So. Updates since I suck at updating my tumblr.
I'm.. I don't want to say relapsing. But things aren't ideal with food. I'm doing a lot of things differently this time and I'm working in aspects of harm reduction and obviously if things get out of hand I will seek help.
Things are just a bit difficult right now honestly.
In difficult things:
-Trauma work is fucking hard, my friends. So are trauma anniversaries.
-Still being stuck unable to do anything because unvaccinated sucks. I haven't been able to see my horse since JANUARY. She's on full board and in training so she's getting all of her needs met but omfg.
-Body image is bad rn.
-Generally overwhelmed.
-Processing intergenerational trauma and racism is apparently really hard when you look white and thus definitely are not interested in taking up space meant for BIPOC people but legit white people just don't get what you're feeling even when you show them these documents that you're having a hard time with.
Mixed things:
-Theoretically I can sign up to be vaccinated starting on the 22nd. But who knows when I'll actually be able to sign up. And who knows when I'll actually get a vaccine.
Good things:
-I have actually been successful at not letting eating things get to danger zone levels.
-I have been trying to be open to discussing the trauma stuff even when it's related to previous therapists or treatment experiences.
-I haven't self harmed in EIGHT MONTHS.
-Doing some fulfilling activist stuff even if it's by computer.
whisper-in-rage reblogged
Native owned businesses to buy from. Taken from the North American Indian Association of Detroit.
whisper-in-rage reblogged
Tomorrow is the beginning of NEDA week and I don't really want to talk about my eating disorder. Y'all know I've struggled with a restrictive eating disorder for years, y'all know I was in treatment all summer after a severe relapse that nearly killed me starting this spring and may know I almost went back to treatment in the fall. I'm doing okay right now. I've gained some weight. I'm accepting that. Things are better on ED stuff than they've been in a long time and honestly it's so freeing. Yeah, other stuff isn't perfect. But this at least is better. And that's something. I think that's all you need to know from me.
What I DO want to do is uplift a few resources and groups who are doing incredibly needed work for marginalized folks who have eating disorders. If you're part of a group that doesn't fit the norm of young, cis, white, upper middle class women, you'll know what I'm talking about. I will also call out some of the issues in eating disorder treatment and offer some suggestions both to patients and to staff/programs who probably will never see this.
First, I want to uplift the work of Gloria Lucas' amazing project, Nalgona Positivity Pride, which focuses on BIPOC, queer, and fat folks. They often hold webinars focusing on topics like the relationship between white supremacy and eating disorders, religious trauma and white supremacy and eating disorders, harm reduction, etcetera. They also have a closed support group for BIPOC folks called Sage and Spoon. Please check out Nalgona Positivity Pride here - they also have a rad Instagram:
https://www.nalgonapositivitypride.com/
Next, I want to uplift the work of the FEDUP Collective. FEDUP stands for Fighting Eating Disorders in Underrepresented Populations, and they focus on trans and intersex folks. They have a Facebook support group, online support groups, and also do advocacy work, research, and education. They have a specific fund for supporting trans and intersex people of color to afford needed services which they call the TIBIPOC Fund. There's info on their website if you want to donate or need help. You can check them out here - they are also on Facebook:
https://fedupcollective.org/
I also want to take a minute to uplift the work of Sonya Renee Taylor and her book, The Body Is Not an Apology. It is a fantastic resource on radical self love. I worry that sometimes folks distance themselves from her calls to action against white supremacy and only focus on the book, so I am encouraging you all to also follow her on Instagram and watch her videos and grow in ways not limited to the book. This is Sonya's website:
https://www.sonyareneetaylor.com/
And this is the more community based website for The Body Is Not an Apology:
https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/
This isn't necessarily a resource but I want to push back on some stuff that we hear in treatment settings and offer some alternatives. The suggestions are not complete. Feel free to add your own.
EVERYONE CAN ACCESS TREATMENT IF THEY WANT RECOVERY:
This is NOT TRUE.
Eating disorder treatment is expensive and many residential, PHP, and IOP programs explicitly exclude medicaid and medicare. I have been incredibly lucky that because of my disability I have been able to stay on my mother's insurance, otherwise, I would not have been able to get treatment last summer (even though they cut me way early lol). Saying that people can get treatment if they just ask is untrue and harmful. And the amount of people who I know were told to ask family members for help paying is truly shocking and offensive. In many cases for folks who have been asked that, our families don't have money either. Intergenerational poverty is REAL and is a risk factor for eating disorders.
