For My Fellow Psychotics Who Struggle With Thinking Someone Is In Their House, A Method I’ve Found

I'm in a support group for queer adults with disabilities (before I joined i didn't even know there *were* groups for that overlap, it's amazing and I love it) and we had our digital meeting on Monday. I shared your most recent flag update, where you had moved the new version to the public domain. Especially since we were talking about the ADA and its anniversary, it was very fitting. Everyone really liked it! Several people commented about the symbolism, in particular. So, just letting you know of some responses from outside tumblr. Thank you for putting it out there!

Thank you!

(Confession: At the time you first sent me this ask, the new version of the flag was not yet in the Public Domain. But it is, now! 🏴🎇🏴)

Shamelessly plugging the new version, again – especially since I want it to eclipse the old one:

To the extent possible under law, Ann Magill has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to Visually Safe Disability Pride Flag. This work is published from: United States.

And for those who want detailed ‘specs’:

The ratio of overall breadth to overall length is 3 to 4. The ratio of the flag’s overall length to the width of each stripe is 10 to 1 (So the ratio of the overall length to the width of the combined stripes is 2 to 1).

The Hexadecimal codes for each of the colors are:

The Field: #585858

The Red: #CF7280

The Yellow: #EEDF77

The White: #E9E9E9

The Blue: #7AC1E0

The Green: #3AAF7D

Now, as to the symbolism: in the original flag, the zigzags were meant to represent “navigating around barriers.” But instead, they were the barrier – so they were removed.

So let me put the story of the new symbolism into words – here and now– and thereby bring it into being:

The Black, as it was from the beginning, represents rage and mourning for those who’ve suffered violence and abuse because of their disabilities.

The five colors, in order from left to right, represent bodily disability, neurodivergent disabilities, invisible and/or undiagnosed disabilities (always in the center, because any disability can be invisible at any time), mental illness/emotional disabilities, and sensory disabilities.

The colored band starts at the top of the hoist, which is a starting place of honor, and ends at the fly, which represents moving outward into the world.

Walls and locked doors (behind which Disabled People have been hidden for too long) are right angles, and square. And so the colored band is a diagonal that cuts across those right angles, in defiance.

The five stripes are parallel, to represent our solidarity.

There! How’s that?

You're neurologically simple. That's what we should call them. 😂😂😂😂This is @andrewrusso is the only reason why I have TikTok. His mental health skits and because of Timmy. If you don't know Timmy check @andrewrusso on IG, TikTok and YouTube.

I-d

Why do we love to pathologise normal behaviour online?

By reducing nuances of mental health to sweeping statements, social media might actually be leading to over-diagnosis.

Did you enjoy reading as a child? I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but the cherished hours you spent reading Harry Potter books were actually just your body’s way of dissociating in an uncomfortable environment (also RIP to your idea of JK Rowling as a decent person). Do you sometimes forget to text your friends back? It’s probably, definitely, because of a past trauma, and certainly not the natural result of a culture in which we are expected to be socially available at all times. Better get a therapist on the line! Do you struggle to concentrate at your office job, where you spend eight hours a day performing boring tasks in front of a screen? I hate to be the one to tell you this, but there’s probably something immutably wrong with the chemicals in your brain. 

As far as the internet is concerned, just about everything you do might be evidence of a troubling pathology. Social media can undeniably be a great resource for people experiencing mental illness, alongside people who have ADHD, and people who fall somewhere along the autism spectrum. A condition like ADHD, for example, is still said to be underdiagnosed (particularly among women) and raising awareness about this might bring people to a diagnosis they sorely need. But as with many things online, there is a downside to a free, entirely unregulated flow of information. 

This is good. It talks about capitalism too.

listen to me. thoughts do not have moral weight. a thought will never hurt anyone. the actions you take because of a thought can hurt yourself or other people, but the thought itself is powerless and there is no such thing as thought crime.

"but i have thoughts about being violent towards people! towards children! surely that makes me dangerous!" are you being violent? for real? with your actions? if not, then you are not actually hurting anyone

"but i have thoughts that are offensive and hurtful! they're bigoted, or they're horribly rude, or they're invalidating to others! i'm a horrible person." and what are you doing with those thoughts, exactly? are you taking bigoted actions, or saying those rude things, or taking steps to actually invalidate people? no? well then. no one is getting hurt. and in the meantime, if it really bothers you, doing things like helping unlearn your biases (both against minorities and just, like, against furries and theatre kids and shit) might help some of those thoughts go away, but sometimes you just get shitty thoughts.

"but i have horrific thoughts about sex!" are you hurting people. are you forcing people to do things they don't consent to. or are you just playing the upsetting possibility in your mind over and over again, and acting like that's even remotely the same thing?

thought. crime. is. not. real. OCD. is. hell. (and anything else that may cause intrusive thoughts.) but it does not define you. your thoughts will always, always come secondary to your actions. you're gonna be fine.

HAPPY ADHD AWARENESS MONTH YALL!!

you are so valid!!

your traits/symptoms are valid!!

your experiences are valid!!

self-dx is valid!!

executive dysfunction is valid!! 

nonmedicated ppl are valid!!

medicated ppl are valid!!

autistic + ADHD ppl are valid!!

stimming is valid!!

hyperfixations are valid!!

comorbidities are valid!!

all ADHDers are valid and your efforts don’t go unseen!! keep up the great work funky neurodivergent ppl!!!

We need to talk more about this.

prescribe me adderall or i will start cooking meth in my fucking bathroom you fucking psychiatrist

Reminder: Spring is coming so take the time now to update your mania crisis plan

Are you having a hard time keeping yourself and your brain stimulated? Can you even stimulate yourself at all? Maybe you should try making a Dopamenu!

I made a Dopamenu today by following How To ADHD’s guide.

How To Give Your Brain The Stimulation It Needs (Dopamenu Guide!)

I recommend watching the video and trying to make yourself a Dopamenu as well. I used OpenOffice to make my Dopamenu, it’s a free alternative to Word and it works pretty much the same!

LINK TO MY GOOGLE DRIVE SO YOU CAN GET THE FILE & FILL IN YOUR OWN DOPAMENU YOURSELF

if you feel like your bipolar doesnt present in the same way as other people’s its okay. 

if you feel like you dont relate to other people with bipolar disorder its okay.

if you feel like you dont experience symptoms that you “should” or you do experience symptoms that you “shouldnt” its okay.

youre not secretly faking. 

bipolar disorder is a complex mental illness that wont look the same on everyone. whatever it looks like on you is a normal way for bipolar disorder to look. you’re valid and loved and welcome in our community.