The World Isn't Divided into Good and Bad

I had the best weekend. Everyone I have seen so far this week has heard about it.
The most beautiful bundle of joy in the form of a 2 month old kitten named Blue came into my life and sat on my knee and it was perfect. Blue is the most adorable kitten I have ever seen. And as someone who grew up with kittens, that's saying a lot.

Puddy

Getting Blue came on the back of the death of Puddy; a kitten we've had since March. Puddy came to us starving and sick and hurt. And we nursed her back to as much health as we could over the 7 odd months we had her. But in the past month her health deteriorated again. And when she could no longer groom herself she had to be put down. I was frankly rather miserable when I heard the news. But I now understand that it was for the best.

Reflecting on ASIST

Reflecting back on my weekend training.

Two weeks ago I completed ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training). Over the two-day course in what the trainers call 'suicide first-aid', participants take part in discussions, watch videos and role plays. The idea is to train 20 odd individuals in how to prevent someone who is suicidal from taking their own life.

I've wanted to do ASIST training for two years now. It's been on my to-do list ever since I did safeTALK training back in 2012, but I was never able to find a date that suited me. More recently, completing ASIST made it to my '23 things I want to try before I'm 23' list. Not only did I want to complete it, but I felt I needed to. 

Happy December

I love December. People just seem to come together at this time of year, and maybe it's the presents talking, but I really like it. How can you not like Christmas? I mean, apart from the commercialization of a religious holiday, it's got lights and sweets, family and friends, countless servings of Christmas dinner, and a man that enters your house to leave you exactly what you wanted during the night. December is a pretty good month.

However, so far my December hasn't gotten off to the greatest and most festive of starts.

27th November

I was in UCD last weekend. It was first proper time I'd been back in two months. Even counting every summer over the past 4 years it's the longest I've been away from UCD. 

I am such a nerd...

And while I should be reflecting on why I was on campus (ASIST - Suicide Prevention Training) and I will make a mental note to do so later on, right now I want to look at the complete difference in your social life not being in University makes.

As socially isolating as I found University at times, not being in college can also be isolating. This is my first year since I was 3 years old NOT in education. This is the first year I don't get at least 2 weeks off for Christmas Holidays. This is post-academia and it's really kinda scary.

What a change entering the 'real world' is, as I like to call it.

Winter is Coming...

We don't get as much snow in Ireland as I'd like us to. But none the less I am aware that it is hat-and-gloves cold now, often frosty, and Christmas is everywhere.

So Winter is finally here (yay!) but with the seasonal change can also come mood changes. (Seasonal affective disorder)
Put it down to lack of sunlight, a part of evolution (like animals hibernating), or related to hormones, but it is an actual condition triggered by changes to the season, be that summer or winter. Noticed you get down every year in the cold weather? You're fatigued? Over-eating? These can all be symptoms.

Radar - Suicide Prevention?

You've probably read about it already - The Samaritans, a great mental health charity who offer a 24 hour helpline, have launched a suicide prevention app called Radar.
You can use Radar to monitor the people you follow on Twitter to identify whether or not they might be suicidal. It scans through their tweets and flags any that use key words which suggest they might be feeling that way - e.g. 'hate myself', 'help me', 'depressed'.

In theory, the idea is that you receive an email when someone you follow tweets any of the 'key words' and you are then encouraged to follow up with it, either by Direct Message or offline.

In reality, this app presents a lot of problems and borders on actually being dangerous.

13 Reasons Why - Jay Asher

Over the summer I read this book by Jay Asher. It's called 13 Reasons Why and was recommended online as a good book to read if you enjoyed The Fault In Our Stars.

13 Reasons Why runs with the tagline,

'There are 13 reasons why your friend died. You are one of them.'