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when i was a tiny baby queer (aka a 24-year-old), i went to my first pride festival probably three months after i kicked ex-gay therapy to the curb and came out to my parents. being the people they are, my parents came with me. they weren’t really sure about this whole gay thing, but they loved me and wanted me to be safe and happy and wanted to be involved in what was important to me, so they came along. (i also think my mother still might have thought i might get drugged or murdered or beaten by a protester of which there were plenty.)

oh no is this what we’re doing now

You should have reblogged that from me… ME…!

Real Life Patch Notes:

i think avoidance is such a little-recognized ocd compulsion. all the time i talk to people with ocd who are like "i was always having intrusive thoughts about using kitchen knives and harming myself or others but i'm okay now because i just stopped using knives ever 👍 so i'm good now"

if you don't know why this doesn't work, the issue is that ocd never stops when you implement a compulsion. it evolves. today you've "solved" it by never using a knife again (and losing access to an important cooking tool, thus limiting an aspect of your life) but in a few months or a year it'll be that forks are dangerous too. and hey, isn't it risky to use the stove? avoidance will even begin to manifest in places you might not recognize.

u think ocd therapy is impossible to do yourself and that it's all too big to start but you can get workbooks or even just try small things.

Much like Springfield before it, Seattle is one of the few major cities in the world with a monorail. That, combined with a more conventional light rail system, makes Seattle the rare U.S. city with two different types of train for public transportation. On Tuesday night, the rail system briefly had a third: a Mazda CX-5.