The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey 
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This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.Writing in a Fishbowl: Day Seventeen
5:30 AM: Two quick things, then I’m off to bed. First, I lost a great deal of time over the weekend. The Brownie’s medical issues exhausted me, but also stressed me out. It affected my sleep drastically. I had about 7½ hours of sleep for the weekend, but when it came time to crash Sunday night as I had planned, I couldn’t fall asleep until 6am. 7½ hours of sleep for three days is not enough. Insomnia is a terrible thing. Is it any wonder I’ve been so depressed lately? I started to feel more like myself a few hours ago, so I sat down to write for the first time in four days. I edited and rewrote se...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - April 7, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: Depression Family Journaling Source Type: blogs
Writing in a Fishbowl: Day Thirteen
10:10 PM: Today, I was wiped out by the events of yesterday. I slept into the afternoon. Played with Miitomo. Discussed politics on Facebook. Basically, I let myself spin. Somedays, I need time off from wrestling with my ADHD, depression, or ticking all day long. I need to let myself just be me, distractions and all. That doesn't mean I wave insouciantly in the direction of responsibility, and blow it a kiss. I made bank transfers. I made dinner. I made sure to bring my daughter to her Chinese medicine doctor to have her remedy tweaked. We needed to compensate for her temper outbursts and increased seizures. If I'm exhaust...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - April 7, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: ADHD Journaling Writing Source Type: blogs
Writing in a Fishbowl: Day Twelve
7:52 PM: The day has been a typical one with the Brownie. I'm so worried about that girl. So volatile. So overtired. So in danger of having a seizure. If only she'd go to bed for me.Last night, I spent the evening ticking while binge watching Toradora! on Crunchyroll—all while continuing my research. One day that'll make sense, but for now you'll have to trust me. Research is all done for that part. It turns out I had started making a chart for one reason, then forgot the reason and continued with another reason. Yay, ADHD. I should have taken better notes. I'll clean up my research tonight while I wait for the Brownie t...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - April 7, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: ADHD Journaling Writing Source Type: blogs
Writing in a Fishbowl: Day Ten
6:32 AM: I've had about twenty minutes of sleep. Rough night. The Brownie is once again not waking up for me. I've done everything except detonate explosives under her. She's out. Her sleep schedule is undone with every weekend at her mother's. She just doesn't go to bed for her mum. Not fair to her mum, and not smart since she has epilepsy. I called the bus service and told them she wasn't going to school. Back to bed. 1:00 PM: The Brownie is up now, but she won't be going to school. She seems in good spirits, but I'm having a devil of a time tuning our her exuberant cuteness. 5:10 PM: The Brownie announced her head was s...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - April 7, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: ADHD Family Journaling Writing Source Type: blogs
Rainy Trip to the Mysterious Goblin Valley
Sometimes you just need to drop everything and live. Plans are nice, and they help me get from Point A to Point B without traveling through the rest of the alphabet most of the time, but there's something to be said for spontaneity.My oldest daughter, Bri'anna, was visiting from Germany. She attends school there, and we don't see her much anymore. One day during her visit she called and said, "Hey, wanna go to Goblin Valley for a day next Wensday?" Just like that. And I said, "Heck yeah!" Although I began to have my doubts that the trip would actually happen the closer Wensday approached, I was happy to learn that everythi...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - August 31, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Tags: Family Visualizing Source Type: blogs
Reviewing "Depression and Your Child" by Deborah Serani
One of the best psychology books I’ve read in a long while is “Depression and Your Child – A Guide for Parents and Caregivers” by Dr. Deborah Serani. Her publisher approached me to review the book[1], and although I could not review it in the window of time that they dictated, I did eventually make my way through it. The book starts with an understanding of child development, then shows how Depression in children is a verifiable occurrence. Information is given on diagnosing, then treating, Pediatric Depression. Dr. Serani even takes time to cover holistic approaches before moving on to self-harm, suicide, and pare...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - August 29, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Tags: Depression Therapizing Source Type: blogs
ADHD: Reverie Revolution
Last June I watched “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” with friends. Here was a man, like me, who daydreamed excessively. I wish I could say that Hollywood made a laughable exaggeration of how epic daydreams could be, but I'm afraid they were fairly comparable to mine. Although I don't drift away into a reverie in the middle of conversations or when on the job, I do drift away—far, far away beyond the restraints of this mortal world or time. The original short story portrayed Mitty as a noble Everyman who fought the banality of his life with the only weapon he had on hand: his imagination. It celebrated his s...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - August 10, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Tags: ADHD Coping Depression Goals Journaling Writing Source Type: blogs
Three Tiny Things to Prevent Illness from Triggering Depression
