Post of the month - November

TheMix

Hey everyone,

Thank you for all your nominations this month! You can vote on the post of the month winner below. Also make sure to keep a look out for any posts to nominate for next month's post of the month. You can nominate a post by clicking 'report' and putting POTM as the reason.

1. @Princesa's post in 'Travelling'

Hi Esme17

Wow, Thailand and Bali! But I have a couple of suggestions you must be sure about doing before you go to the airport, the first being taking precribed medicines.

Any prescribed medicines must be listed on your repeat prescriptions form that your doctor precribes for you, in particular painkillers and prescribed Class A drugs, ie. Morphine tablets or in oral form for example, also BuTrans transdermal patches that contain a morphine derivative used as a powerful analgesic. Please note I am not saying or suggesting that you are prescribed such or any Class A meds, but it is imperitive that they are listed as per your doctor and also any such if in liquid form are carried with you onboard and NOT in your luggage. Any liquid painkillers must be put into a Ziplock-type clear polythene bag, also carried with you in your Onboard Carry. Thailand as you may know have stringent laws regarding Class A meds including I believe, the painkiller Tramadol. My mother has prescribed Class A's which she carries accordingly to my hawk eye as she has osteoarthritis

Check your onboard baggage size allowance. Some airlines such as EasyJet have a restriction on luggage weight and also Carry-on though Carry-on may not be weight restricted. If the overhead compartment in the plane is full then your onboard carry-on may have to go under your seat if the plane is full, or the cabin steward may put it down in the hold. This will NOT apply to medicines.

If you have a disability (I'm no way suggesting you have), airlines have Special Assistance where a member of the airport staff will accompany you to the aircraft and you get priority boarding. The cabin stewards are specially trained to help passengers who find flying difficult. Mum was greatly helped when once she flew alone back hom to Majorca. Ia slo warned Mum not to put her Insulin in her baggage as that must be put into her Carry-on bag

Regarding Bali, presently the country's airports have had to cancel outgoing and incoming flights because it has a huge ass volcano threatening to erupt. In which case you must check if your flight on to Bali will be delayed to any extent. Or even cancelled.

Always carry extra meds to your holiday in case your flight home is delayed. You are going for 2 months? I suggest as a precaution you take 3 months' worth of meds.

Returning to Special Assistance, at Check-In tell the clerk if you need it, and they will be only too glad to help. Don't worry, every day they have travellers needing Special Assistance. Get to your airport in good time. Follow your airline's instructions about how long you have to be at the airport before Check-In is called.

I'm well travelled. Happy travels, stay safe and have a whale of a time! :d

Julie

ETA 2, My partner's just come home and said 'Nothing is going into Bali at present because of that volcano'.

2. @Laine 's post in 'Massive announcement'

Congrats Jacob!
its a huge step so well done for taking it!
I wish you the best and we're all here to support you through it

I have supported many good friends and family members through their transition so if you need any advice at all or someone to just talk to feel free to shoot me a message

Happy Galloping

3. @FeatheredDreams post in 'Alcohol and coke'

So lets talk a little bit of psychology here...the cycle of addiction for stimulants generally looks a little like this:
want to have a good time (eg at a party) -> take stimulants (cocaine) -> get high -> effect wears away -> bored, and repeat.

I say cycle because...there's no way out (at least not without help & effort)! Not that you are definitely addicted, but i'm presenting this because I think it definitely applies to you on a night out. If you always take coke when you drink, then i would have to ask, why do you drink? From a purely & very narrow chemical view, alcohol doesn't make you happier/more excited (it's a depressant!) but as it's usually associated with fun and active situations, one may think it's a good time drink.

Mixing any two drugs together is dangerous, but especially cocaine and alcohol...would it be possible for you to only take cocaine and not drink alcohol in these times? I ask this mostly because it's safer, and partly because i'd be interested to know if that's feasible for you...because if you only want fun, just cocaine will do fine. Ideally, no cocaine is an ideal outcome, but this would be a good step towards it.

If it's just something you connect to drinking (so the thought is "i should do cocaine because i am drinking" as opposed to "i should do cocaine because i am bored (and also happen to be drinking)") then that might be a little easier to help with,

If you wish to be able to drink on a night out without taking cocaine, this may seem harsh but...do something else that's fun. Get a hobby! Be it a sport (even if it's something like bowls), video game, book club, whatever you want to do..just do it! The money you save on not drinking can go towards hobbies instead even if they happen to be costly interests.
To me, it doesn't sound like fun if you need drugs to be able to enjoy it, and I think in those situations it's just best if you don't do it...also if your friendships rely on drugs to connect with each other, they also don't sound like good friendships- again not assuming, just covering all bases, i would hope you can enjoy times with your friends on weekdays//without drugs too! And if you might feel left out to not join them - again, it's not fun, just don't join them, don't make yourself suffer to upkeep friendships when there will always be other friends out there (even if you haven't met them yet) who won't do drugs on the weekends.

If you struggle with just dropping it, and infact DO have an addiction to any extent...firstly, look up local services. I'm talking incredibly local - exclusive to your nearest city kind of local, you may live in a town where some sort of recovery community is set up! I can't help much with finding them but I can suggest to you a service which may help-
If you're willing to reveal it, theres a few wide area charities i can suggest based on your county, otherwise http://www.recoveryfocus.org.uk/ - see if any of the services under the "Our Partners" banner cover your area! I live in W Midlands so i only know about Aquarius in detail myself! Otherwise though:
http://www.talktofrank.com/support-near-you - the whole frank website is good, but i've specifically linked this page (even though Rhys beat me to it, hah!) because it's excellent and very accurate!

4. @Jellyelephant 's post in 'Sorry'

Hey Abi,

Please don't be sorry. Have you ever heard of the phrase "You can't pour from an empty cup"? I feel like this applies here. You need to look after yourself before you can start caring for other people. I know you know all about self care so I won't go on, but try and practise it a little, the way you encourage others to. It's great that you have other skills too, I know music is one of your passions in life and hopefully by studying it that can help you get to where you want to be. Take all the time you need, you don't have to support people in SC all of the time - chat is there to support you too when you are going through difficult times.

Take care of yourself

Jelly x

Good luck everyone and thanks so much for your continued support to everyone on the boards!

- Aife