I'm doing my best to make the world a better place in the ways I have some impact, but all the latest problems of the world coming at me all the time (through my phone) was causing some mental health problems (depression/anxiety) , so i started to spend a LOT more time offline.
It's been nice
--and inspired this linocut that I just printed
Hope you all are hanging in there and doing well!
The subtle art of always feeling miserable.
Hello friends! I am excited to (re)share the #mentalhealth project I started two years ago: https://littlebetterzine.com
Little Better Zines are free guides to evidence based coping skills – now expanded and redesigned with new info and improved accessibility.
These are techniques I often share with therapy patients, but I know not everyone has access to therapy. I hope you find these zines helpful, and I’d be grateful if you repost/share the link with anyone who might need them!
Saying that people with mental trauma should not be visiting social media and using that as an excuse for not setting a CW is ableism and not inclusive.
CW just means thinking if what you're going to post has a good chance of causing stress to someone. It's very easy and causes no harm to you.
***I'll be putting this bot back on limited status shortly as it generates LOTS of traffic***
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PsychologyToday
#FlyFishingFriday
#FishingFriday
Block printing by Marina Noguchi
My daughter gave me her artwork 
I felt that I enjoyed fly fishing at home 
It's that time of year again: when people everywhere tell you how you *should* be feeling and ignore how you're *really* feeling. Do those around you a favor: dial back the performative joy and make space for those who don't feel like fiddling while the world burns down around them.
#Christmas #MentalHealth #Compassion
Christine and I are super excited to roll this program out. Resilience and self care are inextricably linked to each other. Both are an essential component of growth!
This free, on-demand workshop walks you through the ALIGNED Method so that you can begin living a life of purpose today. Now. Right now. Just as soon as you click the link!
;)
https://meetfutureu.com/how-to-stop-hustling-and-start-living-workshop/
White Lies by Dream State
PS I Wonder whatever happened to this band?
https://youtu.be/GwkUq3cXe8o?si=NiNAXIMusGAQtPBg
I sent this to my absent psychologist. I wonder if she will ask my why?
Seasonal Depression and Me: 2024 Edition
https://nullrouted.space/2024/11/11/seasonal-depression/
Content Warning: This post talks about seasonal depression and mentions sadness, melancholy and loneliness.
If you enjoyed reading this, consider throwing a few bucks my way (and also boosting this post)
https://subscribe.packetcat.ca
https://www.patreon.com/Bastetrix
Research suggests that viewing pictures of nature can lower stress levels — so if you're feeling overwhelmed today for any reason, take a look at these prizewinning waterfall images from @Smithsonianmag, which show a sunset over Niagara Falls, a dramatic black-and-white shot of Skogafoss falls in Iceland, and a maple-leaf-sprinkled shot from Canada.
Link: https://flip.it/U7ASxE
A friend shared this photo of my art that she sees multiple times every day with her grand daughter at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. She said that the colors and joy of the art is helping her family during this stressful time.
THIS is why I make art! It's so satisfying to know that my work can be a small comfort to people during a difficult time.
hope you all are having a great weekend---and hope you are making art---it's tough out there and people need to smile!!!
#art #mentalHealth
Here are some super-helpful ways to get help with #MentalHealth, #sexualassault, #domesticviolence, discrimination due to your sexual identity, etc. including if you're experiencing a crisis.
Please get the help you need.
#lgbtq #transrights #transrightsarehumanrights #domesticabuse #MentalHealthDay #suicide #awareness #veterans
National Suicide & Crisis Hotline
Call 988 or Text 988
https://988lifeline.org/
National Veterans Crisis Line
988 Press "1" or Chat Online at https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/get-help/chat
National Domestic Violence Hotline
Call 800-799-SAFE (7233)
National Sexual Assault Hotline
Call 800-656-HOPE (4673)
LGBT National Hotline
1-888-843-4564
Trans Lifeline
1-877-565-8860
TrevorLifeline For LGBTQ Youth
1-866-488-7386
New Blog Post:
Digital Resources for Mental Health Professionals: Access Scientific Literature
(have studied Latin, French, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Sanskrit, German, Swedish, Scottish Gaelic, and some #conlangs including #Lojban and #Quenya)
Feel free to info dump at me about your special interests or ask me about any of the above. Also open to talking about #MentalHealth including #anxiety and #depression and about #neurodiversity, in particular #ADHD
just throwing it out there - any #opensource confs that want/accept/seek talks about #mentalhealth? 
