Life and trauma

Thanks @Till23 @Former-Member

You are all amazing. Thank you for all your support.

I hope you both have a restful weekend. It's been great reading all your posts this week.

Thanks @tyme ♥️.

Thanks @tyme tomorrow will be a busy one for me driving a couple of hours to my sport competition, competing for a few hours, most likely in rain and wind :face_with_rolling_eyes:, then driving the couple of hours home. Hopefully I can still have fun despite the weather. At least the weather won’t be as bad where I’ll be not like SE QLD and northern NSW. It will be rainy when I get back home, hopefully not too windy. At least it will be exercise which is good for MH. I will only know a couple of people there, so that’s a bit anxiety provoking, but at least we’ll have the shared focus of the sport.

I hope you @tyme and @Former-Member have as restful weekends as possible.

Thanks @Till23 . Enjoy your weekend and your sport competition 😊.

@Till23

It used to be for the Adelaide Cup horse race. As far as i understand the story... It was stopped in the early 2000's (?) because no one cared about the race and a half day holiday for Christmas Eve happened. Although the holiday continued for the metropolitan area as just 'March public holiday'. I noticed this year it seems to be back to Adelaide Cup day... so who knows... I don't think anyone really knows. We just like a day off in March. 😁

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@Former-Member wrote:

I'll be ok, I have to be, I'm not allowed to show weakness, I'm not allowed to show emotion, I have to be a pillar of strength for everyone else.

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@Former-Member

I used to be the exact same. I still am for the most part. But i've found that show that emotion and still give (hopefully successfully) that strength and support to others. It's possible to do both. In fact i think it's easier because i spent my life being this positive, happy, and funny person for people no matter how i felt. No one really cared how i was doing. It was all so one sided. So now I still want to help people as much as i can, but i need some help back at times as well. So it's easier for my to keep giving that support out because I know it's not all one sided anymore. Vulnerability is a strength, never a weakness.

@MJG017 I'm always giving support to others whenever I can. In the real world I've done this throughout my life but every time I've needed that bit of support it was never there. It didn't stop me trying to help people but it did stop me being vulnerable, I put on the brave face and never let them know that I'm struggling. Pretending to always be strong, that my life is perfect when in reality I'm falling apart quicker than I can pick up the pieces. When you have people that depend on you then showing weakness and emotion isn't an option, cos if i fall apart who is going to be there for them.

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@Former-Member wrote:

When you have people that depend on you then showing weakness and

emotion isn't an option, cos if i fall apart who is going to be there for them.

I get that. Maybe i'm wrong in your case, but sometimes we support people we know aren't in a position to give much back. Which obviously is a lot different from choosing not to. I don't know who these people are obviously, especially to you. But i hope on some level they appreciate the sacrifices you make for them, and how lucky they are to have you there for them.

@MJG017 you'd be right, these people aren't in a position to give back and nor should they have to. But I've helped alot of people and it's always been the same, you know you get the 'thanks so much for your help i really appreciate it, if there's anything I can ever do for you just let me know' but then when you ask for just a tiny bit of support or to even just talk about what's going on you get shut down, ignored or told to just get over it. I'll never stop helping people cos I know all too well what it's like to be alone with no support but sometimes, just every now and then I'd like for someone to see my struggles to see past that forced smile and fake laugh and to actually care enough to check in and make sure that I'm ok.

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@Former-Member wrote:

just every now and then I'd like for someone to see my struggles to see past that forced smile and fake laugh and to actually care enough to check in and make sure that I'm ok.

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@Former-Member In my own experience, those people are rare. but they are out there. And it's important to have some of them around, otherwise it's just too draining over time. You only need 1 or 2 in your life and it makes a huge difference.