It's Over

Okay, the reign of terror is over, no more depressing posts for awhile. I have a good one on checking that I can post when I get around to it.

Checking is an anxious habit, one of those symptoms in the anxiety disorder family. Maybe you have this symptom. I check for a lot of things. Like I check to see if every door is locked before I go to sleep, even if I know I locked them. And I'll run home to check to see if I turned off the stove. These are no-brainers. Who wouldn't do this?

So, I'll post on that very soon, and we'll steer away from the sad stuff for awhile, for as long as we can, and keep it a little lighter.

No promises.

Because EVERYONE'S depressed. Everyone I see, either at work or in the community, is depressed.

And they're showing a little anxiety, but not the type you get from too much responsibility. Well, that's not altogether true. The people who are doing the job of three people because two have been laid off are pretty stressed from too much work and responsibility.

But lots of people aren't doing as much anymore, not bringing home the bacon (forgive me) and they're thinking bad thoughts.

The thinking bad thoughts can get you into trouble, you know. Gracie Slick of the Jefferson Airplane said it, in her way, in the sixties. Gracie was lead singer, the song White Rabbit, I think, (who knows if she's still alive). But she advised that you feed your head.

She recommended drugs like LSD, which we now know are bad for you, but the idea of feeding your head isn't all that weird. We really do feed our heads, we do this all the time.

Feeding your head negative thoughts over and over again, basically nourishes a neurological pathway to tears and sadness. And the opposite is true, too. Try the humming, counting and whistling stuff, and you're brain goes to happy. Unless you're really sick and then it won't, and you need stronger stuff, maybe need to see a therapy doc. Certainly don't use LSD.

But if I tell you, It's what you have that matters most, not what you don't have, sure it's a world view, and it's mine, and I go there fifty times a day if necessary. But it's also a way of saying, Don't pave the unhappy pathway. Don't feed your head junk food.

It's what you have, not what you don't have is a mantra, mine, and maybe everyone needs one. The men and women of my mother and father's generation had some kind of saying for every situation, every circumstance.

In English,

Men make plans, G-d laughs.
A good neighbor is better than a distant relative.
A person has to be happy with what he gets in life.

(often there's not much choice, is there, except to feel sorry for yourself, and how boring is that?)

Of course, the mantras of my parents generation were in Yiddish, and everything sounds funnier in Yiddish.

therapydoc