Resources for Ace Survivors is starting a new series, and we’re asking for submissions from you, the wider RFAS community (as well as anyone else who would like to submit). The theme of the series is Intersectional Ace Survivor Stories. The RFAS writing team decided on this theme, because we [...]
I was introduced to the concept of hermeneutical injustice a couple days ago and it’s been blowing my mind. I’ve been struggling for a while to reconcile consent and asexuality, specifically in the context where asexuality isn’t known. If asexuality isn’t an option, how can someone’s consent be truly free?
This is the story of the most difficult thing I've ever done.
I had no other way to frame my experiences but to think that it was all caused by the trauma - I even feared I might be traumatised before I remembered anything, simply because I didn’t know my aro-aceness could have been “caused” by anything else.
The thing that is always going to kill me about what happened to me is that I did everything “right.”
Every Friday we will pose a question for you all to discuss or privately consider. You can engage with it publicly here on the RFAS blog, or you can join our forum (details below) for a more private discussion. You can write it down to think about later, journal about it, or bring it in to a therapy session with you.
Every Friday we will pose a question for you all to discuss or privately consider. You can engage with it publicly here on the RFAS blog, or you can join our forum (details below) for a more private discussion. You can write it down to think about later, journal about it, or bring it in to a therapy session with you.
Today is April Fool's Day, where people try to trick each other into falling for jokes. Sometimes, these jokes are fairly harmless and can be pretty funny. Other times, pranks can be very mean and damage our trust in the people around us—sometimes our identities might even be treated as if they are a joke. Some people feel that, particularly in the case of parents pranking children, that such pranks will almost always harm the sense of safety and trust that kids should have towards their parents. Even when it's supposed to be light-hearted fun, the implementation of the joke can do some serious harm: today, Google's April Fool's prank backfired horribly and even caused some people to lose their jobs. As survivors, we've all had to deal with betrayal, and for many of us, that leaves us with a sense of feeling foolish or "dumb"* and judging ourselves for having fallen for it. Thus, times when we are faced with pranks may end up bringing up these aspects of trauma and making it hard to get through the day. How do you feel about being fooled?
It is normal to worry about how something might go – a test, meeting someone new, trying a new food, anything. But it is important to not build up a lot of anxiety and stress over all of the potential horrible ways it could go wrong. Here’s a little “imaginary reality” activity that might help give you some perspective.
How do you deal with burnout? - Do you personally have a way that works best for you? Have you tried anything that hasn't worked out well for you? - Do you think that the way that you typically handle burnout is healthy, or do you feel that you tend to resort to unhealthy coping methods? - Does burnout, for you, feel triggering in some way? If so, is it an overt (or obvious) trigger, or a covert trigger (one that you do not or had not realized is a trigger)? - Are there triggers that come up for you when you're feeling burned out that aren't directly related, but are heavily influenced by being burned out in some way? - What is it that you think makes the ace community more prone to experiencing burnout?
