Thanks to Blaktop for this Gem...

Free Thinking...now a Mental Illness ?

I had heard about this late last year, among the many new illnesses that the Theories of Psychology have come up with to further it's own career.

Apparently those who dislike big cities are also suffering mental illness according to the Pseudo-Science we call Psychology today.

Anyway, here's the quote...

Is nonconformity and freethinking a mental illness? According to the newest addition of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it certainly is. The manual identifies a new mental illness called "oppositional defiant disorder" or ODD. Defined as an "ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior," symptoms include questioning authority, negativity, defiance, argumentativeness, and being easily annoyed.

So that makes almost everyone I know who I trust to have clear perception and discernment to be mentally ill.

What is next?

It may well become a mental illness to be Too Honest!!

Drama queens.. everywhere... why?

It's really weird. I was married to a drama queen, which is where I learned to perceive the dramas unfolding as she escalated into total emotional lack of control.

So all these years I had hoped my daughter would not follow suit if she wasn't around her Mum to learn the negative behaviours from... and I also hoped the same about Manipulation and Dishonesty.

What a silly bloke I was!

All those negatives either have to be in the DNA or they are a Learned behaviour.. what other alternatives could there possibly be?

After a fortnight or more of continued drama with my daughter.. who cannot hold a conversation with me without escalating rapidly to the point of losing emotional control of herself.. I reminded her of the old story.."The Boy Who Cried Wolf"... as I have been doing now for all of the 17 years of her life. Today just got me a "Hurrumph" when I mentioned it again.

So as I was painting in her bedroom because she decided to leave it until next Sunday again.. I was kind of fuming about it all as it is only a two or three day job that has been dragged out now for just over three weeks.. and then I noticed the background sound nearby.

What sound is that you may ask?

Well, two doors down from my place is a child care centre. Every time the kids go into the play area all you can hear are the Girls screaming.. solidly for the entire time until they go in for food or a rest!!

And that was when I realised something about drama queens.. it is a Learned thing, and I think they may be predisposed to it genetically.

It's the excitement of Drama that hooks them in. And then they see it on the TV all the time, and see it modelled at home and amongst adults and friends. It's no wonder they don't get the chance to learn how NOT to be a Drama Queen.

99% of all the women I have ever known all play the Drama Queen role at various times in their lives.. most of them do it all the time.. and many seem to get some sort of enjoyment out of playing The Victim in order to gain Sympathy and thus energy from others.

The Victim is an important part of the Drama Queen Role being played out in their life. Because choosing to BE the Victim of anything provides food for Drama to fill up on and re-energise so it can maintain itself without having to choose calmness and seeing what the Real Issue is.

So.. many years ago I learned an important method of assisting Drama Queens and the Victim role players, although most times it only gets them more angry at you. The method is simply to Name The Drama!

Naming the Drama being used brings it into the open for all involved to see.. and apparently to allow them to see it wihin themselves and then choose to Be something else in each moment.

Unfortunately with Drama Queens and those playing the Victim Role, they always take that as an attack.. and then try to use it to fuel their Drama even further.

None of them wish to change that about themselves and yet they will complain constantly about this drama or that drama.. this person or that Bitch... etc.

Never do any of them LOOK at what part THEY played in co-creating each and every Drama they go on with.

And since I am over all Drama Queens... and have been for many years now.. I am seriously thinking of telling the girly to go live with her boyfriend as I do not wish to have my life turned upside down a few times a day because of her addiction to Drama and it's outcomes.

I even had to turn my mobile phone off today to stop getting text message after text message and calls from the angry little beasty I call my Daughter. Even though I have been saying for years, "Stop calling and texting me all the time when you are at School.. or wherever."

In fact, I simply remind her that the mobile phone is for her emergency use only.. not a Slave bell to have me at her beck and call 24/7. Not the means to whinge at me about her Drama, and certainly not a means to argue and fight over her Dramas when I have tried to have her see straight while she is in the middle of playing the Victim.

That's the other thing.. when they are in the middle of their escalation into no-self-control, it does not matter what you say to them.. nice words, calming words, sensible words... all are ignored and mean nothing to them at the time because that is not what they WANT from You.

They only WANT Pity, Sympathy.. "Oh you poor thing".. and.. "Oh yes he was a bastard for telling you the truth".. kind of thing.

And I only want the Truth, only want what is Real, and will not ENABLE their DRAMA. So they HATE you for it.. oh well, such is life when it is too short to waste on any sort of drama.

Life is way too short.. so don't waste your precious minutes on playing the Drama/Victim role.. and do not ever Shrink Yourself to allow them their Drama within their Comfort Zone. If you do not Name the Drama.. then you are only Enabling them to continue with it and not learn more effective ways to deal with Real Life.

