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"Why on earth do I need to be sicker to be helped?"

Ow, well put. Sometimes I wonder if my GP will ever review my case notes that show the time she said I had nothing to worry about overlaps with another specialist noting that [incredibly obvious symptoms of malnourishment] were occuring. (She won't.)

The study concluded "it is clear that we cannot distinguish the sane from the insane in psychiatric hospitals" and also illustrated the dangers of dehumanization and suggestion in psychiatric institutions. It suggested that the use of community mental health facilities which concentrated on specific problems and behaviors rather than psychiatric terminology might be a solution

I was hooked by the idea that my lack of happiness and fulfilment in the present moment could be fixed if I just got better at my life.

CTAD is a free government clinic providing outpatient psychological therapy for anxiety disorders and depression.

Researchers have found that seeing touch (on TV or in films, for example) – particularly social, affective or pet touch – can give us some of the benefits of feeling touch. “This is called ‘vicarious touch’,” says Fotopoulou. “The brain codes multisensory experiences in multiple ways. We can also ‘feel’ the pain and pleasures of others just by ‘seeing’ them,” she says. “This is not a permanent or complete substitute, but a partial one.”

Products such as weighted blankets can help. Smith says that laying one across her chest and shoulders makes her feel “much calmer” – speaking, perhaps, to an instinctive need to stimulate the CTs. Interacting with animals is also settling. “My neighbour’s cat has decided to live with me half the time and having her sat on my chest, purring, is so soothing.”

SHIPS | Sexual Health & Intimacy Psychological Services - We are a progressive psychology practice in Fitzroy, Melbourne. LGBTQIA+ friendly.

[Some people] are raised to think that touch must be either aggressive or sexual," and thus [are] hesitant to openly engage in positive physical contact with anyone other than sexual partners.

Used if I am [temporarily or permanently] considered unable to make my own decisions. Health care refusals are almost universally respected, and "um, no, don't take me to thinly-veiled conversion therapy [etc]" would be wise of me.

The classic "women plus [implied to be AFAB] notwomen I guess" framing, but useful and educational regardless

Only when I started reading more broadly about different kinds of bonds and decentralizing romance, about how deeply romance-centered our culture is, did I begin to understand that what I wanted was not romance at all.

I am a loving person. I form deep, committed friendships. I crave emotional and intellectual intimacy. I can admire people the way I admire a painting or an intriguing book cover, aesthetically, intellectually, with curiosity and warmth. This kind of looking isn’t pursuit but attention without possession, closeness without claim, something our language rarely makes room for.

But the gravitational pull everyone described, the merging of lives around a romantic feeling, did not happen. And I certainly didn’t want anyone in my bed. What I wanted was connection, and society taught me I could only truly find it in romance.

Neurodivergent and gender-diverse led Counselling and Peer Mental Health support service. We operate via telehealth, Australia wide. We are proudly lived and living experience focused, meaning all of our practitioners have their own personal experiences navigating mental health challenges.

Content warning for discussion of suicide.

There's also some "porn bad" sentiment that's a bit reductive, and for some reason the under 16 social media ban is being framed as a good, helpful thing. Even though in the next breath they talk about the benefits of healthy role models on tiktok.

As usual for the ABC, insists the pandemic ended and covid is strictly in the past tense now.

...as the title suggests, some circus-as-pejorative happens in here.

Traumatic repetitions could be seen as the result of an attempt to retrospectively "master" the original trauma, a child's play as an attempt to turn passivity into activity: "At the outset he was in a passive situation ... but by repeating it, unpleasurable though it was, as a game, he took on an active part".