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Nekot-The-Brave

No good deed goes unpunished.
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Story Time!

7 min read
So, as you've probably seen, there's been a lot of changes that have been going on around my account, my activity, and other stuff. There's some pretty good reasons behind this, and I feel like it's okay to share them with you guys in case you're all wondering why I'm doing 'x' or whatever.

So I've been dealing with mental illness for a long time, in specific, I suffer from Bipolar 1 and have some dissociation disorder. For a long time, I've had the depression part of my BPD kinda treated, I guess, but I was never really able to get the mania part of BPD looked at very well because it's... well... it's not like 'bad', you know? Whenever I had a manic episode, I was able to DO things. I was able to complete projects and whatever; but I'd also suffer from all sorts of other shit while under a manic episode, like convulsing and having feelings that I didn't want (i.e. smiling euphorically and not being able to stop). So I went to the doctor and expressed my concerns in regards to my manic episodes that were fresh in my mind at the time and she prescribed me a low dose of Quetiapine (which didn't do anything at all at the time, basically) and told me to go find a psychiatrist. So I procrastinated on that for a very long time. And so I end up playing this game called 'Night In The Woods', and the main characters in that game suffer from some of the same stuff that I do, and I was able to relate a lot to the characters in the game, and it made me 'feel'. At the time, I tended to hang on to things that make me 'feel', because I've never really been normal or had normal feelings, so these were always unique experiences for me. I later learned that the main character/PC, Mae, also suffers from a type of Dissociation disorder; which after looking into that (thanks Kotaku), I was able to finally diagnose a particular disorder that I had been suffering from for like 9 years. Dissociation. So, after reading about how to deal with it, I learned that it could be caused by trauma that I experienced in the past, kinda like PTSD; and so I chose to look into my past and, attempt to unfold things that I packed away. This caused me great distress, distress that I'm currently feeling right now, and distress that attacks me at any point in time where I read or hear about anyone being raped, bullied, assaulted, or whatever. I wrote a poem about it, Trauma, and this was the very first time that I told anyone, other than the school counselor mentioned in the poem, about this incident. This was my raw feelings copied directly to 'paper', or in this case, a digital poem. I wrote this at work. I didn't care, I just needed to get it out. Now everyone knows, and it's okay. I started drawing Night in the Woods fanart because, because I wanted to. Because I wanted to do this, and it made me feel happy. So, while I was drawing and unpacking these feelings, I finally scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist, and when I got to see her the first time, I laid out all the details that I could. She diagnosed me with Bipolar 1, which was the only diagnosis that I've ever gotten for that, despite knowing that I've had it for multiple years, and she also diagnosed me with a type of Dissociation disorder after I told her (due to self-research) that I had depersonalization episodes. She increased the dosage of my Quetiapine to 100mg, and asked me to, after two weeks, to increase the dosage to 150mg. At 100mg,  I could feel things start changing, but then Hurricane Harvey hit, and I was whisked way by work for business continuity purposes. But at that time, after work each day (I got switched from nights to work days for the time being) I got 'home' (aka, hotel), and I wanted to draw, and it made me happy to draw. It made me feel good, it made me feel something that I hadn't felt in... i don't even know. I felt passion. I felt... normal. Like... my feelings were natural, not artificial. It felt great. Then, we went home. Luckily, I didn't lose anything. Like zero damage what-so-ever, despite this being a catastrophic hurricane that totally screwed with everyone else (my team lead lost basically everything). And so, it came to around 2 weeks since I started the 100mg of Quetiapine, and so I upped the dosage to 150mg. This literally knocked me out for 2 days, I wasn't really prepared for the side effects that happened and had to take off work because I literally couldn't. But after that, everything was fine. I started trying to draw everyday, and my choice of subject has mainly been Night in the Woods fanart, because it's really helped me, and I'll continue to draw fanart for this fantastic game. But overall, everything has just gotten better. I'm actually motivated to do things, Like, I want to do things and I can actually do them. This is a totally new experience for me. I'm also like, re-learning all of my emotions because I've basically just been null for the past... way too long. No feelings, no emotions, no nothing. So yeah, I'm dealing with all of this new stuff; so I'm going to post vent art, I'm going to say shit, I'm going to care, I'm going to do what I want to do. Because I can actually do it now. There's nothing stopping me; and right now I'm just doing what I can, and that's drawing, working, participating in the wonderful Night In the Woods discord, and dealing with my traumatic experiences in the past. Unfortunately this also leaves me open to feeling those emotions in the past, which is just required for me to move on and grow. One of the nights in the past few weeks, someone on the NITW discord posted up a song, corbin aka spooky black, revenge song, with the quote "this song makes me cry", and I listened to it and it resonated so deeply with me that it caused me to have a dissoiative episode which resulted in harm done to myself and some walls in my apartment building. I hadn't had one of these, in like... a long time, 4 years perhaps? Ever since I moved from where my parents were living. So, it affected me a little bit more than 'usual' because I forgot how I dealt with these, because back then, it was a pretty common occurrence (and luckily no one but myself ever got hurt). I'm not going to explain what goes on, even though I have it fully documented, simply because I need to actually talk to my psychiatrist (who's also acting as my therapist) about it, and will do that tomorrow when I see her. But in anycase, I decided to draw some stuff about it and I've been trying to get better and stuff with art and have been looking at new ways to expand my skill set and bring ideas to live. But yeah, that's generally what's been going on with me, and that's partly why I choose to draw Night In the Woods fanart and stuff, because it's helped me and I'm going through a whole lot of stuff right now. I really appreciate the support that you guys give.


