Monthly Archives: January 2018

Going Ahead

by in Creative Writing, Mental Illness, Status Updates and tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello Blog,

Today is Wednesday, and I’m running game tonight. I have some fun shit planned for them so we’ll see how it goes. That can be my creative outlet for today, and I will ensure it keeps me up long into the night. I am very pleased with the progress of the story and the participation of my players. At first I thought I was going to merge them into two total characters, but now I am starting to think it would be best to keep them all separate. They are becoming too distinct and each backstory relevant to the plot. I need to find a way to capture who they are, and this was a problem that I encountered once I started to write it. Oh, If I hadn’t mentioned earlier, my D&D campaign is also a novel, or rather, three novels, which I am writing simultaneously. As the game unfolds, the book is written. At this point, they have completed nearly a book’s worth of plot advancement (on the order of 25 chapters). I suppose that will be extended until a climactic moment in which there will be a cliffhanger. The story is very entertaining, and the world in my head is so rich and full of detail, I really only select the level of detail I wish to convey while not being too tiresome.

Anyway, the writing of the thing is coming along well. I am into the second chapter and I haven’t really decided how long and how purposeful to make each one. I am going heavy on the history at first to get readers introduced to the universe and the physics. All has to be unveiled delicately, and not in a “here, look at this” sort of way. You see the quandary. I’ve never written a novel, but I’m not going to let that stop me from trying.

 

In other news, I’m a week away from my final certificate in my mental health Peer Support Specialist training. I truly feel more capable and functional in a variety of situations and symptoms. I think this is the right field for me, and a lot of what I feel is harmony. I know I can make a difference out there. I have an optimism in my heart that will not go out or be quenched.

 

I have not much time left here in San Diego. Soon I will be in West Sacramento, in a new shape of existence. I am gathering the elements together to make a new path for myself and I am proud of that. I will continue to pursue hope and happiness and deal with the setbacks as they come. I hope the best for you all today. I’m off to get my affairs in order and protect myself for the new life transition I am undergoing.

Graduation

by in Mental Illness, Status Updates and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello Blog. I am pleased to address you now as a Certified Peer Support Specialist! I graduated Peer Employment Training with a 97.5%!

I have taken the first steps on my path towards a new career helping people at ground-level. I want to be someone who people remember positively, not negatively. I have so much damage in my wake, and a great desire to pay the kindnesses done to me forward. I have begun to walk towards a better life and the steps I have made so far have enriched me.

Yesterday I completed 8 hours of Mental Health First Aid, after 75 hours of Peer Employment Training. Two certificates though! YES! I will have a forth in a couple weeks when i finish NAMI’s Peer and Family Support Specialist training. As you can see, I am serious about making my life into something I can be proud of. I feel more empowered and proactive than I have in months to be sure. I have, again, faced a relapse down and achieved stability after. I will not let those moments end me, but instead, show me a new beginning.

I have completed the bulk of my training down here and now I have come to find out we will be moving even sooner than late summer. Now the move is a short two months away, and we are already putting the machine of home-search into action. We are now looking for a place we are likely to spend years living in.

I saw a beautiful girl at training yesterday. I wish I could have told her what I thought, to boost her confidence, but the whole thing is an unwanted can of worms. Everything about the thoughts that formed after was terrible. A series of disappointments, misunderstandings and regret. It all happened within a couple of seconds. That’s all the consideration there is anymore because I’m becoming securely Asexual. Life can still have people in it, mind you. Love takes all sorts of interesting shapes. Isolation is not the answer to anything really. I just have a new proximity boundary which I need to respect for my ongoing health. Stability is paramount.

I hope you are all having a good weekend. I am enjoying a well-earned day off from the learns. I have many of dem.

In It

by in Mental Illness, Rant, Status Updates and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I am pleased to report that my PET training is going very well, and I am learning a great deal from my classmates. They are all so bold and open with their feeling, which inspires me to do the same despite my reservations. It’s not just the skills, but how they are implemented that is making a difference for me.

 

Today we are sharing our personal stories which I am a little frightened of. It is a abrasive feeling to talk about myself flatteringly, and this is the hurdle I am striving to overcome with this career path. I can’t deny the facts that I have done great things, but I still have my hands on the reins to prevent the glorification wagon from going over the cliff. My humility is one of my best qualities, which reinforces a desire to not proclaim self worth with any sort of volume.

