RedLineBoy how do you manage learning new skills? Or learning in general?
On my last foray into employment - working in the office at a special needs school - I had my lists of things I needed to do: my aide memiors if you will.
Each and every day I would need to consult them and each and every time I had to embark on new learning: more checklists would result.
Frequency of tasks - familiarity - barely made a difference when it came to filing, computer work, or telephone enquiries and dealing with the public.
There was a lot of learning by rote but it never really sunk in.
At University and before that at college it was similar in terms of learning new things but a little easier perhaps because it was something I was really interested in and I had specific help - as a disabled student.
But regurgitating knowledge and transfering from brain to essay was bloody hard. So I had the Uni employ effectively a 'study-buddy' in my case a Phd student who would listen to what I was trying to impart and help me get it down in some sensible order so that others might also understand.
I think familiarity maintains cognition to an extent. Before I left my career role in Private Banking, but when I had a diagnosis of ME, I was better able to manage cognitively. Being forced to leave those surroundings, that environment, has had an effect.
Then again, things got so bad - as a result of the condition itself and/or the stress of having the condition and it not being treated as effectively as I had hoped and/or my lack of coping ability - that I could no longer perform to an accepted standard: despite downgrading my responsibilities and moving roles.
When you start forgetting things it is scary: for you and for your employer. When you start making mistakes and lose your ability to be reliable and responsible: your employer tends to become alarmed.
My directors were really very good but then I consider myself fortunate compared to other patients I know. They could see me falling about, not being able to speak clearly, making errors that I had little or no control over and that were very unusual for me to be making: in short they knew something was amiss. Hence the pension I guess - though I'd like to think I was also a rather good employee for 14 years.
Cognitive issues are well recognised as part of ME - presuming you meet the other criteria of course and other explanations (as much as possible) have been considered and excluded). What we don't yet know is if the cognitive deterioration is a result of 'fatigue' or something more specific.
I have adjusted my lifestyle markedly in the last decade. Made some drastic but necessary changes. I am able to manage periods of difficulty - I can do other things and then return to the task at a later date. But that isn't/wasn't possible in any job I have had before or since my diagnosis.
Re: Television and Films.
I tend not to watch TV - can't stand all the breaks as it interrupts my ability to follow plots etc. and I don't now have a TV licence or TV come to that. I watch films and DVDs only now through my PC and monitor.
I know with modern things like SKY you can pause and reply and all that nonsense; but I like being able to choose what I want to watch, how I want to watch it and when I want to watch.
I find watching a film of my choice enables me to relax in a way that some find a relaxation tape can. I effectively 'switch off' from my cares and worries.
Doesn't have to be for the duration of a film that I watch; I often only view for 20-30 minutes and have a break: unless it is a special event of the day and I'm watching something new for me, like:
That my very kind little brother has just 'burned' for me
