u/Gerie2021

Hi. I've been dealing with depression and anxiety for years, and only recently got officially diagnosed with cptsd. I am generally ok with skills and manage well enough. I try to be proactive in recognizing flashbacks and occasionally writing things down. Every now and again, I'll fly a little too close to the sun and eventually get a longer flashback triggered, and then it can be a whole couple of days of feeling like crap again. What do you guys do when you can see 'the storm' coming?

I've been in therapy for two years, dealing with the fallout of child abuse and general trauma. It has been great, and I can generally live my life now, be mindful, use skills. I have started on 'maintenance' and have been quite excited to only have to pay for therapy every three months as opposed to once a week.

Recently I got an 'official' cptsd diagnosis as part of onboarding with a psychiatrist (just for prescription refills). That diagnosis opened up some wounds, but I handled it ok, and I met with my therapist outside the scheduled three months to briefly discuss the assessment results. Stuff keeps coming up, and I'm starting to become exhausted. My father is coming to visit me for the first time in over a year, so the timing could not be worse.

So I'm trying to use skills, and manage on my own, but I, quite frankly, just want someone to tell me it will all be ok. And then I start to hate myself for wanting help, and for not being able to tolerate distress myself, for being a burden, for not being able to stick to a maintenance schedule. I'm terrified that she is annoyed with seeing me, and that she is exhausted and that she'll think I'm pathetic and dependent. Mostly, I'm terrified of the feeling of wanting to be nurtured, and of how pathetic and manipulative it would make me look. And I'm also terrified of revealing any of that. I hate that I even just typed it.

I've been in therapy for two years, dealing with the fallout of child abuse and general trauma. It has been great, and I can generally live my life now, be mindful, use skills. I have started on 'maintenance' and have been quite excited to only have to pay for therapy every three months as opposed to once a week.

Recently I got an 'official' cptsd diagnosis as part of onboarding with a psychiatrist (just for prescription refills). That diagnosis opened up some wounds, but I handled it ok, and I met with my therapist outside the scheduled three months to briefly discuss the assessment results. Stuff keeps coming up, and I'm starting to become exhausted. My father is coming to visit me for the first time in over a year, so the timing could not be worse.

So I'm trying to use skills, and manage on my own, but I, quite frankly, just want someone to tell me it will all be ok. I want her to regulate my emotions for me. And then I start to hate myself for wanting help, and for not being able to tolerate distress myself, for being a burden, for not being able to stick to a maintenance schedule. I'm terrified that she is annoyed with seeing me, and that she is exhausted and that she'll think I'm pathetic and dependent. Mostly, I'm terrified of the feeling of wanting to be nurtured, and of how pathetic and manipulative it would make me look. And I'm also terrified of revealing any of that. I hate that I even just typed it.

I've been in therapy for two years, dealing with the fallout of child abuse and general trauma. It has been great, and I can generally live my life now, be mindful, use skills. I have started on 'maintenance' and have been quite excited to only have to pay for therapy every three months as opposed to once a week.

Recently I got an 'official' cptsd diagnosis as part of onboarding with a psychiatrist (just for prescription refills). That diagnosis opened up some wounds, but I handled it ok, and I met with my therapist outside the scheduled three months to briefly discuss the assessment results. Stuff keeps coming up, and I'm starting to become exhausted. My father is coming to visit me for the first time in over a year, so the timing could not be worse.

So I'm trying to use skills, and manage on my own, but I, quite frankly, just want someone to tell me it will all be ok. I want her to regulate my emotions for me. And then I start to hate myself for wanting help, and for not being able to tolerate distress myself, for being a burden, for not being able to stick to a maintenance schedule. I'm terrified that she is annoyed with seeing me, and that she is exhausted and that she'll think I'm pathetic and dependent. Mostly, I'm terrified of the feeling of wanting to be nurtured, and of how pathetic and manipulative it would make me look. And I'm also terrified of revealing any of that. I hate that I even just typed it.

