SOME OF THIS MIGHT BE TOO GRAPHIC FOR SOME PEOPLE


Some of what shows up here is just crazy, even to me and I write it. I intend to share my Journal and things I've done while in, in and out patient programs.

Chronologically I'm 58 (fall of 2013). Experientially I'm older. Emotionally I'm somewhere between 3 and 12 most of the time. I live with stress pretty much all of the time. I often say, "I have a Street address in Stress Land."

As for the name "A Sound Track of Mind". A friend made a road tape called "Experimental or Just Plan Mental" so I made "A Sound Track of Mind". However I think it applies here because of the soundtrack in my mind and, having my mind on a sound (firm) track to run, walk, or crawl on.

The names I use may or may not be real. However my name isn't legally Robin Douglas. There may be some who read this who know who I am because I've been using the name for many years.

In a way my journal is written for my therapist, Jeanne. However, it is also one of the only ways I've found of constructively expressing my feeling with myself. It starts off very sudden because I started writing again to help with therapy. So your missing about 3 years of background. On Tuesday I bring in whatever I've written for the previous week.

Back in '85 through '90 I had written over 350 pages. I called it TEST as in "This is a test it is only a test". I call the new one Test. From 1991 to October 2013, I've written less than fifty pages in many fits and starts but, never being to be able to keep it up. Jeanne likes it because it gives her something to work with if I'm just chattering.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Week 7   -   2013-11-21 Thu.

2013-11-21 Thu.
Tuesday when I got home from Jeanne's I was so wound up that I couldn't write and, yesterday I was so enjoying not having to go anywhere that I, pretty much, spent the day reading. Now we've gotten to today.
Fairly early this morning Jenny (Pat's therapist) called in sick. I waited until about 10:30 to call Pat and find out what she wanted to do with the extra time. So I got out to Potomac at about 13:10 and we took a ride out to Whites Ferry, which is pretty much due north of Leesburg, VA and, we got back to Silver Diner in Rockville MD at about 15:15. We started dinner about 30 minutes early. During the trip I entertained her with trivia that Jeanie had sent me in an e-mail.
I was waiting for the big computer to get done with something. It's now 00:11 tomorrow so nighty night.

2013-11-22 Fri.
I don't know what happened on Tuesday. When I left Jeanne's I was feeling very little but, OK. I had my cigarette on the way out and drove home. When I got home I was too wound up to write and, so I read. It's possible that I was either feeling really good (since good and be confusing) or, just in the emotions not really knowing what they were.

I'm sitting in the waiting room at Jeanne's right now, so I guess we'll talk about it today. So much for a just visiting Friday today.

On a lighter note. I will be getting my December cigarettes today. So even if therapy goes hard I know there will be at least one bright spot on the horizon.

It`s 15:47 and my cigarettes aren't here yet.

I've just spent the last five hours and 45 minutes playing with TextMaker (this word processor). I found out a few nice things but, not what I was looking for. However, I did find a really nice screen keyboard. It looks like a regular keyboard and I can sort of type on it. If I had to I could work with it. But it does one annoying feature, that I just found out how to fix, the default setting is to have a pop-up notice every time you touch a key, geck. It's a bit touchy but it does work, I've typed about half of this paragraph with it, but, I wouldn't want to make a habit of it. Now I'm back to the external keyboard and I don't have to worry so much about double letters.

I've been trying to think about what Jeanne and I talked about today and how I feel about it but, it's just not coming. Kind of I feel like I did the first time I read Dr. Reynolds psychiatric report saying I have an avoidant personality disorder. It wasn't heart stopping but it took me a moment to adjust. It wasn't a surprise it was the words used. Jeanne was talking about one of the talks at her Jungian conference. There's nothing like hearing how screwed up you are, even if you already know it. I make light of Dr. Ruttenburg's comment "when it comes to dysfunctional families mine fell off the bottom of the chart" but, I do really know what she meant by it. We're really screwed up, but what can I do about it other than what I'm doing already? Nothing.

Part of why it's so hard for me is because I have to see things. Not Picture SEE, brain see. I think that's why I use analogies so much, I'm trying to make my concepts 3D. Other people can never Know what goes on inside of you. So I try to use words to draw pictures so that others can maybe understand what I'm trying to talk about. I use analogies because I'm not as fluent as most people most of the time. Though some times when I talk without thinking I can say the most wonderfully eloquent precise things.

People may think that when I'm chattering it's just mindless babble but, that's not true. When I chatter I'm in a kind of dissociative state. An almost purely cognitive state, with Little barely there, just enough to enjoy the stories.

Another thing Jeanne said that interested me was that she's learned to give Little words sometimes. I've never really noticed this, though I'm sure I comment on it at the time but, in retrospect it feels right I can feel it not remember it. This is a Little thing.

I am Little. Little is a part of me, basically my emotions, that got kind of split off from the rest of me when I was about three. I call this part of myself little because that's what I feel like when Little's in charge, when my emotions are running the show so to speak. Some times Little comes pretty close to running all of me. However, Little needs the cognitive part, the rest of me, to do anything beyond a three year old's ability. The cognitive part though can function without little. When this happens things can get a bit strange and, the change can happen in a snap. One time I was in group therapy and I can sort of remember but, not feel, the experience, of having a very emotion back and forth with a woman but, less than a minute later it was like it never happened. I know what we talked about but I can't remember what I was feeling. Another time, in expressive therapy they told me that at the beginning of the group I angry, they eventually got to 'it sure seemed like it', but, I couldn't remember being angry.

Some times I talk about the unemotional times as putting on a "shell". I appear to be perfectly normal but, afterwards I don't remember any emotions and, I'm tired like having worked an eight hour shift in two hours. But, I used to do it for days at a time and, my days run eighteen to twenty hours awake. Jeanne described it as my emotional is crammed into this little box. Being happy can hurt as much as being sad because it's all to intense.

I got my cigarettes at about 17:30, so I got my bright spot.

It's 19:30 so I've been at this for three and three-quarter hours. Time for supper and maybe a story or two.

2013-11-23 Sat.
This is the one ASCII emoticon I like *¿* starry eyed. I just found out how to do things like the upside-down question with my new on screen keyboard. There are a lot of symbols it can make but, not in this program or maybe not even on my device. Oh I've also found out that this thing doesn't like me using the Hacker's Keyboard and my bluetooth keyboard at the same time but, I can get away with it for awhile.

On Friday another thing that Jeanne mentioned is that some my more animal instincts come out. In the past I have often referred t myself as a little creator. Her comment came up because If someone gets in my face, I will get right back in theirs. So sometimes I guess I can be a Big creator too *¿*. The idea of being a little creator fits me inside, I don't think of myself as being big. I know I'm big, I'm strong but, I sometimes forget. I often get moans when I give people hugs.

2013-11-25 Mon.
It's another four day week. Today I take Pat to see Jenny, tomorrow I see Jeanne, Wednesday I see Jeanne and on Friday or Saturday I see Pat because we're seeing Jenny Today. However on Friday Pat and I will just be going out to dinner.

I finally figured out how to make my favorite calendar program usable. When you first download and open it the event font is so small it's unreadable, on a desktop or laptop it would look like 6pt. or smaller.

I'm getting tired of these four day weeks, just to read that it sounds ludicrous, but, for me it makes sense. The timing of this is amazing. I called Don to find out if we could get together because I have a deal with Così. So we're going to meet on Tuesday morning. Anyway While we were talking he said something about me being able to take care of myself, so I read the first sentence of this paragraph to him. Of course there's the irony of the fact that here I am Moaning about being too busy and I making a date to see Don.

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