Night Shift

[Terry]

@Appleblossom ps. I have always been interested in comparing religions too, and have learned quite a bit about a few different religions and think that most of the major religions have quite a lot to offer.  But that doesn't change the fact that it was God (the God of christianity) who worked a miracle in my life and He says that He is the only God, and, obviously, that is good enough for me.  i wish i could be a better christian 'tho, and am praying on it.

i will tell you a little and marvellous story: i walked past two stone-hard-ruthless-looking tall swarthy handsome young australian men today and said a heart-felt 'god bless' to both of them, and they both melted.  it touched me.  people like to be and want to be blessed by god.  god bless!

[Terry]

@Shimmer should people be encouraged to post the suburb that they live in at this site, Shimmer?  Would it not be best if we kept that information personal as we reveal so much about ourselves in other ways here?

[Former-Member]

Hi @Shimmer, @Appleblossom (Welcome back!) & all.....

@Shimmer being involved in the mental health system since I was 21 made me interested in psychology. I really enjoy learning how & why people think & why & how people behave (as well as trying to work out why I am the way I am). At first I wanted to be a mental health nurse, then I enrolled in social work, but I finally 'settled' on psychology & did 1.5 years of a degree over 4 years. I did all first year, 2nd year (except neuroscience) & 3 or 4 3rd year subjects. At first I wanted to be a clinical psychologist & was particularly interested in pursing child psychology as I did the best in the developmental psychology courses (7's). However, I realised that clinical psychology would be 'too close to home' & due to getting back into exercise properly in late 2012 & joining a running group in 2014 - I became interested in sports psychology. My old gp said he would get requests for help from parents whose children are participating in sport... so apparently there is a need for sports psychologists. Anyhow, it is a dream & I want to do it for me, so I hope I can one day... 

Your story & journey with work is interesting @Appleblossom - people are silly thinking YOU are lazy!! It is very exciting that your son has been accepted to study a Bachelor of Music - I hope he copes with study & thrives!! 

I said well done to @Billamba, but I didn't spell your name correctly while writing the message on my phone - so CONGRATULATIONS again! I hope you thrive also!! 

@Shimmer I did enjoy hot vinyasa yoga today (& coffee with my partner afterwards). 

Namaste,

Anna 

[Shimmer]

Good pick up, @Terry - I wasn't asking what suburb @Former-Member had moved to (I'm sorry if it came across like that!), I just meant had she found a new house/apartment for her family. As you say, these Forums are anonymous, so disclosing our suburbs is not allowed. I'm glad you are across this guideline!

[Terry]

@Former-Member i'm just waiting for the chicken to cook and then i have to go out and buy some paint and get a job (and i have to write an article too).  i have an interest in psychology too.  i've always found psychology interesting, and i have had so much bloomin' counselling that i am probably and expert on it.  i never had any sort of interest in medicine but have learned a little about it and just a little about law too.  i don't really want to go back to study because, odd as this sounds, i have been denied a career in the field i am best in (and TRAINED in already) so i'm darned if i'm going to commit myself to anything else.  'study' be jumbled and tumbled and banged, i reckon (sort of: i actually read up on quite a lot of stuff online, including 'thucydides trap' today - you can get quite a good education online if you're too lazy to go to the library, which i am). god bless!  god bless! :0  🙂

i do actually like study, but being highly trained and very good in my chosen field and still being denied a career in it really annoys me, and saps my enthusiam for anything arduous, quite frankly.

[Shimmer]

Glad you hear you enjoyed your day @Former-Member and I wish you all the best in pursuing your dream of becoming a sports psychologist one day!

[Former-Member]

Thank you @Shimmer - unfortunately lately I've been okay in the mornings, but by late afternoon & evening my mood crashes & anxiety heightens. It still is an improvement from most of the last half of last year - when I just felt terrible day in day out 24/7... 

@Terry - good luck with the job search!

I feel I have to say something to you on your theory that people recover from mental illness & live mostly normal lives after 2 - 3 years. I have been in the mental health system for 13 years now & I still struggle immensely & do not consider my life as "mostly normal" (before that I was anxious for as long as I can remember, depressed since age 10 & anorexic at age 15 - 17 - anxiety, panic attacks, eating disorder & depression continued & I had a nervous breakdown at age 21 & also developed PTSD & schizophrenia). I have friends & family with mental illnesses & have met many people during countless hospital stays & what you say does not ring true. Neither does it ring true with research that I have read.... The level of impairment & duration of mental illness varies between individuals. Peace.  

Namaste,

Anna

[Terry]

Why don't we all get together and have a social event?  Where will we have it: Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Great Keppel Island (hee hee!)?  It will be more fun meeting each other and having a mini-holiday together than meeting new 'normal' people on holiday who will reject you eventually.

Let's 'get wrecked' on Great Keppel Island (showing my age!).  I'll have to save up for it first - what about next November?  I will investigate cheap accommodation if we can agree on a region - perhaps somewhere we can all get to, if necessary, by bus and ferry - the cheapest options, and camp near a town with cheap restaurants, a golf links and a nightclub!  Yeah!  GET DOWN!  and God bless  🙂

[Former-Member]

Hi all! 

My poor old computer is having a really hard time (also got lemonade spilt over the key board by children at christmas (the only time soft drink is allowed in the house lol doh!) so the keys are all sticking and its hard to get the spacebar to work - the joys of parenting?! 

Hi @Shimmer I've moved into a masonette type of house in a unit complex (does that make sense?), we're right at the back and there's no way to see our house from the road, with a garage under the main roof for the car as well! The windows all have locks, we have a little, but big enough, backyard with high fencing and its quite secure so I'm letting the kids outside while i cook and what not! Its small but more manageable for me too, and its really close to my new school which is a bonus! I'm missing some parts of living in the shelter,just being close to help and having the security that we had there, but its really nice to be in our own space again with some new furbabies! 

I have tidiedup the house, sorted out kids rooms today and feeling much more 'in control' of the whole moving situation - so i might start @Terry 's very good and sensible idea of setting the goal for a half box a day! My last house had the most wonderful wall of inbuilt shelving so Im really missing that storage/book shelf space and there will be about four cartons that will stay in boxes until I get some cheap bookshelves. But most of my teaching resources have been unpackednow so thats ok!

I have a psychiatric review tomorrow eek, to see if he thinks im ready to go back towork (but i'm going anyways LOL) - unless he offers to start paying my bills hehe!

LJ

[Terry]

@Former-Member, yes, i'm sorry if i mis-typed my comments on healing from mental illness.  I read a few months back that one of the scandinavian countries had conducted studies in which subjects received intensive talk therapy as early intervention and it was very successful.  I've just had a look on the internet now and I can't find a reference to it.  at present, stigma, discrimination and mental health legislation just keeps people with mental illnesses down and on welfare for decades and even the rest of their lives (and contribute to anxiety and PTSD and general ability to cope).  In the future, it seems likely that support and guidance (and monitoring) for dysfunctional families; and intensive 'TLC' and talk therapy (and meds as needed) will probably fix people with mental illnesses up quite quickly.  I would be working a 40-hour week still if it wasn't for discrimination, and i worked a 40 hour week for decades and coped with an unsupported disabilty and heavy discrimination the whole time AND did excellent work and I have excellent references.  It's only discrimination stopping me, and i am old and bored, and, if they don't want my 'considerable talents and intellect' (note: tickets on self) then i am going to the beach, and out for dinner after that.  yes.  god bless 🙂