thread in which the Mentally Normal sustain a stream of fascinating chat

[Mitchy1nge]

and die of being cold

Oh that's odd; I didn't think the first one posted and it got deleted; so I rewrote and reposted. I will report the first one for removal if that's okay with people.

Hey, I'm about. I blame you all for the stupid obsession with mfp, but it has led to a lovely long walk this morning (Millie, don't go to the big hill, I nearly died of mud related injuries) then went to Cadbury village and a friends for lunch.

I'm telling myself I'm just tired and have over done things rather than the impending bleakness of current times.

You're all great, fab, doing the right thing, keep telling yourselves.

Good to hear from you, caulk I hope you're just tired.

Why does the drive home always take longer than the drive going? At least I'm being driven, shouldn't complain.

Good question.

It's reassuring to have people confirm to me that her behaviour was unacceptable, Niamh Thank you.

She did screw with my mind for a bit. She decided I had taken on the role of "carrying the hostility of the group" so started to almost goad me by saying something she knew I would disagree with then glancing in my direction, or saying something about wondering what Enpoid thinks about this - with a wry little smile. NGGGHHHH.

I struggle massively when people are manipulative and not being straightforward (as a kid I didn't learn to lie until I was around ten and didn't really understand that other people did - on a good day I was described as "honest", on a bad one "tactless" ) and tend to come across quite bluntly without intending it - it's not hostility, though.

Sorry about the MFP, Caulk

Yes journeys are remarkably elastic things Mp

Isn't it becoming law, soon, that sexual abuse like that has to be reported to the police?..Just looked it up. 'Failure to report is a criminal offence which carries a sentence of five years'. from CPS.gov.uk onlinE factsheet.

Like I say I don't know for sure what went on behind the scenes, as it were. Several of us tried to ask what she/we could do but as we weren't allowed to contact each other outside of group and this psychotherapist was very evasive, I don't know what happened.

BTW I wasn't completely dunderheaded about lying - I knew what it was, and why people might do it , and understood basic theory of mind in, say, novels and things, but somehow in real life it never ever occurred to me that someone might not be being fully truthful or that I should avoid telling the full unvarnished truth I would be quite hurt by people teasing me with tall tales or made-up stories for "fun" (people do that to children a lot for some reason) - I would feel very shocked and betrayed and not understand why someone would lie to me, and deeply ashamed of my gullibility

Watching DP play GTA. He's really, really bad at it. Is it that he was born too early, or do you just hit the age of forty and become incapable of using a controller?

I think it's lack of practice, doesn't matter how old you are imho.

I suppose that could be the case, but he seems to always forget which buttons do was in the heat of the moment even when he's had plenty of time to learn the control scheme Maybe it's just a DP thing.

Who knows?

The new law should enable other patients to go straight to the police with what they know anonymously. A psychiatrist cannot prevent anyone from reporting a crime. So they would need to allow for that. Nowadays we have to agree to allow our confidential information to be reported if a crime has been committed...if I were signing up for group therapy now I'd add to the form that I would report any current crimes too!

"WHICH BUTTON DO I PRESS TO KILL THEM? HELP I'M STUCK BEHIND A WALL" etc.

Hey, Caulk! If you mean the hills by me, yes, there is lots of mud at the moment and my off roader pram has a flat tyre, so I'm avoiding :D

That's interesting Niamh.

I'm the same about lying, Enpo.

It's tricky isn't it Niamh? I only learnt to simulate normal behaviour when I realised that most people are dissembling in some form or another pretty much all the time

Must be amusing to watch enpo
That's a sobering thought re: disclosure in groups.

It's one thing that's always put me off groups slightly (not that I think I'm too good for groups ) - I'm always conscious that any "what's said in the room stays in the room" agreement, whether verbal or written, is essentially meaningless and relies solely on trusting every member of the group to do the right thing - there's no legal or professional obligation on patients to respect the privacy of other patients, no ramifications, and that "confidentiality" is a concept which exists only with health workers and priests (and far less with the medical professionals than the priests, TBH).

Just caught up on the last two pages and am at your old "therapist" Enpo! Applying transactional analysis to the scenarios you've described leaves us with a quite terrifying picture of a maladapted fuckwit abusing vulnerable people for the sake of her own emotional survival.

I campaigned vigorously for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse. I'm glad it's making its way onto the statutes. Should make people think twice before 'not interfering' - tantamount to collusion, in my not very humble opinion. All it takes for evil to triumph is the silence of good people, and all that.

I would have taken her (and the group) to task, as well! An enormous part of my therapy has been to learn I may pick my battles, but I still choose to 'interfere' if I believe others are being abused. These days I'm quicker to involve higher authorities, which is probably a healthy step forward for me. I still find it hard to let go of feeling responsible if I fail, though; more work needed.

I don't really know anything about transactional analysis but I wouldn't disagree that the whole thing felt really quite abusive from my point of view. People often seem to think patients should be grateful for whatever the NHS deems fit to give them, though - I used to, but now I'm more confident about declining offers of inappropriate help.

I do wish I had done something about the abuse this woman disclosed week after week - I'm embarrassed to say that since nobody else appeared to be doing anything and I didn't think I was allowed to, I said nothing to anyone. I only knew her first name and that she lived within travelling distance of the psychotherapy group but I could've found out. I was the youngest in the group and very unsure of myself at that stage but it's not a good excuse.

Anyone else dislike Sundays?

It just feels like a bit of a dead day - shut shops, quiet roads, crap telly.

I suspect if I worked I might feel different