◆ PARALLAX

If you are reading this at 3am because something happened and you do not know where to put it, start here. You do not have to post. You do not have to have decided what it was. This is not an official verdict on anything; it is the drill that keeps the first account clean.

A few things, in order.

FIRST: write it down now, dated, in your own words, before it tidies itself into a better story. Include the boring details -- the radio station, what you had eaten, the mileage. The clean account is something you only get once.

SECOND: please do not go looking for hypnotic regression. I know it feels like the door to the answer. It is far more likely to be the door to a NEW memory that feels exactly as real and is not yours. The most careful researchers in this field have accidentally led witnesses this way; protect your one uncontaminated account.

THIRD: rule the ordinary things in or out without shame. See your GP about the missing-time and the sleep, honestly. Looking for a mundane cause is not betraying your experience -- it is respecting it enough to test it.

FOURTH: tell one person offline you can say it out loud to. The saying-out-loud does more than any thread.

If you want to talk, post. Expect questions. The rule is simple: argue the claim, do not harass the person. If someone crosses into cruelty or threats, staff can deal with it like any other mess. There is no clock on any of this. -- NightShiftNurse