Night Shift

Thank you

Hi all,

Full moon tonight and, by my standards, it's been a giant day in the 'outside world'. Headachy all evening but easing now. Looks like it's been a difficult day in some parts of the forum. Hope that settles or resolves soon. I don't quite know what to make of it just reading through the posts a little while ago, but I'm sending you hugs @Appleblossom.

@Billamba How great that you don't feel like you are working when you are really working hard at your job. My mum often used to tell me I was lazy but she also ran herself down for being lazy ( in reality she worked hard as a nurse aid most of her life). She's 80 now and still says it about herself quite often, but not about me these days. I think @Appleblossom is spot on about the association of mental illness with laziness being one of the biggest hurdles in relation to stigma.

With the overhead fans and air coolers, the white noise is part of it for me too and I also like the feeling of the air moving over me. BTW, I think you write well here in the forum and I imagine it's something that is likely to only get better with just doing it. It's a worthwhile aspiration you have there. Thanks too for your encouragement with my interest in voluntary work.

@Former-Member Sorry you've had a hard day, it's natural that things would have arisen for you. Take it easy on yourself. Glad you are getting a child free day tomorrow. I relate to what you say about taking risks on the forum. I definitely wouldn't say half of what I write here to people in real life, except in a support group perhaps, but then I think it would only be a very small part of what gets said here. After the Topic Tuesday last night, I'm still wondering about assertiveness. I'm not sure where I am with this. I tend to want to avoid conflict most of the time. I witnessed so much of it early on.

@Former-Member Hope you feel better really soon. There's never any need to reply to messages. It's all here for us to come and go as works best in our lives. Rest well. ❤️

After 2am here now and not sleeping after my 'big' day out. Releasing some nervous tension here on the virtual page. I'm very wired after attending a 'real life' mental health support group today. It was cancelled but I spent some time hanging out there with a couple of other people who had turned up for it, and the lovely woman at the front desk who joined us for a while.

Being there was more confronting than I expected. I found the experience intense for various reasons. I got kind of paranoid. I recognised that I was feeling this way, which helped, and I stayed relatively calm, at least on the surface. I'm kind of grateful to that social mask I have but it's hard to maintain for long periods of time. It held up for the most part today.

I plan to go back to one of the groups they offer every couple of weeks. It's a group with a leader who has lived experience of bipolar. Hopefully next time I might be able to process without quite so much 'hypervigilance'. There is a part of me that sees it in a fairly rational way. Meanwhile my nervous system seems to have gone just a little bit haywire.

The part of the day I loved was walking up and down the beach to get there and back to the group, probably about 3km in all. It was windy and warm. Seagulls were cruising the airwaves. A smattering of people, jets and clouds. The ocean at low tide. Steady footsteps...

@Mazarita Hi, Ive been trying to find you and here you were 25 minutes ago.

@Mazarita

How are you? Where did you find the group to go walking up and down the beach? I live right next to the beach and it's so difficult for me to get there........weve spoken about that before havent we?

so good that you moved to a support group. when is the next group? yougoing there; you will help many.... you are so compassionate....

I been to them to get support in the past and maybe ille be going back soon. I might get a lot out of them.

Hi @PeppiPatty,

Yes back again. Just saw you are about to go to bed. Nightie night if you are not staying around for a bit longer.

Woops, sorry, didn't see the rest of the message. It was just me walking up and down the beach to get to where the group had the meeting.

@PeppiPatty Looks like you are editing your post and adding bits, can't keep up, hehe. Thanks for that lovely thing you said. We have spoken before about you getting to the beach. I'm interested in how it was in groups for you before...

um, on the 265 project, im trying to post mindfullness part 1 by Jon Kabat Zinn but it wont come up. can you see my post on last message ? can you post ?

I was trying to post detachment by Alan Whitt but Jon Kabat Zinn is so wonderful....

but @Mazarita you have just..... flowered and flowered.

night night @Mazarita

On groups......yes well.......

when me and Mr hub got together, he was insistent I got support so joined Arafmi weekly support groups during the day for people experiencing times of MI and carers.

its all about the facillitator; whether they are good or not. I got usually a great one but there were others there I have no idea why they were hired.

the woman who facillitated was this wonderful wonderful lady with lived experience. I saw her about 6 months ago with her daughter and ran up to her and thanked her.

I might be going back shortly.......

night night @Mazarita

On groups......yes well.......

when me and Mr hub got together, he was insistent I got support so joined Arafmi weekly support groups during the day for people experiencing times of MI and carers.

its all about the facillitator; whether they are good or not. I got usually a great one but there were others there I have no idea why they were hired.

the woman who facillitated was this wonderful wonderful lady with lived experience. I saw her about 6 months ago with her daughter and ran up to her and thanked her.

I might be going back shortly.......

Posted the video over there in the 365 thread now, @PeppiPatty. Looks like it's worked this time. Interesting what you say about groups. We'll see how it goes. Best wishes on you maybe going back to one too...