Couch 221: Definitely Spam!

*Artie has already jotted down 'rhoticity'

Poppycock and Balderdash, and the dish ran away with the spoon.

yes but everyone is not you. I have difficult conversations all the time:
"yes you still get an F"
"We lost the appeal and they are going to execute you"
"No intubation for my ward and I will have to talk to the family and tell them X is going on hospice" and so on
I did not need to pay to practice having them with a therapist.

Everybody should be more like us. We agree again!

(Who's got Ack on their card?)

That was my favorite.

But that wasn’t an Ack. It was its ex-Ack opposite. Kind of.

There should be a sd/una agree square for difficulty.

I won £25 again this month so £50 in two months with Premium Bonds!

I think you're allowed to say whatever you feel.

Wow, Cake. I've had Premium Bonds for seven years, and not won anything in that time.

Signed up for a short developmental psych course on a whim (it’s free for me since I’m doing the psychoanalytic fellowship) and the first lecture last night was fascinating—watching videos of parents and children interacting and interpreting their speech and behaviour. Super interesting!

I think it does also depend on how much you've invested too. I have nowhere near the max limit but less than 6.2k. Though I've got a lower amount than one my sisters' by £400- she hasn't won yet. We all started at the same time two months ago and I try to buy at least £25 every month. Wish I started earlier as the draws only happen once a month.

I'm dreaming of one of the bigger prizes. I've looked at the previous winners and someone won one of the million pound prizes with only £17 invested and another won with £5900. Someone on another forum I know won £1000 last month. I've also heard of someone else winning £10,000 with £100 bought as a gift from their parent.

I like the fact that every pound is 100% safe and you can withdraw it at anytime ( might have to wait up to a week) and it offers the same thrill of playing the lottery without the risk of losing your money.

Glad you enjoyed it. The other thread inspired me to look up psychoanalytic training in the UK. Will you also be required to see an analyst which I'm guessing
your current T isn't?

Communicating over email is hard. I've had a rough few days since my most recent session, and just sent R an email. Saying that my feelings make me want to run away is not the same as saying I want to leave therapy, right?

As usual, I agree with Lemon. I say whatever I want to say to my T and let her figure out what to do with it. Usually if I were expressing concern about something about her, she would thank me for caring and it would be a nice little moment and then we'd move on to something else.

I’d have to see an analyst if I went further along in training but I’m still not sure if I’m going to do that.

So since I am responsible for bringing new words to the Couch, here’s one I just learned myself: samizdat.

@@, I thought of you today when I entered one of the NYT Crossword answers.
Using trigger as a spoiler tag:

You know how when everything is the same except one thing is different? Samizdat!

Oof, I'm restless today. I'm all jammed up about therapy, the election, NaNo, diet/exercise, fellowship stuff, anxieties about work.

I'm trying to keep myself busy to ward off the worst of it, but it's not quite working.

I had a nice long phone chat with my other-coast BFF this morning, which was really lovely. I *love* talking with her--it's so grounding, plus I always straighten up the apartment while she and I are on the phone, so my space is looking a little better now. I've got a writer's group this afternoon (over Zoom/discord) so that'll kill some time. And the weather's nice enough so I can go for a run at some point. I'm also joining in an Among Ups party tonight with my roommate and some of her friends, so that'll help kill the hours at night. (I've never played before, but I did the tutorial thing and it seemed kind of cute and fun so maybe it'll be reasonably diverting?)

Yeah, I saw that and missed Mr. Murse.

so h and i bought a new scrabble game on friday (our old one was missing a bunch of tiles haha) and we played for the first time in quite awhile. I was actually ahead of him for a short time and finished not too far distant from him. he still always wins, cuz he's so good at the strategy part of it. even though i'm good with the words themselves. i need to learn how to strategize better. although i did end up with 250 pts, that was pretty good for me considering it's been years since we played!!


with the new words @@ is bringing us here, I should start kickin' his butt in no time! haha!

Therapy work is really hard. I am finding it a great struggle to examine and consider my hurt whilst needing to live a normal life alongside. Work, being in relationships, not having enough space, all of it together seems too much. Overwhelm because I am in pain.

Maybe you could scale therapy back for a while? Every other week or so. This is a crazy time with the added pressure of covid.

I would rather scale back real life for a while. Every other week of life might suit me well actually. Who do I contact to organise that?

I thought you guys were going on lockdown for a month? Things have speeded up again, havent they. Only its the chores that take twice as long or twice as much effort, and then theres no good breaktime.