Reminder from someone with actual literal brain damage from a brain injury to stop fucking using "brain damage" and "brain injuries" as a means of describing someone whose opinions you don't like or deem as stupid.

It's ableist and offensive as fuck, and for some reason a lot of leftist people think it's okay to use. I've seen posts replying to right wing racists calling them "brain damaged if you believe this" and "do you have a brain injury? do you not understand X?". Just now I saw a beautiful post about fat people throughout history that was absolutely ruined by opening with "How do we break it to boomers with actual brain damage and nostalgic brainrot..." before continuing to say that fat people existed throughout history.

Brain damage does not make you racist. A brain injury doesn't make you stupid, or fatphobic, or unaware of history and politics. Stop fucking using my disability as a catch all to describe people you think are shitty. Y'all use it like it's a replacement for how people used to use the R-slur, which shows you learned absolutely nothing about why the R-slur was wrong to use and decided to throw in other disabilities instead. Fuck off and stop doing it.

(And don't do it with other disabilities either, because I know y'all do.)

I know a lot of people with brain injuries. They're smart, and funny, and compassionate. They learn about the world and care about social issues and wish they could go to protests if their disability won't allow them to. Are there right wing people with brain injuries? Sure, absolutely. But they are not right wing because they have a brain injury, and using any disability as an insult is still fucking ableist.

Tldr - stop using brain damage and brain injury as an insult. It's ableist and incredibly offensive.

Love, your local brain injured/brain damaged pal

I have to hop in and address these tags - I feel like you completely missed the point of my post. No, you shouldn't use "lead poisoning" instead. The point of this wasn't "be more accurate about what disability you're using to insult someone," it was "Stop using any disabilities as an insult, including brain/neurological based disabilities." It doesn't matter if someone with offensive or bigoted views does have brain damage, or lead poisoning, or any disability. It is ableist to insult based on disability. Always. Forever.

1) Why exactly are you assuming that disability - including lead poisoning - causes bigotry? Same as with brain damage, there are plenty of people with lead poisoning who aren't bigots. It is insulting as fuck to imply that everyone with lead poisoning is bigoted.

2) Even if someone's lead poisoning or brain damage or any other neurological disorder did cause them to be assholes or brought about a personality shift or made them bigots - it is still ableist to insult based on disability, and to use disabilities as an insult. It doesn't matter if their disability caused it, it's still ableist. Stop it.

Instead of using disability, please learn to call people's behaviour what it is. Are they being racist? Call their behaviour/them racist. Are they being transphobic? Call them transphobic. Etc.

3) I don't know if these tags are because you don't view lead poisoning is a disability, but I would encourage you to re-evaluate that, and why you think targeting a condition that has a massive impact on someone's brain and health are okay. (And no, not everyone with lead poisoning is disabled, but neither is everyone with brain damage - but many still are. It is still a disability, even if not everyone with that condition is disabled.)

TLDR: No, don't replace "brain damaged" with other disabilities, including lead poisoning, that's still fucking ableist. Just, please. Stop using disability as an insult, and stop using it as a catch-all to describe bigoted behaviour.

“if somebody becomes panicked when you accuse them of lying theyre obviously not telling the truth” shut up ugly im a survivor who got punished for shit i never did all the time of fucking course im gonna panic when im blamed for something i didnt do

since this post is actually getting attention rn i really want to emphasize this-

many of the “tells” of lying are traits commonly found in abuse survivors and mentally ill/disabled people.

stuttering, averting eye contact, panicking, raising your volume, fidgeting, and other similar traits are actions performed commonly by these groups, especially in situations of heavy stress- such as being accused of doing something we didnt do, especially if we are afraid of being punished for doing nothing.

im honestly begging people to think critically when accusing somebody of lying for small traits like these.

Something that I first applied to working with children, and have applied in a limited form to working with adults: you don't need to tell someone when they read your instructions wrong. Sometimes it's enough to point out what they did right and then whatever they didn't do? You ask them to do it in more precise words, and you make it sound like it's a new request. Remarkable how fast things get done this way.

This is also a habit I built up from emergency response training. If I say "I need you to bring me a first aid kit and an accident report" and you bring me just a first aid kit, it's so much more efficient to say "thanks now can you bring me an accident report" than "I asked you to bring an accident report why didn't you bring me one".

Once you've internalized "a person bleeding out is one of the worst times to start an argument" you start to wonder what other tasks could get accomplished without arguing

to succeed in adult friendship you must remember the key tenets of child friendship:

successful examples from my travels:

of course these can be mixed and matched. most activities are enhanced by Snack Time if your friend targets enjoy breaking bread together.

and one begets the other. if you Play Pretend with someone for long enough they may eventually tell you about Toys they have and if you want to play too they'll probably let you. if they're nice.

life can be lonely when we live in separate boxes and worry about money all the time. this is what makes friendships hard, not growing older. but the antidote to isolation is connection, and the oldest wisdom we ever learn: share your toys. share your games. share your snacks.

“Oh boo hoo you shouldn’t ask your friends for favors we’re all adults”

I just spent three hours pulling up carpet and staples for a friend’s home renovation and we all did nothing but chat and joke and have wonderful conversation the whole time.

Helping somebody move or renovate or giving them a ride to the airport is functionally the same as going mini-golfing or playing a board game: it’s an activity that you do that is made more fun by having good company, and which provides something to talk about when the conversation lulls.

“Shared joy is double joy, but shared sorrow is half a sorrow.”

hard cider was invented when someone decided to make beer that tastes good instead of bad

There's this perception on here among neurodivergent people that neurotypical social behaviour is all fake and arbitrary. That it's a cruel, baseless game played to "weed out" ND people or to cause pain and complicate things on purpose.