A few suggestions:
-Try to secure a treatment scholarship from the program or from an organization that helps with that.
-Learn eating disorder harm reduction strategies. Nalgona Positivity Pride has a webinar focusing on that on March 18.
-Ask for community support. Have meals with friends (on zoom for now if necessary) and hang out for an hour or two after the meal for accountability. Come up with a plan for who to contact if you're having urges.
-Stay with a friend if necessary and/or have someone with you at all times. They need to know what is going on, what to look out for, and who to contact in an emergency. This is not ideal, but if you cannot access an appropriate level of care, it's better than being alone.
EVERYONE CAN FOLLOW A MEAL PLAN IF THEY ARE COMMITTED TO RECOVERY:
Additionally, and I've seen this happen multiple times in PHP programs and IOP programs, not everyone has stable access to food. This can mean folks are not able to follow a meal plan. Instead of penalizing folks or recommending a step up, why not help folks find community based resources to help them survive? Why not be part of pushing for change so folks DON'T experience food insecurity? This is a rhetorical question. I know why.
A few suggestions:
-Get connected with mutual aid groups and food pantries to make sure you can get food if your food stamps don't cover it.
-Ask friends for help cooking. Even if they don't live with you, they could help with meal prep and drop it off for you.
-See if any services in your area offer, or if any friends will help with, grocery shopping, espect if you're prone to getting overwhelmed.
EVERYONE CAN ACCESS OUTPATIENT DIETITIAN SERVICES:
Similarly to my first point, not everyone can access an outpatient dietitian. While many insurance plans may cover dietitian services, many dietitians do not focus on eating disorders and can cause harm. Many eating disorder dietitians do not take insurance or only take more expensive plans. This is not accessible to many people.
A few suggestions:
-Try to find a dietitian who offers a sliding scale. I know FEDUP offered a dietitian matching service which allowed you to specify if you needed sliding scale. I don't know if there's other resources similar to that but I would hope so.
-Try to get at least one session with a dietitian, explain the situation, and get a meal plan. It's okay to work up to it if it's too much initially, but if you can only afford one session, knowing what you should be eating is the priority.
-Barring that, try and talk to people in recovery about meal plans. Yes, this will not be personalized to you and would not be ideal, but it could give you an idea of something to work towards. I specifically say people in recovery because much of society engages in disordered eating habits.
TREATMENT NEEDS TO COME FIRST AND IF YOU AREN'T PRIORITIZING IT, YOU AREN'T PRIORITIZING RECOVERY
This is such bullshit honestly. People have to prioritize survival and if that means they can't be at treatment or have to discharge early for some reason, be it needing to work to keep their housing, or be it to find housing after being left homeless, or needing to care for a child, or anything of that nature, that does not mean they don't care about or prioritize recovery. Not everyone is able to spend as much time in treatment as is ideal. I was told to go home to an abusive situation after getting kicked out of treatment housing for self harm in 2015. I didn't go back to that situation because what the fuck that shouldn't have even been a suggestion, and then got in trouble for missing groups because I was TRYING TO FIND A PLACE TO LIVE after they literally left me homeless. That's fucked up. Yes, treatment is A priority. But it cannot be the ONLY priority for a lot of people.
A few suggestions:
-Offer more flexibility in times and hours of programming.
-Don't penalize or guilt trip people for needing to prioritize something over treatment.
-...please don't make anyone else homeless or tell people to go back to abusive situations.
WE MADE A STATEMENT ABOUT BLACK LIVES MATTER, SO WE AREN'T RACIST
I hope this one is self explanatory. But if it isn't. Making a statement is empty words when countless BIPOC folks have brought up issues in treatment. Every person of color I have been in treatment with has experienced microaggressions if not outright racism in treatment, which has not been dealt with with the seriousness it deserves. Staff asking folks not to discuss "political topics" when those "political topics" are directly impacting the lives of folks in treatment is also not okay. Obviously people have different political ideology and that is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about labeling real shit like the BLM protests, racism, transphobia, and fear due to policies as simply political topics when they're not. Eating disorder treatment cannot be apolitical when so much of what causes eating disorders, especially in marginalized communities, is related to structural issues, such as structural racism. And no, hiring a few therapists or people in leadership roles who are BIPOC doesn't fix that.
A few suggestions based on what I have heard from friends and folks online:
-Learn about the intersection of racism, historical trauma, and white supremacy in terms of their impacts on eating disorders. While these things will absolutely impact BIPOC patients the most, it also will impact white patients. White supremacy harms everyone.
-Change policies about what can be discussed. People should be able to speak about what is impacting their lives even if it is "political." Again, eating disorder treatment cannot be apolitical.
-Don't hire people of color and put them in lower roles. Revamp the entire structure. Put people who have diverse life experiences in charge. I mean poor people, I mean people who have lived experience of eating disorders, I mean folks who experienced racism in treatment. Things will never change if the organization is run mainly by white capitialists whose motivation is profit.
-Make closed groups so BIPOC folks have space to speak about their experiences.
-Listen to Nalgona Positivity Pride.
WE HAVE GENDER NEUTRAL BATHROOMS/A QUEER GROUP/ETC SO WE AREN'T TRANSPHOBIC
Again, I would hope this was self explanatory. But if it is not. In my experience in treatment over multiple years, the gender neutral bathrooms would be locked when the women's was open. That is a microaggression. People in groups were allowed to make a joke of pronoun rounds. People were verbally aggressive due to not believing in non-binary people. I was literally asked to EDUCATE STAFF about trans issues on multiple occasions after I was having a really hard time due to microaggressions or outright transphobia from other patients. None of that is okay.
Suggestions:
Honestly I'm still really mad about having to literally present on trans issues to staff as patient like 5 years ago so I'm not in the mood for this. Just listen to FEDUP Collective.
WE ARE SIZE INCLUSIVE AND SO WE ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING HARMFUL TO PEOPLE IN LARGER BODIES
I've noticed that while this may be sort of true in terms of accepting patients who are fat, it is still harder to access treatment in many cases, and you may be treated differently. There may be activities that are indirectly contributing to fat phobia and things being said like 'oh we won't let you get fat' or similar can be really harmful to folks who overhear staff saying that and also reinforces weight stigma. Insurance is also more likely to cut before you're ready. I recognize that this one goes beyond just treatment centers and also hits insurance providers which is kind of a separate issue.
A few suggestions:
-Be more proactive about limiting harmful conversation among patients.
-Change some group activities to be more inclusive.
-Normalize discussion of binge eating behavior. Even in treatment is taboo to talk about.
-Don't lie. Some people's natural bodies may end up fat in recovery. Figure out how to approach body acceptance with patients in such a way that being fat isn't still reinforced as a bad thing.
WE TREAT PATIENTS WITH TRAUMA......OH WAIT YOUR TRAUMA IS TOO MUCH
Literally have seen this happen to multiple people. If you aren't prepared to treat people with significant trauma, don't advertise as treating folks with trauma.
Some suggestions:
-literally don't advertise that way
-continue to advertise that way and hire folks who ARE able to treat patients with severe trauma.
Anyway I could keep going on this for hours but I'm getting a headache so I'm going to leave it there. Please feel free to add any suggestions.
While I haven’t been in eating disorder specific treatment recently, all of these things were issues during my experience too. A few more I can think of are lack of understanding and accommodations for service dogs, neurodiversity, and other disabilities. I met deaf/hoh folks and vision impaired folks in the programs I was in, and the programs were entirely unwilling to accommodate their needs. Most of the time it was up to the other patients to advocate for and help them. Most of the time I got punished for having meltdowns or not being able to handle loud spaces or groups, having sensory issues with food, etc. with no real empathy or suggestions for how to deal with any of it. The other big thing that I came up against was the forced inclusion of family in treatment. Many folks come from families who are not good emotional support for them, even if they may appear to be on the surface. They never believed me and still insisted my family had to be involved. I don’t know that I have specific suggestions but those were the other big things I saw.
Yes yes yes!!!
I wasn't forced to include family eventually after multiple times of being forced to, but everything else absolutely 100% agree. These are super significant additional issues!
Tomorrow is the beginning of NEDA week and I don't really want to talk about my eating disorder. Y'all know I've struggled with a restrictive eating disorder for years, y'all know I was in treatment all summer after a severe relapse that nearly killed me starting this spring and may know I almost went back to treatment in the fall. I'm doing okay right now. I've gained some weight. I'm accepting that. Things are better on ED stuff than they've been in a long time and honestly it's so freeing. Yeah, other stuff isn't perfect. But this at least is better. And that's something. I think that's all you need to know from me.
What I DO want to do is uplift a few resources and groups who are doing incredibly needed work for marginalized folks who have eating disorders. If you're part of a group that doesn't fit the norm of young, cis, white, upper middle class women, you'll know what I'm talking about. I will also call out some of the issues in eating disorder treatment and offer some suggestions both to patients and to staff/programs who probably will never see this.
First, I want to uplift the work of Gloria Lucas' amazing project, Nalgona Positivity Pride, which focuses on BIPOC, queer, and fat folks. They often hold webinars focusing on topics like the relationship between white supremacy and eating disorders, religious trauma and white supremacy and eating disorders, harm reduction, etcetera. They also have a closed support group for BIPOC folks called Sage and Spoon. Please check out Nalgona Positivity Pride here - they also have a rad Instagram:
https://www.nalgonapositivitypride.com/
Next, I want to uplift the work of the FEDUP Collective. FEDUP stands for Fighting Eating Disorders in Underrepresented Populations, and they focus on trans and intersex folks. They have a Facebook support group, online support groups, and also do advocacy work, research, and education. They have a specific fund for supporting trans and intersex people of color to afford needed services which they call the TIBIPOC Fund. There's info on their website if you want to donate or need help. You can check them out here - they are also on Facebook:
https://fedupcollective.org/
I also want to take a minute to uplift the work of Sonya Renee Taylor and her book, The Body Is Not an Apology. It is a fantastic resource on radical self love. I worry that sometimes folks distance themselves from her calls to action against white supremacy and only focus on the book, so I am encouraging you all to also follow her on Instagram and watch her videos and grow in ways not limited to the book. This is Sonya's website:
https://www.sonyareneetaylor.com/
And this is the more community based website for The Body Is Not an Apology:
https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/
This isn't necessarily a resource but I want to push back on some stuff that we hear in treatment settings and offer some alternatives. The suggestions are not complete. Feel free to add your own.
EVERYONE CAN ACCESS TREATMENT IF THEY WANT RECOVERY:
This is NOT TRUE.
Eating disorder treatment is expensive and many residential, PHP, and IOP programs explicitly exclude medicaid and medicare. I have been incredibly lucky that because of my disability I have been able to stay on my mother's insurance, otherwise, I would not have been able to get treatment last summer (even though they cut me way early lol). Saying that people can get treatment if they just ask is untrue and harmful. And the amount of people who I know were told to ask family members for help paying is truly shocking and offensive. In many cases for folks who have been asked that, our families don't have money either. Intergenerational poverty is REAL and is a risk factor for eating disorders.
A few suggestions:
-Try to secure a treatment scholarship from the program or from an organization that helps with that.
-Learn eating disorder harm reduction strategies. Nalgona Positivity Pride has a webinar focusing on that on March 18.
-Ask for community support. Have meals with friends (on zoom for now if necessary) and hang out for an hour or two after the meal for accountability. Come up with a plan for who to contact if you're having urges.
-Stay with a friend if necessary and/or have someone with you at all times. They need to know what is going on, what to look out for, and who to contact in an emergency. This is not ideal, but if you cannot access an appropriate level of care, it's better than being alone.
EVERYONE CAN FOLLOW A MEAL PLAN IF THEY ARE COMMITTED TO RECOVERY:
Additionally, and I've seen this happen multiple times in PHP programs and IOP programs, not everyone has stable access to food. This can mean folks are not able to follow a meal plan. Instead of penalizing folks or recommending a step up, why not help folks find community based resources to help them survive? Why not be part of pushing for change so folks DON'T experience food insecurity? This is a rhetorical question. I know why.
A few suggestions:
-Get connected with mutual aid groups and food pantries to make sure you can get food if your food stamps don't cover it.
-Ask friends for help cooking. Even if they don't live with you, they could help with meal prep and drop it off for you.
-See if any services in your area offer, or if any friends will help with, grocery shopping, espect if you're prone to getting overwhelmed.
