why-animals-do-the-thing:

While there is a genetic component to it, it’s mostly because people assume little dogs are sentient accessories and treat them accordingly. 

While little dogs do have more general fear (I can’t remember what study I read that in, but it makes sense when you’re so small and fragile and the environment is so big), well bred and well trained little dogs are entirely capable of being awesome. I’ve known pretty solid yorkies, dachshunds, papillions, pomeranians, and even a couple of chihuahuas. 

But when you take an animal and deprive it of all bodily autonomy, when you force it to be a doll instead of an animal and remove it’s ability to express preferences and set boundaries… they end up being pretty awful little animals. They learn the only way they get taken seriously is through barking and using their teeth and they give up on doing anything else. 

myowndeliverance:

Reminder to all my mentally ill peeps that it is perfectly possible to both be kind to yourself and give yourself a break when you can’t manage something AND to push yourself to do things your illness makes difficult. There’s no contradiction there!

You can tell yourself “depression or not, I need to get up, get dressed and go outside every day to push a positive change”, and also be like “I didn’t manage it today, it was too hard, but I can try again tomorrow and that’s fine.”

These aren’t mutually exclusive approaches. They’re both healthy ways of dealing with circumstance.