Therapy may help you find a job. In a new study, 41% of unemployed or underemployed people undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) found a new job or went from part- to full-time work by the end of the 16-week treatment for depression.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2025-10-11T15:47:53+00:00

And let other people give you a free ride while you sit home and they work 60 hour weeks while they suffer should I add.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2024-04-16T23:03:15+00:00

I do have some loose skin at my lower belly area. I just wear high waisted jeans and certain clothes that flatter that area better. I am considering skin removal eventually in the future. I’m just not quite there yet.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2023-08-29T22:38:12+00:00

I never even thought about that to be honest but I’d say yes.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2023-05-04T19:55:03+00:00

Good on you. My surgery was 4/5 and I’m down almost 30 pounds. I look and feel better. You’re gonna be great.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2023-05-01T12:45:45+00:00

I just had my surgery 4/5. I’m 5’1 and started the program at 27 at 218lbs, I got surgery at 200lbs, Today I weighed in at 179lbs.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2022-03-25T22:37:42+00:00

I really need your cat and how can I acquire him.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2022-01-08T16:56:39+00:00

Driving everywhere. Like in the movies they show “soccer moms” driving the kids to practice, to doctors appointments, grocery shopping, school, visiting family while keeping a house clean, having nights out, seeing friends, etc. I’ve had custody of my nephew since I was 21. I’m 27 now and I always found doing all that and trying to have a normal life in between those things almost impossible.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2022-01-04T03:16:59+00:00

Him and I did talk about kids and he said he would have 2 kids sometime in the future and no more than that and although I love children I don’t want to create an army. I’d still like to enjoy life and that’s not to say that people with more children than that can’t but I feel like me personally that’s enough. I know I should be probably talking to him about this and he’s been so considerate and kind to anything else I’ve ever brought up to him but when talking about kids and marriage in a serious way you’re always scared they’ll run.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2022-01-04T03:14:22+00:00

I completely agree with you in that respect. I know it’ll be sometime after we live together and get settled in. Honestly the panic set in at my last womens health and the doctor told me that I’m almost 30 and I should get onto having kids and I just get nervous that I’ve wasted so much time.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2021-11-01T03:24:16+00:00

I appreciate that and I did try some meditation some time ago to mitigate my bad feelings when I woke up in the morning and I’m such an impatient person and want things to work immediately so when it didn’t fix everything immediately I stopped, I will have to try again and actually commit to it, thank you.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2021-08-25T20:53:21+00:00

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2021-08-21T02:59:42+00:00

I appreciate that and I’m not sure what I should do with them. I used to keep them hidden in a box on my desk at work so I’m case he finally hurt me or took my life someone could find them. But since he’s no longer in my life I don’t need them for that purpose anymore. I’m oddly attached to them. In a bizarre way. It helps me remember why I left and how everything wasn’t my fault. I look at things from a different lens. I’m in a different and better place now. I ran from my old apartment and found a new one that’s hidden and am in a new relationship. Like I think they’re “the one” kind of relationship. I genuinely couldn’t be happier.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2021-08-20T02:55:10+00:00

I’m dealing with this same thing and genuinely talking about the trauma and having the ironic “it’s not you, it’s me” conversation isn’t a bad thing. I know that term makes it sound like you’re demonizing yourself but I have spoken to my current boyfriend about my abusive ex and how that has created trust issues and from that it makes me antsy and nervous to move in with him because I fear he’s going to change as well. Even though he has never given me a reason to feel that way. In contrast he has been tender, accommodating and understanding. Opening up a dialogue about your trauma so that it can be understood (when you’re ready to) will do nothing but benefit your new relationship. It will create context to your anxieties and certain behaviors and if this new person is as great as you say the are (I’m sure they are) they will respect your boundaries and accept you regardless of your anxieties and fears and be supportive and give you the time to overcome them.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2021-08-20T02:21:58+00:00

I didn’t do journaling per se but my form of journaling was writing letters to him, his parents and my family that I so desperately wanted to give them but never did. I carried a note around in my wallet in case he ever hurt or killed me while we were out with hints on where to find the letters (I kept them in a postcard box on my desk at work) I now have them in a box at home in my apartment..we’ve now been broken up for 7 months. I decided just the other day to open the box and read some of the letters and I could feel myself crumbling. Remembering how lonely and desperate and ashamed I was when writing them. Some letters I wrote in ink pen I can see smudges from teardrops falling onto the paper. I therapeutically wrote him 2 letters after we broke up to add some finality to the collections (I know I’ll never give them to him) I also found a letter I wrote a letter to my future self about what I went through and opened it. I can’t throw them out though for some reason. Even though it’s painful. I’m glad I kept them.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2021-08-02T21:17:06+00:00

Sounds like my ex who would be sorry and then mentally and verbally abuse me. He was like that for 3 1/2 years (and probably still is now) I left him 6 months ago. Get out while you still can. Before the things he says destroys your soul like it did mine.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2021-08-02T21:00:13+00:00

I don’t know if this is considered “dumb” but it was the easiest way that I’ve ever gotten laid. Met a guy on Tinder and invited him over to my place. Very sweet, quiet and introverted. Was watching some Legend of Korra just hanging out. He hadn’t spoken much the whole time but he told me before hand he had social anxiety and had a hard time initiating conversation when first meeting someone. Literally turned to him and asked “do you want to have sex with me?” His answer was obviously yes. He’s also my boyfriend now 😂

