Since Ian retired at the end of March and arrived home in Florida a couple of weeks ago after eight months away, I’ve had my hands full adjusting to our new retired normal. Thankfully, Chris is out of the house and living on his own so there is one less personality to deal with on a daily basis. (Insert emoji smiley face.) The last few weeks have been days filled with administrative tasks involved in “hubby’s” transition from work to retirement. He’s making “helpful” suggestions to add to my growing to-do list. Grrr. He wants everything done now!
Tomorrow afternoon we’ll get the results of Chris’s second brain mapping at the neurofeedback center. We’ll find out what has changed after his undergoing twenty neurofeedback sessions.
Did I tell you that Chris has also been sleeping under a weighted blanket for the past few weeks? He loves it! I got the idea from an article that Ian sent me about a woman who mistakenly purchased a weighted blanket on Amazon, and slept through the night for the first time in a long time. These blankets have been used in the autism community for years. Amongst other things the blankets stimulate the release of serotonin to alleviate the effects of many anxiety related conditions. He does seem less anxious. Is this the effect of the neurofeedback? Or is it because he’s more and more on his own and no longer being nagged at by me? Or is it that he’s back on 1 ml of Abilify?
I may have fixed my A-fib using natural methods. I won’t say anything more about this until after my appointment with the electrophysiologist later this month. I seem to have gotten my heart rate under control, but will need ECG results to know if the heart rate variability has improved. Too soon to cry victory.
I do look forward to your updates and am happy to hear that Chris is doing well and is living independently. I must have missed a few of these but, we have had a lot going on out here in
California. I first found you because my 14 yr old was hearing voices and my 23 yr old is seriously depressed and acting out in very bad ways. I find comfort from your wisdoms, your funny posts and your links to others. I have Maggie doing sound therapy – well, she had started but then we lost our home in the Woolsey Fire in November and we are still thrown off terribly. We fled amidst flames and it was terrifying and we are all slowly coming to some new sense of normal. Anyway, sorry, i am digressing as always! I appreciate your newsletters and your insights so very much and thank you. Best of luck with this new phase of life and remember your man is finding his new normal also and usually they need to lead to gain their foothild. All the best!
Thanks, Diana for your kind thoughts. So sorry to hear about the devastating experience of losing your home in a wildfire. You’ve got a lot on your plate. One of the people that I most admire is Krista McKinnon, who runs an online course called Recovering Our Families (highly recommended for helping us to cope). https://www.familieshealingtogether.com/ She lost her house in the fires in Santa Rosa, CA a year or two ago. Thanks for the “new normal” advice. Sometimes I want to strangle him, lol. We’ve been locked in a power struggle for decades. Double lol.
Your updates are very useful, I always look forward to it, its nice to hear Chris has improved n is independent.
I am very stressed out about Karan’s behaviour, as he doesn’t cooperate n refuses to go for any treatment.
Next week, we r starting with access bar healing on him, from a female coming over to our place, lets see how it goes.
Keep me updated. Thanx n all the best.
Hi, Sheela,
If Karan won’t go out for any treatment, bring the treatment home, as you are wisely doing.The more people who can work empathetically with him outside of a clinical setting, the better I hadn’t heard of Access Bars, but it looks like it’s “headed” in the right direction. Let me know what if any changes you observe. https://www.accessconsciousness.com/en/micrositesfolder/accessbars/
Hi Rossa. How do you like living in the states and in Florida? My young adult son has OCD and Major Depression partially due to dealing with a cognitive deficit we were not aware he had. It has been a rough two years and I read your book along with many others as I have navigated our health care system. My oldest son is moving to Florida today actually (we live in the northeast) and am wondering if you find the warmer weather better for your son?
Hi, Christine – Good to hear from you and learn some of your story. To answer your question, we love living in the US (always interesting) and my son seems to love Florida. In fact he absolutely enthuses about the place where we live. How can one not respond well to perpetual summer? All that vitamin D seeping into our bodies, etc. He moved from a lovely city in Switzerland that was resort sunny in the summer, but gray and depressing from November through March. The other reason why Florida is good for him is that he isn’t struggling to make himself clear in French. It’s been a huge load off his back to make his way in English. I hope your son adapts well to Florida, too. People here are kind.