Broken Routines

I got an email from TiVo saying that I could get a lifetime product for their new Roamio sets. I would love to upgrade to a new system as mine is over 12 years old. It still works good and all but I think it is time for an upgrade so I can record more shows at the same time. But, alas, I can’t afford the Roamio and the offer is only good until Jan 28th. Rats.

I was reading an old blog that I wrote almost two years ago about clutter. In it, I described my current life situation where I have clothes and papers all over the place without a home. I am unable to find a home because I don’t have a place to put them. So they just stay in piles. I use the piles because I do have to change clothes a few times a week. The reason I don’t go through the piles often is because I don’t shower every day like I used to. I shower maybe 3-4 times a week, if that, and it depends on my mood and pain level. I try to shower at least every other day but some times that is just not possible. Very rarely do I shower on consecutive days. I notice when I don’t shower a lot when my mother does the laundry. I can’t do the laundry because I don’t do it her way. I will have a small pile of clean clothes, which basically means, I didn’t shower too often that week.

I read an article today about how sunshine may contribute to suicide. But in the same article, it said that sunshine for 14-60 days was preventative against suicide. So if you have sun for less than 10 days, you may commit suicide. Makes sense to me because I have found that at the peak of summer, my suicidality goes through the roof with the heat and sunshine. I can’t stand it. Give me cloudy days any day! Luckily in Boston, we don’t have consecutive days of sunshine. Though it may be what is contributing to my suicidality the last couple of days. The study took out the seasons variability factor. Here is the link to the article if you are interested. It is a bit technical and at times confusing but well worth the read. The interesting finding in the study was that women were more likely to die by suicide than men. Usually, the reverse is true. But the authors didn’t mention that at all, least not in the overview. here is a simpler version of the same article: sunshine and suicide

I had therapy today. I wish I could say that it was encouraging but I felt like it was work and a whole lot of bullshit. My therapist was trying to tell me that I need to be validated and that I am missing that because I am so isolated. Her contact is the only human contact I get now a days. I don’t talk with my mother about any thing related to me. I don’t talk to my sisters about what is wrong. My psychiatrist is out in cyberland somewhere and I can’t always get a response from her. So the only people I “talk” with are my Twitter followers, and sometimes, my Facebook friends. And with me feeling wicked down on myself and wanting to kill myself, she feels like I am too isolated and need more contact with people. Trouble is, there aren’t a whole lot of people I talk with, even while I was working. Sure I socialized with my coworkers while working but rarely did our friendship leave the office. Since being out of work, even my closest friends never call me or text me like they used to. I used to text them all the time but when I started getting no responses, I stopped. It’s been almost three years since I have been out of work. And yes, this time of year always sucks for me, but not having social support is hurting me. Sure I have my writing and my blog, but I don’t always get responses to every post I publish. And yesterday, I really was looking for validation on one of my papers that I sent to a clinical social worker. He totally missed what the paper was about. He thought it was more about the song than the content I was writing about. That hurt me more than words can express. And that is the other thing. Lately, I have been having trouble expressing myself either on Twitter or my blog. I don’t know what is holding me back but I just cannot say what I feel anymore. Last night was a difficult night, again, and I all I could do was spout off lyrics of the songs I was playing. The hardest part was trying to keep it within 140 characters and still be able to quote the artist.

My mood is all over the place. One minute I am hanging by a thread and the next I am okay. Right now, there is a heaviness in my chest. It’s almost 2000 and already my mood has winded down. I don’t know if I can stand another painful night of heartache. I don’t know what is causing me such misery. It’s not my anniversary, yet, of my surgeries and when my life changed forever. Granted I was talking to a friend and we were talking about how my ankle is being such a downer. I can’t do stairs and yet I am supposed to do PT tomorrow. I really don’t see the fucking point of going to PT. I know I am always going to be in pain. Any activity is going to hurt me. But I have become so reclusive. I don’t go out, unless I really have the motivation to do so. I still have funds for my Starbucks from my birthday and Christmas gifts but I really haven’t gone out more than once a week. The routine used to be have therapy, get dressed, catch the bus, and then go to Starbucks. Now it more like have therapy and then catch a nap, write a blog, have dinner, then go to sleep. I really have to psych myself up to go out. I don’t talk with anyone human, except for my mother. Some days I don’t really talk with her at all except to make dinner plans. If I talk with my sisters, it is via text message, though lately my sister has been calling me. But outside of family, there is no other communication. I might chat with my Twitter buddies but it’s not instantaneous. And lately, I just haven’t been feeling up to chatting. I just stay in my room because it is quiet and I play my annoying game. So that is what I do all day. Nothing at all. I am really useless.

