Whether this could count as mental health or not, I wanted your view on this topic out of curiosity. You and Kabs have made a living through the making of adult-oriented content a lot of people would frown down upon for its subject matter. Have you ever faced scrutiny regarding the nature of the content you producing even though you enjoy making it? If someone wanted to try their hand in making such artwork out of interest or curiosity, what do you think is the best mindset to approach it so you don't feel shame about doing it?

I've never encountered a real person that has recoiled in a negative or shameful way towards our business. To the contrary, it garners a lot of intrigue and respect. How often do you meet successful internet entrepreneurs? Seeing someone who is highly secure with their sexuality across their work, family and relationship is a level of vulnerability that people enjoy, it lets them talk about things they never get to speak of with other people. There is great value there.

The only people I have noticed who hate/shame our work are losers on Twitter/Kiwifarms. However with them it seems to have more to do with the clout we have and resentment then what we are making. In that instance, that is simply popularity. Success always has it's detractors, no matter how virtuous that person may try to act in the public eye.

Find your passion. If it happens to be adult-orientated, do it better than 90% of your competition. If you can achieve that, respect will come naturally.

That’s very kind of you, I hope this works out in the end :)

Are you a trained professional in any field related to mental health? Not trying to bring you down, but giving advice on mental health without proper education or knowing the case/patient is pretty risky and can backfire.

That is a risk the user asking the question will need to be willing to make. I can make no guarantees of life changing advice, or made any correlation with being a professional. I do not make my living selling the promises of positive mental health, however having positive mental health has greatly benefited my own business, relationship and lifestyle.

Alltogether I have consumed roughly 5,000 hours of self-help related material. 10,000 hours makes you a master, but my confidence level is high enough that I believe I can give educated advice for the bubble of influence I occupy. Take that as you will!

"I have consumed roughly 5,000 hours of self-help related material."

If anything that makes you less qualified to talk about mental health issues.

I made no comparisons to someone else. You are welcome to take their advice instead if you had someone in mind!

If you have a professional that works for you, keep it up!

Yes after my 5000 hours of chess practice, I’ve finally become worse than a toddler!

Most people who put in that many hours of Chess without actual professional training tend to be as shit as Jasonafex is for mental health. The guy is into fucking dogs so... some screws loose, no?

It was only a joke. I have no opinion on the matter.

Concerning chess, practice is practice, and you’ll get better regardless. Sure you won’t be as good as someone who spent that time properly training, but I wouldn’t say you’d still be “shit.”

That being said, chess and mental health have nothing to do with one another, hence the joke.

Lol ah gotcha. But even on chess, I have a little experience from that. Unless you are actually reading certified training material you kinda just flounder and keep forming and cementing bad habits. That's why instructors are so valuable to put what you are reading into perspective.

How come it still itches no matter how much I wipe?

Have you tried wiping with the grain and not against it?

Do you think anyone can become a fantastic, professional artist or do you believe one must be born with natural drawing talent to get better?

This touches on the nuture vs nature debate. As a society, we fall into what is known as the pareto principle. The top 20% of any skill will create 80% of the content for a community. 20% of that community will be responsible for 80% of the commissions. 20% will be responsible for 80% of the profits etc. This is a rule that seems to apply universally.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to say only a small amount of people are truly passionate in regards to the prospect of becoming a professional artist, that is an attitude that will get them in that top 20%. It certainly does not come naturally as to reach that end of the bell curve requires tremendous sacrifice. Most give up or simply don't put in the effort to break that glass ceiling.

It's not possible to be the best at everything, but you can master something if you dedicate yourself to it.

I'm in a relationship with the girl of my dreams, she's perfect in everyway. But I'm having trouble trusting her, idk why she's never lied to me. I just except her to do something she's not capable of.
It's not all the time, something stupid will just come up out of nowhere and eat away at me. there's always a reasonable answer tho, it's like I'm blind to it when it comes up.

