#mental health
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Veth’s Journey as a Metaphor for Body Dysmorphia.
I was just thinking about how one would showcase different mental illnesses in dnd when I realized the perfectmetaphor for body dysmorphia has already been done without even intending it.
Veth Brenatto aka Nott the Brave was transformed by a hag (we’ll call the hag mental illness for the purposes of this metaphor) into “everything that [she] thought [she] was” before she was cursed the hag was told “make her suffer”. She covers herself in bandages to avoid herself or anyone else seeing her. She avoids reflective surfaces. Even being called “Nott the Brave” in her goblin form…some days it takes real bravery to exist in your own body. And that name reflects that.
But the real thing that gets me is her first scene with Yeza. When she’s seeing Yeza for the first time she’s under an illusion that makes her look like her true self. But underneath that illusion she knows she is truly a goblin.Yeza sees her but she is existing in her goblin form, her body still feels like a goblin. She’s afraid for Yeza to see her the way she is and afraid of what he might think of her. Yeza sees Veth, but she knows how she truly looks underneath this illusion. And when she talks to him he keeps saying “but it’s still you, right?” and she can’t understand how he loves her, grotesque appearance and all. She voices this and he asks “you think that matters?” and she says yesbecause how could anyone love her when she looks the way she looks? Even the scene where Yeza is touching her face to see bits and pieces of the goblin beneath, this could be beautifully equated to describing bits and pieces of how you see yourself with body dysmorphia and letting someone you love see how you see yourself bit by bit.
Going back to the hag being mental illness, this actually works perfectly with how the Mighty Nein v Hag went. They didn’t fight her. Nott made her known to them, and they did all they could, they were ready to defend Nott and do whatever they could to break her curse. But they didn’t fight her. The only person who can fight and defeat your mental illness is you. Jester offered this hag a cupcake. This cupcake is what allowed the curse to be lifted because what your friends can do is distract, be there for you, comfort you, and take care of you. Even after the curse was lifted, Nott didn’t transform back immediately because she needed time. She needed time to work on herself and make sure she was ready. Just because you know the problem doesn’t mean you can implement the solution. I know my body dysmorphia in and out but it still haunts me because I need to do some more work on myself. It takes time to unlearn things.
Eventually she transforms back into herself, into how she is truly. This is accomplished using friends sticking by her, loving her, being there for her, helping her find a way to become herself again. Still though, this experience as a goblin will always be with her. She won’t be able to forget it, not truly. I know that this metaphor isn’t flawless, that you can’t be cured of body dysmorphia. But I’m not looking at her transformation back to her body as a cure, more just her transition out of her darkest days. The days when it was the worst, when it was the hardest.
There’s more little tiny things that I can add in the comments because they’re not as moving as these points, but I just wanted to share. Feel free to add on.
disappear for a while and you’ll be surprised at who doesn’t come looking for you.
Imagine if everyone of your friends and yourself did this at the same time.
And that’s why this kind of attitude is destructive.
I get that it’s super hard to get over, especially when you’ve been socialised to think that you cannot ask for help, because to do so is weak, or ‘attention seeking’ (which you’ve also been socialised to think is intrinsically a Bad Thing), but reminding yourself that it’s not your friends’ -jobs- to be your keeper, to magically guess how you’re feeling or what you need from them is definitely part of Self Care. And at the same time, so is reminding yourself that you -can- ask them for help and shouldn’t sit there in silence because you don’t want to burden them is -also- part of Self Care.
The night I realised I needed therapy
It was 2 in the night, and I was watching
a reaction video on my phone. It was 2
in the night, so I let my mind go and let
it roam freely wherever it wanted to. It
had been on the leash the entire morning.
It was 2 in the night and I didn’t anticipate
what might happen.
I remember distinctly that I was breathing
fine. I was breathing fine, a moment and
the other I was racing along with my
thoughts. It wasn’t too late, and my body
started racing around my room too. It was
2 in the night, so I decided to not wake
people up. People, what people? I’m alone.
Sometimes I wish to sleep this feeling away,
but if I sleep now, I’ll be caged in my mind
where my sleep demon awaits my arrival,
and I am not ready for that rendezvous.
