olsen

Thanks for sharing this video. It succeeded in making me feel happy, even after reading in your previous posts what happened to Meredith.

I really like it.

that tattoo is a philosophy to live by right there...

hey I say do what makes you the most happy I paid $500 for my violin (picture will be posted in your journal shortly) if you can't get here I will go there hehe at some stage, I love my violin mind you it still sounds a little tinny but it will improve, it is a Montanari and has a rich wood grain finish it looks pretty hehe

absolutely chicky, so go and get some help sweetheart there is no shame in it only good sense

Diagnostic Criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder*

A. The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:


1. The person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others.


2. The person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror. Note: In children, this may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior.

B. The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced in one (or more) of the following ways:

1. Recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions. Note: In young children, repetitive play may occur in which themes or aspects of the trauma are expressed.


2. Recurrent distressing dreams of the event. Note: In children, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content.


3. Acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those that occur on awakening or when intoxicated). Note: In young children, trauma-specific reenactment may occur.


4. Intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.


5. Physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.

C. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma), as indicated by three (or more) of the following:

1. Efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma

2. Efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma

3. Inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma

4. Markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities

5. Feeling of detachment or estrangement from others

6. Restricted range of affect (e.g., unable to have loving feelings)

7. Sense of a foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span)

D. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (not present before the trauma), as indicated by two (or more) of the following:

1. Difficulty falling or staying asleep

2. Irritability or outbursts of anger

3. Difficulty concentrating

4. Hyper-vigilance

5. Exaggerated startle response

E. Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in Criteria B, C and D) is more than one month.

F. The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Acute: if duration of symptoms is less than 3 months

Chronic: if duration of symptoms is 3 months or more

Not until the women's liberation movement of the 1970's was it recognized that women in civilian life had post-traumatic disorders. The real but private conditions of women's lives were hidden. The privacy created powerful obstacles to consciousness and made women's reality practically invisible. Those who spoke about sexual or domestic abuses were subject to public humiliation, ridicule and disbelief. Women remained silent out of fear and shame, and silence permitted sexual and domestic exploitation.

Ten Warning Signs of Mental Illness*



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


1. Marked personality change.
2 2. Inability to cope with problems and daily activities.

3. Strange or grandiose ideas.

4. Excessive anxieties.

5. Prolonged depression and apathy.

6. Marked changes in eating or sleeping patterns.

7. Thinking or talking about suicide.

8. Extreme highs and lows.

9. Abuse of alcohol or drugs.

10. Excessive anger, hostility or violent behavior.

* from the American Psychiatric Association

A person displaying one or more of these warning signs may have a mental illness and should be evaluated by a mental health professional as soon as possible. If the individual has experienced trauma due to crime or abuse, the behavior may be a normal response to an abnormal event.

Depression

The most common complaints that patients tell their physicians are the common symptoms of depression. In 1990, the American Psychological Association reported that depression annually afflicts about 7 million American women and is responsible for 30,000 suicides. This is twice the rate of depression found in American men. The rate of depression and victimization in women may be linked.

Symptoms

unusual weight gain or loss of weight
either sleeping too much or insomnia
inability to enjoy pursuits which formerly gave pleasure
brooding over the past
pessimism about the future
loss of interest in sex
extreme irritability
overreaction to trivial events
trouble with concentration or memory
neglect of appearance
frequent thoughts of death or dying
social isolation
low self esteem
feelings of helplessness

Take care sweetie

[Edited on May 10, 2006 7:56AM]

Personally, I can feel really terrible when nothing's really wrong (or changed, at least). Often, when nothing at all is going on is when I feel my worst.

Ha! Figures! She loves showing you her skin!

Gah! Stupid crappy wireless connection!



[Edited on May 06, 2006 10:17PM]

just for a couple days. back in CA now. How are you?

Looking, thinking, trying to figure it out. We looked at a building yesterday that had two open units....one was a decent sized studio and the other was called a studio but it had an attic as well as the two bottom rooms and I loved it lots but it's a little bit out of our (already very generous, probably unrealistic) pricerange. Plus it'll be a few months before the dream has any chance of becoming a reality and I'm sure it will have been snapped up by then. We also think it would be fun to buy some land and build a modular home with solar panels and underfloor heating and all those wonderful things. Dream dream dream.

yeah, i tend to like finding pics like that, cause i don't feel like i have them too often. ha ha, though rpg tends to be good at taking pics of me, that i don't think look like me at all

oh I know engine grease. was working on the bike once and had to press my face up against the side of the crankcase while it was all messy. came away looking quite a bit like that myself...

The only group I know that did something like that was Metallica with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Which I think is a great CD. I would love to trade CD's with you.

Plus I'm sure your music taste is broader than mine, so you could turn me on to some cool stuff.

The former of course.

You're in to punk violin music??? Me too!!!

People are a non-stop constant source of amusement.

People are annoying. Unless they're cool like you and a select few others I know.

there was too much NOT to notice that it wa april fool's, sorry

much as i would not be ...surprised, per se, i do note that this was posted on april fool's day.