BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

As I have said here repeated, I am healing myself; though it will always be ongoing. Even disabled, my overgrown sense of responsibility tells me I need to do some small thing to contribute to society in a positive way. As someone I respect said "service to others is the payment for living here on Earth ." I am also doing teshuva towards others I may have harmed (since I have been blocked from working it out with any of them directly) by working with victims of Domestic Violence and running a blog on the subject. I work mostly with non-physical forms of abuse: Verbal, Emotional, Online or Psychological. Abuse that is almost impossible to see and even harder to get at and often scars permanently. This month is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Aside from my political babbling, I am going to post about abuse. I hope you take the time to read these posts, pass them on and, if you need help - you can email me privately and I will try to point you in the right dire...

As difficult as it may be for many of us to talk about PCOS, I ask you to join other women with PCOS and their friends & families and become involved to make a difference. You could potentially help someone who is unaware that they have the syndrome. Just think how wide PCOS awareness could spread if we all took action. We ask you to share your knowledge of PCOS with others. The goal is to foster knowledge and sensitivity to those with the condition. Have you ever told someone about PCOS who has never heard of the syndrome before? Was their reaction shock, disbelief or confusion as to why they had never heard of this before, since it is so common? More information: www.pcosupport.org www.projectpcos.org/ projectpcos.org/getting_word_out/pcospetition.php pcos.insulitelabs.com/blog/index.php/living-with-pcos/september-i... SEND YOUR POSTS FOR INCLUSION TO: http://www.bloggersunite.org/event/pcos-awareness-month

1. The illness I live with is: Atypical M.S., Fibromyalgia, Neurally Mediated Hypotension, Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome, PTSD, Adrenal Fatigue, PCOS, Neuropathy 2. I was diagnosed with it in the year: 1995 (PCOS I was diagnosed in 1966) 3. But I had symptoms since: 1994 4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: Not working and not being around people every day 5. Most people assume: I'm just fat and lazy 6. The hardest part about mornings are: severe migraines and chronic pain. Just walking can be excruciating 7. My favorite medical TV show is: You Are What You Eat 8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is: Cellphone 9. The hardest part about nights are: Falling Asleep and Staying Asleep 10. Each day I take 11 pills & vitamins. (No comments, please) 11. Regarding alternative treatments I: t ried them all - some worked some didn't 12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose: invisible 13. Regarding working and career: mi...

Many professedly religious communities, Catholics, Jews and Evangelicals - often close ranks around an abuser. Sexual abuser, harrasser, misogynist, wife beater, verbal abuser, exploiter of the vulnerable, etc. This is wrong . It invalidates victims and their families causing untold psychological harm. When the victims speak out they are called LIARS and their stories are minimized by powerful and duplicitous people. Silence about a wrong is COMPLICITY in my book. When you don't speak out about something that's very wrong - you are not being polite, avoiding Lashon Hara or 'minding your own business' - you are being a lemming and enabling more abuse. - Barbara Here's one of my all time favorite quotes: "Powerful and sneaky people use apologies as end runs around repentance. They betray a trust; and, when they have been found out, they say they are sorry for "mistakes in judgment"... They get by only because we have lost our sense of the differenc...

Mary Jo Buttafuoco's New Book Aims to Help Others Living With 'Sociopaths' By LEE FERRAN Seventeen years after she was shot in the face by her then husband's teenage lover, Mary Jo Buttafuoco called her ex-husband Joey Buttafuoco a "sociopath and a liar." "I believed him when he said he had nothing to do with her [shooter Amy Fisher]," Mary Jo told "Good Morning America" today in an exclusive interview. "He was a very good sociopath and a liar. ...When I thought about it and looked it up on the Internet, and looked at sociopathic tendencies ... I said 'Oh my God.'" Joey filled all the criteria, she said. In May 1992, Mary Jo Buttafuoco answered her front door at her Long Island home to see 16-year-old Amy Fisher point a gun at her face and fire. Fisher had been having an affair with Mary Jo's husband, Joey, who was more than twice Fisher's age. Mary Jo Buttafuoco miraculously survived the close range shot...

MAY 12 AWARENESS DAY Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) Fact Sheet Chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS) is also called chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). It is recognized by the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and Social Security Administration as a serious, disabling illness. CFIDS is characterized by unrelenting exhaustion, muscle and joint pain, cognitive disorders and other symptoms (read on). Many people with CFIDS are denied disability benefits because doctors and employers wrongly believe they are lazy or have a mental illness rather than a serious physical condition. Although its name trivializes the illness as little more than mere tiredness, chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), brings with it a constellation of debilitating symptoms. CFIDS is characterized by incapacitating fatigue (experienced as p...

From the fabulous Kate Harding.Net: What’s interesting is that at first, it was really hard for me to know what to say. My first, reflexive thought was that I could just tell my own story! I mean, I’m thin and all. But I quickly shot that down. Talking about my experiences as a thin person, on a FA blog, would be an excellent demonstration of thin privilege, but it wouldn’t accomplish much else. Fat acceptance is fundamentally not ABOUT the thin experience. It’s really not about me, at all. In fact, that’s really what I should be talking about. But I’m going to take a minute to ward off as much of the anticipated defensiveness as I can right off the bat, even though I hate feeling like I’m placating the WATM-style whining (this time with Thin!). After all, it’s not like the FA community needs a lecture on thin privilege (HEY GUESS WHAT FATTIES I GET IT NOW CAN I HAVE A DOUGHNUT): this is really for thin people out there who haven’t really considered their own privilege. So, do some thi...

As a convert, the rest of my family isn't Jewish so I did my rituals alone and joined everyone when I came back from temple. I look at the backyard and realized it had been crying for attention. I have been too ill to do much but I decided to go give the family's garden some TLC. I know, it was shabbat, I should have been resting - but something drew me outside. I had already reseeded my small lawn, put down soil, weed killer and then covered everything with compost. I put out all my delicate glass windchimes and left the metal ones in my collection out. I cleaned rakes, hoes, trowels, clippers and the weed wacker. I uncovered my table, chairs and cafe umbrella, swept up the pine needles and put away my numerous bird feeders. And I felt calm. I also put out a banner which hangs among the morning glories and peonies in my yard that says " Gardening is the best therapy. " Later on this afternoon, one of my family came to sit with me. She also loves to garden and we agr...

"Just like me, they long to be, close to you." - The Carpenters. Judaism talks a lot about closeness to God and cleaving to Torah. We spend a lot of time wondering if we are close to Him. Or judging another person's closeness to Hashem using Halachic law as a guide. But what I believe we really need to focus on is maintaining the proximity to God rather than measuring it. In this study we sought to address several limitations of previous research on attachment theory and religion God by (1) developing a multidimensional scale of attachment to God, and (2) demonstrating that these scales are predictive of measures of personality and affect after controlling for social desirability and other related dimensions of religiosity... Consistent with prior research on adult romantic attachment, two dimensions of attachment to God were identified: avoidance (vs. security) and anxiety. After statistically controlling for social desirability, intrinsic religiousness, doctrinal o...