you were raised in comparison.
it wasn't always obvious (well. except for the times that it was), but you internalized it young. you had to eat what you didn't like, other people are going hungry, and you should be grateful. you had to suck it up and walk on the twisted ankle, it wasn't broken, you were just being a baby. you were never actually suffering, people obviously had it worse than you did.
you had a roof over your head - imagine! with the way you behaved, with how you talked back to your parents? you're lucky they didn't kick you out on your ass. they had friends who had to deal with that. hell, you have friends who had to deal with that. and how dare you imply your father isn't there for you - just because he doesn't ever actually talk to you and just because he's completely emotionally checked out of your life doesn't mean you're not fucking lucky. think about your cousins, who don't even get to speak to their dad. so what if yours has a mean streak; is aggressive and rude. at least you have a father to be rude to you.
you really think you're hurting? you were raised in a home! you had access to clean water! you never so much as came close to experiencing a real problem. sure, okay. you have this "mental illness" thing, but teenagers are always depressed, right. it's a phase, you'll move on with your life.
what do you mean you feel burnt out at work. what do you mean you mean you never "formed healthy coping mechanisms?" we raised you better than that. you were supposed to just shoulder through things. to hold yourself to high expectations. "burning out" is for people with real jobs and real stress. burnout is for people who have sick kids and people who have high-paying jobs and people who are actually experiencing something difficult. recently you almost cried because you couldn't find your fucking car keys. you just have lost your sense of gratitude, and honestly, we're kind of hurt. we tell you we love you, isn't that enough? if you want us to stick around, you need to be better about proving it. you need to shut up about how your mental health is ruined.
it could be worse! what if you were actually experiencing executive dysfunction. if you were really actually sick, would you even be able to look at things on the internet about it? you just spend too much time on webMD. you just like to freak yourself out and feel like you belong to something. you just like playing the victim. this is always how you have been - you've always been so fucking dramatic. you have no idea how good you have it - you're too fucking sensitive.
you were like, maybe too good of a kid. unwilling to make a real fuss. and the whole time - the little points, the little validations - they went unnoticed. it isn't that you were looking for love, specifically - more like you'd just wanted any one person to actually listen. that was all you'd really need. you just needed to be witnessed. it wasn't that you couldn't withstand the burden, but you did want to know that anyone was watching. these days, you are so accustomed to the idea of comparison - you don't even think you belong in your own communities. someone always fits better than you do. you're always the outlier. they made these places safe, and then you go in, and you are just not... quite the same way that would actually-fit.
you watch the little white ocean of your numbness lap at your ankles. the tide has been coming in for a while, you need to do something about it. what you want to do is take a nap. what you want to do is develop some kind of time machine - it's not like you want your life to stop, not completely, but it would really nice if you could just get everything to freeze, just for a little while, just until you're finished resting. but at least you're not the worst you've been. at least you have anything. you're so fucking lucky. do you have any concept of the amount of global suffering?
a little ant dies at the side of your kitchen sink. you look at its strange chitinous body and think - if you could just somehow convince yourself it is enough, it will finally be enough and you can be happy. no changes will have to be made. you just need to remember what you could lose. what is still precious to you.
you can't stop staring at the ant. you could be an ant instead of a person, that is how lucky you are. it's just - you didn't know the name of the ant, did you. it's just - ants spend their whole life working, and never complain. never pull the car over to weep.
it's just - when it died, it curled up into a tight little ball.
something kind of uncomfortable: you do that when you sleep.
you’re telling me there are people who listen to music and DON’T use it as the soundtrack for the intense cinematic daydream plot they’ve always got playing in the back of their head???
Some words to use when writing things:
winking
clenching
pulsing
fluttering
contracting
twitching
sucking
quivering
pulsating
throbbing
beating
thumping
thudding
pounding
humming
palpitate
vibrate
grinding
crushing
hammering
lashing
knocking
driving
thrusting
pushing
force
injecting
filling
dilate
stretching
lingering
expanding
bouncing
reaming
elongate
enlarge
unfolding
yielding
sternly
firmly
tightly
harshly
thoroughly
consistently
precision
accuracy
carefully
demanding
strictly
restriction
meticulously
scrupulously
rigorously
rim
edge
lip
circle
band
encircling
enclosing
surrounding
piercing
curl
lock
twist
coil
spiral
whorl
dip
wet
soak
madly
wildly
noisily
rowdily
rambunctiously
decadent
degenerate
immoral
indulgent
accept
take
invite
nook
indentation
niche
depression
indent
depress
delay
tossing
writhing
flailing
squirming
rolling
wriggling
wiggling
thrashing
struggling
grappling
striving
straining
Today I learned
Can we please talk about Vanya and Five?
