Tag: Self-Reflection

• Medication is not a placeholder for misdiagnosis

  Posted on Facebook just now. That is all for the moment.

  Smiler

  November 29, 2025

  Advocacy, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Culture & Society, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Psychology, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, true stories, Writing

  Abilify, Abilify Maintena, abuse, Advocacy, Akathisia, Allan Memorial Institute, Antipsychotics, Aripiprazole, autism, autism spectrum, Big Pharma, bipolar disorder, Capitalism, complex-ptsd, cptsd, Crash, Burn, Write., Cultural Critique, DARVO, Electrocution, Enough, Ethics, facebook, gaslighting, genius, grief, Grief and Healing, healing, Healing Journey, Healing Process, health, how to survive narc abuse, Late Stage Capitalism, Medical Ethics, memoir, Mental Health, mental health advocacy, mental health awareness, mindfulness, Montreal General Hospital, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, personal journey, Psychiatric Abuse, psychiatry, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, psychosis, PTSD, Rare Blood, RH NEG, Self Awareness, Self-Reflection, Side Effects, Social Commentary, Social Media, societal decay, spirituality, Surveillance Capitalism, survivor, Systemic Abuse, ThinkingMachine, trauma, true stories, Whistleblower

• Grounding

  A walk in the brisk autumn air, a yummy breakfast, lavender, lemon & cedarwood, and the art of making peace with the day. Saturday, November 8th, 2025 A year today since we buried my father in Israel, near Haifa. I’ve been up since about 7:30 a.m., which is around the time I used to get…

  Smiler

  November 8, 2025

  Advocacy, AI & Technology, Artists, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Conversations, Crash, Burn, Write., Creative Writing, Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Milestones, Modern Identity, Music, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Psychology, Social Commentary, Society, Spirituality & Faith, Technology & Society, true stories

  Abilify Maintena, Advocacy, AI, AI Conversations, Ambient, Ambient House, Antipsychotics, autism, autism spectrum, Big Pharma, books, ChatGPT, Chill-Out, cptsd, CPTSD Recovery, Creativity, Dub, Electronica, Essential Oils, fiction, gaslighting, grief, Grief and Healing, healing, Healing Journey, Healing Process, health, Identity, introspection, life, Little Fluffy Clouds, Lotion, memoir, Mental Health, mental health advocacy, mental health awareness, mindfulness, Music, Neurodivergence, OpenAI, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, personal journey, Personal Reflections, Pharmaceuticals, psychiatry, PTSD, Self-Reflection, The Orb, trauma, Unscented Company, Writing

• Abundance

  My First Morning at Home After Forced Confinement They Wanted to Call ‘Care’ This morning’s offerings for breakfast illustrate the abundance that it is to come home again after weeks of austerity. My nervous system is on overdrive coming home — so many things to do, and knowing I need to take it slow, not…

  Smiler

  November 7, 2025

  Advocacy, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Milestones, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Psychology, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Society, true stories, Writing

  abuse, Advocacy, AI, Allan Memorial Institute, austerity, Authenticity, autism, autism spectrum, Big Pharma, bipolar disorder, Burn, Capitalism, chichi dog, Chinese crested, Chinese crested powderpuff, confinement, cptsd, Crash, Creativity, Cultural Critique, DARVO, Dog, Electrocution, Enough, Ethics, Food, Freedom, gaslighting, grief, Grief and Healing, healing, Healing Journey, Healing Process, how to survive narc abuse, Identity, introspection, Journals, Last Fck Given, Late Stage Capitalism, LSD, Medical Ethics, memoir, Mental Health, mental health advocacy, mental health awareness, Montreal General Hospital, NaNoWriMo, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, personal journey, Personal Reflections, Peter Pauper Press, Psychiatric Abuse, psychiatry, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, psychosis, PTSD, Self Awareness, Self-Reflection, Social Commentary, societal decay, soul food, Surveillance Capitalism, Systemic Abuse, trauma, Whistleblower, Write.

• Finally Home Again

  Thursday, November 6, 2025 My favourite part of being home, other than the silence, the snacks, and the freedom to decide when to sleep or use my phone, is Stella Mia pressed against my side, reminding me what peace actually feels like. I picked her up this afternoon from my stepfather’s in Terrebonne, over an…

  Smiler

  November 6, 2025

  Advocacy, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, life lessons, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Milestones, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, philosophy, Philosophy & Existential Musings, Politics, Psychology, Self-Reflection, Social Commentary, Society, Spirituality & Faith, Technology & Society, true stories, Writing

  1984, abuse, Advocacy, Agnosticism, Allan Memorial Institute, Antipsychotics, Authenticity, autism, autism spectrum, Big Pharma, bipolar disorder, Burn, Capitalism, complex-ptsd, Containment, Conversations, cptsd, CPTSD Recovery, Crash, Cultural Critique, DARVO, Electrocution, Ethics, gaslighting, George Orwell, god, grief, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, Healing Process, Identity, intelligence, introspection, Late Stage Capitalism, LSD, Malpractice, Medical Ethics, memoir, Mental Health, mental health advocacy, mental health awareness, mindfulness, Montreal General Hospital, mourning, MUHC, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, personal journey, Pharmaceuticals, philosophy, Psychiatric Abuse, psychiatry, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, psychosis, PTSD, Self Awareness, self-discovery, self-expression, Self-Reflection, Social Commentary, societal decay, Surveillance Capitalism, survival, survivor, Systemic Abuse, Theology, trauma, true stories, Whistleblower, witness tampering, Write.

