Posted on by Jennifer Cyr

Remember me?

Sooooo…I’ve been avoiding lots of things lately among this stay-at-home period. One of those has been my blog, and for those of you who actually like to know what’s going on in my brain, my apologies.

I’ve had to work really hard to stay focused on what’s right in front of me. Otherwise, I become overwhelmed and a sort of paralysis settles in. Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t spend some of my extra time being lazy…I love a good “fuzzy blanket and cup of tea” kinda day! I’m going to run down a list of some of the tools I’ve been using to stay well and healthy in a minute.

I just want to take a minute to say THANK YOU! There are so many people who are still working to meet the needs of their community and I’m so grateful. Not only are their services vital, their uninterrupted routines give the rest of us worriers a sense of security and hope, reminding us that life goes on and will return to normal again at some point. So THANK YOU!

So here is what helps me when I begin to spiral in this age of unknowns and unpredictability…

  • Advocacy! Helping my fellow providers helps me
  • Reaching out to my favorite people (not just my family, but the friends that make me feel alive and energized)
  • Connecting with nature
  • The ritual of making a hot cup of tea
  • Reading a good paperback
  • Watching tv-helps me turn off my thinking brain
  • Forcing myself into a routine…this is a challenge, and now that I’m doing it, it is getting easier
  • Skipping the news helps
  • Yoga and exercise in general
  • Mindfulness-I tell myself “right now everything is ok” (I only allow myself to think forward if it’s positive, like my next book or my beach vacation)
  • Allowing myself lots of naps and downtime (adjusting to the thoughts and worries that try to creep in and fighting them is hard work)
And this helps too…written by a friend of a friend
Posted on by Jennifer Cyr

The New Year…2020

As a new decade begins, I’m leaving some things behind:

  • depression,
  • my best friend (and her death),
  • my sister (and the hurt and anger that comes with her),
  • my dear friend michael (and the roller coaster that came with him),
  • my ridiculous sense of insecurity and worry.

As a new decade begins, I’m carrying bits and pieces of the above mentioned with me:

  • Gratitude, for good days and better times
  • Gratitude, for the lessons learned
  • Gratitude, for letting go
  • Gratitude, for feeling seen and heard and valued
  • Gratitude, for becoming me, and accepting myself just as I am.

In this new year, I will be myself. Nothing more, nothing less…just me.

Posted on by Jennifer Cyr

Climate change and mental health…updated!

Watching tv last week, I came across The Running Man from 1987, the one with Arnold Schwartzenegger.

In the year 2019, America is a totalitarian state where the favorite television program is “The Running Man” — a game show in which prisoners must run to freedom to avoid a brutal death. Having been made a scapegoat by the government, an imprisoned Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has the opportunity to make it back to the outside again by being a contestant on the deadly show, although the twisted host, Damon Killian (Richard Dawson), has no intention of letting him escape.

Anyway, I got caught up in it out of curiosity. It also scared me a bit because certain components rang true, like competition for resources and the culture of greed and instant gratification. I started to kinda freak so I do what I do these days…I found a TED talk!

Here’s the link-give it a listen!

Britt Way discusses the ways climate change affects your mental health. Common themes between the movie and TED talk: fear, fatalism, hopelessness. Here are the notes I took as I watched, some are quotes as indicated.

  • PTSD and suicidality increase after disasters like extreme weather events like Katrina, Sandy, Irene…
  • Young people are questioning whether they feel it’s right to bring children into the world given what they will face
  • “Bangladeshi child adds 56 metric tons of carbon dioxide to their parents carbon legacy over their lifetime while an American child, in comparison, adds 9441 to theirs.” So we also have to think bigger than just ourselves…
  • Climate change “multiplies the stresses that marginalized communities already face.”
  • Did you know that there are climate psychiatrists? They specialize in PTSD associated with weather events, but also “climate linked pre-traumatic stress.” Whoa!

As always, I find climate change scary and overwhelming, so I believe that those climate psychiatrists are for real! She closes with the following, and it’s important!

We cannot afford to treat the psychological impacts of climate change as an afterthought (just) because the other issues, of science, technology and politics, and economy, feel hard and while this somehow seems soft.”

I know what she means…the objective content is easier to swallow than the subjective, though no less important.

Update!! Since writing this a couple days ago, I’ve been seeing hearing and reading other things that sparked more…I’m sure you’ve all heard of Greta Thunberg by now…I am so impressed by her. Learn more here

She’s amazing because of the stand she is taking, the lengths she will go to, and the support she is giving, but also, she is showing the world that her diagnosis doesn’t limit her, calling being different a STRENGTH. And she is so right!!