Happiness in abeyance

It was just before 6 on Sunday morning as my coffee brewed filling the air with its luscious roasty aroma, when I texted my youngest stepson to see how he was. I'd taken him grocery shopping the day before and he wasn't in the best of head spaces then.

Not well, it turned out. He said he was spiraling. It was a continuation of Saturday. 

As my Noch-Frau can attest, I am particularly not good at dealing with people who are afflicted with mental health issues. But I am trying to get better. I think it helps that I now only have to really deal with one person and their problems instead of two. While I wish my Noch-Frau all the best, I am unconcerned about her health issues unless they compel her to turn violent which is something I fear they will at times.

I feel powerless when faced with mental illness wreaking havoc.

My toolkit for these situations has only a few things in it.

1) A hug.

2) Buying something for them.

3) Getting them out of their environment and, hopefully, into Nature. Get that fix.

4) Talking. 

{Is this really all I've got?} 

I asked him if there was anything he could think of I could do for him. Then I asked if he wanted to go for a walk and he assented.

When the coffee had finished brewing, I poured some of the dark elixir into my travel mug and hit the road for Sun Prairie where he lives. With him seated and seat belted next to me, we were then off to Morton Forest.

It was a lovely morning, not too long after dawn.

There was still fog hugging the ground in some spots. 

I went a bit crazy with lens flares.

The air was rich and pungent with the green aromas of summer hanging on before these ridiculous 80 degree temps depart and autumn truly sets in.

The hike was a success, I suppose you could say. That is, it helped the kid get out of the spiral even if for just a short time. All 4 things in my toolkit were put to use this past weekend and I think they all helped to some extent or another. In a palliative sense, I guess you could say.

We had dinner together later that evening. Again, being out and about was very good for his state of mind. My unprofessional opinion is that he needs to spend less time in front of a computer screen and more time out in nature, out enjoying the company of other human beings while in the same space as them and not some inferior experience mediated by a computer.

But that's just me. My understanding is that his therapy is done via computer. Convenient, perhaps, for him and his therapist, but I suspect its efficacy is diminished without face-to-face contact. I sure hope not, though.