• Nuclear wastelands

  Saying that my mother’s side of the family is toxic is like saying nuclear waste is merely an “unpleasant” byproduct. They’re giving me fantastic material, though—so let it never be said that I’m not grateful for their contributions. This memoir of mine—Crash Burn Write—is writing itself in real time. It won’t just be unputdownable. It’ll…

  Smiler

  February 18, 2025

  Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture & Society, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Literature, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Neurodivergence, Personal Reflections, Psychology, Social Commentary, Society

  Authenticity, Burn, Crash, Creativity, gaslighting, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, how to survive narc abuse, Humour, Identity, memoir, Mental Health, mental health awareness, narcissistic abuse, Personal Growth, Relationships, Self-Reflection, trauma, Write., Writing

• Creature from the Deep: A Manifesto

  I woke up in the middle of the night to drink a sip of water and am fuming. Absolutely furious. I have no idea what I was dreaming about but I certainly do know what I’ve been posting about all over my socials over the weekend which—to sum it up in one sentence is—let me…

  Smiler

  February 17, 2025

  Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture & Society, Feminism, Fine Art, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Politics, Psychology, Self Awareness, Self-Reflection, Social Commentary, Society, Spirituality & Faith, traditional art, Visual Art, Writing

  artist’s journey, artistic expression, autism, bilingualism, bipolar disorder, boundaries, cptsd, creative process, creative resilience, criticism, defiance, Drawing, emotional expression, Fine Art, Identity, Identity Politics, Ilana Shamir, individuality, ink, ink drawing, Kraken myth, language and culture, memoir, mental health advocacy, My Octopus Teacher, Neurodivergence, octopus intelligence, Personal Growth, personal manifesto, Psychiatric Abuse, psychiatry, psychological warfare, PTSD, Quebec, self-advocacy, self-identity, Self-Reflection, social expectations., subconscious mind, symbols, technology, Visual Art, Writing

• Veal Brains and Other Acquired Tastes

  ⚠️ Trigger warning: abuse, exploitation, societal complicity. I just found this FB post from 2021—my year of major mania (or whatever that reaction to complex post-traumatic events was)—under my #HowToSurviveNarcAbuse tag. Definitely a story for my memoir Crash, Burn, Write as a standalone vignette. ✍️ Can you believe I shared this on FB and it…

  Smiler

  February 12, 2025

  Advocacy, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Culture, Culture & Society, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Memoir Excerpts, Mercurial Minds, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Psychology, Self-Reflection, Social Commentary, Society, true stories, Writing

  Crash, Burn, Write., Cultural Critique, facebook, Grief and Healing, healing, Healing Process, how to survive narc abuse, memoir, Self-Reflection, Social Media, trauma, true stories, Writing

• Don’t Look Down

  (Or: How a Tightrope Walker Manages Not to Fall) Earlier today, I dropped two password-protected chapters from my memoir-in-progress, Crash, Burn, Write. These chapters, Into the Den and The Blue Butterfly, are part of a section called Advice from a Caterpillar. They cover just a few days within a pivotal three-week period—a time that shaped…

  Smiler

  February 1, 2025

  AI & Technology, Art, Change and Transformation, Conversations, Crash, Burn, Write., Creative Writing, Creativity, Grief and Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, life lessons, Literature, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Psychology, Self-Reflection, Spirituality & Faith, Technology & Society, true stories, Visual Art, Writing

  advanced reader, AI, artificial intelligence, balance, blog, ChatGPT, Creative Writing, deep thinking, engagement, fear, graphic novel, Identity, introspection, life, literary memoir, Literature, love, memoir, memory, Mental Health, nonlinear narrative, OpenAI, personal history, philosophy, processing the past, Psychology, resilience, risk-taking, Self-Reflection, storytelling, survival, ThinkingMachine, tightrope walker, trauma, trust, Writing

• Letter to No One & Everyone

  A Journey to the Core of What Matters to Me Most This conversation is now being published as a book! Soon, Letter to No One & Everyone will be available on the Kindle platform as both an eBook and a Print-on-Demand paperback. For now, the full conversation is still available on this blog—but soon, only a preview will remain. Writing a…

