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reasonsforhope · 3 months

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The World's Forests Are Doing Much Better Than We Think

You might be surprised to discover... that many of the world’s woodlands are in a surprisingly good condition. The destruction of tropical forests gets so much (justified) attention that we’re at risk of missing how much progress we’re making in cooler climates.

That’s a mistake. The slow recovery of temperate and polar forests won’t be enough to offset global warming, without radical reductions in carbon emissions. Even so, it’s evidence that we’re capable of reversing the damage from the oldest form of human-induced climate change — and can do the same again.

Take England. Forest coverage now is greater than at any time since the Black Death nearly 700 years ago, with some 1.33 million hectares of the country covered in woodlands. The UK as a whole has nearly three times as much forest as it did at the start of the 20th century.

That’s not by a long way the most impressive performance. China’s forests have increased by about 607,000 square kilometers since 1992, a region the size of Ukraine. The European Union has added an area equivalent to Cambodia to its woodlands, while the US and India have together planted forests that would cover Bangladesh in an unbroken canopy of leaves.

Logging in the tropics means that the world as a whole is still losing trees. Brazil alone removed enough woodland since 1992 to counteract all the growth in China, the EU and US put together. Even so, the planet’s forests as a whole may no longer be contributing to the warming of the planet. On net, they probably sucked about 200 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year between 2011 and 2020, according to a 2021 study. The CO2 taken up by trees narrowly exceeded the amount released by deforestation. That’s a drop in the ocean next to the 53.8 billion tons of greenhouse gases emitted in 2022 — but it’s a sign that not every climate indicator is pointing toward doom...

More than a quarter of Japan is covered with planted forests that in many cases are so old they’re barely recognized as such. Forest cover reached its lowest extent during World War II, when trees were felled by the million to provide fuel for a resource-poor nation’s war machine. Akita prefecture in the north of Honshu island was so denuded in the early 19th century that it needed to import firewood. These days, its lush woodlands are a major draw for tourists.

It’s a similar picture in Scandinavia and Central Europe, where the spread of forests onto unproductive agricultural land, combined with the decline of wood-based industries and better management of remaining stands, has resulted in extensive regrowth since the mid-20th century. Forests cover about 15% of Denmark, compared to 2% to 3% at the start of the 19th century.

Even tropical deforestation has slowed drastically since the 1990s, possibly because the rise of plantation timber is cutting the need to clear primary forests. Still, political incentives to turn a blind eye to logging, combined with historically high prices for products grown and mined on cleared tropical woodlands such as soybeans, palm oil and nickel, mean that recent gains are fragile.

There’s no cause for complacency in any of this. The carbon benefits from forests aren’t sufficient to offset more than a sliver of our greenhouse pollution. The idea that they’ll be sufficient to cancel out gross emissions and get the world to net zero by the middle of this century depends on extraordinarily optimistic assumptions on both sides of the equation.

Still, we should celebrate our success in slowing a pattern of human deforestation that’s been going on for nearly 100,000 years. Nothing about the damage we do to our planet is inevitable. With effort, it may even be reversible.

-via Bloomburg, January 28, 2024

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unveilandresist · 4 months

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by January 10th 1 in 3 people will have had this wave of covid. covid causes long term damage with each infection and wears down your immunity. you do not want this. there is no cure for long covid or me/cfs and there is a significant chance (last I checked I think it was 1/5 infections) of getting long covid that increases with each infection. please protect yourself and your loved ones by wearing a mask. variants have become more transmissible so a n95 or kn95 is the minimum protection to keep yourself reasonably safe(r) from getting covid.

it is important to understand often viruses do not simply clear up and go away. like chicken pox and shingles or what we now think of as polio that is actually post polio syndrome. polio symptoms were mild and 75% of cases are asymptomatic. we do not yet see the full scope of what this virus will do over our lifetimes. as someone who had my entire life derailed by me/cfs after having mono, (almost 10 years ago! it hasn't gotten better!) we have to take pathogens more seriously if we care about ourselves and our communities.

I'm willing and open to talk with people who want to understand better what covid does to our bodies and how we can best practice community care and also harm reduction if we're stuck in unsafe situations at home or work (certain mouthwashes and nasal sprays can help).

if you're watching what's happening in Palestine and live in the US, the government doesn't care about your life either. They lied about palestine and they lied about covid too. It is not just a cold.

#covid #solidarity #mutual aid #social justice #chronic illness #disability #me/cfs #chronic fatigue syndrome #mask up

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netherworldpost · 5 months

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(stares deeply into your art student eyes) Listen to me. I have something brutally important to tell you.

If your school does not regularly teach you how to recognize, and treat, physical pain and physical stress that is inherent in most -- if not all -- forms of making art, then it is fundamentally failing you.

Higher education is, fundamentally, a business.

Strip it to the core, dig into the foundations themselves dug into the soil, and you have hired extremely expensive consultants. You have hired these consultants to teach you to build a career, or build a portion of your life, or both.

Everything about that statement is carefully worded to be neutral.

If they are not regularly teach you to recognize the beginnings of physical pain, and, how to alleviate it when it sets in, and, how to regularly assess your work flow to reduce physical strain, then they are failing you.

I do not care how good they are as teachers. Or artists. Or business people. Or providers of networking connections.

If physical self care, strain reduction, proper ventilation, physical protection equipment, and similar lessons are never covered, they are utter and complete failures and, on at a core level, thieves.

They are robbing you of some of the most important lessons an art school should be teaching you.

I hope you will take this scathing critique of common art school education and use your inborn curiosity, some of the animus that inspired me to write this and you to become an artist, and begin pairing "I work in X media" with "I should prepare Y."

And if you are teaching yourself, then apply all above as part of your education. Do not rob yourself of these critical lessons.

Your materials are frequently dangerous.

Your posture requires frequent positions at odds with what your muscles are designed to do.

Your hours are frequently extensive.

Your options are binary: accommodate your physicality or suffer at an increasing rate until you are physically unable to continue working.

My education was sub-par. It took me years to fix the damage of this oversight. I consider myself lucky to have built up a proper training regime in time before permanent damage set in, I cannot count how many colleagues I have known over the years who were not so lucky.

