Couch 227 - The Safe Couch

Even if someone sees you take out garbage -so what? What difference would it make?

Youre funny! I was on youtube last night and all these local accidents showed up, i was like wth is going on tonight?!

I am worried some texas whahoo with a gun is going to kill the tiger before the animal rescue people can get her.

Thank you, dr SD! I'm cured! You and Dr Albert Ellis.

Honestly, i think it has to do with toilet training. Something freudian. I just dont like them WATCHING me. I like my privacy.

"Me and my garbage...
Strolling down the avenue..."

It's my job to take the garbage and recycling to the curb every Wednesday morning. Usually at least one of my neighbors is doing the same thing at the same time. I don't mind. I'm the first one up at my house so it's up to me to get them out before the garbage collection comes.

In my case, it's because I still feel like a pariah because the ex tried to burn our house down and inconvenienced the whole neighborhood until the wee hours in the morning. I also wait until it's dark to take my trash/recycling out, if I take it out, which I don't every week. I also don't want people judging me for how many liquor bottles end up in my glass bin so I take it out as late as possible.

Wait... What? Is there a tiger running loose in Texas? I haven't been paying attention to the news.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the story because some yahoo decided to steal a uhaul this morning and there was a chase with the police so all other news got pushed to the side. I really wanted to know what happened!! I only got the teaser that there was a tiger loose. I didn't even know it was Texas!

yeah my mom used to count the bottles in the mother and daughter across the street's bin. In case you are wondering where i got my nice streak from!

ETA - Tomorrow i am having a grand day out. To the library to pick up tax forms, then a haircut, then my vaccine. I need to find shoes and underpants before then!

My thinking was maybe it was shame related.

Well done!

You don't need pants for the victory dance.

Found it for you. I already knew Houston was wild.

What's his normal email reply timescale like?

How was your session?

He responds to texts within the hour, but thus isn’t a text-worthy issue (I’m distressed but not in any actual danger).

His official policy on email is that he doesn’t respond to them at all, though in reality he probably responds to like I dunno 10% of them for one reason or another. And when he does, it’s usually within 12 - 24 hours.

I think part of my anxiety here is that I’ve just never asked him for an extra session and I don’t know how he’ll react. (He did offer me an extra session once but I declined because I wasn’t feeling all that bad at the time.) I’m afraid it’ll become a whole thing about BPD and boundaries and The Therapeutic Frame.

So, with my T, if it's a scheduling thing, he tends to prefer texts. Requesting an extra session would fall under that. Maybe try texting and asking if you could have an extra session, without necessarily giving details? (Dr. T prefers texts like that with no details, though he's relaxed on that lately.)

LOL! Now youtube algorithm is sending me these: a blast from my past:

Exactly. I have a kindle book on shame, i should get back to it.

I keep telling you it isn't hard to be a therapist.

And really I don't think others are paying that much attention to anyone but themselves.

I *think* my T once specified that texting is only for situations where I’m in danger of hurting myself, though I’ve never had the urge to text him for a different reason and haven’t ever tested or clarified those boundaries. He’ll sometimes text me about scheduling stuff, though, so I dunno.

I’m also a little worried that he hasn’t read the whole email (which, to be honest, is fairly long) and therefore hasn’t encountered my request -or- is annoyed by my request (and/or some of the contents of the email) and is waiting until next session to talk with me about it.

Ugh.

I hope you hear from him soon, Chihiro...

Hey chihiro, I hope you hear from him soon. I know that my T would want that kind of request in a text but everyone is different.

I know I’m a bit late to the trash conversation, but the compactor for our complex is about a 7-10 minute walk from our unit. Literally on the other side of the unit. Normally when we need to take trash out I drive them over when I’m leaving to run errands or something. Today was nice, though, and I’m apparently super Vitamin D deficient so I decided to walk. I did feel a bit self conscious, but the people I saw along the way didn’t acknowledge me or anything.

I’m kind of* nervous about tomorrow. Quick backstory, a few weeks ago I made this breakthrough in therapy that led to T and I doing some heavy lifting trauma work. Between sessions I got super triggered, couldn’t cope, did some stupid things, and was in the hospital for a week and a half. Anyway, I’m feeling better now and when I talked to T last week, we both kind of agreed that the best way forward is to just power through. So I have a 2 hour session tomorrow evening starting at 7:30pm. We’re doing this so that we can do as much EMDR processing as possible. Will also have another 2 hour session on Thursday. Pocket riders would be greatly appreciated.

*very

I'll hop in, daisy.

I'll hop in, daisy.

Aha! It's probably hardest to be us!