Script Shrink

“Where Ya Been, Scripty?”

Hey everybuddy. I know it’s been a while. And tons and tons of you have sent me loving and concerned messages just like this one, asking me where I’ve been, if I’m okay, all of that.

The truth of it is that, yes, I’m fine. But I’m very sorry to announce that I won’t be continuing the ScriptMedic blog.

This blog has been amazing, a gift, and a blessing for me. There’s been such an outpouring of love and compassion from all of you. You’ve touched my heart. I’ve never had the gift of thousands and thousands of people reading what I write, or caring what I have to say – or even caring how I feel at a given moment. You have been the best readers I could possibly have ever asked for, and I love each and every one of you.

But I can’t continue doing the blog, as much as I love it and all of you.

I wrote 2,100 blog posts in 14 months, not to mention 3 books (one of them 3 or 4 times), managing a blogging family that I love but did not create. It’s been the height of my writing life – and it’s been exhausting, draining, and depleting.

When I stepped away in December I thought I would come back to the blog in the New Year with some renewed vitality, and while I love the opportunity to help writers around the world, it also came with no small amount of anxiety. I felt that no matter how much I helped, there were always more people who needed me. I felt – because of me, not you guys – like what I was doing wasn’t enough.

I can’t tell you the number of times I almost started writing again, and couldn’t.

I needed help. But because way back when I set this blog up as a main blog and not a side blog, I can’t give someone access to ScriptMedic without giving them access to my personal blog and sideblogs, too. I’m not ready or willing to pass the torch on to someone else – ScriptMedic is still my baby, and I still carry it deep in my veins. Even if I transferred all my sideblogs onto a different account, I can’t pass the blog on to another mod – and I don’t think I’d want to.

Thank you all for your kindness, your compassion, your friendship, and your concern. You’ve all been a blessing for me. This has been a really hard decision, but it’s what I need for me.

I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.

And who knows? Maybe some day I’ll have the time, the energy, and the passion to come back to this again.

But until then, I am, always and forever,

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

Thank you so much to everyone for your kind words and support. It means so very much to me.

For those who are asking: the blog will definitely remain up as an archive. There’s no way all that hard work is going to waste, and no way I would intentionally deprive you of it.

I love you all.

GIF by lilpieceofmyworld

#scriptmedic

scriptshrink reblogged

Injury Profiles: Suicide Attempt (Wrist Lacerations)

Keep reading

#reblog #scriptmedic #Suicide #self injury #self harm #this is not psychological or medical advice #this is writing advice #body horror #medical

CW for self harm, body horror, and suicide

Source: scriptmedicblog.com

scriptshrink reblogged

script-a-world

#reblog #text #script a world #scriptmedic #scriptfam #announcements #scriptshrink admin

Tumblr’s “Safe Mode”

Hey all. Tumblr, the lovely place we all call home, has decided to change the way it displays content to users, particularly minors and particularly on Mobile.

The ScriptFam are aware of the issue. We’re also aware that some of our content is being hidden. We’re aware that users with Safe Mode turned on were having trouble seeing @scriptsocialwork. The blog had inadvertently been marked as “adult content” on the backend, which has been fixed, and all of us are currently making sure our blogs are marked appropriately.

First, check if Safe Mode is turned on for you. Click here to look at your settings. You’ll see something that looks summat like this (in a browser):

If you want the full Tumblr experience, make sure that Safe Mode is to the left and grayed out (as above). We’re aware that Tumblr seems to have bugs that keep turning this back on, and it may be enforcing this for minors. No, we don’t know how to fix that.

Second, if you’re having trouble seeing content from the Script blogs, please let us know. Please message either the blog mod or me about this.

We strive very hard to keep content positive and friendly in the Script family. We aim to be accessible and appropriate for all ages, with a minimum of gore or explicit language, but what we can’t control is how Tumblr sees our content. If a post or a blog is getting flagged as “sensitive”, we need to know about it so that we can get in touch with Tumblr.

Tumblr is an evolving environment for blogs. As things change, we’ll try to keep up with them, and it’s our sincere hope that Tumblr does not hinder our readers’ access to our content. As we know more, you’ll know more.

At your service,

xoxo, Aunt Scripty, The Script Family Mods, & The Script Family

scriptshrink reblogged

#reblog #text #scriptmedic #announcements #inbox

The Ask Box

Hey all. We need to have a little talk.

