![[TIG Banner.png]] [✉️ Substack](https://integralguide.substack.com) | [[📬 Contact]] | [[❤️ Support My Work|❤️ Donate]] | [[🧘 Practice With Me]] --- > [!important] In distress? See: [[⭐️ Safety Tools and Resources]] > [!info] Bulletin Board - Last Updated 2025-01-31.Fr > - Latest Update: [[🪡 2025-01-31.Fr Update]] # About the Guide The Integral Guide is a choose-your-own-adventure field guide that I began writing to aid my personal trauma recovery and self-development and to feel empowered and better-equipped to lead an enriched life. When I was debilitated by symptoms of [[💡 Complex PTSD|Complex PTSD]], [[💡 Anxiety|Anxiety]], [[💡 Depression|Depression]], [[💡 ADHD|ADHD]], and [[🛡️ Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)|OCD]] I wanted clarity, I wanted direction, I wanted tools, and I wanted people to stop trying to sell healing to me. I was dismayed and angry that resources were difficult to find, redundant, compartmentalized, antiquated, contradictory, locked behind a paywall, highly triggering, overlong, full of word-salad, or some combination thereof. I was triggered and re-traumatized by books full of trauma stories and dehumanizing language, YouTube videos and articles that took 25 minutes to explain what I could say in 5, and the Instagram slot-machine full of contradictory information pulling me back and forth. And if they weren’t triggering, they either monetized my attention or ended with a sales pitch to get the "real secrets." There was little sincerity or lived experience and I felt exploited, helpless, and alone. Often (though not always) the more trauma a person experiences the less earning power they’re likely to have, the more help they’re going to need, and the more prohibitively expensive that help becomes. How could I be expected to have the time and money for both treatment and self-education — especially when it meant risking what little I had *just to find out* whether something might help? But I did find things, and then noticed many of them and their developers were ”[[Feeling the Elephant]],” insisting their perspective was the capital-t Truth and the only solution I needed. But I'm a systems thinker and wanted to see more of the elephant. Elephants are neat. So I took notes in [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md). This solved several problems: 1. I could integrate linear resources into one non-linear web and form insights I otherwise never would have. 2. I could use softer language and teach myself in a way that I wish I'd been taught, which made reviewing what I learned easier and required less [[🕯️ Titration|titration]]. 3. I could use clearer language — by unifying the different terms my sources use to talk about the same ideas, and making distinctions when sources use the same term to talk about different ideas, I could create an unambiguous "meta model." 4. I could tuck my findings into links I could put anywhere I wanted, so I could say something once and then contextualize it. 5. I could update my notes as-needed, and they would get better and tighter over time. While most resources are static, the Guide is a dynamic “living document.” As my notes took shape I realized I was making the resource I needed at the start, and I imagined the relief my younger self would have felt to have found it. Through [[Support Groups|forums and support groups]] I learned that there are many like me, that trauma is common, but — between living under Capitalism and a shortage of trauma-informed care, resources, tools, and practices — the therapeutic infrastructure necessary to heal us all does not exist. I know I can’t change that single-handedly, but I also know that [[🔑 Healing is no one person's responsibility|🔑 I don’t have to]] and that nobody deserves to feel as lost and overwhelmed as I have, so I decided to publish my notes, in full, for free. ![[Disclaimer]] ###### State of the Guide The Guide is not a product, it's a subset of my personal notes which I've shared on the internet for free, and it's a process. I am bound to have made mistakes — I’m doing my best, and you are welcome to [[📬 Contact]] me if you find a significant oversight. The Guide will change as it grows and condenses, complicates and simplifies, and cycles through phases of messiness — you can subscribe to my [Substack](https://integralguide.substack.com) to get notified about new updates. I have less time to work on the Guide than I did when it was initially published, though it’s being worked on almost daily. If it’s of benefit to you, please consider a [[❤️ Support My Work|❤️ Donation]] — it really helps me out. Everyone is welcome here — unconditionally. [[🕯️ Titration|Take it slow]]. You are not the first, you are not alone, and there is much hope. You may not believe in yourself or in your growth. [[🔑 The Guide is not gospel]] but, perhaps just for now, try to believe in me instead and let this Guide's existence serve as proof that I already believe in you. Thank you for reading. I hope the Guide helps you as much as it continues to help me. [[🦮 How to Use the Integral Guide]] > [!info] > The Integral Guide to Well-Being © 2022 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/