Posted by Cadet Ashlyn Trenton (Security Officer) in Side-sim Arboretum

Posted by Cadet Sharah Fayth (Doctor) in Side-sim Arboretum

(snip)

Sharah was covered in dirt, from head to toe. She apparently had had her hands buried in the soil up her elbows and then some. Some parts of the Arboretum looked healthy and others in semi repair. Sharah heard Ashlyn coming, mentally anyway. As chaotic as her mind was though Sharah admired it. All those voices focused on one topic, chaotic and in disagreement, but all on the same page. She wished all the voices she heard could do that. She stood up dusting off her sleeves, just making more of a mess. “I’m up to try anything? You up for talking afterwards?” she raised a brow in question. Sharah still had a few hours before her shift. She knew Ashlyn was upset, and knew it had to do with her meeting this morning, and she could have known more, but she didn’t want to pull those thoughts out and look. She wanted Ashlyn to want to tell her. “Let’s get started.” Sharah dimmed the lights so the projector would show up better and sat down.
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn tapped the display to bring it to life, showing rather cartoony figures responding to her lecture. “Compartmentalization is a form of mental visualization designed to separate out specific thoughts, ideas, or emotions so they don’t impact you at a given time or moment. Most see this as picturing something like a safe.” The display responded by putting the animated character next to an old western-style safe from the early 20th century. “Once you have a clear image of that safe in your mind’s eye, you put all those nasty feelings, thoughts, and ideas inside and lock it up!” The cartoony image tossed a mass of black into the safe and slammed the door on it. “It’s at this point that most people get it wrong. They say you need to take that safe and put it on a shuttle, then launch it into the sun and destroy all that nastiness.” The cartoon image waves as it sends off the shuttle that explodes on the sun in the distance. “This is the worst possible thing you could do. The truth is, all that horrible stuff is a part of you and always will be. By sending it away and forgetting about it only allows it to build up pressure until it’s you that inevitably breaks down.” The black dot on the sun expands and overwhelms it. “Don’t fret though, even when this happens you can still recover IF you use compartmentalization the right way.”

The cartoon character blinked curiously in the darkness at Ashlyn with an expression of asking ‘how’? “I’m glad you asked! You see, the first mistake was visualizing a safe. Safes are solid and difficult to get into, sure it takes a lot of time and pressure to build up enough to break a safe, but it just means the fallout is that much worse when you finally stop to deal with the problems. Instead, I like to picture a cardboard box.” The paper box appeared next to the cartoon character and it takes on a puzzled expression. “You see, a cardboard box is really sturdy when it’s brand new, but deteriorates over time as it gets older. It also isn’t that strong so if the pressure starts to build up, it’ll break apart easily without exploding into something horrible.” The imaged showed the box getting older and just breaking apart at the seams when it gets overstuffed. “This is okay though because you know the box won’t hold forever, you know you have to deal with the things in the box. So you do, one thing at a time. Reach into that box and pull something out.” The cartoon character reached into the box and pulled out the word sorrow. “Oof, that’s a bit complex for this demonstration, can you pull something a little simpler?” The character reaches into the word and pulls out a picture of a cat. “Why does the cat bring you sorrow?” The image adds speech bubbles with a series of pictures that sum up a story of how the cat passed away. “I understand, but now we can work through that. Acknowledgment, acceptance, planning, adaptation, consultation if needed, solution implementation. Now that one issue is taken care of, it’s okay to be sad about it, but you are ready to move on now and we can work on a new issue.” The cartoon looks sad at the picture, but puts it on a shelf and gives Ashlyn a thumbs up. “You see, compartmentalization isn’t a way to get rid of a problem so you don’t have to deal with it, but a way of mitigation so the problem or problems don’t overwhelm you.” The cartoon starts diving into the box to work on issue after issue until the box is empty.