EVERYONE CAN ACCESS OUTPATIENT DIETITIAN SERVICES:
Similarly to my first point, not everyone can access an outpatient dietitian. While many insurance plans may cover dietitian services, many dietitians do not focus on eating disorders and can cause harm. Many eating disorder dietitians do not take insurance or only take more expensive plans. This is not accessible to many people.
A few suggestions:
-Try to find a dietitian who offers a sliding scale. I know FEDUP offered a dietitian matching service which allowed you to specify if you needed sliding scale. I don't know if there's other resources similar to that but I would hope so.
-Try to get at least one session with a dietitian, explain the situation, and get a meal plan. It's okay to work up to it if it's too much initially, but if you can only afford one session, knowing what you should be eating is the priority.
-Barring that, try and talk to people in recovery about meal plans. Yes, this will not be personalized to you and would not be ideal, but it could give you an idea of something to work towards. I specifically say people in recovery because much of society engages in disordered eating habits.
TREATMENT NEEDS TO COME FIRST AND IF YOU AREN'T PRIORITIZING IT, YOU AREN'T PRIORITIZING RECOVERY
This is such bullshit honestly. People have to prioritize survival and if that means they can't be at treatment or have to discharge early for some reason, be it needing to work to keep their housing, or be it to find housing after being left homeless, or needing to care for a child, or anything of that nature, that does not mean they don't care about or prioritize recovery. Not everyone is able to spend as much time in treatment as is ideal. I was told to go home to an abusive situation after getting kicked out of treatment housing for self harm in 2015. I didn't go back to that situation because what the fuck that shouldn't have even been a suggestion, and then got in trouble for missing groups because I was TRYING TO FIND A PLACE TO LIVE after they literally left me homeless. That's fucked up. Yes, treatment is A priority. But it cannot be the ONLY priority for a lot of people.
A few suggestions:
-Offer more flexibility in times and hours of programming.
-Don't penalize or guilt trip people for needing to prioritize something over treatment.
-...please don't make anyone else homeless or tell people to go back to abusive situations.
WE MADE A STATEMENT ABOUT BLACK LIVES MATTER, SO WE AREN'T RACIST
I hope this one is self explanatory. But if it isn't. Making a statement is empty words when countless BIPOC folks have brought up issues in treatment. Every person of color I have been in treatment with has experienced microaggressions if not outright racism in treatment, which has not been dealt with with the seriousness it deserves. Staff asking folks not to discuss "political topics" when those "political topics" are directly impacting the lives of folks in treatment is also not okay. Obviously people have different political ideology and that is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about labeling real shit like the BLM protests, racism, transphobia, and fear due to policies as simply political topics when they're not. Eating disorder treatment cannot be apolitical when so much of what causes eating disorders, especially in marginalized communities, is related to structural issues, such as structural racism. And no, hiring a few therapists or people in leadership roles who are BIPOC doesn't fix that.
A few suggestions based on what I have heard from friends and folks online:
-Learn about the intersection of racism, historical trauma, and white supremacy in terms of their impacts on eating disorders. While these things will absolutely impact BIPOC patients the most, it also will impact white patients. White supremacy harms everyone.
-Change policies about what can be discussed. People should be able to speak about what is impacting their lives even if it is "political." Again, eating disorder treatment cannot be apolitical.
-Don't hire people of color and put them in lower roles. Revamp the entire structure. Put people who have diverse life experiences in charge. I mean poor people, I mean people who have lived experience of eating disorders, I mean folks who experienced racism in treatment. Things will never change if the organization is run mainly by white capitialists whose motivation is profit.
-Make closed groups so BIPOC folks have space to speak about their experiences.
-Listen to Nalgona Positivity Pride.
WE HAVE GENDER NEUTRAL BATHROOMS/A QUEER GROUP/ETC SO WE AREN'T TRANSPHOBIC
Again, I would hope this was self explanatory. But if it is not. In my experience in treatment over multiple years, the gender neutral bathrooms would be locked when the women's was open. That is a microaggression. People in groups were allowed to make a joke of pronoun rounds. People were verbally aggressive due to not believing in non-binary people. I was literally asked to EDUCATE STAFF about trans issues on multiple occasions after I was having a really hard time due to microaggressions or outright transphobia from other patients. None of that is okay.
