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@AlwaysMyself I was able to get credits for the 2 units (from the UG certificate) added onto my degree without having to complete the UG certificate 😊😊 also I dropped out/withdrew from the UG certificate so I won’t need to worry about having to do the remaining units on that course again cause now at least I have credits added from those 2 previous units that I’ve already done! 🙂

also, today wasnt really my morning because a few people I’ve talked to online have p!ssed me off, but since then I’ve been at the library for the past 4-5 hours studying 🙂

I even had my counselling session with my counsellor/therapist in the past 2 days and will be having a counselling session tomorrow evening with another counsellor that I trust 🙂

Haha @rav3n that happened with me and laundry earlier too 🤣. But eventually did it!

@Blackcloud that is such great news that you got the credits recognised!!! Yay!!!! I am super glad for you - incase my exclamation marks dont show that. 🤣

Sorry to hear that some online interactions have been stressful. I find that occasionally too and make a conscious effort to "check in" with myself and how Im feeling when I read something and if I realise its causing me an emotional reaction that I cant disengage from (when I should/need to) then I try to stop reading it and do something else too. 🙂

Study is a great diversion! Productive too! Well done! ☺️

Glad you had a good session with your counsellor, and another upcoming soon also.

I'm looking forward to one next week with a counsellor I've just started with, its been a bit of a few weeks since the first one. 😅

@Shaz51 *waves* *sips Iced coffee*

Good evening everyone!! How’s the coffees going? I didn’t have one today and was meant to do errands and slept instead 😆🤭 whoops!! Should have had a coffee lol

How was your errands day @AlwaysMyself 😊 the iced coffee sounds good too!!

Hey @Shaz51 @rav3n and @Blackcloud 👋

I’m off to walk my dog, she’s looking at me waiting haha 😅

@AlwaysMyself hahah it's so easy to get distracted with others things hey, glad you got the laundry done! i'm not sure what state you're in, but in melb here it's been nice and sunny!

hey @Blackcloud nice to see you around!! yay for getting those credits added to your degree!!

@Chasingsunsets hope you and Indi have a lovely walk, let us know if you spot some more cool stuff!

Hey @rav3n ! I did spot something another cool bird and there awesome nest (haven’t seen a nest they make in a really long time so a massive highlight)!! I think it will be for tomorrows highlight as the honey eaters and the friendly fig bird made today’s highlight 😊 stay tuned haha

How’s your evening going?

@Shaz51 if you have range and on here but no pressure as you are on your holiday getaway ☺️ and @AlwaysMyself

@AlwaysMyselfthe problem I’m having with online interactions as of now is the fact that some people aren’t willing to put in the effort to maintain or keep a conversation going - I’m referring to those that constantly respond to you in just a few words maximum, even if you send them a text that’s like a medium to a long sized paragraph, or if you send them like a bunch of short texts in a row at once. I always expect them to respond in just more than the few words maximum and I hate it when they just dont put in the effort to do that because it makes the whole convo between them and I really awkward and uncomfortable, so in most cases I just decide to block them as a result.

I had the session with my counsellor yesterday but the session was kind of a depressing one and not what I was really expecting before the session happened.

@rav3n @Cuddlebear

Oh dear, I'm sorry the session yesterday didnt go as well as hoped @Blackcloud . Do you feel safe enough to give them feedback on what might make future ones more helpful for what you're needing?

Keeping conversations going sometimes with some people (and I include some face to face ones I have too) can be so hard - like pulling teeth! I find that asking them open-ended questions can help, but as you say they can sometimes still give just the bare minimum answers and not much to comment on in return. If I know a person has a special-interest topic, I'll often ask about it as a way to get them naturally talking/engaged. Thinking up interesting conversation topics can be challenging 😬.

Rest assured I give a tad more answer than the bare minimum? 😅🫣 proudly guilty of essay length posts lol.

@AlwaysMyself just to clarify, it's not like it was bad. we were discussing about how services that can provide the web chat option (especially in volunteering roles that can aid in my intended pathway to be a peer worker that only allows me to use the chat function as a form of communication) is really rare. Like at the start of the convo she started asking me "did you work today?" and then I told her about my current situation about volunteering at lifeline (how I had to keep skipping shifts that I scheduled for last month and early this month) because of what I experienced during my first placement shift for lifeline at the time back in July that prevented me from wanting to keep going.. anyway, that is to say my autism and my past experiences that heavily influences how I see life due to my long-term barriers really comes into play in all of this. And what I've been looking for or wanting (for my needs to be accommodated) is for any existing peer work volunteering service (and even placements) to provide a web chat function for us to communicate with people that need support instead of us having to actually talk to clients face to face. Lifeline provides this but they're a crisis support service and the crisis support approach is different to the peer worker approach. I don't know how to really explain all of this any better but I hope you get the picture. It's really frustrating how peer work services AND institutions that have peer work related courses are still yet to accomodate this -- by allowing us to use a chat function for us to interact with people that need support instead of having us to interact with them face to face or through the phone (this goes for the placements especially, not too sure with the volunteering though as I don't know any peer work services that offer volunteering roles for this exact position). But at the end, my counsellor was happy enough to post something in the Facebook groups she's a part of on my behalf. She's a neuroaffirming counsellor which is great for me ❤️

Exactly, it blows my mind how some people can really do the bare minimum when it comes to engaging yet they still want to look for some friends 😂

and ohhh you're completely fine regarding the last part! 🙂 - as long as it's not an answer that's only a few words maximum e.g. "I'm sorry" or "I'm sorry that must be hard"

That's a really interesting point re: realtime text-based peer support. I guess this SANE forums is sort of in that space - except that its not a 1:1 private chat and generally not realtime-synchronous chat.

I can imagine crisis support would be a little different from peer work, and I imagine much more stress and possibly triggering. I sometimes think I'd like to do phone-in crisis support work, but I think it would be too difficult for me call-after-call especially if the person is unable to be helped by talking (i.e. not just needing to help calm down after a triggering incident). I also probably wouldn't be as down-the-line on my views as the orgs may wish either lol.

Do you have a specific demographic or type of support you're most passionate about providing? If you could get into it, that is.

@AlwaysMyself yeah, I’m just passionate about providing peer work support for individuals - I guess in terms of individuals that are specifically young people, but also most importantly I wanna provide neuroaffirming support for those that are neurodivergent since I’m neurodivergent myself & I understand the struggles of it. 🙂

crisis support is definitely more intense, because youre dealing with people that are going through a crisis and need urgent help and I feel like that should be ideal for professionals that have had prior experience with being a counsellor/therapist instead of having volunteers (a lot of them are inexperienced) to be crisis supporters.