Hence, I’m awake. Trying to breathe, trying
to sleep, failing at both.
I clearly remember, meeting him, them,
when I briefly closed my eyes. It happens,
not a lot but in the night, when it’s 2, that’s
the only thing that my brain does. When I see
them, I don’t see colors, I don’t hear their
voice, I see them and I see myself through
them.
When I look at myself, through them, I see a
sack of blood and flesh, lying on the bed,
Immobile and frozen. I see a pathetic body
not even trying to fight it, using the 21
seconds rule as an escape to not move. It’s
almost as if she wants to stay in this state
forever.
When I see myself looking at me, I feel
frantic. I hate myself at that moment, but I
can’t, I just can’t move. I know if I stood up
right now, I’ll fight it. I’ll fight with everything,
I’ll run away, and I’ll be gone and if I lay there
all night, without moving, my judgement
would stare me down and leave me in my
misery.
They are getting closer with each thought
that chokes me. I want to break the barrier
and just hide in the bathroom. Why am I
resisting this? They are here, reaching out
to me and there’s nothing more for me to do
than join them and live in this vulnerability.
We all know that concentration ebbs and flows throughout the course of the day (whether we’re at school, work, or even just at home), and we find ourselves a slave to it’s fickle manner. That’s why I’ve provided some methods and resources for boosting your concentration in general, regardless of the environment!
How to Pinpoint Your Concentration Lows and Highs:
Keep a Journal/Log/Timetable: In order to figure out exactly what is draining or boosting your concentration in everyday life, you need to first step back and analyze what’s going on! When you feel like your concentration is running thin, make sure you write it down! Write down the time, what you’re doing, if you ate/drank anything previously, how you feel, how long you slept the night before, the weather, where you are, and just anything that may have affected your concentration. Do this when you feel your concentration is increasing as well. Try to keep this up for about a week or two, and see if you can pinpoint any patterns in your routine that are affecting your concentration for both the better and the worse.
Methods to Help Concentration:
Go for a Walk: Wherever you are, you should be able to get out and get some fresh air every once and a while. If you’re at home studying, and you feel your concentration starts to decrease, go ahead and go for a walk. If you’re at school, go ahead and see if you can afford to miss a few minutes of the class or lecture and take a trip to the bathroom or outside. On your breaks at work, make sure you get out of your workplace and/or outside. By changing up your environment, you’re giving yourself a breather so that you come back in feeling refreshed. By only taking breaks outside of your study spot, school, workplace, etc. you can associate hard work and focus with your study spot, school, workplace, etc. since you know coming back from a break means it’s time to get to business.
Jot Down Everything: If you feel like your concentration is breaking during a lecture or a meeting at work, make sure you take notes! By forcing yourself to interact with what’s going on, you can pay attention and retain information better. Your lack of concentration could be from the fact that you’re not really an auditory learner, so by taking notes, it can snap you back to focusing on what’s happening. Not to mention you’ll look engaged and come across as responsible to your boss or professor!
Reward Yourself: This method is one of my favorites because I looove rewards! If you promise yourself a reward after you get a task done, then you’re more likely to have initiative to actually complete the task and in a timely manner. Reward yourself with a treat, a few minutes on social media, or even spoil yourself with a small gift!
Make it a Game: This method kind of adds on to the reward method. Say you really want a new book, or some stationery, or maybe you want to go out for some ice cream. Now take those items and give them a point value. For example, the book is 200 points, the stationery is 150 points, and the ice cream trip is 100 points. Now for every certain amount of time you stay focused and work on your tasks, you can earn points toward one of the prizes! Let’s say for every minute that you stay focused and productive, you get a point! When you complete a task, not only do you get the points from the time but also some extra points for its completion!
Set a Timer: If you really have trouble focusing in general, you should set timers to remind you to stay on task and snap you out of lala land! When the timer goes off, ask yourself if you’re actually doing what needs to be done, and if you are, great! You should reward yourself if you are, or even make every successful focus session worth some points if you want to use the game method above! After every week, add some minutes to your alarms. Pretty soon you’ll notice that concentration will start to come naturally and you won’t have to keep reminding yourself to get on task!
