Links

Relationships and wellbeing

• The short instructional manifesto for relationship anarchy talks about how every relationship is unique and that norms should make relationships. It's a critique of the norms that guide relationships, put priority of some relationships over others. It values creating the commitments with the other person, instead of assuming them based on norms and arbitrary categories. Likewise, it's about defining love together instead of having it defined for us.

• Navigating Crisis is a short text to help you help other people around you when they are in crisis. I think it lacks emphasis on how to not panic, but it's good nonetheless. It's also based on a critique of the traditional "biomedical" view of psychology and psychiatry. It's about creating real reliance and autonomy, as well as strong relationships. However, I think something else is lacking, is the fact that if a person doesn't want your help, then don't try to give it, you can stay available but mind your own boundaries and limits and don't force anything on anyone, otherwise it will only make things worse.

• Mapping Our Madness is a beautiful zine/workbook used to help ourselves and other by creating a kind of "emergency resource" about how to help others and yourself for situations where you're not able to think and express yourself properly. It's basically a tool to better communicate your feelings and needs to yourself and other. That way, you (and/or the people around you) know exactly what to do when you feel bad. Like "Navigating Crisis" it's also a text from "The Icarus Project" that also critiques the biomedical model and place importance on mutual aid, autonomy and abolition of authority. This thing is especially good to do with someone else.

• Crisis Care Plan (warning Google Drive PDF), is a text kinda like mapping our madness but much shorter (and less beautiful in my opinion) however it's very concise and clear.

• Adventures with Anxiety is a game by Nicky Case that talks about the relationship we have with anxiety. I think it's a really beautiful game that made me cry and that I sometimes play again when I feel down. I won't spoil you, so play it yourself to discover more (other games from NCase are really cool too, go check them out)

• Mental Health Tips feat Anxiety Wolf is a list of mental health tips that goes alongside with the game I talked about just before. I really like the tip about journaling in particular. I once journaled in a kind of blog format (but also without it) and I really liked it, it made me feel like I was speaking to "someone" that would always listen and never judge me. It initially was a way for me to not feel lonely during the lockdown. I think it's also a great way to better understand our emotions and needs and thus better express them to other and improve our relationships. Something that can also be pretty fun to do is to hold a shared diary with someone you love where every one, and then you write something in it and pass it to the other person. It's pretty cute, and also a way to express emotions safely by writing (or drawing) when we don't know how to do it verbally.