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stardust_rifleThis is exactly what it says on the title. I've been wanting to write this one for a while, and I've finally gotten around to doing it.
So let it be known that this author doesn't mentally separate "shipping to cope" from "writing to cope", which encapsulates "shipping to cope", but also encapsulates things like genfic and autobiographical trauma dumps (at least for this author). I mostly specify "shipping to cope" because it's the current Disk Horse topic, but everything this author says could just as easily apply to "writing to cope" that does not fit into "shipping to cope".
At least in this author's experience, there are two types of "copeshipping": the one used as an unconscious coping mechanism, and the one used as a conscious coping mechanism.
For me, the unconscious type works like this:
Something terrible happened. It's probably somewhat related to X, for a certain factor of X. In order to protect you from not freaking out at the mere mention of X, your brain manipulates the emotional responses that you have to X from being that of horror to being fascination, obsession, or even arousal.*
It's important to note that this is kind of an unconscious process (i don't think that trying to consciously manipulate your brain in this way, if your brain is freaking out at the mere mention of X, is a good idea), and at least in this author's experience, someone who has an incest kink because they were abused by a sibling and their brain gave them the Arousal Response as a subconscious coping mechanism is not substantially different from someone with no history of abuse who just has an incest kink for Some Other Reason.
* Note. Author is not a psychologist or particularly knowledgeable about the brain. This is just a dumb little theory that they have.
Then, there's the conscious copeshipping. This is largely going to be very M-specific.
Okay.
One of this author's most debilitating PTSD symptoms is cycling thoughts, which is basically when their brain gets stuck in endlessly repeating a particular traumatic memory over and over again, including feeling all the emotions they (probably) felt in that moment.
The best way that the author has found to break out of these cycles is by writing. Just sitting down and letting their emotions flow out of their brain and onto the page is a very good way to get the thoughts out.
It's often incoherent nonsense and full of a bunch of really vivid self-harm imagery, but now that it's out there, it's sort of turned safe. It's not stuck inside your brain. It can't hurt you anymore.
...So, yeah. If anyone wants more elaboration, this author will be happy to oblige!
So let it be known that this author doesn't mentally separate "shipping to cope" from "writing to cope", which encapsulates "shipping to cope", but also encapsulates things like genfic and autobiographical trauma dumps (at least for this author). I mostly specify "shipping to cope" because it's the current Disk Horse topic, but everything this author says could just as easily apply to "writing to cope" that does not fit into "shipping to cope".
At least in this author's experience, there are two types of "copeshipping": the one used as an unconscious coping mechanism, and the one used as a conscious coping mechanism.
For me, the unconscious type works like this:
Something terrible happened. It's probably somewhat related to X, for a certain factor of X. In order to protect you from not freaking out at the mere mention of X, your brain manipulates the emotional responses that you have to X from being that of horror to being fascination, obsession, or even arousal.*
It's important to note that this is kind of an unconscious process (i don't think that trying to consciously manipulate your brain in this way, if your brain is freaking out at the mere mention of X, is a good idea), and at least in this author's experience, someone who has an incest kink because they were abused by a sibling and their brain gave them the Arousal Response as a subconscious coping mechanism is not substantially different from someone with no history of abuse who just has an incest kink for Some Other Reason.
* Note. Author is not a psychologist or particularly knowledgeable about the brain. This is just a dumb little theory that they have.
Then, there's the conscious copeshipping. This is largely going to be very M-specific.
Okay.
One of this author's most debilitating PTSD symptoms is cycling thoughts, which is basically when their brain gets stuck in endlessly repeating a particular traumatic memory over and over again, including feeling all the emotions they (probably) felt in that moment.
The best way that the author has found to break out of these cycles is by writing. Just sitting down and letting their emotions flow out of their brain and onto the page is a very good way to get the thoughts out.
It's often incoherent nonsense and full of a bunch of really vivid self-harm imagery, but now that it's out there, it's sort of turned safe. It's not stuck inside your brain. It can't hurt you anymore.
...So, yeah. If anyone wants more elaboration, this author will be happy to oblige!
