• 0 Posts
  • 26 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 17th, 2023

help-circle




  • Probably by design, to be honest. Jobs tend to be very anti-parent, especially in US states where FMLA is legally protected.

    I’m fortunate to work for a company that has a culture of prioritizing real life so you can do your best work. Sadly, that’s antithetical to next quarter thinking, so it’s not the norm.

    The dumb thing is (in my experience) parents seem to work harder and stay at companies for longer than childless folks. They’re just shorter on free time and need some basic flexibility to address emergent issues. Not to mention being better at teaching and managing in general.



  • It was a really rough time after I got the cPTSD diagnosis because it really changed the context of my life. So my brain, being so very helpful, decided to do a 24/7 stream of my past for reconciliation. Probably not a unique experience so here’s tips I could have used earlier on:

    • mindfulness practice is paramount so that you’re not just like dissociating into oblivion or getting consumed by flashbacks. James Gordon’s “The Transformation” (also printed as “Transforming Trauma”) is pretty solid on the mindfulness stuff, though some of it needs to be taken with like a fistful of salt.

    • sleep hygiene is everything since without it, symptoms are worse and you’re less equipped to cope. Do not be afraid to get psychiatric help if nothing is working. The last thing you want is to be in urgent care after being awake for four days straight.

    • get on some anxiety medication. Helps with the sleep and with having more mental space when flashbacks hit

    • weekly therapy

    • lean on supportive humans in your life. DBT might help stand in if you don’t have those, but you need to be careful that it’s not a group dominated by cluster B personality disorders (I.e. people like your abuser(s))

    • schedule time for soothing activities that you enjoy

    • exercise. Doesn’t have to be extreme, but like try and at least walk for half an hour a day.

    Tl;dr - sleep, mindfulness, therapist, psychiatrist, support of loved ones, self-care, exercise












  • FWIW I think the majority of people struggle with mental and physical health working 40/hr a week in earnest. It’s not sustainable and I wish we’d stop pretending like it is just because it’s less heinous than what predated it.

    From what I understand, most employ various strategies to avoid literally working for 40 hours. The jobs that aren’t conducive to this (cough cough Amazon delivery and warehouse) are especially barbaric.

    If you’re neurodivergent it’s much harder to retain a job in virtue of likability/social connections so you’re more likely to have to put your nose to the grindstone to get by.

    Humans should not be coerced to sell all of the concentrated effort/time they get in a week (and then some) just to survive.