How Vanya left snacks for Five every single night, because she thought that would make him stay? How he was the only one who was nice to her, who talked to her, included her? Or how Vanya was the first person Five reached out to when he came back? The first name he called out when he saw the destroyed mansion? How he never raised his voice at her, and even apologized and softened it when he did? How every single one of his super powerful siblings were idiots to him but shy, socially-awkward Vanya, was his favorite? How the only fights we ever get of the two of them on screen is when everything is high-stakes, and even then he still tries to be soft with her and relents and just tells her to hurry up and get her lesbian SO and their son and be back before time runs out? Or when they disagree about saving Harland he still goes with her with the rest of bunch?
I just find them so great and I think everyone should know that no matter what, Five was a damn good older brother.
it goes like this:
waking up was one of the hardest things for me to do. at least, the most dreaded. and then you happened to me, and I most looked forward to going to sleep, because I knew I’d wake up to messages from you—because unless I had work, you were the one who always woke up before me.
and it was a little pathetic, but I’d go to work and text you all through lunch break and I would smile at my phone like all those stupid, lovesick girls in movies and my coworkers would ask, “oooooh is there a boy?” all suggestively, and I would shake my head and say, “my friend sent me a funny meme” because that’s easier than explaining that talking to you lit my chest on fire and I loved every second of it.
and you collected all these tiny details about me, and I you, which is a weird thing to live with in the aftermath. because I know you hate hot sauce and you were flower girl at your aunt’s wedding and you’ve never seen Matilda, and I used to pull those facts off the shelf and we’d laugh or reminisce or make plans, and now they just sit there and collect dust and there’s nothing I can do with them but know and know and know.
and the things you could do with everything you know about me. where do they go? do they sit inside your chest, collecting dust, too? or did you throw them out?
and now there is no one I talk to until I fall asleep and no one I wake up to, either. and if I’m smiling at my phone, it’s usually just a stupid meme that brings me momentary laughter but not the all-encompassing joy you used to bring me. and my chest is a lot less bright and a lot more empty, with the shape of you crawling around inside it.
and I keep telling myself that I will stop missing you and my life will close up around the space you used to take up. but it hasn’t yet.
this is a severus snape free zone
c: @do-i-have-tooooo and me
A Study In Physical Injury
Comas
Medical Facts And Tips For Your Writing Needs
Broken Bones
Burns
Unconsciousness & Head Trauma
Blood Loss
Stab Wounds
Pain & Shock
All About Mechanical Injuries (Injuries Caused By Violence)
Portraying a kleptomaniac.
Playing a character with cancer.
How to portray a power driven character.
Playing the manipulative character.
Portraying a character with borderline personality disorder.
Playing a character with Orthorexia Nervosa.
Writing a character who lost someone important.
Playing the bullies.
Portraying the drug dealer.
Playing a rebellious character.
How to portray a sociopath.
How to write characters with PTSD.
Playing characters with memory loss.
Playing a pyromaniac.
How to write a mute character.
How to write a character with an OCD.
How to play a stoner.
Playing a character with an eating disorder.
Portraying a character who is anti-social.
Portraying a character who is depressed.
How to portray someone with dyslexia.
How to portray a character with bipolar disorder.
Portraying a character with severe depression.
How to play a serial killer.
Writing insane characters.
Playing a character under the influence of marijuana.
Tips on writing a drug addict.
How to write a character with HPD.
Writing a character with Nymphomania.
Writing a character with schizophrenia.
Writing a character with Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Writing a character with depression.
Writing a character who suffers from night terrors.
Writing a character with paranoid personality disorder.
How to play a victim of rape.
How to play a mentally ill/insane character.
Writing a character who self-harms.
Writing a character who is high on amphetamines.
How to play the stalker.
How to portray a character high on cocaine.
Playing a character with ADHD.
How to play a sexual assault victim.
Writing a compulsive gambler.
Playing a character who is faking a disorder.
Playing a prisoner.
Portraying an emotionally detached character.
How to play a character with social anxiety.
Portraying a character who is high.
Portraying characters who have secrets.
Portraying a recovering alcoholic.
Portraying a sex addict.
How to play someone creepy.
Portraying sexually/emotionally abused characters.
Playing a character under the influence of drugs.
Playing a character who struggles with Bulimia.
Examining Mob Mentality
How Street Gangs Work
Domestic Abuse
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Contemporary Slavery
AK-47 prices on the black market
Bribes
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Fake Diplomas
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do you guys think mike read bill’s books and saw himself in them? saw the people he loved in them? like. mike reading bill’s books and finding familiar things: a character who watches birds, a character who talks in voices, a brave character with red hair and a gentle touch. it’s a game; where can he find eddie? where can he find ben? where can he find himself? on year twelve, fifteen years before mike gets to see everyone again, bill publishes a book about a group of friends, one of whom is a gentle shepherd. mike cries all night. he reads that book over and over and over.
he reads bill’s books and they’re terrifying, of course, but they’re also so indescribably bill. so full of love and courage: everyone always fights the monster, even though the characters don’t always win. even though they almost never win. the books feel like home even while they’re horrifying, maybe especially because they’re horrifying.
but mostly they just make him feel less alone.