Yes to everything so long as the medicines are not edible. Yes to service dogs also cause I need more german shepherds in my life.

Hmm... I'm not fully sold on the idea of pills, but there are herbal alternatives to them that work wonders for some people.

Tea mixtures, for example. I mean, we already have the (severely underused) Spells Galore shop. Adding some new herbs to it that we could assemble into tea blends, or some new seeds to the (even more severely underused) garden might be interesting. There are even herbal-based pills, if you absolutely want to have pills. If you don't want to get real life things involved, you could always make up Subeta-specific herbs and plants and go that route.

Another thing that's been rattling around in my brain recently - how about bottled emotions? That could also be an indirect nod toward the mental illnesses, or to a generally poor habit of dealing with emotions. A lot of people tend to bottle things up (myself included) and that sometimes tends to go hand in hand with mental illness. We have bottled happiness, bottled hatred and bottled fury on the site already, so it wouldn't be that far of a reach to have, say... bottled sadness, bottled anger, bottled fear and things along that line.

no one likes to talk about the irritability and the blinding rage and sudden urge to throw things or say things you don't mean or the paranoia. ^ dkjhgfd that quote because i still recall breaking things, crying in class and randomly screaming at people in high school wOW im not proud of myself there and i was pushed aside by my class and so many other people until my school held their annual interclass competition which provided a shit-ton of bonding and stuff thank goodness it got better there (though it just came back in university sdfkjgd)

but branching out from this, has there been anything against bullying or stigmatism? possibly the most painless first steps could include anti-bullying campaign stuff or books or just something (idk what though???) to cover the topics. simply accepting the existence of mental illnesses is good enough for me, whether it is for the patient itself, or for those people who dont know much about it and are open-minded enough to learn. and maybe it'll help with the bucketload of drama this site always has cough

but then again i get ashamed of having this condition time and time again, so maybe its just me i have to accept ahaha /deletes self

Thank you all for the input and feedback! I had a lot of ideas this morning, and I have reorganized the OP to include the suggestions you all made, as well as other general psychology topics I feel could use more items. Hope you all don't mind, but I just had to add some of them (especially the service dog suggestion). :) Please let me know if anything I added in the first post actually already has items for it. I've been thinking about this so much that I feel like I am overlooking some existing items! lol

Also throwing in my massive support for service dogs ! I know they've been asked for since did a couple for her line of collection bag cats/dogs a few years back.

I'd love to see some of this stuff.

I actually have an in a tc for this, and even though it's an item that's a tribute to the book The Giver, I actually like it a lot and the description kind of works.

I don't have anything new to add but I support the ideas.

I'm supportive of this. I would especially love to see the pamphlets on site. It'd be nice to have one of those handy irl to give my parents to explain my various issues with anxiety, stress, and depression. ;_; I wouldn't mind seeing them on-site. Tbh I'm kind of surprised they aren't on-site already?? Subeta just strikes me as kind of open about similar things so I guess that's why. But anyways, yes, I would like to see some of the things mentioned here.

Also I'd love to see more yoga mats and exercise-related things (like a barre, ballet shoes, etc) whether they're connected to this or not. ;o; Plsss

Oooh this is a tricky one... On one hand I am all for a variety of items, and all for raising awareness etc, but on the other hand mental illness ruined my life, and continues to do so. It isn't cute or entertaining or something that can be rendered in pixels yknow? I don't know if an item etc can even capture the truth of mental illness. And if they did create these items, would I use them? Probably not, it's not really my style, and I kind of come online to forget about all that. I can't get away from the stigma in real life and I guess it's kind of relaxing for me to be able to spend time online where people are less judgy :o

So basically I'm saying yes, I would support the idea, but there is so much potential for things to go wrong, and I personally wouldn't use the items anyway, but it's a good idea at heart.

I saw this thread last night and forgot to post lol, but I definitely support everything that's been said!

My internet always goes out at the worst of times ahhh.

I'm totally fine with you adding anything I said! <3 I offered ideas for the cause!

I have been thinking more on it though and while I personally am not against adding medications, I think it'd be best to leave them out simply because like said, medications are not good reminders for everyone with a mental illness and I think that's the one type of item that we could avoid to try and respect that. I would be okay with some Subetan based herbal remedies though! Like plants that are commonly used to treat irregular sadness or other things like that. It might help to disconnect people from the real world association and bring awareness of the fact that some people need help with their mental health without being a bad reminder.

Ugh, I totally understand how you feel. Never been more ashamed of myself than when I'm doubting my best friend's intentions because of paranoia or screaming at someone for something so damn inconsequential. And it's so hard to clean up the mess because nobody with or without mental illnesses really talks about the negative symptoms outside of depression and anxiety. To most people they're a shameful thing that needs to be hidden so there's so little support for people who already feel alienated from their own body.

I'm very conflicted about this.. My first reaction to be honest was "hell, NO!" but I can see why people would want these items on site. It's just that for me it's a reminder of some of the worst years of my life and I am not sure I wanna a constant reminder. I'm ok about the books, very iffy about the medications and not very happy about the "herbs" idea. My mother was bipolar and I can assure you there's NO herb that can help, she was constantly taking pills and it was barely enough to keep her together, let's not spread the ideas that you can cure mental hillness with natural remedies cause most people are already strongly against taking medications even if they should. I'm sorry if I come out as aggressive, it's just very painful for me to talk about the subject and english is not my first language so I have to keep everything I say very basic, which doesn't help much.

