I feel overwhelmed and stressed out about everything, and I just want to lay down and cry for a while.

Possibly a nice therapeutic cry would be ... therapeutic. I know your therapy has been really intense and you need to take good care of yourself.

OMG, this week has been horrible and exhausting and next week after a long and grueling transatlantic flight will be even more so and the pissing contest between Walgreens and Blue Cross Blue Shield means I will run out of medication while overseas and work is overwhelming and and and.

Bright side, I think we have things pretty well planned for the trip. Though we still have to pack (boo!) and meet friends from out of town (yay!) for dinner tonight.

Alrighty then. ONWARD!

My father's mother could not stand not being the center of attention. Once a friend was telling a horrifying story about her recent brush with death when she had a reaction to the anesthesia for surgery. Then my grandmother said, "I have this terrible hangnail."

No one here is anything like my grandmother, for which we should all be very thankful. I'm with Brenda; I think everyone deserves support when they're stressed or overwhelmed. Also, I assume that some of you are like me, in that sometimes I can't bring myself to talk about the really bad things, but moan here about the last straw.

There's something really devaluing about apologizing that my problems aren't "big enough."

looks around suspiciously

Are you people in cahoots with my therapist? Because, ha!, this is one of the things we've been working on. I have this habit of trying to take care of everyone else, because whatever is going on in my head is obviously not as important, and I can deal with it later. Which is probably why I latched onto the idea of the FPC - hey, I can apologize for asking for reassurance!

I am starting to understand this is not a good thing, long-term. But breaking that lifelong habit is hard.

Possibly a nice therapeutic cry would be ... therapeutic.

Well, there was crying earlier, and it didn't seem to help. But you people are being very kind, and I have a small black cat on my lap, so things are easing up a bit.

Cats (of any color, although snuggling tendancies are required) are a good therapeutic tool (barring allergies, that is).

I've somehow missed what FPC means, but I definitely agree that people should not feel the need to apologize for bitching about things in Bitches of all place, even though I know I do it too.

{{{{{Jilli}}}}} I'm sorry that this year has been so very hard for you. 2012 is just around the corner and I really hope it is so much better to you.

{{{{Nora}}}}} I hope the insurance company can get their heads out of their asses and get you your meds.

BTW,

I have this TERRIBLE hangnail.

uh.

I get the FPC thing. It's a way of saying you're respectful of the pain of other people. And that you're not trying to steal thunder. Because some people can be drama queens, and what's wrong with saying you're not one?

WRT the FPC, I can see where you are coming from, brenda. I find the FPC disclaimer extraneous. But then again I also think about the number of times I don't post about things that are hard or upsetting me because I feel like, if I start counting my blessings, they are many and I shouldn't bitch about my little grievances. And so I usually just don't post when I'm down. And well, that's not really the answer either, is it? So I figure if posting a disclaimer helps empower someone to post, then it's a net good.

I'm with Burrell on this one. I totally understand both sides of it.

I have this TERRIBLE hangnail.

le n: You totally made me snort.

I will, naturally, be in Nashville while Kate is Massachusetts.

D'oh! We'll be gone from Wednesday through Sunday, but if by any chance your stay will be longer than that (and you'd have time to get away), let me know!

I had a whole thing written up about the FPC, but the more I thought about it, the more conflicted my thoughts were. To try to sum up: I can see the use for it; like Burrell said, if the notion of it helps someone to post about what's bothering them when otherwise they might have stayed silent, I got no problem with that. On the other hand, it makes me sad to see people using it for things that seem like pretty major problems to me. I don't think we should feel the need to invoke the FPC when complaining about, say, loved ones with serious health troubles (to pick an example at random). But then, I'm not in charge of how people feel about their own problems, and I also recognize that the line between major and minor is different for different people/situations, and is sometimes difficult to judge when you're the one in the middle of the shitstorm.

So... in conclusion, I don't know. I wish we didn't feel the need for it as often as we do, but I think it's still a useful idea.