From my physical core (which I exercise regularly to keep strong and minimize pain and physical stress), I wish you the best of luck.

:-)

#art school #art advice

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wheelie-sick · 4 months

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Basic dislocation/subluxation first aid

Keep in mind I am not a doctor, this is information I've gathered from medical sources and personal experience. I've done my best to link sources.

Some vocabulary first:

Dislocation - A bone is out of place to the extent that the bones are no longer touching

Subluxation - A bone is partially out of place but still touching the other bone

Dangers

When dealing with frequent dislocations and subluxations it's important to note that dislocating some joints is more dangerous than dislocating other joints. While all dislocations are medical emergencies some people choose not to go to the hospital for all dislocations and subluxations they experience however there are some that absolutely require emergency attention. In particular:

Vertebrae - Dislocating or subluxating a vertebra will cause a spinal cord injury. It's important that you seek emergency care to evaluate the extent of the damage and prevent further damage as severing your spinal cord completely can be fatal.

Collarbone - If your collarbone dislocates inwards it's important to seek emergency care to prevent further damage. A dislocated collarbone can cause life threatening problems with breathing and blood flow.

Knee - If your knee (not kneecap) dislocates it's important to seek emergency care as up to 40% of knee dislocations cause vascular injury that can threaten the entire limb if untreated

And while not all dislocations and subluxations are life or limb threatening all will damage your soft tissues in the surrounding area. A joint popping out of place is bludgeoning in all the surrounding structures in the process. That's why it's important to take care of your dislocations and subluxations correctly.

Improperly healing a dislocation or subluxation also poses its own risks. When dislocations and subluxations first happen the tissues holding the joint in are damaged making it easier to dislocate/subluxate a joint again. Not allowing these tissues to heal poses risk of additional dislocations and subluxations and can create a vicious cycle of tissue damage.

Reduction (Relocation)

Jaw

Vertebra - Go to the ER

Collarbone - Requires medical assistance

Shoulder

Elbow

Finger

Hip

Knee

Kneecap

Ankle

Toe

There were no available guides on reduction for wrists and ribs

What to do following a dislocation/subluxation

Reduce the joint

Apply a brace or splint to the joint. This brace will need to stay on for several weeks-months to allow the soft tissues to heal. This brace is more than a day-long commitment. Bracing is important because it stabilizes the joint while soft tissues heal and prevents further dislocations/subluxations.

Take weight off of the joint/avoid using the joint for 1-2 weeks. When people have been dealing with chronic pain it's easy to try to continue using a recently dislocated/subluxated joint. That joint needs time to heal and that healing will only happen with rest.

-> "I dislocate/subluxate joints so frequently that I cannot possibly do this"

I would make sure that what you're experiencing are actually dislocations/subluxations. A lot of people with disorders that cause subluxations/dislocations mistake ligaments and tendons popping for subluxations and mistake subluxations for dislocations. This causes people to think they are subluxating/dislocating many more joints than they actually are.

If you are truly experiencing that many dislocations/subluxations I would strongly recommend speaking to an orthopedist to discuss bracing and/or surgery for your joints.

If you aren't able to see an orthopedist it's still worth trying the above steps to the best of your ability.

#hypermobile ehlers danlos syndrome #hypermobility spectrum disorder #cripple punk #cripplepunk #physical disability #physically disabled

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drdemonprince · 1 month

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How do you maintain a healthy relationship with exercise as someone with a history of disordered exercising? Asking for me

I'm an eating disorder harm reductionist, not a perfectionist. Some of my ED behaviors exist to help me regulate my anxiety and impose structure on an unpredictable world, and I don't care about getting rid of those impulses anymore, I try to just work with them. I'm not especially worried about whether my relationship to exercise is "healthy", because what would that even mean -- normal? not obsessive? I've never been those things. so long as I take steps to minimize any damage I do to my body with my behaviors, i'm satisfied.

Lifting weights and being on T has been a good middle ground for me in a lot of ways. a brief lifting session in the morning gives me the sensation of having generated some endorphins, which makes me less likely to self-harm or behave impulsively, and it does so without requiring a ridiculous time commitment the way my long, long aerobic exercise sessions used to do. I used to miss a lot of special occasions with friends and holidays etc because I would spend so much time exercising every day, mostly as a stim and a way to offload stress. now the exercise I do can easily get squeezed into my downtime without taking away from other important things in my life.

strength training doesn't damage my joints or tendons the way that aerobic shit did; rather, it strengthens them. This kind of physical activity makes me hungrier and requires that I ingest enough protein, which motivates me to eat more, and i do tend to need that external motivation because otherwise i'll forget. being a muscle bro is also all very silly and stupid, which makes it easier for me to laugh at myself and not see the whole thing as super dire the way a restrictive eating disorder + exercise bulimia felt.

I still cling very obsessively to a set exercise schedule, but I don't see that as inherently eating disordered, it can just as easily be a very Autistic self-regulation thing. i honestly first started lifting weights in 2018-2019 because i was craving the endorphins from enduring pain HEAVILY, and would have really impulsive BDSM sex with complete strangers to get a pain rush without any prior negotiation or forethought, and i wasn't really looking after my safety. but i noticed that when i put myself through the controlled "pain" of lifting weights every few days, my desire to behave completely recklessly subsided and i could get by with having kinky sex more sporadically, and with actual planning and safety protocols being on the table instead of just pulling the first rando i could find on fetlife.

if someone believes in total eating disorder recovery/abstinence, they'd probably still look at my rigid adherence to a lifting schedule and my tendency to not feel hunger cues and my fixation on getting enough protein and think that i was still fucked up, but i feel physically the most energized and strong that i ever have in my life, my exercise regimen does not consume my daily schedule the way it once did, i dont think about my body size at all anymore, and i self-harm less and take fewer risks. so. seems pretty good to me.

harm reduction and a personalized recognition of one's needs > health

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fehtism · 3 months

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huh ? how does this even happen ?

well,

legendary alear deals 0 damage on her first hit and deals around 30-40 damage on her second hit due to her special activating.

