Having a Linus’ blanket of your own does not mean you’re childish or weak, any more than it means your sister is a narcissistic sociopath who’s going to pull the football away every time your best friend tries to kick it.
tools
Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Meds
We are each unique individuals with unique needs and unique problems. Not every medication will work quite the same way for all of us and may have effects greater or smaller, better or worse, than others.
Active Listening: a Primer
Active listening involves concentration, understanding, responding when appropriate and only to an appropriate degree, and letting the other person guide the conversation as they need. And it’s still a conversation so long as one person is talking (or snotting on your sleeve) and another is paying attention.
Abuse of The Safe Space Concept
The concept of a safe place, a happy place, the use of it physically or only in minds of those who need one, and its efficacy as a useful and valid tool to manage anxiety are under threat because of a small but vocal bunch of thugs who throw it like they were throwing rocks.
Structure, Routine & Planning
Structure and routine are important to me, and many of those like me, regardless of the severity of their anxiety. It allows a certain level of control that we need in order to properly function, and we’re often unable to respond to last minutes changes very well.
Mindfulness: A Primer
Paramedics as a general rule tend towards the technical. It’s what attracts a lot of us to the field, as it was for me. By understanding that mindfulness at its core is an evidence-based, peer-reviewed technique, I was able to use it more effectively than I had before, even though it’s not a fancy sciency word.
CBT: A Primer
Before 2003 I’d never heard of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, CBT, but it had fancy sciency words in the name and I like fancy sciency words, they comfort me. The social worker/therapist facilitating it, however, never explained what it was or the basis of its efficacy. I think I was expected to know by instinct, or simply follow along and reap the benefits by rote use of what I thought were silly schoolboy exercises from a book with cartoon illustrations like a first-grade speller.
Trigger Warning Not (Usually) Required
I want to write things that explore the more esoteric philosophical ideas of emotional existence rolling around in my head like marbles; examine practical, healthy aspects of living a life at relative peace with the world, both inside and out, and tools we can use to achieve that; talk more about quality of life than whatever shitty road I took to get here; and occasionally have a bit of goofy fun.
Tiny is the New Big
For the longest time I only ever had one coping mechanism that I’d classify as healthy, and it’s one that everyone already knows, but because of just that thing it’s become cliched and ignored.
Patrick Riley 