I’ve kept the ask box closed for over a month now while I’ve been digging my way out of ask debt. (Yes, ask debt. Just work with me here.)

I started the closure of the box with +-1,250 asks. That is, I was 1,250 asks behind. In debt, if you will.

I’ve been working hard to clear that backlog. But in the more-than-a-month of hard work, I’ve successfully answered or deleted… about 100 of them. There are still 1,150 asks pending. I still can’t even get to the bottom of my inbox without my browser crashing.

Even if I keep my ask box closed, and I keep answering asks at a rate of 3 a day, it would take me a year to answer all the asks in my inbox.

Meanwhile, writers have moved on. An anonymous ask from months ago will likely not help the same writer. People finish projects, people start new ones.

In short: the older the question, generally speaking, the less useful it is. It’s just as much work for me, for less benefit for you.

Meanwhile, I just feel guiltier and guiltier looking at my inbox and saying, I should have answered this months ago. And at the same time, I feel even guiltier than that when people are messaging asking – usually very politely! – when the inbox is opening again.

I’m failing the people who’ve sent in asks and I’m failing the people who haven’t had a chance to send theirs in yet.

I have the guts to admit it when I’m vulnerable, and Something’s Gotta Give.

I need to ask you all for a huge favor.

I need to declare ask bankruptcy.

I need to start fresh. Clean. Inbox Zero. I need to wipe the slate, for all of our sakes.

This isn’t easy – not at all. But here’s the future of my inbox.

1) As of May 31st, I’m going to delete the asks. All 1,150 of them. I can’t work on old asks and help writers with their questions.

2) I’m going to re-open the ask box. On June 1st, I will re-open the ask box. It will stay open for the first 3 days of the month or until I get 100 asks, whichever comes sooner. (If I can tackle more asks later in the month, I will, but don’t count on it.)

If your ask wasn’t answered and you still need my advice, this will be your chance to get your message in a less-crowded inbox.

A hundred messages is a manageable sum. I can do that. But only if…

3) On the last day of the month, I’m going to delete whatever’s left over. Whatever asks I haven’t gotten to that month.

This will give me a fresh, clean inbox every month. (It’s like paying off my credit cards every month instead of letting the debt just build up and consume me.)

It will give people a chance to re-ask things I never got to.

It will give people a chance to ask questions they couldn’t with the inbox closed.

This will repeat every month.

So my ask box is going to work like this:

1st of the month: Open the ask box. (Make an announcement.)

3rd or 4th of the month: Close the ask box. (Make an announcement.)

Last day of the month: Delete ~~any remaining asks.~~

Repeat every month.

This is the only way I can see for me to move forward.

I know a lot of people’s asks are going to be deleted. I know. I feel guilty doing it this way. But every time I look at the crushing mountain of mail I’ve got, I get discouraged and disheartened. Every time I have to turn down someone’s question, I cringe with guilt.

So this keeps me sane. It gets your questions answered in a timely manner. And it gives those whose asks have been deleted a chance to resubmit them every month.

Thank you for your understanding.

Oh, one last thing….

The “ask box” will always be open to Patrons who message me on Patreon, even if the box is closed on Tumblr.

The Patrons have supported me well beyond anything I could have hoped for, and I need to give something back to them. Without them I couldn’t afford the time to run this blog, especially now that my financial status has changed.

I promise that there are good things coming for this blog in the months ahead.

Articles I want to write. Podcasts I want to interview on. And a super secret squirrel project that I’m so freaking excited about that will be coming in the fall.

But I can’t do those things with this inbox debt hanging over my head.

So thank you. Thank you for letting me wipe the slate clean. Thank you for your patience with me.

And thank you, above all, for being the absolute best readers on the planet.

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

scriptshrink reblogged

Anonymous asked:

Could you explain how recovering from amnesia works? I know a lot of times in movies and books that people just suddenly get all their memories back. Is that how it always works? Or is that how it works in some cases? (Thank you for answering all those questions you get!)

The ScriptMedic is supported by generous donations on Patreon. Have you considereddonating?

There’s a lot of misconceptions about what amnesia actually IS. I’m going to give you just a snippet from the Mayo Clinic site on amnesia (emphasis mine):

Isolated memory loss doesn’t affect a person’s intelligence, general knowledge, awareness, attention span, judgment, personality or identity. People with amnesia usually can understand written and spoken words and can learn skills such as bike riding or piano playing. They may understand they have a memory disorder.