Itsuki tries to deal 93 damage but legendary alear has three forms of damage reduction.

first, her prf weapon reduces damage from first hit by 40%

second, her B slot null c disrupt 4 further reduces damage from first hit by 30%

and finally, because her special triggered she gets another 40% damage reduction

it's important to note that damage reduction is multiplicative and not additive! legendary alear does not somehow have 110% damage reduction, she effectively has (0.6 * 0.6 * 0.7 = 25% of original damage is damage taken) 75% damage reduction.

Itsuki proceeds to Not kill legendary alear due to the absurd amounts of damage reduction she has and his lack of damage reduction piercing.

Legendary Alear triggers her special again against Itsuki and she heals a bit from triggering her special due to her A slot skill of atk/spd finish 4

So that is why Alear can kill itsuki even though it says she will deal 0 damage 4 times and why itsuki doesn't kill alear despite it saying he will deal 93 damage twice

#fire emblem heroes #fe heroes #feh #fire emblem #fe heroes meta #feh meta #cyril explains feh

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trans-axolotl · 3 months

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harm reduction for self harm.. hm. obvious tw for self harm, specifically cutting

i think one of the BIGGEST mistakes i see people make is simply not knowing their body. not knowing where their veins are, nerves, tendons, you name it are, and ending up permanently damaging or disabling those limbs, whereas if they knew where these things were and knew the drastic risks in cutting there, they mightve chose somewhere safer and "unconventional" and saved that extremity. wrists for example. these are an EXTREMELY vulnerable area of your body, not just because of veins but because of the major nerves and tendons that run through them to control your hand. i recently injured that area due to something unrelated and it was a nightmare, and i couldnt be more relieved i didnt cut these areas. its sadly a very (if not a staple) common place to cut and many people end up permanently disabling their arms, hands or fingers because of it.

TLDR i think teaching people the risks of cutting in certain areas is extremely important, and where to identify veins, tendons and nerves in their bodies and to know when theyre damaged and what to do

absolutely agreed. i think accessible anatomy education is actually super important so that people can actually understand levels of risk, instead of just sort of assuming what is and isn't risky places based on intuition or community norms. i think a lot of people just don't know where or how to find this info in a sh relevant way.

i feel like i've also had a hard time finding great accessible anatomy info--even in some existing harm reduction guides for sh, some of the info isn't great. i have such a hard time figuring out info from diagrams alone, especially if they aren't well labeled, so i def want to think of some ways to communicate that information in multiple different ways to help people actually understand. def going to look at some of the resources my harm reduction group has for vein health and safety.

thanks for sharing, super helpful!

#asks #harm reduction #self harm tw #sh tw #self harm cw #tw self harm #if this content is triggering for u please filter out one of those tags. ill tag all my sh harm reduciton posts with this #ik i have a lot of followers who only want to be able to access content like this if they are in a certain headspace so want to be clear #with tagging for access!

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acosmicventure · 11 months

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Scars of Your Survival Instinct in Birth Chart

SURVIVAL INSTINCT MEANS...

Survival instinct is a natural response to imminent danger, where your body responds by triggering a fight, flight, or freeze response to keep you safe.

The fight response involves confronting the threat head-on, the flight response involves escaping or avoiding the threat, and the freeze response involves hoping that the threat will pass.

However, being in this state for prolonged periods due to trauma can have damaging effects on our physical and mental health.

HOW STRUGGLES OF CHILDHOOD MANIFEST HERE

When faced with difficult upbringing and authority figures, a child often learns to build a wall to protect him/herself from the world.

This protection mechanism acts as a behaviour of emotional unavailability, anger issues, passive aggression and depression.

Slowly, your body starts keeping count of your trauma which leads to major health issues like high blood pressure, heart illness, diabetes and more.

IN MEN

It can lead to a highly complex ego where you seek external validation through superficial status, short-lived relationships and a running away mentality. Also, an extremist mentality.

IN WOMEN

It can lead to a high inferiority complex where you people please or are hyper-independent, focus too much on external beauty and couldn't assert yourself. Also, a victimhood mentality.

IN YOUR NATAL BLUEPRINT

Your ancestors survived many calamities so that you can break the patterns of the sufferings you are carrying within. These patterns can manifest as...

HOUSE OF ARIES AND MARS

Whichever house Aries and Mars are located in, that house shapes the way you survive the most challenging battles and bullying.

HOUSE OF SCORPIO AND PLUTO

This house shapes the way you transform yourself after going through ego death. Shadow work here brings immense healing to your ancestry.

HOUSE OF CAPRICORN AND SATURN

Whichever house Cap and Saturn are located in, that house shapes the way you learn karmic lessons and channel ancestral gifts to achieve legacy.

SUN-SATURN ASPECT, SUN IN LIBRA/ AQUA

This aspect makes you learn lessons about your identity, soul and heal inner criticism.

MARS-SATURN ASPECT, SAT IN ARIES

This aspect makes you learn lessons about your assertiveness and how you show up. A prominent survival instinct that needs nurturing and stability.

MOON IN SCORPIO, VIRGO, CAP, AQUARIUS

This aspect makes you close your heart space due to difficult childhood. Your healing begins when you prioritise self-care and emotional consciousness.

MOON-SATURN ASPECT, SAT IN 4TH HOUSE

This aspect makes you learn lessons about your emotional boundaries, home life and ancestry. Here, you heal by redefining what home/ family is.

PLUTO-MARS ASPECT, MARS IN 8TH HOUSE

This aspect makes you hyper-aware of the energies around you. Trusting your intuition is needed here.

VENUS-SATURN ASPECT, SAT IN 7TH HOUSE

This aspect makes you isolated from partnerships (business or love). This is also an indication to not repeat parental patterns within your relationship.

VENUS-PLUTO ASPECT, VENUS IN 8TH HOUSE

This aspect asks you to heal patterns around power struggles, abuse, finance, ancestry and intimacy.

VENUS-NEPTUNE ASPECT, VEN IN 12TH HOUSE

This aspect makes you learn about the importance of boundaries and not justifying destructive habits, especially within partnerships.

