Couch 250: An August Couch

Thanks LT.

I have to wonder whether R offered blanket 'permission' to email because she wanted to offer me something.

Email is not the venue for this kind of conversation, though...

I took a Covid test last night and it was negative. I went to bed at like 7:45 and slept until midnight. Then I was up for a bit between midnight and 3. I think I then dozed back off until my alarm went off at 4:45am. I feel somewhat better and now I’m wondering if it’s allergies and not a cold.

That's a good point, Jersey.

Glad you tested negative.

I thought I just had a cold every summer until 2020, when I realised that it coincided with hayfever season and discovered antihistamines.

I just got kicked out of a BPD fb group. A moderator posted that people with BPD are sick and twisted and I responded that that was judgmental especially given that people severely judge BPD.

Ugh, I'm sorry Scarlet. If that was a moderator, it sounds like it's no a healthy group to be in... It's good you spoke up, but I'm sorry you got kicked out for doing so.

I'm glad you tested negative, got some sleep, and are feeling better. Could be allergies--where I am, it's been medium high the past couple days for grass and ragweed pollen (can you tell I have allergy issues?) Pollen.com is a good source for allergy levels--I get an email with alerts from them in my area (weather.com doesn't seem very accurate for them--one part of site will say high and another low).

I'm so sorry, Scarlet.

That person who posted has no business moderating a BPD group.
I hope you can find a more understanding group.

Covered a lot of therapeutic relationship ground in today's Dr. T session. From handshakes to the fish to R. And I'm feeling generally OK--maybe even good--about it.

What's interesting is that my OCD (partly focused on contamination fears) is actually helping me understand something and not be offended by it. I'd talked to him a few months ago about how in the first session in the new office, I wanted to shake hands at the start, to sort of welcome me to the office. I probably should have mentioned it again closer to the time, but didn't. I guess I just assumed he'd remember.

He seemed confused when I asked him about it at the start of last session, though agreed to do it--felt very awkward though. He said today that he had no recollection of that conversation whatsoever, but believes me that we had it. So he felt put on the spot, as it's not something we normally do (just shake hands at the end). He said it was also that he couldn't wash his hands right after (he'd told me before he normally does after I leave), so he was distracted by his hand not being washed the whole session. He said it wasn't about me, that he thought I wasn't clean or had cooties--he feels that way with shaking anyone's hand.

I actually did understand. I imagine if I didn't have OCD myself, I might have been offended. (Mine is more if I had to eat something with my hands without being able to wash them--if I'm just sitting there, it's fine.) I am glad he told me, though. Should we ever shake hands at the beginning or before he end again, I'll be like, "Go on, go ahead and wash them."

Couch Workout Club Day 14-15

Day 14 - Three sets of core workout exercises.

- Walked to the postbox to post a letter.


Day 15 - Three sets of core workout exercises.

Im 37. I remember the opening with the yellow hat (?).

Ugh!
My brother and sil just returned from an Alaskan cruise. Had a great time.
Both tested positive for Covid when they got home.
Cruise ships and hospitals are ginormous Petrie dishes.

Agreed! My FIL and his wife (SMIL?) caught it on a cruise a year or two ago and had to stay on the boat for an extra week. Hope they recover quickly!

Cruise ships also tend to have norovirus outbreaks. That along with my dislike of boats is a bit NOPE for me! I'd prefer to stay on land, thanks.

Yes, I’m old enough to have seen MTM as it originally aired.
Bewitched was on Thursday nights here.
Watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.
I’m old enough to remember the tv shows. ‘My Little Margie’, ‘Adventures in Paradise’, ‘F-Troop’, and ‘My Mother the Car.’

Adventures in Paradise. Two of the best looking guys ever on tv on that show. I swear its been downhill since. Wasnt that Troy Donahue?

ETA - Nope, troy was on Hawaiian Eye. Well you can see why little 8 yr old me got confused!

My Mother the Car??? I'm trying to imagine what the premise of that show might be and I'm coming up blank.

:
ikr?
“The premise features a man whose deceased mother is reincarnated as an antique car, who communicates with him through the car radio.”
Wikipedia says it lasted one season. lol. But I remember it.
It featured Jerry Van Dyke, brother to D. Van Dyke.

Do you think it will influence how you approach similar situations with Dr. T or others in the future?

Well done on the exercises Lost.

I think the opening of the show interested me…if I’m remembering right, it featured a large yacht pulling in to a marina..while exotic music was playing.
The actors weren’t Troy Donahue but they were cuuute.

I’m supposed to go back to London at the end of the month. It is a concert that made me go back after almost two years. I didn’t pay for my monthly gym membership as I would be only be going 50% of the time.

James Michener! Kids, he was like Stephen King for baby boomers, but less spooky stuff and more true type stuff. Everybody looked forward to his next book. Didnt he say, if he stayed out of prison until he was 30 he did good? But his stuff didnt age well because there was a lot of "the old archeologist licked his lips at the luscious teenage intern" type stuff.

Eta - Stopdog and i are big fans of F-Troop. The major was also the original Music Man on Broadway, also a favorite musical.

Okay, im back. I took last week off from my physical activity. I think the heat killed me. Back to doing stuff this week, getting out of breath and sweating. My blood sugar is doing much better, maybe i need to recharge the meter, idk.

Thanks, Cake.

Just realised that I'm two weeks into having done something every day.
That feels pretty darn good to recognise.

Thanks for the nudge, dear Una.

That's a good question. In terms of assuming someone will recall something we'd talked about--well, I should have learned that lesson already with my H! Or from a past experience or two with Dr. T. But I think I should consider that everyone won't remember things the way I do. That maybe I should check in with them first. Or, in this case, if he'd seemed confused or uncomfortable about the handshake at the start of the session, I could have just said, "Never mind, we can just skip it."

I also think I should have brought it up again, closer to the move, but everything got so messy that it sort of got lost in the shuffle in my mind. Dr. T did say we probably should have spent part of the session before the move (I was virtual from the beach when he was already in the new office) talking about how to handle my first in-person session. But we were also working on rupture repair during that session, so it wasn't at the forefront of either of our minds. In retrospect, I probably should have just done virtual Friday, even though I was home, and discussed it then.

In terms of the OCD part, maybe to just try thinking how other people may be reacting to something in a way that has nothing to do with me, but to their own issues.

James Michener and I go way back!

My brothers and I loved F Troop.
Factoid- Larry Storch was a TikTok content creator for a year or so until he passed away at 99 in 2022.