As to what amnesia actually is, it’s problems making or retrieving memory. There are two types: anterograde (new memories are affected), and retrograde (old memories are affected). There’s a really good overview from, surprisingly, Medical News Today, located here.

It’s important to know that most types of amnesia don’t affect a person’s understanding of self; they don’t forget who they are, although they may forget other people or other things. Anterograde amnesia–forming new memories–is much more likely than retrograde amnesia–affecting memories of the past.

Amnesia comes from a lot of causes. For example, I had some brief anterograde amnesia following my concussion when I was a teenager. I also had some brief anterograde amnesia following my dentist giving me an amnestic (there are a few of these, in the benzodiazepine class especially), because I am deathly afraid of dentistry, and not remembering getting dental implants is awfully convenient, you guys. Amnesia can be related to a stroke, or a head injury.(It can be an emotional response to an extremely stressful stimulus, but let’s assume it’s not, shall we? That trope is so boring, and more importantly, we can do better.).

Most people with amnesia have anterograde problems, issues storing short-term memory. For that, occupational therapy and a variety of tools, including smartphones, alarm, notebooks, etc. with reminders, can be very helpful.

Skills that have been lost from retrograde amnesia can also be replaced, again, with occupational therapy. But it takes time, and especially if they have anterograde issues as well, it can take a lot of frustrating effort to re-learn skills they already knew.

Some amnesia is brief, like from a sedative or, hopefully, a concussion. (Some people, like my friend @towertumblng, have long term issues after concussions, so YMMV.) This might resolve quickly, or over a few weeks; the episodes I’ve had have resolved within hours, although it’s worth noting that I have significant memory gaps in the 24 hours following my head injury. (The sedation for dentistry lasted about 12 hours.)

Some people regain their memories, some never will, though it does, typically, get better. Sometimes the damage to memory is so severe that people have to live in inpatient or assisted-living facilities because of their memory loss. It’s a whole spectrum of disease out there.

I hope this was helpful with your story!

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

Disclaimer.

#reblog #amnesia #scriptmedic #Anonymous #asks #memory loss #memory #misconceptions #head injury #this is not psychological or medical advice #this is writing advice #medical #soap opera amnesia

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about amnesia lately, so I’m reblogging this extraordinarily helpful post from @scriptmedic !

scriptshrink reblogged

heywriters

masterofenthropy-blog asked:

Hi HeyWriters! I was wondering: do you have a tip to create a weak point on main characters? I´m making a story, but I´m having trouble since my main character is TOO overpowered. Could you help me with this?

heywriters answered:

(All of this is written under the assumption your character has superpowers or “special” abilities, so forgive me if you meant a different kind of power.)

I created a character concept when I was twelve. She had all the superpowers of my favorite heroes and then some. As time wore on she gained more and more until eventually my adolescent brain invented logic and realized she was actually ridiculous. Here’s how I depowered this character, who’s name is Ace, without completely ruining her coolness.

Step One:

Don’t be greedy. Any ability that does not contribute to the story needs to go. It’s taking up space that could be filled with credibility. I decided early on that Ace didn’t need most of her abilities, and by the end of the story she only relies on a few to get the job done. Also, if a character can do more than one thing that are all basically the same thing some of those should probably go (invisibility and camouflage, superspeed and teleportation, etc.).

Step Two:

Apply real-world science. If you try to make your depiction realistic, you’ll want to have an idea of how these abilities might work and how they might not. Of course, you should suspend disbelief for some things if they’re truly essential to your character, but others can be adapted. For Ace there are some powers that only work under the right circumstances, and others that her body rejects or that give her physical pain when she uses them. Most importantly, special strengths come with special weaknesses. Sensitive hearing means loud noises are more jarring or harmful, regeneration means metabolism speeds up and the person needs to eat as much as a body builder. Any superpower you pick out will have a drawback, I guarantee it; if not a physical one then a social one (I’ll get to that).

This scene from The Incredibles is an excellent demonstration of superpower drawbacks.

