tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20432226.post3355843173205794581..comments2024-01-31T17:39:44.323+00:00Comments on margaret-cooter: Reflection - erasure updatedMargaret Cooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08529035740804527176noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20432226.post-53080075828200202482012-08-29T10:14:42.898+01:002012-08-29T10:14:42.898+01:00A further thought (you really are connecting today...A further thought (you really are connecting today!): I've had ME/CFS for about twenty years now - mild recently but in the early days when it was really bad I "lost" many of the poems I had accumulated in my head - I've always loved poetry and this was distressing to me: I did overcome this by trying to memorise some of my favourites but for the first time in my life I had to really work at it. My memory of the poems has since recovered fully, but at the time it was scary. I also had an interesting conversation about this with an older friend (former headteacher) who told me about the time his late wife had suffered with depression and had suffered electric shock treatment as a result which had the effect of deleting from her brain all the poetry she had remembered.<br />Sandra Wymanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04513871393590385611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20432226.post-1346981428202825192012-08-29T10:03:36.282+01:002012-08-29T10:03:36.282+01:00I am familiar with writing down and losing (or des...I am familiar with writing down and losing (or destroying what I have written) - something my mother advised me to do if I felt really depressed or angry - write it down and then burn it. I think maybe it was more to avoid the risk of anyone else seeing it, but I found it a very therapeutic exercise - for example I felt very angry with a group of friends once when they treatede me (I thought) as if I were totally naive and stupid and wrote down my anger letting myself respond with my inner child (lots of "so there"s!); the result was the anger got out of my system through writing, then I could symbolically dispose of that anger by shredding it into tiny pieces and throwing it away. It did wonders to keep the friendship going, and to enable me to deal with the comments in a more considered way. Sort of sending the negative thoughts to the recycling bin (and like deleted items on the computer, the memory of the experience is still there but I can now laugh at it)Sandra Wymanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04513871393590385611noreply@blogger.com