On Hiatus Until Further Notice
Feb 9 topic: Mental Health.
Finding the right mental health professional for you.
It’s been a hard start to 2015, and I am having to switch topics for February to one I can do in a shortened #ABIchat. I am also changing the format a little. Instead of an interactive chat, I will answer people’s questions. And if no one shows up, then I will post a few pre-planned questions and answers that people can peruse at their leisure.
The topic is mental health because boy have the past few months been brutal for some of us. Over the years since my brain injury, I have seen social workers, psychologists, (neuro)psychiatrists, and other kinds of therapists in a quest to regain normal emotions, to process what has happened to me and is happening, and to match up memories with emotions as my emotions come back to life and memories replay themselves in my head. I have learnt what to look for and what are warning signs that the therapist isn’t going to work out. Also, I’ve noticed that one’s needs change as the brain heals, and perhaps that means changing one’s therapist too — unless the therapist can grow with you — and knowing when that time has come. During the February #ABIchat, I’ll spend half an hour answering questions on this topic. Some of you mayn’t be able to attend at our usual time, and so I will keep an eye out over the following hours and days for any late questions and try to answer those ones too.
Come to the Twitter chat, say Hi, and share your thoughts, tips, and experiences on the second Monday of the month! People with brain injury, their relatives and friends, their caregivers, and health care professionals — all are welcome! Please tweet me if interested!
A reminder: we’re moving to monthly so that more people can participate. #ABIchat will now be held the second Monday of the month. I hope you’ll join us in our monthly version of #ABIchat!
#ABIchat is a place on Twitter to chat and find support about brain injury monthly on the second Monday of the month at 16:00 ET (EDT or EST). All welcome! Please tweet me @ShireenJ if you’d like to be put on a reminder list.
Click here to see what time in your time zone.
Follow the chat here:
(see below for instructions on how to join)
Joining #ABIchat
It may seem daunting to join a Twitter chat, especially if you have a brain injury, but with the right tools and allowing yourself to learn at your own pace, you’ll be into it in no time.
You will need the following to join #ABIchat:
- A Twitter account. If you haven’t got one, set one up now, add an image to replace the standard egg avatar, follow me at @ShireenJ, do a search for #braininjury and #ABIchat to find people to follow, and poke around the place to get a feel for it. Debbie Ridpath Ohi has a good overview of Twitter. Don’t let the fact it’s for writers put you off.
- Learn Twitter verbiage. The one you need to know for now is “hashtag.” Hashtag refers to the pound key symbol — # — and is used to denote a keyword or tag or even one’s feelings on the tweet. For #ABIchat, it’s used as the name of the chat.
- A saved search in your Twitter account for #ABIchat. To do this, type in #ABIchat in the search bar at the top of your Twitter page. Twitter will display the most recent tweets under that hashtag. At the top of the search, on the right, is a settings icon. Click on it, then click on Save Search. #ABIchat will now appear everywhere you use Twitter under Saved Searches.
- A smartphone, iPod Touch, tablet computer, or desktop computer. The easiest way to follow a chat I find is on my iPod Touch, but some people prefer using desktop software like twubs. The worst way is on the Twitter website.
- A Twitter app and/or a Twitter chat app. You may have to try a few before you settle on one you like.
Apps
SmartPhone or Tablet: I use @Echofon on my iPod Touch. It’s easy to search for people, hashtags, and tweets. It’s easy to follow chats. And it’s easy to tweet with the chat hashtag. Twitterrific on the iPad is also decent.
Desktop: Many prefer Twubs, a chat client. You can join #ABIchat on our twubs page. On the twubs page, scroll down and click on the button, “Join This Twub.”
