Balance in life is important, as they say in mental health. One of the things in my life I find important to balance is working in mental health. After hours, days, and weeks of dealing with highly stressed and distressed people, being very engaged and diplomatic, and having to fit into the community sector, I feel a deep need to come home and listen to Nine Inch Nails, swear constantly, and shoot zombies on my computer. Fortunately, I am not alone in this, so about once a week I get together with someone else who needs a similar kind of balance in their life, and we bitch about our week and shoot everything that moves in Left for Dead 2. (except of course, the witches. Which the NPC’s shoot instead.)
I’ve never seen this kind of coping strategy in a pamphlet or heard about it at a workshop. It’s not as in as meditation, although maybe if I worded it better I could pass it off – ‘regular debriefing with rapid left right eye movement for reducing traumatic memory laydown, and peer support to facilitate future planning and goal accomplishment’… 
But I think that would entirely undermine what actually works about it all. So here I am with Zoe, the bane of zombies everywhere (except for the ones that cluster in those stupid running sections where I am pretty much mincemeat on a platter. With mushrooms, mmmmm. I think perhaps I should not write blog posts before tea.)