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Till23Senior Contributor
Do people find that their recovery is very much like a game of snakes and ladders?
You manage to climb out of the abyss a few rungs on the ladder, then you slide back down again.
Do you feel like you land in the same place, or do you land at a different place, or do you feel like your back at the same place but you have a bit more knowledge about MH
In response to: Is MH recovery like a game of snakes and ladders
GlistenSenior Contributor
@Till23 asked: Do you think that evolving is moving forward or means your resilience has increased? I would have thought it was.
Me: No. To evolve is to change. I must examine my self defeating reactions. Question why I reacted that way and take action to overwrite that neural pathway.
@Till23 asked: Why did you put neurodivergence aside?
Me: Because I wanted to make the point, that malfunctioning endocrine system can make us bat 🦇 sh!t crazy and/or very sick. In some cases it is life threatening.
🙂
In response to: Re: Is MH recovery like a game of snakes and ladders
AppleblossomSenior Contributor
@WorrierWoman @Jigsawpuzzler I agree people can be very judgmental. I have really struggled to be me, be real and speak straight. Too many of my experiences are too intense for common conversation. In work I was able to compartmentalise, cos I had to, but now I am retiring, I am claiming the right to be All of me. It is so hard finding decent people…who have some openness.
@Glisten I get the importance of noticing endocrine systems and hormones and how they are different to psychiatric labels…. If “they “ were really honest… they would admit, despite all the advances in neuroscience… the science isn’t really in yet… humans are too complex biologically, as well as socially and psychologically.
Also the difference between evolving and growing… it is complex and we often use words a little differently….
@Till23 love this thread… maybe I am learning to live with the ladder and snake inside of me… not the Christian evil snake.. more the kundalini idea… of spiritual awakening
so…learning to own my highs and lows
Ii chose… my profile name … cos I was tossing up in my mind… the goodness of fruit and fruitfulness…. I am wary of overly dualistic thinking… which can be common …and now I am noticing in a google search…lots of varied concepts and interpretations of snake… in love… and no, I don’t just mean… Willies… lol
In response to: Re: Is MH recovery like a game of snakes and ladders
AppleblossomSenior Contributor
https://www.spiritanimal.info/snake-spirit-animal/
it’s interesting for me to contemplate this rather than going full bore Adam eve and the snake
I saw a snake last October
I also remember hiding in the long grass in a country orphanage and feeling safe and not so overwhelmed and exposed… when I was 7…til the gardener rounded us all up to show us a poisonous snake he had found and warned us of the dangers….
we also had beautiful boa constrictors at a zoo enclosure where I worked with young families….
@Jynx @Shaz51 @WorrierWoman @Glisten @Till23 @Bunniekins @PeppyPatti
In response to: Re: Is MH recovery like a game of snakes and ladders
Till23Senior Contributor
Hi @Appleblossom - I similarly compartmentalised myself and I definitely had the work me. I have now recently retired and it is difficult to have "time" to notice things much more, than just ploughing on. I have found this fairly difficult. I have always been in the game of snakes and ladders but I was able to use work as ladders mostly, without that I feel the snakes more, I think, because there seems to be less ladders to go back up again.
I never think of the snake as in the Christian Adam and Eve story - although maybe that's where the idea came from for the game - interesting rabbit hole to go down. I have recently found my interest in things (like these intersting rabbit homes) reawakening, because in the recent past I suppose a lot of my energy was spent on just surviving, now that's not so much the case. Although I do have the not-so-good days and in general a lot of fatigue and have to force myself to do things - which I know are good for me but I seem to lack the energy esp in recent past.
The snake is a totem for a number of First nations people.
One of my dogs was bitten twice by red-bellied black snakes and survived. I have seen or had interactions wth many snakes - including Tiger and brown snakes and red-bellied black and many non-venomous ones. So I am wary of them as I am of the ones on the board that seems to be a setting for my life
@Jynx @Shaz51 @MJG017 @Glisten @Dimity @Blackcloud @Spirit_Healer @WorrierWoman
In response to: Re: Is MH recovery like a game of snakes and ladders
BunniekinsSenior Contributor
@Appleblossom Apple i find mental health is like the tides on a beach. i am doing well as the tidal waters come in and then as the tides go out i am a mess again. as the tides are affected by the moon so is my mental health.
In response to: Re: Is MH recovery like a game of snakes and ladders
AppleblossomSenior Contributor
Yes I love using symbols and metaphors in a healing way @Bunniekins tides are great…. Love the water
@Till23 yes, It was a red belly we were shown as kids
a lot of the older kids were probably experimental teens in the grass…. They threw us all in together… til 16 years old … and lined us up naked in the showers…
I just remember any formative positive constructive moment in my life…
Retirement is a challenge… most people seem to need time to adjust and figure out the best way to thrive at this stage… I keep busy… always did
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Help us push aside the stigma and discrimination surrounding complex mental health and change the way people talk about, and care for, mental illness.
SANE acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders past and present.
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