Couch 215: The Overcoming Couch

My psychiatrist uses it. Works fine for me.

Re: therapists and favorites. I have advised the therapist not to get a big head on occasion. She's the only one I see so I guess she's both my favorite and least favorite. Perhaps I should hit her with that truth sometime.

Thats our dumbarse prime minister the one who went to Hawaii while bushfires burned, the who delyed social distanciing so he could watch his football team play and have his big church gathering and the one who copied Trump and made China mad with us. The idiot vwho thinks we have this covid situation under control. His press team should have chevked with the homeowner

Maybe you need to find tutrials where the artist draws at least an outline on the canvas.

Thanks, good to hear. I'm looking forward to trying it out. I guess since I've been using Zoom twice a week for a couple months now with my family and with my drumming peeps, it will be less weird seeing her on my computer screen now too.

Theres Painting with Jane i like her because she doesnt have her husband help her and there is none of that inane banter that annoys me sometimes
I find the ones who have some kind of formal training are better teachers than the self taught artists like Katie Jobling.

Phone is likely still an option too, even with all the new-fangled technology available. I feel like phone sessions have been more productive than video sessions with Liz during quarantine, so we usually start there.

Ha! It did seem trump-like to me! Wow, hes no jacinda.

It is, and I'll have my cell phone with me when we talk just in case. She and I got very proficient at phone sessions while she was living out of state for that block of time before she moved back. But I do want to try the video because it will be nice to see her while we talk.

Getting ready to head to see my father who has had another stroke. He's almost 90, so we know we're heading toward more skilled care. Not so coincidentally, he was admitted this week, 3 years since my mom's death. It's a hard time for him always. They were married 65 years.

I am really struggling this evening. I feel so isolated from everyone. I’m not sure if it’s because of quarantine or just depression. Perhaps both.

I'm taking a drive across state lines tomorrow with a friend for a quick day trip. Her dad died a few weeks ago and she has to take some of his stuff to a relative's and asked me if I wanted to come along. I am supposed to have a session with T2 tomorrow so I plan on doing it while we're in the car as long as my service doesn't get lost.

How do you ask someone nicely to take a shower without offending them?

If someone is not showering, their relationship with theirself is already suffering. So to worry about not offending them - thats assuming that relationships with other people are possible. I dont think they are. So i dont think the goal is to not offend them. The goal is probably just to get them to shower so they stop stinking up your shared environment?

Eta - i hope this answer isnt too crazy. I am speaking as someone who definitely does not shower enough.

It's a pandemic. You're trapped in the house with them. Just tell them they need to bathe. They're offending you at this point.

Ok, this totally gives away what school I go to but idgaf. I think I've mentioned before the region where I live anyway and Susannah is not the name on my birth certificate.

Anyway, there's this really awful professor at my uni that has been targeted lately due to basically being an asshole. It started because he tweeted about how he had enjoyed eating pizza with some guys despite our state being a slave state (because of the COVID response). Then he said "Massa let my people go." Yikes. I was really disturbed and embarrassed that a faculty member at my uni would behave in such an insensitive and intentionally inflammatory way.

I read an article today that made me even more disturbed. Apparently this loser wrote a book called “Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts ‘Womyn’ on Campus.” Where do I even start with that? Who the hell is he to be confronting women on campus? Some sort of male authority, or just an authority but specifically over women (or "womyn" which again, wtf)? The title makes my skin crawl.

On May 28, he tweeted “Don’t shut down the universities. Shut down the non essential majors. Like Women’s Studies.”

I kind of feel like he's a nonessential human being at this point, but whatever. I do believe in free speech and I'm not saying he shouldn't be allowed to say the things he says. However, I'm not really sure how "confronting women/womyn on campus" is compatible with respecting the rights and liberties of his female students. I am not a POC, so I can really only imagine what it would be like being a student of his in those circumstances. However, the fact that he's a ****ing criminology professor and he has prejudiced views about disenfranchised groups is extremely concerning.

I have no idea how he was hired. The school says his comments are vile and inexcusable but are free speech since they don't involve a physical threat. They also said his comments don't seem to involve his academic work which seems incredibly bogus given the title of his book and that the only major he chose to name as non-essential was women's studies.

He can **** right off.

ETA - The last line of the letter released by the school says "Further, we encourage everyone in our audience to fully engage in their rights of free expression." Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I kind of feel like there's a sneaky suggestion to protest/bully this guy to the utmost to get rid of him since they can't just fire him. It's hard to describe without posting the whole letter. Like a "well if he's going to be nasty you can be nasty too and maybe he'll go away."

I think they are starting to figure out that "free speech" does NOT include free to be an asshole. I should put that another way. Free from threatening language.

Switching from nights to days is always a mess. I woke up at 5am for no particular reason so I went out for a walk and brought back Starbucks for my roommate and me. (She won't wake up for hours but she'll appreciate it when she does get up.)

I'm working for the next six days in this really awkward role where I'm supposed to be both an intern and a resident because we're short on staff. I'm not looking forward to it. The good news is that I only have to work one day the following week, so that'll be nice.

I'm feeling kind of ambivalent about my scheduled session with T tomorrow. I both want and don't want to talk about this issue of jealousy and wanting him to find me attractive. It's excruciating to talk about but on the other hand it feels good to get it out in the open.

Ugh, Susannah, those are some awful things that prof has said. And worse that the school seems to be defending him. I'm guessing maybe he has tenure?

I think it depends on your relationship with them. As someone with schizoaffective disorder, I don't always shower as much as I should. Usually every other day but sometimes I go a third day. My Mom just tells me to shower. But if it were someone I didn't know I would probably be more offended. I'd probably take the route of, how has your self care been lately? What have you been doing to take care of yourself? Then list some things they could do like Take a Shower!

I'm feeling unwell. I spent the weekend trying to decide whether or not to go to the hospital. I didn't go. I'm having SUI thoughts but I know as long as I don't act on them it's okay. Debating on whether or not to call T.

Hugs, Kit. I'd call your T. Maybe she can get you in for a session this week or else talk to you for a bit.

Thanks LT. I do have an appointment on Saturday but I just texted her to see if she has any time available to talk before then, of course it would have to be after work, but I told her I've been sui for 5 days and thought I should tell her. We'll see what she says. Kit

Thanks for the replies. It's my dad. I don't think he's taken a shower since we moved which was over a year ago.

I too have problems with showering. Sometimes I'll go a week without showering. But I force myself to do it at least once a week.

I love my dad. I don't want to offend him. But he does smell.

I'm glad you texted, and I hope you will be able to talk to her sooner than Saturday.