HOW YOU THRIVE INSTEAD OF SURVIVE

Practice cognitive reframing by challenging negative thoughts and replacing them with more positive and realistic ones. Set realistic goals.

Engage in activities that promote relaxation and stress reduction. This can include deep breathing exercises, therapy or mindfulness techniques.

Be gentle with yourself throughout the healing process. Understand that it takes time to recover from a prolonged state of survival instinct

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twbutterfly-milk · 9 days

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Reasons for bloating and how to help with it

Tw: Despite this being a mostly normal post abt bloating, it does mention eating disorders/ disordered eating behaviours, if u find this triggering, proceed with caution and don't follow me

Post below the cut

I split the post into three parts (general tips, linfatic system and immediate bloating from overeating/bingeing), and this ig will serve as the introduction, as I didn't write one.

General tips:

Sleep: females need between 8-10hrs per night, higher amounts in different parts of your cycle too. Men need 7-8 only

Laxatives: laxatives can actually cause constipation so if they're not having an affect on you it's actually better to go easy on them. Also if they're causing you pain, they're causing damage to ur digestive system which may require surgeries later to fic and let's be honest most people don't have the money for that. Laxatives should NOT be overused in any way and i wanted to add that in cuz i forgot at first but also harm reduction/health and safety ig so please stay safe people

Water: drinking between 2-3.5L water/day is very important.

Fiber- fiber is extremely important to keep a good digestive health, pack your diet with fiber (veggies, fruits, wholegrain/wholewheat things, anything that says it's high in fiber too)

Hot liquids- can help with constipation

Black coffee- helps with constipation+good for liver health and only like 2cals unless u get the instant stuff which is like 17 cals (Don't exaggerate on the coffee tho, and if you have anemia or any heart/ anxiety related problems i don't reccommend it at all)

Peppermint and ginger can help your digestive sytem get to work apparently (my source for this one was literally a quick google search but it was on a medical article so do with that info what you will)

Avoid carbonated drinks. Once in a while it's ok, but other than the fact that drinking them often can cause kidney stones, they can cause bloating

Eating too fast can cause bloating

Food high in salt or spice can also increase water retention and cause bloating (tho spicy things are a natural appettite suppressant and i think i've heard they help you have a bowel movement, and that can help.

Also, stress can cause a spike in cortisol levels, which ,when exagerated, could maybe make you grow a tiny bit of fat, not smth u rly should be worrying abt, maybe like a short meditation video every once in a while and avoiding too much coffee ( a couple of mugs prob won't do much, again it's rly not smth to be super stressed abt), also overexercising can cause an increase in cortisol (in which case Also, stress can cause a spike in cortisol levels, which ,when exagerated, could maybe make you grow a tiny bit of fat, not smth u rly should be worrying abt, maybe like a short meditation video every once in a while and avoiding too much coffee ( a couple of mugs prob won't do much, again it's rly not smth to be super stressed abt), also overexercising can cause and increase in cortisol in which case, salty food is prob a bbetter option, altho u will have to. Drink even more water, but don't forget your electrolytes!

Especially after long periods of malnourishment, your digestive system can have some trouble digesting the food you're eating, which can cause bloating.

Also make sure to note how ur body reacts to different types of food as food sensitivities can also be the cause fo bloating.

Linfatic system:

Bloating can be due to improper drainage of linfatic fluid (which is for the most part normal and prob not something rly bad but if ur worried u can go to the doctor ig, most people get it once in a while and our malnourished or bingey selves prob get it even more)

Water helps with the digestive system but also this one.

Things like not wearing clothes that are too tight, a healthy and balanced diet, and regular physical activity can rly help with maintaining a proper functioning of the linfatic system

For debloating to do with this, you can try stretching/yoga. Also linfatic drainage massages so massaging (especially on ur legs and arms) can help, u can also lay on the floor with your legs up straight against the wall, for about five minutes which could hypotheticlaly help

Immediate bloating from overeating/ bingeing:

The general tips above help but here are some extra things from when you're bloated from overeating/bingeing:

Abdominal massages also really help with bloating (make sure to do circular motions and horizontal motions too not just straight movements up and down ur stomach. Also going from ur hip bone up is a really good movement for the massage)

Lastly, here are some debloating stretches for if u overeat/binge and the bloat is painful this can help debloat or, at the very least, reduce the pain:

youtube

Reminder that you can't get rid of normal weight fluctuation, yes bloating can be the cause of it but ur weight may fluctuate for many other reasons like hormones too, especially during certain times in ur cycle, mostly due to again ur muscles just reataining water).That doesn't mean u should dry fast like not have water as water helps more than bloats, if anything, (also helps u lose weight and reduces ur appettite, and even helps u with working out and stuff, what's not to love?) and when you dry fast, u lose water weight so u think u lost a lot more weight than u did, so when u start drink water again, you'll be even more worried and think u gained a ton out of nowhere cuz u thought u lost a lot during the fast. Also it's rly dangerous and terrible for ur health. There's no benefit, not even for wl, that dry fasting can give you.

Idk if there's anything i haven't mentioned out of the most important things so i think that's all. Thank you for being patient and taking the time out of your day to read this to help yourself, youu deserve good things. You should def try to read some of this stuff on ur own too, i don't guarantee that i always have 100% of my info correct i'm only human and, again, not a professional, just a nerd. Stay safe ♡)

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positivelyqueer · 4 months

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Harm Reduction for Self-Induced Vomiting (Purging):

Hi, I’m really sorry to hear that you’re having a hard time with this behaviour right now but I’m proud of you for taking a step towards harm reduction.

There is no safe amount of vomiting, so I do urge you to seek professional help or set a goal towards abstinence (not engaging in the behaviour.)

But I also know that’s not always possible for a variety of reasons, so if you have or are going to induce vomiting, there are some things you can do to reduce harm.

Some of the immediate short term risks of vomiting include a decreased blood sugar, dehydration (and associated decreased blood pressure) and disruption of electrolyte levels, particularly sodium and potassium. These are both really important in the functioning of your muscles, which includes your heart and other internal organs.

