It’s Friday, it’s truly feeling and looking like spring around here, and there were so many wonderful items in my tweet stream this week I had trouble choosing. If that’s my biggest problem, then … I’m blessed. Enjoy!
@pourmecoffee “Today is Lady Gaga’s birthday, commemorating the day her birthing pod was gifted to Earth from her home planet.”
@mjdub Newly Discovered Piece by Mozart Performed on His Own Fortepiano (video)
[SEO: I love Mozart. Somebody found this piece tucked inside someone else’s music portfolio, in someone else’s attic in Austria. Mozart wrote about 1000 musical pieces in his short life — and they’ve been scrutinized, catalogued, and theorized endlessly. So for an unknown work to suddenly materialize, it’s just … wonderful!]
@StevenHandel “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” ~ Stephen Hawking
@LillyAnn “Every day brings a choice: to practice stress or to practice peace.” ~ @jzborysenko
@HGMovieSite Beanie Babies Star in a New Hunger Games Parody (video)
[SEO: If you’ve read the books (I just finished them) or saw the blockbuster movie this week, (or even if you haven’t) this parody starring “Katniss Everbean” is the condensed version! :D]
@natasha_tracy “I never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.” ~ William Makepeace Thackeray
@AmazingPics Cherry Blossom Sunrise by @navinsarmaphoto
[SEO: “In the spring of 2012, the National Cherry Blossom Festival will host a once-in-a-lifetime centennial celebration. In 1912, the city of Tokyo, Japan gave Washington DC an incredible gift of 3,000 cherry blossom trees to be planted around the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park, in East Potomac Park and on the grounds of the Washington Monument. The 100th anniversary of these beautiful trees will be celebrated with 5-weeks of spectacular events.”]
@healthyplace “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” ~ Philip K. Dick
@goodthingz 23 Incredible Works of Beach Art by Andres Amador
[SEO: A few weeks ago I offered the equivalent of crop circles made in huge expanses of snow. Today we get them made in sand on beaches. They are huge, intricate, and seem perfectly done in proportion one man with a rake. I will never understand how this can happen on such a scale, to such perfection as seen from aerial views. Just amazing!]
@CarePathways “For me to follow it matters not to me who you are what car you drive, or your status in life. What matters to me is, are you kind?
Best Tweets for Trauma and PTSD Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.
Please Share My Stuff! You can now “like” and “share” this post everywhere with the touch of a button or two at the end of the linked tweets! Feel free to do any or all of that! (And thanks.)
@HealingPTSD A truly excellent story about the cost of injury to service members and their families
[SEO: San Antonio is home to a primary burn/critical care hospital for returning military who are grievously wounded. A nephew of a friend of mine was terribly wounded in Afghanistan, and sent to San Antonio. His family was told that if he lived, he would be there up to two years with numerous surgeries and physical therapies. (He’s been there two months now.)
According to this article, more soldiers wounded in the last decade both (a) survive more heinous injuries and (b) have young children at home, than was the case with Vietnam vets. With limited resources, often the entire family moves to San Antonio to be there with the injured parent. The children are uprooted from everything familiar, fearful of how their injured parent will have changed, missing time with the parent who did not deploy, dealing with new schools, etc. The issues facing these families, and their children, are enormous.]
“Since 2007, more than 40 percent of the cases involving candidates for retirement had been overturned, according to statistics cited by Murray. Of the 1,680 patients screened at Madigan, more than 690 had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. The psychiatric team reversed more than 290 of those diagnoses.”]
@SarahEOlson2009 Psychiatric News Alert: War Veterans Unfairly Mislabeled as “Dangerous”
[SEO: “The idea of the ‘dangerous’ war veteran, disabled by post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), appears to be making a comeback. A staple of popular media and public opinion after the Vietnam War, the image has only minimal basis in reality but still hampers job prospects for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. …”]
The downloads at the top link are mostly technical, but are available for free for anyone who wants or needs more detailed information about various aspects of traumatic brain injury.]
The Rest of the Best
@healthyplace 381+ exclusive Mental Health videos on our youtube site
[SEO: A treasure trove of videos from real people discussing issues pertaining to their particular mental illness. All you need to do is use the channel’s search box to specify your interest (i.e., depression, eating disorder, adhd, bipolar, etc.]
@dylansmoosie 96 Percent of Children Who Report Sexual Abuse Are Telling the Truth | The Philly Post
[SEO: Discusses distinctions between pedophiles and child molesters with Michael Stinson, director of prevention services at the Peters Institute, which focuses on “… sexual abuse, tries to counsel sex offenders and educate the public to prevent further victims”. Discusses what signs to look for if you think your child is withholding information about being abused, and what to say/how to react if a child tells you that he/she is are being abused.]
