Night Shift

[Appleblossom]

Hello to all the usual posters on this thread. @Mazarita @PeppiPatty @Jacques @Terry etc  I am back!

Congrats @Billamba for getting in ... tell us about "O" week and your course when you have time.

@Former-Member I am glad your moods are levelling a bit ...  ok ... is just fine ... as highs and lows both can be exhausting. 

I think part of the  growth of gender roles and specialisation of labour was just a genuine response to human needs and making a living .. but it is the different value that is assigned to the roles or activities that can lead to power differential. Domestic tasks do take time and energy. It may take just a few minutes to slap a salad sandwich on the table when an experienced hand and in a hurry ... but these activities are often dismissed as minute and taken for granted ... and some example cited undervaluing the contribution ... eg ... "oh it only take a couple of seconds to make a minestrone" etc ...  ingredients need to be shopped for and meals need to planned .. food cared for and prepared ...  it all takes time and effort.

I am not heavily invested in the debate about whether or not women should work outside of the home .. I am more analytical about all the whole question. Some women are more dominant than men in and out of gender assigned roles. We are all individual. Personally I had a career orientation and education but stopped "work" to care for a baby and wrecked my neck and could never get back into fulltime workforce... so continued in partime-work teaching piano, being a bookclub co-ordinator and working in choirs ... ... but never WORKED harder ... yet still get accused of being lazy and rorting the system.  Despite the fact that both my physcial and emotional issues are due to OVER WORK.  Hmmm.  I am getting used to the accusations and developing a tougher skin ... not taking ages to figure out and register others' rudeness and bigotry. I AM fighting back.

@Former-Member Hope you are doing ok ... I was wondering how you negotiated the emailing with your psychaitrist ... I would like to be able to do that occasionally.

MY GOOD NEWS is a bit like @Billamba

We returned home Sunday, son composed 3 pieces in 48 hours and passed audition yesterday.  This morning I sent him off with packed lunch to his orientation.

My son applied to get in at diploma level but was accepted into a Bachelor of Music.  So they upgraded him immediately.  I am over the moon.

[Terry]

Wow, Appleblossom - you are dynamic!  Congrats to you and your family on all your various achievements!  Yes, I try to ignore the insults and abuse regarding mental illnesses as much as possible, too.  Or I just stand on my head in a corner and start clapping and yelling 'I'm a banana' :0  🙂  *sigh*.

I hope you are not referring to me when you talk about rudeness and bigotry.  I hope I am not rude or bigotted but I do know that I AM an ego-maniac.  Anyway, if I've offended anyone I apologise and hope I can not offend anyone in future - I need to learn and grow as a person like everyone else.

Yes, women are deinitely under-appreciated across the world and Australia seems to me to be a particularly sexist country, although it's a very good place to live in other ways.

god bless!  god bless!  :0  🙂  🙂

[Terry]

ps. @Appleblossom, I would like to email my psychiatrist too - anonymously (hee hee!  😞  that's not actually very christian of me).

In fact, as far as I can tell, the whole structure of the mental health system should be different.  Obviously, there should be no mental health act.  And I suspect psychiatrists should be on call at least some of the time.  Actually, mental health treatment should consist of TLC, therapy and medication (in that order, I think) and in intensity at times (the TLC and therapy - not so much the meds; i think meds can be practically eliminated after a period of time; by 35 I got a sense of being healed).  I suspect that with intensive and effective early intervention most people with mental ilnesses can start to resume nearly normal lives within 2-3 years and continue to have normal or nearly-completely-'normal' lives.  Anyway, that's what I think.  I type a lot, don't I?

x  :0  🙂

[Former-Member]

Hi @Appleblossom - I'm glad you are back ☺️ wow congrats to your son, that is great news!! How exciting! Things are just coming together for him now after being through so much!

I think my emailing started after about 8 months of not getting very far with therapy and the psychologist said to me that if I needed to contact her inbetween sessions that would be OK but it was going to b hard for her to help me unless I could talk to her (I had a heap of court stuff going on and was low). Later that night I wrote down everything I wished I could say out loud and was thinking in session and sent it to her email that was on the business card - and she was really happy and we've slowly made progress since

[Terry]

Some countries in Scandinavia are having massive successes with intensive talk therapy as early intervention.  I think this totally stands to reason and is EXTREMELY encouraging.

Anyway, I have to go drop a present in to someone I upset - I spend too much time having to do that, actually.  Then i'm going out to get a stooopid volunteer retail job so that i can at least spend some time in a 'normal' work environment even if they are going to keep insisting that i laugh at their insults.  then i've got an article to write, which i'm looking forward to very much.  have a great day y'all.  you're all in my prayers actually. have a great day and god bless xx  🙂

[Appleblossom]

@Terry Of course I am not referring to you about bigotry .. I find your posts engaged and provocative but not bigoted. I am interested in comparative religions more than in any one religion being the be all and end all.  Though you are christian ... I found one of your posts reminiscent of a kundalini experience ... from hinduism ... just a though a response to the energy experience ...I hope you dont get offended ... cheers Apple

Being in orphanages and developing a passive social side just to survive and evade abuse has meant that Heaps OF PEOPLE ALL THROUGH MY LIFE HAVE RUDELY UTTERED VARIOUS THINGS TO ME. Told me how to behave etc ... often directly sometimes indirectly ...

I am referring to them ... and sometimes I may have taken some things personally that werent meant for me ... but now I do try and clarify.

I hope nobody on this forum INTROJECTS anyone else''s general statement. It is a common problem for the so-called normals too. We tend to be more sensitive and it is often a habit to then refer generalities to the self.

My active side is the part of me that just gets on with the job ... regardless of others ... in that yes .. I have achievements ... and now I hope my son settles into his course.  My son tends to have difficulties in institutions as he is not as passive and submissive as me ... and I dont want him to be .. but still it is better to make some compromises and get out into the world and get an education and a career .. if possible.

Thanks for the welcome back @Former-Member.  Good luck with the truck and oodles of boxes ...

[Former-Member]

Oh I've fallen in a bit of a heap with the unpacking - it's all a bit overwhelming so I'm pretending the boxes and mess and things I can't find don't exist. At least for now lol 🙂

[Shimmer]

Haha I like your strategy @Former-Member! 

Sorry I am a bit out of the loop at the moment, where have you moved to?

Shimmer 

[Terry]

@Appleblossom, i'm so sorry that you were in orphanages - that is terrible.  you can have my parents if you like - they don't like me much anyway and would probably prefer you.  but seriously, it is a tremendous tribute to you that you have achieved and continue to achieve so much for yourself and your family with such an horrendous start to life.  good on you and god bless.

your post reminds me that we should all be a bit careful about what we post at this forum - i believe i have 'spilled my guts' about most of my life here.  believe it or not, i am slightly mindful of what i post here.

ps. i am rather excited that i am getting into ikebana at the moment have found two really interesting squiggly-wiggly twigs in the park and i am painting them and making arrangements out of them with artificial flowers.  they look better than the bought stuff that people jam in vases too, so far!

i have to go find a job now. i have blown all my dosh and have to get some paid copywriting work too.  the only problem is that businesses only want to hire the blokes - my stuff is award-winning and they still don't want me *mutters something about sexism and breaks squiggly-wiggly twig sitting on table*!

[Terry]

@Former-Member, set a goal to unpack one or a half a box, and then have a break - that will/should encourage you and help you to break down the task into smaller bits x 🙂