jubilation! she loves me again!

[erika]

A bit late for Follow Friday, but oh well:

vangirl has a great rant about telling depressed people to cheer up. If you're talking to someone who has depression and is feeling down, telling them that they just need to "lighten up" and "try to be happy" doesn't fucking help. (emphasis zirs)

Ask Metafilter had a great question about whether it was appropriate to thank a judge after they've been voted out of office. The answer is yes, and if you'd like to thank the Iowa judges who voted to legalize same sex marriage, you can do so at this address:

The names of the three judges are Marsha Ternus, Michael J. Streit, and David L. Baker.

Presumable mail sent to the court address will be forwarded:

Iowa Judicial Branch Building
1111 East Court Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50319

My Son Is Gay — by nerdy apple bottom details how her son is criticized, not by his peers but by adults who presumably should know better, for his objectively awesome Halloween costume.

If you think that me allowing my son to be a female character for Halloween is somehow going to ‘make’ him gay then you are an idiot. Firstly, what a ridiculous concept. Secondly, if my son is gay, OK. I will love him no less. Thirdly, I am not worried that your son will grow up to be an actual ninja so back off.

(emphasis mine)

Feeds I follow and I think you should too:
doctormama_feed*

One of the most popular searches that bring people to my site continues to be “boys who wear tights” or some variation thereof. I’m really hoping that this represents parents who are looking to gain insight into or support for their oddly attired sons, rather than … well, I don’t even want to go there.

pervocracy_feed

There are many complications to being in a relationship that involves two other people. And I don't mean the big ones like time management or societal acceptance or emotional issues. I mean the silly little stuff. Things like:

-Blanket wars become epic.

-Only the back seat on the bus can fit three across. (And it smells funny.)

-You have to cc all your emails.

-English has no second-person-plural pronoun. "Aw, I love spending time with... y'all. Youse. You guys."

dedicationtorecovery_feed And finally, we get to my favorite. This is a site written by someone I'm proud to call a friend, and it's completely dedicated to recovery from mental illness. It has a UK slant, but most of her advice is totally applicable no matter where in the world you are.

The idea of distraction is not to erase the pain you feel, or minimize it. It’s more to give you a thinking distance between you and the pain that you can tolerate it for a short amount of time.

If you're looking for more resources to help you deal with the crazy, you can't go wrong with turning to mutualmadness_feed*. Agony aunts with a difference—think Dear Abby as written by people who are self-professed mental health patients. (Note: I write on this feed as one of the crazy people giving advice.)

*These feeds are recently added to Dreamwidth and may screw up your reading page if you add them now. Fair warning!

Comments

[minou]

Loving that pervocracy feed :)

[nowgoesquickly]

Thanks for linking to that depression post. It's nigh impossible to impress upon those who have never deal with clinical depression that thinking positively isn't the cure-all they imagine it to be. On good days, listening to upbeat music or watching a funny movie or making lists of things to be happy about, little tricks like those can provide moderate, temporary respite, but they do little to change how I feel in the long run. People whose brains produce healthy levels of serotonin can't understand this.

It's also pretty insulting to my intelligence to be told to "just cheer up," like the idea has never crossed my mind before. Like I'm not desperate to do that very thing . . .

[erika]

Yeah... exactly.

I'm thinking of writing something along these lines, but I honestly don't know how helpful it would really be as opposed to just a piece for people with depression to read and wish "damn, I wish my mother/aunt/brother/SO/best friend/work colleague/acquaintance knew this."

[nowgoesquickly]

I think you should write it. If nothing else, it might let some other people know they're not alone.

[erika]

Good point.