Here it is. Just so that you're aware I'm not too sure what a Polish soldier would have as an accessory, so I put the Star of David as one until I can figure out something more fitting. Keep in mind that where there is a different language being spoken, the translation is underneath. Sorry it took so long to post this, had to do things elsewhere. Also, beware, as there are depictions of gore in case that makes anyone uncomfortable.
Tay probably just got sick again and we didn't notice, likely he's doing all of his current FuwaWork within the two hours of lucidity he has each day while fighting for his life
Confession:
Since I never went to High School I had no such thing, but I do remember we had organized a lovely dinner to celebrate the end of Middle School, which I attended in a suit and Top Hat. I remember some colleagues who had no formal clothing and attended simply wearing some pants and a shirt.
Akari route translation complete! All credit to KiritoCy for taking on one of the two Ojou-sama routes in the game.
Below lies a celebratory screenshot dedicated to those who have ever been caught with their pants down, figuratively or literally, while playing through an indecent portion of a visual novel (or any portion of an eroge):
Not sure if it's just me, but the tilde symbol in the posts all become minus symbol instead.
Still display properly in quote, signature and other place though.
~~ <<<
I've been dealing with anxiety for a long time, and early this morning I had an inexplicable drive to write about some useful tools and concepts which have helped me manage and cope. I don't really have a purpose beyond putting these concepts to paper, but if anyone finds them useful, I'll be doubly glad. (Some parts of this post were taken from an earlier post I made sometime last year) Lastly, if you experience anxiety or depression, I can't recommend enough talking to a doctor. There are quick (~4 mins), effective screenings available to help you better gauge what tools are available to help you in case you need/want them.
Cartesian Dualism vs. Neuroscience
There's this thing called "Cartesian Dualism", which is better known as the mind/body separation hypothesis, which Western cultures have believed for a long time. The short version: your mind and body are separate from each other. It leads to a lot of misunderstandings and incorrect armchair psychology, and in recent years we've learned that it just isn't true at all. The recent research has shown that the mind and body are very much connected in a single system, and they can influence one another.
There are two divisions of your autonomic nervous system (the part of your nervous system which doesn't control voluntary muscle): the sympathetic nervous system ("fight or flight"), and the parasympathetic nervous steam ("rest"). When the body is stressed (whether that be an impending exam, or a tiger chasing you), your sympathetic nervous system overpowers the parasympathetic, and you go into "fight or flight" mode. Your parasympathetic nervous system is what kicks in when you’re relaxing, or just finished a meal, or giggling on the couch as you read Fate/tay Night. It shunts blood to the gut and body core, dramatically lowers the levels of stress hormones/chemicals in circulation, and it makes you feel at rest. Think of these two systems as a teeter-totter: if one is engaged, the other is dampened.
Anxiety and the Sympathetic Nervous System
Have you ever been totally stressed out and somebody tells you, “Just calm down!”? I'm pretty sure it's never, ever worked. Why? Well, largely because you've got a sympathetic overload going on: you've activated responses which are near-identical to what you'd feel being chased by a tiger. That's one of the ways we understand anxiety today: a big sympathetic response.
Why Cartesian Dualism can go to hell
When you've got a sympathetic overload going on -- aka, you're feeling extremely anxious -- it's extremely difficult to mentally will your way out of it. There's a reason for that: your brain has labeled your exam, or your job, or [enter your stressor] as a metaphorical "tiger", and just like if a tiger was actually chasing you, you better believe your brain's more interested in you being freaked out and highly anxious so you'll escape the tiger and survive, than it is about your emotional well-being. That's why Cartesian Dualism sucks: it says that since the anxiety is mental, you need to deal with it with mental willpower/fortitude.
Here are the two good pieces of news:
Your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems work like a teeter-totter: if one is engaged, the other is dampened
You can use your body to activate either one (and in so doing, dampen the other)
If you start to breathe fast and clench your fists or exercise, your body's reaction will be to activate your sympathetic NS. But, useful to us, you can also do the opposite: even when your brain is super anxious, you can use your body to activate that parasympathetic NS and force the whole system -- mind and body -- to calm down.
Stuff that has helped me build "Parasympathetic Tone" (also known as "Vagal Tone")
The more you consciously use your parasympathetic NS to overcome sympathetic (anxious) responses, the better you'll get at it. That's sometimes called "parasympathetic" or "Vagus" tone -- it's a play on words referring to how your muscle tone (strength) gets bigger and stronger with practice. Here are a few resources which have helped me:
The most effective thing I've been using lately are these free, guided meditation exercises from UCLA (link). The 5 minute one is my favorite (it's quick and really good). The 20-minute complete meditation is pretty strong potion, so to speak, and I'll use it if things get really bad
Herbert Bensen M.D. and many teams in universities across the US and UK have studied/been studying meditation and they've been able to distill the reproducible core of transcendental meditation. If you'd like to try "real meditation" without any of the spiritual or doctrinal overtones from gurus or religions, I'll post the results down below (it's actually pretty wild that thousands of years of meditation practice can be analyzed and reproduced on a single piece of paper)
There's a really common stress reversal technique I'll post below. It's not my favorite, but a lot of the people and patients I work with swear by it
UCLA Meditations: Link
"The Relaxation Response" (reproducible, distilled practices of meditation)
Stress Reversal Technique
(all of this is stuff I've been learning in med school, but it's definitely not medical advice! There are lots of resources out there if you're dealing with anxiety. Don't let asinine cultural shaming stop you from talking to a doctor and learning more about yourself)
Mr Poltroon reacted to Stick1314 in Show off your Writing!
Mr Poltroon got a reaction from Zenophilious in Fuwanovel Confessions
Mr Poltroon got a reaction from Fiddle in Guess Who kind of game
Mr Poltroon got a reaction from DarkSin in Violet Hill (DEMO released)