Trust in Mental Health Systems #8/ Messages in a Bottle #20: OB-G-WHY?!-N

CW: Discussions of the experiences of one person who has a uterus (aka, me) attempting to receive gynecological care. I never exactly intended to write an entire series on why I joke in my Glossary of Terms that “I know trauma-informed care quite well – in the sense that the ‘care’ I have seen has …

Brevity Is The Soul Of Apathetically #11: Work Burnout

Ugh. The never-ending lessons in how to create a 'trauma-informed' and 'anti-racist' workplace that somehow manage to involve folks having to relive their own personal trauma(s) continue. (Or, as my Partner succinctly sums them up each week: "the beatings will continue until morale improves!") I'm not even just talking about me feeling work burnout in …

Messages in a Bottle #19: Trying to Conceive of Time

That same consulting firm that had us do Rivers of Life last month has been offering 'trainings' for my workplace since October. Back in October, they had us 'write a letter to a child under six in our lives' expressing what we wanted for their future. It had a handy Mad Libs style format where …

My ‘River of Life’ is the River Lethe

Hi all, Eek! I realized today that even though it feels like just "a couple of weeks ago" that I last wrote a blog post, it has actually been a full month! ADHD: it means all time is either "now" or "a couple of weeks ago." I think I alluded to the fact that my …

Pot Meet Another Kettle

Last time I wrote, I promised an honest review of adult psychoactive recreational substances as a solution for election-night anxieties. My review sums up to: I'm not "recreationally" affected, but they do make for slightly less unsettled sleep. My longer report is as follows: "Being the irony magnet scientist that I am, I have had …

Seeking Asylum in Faerun

11/7 Update: I formally welcome Pennsylvania back into New JersMaPennsRicutaware. Thank you. That is all! (For now!) My husband's first cousin - one of the ones we just don't speak to - got covid recently. He's younger than us, and he worked in a physically demanding job and was proud of the physical condition he …

Where’s Whoopsie #26: If Everything isn’t On Fire, I Must Be Missing Something…

I haven't posted a Where's Whoopsie in awhile. Apparently without live improv to afford me extensive time on public transit and in coffee shops, I don't draw much. My Partner noticed this and suggested I should prioritize doing something "creative" to ward off seasonal - and election and "in the house too often without other …

Orange You Glad I Reminded You?

There's no knock-knock joke here. Orange is the most common awareness ribbon color for ADHD Awareness Month. ADHD Awareness Month being in October is about the only 'awareness' anything that I can ever remain even vaguely aware of. Because there are entirely too many awareness months - and colors, and ribbons! - and my brain …

Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Write

Many things have been said about last night's U.S. presidential debate. The Times in the UK said of it: "The clearest loser from the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was America." The Guardian described it as a "national humiliation." Dan Rather at News and Guts wrote: "Who won and lost tonight …

Patience is a Mental Health Challenge

Partner (detaching a cat from his shoulder after she had climbed him, lost purchase, and ended up digging in her claws to stay on him at all): “Trauma Kitty, you were doing so well just sitting in my arms. But, for some reason, you have the instinct that when things are scary you need to …