Step Three:

Consider how the character feels about all this power and why they obtained it in the first place. Ace was not born with abilities, but over time she chose certain powers for the purpose of defending herself or others. Some of her powers fade away when she stops using them, like any skill you fail to practice, and some abilities she just plain old refuses to use for personal reasons. Some are too difficult or time-consuming for her to master, and some even trigger memories of her traumatic past, so she avoids using them.This way she has a choice in the matter, and her choice is not to bite off more than she can chew or what she doesn’t want in the first place.

Step Four:

How do other characters feel about all this power? Perhaps some or all of your character’s powers intimidate, frighten, or anger others in the story. One of Ace’s friends dislikes how unstoppable she is, and others are taken aback by some of the things she can do or how she looks when she does them. On the whole, she hides what she can do, or picks small things to do instead of big things, downplaying her own power when necessary. How your supporting characters react to the force of nature that is your MC is the most important aspect of her power.

Here’s an example from the X-Men of how other characters might react.

For additional opinions and advice, read this https://mythcreants.com/blog/five-characters-that-are-too-powerful/ and take to heart its ending line: “There’s only one fix that avoids all the pitfalls of overpowered heroes: refrain from making them really powerful in the first place.”

Yes, Ace is a flawed concept and all the advice I just gave is only a patch kit for that flaw. However, overpowered characters continue to excite readers and viewers alike, so I would never suggest we dispense with them altogether. Just, when you’re getting a headache from how overwhelming your character is, it’s good to consider dialling it all back and focusing on the power of their personality instead.

—————————————————-

Super apologize for taking so long to respond, and thanks for asking in the first place.

Hey there @masterofenthropy! If it’s okay, I wanted to chime in on this a little bit.

Everything @heywriters says is absolutely phenomenal advice. But I run a medical blog for writers, so let me give you two options that can help weaken a too strong protagonist that pop into my mead.

1) Give them an illness that gets in the way of their daily lives. This can be anything from a mysterious, undiagnosed autoimmune disease to asthma. Consider Something that will increase their challenges moving forward.

For a temporary illness, try influenza or gastroenteritis (the flu or the “stomach flu”). You can be as powerful as you like, but try fighting evil with a fever of 103 and puking and pooping every ten minutes!

(For info about living life with chronic illnesses, consider giving @scriptspoonie a glance!)

2) Maim your character. And by “maim” I’m saying “Give them a significant injury that gets in the way of their daily life.” If they’re a detective, break the wrist on their gun hand. Parkour expert? Literally any orthopedic injury will do. Broke legs and ankles impair mobility and may limit your character to crutches, while a broken arm reduces lift weight and a shoulder injury reduces strength.

Concussions, even minor ones, can cause issues with headaches, dizziness, decreased energy levels, sleep disturbances, difficulties making decisions, and short term memory retention issues for days, weeks or even years afterwards.

Torn ACLs, knee injuries, back injuries…. These all slow people down, but a determined protagonist can overcome them (with the right help and aides). Or your protagonist can not “overcome” them, and succeed anyway – a much better technique.

Good luck with your stories!

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

Free eBook: 10 BS Medical Tropes that Need to Die TODAY (and What to Do Instead)

#reblog #scriptmedic #heywriters #meta #this is not psychological or medical advice #this is writing advice #writing #medical #body horror #injury #hypothetical #superheroes #superpowers

I’d like to add:

3) Have your protagonist have a mental illness. Medical problems aren’t the only way your character can be limited. Mental illnesses can be just as debilitating to your character as any physical weakness.

For what this looks like, check out this AMAZING comic that shows a powerful superhero struggling with depression.

Disclaimer

scriptshrink reblogged

Anonymous asked:

Is being an emt traumatic? Like one must see so many awful accidents. Do people get flashbacks, nightmares or PTSD? If so how would someone minimalize these?

Hey there nonny! I’m going to talk about EMS in general and then

Yes, EMS workers suffer rather ridiculous rates of PTSD, though it’s worth noting that not all EMS employees have it. PTSD development isn’t my area of expertise – talk to @scriptshrink and particularly @scripttraumasurvivors about that one. But I’ll share my thoughts and observations from 10 years in the service:

PTSD is a significant issue in EMS. I’m fortunate enough not to have it, but the job scars us all in different ways. Dead kids, horrendous accidents and more. That said, a lot of it is in how you see things. For me, I think what increases my resilience is that I understand that I’m there to help. The awful thing that happened has happened – not my fault. But I can help, or at least try to help, or give someone the dignity of a sheet over their body. It’s an emergency, but it’s not my emergency. And the sense of being able to do something really helps.

