Hey Ace-spec And Aro-spec Folks?

Hey Ace-spec and Aro-spec folks?

You all are wonderful and real and you are never required to participate in discourse about your identity.

If you don’t think ace/aro people are inherently queer, you’re not betraying your community.

If you do think ace/aro people are inherently queer, you aren’t required to argue about it.

I implore you all to try to look at all perspectives and keep an open mind but you are wonderful and brave and I love you.

No Discourse Please

Stuff that can shut the intrusive thoughts up a little while you sleep

So I’ve had many a night during which I’m unable to sleep or breath or like, exist bc of intrusive thoughts, and I can’t even imagine getting through the night so I can talk about it in therapy. Since I’m, at this point, an Intrusive Thoughts Pro™ (idk I’ve been dealing with this since childhood, give me something), I’ve picked up a couple things that can help. They don’t silence them, but they can do enough to catch a couple hours of sleep and maybe stop crying.

So buckle up while we delve into how to shut those a-holes up for a couple second.

• Podcasts. Holy hell I can’t recommend this enough. My go-to is Welcome to Night Vale because I already knew the episodes, but anything you enjoy is fine. Pick an episode you’ve listened to already to make sure there won’t be any triggers. It’s enough stimulation to be distracting but not so much that it’s impossible to sleep.

• Music. This works the same as the above. A playlist of comforting music can be so helpful in times when the thoughts are completely consuming. Put one together on Spotify or YouTube or whatever to listen to when you need.

• Get up. Sometimes staying in bed makes you start ruminating. Burn some energy off if you can. Just get up and use the bathroom or drink some water or have a snack. It’s surprisingly helpful. When the intrusive thoughts are constant, a couple minutes of distraction can make a world of difference.

• Get something soft. A stuffed animals, a pet, your blanket, etc. Just rub it as you lay in bed. Focus on the soft thing. If you stop thinking about it, just bring your mind back if you can.

• Cry. If you need to get it out, it’s okay. You can cry and punch your pillow and yell at stuff. It’s frustrating. Intrusive thoughts suck. If you find yourself spending hours crying, that’s not healthy and probably not helpful, but crying it out for ten minutes so you can sleep is okay.

You can also combine these if you need. Cry and pet animals and listen to music if you need to, fam.

I honestly hope this helps someone, because intrusive thoughts are so awful and even a small improvement makes such a difference. I hope none of y'all are going through this, but if you are, I hope it gets better. 💕

I love this stupid animal.

The 5 things you gotta know before you let that cop into your house

THIS STUFF IS SOOO IMPORTANT TO KNOW.  Seriously.  It’s saved my ass before.

Please share this! I can’t stress how important this is.

I’m not good at tagging things, add as you see fit.

I am 100% convinced that “exit, pursued by a bear” is a reference to some popular 1590s meme that we’ll never be able to understand because that one play is the only surviving example of it.