I I Think I Mentioned This Before But Can't Find The Og Post So I'm Just Gonna Talk About It Again.

Spoopy Season Safety

A list of pyromania symptoms one might experience.

Not a guide to diagnosis.

- the urge to ignite flames.

You most likely will feel the urge to start fires in some way, be it activating a lighter repeatedly or creating bigger flames by burning things. The urge can feel like an itch in the brain, a stretch in your fingers or just the sudden need to grab a lighter or fire source. It can be very intense at times, making it hard to resist the impulsion to do so.

- the urge to touch flames

Some experience the impulse to attempt touching fire. From putting your fingertips to a candle or lighter flame to putting your hand on a campfire or bonfire. This of course is a pretty dangerous and possibly self harming urge to have but the majority of the time the intent isn't to harm but simply to feel the warmth and sting of holding fire.

- satisfaction in fire

Many feel relief, relaxed or even euphoric once they've started fire. For many, fire is a sort of stimuli almost nothing else can give them. Watching a small flame dance or watching fire eat away ant kindling can be enough to satisfy the crave in their brain for that stimuli, however for some that still won't be enough, thus why the most commonly known pyromaniacs tend to be people who create much bigger fires than anything.

- stress or depression

More often than not you may feel mood swings due to the lack of stimuli your brain craves from fire. Going without it for long can cause some sort of distress that manifests differently for everyone and can become more intense the longer you are letting your brain crave to give in to the impulses. For some this comes as a depressive episode, high stress levels, anxiety episodes, paranoia and so on, often influenced by any possible conditions one might have in addition to pyromania or simply influenced by their environment. This can cause someone to lash out, isolate and shut down or even lead to them creating a bigger fire to relieve all that distress.

- lacking control

When struggling with an impulse based disorder like pyromania, you may experience a lack of control over your impulse, starting fire and lighting things without thought and being quick to give in to urges. For some this lack of control can be small, they are able to resist the impulses better than others, but for some this lack of control is large and they struggle intensely with the urge to start flames.

- feeling drawn

Many feel obsessed over or lured to fire and flames, an almost intense affinity of some kind for all things related to fire.

- purposeful sparks

Most fires pyromaniacs set are on purpose and if you have pyromania you likely experienced setting more than one or two fires on purpose.

- excitement

Plenty feel a rush of some kind just before starting a fire, almost a thrill in the anticipation or excitement at the idea of the act. Some feel this as glee towards the relief fire gives them. Very rarely is this ever sexual, if it were it would be pyrophilia, a different condition.

- hoarding

Some collect fire related materials like matches and lighters or candles due to their fascination for fire and always feeling the impulse to start one. Some may carry a lighter at all times just to watch the flame in small moments when the urge starts bothering them during the day. It's not uncommon to find a lot of candles or different lighters in there home in varieties, often a range of used, empty or new lighters. Some even keep all their lighters instead of throwing them away after they've emptied.

Unfortunately there is still a lot of research yet to be done about pyromania, it's causes and it's symptoms as it is not a very common disorder to have. Some even call it rare.

This does not mean that very little is currently known, plenty is known about the disorder so far and I intend on sharing as much as I can and making the knowledge as publicly available for free as possible, but there is quite a bit still yet to know.

I'm sure there are symptoms I missed for example.

While I have the disorder myself I am not a professional, nor in the medical field, and so there is much I myself may miss.

While I'm not an expert, I am open to answering questions and discussing as much as possible.

@clusterrune @delightfulweepingwillows @hewasanamericangirl

Can we please stop calling Republicans compulsive/pathological liars, psychopaths, sociopaths, narcicists, delusional, etc? And can we please stop calling Democrats the r slur? I don't care what they've done, cut it out

Yes, even when it's Trump.

