The blog voice.

There are times when I feel this tongue in cheek blog voice at the ready, capable of flowing everything together, and making everything seem important, if not meaningful.

I tend to pick up my metal bat and BASH HIM THE HELL DOWN, and write.

I guess I have a fear of sounding clever or slick on this blog, because I am neither, nor do I feel like I'm either.  I am a pretty decent writer, though, and would rather that be the case then be pushed into the masses of sitcom-episode blogs out there, that have poignant, yet meaningful messages to pass on to today's lost souls.

Actually, I don't think I've read any blogs like that.  Maybe they're not real.  And, well, its not like anyone is really reading this blog.

I guess I could throw hands up for solidarity among the lost souls.  I AM ONE OF YOU!!!  But then we'd just all wander off.

I look back at what I wrote and wonder: is this how a hipster is born?  Nah.  I'm not ironic in anything.  Pretty real.  And I am not an expert in anything either.

But on to current news...  I have started a therapy program called DBT.  That stands for Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and I am still on the fence about it.  Mind you, I've only been to two classes, and one of them was orientation.  But this therapy group was a long time coming for me.

It was the suggestion of my Psychiatrist during my second stint in the psych ward(in May).  Actually, he really didn't give me much choice in the matter, and I had called my therapist to talk about it.  Because of a voicemail snafu(Thank you ever so much, T-Mobile!), I heard that my therapist had agreed with the treatment before even talking to me.  The truth has a way of sitting at the side, waiting to be brought on, though.  And I never brought it on.  So DBT became synonymous with "I have no control over what happens to me."

But I signed up.  And there was a SIX MONTH WAITING LIST.  Because that's how mental health works.  It goes dormant for six months, and only shows up when they can see you to treat them.

That's not fair, I know.  People work hard, my mother being one of them.  Its less about the people actually helping, and more about the people sitting behind desks, wondering how mental health could be more profitable.

So, I am waiting, and it turns out, another snafu.  Not T-Mobile's fault this time.  Turns out no one actually sent Portland DBT my materials!  Weeks of figuring it out, and I am registered.  And I get a call that I am registered.  I am offered an early class without a therapist.  That would come later.

And only at that point do I realize that once I am in the main program, I have to give up my therapist... the one who started seeing me a few months after my radiation treatment, up until now.

If you haven't read my blog before(welcome!), I have trouble with any sort of healthcare personnel.  It took me months with him to start trusting and opening up, even a little.  But with that trust comes that super strong mentally ill adhesive, that, if pulled away, leaves quite a bit of pain and suffering.

This was a big part of psych ward stay #3, as my therapist knew that he wouldn't see me during DBT, and DIDN'T TELL ME.

That's the drama.  Its quite a bit of mistrust, and a whole hell of a lot of anxiety.  I haven't decided where I land on the whole thing, but I'll give you updates.

One solemn promise is that no matter how brainlessly converted I come to this program, I will not fill up these posts with DBT crap.  I want it to be helpful, but I don't like shoving anything down anyone else's throat.

In other news, I didn't just see an ex-coworker, but she sat down on the train with me.  Stacey.  Thank GOD it was Stacey.  I was so fucking anxious, but she was very accommodating, and even ignored how much I was overamping.  I was trying way too hard, stuttering over everything.  She was surprised this was the first time I had bumped into a coworker on the train.  I am too, but so damned thankful.

I take transit everywhere.  And people get confused, ask me "I thought you were anxious around people?"  I am.  I just blast my headphones, and curl up on a seat.  Usually, I am OK.  I don't drive... and certainly would not want to drive even if I could, and I can't afford much except for an honored citizen's bus pass.  That's right.  I'm an Honored Citizen.  A bit like being a part of the Special Peoples' Club.

I think I was the only person who saw Welcome to the Dollhouse.  Heather Matarazzo?  She's now a lesbian, living in New York?

(insert hipster joke here.  Before you post) 

Another post... already

I had a difficult time frame to deal with on Monday.  I had an appointment at eleven AM in East Portland, and then an appointment at four PM on the west side, south of OHSU.

This left a four hour gap.  I had to keep myself occupied and not freaking out for four hours.  I had to eat lunch, which I brought with me, and I also was going to call my brother.  And... walk, I guess.  A good friend got me a kindle for my birthday, and I figured I could read that- had the next Terry Pratchett on there, so why not?

(Aside from loving the Discworld series, I have found Terry Pratchett to be one of the few things I can just pick up and read right now.  Reading has become frustrating and difficult, and Terry Pratchett isn't.  Sort of a coping mechanism.  So I started at the beginning of the Discworld series, and am going through all of it... I believe there are over 30 books.  And I'm on 13, or close to that.)

So I finish my first appointment, and go walking, looking for a place to sit down and barricade myself.  I found myself getting closer to the house of a writing mentor and hero of mine, and remembered being a part of his writing group.  That reminded me that there was a Zupan's up the street.  I walked up there, and the place was deserted.  Fantastic.  I bought a kombucha, and went to one of the outdoor tables tucked up against the outside wall.  I laid out my lunch and read while I ate.

It took me quite a long time to realize that not only was the outdoor seating barely used, it was only used for a few minutes while people stopped to smoke and fiddle with their smart phones.

This was going to be the place that I talked to my brother.  But I decided that walking and talking was a good thing, too.  Just had to find quieter neighborhoods.

So I'm wandering, and I'm mostly focused on the phone.  Which is a good thing, as there are fucking leafblowers everywhere, and people that I could get anxious around.  I just kept talking and walking. 

So I am going down this street, talking pretty loud to my brother, completely oblivious, when out of the corner of my eye, I spot someone I know.  Now, I could not be completely sure, but I believe it was an assistant manager I worked under at new seasons.  I couldn't make out features, but the hair was right, and I immediately went into panic mode.

Here is one of my greatest pools of paranoia- that people I know will see me, and get confused, or even angry or hurt, because they see or hear me in without the required aspects of illness.  I mean, anxiety, right?  Why am I outside?  Depression?  Why am I talking so animated?

The paranoia is worse for anyone from my old job.  If I could go back I would.  But that environment is just too stressful, and I'd break down.  And I've been left with this feeling like I've betrayed them.  So, for her to see me, looking like I'm fine, just makes it worse.

I rallied like mad with my brother.  I don't think he knew- covering up my stuttering and drop into a low mutter for a bit.  And that moment is still with me.  How she might be telling everyone now "Yeah, I saw him.  He's fine.  What the fuck?"  

And I'll jump ahead of folks by saying yes, I know that paranoia isn't real.  Yes, so much of this is illogical and ridiculous. 

And yet, here I am. 

(And if you noticed that now I'm paranoid of what you think.  Oh, mental illness, you cheeky bastard!)

Serious False Start

Sunday, September 21st.  30 days since I posted the last one. 

(sigh)

Lets try this again.

I have been thinking about some stuff from my previous post, and I want to be more candid.  Or open.  I have been holding onto things very tightly since February, and there are several reasons for that.  None of them seem real enough to apply anymore.

I have shut down communication with a lot of people- by closing down my facebook, myspace, twitter, and linkedin accounts(although there is still a shred of an earlier business I created floating around linkedin.)

I also just stopped connecting.  I disappeared from my job, and no one knew why, then I quit.  Then I switched the blog to a new e-mail address, so I'm pretty damned sure there are only a few web bots that glance at this blog.   They'll point and say:

"beep beep ahhh, that's why hes been weird beep beep"

I'm terrible at accents.

But who knows?  People care about me, even though I've alienated them, or run them ragged.  Or maybe folks are upset and feel an explanation is needed.  Or maybe I'm just pulling more and more stuff out of my paranoia.

Needless to say, I had a breakdown in February.  I tried to commit suicide.  Over the next seven months(to today), I have had a few more near misses, crisis calls, three trips to the psychiatric ward, a lot of psych med combinations- some good, some horribly, horribly bad.  I've had countless hours at my therapists office, a Psychiatrist I now see regularly, a failed attempt at an outpatient program for CBT(Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), and finally, a new outpatient program in DBT(Dialectical Behavior Therapy).  I am still depressed, still feel worthless and a waste of space, and feel anxious- can't go to most public places except for transit, because I blast my headphones.  I also have a lot of paranoia, and anxiety attacks that are still a bit out of control.

But I can write.  I can sound like I have a good attitude, and I could lie and write something really hopeful here.  I don't have hope.  I do feel better than I did.  I'm not having ideas on how to kill myself pop into my head, and then a deep urge in my belly to follow through with them.  I still have to squeeze my eyes tight when going over a bridge, and avoid all bodies of water for the time being.

I got disability, so I don't have to find a job I'd fail at, but the money and insurance issues are incredibly stressful.  And I'm constantly on the move, going to therapist, program, other medical staff, the NAMI house.

I sit down at nights like this, and see the full folder of emails to people I still haven't emailed, and I think 'everyone must hate me.  Or worse, they just gave up.'  Maybe.  Maybe not. 

But I want to keep blogging, and catch people back on to it.  So if I don't give you a decent e-mail, you can at least see that I'm still here, and doing what I can to stay here.

So, I intend to write a posting at least once a week.  I don't have a specific day or time, but there'll be one by next Sunday.

That is my intent.

And a one and a two

I am not sure how many people check this blog.  Its been over... six months?  Seven?  since I wrote anything.  I did a sort of quick peek at the beginning of the week, just to see the reaction.

