Today is a first for Walking the Black Dog. We have a guest post by Tim Desmond, MFTI. Tim has an MA in Clinical Psychology and works in private practice in Oakland, CA. He offers phone counseling through his website as well as consultation for therapists.
For those of you thinking about getting into (or going back to) therapy this case study should give you some idea of what is possible.
For those of you who are unsure of whether or not lifestyle changes actually can and do make a difference in treating disease, I submit to you the following.
One of the many things you can do on Google is to create an ‘alert’ (google.com > more > even more > alerts). This feature allows you to enter a word or phrase or a name and then have Google notify you when someone searches for that. It’s a handy way of keeping track of a developing news story, a favorite sports team, or in my case, trying to keep in contact with a daughter I’ve lost through Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS).
For my own version of TLC, I need to have some kind of regular anti-anxiety practice. In thinking about how that fits with the whole TLC program, in emulating more primitive people, it seems that their slower pace in life was itself a kind of anti-anxiety practice.
They would get up & go to sleep with the sun, eat healthier, exercise more, have regular sunlight exposure, etc. they were living a simpler lifestyle that was more connected to the natural rhythms of life than our lives are today. Their work was more focused on one thing like growing crops, hunting, fishing, etc. There was no ‘multi-tasking’ to distract them and raise their anxiety level with the increased demand on time, abilities, responsibilities, etc.
August in Kansas is usually very hot, like in the mid to upper 90s with an equal amount of humidity, but so far it’s been pretty mild. I’m hoping it’s a harbinger of an early and very long Fall. Late Summer through Fall is my favorite time of year. I’ve always loved the change from the oppressive heat of Summer into the cooler nights and milder days.
The Kansas sky in the Summer is very washed out, in the Fall it’s a brilliant blue. The plants seed and start to dry out changing their look and smell. Going for a walk this time of year is much more of a sensory experience for me.
My sister Chrissy and I met at my dad’s the other day around 1:30 to take him to his doctor’s appointment. He was in good spirits and ready to go. As I explained in earlier posts he’s been very confused and angry of late and we’re trying to figure out if it’s because he’s moved in to another level of Alzheimers or if it’s due to the infection he had in his lungs and the resulting weakness plus all the medicine he was on. We were hoping that it wasn’t the Alzheimers progressing.
The weather is cooler and I’m back running after a week off. I just couldn’t run in 100+ degree & high humidity weather. I always see someone out running in that kind of extreme weather, sometimes at the worst time of day - 3 p.m. when it’s hottest. I tend to think they’re trying to prove something to themselves rather than exercising smart.
Most of the people that were in my TLC program for depression did not like the exercise part of the program. They just weren’t big into running or other sports and found aerobic activity to be trying. I imagine that they aren’t alone and that many of you also feel that way.
Online University Reviews just announced a list of the top 100 blogs for mental health and Walking the Black Dog came in just under the wire at #99.
This is a sculpture I did of my now ex-wife Kim in my first year of grad school. We had married and then moved to St. Louis in August and by December she was pregnant.
This is a scan of a photo from an old newspaper article about me so it doesn’t do it justice but it does give you an idea.
I thought it would be a pretty memorable piece to hang on to. It may not mean much to anyone but family, but that was okay as that’s who I was making it for.
It’s been way too hot to run the last several days. It was all I could do to mow the lawn. Good thing my yard is small.
Made me think back to my youth when I used to watch a lot of horror and sci-fi movies. I don’t recall the title but there were astronauts exploring a planet who had to walk in the shade all the time because anyone who didn’t, would burst into flames the second the sunlight touched them. Yeah, I know it doesn’t make much sense, but that’s Hollywood.