I wouldn't even call my own wife perfect, let alone myself. Real humans are flawed creatures. If you are painting a picture of your relationship partner as a perfect being, or they are advertising themselves to you as perfect, that likely means the relationship is still at a surface level (Lacking vulnerability and confrontation), or hasn't truly manifested. Trust and commitment are one and the same. If you cannot commit to someone that is perfect for you, there are holes in that narrative.

You don't have to, I'm One Sick, Perverted & Insane Wuskie"

I presume this is coming from a perspective of not having a passion, or struggling to find your passion.

Pursuing your goals should be the primary driving force of joy and satisfaction. If it isn't, it may be worthwhile to cut out unhealthy sources of dopamine such as social media and finding ones independence in order to facilitate a need for passion. It can be difficult to strive for passion when coasting.

Being adrift, without aim, like a leaf blowing lazily in the wind.

It works for a while but there is no sense of control in that lifestyle. A gentle breeze can blow someone in a direction they may not like. It works while a parent is still dictating your future but not as an adult. It's best to take on responsibility early so that your steering in the direction you want.

I sometimes myself whenever people have geniunely wanted to help me lash out to hurt them first so they dont hurt me. Alot of it has to do with alot of the emotional bullying and psychological too i dealt with from elementary school to highschool. It started when some people tried to act like they were helping me which made me open up enough to trust them then have said person or persons use my vunerability against me to torture me more. Ive gotten way better at noticing real geniune effrots of help but sometimes i still lash out because deep in my mind is a voice that tells me that their help isnt geniune its fake they only want me to lower my walls to invade and pillage.

Any general advice on how to stop this kind of insanity in my head?

It sounds as though you are using a negative experience in your past to justify toxic behavior in the present. If you are aware you are acting in a way that does not benefit you or those around you, why pursue it? Consider a day in which you forgive past transgressions, both perpetuated by yourself and others so that you can have a more productive day. That switch in perspective can make you more likeable.

Try to place yourself in the shoes of your bullies and consider what you may have been doing to garner their negativity. Could you perhaps improve your confidence or social skills? Often bullying occurs to those at the bottom of a pecking order. It shouldn't be something to take personally, especially for several years.

Come on bro victim blamin? Its one thing to ask me to forgive them and thats a actual valid option.

But im not going to consider the possibility that their negativity towards me was in anyways justifiable or that it was only my fault.

God damn dude i love your art but you gave half assed advice.

If you cannot take on the perspective of another person (especially during a traumatic event), it is very difficult to grow from the experience in a healthy way. To understand yourself, it is beneficial to consider why someone else may not like you.

'Victim Blaming' is term popularized by platforms like Twitter. The true term is a victim complex, someone who's ego is attached to the attention garnered from pity.

If you feel that your current logic leans into 'insanity' as you've stated, you need to consider changing perspective. If you feel no better by forgiving your past, then you can default back to holding onto resentment.

Truly ask yourself if your current attitude is the solution, or perpetuating the problem.

I know this isn't my advice journal, but let me hop in here right quick and try and decipher what I think Jason is trying to say.

Let me start off by saying my elementary and highschool times were more than a little not fun. I'll get into a bit about my 1st grade later where relevant, as a heads up. Held on to resentment and Trauma are terrible things. They make you do things to the people you care for that you don't intend. I know this because I've lived it myself. I used to hold in my anger, my resentment, my cynical suspicions. Most of it, stemmed from my early Elementary School Years. I used to get bullied by the other kids and the teachers, not just bullied but down right hated. Catch a fly ball during kickball = pushed over and get my face smashed in the concrete. Go to the return to class line early so I'm one of he first = beat until I move to the back of the line. Stay out of the way by myself so I'm not beat = get sent to the corner for something another kid blamed on me. I came home with a new bruise or a bloody nose every day. I hated everyone, not just from the school, but the small town surrounding it, and I held that resentment for the better part of two decades.

