"Murphy was an optimist!"
It’s 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Do you know where your mind is? June 30, 2009 5:09 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Mental , add a comment add a commentAre you stressed? April 21, 2009 9:45 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Health, Mental , add a commentI recently had a friend ask if I felt stressed. After giving it some thought, I answered, "Yes, for about 10 years now."
add a commentDo you dream in color? March 5, 2009 10:13 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Environment, Health, Mental, Sleep, Touchy Subjects , add a commentApparently I dream in Green. Last night, I had vivid dreams of competing with Ed Begley Jr. and Bill Nye for the most environmentally sound lifestyle. Uh, fantasy dreams? How could I possibly compete in an eco war with those two?! See Ed Begley Jr.’s FAQ.
add a commentState of Me February 23, 2009 2:42 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Health, Mental , add a commentAll super secret personal stress tells indicate that I am very deep in the red on my pressure gauge. If my maximum depth is 150 meters I’d say I’m currently running on quickly depleting batteries at roughly 245 meters and rapidly taking on water.
Good things to avoid saying to me today, "Could you…" "The deadline needs to be sooner…" "The tree finally fell on the house" and "Guess who’s pregnant!" and "Hello." - not that any of those have been said mind you.
add a commentMental Weather Forecast February 23, 2009 8:37 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Mental , add a commentThis weekend’s mental weather was bad. It was a very important weekend to me and couldn’t have gone more wrong. However, it was a productive weekend and in that rewarding. The weekend had a bizarre dichotomy of suffering and pleasure.
Today’s forecast: mental collapse with occasional screams of agony and afternoon showers of salty tears.
Tomorrow’s forecast: stroke.
add a comment(Don’t) Panic! February 2, 2009 8:47 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Mental , add a commentI don’t know when the panic attacks began. I did not have them in my single digits. Up until 10 years old, I was a relatively happy go-lucky kid. I don’t remember panic attacks or anxiety in my early teens either even around 14 years old when I thought my parents were heading for divorce. But that’s a different a story. When I was 14, 15 and 16 I lived in New Jersey and my dad’s driving or perhaps the other people’s driving or perhaps just those crazy traffic circles scared the living daylights out of me but that wasn’t panic, that was fear. I had become very aware of my own mortality. But that’s a different story. Late teens, college years, first career, no panic attacks. There was stress but not irrational anxiety or panic.
Ah, I do know when the panic attacks began. They began in 2000 when the life I had known collapsed around me. Two years prior I had been laid off from a great job with a predictable decent salary and an aggressive debt reduction plan including a cute little graph that showed the day I would throw a huge party to celebrate not owing money to anyone. My first wife left me. Routine and structure were gone. All my dreams vanished. There was no more money. And when I would wake up enough to try to visualize a solution to all the problems, anxiety would set in and all I could do is hide in bed and try to sort it out, a full blown panic attack.
I am sure panic attacks are different for different people. Even for me a panic attack could vary from a clouded head just wanting to hide from my problems to a brainstorming problem solving session. Usually it was the brainstorming problem solving sessions that got me. My mind would rush through different scenarios trying to solve all the problems. If I did A, B then C certainly D, E and F would happen but what if B didn’t go as planned then instead of C I might end up at L and I certainly cannot get to D from L so lets plan for the L, M, N, O scenario but what if B did go as planned and it was C that didn’t work I still wouldn’t get to D because I would be on the T, U, V, W plan. That’s similar to trying to play the whole game of chess out in your head before making your opening move. That’s what my mind used to do a lot and still occasionally does. The problem with this extreme forward thinking is that nothing happens because instead of making move A you are laying in bed thinking about it instead of doing. And lack of action exacerbates the problems.
For the most part, I don’t have panic attacks anymore. I have had several interesting life developments as well as some great teachers and guides help free me of the habits I used to imprison myself. However, this morning I did wake in a panic attack. It was more of an irrational fear than a planning session. Panic attacks leave you feeling stressed, tired, and a bit hollow inside. It was a reminder that I really don’t want to slip back into my old ways.
add a commentState of Me January 28, 2009 9:54 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Mental , add a commentStress is ridiculously high. Stomach in knots. Not having dizzy spells but if I wasn’t on blood pressure medicine I bet the room would be spinning. Going to ignore email and phone calls today and focus on only one thing at a time. No mind-drifting to "things I should be doing" or "what will come next" or "how the devil am I going to make that work." Today’s goal: Stay in the moment (and don’t stroke out).
add a commentMy college experience finally explained December 22, 2008 10:16 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Health, History, Mental, Science , add a commentSmart kids are more likely to be heavy drinkers "There’s a link between a high IQ and developing alcohol problems"
add a commentWeather outlook happy December 10, 2008 12:04 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Mental , add a commentYesterday was a hard day for me. My youngest two children went into the dentist for cavities and one tooth extraction (which didn’t happen). This bothers me on so many levels I cannot even begin to write about it. I was stressed and rather depressed. Today I’m relaxed and rather happy. The difference? Aside from the dentist, the difference is the weather. I have always noted that around a full moon I am a bit more energetic and anxious and sometimes downright manic. The moon moves the tides, why not people? Yesterday we have a low pressure system come in and bring rain. Yesterday’s emotional state? Depression. Today a high pressure system is pushing the low pressure system out and I am feeling pretty good. Could my mental state be that closely tied to nature? I believe the answer is a simple yes. Cathy’s migraines always precede a storm (low pressure). Other people tell the weather by a twitch in their toe. The body and mind are undeniably sensitive to weather.
