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Flying Airplanes and Mental Health


kbobam

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I don't know anything about flying an airplane.
Whether I know anything about mental health is open to interpretation.
Pretty sure I know a lot more or a lot less than most people.  Just not sure which.

Having spent a good portion of my life trying to figure out just what's wrong with me, the
closest analogy I've seen so far is the 'Peanuts' moment when Lucy, as therapist, suggests
to Charlie Brown "The fear of everything?" and his immediate response is "THAT'S IT!!!"

But for no reason that I can think of, I made a 'dealing with life/flying airplanes' analogy
today, and I think it gets a lot closer.

Most people are skilled average pilots.  Let's use a good-natured cropduster fellow as an
example.  What he does isn't what you'd call easy, but he's been doing it for quite a few
years and is comfortable that his observational skills and natural instincts will serve him
well in both normal and the occasional difficult situations.

Some particularly lucky people sit down in the pilot's seat, press the auto-pilot button, and
promptly fall asleep.  When they wake up, everything has worked out perfectly.  It always does.

I'm the guy who's still in pilot training and always will be.  And I'm stuck at that really hard
part where they 'black out' the windshield and still expect you to function with no problems.

Fifty-some years of 'flying by instrument'!
I don't think the mental health people have a proper name for this condition.

Haven't lied to you yet and won't start now.  It's been a real bitch.

But I can still end this with a smiley!  :)

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Thanks.

I know 'whining' isn't generally attractive, but like to think that it
can sometimes be interesting if done well. 
It's a 'public tv' vs. 'network' thing.  Not as instantaneously entertaining,
but possibly, although not necessarily, of more long term 'perspective' value.

I'd also like to think that when I occasionally spill my guts, it might be
considered a sign of affection and respect for the people I do it in front of.
Many terrific people here.  ( :

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Ha!  I like the indigestible idea a lot!
Of course you made it even better with the
humor of relating the word to the 'guts' idea.
But what I like the most is the possibility of describing
the thoughts or feelings that a person might be having
as 'indigestible' to them.  It's not a term that would
normally be used, but I think it has some subtle meanings
to it that would make it the 'perfect' word in some situations.  ( :

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5 hours ago, kbobam said:

Ha!  I like the indigestible idea a lot!

Sometimes we all just need to lay back, relax and then have a different view on the same things. And sometimes new ideas are born just by a lack of proper translation ...

On 3/30/2016 at 2:21 AM, kbobam said:

[...] Having spent a good portion of my life trying to figure out just what's wrong with me [...]

Why do you think there is something wrong with you? Is there maybe something wrong with all around you  ;)
Just think about this: In the radio is a traffic announcement warning because of a wrong-way driver. "What shall it mean a wrong-way driver? They are all driving wrong-way!" ... Is it just a bad joke or an Englishman on a German motorway? ...

Or this one (from a movie I can not remember the title): If a tree in the woods is falling down, then there are at least three different stories on this - my version, your version and the tree's version!

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A very good friend of mine once helped me tremendously by using a different analogy, knowing my penchant for watching wildlife documentaries and my tendency to prefer the company of species other than my own.  Basically it went like this:

Look.  All we have to do now is keep up with the herd.  We don't need to lead the heard.  We don't need to worry about the herd.  We don't even have to be in the middle of the herd.  All we have to do is keep up.  All we have to do is not be one of the stragglers.  'Cause we all know what happens to stragglers.  So that's all we have to do.  Just keep up.  That's all.

I'm better now.

 

 

leopard.jpg

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