Tag: mental health
#oneaday Day 746: Decompression
I know I said I'd write about something else on here, but after the late-night update on the situation, I feel inclined to bring this little saga to something of a "close" in a more conclusive manner. We are exhausted and emotional, but delighted beyond belief to have our precious Oliver back at home with...
#oneaday Day 744: Trying to maintain hope
I am trying so hard to hang onto hope that we will find Oliver, or that he will just wander back in one day as if nothing happened, but with him being gone for three weeks from today, it is getting tougher and tougher to maintain that hope -- and it's all the harder seeing...
#oneaday Day 743: Talk therapy
I've alluded to it a bit recently, but I thought I'd talk specifically about it today. For the last little while, I have been attending talk therapy. I have been meaning to do this for a long time, because there are lots of people I know and trust who have made use of it, but...
#oneaday Day 741: The bubble
The thing people who have been fortunate enough to have never been afflicted with debilitating depression don't always understand is that the whole experience is more than just being "a bit sad", and thus it's not something you can just "snap out of" or "cheer up" from. (To be clear, those scare quotes are purely...
#oneaday Day 740: Exhaustion
I am absolutely exhausted. We stayed up late last night to go on another night-time look for Oliver, and once again found absolutely no sign of him whatsoever. At this point I really am at a loss as to what I can possibly do. I bought bright head-mounted torches and an infra-red heat-sensing camera in...
#oneaday Day 739: Occupying yourself while your life is on hold
If you're anything like me, when you encounter a period of great uncertainty or emotional turmoil in your life, it can feel like your brain has pressed a big old "pause" button, making it near-impossible to even contemplate going about your life as normal. Your job feels like the least important thing in the world,...
#oneaday Day 737: Returning to reality
We go home tomorrow, which is going to be somewhat bittersweet, as I'm sure you can imagine. There has been absolutely no sign of Oliver over the course of the last week, no contact from anyone who has seen him, no sightings reported on social media and -- perhaps thankfully? -- no reports that he...
#oneaday Day 735: Many distractions
We have both been feeling pretty upset today -- like, breaking down in tears upset -- so, during moments of clarity, we attempted to get out a bit and actually do some things rather than spending the entire day miserable. We actually ended up having a rather busy day as a result. This began with...
#oneaday Day 733: Distractions
Today we went to the swimming pool, the central attraction of most Center Parcs sites. We had a good time having a little swim in the nice warm outdoor "Sprudel pool" and sitting stewing in the outdoor jacuzzi for a bit. For the rest of the day, we've been trying to relax as best we...
#oneaday Day 732: Quiet contemplation is not always ideal
Today was our visit to the "Aqua Sana" spa here at Center Parcs, and before the events of last week happened, we were both greatly looking forward to having a day of relaxation and pampering. We did manage that for the most part, but we also found that when you get into a situation where...
They Spent Years in Solitary Confinement in Mississippi Despite Suicide Risk
For decades, MDOC has regularly held incarcerated people in solitary confinement for weeks, months â and in some cases â years at a time.
#oneaday Day 731: Temporary escape
Well, we did what we said we were going to do: we got away from it all. Part of me still wants to be at home waiting with open arms for Oliver to return, but it's been a week. At this point I don't know if he's more or less likely to make it home...
They Asked for Help. Instead, They Died in Solitary.
An investigation found there were at least 47 suicides in solitary confinement in Mississippi, where cries for mental health care were met with isolation and punishment.
#oneaday Day 730: Having to draw a line
I have posted more than 30 more flyers about Oliver today. Andie's mum went out calling for him last night. We have put out adverts on social media, informed the microchip company, informed our local vets, informed local cat charities. We have spent several nights staying up waiting, placing stinky pants, litter trays, favourite food...
#oneaday Day 729: The struggle for your emotions to be heard
One of the things I find difficult and, at times, frustrating to deal with, perhaps particularly as a person with an autistic spectrum condition, is properly conveying the emotions that I am feeling and the depth of those emotions. Our recent anguish over Oliver's disappearance is a prime example of this. I am feeling intense...
