Roll Call Eight

Firebird - sorry to hear about your mam

That's too bad. If it's not helping but it's sedating you, maybe a different med would be better than increasing the dose?

I didn't go to the speeches at the conference. I was a vendor. I sold prints of my art. At some conferences I am a speaker though. Mainly autism conferences because I am autistic as well as schizoaffective.

I slept for 14 hours last night and this afternoon. Some of my dreams were quite bizarre.

ive had 3 hours sleep and am up again. 4 hours last night. this is getting ridiculous.

Thanks for sharing Firebird. What kind of art do you do?

Do you have any meds to take for sleep? Even something over the counter may help.

I draw with colored pencils. Mainly wildlife art. I also draw a lot of dogs and cats.

I find that when I sleep for a long period of time I too have bizarre dreams.

I have Plantar Fasciitis really bad in my right foot. Can you tell me about this special boot that you are wearing for this? Do you have to wear it constantly or just for a certain amount of time?

I bet your drawings are awesome. You are so blessed to have such a great talent!

About the boot, I don't have to wear it when I am sleeping. But you are supposed to wear it most of the day. Do you see a podiatrist? I had physical therapy for mine and it just made it worse. You are not supposed to walk much with it. Sad to say I do.

My art work is pretty good. I am a published artist. I have been in several autism books with my art. I am well known in my area. It seems that people around the country in the autism world knows me as well because of the art and books. It is mainly true of the autism conferences.

One was a nightmare. In another my friend and I set out to look for mushrooms, but we ended up in a museum that was part of a college instead.

Not only do my dreams get more bizarre, they get longer. REM periods get progressively longer as we sleep. These periods especially towards the end of the night can last 40 to 60 minutes.

No I have never seen a podiatrist. I only saw a medical doctor for it years ago and I haven't been back since. I've just been dealing with it but have noticed that it is getting worse. I do lots of walking and am on my feet quite a bit on the job so some days the pain is just really, really bad.

Oh wow! My bizarre dreams usually include people from my past. Sometimes people that are no longer living. And usually the dream involves some sort of chaos or drama. And when I do wake up I feel like the dream went on for a very long time. I usually wake feeling stressed out and unrested because of the dream.

Sometimes I dream about my late grandmother. Usually, she communicates with me in these dreams. Does this happen to you too?

My nightmares are always about death, a topic I seem to be obsessed about.

The people from my past that are dead now are usually in my dreams amongst other people. Like they're doing stuff in the dream but not having a face to face conversation with me. It's hard to explain. Sometimes when I awake from these types of dreams I know that a certain person was in my dream but yet I don't really remember the details of the dream. It's weird.

It is 5:30 AM and i can't sleep again, I hate these kind of mornings.

Why are dreams so weird?

I have been up all night. It is 6:26 am. My sleep/wake cycle is all messed up.

My son's newly-found brother told him he should get a job so he could support him (my son could support his brother). I suspect he was teasing, but my son has taken it half serious. He's looking at job ads and applied for one this morning.

I can't decide if this is good or bad. I don't want him to be stressing about a job - particularly as he's starting this peer support training soon. I mean he has something going on. It's not like it was a couple of months ago when he was beginning to despair because it looked like life was going to stretch on forever in meaninglessness.

On the other hand I think engaging with life and taking risks may be helpful. Pat Deegan says you shouldn't wait until you're completely 'well' to take on more responsibility. The responsibility itself can be helpful and healing. Also, I found these old books by a psychiatrist from the era before heavy use of meds at a used book store. Silvano Arieti. He mentions that married people do better when released from the hospital than single people. I can't find the reference now, but my recollection is that he said that people who are released to live with their spouse are more likely to resume their adult roles than those who are released to their parents' home.

Maybe feeling like he's helping his brother would mimic that in some way?

I told his brother not to tease him. He just doesn't get that kind of humor. The other night he went out with friends. They went to the house of a couple he didn't know. The woman told him wasn't allowed to take a seat - obviously teasing. He says, "Ok, I'll wait outside." The attempt at humor went right over his head. His friend told him, "Please don't make this awkward."

I'm sorry that some of you are still having trouble sleeping. I don't often remember my dreams, but when I dream about a loved one dying, it usually means that I'm stressed about something. After my beloved Grandmother died, I regularly had dreams that she was alive, telling me that her being dead was a bad dream, and I would be so upset when I woke up and realised that that was the dream Luckily that hasn't happened in years.

Today the sun was shining and my family dragged me out for lunch and a walk. The dog had fun, but I didn't. It's hard to enjoy the sunshine and the scenery when I feel so numb.

Firebird: Well done on making so much money at the conference! I'm sorry that your health isn't great at the moment and that your Mum needs more surgery

Costello: How long is the peer support course your son has to do? Maybe he can have a small part-time job alongside it? My (adopted) brother doesn't understand humour and sarcasm etc. They say it's to do with his attachment disorder causing autistic-like symptoms, which is sad that we haven't been able to improve that over the time that he's been living with us. It's sad to see him completely oblivious or confused over jokes cos he ends up getting left out then.

*Willow*

Hey friends! I hope that y'all are having a good day. I'm sorry to hear that some of you are still having trouble sleeping. It took me until after 1am to get to sleep and then I slept til 1:30pm. I woke 3 times during that time and kept forcing myself to go back to sleep. I don't feel like I had a very restful sleep. I feel like I had a lot of dreams but yet I can't remember any of the details. Even though I woke at 1:30pm today I haven't really done much. I did a little cleaning in the kitchen and then crawled back into bed with my lap top. I look around my bedroom and see so many things that I need to do but I just don't have the energy to do them. I'm going to force myself to crawl up out of this bed soon. I've got to take my son to the store later so I'm going to have to force myself to go out into public. Which I really hate doing. I wish that I could just lay here in my bed where it's safe with my little dog. She's always willing to snuggle down and do nothing. I wish y'all a great rest of the day!
@ Costello: I wish you and your son the very best. I'm sorry to hear of his struggles and I do hope that his new brother doesn't take advantage of him by requiring that he send him money. Hang in there and good luck on your move.

I slept about 6 hours, but it wasn't the best, because I dreamt my mother was dying of cancer. This is my despondency manifesting itself unconsciously. I have to fix this before it gets worse and interferes with school.

I wonder if there is a way to control dreams.

Cracking Slowly what kind of dog do you have?

The course is 16 to 18 weeks. The job he applied for is part-time, so I think it's doable. If he gets hired.

I hope not too. I don't think he is. I do think there may be cultural differences. Or he may just be joking around to encourage him to get a job. Over all, I think he's a positive influence on my son.