Regulation Through Nonhumanity

Little side thing away from questioning for something more formally written-- 

A lot of the times I see assumptions around therianthropy not existing to provide comfort. And while I guess not technically true, who’s to say it cannot provide comfort to people with those labels? Why do we have to limit what our nonhumanity is to US when we are all so individual?

My non humanity is a huge comfort of mine. It developed from the need to cope, then moved away from that into an involuntary identity, then again to a mix of a shield and alterhuman experiences. And now I approach and appreciate my non humanity as a great comfort. I wanted to talk about how I incorporate my therian identity into my regulation skills- or rather how being alterhuman impacts my regulation. I will be using past experiences mixed with current examples to act as an aide and maybe even be of an inspiration. Disclaimer; I am not neurotypical therefore the way I interact with myself and my surroundings has always been “atypical”. Some things that work for me, may not work for others.

I loved care guides as a new therian. They were my favorite things to look through when I was first starting out on amino. I was a pretty young teenager when I joined the community and found it difficult to identify my regulation issues let alone ways to cope with them, so I piggy backed off of these care guides to give me ideas on how to go about feeling “okay”. And what started as a silly way of incorporating therianthropy into daily life, became a more sustainable way of coping and understanding my emotional and sensory needs.

Past Coping Skills:

Being a dog was heavily tied into my experiences as a growing and newly awakened therian. I was a kid who was traumatized and reached for the only understanding I had to compare my trauma to; a “fight” dog. Because of this a lot of my grounding tools were dog toys, dog collars, and walking around dog parks by myself. I remember one time, our lab piper no longer liked her kennel, but we kept it up in case she changed her mine. And I was so sad and scared that I threw blankets, pillows, and Christmas lights over it and made my own temporary den to read in. It smelled horribly of dog, and the dog bed had hard drool stuck to it, but I was comfortable and was able to calm myself down. I didn’t do this more than two times, and each time I took it down right after using it, until I read a canine care guide and decided to turn my bottom bunk bed, into a “den”.

Another previous instance, I remember being close to a sensory meltdown from being too hot and having too much clothes on that I angrily threw my clothes on the ground outside and swam around doing the doggy paddle in my undergarments in our freezing pool for hours pretending I was a leopard spending the day in the river after a successful hunt. It was rooted in make believe, but it helped me stop crying and screaming. I was not allowed inside so I had to work with what I had. Thankfully we just happened to have the pool up.

Current Regulation Habits:

Now my regulation looks a little more internal, and you probably wouldn’t guess the nonhuman ties to it unless you asked me directly about it. Some of my regulation extends into my coping skills as well. Especially around my appearance and expression as mentioned before.

A lot of my skills today are therapy skills mixed with alterhuman aspects to help keep myself grounded. Using temperature as a way of bringing myself back to my person; when I feel more mammoth like I reach for extremely icy temperatures. Freezing walks in the mornings during winter, walking in the snow when it snows, holding ice hard in my hands or on my face, or drinking ice water from a really long straw pretending its my trunk. And when I feel more snakelike I love to curl myself all the way up, hide under my blankets, or sit in the extremely hot sun on rocks or just somewhere outside where the sun can hit me completely.

Regulation can also look like being balanced emotionally. Of course regulation can mean a lot to a lot of different people, but generally for me it’s about being or bringing balance of emotional needs, sensory needs, social needs, and physical needs. Some aspects need more assistance than others, therefore require different skills. By incorporating my alterhumanity into my routines and regulation skills I am not only more comfortable in my body, but I feel more motivated to do things to benefit my regulation because I am excited to connect those parts of me to my comfort. And BY doing that, I have attached the feeling of comfort directly to my alter humanity. Making it easier to just feel like “me” in any situation I am in. Shifts included!

More ways I incorporate my therian expression into my regulation include;

• associating my appearance to my nonhumanity. I used to be insecure over being slightly chubby due to past experiences, but now I embrace it under the impression of “well a malnourished mammoth can’t really do anything!” And most my weight is muscle over fat anyway.

• Eating food or encouraging myself to eat by tying it to my alterhumanity especially when I’m struggling to want to eat anything at all

• Wearing clothes that are color coordinated with my therian labels because I feel more comfortable embracing myself if my therian identity is involved

• Using vocals (particularly low “rumbles”) to soothe my way through stressful environments or situations, yes people look at me when I hum like this, no I typically don’t care.

• Bringing my mammoth “children” (stuffed animals) places with higher stress like when I travel or therapy, as a way of bringing my “herd” with me. Bonus points cause Alastair bought me my mammoth children.

• Weighted blankets + nesting to soothe during overwhelm, sensory overloads, and flashbacks. Offer a safe and controlled environment with weight to add to my grounding routine. Mocks the sensation of being in a nest or near other mammoths pressed together in a herd

• Layers and baggy clothes especially on days where I feel heavily sensitive or stressed out to mimic the wool a mammoth would have (grounding)

I’m sure there are a million other ways I incorporate my alterhumanity into my regulation, some I mentioned previously with my ways of showing / being comfortable with affection, but these were the most prominent ones in my day to day life. There’s some things i incorporate as apart of my nonhuman identity that I’d more so consider expression over regulation that I will cover in a future post.

Do you have any regulation habits that are directly linked to your alterhumanity? Intentional or unintentional