Innerzone, yes I do think one of thr premises of the book is that we only use X% of ours brains.

This next bit is OT but bear with me as I need to vent.

As to not feeling as sharp as in the past, I do struggle with that. But I also struggle with the opposite to that, if it makes sense. I had a great career for a long time that I lost due to my illnesses. I was in senior PR/Communications positions and worked with State and Federal politicians, CEO's, Managing Directors, engineers, scientists, celebs (although I don't miss them aside from the journalists etc). I watch a lot of news and current affairs as I am still so very interested in it and passionate about public life even though my illnesses have relegated me to living life mostly from my loungeroom.

But I can watch news or current affairs and have the pain of watching a lot of these people who yes, had me engaged in a lot of Public Service which was and is very worthy in itself, but many of whom I also helped get into higher positions because of all the media management and profiling I did and here I am sitting on the couch, watching life go by with my cat. (And I did try, with help of many good people, to go back to work last year but I melted down spectacularly and had to resign within a couple of weeks - VERY bad for self esteem).

But also, I can and do sit there and because of my long expoerience in the field and the university study I did, I can sit there and guess what the next move will be or the next messaging that will come down the line and most times I am right. That might sound great - "Wendy, you've still got your old talents and skills".. But to have these talents and not be able to deploy them anymore is SOOOOOOOOOOOO painful. I did a small media job for free recently to help a local small business and that was good. And I'd be happy to join a Lions etc and do PR and Comms and Media work for them, and also I am a member of a political party and there is plenty I could do for them. But I keep relapsing into Bipolar Depression and all the low functioning that goes with that and can't do those types of things and it tears my self esteem apart. It's an awful place to be in. Sorry, but I needed to vent.