Summer arrived a bit late...

Man it got HOT!!!

We have been having a very mild Spring here and are still sleeping under a Doona at night.. normally they would have been cleaned and packed away months ago!

Then suddenly it got hot.. not just warmer, but HOT.. real Summer weather for Oz.. with high 30's and some days at 40 Degrees C. So we seemed to have missed out on Spring altogether, although the trees are still a bit confused about what they should be doing about now. Some of them are reflowering for the third time since September.. poor confused Nature.

With the heat came my daughter's insistence on painting her bedroom purple.. she obtained our landlord's permission and started work.. three weeks ago!! It began with me telling her how to prepare the old surfaces for new paint, and that she would need to undercoat the areas sanded back, etc. She did that okay it seemed... emphasis on 'seemed'.

Once she had a go at putting the first coat of white around the top of the 10 high walls she found it was WORK.. and soon began to disappear all day and late into the night to avoid having to do it. When asked she simply said, "I'll do it in my own time."

So she got a friend in to do the painting around the top.. and he got stuck on enough to finish it on the day. Good stuff. But, he had made such a mess, white paint on the bedhead, white paint all over himself and the other girl who was here to 'help'.. oh, and white paint in the carpet.. and the paint roller left to dry out in the rolling tray filled with white paint.

Yeah... I'm over White Paint now.

The next morning the same young bloke arrives here to touch up the white where necessary... or so I thought at the time. Instead he started on the purple.. and as he did I could hear him slapping it on the walls with a brush, so I went in to see what's happening.

Had to tell him not to do all the painting as the girly said she was going to do it, etc. So he left.. leaving paint everywhere again.. there's more purple on the drop sheets and carpet than he got on the little section of wall he started working on!!!!!

Well that was enough for me. I phoned the girly and told her to be here on Sunday so we could do the painting together.. and she did arrive.. about lunch time, saying she only had an hour to spare until her boyfriend finishes work. Oh, is that right then girly? Aren't you thinking that getting your room done would be the priority?

Silly old dad, what makes you think that?

The next day was 40C + and so no painting was going to happen that day. I tried doing a test area above the doors but the paint was drying quicker than I could reload the brush to continue. So that day became a rest day, trying not to overheat myself.


And the next days was too hot... another almost rest day.

Then I phoned the girly again about getting the next coat of colour on the walls, and was told I had to wait another day for her to have the time to spare... teenagers!! No idea about real life prioritising yet.

Well the next day arrive, the girly arrived again after lunch and we started in to it with all seriousness to get it done before she "had to leave". We blasted the second coat on in only an hour and a half... except for the tricky parts and the three doors.. the tricky bits being where the wall frame meets the in a corner between two doors.. tight and dark in there it was.

I ended up working a few hours more late at night to get the last of the second coat finished off, then began the trim colour around her window frame.. and that was enough for me.

Today I go in to see how things have settled.. looking good so far. Lots of mess from the teenagers to be cleaned up though and I won't be the one doing it.

Part of me was hoping the girly would get home today and start on the first coat of trim colour.. but it's now 1:30pm and no sign of her. Methinks she is thinking I will finish everything off for her and she will only have to clean up and sort the room back out again with furniture.

Nuh-Uh!! I'm done... I can walk past it without being peeved about how long one room is taking to get painted by the one person who wanted to do it all herself.

Oh okay then.. Yes I am a little bit peeved about it. But I won't let that wreck my whole day or week.. or month.

Did I tell you I was buying a motorcycle this year.. Yay!!!

I saw another UFO...

I did.

Sunday, January 1st at around 3am....

Was just heading out the front door at a friend's place here in Gumbieville, and we stood in the yard to talk for a few more minutes. Interestingly, I was talking to her about the massive increase in UFO sighting in 2011 and how it should continue this year.

With the last words I spoke then, I looked up into the sky and there it was, right above us moving slowly to the East.. as a keen observer I noted the background stars and slowly moving clouds, to determine if the object was moving independantly.. and yes it was.

It was moving with a slow meandering away from a bright star.. so it was not a star looking like it was moving due to clouds moving, etc. This was a large light source ambling across the sky.. until I pointed it out to my friend.. who saw it move toward and behind cloud cover.

I checked the opposite side of the cloud to see when it came out.. it didn't. And the clouds dissipated exactly where it should have been.. but nothing was there.. not a thing. It didn't continue along it's path, it didn't do anything else.. it simply vanished.

Anyway, I thought that was pretty cool for a bit of 'Coincidence'.. talking about UFO's and then having one appear above us at the same time.... but you know I don't Believe in 'Coincidence'.. to me everything happens for a reason.