Elemental
Recently, I've been watching interviews online with a doctor named Gabor Maté who studies the link between childhood development and early childhood trauma as they affect physical and mental health over the person's lifetime. He has collected studies and documented the links between childhood trauma and illnesses such as autoimmune diseases, certain types of cancer, ADHD, addiction (almost everything except genetic diseases) which is incredible--and seemingly almost completely ignored by doctors and most medical experts.
I'd read years ago about the link between childhood sexual abuse and anorexia or obesity. And I could tell you from my own experience that that is true. I could also tell you, and provide examples from my own life and experiences, that early truama is inexorably linked to depression, anxiety, insomnia, and addiction. But Maté takes it even further, talking about how the adaptations we faced as children in the face of trauma can become so maladaptive that we end up suffering from fibromyalgia, MS, and other physical disorders. Being traumatized as a child has been shown to have an effect on brain development, which in turn changes everything that is affected by the brain's activity (which, let's face it is everything in the body).
It makes me sad and angry finding out more about these things. But I think it is necessary.
Daily
My sleep schedule is slowly devolving. I was up until after 1:00 a.m. last night and then slept on and off until noon today. I got up, had a bag of frozen edamame for lunch, and spent some time looking at antique quilts and sewing machines online. I'm not a collector of things besides books and art supplies (and a bit of fabric now, I guess), but I could see how collecting could get to be a habit.
Yesterday was bright and sunny and I also slept in. In the afternoon, Dave and I went to walk with Judi and Buzz and we walked a bit longer than we had the day before. After our walk, Dave helped Judi clean out the filter on her koi pond, which ugh. On the drive home, Dave asked me if I were mad at Judi. I said I wasn't, but he said I sounded angry when I was talking to her. I texted Judi to tell her this and to ask her if I sounded angry while I was talking to her because I wasn't angry at her. She said she didn't think I sounded angry. I think Dave is just out of the habit of hearing me talk to people in general. (We've been isolated for quite a while, what with Covid.)
We stopped for fizzy drinks on the way home.
When we came home, I collected and folded the laundry and swept a bit of the patio. I had to come in after a short time because even despite my hat and sunglasses and sunscreen, the sun was too much for me. I'm definitely out of the habit of being in the sun.
I took a shower to wash off the sunscreen and lay down to watch youtube videos.
For dinner, Dave made pizza and salad. We haven't had pizza in awhile and it was very good. We split a medium pizza with vegetarian Italian sausage, onions, green chile and mushrooms. I probably could have eaten an entire medium pizza myself, but I made do with my half. I woke up feeling very dehydrated this morning though. (That along with heartburn are the major drawbacks of pizza now that I'm getting older.)
Tonight we'll stick to a sensible vegetable stir fry with tofu and possibly some quinoa to go with it.
It's already afternoon and I think I'll do a bit of art journaling and possibly some sewing. Then I am going to go back to studying a bit in preparation for starting to find a job. I want to review things like assessment skills and the like. I also have a portfolio to put together. I did get a bit of good news when I checked online to see that my license, which I thought I was going to have to renew this summer, is not actually due to be renewed until next summer. Yay!
But maybe I'll have a bit more coffee first.
The Past
This is where I was and what I was doing on March 29, so many years ago:
No comments:
Post a Comment