#oneaday Day 728: Giving yourself permission to smile
The thing about a grieving process -- whether it is a result of tangible loss or, as in our situation, simply not knowing what has happened -- is that it can very quickly and easily become all-consuming. It can take over your entire life; your entire mind; your entire heart; your entire soul. Photo by...
Frances Widdowson Dedicates Her Life to Denying Residential Indian School Survivors, Then Calls Herself the Victim
Ex-Mount Royal University professor and author of 'Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth About Residential Schools)' believes she is persecuted by grieving Indigenous communities and woke leftist academic institutions. She has raised over $50,000 for her cause.
Poetry Saved My Life
I snuck off school grounds to write in a back alley, shoplifting Ginsberg and Neruda from Chapters, and I'm alive and writing today because of that. Recent neuroscience confirms poetry activates the brain's dopaminergic reward system, treats anhedonia, and isâmore than metaphorâmedicine.
30: Finding My Footing
My annual birthday essay on turning thirty: examining the cross-cultural agreementâfrom Confucius to the Hebrew Bible to Zoroasterâthat thirty is when formation ends and function begins. My dark year of depression which turned out to be preparation rather than delay, and on writing 200,000 words since, which turned out to be the same thing.
Loss, and Loss, and Loss: A Eulogy
A eulogy for two kinds of loss: those who die and those who become simply elsewhere. Filtered through Didion, Barthes, C.S. Lewis, and Pema Chödrön. On ambiguous grief, the names written down so they don't disappear, and the sixteen-year-old who already knew that love stems out from verbs.
That's Home. That's us.
We have the first human photograph of Earth from space in 54 years, and I can't help but meditate on what it means to be human on a fragile planet in 2026.
Behind Glass
A few minutes before I begin writing this, I woke up into an anxiety attack. There are a lot of issues I could be writing about, the world is fraught with uncertain violence. This is a story about me, and also a story about North Darfur and Kansas and Haiti and India. I ask this: whose suffering gets reported? Whose death counts behind glass?
Being a 21st Century Schizoid Man
My personal exploration of schizoid personality disorder and neurodivergence. From King Crimson's prophetic song to global youth withdrawal phenomena, I examine what it means to live with a rich interior life and limited social needs, challenging pathologizing frameworks and questioning whether 'poor outcomes' are about the condition or the metrics.
Et Maintenant, Quelque Chose de ComplÚtement Différent
Cet article de blogue est Ă©crit en français. This blog post is written in French. Apprendre le français, le deuil et les limites de la vie â un exercice en vulnĂ©rabilitĂ© linguistique.
CANCER RELIEF
Why a cancer diagnosis felt like relief from a question I didn't even notice I was asking.
12,000 Generations: On Deep Time, Grief, and the Body
Turning thirty during a breakup while the world unravels. Meditating on the 12,000 generations of homo sapiens that came before us, and what it means to be embodied in this particular moment of deep time.
LIFEHACK
Thoughts on suicide, guilt, and why the common idea that people simply âwant to dieâ misses something important.
ART OF ABSOLUTION
Reinventing yourself after trauma - and what it means to seek absolution from the person you had to become to survive.
Our Shared Oblivion
How the inevitability of oblivion can be a source of relief, while also examining our sacred duty to make things better in the present moment through persistent, stubborn action in the direction of care.
DEFECTIVE EPILOGUE
Why creating never feels like enough, why rest feels like guilt, and how a childhood labelled defective can make happiness feel unsafe.
REVIEW: How do we reckon? On Yiyun Li's 'Things in Nature Merely Grow'
CONTENT WARNING: Suicide | A matter-of-fact memoir about the endurance of loss, where Li considers grief to be regarded as having an end-point, as though there could be a finite amount felt when both of your only children choose death instead of life.