2015 is off to a troubled start

I had a patient last year tell me that 2014 was a terrible year. He had a horrific year (hence he was my patient for extended rehabilitation), and I naively assumed he was talking about his personal life. I told him that 2015 could only be better. He said, no, that the world was not right, and that 2015 would be even worse.

I thought he was right. Every time I turn on the news I know he is right. This terrorist attack in France is really bad. I never thought I might die for the right to free speech- I thought that battle had been fought, and won, a long time ago for people in this country. Now there are people around the world who want to take that back. 

There was a time when wars were won and lost. Those days are over- for two reasons. First- the world will never let one nation do to another nation what it needs to do to totally defeat it. We can't bomb ISIS into the ground or nuke it. We have to worry about civilian casualties, etc. But secondly, thanks to technology, one man can now do the work of many men- and it just takes a few people to keep the violence going with modern explosives and automatic weapons. 

On other news- my DBT group was disappointing and I don't think I am going back. It is not a real DBT group- not structured, going through the modules. It is whatever we want. And I don't think the leader knows DBT that well. I didn't agree with her characterization of mindfulness.She didn't really agree with my examples of dialectics.  And- she was a little strange. Very animated, very entertaining and engaging, but I didn't find it all that helpful. In fact, at one point I felt really annoyed when she started saying that the way to tolerate work was to have a good sex life  (and this argument involved diagrams on a white board). And then I thought, maybe this was a good time to practice distress tolerance skills- but I couldn't remember what they were- we hadn't talked about them yet.

And it wasn't really a group- there were just two other people- and one won't be there next week due to a medical appointment. Not much of a group. I don't think I am going back. 

I don't really want to hear more about the sex life that I don't have at the moment. But also- if I am going to have a good sex life- it is going to be because I want to have a good sex life. Not so that I can tolerate my job. And if I am going to a DBT group, I want to do DBT. But I am very sorry- I did want a DBT group, and there really aren't any near me that are more organized.