Roll Call Take Two

I agree that suppressing anger makes it grow. But so does acting it out. You have to walk a line between bottling it up and exploding. Anger needs to be expressed at the right time in the right way. It's a skill you can learn.

Anger is one of the things I use mindfulness on. If you decide mindfulness is useful for you, you might want to try it with anger later on.

I'll try it for that - I know it won't work straight away though.

They make me angry sometimes though, the answet to the question was only no - it shouldn't have ever been yes - so it wasn't hard to answer.

Quit the meds - sick of this.

Kureha - were you able to explain to them why you were angry? Sometimes anger bothers other people less if they understand the cause of it. They should at least ask you why you're angry, and give you a platform to talk about it, instead of just saying 'you're angry.'

They don't want me to talk to them - just to my psychologist. They know why I was angry - it was there fault.

Kureha, if you are going to quit, then I'd really, really highly suggest you don't do it cold turkey. If you were taking Abilify, I know that one of the things the PI sheet warns about is how you're NOT supposed to stop it cold turkey. I hear that you're sick of it, and I can definitely get why you'd want to stop the meds and I doubt I can convince you otherwise, but I just got over a bad situation because I went off of one of my meds too quickly (me and my mom both decided to do so, but I was confused at the time so I forgot to look up online how to do it safely) and without talking to my psychiatrist first, and I'd really hate to see you go through that. There are places online that can give you the safest schedule for coming off of medication, and I'd recommend looking them up if you're dead set on stopping. I just know it was horrible when I went off that other med too fast, and I'd hate to see you go through that.

Thanks, last time I stopped Abilify like that - it wasn't a great idea, but this time it's only been a few weeks so I think that might be ok.

I'll see how it goes though - my nurse always tells me not to just stop.

Here. Crazy week. Lots of stress, but some good news at the last.
Only £20 to make it through until next Friday because bloody work didn't pay me on time. No idea how I'm going to swing that.

Decided to cancel my appointments, I'll see my psychologist 1 more time - even though it's ages away to say thank you and sorry and get her a big bunch of flowers, because it's the least she deserves.

Hate myself for wasting her time, taking time other people needed.

Here.

At this point I can't decide which I hate worse - being at work or being at home. It's hard being around a depressed person. I'm not even clear he's feeling depressed. He has kind of a deer in the headlights look to him, and he doesn't say much. But when he does talk he sounds more depressed than anything else. "I wish I weren't so stupid." "Call me by a different name. My name is too good for me." But his body language and tone don't seem depressed. If anything, he seems slightly agitated - but only very, very slightly.

Looked into graduate school in psychology but found out I don't meet the minimum requirements. I need 15 undergraduate credits in psych, and I think I have 3. I'm enrolled in Psychology of Happiness (a 3 hour course) for this summer but I'm not sure that will count. Ugh! I'm too old for this, but I have to change my work or I think I'll die. My mood brighten immediately I decided to start working on this degree. Now I'm back to all my doubts.

I don't think you've waster her time. I imagine she doesn't think so, either.

Costello, from what I understand grad school requirements are pretty flexible. The requirements for a certain number of credits are usually for very young people just coming out of their undergraduate degrees.

You should talk to one of their admissions counsellors and ask about whether they will consider your life experience/experience as a carer and your motivation. At worst, they will say no -- and then you can ask what you can do to get those 15 credits ASAP.

Undergraduate work is not so much about knowledge or brilliance as about time management and beavering away at it, and I know you can do that.

Anyway, I'm here. Fuming mad at work for not paying me. I had big plans for the Jubilee weekend, but now I get to sit at home and try not to eat anything. Goody.
I've never been so tempted as now to take out a payday loan, but that is such a bloody stupid idea.

Yea, I'm going to talk to an admissions counselor for several reasons. The Ph.D. program is so competitive. I had no idea. For example, in 2011 they had 117 applicants and admitted 6. However, all candidates get their tuition waived. Everyone gets a teaching or research assistantship. It's also a very long program - 6 years average. So I'd be close to 58 when I graduated.

You don't need a Ph.D. to be a therapist. The MA will do (3 years) - or there are other degrees like an MSW which can do therapy. But I'm not sure I want to be a therapist. I might prefer research, writing, or teaching. So, I think I need more information at this point.

Meantime I'm signed up for the GRE to see how well I score.

Odds are I know far more about mental illness - and mental health - than many of the kids applying to the program. But academics and the real world don't always correspond well. Knowing how to deescalate a crisis doesn't mean you can handle graduate level work.

You know what would be cool? Establishing a Windhorse or Soteria type house. But for that you don't need a degree in psychology. You need a lot of cash and some business smarts.

No credit card you could put the party on?

How come you didn't get paid?

Yeah, PhDs are always competitive. Is there a chance for you to look at programmes elsewhere? Many places will take on PhD students who do not live in the same city/country -- even give them funding.

Augh, a 3-year MA?? They're one year over here. We also have things called "conversion courses", which last a year and let you train to be things like therapists or social workers -- even lawyers.

Good luck! That test is a *****.

Yes, but neither does having 15 undergraduate credits in psychology. Undergraduate courses aren't really academic anymore. The last social work job I ever did was give assistance finding medical care/support to foreign students with mental health problems coming to England to study -- and they were astoundingly bad. (I don't imagine British students were any better. I just worked with the foreigners.) Half of them could hardly spell, never did their readings, and so on. They whinged when they had to write an essay of more than 3,000 words.

Have you ever read R. D. Laing? All he did was be eccentric and brilliant enough that he got tons of funding.

Nope, I have never been eligible for one. I might be able to get one now that I'm permanently employed, but it won't help me this weekend.

I ended up borrowing cash from a rich friend.

Because my workplace is bizarroland. The only reason I stay there is because they pay phenomenally (when they get around to it) and the work is bloody easy. Plus, I make good contacts there -- government ministers and ambassadors and stuff.

I looked around a bit. But first I want to decide what I'm trying to achieve. I'm just too old to take a 3 to 6 year trip down a dead end.

I took the GRE once before - for library school - but it was a gazillion years ago.

Sounds like some of our law students.

lol... I've never read him. I've heard of him. Maybe I'm not eccentric enough?

Ok, there was a guy standing on the road in front my house who was dressed like these guys and holding this antenna-looking thing.



Wikipedia caption: "Civil Air Patrol members practice searching for an emergency locator transmitter at the National Emergency Services Academy. The member in front is using an L-Tronics Little L-Per, a type of radio direction finder."

He had a Civil Air Patrol truck (except his said "Civil Air Patrol" where this one says "Search & Rescue"):



Wonder what he's up too. Looking for a distress signal?

I have a headache, am PMSing, so getting more emotional than normal, and my husbands family is creating more drama. Seriously, we don't get along, so they decided they want to throw my son a birthday party and just not invite me, and think I should be okay with that. Really, I should be okay with my two year old having a birthday party without me?! WTF

Weird. Hope your headache is better soon.

Another gorgeous morning in June. The weather is so mild and pretty.