"Group Gropes" = Chronic Pain Group Therapy Meeting
I attend a weekly Group Grope at the Dallas VAMC. A Group Therapy session. You know, where you can hopefully get some help to come to grips with constant pain...that sort of thing.
Well, sometimes we really "let it all hang out"....really get to discussing what brings about pain and it's effect on us as individuals.....sometimes some pretty private thoughts and emotions come to the surface.
At least that's the way it used to be.
But, about 2 months ago, we had a new group member join our "club".
Problem is, is that she is, well...homosexual. NOW hang on a second.....it's NOT that she is homosexual. It's that she brings her "significan other" to the meetings with her.
I mean, she's the "patient" just like I'm the "patient". It is, after all, a "mental health" thing, this group therapy thing.
And, if I wanted to tell someone other than a fellow "sufferer"....then I'd just go down to the Canteen and tell whoever was sitting next to me.
It's kinda like I really DON'T want everybody knowing my "private" thoughts and it is hard enough for me to "share" my feelings........well, I guess I'm not making much sense, am I?
Anyway, I feel that I need to attend these sessions, even though I haven't spoken a word in two months. You know, the VA set me up to go to these sessions....and if I don't go, then I get a letter from the PhD leading the group, saying I'm a "No Show" and it makes me feel like they are "Keeping Score" and if I don't go, then I'm being considered "Non-Compliant" with my treatment...and how is that going to hurt me "down the road" with my % ratings and my claim(s)?
Anyway, I've got another session looking me in the face this week....it's 50 miles one way...we just have one car....the price of gas...the fact that it's an all-day affair for me.
CRAP!
Oh, and I can't take my pain meds (I gotta drive) on the day before these sessions......just so I can get there without getting in trouble with the law, or hurting someone in a car wreck.
Sorta a "Catch-22" anyway I look at it.
Isn't there some kind of "privacy" thing....so that if I go to these meetings at least I could feel like I could participate?
Sorry, long and windy post, I'm just feeling kinda "stressed" and hopeless with this whole deal!
It would be a whole lot easier for me to just STAY HOME and indoors and away from all the people instead of putting up with the stuff. It took months of meetings for me to feel at ease.
"It is cold and we have no blankets.
The little children are freezing to death.
My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are-perhaps freezing to death.
I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find.
Maybe I shall find them among the dead.
Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad.
From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."
Question
LarryJ
"Group Gropes" = Chronic Pain Group Therapy Meeting
I attend a weekly Group Grope at the Dallas VAMC. A Group Therapy session. You know, where you can hopefully get some help to come to grips with constant pain...that sort of thing.
Well, sometimes we really "let it all hang out"....really get to discussing what brings about pain and it's effect on us as individuals.....sometimes some pretty private thoughts and emotions come to the surface.
At least that's the way it used to be.
But, about 2 months ago, we had a new group member join our "club".
Problem is, is that she is, well...homosexual. NOW hang on a second.....it's NOT that she is homosexual. It's that she brings her "significan other" to the meetings with her.
I mean, she's the "patient" just like I'm the "patient". It is, after all, a "mental health" thing, this group therapy thing.
And, if I wanted to tell someone other than a fellow "sufferer"....then I'd just go down to the Canteen and tell whoever was sitting next to me.
It's kinda like I really DON'T want everybody knowing my "private" thoughts and it is hard enough for me to "share" my feelings........well, I guess I'm not making much sense, am I?
Anyway, I feel that I need to attend these sessions, even though I haven't spoken a word in two months. You know, the VA set me up to go to these sessions....and if I don't go, then I get a letter from the PhD leading the group, saying I'm a "No Show" and it makes me feel like they are "Keeping Score" and if I don't go, then I'm being considered "Non-Compliant" with my treatment...and how is that going to hurt me "down the road" with my % ratings and my claim(s)?
Anyway, I've got another session looking me in the face this week....it's 50 miles one way...we just have one car....the price of gas...the fact that it's an all-day affair for me.
CRAP!
Oh, and I can't take my pain meds (I gotta drive) on the day before these sessions......just so I can get there without getting in trouble with the law, or hurting someone in a car wreck.
Sorta a "Catch-22" anyway I look at it.
Isn't there some kind of "privacy" thing....so that if I go to these meetings at least I could feel like I could participate?
Sorry, long and windy post, I'm just feeling kinda "stressed" and hopeless with this whole deal!
It would be a whole lot easier for me to just STAY HOME and indoors and away from all the people instead of putting up with the stuff. It took months of meetings for me to feel at ease.
"It is cold and we have no blankets.
The little children are freezing to death.
My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are-perhaps freezing to death.
I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find.
Maybe I shall find them among the dead.
Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad.
From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."
Chief Joseph
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