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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Mar 8, 2013 19:18:14 GMT -8
Emmett- "Right to the point? Well... It's hard to say in some respects now. Let's say you told me that you had, say, self-destructive impulses. If I knew some people were depending on you in life or death circumstances, I'd probably encourage you to scale back your activities, and if you didn't, I might feel obligated to tell someone that they should consider giving you some time off.
I doubt I'd have to breach confidentiality to save lives, but if it seemed there was no choice, I'd have to consider it."
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Post by Dr. Maneep Pamplemousse on Mar 8, 2013 19:52:17 GMT -8
"Fair enough..." "I haven't slept for crap in... um... yeah, basically since the shit started. Maybe three to five hours a night. I've been getting more lately, but... not restful. Even less helpful than the three to five I used to get."
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Mar 8, 2013 19:58:25 GMT -8
Emmett- "Hm. Sleep problems are some of the most difficult, and usually aren't even psychological in nature. The timing suggests trauma, though. You should definitely see me about it." He looked at a calendar and prepared to make some notes. "We'll talk now if you like, and make an appointment for a better chunk of time as well. But if you need to have some good rest immediately, for a job you're doing or whatever, talk to Dr. Melange about medications. She's off duty by now, so you can try to catch her in the Community Center or her apartment.
What do you think?"
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Post by Dr. Maneep Pamplemousse on Mar 8, 2013 20:01:35 GMT -8
"I guess I've got a minute. Hopefully the doctor doesn't fall asleep before I can find her." She looked for something to sit on. "So... how's this work? Do I need to tell you about my childhood or something? Not sure that would be pertinent to anything, but you're the d... the guy." She made an inscrutable face.
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Mar 8, 2013 20:27:07 GMT -8
Emmett- "That's right, I'm not a doctor. I have a Master's degree in counselling a few years of experience." He gestured to a comfy seat and lit some more candles. "Do you think there's anything in your childhood relevant to your current problems? Anything you've been remembering lately? If not, we can skip that, of course."
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Post by Dr. Maneep Pamplemousse on Mar 8, 2013 21:41:04 GMT -8
"Well, I mean... there are elements from my childhood in the n... dreams... but just because you dream about Darth Vader doesn't mean you were traumatized by Star Wars." She started to reach for the back of her neck, then abruptly set her hand in her lap, rubbing her hands together. "I guess I mostly wor- um, dream about..." She let out an annoyed huff. "Being responsible for everybody getting killed. Alex, Ash, Micah, Seth, Bryce, everyone. Guns a-blazin'." She leaned back, then realized that nothing was going to make her comfortable, and sat back upright immediately.
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Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Mar 8, 2013 23:33:51 GMT -8
Emmett- "I understand, sometimes a dream is just a dream. A lot of the focus on the content of dreams is pretty old-fashioned in our line of work. It's more about the emotion of the dream, if it's scary or tense, it may show that the person is stressed out or worried in their daily life. In fact, studies show most dreams are unpleasant in nature, so it's nothing unusual to have nightmares.
Well, enough of my psycho-babble, as they say, haha. I think a lot of people are worried about the safety of others, it's a very dangerous world. The problem is when it effects your health, and your daily life. Proper sleep is very important, and even a small reduction can cause a lot of trouble over time.
Sometimes getting better sleep can be as simple as having more relaxed circumstances as you are about to sleep, thinking peaceful thoughts and the like. Other times, it may be a sign you have an unresolved worry."
Patti- "Sounds nice, in theory, not sure I know how to make myself think about a specific thing when I don't have an active task or goal that I'm working on." Emmett- "Maybe that's something we can work on, but for now let's try to understand the situation better. Do you think there's a particular event that triggered a worry? Other than the whole situation itself, was there something that was particularly upsetting? You don't need to tell me anything you're not comfortable with, maybe just let me know yes or no."
Patti- Patti's face was much less inscrutable this time. Her fists clenched. "Yeah." She looked around at pretty much everything except Emmett, apparently thinking about whether she should say anything or not. "I..." She cleared her throat and made a face like she was about to throw up or cry or collapse. "I killed some guys who were looting my apartment." Emmett- He was quiet a moment, a bit hard to read, but unwavering in his expression of gentle concern. "I'm sorry. It's normal and healthy to find that sort of thing upsetting. Of course, healing is necessary as well.
Is there anything that could help you come to terms with this? Sometimes it just takes time, but can you think of anything that would help you feel that the event is in the past? Would talking to someone help? Writing it down?"
Patti- "If I knew what would help, don'tcha think I would've done it by now?" She looked annoyed. She consciously let loose of her death grip on the chair arms and rubbed her legs instead. "Sorry, I... sorry." Emmett- "I don't mean to sound condescending. I'm sorry. I'll just throw out some suggestions and I'm sorry if any of it sounds off base. Just let me know.
For some people it helps to just go one day at a time, and focus on mundane tasks. Many people can't go outside on missions, myself included! Do you think going on missions helps you feel better, or worse?"
