Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Yes and Maybe

Some things sometimes go better than I expect, and that can be very encouraging.

Chrissy, who I wrote about last time, called in response to my call. She said she was at work on Tuesday and that she felt hung-over and terrible, but she really pushed herself to pull it together and not let her life tumble completely our of control.

Today she left a message that things were still OK. She felt anxious but could handle it. She would not drink, and wanted to stay away from alcohol.

She also was much more committed to recognizing the triggers and learning how to keep herself under control.

This was very gratifying.

Also, yesterday I had what was really a very good discussion with L. She was able to see, but not admit, that her ideas are crazy. She tried to grasp and hold on to how she would never believe that there is conspiracy of four hundred people involved in damaging her sneakers. She even laughed at it.

Today, as usual, she called about five times with more proof that someone is breaking into her house and damaging her stuff. When I went over everything we discussed yesterday she screamed and cried.

"Don't tell me that's not real. Don't take that away."

Unfortunately, that's progress.

1 comment:

Ms. Meander said...

what amazes me is that you can tell them these hard things, and instead of shutting you out, they come back and talk to you some more. that's so amazing and so brave.

of course, i imagine the ones who can't face such things and don't come back wouldn't make good fodder for blogging.