Suggestions:
Honestly I'm still really mad about having to literally present on trans issues to staff as patient like 5 years ago so I'm not in the mood for this. Just listen to FEDUP Collective.
WE ARE SIZE INCLUSIVE AND SO WE ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING HARMFUL TO PEOPLE IN LARGER BODIES
I've noticed that while this may be sort of true in terms of accepting patients who are fat, it is still harder to access treatment in many cases, and you may be treated differently. There may be activities that are indirectly contributing to fat phobia and things being said like 'oh we won't let you get fat' or similar can be really harmful to folks who overhear staff saying that and also reinforces weight stigma. Insurance is also more likely to cut before you're ready. I recognize that this one goes beyond just treatment centers and also hits insurance providers which is kind of a separate issue.
A few suggestions:
-Be more proactive about limiting harmful conversation among patients.
-Change some group activities to be more inclusive.
-Normalize discussion of binge eating behavior. Even in treatment is taboo to talk about.
-Don't lie. Some people's natural bodies may end up fat in recovery. Figure out how to approach body acceptance with patients in such a way that being fat isn't still reinforced as a bad thing.
WE TREAT PATIENTS WITH TRAUMA......OH WAIT YOUR TRAUMA IS TOO MUCH
Literally have seen this happen to multiple people. If you aren't prepared to treat people with significant trauma, don't advertise as treating folks with trauma.
Some suggestions:
-literally don't advertise that way
-continue to advertise that way and hire folks who ARE able to treat patients with severe trauma.
Anyway I could keep going on this for hours but I'm getting a headache so I'm going to leave it there. Please feel free to add any suggestions.
whisper-in-rage reblogged
My face is having uncontrollable spasms. Great. It hurts really, really, really bad.
I think part of why I have trouble explaining pain to the doctor is when they ask about the pain scale I always think “Well, if someone threw me down a flight of stairs right now or punched me a few times, it would definitely hurt a lot more” so I end up saying a low number. I was reading an article that said that “10” is the most commonly reported number and that is baffling to me. When I woke up from surgery with an 8" incision in my body and I could hardly even speak, I was in the most horrific pain of my life but I said “6” because I thought “Well, if you hit me in the stomach, it would be worse.”
I searched and searched for the post this graphic was from, and the OP deactivated, but I kept the graphic, because my BFF does the same thing, uses her imagination to come up with the worst pain she can imagine and pegs her “10″ there, and so is like, well, I’m conscious, so this must be a 5, and then the doctors don’t take her seriously. (And she then does things like driving herself to the hospital while in the process of giving birth. Probably should have called an ambulance for that one!)
So I found this and sent it to her. Because this is what they want to know: how badly is this pain affecting you? Not on a scale of “nothing” to “how I’d imagine it’d feel if bears were eating my still-living guts while I was on fire”.
I hate reposting stuff, but I’ll never find that post again and OP is deactivated, so, here’s a repost. I can delete this later, i just wanted to get it to you and I can’t embed images in a chat or an ask.
This is possibly why it took several weeks to diagnose my fractured spine.
Pain Scale transcription:
10 - I am in bed and I can’t move due to my pain. I need someone to take me to the emergency room because of my pain.
9 - My pain is all that I can think about. I can barely move or talk because of my pain.
8 - My pain is so severe that it is difficult to think of anything else. Talking and listening are difficult.
7 - I am in pain all the time. It keeps me from doing most activities.
6 - I think about my pain all of the time. I give up many activities because of my pain.
5 - I think about my pain most of the time. I cannot do some of the activities I need to do each day because of the pain.
4 - I am constantly aware of my pain but can continue most activities.
3 - My pain bothers me but I can ignore it most of the time.
2 - I have a low level of pain. I am aware of my pain only when I pay attention to it.
1 - My pain is hardly noticeable.
0 - I have no pain.
It’s also really important to get this kind of scale to people who have chronic pain, because chronic pain drastically lowers your perception of how “bad” any kind of pain actually is, and yet something like this pain scale is extremely user friendly.
For example, if someone asked me how much pain I’m in at any given time, I’d say hardly any, and yet I’m apparently at a chronic 2.5, and it only goes up from there depending on the day.
