Tag: OCD

  • “paper mind” – written 12 march 2018 by Allēna

    write something
    anything
    there’s cerebral spinal fluid
    where some of my
    brain used to be
    and it’s one of the many
    possible scapegoats
    to blame
    for why i am like this

    humor me for a moment
    picture a house with a single
    flap for receiving letters

    one letter enters

    you don’t want the letter
    you set it on fire

    (but they’re like a hydra)
    (the more letters you burn)
    (the more come pouring in)

    so you get more letters
    and burn them
    until you are suffocating
    in them

    my brain did that a decade ago
    i remember the very first thought
    it found a girl beautiful
    and the panic set in
    the letters poured in
    and i drowned in thoughts like paper

    the mind full of paper has become
    the paper mind
    people and places like wind
    blow through it and blow it open

    write something
    anything
    do not burn this paper mind
    though you can do so quickly

    quickly
    quickly
               still
    -Allēna

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  • The new zine is slowly taking shape.

    We’re calling it Fear Not The Brave Pain and dear gods, it’s shaping up to be a void flavored behemoth.

    Here’s the cover art I did today:

    -Peri

  • Well, I had therapy yesterday…

    this session actually felt productive.

    I’ve been wondering for a long ass time why I write the way that I do. It feels like I’m possessed much of the time. Once I start on a project, I find it very difficult to stop, and if I’m not working on a project, even if there is no specific creative urge, it induces paralyzing anxiety. I feel like I constantly have to be working on something or else I feel like I go (more) insane, start climbing the walls, what have you. I’m a perfectionist about my work, too – if it’s not up to a very high bar that LITERALLY NO ONE ON EARTH is holding me to but myself, I panic and find it very difficult to share it.

    I’m also VERY rigid in other areas of my life. I am severely anxious about a lot. I have a damn near pathological need to know as much as possible, especially if it might possibly involve me, no matter how mentally taxing learning all of this information might be day in and day out. I feel like I have to know. Additionally, I feel like I have to be doing something about what I know, lest the doomspirals begin in that way, as well. I hold people to very, very high standards as well because if they fall short, it makes me VERY anxious, like my life could fall apart at any moment, someone could get hurt, etc..

    I’ve been like that for as long as I can remember. We all have.

    I talked with my therapist about much of this yesterday and he said that it sounded like I was describing obsessive-compulsive disorder. Initially he recommended seeing a psychiatrist about it, but I reminded him that due to my trauma with all of that (see: all of my posts about my mother DIYing MKULTRA with psych meds, etc.) and the fact that while it does suck to create this way, writing and creativity is my lifeline. I don’t know what I would do without it, and I am processing a lot of my trauma when I write. So ultimately we determined that that probably wasn’t the best idea since it wasn’t necessarily harming me and in fact doing more good at this point in time.

    So, that’s my confession for you all. I quite likely have OCD and it’s the root of much of my creativity, perfectionism, and a whole lot of other shit. It feels less like a death sentence to admit that than I thought it would.

    Until tomorrow (or the doomspirals will get me, haha),

    -Allēna