Kids these days (e.g. "Our Electronic Society'")

I firmly believe in the power of a "connection with the outside world." And, as far as I can tell, most Americans in today's day and age spend FAR too much time indoors -- most vocations require the use of a desk, pen, paper, computer, etc. I'm thankful to see people taking a deficit and turning it into a benefit.

Once upon a time, when I was a Cuesta College student with two small children at home, ICQ (which is an antiquated version of AIM and Yahoo Messenger) was my link to a real human being who lived somewhere outside a fifty mile radius of my house... quite the feat for me to meet a perfect stranger and actually commit to talking to that person on an ongoing basis.

The ability to push all safety issues aside (because, after all, who's gonna REALLY find you via your IP address?) plays a huge part in a person's ability to connect with another via the internet.

However, according to the quote in Laura Freberg's blog (can be found at www.laurafreberg.com/blog ): [Pennebaker does have some reservations about the benefits of blogging about personal challenges. According to this article, Pennebaker recommends using journaling to ”…stop, stand back and look at your life….to make ‘life force corrections’ and then, well, go back to living rather than ‘a little too much navel gazing.’” ] leads me to an alternate way of viewing things: I do believe people need a REAL life with REAL live human beings as the counterpart to one's own meanderings. Too much of a good thing really isn't a good thing, as the saying goes.

This post was written by me in November, 2011. Unfortunately, my thesis, as I was hoping (I'll eventually post a copy when I can) didn't prove or disprove the theory I had.

But I still believe it to be true. And, thanks to Dr, Freberg for graciously providing me with the majority of the students I was able to survey for my results. She and I are on the same page. Make face-to-face contact and get on with life. "Learn by doing", as Cal Poly's motto goes...

Gaps in coverage - both on this blog and with insurance

I love double entendres. Only, this one's not meant to be risqué.

I was reviewing my blog entries, as I do from time to time. I noticed a *major* gap in coverage, so to speak. Meaning, I didn't post between the two dates below:

◘  7/20/12 to 10/12/15 -- *this is more than 3 years!

    ○ Reasons I believe this happened:

        ◙ I started my traineeship with a local non-profit as a volunteer therapist in March, 2012. I held this position while I completed school and my Master's Thesis.
        ◙ In July, 2012, I started working in earnest with my thesis advisor regarding collecting data for the thesis. This involved all the nitty gritty details of writing the informed consent document to University standards, establishing validity/reliability of the instruments being used to collect the data, and finding professors on campus willing to let me collect data during class times they were teaching.
        ◙ I began collecting data, analyzing it (hired a scoring sheet intern with my Thesis Advisor's help and entering the data into SPSS) and writing the thesis in earnest. I continued to edit (and revise, revise, revise) the overall content of the document with my Thesis Advisor's help and completed it in time for graduation. It was labor and time-intensive and took 5 quarters to complete. Thanks, Selby!
        ◙ I graduated with my M.S. in Psychology in June 2013, and became employed working with a co-occurring disorders program for clients with primary substance use disorder who also were diagnosed with a secondary mental health diagnosis.

I retained both that position and my volunteer position with the non-profit until June 2014, when I was hired on full-time as a permanent employee as the Coordinator of a forensic program (forensic = legally-involved clients) with mental health and substance use disorders (about 80% of the total caseload were co-occurring, as in, had both).

As Coordinator, I did a lot of duties. And, "other duties as assigned." ☺
        --In other words, I had a lot going on.-- This part just covered the career aspect of my life.

When my younger daughter became ill, the focus became her recovery. The disclosure of any and all information pertaining to my daughter's health issues is to encourage others to speak up, to gain and give support from and to others, and to have a venue in which I can find solace knowing that I am not alone.

In October 2015, as soon as I wrote again, the focus became advocacy, due to the hardships I have had, and others included, in what we dub "the system." While I'm grateful that the health care system exists, it is far too complicated to navigate and leaves considerable gaps in coverage that are not necessarily covered by supplemental programs (if the program exists or is accessible if one does exist).

When my daughter became so ill that it became *crystal clear* to me that I needed to take time off, it was time to take action by not only speaking up in "real life", but also expressing my concerns on this blog.

We continue to fight. Every day. We are going to the neurology consult at UCLA in March. There have been several agencies that by the Higher Power of the Universe (whatever you determine yours to be) have chosen to help us. For the roadblocks we have encountered, we will continue to challenge and will continue to do so until a solution is reached.

In the meantime, I am her primary support person, her mom, her coach, her reminder of her positive qualities, her reminder that this fight may not end, but we will remain strong, and perhaps help others as a result.

I can see by the numbers that people are accessing this blog (18,000+ views and growing), and that certain posts are viewed more than others (given the higher count next to the post). It seems as though the "hot button topic" posts are the ones that get the most attention. However, not many of you comment. I hope you start!

♥Won't you please help another person (or yourself) by simply commenting and stating a need, a solution, or simply venting?♥

I'm open to all these options.

We, and others, need to hear your voice now. Please.

My voice/opinions and such are growing old to me, and I need to be able help others with all the knowledge I've gathered over the many years I've accessed our "system".

I've been talking about these issues far longer than I've been writing on this blog about it. I need a fresh perspective, an angle I haven't tried. But, MOST OF ALL...

...Take care of yourselves and each other. We're all in this world together. ♥