute shy pre-relationship flirting, BB-8, and flower crowns. And Rey attempting to eat the foliage.
Here is an excerpt:
Finn’s teeth flashed in a grin as he laced his fingers through Poe’s–Poe stomped down on a blush, he was a grown-ass man, he was not going to turn into a kriffing Academy kid over a pair of pretty young things. Even if they were as pretty as Rey and Finn. Finn didn’t seem to notice his moment of internal struggle, pulling him after Rey and BB-8 with a laugh.
The trees gave way to low growth, shrubs and wildflowers and grasses, near the lakeside. Rey nearly shrieked in delight at the discovery of a patch of flowers in a shade of brilliant red, dotted here and there with the tiny light blue blooms that practically infested this system.
“They come in colors!” she cried, and Poe made a mental note to get Rey out more. This was their first free day since Finn regained full function and Rey brought back a very reluctant Jedi master, but he could probably trade some favors to get her a few flowers to keep on the base.
If you require an antidote to the sheer density of fluff in the above fic, I also wrote this one.
