Dear Janet,
Your post to PWP Greg Sterling scared me. I have never heard you hack into anyone like that before, apart from perhaps to Martha. And I presume you apologised to her off-list.
Quite awhile ago, to be precise on the 1st of August, when I was very troubled, you helped me a great deal by your response.
I am now taking the liberty of reposting this in the hope that it may somehow help you.
This is our post of the 1st of August.
hi all
At 21:35 1999/07/31 +0930, erika wrote, in part:
>Hi all from Erika,
>Just to clarify .......I am not my bro.-in-law's caregiver. We live
>about 1 1/2 hours drive away from him. We are however in phone contact
>with him and we visit him occasionally. It helped me a lot, to hear
>that the paranoia is not a direct consequence of the disease, but
>rather of the medication...
You wrote:
i may be extra sensitive about this right now
but it seems to me that drug induced psychosis
***as manifested in behaviours and cognitive distortions***
is still psychosis
and has the same potential for danger
e.g.
if i suffered even a slight loss of touch with 'reality'
due to drug induced psychosis at just a 'minimal' level
i could potentially and 'unwittingly' cause harm to myself
by taking the wrong medications at the wrong time etc
and thus could get caught up in a really dangerous situation
brain chemicals are us
I wrote:
>I see my role as a supportive listener/friend. I hesitate to give him
>the impression that I wish to "meddle" or "mother" or involve myself,
>unbidden, in his treatment...
You wrote:
it's a conundrum to be sure
if i am temporarily colour blind
and you see that i am about to drive through a red light
is it 'meddling' to yell at me to stop?
if i am in the pit of clinical depression
where my thoughts are distorted completely negatively
how can anyone convince me that treatment for cd is possible?
and likely to be wildly successful?
that the situation that i see as totally and utterly hopeless
is not, in fact, at all?
the 'brain' and the 'mind' are a one-piece marvel of an interconnected
neuro-chemical-electro-synaptic-world-wide-web
all on its own in each one of us
when some of the hyperlinks are broken
we can't walk straight
and i need assistance
from those who can
when some of the hyperlinks are broken
we can't think straight
and i need assistance
from those who can
admitting to that need [in both cases] can be a real challenge
especially for those stubborn ornery independent cusses
among us.
<snip>
Janet, I see you heading for the red light and I am yelling at you to STOP.
Am I meddling?
Can you hear me? Please can you hear me?
Fear can be the worst foe...
Love conquers fear.
Janet, we love you. Please take a deep breath and wait (adjust medication?) till you again can see which colour the light is.
With admiration and respect. Yours, Erika.
I wrote:
>P.S. When I read the e-mails, I have this weird feeling, that
>this dreadful and frustrating condition called PD, is yet
>a generator of a great deal of patience, kindness and love.
You wrote:
i consider it 'a trial by fire'
learning the hard way is a good [the best?] teacher
and i consider this cyber family a miracle of its time
I now write: 'Amen to that'.
and if you will let us, this list will be 'the wind beneath your wings', no need to flutter or flap, just soar on the currents.
From Aussie Erika, with love.
