Dear Insane Children,
Joey’s sent along a new illustration of a playground area in Wonderland where Alice might forget her troubles. Joey says of this image…
…where kids play and forget all their unhappy memories, maybe we could use this for one stage in which Alice is trying to forget the death of her family. Actually I am thinking, maybe at the beginning of the game, Alice wandering in her wonderland in order to find her sister, she goes between her area and the asylum, she totally forgets she was put in the asylum, so the asylum becomes a horror place she gets stuck in from time to time…
There is a fine balance to find between recollection of painful events and denial of those events happening in the first place. Too much dwelling on trauma can lead to a downward spiral of negative emotions. Neuroscience has shown that visualization of an event or action plays back in the mind as powerfully as the actual experience or action itself. The mind is unable to recognize the temporal difference (this thing happened in the past and isn’t actually happening right now) and the body reacts as if the trauma was real and present.
People trapped in PTSD recall their trauma(s) over and over again, feeling out of control, like a passenger aboard a run-away roller-coaster. In this case, the mind’s natural function of replaying a “teachable moment” (from burning one’s hand on the stove to witnessing the death of a loved one) never reaches its conclusion. That conclusion should be the acceptance of the event and subsequent understanding of the lesson contained within.
The mind is asking, “How do I survive this and avoid it happening again in the future?”
“Don’t touch the hot stove!” Is easy and self-contained because we personally control and understand the general parameters. But the trauma caused by a caretaker placing a child’s hand on a hot stove – the questions, doubts, and emotions generated by such an experience are not self contained – nor easy to understand.
“Why?” is the primary question for many who suffer from PTSD. The inability to find an answer powerful enough to overcome the trauma is at the center of why the trauma persists.
When that “why” cannot be answered… Many would prefer escape – through drinking, drugs, or death – to being trapped in the never-ending state of trauma. And areas such as the one presented by Joey are a perfect example of the child’s version of blissful unawareness in a “happy place.”
Meanwhile over in Alex’s happy place…
Progress is being made on the Chaos Coin design.
I like the Cheshire Cat “head” side and think this might be near to finished. I’m not so sure about the Chaos Symbol side – mainly because it departs completely from the design we’ve been working with so far – the design found in the Chaos Necklace, t-shirts, and even on my boat, tattoo, etc. Do I now need to get all those things redesigned?! I LIKE my tattoo!
Anyway, I’ve asked Alex to look at reverting this to the design we’ve been using. And, if white space is a problem, consider moving the Solve et Coagula to the Chaos side of the coin (in the center of the symbol).
That brings us to the embroidered patches…
The factory’s confirmed that they are producing the patches and expect to have them finished by end of this month (end of May 2018). As outlined before, we then need to send them to Shenzhen, then out to customers. This would put delivery date to your mailbox (assuming everything stays on schedule) around end of June. Fingers crossed.
Final note… of of this writing we’re at 1,246 Patrons heading towards our goal of 2000. If you want to unlock the Chaos Coin goal sooner, please consider spreading the word of our efforts via your social media channels. Feel free to re-post the art we’ve created and the coin designs. Get your friends and family to join our insane asylum! The more the madder 🙂
From Shanghai with Love,
-American