Mental health tip that is secretly antifa in action, that I learned from @DionRa:
When you are down on yourself or have intrusive thoughts or otherwise feel like "my brain hates me", "my brain is being mean" —
This has a source outside of you. It's not a part of you that randomly decided to make your life shit for no reason. That's not how brains or psyches or emotions or humans or mental health works. If you suffer, it's because someone MAKES you suffer!
You're being oppressed, you're being exploited, you're being neglected, your rights are trampled on, you're being threatened, you might suffer systemic violence and/or interpersonal abuse. You suffer from helplessness in the face of injustice and cruelty around you.
And I know many of you know this and I know it's often overwhelming to think about. I am living that right now.
But it is important to remember as often as you can, where that comes from. To try and get specific. Who in your life is hurting you or threatening or gaslighting? Who is exposing you to oppression? Who is abusing you at home or in activist spaces?
We can't fight our own brains and "win". We can't just accept suffering either. We can only work towards more safety and more freedom and more justice by getting as specific and unflinching as we can when tracing our sufferings back to their sources.
Then fight the source. Bring the fight to them. Just being clear in your own mind changes how interactions play out! It's not easy, but it IS worth it and it gets easier with every exercise.
Sometimes you can just disengage. Unfollow, block, give monosyllabic responses if you have to. You can cut your own parents out of your life if you want to. You can find ways to get by without bosses.
Otherwise, make them at least work for it. Don't give in easily to injustices, especially the very normalised ones. Be "unreasonable" and difficult! Use the privileges you do have. Keep asking "Why?" as if you're 4 again.
Just do what you feel like. Sit or lie down or jump around for no other reason than you feel like it. Eat what catches your fancy. Eat until you feel like doing something else, even if you're already "full" (diet culture messed up your perception of your body's needs!) Sing, laugh uproariously, swear and yell. Sigh. Just stare blankly into space if that feels peaceful. Sleep more.
Connect to your body, reconnect over and over again. Be THERE for yourself, be in yourself, in your body. Connect body, mind and action.
#MentalHealth #SelfCare #MentalIllness #AbuseCulture #RapeCulture #abuse #AbuseSurvivor #RapeSurvivor #SelfCare #CommunityCare #dissociation #grounding #DomesticAbuse #brains #NegativeSelfTalk