To lessen this, it’s very important that you drink plenty of water following. I recommend filling up a water bottle or drinking several glasses. Take your time as your stomach will likely be unsettled. For your electrolytes and sugars, an electrolyte drink or drink additive is good. If you don’t have access to this, a cordial and a small amount of salt (enough that you can taste it but not so much that it makes you feel ill) can be a replacement.

If you can stomach it, a fast acting sugary food combined with a long acting carbohydrate will help with your blood sugar levels. These can include toast with jam or another sweet spread, chocolate or fruit. If you are unable to eat, replacing these with a drink like cordial or fruit juice can help.

Avoid brushing your teeth or doing any other kind of oral hygiene immediately after vomiting. The acid from your stomach strips the enamel from your teeth and brushing further damages them. If you are struggling with the taste, try washing your mouth out with water, or a small amount of dilute mouthwash.

I hope you are doing as well as you can be right now, and know that you are loved and valued. Look after yourself.

#Harm reduction #Eating disorder #vomiting #purging #bulimia #anorexia #EDNOS

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ofdinosanddais1 · 13 days

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Heartbreak High Season 2 Spoilers

So... lots of shit happened in the finale.

1): I like that they're setting up a redemption for Sasha and Spider. Both have done such horrible things on complete opposite ends of the spectrum but it's nice to see they could have a path to growth.

2): For Spider, I'm hoping to see more of his home life. I am thinking his father abused both him and his mom and his mom had a traumatic response which made her fear men including her own son. I think she pushed him away when she should've helped him because that's her kid and he reacted in his own way. And that does not absolve him of his wrongdoings, it means he has to sort through this shit in order to grow and prevent further harm to others. I would love to see more discussion on that in the third season. I would love for Spider to have a retribution and closure arc not for his own wellbeing (although it's a factor) but because there are boys watching this show who might have experienced things like him who might want to know it's okay to feel emotions and to see the damage that his actions did to show that it's not a healthy thing to do and it hurts a lot of people. I said redemption arc because that's probably what the show is setting up for but I think "redemption" should be left ambiguously like he's trying to be better but his actions have lasting consequences on the people he's hurt and he will always be making up for that. Changing for other people is not about being seen as the good guy but doing your best to prevent further harm. It's a complicated thing to deal with but I think showing that complexity like they have before is so important for kids watching this show.

3): I would fucking adore to see a Sasha redemption arc mostly for my own experience with other people who behaved like her who never learned from their mistakes for treating me differently because I'm autistic. Some of y'all might not want a redemption arc for her but like, I would fucking love to see her apologize and acknowledge what she did wrong and show change. Even if it's hard to do at first because no one will be perfect on the first try. After the lack of a genuine apology from Sia and her actions to the autistic community and how she continues to victimize herself, I just really want an allistic person to apologize and do better and I think the set-up for that in season 3 is PERFECT. Hopefully, there's a way for Quinni to still be school captain with Sasha as her co-captain because I think a message of uplifting people in communities you are not a part of is an EXCELLENT message. Sasha could step back with being the leading voice in this and allow Quinni to be a voice in her life as being autistic. Then this could expand to Sasha stepping back and uplifting other people's voices and learn that activism is about bringing people together and allowing space to share ideas and not trying to call out every single action she thinks is wrong. Overall though, I don't want them back in a relationship. I think the captain/vice-captain friendship could be fucking GREAT.

4): My heart fucking hurts for Cash. During that whole episode where he was on that boat with Chook, I was so fucking scared it was gonna be a jumping out situation but I fucking hope Chook doesn't mess with Cash or Harper anymore. He fucking had a deal and I don't want any redemption for Chook whatsoever. Crime and recidivism reduction is a special interest of mine and I fucking hated that Cash was in that situation to begin with and it's a perfect example of how vulnerable people join gangs. I am so fucking elated that this show is doing a great job of representing crime, recidivism, and police brutality. I'll have to research the prison system in Australia because I wanna see the similarities between Australia and the US's prison system. But YES. NAIL ON HEAD. A lot of teenagers and children join gangs because they are vulnerable whether that be an abusive home life such as Cash being in a group home then in Chook's gang before his grandma brought him to her home. How your family, your friends, your loved ones are all in danger when you are trying to leave a gang. I'm so fucking relieved that hopefully Cash can be free. I don't trust Chook's word though and that stuff always haunts people who often have no choice. I just want him to be safe and loved and cared for. He deserves so much better.

5): Kinda disappointed that Harper and Amerie didn't have a conversation on how Harper treated her but I think I still like their arc. I don't think that they're in anyway on the best terms they could be but I think it's because that Amerie views relationships transactionally in the way that she thinks she has to give every cent of her self to make other people accept her and I wanna see more of Amerie's story. For one, we know she has a sorta strict mom. For two, I've never seen anything about her dad. I'm wondering if there was an incident in her peer group in the earlier days or a situation in her home life where she feels like she constantly has to give 200% just to feel like she deserves even 5% of something. I really want the showrunners to tackle that kind of stuff in the third season. I want Harper and Amerie to have some kind of realization that their friendship is more complicated and I want Amerie to just have a god damn break for once. Have like a filler episode or gods just a fucking nap. I want Amerie to get like a cold where Harper or Darren or someone just helps her out while a bunch of crazy shit happens at school. Give my girl a break.

6): I fucking hate Rowan. He's manipulative but also traumatized. BUT CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW GREAT SAM RECHNER DID PORTRAYING HIM??? It's like he woke up one day as Rowan like his acting was fucking PHENOMENAL. If Rowan is in the third season, I'm not going to be mad because I fucking love Sam Rechner's portrayal of a teenager that is aggressive and touchy and just... how tf do I put this... a sort of trauma-touched angry that is not the typical portrayal of "I'm angry because I'm traumatized" but just representative of people who are like him if that makes any fucking sense??? Idk how to describe his attitude and mannerisms because there us definitely trauma laced with his actions but you can also tell through his backstory that this shit didn't start with his trauma or at least not the one we saw in the beginning. It's kinda like the signs of a serial killer but (hopefully) those signs are recognized and he is placed in a treatment that can focus on protecting himself and others. I don't think his behaviors will go away and I would not be surprised if he's not in the second season because he was institutionalized because that seems like a natural progression.