PTSD is a problem, but it isn’t as big of an issue as burnout in our community. Compassion fatigue is a real thing. The job can be shockingly abusive to those attempting to work it.

PTSD is real and people get it. EMS has a particularly macho culture, with phrases like “suck it up, buttercup” getting thrown around a LOT. So once someone starts to struggle, they can run into significant problems trying to get support from their group.

What’s interesting is this: one on one, we do pretty well. My friend Kelly Grayson calls this his Nachos And Beer therapy: take the coworker out, one on one, and talk, and eat nachos, and drink beer, and try to come to terms with what they’ve experienced.

If you want to read some stories from some real-life responders about their experiences and trauma, check out http://codegreencampaign.org/category/stories/ .

Also, if you can, send a little money their way. Code Green Campaign is literally trying to get us to call a metaphorical code on our mental health, because responders commit suicide in pretty drastic numbers.

It’s changing, but the culture around mental illness in EMS has been “repress, repress, it’s for the best.”

That said, my personal mental health issues don’t stem from work so much as they do from my natural disposition: I get depressed easily and often, and I’ve battled suicidal ideation from the time I was 6 years old. EMS isn’t responsible for that. In fact, it’s helped give me a sense of purpose and a sense that I get to do positive things in the world, that my contributions (and therefor my life) matter.

A terrible form of validation, but it helps me.

As for character construction, you’re dealing with a group of characters that have Seen Some Shit™. Consider some coping mechanisms, like:

Swearing loudly and often
Very, very, very dark humor. I have been such a filter for you guys, you would not believe.
Lots of drinking, dancing, and partying, in order to “feel alive”
Talking things out quietly in corners
Partners making each other playlists to brighten their days
Finding someone outside of work to talk to in order to ground your character

One other note: things seem to actually get slightly better as medics progress in their careers. That’s not saying us old-timers are jaded fucks (though some are), but rather, we have a different perspective. We see things less personally. We trade the crushing weight of individual tragedies for the crushing weight of The Broken System and our years of clawing at the walls being unable to change it. As I said, it’s burnout, not PTSD (for a great many of us; your characters’ mileage may vary).

Good luck with your story!

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

Becoming a Patron lets you see the freaking future. Have youconsidered becoming a clairvoyant?

FreeeBook: 10 BS “Medical” Tropes that Need to Die TODAY!

#reblog #scriptmedic #PTSD #first responders #trauma #medical #suicide #death #this is not psychological or medical advice #this is writing advice #suicidal ideation

scriptshrink reblogged

Anonymous asked:

Hey there! My mc is 15, in the USA, and admitted to hospital in (what looks exactly like) the early stages of sepsis. I have reliable info on that, but there's an issue that I haven't addressed: He hasn't really been eating,and won't be once he's a bit better. He has what he describes as "weird anxiety" about food, & can't carry the logic thru to a reason to be anxious (so it's not "i can't eat because of x reason" it's "I can't eat because it's really really scary and I don't know why") 1/2

&he’s lost a significant amount of weight because of it. He’s not happy about this, though. My friend is a doctor and she says he’d probably end up with an NG tube and a psych consult after a couple days at most, but I don’t really know the steps to get to that point. Also: if he doesn’t want to be tube fed but his parents want him to be, what happens? Are there other options for him? What if he pulls the tube out? Why are ng tubes sometimes taped in front and sometimes to the side? thanks!

Hey there nonny! It sounds like your character has some significant anorexia nervosa, which is @scriptshrink ‘s territory, but I’ll help you with the medical stuff!

Yes, your character would get a psych consult and likely have an NG tube placed, and it would happen pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, in a situation where your character doesn’t want to be tube-fed but his parents want him to be, what he wants is fairly irrelevant. This is true for lots of reasons, but the #1 reason is that his refusal to eat in life-sustaining quantities is a threat to his life.

When someone’s behavior is a threat to themselves, doctors tend to step in pretty hard.

His other options are:

Overcome his anxiety about food and choose to eat enough to keep him in the living business. Others can help him with this, including a psychotherapist or psychiatrist, or the right kind* of nurse. *As in, kind and understanding, not “she must be a med/surge nurse with 4 months of ER experience and a year of ICU care.”