TL;DR of my campaign. We're doing Waterdeep: Dragon Heist close enough that the general NPC names and places match up. What is different is that the Stone of Golorr is an apocalyptically powerful item that is preventing souls from passing into the next life, and it's deeply connected to my homebrew undercity adapted from Dungeon of the Mad Mage causing intense fogs and occasional zombies. There are still factions, and the relevant ones based on our sandboxing are:

1. Drow, somehow connected with the stone. Have come out of hiding to take it, citing it as a threat to the world. (Undercity, deep lore heavy dungeon crawl)
2. Xanthar Guild: Same as Waterdeep, Dragon Heist
3. The Rival Restauranteur who owns a bar down the road. He has been a persistent thorn in the PCs sides and is secretly managing their (terrible) in house band to drive customers away. He would want the stone simply because the PCs want it. (Nightmare theme restaurant dungeon)
4. The Borough Magistrate: The PCs stole a bunch of tax information, discovered the magistrate's wrongdoings, and tried to commit blackmail. Now they're under investigation. She might have been following the stuff with the stone (she's been snooping) and wants to move up the local government organizational chart. (Wild Card, Dungeon of the Mad Mage)
5. A dragon: Garden variety black dragon (with story relevance!) has been snooping around looking for the stone. The stone actually wants the dragon to find it. The dragon is kind of meant to be the surprise final boss, but nothing is sacred. The dragon has an optional love plot with the local apothecary, but it's not canon yet (Also Wild Card)

My problem is that one player will leave soon, and so the campaign needs to wrap up in two (long) sessions of climax. My setup is that we are ready for the part where Dalakhar is hit with the fireball and killed. This will start our version of the chase and heist. Each of these factions has been built up as potentially being 'the thief', and any option has multiple possible endings. Assuming that I'm going to be repurposing maps from Dragon Heist and Mad Mage, I guess my question is which of these five factions seems coolest to run?

TL;DR of my campaign. We're doing Waterdeep: Dragon Heist close enough that the general NPC names and places match up. What is different is that the Stone of Golorr is an apocalyptically powerful item that is preventing souls from passing into the next life, causing intense fogs and occasional zombies. There are still factions, and the relevant ones based on our sandboxing are:

1. Drow, somehow connected with the stone. Have come out of hiding to take it, citing it as a threat to the world. (Undercity, deep lore heavy dungeon crawl)
2. Xanthar Guild: Same as Waterdeep, Dragon Heist
3. The Rival Restauranteur who owns a bar down the road. He has been a persistent thorn in the PCs sides and is secretly managing their (terrible) in house band to drive customers away. He would want the stone simply because the PCs want it. (Nightmare theme restaurant dungeon)
4. The Borough Magistrate: The PCs stole a bunch of tax information, discovered the magistrate's wrongdoings, and tried to commit blackmail. Now they're under investigation. She might have been following the stuff with the stone (she's been snooping) and wants to move up the local government organizational chart. (Wild Card)
5. A dragon: Garden variety black dragon (with story relevance!) has been snooping around looking for the stone. The stone actually wants the dragon to find it. The dragon is kind of meant to be the surprise final boss, but nothing is sacred. The dragon has an optional love plot with the local apothecary, but it's not canon yet (Also Wild Card)

My problem is that one player will leave soon, and so the campaign needs to wrap up in two (long) sessions of climax. My setup is that we are ready for the part where Dalakhar is hit with the fireball and killed. This will start our version of the chase and heist. Each of these factions has been built up as potentially being 'the thief', and any option has multiple possible endings. So i guess my question is which of these five factions seems coolest to run?

TL;DR of my campaign. We're doing Waterdeep: Dragon Heist close enough that the general NPC names and places match up. What is different is that the Stone of Golorr is an apocalyptically powerful item that is preventing souls from passing into the next life, causing intense fogs and occasional zombies. There are still factions, and the relevant ones based on our sandboxing are:

1. Drow, somehow connected with the stone. Have come out of hiding to take it, citing it as a threat to the world. (Undercity, deep lore heavy dungeon crawl)

2. Xanthar Guild: Same as Waterdeep, Dragon Heist

3. The Rival Restauranteur who owns a bar down the road. He has been a persistent thorn in the PCs sides and is secretly managing their (terrible) in house band to drive customers away. He would want the stone simply because the PCs want it. (Nightmare theme restaurant dungeon)

4. The Borough Magistrate: The PCs stole a bunch of tax information, discovered the magistrate's wrongdoings, and tried to commit blackmail. Now they're under investigation. She might have been following the stuff with the stone (she's been snooping) and wants to move up the local government organizational chart. (Wild Card)