I'm sure you're asking at this point, "why I'm telling you this?" (<-- that was the best transition I could come up with between sections...) It's not the trauma that's important to what Jason is trying to say, but how I dealt with the anger and resentment that is. Years later, I was in a history class in college and the teacher I had at the time liked to challenge our expectations and long held views, I swear he wanted to be a psychology teacher instead. It was one of those classes that I decided to challenge the views I held about my own past. I went through every thing, asking those who lived around me at the time various questions to make sure that, not only did I have my memory right, but I had all the context for the situations I found myself in.

It was hard on me to say the least. Going through the trauma in your past and trying to look at everything in an as objective way as possible is not easy. Those kids in 1st grade who beat me? Called me a "bad kid?" Refused to even talk to me because I was a "bad kid?" Even the teachers who treated me different and blamed me for things I didn't do? There was an underlying reason for it. My Last Name. Sounds stupid, but I lived in a small town where everyone knew everyone else and my last name held a lot of negativity with it. My Dad's whole side of the family, and himself as well, gave them every reason to be suspicious of everyone with my last name. My Aunt on that side of the family moved out of her trailer and it was so nasty, tobacco spit coating the ground and other filthy stuff, that the town condemned it and burnt it to the ground. Half of that side of the family are drug addicts, and there's even a couple pedophiles. There was a lot of reason to hate me by proxy. And frankly, I don't blame them. Knowing that, helped me let go of that anger, that resentment, AND put into context the actions I started doing that made my own life harder. I was able to talk more openly without secretly feeling like I was about to get hit. I was able to become more assertive with my own beliefs and views without acting timid or getting pissed off when no one seemed to care that I had things I wanted to say, but didn't make a move to present. There were a lot of toxic behaviors that stemmed from that event, and others, that I only noticed I was doing after I'd gone over the event while trying to separate out my emotional connection to it.

I think what Jason is trying to get at as this. Setting aside your emotional attachment to traumatic events and trying to see things from your own view AND the view of those who hurt you can help you understand two things. How the events came about in the first place allowing you to avoid that happening again. And, how those events effected you and what actions and behaviors they resulted in that are negatively effecting your life now. It's hard, like breaking an arm again hard to reset it properly kind of hard. You have to make sure you're in a strong enough emotional state to handle dredging up those buried feelings, but it's worth it. There's a few questions you can ask. Are there any external factors contributing to these events. Are these people that did these things motivated by things I did regardless of whether it's fair or not? (Yes, I asked myself this very question. And there were several things I did that made the situation worse.) If the answer to the previous two questions are no, what warning signs did they give off before hand that could have tipped me off to the negative event? There are more questions you can ask, but these three are the ones I found the most helpful. The idea isn't to beat yourself up about it or blame yourself, but get a different perspective on the event and help yourself move forward from it.

For instance, looking over my past helped me in a job a couple years after that. I worked retail as a major corporations and was paired with a lady I thought was rather nice to me. I started noticing after just the first couple days that everyone but her seemed to hate me more and more without ever talking to me. I saw the similarities with my past events and was able to deduce accurately that she was talking shit behind my back while being pleasant to my face. And I was able to handle it in a more healthy way because I had that "stepped back" view of that traumatic event. Basically, I was put under a manager who was known for riding people until they quit. He was also well liked in the store. I proved she was wrong to talk shit behind my back by out performing that manager's expectations by the widest margin I could and changing his opinion of me. It filtered out to the rest of the store and everyone realized what kind of shit she was lying about. And I don't hate her for it. It was an opportunity I was given to put what I learned into practice, I'm almost thankful in a way. Also makes for a good story.

To close this out. Going over traumatic events again isn't about blaming the victim, but allowing he victim to relive the experience with a more mature, emotionally healthy way, allowing them to move past it with a positive mindset. There's always a silver lining, and this is a way to wring the silver lining out of even the nastiest of situations. And by silver lining I mean, personal experience, positive emotional states, and better behaviors resulting in more positive social relationships.

