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The Psychiatrist Is IN

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flufeemunk effluvia

22:12 / 06.09.04

Doctor, my ADD medication demolishes my appetite, leaving me grouchy and restless. Should I stick with my accursed amphetamines or should I sell them to the pseudo-goth hot topic kids at my school?

22:15 / 06.09.04

Should I stick with my accursed amphetamines or should I sell them to the pseudo-goth hot topic kids at my school?

It's causing goldfish-style perseveration. Give it up now.

flufeemunk effluvia

20:15 / 07.09.04

Sorry for the doublepost. My internet is KOOKY.

23:31 / 07.09.04

Geez, and I thought you were cracking wise. Gave me a snicker, anyway.

Goodness Gracious Meme

23:39 / 07.09.04

AFAIK, yr not my shrink. Ze doesn't have a moleskin couch.

Should I complain?

10:55 / 08.09.04

AFAIK, yr not my shrink. Ze doesn't have a moleskin couch.

Should I complain?

Yes. He falls short of the minimum Standards for Good Couchiness.

15:36 / 09.09.04

Dream analysis request:

I was William Burroughs, and I was riding on a train or bus with a group of other people, all somewhat morose. A long, low, thin blue cloud, sort a tube, was rolling toward us, and everybody became very frightened and upset, but then I realized that the cloud just reflected our fear, and then everybody felt better and we played outside the train on a nice field of hay with beautiful giant glass marbles with this quite refreshing blue mist all around us.

Context: I recently found a marble and was reminded of enjoying playing with them, I had an argument with my boyfriend before bed, and I have PMS.

Whisky Priestess

19:20 / 09.09.04

I have anxiety dreams about gerbils.

21:15 / 09.09.04

Me too. They wear miners' helmets. I think the Pet Shop Boys on Sunday might be a mistake.

00:16 / 17.09.04

I was William Burroughs, and I was riding on a train or bus with a group of other people, all somewhat morose. A long, low, thin blue cloud, sort a tube, was rolling toward us, and everybody became very frightened and upset, but then I realized that the cloud just reflected our fear, and then everybody felt better and we played outside the train on a nice field of hay with beautiful giant glass marbles with this quite refreshing blue mist all around us.

Context: I recently found a marble and was reminded of enjoying playing with them, I had an argument with my boyfriend before bed, and I have PMS.

Okayyy. Dream interpretation's not particularly the remit of psychiatrists, but hey, when have I ever let a lack of skill/experience stop me? You do, after all, provide a modicum of context. Which is nice...

... but not really enough. What does William Burroughs mean to you, for example? Did it feel comfortable or uncomfortable being him? I'd expect him to be a 'frequent flyer' of dreams, being king of the cut-up and all that.

Anyway.

The dream has a generally rather optimistic feeling of overcoming obstacles (principally one's own fear) and conciliation. Journeys tend to represent one's journey through life, so the temporary halting of your train/bus journey with morose people is likely to signify a faltering within your more general life. This may be something as simple as an argument with your boyfriend, or maybe more. The fact that everyone around was equally able to share the 'overcoming' of your cloudy horizon is nice - and the marbles (as well as the cornfield) is evocative of childhood, possibly overcoming a life-problem by invoking or returning to an earlier state... of innocence?

I have nooo idea whether this is in any way apposite.

01:54 / 18.09.04

You need a push? I'll push you off. Open up the window and jump into the blue.

Bumping my own thread. Because I reckon you need me.

04:31 / 18.09.04

Dr G,

What's to be done about The Cheeky Girls ?

11:01 / 18.09.04

man, i wish my problems were big enough to truly warrant the help of a (semi-)professional clinic like this one...

any ideas for how to overcome my fear of my squad turning into aliens and killing me when my back is turned?
should i be more strict about who gets the guns?
there's no way i should give any of them a fire extinguisher, right?
i mean, fire's my friend. i can trust fire. there's no way i'm letting a bunch of thing-people kill fire on my watch.
oh no.

ps
do you have any sure fire methods for getting rid of that nagging sensataion that i am going crazy?
its really starting to get in the way of setting fire to things.

11:39 / 18.09.04

Dr Ganesh,

Is constant procrastination a sign of a mental crease, and if so is there anything I can do to iron it out?

02:25 / 19.09.04

I keep forgetting to ask you this, but I'm genuinely curious what you think of "brief response therapy."

19:46 / 19.09.04

Ooh! I knew I had a real one. Kind of, anyway.