That’s… that’s it, really.

If he pulls the tube out it will be put back in. If the character needs to be sedated or restrained to accomplish that, he will be.

This is the rough part: once the decision has been made that the has to have the thing done, the thing has to get done. He’s a) a minor, and b) mentally ill. He is also likely to be in restraints at this point.

I’m going to pause for a second: does this sound brutal to you? It should. It is. It is also the reality of a patient making choices (not eating) that risks their lives. This is not a situation anyone enjoys. It gives doctors no joy to violate people’s bodies for what they need. But what he needs is nutrition.

As for how it starts, his reluctance around food could be noticed by a few people, including his parents or his nurses. Nurses are pretty spot-on about noticing what people have and haven’t eaten, in part because it’s their job but also in part because it’s an excellent conversation starter. “You didn’t eat your meat! How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?”

….no, Pink Floyd was not a nurse, why do you ask?

Seriously, though, your character’s likely choices are between “eating food” and “NG Tube”. How he approaches that choice is up to him, and will be dictated by his level of anorexia.

As to where NG tubes are taped, I’ll give you a secret: it’s the choice of whoever puts them in. Trained to tape it on the side? Odds are you’ll tape it on the side. Trained to tape it in the front? Odds are you’ll be taping it in the front. Most of the times I see NG tubes they’re taped to the side, but that could be the culture where I work.

It’s also, y’know, I’m guessing most of the NG tubes you’ve seen have been Hollywood ones, not actual tubes in actual people. So bear in mind that it’s also about what looks best to the director.

Two more things to consider, courtesy of Shrinks:

1) Once the feeding tube is in, he will likely be given more food than a normal adult via the tube. This is called refeeding, and it is reported as being painful as hell, because you’re taking a body that’s used to minimal-if-any food intake and putting in more food than an adult requires.

2) Once food starts going in, your character will have their toilet monitored – IE, a nurse will check to make sure that the character didn’t vomit before the character flushes. This is exactly as humiliating and awkward as it sounds.

Hope this helped!!

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

Becoming a Patron lets you see the freaking future. Have youconsidered becoming a clairvoyant?

FreeeBook: 10 BS “Medical” Tropes that Need to Die TODAY!

#reblog #anorexia #starvation #Anonymous #scriptmedic #refeeding #eating disorders #this is not psychological or medical advice #this is writing advice #weight loss

scriptshrink reblogged

Anonymous asked:

Are there any existing cases where a person changes in behavior drastically after receiving a head injury? Like as big as a violent person becoming peaceful or as small as eating only when around people.

Typically head injuries make people more violent/agitated, not less. But yes, personality changes are a very common effect of a head injury.

The frontal lobe of the brain is the place that controls behavior, social concepts, etc. When that gets damaged, people tend to have less patience, and may not comprehend social rules or roles as well. They can get frustrated very easily, which can lead to lashing out. The injury doesn’t even have to be directly to the front of the head; if there’s bleeding inside the skull, it can put pressure on the frontal lobe and cause the changes.

There’s a pretty good overview from brainline.org, from caregiver.org, and Psychology Today (note: I have no idea if this last one is a valid source).

I will say this…. docile or calmer behavior is almost never seen as a “bad thing,” so there’s definitely not as much written about how to “cope” with someone being calm.

I hope these references are helpful and help you make good stories!

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

Becoming a Patron lets you see the freaking future. Have youconsidered becoming a clairvoyant?

FreeeBook: 10 BS “Medical” Tropes that Need to Die TODAY!

#reblog #head injury #personality changes #Anonymous #scriptmedic #eye injury #eye injury tw #lobotomy #historical psychology #history #icepick #needles #body horror #surgery #brain injury #brain trauma #this is not psychological or medical advice #this is writing advice

CW: eye injury, body horror, surgery, needles (kinda). A simple medical illustration is linked.

It depends on how localized the head injury. If you count something like an icepick lobotomy, that would definitely make someone more docile.

Some more info after the jump.

scriptshrink reblogged

pomrania

Open letter to Script Shrink and scriptAutistic

I don’t follow @scriptautistic, but I do follow @scriptshrink, and that latter has reblogged posts from scriptAutistic so that I can see them. So, Script Shrink, thank you for that.