add a commentState of Me October 6, 2008 7:23 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Mental , add a commentStress manifested itself physically. I am one gigantic ache.Yesterday I crashed hard. Chills. Fever. Dizzy. Muscle soreness. Coughing. Today I still hurt but think I am functional.
add a commentJust one more minute October 2, 2008 6:03 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Health, Mental, Sleep , add a comment"Just one more minute" Those words are like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Oh. I suppose that expression is going to have to go the way of the slide projector. Do they even have chalk boards in the schools anymore? I utter those words almost everyday. Today I did it at 1:54am. I was awake enough to get up and work. But noooo. I was compelled to take just one more minute From 2am-6am I could have made huge coding progress! Of course, the New York Times reported people are 33% more creative after sleep. To prove the point, that problem which had me stumped at midnight has already been solved.
add a commentPound pound pound pound September 13, 2008 12:59 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Mental , 4commentsEnough already! I’ve basically had a headache since last weekend. I finally understand the agony my wife and son must go through when they experience their migraines. I’ve never in my life been prescribed any pain medicines. Not Vicodin, Percoset, or anything. Shoot. I don’t even know how to spell Percoset. But I am coming around to thinking pain medicines should be easier to get. I’m not talking over the counter. Right now I believe pain medicines should be dispensed out of vending machines! Or delivered with your pizza. Wait a minute. Don’t pizza guys already do that? Back to coding.
4commentsTime to wake..no it’s not! September 11, 2008 8:27 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Mental , add a commentLast night I woke up every hour on the hour. At least when I fall back to sleep, the sleep is very deep. However, this morning I feel like I’ve been beat with a stick.
add a commentThe world wants to spin September 10, 2008 4:57 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Mental , 2commentsI can feel the dizzy spells wanting to come back. It would be a mistake to lean my head back and look up at the ceiling right now. I must calm myself. I had two cups of coffee this morning which aggravates the problem. I really don’t want to take the Meclizine. I’d like to see a chiropractor but that’s just out the question right now. Eating right would probably help. I’m certain diet contributes to this. Mostly stress. Ugh.
2commentsAre family stickers on cars dangerous? September 4, 2008 11:23 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Exercise, Health, Mental, Of Interest, Philosophy, Touchy Subjects , 8comments
For an eon, I have wanted to put the decals representing our family on the van. This past Mother’s Day I made a greater effort to find them and came across several people admonishing the stickers as careless parenting and dangerous to our children. I felt compelled to comment:
The DC Internet Caucus panel on kids and predation has determined that the media has misrepresented the way that children are preyed upon. Although we want to protect our children, being realistic about threats is important because overprotecting them can be just as harmful. Just think, if you teach your children to jump from every shadow, they may grow up to believe that stickers on a car might actually make your child more vulnerable to a child predator.
Yesterday, Evie, a child abuse awareness volunteer added commentary stating that those of us thinking people were being overly paranoid or overly protective were wearing rose colored glasses and not living in the real world. I felt compelled to comment further:
Evie, I’m a realist but while you think we are viewing the word through rose colored glasses, I think you are jaded because you work with the problem.
When I worked as a quality assurance engineer my job was to find problems and when I left the office I continued finding problems. I found billboards with misspellings. Newspapers with poor grammar. Stuff in my life that was assembled wrong. And so forth. But the truth of the matter was that although these were “problems” for the common person, and on the grand scheme of things, they were inconsequential.
I think the quality of our life, and the ability for our children to grow up confident rather than afraid, out weights over the top paranoid reactions to events that have a low likelihood of ever happening to most people.
I am a scout leader and have been trained on child safety and protecting our children. I am a father of five. I want no harm to come to my children or anyone else’s. But like the woman who allowed her 9 year old to travel the subway alone, I want my children to live life to its fullest. I want them street smart but trusting because I believe by breeding trust we help make the problems go away. Don’t treat symptoms; treat problems. Ask the adults around you and I think you will find most of us lived as a child safely being away from home all day long and not abiding by any of the safety recommendations of this day and we all turned out okay. Using reasonable safety measures and common sense makes our children very safe today.
Yes, abductions are easy. So is drowning but that didn’t stop me from taking my children to the ocean and letting them have the time of their lives this summer.
I feel bad for the children Evie has had to help. They should have never been in such a predicament. Isn’t it true that most child abductions are by friends or family? or someone otherwise close to the victim? If so, the stickers really don’t make a difference do they? According to Duhaime.org, 75% of abductions are by friends or family with most abductions being by a parent in a custody dispute.
Evie, you do not live in the real world. You live in a microcosm and broadcast it upon the real world. No insult intended.
How children lost the right to roam in four generations is written on a UK website but certainly reflects similarly to how our children in the United States are treated. As a parent, the thought of my children roaming to areas where I cannot locate them is terrifying but that thought is hypocritical. As a child, I was told to be home at a certain time. I might go out and be in the woods for 6 hours. As long as I got home before 5pm, I didn’t get in trouble. And I would play without a watch. I knew the time based upon where the sun hit the tree tops. My mother had no way to contact me other than a loud shout. Today we have cell phones and FRS radios and GPS trackers. With such technology, why do we keep our children closer than ever? Shouldn’t we allow them the opportunity to explore and grow? Instead we keep them close to home. Doesn’t that encourage more indoor play? Or sedentary computer gaming? Perhaps keeping our children on a short leash and teaching them that no one can be trusted is not good for their health, mental stability, or overall development. Kids need the adventure of ‘risky’ play.
See also:How Far Did You Roam As A Child?
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