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About two weeks ago is when I would say I officially joined this great fandom. Since then I would say that I've never been happier with any decision I've made thus far. I love this place and I love you guys soo much! I hope to be here a while and have a great time! Anyway, thank you for the warm welcome and great friends! Cheers!

submitted by AtlasTheGreat
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submitted by KimbaSnowpaw
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submitted by PowerRaptor
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submitted by uzzeee
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Dear Papa Bear,

I wanted to ask you about advice for talking and relating with other furries. You see, this year is my first time going to Anthrocon. The problem is that I'm going alone since none of my friends are furries and are not interested in going. I was hoping to try to become friends with fellow furries that I'll meet, but I have to deal with my AvPD (Avoidant Personality Disorder), so it's going to be EXTREMELY hard trying to talk to other people. So please give me some advice.

Sincerely,

Lyroe The Elk (age 21)

* * *

Dear Lyroe,

I’m sure that you are well aware of what AvPD is, but for my other readers, a quick summary: unlike a condition such as autism, AvPD is not an illness; it is not a psychological disorder per se; there is nothing wrong with your hormones or your nervous system. To me, then, it is simply a label that the psychology community has come up with to describe a very very very shy person. 

The good news is that this makes it eminently easier to treat because it is a learned behavior. You have gotten yourself into an infinite loop of thinking that reinforces negativity about yourself. So, the thing to do is to break out of the loop by adding subroutines that lead you out of the mind trap in which you have found yourself.

A good introductory article I found on the topic was written by Eduard Ezeanu (http://www.peopleskillsdecoded.com/avoidant-personality-disorder/). He describes three ways to help yourself with AvPD: 1) Challenging and changing dysfunctional thinking. People with avoidant personality disorder tend to have a lot of limiting beliefs, plus an unrealistic view of social standards and of themselves. These need to be corrected by consciously changing the way they think.

2) Gradual exposure. People with avoidant personality disorder need to gradually face those exact situations they’re afraid of and they typically avoid. Systemic exposure, combined with combating unrealistic thinking will set their mind and emotions on the right path.

3) Improving people skills. Since individuals with AvPD avoid social situations as much as they can, their people skills have often atrophied or they’ve never truly developed at all. Thus, training key people skills and learning how to start a conversation, how to keep it going or how to connect with people is crucial. By planning on a trip to Anthrocon, you are kind of plunging yourself into the fire. Rather than working on step 2 gradually, you will likely be overwhelmed. Literally thousands of furries will be surrounding you. It really would have been far better for you to start with a small furmeet and then work your way gradually up to an event that is literally the biggest furry convention on the planet. 

You only have a few months until AC. You might try preparing yourself by reading Marin Kantor’s The Essential Guide to Overcoming Avoidant Personality Disorder.

There is no magic potion or sage words of advice that I can provide you that will prepare you adequately for AC in this short column. AvPD is overcome over time and with a lot of effort on your part. Since you already know what AvPD is, your probably know this, as well. 

I suppose the best advice I can give you at this point is try to not overwhelm yourself with what you will see at AC. Almost 5,600 furries attended the Pittsburgh convention in 2013, and that number is almost certain to grow this year. Just being in the lobby with so many people is going to stress you out. So, as much as possible, try to take your furry exposure in small doses. In the meantime, try reading as much as possible on AvPD and working on changing your thinking and improving your people skills.   

Hope this helps, at least a little bit. 

Take care, 

Papabear

So I like to have random suiters as my phone backgrounds if I think theyre adorable and all that fun stuff. It just occurred to me that what I'm doing might be really weird. Is it? This question is more out of curiosity then anything else.

submitted by MrSqueaker
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submitted by VideoHusky
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Hi there, I'm feeling like drawing something today and felt like this subreddit would be happy if I offered to draw free commissions! I also would love to get to know this community better and make more furry friends because I don't know many as of now, and i'm sort of a shy person so it's harder for me to approach others. But i'm still really friendly and would love to draw some stuff for you guys! :D I love making people happy and again i'm offering this for free, I expect absolutely nothing in return. So if you want, just leave a comment with whatever you want drawn and i'll get back to you asap! I'll be available all day today and i'll check up on this as often as I can. Oh, and also, I don't have any reference for my artwork because I rarely post any of my art online or publicly, so I hope you're okay with surprises! (Don't worry, it wont be really bad or anything, I'll take my time on this.)

