nothing is worse than software that tells people when I’m online or when I read their message or when I’m typing something. I always want to be as unknowable in my silence as god
i hate posts on this site that talk about intrusive thoughts like “yeah they can be about Bad Horrible Violent & Often Sexual Things but the fact that they’re incredibly upsetting to experience every single time is what makes you not a Bad Horrible Person!! if you’re having breakdowns & feeling terrible about them that’s Good And Right bc that’s the Morally Correct Response to have & it means you aren’t Actually Bad!!! don’t ever try to minimize the distress they cause you bc Feeling Awful About Them All The Time is the only thing keeping you from acting on them & doing Horrible Bad Things!!!!!” please shut up you are actively discouraging mentally ill people from building healthy coping mechanisms and getting better!
anyone who’s ever talked to a therapist about intrusive thoughts knows the whole point of treatment is to work on minimizing their impact on your emotional state so that you end up fixating on them less until they’re no longer disruptive and you can let them go as easily as they come. you can’t do that if you’ve been convinced feeling immense emotional distress about them is the only thing that proves they aren’t a reflection of your own desires and moral character! while the idea that your distress proves you would never act on your thoughts can be comforting on the surface, it is incredibly counterproductive and completely untrue. desensitizing yourself to your intrusive thoughts is quite literally the goal of treatment!
is someone who likes horror movies more likely to go out and kill people than someone who finds them too upsetting to watch? no, because your reaction to the mere idea of something doesn’t dictate your feelings on those things in reality. you don’t have to be incredibly upset by the idea of something to not have any desire to do it. you can morally condemn something with all your heart without becoming acutely distressed at the mere thought of it. eliminating the distress your thoughts cause you won’t make you any more likely to act on them, it will just make them easier to dismiss and not think about for any longer than needed. this is what people with intrusive thoughts need to be told, not that their continued suffering is proof of their goodness.
tl;dr: people with intrusive thoughts are not dangerous. people with intrusive thoughts deserve to heal. people with intrusive thoughts don’t owe you their continued suffering as proof they’ll never act on them. don’t shame people for not letting their thoughts disturb them. that is literally the end goal of treatment. stop pushing narratives that get in the way of people’s recovery. when you say that someone’s distress is proof their intrusive thoughts don’t reflect who they really are or what they’d really do, you’re telling them the last thing they need to hear.
i do enjoy “living weapon” characters but specifically living weapons who did in fact do absolutely horrific things which at least a part of them enjoyed and thought was good and right at the time, and that no amount of not knowing any better or guilt they feel in hindsight will ever make up for. i love living weapons who are “irredeemable”, and no it’s not their fault that they were made that way or pointed in the directions they were by the hand that wielded them, and yes they are victims, but so were their victims. living weapons who some people will never be able to forgive, but who still wake up every day and try to do better than what’s expected of them. a sword that uses its blade to cut wheat to make bread for the people who once lived in fear of its arc falling on their heads.
