Couch 238: Appreciating Small Progress Couch

Happy birthday Scarlet

I hope you have a amazing day

My 40's were probably my most fun decade.

Going to the Rams game on Sept. 18th! (I got ticket insurance just in case though.) Parking was ridiculous!

Happy birthday, Scarlet. I hope you are able to find some peace and enjoyment in the day in some way.

Hey, couch. Just dropped in for a few to say hello and send out hugs to all who want/need. H has Covid right now so I've been pretty busy with working and taking care of him the past week or so. He's starting to feel better which is good. He's still testing positive and it's been 10 days now since he got sick. Thankfully he didn't get sick enough to have to go to the hospital, but he was super miserable for the first like 3 days. I've been sleeping on the couch while he isolates in the bedroom and I'm taking every precaution so I don't catch it - so far so good.

Hugs for all couchies who are hurting

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

Today turned out to be a good day minus a stupid headache. But hey, after this month, I'll take a headache for a good day! H took my dad and I out to a steakhouse for dinner. It was really nice.

And this year I appreciated the presents my parents got me. My mom crocheted me a green blanket (my favorite color). And my dad got me two silk pictures (the leopard and the ferns) and a Lassen poster.

The Lassen poster has very special meaning because one summer my dad and I went to Hawaii. Just us. And we got to meet the artist. When my parents divorced, my mom sold all my dad's Lassen paintings. So this is a reminder of one of the few great times in my childhood.

Happy Bday, Scarlet!! Im glad it was a decent day, minus the headache.

I'm glad you're feeling better, SK. I'm also very much in awe about the hours you work and the amount of volunteering you do!

Wow, I don't think I can manage 22 hours, haha. In one of my former part-time jobs, 20 hours was exhausting, though I'm sure my iron deficiency and PTSD played a major role.

I'm glad your T checked in with you.

In my experience in forums (back during dial up or ADSL days), kind of like joining a Meetup group in offline spaces... most people start off feeling uncertain if they belong, then tentatively posting, and then eventually start knowing people and feeling free to be weird!

I do understand the social anxiety though.

I liked 30s, 40, 50s and my favorite right now are the 60s. The number of Fs I just don't give keeps growing.

well since i’ve just been munching on ambien, i’ve decided it’s a great (!) idea for me to order a whole pizza. for one fat person who doesn’t need pizza.

ugh.

Hugs, Artie--I hope your H is fully better soon and that you don't catch it!

I hope so too! Hugs gratefully accepted.

Some time ago, I managed to get a bunch of mint for extremely cheap. I'm making self watering pots out of used plastic bottles and an old shirt. I don't have access to a garden or balcony space, so I'm growing them indoors in my bedroom which has a window. I got other required stuff quite cheaply because people get bored and sell or straight up or give away items, or I recycle stuff I use.

They're doing really well, growing healthy roots and leaves. I'm quite thrilled that there's a few plant swap / gardening swap groups on Facebook where I live. I notice folks barter for food, drinks, gardening supplies, and so on.

When I feel a great deal of despair (which is very regularly), that helps. I'll probably give my T a mint plant at some point.

Stuff with my fiancé is always uncertain, and I feel I'm doing planning all alone at times. It's the mental load for household chores, except it's for moving countries, you know?

The gender wars of household chores: a feminist comic | Gender | The Guardian

My most recent aid application for vision healthcare (to waive my current bill in tertiary care) was really difficult. I wish I didn't have to detail my abuse history extensively in graphic detail.

The cultural taboos against speaking badly of even very abusive family members then being asked why was I abused (like I'd know?), and being asked if it was due to parental stress. It bugs me how widespread some assumptions are, since even life threatening violence gets excused.

Of course there's the pain of the deep and pervasive cultural stigma of "mental illness". As though Asians want to develop them when I know just how much contempt, blatant disregard, and shaming I'd face? And of course, always stuff like "it's all in your head", like there's no physical symptoms and its just a lack of willpower and laziness. That I'm "dangerous”, “crazy".

Having to prove I'm unable to maintain even part-time work. I was trying to work while certified unable to work by my psychiatrist (that isn't handed out easil) - I lost the jobs. I don't get government monetary benefits or anything like that.

