#harmful stims

Non harmful stims:

- Flapping her hands. This one is rare to see from her, because she always gets embarrassed about it. This happens when she's super happy or excited about something. Usually followed by very happy chirps before she immediately puts her hands at her sides and apologizes.

- Tapping her feet. Another thing tied to extreme happiness, and also because I saw a video of an owl tapping their little feet and found it so cute.

- OWL SOUNDS. Happy screeches, trilling, hooting, any form of owl sounds. Especially when she's super focused while weaving. Penelope was confused when Athena started making hooting sounds when they were weaving together one time, and Athena immediately started apologizing for it. Telemachus and Odysseus like to hoot back as a joke, and sometimes this loops into a hooting match between the three of them.

- Rocking back and forth. This happens moreso if she's bored or stressed out. It's very subtle most of the time, but looking closely you can notice her swaying slightly.

- Cocking her head to the side. I know this one (along with owl noises) are basic as hell, but seriously. Picturing a confused Athena tilting her head like an owl is so silly. Although sometimes she does it to a near painful degree (for mortals at least) and it can low-key concern some people.

Harmful stims under the cut (TW):

I chew rather than pick, but I might include tips for both in case it's helpful to other people with similar issues. I'll include deterrents in case there are times you need to be deterred, but also ways that you can continue to do it if you want to or can't help it, to reduce the likelihood of infection. I haven't tried all of these things myself, but have either seen them recommended, tried them myself, or accidentally found them useful:

Nail varnish that tastes bad. This is to deter chewing more than picking, of course, but I'll mention it in case it is useful to anyone. I have refused to try this to stop myself chewing but if someone is desperate to stop they might be willing to suffer the bad taste.

Nail varnish to pick off. You could try painting your nails (clear if you don't want to use a colour) so that you can pick off the varnish rather than picking at your skin. Some people also do things like put PVA glue on their skin/fingers so that they can peel it off when it's dry, but obviously that might not be ideal if you are out and about.

Make-up/vaseline. Putting on make-up or some lip balm or vaseline on the lips might make it less appealing to pick at the skin (especially if you hate getting your hands sticky or greasy/it feels too unpleasant to tolerate). Unless you dislike the feeling of anything like that on your skin/lips altogether.

Plasters as a deterrent. Putting plasters around your fingers prevents access, so means you can't pick (or chew). This has accidentally worked for me in that if I've made my fingers bleed and had to put a plaster on that finger, I can't chew that finger anymore!

Plasters (and other products) for cleanliness and hygiene. Maybe keep a mini First Aid kit to hand with some wipes and plasters so you can clean any open wounds and cover them up, or antiseptic creams, balms, or even mouthwash if you tend to get cuts inside your mouth/lips from biting or picking.

Gloves. Keeping gloves with you might also mean you can keep your hands cleaner and prevent infection (particularly if you are doing activities that will get your hands dirty).

Keep your hands busy. Typing, writing, reading, holding a cup or any item that means you would find it harder to pick, having something to fiddle with, using your phone (maybe download some games or apps that would keep your hands busy).

Keep your mouth busy: obviously chewing or sucking sugary sweets isn't great for your teeth, but if you chew or pick at your lips, you could maybe find some chewing gum or sugar free sweets or some kind of chewy sensory aid to keep your mouth too busy to chew on your skin or to make it harder to pick (if you are moving your mouth/lips because you're eating or drinking).

Caring for your skin. Some people find that looking after their skin somehow makes them also more likely to stop doing things that harm it. So someone might get a manicure, or use creams and lip balms to care for the skin on their hands and lips.

Managing the skin (keeping the skin as smooth as possible using other means). I tend to rub my fingers with my thumb (and vice versa) and if I feel a rough bit end up trying to chew it off. If I see a bit of nail that looks like it isn't trimmed as short as the rest, I'll chew at it. Sometimes it's better for me just to use a pair of nail clippers to clip away skin cleanly, instead of using my teeth and pulling (and potentially pulling the skin back and making the area bleed).

Followers, any other ideas?