Patti- "Keeping myself busy, especially in high alert type situations helps distract me. But the... thing at REI, it... did something to me, or maybe it just triggered something. That's when the nightmares escalated." She seemed to opening up, possibly realizing some things consciously for the first time."Before that, I just saw the guys I killed... Hector's roommates... since then, sometimes when I see them, they are children and sometimes their mother is there... or the thing from REI seeming like it's their mother or... I dunno." "Then they just start killing everyone and I'm too scared or weak to stop them." Emmett- "I'm sorry Patti. That sounds very scary... Sometime, I'll need more explanation of the situations you're referring to, but let's keep this a little less heavy for our first session.
What sort of things relax you around here? Talking to anyone in particular, reading, spending time with the animals or outside in safe areas?"
Patti- "The animals help a little, I guess. Just none of them really stick around. I saved a little guy from the alley a couple months ago, but he mostly likes to be in common areas and I only see him once or twice a day." "Yeah, people... Ash and I are pretty close and... I worry about Alex a lot. In a lot of ways, he's less mature than Zoe and I worry about how he's handling things. We don't really talk much about anything important. I'm not trying to be his mother or anything, I don't want him to think that anyway. Lashonda and I have been fairly close in the past, but lately we've been like ships in the night. I wonder if maybe she hears me screaming at night and doesn't know what to say about it." Emmett- "Perhaps you should ask her if she hears you talking in your sleep. It could be good to know, and to let her know that it's no big deal to talk about it - or if you'd prefer, that you'd rather not talk about it but would like to not have that interfere with your friendship.
Is there anything you could do differently, or could change about your daily life, that would help you feel more peaceful?"
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Post by Dr. Maneep Pamplemousse on Mar 9, 2013 7:04:25 GMT -8
She looked lost. "Um... I dunno. Drinking heavily seems to help with the nightmares. Not so much with the sleeping though. I guess it won't hurt that Hector's gone. I mean, he's probably fucked, relying on those two whack-jobs for survival and I'm kind of entirely responsible for his situation in general, but... I mean... at least he's not here to remind me every day." Emmett- "That's rather grim, but any consolation is better than none. I will say that it isn't always so bad out there. Hector may be perfectly fine. And we should see what our other options might be for sleep aids. You had more to say?"
"Sometimes, I imagine going up into the mountains and feasting on salmon and venison and... whatever else lives in the mountains out there and never seeing another monster again. I guess, if nothing else, we should find a boat big enough to net fish from. The salmon runs should be starting soon and be crazy productive without the commercial fishing boats in the sound. That should be a big boon to our community. I wonder if anyone knows how to preserve salmon." Emmett- "Fish. Hm."
"Sorry. Like I said, being productive is a distraction. Help me remember those ideas though... we'd be dumb not to take advantage of the season."
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Mar 10, 2013 20:24:47 GMT -8
Emmett- "No apology necessary! That's a very good thing to think about. Perhaps a way to stay productive without so much direct involvement in combat is to focus on planning activities like that - or better yet, activities that don't require you to leave the secured area. You could help any number of projects around here, I'm sure...
Well, it's some food for thought. Perhaps we should find Dr. Bebe and see if she can help you get to sleep."
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Post by Dr. Maneep Pamplemousse on Mar 10, 2013 20:29:29 GMT -8
She gave a small but genuine smile. "Thanks." She looked like she was about to shake his hand for a second, then dropped her hand and gave an awkward chuckle. She smiled and shook her head. "Oo-kay then." She stood and let herself out. Off to find the doctor.
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Mar 10, 2013 20:38:58 GMT -8
Emmett- "Come back soon!" Emmett knew he had his work cut out for him with this bunch. Good gravy....
Patti was able to find Bebe in her room. She said OTC sleep aids were fine, but not to use them after an immoderate amount of alcohol. She was OK with Patti getting blotto, but only if she was relatively sober by bed time (& pill time). She also said Patti could experiment with using cannabis for that purpose - though if it didn't work the first time, she doubted it would work at all - saying that sort of effect varies from person to person.
((Describe Patti's evening and attempts at sleep in "Patti's Room."))
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Post by Dr. Maneep Pamplemousse on Mar 15, 2013 22:34:33 GMT -8
Patti rolled all up in the joint. "Hey there hi there ho there." "Um, so, yeah, you wanted to see me?" "It wasn't perfect, but I'm better rested than I've been in a few weeks. So that happened." She toasted him with her giant coffee mug.
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Mar 15, 2013 23:20:54 GMT -8
Emmett- "Hello hello!"
"Yes. I have potentially a lot of work ahead of me today, and I wanted to see you early - at least a little bit. How was your sleep?"
"Great! That's very good to hear. If you don't mind my asking, what did the doctor prescribe?"
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Post by Dr. Maneep Pamplemousse on Mar 16, 2013 0:03:02 GMT -8
"The doctor suggested we start herbally, on account of all the side-effects and addiction risks with the prescription stuff. That, and we'd have to go find some of the prescription stuff."
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Mar 16, 2013 0:09:05 GMT -8
Emmett- "It's my understanding that there is quite a variety of drugs cached in the building here already, if you find that doesn't always work so well."
"Well, I just had one idea I wanted to offer you today. Something to consider, though I know it won't always be easy to believe."
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