What is your most successful type of therapy?

The last few days I've been sorting out my house and the rooms. I've been really quite busy moving my furniture around that it has made me feel a lot better.

Of course changing rooms around can't be done every day, but it was good fun and it made me forget about my woes for a while. So I think it must be good therapy.

What is your most successful type of therapy?

I'm having Psychotherapy, I think! For anyway, I'm seeing a shrink but she is a little strange. For example, I am not seeing her this week as her children are on holiday from school. I said to her to have a nice time with her children and she just looked at me with no expression on her face at all. She never greets me when she sees me and never says goodbye either. She makes me feel like she is not really there. She doesn't exist. It feels like she is just a robot programmed to listen to me and say the odd sentence. I think that she has made it very clear that there is nothing friendly about our meetings but her aloofness really puts me on edge.

_Lukas said:

Hmm, that's unusual behavior for a therapist. Is it possible that her aloofness is the result of something she can't help, like maybe she's on the autism spectrum or something? One of my best friends is kind of similar to that and he has Asperger's. He's extremely intelligent but he doesn't have a clue in social situations and comes off as very aloof and unfriendly, but he's actually a very sweet guy. He's just extremely shy and doesn't know how to behave socially and he doesn't say things like "How are you?" or "Thank you."

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Thanks for that Lukas, I should try to be a bit more understanding of her. She seems nice enough and certainly polite. She is just aloof and quiet. I don't know how to take it or how to deal with it. I have to think about what to talk about as she doesn't bring things out of me. I'm trying to dig deep down in my mind, and it feels like she's got the spade and won't let me use it.

_Lukas said:

You're welcome!
It sounds to me like she's just shy and maybe has some type of autism spectrum disorder like Asperger's. I'm sure she's not trying to be unfriendly!
Maybe you could mention to her that it's difficult for you to think of things to talk about in therapy?

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Well, I thought of saying to her that I don't know what to talk about but I felt guilty! Haha, crazy right? I feel sometimes that because I am the one with the issues that I should know what is on my mind. I've been trying to hint to her that I don't know how to dig deep.

What is Asperger's syndrome exactly?

@_Lukas love the dogs avatar! Who are they from top to bottom, left to right? My avatar is my Loopy Loo, aka Jupiter Star. She answers to both names. Her real name is Jupiter Star. She was given the name Holly but when she came to me, the planet Jupiter was very close to the earth. She sat out on the balcony with me in Egypt and looked up into the night sky and saw the planet. Then she noticed all the other stars and looked up at them, then back at me, then up at them again. Like she was saying 'hey look at those bright white dots up in the black sky! And look at that big bright one!'

She would disappear in the flat and I would find her out on the back balcony looking up at the sky and all the stars and the planet Jupiter, so she got the name Jupiter Star. Then in my own silly way, I would say to her, Jupiter Lupiter Loopy Loo so she ended up with a crazy name! Like my Carlos gets called Carly Marly.

I know, I'm mad, but I love being this way!

_Lukas said:

cats are Misha and Sasha

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Oh, wee hee, I had a dog' called Sasha! She was my lovely. She had pups and so gave me the wonderful experience of birth. I was her midwife! lol She died nearly two years ago. On December 11th. And then my Carl was pushed into the life a week later. His real name of Carlos, scared me because I then thought I was going to lose my car. Car - loss' and I was right. My car, (Nigel Henry) conked out and has now gone to the scrap heaven. So I started to call him Carly. Which is apparently a girls name. I don't care! Jupiter is a boys name, and Loopy is a girl, Carly is a girls name and he is a boy, and Sasha is apparently a boys name and she was a girl! My boxer before that was called Tao.

He used to get called Tao tomkins and tommy boy. And Tommy tucker!

I love your dog's names, Bartek has been shortened which is cute. How did you get all four in a pic like that? I'd love to do that? How do your four get along together? Do they argue over food? And what about toys, do they share nicely and tease each other like mine do?

