Nervous Breakdown

Written By:  Andrew Eide

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines NERVOUS BREAKDOWN  as: An attack of mental or emotional disorder especially when of sufficient severity to require hospitalization. A sudden failure of mental health that makes someone unable to live normally.

I’ve listed some common signs of a nervous breakdown below. A person may experience one or more of the symptoms or all of them. Just because a person experiences one or more of the symptoms doesn’t mean they are experiencing a nervous breakdown as the symptoms could be due to diet or illness.

Sleeping too much, or not enough – Some people find that they go into sleep overdrive. Sleep becomes an escape. Others may develop insomnia and be unable to sleep because their brain is in overdrive. They may lay awake at night mentally rehearsing situations over and over again that have no solution.

Fatigue – Extreme tiredness could also be a clue you're stressed to the max. You might feel weakness in your body. Activities you previously handled with ease may become increasingly difficult and things that used to bring you joy may lose their appeal.

Changes in appetite – Maybe you're not eating, or conversely, you might be overeating. The stress hormone cortisol can trigger cravings for high-fat, high-sugar foods. What's more, when you're in the middle of a breakdown, you may be less motivated to prepare healthy meals. There's less ability or desire to care for oneself in the way one typically would.

Physical pain – Think of headaches, stomachaches, and pains in muscles and joints. For some people there might be a gastro-intestinal reason such as diarrhea or constipation. These conditions often cause brain fog and inability to focus. As for body aches, pains, and fatigue, this could be related to stress and a nervous breakdown or it could be a result of a medical condition such as arthritis or an illness

                                     

I will be honest that I have all the above symptoms. I feel the need to sleep all the time. I am tired and exhausted all the time. I want to eat a lot or not at all. I am suffering physical pain in my lower back, my legs, and my hip. . I have a difficult time concentrating on things especially when something and someone interrupts me. It often takes five minutes or more to get my focus back after an interruption.

I have tried to inform everyone around me how I feel but they are not seeing the signs that I may be close to a nervous breakdown or they don’t want to believe it might be happening. I’ve had one nervous breakdown in my life and I never want to have another one. I know I over-react sometimes but it is usually after hours of having to deal with situations I have no control over. Others try to tell me to ignore those things. Unfortunately not being able to ignore things, or resolve things, because you have no control over doesn’t make the stress and the possibility of a nervous breakdown go away. The Jews in the Death Camps in Germany had no control over their situation. They were unable to change anything about their captivity. Trying to tell Jews in Death Camps to ignore the stressors, when there was no way for them to ignore or escape them, is as useless a suggestion as to tell me to ignore the stressors causing me problems as I cannot alleviate or control those outside influences.

Here are some suggestions of what to look out for that I found on the internet:

Are you having trouble concentrating? Or just feel like you're not thinking clearly? There are often cognitive symptoms with a nervous breakdown which might include anything from difficulty with problem-solving and indecisiveness to a sense of disorientation and memory loss.

Trouble breathing is another one. Keep an eye out for classic signs of anxiety too, such as tightness in your chest and rapid breathing. Taking quick, shallow breaths can ramp up the body's stress response even more. A breathing exercise designed to slow down your breathing can provide relief. But if you experience trouble breathing on a regular basis it's important to address the root of the problem. 

I am crying out for help. I don’t want to have a total nervous system collapse and end up in the hospital as I did once before. I cannot control the stressors and the lack of control drives my stress higher. Hopefully the stressful situation will be resolved soon and finally the stress-causing factors which are causing myself, my wife, and my daughter, to extreme stress levels, will be eliminated.

Work and Abuse

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Today I will talk about my time in the workforce. Most of the time I was a full-time worker and part of the time I was part-time. Below is a basic run-down of how many years I worked at a job outside the home.

United States Navy = 20 years

General Dynamics = 1 year

Civil Service = 1 year

Quiet Hour = 6 years

Southeastern California Conference = 2 years

Three Angels Broadcasting = 2 years

Miscellaneous Part-Time Jobs = 3 years

Although I did some work-from-home work I am not including that here because my comments are based on working for someone else.

During my 35 years working for others I was abused so much in many ways. Some treated me poorly because I was a male or White or older or from California. In other instances I was mistreated and abused due to others in the work place being jealous. It was hard to deal with the hundreds of false accusations and lies but I made it through. However some of those scars from that abuse and false accusations remain with me today even though I retired from working for others in early 2012.