There’s also a similarly useful “Fatigue Scale”
I haven’t been below a 5 on this scale for 4 years
Here’s the fatigue scale
Fatigue scale image desc:
10: can barely move; can’t talk
9: can barely move; can talk
8: can move, but can’t do much more than watch TV
7: can watch TV and play a game on my phone simultaneously
6: can do work on my computer lying in bed
5: can get around the house, but definitely couldn’t go out
4: can run a light errand
3: can get in my 10,000 steps, making my fitbit happy
2: can do three or more activities in a single day
1: going clubbing!
See also the Mental Health Pain Scale by Graceful Patient:
Mental Health Pain Scale transcription:
MILD
1 - Everything is a-okay! There is absolutely nothing wrong. You’re probably cuddling a fluffy kitten right now. Enjoy!
2 - You’re a bit frustrated or disappointed, but you’re easily distracted and cheered up with a little effort.
3 - Things are bothering you, but you’re coping. You might be overtired or hungry. The emotional equivalent of a headache.
MODERATE
4 - Today is a bad day (or a few bad days). You still have the skills to get through it, but be gentle with yourself. Use self-care strategies.
5 - Your mental health is starting to impact on your everyday life. Easy things are becoming difficult. You should talk to your doctor.
6 - You can’t do things the way you usually do them due to your mental health. Impulsive and compulsive thoughts may be hard to cope with.
SEVERE
7 - You’re avoiding things that make you more distressed, but that will make it worse. You should definitely seek help. This is serious.
8 - You can’t hide your struggles any more. You may have issues sleeping, eating, having fun, socialising, and work/study. Your mental health is affecting almost all parts of your life.
9 - You’re at a critical point. You aren’t functioning any more. You need urgent help. You may be a risk to yourself or others if left untreated.
10 - The worst mental and emotional distress possible. You can no longer care for yourself. You can’t imagine things getting any worse. Contact a crisis line immediately.
These are so important! SO SO IMPORTANT SHARE THIS AND SAVE IT TO SHOW YOUR DOCTORS!
@good-ho-mens please share this
These are important and super helpful. These are the best I have ever seen. They make SENSE.
For people who have a hard time putting things to words, having a scale with levels and definitive terms is very helpful. Save the images to print out if you need, able to point to one that’s true and gauge if things are worse or better than before.
whisper-in-rage reblogged
hey, one millenial to another?
don’t just leave the gen z kids to clean up this mess. i know we’re all tired, i know we’re all exhausted, but we cannot sit back on our nihilistic laurels and leave them to do this alone.
it’s time to stand back up. it’s time to get back in there. it’s time to fight that fight, and fight it harder.
it’s time to be the adults we wish had stood with us.
Why are there so many posts like this? Why can’t people leave their tumblr bubbles to realize that there have been at least a half dozen crucial mass movements in the past decade that left both enormous legacies and trauma inflicted on the bodies of activists who led the way? I know people my age and people much older who are in prison for doing nothing more than speaking out. I know people my age and older who developed onset health problems after getting repeatedly gassed and pepper-sprayed or brutalized by the police. If you don’t know who these people are or what they were fighting for, educate yourself. You’ll find them in your town halls, online, underground. Get involved, stop erasing the contributions of the people your age who have already given so much, respect the ones who gave up from sheer trauma. No generation invents activism, and no generation’s activism succeeds without standing on the shoulders of the ones that came before them.
luvuv
if you have convinced yourself that gen z are these groundbreaking activists putting all other generations to shame then you really, seriously need to delete tiktok
So many of my friends and myself have been fighting for so long. We haven't given up. Some of my comrades have been fighting longer than I've been alive. If you weren't paying attention before? That's not on us. Some of us are in prisons, some of us experienced unthinkable trauma, some of us are literally dead. if comrades need a break they deserve a fucking break no matter their age. We've been out here for years and we show up the best we can. Sometimes the best we can do is just fucking survive and share our knowledge. But please don't act like activism is a new thing. We never stopped fighting even years before these more recent surges.
Hey. Has anyone gotten scar revision (not for self harm scars specifically but if that's what you've gotten it for that's fine too) and would you be willing to talk to me about it and maybe show me some pictures? I'm considering talking to a plastic surgeon after covid stuff is safer to get some more information but I don't wanna bother if it wouldn't work lol. And looking on google is fine and all but we all know it's not always as simple as google would have us believe. So I'm looking for personal experiences in particular. Thanks.
