Group Notes March 2026

 I got behind on my session notes, the last I can find is from 1/2/2026, and so let's go.

3/6 

Pattern recognition

(I see dead patterns.)

Persecution

Hallucinations

Superstitions

Coherence & congruent to observable rality.

Irrational. 

3/13:

Cognitive distortions -

• patterns - automatic
• ID struggle
• Intervention strategies

Homework journal 2 weeks.

Get a baseline

1. Frequency
2. most pain or harm to my life system
3. Which distortion causes most harm

3/20: nothing

3/27:

interventions

Narrative v. statement of facts

externalization

not am I depressed - I have depression.

fusion: thoughts = reality

defusion: thoughts describe reality

Graying: breakdown of all or nothing thinking.

Listing against

List every real possibility - of explanation. 

 

5/26: 

I think I was - am? - good at pattern recognition. Persecuted? No, but damn I had people who disliked me, who I competed against, and had to fight to make a living. That's called competition. Never had any hallucinations. My superstitions bemuse me, especially after surviving 2013.

I keep thinking of survival tactics during these meetings. The cognitive distortions of last month particularly seem likely to put life and the pursuit of happiness at risk. Take global thinking as an example. If one thinks a single event as fitting all, then the exception is likely to bite one in the ass. When did I learn that there is an exeception to every rule? Or that when it says “fits all sizes" that it will not? It seems to me that the cognitive distortions describe adolescents.

That is unless one has lost their rationality. We have three individuals (or is it two?) who committed their crimes under the influence of meth. None of these techniques, in my opinion, can work if one is in the throes of addiction. Before the addiction takes a person into its firm grip, certainly before the drug use starts, they would have an use. Thinking on my the days of my severe depression, it would have been of any use. I was angry at the uselessness of existence; I was paranoid about people and the Universe; I was hellbent on self-destruction. It was not until I had my breakdown in pretrial detention, when I was brought to a full stop, did I have the time and opportunity for rationality. Looking back (and I have been looking back for some time now, almost to the point of boredom), I find fascination in how that time belongs to someone else for all that I was there. It has escaped my talents for describing and explaining; just look at what I have already published on the topics labeled “prison journal”, “pretrial detention journal”, and "depression." The links to these topics are to the right of your screen.

Some observations more relevant to these meetings and what is being taught:

1. With everyone having to tell of their offenses, I do not see how these techniques would have prevented their crimes; they came too late to the situation that caused the crime.
2. Absolutely no connection to sex when the students are sex offenders, when the governments involved seemed to think this program will adjust thinking about sex or the causes for their crimes.
3. Not having any mental health diagnosis apart from depression, I am not sure why I am there - besides the federal government's solicitious care for my mental health issues. However, my PO keeps calling this treatment. For what am I being treated?
4. Learning jargon has a benefit, I guess. I am not sure what there is that I did not work out long ago. See the archives mentioned above. 

Your tax dollars at work, except for those coming from the state criminal justice system. They are paying $50 a week.

sch