The first twelve weeks · call recap
What the twelfth week is not
14 January 202615 attendedHeld by Esi
Five people in the room were within a fortnight of the end of their first twelve weeks and all five had quietly decided that something was supposed to happen. Nothing happens. That was most of the hour: dismantling an arbitrary milestone that this circle's own name unfortunately helps to build. I have thought about the name a lot since.
Where the room started
Expectant, and slightly anxious about being expectant. Grizel put it best and most bluntly: she had been treating week twelve as a results day, and had no idea what result she was waiting for. Two others recognised that immediately. One had booked a review for the week specifically so somebody would tell him how it had gone.
Underneath it, in three of the five, was a fear they had not said out loud: that if nothing had changed by then, they would be told it had not worked and it would be taken away.
What came up
Longer-standing members were useful here in a way I could not have been. Matt, who is a long way past this, said the only thing that happened at his twelfth week was that he stopped counting weeks, and it took him another two months to notice he had stopped. Salma said her third month was the flattest and her fifth was where things moved, which is a shape the room needed to hear.
We also went carefully at the fear of it being withdrawn. That is a real conversation with a prescriber and a real thing that happens in some services, and it is not a conversation this circle can have for anybody. What we could do was help three people write down what they wanted to ask at a review.
Where we left it
With permission to stop counting. Two members are moving over to the plateau circle, which is the usual next room for people who have run out of firsts, and one is joining maintenance to listen. I said what I say: the first twelve weeks are not the rest of it, in either direction.