WELL THIS WAS UNEXPECTED
I went for a most delightful walk yesterday – up to Fluted Cape on Bruny Island. I’ve done the walk several times […]
Author: slyemm
BACK ON TRACK
Just as I was knee-deep, wallowing around in my little starving pity party, I received the feedback from my manuscript assessor regarding the first draft of my memoir – temporarily titled Stalked by Demons. Guarded by Angels | The Girl with the Eating Disorder.
I’M SORRY…
I’m the girl in limbo who lost who she was and doesn’t know what comes next. In the meantime, the grocery bill has significantly decreased at the expense of my sanity and my husband’s peace of mind.
UNSETTLED
It takes six little words feeding the eating disorder voice, to override a year of conversations nurturing the timid voice of recovery.
ABCD THERAPY
It takes very little time in the world of mental health treatments, before acronyms and mnemonics become everyday language. Psychiatric therapies have come a long way from the induced seizures, exorcisms and lobotomies of the past. Today there are countless methods of treatment – pharmacological, behavioural, community, and medical. Psychiatrists tend to be the big boss of drugs and medical treatments like ECT or TMS, while psychologists tend to deliver the behavioural and community therapies. And they love their acronyms. For anyone out there that hasn’t been blessed with the opportunity of gracing the couches and uncomfortable plastic chairs of therapy groups, I thought I’d share a summary of my experience of the ABCDs of therapy.
HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE MARIA
There is something incredibly healing about being so close to nature and having the time and freedom to just explore. I challenge anybody not to be calmed by the beauty of a sunset over the painted cliffs, the vista atop the peaks of Bishop & Clerk, or a baby wombat poking its head out from mum’s pouch for the first time.
TUNE IN TUNE OUT
I don’t know where it comes from as I listened to it prattling away for half a century and it’s only recently I noticed another voice hidden in the background.
BURDENED
When the burden of being a burden becomes so burdensome the burden can no longer be bourne, it’s crunch time. Disappear into Wonderland with the big white rabbit, going permanently mad? Or just go – permanently? Or do what needs to be done and reach out? Clearly the latter is the healthier option.
PERMANENTLY TEMPORARY
I live in a state of being permanently temporary. I guess we all do to some extent… But since ceasing paid employment at the end of 2017, my routine has been – to put it mildly – flexible. I like it this way.
It’s very bad for me.
GIRL WITH THE EATING DISORDER
I identify really strongly as “the girl with the eating disorder”. I need a better identity in order to move past this one… I get asked from time to time what to “do” to help or support me. I’m usually flummoxed by this question. I have no idea how to help myself – how can I provide information I don’t know?!
HOW ARE YOU?
A coded question, that in some circumstances, is a call for help. When struggling with some variety of mental health problems, it’s […]
FEARING HOPE
Hope seems like such a positive emotion. Something anyone would want to have and strive for. Something we’d all hope to have […]
RECONCILING GOD
I have found God. Some people reading this will rejoice. Others will wring their hands and wonder what the fuck happened to […]
TOO MUCH
One way or another, we all feel different but some differences are too much while others are celebrated. What is curious, is that sensitivity is rarely considered a positive trait in twenty-first century living. Being sensitive is being different. It’s inconvenient for others. Yet if more of the populace was highly attuned to the feelings of others, we’d live in a kinder world.
THE SAGA OF THE STITCHES
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change… And one of those things is the endless leakage from two of my laparoscopic incisions. So much for in one day and out the next surgery. I’m so freaking tired… Sequence of events.