5. A dragon: Garden variety black dragon (with story relevance!) has been snooping around looking for the stone. The stone actually wants the dragon to find it. The dragon is kind of meant to be the surprise final boss, but nothing is sacred. The dragon has an optional love plot with the local apothecary, but it's not canon yet (Also Wild Card)

My problem is that one player will leave soon, and so the campaign needs to wrap up in two (long) sessions of climax. My setup is that we are ready for the part where Dalakhar is hit with the fireball and killed. This will start our version of the chase and heist. Each of these factions has been built up as potentially being 'the thief', and any option has multiple possible endings. So i guess my question is which of these five factions seems coolest to run?

My family knows, and I presume people from my past know, but I live far from home.

TL;DR: I have been in therapy for a few years, dealing with anxiety and trauma. She's mentioned complex trauma before, but declined to say cptsd which she cannot diagnose. That's fine. She's been great and helpful. Flash forward, I am at a new psychiatrist getting a prescription filled, and I get a bunch of assessments at intake. I am immediately diagnosed with CPTSD after one interview.

While my therapist has taught me a lot of skills, I feel like that getting the label by accident has really helped me to access my therapy skills in real life, and I've noticed a huge positive shift in my overall functioning as a result.

However, I still don't want to use specific terms to describe my experience, for fear of being flippant, trite, or over dramatic, and I only start applying a label once I get 'permission' to do so by an 'expert', and think that the lack of labeling things in session might have outlived it usefulness. In fact, I think that downplaying 'complex trauma' compared to the more official label gave me an excuse to be a passive participant in my own recovery. For example, I never wanted to describe overwhelming feelings as emotional flashbacks, and now that I have been given 'permission' to use that term by a psychiatrist, I have had a really good success rate at feeling my feelings, acknowledging them, appreciating them, letting them go, self soothing, and all that good stuff.

I made a list of a bunch of terms I think might be relevant to me, and I kind of want to ask permission to use a bunch of terms to describe my own experience to myself.

Would this put her in a bad position?

Post transition means that I am done with all of my surgeries and am just living my life. I'm no longer taking active steps to 'become' anything.

Stealth means I am generally perceived as my actual gender in public. When I go to the doctor, they instinctively ask me if I think I may be pregnant and about my menstrual cycle, despite me being born without that equipment.

Hi guys. A long time ago, I made a little music theory puzzle for my dungeons and dragons group. It revolved around a lovable fuckup who couldn't get his music right, and the adventurers had to modulate his song from minor to major in order to save the day.

It's been years and this lovable fuckup has made a reappearance, but I have lost all the notes to my puzzle. Is anyone aware of a little music theory puzzle, riddle, or game that I could make his issue this time around? I don't want to have to make the puzzle again if I can avoid it.

Thank you!

I'm married for over a decade. I don't care about sports. I've never met a trans child. I will occasionally use a public restroom. But to hear people talk about it, the only thing we want to do is play sports, transition children, and generally deceive people? I'm stealth and done with all my surgeries. I feel like I have survivor's guilt because my life, aside from the existential threat of the moral panic happening, is really quite boring. It would be funny if it wasn't sad.

I'm stealth, in my thirties, debt free, financially stable, and white. For the longest time, I was so driven by my own transition that I didn't know if I would ever be in the position to help other people again. Unfortunately, I'm kind of disconnected from the community in general. I'm not located in the United States, but am fluent in English and am currently pursuing graduate school to become a psychotherapist (but was a teacher for 10+ years prior to this), but I've been energized lately to try to use my position to help make other people's lives better, specifically black and brown trans people in the US. But I kind of have no idea where to start?

I'm stealth, in my thirties, debt free, financially stable, and white. For the longest time, I was so driven by my own transition that I didn't know if I would ever be in the position to help other people again. Unfortunately, I'm kind of disconnected from the community in general. I'm not located in the United States, but am fluent in English and am currently pursuing graduate school to become a psychotherapist (but was a teacher for 10+ years prior to this), but I've been energized lately to try to use my position to help make other people's lives better, specifically black and brown trans people in the US. But I kind of have no idea where to start?