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When you aim low and hit high, Whether it be circumstance or skill, you end up being dissatisfied with an otherwise great result.

My goals were always very simple:
Become a computer hacker
Prove myself to my parents
Be better than my sister

Coming in at Age 22, I had achieved all 3 of those things and have been kinda on auto-pilot ever since. Now I have to answer the question, what do I want to do, and who do I want to be? What, do I want to be? If I had aimed high, I'd still have something to chase for, I'd still have something to prove. But I didn't, and now I'm just here, not sure where to go next. I've got a thousand inklings of what I might want to do, but I've got no strong motivation or pull towards any one of them.

Should I be pro video-game streamer? Should I be a pro artist? Should I become a programmer? Game Designer? Author? Mentor? Teacher? Should I go back to school?

These are questions that I don't know how to answer. The strongest pull that I've ever got was from Wolvenmoon telling me to go do a sponsored program at a school he attended. But even then, I'm not sure if that'd be the right direction, and even how to do it. I've got people I'm supporting, whether it's family, or friends, or whoever, I don't know how to pick up and leave to go do another thing where I might not be able to still do that. What would I tell these people? "Oh hey, sorry, I don't have an income anymore, guess you're just going to have suffer!"

Kids, aim high, set lofty goals. Don't be like me and end up aimless, at least you'll still be trying to achieve your dreams.
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So I'm going be be opening up requests (well, officially, it's not like I would have turned someone down if someone asked me).

The reason for this is that I'm having trouble doing art because I don't have anybody to hold me accountable for anything that I'm doing. So I'd like for someone to hold me accountable to for something that I'm offering (i.e. requests).

So, if you want something, feel free to ask. Two week turn around minimum. It can be as complex as you want it but needs to be of a digital nature (no traditional art this time).

List of things that I'm able to do (not conclusive both sfw and nsfw):
Pixel Art (maybe pixel animation, but I'll need to re-learn how to do this),
Digital drawings (sketches, full color drawings, etc.),
Digital paintings (painterly style),
Writing (fanfic, erotica, ref sheets, etc.),
Digital Reference Sheets

I'll let you know if I'm not comfortable with anything that you send me.
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  1. How long have you been on DeviantArt?
    I'd have to say... 6 and a half years at least. (Don't have an accurate record of how old my disabled account is)

  2. What does your username mean?
    It's the name of my fursona, or rather his nickname.

  3. Describe yourself in three words.
    Blunt (literally that's the only word that I remember that anyone's used to describe me)