P.S. This is anecdotal advice as best. Take what you think you can use from this and come up with a more personalized plan of attack. Everyone is different so the same thing won't work for everyone. Seek professional help if you need it.

I agree that it's best not to perceive reflecting on a traumatic event as a personal attack. Think of it more as a phobia, those memories are locked away and have never been properly processed. This is causing all sorts of problems that can effect other aspects of life, such as the way we may create defensive barriers when interacting with others, or falling into a cycle of worry, as we haven't equipped ourselves with the solutions to difficult problems.

For a less personal example, consider a person who is afraid of entering an elevator due to childhood trauma. It is not healthy for them to let event perpertuate irrational fear and worry for the rest of their life, especially if it haunts their dreams and frequently gets brought up in conversation as a justification for unhealthy habits and behaviors. A good supportive group or therapist will slowly re-introduce elevators in images/speech/roleplay until the person can stand a few meters away from the elevator for a few seconds, a dragon they may be comfortable to slay. That bravery slowly ramps up over time until they can stand on the elevator without having anxiety.

It's illogical to resent the elevator, much like it's of no benefit to resent someone who is likely a different person or has entirely moved on from the event themselves, especially if their egos were not attached to the trauma. Bullying is a part of growing up and there is merit to overcoming adversity. The only person in control of your emotional state today is you, not the past.

Do you sometimes feel down or lose self-confidence even if you are doing the thing that you enjoy doing it.

I sometimes get caught up in that situation, like, I'm enjoying the things that I'm doing and I'm really happy of where it's going but sometimes I will feel down or just feel like garbage asking myself the same question "why am I even doing this? what's the point? why should I even try?" now granted I know that this is all in my head, but I am curious to know do you and Kabs sometimes ever feel like that?

The emotion you are describing is insecurity/doubt. You are unsure at a given moment if your career choice or motivations are congruent with your other commitments.

Self-evaluating after hitting certain goal milestones is not a bad thing. If you are uncertain if what you are doing is a good or bad thing, that may mean you are not setting a significant enough of a challenge to really feel that sense of constant progression upward. Consider what is your current status quo and how you could really improve if you put the effort in. The measure of your success will constantly change over time. If your life improves as a result of your efforts, your heading in the right direction. If it gets worse, it may be time to consider pruning that hobby back and trying something else.

I'd like to piggyback on that question, hopefully not derailing it too much.

How do you even construct that if you find that the self-worth/self-confidence that you're building is only a measurement of external actions? To bring the question down to earth, you feel worthy/confident because you can do something right, maybe even something that brings joy to others. But then, are you just the result of your actions? What is there to you? Sure, there might be things that you enjoy but enjoyment is temporary and what's the real "you" that is worth cultivating? What is the goal we're pursuing?

PS: Thank you for doing this. :)

What is worthwhile about you does require some grounding in regards to a social environment and feedback from your success or failures perusing goals. If we internalize absolutely everything, the outside world holds no relevance in our lives. All personal responsibility really is, is the -ability- to -respond- to whats going on around you, being present in the moment and reacting appropriately. What is good for you, is also good for your family, as for your community.

Selfish goals are not bad, often you need to focus on yourself to be a better person overall. In the long-run your life should involve more good deeds than bad to truly feel at peace.

I understand the words, I clearly need to do some more work so that they resonate with me.

Thank you again for this. I hope you’re having a great day. :)

What advice could you offer me? I've seen the sheer acid flying around the internet, and it make a very depressing scene for me to see how much everyone is divided among each other.

Almost making me give up hope on anything returning to normal. Physically I feel pretty stable, but Im pretty sure there is an unstable spark within my psyche just waiting to be unleashed. I'm actually afraid about that.

If the majority of what you see on the internet is negative, that will heavily impact your mood. I would suggest toning down the usage of any platforms you associate with toxicity. Try to find outlets (Books, Friends, Family etc) that support your healthy growth.

If you do not trust your own judgement, give yourself opportunities to take responsibility, aim to do one good deed a day. If you succeed to a moderate degree, that perspective of yourself may shift to something more secure with time.

