Tillogram

Hope all goes well tomorrow with your volunterring @Till23 Stay dry! ( As dry as you can)

With your last post, I wouldn't mind unpacking this at some point. I think you raised an important point and it may be worth clarifying - stepping back vs avoidance.

Just something to consider. I'll wait and be led by you when I see you next.

Gezz.. my head is everywhere. I don't even know what day it is! Um... Yes, I think I'm online tomorrow but later in the evening. See you then!

Thanks @AuntGlow yes I know you're almost at stumps.

I hope you have a lovely rest of your evening and a good sleep.

I hope your salt treatment helps with your coughing so you can get a good sleep.

I try to try, but as I say to my (soon to be gone psych) I'm just F*ked

Sorry I'm not saying anything recovery oriented except I will keep putting one foot on front of the other to get to volunteering tomorrow

Try being retired @tyme - you never know what day it is 😂

Wow it's really pouring here now

How are things feeling for you today @Till23?

PS: You're not f*cked, you're human. Complex, nuanced, and wonderful. 💛

Heya @Till23 , How'd you go with your volunteering? Was it raining?\

Hope you're okay.

Hi @tyme (I think you have already left @AuntGlow)

How are you, I just logged on and it looks flat chat on the forums tonight

It absolutely poured raining here at times today and as predicted got a bit wet walking to volunteering from where I park my car - about a 15min walk.

Volunteering was ok, sometimes I have some good chats with the guests and I did today. I am trying to change my working day so I can attend some other things, so I spoke to volunteer co-ordinator about that, which was good.

I am pretty tired this evening and have been trying to do some life admin.

Do you know one of the best things for rainy day? GUMBOOTS!!!! I never loved them more than being able to have my feet stay dry!

It sounds so rewarding to be able to get out to speak to people. I guess that even if you didn't 'feel' like it, you'd still have to. In the past, I foudn that this helps me get out of my 'own head' sometimes. The most helpful was when I was working with kids.

I could be feeling terrible in terms of my mental health, but as soon as I saw kids, my spirit was lifted.

How many hours did you do today?

Sounds pretty tiring!

Actually, the forums are okay. Not THAT busy. @Till23

Oh, and just a heads up that I'm not on the forums tomorrow. There have been a few changes.

Hi @tyme yes I did wear sensible water proof shoes. I am a sensible shoes person in general.

Volunteering is fairly intense because I work at a kind of soup kitchen where there are sit down meals. The people have many different challenges in their lives, homelessness, addiction, mental health issues, legal problems, financial problems etc, etc.

Sometimes people become dysregulated and that can cause problems. So it can be depressing if you allow yourself to be drawn in (because it actually is very hard for the guests and you need to separate yourself from that, so you are not consumed) and sometimes you are intensely concentrating to ensure guests and volunteers are safe or trying to notice when a problem might arise. It could be something as simple as happened today, when someone got the "wrong" cup with their coffee in it (it was not blue, the newish volunteer did not know about this need for a blue cup), one dysregulated guest can cause a bit of a chain reaction if not dealt with quickly.

On the other side, everyone is mostly really nice, polite and thankful that the service is available. You can have some great chats learning about people's lives and their skills and talents.

I'm always tired when I get home though - its 5 and a half hours of constant guest contact in the section I am, where I serve the meals to people's tables, so on your feet the whole time as well.

So I feel I need to make sure my MH is ok enough to be there.

Thanks for heads up about staff changes

I get that @Till23 !!! Wow! So it's like you always have to be on your toes, ready for anything.

In a way, I feel it can be the nature of working with complex mental health. You want to give people agency and voice, and then you also have to protect yourself and others around you. However, I feel that if effective strategies are in place, and workers (including volunteers) are supported, they can really thrive in this environment @Till23

There are certainly a lot of pros and cons for peer work or MH work in general.

I wouldn't stop doing it @tyme as I think it's worthwhile. It is not a peer role. I am just a random volunteer from the community as far as the other volunteers and staff know.

Even though I can find it really difficult at times especially if my MH is not good I still like doing it. There are some amazing people in the world and some very less than ideal people.

Anyhow I hope you ahve agood Friday whatever you now end up doing