So, I have a morbid curiosity issue but also OCD and anxiety, so sometimes, when I fall down a rabbit hole of something just a bit too creepy (especially when it comes with creepy pictures, like this schoolboy9 thing,) I find myself irrationally afraid of stupid things. Like twenty-ish minutes ago, I was afraid of seeing that schoolboy9 guy in my closet if I got up to go to the bathroom. I knew it was irrational, but I was too scared of that to get up. So here's a solution that worked for me;

Reaction content for kids under twelve.

Seriously. Azzyland, Kyutie, and Reaction Time, Azzyland and Reaction time slightly more but Kyutie does have some more adult-geared content if you'd prefer that. I just watch a couple videos and boom, I'm feeling better and I can get up and do what I need to do. I recommend it.

(Also, those merging games! I know there's a trick with Tetris, where if you see something scary you can play Tetris for a while and it helps you forget whatever than thing was, but I've never been good at Tetris. But merge gemstones games, like Candy Crush or, my favourite, Enchanted Kingdom; Eliza's Adventure, those help me take my mind off of whatever I saw. Plus they're easier.)

Needs to be said, probably controversial, but "bad" people deserve support for their mental health issues as well. "Bad" people should not be dehumanized and berated for their mental health issues. I dont care what they've done

No disorder is inherently evil.

No disorder is inherently abusive.

No disorder is inherently scary.

Stop generalizing folks with stigmatized disorders.

Genuinely I don't care about the opinions of someone who has never been a compulsive or pathological liar when it comes to anything related to compulsive and/or pathological lying. If you haven't been that person you have no clue what it feels like, why someone is doing it, or how to tell the difference between the two or any other kind of lying.

No I don't care if you're a therapist or a psych major or a psychiatrist or whatever, your opinions are only based in what you can observe from the outside and that will never be a full and accurate understanding, and when the nature of the condition itself gives you an easy pass to not believe the experiences of the person living with it, I will find any argument you could make to be suspect.

a way you can help some i/dd and cognitively disabled people is by clarifying what kind of response you want if you're not open to any kind of response

like, specifying that you want comfort or advice or solidarity or some other kind of acknowledgement, or if you want just an emoji or to change the subject, or if you want to close the conversation, like

just fucking communicate. give us feedback. tell us what you want

if you need clarification ask for it. if you need us to rephrase ask for it

we're communicating or verbalizing the only way we know how. and if you're not like this you can't even begin to scrape the fucking surface of understanding how hard it is

I see a lot of posts about how shitty it is to film disabled people in public and to make jokes when someone is having a medical emergency, and while in general I absolutely agree, there is a degree of nuance.

I have seizures, (most likely psychogenic/nonepileptic, I'm still going to be working with a neurologist to confirm my brain is intact though) and sometimes my friend @corypaws films them so that I can show my doctor. They have expressed guilt about doing this, but here's the thing: not only did I consent to this, it was my idea.

I had a seizure yesterday, and another friend, @thosegoodbois , made a joke about Caesar salad during it. They also felt guilty about this, but it was still incredibly helpful for me. On certain rare occasions, I'm fully conscious and aware for seizures. This was one of those times, so I heard everything. The people around me staying calm helped me stay calm too.

If a disabled person outright asks you to film them, you should really consider doing it. If a disabled person asks you to stay calm during a medical situation, you should at least try. Videos can be a very helpful diagnostic tool, and help make sure we are believed by doctors*. Freaking out when we have a medical problem might cause us to freak out too.

So basically I agree that in general filming disabled people and making jokes during medical emergencies is bad, but it's fine if you have consent.

Remember: disabled people are not a hive mind. At the end of the day, it should come down to what the individual wants.

*you probably shouldn't post it online though

Using disabled people to make a point is incredibly shitty btw.

Currently watching a video in driver's ed about texting and driving where they get a bunch of people who text and drive and interview them. They then bring in a disabled woman who's family's car was hit by a texting driver. The people all start crying from guilt and promise to never text while driving again.

Understand the point they were trying to make, but is always better way than this. Disability is not fate worse than death. Disabled people are not for making points. We are people.