Your English is totally fine! I'm being treated for bipolar as well and I know super well that there's no herb in the real world that can treat it. However, there are people here who want some form of medication to relate to and herbs seem to have been suggested as a Subeta-oriented substitute as to not trigger people who have had bad experiences with pills. I don't think it's really about the fact that we think real life herbs can cure everything, it's trying to find something that won't be insensitive to either party-- those that want something to represent their daily lives with medication and those that would be upset with prescription medication like that on the site.

I just cringed at the idea cause when my mother had some major manic episodes she was less inclined to take her medications and also I've stumbled on a few people in my life that knew nothing about mental hillness and said stupid things like "you should throw away all your drugs, all you need is to relax and tang long walks", ugh. Yeah no thanks, I need my pills -__-'' There's always this idea thrown at you that somehow you're not doing all you can and that if you REALLY tried you could just get better, sigh. I guess I'm extremely sensitive to the subject, so I tend to react badly. Which is why I'm conflicted about having too specific items on site. I guess an awareness book is one thing but a set of medications would be too much and herbs.. I don't know, to me it's a potential can of worms cause lots of people hate being on drugs and I don't want to encourage a possibly self-dostructive behavior. I hope it makes sense.

That makes sense to me. I have yet to have any really bad experiences with my medications other than them not doing what they're supposed to. But I can totally understand the frustration of people trying to say drugs are worthless. Everyone's like 'oh maybe if you exercised more' 'you should go out in the sun' 'eat healthier!!!' etc etc and it's like that literally has zero bearing on my mental illness. It'll improve my overall health but none of the above has ever helped me with the illness. I get what you're saying though, I just wanted to help in case you thought people here were advocating throwing away drugs and being herbal instead which will not help everyone. Maybe some people, but not everyone. In the end it'll be up to staff if they feel any of this is appropriate for the site and I trust them to make good decisions or apologize if they accidentally make a mistake!

Exactly! It's like mental hilness is something that happens to you cause you're week or you're not trying hard enough. Medications have probaly improved a lot in the last 20 years, it's good to know you're not having any bad side effect ^^ I didn't mean to say someone was advocating throwing away medications, I just meant that having herbal remedies instead of drugs could spread the idea that there's a natural, gentler way to threat mental disorders and in most cases unfortunately it's not true.

It seems like they have, though I can't say definitively. I haven't found anything that really helps me manage yet. Very true though, and that's a valid thing to be concerned about. I'm not sure how there would be a go around for that, unless someone else has any ideas.

I've been watching this discussion and I wanted to clear something up - I have never said that herbs, herbal teas or herbal remedies are a better way of treating mental illness than going to a medical professional and getting medications. Herbs can sometimes help people with some milder disorders cope a little better, but it's not guaranteed.

For example, I've known people who swear up and down on st. John's wort for helping with their depression, anxiety or both. I've tried it myself and I've had very little improvement. Chamomile, lavender and valerian can help soothe anxiety and are often included in relaxation/de-stress/sleep-aid tea blends in varying quantities. Tea does help me sometimes if I'm feeling antsy, but most of the time I have to resort to pills once anxiety hits full-force.

I only brought the herbs up as an on-site alternative to pill bottles and I am aware that there is no miraculous herbal cure-all. If they do decide to go with the herb route, I hope they'll add a little disclaimer in the description to make things a little more clear.

I'm sorry if I've struck a few nerves with some people, that absolutely wasn't my intention. D:

*inserting small rant against modern society. Sorry!

Unfortunately, society has always had the philosophy of trusting only what can be seen. You cannot always "see" someone's mental suffering, so society tries to say that it simply mental weakness. In fact, many issues, not just those related to mental illness, have been written off as "weakness" as a way to explain the things that people would rather not talk about. Of course, that way of thinking is horrible and wrong! Mental health issues are just as valid as physical issues. Mental Health Awareness is meant to combat stigma like this... To combat situations like: "If my leg was broken, you would tell me to go to the doctor. But when I say I have something in my mind that doesn't feel right, you tell me to just walk it off!?" Medications is a touchy subject for some, which is why I was reluctant to add it to the suggestion. For some people, medications work great and for others they don't work at all. Some people have milder symptoms and can get by with herbal supplements and meditation, while others could never manage that way (as clarified in the above post /hugs/). Suggesting both medications and herbal remedies (since those are popular in some parts of the world) was more a way to give more options for item ideas. That said, I can definitely understand choosing to not make any items related to medications/remedies. If the items were made, I would use them, but I can get by without them.

I started this thread mostly wanting general psychology items (the things now listed in the first spoiler), but only focusing on the positive psychological well-being aspects (things now in the second spoiler). I originally focused on stress and anxiety, because people seem more comfortable facing those topics than discussing other psychological topics. After feedback on this thread, I agree that if we are going to address some psychology ideas and mental illnesses, then we really should address them all. Ignoring the harder illnesses/symptoms invalidates the struggle that you and others have gone through, and that would go against the whole point of making awareness items.

While I would be happy with just the general psychology books/pamphlets/items (again, personal bias since that is what I study/teach/love), I understand that many would not want only part of psychology to be discussed. Subeta has done an amazing job with representation items, such as the wheel chairs and other medicontra items. As well as with NPCs of all shapes, sizes, races, genders, and sexualities! I feel like the next logical step in representation is to add mental health in as well. If Subeta isn't ready for that yet, or cannot find a good way to do it, I totally understand. I just figured I would suggest it so that user's don't think that mental health issues don't exist within this universe or that these issues are completely ignored on Subeta. Psychology is everywhere, but if people do not want mental illness here, I can understand their feelings.

But Staff, please, at least give me some Psych 101 textbooks or some service animals! My psychology fanpet needs items for his poor treasure, and I am totally jealous that Sociology has a textbook, but not Psychology. ;A;