I have a huge problem with animal stories and movies. I can't even watch King Kong now without getting upset. When I see an animal in distress, real or not I go into a depressed mode and it takes me ages to snap out of it. The thing with writing dog stories is that something would have to happen that was a challenge for them to overcome. That's the way of a story, isn't it? I couldn't bear for that, even if it isn't real.

I do write stories though, in between my procrastinating that is. I'm trying to write a few short stories and have half a dozen started and one completed. I've started a novel as well and written one flash fiction too. I'm aiming to get five written then sell them on Amazon. Do you write?

I feed my dogs together. Sometimes they stick their heads in each other's bowl. They are not allowed to fight. That is against my rules. lol. When they start to have a barney, I make a louder noise than they are and they stop and look at me and think 'oh 541T!! So thankfully I've established myself as alpha in that way. I've noticed though, that when a dog gets sick, namely a tumour, that they do get aggressive around food. I've seen it a few times now so if I see them breaking the rules at mealtimes I would take them down the vets for a tumour checkup.

Mine don't go out every day, but that is because I get agoraphobia. I do make sure they get their daily dose of sunshine and exercise though in the garden by playing with them out there. Mine play well together, they are happy dogs. I love the way they wake me up at 5.30 in the morning and then go back to bed!

_Lukas said:

Oh no, in that case, I'm sorry I brought it up! I can't watch most movies with dogs in them because something bad usually happens to the dogs and that makes me so upset

That is so cool that you write stories! If you ever want someone to read or review your stories, I would love to!
I'm actually in the process of writing a book! It's a collection of stories about things that have happened in my life.

Lol, that's so funny The looks on their faces must be hilarious lol.
I could probably feed my dogs together and they would probably be fine but I don't want to take that chance, because the dogs I had when I was growing up would always fight over food.
Dogs can get aggressive when they have tumors, that's definitely true. I'm glad you know to take them to the vet if you see a change in their behavior!

You are so wonderful with your dogs I'm glad they get exercise and sunshine, and don't worry about not being able to take them out for longer, because you're taking great care of them
Lol, my dogs wake me up early in the morning too because they're excited about their morning walk

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The clocks went back in the UK by an hour, and of course, my dogs don't know that. So instead of them waking me up at half 5, it was half 4 this morning! How can I complain when I get that cold and wet nose stuck in my eye and a tail flapping about? Then Carl jumps onto Loopy asleep on the futon and wakes her up! lol

Yes, the looks on their faces are quite funny indeed. I've done it with all my dogs..... WRAAAAAH! Haha! They look at me as if to say WTF? It works without me having to get my hands inbetwixt them.

Don't we all get grumpy when we are sick or in pain? I think doggies are just the same as us with a lot of things. Experience has shown me to look out for that. Also scoffing food down rapidly like there is no tomorrow, along with the grumpiness, bless them. I hope they have a good long healthy life. One of the things I don't agree that God has done is making their lives too short, a decade or so isn't long enough.

Don't worry about bringing up animal movies. I can't even watch a vet programme. I can watch humans getting mauled and cut up and mangled or whatever, but I can't even look at an animal with his ribs sticking out. My heart skips too many beats and God help me if I ever saw anyone hurting an animal - I would probably end up in prison myself if I saw that. Thanks to God I am agoraphobic huh?

Okay! If you would really like to read one of my stories, if you would like to PM me your email, I'll send you one. But I do hope that you will give me any critique that you think it needs and don't worry about offending me as its the only way we writers can improve. And in return, please send me one of yours so I can do the same. Maybe you will turn out to be my muse and get me off the procrastinating and get writing more? I would love to read your stories too, I bet they are interesting being about your life.

I only have two dogs anyway, so it is much easier to make control. You have a bigger pack than me and as pack leader you have to do what you think is the best. If that means feeding them separately then your dogs are obviously happy with that.