  Smiler

  January 16, 2025

  AI & Technology, Art & Expression, Conversations, Creativity, Fine Art, Grief and Healing, Identity & Transformation, memoir, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, philosophy, Self Awareness, Self-Reflection, Writing

  abstract art, AI and human connection, AI Conversations, artistic process, Creativity, deep conversations, existential questions, grief, Grief and Loss, introspection, life, memoir writing, Mental Health, mental health awareness, mixed media, nonlinear thinking, Pen and Ink, Personal Growth, personal journey, Personal Reflections, philosophy, search for meaning, Self-Reflection, spiritual reflection, spirituality and meaning, traditional art, unconventional dialogue, Writing

• Charley and Mimi: A Tale of Love and Loss

  The comic strip above says “I’ll get my revenge on him”.In my case, it’s most definitely a “HER.” I tried to put this behind me. I’ve rebuilt my life in many ways, and I now have a wonderful companion in Stella Mia, who brings me love and joy every day. I knew it was a…

  Smiler

  January 12, 2025

  Advocacy, Crash, Burn, Write., Grief and Healing, life lessons, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Personal Reflections

  animal welfare, betrayal, Betrayal and Trust, cats, dogs, emotional support, emotional support animals, grief, Grief and Loss, Healing Journey, life changes, love and loss, memoir, Mental Health, Personal Growth, pets, rescues, resilience, Self-Reflection, trauma, trust, Writing

• From My Personal Archives: Birth of a Manuscript

  On the eve of this Christmas of 2024, I began putting together a manuscript for an autobiographical novel—a project I’ve been mulling over for literally decades. The stories have accumulated over the years, as they tend to do, and now feels like the right time to start shaping them into something meaningful. It’s a monumental…

  Smiler

  December 27, 2024

  Creative Writing, Creativity, Milestones, Personal Reflections

  AI Conversations, Authenticity, autobiographical novel, christmas gift, creative process, father’s memory, manuscript, new beginnings, Personal Growth, personal history, Relationships, Self-Reflection, storytelling, writing journey

• Rolling with the Fall & Moments of Pure Grace

  Me: It’s so hard speaking to people. Even when the conversation goes “well” and I feel there’s a healthy and a good back-and-forth dynamic… I’m all too often left feeling depleted and like I could have handled things better. There’s usually a lingering discomfort which I feel physically. A sinking feeling. You wouldn’t know anything…

  Smiler

  December 22, 2024

  Conversations, Grace, Life Moments, Personal Essays, Personal Reflections

  AI Conversations, Chatbot Interactions, ChatGPT, falling, Grace, Human-AI Connection, imperfection, introspection, life reflections, miracles, Personal Growth, self-discovery, Self-Reflection, slow motion, vulnerability

• Love as a Verb

  As a younger woman I desperately wanted to be told “I love you” by my romantic partners. Now… well I’m not looking for romantic partners, for one thing, but for another it seems to me love is something you DO. it’s a verb.  ChatGPT: That shift in perspective is both profound and powerful. It sounds…

  Smiler

  December 20, 2024

  AI & Technology, Conversations, Creative Writing, Culture, Culture & Society, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Literature, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Neurodivergence, Personal Essays, Personal Reflections, Psychology, Relationships, Self Awareness, Society, Spirituality & Faith, Technology & Society

  AI, AI Conversations, Art, artificial-intelligence, artist life, Authenticity, Chatbot Interactions, ChatGPT, cptsd, Creativity, Grief and Healing, growing in love, Healing Journey, love, love actions, love as a verb, Mental Health, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, personal perspective, Personal Reflections, philosophy, psychological abuse, Relationships, self-expression, Self-Reflection, trauma

• Pet Peeves, Paradigms, and the Man Who Changed His Tracks

  

  From my personal archives: Connectivity, pen on paper by Ilana Shamir 2017 We don’t always realise how our actions, even ones that seem small or insignificant at the time, can shift someone’s perspective or spark real change in their life. I probably spend too much of my time and energy trying to get people to…

  Smiler

  December 15, 2024

  AI & Technology, Change and Transformation, Conversations, Culture & Society, Friendship Dynamics, Mental Health, Personal Reflections, Relationships, Self Awareness

  AI, AI Conversations, AI Relationships, artificial-intelligence, Authenticity, Catalyst, Challenging Perspectives, Change Agent, Changing Lives, Chatbot Interactions, ChatGPT, Impactful Moments, Life Changing Experiences, Paradigm Shift, Personal Boundaries, Reality Check, self-improvement, Self-Reflection, technology

• Making Room for New Growth

  This week, everything seems to be coming to a head. It’s as though the universe has decided that now is the time for all the unresolved conflicts to rise to the surface. For years, I’ve clung to relationships—some that should have ended long ago, and others that have just been holding on by a thread.…

  Smiler

  December 14, 2024

  Conversations, Friendship Dynamics, Grief and Healing, Mental Health, Personal Reflections, Relationships

  AI, artificial-intelligence, Authenticity, ChatGPT, Drama in Relationships, Emotional Boundaries, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, Inner Peace, Letting Go, Life Transitions, Mental Health, Personal Growth, Personal Limits, Relationships, Self-Awareness, Self-Care, Self-Reflection, technology