Trait or state?

I was wondering today, as I talked myself down from a panic attack, how do people who don’t have mental illnesses figure out they’re under stress? How do they know if they’re in distress? They don’t have the ringing alarms of amplified symptoms to make them attend to their present reality. I only realize I’m sinking when my symptoms act up: the neurotypical don’t have … Continue reading Trait or state?

Reblog: “Complementary states: we aren’t made for one thing.”

I’m busy doing a whole lot of nothing. It takes up a surprising amount of time. Within the nothing, I’ve painted the mudroom, done a bunch of exercising with the FitOn app (it’s awesome and free, though I did pay twenty or so dollars for the advanced options), and met my new orthopedic surgeons. They don’t think I need a hip replacement yet (yay!), but … Continue reading Reblog: “Complementary states: we aren’t made for one thing.”

A woman’s notebook: journalling and some very dramatic poetry.

When I left home for university at nineteen, packed among my possessions was a journal. “A woman’s notebook, being a blank book with quotes by women” would become my first official diary, though not my last. If I’d been choosing one myself, I’d have picked something different: this one had half-size pages and a glued binding. I like spiral notebooks that don’t cause hand cramps … Continue reading A woman’s notebook: journalling and some very dramatic poetry.

A tree is not a book by Susan Cooper.

The interesting part of the January blogging challenge is that it expanded my writing to slightly beyond diarist. There was a quantity of hopefully widely-applicable navel-gazing, to be sure, but less current information was shared than is my usual trend. This means that up until now, I haven’t shared that I’ve been struggling with the effects of serotonin syndrome. It’s not so severe that I’m … Continue reading A tree is not a book by Susan Cooper.