Author Archives: adventurerliberated

If only people would learn to do their own small share in collective responsibility and just wear a mask…!!! (And if only the CDC were more responsible…!!!) https://www.npr.org/2022/12/07/1141372567/cdc-director-rochelle-walensky-advises-on-the-tripledemic

[Trigger warnings: explicit language about genitalia, sexual intercourse, and gynecological visit/examination.] I’m a boy. A boy with female genitals but a boy nonetheless.  Today I had a weird but probably the best ever gynecological medical experience. It was my first gynecological visit in a couple years and the first one since starting my “trans-journey” explicitly. Continue reading “Weird yet wonderful doctor’s visit”

Last night I had a very vivid dream: a stranger (getting on a bus or into an elevator with me) asked me kindly, “Are you male or female? I cannot tell from your voice…”. Their question elated me: it felt like the best thing possible I could get from a stranger, i.e. their not knowingContinue reading “Identities lost and found”

Yesterday evening I had the double bliss of my housemate (who makes me feel so uncomfortable) being out, away for an overnight trip, and one of my best friends here in Colorado coming to visit me.  For several years I had the fortune to live with good friends, i.e. to have some of my closestContinue reading “Double bliss — and food for thought”

How is it that one can love so much?  How is it that while still being ill three weeks after first testing positive for COVID, while putting up with a contradictory housemate, while struggling in an uncomfortable living situation, while reading a book on trauma (& thus addressing my own traumas), while facing frustration andContinue reading “How can one love so much?”

 […] In a statement released in June 2011, the British Psychological Society complained to the American Psychological Association that the sources of psychological suffering in the DSM-V were identified “as located within individuals” and overlooked the “undeniable social causation of many such problems”. […] ‘  ‘ Mental illness is not at all like cancer: HumansContinue reading “Humans, the “social animals””

Two more quotes from the book “The body keeps the score” by Bessel a. van der Kolk, M.D.: these two snippets in particular, although from different chapters, for me go together somehow and are particularly important as they relate, among other things, to some recent experiences, conflicts, and needs that I have felt and thatContinue reading “Tugs-of-war”

[Trigger warning: trauma somatization] ‘ […]  Don’t you ever tame your demons But always keep ’em on a leash ‘ {from the song “Arsonist Lullabye” by Hozier} Lately, my demons have been getting totally unleashed at night. To the point of waking me up in the wee hours every morning, usually around four, and keepingContinue reading “Demons?”

‘ Truth, like love and sleep, resents  Approaches that are too intense. ‘ [Poet W. H. Auden, “The Double Man”]