[ SECRET POST #2636 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2636 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 086 secrets from Secret Submission Post #377.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Holy fuck I rambled sorry about that

[ryttu3k]

Tumblr is this... interesting environment where people can connect to others like them extraordinarily easily. Anxiety? Has a tag. Autism? Has a tag. Nonbinary? Has a tag. Pansexual? Has a tag. There's a lot of sharing of information in a relatively safe environment, where you don't have to 'act normal' - I wouldn't disclose that I'm autistic to anyone in a real-life environment, and only did at uni when it was getting beyond my ability to handle it and needed accommodations, but I'm much more open about it online (including, yes, Tumblr), since that's not likely to have major ramifications like not getting internships or jobs.

Additionally, you can actually gain new insights. Actual example - I've had mild joint pain for pretty much my entire life, and do things like throw my neck out on a regular basis. I had assumed it was another random body dysfunction. Only a few days ago, someone on the actuallyautistic tag mentioned that a lot of autistics have both low muscle tone (something I did know) - and hypermobility, linking to images of hypermobile joints. I instantly recognised a few of them as things I could do as well, and reading up on hypermobility made me realise that I fit the diagnostic criteria for it (6/9 on the Beighton score, plus joint pain).

Now that I know that? I can work out exercises that won't fuck up my joints, and I'm looking in to getting a brace for my left knee, which is the most mobile and thus the one that hurts the most. (I lock it too much when I walk, it extends slightly backwards, and it has sideways movement that means my feet end up all over the place.) I'm also trying to work out how to stabilise my shoulders, which are also pretty messed up and hurt most of the time.

So, that's one example of an insight I got off Tumblr, which explains that there's a medical reason for something I thought was just kind of shit, AND it's given me techniques to be able to manage it better and actually potentially get rid of my joint pain.

This very long anecdote does actually have a point, heh. The thing is, someone on Tumblr, especially someone who spends a lot of time online because the real world is pretty goddamn unpleasant, might learn about anxiety disorders from Tumblr, either from their dash or by reading tags or whatever - the 'how' doesn't actually matter. If they've never come across the concept before, like how I had never realised that my joint pain and weird and random flexibility was called hypermobility and was associated with being autistic, then yeah, they're going to get on to sites like Tumblr, discover that the description fits, and take it on board.

Also, my god this is not a new or Tumblr-exclusive phenomenon. EVERY internet community has that, and it tends to fit waves of awareness. When you have a community that exists entirely online, then no, you're absolutely not going to be getting a representative sample of the people you'll see offline. It's a skewed sample - Tumblr and other sites tend to attract people who spend more time online, AND people are more open on Tumblr.

If you have a stressful workplace? Yeah, someone with an anxiety disorder is NOT going to thrive in an environment like that and would be 'weeded out' pretty quickly. What's left are the people who have no such anxiety disorders. It's a skewed sample, too.