“Now I know you are wondering, how does this apply to you?” Ashlyn stated, now addressing Sharah directly. “I have a theory that if we visualize it properly, it will work just as well for you. Because your troubles are not internal but external input, a box won’t work at all. Instead, we have to visualize all that psychic input as pipes of flowing water.” The image shows a bunch of pipes suddenly appearing and pouring water into the room with a panicked character running around flailing their arms. “How do we possibly deal with this? First, redirection. Visualize all the pipes coming in from the same place so the flow is manageable. Next, build a dam.” The character watches as the pipes move together and away, then a hydroelectric dam appears, stopping the water. “Now, just like the box, if you let the pressure build up too much, it’ll break down and make a horrible mess. So you will have to take time to open the flood gates so you can deal with a more controlled amount of information. You can also, if you so desire, go over the dam and pick out a specific pipe to move if you want all the information from that source.” The display comes to an end and dimed out. “Now, I’m no neuroscientist nor a psychologist so I can’t explain the science of how or why this works. I can just say that it does for me and it may be worth trying if you are up for it?”

• Cadet Ashlyn Trenton

Sharah watched the first part of the presentation with amuzement. Positive amusement. She liked it and it showed her a lot about how Ashlyn processed her own thoughts, and she was fascinated about how it worked for Ashlyn. She was distracted at the beginning of the water pipes, several more people were moving around and the psychic noise got louder suddenly and she had to take the time to route around it. She refocused at the point where Ashlyn suggested a dam to stop the water. Sharah frowned slightly because that was a technique that her neuropsychologists had suggested several times and she didn’t have the control to open the dam just little, it closed and then broke, or flooded open at the slightest touch. Much as it had last night. And as if on cue a sudden loud flood of psychic noise flooded her mind. Perhaps she caused it to happen by contemplating Ashlyn’s idea or maybe her guilt from the previous night. And then unerringly she heard that crystal clear thought pattern. She pulled away because she wasn’t ready to address that problem at just that moment.

Something about earlier in Ashlyn’s presentation intrigued her. “Ashlyn, can you go back to the many pipes picture?” Sharah looked at it again. “So, and I really appreciate the effort you put into this, so please keep that in mind. My doctors have always suggested the ‘big dam’ idea, but it doesn’t work…for me anyway. What about multiple boxes…I mean pipes, each flowing to a different location or dam or....something?” Sharah kept staring at the picture trying to put into words this vague idea she was forming. “The large dam doesn’t work…I…I don’t have the mental strength/training/whatever to slowly release it, but what about several smaller ones?” She looked at Ashlyn with a whole lot of hope. “Could you help me do that?”
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn pauses, suddenly unsure of what she is doing. “I…I, uh, don’t know how. Creative visualization happens in your own mind, not being a telepath myself means I don’t really have the ability to go in there. I’m really not sure how else to help.”

• Cadet Ashlyn Trenton

Sharah thought a moment. “Truthfully even if you were a telepath you wouldn’t want to be in there.” She tapped her finger on her leg staring at the the image of the different pipes. “What....no…wait let me start at the beginning. The overwhelm and subsequent burn out has very distinct symptoms. Dizziness, disorientation, extreme headaches, I tend to rub at my forehead and temple a lot at that point, tug on my hair, etc, you would know. It can lead to blackout and fainting.” She looked at Ashlyn, “It’s very embarrassing. You could watch for those things, keep me from hurting myself. I can try the visualization and then attempt difficult tasks. Anything that requires extreme concentration. Could you help me in that way? I couldn’t try it by myself, it would be too dangerous. If you aren’t comfortable with it, I can try and apply it on my own during my daily routines.” Sharah was trying to approach this with some scientific perspective despite her hopefulness.
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn ponders on this for a long moment, “How difficult does the task need to be?” She considers her idea further and her mouth spreads into a grin, “I have an idea, how do you feel about running?”

• Cadet Ashlyn Trenton

Sharah considers this for a moment. “Probably not too extreme to begin with, but we could increase the difficulty as I get better at it, if I get better at it.” She’s never been much for athletics. As easily distracted as she can become it wasn’t a good idea. “like on a clear track with no obstacles, SURE. Hurtles, cross-country I’ve never done. My condition makes it too dangerous if I get disoriented and miss an obstacle. If this works....” her face lit up, “I’d be able to try. Maybe.”
Cadet Fayth, Doctor