@800273TALK Read the 7 myths people have about therapy
[SEO: A good basic rebuttal to seven common misconceptions people have about talk therapy: My childhood doesn’t matter; All therapists are the same; I don’t need therapy, just drugs; It’s not going to work; It’s too expensive; It’s going to send me over the edge; and I don’t have time.]
@NAMIMass Transforming Trauma: From No Words To Your Words
[SEO: This is lengthy, but excellent, and not just for couples. “Central to healing in the aftermath of a traumatic event is the transformation of trauma’s unspeakable imprint to a story that can be told without reliving it.”
“Understanding how trauma leaves us without words may make it easier to consider ways that can help unlock the story hidden in visual images, painful feelings, flashbacks, bodily symptoms or silent avoidance. Both are important steps toward finding your words and continuing your story.”]
It’s Friday (yay), time to kick back for the weekend. Each week I offer the best items of my funny, beautiful, and even odd tweet stream for your enjoyment and amazement. We have some videos this week! Enjoy!
@PolicyParables “People who snore always fall asleep first.” ~ Author Unknown
@AmazingPics The Beauty of Lights
[SEO: Not just Northern Lights, although a few are included. They’re all gorgeous!]
@WisdomalaCarte “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” ~ Walt Disney
@Quotes4Writers “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” ~ Orson Welles
@pourmecoffee “Shall I compare thee to to an Etch-a-Sketch? Thou art as fickle and unprincipled.” ~ Shakespeare on Romney
@brainpicker Gold! Bass lessons from Paul McCartney (via @Alyssa_Milano)
[SEO: Wow! He tells and shows how he does it, finger positions, and chords, which are illustrated to the right of the video.]
@LillyAnn “Now I become myself. It’s taken time, many years and places …” ~ May (Eleanor Marie) Sarton
@TheAtlantic The First Day of Spring [40 Photos]
[SEO: Hmm. The first day of spring saw massive snow dumps in unusual places (Lebanon?!), but 80ish here south of Boston. Odd. Some great photos from around the world, some of which have flowers and sun. :)]
@AncientProverbs “The great question is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure.” ~ Chinese Proverb
Special Request: If you find value in this blog showcase, please add the Dissociation Blog Showcase link to your blogroll so others can find it. Thanks!
We have amazing writers amongst us who give insight and hope to anyone struggling with dissociation, or to their loved ones. It’s a brain trust, and I treasure it. When I find new blogs, I usually update the Dissociation Blog Showcase (DBS) on Sunday evenings.
I must apologize again for the delay in doing these updates. I’m struggling lately with inner stuff, as well as chronic physical stuff. Being focused has been a challenge the last several weeks. As a dear friend says, “It is what it is.” Meanwhile, I try to figure it all out, and move forward. That’s what we’re all doing, right? It just doesn’t always happen on what we want to be our timetable. Thank you for your patience; I need to practice that on myself a bit more.
Today I’ve added the following new blogs to the Showcase (with a huge thanks to Kate1975 for providing most of them to me):
c0nfe55i0ns0famadw0man
Inviziblepain
notes from a shared body
Publicly Plural
The Multiplicity of Me
Also, Kate1975’s blog was renamed to Kate Is Rising
Please use the DBS link above to access these blogs, and check out the entire directory of (approximately) 200 dissociation-related blogs! As always, be careful and stay safe. Many of these blogs do not provide trigger warnings, nor are they obligated to do so.
If you, or someone you know, experiences dissociation and blog about it, write to me with the URL at sarah.e.olsonATgmailDOTcom . I review each blog before adding it to the Showcase.
Thanks so much for the feedback and well-wishes for this project!
Best Tweets for Trauma and PTSD Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.
Please Share My Stuff! You can now “like” and “share” this post everywhere with the touch of a button or two at the end of the linked tweets! Feel free to do any or all of that! (And thanks.)
@Carlolight “There is nothing to do.
Just be. Do nothing. Be.” ~ Sri Nisargadatta
Some Tweets to Ponder
@zebraspolkadots “Creating change is first making a decision then making the decision to keep making the choice. Not easy but not rocket science.”
@healthyplace “We’re constantly being told what other people think we are, and that’s why it is so important to know yourself.” ~ Sarah McLachlan
@Jaki_Bent “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.” ~ Marcel Proust
@AncientProverbs “If you shoot for the stars and hit the moon, it’s okay. But you’ve got to shoot for something. A lot of people don’t even shoot.” ~ Confucius
@StevenHandel “If you are going to doubt something, doubt your limits.” ~ Don Ward
@CoryBooker “Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself.” ~ Saint Francis de Sales
Linked Tweets
In the News
@heykim Japan marks the first anniversary of an earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands
[SEO: The resilience of the Japanese people is remarkable. This last year must have seemed like several lifetimes to many of them. This would also be true for just about anyone caught up in natural disasters around the globe: floods, fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, drought. The trauma experienced, both individually and collectively, doesn’t fade away when the TV cameras leave.]
