The talk about procrastination is an interesting one.
I put off simple things like phone calls, and find they are actually making me anxious, but I’m not sure how much is my natural tendency, and how much is MS.
I don’t just mean calls I expect to be difficult or stressful. Example: I have an administrative issue with some shares I need to sort out. I want to reinvest the dividends (sometimes called a DRIP or SCRIP scheme), but apparently, I can’t, because my shares are not held in the company’s nominee scheme (when I log on, my holding shows as zero).
Now we’re not talking vast amounts of money here - either the shares or the dividends on them - so it’s not a matter of crucial financial importance - or any other essential matter. Neither is it anything I’ve done wrong. I just need to ring up and say: “OK, I’ve got these shares; how do I transfer them into your nominee service, please, so I can participate in the reinvestment plan?”
Not rocket science, is it? Have I done it? No! And there are lots of small things like that. Nothing terrible will happen if I don’t do them, and I think that’s why they never get done. Instead of thinking: “It will only take five minutes, and then you’ll have done it and know the way forward”, I think: “Oh, it’s only small beer - I’ll sort it when I feel better.” But of course, I never DO feel better…
As for other miscellaneous brainfarts, they’re occasional, but I do have them. Once or twice I’ve glanced at my watch, but found it incomprehensible - as if it was an alien artefact. I could have named it (“watch”), but couldn’t tell how to read it. This incomprehension is only momentary, and sorts itself out. I also once couldn’t find a well-used shortcut home, and panicked, and had to walk all the way round the long way. In my defence, I had approached the area from a different direction to usual, so that was apparently sufficient to cause the confusion, but it was a place I knew well, so coming to it from a different direction really shouldn’t have caused me to miss my way. I did worry I might never find it again - like one of those ghost stories where people encounter a building or other landmark that literally isn’t there next day. I thought: “What if I can’t find the path? What if there never was any path?” But I’ve used it several times since, without mishap - most recently this week. So yes, it’s definitely still there, and yes, my brain is currently registering it OK, and not shouting: “Oh no! Where did it go? Panic, panic!”
Tina
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