Remember your social media ABCs - Always Be Curating!
- follow everyone who interests you(there are so many great people out there)
- unfollow without regret(add a note to the profile for future reference)
- filter topics that distract from what you find value in
- block & mute without mercy
- create lists for special interests that you can view when appropriate.
You don't have to drink from a firehose.
You are in control.
Make social media work for you.
I was trying to visualize how I would like to interact with different actors in a community. This is what I have so far. I intend to add some arguments and tips for the different ways of interacting in this thread (1/4).
Hey Internet Queerdos and Allies,
It's 
Pride month, which means it's time to bring on the corporate rainbow washing!
Before we get started, here's a content warning (#CW) for some swearing, dark topics, and a lot of 
If that's alright with you, then let's goooo!
Okay, so it's been an interesting past year. The Cass report came out and helped roll back trans rights in some pretty serious ways, the conservative Right kept right on proving to be downright 
humans, there's at least one genocide threatening people's right to exist, and billionaires continued to exercise their (money-given) right to make everything worse for everyone but them. Rights have been a big topic lately.
Oh, and I almost threw myself off a bridge several months back—but we'll get to that in a moment.
Fuck. I need some rainbow-safe brain-bleach before we continue, so here are some good things that happened:
I traded in my old gender for a shiny new one 
(technically I just binned the old one—it was pretty outdated). Speaking of dating, I started seeing a lovely enby (hi @catsalad!) from the infosec community. All the people I do safety checks with are still here, and Trump became an official felon 
Alright, that's a bit better. Now on to the actual point of this article: acceptance, community, and safety.
Those three things are right up there with staying hydrated and memes when I think about what any queer person needs to thrive.
Acceptance is a prerequisite for community. Our diversity of experience is just as important as our shared experience. Without being accepting of what makes us each unique and wonderful, our communities are fragile and prone to fracturing. You only have to look at those who try to define what a "real man" or "real woman" is to see how they draw circles around their in-group that get smaller and smaller until no one fits.
Community breeds safety. You may snap a twig with your bare hands, but bind 'em together and you'll find a fagot much harder. Members of our community support each other—and that support becomes so much more important when our queer friends and family run up against the bigotry and horrors of this world. But we're not just one community; we're an alphabet soup of people who come together under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella. Regardless of the specifics, we're the ones who weren't born with the default settings...and that's beautiful—that's worth protecting.
So what about the bridge? Well, like so many people who identify as LGBTQ+, I had a lot of trauma growing up. Trauma that I continue to collect and box up like newly caught Pokémon. There are a lot of sources of that trauma for me: tech-industry layoffs, an abusive partner, neuro-divergence, as well as non-conforming gender and sexuality in a world whose motto might as well be "Of the Default, by the Default, and for the Default".
This all came together one day after a fight with my spouse that left me in a very dark place. I didn't feel safe, I didn't feel like I really belonged to any community, and I didn't feel accepted by those closest to me.
As I stood on the bridge, I got a notification on my phone...then another. It was enough to snap me out of it for a second, and I checked my messages through the tears. Thinking back I honestly don't remember who they were from or what they said, but I do remember that they were from Mastodon, from a couple people who just happened to reach out at the exact right moment. I'll skip the rest of the details, because some of you have already heard this story and they're not really important to this article.
The important part is that I made it home in one piece because someone reached out. Someone who didn't even know how much I needed them to.
That little tie to the queer community was all it took to ground me in the moment and save my life.
Since then I've been keeping an eye out for others that might need grounding and doing my best to make sure they feel accepted. I've been welcoming as many new people into the community as I can, and I've been trying my best to be a safe space for anyone who needs it.
So, wrapping this up, I want to ask you to do the same. Not just today, but every day—as often as you can. Sometimes all it takes is showing a little kindness and compassion to make a big difference in someone's life.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go check in on some people and tell them how glad I am that they're here.
—Alice Watson 
🅻🅸🅲🅴 (
)