So my dad (Hector*) is seventy and a sort of a weird cross between a bit of a Colonel Blimp/General Melchett kind of a shouty, gin-drinking person and a frail, manipulative femme. The upshot of which is that there are lots of phone calls in which he says frailly how miserable he is and how rubbish he is and stuff, but if you suggest doing anything to sort himself out he starts blaring "Bah! Load of poppycock!"

I think, from the little I know about it, that he is probably clinically depressed (doesn't really take pleasure in anything, watches telly all day, low mood, no energy, etc) and has been for some years. Do you have any useful tips for getting him to seek help?

*not his real name

17:44 / 27.09.04

Hey, that interpretation's pretty good actually. Being Wm. Burroughs wasn't unpleasant, I just felt a bit tired. Have had returns to innocence very much on my mind lately.

Hm.

17:56 / 27.09.04

What's to be done about The Cheeky Girls?

I'm thinking a pair of matching standard lamps. Ed Gein goes IKEA.

18:10 / 27.09.04

any ideas for how to overcome my fear of my squad turning into aliens and killing me when my back is turned?
should i be more strict about who gets the guns?
there's no way i should give any of them a fire extinguisher, right?

Why Don't You... just switch off your gameythingofwhatevervariety and go and do something less boring instead? Like forming a multiracial 'gang' of well-spoken children in a big wooden hut and contriving 'activities' like beachcombing and making your own notepaper?

ps
do you have any sure fire methods for getting rid of that nagging sensataion that i am going crazy?

Well, you could actually go "crazy" (or, perhaps more readily, kerrraaaazee). Maybe you already are: did you understand Seaguy?

15:08 / 29.09.04

In regard to the issue I sent you a PM about: I have found a place that specializes in this sort of thing, and now that doing something about it has become more real, the person in question is being very evasive.

I think my situation is similar to Deva's: you can't force somebody to get help, but you can't sit idly by either. What is it possible and appropriate to do?

13:19 / 04.10.04

Dr Ganesh,

OK first off, I have to apologise for asking you to help me with dream interpretation. My Mum's a Psychologist and she gets annoyed with those questions, so I wont be offended if you ignore my request.

Last two nights I've had some intense dreams laden with symbolism which I just know are trying to tell me something but I can't see it for looking.

First dream I remember trying to hold closed a front door against raging winds. Eventually the wind blows the door open and I retreat to another door and haul a car tyre in front of it to hold it closed.

Second dream was full of water imagery. I remember being at sea on a naval ship. In the dream I was considering joining the navy. On the boat we passed a bay (reminded me of Dalgety Bay in Fife) with old boarded up houseboats anchored next to each other which I knew were being used to collect barnacles.

In the same dream I was in a low ceilinged kitchen (like the office in "Being John Malkovitch") with Tony Soprano and his mum, the sink was overflowing and flooding the kitchen.

Again, in the same dream I was in a car with a friend of mine who's an alchoholic (I suspect this is a relevant characteristic). We were driving through green hills in lashing rain to a dank abandoned underground house. In this house I met a few people who felt disturbing to be around that I no longer remember other than a tall, long-haired brunette woman who was good at dressmaking (!?).

It might be worth noting that I the night before this dream I'd had an argument with my partner about our future plans. The argument was resolved with comprimises we were both comfortable with.

02:12 / 13.10.04

OK, I got one for you.
There's this kid, a kid I know, he's 15, and unless something changes he's going to grow up into one of those sad wastes of proteine you see lining the side streets mumbling to themselves and drinking paint thinner. I'd prefer that didn't happen.

His dad died a couple of years ago and his mom is the steriotype welfare mother-she feeds her kids nothing but McD's and the house is filthy to the point of being toxic. His mother and sister are too far gone, irredeemable, but this kid, Chris, is still young enough that I think he can be saved from his upbringing: He's smart and eager to learn about computers... once his curiosity is engaged he is an ustoppable information sponge.

But here's the thing: He thinks the life that his mother has chosen for her family is acceptable, and anyone who doesn't live in squalor is "lucky." I can understand that he would cling to his remaning parental figure, but he will die filthy and alone if he follows her lead, as he seems content to do.

I've spent the past 3 years trying to fan the flames of his curiosity, giving him spare computers, even working out a deal where he'd get a periferal or daughter card or memeory if he kept his grades acceptable, but it didn't stick.

So do you have any suggestions on how I can help this kid to get his shit together?

P.S. You may think I'm resorting to histrionics, but I assure you, his situation is dire.

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