edit: Okay, so this got so many more requests than I expected! I'm really happy about it, actually! :D As of now there are two things I'd like to address. Because I expected a maximum of like... ~5 people to comment on this, I thought I could quick sketch out a few designs and move on to working on some papers I have to write for my English course. So with that said, I'm just going to note to you guys that I will do as much as I can right now, but eventually I will need to focus my time on my papers tonight. However, I will gladly resume working on your requests after tonight. Hopefully anyone who I already promised a request will get it by Friday, the end of next week (but most likely sooner). Secondly, if you're curious as to what your sketch will look like/what art style I draw in, I just finished the first one for http://www.reddit.com/user/CHADBLA . You can view it here: http://imgur.com/xIJgkL8

submitted by foxesrockmysox
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I'm 16 (Going to be 17 in three months) and have been lurking in the fandom for a looong time now, only recently have I been actually active in it. I'm thinking about telling my parents to see what their reaction would be, I can already say that my dad would lose himself and freak out, my mom might be more open-minded to it, but at the same time she has explained her reasons for disliking the fandom. Im not sure if I should tell them, or keep it a close secret with me and the few friends in school who know. What do you guys think?

submitted by Vuthakral
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submitted by HappyWulf
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submitted by lupinesilver
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You guys should add me! _^ Lupinesilvertail on there

submitted by lupinesilver
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About to head off to bed here, but I've decided to kick back into drawing/traditional art as a form of relaxation. Tomorrow's going to be a rather stressful day, so what better way to zone out than by flinging some colour around the place?

I'd also love to get my art up to 'commission worthy' status, so I'll be running up pieces of art for 3 lucky participants a a bit of practice.

The only catch? I won't be deciding who to draw. You'll need to include the raffle phrase "Toasty Toe Jam" in your post somewhere to be in the running, and you must tell me two hobbies you could see your fursona doing/your fursona has.

Ref sheets are not mandatory, but do help. If you don't have a sheet, at least give me a detailed description of your character. Finished art will be displayed on my SF and FA accounts.

I'd LOVE some feedback on the work when I'm done!

submitted by Omnomnomnissiah
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Hi everyone,

So, everyone of us knows a wolf or fox or lion etc.. (i dare to say) However, there are also people who have a fursona of a less popular species. So, does anyone of you know such a someone? Just asking out of curiosity. :)

submitted by uvok
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submitted by Indycoone
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submitted by Winged_Wolf
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I want to get more into the fandom does anyone have advice or any help they can offer?

submitted by VanityProphet
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So me and a few fellow furries got on the radio, and i thought i would share what happened.

First, I live in Utah. Right before our startup con Unthrocon at the end of August, one of the radio shows found out we were having the convention. I decided to write in a letter, which they read on the air. The recorded show can be found here. They asked if they could set up an "ask a furry" segment, and have people ask questions. This was arranged.

Today we had our "ask a furry" segment. Show recording can be found here. Personally, i thought it turned out well. They were very interested in finding out about fursuits, fursuit sex, and the like. We did our best to make the fandom sound good, and delved very little into the sexual end of it. Overall, i thought it turned out pretty well. I know they were going for more of a 'shock and awe' story, but found we are more normal than they thought.

Thought you would like this.

~ Lazer

Heard this story on the "This American Life" radio show over the weekend. She doesn't say that she's a furry, but she fits the profile to a "t."

http://www.drphil.com/plugger/respond/?plugID=16436

Looks like Dr.Phil is looking for furries to appear on his show.

I've heard rumors that Evil Sibe has been chosen already to appear on the show.
http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Sibe_%28person%29

Sibe is already banned from many conventions for his behaviors and antics, I can only imagine how this will go over.