Block Out Social Media: This one is a given, but depending on where you work, sometimes answering emails, messages, and phone calls is a must. If your job allows it, set certain times throughout your shift to check these things. Don’t immediately check them as they come, as this will break your concentration and distract you. Try every hour or few hours to respond to any work-related emails or messages. Phone calls should be taken as they come, since most workplaces require it. For students, blocking out these things for longer periods of time is easier, in most cases.
Declutter:If your desk or area has begun to become a distraction, clean it. Don’t become obsessed with organizing every little thing and dusting each little corner, but make sure things are tidy. Before you begin working you can declutter, and every so often you can take a break when your concentration is running low. Use this moment to straighten things up so that you can gain your focus back!
Communicate:If your work environment or class is interrupting your concentration and fixing it is out of your control, talk to your manager or professor. They may be able to work with you in order to help the situation. It’s a lot easier with managers, but it’s worth a shot to try to talk to your professor about it. Some things could be completely out of everyone’s control, but some things could also be changeable, you never know!
Eat Breakfast: Eating a breakfast rich in high-fiber whole grains, dairy, and fruit can really boost your concentration and energy for the rest of the day!! There are a few breakfast recipes down below to look at!
Music: Listening to certain types of music can also help you concentrate!
- 3 Hours of Classical
- City Wanderer (More classical)
- Erik Satie (One of my all time faves)
- Rainy Mood (My personal favorite)
- 1 Hour Concentration Music
- 3 Hours Meditation Music (This one really helps me write tbh)
- Study Sounds (Amazing masterpost by @acdemic)
- Anime Soundtracks (Another amazing masterpost by @dangostudy)
- Coffitivity (Ambient noise)
- Try listening to music you know by heart! It tends to fade into the background since you’re so familiar with it!
Foods:Believe it or not, the things we eat can affect our concentration along with a ton of other things!
- Caffeine (In small quantities throughout the day)
- Dark Chocolate
- Nuts
- Blueberries
- Spinach
- Green Tea (Tea always helps me focus, especially green tea!)
- Water (Feeling sluggish and losing focus? Drink a glass of ice water!! Hydration has a lot to do with how well you perform!)
- Beets (Believe it or not!)
- Bananas
- Eggs (Make sure to include the yolk!)
- Omega 3 (Fish and some seeds have this!)
- Sugar (Small quantities of sugary things can boost your focus and energy!)
Recipes:Here’s a few recipes incorporating some of these ingredients!
- Beets(Lots and lots of recipes with beets)
- Roasted Beets ‘n’ Sweets (Looks really yummy!)
- Beet Salad with Goat Cheese (Salads are A+++)
- Savory Roasted Root Vegetables (Contains beets of course!)
- Blueberries (Yummy yummy blueberry recipes!)
- Blueberry Snow (I really want to try thisss)
- Blueberry Spread (Def gonna make lots of this!)
- Blueberry Custard (Custards are A+++)
- Blueberry Banana Oatmeal Smoothie(Yummmmm)
- Bananas (Yay banana recipes!)
- Banana Smoothies (Yummy yummy smoothies)
- Healthy Banana Cookies (Who doesn’t love healthy???)
- Chocolate Chip Banana Bread ( Ohhh yesss)
- Spinach (Recipes with spinach!!)
- Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast (Holy sHIT yum)
- Strawberry Spinach Salad (Yaaas salaad)
- Eggs (Egg recipesss)
- Breakfast Eggs (Recipes for breakfast!)
- Fish (Fishy recipes!!)
Aromatherapy:Aromatherapy is really helpful since you can associate certain smells with certain things, even concentration! Incense, candles, and oil blends are really nice in general, and I always make sure I light something before I buckle down to work!
- 5 Essential Oil Blends that Promote Focus & Concentration (This is a really nice page that tells you what aromatherapy is and suggests some blends!)
- Another Page of Information and Blends
- Birch Hill Happenings Shop (Here you can buy some oils!)
- The Body Shop (Here’s another shop!)
- The Vitamin Shoppe (Another shop with some information on aromatherapy as well!)
- Floracopeia (Another really pretty shop!!)
Well that’s everything, I hope that I helped! I’ll try to keep this updated with new things that I come across!
