[Text] un: justanadventurer [Locked from Jinx]

[aetherweaver]

[He was going to send this as anonymous, honest to gods, but then his omen walked over his Omni while he was getting a drink and sent this.]

So what is therapy exactly? Aside from 'talk to someone to make you feel better', I know that much.

What sort of books would one look for to find advice for doing therapy?

Is this even something I should be trying to do for someone?

[That last bit he'd been planning on taking out, but. Omens.]

Comments

[aetherweaver]

Okay well the worst they can do is kill me, but I've done that and gotten better.

Also I don't think shooting me would kill me anyway, I've been in fights with machinists before.

[ezra_of_lothal]

No, I think the worst they can do is decide to go after other people, to spite you, if they're clever enough to work that will hurt you more.

But if we went around both assuming the worst and not acting on that fear, we'd never get anything done.

[aetherweaver]

True but I didn't want to say it.

And also true. Being optimistic has gotten me far in life so I'd like to keep that going.

[ezra_of_lothal]

I'm all for optimism. Just wanted me to make sure you wouldn't get blindsided, if the very worst did happen.

[aetherweaver]

I do try not to get caught off-guard. Though I admit I'm without my usual tacticians and planners.

I'm ready to jump at a moment's notice. Call it habit.

[ezra_of_lothal]

I think the clinical term used by some mental health professionals for that is hypervigilance.

Which isn't judgement, by the way. I've managed to step it down in the past couple of years, since I'm not an active war zone. But Trench is not exactly chill, either.

[aetherweaver]

... Wait, is that a bad thing? I've been like this since I was a child.

But then again we did often have nasty creatures or people wander into our camp.

[ezra_of_lothal]

Well, it's all a matter of degree and in certain situations, it's a survival trait. To an extent.

That said, it's not *great*. On the even less great end, you can stay so amped up, pretty much everything feels like a threat, and it can be a nasty feed back loop. If you're not quite that stressed out, if still struggle with turning that sort of awareness off, it's hard to really rest, right? Can't just sit and be. Give yourself time to process your emotions.

[aetherweaver]

Maybe that's part of why I keep bounding off looking for adventure all the time.

Or part of it. Part of that is just who I am.

[ezra_of_lothal]

Of course. People are different, are we're all complicated, and we all have to figure out what works for us.

[aetherweaver]

I'm just not sure how much of what I do is personality and how much is due to... what I've seen.

[ezra_of_lothal]

If you ever figure that out, I'd love to hear it.

But I suspect it more of the latter than most of us like to admit to ourselves.

[aetherweaver]

I have some complicated soul nonsense going on that affects it, I think. But I don't doubt that what I've seen is a factor.

[ezra_of_lothal]

[Should he ask about the soul nonsense? Not right this minute.]

Well if people can change - and I believe they can change a lot, it makes sense that circumstances can make that happen. And how much can depend on how much we let it.

[aetherweaver]

[It's a long story.]

It's difficult to know when you change, too. It's... hard to look at yourself and see how you've changed. Friends can help with that, but... the ones I usually trust to do that aren't here.

[ezra_of_lothal]

And even if you make wonderful news ones here, they wouldn't know all the history your friends back home would.

They wouldn't even have the context of the plane of reality you come from.

[aetherweaver]

That's right. And it seems mine is very different from others... so I know that there's a lot of context that other people don't get.

I'm trying to teach other people a bit, but it's not quite the same. ... They didn't know me when I first started out. How much I've changed since then...

[ezra_of_lothal]

I don't think there's anyway to entirely get around that gap in history, unfortunately.

[aetherweaver]

No, there isn't. Even though I turned into my younger self last month it wasn't quite the same.