Tag: schizoaffective disorder

For the Love of Espresso

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, depression, mood disorders

For the Love of Espresso

Yesterday, I made coffee at home and when I poured the half and half, there was shit on top. I asked my mother if it was fine and she said it was “cream”. Coffee tasted okay and I didn’t die as I am living to tell the story. Today, the curdling was worse and I wasted a cup of coffee. I was pissed because the half and half was a new quart that hadn’t been opened yet and had an expiration of Dec 21. I had a Neurontin hangover and I desperately needed coffee. But it was Sunday and there were no direct buses to the Square. I just missed the bus going near the Square, which pissed me off more. I had to wait an hour for the next one. I decided to sojourn in the opposite direction and take the trek to Station Landing, where there was a Starbucks.

I decided just to bring my book with me because I didn’t want to carry anything heavy as that would make the long walk more strenuous. I was feeling pretty good so it wasn’t much difficulty getting to my happy place. I stayed for an hour after having a sandwich and my much desired drink. I read to the point where Lincoln is elected president, South Carolina secedes from the Union and the Lincoln family enters the White House, along with Hay and Nicholay in tow.

It took me fifteen minutes to get back to the train station and to my stop. Not bad for someone who is disabled. Though by the time I was waiting for the bus home, my ankle was starting to throb and increased by the time I got home. I took a pain pill soon as I got into my room. My sister had invited us for dinner and I was just in time. I was kind of hungry from my travels so the timing was perfect. I had half a glass of wine before I realized I had just taken a pain pill. OOPS. I hope it doesn’t cause drowsiness because I don’t want to fall asleep this early. Last night I fought against the drowsiness and couldn’t sleep until nearly 0300. Anxiety from possible pain kept me awake. It was terrible.

I have my first session of CBT tomorrow. I am really nervous as I am more psychodynamic than a cognitive person. To me, this therapy is rigid and I don’t like rigid but, unfortunately, all the current research has lead to say this form of therapy helps those with chronic health conditions so I am giving it a shot against my better judgement. I hope the therapist is willing to work with me and not against me, with the “I know better” attitude. I will be out the door so fast if this is the case. I also hope that the therapist allows my therapist and I to work while doing this as an adjunctive thing. I have mixed feelings about this therapy and the process. I hope it will be a brief therapy, with kind of a relapse therapy sessions available if needed kind of thing. AND it MUST focus more on my pain issues than my depression as the pain is more debilitating me than the depression right now. I also hope the therapist isn’t going to freak out when she finds out about my suicidality. That is another element I am afraid of, being turned down because I am “too sick” for therapy. I don’t know if this therapist is on the up that CBT can actually help suicidal thinking as well. I really hope I don’t have to be the professor either. She is a resident, not a full fledged therapist so we’ll see. If I have to resort to being a suicidologist to her, I will. I have a full library on the subject so I think I know what the hell I am talking about. I just wish I had the time to read Craig Bryan’s book about CBT in suicidality. Damn depression. Maybe I will take it with me and show it to her so to give her background that this isn’t my first therapist and won’t be my last that I have to “train”.

I had to further aggravate my ankle/foot by going downstairs again because I had to use the bathroom. I don’t know who’s brilliant idea it was to have bedrooms upstairs without at least a half bath. Sure it would make the bedrooms smaller but it would be a life saver!

Reading Report and other things

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, depression, mood disorders

Reading Report and other things

I did some more things to help my mother clean the house for my sister’s birthday party this coming Tuesday. I am dead meat and I know my ankle and foot are going to have a war pretty soon as to which part is going to cause me the most pain. I took my meds so hopefully it won’t be as bad as I think it will be. I have gone up and down the stairs so many times tonight that I just don’t think it’s possible not to be in pain. And just when I swore off going downstairs unless the house is on fire, my bladder says “haha you’re funny”. I should have went the last time I went down but I didn’t have to go or thought I didn’t. My bladder thought otherwise, however soon as I was up in my room, all settled under the covers.

I read my Lincoln Boys book. I don’t know why every Lincoln book that I have read, by different bloody authors, in the last few years have ALL included the Compromise of 1820, the Missouri Compromise of 1850, Bleeding Kansas, and my favorite, the Dred Scott decision. What that has to do with Lincoln, I have no bloody fucking clue. He wasn’t involved in any of those decisions. You take it out, and your book is really shorter. Dear god, how about that!? And guess what, neither were the men you are talking about in the book so why are the fuck are you writing about it?? I wouldn’t mind it but it’s like beating a dead horse, the language is the same in all the books I read about Lincoln. Hell, he may have been around but he wasn’t in politics at least until after the Missouri Compromise. It’s just boring reading the same shit in every single book I read about Lincoln. Pretty sad.

I read three chapters of this book. It finally got to John Nicholay and his life. What amazes me is that most of these men were against slavery but they couldn’t stand the negroes. They didn’t want anything to do with them. Much like today, with the black lives matter movement. We as a white person, tolerate them being around but really don’t want them around. I don’t know why that is. It makes no sense to me. I have a few friends that I love that are black and wouldn’t treat them differently than I do my white friends. Then there are black co-workers who take their race to extremes and you can smell it a mile away. It sickens me because they also perpetrate the racism. It’s a two way street. You can’t have it just one way. And don’t even get me started on the “N” word. Every time I hear it, I seriously want to lose my shit. That is just disgraceful. It’s like being called bitch by your best friend every time you see them and then after a while, you start believing it because they are calling you that. It’s wrong. It’s not respectful at all, in my opinion.