I still remember when I was younger, I can't remember how old though I estimate somewhere between fifth and seventh grade, coming home from school after having the everloving hell beaten out of me in the locker room and just staring at myself in the mirror. It felt like I didn't even see the bruises, I just saw everything wrong. I didn't know what was wrong, why it was wrong, didn't really know anything because no one had told me what dysphoria or being intersex was. No one told me I was intersex, thought it better I just thought something was wrong with me, no one told me what I was feeling was... Well, not normal, but not abnormal either. How am I even supposed to word that? Dysphoria is awful but it's not in itself ??? I have no idea so I'm just going to leave it like that.

Anywho. I just remember wondering if they'd hit me hard enough if it could have forced my body into proper shape. Not fitness, but as in if they kicked and punched, smacked me with their shoes hard enough if it would be like those cartoons where they get hit and shake and then they're magically fine. But, I'd look like I wanted to... And then I realized what I was thinking, didn't know what it meant but it felt like an alarm bell, and then I just got more upset and started punching myself as hard as I could everywhere I hated where I looked until I cried. No one cared, not that I can remember, no one had even checked up on me when I got home despite knowing I was beaten. No one checked to see why I was in the bathroom for so long. Nothing.

I never got my sex reassigned, or hell, maybe it was and I just don't know because no one will tell me anything (given the CIMI? Highly possible. Also highly possible I just don't remember a la cdd) but they kept switching which locker rooms I was allowed to go in. Over and over, multiple times until finally they told me to just go to the nurse's office because I refused to change around anyone in either locker room unless I was able to use a stall. I often couldn't, so I'd miss class waiting until after gym to change in the ball bathrooms, or just wear my dirty clothes all day if that wasn't an option. I got points docked and didn't care.

Sometimes I still want to do that, I hate this body and I hate that I'll never be safe in it, especially not anytime soon where I'm stuck. I don't even really want a body at all. Or, I want to be able to choose when I do, or when it's touchable and not just going to be phased through like a ghost. I want to look how I do in my head. Body and face wise, I look in the mirror and obviously know that that is my face, but it looks nothing like me. Seeing myself there can be anything from mildly unsettling to fully devastating and distressing, changing day to day or throughout each day. And I wonder if being allowed to know I was intersex from the get go would have changed anything, made it better or not. It certainly couldn't make it worse.

And in hindsight, now that I know and am able to learn more about my variations and presentations, some things from back then that I can recall or at least have been told about make much more sense for better or for worse. And some intersexist peritrans bozo will read this post and still think I'm privileged for it all... Obligatory I know not all peritrans people are intersexist, but if you read that line and started fuming maybe you are even if you try to act like you aren't. Even if you've gaslit yourself to believe you aren't. Why so angry if it not about you, eh? Now moving on.

The frequent UTIs (though this one also was likely worsened by other awful things which I think you can infer from the tags... That probably plays a lot into, intertwines with a lot more as well than I realize or want to think about), MRI scans they put me under for most of the time, the time when I was little and had to take a bath at my friend's house and I was too little to be left alone to it so she had to help. The horror on her face looking at my little body, and further horror when I started to panic. My sex ed questions in school never answered when we went over it in school, I was scolded for being inappropriate or ignored entirely, or some took it as me trying to be a class clown despite never being the type.

I'm just sort of looking at my life tonight, how little of it I've actually gotten to live not just survive, things I missed out on and was denied be it to do with being intersex or not. To do with being trans or not and am just really, really sad. I said this was half a vent half not but I supposed it just is a vent after all. I see the holes, some will always be gone I think, some though it's just blank I can connect dots. And then with those realizations pop in ones that make me think of other issues, more dots connected, and then before I know it I am thought spiraling about other aspects of my situation that are just awful. The fact it's likely never going to get better for me. I'm not going to make it to another birthday and I've never been able to go to pride, never had love (or at least not love that wasn't abusive or manipulative), never made a family, never truly got away from my abusers, never got to do pretty much anything I planned to do with my life, never amounted to anything.

somthing about those plant aliens being Way More Competent Than Human Beings as well as Inherently Dedicated To My Happiness Instead Of Profit Or Results makes me just feel less traumatized i guess.