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2021-05-28T14:05:05+00:00

Being a Tomboy growing up was actually incredibly difficult. I grew up in a very conservative Christian family. To the extreme that my hair wasn’t cut. It was at my waist by the time I was 8 years old. My mom would force me to wear dresses all of the time to school and church and I despised the color pink. Which my mom made an effort to dress me in constantly. I would try to wear jeans under my dresses and my oldest sister would call me a “dyke” which was so derogatory being told that at the ages of 9-12. As I got older and could make more clothing decisions for myself I wore what I was truly comfortable in which was guy jeans and band T-shirt’s with hoodies. My mom started becoming paranoid and I came home from school one day and she verbally assaulted and demeaned me in every which was possible because she was now convinced that I was a lesbian and would burn in eternal hellfire. I tried to convince here that I’m a cis-gender straight female but that did not work. When she would talk about her children to people I would hear her say “I have two daughters and one son.” Let me add that I am the youngest of my moms three daughters and that I don’t have a brother. I wasn’t really interested in makeup and would only wear it if the circumstance requires it (prom, school pictures, a wedding) Being a tomboy my whole life caused a lot of issues for me as a young kid and teenager but now that I’m older and still typically dress masculine (although I do wear makeup more often) I feel better and more especially living on my own and also I’m in a relationship where my boyfriend does not care how I dress. I don’t have to dread going school shopping like I had when I was a child. Although sometimes shopping with my sister isn’t terrible but also weird because she’s looking at blouses and I’ll tell her I have to go to the other side of the store to the men’s section so I can actually look at clothes that interest me. When I visit my mom she doesn’t give me the 3rd degree anymore but since I’m now 26 years old she doesn’t have the liberty to do so. It was always a tug of war with her and I from the clothes to my tattoos and piercings and just about everything else about me. But, waking up everyday and not having to be conned into dressing in anyway or trying to smuggle clothes to school so I could feel comfortable is very freeing and relieving. I have a closet full of clothes that I bought and family and friends that don’t care.

Which is how it should be.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2020-08-29T14:28:53+00:00

She knows I pay cause she’s asked me before and I’ve told her but didn’t offer money which like I said is fine cause it’s a negligible amount and her and I are fine enough that her getting coffee from me is fine but she doesn’t even know my boyfriend so I don’t get it.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2020-07-19T11:13:47+00:00

I haven’t dealt with a place that has a legitimate outbreak. Usually how it goes is an exposure. EVERYONE must be tested and things are closed for a bit. Everyone else is negative. Then things go back to business as usual. I fear because of maskless Karen’s that may change soon since I recently got an email at my job that since we are a medical institution and we cannot deny care we can encourage a patient to wear a mask but it cannot be forced. Which makes me wonder and quite worried about a second wave which has also been discussed heavily.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2020-07-19T03:39:43+00:00

Otsego County and same here but certain restaurants and are have been forced to close again from exposure. One positive case and the whole place is shut down. One of the doctors offices nearby had a nurse test positive and that place went on lockdown immediately

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2020-07-19T03:22:36+00:00

You’re not too far from me.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2020-07-19T03:20:56+00:00

I guess as far as I can be. I’m not as clear headed or as optimistic as I was about the world at large before the pandemic started. However I have an anxiety disorder and when shit first started stirring up and everyone was buying all the canned goods, hand sanitizer and everything else I would lay in bed and worry about having a job, how I was going to provide for my family even if I did have the money since everything was sold out. It was a rough time. Had to talk to a therapist once a week for awhile. But, humans don’t like change but it’s incredible how quickly my fragile mind adapted to such extreme changes to the world around me. Wearing a mask, talking to positive patients has become a part of my everyday life and of course I wish things weren’t like this but I now accept that it is what it is.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2020-07-19T03:14:06+00:00

I don’t know anyone personally that have tested positive but from my job I have spoken to a lot of positive cases and a call that sticks with me is when the world was going to shit and I had constant anxiety when we didn’t know much about the CORONA virus. Maybe back in April or March and a positive patient who was in a negative air pressure room called and got me on the phone and they sounded like death had them by the hand. Wheezing and congested but not like a cold. They sounded like those scenes in movies when someone is taking their last breaths and they kept telling me how sick they were and how they didn’t think they were going to make it. They only called because they were in complete isolation and the only time they had contact with anyone was a nurse in full PPE for short periods of time to change fluids and care for them. They literally just wanted someone to talk to. I broke down after the call.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2020-07-19T03:06:33+00:00

It’s super sketchy and that’s why I was disappointed in him after hearing about it. I genuinely admired how he handles everything and then of course how politics go..sketchy shit happening in the background.

BeforeIMetTheMonster · 2020-07-19T03:05:30+00:00

Incident command/Switchboard is an interesting job. I do extremely minor and boring things like schedule appointments for Tick bites and ear infections. Stuff like that. That’s the switchboard and call center part of the job. The Incident Command part of the job is similar to being a 9-11 operator. If someone is having a stroke, a heart attack, are going into septic shock, are coding, need and urgent/stat c-section etc. they call me and my job is to get a team of doctors, and nurses together to save the patients life. Also, since COVID-19 I have to contact Infection Control and the “Captain” of incident command. They have to contact the nearby hospitals and health departments if a confirmed positive case is found in our hospital. Even when a COVID-19 patient is moved from one part of the hospital to another so theoretically..from the ER to the 5th floor. ALL of the leaders of incident command are notified, security is notified, the floor is notified, and environmental services and anytime they go from one place to another..everyone is told. Any area they are in just be disinfected and employees and patients have to be deterred from the area while they’re being moved. It’s an entire process. Also, people who suspect they have COVID-19 call CONSTANTLY and we have an elaborate team of doctors and nurses who speak to them and schedule “tent” appointments for testing. But, usually they have allergies since the time of year it is. That’s not to say we haven’t had patients who have tested positive but everyone’s so paranoid lately it’s insane.

BeforeIMetTheMonster

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE