rain_and_snow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rain_and_snow) wrote2009-09-27 01:23 am
rain_and_snow) wrote2009-09-27 01:23 am
(no subject)
So. Mental health people, ey?
I'm in control of my imipramine (an old-school anti-depressant we use to rid me of anxiety issues) dose, up to a point. Which is nice, because it lets me know that they think I can control something, can be trusted to control it, and actually have a clue what's going on.
Depression? I've been going backwards for around a month now. Concentration too. But there was a major achievement on Friday - I finished reading a book! More than half a book at once! Sure, it's an easy-to-read book, and I'd read it before, and you really don't need to read every line, but I read a whole fucking book in less than a week. Win.
Dreams are still odd and vivid. They're not all *terrible* now, which is nice. Less nice is recalling my dreams in day-to-day activity, and getting reality confused.
Then there's reality. I've mentioned this in passing to Helen, and her face changed, and she said I ought to tell Paul. I was non-committal. I'm not going to tell him - I've got no reason to be classed bat-shit-insane. No real *need* to have another label. And it's not interfering with my daily life, and it tends not to be distressing. Heck, I thought it was *normal* (as in, a very common experience) until I mentioned it to Helen. Hearing my name being called when there's no-one around, hearing my phone ring (it's slowly switched from the old ringtone to the new one!), seeing dogs and people when there are none, and now I'm seeing cats too! Yay for cats. Unlike the dogs and people, I tend to see only two different cats. No explanation for that one. Anyway, what could Paul actually do about it?
Hate list. Been seeming like a good idea. Maybe pet peeves, but annoying none the less.
- That people fail to see how a universal health care system benefits everyone, despite research.
- That people fail to treat people like people - being that people have thoughts, feelings, imaginations. Children are people, international people are people, people you work with, people you work above, people you teach, people you work for, people you learn from. Just, people.
- That some people are of the belief that obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn. Heck, that obedience and respect for authority are necessarily good things. And that respect should be taken, rather than earned. That really pisses me off. If they don't respect you, demanding it won't help. Figuring out why may be a better approach. Really.
- That people confuse the 'benefit society' for 'benefit economy'. One does not equal the other.
- That people somehow consider themselves above the people who were 'normal people' in Nazi Germany. The question 'what would you have done?' is relevant, and should not be overlooked simply because we are not there now. Ditto for the Milgram and Zimbardo experiments, which show precisely this. (Interesting to note that of all people studied, Australian women were least likely to comply!)
- That somehow sex (male/female) is important. That what chromosome set we are born with is more important than the gender we identify with. That clearly no-one ever has been born with both male and female body parts. And I am fairly sure that identity is what they're interested in - and then when they do ask for gender, they are binary in their options. Male and female are not the only two genders with which people identify. Unfortunately, rarely is there an option to *not* select one, nor 'other', 'intersex', 'genderqueer', and so on. Really, really frustrates me.
- That when considering the 'income gap' between men and women, the area of the workforce which they tend to enter is not taken into account. Women tend to enter lower paid jobs than men do - teaching, health-care, community work; as opposed to engineering, IT and business.
- That the government documents I've seen relating to the parental leave scheme all use the assumption that it is the woman of the partnership who will be taking the longer leave.
- That somehow it's fair for someone to take a break in their career to look after the child they have had with a partner, and then they and the partner separate, and the person who took the break is not reimbursed or supported financially in any way. Career breaks have an amazing tendency to leave you behind in your field, and you obviously were not advancing in your field when you were not working.
I'm in control of my imipramine (an old-school anti-depressant we use to rid me of anxiety issues) dose, up to a point. Which is nice, because it lets me know that they think I can control something, can be trusted to control it, and actually have a clue what's going on.
Depression? I've been going backwards for around a month now. Concentration too. But there was a major achievement on Friday - I finished reading a book! More than half a book at once! Sure, it's an easy-to-read book, and I'd read it before, and you really don't need to read every line, but I read a whole fucking book in less than a week. Win.
Dreams are still odd and vivid. They're not all *terrible* now, which is nice. Less nice is recalling my dreams in day-to-day activity, and getting reality confused.
Then there's reality. I've mentioned this in passing to Helen, and her face changed, and she said I ought to tell Paul. I was non-committal. I'm not going to tell him - I've got no reason to be classed bat-shit-insane. No real *need* to have another label. And it's not interfering with my daily life, and it tends not to be distressing. Heck, I thought it was *normal* (as in, a very common experience) until I mentioned it to Helen. Hearing my name being called when there's no-one around, hearing my phone ring (it's slowly switched from the old ringtone to the new one!), seeing dogs and people when there are none, and now I'm seeing cats too! Yay for cats. Unlike the dogs and people, I tend to see only two different cats. No explanation for that one. Anyway, what could Paul actually do about it?
Hate list. Been seeming like a good idea. Maybe pet peeves, but annoying none the less.
- That people fail to see how a universal health care system benefits everyone, despite research.
- That people fail to treat people like people - being that people have thoughts, feelings, imaginations. Children are people, international people are people, people you work with, people you work above, people you teach, people you work for, people you learn from. Just, people.
- That some people are of the belief that obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn. Heck, that obedience and respect for authority are necessarily good things. And that respect should be taken, rather than earned. That really pisses me off. If they don't respect you, demanding it won't help. Figuring out why may be a better approach. Really.
- That people confuse the 'benefit society' for 'benefit economy'. One does not equal the other.
- That people somehow consider themselves above the people who were 'normal people' in Nazi Germany. The question 'what would you have done?' is relevant, and should not be overlooked simply because we are not there now. Ditto for the Milgram and Zimbardo experiments, which show precisely this. (Interesting to note that of all people studied, Australian women were least likely to comply!)
- That somehow sex (male/female) is important. That what chromosome set we are born with is more important than the gender we identify with. That clearly no-one ever has been born with both male and female body parts. And I am fairly sure that identity is what they're interested in - and then when they do ask for gender, they are binary in their options. Male and female are not the only two genders with which people identify. Unfortunately, rarely is there an option to *not* select one, nor 'other', 'intersex', 'genderqueer', and so on. Really, really frustrates me.
- That when considering the 'income gap' between men and women, the area of the workforce which they tend to enter is not taken into account. Women tend to enter lower paid jobs than men do - teaching, health-care, community work; as opposed to engineering, IT and business.
- That the government documents I've seen relating to the parental leave scheme all use the assumption that it is the woman of the partnership who will be taking the longer leave.
- That somehow it's fair for someone to take a break in their career to look after the child they have had with a partner, and then they and the partner separate, and the person who took the break is not reimbursed or supported financially in any way. Career breaks have an amazing tendency to leave you behind in your field, and you obviously were not advancing in your field when you were not working.
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