It's weird to talk about Rowan because there are signs that his trauma has influence on his behavior but is not the sole cause of his behavior. I don't want to put some kind of diagnostic label on him and I encourage everyone else to also not put a diagnostic label on him because I think most people watching (including myself) have the psychological knowledge to put a label on him without demonizing other mental illnesses because I see a lot of behaviors that can be attributed to some psychological problems but I'm not educated enough to talk about that without demonizing people with those mental illnesses who act so far from his other behaviors. So, I don't recommend other people putting a label on him because, even with good intentions, there are people who would want to use Rowan as a reason to demonize real life mentally ill people. But, I do not fucking like him as a person. I love the characterization. But fuck him to the sun, man. He was manipulative of Amerie and he was trying to forget Amerie but his thoughts did result in harmful actions and I think the best retribution would be deep psychiatric help but knowing the mental health industry, the kind of help he needs does not currently exist and that fucking sucks. If he is in the next season, I'm not going to complain because holy fuck I loved the character in the realm of his writing like the writer room for Heartbreak High deserves a fucking award.

Overall, my thoughts on the season were that I love how complicated everyone is. The characters feel like actual people that exist in real life. They feel loved and cared for and I hope netflix greenlights a third season. I've seen a LOT of people recently who hadn't watched the first season come out but got a netflix account specifically to watch Heartbreak High and that kind of thing is what netflix WANTS so I'm a little more hopeful that a third season might get greenlit. I'm excited to see what the showrunners do next.

Again, gonna say that, whatever behaviors that Rowan has that can be attributed to certain mental health disorders, let's just consider what fuel we're adding to the fire.

And because some people did this, remember that the actors are not the characters. A lot of people bullied Gemma for Sasha's actions but Gemma is the actor playing Sasha, she is not actually Sasha. She did a fantastic job so it might be confusing but she is not Sasha and does not deserve the hate she gets for her wonderful portrayal. This goes for EVERY actor.

#god i fucking love this show #heartbreak high #heartbreak high spoilers #heartbreak high season 2 spoilers #heartbreak high season 2 #phenomenal fucking job

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aspd-culture · 9 months

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Well, since I’m having a massive flare manifesting (at the moment) as the bone-itching urges, I guess I might as well turn it into something productive.

So, mostly for people who are trying to understand what it’s like living with ASPD more than people who know they have it, here’s the best description of it I can give - should be better than most of my previous attempts because it is currently all I can think about anyway!

In my experience, these urges are after things in one of three categories: impulsive, destructive, and disruptive. Note that these are just the categories I personally made up to help me understand what exactly my ASPD is after and how to explain it to my loved ones so they can get an idea of how to help.

Impulsive - Doing something, anything, *right now* with no planning, notice, or thought about it. No questions asked, let’s just go. These tend to be the least harmful and the easiest category to find replacement behaviors in. Examples (both of destructive behaviors and replacement behaviors) are unplanned road trips, large purchases, long/aimless walks, etc. Anything that causes a change in scenery tends to go here, as well as anything that very well *should* be planned out but isn’t.

Coping strategies that may help: If you have ASPD, sometime when you are calmest (maybe right after satisfying one of these urges so you know it won’t be coming again for a while) pack a bag of some kind to keep in your trunk or backseat with everything you might need for one of these including spare keys to your house if your area is safe to do that in/if your trunk locks separately from your car - because really, are you likely to remember them in the moment? - 2 phone chargers (just in case one breaks) with both a wall brick and a car charger, at least 1 set of spare clothes you don’t care about never wearing besides for this, travel shampoo, conditioner, soap, and toothpaste and a disposable toothbrush, at least a day’s worth of any medication you take, enough money to get any essentials but not so much that you mind if it gets lost or stolen - sweet spot of maybe like $20 to $30?, etc. Think “I have to spend a night in a hotel and can’t bring anything but my phone” because you know if you have to remember anything, you won’t and/or the replacement behavior won’t work. If your loved one has ASPD, I can’t speak for everyone, but I would *love* it if my partner did this for me so when I get impulsive we could just *go*. It might be best if you drive tho so they can crank up the music and enjoy the ride without the responsibility. Another would be to set aside some money separate from your normal savings just for this. Whilst it can make money tight and isn’t an option for everyone, it’s important to balance the burden of planning for money to be tight vs coming out of a flare realizing you spent rent money on a console/laptop/tablet/new phone/speaker system/etc.

Destructive - Breaking something, someone, or myself. These are the common ones you think of by the criteria; picking fights, breaking things, hurting yourself/others, sh and sui attempts, drvgs, drinking, smoking, gambling etc. If it can damage person or property, it tends to be in this category. In my experience the most dopamine comes from the first time you do these behaviors, so these things may seem super out of character for the person in question.

Coping strategies are hard to find with this category; really just lean into harm reduction vs stopping them. As much as it sucks, if you have a loved one with ASPD in your life and they are trying to do something destructive, you can’t just stop them unless you have a replacement behavior they seem into trying out in the moment. If you do, you’re pushing it in the direction of causing harm to you because we *need* to fill these urges somehow. I’m not saying just let them harm themselves or someone else - I’m saying reduce the harm as much as possible without taking the “fun” out of it because then it won’t work and the pwASPD will again be forced to find something else to fill this urge. For me, the longer the urges go on, the more intense the behavior has to be to work.

Disruptive - Doing or saying something that would warrant a “what the fuck?”. This includes breaking into abandoned places, lying for the hell of it, buying something you don’t even want or need, yelling in a quiet room, cheating, etc. If it causes a serious change in routine or subverts expectations, it tends to be in this category.