I don’t walk around all day with my face pulled into a frown while I vocally worry about my disabilities—contrary to what some people claim I do. Instead, disability is more like a land mine rudely placed into the middle of my day when I’m otherwise trying to get things done.I am clinically and chronically depressed, which means I am depressed almost all the time. I also have a chronic motor tic disorder—a label that covers the involuntary ticking, both vocal and muscular, but not the curling, extending, locking, and all around neurological meltdown that often happens as well. As you know, I manage both without med...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - July 23, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Tags: Coping Depression Therapizing Source Type: blogs
ADHD: Four Rules To Fake It When You Forget Somebody's Name
I attended a church picnic the other day. The sun was bright, yet the weather was cool. It was a perfect day for outdoor frolicking. I wasn’t sure if I would attend at first because my girls weren’t with me. Watching other people’s families have fun isn’t high up on my things to do on a lovely Saturday afternoon, especially if they are happy li’l nuclear families, but I decided to go anyway. It was the first activity since being assigned to the new ward[1] and I wanted to meet & mingle.Since it was a stake picnic, all the wards in our stake were in attendance, including the one I used to attend. I walked arou...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - July 7, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Tags: ADHD Coping Source Type: blogs
Sunset Therapy
One of my favorite methods of treating Depression is to go out for a simple walk. Another is to exercise creativity in some way. When I combine the two together, it is very effective therapy indeed. I love the challenge of capturing sunsets with my iPhone and playing with filters to get the perfect effect that expresses my mood. Lately, I've been so very stressed because my car is off the road. I've sunk $1600 into it this week and it still didn't pass inspection. So frustrating. Thankfully, Mother Nature has sent me glorious sunsets to lift my spirits. ⁂ What types of activities lift your spirits and help you...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - June 22, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Tags: Coping Depression Visualizing Source Type: blogs
ADHD: Looking Back & Laughing
I'm a very lucky individual. I just wish that all of that luck was good. There always seems to be a balance. For every contest I win, there is the EPA letter declaring that I will be fined by the barrel for industrial toxic waste dumping.[1] When I first started this blog in 2005, I used bad luck as one of my topics of choice. You can read a classic entry here. In the end, however, I decided that writing about bad luck was at cross purposes with my efforts to think positively. So bad luck was dropped.That doesn't mean that my luck magically transformed into a rainfall of positive li'l Nestles Treasures from Heaven.[2] Rece...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - June 13, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Tags: ADHD Visualizing Writing Source Type: blogs
ADHD & Fearing Failure
“It's a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you're ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There's almost no such thing as ready. There's only now. And you may as well do it now. I mean, I say that confidently as if I'm about to go bungee jumping or something - I'm not. I'm not a crazed risk taker. But I do think that, generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.” ~Hugh Laurie That quote drifted across my Facebook stream sometime last weekend. Normally, I snort disdainfully at inspirational quotes overlaid on gauzy photos full of dappled sunlight, but this ...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - June 11, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Tags: ADHD Coping Journaling Writing Source Type: blogs
Shoot! I Killed My Plants!
My poor flowers! I've been so busy with freelance work that I completely forgot to water them. It's been maybe three days tops? The weather has been so hot outside, my plant just baked. Drat. I didn't get a chance to draw them yet. ADHD & me always seem to do this to my plants. I have the best intentions, too. (Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey)
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - June 1, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Tags: ADHD Source Type: blogs
My Fingers Are Almost as Tired as My Soul
Using Nature to Calm the MindI've been doing a lot of biking lately. Losing weight. Getting out in the summer sun. It's felt good. I've needed the escape from the stress of my life to get out there and combat depression with hard exercise and sunshine. I've rode over 30 miles in the last three days, but none today. Today was spent indoors furiously typing away on freelance work that I was behind on. I'm thankful for the work, but freelance work has been taking over. What I mean is that I'm not spending any time working on my own book which desperately needs the fifth draft to be completed. It seems the faster I get, the mo...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - May 31, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Tags: ADHD Coping Depression Writing Source Type: blogs
ADDitude Magazine: Turkey Sandwich Condiments & Some Other Stuff I Finally Remembered
I had a lot of fun writing this article for ADDitude Magazine. Everybody misspeaks from time to time, and ADHD Adults can do it more than others. We just have crossed wires and things come out wackbards all the time. Can you relate? In this case I asked for an unlikely condiment to be put on my sandwich. I used that moment to help my girls understand later how they need to be patient with each other and cut each other some slack. You can read all about I'll Have a Turkey Sandwich; Hold the Autopilot over at the Family Guy.Other Stuff• A year ago. Yes, one year ago, a friend on Twitter send me a link of articles...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - May 30, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Tags: ADHD Family Source Type: blogs