Disclaimer: this is all stuff that I thought and experienced. Not everything I believed at the time was true, or nice, or pleasant, and for all I know there may still be incorrect information in here (sorry about that), but it is honest.

I was was diagnosed with Asperger’s back when it was a diagnosis, some time in high school I think. I never looked up much information on it. I didn’t look up info on Tourette’s or ADHD either. I didn’t want to feel like there was anything wrong with me, so I avoided it as much as possible.

The first time I went to university (long story, not relevant here) I met someone who’d also been diagnosed with Asperger’s. I loved being around him – looking back, I can tell that I loved him, even if I hadn’t yet understood that it was in a non-romantic way – but sometimes I felt bad, when I compared myself to him. He had lots of friends. I had him, and however wasn’t telling me to shut up at the moment. He had a roommate that he got along with, and lived comfortably with the other people in his residence. I’d known from prior experience that having a roommate would be a Bad Idea for me, and I ended up getting kicked out of the townhouse-style residence after less than a month. We had the same diagnosis, so what was wrong with me, I would wonder, that he could function so well with others, and I couldn’t?

Skip ahead a few years. I hadn’t seen him in a while (and still haven’t) because of unrelated reasons. I was at a different university, studying linguistics, and took out a copy of the DSM-V from the library for the lulz. I ended up finding out that Asperger’s was no longer a separate diagnosis because one of the qualifiers had been “no difficulties with language” and pragmatics was a part of language. From my linguistics courses, I knew what pragmatics was: knowing when and in what manner to speak, among other things, which is something I definitely have problems with.

Skip forward a bit. Due to different unrelated reasons, someone was looking at potential alternate living accommodations for me, and mentioned a group home for people with autism. I had an automatic hell no I’m not disabled reaction (despite that I receive Disability from the provincial government), and my second reaction was that it was a bad idea to gather people together whose shared feature was problems with social interaction. The person looked it up anyways, and said that I wouldn’t be a candidate for that place anyways because I was too high-functioning. I mentally looked at my life, and how much of a mess it was, and assumed that anyone who functioned at a lower level than me, would be completely helpless, and also a bunch of other things that I’m not going to put here, but they’re all derogatory.

Skip forward to a few weeks or months ago. I saw posts on my dash about autism. I had never even heard of some of those terms, but what they described sounded very familiar. I started to gradually accept it, not as a brokenness, but as a difference. I think the most important information was that there is no such thing as “high-functioning” or “low-functioning” autism, just a bunch of different elements – like under categories of social interaction, sensory processing, executive function, meltdowns – that are at different levels for everyone with autism, which can be more or less problematic, depending on the person and their situation.

There are two things I found particularly reassuring, odd as they may seem. The first is that clumsiness (or whatever the technical name is) is common among people with autism. Now, my mother has a type of “hell if we know” nervous system disorder, and has gone from walking with two canes (when I was little) to being in a wheelchair full-time. Whenever I would drop my keys or trip over my own feet, sometimes I wondered if I’d inherited that from her as well, along with my nose shape and skin that sunburns stupidly easy. But now, I don’t think I have to worry about that.

The second thing is hypersensitivity to sound. I can hear people talking across the apartment, and what they’re talking about, and pick up quieter sounds than others; but I can barely understand what someone’s saying if there’s a lot of background noise. I did a paper on auditory neuropathy once, so I know there’s more to “hearing impairment” than just detectable sound threshold, so I’d been worried about that. Now my hearing hasn’t been formally tested lately, but there’s a likely non-clinical explanation for my problems with background noise, which is quite a relief.

In conclusion, I’ve learned more about a part of myself from just seeing scriptAutistic’s reblogged posts, in the past few months, than all the years previous. Thanks for that.

I’ll just be over here in the corner crying quietly.

I never dreamed that our little blog family could ever have that type of impact.

Thank you. I’m so proud to be part of this family.

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

#reblog #text #scriptmedic #pomrania #scriptautistic

Seriously. Thank you for sharing, and a huge thank you to Cat and Aira over at @scriptautistic . I’m so proud of you guys.

scriptshrink reblogged

Anonymous asked:

How does one go about joining the script family?

http://scriptmedic.tumblr.com/thescriptxfamily

Hey there, nonny. It’s so cool that you want to start a writing advice blog!