Is this American healthcare?

With regards to the current socio-political and economic situation it's gotten alot of people (myself kinda included) has got alot of people isolated and jobless.

Any advice for people stuck and fucked due to Covid and everything else happening in this clusterfuck of a year?

Turn lemons into lemonade. Downtime away from work is an opportunity to learn a new skill, talk to new people and experiment with new hobbies.

A blank canvas can be turned into anything, the choice is yours.

Not really a question here, more or less I just wanted to tell you that I still support both you & Kabs regardless of whatever toxicity you both went through in the fandom for clearly Past reasons that shouldn’t be a current issue. I’ll still be by here as a good supporter and wishing you both the best and hopefully someday for good fortune to smile upon you both

How Would You Describe A Mental Health Issue Where,
You Feel Like You Have 2 Souls Living In One Body Fighting Each Other?

My Mind Is A Never Ending Thinking Machine That Can Give Me Headaches!!!
It's Like A War In My Brain, I'll Be Thinking Of Games Then The Next Thing It's Squirrels:P

It's Hard To Explain Let's Just Say I Use A Place Holder As OCD Since I Don't Have A Name For It?
I Have Massively Dark Humor Which Can Effect My Ways Of Thinking Clearly Like My Mind Is Foggy!

If You Know Of A Game Called Shadow Warrior That's Basically My Humor...
Anyway A Lot Of People Say I Don't Feel Empathy & My Memory Is Shot:P

Because Of What Goes On In My Head I'd Probably Forget What I Type Here Later!!!
The Reason Is My Brain Will Only Store Information That It Thinks Is Important:(

Increasing your mental health and well being is easy and can be accomplished in one easy step:

1. Stay off of social media.

You successfully eliminated any possible need for this journal! Rock on!

Yay!

Ain't that the truth. I'm sure happy without it.

Even just glancing through it ever once in a while (about once every other week) is enough to drive me insane. I don't know how people can stand being on it every day for hours on end.

As someone that works in the medical field, mental help advice should really be done by licensed professionals, regardless of your own accumulated experiences. If someone is misguided or is harmed by advice, a punishment for a professional licensed individual is losing their license. You can't be punished, or not so easily punished.

If you were going to do something like this, I would just rephrase this along the lines as sharing your own advice on those that are troubled or bothered about things. Which can go a lot further than you'd think.

The title already uses the term 'advice'. If your getting tripped over 'mental health' that surmounts to semantics I care little for.

Not everyone has access to a licensed professional, or have the courage to face their problems head on. Before a professional comes a concerned friend, a supportive family member or a few words of wisdom that lead an individual into the solution that works for them.

I have many friends and family who did not get the help they needed from their local therapists or psychologists. Certain drugs are over emphasized and over-prescribed to harmful degree. This does not discredit professional help as a solution, but to imply it is the only solution is detrimental to the experiences of many individuals where such methods did not work for them.

Any and all action taken comes with it's caveats of risks. There is no miracle drug or set of rules that will work for everyone. Nobody needs to adhere to my advice if they are skeptical, they are welcome to try the solutions they believe best work for them. If professional help is already leading to the results they want, more power to them. If it isn't, this may be what they need.

I'm not saying you shouldn't offer help as there is nothing wrong with giving advice, far from it, I am saying please be careful how you phrase things, make it clear that it is personal advice. Troubled people need the best possible help they can get, but my concern is it comes with an air of uncertainty, in the journal post it says nothing of personal advice even though it clearly is; some it must be spelt out to them. People are really, really, really fucking stupid in the trusting of random people on the internet. Especially college kids, willing to believe anything that sounds good.

You have a plethora of experience dealing with toxic, problematic people on social media that can surely aid others! Just... Please be careful how you guide others and know your knowledge limits in guidance. Like, if you notice a problem with drugs, the only advice you should give is talk to your doctor. Please, absolutely do not give others drug advice by any means, I cannot stress this enough.

