Tag: Mental Health

Y is for You – Other Cool Blogs: Mythcreants 1/31/2020

Erin Penn

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

 

You Should Know (Y is for You)

I’m on the spectrum. Like many autistic people, I have sensory issues. Noise has a physical feel against my skin, more sources means a bigger reaction. Level of sound, pitch of sound, how crowded it is, how tired I am, time of day. All impact the pressure. For visual, a busy activity with lots of moving parts is overwhelming. I like simple lines for my furniture. Food flavors, I need simple in the morning, but as the day goes on, I can have more variation off of normal. By nightfall, Doritos are fine.

I have social issues reading people, and from how people have responded to me over the years, my inability to give the “right” body language back, makes them uncomfortable. I suck at job interviews. My wordings when speaking and writing are not-neurotypical.

Best example of this. At a Christmas party, someone was explaining how their chronic disease was progressing and how they were sad that they might miss a milestone in their child’s life.

Now, my autistic self knows the rule of “don’t tell someone it is going to be okay, when it isn’t.” So I didn’t do the poo-haw that everyone else was attempting of “no, the disease isn’t that bad” or “they might come up with a better medicine.” Instead, I said, “You might linger.” The chronic disease was, you know, chronic, so progression was slow. I was trying to give her hope of seeing the milestone because she might survive that long.

Everyone stopped talking and stared at me.

I wish I could say this was the only time I was completely out of “normal” social line, but it is just one of many examples.

BTW, I still stand by that emotional support. I didn’t want to lie or create false hope. I still think lingering was the truest, closest to reality answer for her situation.

Anyway, Juliette Dunn posted on 1/31/2020 to Mythcreants, “Six Things Writers Should Know About Autistic People.” If you have any questions related to the article based on my particular experience with the different mental wiring, write them in the comments below.

Other Cool Blogs: The Conversation 7/30/2020

Erin Penn
Copyright © Zooll.com; Design by MysticEmma

I have voices inside my head. A lot of them.

Some of them are having ethical discussions, others are reading me stories, some are arguing who gets written first. There are parent-isms, and teacher notes. Cool manuscripts. Task lists I should be doing right now. Someone nearly always turns up music during the day.

It’s not so much about writing the characters so much as trying to get them to shut up so I can concentrate.

All of this independence within the head gives my characters agency when I write. 

But how can “it’s all in my head” have so many variations? Authors write millions of words, and yet the characters put on paper live and breathe and go about their own lives. How other people be created from just a single person?

John Foxwell goes into some (very light scientific) explanations about how and why “Many writers say they can actually hear the voices of their characters – here’s why” in a The Conversation blog post 7/30/2020. Again – https://theconversation.com/many-writers-say-they-can-actually-hear-the-voices-of-their-characters-heres-why-139170

Geeking Science: Ancient Arts and Crafts in an Electronic Age

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I need art to stay sane. Right now, as mentioned earlier this month in my Magical Words post, I’m not doing any. But I need to get out in the soil and garden, break out my silks and embroider, stain my fingers with ink, and smear clay over the world in one huge mosaic. I need to do it soon.

And now I have scientific backing about how important it is!

In a computer age, where things are measured in the nanosecond and the end-product is somewhere on the interwebs, having something that slowly grows, where you can gain skill and measure the difference with your own eyes and fingers, is calming in a way a computer game never can be. We are built for slightly repetitive tasks where we gain improvement and have a product at the end; basket weaving and gathering herbs are just two examples.

Crafts heal the mind and body, fighting depression and social anxiety. According to research, the benefits include:

relaxation; relief from stress; a sense of accomplishment; connection to tradition; increased happiness; reduced anxiety; enhanced confidence, as well as cognitive abilities (improved memory, concentration and ability to think through problems). (Luckman, 2018)

Basically crafting is a form of mediation, giving similar results including reduction of stress and fighting inflammation. Moving the fingers to create something that requires concentration, but not thought, gives the brain the time out desperately needed to decouple from the brain weasels presenting scenarios of disaster. 

“Playing” with arts and crafts provides the body something to do while the brain is relaxing. And the brain relaxes best, interestingly enough, when it gets used in a new way. Working in crafting involves:

many different areas of your brain. It can work your memory and attention span while involving your visuospatial processing, creative side and problem-solving abilities. (Wilson, 2015)

I could use some of that in my life right now. Mediation, relief from stress, and increased happiness. Maybe I do have time to break out the pins and needles.

 

Biography

Luckman, Susan. “In Our Brutal Modern World, Science Shows Our Brain Need Craft More Than Ever”. The Conversation. 2018 July 28. (last viewed 1/26/2019: https://www.sciencealert.com/modern-life-is-brutal-here-s-why-craft-is-so-good-for-our-health)

Wilson, Jacque. “This is your brain on crafting.” CNN. 2015 January 5. (last viewed 1/26/2019: https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/25/health/brain-crafting-benefits/index.html)

Flash: Sunset Ocean

Erin Penn

freedigitalphotos.net (note – I changed the image from blue to red)

The ocean turned to blood and seethed as night fell. The gentle lapping waves of warm water, which had comforted Dylan’s feet as he followed the empty shore, transformed into crashing sprays hammering him and twisting currents sucking him into the heartless sea with each step. He had walked far from home, escaping meaningless condolences and unwanted sympathy. His own thoughts had chased him further than the five piers with the summer tourist traps, further than the sharp rock jetties built to protect expensive beach front properties from winter storms. To the end, where shore and sea fought the uneasy alliance man imposed on them elsewhere. A place neither earth nor water.

Black clouds were rushing in, their bottoms reflecting the setting sun’s crimson rage, gray streaks of rain and sleet underneath backlit by constant lightning. Deep thunder reverberated in his ribs.

Shelter was distant. Ease and comfort moreso.

Dylan had fled the house before lunch to avoid the next gathering. The morning’s activities surpassed his breaking point. He hadn’t been able to release the fist-full of dirt into the six-foot deep rectangular pit. The soil, now mud, still gripped in his right hand.

With a scream he threw the ball of mud into endless water.

Dylan shivered as wind pushed the dangerous storm closer. Stepping forward to embrace the front’s arrival, he accepted the just punishment of the fuming, foaming water against his unwelcomed intrusion. Each wave crashed higher on his legs. His jeans, rolled to his knees to keep them dry, swiftly saturated, bringing the cold raised from Poseidon’s depths to Dylan’s core.

He found the icy chill more truthful than the soothing warmth the sea had offered earlier.

The sun disappeared in a green flash, revealing the sea rising in a cone to meet a vortex descending from the clouds.

For a second, Dylan considered staying. And then a second more.

Only the thought of his passing inflicting this level of pain on another coerced him to retreat from the storm’s challenge and promise. To turn back from an ending.

(words 343; originally published 10/9/2013; republished 8/5/2018)