  4. Are you left or right handed?
    Right handed, though I try really hard to fail at being ambidextrous

  5. What was your first deviation?
    In all technicality, it would be this one:
    Character Bio: NekotBio for Fursona and for Anthro-RP
    Name: Nekot
    Age: 26, (32, Post-Normal)
    Species: Wolf (Anthropomorphic)
    Gender: Male
    Height: 5' 10''
    Weight: ~205lbs
    Current Occupation: Private Investigator (Spirit Healer, Post-Normal)
    Orientation: Bi
    Weapon of Choice: Revolver
    Nekot
    Appearance:
           Appearance Normal: Nekot has a gray colored fur body. His head, though, has a lighter shade of gray. He has red markings on his face which was caused by a birth defect causing the fur to be dyed a red color. Nekot permanently dyed his tuft of hair green as an initiation ritual for a local gang that he was a part of early on in his life. Nekot is often seen wearing a tan trench coat and jeans. He carries around a satchel, a watch, and a camera (dependent on if he is on a job or not). His watch's head is always faced towards himself. Nekot normally carries around a pistol hidden in his trench coat. He is built and is very strong, but also very athletic.
           Appearanc
    It was created with material from my old account and put together quickly without proper formatting. I almost lost all of this material when they removed all of my deviations from the old account, but I was lucky enough to get the info back before they did that.

    My first first deviation would appear to be this one:
    Citizen 17 Concept by Nekot-The-Brave It was one of the first digital artworks that I worked on and posted on dA. I'm not sure if it is the first in reality, since most of my stuff got deleted with my old account and was unrecoverable, so later I found most of the deviations that I had made previously and posted them again on my new(er) account about a year ago.

  6. What is your favourite type of art to create?
    Anthro ;) But really, I like to work with lots of different types of media, from painting, drawing, sketching, crafting, writing, and then that stuff in digital format too. I also like to create music too, of the electronic kind.

  7. If you could instantly master a different art style, what would it be?
    Music, of the electronic kind.

  8. What was your first favourite?
    This one, from Quelfabulous, though it's not my very first, but I can't tell you because that information is unrecoverable. 

  9. What type of art do you tend to favourite the most?
    I tend to favorite digital art/paintings the most, of the Anthro kind.

  10. Who is your all-time favourite deviant artist?
    Can't really just say one.

  11. If you could meet anyone on DeviantArt in person, who would it be?
    Any and all of the friends that I have made through the deviantArt chat network.

  12. How has a fellow deviant impacted your life?
    Kirona, has generally impacted my life in a very positive way; from being friendly to me when I first came to dA (in particular, the #iamanthro chatroom), to being my friend for a long time, and giving me lots of motivation to create a lot of artwork.

  13. What are your preferred tools to create art?
    Anything. Tablet, keyboard, mouse, midi-controller, pencil, paper, etc.

  14. What is the most inspirational place for you to create art?
    I don't know.

  15. What is your favourite DeviantArt memory?
    My favorite memory is something I can't share, but my second favorite was when I first got acclimated to the deviantArt Anthro community and their chatroom and finding people like me that I could talk to and who had the same general interests that I had. Just being able to find that these mythical 'furries' existed and I could interact with them made me really happy.

#DeviantArtistQuestionnaire (don't know how to add tags to a journal)

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20150223 195045 by Nekot-The-Brave

No regrets.

To summarize this convention in one word or less... EPIC.

I arrived at the convention on Thursday, a bit earlier than I had anticipated due to being advised early to arrive at 12:30pm and some speeding on the roads (not too much, just enough to keep up with the other people lol). I got there at like... 1pm after a 3-4 hour drive which was rather relaxing. I got to see a lot of people trickle in while I waited for my room in the hotel to be free and for the volunteer coordinator to show up... late. I got to see a lot of neat people which I didn't anticipate being there like Fox Amoore and some others and met some people while I was waiting to be a volunteer. At around 4pm, and after I got all my stuff into my hotel room, I called my volunteer coordinator and met with him and helped around registration by making the pre-reg line straight and setting up the pylons and ropes for inside the registration room. After all of that we were directed upstairs to set up the Art Show room, we had to lift around 20-30 heavy art boards to the room and then set up PVC structures and hang the boards on the structure, then we had to set up the art. I got a free bookmark from one of the artists who sent in their stuff which was nice. I also got to hug my furst (get it?) fursuiter. I hadn't been worked that hard physically for... a very long time, it was very exhausting but I worked until about 10pm and clocked in 12 volunteer hours that day.

