Phobia vs Trauma

Trigger Warning

One thing that has been eating away at me, is people calling their transphobia a “trauma”.

Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape or natural disaster.

A phobia is an irrational fear of something that’s unlikely to cause harm. The word itself comes from the Greek word “phobos,” which means “fear” or “horror.”

Now if you ever have been attacked by an actual trans person, your transphobia is absolutely warranted, just like if you were attacked by a cis male, of course, your fear of men (I don’t know what the word is), that is also warranted. Or if your attacked by a female, then your fear of women is also warranted.

The issue here is, people like Rowling will go on and on and on about how abusive her ex was. Fine, then go after him. A lot of women who think Rowling is the “Queen” have also been attacked by cis males. Fine, go after them.

What has that got to do with trans people? Nothing, it’s ridiclous.

This is why Dr Ford is my Shero. She knew she would probably lose against Kavaughan, she still went after the man that hurt her. She didn’t go after some random group and blame them for it. I will plainly say this. If Rowling actually went for her abusive ex-husband, I would be right beside her (as I am sure a lot of people would) However, she is not, so I am not.

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Taking a step backward…Step FORWARD!

Maybe not the best way to set up a Monday, but I felt like it was a point that I wanted to talk about, of something that happened to me over the weekend. I felt like I had taken a huge step back.

*Just warning…If you do suffer from a anxiety and you’re having a bad day, this post may not be for you today. Even though there is a positive message behind it. I don’t want to be responsible for any triggering.*

Friday morning i had the day off of work and with how well I had been on Thursday, I had decided to head out and do some shopping on the Friday morning. Lately I have been ordering pretty much everything online, because I don’t know how I am going to be from one day to the other.

Taking you back to last year, after an traumatic incident, I have developed an, well I think, a really odd form of anxiety. Too break it down, because someone, who will remain nameless at this point, decided that no, they could not pull over (even though we went past a McDonald’s, a gas station AND a public toilet) and let me out to get to a toilet. I spent 20 minutes basically trapped in a car, actually NEEDING to get out. After the person had left me hanging all day while I drunk tea all day and no food. We were supposed to go clothes shopping, but they had to do some things in the morning. Which was fine, but once it got to 3pm, I was starting to get annoyed. I didn’t know if we were eating, was I supposed to eat first. I was actually in the middle of a text to let them not to bother, when they finally showed up. Our clothes stores close at 5pm on the weekend.

So giving that they finally turned up, we basically run out of the door, which was a bad idea. I didn’t go to the toilet before we left and I had been drinking all day, to fill my stomach. I had been filling my bladder instead.Since then whenever I am in a car, or travelling. I get anxious and feel like I need to get to a toilet badly. I have been getting better with help of hypnotherapy.

I was actually getting better, until a couple of weeks ago. I had one bad night, where I don’t even know what happened, but my stomach hurt and I just had to go. Then it feels like it’s gotten worse, with a rare good day here and there, and just this Friday morning I nearly ended up crying in a shopping mall. It was horrible and I hate it.

I felt SO fed up, I’m tired of fighting it because it’s feels so stupid. When I do go, even in the woes of panic, nothing happens…I can’t even begin to tell you how frustrating it is, how tiring it is. I can’t just do things on a whim and even when I plan things, it still doesn’t always work out. I’m alright coming back and forth from work and sometimes travelling to my partners house I do really well.

Then I have mornings like I did Friday…

I try not to be too hard on myself, I’m doing well every well else, just more necessarily when I have a “duty”.

 That’s the whole thing though, I am so tired of it, that I now have a plan. I had stopped doing all the things that had helped when I started to get better, because I swear just that one bad moment has seemingly ruined it all.

1. So instead of doing it once a week, like I was before. I’m not going to be mediating and listening to my hypnosis tapes, at LEAST every second day. Definitely the night before long trips.
2. I have to promise to myself to not be so hard on myself.
3. When I go shopping by myself, if I need to leave, then I need to leave…It’s alright
4. I have to start walking my dog again, because that was what honestly what started to heal me before. Whether that be a 5 minute walk or a 30 minute walk, I handle what I can handle. That’s what I used to do before. The walks got longer and longer over time.
5. No coffee before long drives.
6. Mostly, it’s okay to admit I am not okay, but I will be. I am not going to let this defeat me.
7. Trying to figure out a way to calm my mind down before I get into a car, especially with those unexpected trips.

I would actually really like any ideas, or any suggestions about any of the above, or if you want to share…Please feel free…No judgement!

Beyond Blue

This week I had a bit of a scare…when I say ‘scare’ I mean it has been a scare about my mortality and I wont know for roughly a year about the outcome. This week has therefore been an extremely traumatic and thoughtful one. It has made me question a lot about what am I doing here, I had a breakdown over seeing a child singing…One of those types of week.

I have always believed that I suffer from a low depression, meaning that I do suffer from it but it doesn’t affect my life as badly as some of my other friends. It does help that I have learnt about my triggers and also have learnt tools to help me cope better. There are a lot of people in my life who suffer depression from extreme (physically debilitating) to the mild type I have.

One of the most well -known industries in Australia are called “Beyond Blue”, they are an industry that help people cope with Depression and Anxiety. They give advice, get you in contact with professional health experts and recommend treatments for people and genders of all ages.

If you are suffering from depression/anxiety or know someone who is, please click the link below:

http://www.beyondblue.org.au/