Hey Kathleen, I'm sorry I missed this question. I believe I may have answered this in a meeting that you attended, but I wanted to answer it here so everyone else can see. During the Reading Circle, I do share my screen and we take turns reading from the book on that. So anyone who is reading will read as much as they'd like, and then they may stop. We are all welcome to take pauses for discussion or at any time if something triggering comes up, especially since the book may prompt such things as triggers or motivate a discussion. Hope this helps! 🙂

@Patricia Lopez yes, I am late but if anyone is up for it we can do it now. I'm so sorry.

This. Is. Phenomenal. Thank you, @Kirsten Isaacson for such a thought-provoking, emotional, piece of art. I feel this. Thank you, thank you. I'm gonna add it into the zinnneeeee. So excited to have some more art to put it together with! 🖤

Hey Tara, no worries about missing the meeting. I'm glad you were taking care of you. That is all that matters, and what matters, the most. It is awful you've been struggling with sleep so much. I've been there. It isn't just physically exhausting. It takes away so much from your day-to-day. It is truly debilitating. I can understand why it would be a struggle to cope with that as well as the pain of having rheumatoid arthritis on top of everything. I empathize with the suicidal thoughts. Deeply. I think I've told you briefly about my experience, perhaps not as much as I'd like. But I'm sorry you're going through that. I'm with you, and I'm so, so grateful you feel safe here to share about it. Thank you for that. I know immensely painful moments come and go and the thought that it can be ended can seem so powerful, because who doesn't want the pain to stop? Who doesn't want a permanent solution to a persistent, agonizing problem? But it doesn't end the problem. I had a caller on my warm line once share something that really stuck with me. "Suicide doesn't really end my pain, it passes it on to those I leave behind." And as you expressed, you resonate with that statement in your own words, and you have many that care about you, including the members of this community and myself. You are being brave every day, every moment. By writing about your pain, your story, by sharing it, by making the choice to use your CPAP, by choosing to take a nap and care for yourself, by doing many things that include self-care or saying hell with the temptations that the struggle is insisting on, I'm gonna fight for my life! I'm gonna persist to nurture myself and heal. You ARE brave. You always have been, I've seen it all throughout the time I've known you in the ways you are always showing up for yourself, and it is powerful. And it is inspiring. Please never worry about making it to meetings. You are a wonderful, amazing member of this community even if you miss meetings. You matter here, your sense of safety matters, you are a part of this space because you feel safe here and want to be here, not because you make it to meetings all the time. Though I appreciate you saying you want to come to meetings, it does mean a lot that you want to make it and value them. I'm so grateful for you writing this and expressing yourself and your feelings, and your need for support, Tara! I'm sorry I got to it quite late. I do intent to be better with responding to posts on here. 🌻

@Patricia Bergeron Yes, absolutely! Please feel free to share what you've created or worked on if you'd like. Those are definitely creative works. I got my degree in Graphic and Web Design, those are definitely art forms. I'd love to see you apps. Especially if they're about fighting psychiatry, those are going to be useful to some on here I'm sure! Thank you for asking, and I look forward to you sharing. ☺️

@Patricia Bergeron whoa, I can tell a lot of hard work, and like you stated, a labor of love, went into this app. That’s phenomenal, thank you for sharing! I love this. Is this for a country outside of the US? I’m unfamiliar with the card format of records. This is great! You’re a absolutely correct, mental heath records can be so difficult to navigate and if anything can make it clarified for so that they can make informed decisions about their health, that is a powerful and important tool. You’ve created something very meaningful that is helping many and will help many, I’m sure! 🙂 thanks for your hard work and passion in this. Reminds me of my coding days for websites. I made my website in Wordpress so there wasn’t really any coding involved, but there’s something about coding that was mesmerizing and very exciting. It’s definitely a beautiful thing, you are creating!