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.
Tag Archives: Recovery
Daily Prompt; Describe a Decision You Made In The Past That Helped You Learn or Grow.
Daily writing prompt
Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.
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?
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
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
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
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!!!
Weekly Plans
Sunday
- Mindfulness meditation through the Calm App
- Morning walk
- Read
- Art (color and/or rock painting)
- Work on mental health recovery workbooks
Monday
- Mindfulness meditation through the Calm App
- Morning walk
- Attend Emerald House (a mental health clubhouse)
- Work on mental health recovery workbooks
- Dinner with friends
Tuesday
- Mindfulness meditation through the Calm App
- Morning walk
- Attend Emerald House (a mental health clubhouse)
- Attend Queer Space (in person) group
- Kickball practice
- Work on mental health recovery workbooks
Wednesday
- Mindfulness meditation through the Calm App
- Morning walk
- Emerald House virtual group
- Attend (in person) WHAM group
- Work on mental health recovery workbooks
- Kickball practice
Thursday
- Mindfulness meditation through the Calm App
- Sexual Health: An Essential Part of Recovery Training (virtual)
- LGBTQ+ virtual group
- Kickball practice
- Work on mental health recovery workbooks
Friday
- Mindfulness meditation through the Calm App
- Morning walk
- Attend Emerald House (a mental health clubhouse)
- Virtual appointment with therapist
- Dinner with friends
- Work on mental health recovery workbooks
Saturday
- Mindfulness meditation through the Calm App
- Morning walk
- Kickball game
- Work on mental health recovery books
- Read
- Art (color and/or rock painting)
The Bright Side of Focusing on Recovery
Good Morning, World!!! It is the start of another work week and sadly I am unemployed due to disability reasons. A disability with major stigma attached to it which is mental health challenges. As much as I am not a fan of my disability and the stigma that goes along with it; I am glad that I need it for my chosen career path as a peer specialist.
As much as I wish I was working as a peer specialist or working at all, I am happy to be focusing on my recovery. My recovery is key to not only my chosen career field but to my everyday life. Life that includes a life worth living. A life worth living with a cat, friends, loving partner and a wonderful physical health team as well as an awesome mental health team. I guess what I am saying is that the bright side of focusing on my recovery at the moment is that I can completely reevaluate what a life worth living looks like for me at the moment.
I do not have much more to write about in this particular blog post. 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
Sunday
- Mindfulness Meditation practice through the Calm App.
- Morning walk
- Lunch with grandpa
- Do my laundry at grandpa’s.
- Work on a mental health recovery workbook
- Art (color and/or rock painting)
- Read
Monday
- Mindfulness Meditation practice through the Calm App.
- Morning walk
- Attend Emerald House
- Work on mental health recovery workbooks
- Art (color and/or rock painting)
- Read
Tuesday
- Mindfulness Meditation practice through the Calm App
- Morning walk
- Attend Emerald House
- Attend Queer Space (an in person group where I get therapy at)
- Work on mental health recovery workbooks
- Dinner with friends
- Art (color and/or rock painting)
- Read
Wednesday
- Mindfulness Meditation practice through the Calm App
- Morning walk
- Attend Emerald House virtual group
- Lunch with an old friend
- Kickball practice
- Work on mental health recovery workbooks
- Art (color and/or rock painting)
- Read
Thursday
- Mindfulness Meditation practice through the Calm App
- Morning walk
- Attend Emerald House virtual group
- Celebrate dad’s birthday a couple of weeks late
- Work on mental heath recovery workbooks
- Art (color and/or rock painting)
- Read
Friday
- Mindfulness Meditation practice through the Calm App
- Morning walk
- Attend Emerald House
- Work on mental health recovery workbooks
- Art (color and/or rock painting)
- Read
Saturday
- Mindfulness Meditation practice through the Calm App
- Morning walk
- Breakfast with a friend
- Kickball game
- Late lunch with kickball team
- Art (color and/or rock painting)
- Read
Tough Couple of Nights
Good Morning, World!!! It is just barely after five o’clock in the morning here in Seattle. It’s been a tough couple nights due to suddenly remembering something horrific from my childhood a couple of nights ago. On the good note about this is when I remembered, Junior was with me and then the next day which was yesterday, I had therapy.
Therapy is not meant to be easy but yesterday was tough but my therapist was compassionate and empathetic as always. She listened and gave me some suggestions to help take care of myself. My therapist makes talking about tough shit safe to talk about even when it feels unsafe due to PTSD symptoms.
Due to those PTSD symptoms, I had a couple of challenging nights and lack of sleep. Junior helped me Wednesday but was unable to help last night (Thursday) due to working. Sadly, he is unavailable today and tonight due to work as well. He is a firefighter and works twenty-four hour shifts and is doing an overtime shift today. Anyway, last night I had the help of a couple of friends via phone as well as my cat, Billie. I am grateful for my natural support system.
I do not have anything else to write about in this particular blog post. 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!!!
Gertie's Journey 
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