If certain people use my advice in exceptionally stupid, irrational ways; Likelihood is that person may need to experience more failure in order to smarten up.

It's the responsibility of the individual to take self-improvement seriously. Any fool can waist an opportunity.

... that's the point Navos is making: Soliciting people to come to you for advice is not good when you have nothing professional in that field under your belt BECAUSE you have no way at all to determine if/when someone may use your advice "in an exceptionally stupid, irrational way..." and having the attitude of "[they] may need to experience more failure in order to smarten up" is exceptionally stupid and irrational in itself.

and sorry, 5,000 hours of Jordan Peterson videos does not make one an expert.

Hell, just a generic "I'm not an expert, just wanna be an open ear to people's woes" disclaimer would solve all that

Lol there are far more books in the field of self-help than just Jordan Peterson. Nobody should be getting their life advice from just Youtube. It's a good entry point sure, but many lectures are merely snippets and don't provide full context. I think his work is great but so are many other authors and speakers.

If you think that's all I read then you are woefully misinformed. Stupid people are welcome to continue taking advice from social media.

*facepalms*

I'll be honest, i might need some but im sure these advices will be useless since its not about me directly...
To let u know what happens, here, in France, im gonna try to make it short.
And i wanna apologize before bringing these bad vibes.
First we are reconfined here for another month.
I had an Halloween party and because of it my family canceled their presence for the dinner, so im sad because i feel like i needed it because it is obnoxious here since the first month of confinement for multiple reasons.
Attentat, over attentat, over attentat, over attentat.... We only had that here. We always had similar modus operandi (knife attacks) before for years, but this year it exploded like no one can imagine. We had a bloody summer with agression cases, barbaric murders, and it didnt stop here. Last week we had one who decapitated a teacher for no reasons except him doing his job of teacher, and exceptionally all teachers had to do a week talking about free speech with the use of caricatures, here caricatures of Charlie's hebdo made years ago which lead them to be be atacked... I dont go into the details of that affair but its just showing how much parasited education had been.
And now, 2 days ago another one in a church right in the middel of the touristic area in Nice, 3 deathes (2 decapited), and in the same time attacks against policemen in other towns...
All this, lead to one thing that nobody talking about than it has his importance : islamists officialy declared war to France.
And while im writting this, there is french ambassadors who are getting attacked in other countries and we'll have to face new attentats for sure....
I dunno what to do and im scared that my mind blows up definitely and finish with violence excesses or ending in a psychiatric hospital

You seem to be worrying about threats and hysteria from your local news. I would consider the following 4 questions:

• What are you worrying about?
• What can you do about it?
• What -are- you going to do about it?
• When will you do it?

While some of those events may be frightening, is it worth stressing every day about them? Do your days change for the better by worrying about events out of your control? Allocate time to vote on the subjects that interest you, then move on. Place the weight of the responsibility of safety on your local government and law enforcement. There is no value in worry for it's own sake.

Im worrying to see my country exploding everywhere and because of the ones who are ruling us and make us pay it everyday, and that because of that that my family finished to be killed by this ( it was close to happen once at nice already for my dad and stepmother)
I could do something but that would put me into jail or killed by cops.
Nothing unfortunately....
And i dunno...
And isnt some of those events are frightening, its everyday non-stop, every hours. (and like i said se will face other attentats in the next few days, yesterday, when i wrote u that message another priest get shot behind his church with a hunt rifle), so between that and talking about covid and now we going back to "état d'urgence" to fight against terrorism. The same thing who did nothing years ago except ruining everybody freedoms but islamists...
I would to not stress about it we putting it in my face non stop when i light on TV and watching news on YouTube.
And my days changing for the worst and not only for me, like i said i get a party Halloween canceled by my family because of confinement announcement and from what i see it will goes to Christmas as well

If the worry of your country is extreme enough that your losing sleep, it may be time to consider a vacation or time away from your usual routine.

