About
Who Am I - Who are We ??
WHO AM I, and WHO ARE WE ??
We are a smallish group of former community, social services, family & other emergency support workers and disaster recovery & preparedness workers, people with PTSD, &/or severe Anxiety-Depression issues. &/or a variety of stress-related disease. People who are clearly sometimes struggling & who try not to take ourselves too seriously ...in some very serious situations. . (see BLOG We Are Not Alone).
Principally - we will be dealing through me...so Who am I" - I am "Toni Watch-the-Weather".
This blog came out of from my experiences.
I started working in Community Psych in Queensland in the late 1970’s. From the mid-80’s I worked in community, family & emergency support - homelessness, women & men escaping domestic and family violence, survivors of torture & trauma, survivors ( & victims,'cos not all were making it) of incest & sexual abuse, disaster relief and disaster recovery and preparedness....among other youth/family/disability-related things.
You go to work in the community sphere to support people and families, help them rebuild & develop and to develop future options. You do not, at least initially, go to work expecting to find yourself sitting across the table from sheer “evil”...or even from someone who has come to you attempting to survive evil.
From the early 90’s I worked more with workers and services fighting to provide their best possible - & sometimes even the bare minimum - services to defend, protect, support and assist the survival and recovery of their clients.
In 2014 I discovered I had actually “hit the wall” –( “hit” the wall ???..I’d gone over or through it !!..) some years previously & been running on foggy fumes for some time.
I now live with PTSD. This means I also live behind defences & with some degree of paranoia - I became paranoid because they WERE out to get me. (see BLOG "Break the Back")
Some WOULD still LOVE TO GET ME. Therefore I will be working under the pseudonym/avatar/nom de plume...which will be familiar to some of my earliest colleagues, co-workers & clients...
I remain
Toni Watch-the-Weather.
As a visitor here, you are part of a fantastic community.
WHAT are our INTENTIONS ?? : Support... & a little Humour, maybe...Resources & Info Sharing;
Discussions & The BLOGs;
The DUMP - for when you really, really must...
WE want to offer Insights, Gems of Information - where we happen to find them.
We want you to be able to share.
We want to be able to share.
We want us to be able to come here & find stories & people that resonate for you.
We want us to be able to come here for a laugh, or a cry, or a “dump”.
And, whenever we bloody can, we want you to be able to come here as a place you might be able to find a step forward, or a “light-bulb moment”, maybe a “Kodak moment” or a coping mechanism to get you through today.
Thank you so much for being part of this community. How can you become more involved.
Initially - via the Facebook Private Group .
But FIRST - THE RULES
What are the RULES: not many:
· The “C” word is a no-no.
· Controlled use of the “F” word would be nice
· We will not attack other people’s realities & experiences – many of us have PTSD, so an attack on one of us might very well bring about a number of ferocious counter-attacks. WE don’t need that shit here.
· We will at least try to balance our “dumps”, “debriefs” & downloads” with the occasional positive ...picture, song, joke, whatever.... even if it’s a week later.
· We will not exercise “Alpha Male” qualities – regardless of our gender-type
· We will attempt to block Bullies - without trying, I, TWtW, can think of 4 negative game-playing bullies I will block from participation if I possibly can. I’m sure others among us will have others...I have no idea of how we can deal with this, but hey, shit...we’ll wing it. (This will be much easier to manage on the Facebook Private Group)
· WE WILL do our best to keep this a Safe place.
· The Thou Shalt Not”s
I SHALL not AMBUSH. I may say “ I see your point, but it is not my personal experience. Or even”sorry - I don’t get your point”.
I SHALL NOT say “No - you are wrong”
I SHALL RESPECT this place and other members. I will treat this is a Safe Place - or I will bugger off somewhere else.
Stay in Touch
You are welcome to keep coming back here to see new content. However, a better option is to subscribe to my newsletter! You will get updates on new posts and special content that is only available to my subscribers.