I woke up on Friday alright, not at 9:30am like I wanted to, but close enough and early enough to be able to volunteer in the morning. When I came down to the lobby floor, I was just like renewed with excitement when I saw the fursuiters down there. It made me pretty happy. I went up the escalator and towards the volunteer desk and got put on duty to make sure the regular registration line was straight and to let people know that the sponsors/super sponsors were able to go inside immediately. I then went to the opening ceremonies an' got pretty stoked for the con. I went up to my room for something (don't remember what) and then back down to see the Bucktown Tiger concert, which was amazing an' I got to hug him too an' things :meow:. After that, I chilled out in the main ballroom and got to see Bandthro set up and practice and do the song 'Skyfall', which was amazing. I didn't actually get to see the concert with them though because shortly afterward I had to go back to volunteering because I was on-call. I was directed to become a blackjack dealer and a roulette dealer/whatever afterward for the charity auction. That was fun, but my feet were screaming at me during that time and I had to sit down at the roulette table near the end. I then went to the main ballroom again and waited out for the rave that was happening, which was pretty epic, being that it was the first rave/dance that I've ever been too. About halfway though the second set I went out and met a friend of mine from here FenrisDesigns which was really neat, I hope that he thought the meeting went okay. Then I went upstairs and went to sleep (so tired), so I didn't end up getting to go to DJ Recca's set, whom I had met in the registration line.

I didn't sleep well, I'm not sure why exactly, but just... like 'sleep for an hour, wake up, go back to sleep, wake up, etc. When i did wake up, I almost missed the Guest of Honor lunch on Saturday. So I quickly got ready and showered an' things and drove myself there. I had the fortune of being able to meet up with Bucktown Tiger as I arrived at the lunch and got to sit with him and his significant other as well as Silverwolf (who was judging the fursuit dance comp this year, and won the one before) and some other people that I didn't recognize. That was really cool, and it was really yummy too x3, probably the most food I ate at the con in one sitting (cus like, pringles cans yo). Then I got back and just chilled out for a few hours and took a nap before going to see Matthew Ebel's concert, which I enjoyed as well :meow:. After that I went and hung out at the Open Mic panel that Path was doing. Then I went and chatted a bit and went to sleep.

Again, didn't sleep well. I woke up and went back down to the lobby and felt that renewed vigor again upon seeing the fursuits and neat people. I visited Scrypto Wolf's SMILE panel about depression and things and got a neat book for free which I'll be reading through a bit. I then arrived at the fursuit dance competition, which was REALLY REALLY EPIC and AMAZING x3. I really enjoyed seeing all of the fursuiters doing their choreographies and listening to the music an' things. The fursuiter that I liked the best was named Proxy or something, and I couldn't tell if it was a panda or not. My leg fell asleep several times during the show making it slightly uncomfortable sitting there. I then chilled out a bit in my room and chatted with a few of my friends and tuned in to Funday Pawpet Show before going to the Closing Ceremonies, which I really enjoyed. I liked the video of Big Cat Derek that they showed, I thought that was neat, and his speech was really cool :heart:. Then I went up to my room and caught the rest of the Funday Pawpet Show an' had my name posted on one of their art jam comment thingies, which was neat x3. Then I went back to sleep.

Shitty sleep again lol. I woke up and found that it was snowing outside and started freaking out for a good reason. On my way back from the con I had fishtailed and hit the concrete barrier and slid around until I was facing the wrong way on the road. I was pretty freaked out because that's the first time anything like that has happened to me, luckily it was just me involved (though other people did slip on that ice patch and spun out and stuff too lol) and the damage to my truck was minor, I'll have to replace a headlight though. But I got home okay an' things.

I'd definitely go back to this convention if I have the chance next year, I also recommend it everyone, it's really epic and you'll have a fantastic time. The con is VERY VERY well run. You will not be disappointed.

Now, I'm out ~
~Nekot
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