If you lack the safety net in terms of finances to do so, that is an indication you may need to be more present in the moment and focus on what directly impacts your day to day activity. There is little to gain from worrying about political issues and mass hysteria unless you can do something about it.

I understand what u saying there and its good advices honnestly.
And we cant take vacations even if i wanted because we are confined again unfortunately.
But its pretty rare situation to see everyday that all will lead to the ruin of ur own country and that its wanted in a way.
I just would that this cercle of violence and paranoïa end definitely but not stupid enough to just give flowers to people who declared me as their ennemis and cant really blame people too scared to go outside to be sheeps who stopped rationaly to think.
Thank u anyway for ur answers, mostly because it wasn't simple for both of us and even less with the subject i dragged here.
(i know and had already troubles with other members and even administrators before because of it as u did before and for way more less than i said)

Anna:

I just lost my regular non-art job (had homeoffice half of the pandemy), live in a freshly red-zoned country pandemy-wise, are in a high risk group of death or will likely at least need a respirator if I catch the coronavirus (even a common cold ends with respiratory problems to me and the cold itself lasts for 7-10 days, I need to use steamy inhalators). We have a fresh mortgage and my partner(the other user behind this account) works for a hospital (paperwork and contact with patients) where covid happens as of late (his coworker caught the corona). Also, if I died, he won't have any rights to 50% of our place... and it's also not the time to get married either...

I feel strongly insecure in both fields (health and finances), and I don't know what more can I do to maybe get some art commission slots claimed (since art is currently my only option to make some "pocket money" that would help a ton), I even opened up to one of the topics I feel incomfortable drawing for other people's characters (which is 2-character porn, always accepted only 1-character and reserved 2-char to ours only) and still no commission inquiries of any kind, while I also offer all sorts of species, including human and my prices translate to like 5USD/h and even less for shaded works. I don't do well at socialising, never did. I'm also so much doubtful about my art as of late and don't know what direction to take anymore...
I'm feeling lost and helpless... Don't know what to do to get any orders at this point.

While is it useful to prepare, it's not healthy to dwell on the prospect of death on a daily basis. Similar to the response I gave above, break down your worries into the four questions I provided. You already seem to have a great plan to take some commissions to pick up the slack for your mortgage. Allocate yourself a schedule and only worry about a task when the day comes. There is no benefit to anticipation anxiety, often it is worse then the act itself. Something that hasn't happened yet shouldn't get priority over what you could do now to make your days better.

Outcomes of good health and prosperity compete for attention with misery and despair. It is healthier to hope for the former, having already prepared for the worst.

Not sure if you're still doing this but I'll just throw it out there for anyone.

I don't have the money to be properly diagnosed. And my family/peers insist there's nothing wrong with me and im just being a "lazy bump on a log".
But I have nearly bi-weekly days where I just don't have mental or physical strength to get out of bed. Like I'll so little motivation for the day that I'll litterally stay in bed for 17+ hours. Don't even get hungry or need to use the restroom.
Is this something I should more concerned about?

Also if you feel like a 2 parter, I've developed a "fear of success". Every time I feel like things are going "to well" I get anxious because I start stressing something's about to go terribly wrong everything ANYTHING in my goes right.

Duuude, I feel the exact same way somedays, I'm hoping Someone gives you some advice about that.

I would recommend starting a gratitude journal. Write 3 things at the end of your day laying in bed that you appreciate in your life. If you can't think of anything about yourself, consider your family that helps enable that lifestyle. Try not to repeat the same things every day, stretch yourself!

If your struggling to be motivated then that may be because your current environment does not inspire you to act. When you think of an inspiring environment, what does it look like in your imagination? Is it clean? Is the task of starting your ideal hobby easy to access in that environment? If you can't be bothered today, do a couple of things the previous night so you can at least start the next day with a motivated morning.

For the last part, it sounds like a fear of commitment more than success. Success is merely the bi-product of focusing on one thing more that others. Laying in bed is quite the easy task, you don't have to do anything, however you don't gain anything for your time investment either.

