CJ the Curmudgeon

[cjsmith]

I'm beginning to lose patience with a certain category of people. Oh, I'm not proactively rude, but I no longer accept some pronouncements unquestioned.

"I can't swallow pills," someone said to me once. Well, I carefully didn't say, you better not live to be much older. (NB: This person had no dramatic anatomical weirdness. She could swallow food and drink.) Seriously, who lives to middle age without learning to cope with swallowing pills? Heck, who gets to COLLEGE age and hasn't learned to cope with that one? I felt like she was bragging that she was still five years old inside, and a spoiled five at that.

I remember a recent comment in a friend's journal about not dealing well with needles. I can relate. I used to faint -- no kidding here, FAINT -- at the sight of needles in use. I now inject myself daily. I don't LIKE it, don't get me wrong, but I DO it. There are certain special-snowflake attributes that I simply no longer have the luxury of keeping.

"Restrictive diets don't work for me," said a coworker of mine at lunch today, referring to what I don't eat on the Lyme/antibiotic/yeast-control diet. And this time, I spoke up.

"They don't?" I said. Like you're so special, I didn't say, that if you got this disease you would somehow be above managing it. "What if you knew that eating ice cream would make you pretty sick?" I asked instead. "What if you knew it would land you in the hospital, what then? Where's the line?"

He readily rephrased, saying he has no strong motivation to lose weight; I agreed that I could totally understand that, and we rambled off on side topics.

I think I'm beginning to see that in some cases, "special snowflake" translates to "I've been very lucky in certain ways and I take it for granted." I don't have nearly as much patience with that as I once had.

Bad me, for having little patience? Maybe, but y'know, I'm not at all sure of that.

Comments

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

People can adapt to a lot, with sufficient motivation. For instance, I was so clumsy, I was sure that putting contact lenses in would damage my eye, but I learned to do it properly. Likewise, I managed with practice to transition from barely controlled hysteria at taking shots, to being able to calmly deal even with palette shots...years of needed work on my teeth helped with that one.

There can be physical/emotional barriers to dealing with things, but people can often find ways around them. The trick is knowing when it's an actual limitation, and not a psychological crutch.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, motivation is key. It took me nearly a month to be able to put contact lenses in in under ten minutes per eye. I know some people learn it more easily and more quickly, but by golly, I wanted to be able to wear those things.

My problem with needles didn't go away fast, either. It's not completely gone. But it's way better, after I've had a lot of motivation.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

with nneedles, I think the last thing that helped was getting a nurse in Palo Alto who really knew her stuff. Unlike the Santa barbara nurses who were all "Is that a vein? No, it's a nerve? Better try again", this woman was so quick and good I was seriously waiting for her to start when she told me she was finished.

The real test though will e sometime when I give blood. Assuming they allow someone with ADHD to give blood.