This is wrong. All of those social rules and nuances ARE communication. Sorry if this is rude but it's not the NTs' fault if things don't gel- the gap goes both ways. Just because communication doesn't make sense to you, doesn't mean it's random or purposeless. Remember this post?

Every interaction in an NT conversation has purpose, and communicates something, and I don't understand why nobody ever explains this to ND people. There's information on basic stuff like facial expressions, but never what any of it actually means.

Small talk about the weather isn't about the weather. It's about how nice it is to be around the people you're talking to, or feeling out their understanding of the world, or just saying that you're both present and people and you're being people together. It's not literal. The words are, but the broad scope isn't.

A conversation is not just an exchange of words, it's an exchange of acknowledgement, attention, and emotional understanding. Of course it confuses people when their part in that exchange is met with flat affect or unembelished words. It's like looking in a mirror and not seeing your reflection.

If there's any character in this world who suffers from literary Ken-ification it's Patroclus. Especially in the zeitgeist of today (thanks tsoa), it's always Achilles AND Patroclus, never just Patroclus. Who is he? Why does he exist? He is Achilles' boyfriend! What's his job? Death! In the sense that he just. Dies. That's just his job now. Death. Death and Achilles' boyfriend. That's it.

I read the thing

I am a changed woman. Sorry for even making this post when Victor Hugo said it 150ish years before me

Technology really is magic. I know that’s said a lot but like I’m sitting here looking at one of those chargers that you put your phone on top to wirelessly charge. And today is the first time I’ve really looked at it and gone “truly how the fuck does this work”

Maybe we stress about fantasy worldbuilding too much. We’re like “oh we gotta know the rules of the magic system,” no you don’t. I don’t know the rules of our magic system. If Aragorn, son of Arathorn got hit by a truck that orcs and goblins were driving flintstone style, and he transmigrated into my living room, I would not be able to explain any of the technology around me. I have no idea how I’m making this post. Imagine the first caveman who was like “oh shit the wheel” and I’m nodding along with that cave man. I understand how the wheel can roll. This next sentence was supposed to be about how I can sort of grasp how landline telephones work, but then I thought about it and no I don’t. I am surrounded everyday by mystical forces.

Anyway I have to use this particular charger because this miracle machine’s charging port is fuckin broken again

i love my bedroom it’s awesome here. it even has bed. and blanky.

I think it needs to become common knowledge that "inability to read social cues" can show up as overcompensating.

You don't know how much misbehaviour is allowed, so you become the perfect child who never tests rules.

You don't know if someone is irritated with you, so you'll be extra generous and self-effacing.

You don't know how much is expected of you at work so you'll kill yourself in a minimum-wage job and not notice that nobody else is working like this.

"Hardworking and quiet" should be as much of an autism red flag as "ignores rules and doesn't know when to stop talking". Or why don't we just start using words to communicate so i can stop tracking everybody's eyebrow twitches, that would be great.

@amtrak-official

This is so me, I really really want good cities and high speed frequent transit

God forbid women have hobbies

I feel like a surfboard is potentially a fair price to pay for getting to watch an otter surfing.

2024 things:

No doctor will ever get my respect like the woman in the ER who checked me for claws and fangs because I told her I was turning into a werewolf and could feel it and let me know gently that she couldn't find any but that didnt make it feel any less real, like THATS how you do it, other doctors who just flat out told me I was wrong take notes

This is how you treat us!

i am reblogging this as someone who does not have delusions and often makes shitposts about werewolves, and i just want all my followers to know this is not a joke!

i am so glad you had this positive experience, and i hope this sort of kindness catches on with doctors and the general public.

Look when someone is in a confused or compromised state, no matter why,

and they are your medical charge,

it is vital to continue to treat them with dignity. Like that. Reassure them with visible practicalities that you acknowledge their fears, will not belittle them, and can show them facts to help them cope.

THAT is the proper compassion of a Healer.

Can I just add that, if you like me have delusions where everything bad that happens is your fault, the doctor shouldn't be like "Yeah, you're probably right" but try to reason with you in a respective way. OP's doctor did it right, but some of the notes make it look like people think delusions must be agreed to always, when doing so can be detrimental to the person's wellbeing

This is my favorite addition to this post because it’s true. When dealing with delusions you need to avoid the extremes - DO NOT tell the person flat out “you’re wrong”, “thats not real” or worst of all “you’re crazy.” BUT DON’T ENCOURAGE THE DELUSION EITHER! Let’s take my werewolf delusion, for example. Doctors who have flat out told me “that isn’t real” haven’t helped because for me it is real and no amount of you saying it isn’t will change my perception. It makes us feel alienated.

But someone saying “You ARE transforming into a werewolf but i have a poition thatll stop it! :D” is just as dangerous because you’re furthering a delusion which could get someone hurt. its also manipulative. we’re psychotic, not children.

So what DO you do? Acknowledge that the situation is frightening. If possible, give them the objective facts (ie, i don’t see any monsters; your mom hasn’t said anything to make it seem like she’s going to kill you) while also acknowledging that for them, it is real. Most of all, ask what you can do to keep them comfortable and safe.

Sorry for the long addition but when I made this post it didn’t occur to me apsychotic people would look at it for advice on how to handle an actively delusional person. I’m glad it’s resonating with people, though

abstract and modern art haters are sooo snobby like klein literally Created an entirely new pigment and then painted a canvas in a way where the brush strokes wouldn't be visible. the insinuation that people with no skill could reproduce that is so annoying because unless you are skilled at color mixing and painting you definitely couldn’t lmao

i hope it's okay to add this because i think it hits the nail directly on the head

Honestly, it's like picking up a book and saying "I know all these words, I can type, I could have written this" like there's no middle step between the technical ability and the finished work.