July chitchat

[Prot]

It's been very hot here today. I cancelled my therapy as it wouldn't have been private, due to the back door being open because of the heat.My daughter came round with a salad she'd made for me. There's enough for 2 meals. I had it with a honey and mustard dressing.

Friday is grocery delivery day. I'm now well stocked for lunches and dinners.

[agate]

Is that physical therapy that you cancelled?

When I was having PT recently, I had a privacy concern too as my windows all look out on this building's back yard, where other residents sometimes pass by. I didn't really want people who are complete strangers to me seeing me doing odd-looking exercises.

[Prot]

Psychological therapy by video. Supposedly to help me get past the effects of previous bad treatment.

[agate]

Hope the therapy will help.

Undoing the harm done by previous attempts at therapy must be a challenge.

I like doctors and therapists who don't push their suggestions onto you--who recognize that it's your life and it's your decision.

My PCP, for instance. When she was doing a diabetic foot exam and noticing my bunion, she asked if the foot doctor had mentioned surgery for it. When I said he hadn't and I was glad about that, she said she hadn't ever decided whether bunion surgeries really solved any problems.

That was so helpful as I would really prefer to get along with bunions for as long as possible, actually indefinitely. It was encouraging to know that there are even doubts--at least in her mind--about whether bunionectomies really accomplish anything.

Psychiatrists can whip off prescriptions all too easily--and I think some clinical psychologists and other therapists can prescribe too? It's that kind of thinking--"My way or the highway"--that I don't find helpful.

[Prot]

Hope the therapy will help.

Undoing the harm done by previous attempts at therapy must be a challenge.

Previous mental health treatment. 60+ years with no help and support for moderate to severe executive dysfunction. Up until 2017 regarded as a character defect.

[agate]

The whole mental health field seems to be trying desperately to be scientific but the way disorders are identified and described makes it look "foggy." Does the UK use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (affectionately known as DSM-5) as a reference work for mental/emotional disorders?

Using AI (but not DSM-5), I looked up "executive dysfunction" and found one of its features is:

Time Blindness: Losing track of time or chronically misjudging how long a task will take.

I have problems with misjudging how long a task will take. I've been assuming it's mainly because I'm getting older and slower and failing to realize that tasks just take longer. It must be dreary to have time blindness if you're younger and trying to hold down a job.

[Prot]

The whole mental health field seems to be trying desperately to be scientific but the way disorders are identified and described makes it look "foggy." Does the UK use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (affectionately known as DSM-5) as a reference work for mental/emotional disorders?

Using AI (but not DSM-5), I looked up "executive dysfunction" and found one of its features is:



I have problems with misjudging how long a task will take. I've been assuming it's mainly because I'm getting older and slower and failing to realize that tasks just take longer. It must be dreary to have time blindness if you're younger and trying to hold down a job.

I'm Ok at that. Mine primarily is difficulty prioritising when it comes to multistep tasks. I'm not good at organising and planning. The UK uses Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register....

[Prot]

A breezy day. What I call a good Summer's day. My daughter popped in with a salad for me. Do you put tasks off a lot? I do. Need to shrink my paper mountain.

[agate]

Do I put tasks off a lot? That seems to be mainly what I do.

Each day there's a to-do list but I'm always looking at it to see which tasks I can put off till another day--the point being to carve out some time to do things I want to do, as opposed to things I have to do.

And the paper that piles up, was something said about a paperless world? The electronic age seems to be generating more paper than ever. If I get a communication from any service agency now, it's often in several languages and takes up far more paper than in those old days. Also true of instructions for any gadget.

I've seen communications in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Ukrainian, Hmong, Lao, Vietnamese, German, and Romanian. This uses a lot of paper.

When I start losing important papers that I meant to keep track of, I decide it's time to blitz through the pile and see what is in it and rearrange it so that it might at least look neat. Neat enough so that little scraps of paper don't keep fluttering to the floor where I have to use a reacher to pick them up.

[Prot]

My daughter knows how disorganised I am. So she periodically files away anything important. Yesterday was a 'genealogy day'. Minimal social media. Despite feeling lacklustre and lethargic, I made some progress. Dozed off in the recliner Woke up with neck pain. I'm very prone to that. Ditto knee pain that can make me swear, involuntarily.