What were some of the things that happened to me? I was accused of embezzling money. I was accused of stealing from the company. I was accused of not working my full work schedule. I was accused of so darn many things, and never once were any of them proven true, that I don’t believe there is anything I wasn’t accused of.

In every case I would tell my accusers, or if they were scared to confront me and turned their complaints over to my supervisor or some other executive of the company, if they honestly believe I’m guilty then bring a lawsuit against me and let’s go to Court. I told them I know I’m innocent and that I would love to go into Court, have the Judge, or a Jury if one is assigned, listen to all the evidence, and then find that I am right and my accusers are wrong. I told them to bring the lawsuit and let’s go to Court.

Never once in my 35 years of working for others has anyone brought a lawsuit against me because they knew I was right and they were wrong.

Hurricane Irma In Atlanta Georgia

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I wish to provide you with an update to Hurricane Irma. In the graphic provided in this Blog you can see that Irma was at that time coming up on the Islands which are located South of Florida. At that time there were several prospective tracks for Irma.

One was it hits Miami and then runs up the East Coast to hit South Carolina. Another was that it crossed over Miami to head into the Gulf of Mexico. The third track was that it would hit Miami, turn North, and run up the center of Florida and then North through the middle of the State of Georgia where we live, including crossing directly over Atlanta Metro where we live, finally ending up in Tennessee.

The update I’m giving you today is that Hurricane Irma was downgraded to a Tropical Storm just before he hit the Southern border of Georgia.

Another thing is that while Irma was initially scheduled to run straight up the middle of the State of Florida, it actually headed West and ran up the West Coast of Florida. What this did was cause Irma to run up the Western part of the State of Georgia instead of going directly over the Atlanta Metro area.

So what did this do for the weather in Atlanta Metro where we live?

Initial forecasts were for sustained winds of 60 to 70 mph with gusts close to 90 mph with lots of rain and possibility of numerous tornadoes. Since Irma moved to the West of Atlanta what we ended up with, at the worst part of the storm, were sustained winds of 35 to 50 mph with gusts close to 60 mph with moderate to heavy rains but not a constant rain.

Hard to predict where a storm will hit and what the damage will be but it is always prudent to predict the highest level of damage and winds and rain rather than to under-predict it as they did with Hurricane Harvey that hit the State of Texas.

Playing the Victim

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I do not like people who “play the victim” and by that term I mean they instigate stuff and when you call them out on it they immediately play the victim.

I’ve experienced this at work and in my personal life. It seems to be a never-ending vicious cycle.

When we were kids me and my sister would have arguments and fights all the time. Well, come on now, isn’t that how most siblings react to each other? My sister is two years older than me so that, in her mind, meant she was the boss of me. Sometimes when we had an argument she would take a swing at me and hit me. I, of course, took offense to being slapped or punched so I hit her back. My sister, who instigated the argument and instigated the hitting, would run to mother and father and yell out “ANDY HIT ME!” and then I would get into trouble. Our parents who ask me why I hit my sister and I would reply that she hit me first. They would always reply that just because someone hits you doesn’t mean you can hit them back. My question was always how come it is okay for my sister to hit me but I can’t hit her back. I never received a valid answer to that one.

There have been people where I worked who did stuff at work that I would classify as illegal and up to, and including, embezzling money or stealing stuff from the company. When they got caught doing the deed they would immediately claim to be the victim. No you are not the victim you are the perpetrator.

Our Computer IT person at The Quiet Hour ministry in Redlands was an overbearing evil mean person. He would abuse me all the time by yelling at me and accusing me of doing things I never did. I registered a complaint to our Vice President and I was flatly told by her that I have to back off since the Computer IT guy has high blood pressure and he is under a lot of stress. I asked the Vice President why I have to deal with abuse at work just because someone has high blood pressure? I told her that doesn’t give him the right to terrorize everyone in the organization.

Let me give it to you straight. If you do something wrong...If you instigate things...If you false accuse me...meaning you instigated the wrong-doing, then do NOT act like you are the victim when you get called out. Step up and be honest about it and admit you are wrong and move on and work to improve yourself.

I will NOT tolerate people abusing me and then hiding behind their victim mask.

Silence

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Silence. Just saying the word brings visions of solitude, peacefulness, and relaxation. But today I’m going to be talking about something different. Why would I give you one impression only to change directions on you? Read on and it will become clear to you.

