Firebird Scratches

He thinks climate change can be lumped in with acid rain and the ozone layer of "things that were overblown and not really important because no one talks about it anymore."

It didn't even occur to him that we actively fixed the problem. Here's the EPA page on acid rainfall.

From the page:

Here is the piece I did for @turtlestogetherzine !

via indiarosecrawford

Frog Paints a Water Lily Pond 🪷🎨🐸

Mikey: *flips a pancake and reads it like a tarot card]

-hydration: carry around a water bottle. a funky metal water bottle you can put stickers on is like $10 and if you can’t afford it just chronically refill a gatorade bottle or smth. Just having water nearby will help. And hydration really, really helps with energy levels for things like…

-exercise: my advice for this always is “find a sport you actually like”, but if you’re coming off of a years-long depressive sedentary period, start by walking. Like, TO places. The bus stop. A neat tree in your neighborhood. Is there a convenience store nearby? Go get a gatorade (see:hydration). Is there a library or other place where people gather? Even better. This is free and doesn’t have to take any longer than 10 minutes at first. And don’t go telling yourself “oh it was only 10 minutes it doesn’t count” STOP! That is the depression talking! Literally any amount of movement is 100x more movement than you were getting on the couch! You’re doing great! And once you’re in a good exercise habit, it will help a lot with…

-sleep: ah, the white whale. But remember that literally just lying quietly in the dark is resting, even if you don’t sleep (it’s science!). Try to be in bed, no lights or phones, at the same time every night and just…chill. listen to some chill music. Try not to get up for a least a few hours. And then, the next day, when you’re wrecked?? Try to avoid napping at all costs. Your circadian rhythm should theoretically stabilize after a few nights of doing this, and resting should become easier. Human chemistry is SO routine based, just keep your schedule as best you can!

Nutrition: yeah this is depression hell. But it’s not as expensive as it seems to “eat healthy”. Apples, bananas, and oranges are all cheaper than chips and also require pretty much no prep, just shove em in your mouth (and don’t give me that shit about caloric content; yes, I know chips are more filling, but they’re not going to give you the happy chemicals you need to help depression. If you’re so broke you will starve without 100 extra calories from a bag of doritos, your depression has environmental causes much deeper than lack of apples.) If you CAN cook even a little bit: frozen vegetables are cheap af and they slap with some butter and garlic powder. Throw some frozen peas in your mac and cheese. Kale and zucchini are cheap as hell in summer and they are delicious when flash fried with butter and salt. I know taking 5 minutes to cook seems insurmountable when you’re depressed but as my therapist always says, the cure for depression is doing the things depression doesn’t want you to do. And it will improve your mood so, so, so much to get some fruits and veggies in you.

Eat your nuggets and ADD some celery/an apple/an orange/some frozen veggies.

Eat your chips AND eat some salsa/a sandwich/a tangerine/ some apple sauce.

At the bottom of the pyramid of needs is getting enough food. Any food at all. Once you have that, you can start diversifying your food intake by adding on stuff to the things you like to eat.

If a food makes you feel safe, eat it and feel safe! Thats important! You don’t have to forgo comfort food and subsist off of celery to be “doing food right” or whatever. Your emotions are part of your health. Your comfort and safety is part of your health, hugely so for mental health. Your body size is irrelevant. What matters is how you feel. You cannot hate yourself out of depression, deprive and punish yourself out of depression. You have to care yourself out of depression, be gentle and kind and giving to yourself. You have to start saying yes to yourself instead of no. If you can get a salad and pick at it and be hungry, or get a burger and chips and enjoy the whole thing, get the damn burger and chips.

If you have conditions re food like diabetes or coeliac etc. do keep that in mind and also talk to your drs, see what can be done re your medications that can help you eat what you need to. Be as kind to yourself as you can. Make informed choices about food and medical consequences, whatever choices are right for you.

Yeah, add, dont take away. Work with, not against yourself. Take half steps when you cant leap to an “ideal”, its ok. If a change is a marginal improvement its still an improvement even if not how youre “supposed” to be doing things.