 

But the facts remain that I have done good and I am doing better than I have ever been before. Even if I throw doubt at that, it doesn’t stick. Logic prevails. However, there are far more mercurial subjects that lend themselves to a more destructive path of logical reasoning. It can be both useful, and poignantly detrimental. I have plunged to my lowest lows because of that negative logic spiral. I learned my train could be hijacked.

 

I wish I had these skills a long time ago. Maybe I wouldn’t have been such an abrasive partner or husband If I had better communication skills, or better listening skills. I can logic that back a bit by also recognizing that even if I had been a good communicator, doesn’t mean that would be a mutual thing. All my partners had no true ability to grapple with themselves honestly, so nothing of true worth ever came to be between them and I. I see so clearly now what a functional relationship is supposed to look like. Even though I’m content that I will never have that for myself, I feel empowered knowing my future interactions will be significantly more diverse than they had been in the past. There are fewer mental obstacles to my success than I can ever remember before.

 

Well Blog, I think today is going to be a good day. I promise to be open and genuine with my classmates, and tell them the story of my journey as only I can tell it.

 

PET

by in Mental Illness, Rant, Status Updates and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Peer Employment Training is underway, and the next two weeks are going to be very busy. I, by the time it is over, have myself a state certificate for peer support. Truly, this is a monumental step in completing my MH training. I have a newfound sense of enthusiasm for my life.

Subsequently, I found myself wanting to reach out to Jax, because I miss her. Just talking to her, seeing the unique spark of her creativity and as rewarding. I guess the thought of leaving here next summer, and never seeing her again is pressing down on me. I don’t know why I’m feeling this, I just know she was special.

I’m full of thoughts. I know I’m improving as a communicator and in my emotional development. These coming days will be hard, but rewarding to be sure. Well, class is about to begin. See you later.

Slow and Steady

by in Mental Illness, Rant, Status Updates and tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

I am in a very fortunate position to have a safety net to fall back on in times of crisis. My family has always been there for me throughout the years, despite all my crash and burn events. It makes me wonder what life will be like when they are gone. What would I do if it all fell apart again? Hopefully I would be able to work something out, but the thought is worrisome. I still think that having a support structure is really important to recovery, since its not always an easy road. That is why I am getting back to volunteering, but also just good common sense. I know from experience that if left unchecked, I will slowly deteriorate into dust. Monitored, poked and occasionally questioned is best, since it keeps me in the present and also forces me to come face-to-face with my actions.

Right now, in this uncomfortable interval, I am homeless but not hopeless. I am pursuing justice as well as exerting my energy towards a MH career. I also have come to realize these things are not going to move at a speed that I feel normal about, nor are things going to be in my control very often. I am finding that the more little things I push into motion, the less control over the outcomes I have. I then find myself in this limbo between events, where I am unsure how to occupy myself without guilt. I have made with the fun for the most part with these past days, admittedly. Now I feel like I need to “get serious” or something and stop allowing myself to have largely unregulated fun. I feel guilty about doing things that are not productive, yet keep me distracted while the wheels are turning somewhere in the background. Maybe this type of conjecture is not resolvable, since there are great arguments to be made on both sides.

So I’m in a type of sullen paralysis where I do what feels good but, subsequently, feel rotten about it. It’s not like I have demonstrated a desire to not work, or an eagerness to loaf. I do not prefer these as default states, as I have mentioned before, but vastly prefer ordered time be justified and valid. Work allots play, and so on. Now, however, things are different. I am not coping effectively with the feelings I am having and I feel like it is only a matter of time before I wear out my “welcome” and generate animosity in my environment. I fear this outcome though do not overly expect it will be true. These are things I fear. Hence the purpose of this place: to vent my feelings idly into cyberspace to avoid their residency in my brain. Ideas don’t stay in and not do anything.

So Blog, I am thinking that I will try to post daily, and start documenting the feeling I am having through this process. I have decided not to go back to doing therapy with Margaret as she has proven to be a bit out of touch now that we see each other so infrequently. I’m not in a regular therapy kinda place. I have the fundamentals down pretty well, but need real hands-on experiences dealing with all sorts of issues as they arise. Whether my interpretation of something internally or an observation about something outside myself, I need to know I have the tools and can use them. I find my parents and their dysfunctional system of communication is a good place to start.

I will keep posting as the days go on, and new emotions come up. We are all going through these things together at different times in our lives. This is my time to struggle,  and soon it will be yours.