This one is very adept at taking up large amounts of space for a dog that's like 40lbs max
whisper-in-rage reblogged
@whisper-in-rage yes hello plans for Freya?
Can it be driving tho? I feel like a carriage adds to the decoration possibilities
Anyway sorry I never really post, I haven't had much to say lately, but I'm still alive.
Spring will come soon and hopefully things will look up!
My friend made these, this is her statement about them bc I loved it
"Been lacking the energy to write the essay each of the herbs pressed in them deserve, but to be brief I was definitely connecting with some poisons this summer and am glad to have found a medium that dignifies their expression. We focus a lot on the healing properties of plants without paying respect to the ways that poisons and venoms protect and nourish and often attempt to cast those parts of ourselves off as well, seeing them as unworthy and shameful when they are in fact integral to our survival and who we are. So here we have hemlock which I obviously vibed the fuck out on and pressed enough of to continue to to make candles with probably until it returns, and foxglove which I started gathering pretty late in the season when they were mostly gone and then used up a lot of them getting this wax thing down."
whisper-in-rage reblogged
US Elevation.
by @cstats1
man the Appalachian mountains really aren’t shit huh
The Rockies are new, young and virile and fresh from the Laramide orogeny, tall and lanky teenagers on the geological scale. the Appalachian mountains are old, formed hundreds of millions of years ago before dinosaurs walked the Earth. They are ancients, elders, witnesses to half a billion years of life coming and going. To be tall is not a virtue. To be small is not a sin. The Appalachians are eroding under the weight of time, slowly shrinking and returning to the Earth from which they sprang. Appreciate them while they are still here.
I do want to say real quick again about the age of the Appalachians…
They said “before dinosaurs,” but we have a cave here that began forming between 450 million to 550 million years ago.
There are no bones in that cave. No fossils. No nothing.
That’s because this cave began forming before bones existed on land, and had only just started to exist in the ocean. Shellfish hadn’t evolved yet. Limestone, which forms many caves, was just starting to become a more prevalent rock.
The mountains aren’t older than dinosaurs. They are older than bones.
happy new year my adoptive mother casually confirmed my theory that they had me born in fucking Kansas because there were less stringent requirements and checks before adopting a kid there which I had always suspected was why but hoped I was wrong about. congrats to me for one of my personal conspiracy theories being right I guess (?)
Lol thanks government for $600 that will absolutely not be a "stimulus" for the all important economy at all because the vast majority of people will have to put it towards bills because it's been 8 months since they gave us $1200 which was not anything close to enough and between lost wages and increased costs most people are way worse off than before.
Also I got my $600 and put it towards bills. Obviously.
Also obligatory reminder that things DO NOT have to be like this, this is a CHOICE the government is making, and we can build a better future outside of this current system.
whisper-in-rage reblogged
"On the night before Christmas, we’ll all be about, While the people are sleeping, we’ll realise our clout
We’ll expropriate goods from the stores, ‘cos that’s fair, And distribute them widely, to those who need care."
[Kropotkin's] project notes also reveal some valuable insights into his ideas about the anarchistic features of Christmas and his thinking about the ways in which Victorian Christmas rituals might be adapted.
“We all know”, he wrote, “that the big stores – John Lewis, Harrods and Selfridges – are beginning to exploit the sales potential of Christmas, establishing magic caves, grottos and fantastic fairylands to lure our children and pressurise us to buy gifts that we do not want and cannot afford”.
“If you are one of us”, he continued, “you will realise that the magic of Christmas depends on Father Christmas’s system of production, not the stores’ attempts to seduce you to consume useless luxuries”. Kropotkin described the sprawling workshops at the North Pole, where elves worked all year, happily because they knew that they were producing for other peoples’ pleasure. Noting that these workshops were strictly not-for profit, craft-based and run on communal lines, Kropotkin treated them as prototypes for the factories of the future (outlined in Fields, Factories and Workshops).
Some people, he felt, thought that Father Christmas’s dream to see that everyone received gifts on Christmas day, was quixotic. But it could be realised. Indeed, the extension of the workshops – which were quite expensive to run in the Arctic – would facilitate generalised production for need and the transformation of occasional gift-giving into regular sharing. “We need to tell the people”, Kropotkin wrote, “that community workshops can be set up anywhere and that we can pool our resources to make sure that everybody has their needs met”!