Category: psych

Writing in the Dark: navigating creativity in the anxiety/depression/insomnia/trauma cycle

~ CZed

Originally a Twitter thread in 2019. Some additions and clean-up, and updating.

I keep lists of my DNF (did not finish) reads. I noted a pattern forming in the last three months and it’s got me thinking, but as usual, please consider it a workshop piece, a first draft.

We’re creatives. We tend to be well tuned to the feelings of others. For the past decade, there’s been a whole WHACK of a lot of despair, pain, frustration, war, trauma & general hardship. That gets into our heads & our work.

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Luxuries Bought With Others’ Lives: NPCs, Dehumanization, and Pandemic Ethics

~ CZed

Opening monologue:

This is Free City.
Look at this guy. He’s one of the sunglasses people.
And the people who wear sunglasses? Are heroes.
They have a devil-may-care attitude and they run this town.
Bombshell:You are so hot.
Revenjamin Buttons, dropping into driver’s seat: Oh, I know.
See? That’s not even his car. Or his wife.
For the sunglasses people, they get to do anything they want.
They go on all sorts of missions, they got cool hair, cool clothes.
I mean, laws aren’t really laws to them.They’re more like mild suggestions.
Like, I don’t think he’s gonna return that car.
Or that nice lady.
See what I mean? Hero.

A still from the movie Free Guy, featuring Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer. Image copyright (©) 20th Century Studios or related entities. Used for publicity and promotional purposes.

Thus begins Free Guy. 105 words of thesis statement.

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Expensive Hope

~ CZed

Originally a twitter thread:

In my day job, one of the signs of progress and health is the ability to look at a situation as it is, without either catastrophizing OR denial. So yes, sometimes the goal of the next set of therapy is to come to terms with a terminal dx or the end of a relationship.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with setting eyes on This Thing and recognizing that This Thing is now THIS. Maybe it used to be THAT, but it is no longer THAT and the chances that it will ever be THAT again are very small. Or not in this lifetime, with these circumstances.

Coming to terms with This Thing can be hard, and slow, and painful, but the emotional honesty of coming to terms with it is much healthier than the usual alternative — denial.

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Peelian Principles and American Policing

~ CZed ~ 1 Comment

Originally a Twitter thread, April 24, 2021


A long thread on the primary alternative to the US model of policing, with some history, mostly for context.
Long thread. References used at end. (And yes, there is synthesis here.) 

The US police system is an independent evolution vs the rest of the Anglosphere. And a blighted evolution, since ours developed out of systems specifically intended to support racist institutions. The American system started with slave patrols. It’s fruit from a poisoned tree.

But our system is not the only system.

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The Monstrous Arrogance

~ CZed

Originally written on Twitter, February 21, 2018.

Nothing has changed, except it’s gotten worse.

Reposting it here, now, because there is no room in my heart to say this again.

(Note: read the link if possible. I like the gifs.)

I’ve spent my entire professional career putting people back together after trauma, especially gun trauma. 19 years.

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Demographics of Opiates

~ CZed

Originally a Twitter thread. (Minor edits for clarity) (and some additions)

Koldony seems to miss a major factor in opiates use: demographics. His fav stat is opiate use increased drastically starting in 1997.
Which was the year the oldest Baby Boomers started turning 50, and before occupational repetitive stress injuries were widely acknowledged, and while pre-existing conditions still excluded many people from any health coverage. It’s the largest demographic cohort in history; they’re comfortable with drugs, & occupational abuse of workers was the societal norm for the 20th century.

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