Walking Through Trauma ... My Journey

Absense of Misbehaviour In dog training I teach my students that "absence of misbehaviour is a rewardable response". What this means is that we need to 'notice' when our dogs are behaving well (when not under direct cue to do so), and actively reward those moments so as to reinforce good behaviour. Normally when things are going well we humans tend to just ride the wave. When our dogs are not actively misbehaving we just 'take it' but often fail to notice/recognize/reward those good moments. That got me thinking about anxiety/depression/trauma and the discussion last week at the trauma group about the three levels .... hyper, the middle area of stability, and hypo; and having been asked to take a moment to ponder the various symptoms of each level and where we find ourselves on that ladder. And it occurred to me that just as we often don't "notice" absence of misbehaviour in our dogs, perhaps we are similarly oblivious to t

+ The following blog is a collection of my musings as I work my way through depression, anxiety, and complex trauma. I've been struggling with whether or not to share my writings .... my journey through whatever this is that I'm going through. I started writing things down as a way to get them out. A way to process emotions that I can't quite understand at times. A way to take a step towards being able to talk about things . I thought maybe if I can write it down, I'll be able to speak it. I felt a compulsion to create this blog but then I also felt .... maybe not ..... do I really want my secrets exposed ..... what would be the point. And then a couple of days ago I saw a meme that said, "One day you will tell your story of how you've overcome what you are going through now, and it will become part of someone else's survival guide." It seemed like a sign telling me to create this blog. I'm not making this public because