Sun Downing

Had a rough time last night. Thoughts were so hopeless and I was filled with despair. I tried tweeting my thoughts but I couldn’t form words to my pain. It was agonizing not being able to express myself. I wanted to read something about suicide that would help me realize that life was worth living but I was paralyzed with fear that if I read something negative, it might push me over the edge on I was on. I was trying to find “suicidal mind” to ease my psychache but I had no idea where to look. Today I know where to look and after I write this blog, I am searching for it. I think it is in my Psychache binder folder. I hope so anyways. If I don’t find it, I will buy another copy when I get paid in two weeks. I texted my therapist to call me if she has a chance. I need her calming voice that things are going to be okay.

I don’t know how things went south. I think it was the sun downing experience I get when I am deeply depressed. My mood gets worse when the sun sets, but unfortunately, the sun had already set when my mood shifted. Usually after 8 pm (2000), my mood goes south, more so this time of the year than at any other time. It usually starts the end of September and ends any where the middle of February to the middle of March. It is when my suicidal thoughts are at their worst. There has been documentation about this in bipolar people. Kay Redfield Jamison’s book, Night falls Fast, I think states that is the worst time of year for bipolars to commit suicide. If it isn’t that book, it is the book “Touched with Fire”. Both are very good books and I think are in my Useful Books page.

Right now I am starting to feel sad. I have been listening to a variety of music on my phone to get me out of this funk I am in but it’s not helping me. They say when you are depressed you analyze lyrics more than words to the song. Or something like that. And I have been doing that. If I could have YouTube on repeat for Carrie Underwood’s song “Something in the Water”, I would. I find this song uplifting. It’s on my music to buy list, which is getting longer each month. I hate not being able to buy music when I want to. When I was working, this wasn’t a problem but being on a fixed income, you learn to budget. And you allow certain funds to go towards entertainment. Usually I get a few songs a month but Carrie just came out with her first Greatest Hits CD and I want it! It has all my favorite Carrie songs, and a few I don’t know. The new song, Something in the water is on this CD collection. I just can’t decide if I want the physical CD or the MP3 version. I have a few weeks to think about it. Until then, YouTube is playing my song, even if I have to hit play a few times.

My little niece called me to pick her up but after my doctor’s appointment today, I need to rest my ankle. I have to pick her up tomorrow and if I do too much today, I will be toast. My ankle is starting to throb so I really shouldn’t tax it. She will just have to wait until her mother picks her up when she gets out of work. I feel bad and it only worsens my depression because I can’t do things like I used to. It still amazes me that I was able to work 2 jobs while in horrible pain and now can’t even work one. Course, I passed my breaking point when I had to wear an AFO. I just wished I had chosen the research job over the clinical job. Working 20 hours would have been a severe pay cut but at least I still would have a job and maybe be able to finish school finally.

Throbbing is moving into my foot. I fucking hate when that happens. I won’t be able to go down the stairs, or up, over the next few hours. Least until my pain medication kicks in. Doc I saw today has me on a new NSAID (non-steriodal anti-inflammatory drug) called Mobic (meloxicam). I need to start it tomorrow because I took my last dose of another NSAID last night and you can’t take the two together. I hope it works better than what I am taking now. I hope it helps my arthritis in my hands and that it doesn’t cause GI upset. I left a message with the doc as to when is best to take it. I usually take all my meds at night but I don’t know if that is best or not for this new med. I just hope it helps me and doesn’t cause me any side effects.