If you have any questions, concerns, requests, or anything at all, feel free to message me! xoxo
- ♥ Star
I was doing a little mental spring cleaning and had this little talk with myself. You are welcome to listen in. Transcript below the image on my website.
hey bros, I thought that since Seasonal Depression Time is starting to haunt my ass I thought I’d share what I do to help myself feel better
• brush my teeth and hair and wash my face. I’ve started washing my face daily with a cleanser I bought to treat myself and it really helps get the funk and muck out. I’m worth the energy to keep myself clean, even if I can’t shower.
• stay on top of meds. not only my brain meds but my birth control, allergy pills, and Vitamin D. I am worth the effort to keep on track.
• put away stuff and clean little messes. this keeps the tasks from being too daunting, and keeps my depression from manifesting physically in a messy room. if I can handle something small now I can keep it from becoming big. I am worth the time it takes to tidy up.
• allow myself time to rest and relax. as a whole we need to be kinder to ourselves. we need to listen to ourselves, and let our bodies and minds rest when we are tired. too often I associate rest with laziness, but that is not true. I am worth the off time to rest so I can do stuff later.
• communicate my feelings. this journey is rough but I don’t have to go through it alone. I have friends and family who care about me, and can help me when I need it. I’m still learning that talking about my emotions is okay to do, and I know it’s not always easy. I am worth the strength it takes to talk about these things.
• don’t isolate myself. I have the habit of hiding away from the world when I get really down. I end up stewing in my own sadness. it’s ok to have a resting day now and again but too much creates a bad cycle. I’m worth the energy to go out.
there’s other things like hobbies, my comfort objects, indulging in some of my favorite things, but those 6 things are the big ones. those help me to keep moving forward. those allow me to function.
the most important thing I want to share is that YOU ARE WORTH IT. you always have been and you always will. you are worth the time and energy. things get hard, believe me I know, but we fight on to keep moving forward, to see another day.
I’m so proud of all of you. take care of and be kind to yourselves, ok?
losing my mind over this tiktok. oh for the days when i too could be the woman in the yellow wallpaper
i hate to be this person because i used to roll my eyes at people who told me this but finally making myself go through uncomfortable situations for the possibility of joy has resulted in me being happier than i ever could have imagined being. i do think that you should always listen to yourself but i prevented my own happiness for a long time by not knowing how to tell intuition from overthinking and being too afraid and sticking to negative what if’s when i should have been sticking to positive what if’s. not every venture outside your comfort zone will result in some revelation that moves the earth under your feet but the probablilty of it is zero if you never venture out
(With descriptions from the Play Store)
- STOPP *
Use this app if you want to start to stop the vicious cycles of depression and anxiety, and other negative and repetitive behaviours.- eQuoo
A choose-your-own-adventure game that increases your emotional fitness and teaches you new psychological skills, helping you level up in real life.- Calm Harm
Calm Harm provides tasks to help you resist or manage the urge to self-harm. Get started by setting your password so that it’s completely private.
You can personalise it if you wish, by choosing the background colour theme and deciding on whether you would like some company using a variety of friendly characters.- Alarmy - the world’s most annoying alarm *
With Alarmy you can wake up to five different missions. Different snooze options help you wake up slowly and gradually. No more oversleep, wake up easily, and be refreshed with various alarm ringtones and stylish clocks. Made by heavy sleepers for heavy sleepers.- Habitica *
Treat your life like a game to stay motivated and organized! Habitica makes it simple to have fun while accomplishing goals. An RPG style app that helps you get into good habits, break bad ones and accomplish tasks to gain XP.- Stay Focused - App Block & Website Block
A Self Control, Productivity and App Usage tracker app.- Smiling Mind
Smiling Mind is a unique web and app-based program developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to people’s lives.Apps with * by the name have been tried by me, others I have found recommended by various sources. These should all come free, but you can check specific details in the app store of your choice. Please note the links are for Google Play users, but I believe these are all available also on the App store!
If you can recommend any app you found particularly helpful for yourself, please feel free to do so in a reblog. :)
I downloaded Habitica… let’s see if it works
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What makes you seek art therapy?
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End the Stigma
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Be like the llama and avoid all the drama
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