Longevity has been one of my recent interests if for no
other reason than I have been pleasantly surprised how potentially easy it
might be. The holy grail of longevity is
simple: caloric restriction, simply eating fewer calories. It will only get you a few extra years of
life, but potentially lots of extra years of health. Some other tricks, lithium and
anticonvulsants (structural relatives of gabapentin). I even found a nice source of natural lithium
that comes from a town near Atlanta,
Lithia Springs, GA. It's like a fountain of youth.
http://lithiamineralwater.com/
In other news, I’ve been looking for a job, the type where I
can transition from being disabled to working in an environment not so hectic
and dog-eat-dog. I’m a little nervous
about the prospect of getting back to work.
I understand how not to take a failure personally because it’s a matter
of fit. If a job doesn’t suit you, you
don’t need to be there. But I’m running
out of options. I’ve worked everywhere,
done every kind of job, and they’ve all had their ups and downs but fit…I
wouldn’t say any of them fit like a glove.
That may have been a side effect of having been ill most of
the time or it may be in the very nature of ‘job’ jobs. They are strange creatures. To show up and do over and over again some
task with very little relevance to your existence except that you need the
paycheck. I’ve had some jobs that were
inspiring but the mechanical part, the profit motive, always overwhelmed my
desire to do something meaningful. Even
in counseling, the bosses are crunching numbers, not meaningful realizations
and progress. I’ve even seen it to where
the bosses didn’t want progress because that would mean the client could stop
coming to the methadone clinic and that’s just an ugly situation to be in. My desire to do something meaningful
unfortunately put me at odds with the establishment.
It doesn’t pay, literally, to turn out to be right in those
tug-o-wars I’ve discovered. Just last
year, I fought the truck driving school and won. I can say no more about it because I’m legally
bound never to speak the details but I will say it was not a satisfactory
victory. I would rather have gotten my
CDL even if I did nothing with it but hang it on the wall and dream of getting
an RV. So many jobs are set up to take
advantage of you and if you’re an ultra conscious person, you figure that out
pretty quick.
It goes without saying in my mind that I have to get back to
work, but under much better circumstances than my previous forays. It’s not even a matter of pay this time. I’ve fried burgers at McDonalds, jogged paper
at a book binder, shipped pesticides, taught high school, substituted for grade
school, counseled persons addicted to cocaine and heroin, run an after-school
program, tutored college students, moved furniture on a military base, worked
for Parks-and-Rec, worked from home selling trips to Israel, worked at a
wastewater treatment plant in Atlanta, worked as a forklift driver on the
loading docks, and worked on an assembly line putting together gas grills,
among other things and I’m only 30. I
often worked two jobs at a time while going to college; I really wore myself
out no doubt about it. There was usually
the manic phase of getting the job and being very productive, then getting no
sleep, and finally crashing into a bipolar depression. Then it was time to leave till I recovered
and get another job or two.
It is hoped this time around I have better doctors, better
understanding of my conditions, and a much better medicine cabinet. So I’m going to apply for some jobs, write a
business plan to start a business, and write another novel for good
measure. This time I have a treatment
team to fall back on so hopefully I won’t crash. Wish me luck and longevity.
DF Seldon
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