Random 245

Random 245

I am will be done with the new blog post on CAMS hopefully tomorrow. I am brain dead today for some reason and can’t motivate myself to write up the last page of notes I took. It is stirring more ideas about what to write about than what is actually in the notes, which is a good thing, but is distracting as all hell! I am thinking about writing a new post about the reasons for living and reasons for dying article that I am quoting. So many ideas about suicide risk assessments.

I did too many stair climbing today. My ankle/foot is killing me profoundly. I got the mail a few minutes ago and that caused the throbbing to increase. I would insert a photo of where it hurts but I haven’t been able to find one. Monday I have physical therapy so that should be fun. I will get it all nice and calmed down by then only to aggravate it some more. I really don’t think PT is going to help me. But I will give it one more try before saying nay. I think I might have to ice my ankle though. I see swelling forming .

I haven’t gone out today at all. It was snowing all morning. I say we got about ¾ of an inch. It is warmer by at least ten degrees today. I posted to my FB page that we should go to the beach as it was a balmy 24 degrees.

My mood still sucks, though I haven’t thought about killing myself today. I still feel like what I am doing is no good. But I got a few likes from my last post and that made me feel a little better. I shared Shneidman’s commonalities of suicide. It is an important piece of work. But anything by Shneidman is important to me. I don’t know if others think the same way. David Jobes probably does.

I don’t now why my mood has plummeted. I might have to increase the remeron. But I think I will wait until my pdoc is back in the office. I still don’t know when that will be though. I have inquired several times now and have gotten no response. I guess I just have to wait until she lets me know when she is back in the office. If I don’t hear from her in the next two weeks, or if my mood worsens, I will email her and ask for the increase in remeron. I am on a low dose and it might have lost its effectiveness. I don’t want to stop taking it as that could be disastrous. I really don’t want to end up back in the hospital.

Email Problems

Email problems

So apparently I am no longer getting notifications of my MSN account to my phone and Google Chrome doesn’t notify me either of new messages. I sometimes get a message when I sign in my laptop, but that doesn’t happen all the time. My psych emailed me back and I think she was pissed that I was frustrated with her. Now I am miffed. Prior to me sending her my last email, I sent her 2 and had no response. So yes, I am frustrated with her and feel like she isn’t answering my emails. I told her I miss her and something to the effect like email contact just sucks. It has been almost three months since I last saw her. We used to have biweekly contact so not hearing from her kind of stinks. (For those that are new reading my blog, she broke her hip before Halloween.)

I haven’t done anything today except play my annoying game, which just sent out a new timed mission. I haven’t clicked on it to see what it is about. I might forgo it.

I just got a migraine from hell. I think I used too much pepper in my eggs that I had for lunch. My head is killing me. I really want to nap but I already slept till 2 today, after being up at 545 am. I fear that if I sleep, I will wake up around 2100 and then I won’t sleep till who knows what hour. Maybe I should have some coffee. I haven’t had any caffeine today so maybe that is why I got the migraine from hell.

Once the migraine goes away, I think I will type up my notes for the blog post that I am working on. Funny, I had a dream that there was a CAMS chat on Twitter in a few days time and I was like I have to do this blog before then, in like two days time. I was with a high school friend and she got annoyed that I was ignoring her when I got the tweet about the chat. We were in my house that I grew up in. I don’t know why I keep dreaming about this house. Seems like every dream lately has this house in it. I am either in the kitchen or living room in these dreams. So strange. Got to ask my therapist what it means when I talk with her tomorrow. I hope we have time for everything I need to talk with her about. We also have a session on Wednesday in case we do run out of time. Seems like every time she goes away, things build. I try writing her letters and mailing them when she is back in the office. It really stinks not seeing her, too. But I got to see her on my birthday so that was good. For those new reading my blog, my therapist is 30 miles away from me and I don’t have a car. She used to have an office in the town next to mine, which is where we first started seeing each other. But then she had a child and it was difficult commuting back and forth, especially during the harsh winters we have been having. She doesn’t have email so I snail mail her letters. I just got her to start texting me back, so that is some progress, technologically at least. I know she has an iPhone but doesn’t know how to use it. I think it is a 3 and as long as it works, she is not going to upgrade. I really wish she would someday get email but she barely has time to read my blog post some days.

Fuck it, I think I am going to take a nap.