Coping strategies that may help: to be honest many of these don’t need a replacement behavior because many of them are a lil out there but aren’t really hurting anyone. If you see a pwASPD you care about playing Webkinz at 3AM trying to find out which swear words they can successfully name their pet, mind your business. If you do need to replace the behavior, though, lean into the idea of novelty. Is there a mall you’ve never been to around you and you have a bit of money to burn? Go check it out. Do you have a pool that you could swim in despite it being like 65 degrees (F) and raining (not storming)? Go for it. Does sleeping sound lame as hell, but sleeping on your dog’s bed sound more appealing? You got it dude. Wanna read a book upside down? I will be the first in line to tell you how awesome that is once you’re done. Pull a Joey from friends and see how many pairs of your underwear you can put on at once. Move all your furniture an inch to the left to mess with your roommate. This has a lot of overlap with advice I would give to pwADHD as well and a lot of it is basically chaotic neutral activities.

For me, my urges don’t always pick one category, sometimes anything from any one of these will help. However, I find it best to try and take the thing my ASPD wants to do (said thing is almost always a bad idea for one reason or another) and look to replace it within the same category. The only thing is that you want to have the ideas for this on deck for when the urges hit because if your brain has to come up with a replacement behavior in the moment, good ideas will become useless because it doesn’t *want* to replace the behavior, it wants to do it.

Again, these won’t all work for everyone, but they are at least how I experience my urges and tricks I use to keep them from getting the better of me. As always, ymmv and I do not take responsibility for anything that may come of how you choose to respond to your urges. Many things mentioned in here are examples to describe the urge, not suggestions, and therefore things that are illegal and/or dangerous have been mentioned. I do not advocate for anything illegal or dangerous. Still, I hope this helps someone.

#aspd-culture-is #aspd culture is #aspd culture #actually aspd #aspd #aspd awareness #actually antisocial #antisocial personality disorder #aspd traits #anons welcome #tw drvgs #tw drvg mention #tw sui mention #tw sui #tw sh #tw sh mention

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torchship-rpg · 9 months

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Dev Diary 8 - Identities: Terrans & Lunars

Happy International Moon Day! Torchship is set 200 years after Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon, with history diverging when Alexei Leonov followed him a few days later, keeping the space race hot through moon bases, Mars, and beyond. A bit like For All Mankind, if everyone was a bit less of a complete drama queen.

In celebration of the incredibly cool feat of somehow putting boots on another world, we’re going to be focusing today’s Dev Diary on the two human Identities which descend directly from the event; the Terrans who went there and the Lunars who stayed.

Terrans

We touched on Terrans in Dev Diary 2, as an example for how even the most ‘standard’ of human identities still has a lot of interesting Traits to draw from. Still, Terrans are very much the ‘default’ human identity, being the most populous human group. They’re called Terrans because they got upset about everyone calling them Earthlings, and it had a nice symmetry with Lunars.

Even before we get into the specific sub-Identities, each Identity is divided into a bunch of subsections which dive into various details about the group; where they live, what the environment is like, and what specific biological or genetic details you might need to know. Any of these can come with Traits; the Biology one is where aliens get their signature features, and humans get the developmental and genetic distinctions that set them apart.

(As an aside, these Identity entries are big. They’re not just a couple of paragraphs, they’re thousands of words about history, culture, and biology. Sometimes I get distracted and go on for four paragraphs about the Zinovian biological and cultural concept of sex and gender. Sorry not sorry.)

For Terrans, our Biology section includes our first two Traits. As mentioned last time, 1g is unusually high for humanoid life in the setting; most other species evolved at around half to maybe three quarters of that, and the various spacers will have grown up under even less.

This means that Terrans are a great fit for the Heavyworlder trait, which is one of the Gravity traits. This gives you better tolerance for high Gs (important when you’ve got to work on your spacecraft while under thrust) in exchange for worse penalties in 0g. Compared to a spacer who could spacewalk before they could normal-walk, you’re going to come off clumsy in freefall. You also get a bonus to Physical Instrument, the cert used for basic physical strength and endurance, and do more damage in melee.

The other Terran biological Trait is Baseliner. An assumption underlying every biological Identity is that unless we say otherwise, there’s genetic engineering afoot, either ongoing or in the species' past. While some of this is awful Gattaca-style eugenics nonsense, for Torchship’s humanity this has mostly been just some tidying up. Evolution settles for a lot of ‘good-enough’ solutions, so with a little bit of targeted editing we can do stuff like prevent cells from hoarding molecules they’ll never use, or use a chemical that’s actually good at the job instead of one that the body just had lying around.

Baseliner is the Trait where we say otherwise. You pretty much can’t survive off Earth without some genetic engineering; turns out even a pretty small reduction in gravity long-term is going to be bad for your heart, nerves, muscles, bones… your everything, basically. But if you and your family have always lived on Earth, you could well have gone the last hundred years without genetic editing.

The downside is that it costs more XP to upgrade Physical Instrument and you take extra consequences from different levels of gravity, but on the upside you have an extra ten minutes in low Oxygen before consequences start setting in, and you have a higher tolerance for drugs and poisons. You might not be peak human performance, but all those redundancies can come in handy.

Once we’re done with biology, we move into the sub-Identities, which are specific regions or subcultures. Right now Terrans only have two; rural and urban. (I’ve played around with some others but I haven’t been happy with anything yet, send in your suggestions!). Urban Terrans live in the dense, futuristic megacities that dot future Earth, in communal archeologies that are like self-contained villages. Theirs is a life of beautiful buildings, abundant greenery, a different kind of library for everything, and a joyous excess of monorails. It’s everything you could have wanted from Usborne’s Book of Future Cities (1979) come to life.

Urban Terrans get recommended the following Traits; Polyglot (to get across the cosmopolitan nature of the cities), Well-Connected (to show your closeness to the Star Union’s bureaucracy), Divergent (because urban Terrans are exactly the sort of people who do recreational genetic modifications), and Communal Spirit, a trait which boosts the effectiveness of working together. This is a common Trait for many Human identities; it’s pretty much the one that models prosocial production practices in action.

The Rural Terran trait represents a much smaller proportion of the population. These are the mix of farmers, ecologists, and indigenous groups piecing the planet back together after a close brush with climate change. Outside of lithium, there’s not a lot of on-world mining anymore (space mining has made it uneconomical) so this is mostly agriculture. These communities are relatively isolated, bypassed by the high-speed trains connecting Earth’s cities; the saying goes that Mars is closer to the cities than the farms are.

