The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Today is one of those days where I wonder if I should be in some sort of counseling. And then I wonder what the point would be since the only truly actionable advice would be "find a new line of work."
I have been a public defender long enough that I now mostly have murder cases and sex cases (plus supervisory duties). My rural area is thankfully low on murders, but not so low on sex cases. It is generally possible to have semi-normal conversations with murder clients. It is almost impossible to do so with a 40yo man accused of having sex with a 13yo girl. Or a 30yo man accused of molesting his 8yo step-daughter. Or a 70yo man accused of molesting every child in the neighborhood. Or the pick-an-age man who has collected TB of CSAM, some of which is so appalling that just reading the description (much less having to actually see the videos) is something straight from the torment nexus.
Even for someone jaded by years of this work, it is wearing to hear the delusional and horrifying things they say. Some of them don't see anything wrong with what they've done, and some are even proud of it. And of course, if they're confessing to past actions they haven't been charged with, that's confidential information that goes to the grave with me. So they finally get to unburden themselves (or brag) and I can do nothing with it except store it away in my elephant's memory (I am not Funes the Memorious, but I remember far too much).
So there are days like today where I had custody visits with a number of my clients and it would be great if I could somehow memory wipe my time at work.
Jesus, man. I don't envy you on any of that.
It sure does reinforce my wish that public defenders like you got more cultural respect, though. What you're doing is incredibly necessary for a functioning society, and I'm glad that you've been willing to do it for as long as you have.
It's a good thing I get paid so much to make up for that lack of cultural respect... oh wait.
I don't expect much cultural respect from Red Tribers, but the decrease in cultural respect in the last 5ish years from the NPR liberal set is vaguely annoying.
According to Gallup, only 20 percent of USAians view lawyers as having above-average "honesty and ethical standards", vs. 7 percent for members of Congress, 37 percent for police officers, and 57 percent for doctors. And, according to Ipsos, only 31 percent of people globally view lawyers in their respective countries as "trustworthy", vs. 15 percent for politicians, 38 percent for police officers, and 58 percent for doctors. But are perceived "honesty and ethical standards" and "trustworthiness" the same thing as "cultural respect"? I feel doubtful. IMO, cultural respect is more like "are lawyers cool?" than "are lawyers trustworthy?".
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"The Enlightenment Is Bad Actually (because I've forgotten 'community justice' just means the town lynching anyone who consensus has social guilt)" is intolerably annoying.
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