@HealingPTSD A huge — and hugely disturbing — jump
[SEO: “A report released Thursday found suicides among U.S. Army personnel rose 80% between 2004 and 2008. … ‘The 2008 rate [of mental health problems in personnel] indicates that more than one-fifth of all active duty soldiers had an ambulatory visit for a mental health disorder, implying a prevalent public health problem,’ the authors wrote. They called suicides ‘the tip of the mental health iceberg.'”]
@PsychFoundation As The Hunger Games movie premiere draws close it’s interesting to look at the mental health themes
[SEO: This is a post from @dontcallmesybil’s Dissociative Living blog. (The blog is no longer active but if you have dissociative issues, Dissociative Living‘s archives are well worth reading). “It’s a dystopian tale, set in an oppressive, violent, and nearly hopeless future. I’d recommend it solely because it’s a gripping, invigorating read but as someone with both Dissociative Identity Disorder and PTSD, there’s something special about The Hunger Games that impresses me: its remarkably deft portrayal of the immediate and long-term effects of trauma.”
I’m nearly finished reading it. The story, in brief: As punishment for rebellion 74 years ago, the Capitol requires each of 12 districts to offer up two children via lottery as tributes to fight to the death in an annual contest. Not only must the people supply the children, but they are forced to watch (it’s true ‘reality TV’), and even to celebrate. PTSD issues abound. But chaos theory rules when one small, seemingly innocuous thing possibly sets in motion a stunning reversal. I don’t know how it ends yet, but the books strongly resonate for me. NOTE: Not recommended for child abuse survivors in early stages of recovery.]
“Because the goal of biofeedback typically involves decreasing tension and increasing feelings of calm, the technique is often combined with relaxation training including slow, deep breathing, guided imagery or hypnosis, or elements of cognitive behavioral therapy. When a person is able to use these approaches to reduce stress or pain, the feedback from the computer, which is fairly immediate, signals ‘success’ to the person.”]
@paredesgisa 50% of people with a Mental Illness are smokers. Many don’t want to be. Here’s how to quit smoking.
[SEO: Post discusses nicotine replacement treatments; additional medications to treat tobacco addiction; and behavioral treatments to quit smoking. “[Behavioral] interventions teach individuals to recognize high-risk smoking situations, develop alternative coping strategies, manage stress, improve problem-solving skills, as well as increase social support. Research has also shown that the more therapy is tailored to a person’s situation, the greater the chances are for success.”]
“Once we survive our childhoods, we come out wired funny as a result of the survival skills we honed. We come out, come into adulthood, wired for battle, wired for protecting others from uncomfortable truths. Those tools, however, aren’t tools that can support finding our truth or building true contentment. To build contentment, we have to first win our battle with the belief that we don’t have a right to it. We struggle with the belief that we don’t deserve better, deserve more, deserve different than what we got.” Includes helpful tips, which are really achievable goals.]
In my town south of Boston, we had only one shovel-worthy snow storm all winter. I’m grumpy at the thought that we are apparently skipping straight into summer over the next few days with temps in the 80s! Yikes. Perhaps that is why I have a bias toward spring items below. Enjoy!
@pourmecoffee “Honoring Pi Day by being irrational.”
@Alyssa_Milano Why does Pi matter? A mathematician explains how 3.14 is everywhere
[SEO: It’s still all Greek to me, but as good as any reason to eat pie. Also interesting in a how-can-I-kill-time way: “Pi has even inspired the invention of a new literary form called ‘piems.’ The challenge is to write a poem where the length of each word is the same as the number in the pi sequence. … Some piems are thousands of words in length.“]
@Tamavista “Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.” ~ A. Smith
@pourmecoffee Amazing story of 28,000 flower art installation at closing of this Massachusetts Mental Health Center
[SEO: They flooded the place with spring flowers, wall to wall. Literally. The designer insisted that only potted flowers be used. “After four public [tour] days of ‘Bloom’, the building was closed for good and we delivered all twenty-eight thousand flowers to shelters, half-way houses, and psychiatric hospitals throughout New England — which is why I didn’t want to work with cut flowers. I wanted these flowers to continue onward, after the installation.” Beautiful photos!]
@WisdomalaCarte “It’s not the world that I am changing. I do this so, this world will know that it will not change me.” ~ Garth Brooks
We have some videos this week! Enjoy!