I'm immensely grateful to the organisation who put me on their food distribution, because I'm ineligible for virtually any other organisation's food aid/food bank simply due to highly specific things despite having high unavoidable expenses.

I literally can't afford the group home my Occupational Therapist wants me to consider, and it's been more than 1 social worker not knowinf it costs a lot

I basically had flashbacks that night, and then a bunch of nightmares. Then yeah, T triggered me in our session the day after. Having so much nightmares since then.

I just saw an article today that seemed to link "anankastia" and BPD. I was shocked! I always thought of my obsession with organization as to be a little OCD, but never as a symptom of BPD. Would make sense because it does run in my family on my mom's side. My sister does it, and even all 3 of my little nieces are obsessed with organizing. Just interesting. Never heard the word before.

Happy birthday Scarlet!

Good god - the idiotic university has come out with a student well being nonsensical set of edupsychobabble insanity. Are we really thinking that talking everyone into being a wussy is a good idea? I say no and start with not telling people how weak and victiminy they are all the time. Why are we talking people into being victims and wusses - it is crazy

It sounds like it might be a way of hopefully preventing students from developing anxiety or depression? Have I got this wrong? If I got it right, surely it's a good idea?

No - people have to learn to deal with life. This is an attempt at turning them all into anxious weepers. Any number of these people are not prepared to come to college -they should not come instead they need to wait until they grow the F up. I think this sort of crap convinces people they are weak and need to be anxious and depressed.

Nobody chooses to develop mental illness, stopdog.

In my opinion, it's better to deal with something before it becomes something that could affect them long term, something like depression could easily, without help, go from being something mild, to potentially becoming life-threatening

It could be like leaving something like cancer cause "its only mild" but then becomes more serious cause it wasnt addressed as early as possible.





Depression is not something to just leave and see if it gets better, if someone is suffering from depression, they deserve to get helped. Even if their depression is situational, like mine was.



Then a whole heap of other crap kicked off, that my brain blocked so as a result, rehoming my cat was the only thing i can remember of that year without it being a flash



I mean, another thing i get is social anxiety about being somewhere new, its why i have not been on any holiday since about 2005 i think, cause my fear gets too much, only time i arranged a holiday (well, Mum arranged it technically) i had to cancel it cause i got so stressed and anxious i was physically sick over going, it was 2013 when i would of gone on a coach holiday but due to my mental health, i genuinely was not well enough, i got so stressed out and fearful about going, it caused physical symptoms

It is pouring down rain here and the roads are flooded because it has been parched for a while so the rain is just running off. This is some new record for rain fall in X number of hours. The park near my house is mostly underwater right now - it is fun to see the ducks swimming on the paved path but kind of put a stop to my biking plans for the day.

So T got in a minor car accident. Minor as in she rolled over a big rock. She's okay but apparently her car is not. So she cannot make my 6 PM zoom session because she has to take her car in and deal with getting a rental, etc etc.

Okay. So she sent me three texts last night (I was sleeping during that time so I didn't get them until this morning). She was random and all over the place in her texts although to be fair, maybe she just had the accident and wasn't all put together and therapist-y yet. So she said she didn't think she can make my 6 PM time and maybe we could talk later, then she said, maybe Thursday at 5 (nope that is when aftercare is), then she said she couldn't do Thursday at 5 afterall. Then she said maybe this weekend. Etc. Etc. Never actually settling down on a day and time. Sigh. So that was sort of frustrating. But I can't really fault her because maybe she doesn't know her schedule yet.

Anyway....
trigger for SH

Glad you are getting rain, stopdog. We could sure use some here. I guess there is a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon, but that is what they said yesterday, and none came. We had a flash flood warning and everything. Still no rain.

Another email with more mushmouth crap from the university.
I don't know which pisses me off more - the idea that the administration believes this bs or that they don't but still push it out to satisfy mamas and daddies so they pay to send their kid to the school.

Stopdog is this red or blue stuff? Like woke material or "dont worry we will help your pregnant daughter"? Like what is behind the onslaught i wonder?