Under Construction - MHWA Retreat

How powerful are words? Are people responsible if their words are used for insidious purposes?
-I think words can be very powerful, although I think they're most powerful when they're backed up by actions. Like if someone apologizes to you for something, but they keep doing it, their words don't mean very much. I'm not sure how I feel about people being responsible for their words being used for insidious purposes. I don't think they are necessarily, but I think if you find out that your words are being used that way when you didn't intend it, you should say something about it.

How would you define "good" communication? When people communicate with you, what communication style do you prefer?
-It's clear, it gets across what you intend it to, and it's cooperative. I prefer people to be gentle with me, because I misunderstand things a lot and BPD + AVPD means that I usually end up thinking the worst of whatever someone just said, like they must hate me. So clear and gentle is what I prefer.

Can you think of any specific situations where you used words to fix a problem? What about a situation where your words caused more harm than good?
-I encouraged Rhay to go to the optometrist to get glasses. She's almost legally blind (if she's not there already), so that helped her out a lot to get that impetus to actually go. I was going to say I can't think of a situation, but no, I can, because I'm borderline and when I'm splitting on someone, sometimes it is really hard not to say something I know will hurt them, even when I don't mean it.

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you."-Nietzsche