The thing with laying in bed is it's finite, it's not something you'll be able to do forever. It's up to you how much of your free time is valuable.

Solid enough advice. Big problem is definitely environment. I live out in the middle bum-frick nowhere Texas. I'll definitely try that trick of starting something at night. I know whenever I have a commish in the works I tend to get up earlier and faster to jump on that asap.

Not sure about the commitment one though. I don't really stress about having to commit to anything. It's more like, anytime I get the feeling things are going to well (more comm requests, car went a solid month without something breaking, actually accumulated some pending cash, beat a video game, etc,) I get the sense of "Things are to positive right now, something bad is revving up to happen."

Worrying that your future is littered with landmines that lead to failure is a form of anticipation anxiety. You may be feeling that undue suffering is the status quo and that success is outside of the comfort zone.

Try to forgive yourself for your mistakes and instead, make the modest aim of making today 1% better than yesterday. Keep it up for a few months and your confidence levels may climb with your competence.

You my have hit a nail there. Thing is though, my life is a comedy of failures.
- I've blown thousands of dollars on useless shit
- I can't find a job or hold onto one for more then a few months
- I went to a trade school (welding) instead of a real college and failed to find work for said trade.
- I developed a successful community on YouTube and even worked with game developers, but failed for keep communications or the channel alive.
- my romantic relationship is becoming very 1 sided.
- I'm basically mooching off my mom who's pushing her upper 60s

tl;dr if you looked up "Utter Disappointment and Failed Expectations" you'd just find my picture. So it hard to not "look in the mirror" and not feel complete disdain and anger. Let a lone forgiveness.

How would you deal with acquaintances who always seem depressed but won't seek professional help or take the smallest steps towards self help?

You can take a horse to water but you can't make them drink. If someone does not appreciate your efforts, improve yourself instead. If it becomes difficult to keep them in your life if your moving too far ahead then you'll make better friends along the way. Perhaps down the line they will be in a more positive mindset to listen to your advice seeing your growth.

Shit! i thought this was a journal about you going and publicly speaking not helping people in the comments nooo..! aww man. well, maybe next time I guess.

You're the last person that should be giving mental health advice...

Why exactly he shouldn't then?

You are welcome to keep using what works for you! Nobody is obligated to adhere to my advice, it is their choice as individuals.

If that upsets you then that's a personal problem you'll need to come to terms with.

My biggest piece of advice, and this is coming from someone currently in active military service, is meditation. Not kidding, it's helped me get a grip of my mind more than any other single thing I've tried. Get good at meditating, get it into a habit, and it will help you a lot, no matter what your obstacle may be.

Meditation is fantastic! I'm very happy to hear that it is a practice that is working for you. Very good for those who may have trouble taming their anxiety or volatile emotional state. It's a good way to break away from a routine that is causing stress and return to a more calm, present state of mind.

There are some good books on the subject of Zen and Buddhism that explain meditation in great detail. I would combine it with a schedule so that the day is without much worry of the past or future.

Hey, so my dad is abandoning me. do you have any advice?
~PokeWyo

Watching you get more and more into yourself is a trip.

If FA had a laugh-react feature I'd probably laugh-react this post. Mental health advice on FA from someone claiming 5k hours of self-help studies in psychology or what have you is inane, and ultimately this isn't mental health advice but an AMA vent-and-respond at best.

Here's the best advice: seek a licensed professional and don't listen to furry artists on a (mostly) porn site.

1-800-662-HELP (4357) SAMHSA US Department of Health & Human Services
1-800-273-8255 US National Suicide Hotline

Both are 24/7, 365-days a year active lines and you don't need to be a US national to use them. You don't need to be suicidal to use them, if you just want a person to talk to, that's your best bet.

Don't want to talk on the phone? Text "TalkWithUs" to 66746 for SAMHSA's SMS line.

 Jasonafex probably has good intentions but if you need someone to talk to, those are the right contacts if not friends or family.

So how long before you hide this behind a paywall?