L/J as therapy

[trixtah]

Well, not really, but I've read some fairly vehement assertions lately that L/J should not, under any cirumstances whatsoever, be used for therapy.

I certainly agree with not using it as a substitute for getting proper therapy if you have genuine and long-lasting mental or emotional issues, but what about for those who are generally sane (no laughing in the cheap seats!) and who want a place for community, ventage and feedback? And for the not-so-sane types too, actually - it's a pretty harmless outlet overall, especially if it's used as an adjunct to any real therapy.

I've been feeling horribly homesick/missing my friends these last couple of weeks, and it's partly due to the political climate at the moment. I want to be in a country where I don't need to feel seriously peturbed by whatever the government is doing, and where I actually feel enfranchised. On the more local level, Canberra is feeling more small-townish and arid than usual, and the lack of diversity here is bugging me. It could be a lot worse, since I could be living in some horribly racist right-wing environment, and Canberra really is not like that. Just very white-bread, middle-of-the-road, but that is entirely bearable. You know, I'm the right colour, I have the right job, I speak the right language, I earn the right amount of money. Privilege has its uses.

However, I think one thing that has kept me on a fairly even keel here, compared to my time in London, is that by keeping this journal I'm connected in the virtual sense to a nicely diverse, fellow-thinking and interesting bunch of people. I don't like writing long ranty emails to my friends back home (since most of them are there), because I end up just going WAH! about how much I miss them and the place. Here, I can rant away, I can be as OT as I feel like, no one person has to take up the responsibility of responding, and in fact, no-one at all needs to respond to any individual post, because it's not a synchronous communication form. Of course, if no-one at all seemed interested ever, then perhaps I wouldn't feel quite so supported by this format. :-)

So, you know, yay virtual communities, for keeping my sanity level those few points higher, giving me excellent food for thought, moral support, and for making an appreciable difference to my general feeling of contentment with the world. And yay for those of you who I've gotten to know (better) online and also hang out with in RL, because that really is the best of both worlds.

Comments

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Heh, don't worry, living in the US is pretty low on my list of things to do. Although if you shunted the entire west coast down to California (avoiding LA) up a bit, and made it part of Canada, that would be cool. :-)