we-love-dead-places

thanks for letting me join

Sending this message in a bottle to every dark soul who survived to Eclipse and this madness named 2020.
At The-Lunatic-Asylum the show is going on and we have the Halloween contest up. The theme is Cabin Fever. 
We are still collecting prize donors so if you cannot participate, which is totally fine (the theme may be a bit triggering) 
please consider to spread the word about it. The more weirdos we are, the better.
The Quicksands of Loneliness: Cabin Fever,Greetings, lovely patients and casual visitors stopping by the Asylum.It’s that time of the year again, Halloween is upon us and this year despite a lot of incovenients -like our man of letter counselor Dr Syn gone missing during a dangerous mission, or an enraging change in the lands of deviantART which makes gathering funds harder and in general anything more frustrating- we are holding a contest and I hope you’ll find time and inspiration to join us.Now without further ado, let me illustrate the contest:ThemeIf you’ll browse through DSM-5, the very thick Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, not only you’ll experience the alarming suspect to have many of these disorders, but you won’t see anything named “Cabin fever”. It is not an official diagnosis since it’s not a defined psychological disorder. Nonetheless, it is generally acknowledged by mental health professionals as a very real problem.The expression has been around for well over 100 years. Originally, it described the irritable feelings of people who lived way out in the country and who were stuck in their “cabins” due to winter cold and snow, without the ability to get roads plowed. Without phones, or mail, country people in those days often lived in isolation for weeks, even months at a time. Their only social interactions were with the people they lived with. Over time, people got restless, bored and irritable. They felt sick with loneliness, no wonder it was called a “fever”!But country people are not alone on this lonely boat.Researchers going to polar expeditions also generally undergo psychological changes resulting from exposure to long periods of isolation and confinement, and the extreme physical environment. Aviators sometimes suffer hallucinations during long, monotonous flights. Moreover we don’t have to look to such extreme situations to see what damage isolation can do. All we need is to walk past the daunting gates of a prison.The experiences of prisoners held in solitary confinement—the despair, the disorientation, the hallucinations—are well documented. During the ’50s Donald O. Hebb, a professor of psychology at Montreal’s McGill University, set out to study how sensory isolation affects human cognition. The results were dramatic. Depriving a man of every sensory input, he soon discovered, will break him in a matter of days. A series of cognitive tests showed that the volunteers’ mental faculties were temporarily impaired. While in isolation, for instance, the subjects were played tapes arguing that supernatural phenomena, including ghosts and poltergeists, were real; when interviewed later, they proved amenable to such beliefs. They performed poorly on grade-school tasks involving simple arithmetic, word associations, and pattern recognition. They also experienced extreme restlessness, childish emotional responses, and vivid hallucinations, visual, acoustic or even tactile (like reaching out to touch a doorknob and feeling an electric shock).Indeed, “Cabin fever” is a series of emotions or symptoms people experience when they’re confined for extended periods of time. As said above this may be due to a variety of circumstances, such as a natural disaster, lack of transportation, or even willingly social distancing for pandemics like Covid-19, basically anytime you feel isolated or disconnected from the outside world.The symptoms can go far beyond feeling bored or “stuck” at home. They’re rooted in an intense feeling of isolation and may include: restlessness decreased motivation irritability hopelessness difficulty concentrating irregular sleep patterns, including sleepiness or sleeplessness difficulty waking up lethargy distrust of people around you lack of patience persistent sadness or depressionRecognizing the signs and finding ways to cope with these feelings may help make the isolation easier to deal with. Coping techniques can vary, from spending time outdoors when possible, exercising, to following a structured routine, meditating, or like for this contest, expressing your creative side.RulesHere are the general rules to abide by: I. You have to be a patient The-Lunatic-Asylum to enter the contest. Not a patient? Click "Join the Group" on our homepage https://www.deviantart.com/the-lunatic-asylum and embrace the insanity!II. All medias accepted. This includes all visual media (drawn or taken with a camera), literature and artisan craftIII. Start date: 21st of September End date: 31st of October Time zone: GMT (conversion clock here https://time.is/GMT )IV. New entries only. Your deviation have to be submitted from 21st of September to the 11:59 pm of 30th of OctobeV. Add to top of your description what your work was done for The-Lunatic-Asylum (click add, choose Avatars and the scroll down until you see it, sadly when I try to type the name it says 'no result found'. Seriously Eclipse?) Thank you.VI. Entry have to be your own. No line arts, no baseVII. For photomanipulations: If there was used any resource (such as stock photographs or textures) they have to be credited in your descriptionVIII. If there are collaborations the prize will be given to just one of the participants and then they'll have to divide it.IX. Please respect the theme during your creative process.X. The judges can inspire you with a work, however, they do not count as participants and cannot win.XI. Submit in 'The Arena' folder. You can enter as many times as you want but you can win only once.Prizes (prize donors are always welcome and they are eligible to win)-First prize: 100 points from IllyDragonfly / one cosplay bust up shot from IllyDragonfly (with a sign or another prop) If we have 10 or more participants (Judges contribution excluded)-Second prize: One creepy/eerie short story or poem from IllyDragonfyAll winners will be featured at The-Lunatic-Asylum 's front page and their winning works will be put in the 'Featured' showcase.Judges Dr. A. Psychic, Forensic psychiatrist and Medical director C. Syn, D. Div., guest consultant (if he comes back in time, fingers crossed)EntriesCannot wait to see what your twisted mind will come out with, don't be shy and start creating!Also,Some words about the current situation...Either you join this contest or just enjoy as as part of the audience, this year more than ever we need to stay united and get the best of a bad job. Just because we are living in this big and scary place (which could be an Asylum in the dark land of deviantART, or the world experiencing a global pandemic) doesn’t mean we cannot have a good time.Some of our patients know well how to tread carefully in the Quicksands of Loneliness, some may experience these symptoms for the first time and feel very helpless, overwhelmed and scared (and rightfully so)… while some know this treacherous land way too well and fear to not be able to escape it unscathed this time.I’m just a humble human being and I don’t have all the answers, but what I can do is to do my best and that’s what the staff and I expect from all of you as well. You can slipper and fall, but don't sink without asking help. You are not alone in this.If we stay calm and united without being selfish or reckless we’ll make it.It will be alrightWith love,,“Loneliness will sit over our roofs with brooding wings." Bram Stoker
Thank you
Dr Psychic Astrea

Thanks a lot for accept my first submit

Thank you for accepting me! Though it says you accepted me one hour before I actually sent the request... XD

Thank you for accepting, guys ^^