Stabilisation therapy

So the weather is confused at the moment - one minute it's 16 degrees and feeling like Spring and the next it's -2 degrees and snowing!

I've completed my yearly order of several hundred garden ready plugs this last week and my new iMac came a week early, so I had fun setting that up. I know Apple is wayyyyy overpriced, but they do make a lovely piece of kit and it will make working from home that little bit smoother with a bigger screen to work on.

I've become a massive fan of Ricky Gervais over the last few months, something I was not expecting. I watched his 3rd live show "Fame" the other night and loved it (I'm working my way through them), so have booked to see him in November for his 7th live show "SuperNature". I cannot wait. That's my birthday treat to myself. There's so much more to him than what the media and his critics portray.

The Stabilisation group therapy I had intended to start before my last hospital stay started this week. It's online which is pretty tough. I've never done any group therapy online before. When I had to start talking to my counselor over the phone this time last year, I was dreading it. I know it actually worked out ok and I was able to disclose things I hadn't ever spoken about, but it took time to adjust to a different type of session. The thought of having to keep my webcam on for safety reasons was daunting as well. I think it went ok. I enjoyed learning about the psychoeducation behind trauma and it's massively reassuring to learn that trauma memories are not stored in the brain like normal memories. I didn't know much about PTSD or C-PTSD before all this happened to me - like many people, I immediately think of war and soldiers - but it's so much more than that. We learned about our window of tolerance and how past trauma throws that off kilter. Every therapy I've done always comes back to the same things: sleep, exercise and healthy diet. I challenged this (like I always do) because these are the things that are often half heartedly prescribed when someone first mentions they are depressed. We all know what we should be doing, but it is bloody difficult when hitting a period of being unwell. I felt it was important to say that and to keep saying that. Those things only work when you can stabilise yourself back to some level of functionability.