EMDR

Once again let me apologise profusely for not having kept up with my posting on this blog... again. I hate offering excuses as they are usually an attempt to dodge taking responsibility for a wrongdoing. However I do have a kind of excuse. No, my dog didn't eat my notes or keyboard and although my broadband is slower than an octogenarian attempting to traverse the Himalayas, it is still working. Come to think of it I'm certain that I have used this one before. Time.
I can only do so much time staring at a computer screen before developing headaches and my eyes start to feel weirder than Alice in Wonderland (seriously, how weird is that book/film. Someone must have been abusing certain substances). It actually effects my sleep. Close your eyes after using a computer for too long and you'll see images come to mind really easily and depending on what you've been working on this does not make for quality dreams and therefore quality sleep. You spent all night dreaming about research on neurological disorders and I can guarantee that you will not wake up feeling refreshed. Interested perhaps, but not refreshed. I can usually manage about 6 hours a day before any serious effects occur, but that has to include gaming too.
I've probably already mentioned that I'm an avid gamer. I love it; it's how I unwind on an evening after work though never after 8.00pm as the negative effects on sleep of time spent after this hour are particularly damaging. Light prevents the release of melatonin (also known as the sleep hormone) from the hypothalamus, so blasting the most light sensitive part of your body with bright light just before attempting to sleep is counter-productive.
Anyway, to get back to my excuse, I am currently writing for another blog (not my own and sadly unpaid), which is great, but it means that I have less time to write on my own. It's going well and my work seems to be appreciated and getting a lot of hits. I'm not going to disclose the name of it as I want to keep the two separate. Sorry... compartmentalising is one of my coping strategies, I hope you understand.
Now that my apology/excuse is out of the way (at surprisingly lengthy looking back at it!) I can get back to the title. An odd one I am sure you'd agree. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and pRocessing and is a anxiety management technique developed by Dr Francine Shapiro. Essentially, it is believed that anxiety is based in the right hemisphere of the brain, but that these feelings often cannot be rationalised or dealt with because reasoning skills are located in the left hemisphere. By quickly moving your eyes from left to right, communication between the two hemispheres is, through some complex quirk of neurobiology, increased thereby allowing the feelings to be suppressed.
I haven't tried this technique yet myself, but anything (safe and legal) that can help manage stress and anxiety is worth a go. Try it and see how it goes: I certainly will.

I think that I may be a little depressed at the moment. Everything is various shades of grey and I can't enjoy things that I used to like being outside. Oh, wait, it's not just me? Everyone in Britain has the same symptoms as me? For the last month? Maybe it's not depression, maybe it's the terrible weather! (I blame the Met Office for issuing drought warnings across the country back in March!)

I usually like rain or I am at least curiously apathetic towards it. If I'm away in a Mediterranean country for too long I even start to miss it! But over four weeks of constant gloom and downpours is enough to drive anyone a little stir-fry crazy. A bit of sun would be nice; just enough for my body to be able to synthesise a little vitamin D. It does however make that hot mug of tea whilst sheltering indoors that bit more enjoyable. In all seriousness though, it is actually more than a little depressing. However, every cloud has a silver lining (please forgive the terrible pun, I am after all a little depressed!).

 Contrary to popular belief it isn't always raining in Britain; in fact this time last year we were basking in a miniature heat-wave. One stereotype that is true though, is that we do talk about the weather an awful lot. For an aspie who is socially challenged this is a Godsend. Two people who have absolutely bugger all in common can make small talk for at least as long as social mores dictate. The weather is something we all have in common and it changes often enough here to make it vaguely interesting. Hailing in May? Just something to use when you are next stuck chatting to someone that you don't really know. Thank God for British peculiarities!