thinking about the time they sent me a seven year old autistic patient to investigate if he was suffering abuse because in every psychological test he kept drawing awful monsters

and I start the consultation already miserable as fuck and I give the kid some pen and paper so I can maybe communicate and see what's on his mind

and then I go WAIT A GODDAMN SECOND I KNOW THOSE MONSTERS

turns out the kid just had a special interest in Five Nights at Freddy's

I pointed at the monster and went "That's Freddy!" and I've never seen a kid that ecstatic in my life

the mom looked at me as if her son and I belonged at the same satanic cult and that's why I knew the names of the demons in his head

I wrote back to psychologist like "I'm not sure how to explain this but looking up five nights at freddys might bring you progress with this patient"

at some point the nurses realized the autistic children and I were like, Really Vibing

so they decided to highkey just appoint all of them to my day and it took me almost a month to realize that the fact that I kept arriving and finding that all of today’s appointments were autistic children was Not A Coincidence 

anyway this one time there was a kid who was really into christianity but it was like, specifically angels 

so I’m trying to start up a conversation with him and I ask what he’s reading and he goes “do you know what a nephilim is”

and like for one hellish second my soul is suckerpunched out of my body and thrown straight into supernatural-fanfic-on-wattpad hell, and then I reassume control of my flesh prison, ignoring the mental edits of Dean and Castiel making out, and go “Aren’t those the guys who are half human and half angel?”

and the kid was so fucking happy but the mom was staring at me like ‘why are you privy to this bit of occult jesus lore’

and my heathen lesbian of a self just looks at her and goes 

“i love bible”

There is a certain point where it becomes “I turn right at the place where I turn right, then take the shortcut which I know about, then left where I turn left. Yes, I’m sure all of these things have proper names but I don’t recall what they are. The only landmarks I remember are places which were torn down decades ago.”

[Image description (text): no unfortunately i cannot give you directions around the city i have lived in my entire life. Description ends]

Before GPS was ubiquitous, whenever we sent out invitations to family and friends who hadn't been to our house before (like for a holiday party, or some such), we'd always include a hand-drawn map and written instructions.

Not to be all "Old Woman Yells at Clouds," but I think that's a lost art that needs to be revived.

It's good for the soul (metaphorically speaking) to imagine a journey from someone else's point of view, and to consider which aspects of your local habitat are landmarks that stand out.

(and then have fun doodling those landmarks).

who the hell has me blocked on pinterest

a pinterest block is actually the worst thing you can do to a person

YOU GET THE FUCK BACK HERE AND EXPLAIN THAT RIGHT NOW

well damn

waiting for my turn to speak in a conversation and trying not to interrupt literally feels like I'm trying to jump into a game of double dutch

me trying to use my abysmal social skills

This is real parents' choice, not the BS “Parents choice for mine AND yours” that Mommy Fascism League supports.

The 51 kids should not dictate what books/media the other 29,949 have access.

The vast majority of book ban requests in the USA - nationwide - were initiated by twelve people.

That's 12 unelected people trying to control what an entire country can read.

fucked up that we got 2024 on monday

“available with premium subscription” “will be removed on the 31st” “available free with ads” “rent 4.99 buy 20.00″ “not available in your country” “not available on this device” what if every streaming service fucking killed itself and films ran around their fields free and organic in their natural state

Winter grasslands.

Hyogo, Japan.

sariheikkin

what’s happening with santa

“imagine caring so much about fiction” imagine being so lame that you scoff at the timeless human practice of falling in love with art and stories

What’s going to make you happy right now? Is it some cake? Is it a nap? Is it calling your mom? Is it going on a drive and blasting music? Is it taking a bath? Is it reading a book?

Check in with yourself because you deserve that happiness, whatever it is.

I use this with my hospice patients a lot. Because “is there anything I can do to help?” rarely gets a response. But, “I’ll be here till 6:30 and would like to do one thing to make your room more comfortable before I head out” frequently does get an answer. Often something they deem “too small to bug anyone with” like closing the blinds so there’s no reflection on the tv, or repositioning their socks because the heels have wandered into the front and are uncomfortable, or they want ice cream before dinner today, or getting an extra blanket.

I also use this on myself. What’s one thing I could do to make my environment more comfortable right now? Does it cure my mental illness? Hell no! Does it make me feel more in control of my feelings and the world around me? You betcha!

I’m going to try to apply this to my current situation, since right now things feel very out of control. Thanks!

After years of thinking it’s really dumb and pointless, I bought fake plants because I like having greenery around but it’s sad when I accidentally kill real plants so. Fake plants.

It has actually increased my sense of wellbeing just having these stupid green bits of plastic scattered around my house. It’s insane how much some $10 fake plants positively impacted my life. Fake plants forced my brain to make some serotonin.

Parents get sooooooo mad when anyone even remotely implies that if we know it negatively impacts adults then it’s probably quite detrimental to the health and development of a young mind to stick an iPad in front of a child any time they show signs of Behaviors. “Are you calling me a bad parent?” Yeah. I am.

“Well, what am I supposed to do when my kid Has Behaviors?” Idk. You somehow lived to adulthood without being an iPad baby. What did the adults around you growing up do when you exhibited Behaviors? Was it a positive on your growth and development? If it wasn’t, do you remember what your child-self had hoped an adult would do? Start there.

Anyway. Every generation has its challenges but I think we are all deeply unprepared for just how fucking weird the iPad baby gen, who also had key developmental years during covid social distancing, are showing signs of being.