jansman wrote: ↑Wed Apr 05, 2023 4:52 amI will leave it at that for now. For a while I am staying away from the internet full stop. Frankly,I am finding it all boring and somewhat depressing. 15 minutes meditation and a half hour chat with my neighbours is far more therapeutic!
Well, looking after ourselves, at all sorts of levels, is really the theme of this thread, so the way forward that *you* find, that suits *you*, is the only thing that matters, jansman. I hope you enjoy the chat, as well as finding it therapeutic, in fact I pretty much know you do
Yorkshire Andy - interesting point about muscle memory in emergencies - when I've been very upset about something, I tend to retreat from the world into DVDs and reading, and that gets me over the hump, but the issues are still there when I come out the other side. I've managed to shorten the time I disappear into books etc to a few days, rather than months, there is a sort of "muscle memory", as you say - for me, its sort of "yes this helps, but don't take it to the extreme, you need to get out into the world", and that helps me get on again. Earlier on, during my 20s and 30s, I needed serious therapy - I'd never have made it to the age I have without it.
The fire alarms - oh god, I'm an outlier again

I have two experiences. One when I was in a train at a busy station, and I smelled smoke. It went on, and the train didn't move. It was a holiday weekend, packed with families, and I was midway between two doors. If a fire had broken out, I'd have died, there were dozens of children around me who wouldn't have moved fast. So I got up and left the train - I sat on a platform seat, and if it had exploded I'd still have been dead, but a fire wouldn't have killed me, and I could have helped. Eventually, there was an announcement and everyone had to get off. A replacement train took half an hour, but we all lived!
The other one ended up being comical - I was at a science fiction convention in Blackpool, 2,000 people in a hotel over 3 days, and there was a fire alarm around 3am every night. First time, me and my buddy scarpered out of our room sharpish - I looked after her, she was sort of asleep standing up. Fire Brigade let us go back inside after an hour - dust from the vents had been dislodged after enthusiastic dancing

Second night, same thing happened, and I was the asleep-standing-up one, and my buddy looked after me. Third night, we refused to leave the room. I stayed in bed, and my buddy stood at our open door, checking for sound, sight and smell of fire. Nothing. I'm hoping the Fire Brigade made the hotel clean the vents
