ByCharlotteFinn

A skunk in the hedgehog's dilemma

Award winning writer and critic, accountant, and also skunk furry. I write BRAND ECHO with Ing and I write other things at other places. Mostly SFW, but minor DNI anyways



Anyone else experience a phenomenon as they get older, where all their feelings and thoughts become so complicated and conflicted that none of them feel all the way pure any more?


I read comics I enjoy and I enjoy them and then I think about how I kind of hate one of the creators for something (usually a legitimate something, as in they did something crummy.) Or I remember a disagreement I had over the comic that got contentious. I get furry art commissioned and I am reminded of the person who, out of the blue, decided to hate my guts. I'll be enjoying something as simple as a video game and then something in the repetitive structure will dig up a memory and I am taken out of the moment by feeling bad. I'll talk with a longtime friend and then be reminded of an argument we had years ago.

It feels like trauma, but it's not just over stuff that should be traumatic, it's over minor stuff everyone else seems to be able to get over. Everything now just seems to unlock a cascade of memories that are all conflicting with each other and I have no pure emotions or experiences any more.

I remember, in youth, flatly declaring stuff that's all-or-nothing, no room for any misinterpretation, and I see younger friends still acting like that. And nowadays, whenever I wind up thinking a similar thought I wind up mentally tacking on a dozen disclaimers based on things I've read and experiences I've had.

Like the meme that if you play a different gender in an RPG you are trans - it sure applied to me but I can't even really joke about it without having to go "okay but it doesn't mean you're trans, you could be NB, GQ or GNC, and you might be none of those things and the answer to that particular questioning might be 'no, I'm happy as I am.'" But that just seems to make me kind of miserable and other people just have a good time sharing a meme that, while not a universal experience, clearly resonates with some of us.

I tack on all these disclaimers because I want to ensure I don't hurt the feelings of others, but my present mental state, I feel like every experience I have, I keep hurting myself. Am I alone, in this?


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in reply to @ByCharlotteFinn's post:

That sort of generalized second-guessing of yourself is, not to play armchair psychologist and just speaking based on my personal experiences, almost definitely a result of trauma (changes your mode of relating to yourself and the world across the board, not just in immediately-trauma-relevant contexts) or maaaaybe scrupulosity from undiagnosed OCD. In either case I've absolutely seen firsthand that it causes you daily (or weekly at least, lol) distress: obviously you've got a lot of things to juggle rn but I really would recommend talking to a therapist about it if you can

It's also been helpful for me, at least, to vastly lower the threshold of what "counts as trauma." Sometimes really stupid or minor shit will permanently psychologically derange a person (twitter has provided ample evidence of this), and sometimes a bunch of things that aren't so bad individually will happen in quick enough succession that they fuse into a giant memory-tangle that's more painful than the sum of its parts because touching any part of it sets off a chain reaction that runs you through all the other shit as well

"Weekly distress" 😬

I apologize if I have been trauma-dumping! Not my intention to bring down a fun activity with pals.

I definitely feel the need to get back to therapy, but it costs money I don't have. If I get a new job it may come with benefits that help out there, so 🤞

Thank you for the advice and the perspective!