Welcome to Read, Shake, Appreciate! This is your fortnightly round-up of words that made me feel inspired, songs that made me shake my ass, and people who I think deserve some spotlight. This week I’m reading: Lost Connections, Why You’re Depressed and How to Find Hope
I should pick up that book :) I grew up as the daughter of one narcissistic parent and one emotionally absent parent. I really wish I could draw to express this, but my relationship to the rest of the world was either
(shaded cartoon image of a human but with no outline, in a sea of other humans with outlines; because there's no outline, the shading bleeds into the sea and there's a general sense of lack of self)
or
(large cartoon image of a human with thick, thick outlining and violent scribbling inside, as though it could burst out at any time. The image takes up the full page and there's no other humans)
Recovery and therapy helped me nurse the outline around myself, creating a sense of who I am rather than just being someone who takes on all the traits (and emotions) of everyone else. But, it also helped me stop falling completely into myself, teaching me how to turn outward and focus on others... I'm not describing it well... basically, that nice feeling when you're going through something really difficult and you reach out to a friend and get to hear about their ups and downs and it puts everything in perspective, you become one among many and that takes so much of the pressure off.
(cartoon image of a human with outline, in a sea of other humans with outlines. All the humans have light shading within the outline, and a little bit of each person's shading extends outwards and mingles with everyone else's)
Oh Casi thank you so much for sharing this and literally painting such beautiful visuals to go with it!! I feel you on this very strongly and I'm grateful you shared 💜 thank fuck for therapy, very glad you were able to access the support you deserve!
I heard about the Hari book when it was first released, and the soundbites about exercise /other conservative measures being as useful as anti depressants put me off. However your review has made me think it could be a decent read. I'm reading Gabor Maté's Scattered Minds at the moment, and it sounds like it has some similarities.
This is interesting because as I was going back through it to find a good excerpt it did strike me that lots of the parts lifted out without context... Don't sound great? 😂 I really do think the whole book conveys nuance brilliantly (and has strong socialist undertones as well), but yeah the soundbites don't do it justice. It's not perfect, but I found it very validating 💜
I should pick up that book :) I grew up as the daughter of one narcissistic parent and one emotionally absent parent. I really wish I could draw to express this, but my relationship to the rest of the world was either
(shaded cartoon image of a human but with no outline, in a sea of other humans with outlines; because there's no outline, the shading bleeds into the sea and there's a general sense of lack of self)
or
(large cartoon image of a human with thick, thick outlining and violent scribbling inside, as though it could burst out at any time. The image takes up the full page and there's no other humans)
Recovery and therapy helped me nurse the outline around myself, creating a sense of who I am rather than just being someone who takes on all the traits (and emotions) of everyone else. But, it also helped me stop falling completely into myself, teaching me how to turn outward and focus on others... I'm not describing it well... basically, that nice feeling when you're going through something really difficult and you reach out to a friend and get to hear about their ups and downs and it puts everything in perspective, you become one among many and that takes so much of the pressure off.
(cartoon image of a human with outline, in a sea of other humans with outlines. All the humans have light shading within the outline, and a little bit of each person's shading extends outwards and mingles with everyone else's)
Thanks for sharing these recs!
Oh Casi thank you so much for sharing this and literally painting such beautiful visuals to go with it!! I feel you on this very strongly and I'm grateful you shared 💜 thank fuck for therapy, very glad you were able to access the support you deserve!
We have very similar origin stories it seems. What you said makes sense to me and I love it, I wish we could see the drawings as well ❤️🩹
I heard about the Hari book when it was first released, and the soundbites about exercise /other conservative measures being as useful as anti depressants put me off. However your review has made me think it could be a decent read. I'm reading Gabor Maté's Scattered Minds at the moment, and it sounds like it has some similarities.
This is interesting because as I was going back through it to find a good excerpt it did strike me that lots of the parts lifted out without context... Don't sound great? 😂 I really do think the whole book conveys nuance brilliantly (and has strong socialist undertones as well), but yeah the soundbites don't do it justice. It's not perfect, but I found it very validating 💜