First, you should know that I’m uncomfortable with approaches about specific blogs from an anonymous ask, because I have no way of contacting the person directly. So if you get to the end of the process, and you still want to start a blog, contact me OFF ANON, preferably by message rather than ask.

But Read This First!

The ScriptX family of blogs are a group of dedicated souls committed to improving writing quality in other people’s writing.

We stay away from personal and political commentary. These are not personal blogs. These are writing advice blogs. In times of political or social volatility, it’s really important that we keep the course on JUST helping writers.

We are also content experts. That means that we hold ourselves to a high standard: Could you testify in a court of law about this topic and/or teach an advanced level class?

Now, the first step in starting a ScriptX blog is…. do we already have a blog for that topic already? Check the list here:

If the topic you were thinking of touching on is already in existence, consider contacting that blog (again, off anon) and offering your assistance as a co-mod or a resource for a specialized subtopic.

If that area isn’t covered, work your way through the flowchart here:

http://scriptmedic.tumblr.com/soyouwanna

ONLY after you’ve worked your way through that should you reach out to me, again, via message, again, off anon. We’ve recently instituted a process whereby new blogs are getting mentored–essentially short-term co-modding–by an extant blog, to make sure that new blogs are where they need to be in terms of quality and that they can respond appropriately to nuanced or tricky asks. We also have started asking sensitive-topic blogs to form without the ScriptX URL, and to transition them to the ScriptX family name once we’re sure they’re where they need to be. So take a look, nonnycakes! And good luck. :)

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

#reblog #Anonymous #scriptmedic

scriptshrink reblogged

Anonymous asked:

I want there to be an educational and fun kids show where stethy and his medical instrument friends teach kids not to be afraid of going to the doctors and how shots make people immune to illnesses and just general medicine related things

Right?! Stethy is such a cute girl, and I’ll bet with the help of Dr. Cutty the anthropomorphic scalpel, Sally Syringe, and the rest of the Hospital Helpers, she could teach kids some great lessons about their health and the doctor’s office!

I love this headcanon. I’m going to make a plushie out of it and snuggle it at night.

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

dressupobama

This sounds so cute, I couldn’t help but draw them :)

Does Stethy have a last name by the way?

OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!!!

I think Stethy is just Stethy, like Prince or Madonna or Cher or Ke$ha.

Except WAY cuter and much more medical in nature.

Have I mentioned how much I love you guys?!?

#reblog #stethy #fanart #scriptmedic #scriptshrink admin

There might be another coming around soon! :P

scriptshrink reblogged

magicmoon65

I don’t know what happened I swear I’ve 100% been doing Productive Work. I’m not drawing stethescope fanart, I swear, they just appeared on my page. @scriptmedic (hope you appreciate my pathetic new obession 😊)

No no, no clue what this is here….

OH MY GODS I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

You guys make my heart go dribble dribble, you know that?!!

#reblog #images #stethy #fanart #scriptmedic #magicmoon65 #scriptshrink admin

...My mind is blown every time I see someone draw fanart of something I made. Like. What. That happens to famous people and good artists.

scriptshrink reblogged

@phoenixtcm said: I made fanart!

I LOVE IT SHE’S PERFECT

YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST

I love you guys SO SO MUCH

GIF by scampthecorgi

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

#reblog #images #scriptmedic #stethy

AAAAAAAAAHHH SHE’S SO CUTE!!! :D

scriptshrink reblogged

Meet Stethy(TM) !

Hey everyone!

As part of the celebration for reaching the 5,000-follower mark, I’m rolling out Stethy, the new ScriptMedic mascot!

She likes long walks down the corridors, listening to hearts and lungs go lub-dub and whoosh, and nice long baths with cleaning solutions.

Stethy? Want to come out and meet the peoples?

[image of an adorable red anthropomorphic stethoscope with the cutest googly eyes ever]

Isn’t she cute?!!

She’s also here to help you get your story-medicine right!

She’s a smarty, too! Watch–

[image: Stethy the Smarty Stethoscope says “Remember, no one in medicine injects ANYTHING into the neck! Try the glutes or the lateral thigh instead!”

Thanks, Stethy!

And most important of all, thanks to @scriptshrink, who designed the adorable little cutie in the first place.

I’m so excited!!

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

#reblog #stethy #scriptmedic #scriptshrink admin

Lookit the cute thing I made! :D

scriptshrink reblogged