And then I changed everything.  My old gmail address is deleted, can't find me there.  You can find me here though, and I intend to be here.

A lot has happened, and, I have to point out- IS STILL HAPPENING.  I'm not suddenly all better, or have had some conversion and now everything is fine. 

What I can say is that I am wanting to write on this blog, and the character of this blog is going to go all over the place.  It is what the title says- I am just getting out what is there, and looking at it. 

All that being said, I am probably going to focus more on the present.  However, I will certainly answer questions about it on my blog, if you ask me.  Of course that idea may blow up in my face, but we'll see how it goes.

I have let go of facebook, twitter, linkedin, and about all social media, except this, and google+, which I haven't even looked at.  If you want to connect, and don't know how, leave a comment.  We'll figure it out.

...

A darkened blog.  All is black, but like that velvety blackness where you can't make out the lines of objects or walls.  

No sounds either, although a feeling like some crappy music might be playing from a blog nearby.

A tiny creak and a movement, a door opening showing a sliver of light on the floor, not quite illuminating anything, but getting the eyes a chance to focus on something in the darkness.

No real discernible details only a still darkened blog, a little bit of light, a door shaped door, and a gap into some other room, the yellowness offsetting the blackness.

Then, just for a moment, a head is in view.  A silhouette of a head, pressed between the crack and the door.  Then a quick movement, and the head is gone.  The door shuts.

There are a few moments of the eyes trying to adjust to the darkness, but the eyes seem to want to hold on to the light, the exact shape of the slice of the light trailing around as the eyes swivel, then settle, back into the darkness. 

get it going again

I haven't been blogging for awhile.  Hell, been barely able to keep my journal going.  I'm in what could be clicheed as an identity crisis... and who knows when those end.  If it was a spiritual thing, about me 'finding myself', I probably would have more profound things to say right now.

I don't.

I sat down to write something, anything, just to keep this blog going, to hopefully get the wheels in motion at least.

I've already went past the time of my second surgery last year.  Who knows, maybe I'll revisit it.  The second wasn't as taken out of time and place as the first.  Things were already in motion- moving to a smaller place, knowledge about how long I thought it took me to recuperate.  Things like that.

There is something about this time of year, when things are all about motion.  All about getting caught up in the day to day, the hour to hour, the minute to minute.  I'm doing a lot of counting time right now, just get to the evening, just get to bed, just get to the morning.  That sort of thing.

Ups and downs happening, though.  Intense moments are followed by a "What the fuck was that?  I'm fine" moments, then back to intense again.  I'm overwhelmed.  I'm stuck.  I'm writing down anything right now to make this blog post seem more flushed out.

Here is a little bit of something.  I read an article that had a man ask this question:

"What is your useful skill in a tangible situation?"

I can't answer it.  Because I'm looking at most of my situations, up to the cancer, and wondering how tangible they were.  And how useful I am.  It sucks to look back on life and just want to do it over again.

And on that victimy note, I'll sign off.

To all the folks reading this:

It’s December, and I’m making the best of it.  I expect everyone else is having the best holiday they can as well.  At this time, I just wanted to give you a heads up about this blog, about what I’m doing.

As much as I wanted it to be, my life is not going along the ’better and better’ narrative.  I am not the inspirational cancer patient.  And I am not going to apologize for it.  I am not doing this for your sympathy.  I am not doing this for you to intervene. 

 I’m doing this for two reasons:

• to let people know what is happening.  I haven’t really talked to people for quite a while, even those around me.  I started writing a few things on the charity website a while back, but found that I couldn’t hit the positive aspects like I thought I should.  So, I started this blog.   If I had my way, I’d be hiding somewhere, until I’m better able to deal with everything. 
• to get out what I’m feeling, past the overbearing self-judgement on how I should be better.  To speak it out in order to make out what is going on, and in order to make it out of wherever I am.

If you have something you want to say, please share it with me on the blog.  If my postings upset you, then don’t read them.  If you think I’m faking it for attention, stop reading.  If you think I’m being a poor little victim crybaby, no one is forcing you to read my blog. 

I am not making anything up.  I’m not editing.  I’m not working on a masterpiece.  I am just writing.

The only reason I announce postings on facebook is because many people requested it, and I still can’t get over how many people look at a posting.  I have not been good to anybody through this- keeping everyone at arms length, because my tactic in getting through the day is to just not talk about it.  I have disconnected, and I want to disconnect more, and its taking its toll.  But I have to go through what I’m going through, and those folks who are supposed to be around will be around when I am able to reconnect.

Until then, check back and read things as you want to, leave messages, and, above all, enjoy the hell out of your own life.  Someone has to, it might as well be you.