262- 52weekgratitude, weeks 26-30 : July 2017

July has quite busy and I was often tired or uninspired to compose my blog entries. Thus, 52weekgratitude took a back-seat to more pressing subjects and tags that I'd managed to organize my thoughts for. 



I now catch up on weeks 26-30 of this gratitude challenge, though I have to adapt the prompts, which are as follows : 

26 – Someone you got to meet

27 – Favorite spot in your city

28 – Your past

29 - Your favorite memory

30 – Your current age 

261- Angela's self-love tag

Angela,  creator of mhchathour, made this self-love tag. Both she and our mutual friend Eleanor tagged me, so I reply to both in the same time. But, first, Angela's post, and Eleonore's here. 

260 - June 15 to July 21 exposures and CBT2017-21

At my 20th CBT session last month, my therapist had congratulated my multiple exposures of the previous few weeks since 19th CBT, and told me that I was now in consolidation phase of my therapy. This means that I am nearing the end of it - for social phobias, and that after that, we'll work on another as my therapist promised. 

259 - 50 Questions you’ve never been asked tag

Kate Hawkins tagged me for these 50 questions tag, which she replied on her blog. 
Get to know me through them, as much as I was able or willing to answer, as follows. 

258 - Uprooted returned home...

***multiple trigger warnings : religious cult, cptsd, psychosis, and mention of suicidal ideation***


Expanding on post 241, I want to tell the tale of my uprooting when I was really young, and skip ahead to the year that brought about my return home. 

I was uprooted when I was merely a child. Actually, during my formative years. As a child of divorcees who fought for custody, I was taken away by my father, from my mother, during a school holiday. I was supposed to go back home 2 weeks later, but instead of 14 days, I spent more than 14 YEARS away. 

257- Growing up and Living in a religious cult

***As usual, multiple trigger warnings : cult-related stuff.***

Also : It took me weeks to ponder and let this topic mature from a seed in my mind, to this particular post. I may have repeated a few things, and the order may be a tad wonky, but I've been reading it over and over to try the best combination, to no avail. I therefore leave it in this present form, which is mostly in chronological order of composition, since July 3rd. As I wanted a somewhat comprehensive overview, this post is my longest, so grab a cuppa, as I don't wish to further divide it. (really, it's 2505 words long after the mark). 

If you ever wondered why I write quite often about my upbringing in a religious cult, I hope this will explain as I shall give you an insight into my typical life circumstances and impacts I suffered as a result of this difficult childhood and teen years. 

The first important thing you must know is that contrary to a lot of people, I didn't choose to follow this particular cult. I was born into it, as my father made this religious soup out of several elements, before I was born. These include monotheistic and polytheistic religions, adding new-age esoterism, and lastly his own bits of pseudo-wisdom. 

256- Therapies

* the trigger alert is always on, but rather mild as I discuss very few traumatic parts, and focus on therapies* 

The idea for this post came to me weeks ago, but I wasn't sure how to introduce it, so I'll just go ahead. I wanted to discuss the importance of finding not only the proper kind of therapy, but the proper therapist.