Many people, and I’m one of them, want to help others. When I use the term “help others” I mean help them to understand that there doesn’t have to be many problems and failures in the lives. Examples:

A “stop” sign, and a red light, means stop right? What if you refuse to obey the stop sign or red light? You could cause an accident, run over a pedestrian, and likely receive a traffic citation and fine. However if you obeyed the traffic laws you would have stopped and you would have avoided a problem.

There are speed limits posted everywhere. Speed limits are there for a reason. The reason is to ensure you drive at  speed known to be safe to for you to drive at. Exceeding the speed limit could cause you to lose control of your car or hit another car. Obeying the speed limit would help you avoid a problem.

How about maintaining your vehicle? If you fail to maintain your car you can create a problem that could have been avoided. If you fail to maintain your brakes or fluid levels in your vehicle you could suffer a failure that causes your vehicle to go out of control. Maintaining your vehicle in proper operating condition helps avoid problems.

Those are just a few examples. There are so many in daily life and those are the ones I try to help people with. I tell them if they listen to me “9 out of 10 of your problems will be avoided” but often my suggestions are ignored and these people continue to have problems. They hate it when I’m right and when I tell them that they can eliminate 90 percent of their problems.

What type of problems would be included in this list? Read the short list below.

Purchasing something that states if you don’t like the products you must return it within a specified period of time or your credit card will be charged. When you fail to return the products you get charged. Having your teacher tell you that during an assignment there will be no talking and then you talk and get into trouble. Being told not to put glasses of liquid close to where your hands are but you do it anyway and then knock the glass over and make a mess on the table or floors.

I estimate in an average day of the average person there are at least 20 things they could do differently to avoid problems. There are 20 things that if you do the right thing you would avoid 9 out of 10 problems. If you would do 18 good things and only 2 problems hit you isn’t that better than having 18 problems daily with only 2 good things working for you?

People get tired of me stating “If you listen to me 9 out of 10 of your problems will be avoided.” However since rarely does anyone take my advice, and I have to watch them suffer with problems that could have been avoided, I’ve decided to take the stand of silence. Yes you heard that correctly. I will no longer give advice to try to help people avoid problems. Then when they ask “Why didn’t you warn me or tell me that would happen?” I will reply that since nobody listens to my advice to help them avoid problems I have gone silent and now they see that I was right.

Silence! Deal with it!

What If...

Written By:  Andrew Eide

What if? Man that has to be one of the longest questions to ponder eh? This can lead to an eternity of wondering what would have happened if you had some something different, or if you had a chance to change something, and you wanted to know how things would have turned out differently.

The master of the “What If?” was Rod Serling who created the television program “The Twilight Zone.” In many episodes someone wanted something changed only to find out the change was detrimental. In some episodes the change was a good thing. Today I plan on giving you several “What If?” situations and we will discuss them.

What if you were blind and had an opportunity to see? What if you were deaf and had an opportunity to hear. What if you were a paraplegic and had the opportunity to walk? What if you were an amputee with one or more limbs missing and had an opportunity to have use of your missing limbs again.

Well don’t jump into a decision so fast as there’s more information for you to think about.

Since our technology on Earth as humans is limited, and we cannot do these things, we will for the sake of this discussion stated there is an alien race, on another planet, who can accomplish this for you.

Wait! There’s still more! You would be required to move to their planet for this concept to take place. Also you wouldn’t really physically get your sights back, or your hearing, or your limbs, or your ability to walk.

What in the world are you talking about Andy? I know that’s your question. Now comes my explanation.

Say these aliens could put you into a state of suspended animation. Your brain would no longer register that your sight or hearing is missing. Your brain would no longer register that you are missing limbs. Your brain would no longer register you are a paraplegic. But...and this is a huge but for the sake of this discussion, they can manipulate your brain to be in a similar situation as Virtual Reality. Yes, you may be comatose and not know what’s going on around you, or that your body cannot function they way it is supposed to, but your brain will register that you can see again, hear again, walk again, and have your limbs back again.

So now comes the question what would you do? What would you select? There are down items for either selection.

If you remain in your current situation you might be stressed with your inability to function in your body to fully capacity as you want to. However if you decide to go off with the aliens to their planet. You will no longer have contact with any family members or friends. As far as they will be concerned you have passed away and no longer exist.

Can you live for eternity in a Virtual Reality world created by aliens for your enjoyment or would you rather remain on Earth with real humans and real family and friends? Think hard about this as both decisions have benefits and downfalls.