The racism thing isn’t what my blog is about and if I have offended anyone, I am sorry. That isn’t my intention. I will say one last thing about it. It won’t go away until we respect one another as a human being. We all have the same blood, same organs, same diseases (well, mostly) and we are all fighting to give our kids a special place here while we can. I know the racism thing isn’t going to go away in my lifetime. But I am a Trekkie so I believe that one day we will all love each other as one and all be equal. LLAP (Live Long And Prosper).

Saturday Blog 69

by Midnight Demon, posted in bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, blogging, Chronic pain, chronic physical pain, depression, mood disorders

Saturday Blog 69

I just finished cleaning both flights of stairs. I am going to rest a little bit before going to Walgreens to pick up my prescription. While mopping the stairs, I got a splinter from the stupid mop. I’ll have to wait till it forces itself out because I can’t seem to grab it.

I am going to try and take it easy today and possibly read. I haven’t read or finished any books since last month. I have a month and a half to finish my reading challenge. I have so far read 18 books and my goal is 25. I am almost there. I really need to put some time into reading and lord knows I have the time. I just don’t have the motivation or inclination to read. I rather just goof off on Twitter and Facebook. I have to put the laptop down or I won’t be able to read.

I had just started a new book, Lincoln’s Boys. It’s about John Hay and John Nicholas both of whom were secretaries for Abraham Lincoln. If you ever watched the movie Lincoln and saw the pics of what the men really looked like, it’s uncanny. The resemblances are very stunning in my opinion. But then, most of the characters in the movie have some resemblance to their real life pictures. They really did a good job making it as real as possible. I really do love Lincoln. He is one of my favorite presidents. I have read more about him than any other president.

I have another book that I started reading last week but it’s kind of boring. It’s from my favorite author Lawrence Block and called Resume Speed. So far the book is okay but with Block you never know what is going to happen next. I have it on my Kindle and it’s a novella so it’s not that long. I just need to get going on reading. It would be nice to finish the challenge.

I got some decent night sleep last night. I did have a weird dream about shot guns and chasing people. I sort of know what it’s about but I don’t want to trigger my PTSD so I am not going to analyze it more than that. I hope my sleep pattern is back on course. I am going to try and not sleep during the day. It’s going to be hard because of the work I did with the stairs. Maybe I will go to the Square and get some espresso. I did have coffee when I got up but it’s not really doing anything for me. I might as well taken some sleeping pills. I feel really tired.

OSU is playing Maryland today. I don’t know who Nebraska is playing. I hope their QB is okay to play. He got a huge hit last week against OSU and was unconscious for a little while. It was scary. I really am not in the mood to watch football today. I really miss baseball. 87 days until it returns. That is a long time.

While I am at Walgreens, I am going to see if they have the eczema cream my eye doctor wants me to get. When I was there last, they did have it but it was a huge tube and it was like $13. I don’t need that big of a tube. I’d like a smaller one. They had one online that was around $8. I am going to see if they have a Walgreens version. I just need a little dab for under my eyes. If not, I will go to the Square to go to CVS. Or I might check Rite Aid. Think I will go there first before heading to the Square. I hate going to the Square on a Saturday because the buses can be unpredictable. And they run like every stinking hour. I will check to see if my mother has my money that I asked her to save for me. I’d like to get some pizza at the pizza place while I am out. I think I deserve it after all the work I did today.

Editing nightmare, writing, and other things

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, depression, mood disorders, writing

Editing nightmare, writing, and other things

Earlier this week when I was editing, I noticed that one story had given each paragraph its own page. I fixed it and thought that would be it. Tonight, I went to the next story and there was a similar error. I went to the next and found the same error. I panicked. I knew what I had to do to fix it but it was a lengthy process and would take some time and effort to sort through. It was more than 50 pages of work to sort. I had nothing better to do so cut and pasted I did. I fixed the book and in doing so, “lost” 20 pages. I am up to 125, without edits as I still haven’t inputted them but at least there are no formatting errors, least none that I can see right now.

Because I thought I was up to at least 150 pages of work after putting in some dedication and acknowledgement pages, I figured I could publish the book. Now I can’t because it’s too short for my taste. I really would like to get it up to 200 pages, minimum. It’s probably going to take me another six months or so to get another 75 pages written. I am so disappointed. So close yet no cigar.

My mother annoyed me tonight. I told her I was in pain and she said “well you are going up and down the stairs alright”. WTF She doesn’t fucking get it. The other day when my sister was here she was telling her that I go down the stairs “carefully”. But she said it in a mocking voice. I just can’t win with her. Tomorrow she wants me to clean the stairs, both flights. I will clean the bottom stairs first as those haven’t been done in quite a while. Then we’ll see about the other flight.

I just took a strong pain pill because I couldn’t stand the throbbing in my ankle anymore and the regular pain pills aren’t working. I hope I am not up every fricken two hours. I am really tired. It’s funny, when I want to sleep I can’t and when I need sleep, I do. There is no medium. I know part of it is my fault because I am on my bed most of the time so when I feel the need to lie down, I do and usually sleep, no matter what time of day it is. A sleep doc would have a complete fit if he knew my sleeping habits or lack there of.

It’s extremely windy and it is shaking the house. It kind of scares me because I fear the house will fall in. I know it won’t, sort of, but it still scares me when the house shakes. I hope the wind dies down by the end of the night. I don’t need anxiety on top of pain to keep me up. That just isn’t a good combination.

I talked with my aunt tonight. It didn’t go well. She didn’t know who I was and then started crying. It broke my heart. She wanted me to visit her. I wish I had a car to see her but I don’t. I would have to go by public transportation and it’s a pain because I would have to take two trains and a bus to get to her house. It would be worth it to see her though. I miss her terribly. She is the last surviving sibling in the US on my father’s side. I have one uncle in France but he has dementia and is not doing too well. I don’t talk to him because of the language barrier. He doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak French or Italian.