Rural Terrans get these Traits suggested: Biome Specialist (representing a familiarity in whatever regional ecology you grew up in), Stiff Upper Lip (farm work tends to toughen you up), Natural Esper (a lot of psychics try to get away from the crowded cities), and Trusting, a trait that rewards you for helping others, but makes you more vulnerable to manipulation and makes it stressful to initiate violence.

Finally, at the end of each Identity is a section dedicated to how this group fits into Star Patrol, and how their presence can result in extra Traits through social interaction with other groups. Here, the privileged, ‘default’, often somewhat thoughtless Terrans are recommended the Imposing trait, which gives you some bonuses for being intimidating, but makes it a little harder to get people’s trust. It also does a decent job representing how Terrans are simply more heavily built than anyone else in the Sol system; when you’re comparing to tiny Martians and spindly Spacers, Terrans are collectively a bunch of Conans the Barbarian.

You grew up somewhere where air is free and water falls from the sky, and people are understandably sometimes hesitant to correct your ignorance because you’re three times stronger than they are. Terrans often have some growing up to do as they realise how they come off to others.

Lunars

In Torchship’s world, there have been moon bases since the early 70s, and people have lived on the moon full-time since the early 2000s. The Soviet moon base program eventually withdrew due to budget problems, leaving the ever-increasing network of American bases the sole full-time real estate on the moon. In the 2040s, Armstrong City took one look at the unfolding disaster that was the collapse of American capitalism and seceded. Playing up its neutrality, it eventually became the de jure capital of the Solar Union and, now, the Star Union, though in actuality this is mostly symbolic.

This is because living on the moon is genuinely very difficult. The gravity is just 16% of what it is on Earth, it’s airless, and there’s no atmosphere to stop the radiation. When people started living there, its only selling point at all was being closer to Earth than Mars was.

Now that people do live there, though, in a vast underground city, there turns out to be a second advantage. The Moon is very rich in mineral resources and very poor in biospheres you might destroy by aggressively mining them, and it’s incredibly cheap to get things to lunar orbit. This has ended up making the moon the industrial powerhouse of the Star Union.

Lunars are living in the most extreme conditions of any of the human Identities, which is reflected in their Biology Traits. Like Spacers, they get Freefaller, a gravity trait that is in most ways an inverse of the Heavyworlder trait. They might not actually be living in freefall, but the gravity is so low it might not make a difference. The very low gravity also means they are recommended Medical Dependency; humans simply were not meant to grow up in these conditions. Even with genetic modifications, some ongoing medical treatment for bone density or nerve issues, arising from being seven feet tall and effectively 30 pounds, is to be expected. Finally, Lunars are recommended the Wireless Brain Uplink Trait, an extension of the implanted medical monitors which were once standard on US moon bases for long-term survival.

Lunars also only have two sub-identities. The first are the Mazedwellers, those who live in Armstrong City itself. Armstrong City is built out of the subterranean mines of Luna, using the thick crust of the planet to protect against solar radiation. This makes the city a twisting, sprawling web deep under the surface, where space is at an absolute premium even beyond what Spacers experience. To live in these conditions but still contribute your industrial might to the Union, your town doubles as a factory floor, converting back and forth every day.

This gives Lunars a distinct identity in their work ethic; while everyone else can be more content working at their own pace, on Luna the faster you get the job done the faster you get your living room back. Your recommended Traits are Claustrophile (giving you a bonus in a space suit but mild agoraphobia), Driven (representing this unusual work ethic), and Shifting Gears, a trait which lets you have two sets of Personality Impulses, in this case representing the strict work-life divide that is at the centre of Lunar culture.

The other Lunar sub-identity is being a Yardworker. The Lunar Yards are the reason that humanity won the big space war; turns out running a slower-than-light multiplanetary civilisation requires an absolutely ludicrous number of spacecraft, so Lunars built an absolutely enormous and ever-expanding space station to do that with, using a giant railgun to shoot raw materials up to it and commuting every day with short-hop shuttles. In the post-FTL era, the sheer scale of the Lunar Yards means humanity can produce an almost comedic surplus. During the war, Lunars couldn’t serve in Star Patrol (see the end of the dev diary for why), so people started living on the Yards to make as many rockets as possible instead as a way of contributing.

Being a Yardworker is a prestigious job for a Lunar, and also a competitive one. Work never slows down, six shifts twenty-four hours a day. For this reason, Yardworkers share the Driven and Claustrophile Traits with their Mazedweller counterparts, as they aren’t that divergent. They gain the Voidborn trait (which gives bonuses for making repairs, cheaper upgrades to the Cosmonaut cert, and stress when your rocket is experiencing shortages) and the Cultural Tool trait, which gives you a bonus 4d6-era item you can carry atop the normal inventory. For Lunars, that’s your Yarkworker’s Marker, the thick-nibbed, vacuum-writing pen workers carry to leave each other vital notes about problems that could potentially kill them and/or draw dicks on the spaceship. The Yardworker’s Marker and all the little notes that crews would find in their spacecraft developed a mythology, which is why now it’s as much a badge of honour as a practical tool.

Finally, the Lunars in Star Patrol section touches on an important consequence of Lunar biology; being a Lunar was for life up until shockingly recently. They couldn’t even survive something as tame as Martian gravity even a few decades ago, which meant they could never visit Earth and couldn’t serve in Solar Patrol because their hearts couldn’t take the acceleration. This only changed in the past few decades in the form of an intense, and often rather painful, two-year series of treatments and acclimation.

This comes with two suggested Traits. The first is Augment, the trait we use to represent attempts at genetic engineering that go above and beyond the normal evolutionary cleanup, which can represent some of the extreme intervention and above-average effects it might have had. The other is Stiff Upper Lip, as per Rural Terrans, representing the adjusted pain tolerances you’re going to develop after undergoing something like that.

As you can see, Trait overlap is pretty common in these things, and of course these are just suggested Traits. Despite all the differences, everyone is a lot alike in most ways.

#torchship #torchship ttrpg #rpg #ttrpg #dev diary

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