I wanted to wait until things settled down before I said anything, but my mom isn't doing too well.

She had been having a rough time taking care of herself, but it hit the point where she was getting serious lapses of memory, among other things. She was losing track of days and time, insisting the current day was different or being unable to tell AM from PM; she was missing all kinds of details and such (like not realizing my sister changed her earrings after several days), etc. It became very worrying.

My siblings and I at first thought she was falling into depression or malaise, but once that stuff started really happening, we took her to the hospital to get her looked at. This was two weeks ago (22 March).

Long story short - She's had multiple...
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It has been brought to my attention that a piece of art I got recently was likely AI-generated. I do not stand for AI 'art', and I've removed the picture from my galleries until it's proven to me that it was drawn by a human.

Either they did a sloppy job drawing it, or they charged me $70 to type a prompt into a computer.

It should have been a big red flag that they don't have any public galleries other than Twitter/Bsky and Artstation. They reached out to me on Bsky with the whole 'Please pay me to draw for you' scam (This was before I became aware of that; I fell for their 'I'm poor and need money' story).

Another big red flag is the fact none of 'their' 'art' has any kind of consistency in style - And most of it isn't signed or watermarked.
...
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Reactivated my old Ko-Fi, if anyone wants to support my writing and/or throw some $ at me so I can buy more commissions (or food and other essentials; something like that).

For the past bit over a month, I've been taking new meds meant to help my mood swings and my depression, and I've been sticking with them. And at first, I thought they were working, as I stopped feeling as depressed as I was, which was a really nice change of pace for me. But as time went on, I realized they aren't actually stopping the depression or the dark thoughts - They're merely blocking me from having an emotional response to them. Which I still took, as I'd rather feel nothing over feeling completely down, but recently I've been getting to a point where the bad thoughts and the mental demons are as strong as they ever were, and the voices in my mind are louder than before. And while I don't feel a direct emotional response to it all, the constant darkness in my mind becomes tedious...
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I generally try to avoid speaking about political subjects in public, but this isn't politics - It's basic human rights.

The US Declaration of Independence names three unalienable rights for all people: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. And to me, that last point in particular holds true so long as one does not infringe on the rights of others.

The technology exists where, if one feels a dysphoria with their 'assigned' biological gender. they can undergo procedures and treatments in order to bring their physical body in line with their mental view of themselves. But not everybody can go through with such a procedure, nor may they feel entirely comfortable committing to it - That does not make them any less valid of the gender they see themselves as. ...
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I did some research, and I think I figured out what was causing my mood swings: I didn't know my sleep pill, Trazodone, is actually also an anti-anxiety pill. I had been neglecting to take it as I have a bad habit of not laying down when I need to and losing track of the time, and I don't like to take it if I need to be up before it'd wear off (~8 hours). I was staying up late to write, but that meant I wasn't taking my pill as it'd make me groggy when I needed to wake to get ready for work. But then that left my anxiety unguarded, and it turned around and brought all those worries and such, and made me gradually fall apart.
I'm making sure to take them regularly every night. I have an alarm set nightly for 3 AM to remind myself to take them so they can do their job and help me. I'm...
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On the four-year anniversary of my first picture of my fursona, and on one of the few holidays I actively celebrate (the Winter Solstice), I want to take a moment to look back on things, both good and bad.

First off... Whew, 2024 was a doozy. Seems like a lot of the leap years lately have been bringing the worst (the '08 recession, the scaremongering end of the world stuff in '12, the numerous passings of beloved celebrities in '16, the start of the pandemic in '20, and the sudden passing of many names in the fandom this year). But as a friend mentioned, one can't ignore the bad to focus solely on the good, and one can't ignore the good to focus solely on the bad. Time just doesn't work like that. There's good moments and bad moments, ups and downs, all the time.

...
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Long story short, my doubts and anxieties had been growing in me despite everything I had been doing for myself, and I probably took the wrong approach to it by distancing from my online presence as I thought that -was- what was causing the issues. Looking back, I probably should have tried talking to someone to get things off my chest, but I didn't. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that. But the building stresses of work, the holidays, the associations of the holidays (the whole family-focused time of the year is extremely disillusioning to me as my family was/is abusive), lingering grief, frustration that I've not been able to write any, seasonal depression, and several other factors, all just piled up further and further. It started to peak around Friday when I stopped eating as I couldn't...
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I had a major accomplishment with my mental health - I managed to pull myself out of an impending mental breakdown and actually solve the problem at hand, for probably the first time I can recall. All on my own.

Basically, I was missing Forest/SpottedSqueak, and started worrying about things like 'would he have liked me if we had met' and such. And it began eating me up, filling me with regret for never having been brave enough to reach out to him.
But then I managed to pull back to look at the situation, and I realized - It doesn't matter. I shouldn't be seeking approval anyways, but especially not speculative approval from someone deceased. It's not at all healthy to think like that, and... I stopped myself.
Reminded myself that there's never going to be a...
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The past few months have been a very turbulent time for me, as I've been taking great effort to pull myself out of a deep depression I had fallen into after a nasty breakup near the start of 2023. I started coming to terms with things, acknowledging the trauma in my life I've dealt with since childhood, and taking steps to better myself and heal.

I finally felt ready to refresh myself at the start of September, but that was put on hold with the sudden passing of an artist I never spoke to but looked up to immensely - The dearly beloved and forever missed Forest/SpottedSqueak - which shook me terribly as it did so many others. Even though I never spoke to him, his death felt like losing a close friend; I had grown close with his characters, and though I was never brave enough...
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