(Semi) Quarantine and Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Submitted by Andrea(s) Speck on Sat, 10/07/2021 - 20:30

I knew this was going to happen sooner or later: six days ago I was in close contact with a friend who later tested positive for COVID. On Wednesday a friend alerted me, and I contacted Salud Responde. As I am fully vaccinated (the privilege of age) I don't have to do a strict quarantine, but I do have to avoid close contacts, i.e. I can't really meet anyone, except with distance and a face mask, which doesn't work for me. I wear a face mask when there are a lot of people, or when I go into a shop, or on public transport.

Tags: 
Trauma
COVID-19

On being nonbinary in a civil disobedience action

Submitted by Andrea(s) Speck on Fri, 28/05/2021 - 23:00
Anarquismo queer

A week ago I took part in a civil disobedience action for climate justice in Lisbon. It was not my first civil disobedience action, nor will it be my last. However, in this action I realised that for me it is no longer the same.

I have been arrested several times in various countries during my activist life. My first arrest was in 1986 in Germany, in an action against a nuclear waste processing factory. The last one was probably a few years ago in England or Belgium. So, I know more or less well the process of an arrest in various countries. Although it is true that it is not pleasant, I have learned to manage the fear that always accompanies these situations. Or, so I thought, until last Saturday.

Tags: 
Nonviolence
Queer issues
Climate Justice

On the arromantic (and asexual) spectrum

Submitted by Andrea(s) Speck on Thu, 29/04/2021 - 23:15

It is always good to put words to things. What can't be named, doesn't exist. And I have had a hard time positioning myself on the arromantic spectrum, between demiromantic and arromantic. This means that I rarely feel a romantic attraction to another person - no matter their gender, nor do I have any desire to establish a relationship. And I don't lack anything.

Tags: 
Queer issues

Living with trauma in times of a pandemic

Submitted by Andrea(s) Speck on Tue, 15/12/2020 - 21:56

 

The pandemic has caused mental health problems for many people. But for those of us who were already living with trauma before the pandemic, it has been and is proving to be an especially difficult and often painful challenge.

Even in 'normal' times, living with trauma is often not easy. I speak from experience, as I live with complex trauma. This means that I am still struggling to recognise my patterns of trauma, my automatic survival mechanisms, which allowed me to survive a traumatic childhood and adolescence, but which now often prevent me from being aware of my emotions, from setting limits, from trusting friends.

Tags: 
Trauma
COVID-19

Shame

Submitted by Andrea(s) Speck on Thu, 26/11/2020 - 12:02

Yesterday I wrote about trauma and shame, and today I realised something else. In the text by Meg-John Barker to which I refer and which I have already quoted quite a bit yesterday, I also found this:

"Like other authors, Pat explains that – as a child – when faced with a choice between:

Tags: 
Trauma