genderjumper: cartoon giraffe, chewing greens, wearing cap & bells (Default)
I endeavor to reject Western, capitalistic paradigms of time moving in one direction and instead see it as an infinitely complex coil, folded in against itself and resonating in moments obvious and obtuse. This year felt a lot like that year, this season resembles that other season, etc. It gives me a vernacular for comparison and may be a core tenet of my magical relationship with time.

Currently, November 2025 feels a lot like 2024 in my body. Not quite as bad (I think), but of a type. Like, my sleep is "ugly"; like there will be a spoon cost for sleeping in the wrong position and the right one doesn't exist. Like, I don't lose my spoons to overwhelm so much as sorting. Like, my bones ache if I do too much and writhe if I do too little -- and the range is very narrow indeed. My energy levels show little correlation with how much or how recently I've eaten, and restful activities only bale water out of a sinking ship. 

Sometimes it feels like my body has no temperature regulation; it feels like I should be hot, or cold, but my nervous system conveys neither. I have to stop myself from overexertion or suffer for it tomorrow, but I have to guess where the line is -- I don't have a sense of "yellow", like I could just keep going until I collapsed. Earlier today, I could smell the dirt on me (I event tasted it by leaving my mouth open at the wrong moment!), which felt novel because my sense of smell is both reduced and irrelevant as I spend most of my time in the same familiar environs. My head feels fuzzy yet loud, creativity flows but not production, even listening to music takes spoons.

Things got real chaotic over the past few weeks and I'm not sure this "storm" has yet passed, but I'm scrambling to remember everything I did that helped last year. It was a long, slow climb out, and I'm just stunned to be back dangling over that particular cliff.
genderjumper: cartoon giraffe, chewing greens, wearing cap & bells (Default)

Back in March, I started a 90-day course of an SSRI as a response to suspected Long COVID. Before I started it, I developed an ordinal chart for tracking my own "spoons" in categories that seemed important to me. I recorded my ranges under a variety of conditions (lows were mostly based on peak burnout last November, highs were mostly based on hypomanic cycles pre-COVID) and promptly forgot about it.

But I think that's a good thing. I am now 30+ days past the SSRI course and nearly a month out from my trip to NYC. And using this chart helps me focus on where things are significantly better, minutely better, or unchanged, so I can report that to my doctor. Here's a summary of the categories and my recent changes:

Push
How well can I accomplish a short but intensive physical activity, like loading a refrigerator on a dolly?
Shows some of the greatest improvement but not consistency. Still room to grow, but I'm no longer terrified that I couldn't respond to an emergency without a severe and immediate crash.

Endurance
How long can I be physically active without needing rest?
Moderate improvement, plenty of room for more.

Focus
How long can I focus on one project without needing rest?
Surprisingly no movement. "Follow-through requires intention" is still my high and "Minor difficulties with everyday tasks" is still my low.

Executive Function
How well can I make decisions and plan ahead?
Moderate improvement, room for more.

Emotional
How intense and manageable are my feelings?
No real change, but probably the one that least needed improvement. (So grateful for all the work I did on this as an adolescent.)

Transitions
How well do I navigate "transition time", i.e. shifting focus to a new activity, with or without warning?
Slight improvement, with lots of room to grow. (This one has been one of the greatest shocks to my way of life over the past year; I never used to have to think about transition time unless it was toward something unpleasant.)

Recovery (Waves)
If I expend a lot of energy, then rest, can I get some back -- i.e. a "second wave"?
Slight improvement, but was and remains my worst category. (What I do now is starting to look more like pacing, but I think there's a lot to learn and practice -- I don't think the doctor needs to hear it, but I should write about it more.)

Nutrition
Do I still need to eat a lot of protein every 3 hours (with snacks in-between) and what happens if I don't?
Moderate improvement from March, but a world better than last November the past 10+ years thanks to introducing a small but steady source of sugar into my diet. (This one probably warrants some backstory as well.)

Sleep
How sensitive am I to getting less than x number of hours (x varies, from less than 8 to 12; if you think that's annoying, before my 40s I could reliably function on 6 hours of sleep without consequences, and before grad school 4).
From one of my worst categories to my best and the primary reason I sometimes wonder if I'm still hypomanic (even though the timing is all wrong). I will never turn away a 10-12 hour sleep if the chance arises, but it's getting harder to fall asleep yet waking up isn't getting commensurately more difficult.

So I guess I'll be talking to the doctor about focus and transition time, as well as reporting that nutritional and sleep adjustments seem to be helping.

genderjumper: cartoon giraffe, chewing greens, wearing cap & bells (Default)
I don't bother thinking very hard about the tension between free will and determinism unless I'm depressed and my usual self-regulation efforts aren't working. But it's rare that I start thinking about them without already noticing the depression and self-regulation stall.

This was not the week I thought I was going to have.
  • I got turned down for a job I really, really wanted. I trust that it's going to lead me to better things (or potentially I reapply later), but a lot of my cognitive load had been going to daydreaming about relocating and now it's not really sure where to go.
  • A trans woman died in my community. I had only met her once or twice: long enough to get a massive crush, not long enough to learn her last name. But I went to the grief circle tonight and offered what support I could to her grieving parents and others.
  • The friend I trust to be untrustworthy may be about to lose one parent to illness and another to the grief. I really wish people would call on a care coach or family diplomat during such difficult times. This particular friend just stormed off and probably got high.
  • Speaking of mental illness, when I started gray-rocking my fam-o about three years ago, I never would have imagined they would just stop participating. I have literally no idea what's happening over there right now, because they each started dealing with heavy shit and they simply do not know how to communicate out of anything other than idleness or overwhelm.
  • My ostensible dating partner and friend of 30+ years abruptly reconnected with an ex last week and derailed our plans to share physical space (which is a big deal because their family doesn't mask consistently so I have to build a lot of faith and request 5 days of relative isolation). I can't help worrying that some of this was sparked by their recent realization that I was going to move away sooner or later, but they are not strong at self-advocacy nor even certain kinds of self-awareness and I horrible at navigating the unspoken.
  • My planned road trip to visit hyper-cautious loved ones in central Texas did not happen because 2/3 of us got nasty spring colds (I allow for the fact it could have been COVID, but I have zero evidence and a lifetime of experience with allergies turning into sinus infections and it felt like the latter; that said, these things just plain heal more slowly than they did before my two cases of COVID).
  • Signs currently point to a new hypomania as I come out of sick-space: the excitement of the big change being redirected into staying calm combined with having been rather idle the past two weeks, so that's why I'm still up at 7am (I did have a 3-hour nap earlier, which is usually navigable for me) documenting some of the goings on instead of sleeping.
  • Have had a strong urge to write the past few days thanks to a writing group I'm co-leading, but I'm wavering between too much and too little to say.
  • My therapist wants to terminate after over ten years together because she has nothing left to teach me, I'm figuring it all out on my own. I agree it's time, but that doesn't mean I'm enthusiastic about it.
I should probably read the Tao or something contemplative, then try again to sleep.

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