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That word DOES NOT MEAN you’re making it up. It doesn’t mean you’re imagining the symptom. What it means is that the symptom ISN’T DIRECTLY CAUSED BY ANY OF THE THINGS THAT WOULD NORMALLY CAUSE IT.

I fought to get a PCOS diagnosis for 2 and a half years. For the ENTIRE time I was fighting, I was dealing with 3 cysts that were not going away by themselves and eventually required surgery to remove. At one point close to the end of the battle, I suddenly went blind. I was visiting my parents and was standing on the veranda looking out over the tree we had planted in memory of my dog and suddenly I got one of the shooting pains that I was quite frankly used to at that point and my vision started to go dark. It was like the sun was setting while being completely hidden behind storm clouds but it was 2pm in the middle of Summer on a clear day. Within about 30 seconds I couldn’t see ANYTHING. I was 27 years old and I was screaming for my mother.

My mum raced me to her doctor (he was a 15 minute drive away as opposed to 45 minutes to the nearest hospital) and he quickly worked out that there was nothing wrong with my eyes and what had happened was totally unrelated to them. Then he said it was psychosomatic and I freaked out, yelling that I was NOT making this up and I definitely wasn’t imagining it. Very quickly he calmed me down and said he believed me and I had misunderstood. He explained that whatever was going on with my abdominal pains (he suggested PCOS which I hadn’t even heard of at that point) had been ignored for so long that my body was starting to do things other than the normal pain response to try to draw my attention to the problem. My sight going was my body basically jumping around in front of me going “HEY ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME HELLLOOOOOOO??????”

He gave me some prescription strength painkillers and my sight started to come back as soon as they started to kick in. About 45 minutes after it started I could see well enough to walk around without help and within a day and a half I was back to normal. On top of that I finally had a scan booked to figure out what the hell was causing all the pain.

any time someone is in any kind of crisis or upheaval, offer to feed them. tell them they don't have to choose what it is if they can't make decisions, just ask about allergies and preferences and tell them you're just gonna make food happen at their house.

friend having a baby? delivery gift certificate to order food to the hospital after the kid shows up.

someone's relative passes away? offer to make them dinner.

buddy gets laid off? ask if you can order them lunch.

pal stuck in a depressive episode? offer to drive them to fucking mcdonalds, if that's what they want.

people in crisis are tired and sad and angry and the last thing most of them are doing is thinking about feeding themselves. so if you have the ability or time or money, providing that is always, always a good move.

Secondly, it cures in air alone, no oven or kiln required, and unlike clay it has microscopic shrinkage between wet and dry, so you can pack it around glass or whatever. When she says you can stand on this stuff, yes, you can (though for very large sculptures or very narrow sections of a sculpture, she recommends adding a metal armature for extra strength). It is impervious to water, so it can go outside in any weather, and any metal armature encased inside it won't rust

Additionally, Pal Tiya Premium can be added to at any point in the curing process, even weeks or months later, so you can make a sculpture in several pieces and, like with a mold, remove the foil core you sculpted on so you can use it again and again (though you have to add a sacrificial layer of foil between the core foil-sculpture and the Pal Tiya (see the videos on the youtube channel about it). You can color it with oxides, concrete stain, inks, or acrylics, including exterior-grade house paint so your sculptures can go outside.

Nala looking concerned about Simba hiding something about his past, a comparison:

I'm in an unhealthy routine of playing more games than drawing, and that definitely will not help me overcome my creative block 😔

Anyway, I have more ideas, but i will be a bit slower. Sorry in advance