Our Side of the Story

Abusing substance is a totally different situation. It can still be related to mental illness cause we see and hear that people overdose mostly cause they couldn’t handle or take the pain anymore. That being said sometimes people who aren’t sick as well abuse substances for “fun”. I’m not projecting this on anyone but this is my input. Substance abuse can be considered both ways as an illness and as a normal thing. 1. I have been in both positions. When I was thirteen I have abused a substance named diolin or dionil I can’t clearly remember the medicine but that’s besides the point. I would call myself sick for this one cause I reacted to that way because a guy i thought I loved dumped me. 2. I have abused hookah and other substances when I was at my absolute best. Why? Cause I felt like what i was doing to keep myself happy wasn’t enough.

Feel free to share please😊

Abusing substance is a totally different situation. It can still be related to mental illness cause we see and hear that people overdose mostly cause they couldn’t handle or take the pain anymore

I do have a personal input on this one

Ask why they do it. Ask how you can help. If you can't do anything just be there for them.You can't shame anyone into doing anything. Please lead with compassion!

I hope you're having a good week, and I'll hopefully be more active the coming days apologies for being MIA. Sleep well✨🤍✨

Letter 35 4.4.21 Phase Father, Thank You for the slow pace and general laziness of Sunday afternoons. I was delighted to see our cat lying on the warm concrete tiles with her paws stretched and her pointy ears perched up-she looks very relaxed, but the little predator still looks alert to the sounds of people and birds nearby.  Lately, a lot of my days look like Sundays though. It's like my sedentary routine is beginning to take away from the day's ‘sparkle’. It's not like my avoidance of the outside is a new phenomenon either. But since I graduated, this ‘tendency’ seems to have taken on more negative connotations. This ‘break’ isn’t a temporary gap between my hectic university studies or high school work anymore. If unchecked, it could potentially go on forever—and the time that passes will invite new titles to hang around: ‘recluse’, ‘hermit’, ‘hikikomori’.  But I don’t think my routine would change much if I started going by the title ‘writer’ or ‘architect’ either-I find that I work most efficiently at home-but I find it amusing that the things people call us can change so easily. Whether it's writing, studying, sipping coffee with family, or designing, I'm just doing stuff afterall. How can that turn into an identifier?  And Father, You know I always want to keep myself in check for this: whether the 'titles' are widely considered positive or not, I don’t want to internalize any other title than the one You give me. But as You saw, graduation seems to have opened a whole new vault of questions for me. Everyone from friends to strangers ask me what I plan to do next. Am I taking the ‘job route’, ‘further education’ or ‘marriage route’? Perhaps two things at once? And it’s not that I really envy friends who have picked any one of these paths, but my brain keeps telling me, ‘At least they 'transitioned' with a capital ‘t’. They have a different set of problems entirely, while you’re right where they left you.' I also feel like my complaining about 'adulting' had gotten old. What’s relatively new is this phase: for the first time in years, I’ll have to take full responsibility for every decision I make. But a quarter of the year is already up, and I’m not making many effective decisions yet.  I skipped on several internships and competitions partly because my laptop stopped working in December, I’m reading and writing more than I have in a long time but I’m not coming up with any ‘focused work’-whatever that is. It’s like I’m scoffing at all the expectations people have for me while secretly wasting a lot of mental energy on them. But I’ve also been thinking a lot. I think about the avoidable suffering going on all around me and I'm overwhelmed by where to start. I fear I'll waste my time spreading myself thin, that I'll plug myself into situations I'm not equipped to help in and that I'll cause more harm than anything. Sometimes, I want You to give me a full plan of what I should pursue. But I detect my hypocrisy here: I tell others there may be a sense of whimsy in not knowing the big picture, then I fret about not knowing that myself.  Bob Goff’s book has been really helpful lately though. Father, thank You for giving us each other. He may never learn how much his anecdotes of breaking a prison door, freeing enslaved children and 'forcing' his way into law school have encouraged me. But more than the impressive stories, it's his warm retellings of his 'lowest points' that made me scoff at my own dilemmas.  He worked hard to get into law school. But after a couple of decades, he never used it as an identifier or point of pride. I've been following him for years and I didn't know about his law degree until I was deep in his stories. Now, he just seems to see it as a 'day job' to fund his next program or school.  He didn't talk much about his current perception of the job either-but it was so obvious. I know that whatever I do will inevitably just be a series of actions. So, Father may I never make too big a deal of whatever I do next.  @LetterstoFather (part 1)

Aren't we all bigoted at some point? We preach "No discrimination" but do we really live by it? Do we treat others in the same way we treat people from our nation, religion and these days ethnicity (which is gross btw🥰) No I'm not pointing fingers at you, I'm speaking to myself as well. You don't need to do too much work, honestly. You just have to give your humanity a call and dismantle the biased perspectives you have.

"I hate it when time flies" #LiteratureSaturdays @OurSideOfTheStory

"I hope it helps you build a garden inside of yourself" Sleep well🤍

I believe you're well aware of what's happening in our country. We're losing innocent civilians as well as children. This is the time where we as a nation are feeling powerless and hopeless. You don't need to have a very detailed or crafted political view to understand what's going on in the different rural parts of our country. Please keep our people in your prayers, please🖤