Have You Gone Mental (69)

Distractions.

I had a good dose of depression today and instead of feeling my way through it, I pulled a method out of my bag of tricks: DISTRACTION0.

One must be careful when using this method. IT IS ADDICTIVE. It can become a habit without too much effort and could be harmful to our growth. In fact, sometimes this can become a knee-jerk reaction. As you know, it is more profitable to feel it and think our way and act our way through.

Distraction masks the feelings involved with depression. Here is what I did:
I woke up in anxiety, as usual, ate a light breakfast, took my morning medication and moseyed off to my favorite restaurant to sip a couple of Diet Pepsis while I read my current selection. This one is from Wayne Dyer. Although I am not a new-ager, I have enjoyed reading so far in "Change your Thoughts, Change your Life". This book is an effort on the part of Dr. Dyer to provide an essay on all 81 chapters of Lao Tsu's Tao de Ching and is quite interesting.

After my reading I left for an Eye Doctors appointment. I have Glaucoma. My eye pressure levels were excellent today. I picked up several medication samples and filled out paperwork to receive assistance from the Merck Corporation to obtain a particular eye drop (I take 3 eye drops multiple times each day). Shoot, I digress...

I then went to the bank, the post office, back to the bank (poor planning) and back home. I sat down for awhile and had lunch as I busied myself with some paperwork, which I often thought was only for middle managers (which I used to be but am not now). I then went to Janet's Orthopedic Physician appointment where we experienced the pre-op stage of surgery for next week on a "torn meniscus".

We then returned home where I turned on the TV and watched re-runs of Special Victims and NCIS. We began building Janet's Snowman Village. After a while Jeffrey asked for help on his Senior Career Research project (I can't believe he is a Senior!) which lasted from 8:30 until 10:30. I took a break and then began to blog. Law and Order LA is on TV now and I am kind of "wound up" after a busy day distracted from my depression.

I'll go to bed after an hour or so of TV. Did I make any headway on dealing with my Depression/Anxiety. Probably not. But today felt a heckuva lot better than most other days. This level of distraction is like being the "energizer Bunny": frenetic. non- stop and no need of batteries, only work, play, and a small slice of interaction.

I don't recommend this on a daily basis, but sometimes it just feels good to not feel so bad.

Typos and all ... God bless you.

P.S. I gave up on the Roman Numerals. I never was much good at them.