Tag Archives: Recovery

Weekly Check-In

Posted on by Gertie

Hello World!!! I don’t know how much I am up for blogging my weekly check-in today. I am just so overwhelmed with the election results. I am also overwhelmed by how other people’s behavior is affecting me due to the election. I am also angry and frustrated with myself for reacting the way I did when someone misgendered me again and it is the same person that keeps misgendering me. Sadly, I feel like this particular person gets away with shit but that is how I feel and I know I should not react the way I did.

On that note I went to therapy this past Wednesday and of course we discussed the election results as my last session with my therapist was the Wednesday before the election. I see my therapist every other week. We discussed the fact how I fear for my safety as a disabled non-binary person with a uterus that is a part of the LGBTQ+ community and queer communities due to the fact that America voted in someone who is full of hate. We discussed ways to cope and take a pause as I am having a tough time pausing at the moment.

One of the ways I will be coping is doing art work especially the way Seattle weather is currently with it being stormy and yucky outside which is normalish for this time of year. I have been doing diamond art/painting as it is something I can do inside with the yucky weather. I have also been cuddling with my cat, Billie. I love being able to cuddle with my cat especially when the weather gets yucky here in Seattle. I love my cat so very much.

I do not have much more to write about in my Weekly Check-In. I do want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you the reader, read my blog. If it was not for you the reader, reading my blog, I would not be continuing to write my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Weekly Plans

Posted on by Gertie

Sunday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Morning walk
  • Breakfast with a good friend
  • Volunteer at PAWS Cat City
  • Clean apartment
  • Art (color and/or diamond painting)
  • Cuddle w/my cat Billie throughout the day

Monday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Morning walk
  • Breakfast with my partner, Junior (after he gets off work)
  • Call grandpa to thank him for his military service
  • Work on recovery related workbooks
  • Take and return calls for Alley Cat Project
  • Art (color and/or diamond painting)
  • Cuddle w/my cat, Billie throughout the day

Tuesday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Morning walk
  • Work on recovery related workbooks
  • Take and return calls for Alley Cat Project
  • Read
  • Art (color and/or diamond painting)
  • Cuddle w/my cat, Billie throughout the day

Wednesday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Morning walk
  • In person appointment with my therapist
  • Work on recovery related workbooks
  • Dinner w/my partner, Junior and our friends
  • Art (color and/or diamond painting)
  • Cuddle w/my cat, Billie throughout the day

Thursday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Morning walk
  • In person appointment with employment specialist
  • Work on recovery related workbooks
  • Take and return calls for Alley Cat Project
  • Art (color and/or diamond painting)
  • Read
  • Cuddle w/my cat, Billie throughout the day

Friday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Morning walk
  • Work on recovery related workbooks
  • Take and return calls for Alley Cat Project
  • Art (color and/or diamond painting)
  • Read
  • Dinner w/a good friend
  • Cuddle w/my cat, Billie throughout the day

Saturday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Morning walk
  • U-District Farmers Market w/my partner, Junior and one of my good friends and her partner
  • Lunch w/my partner, Junior and one of my good friends w/her partner at Red Robin
  • Art (color and/or diamond painting)
  • Read
  • Cuddle w/my cat, Billie throughout the day

Weekly Check-In

Posted on by Gertie

Good Evening, World!!! This is not going to be a long weekly check-in as I am not up for writing much at the moment. This has been an up and down week for me and the current weather here in Seattle is not helping my mood much.

I saw my therapist this past week and we discussed how challenging it is to have some intimate moments with my partner, Junior due to PTSD. My therapist gave me some positive feedback regarding intimate moments with Junior and that he loves and respects me to stop intimate moments when I end up in freeze mode due to PTSD. I am so grateful for an awesome therapist and the love of a partner who helps me deal with PTSD. I am hoping that my therapist gets approval from her supervisor to be able to have Junior in one of my sessions with her.

As depressing as the weather has been here in Seattle today and yesterday I am so happy that my cat Billie has been helping with the PTSD and depression. I love my cat so much and I don’t understand why he loves me unconditionally.

I am done with this particular blog post. Thank you for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Weekly Plans

Posted on by Gertie

Sunday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice
  • Morning walk
  • Volunteer at PAWS Cat City
  • Do self paced online training for Alley Cat Project
  • Read
  • Artwork (color and/or rock painting)

Monday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice
  • Morning walk
  • Attend Emerald House (a mental health clubhouse)
  • Do some self paced online training for Alley Cat Project and do some shadowing
  • Evening walk
  • Read
  • Artwork (color and/or rock painting)

Tuesday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice
  • Morning walk
  • Attend Emerald House (a mental health clubhouse)
  • Do self paced online training for Alley Cat Project and some shadowing
  • Evening walk
  • Read
  • Artwork (color and/or rock painting)

Wednesday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice
  • Morning walk
  • Therapy appointment with therapist
  • Lunch at Red Robin with friends
  • Clean apartment
  • Evening walk
  • Read
  • Artwork (color and/or rock painting)

Thursday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice
  • Morning walk
  • Attend two virtual groups
  • Do some self paced online training for Alley Cat Project and some shadowing
  • Evening walk
  • Read
  • Artwork (color and/or rock painting)

Friday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice
  • Morning walk
  • Attend Emerald House (a mental health clubhouse)
  • Do some self paced online training for Alley Cat Project and some shadowing
  • Evening walk
  • Read
  • Artwork (color and/or rock painting)

Saturday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice
  • Morning walk
  • U-District Farmers Market
  • Spend day with partner

Daily Prompt; Describe One Positive Change You Have Made In Your Life?

