#superstitious posts

Okay hi tumblr..,..

What’s up. I have OCD and anxiety, and here on tungl dot com, there is a nice little type of post that makes my blood pressure flip the fuck out every time, and it’s those “if you are reading this [x]” / “reblog and [y] will happen” type reblog memes

You know the ones: money cat, lucky xyz post, that sort of shit. The revival of old school yahoo viral email chains. Even immunity rabbit or whatever – same premise. Anything that says, ‘By reading or reblogging this post, you are activating some specific effect.’

Basically, most people can probably ignore them easily if they don’t like them; but others, especially those with particular psychological conditions (aka, ME) can actually suffer stress responses to posts like this. Obsessive-compulsive, schizophrenic spectrum, anxious, paranoid, magical thinking type disorders especially can see a superstitious post and have it automatically activate an anxious or compulsive reaction, because to the brain, it’s like a new rule/parameter has suddenly been introduced to your environment without warning. Now suddenly, whatever atypical structures frame your brain function have to accommodate for an alien factor. <- I don’t know if any of this really makes sense; it’s hard to articulate in a NT-accessible manner, but hopefully the general gist comes through.

Anyway. So far it’s been basically impossible for me (and therefore, I presume, others as well) to avoid posts like this, because they don’t tend to have any sort of universally recognized term to tag warn for. As a result I’m basically always playing Russian roulette with my dashboard.

A while ago, I asked tweeter followers to vote on the best thing to call these, and most agreed that ‘superstitious posts’ was fitting. So now I’m asking tomblr users to consider making my life and others’ lives easier and less stressful in One Easy Step:

Please

tag for #superstitious posts !

It would... honestly make a big difference if this were standardized and I will be eternally grateful ❤️😪

1. It’s a bad omen to leave mirrors uncovered at night/ doors open

2. Don’t look in mirrors in the dark, you never know what you’ll see

3. Things you find in the forest are gifts the fairies left for you

4. Wishing on fallen eyelashes

5. Satellites can still grant wishes

6. Rain washes away pain

7. When you hear someone call your name but no ones there it means someone’s talking about you and / or someone’s thinking about you

8. Classical music stops bad thoughts

9. Circular shapes calm you down

10. By touching someone you can transfer feelings to them

11. Dreams are other lives/ past lives

12. When lights flicker it’s someone who’s died saying hi

13. Fireflies grant wishes

14. Bumble bees bring you good luck

15. Your intuition is always right

16. Time is circular and instantaneous

17. You’re always safe when you’re under the covers

18. Knowing the little details about people means you truly love them

19. If you think about someone before bed you’ll dream about them