Moments in C/S  Bulletin History C/S Bulletin 361, January 1, 2008

In 2008: ..New Year’s Resolution 1: Emergency Preparedness

…Our kinds of emergencies are the tidal waves of suicidal thoughts that come out of nowhere and engulf us, pulling us down for the count. Our disasters can be the kinds of events that set off the forest fire of voices we can’t get rid of. So, in this New Year, can we make a plan, as individual as we each are, to look out for the clues that an emergency is looming? While we are OK, can we figure it out for ourselves and write it down – these are the signs that I should know about myself? Then the second piece of the puzzle is to figure out what strategies I can use so this looming beast does not turn into the crisis it is threatening to become. The trick is to do it now.—Helen Hook //www.csinfo.ca/bulletin/Bulletin_361.pdf

AND NOW in 2018

Happy new year. Get some light. Think about what worked before and take courage from that.  Did your life go through a change for the better? No matter how small and can you build on it? Was there something that sucked that you can understand?

Survival—if you are reading this then you survived 2018 so you must have survival skills and strengths. You have risen above or gone around or run right through walls made of inaccessible and discriminatory application processes, housing, drug prohibition, justice and psychiatric systems.

You survived and you have strength. Challenge the economic and psychiatric systems. Too many people didn’t survive 2018 because of drug poisoning. We shouldn’t need to fight so hard to survive. For now we can try to stay calm and carry on.  We can learn to advocate for ourselves. And if we have the energy, time and connections we can build on the history of survivor / Mad / people who use drugs advocacy.

… Survivor history continues…