Thought Picnic: Episodes of mental health review

Our fragility in strange cases

It would appear it is open season for mental health, everyone is talking about it, and even if in my writings I have not particularly framed it in terms of extricating myself in the heat of circumstance, certain allusions have been made towards how things have been handled in adversity, in difficulty, in loneliness, or in general.

Within the body of stoicism is a lot of vulnerability and fragility, people mistakenly assume some people are made of sterner stuff to all appearances and forget that no one is essentially superhuman and inviolable, coping mechanisms are just that, the extent to which under pressure there is just that little more that comes to bear is what prevents cracking.

Too much on the grill

The last week has been heavy with absorption and management, a pilgrimage in planning and the drama of technology creating upset that one just excused oneself from interactive to consideration that life was just normal, though not being recorded. That is the stuff of watching FlightRadar24 through the night and what you are following appearing to do what is not really happening.

A bereavement at the passing of a grand old dame far away set in motion a whole series of concerns along with understanding that navigating the theoretical Kubler-Ross 5 Stages of Grief is a world away from handling the reality of loss, grief, sorrow, arrangements, through the tussle of finality in physical with the continuity in the mental and metaphysical. The best you can do is offer support and comfort; each person has to work their situation through.

In life and in hope

A friend and another find themselves at the end of a diagnosis somewhat inconclusive but hopefully with a path towards management and recovery. My experience does not inform me any better about how to face tough decisions, I am probably just some evidence that you can get to tell a better story, and whatever you are told, you can centre yourself within the situation to ensure you get the best outcomes. It is always your body first before it is their Guinea pig, no matter how good or sure they are.

Sometimes, I get invited to convey a premise with the deft use of language in order to acquire an intended resolution. I am usually up to that challenge, but I rarely subscribe to an exercise in futility. When it is coming up against the dead hand of bureaucracies run by badly automated algorithms that have not consideration of humanity and pressure of sanction is piled on regardless. I prefer to settle at the earliest opportunity and move on. It is a greater relief for all concerned than the prolongation of uncertainty and anxiety.

The week might just end in a flourish, the discrepancy noticed at beginning of the month has been resolved. I probably would not get an apology, but there is a ticking up in the register and that would do me fine. What I need is a place of quiet, quietness, and quietude for the spirit, soul, and body to put things in perspective and a sense of calm.