Posted on by Gertie
Daily writing prompt
Describe one positive change you have made in your life.
View all responses

A positive change I made in my life was when I went I decided to go into a two outpatient Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) program. I went into this program because I needed some help learning new skills to help with my emotional and verbal outburst as well as my self harming behavior and multiple suicide attempts. At first I was extremely wary of it however I am beyond grateful that I went through this DBT program and graduated from it. This was the second major adult decision I made for myself and my recovery. The first major adult decision I made was when I went to Mercy Ministries (now Mercy Multiplied) like I described in yesterday’s Daily Prompt post. Going into the DBT program was one of the most important decisions I made in my life and I am grateful for it as it helped me make bettered decisions in my life.

Daily Prompt; Describe a Decision You Made In The Past That Helped You Learn or Grow.

Posted on by Gertie
Daily writing prompt
Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.
View all responses

I think one decision that helped me a great deal to learn and grow was when I was twenty years old. It was the first major decision I made as an adult and I don’t regret it however if I were to have to make the decision now at forty-five I would not make the same decision. When I was twenty I considered myself a Christian and dealing with an eating disorder. An eating disorder that I greatly needed help with but my Medicaid didn’t pay inpatient or outpatient eating disorder treatment nor did I have the money to get it. So, after finding out there was a free residential program that I could go to in Nashville, I decided to apply to Mercy Ministries (now Mercy Multiplied). Not only was it free but a Christian program which was a plus for me at the time as I considered myself a Christian at the time. I was accepted into Mercy and graduated. I learned a great deal about myself and grew as a person. I felt like I grew up and became an adult while I was at Mercy. I learned a lot about myself and don’t regret going.

Daily Prompt; What Do You Do to Be Involved in the Community?

Posted on by Gertie
Daily writing prompt
What do you do to be involved in the community?
View all responses

Involvement in one’s community looks differently for each individual. For me getting involved in my multiple communities looks slightly different in each community. The one thing that is not different in each of my communities that I will mention is I volunteer my time. For instance I am involved with the animal welfare cause in many ways and the main way I do this is to volunteer my time at PAWS Cat City. I also help my neighbors with their pets when they need it as well.

As far as other ways I am involved with my community is that I am highly active in the recovery movement. I used to work as a peer specialist in the mental health field and I hope to go back to work in the field as my mental health continues to improve after a major trauma last summer. I am also helping plan for the Peer Pathways Conference by volunteering my time doing it. To me being involved in the peer and recovery communities helps me with my own recovery.

Another way I am involved in my community is being involved in multiple activities in the queer community. One way I am doing that is playing in a queer sports league for kickball. I am loving it and having fun as well as making friends. I am also apart of a queer book club where we read books by queer authors and/or books about queers. I am enjoying it and having fun with it as well as making friends just like kickball. I just applied last week to volunteer at Lambert House which is a community center for queer teens. I am hoping that I can volunteer at Lambert House.

Daily Prompt; How Would You Improve Your Community

Posted on by Gertie
Daily writing prompt
How would you improve your community?
View all responses

Hello, World!!! There are many ways I would like to improve my community. The two ways that I would like to improve my community that popped up into my head was helping people with their recovery with mental health challenges and/or substances plus helping animals. Helping both animals and people at the same time is possible. I would improve helping animals by helping companion animals such as dogs and cats to their furrever home which is something I do when I volunteer at a local animal shelter. Another way I can improve my community is to go back to work in the mental health field to help people with their recovery once my own mental health improves a little more. Hell, I don’t need to work to do that, I can just reach out to friends who struggle. I can also just stop and talk with someone who is asking for food or money even if I don’t have either to help the person. There are several ways to improve your community, you just have to find at least one that you are passionate about to help.

Depressed In Seattle

Posted on by Gertie

Good Afternoon, World!!! Right now I am struggling with increased depression symptoms. I do not like having depression but I do not know anyone who has depression that likes having it. I have been isolating most of the day with the exception of my morning walk and going to the grocery store this morning. Isolating is not always a good thing for me as it keeps me in my own head.

Being in my own head for any reason is not a good thing especially when I am isolating. Since, I have been isolating I have been doing some art work. Specifically, I have been coloring a giant poster I bought from Stuff2Color.com. The giant poster I am coloring is a Mandela. I like Mandela’s as they help me be mindful just like coloring does.

The other thing I have been doing besides art work by coloring is cuddling with my cat, Billie. I love spending time with my cat, Billie. Billie is a very sweet cat and I can’t imagine my life without him. I also took some pictures of Billie as well as selfies of me with him. Billie is an awesome lovable lap cat.

I do not have much more to discuss in this particular blog post. I do want to thank the reader for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you the reader, read my blog. If it was not for you the reader, reading my blog, I would not be continuing to write my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Weekly Check-In

Posted on by Gertie

Good Evening, World!!! It is Saturday evening which means it is that time of the week to do my weekly check-in. I guess I will start from the beginning of the week. I started the week by volunteering at PAWS Cat City. It was a typical opening shift for a Sunday. The best part was helping with getting a very shy cat to get adopted. I love it when any cat gets adopted but even that much special when a shy or spicy cat gets adopted.

The other major thing is that I attended both group therapy and individual therapy this past week. Group therapy is okay and I am enjoying one of the groups I am in. As far as individual therapy goes, I had a tough session with my therapist but it was a good session. Therapy is tough but well worth it.

Now on to earlier today as I played kickball. Sadly, my team lost but at least we didn’t lose to the mercy rule which is great for my team. I love playing kickball and enjoy it greatly. Kickball gives me a sense of community as well as some much needed exercise.

I do not have much more to discuss in this particular weekly check-in. I want to thank you the reader for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you the reader, read my blog. If it was not for you the reader, reading my blog, I would not be continuing to write my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!