Living alone - alone
I have no problem living alone. I wont even allow anyone to come i9nsde my apartment, not even family. But I have always been like this. My sleep schedule is no schedule. I have insomnia and stay up until I can no longer keep my eyeballs open, or elde I take about 7 different pills, relaxzers, pain killers and sleeping pills until I am knocked out. I very seldom go outside and when I do, I have to stick earplugs in, sun goggles and a big floppy hat, like a force field to protect me. I have even learned sign language to respond to people who try to talk to me. I go outside for long walks at night. I am getting ready to buy a moped/scooter so I can go further from home.
The biggest problem is that I dont percieve danger so I go places in the dark that rational people maybe would not go, but it never enters my mind the thought that any human being would want to harm me physically. I am terrified of someone hurting me emotionally so I dont get close to people, not even online
Sounds more like "clueless doctor" to me - at least careless in explaining something important.
The biggest problem is that I dont percieve danger so I go places in the dark that rational people maybe would not go, but it never enters my mind the thought that any human being would want to harm me physically. I am terrified of someone hurting me emotionally so I dont get close to people, not even online
This describes me too. I've been fighting it for years with every tool I can find (lately, EMDR works well). I have good times and bad times. I wish you some good times.
Do you buy some buttler to assist you or something?
last august i was innocently riding my bike up in the hills surrounding my neighborhood, when a bunch of deer jumped out from a dense patch of trees on either side of the road, and i steered around a bunch of 'em until one broadsided me and i was thrown over the handlebars and landed in a bloody heap on the pavement. right arm ground down to the bone and bleeding profusely, left arm shattered at the ulna/elbow. i was in major pain. it was still daylight but nobody was outdoors to witness this. where i live if you knock on somebody's door chances are they will tell you to go away. so with my ground up arm i dragged my wrecked heap of a bike 3 miles back to my tin can, and about 10 cars passed me but none of them stopped to inquire if i needed help, and about half of 'em honked at me and yelled/hooted at me out the window like i was some kind of pervert or something. i barely made it back home [it was after dark by then, and i sat down in the kitchen in a puddle of my own blood, dimly aware that i needed medical treatment, so i reluctantly got up and got in the car and drove one-handed 12 miles to the ER where i collapsed, as i had lost much of my blood. i was operated on the next day and after a week was discharged. luckily i was able to leave a phone message at my sister's place and she picked me up and took me to her home, where i recuperated for the next 3 months. if it weren't for her, i doubt i'd be alive now. so the gist of my story is that sometimes there is no substitute for having another human help one out in one's hour of need, and also the importance of "paying it forward."
I like bikes, but do not drive them anymore. I would never say that one can get hit by a bunch of deer on a bike. Sucks. I guess when activities like biking are concerned it is better done in pair.
When my mother is gone I'll be living alone and hardly see people.
I don't even really know any of my neighbors and don't have their numbers and wouldn't call them for anything if I did. I don't know any of my family's phone numbers and don't ask them for anything now. I have no friends living in this state.
In a way I worry about medical and other emergencies happening but they could just as easily happen now when I'm home alone as in the future when my mother is gone and I live alone.
I've been living alone the past ten years and did so without too much trouble until I had a medical procedure a few weeks ago that required me to stay on bedrest and avoid lifting or doing anything strenuous for the following week. Oy vey. Basically, I dealt with it by completely ignoring medical advice and doing things for myself anyway, which led to some problems. But, I got through it. Just took me a little longer to recover than it would have, had circumstances been different.
I live with one other person in a treatment apartment, but am more alone than I ever was. I keep myself busy though. During the day, I go to a program/rec center for people with psych problems. In the afternoon, I walk into town to go shopping or just to go. In the evening, I go on the computer and watch tv. I'm usually in bed by 10-ish, and wake up about 8-ish. So, that's a day!
_________________
Warm Air
auntblabby
Veteran
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 115,275
Location: the island of defective toy santas
you can say THAT again! i'm somewhat DONE with doing everything alone! i NEED to hurry up and marry my sweetie! then i'll never have to worry about it again.
I was talking to someone who has worked as a nighwatchman at a local feedlot for something like fifteen years. He said that his primary duty is to be there in case a truckload of cattle arrives in the middle of the night. They even provide a cot in case he wants to take a nap.
Webalina
Veteran
Joined: 27 Jul 2012
Age: 66
Gender: Female
Posts: 787
Location: Piney Woods of East Texas
I lived mostly alone-alone from the time I got out of college in '88 until about four years ago. The longest stretch of alone time was '91-'00. I didn't have a lot of problems -- my lights or water would occasionally get cut off because I forgot to pay the bill, my place was messy most of the time, and my diet wasn't very good (for the most part it consisted of fast food and frozen dinners) -- but I did OK. I'm living with my mother now, but it's for financial reasons, not mental health reasons. I did find out that I'm better off in an apartment than a house. I bought a house in '01, and when things started to go wrong -- leaks, appliance problems, etc. -- I didn't know how to fix anything. In an apartment, the maintenance guys fix everything for you.
auntblabby
Veteran
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 115,275
Location: the island of defective toy santas
i was saved from living totally alone by my late parents, at least from the point after i got out of uncle sam's army in 1988, until my parents' passing in 2008. in that 20 year interval i was their caretaker, driving them to their medical appointments and helping them around the house. all their other kids had families of their own so it fell to me [the baby of the family] to be there for them. during that time i was achingly lonely for friends and a mate but working 12+ hour days at the local army post and dealing with eldercare put the kibosh on any socializing, social skills or no. but after they passed away, i was totally on my own and had to find another place to live in a hurry, and since 2008 i've lived as a hermit in a tin can out in the woods away from civilization. i couldn't handle apartment living, in that i don't like being exposed to all the neighboring unit noises [people yelling, bedroom sounds, banging walls and footfalls and such] and i don't want anybody to hear my noises either. plus i never had enough income to pay rent. so an isolated tin can was just what the good doctor ordered. but living out in the woods surrounded only by unfriendly yahoos also was not a recipe for finding soulmates or even good friends. it got achingly lonesome for me, to the point where i went a little psychotic, until i learned how to be my own best friend. so i would go around talking to myself, and despite my efforts at being subtle people got to see me chatting away with myself and doubtless thought me touched in the head. anyways, so as to stay out of trouble i just holed up in my tin can, going out once per week to get groceries. my living aloneness was finally DONE when a VERY very nice wrongplanet member by the username of alpineglow saved my life and saved me from the irrelevancy of terminal hermithood leading towards a gray anonymous death of emotional neglect. i am finally in love.
and i say to myself, "whodathunkit?" i hope this ramble is useful to somebody.
