Mark250

Hi Rattler, It sounds like I suffer with the same thing you described. Anger is so powerful and it's designed to shut down higher brain function like communication, listening and reasoning. It's such a primal emotion that has no place in 21st century society with all of its laws, rules, regulations and procedures. It's always unwelcome, whatever the situation.Not much helps it. Like you said, focus on breathing and leave the room if you're able. Have you tried keeping a journal?

Eye contact is very overrated. I don't have a very positive history with it. I'm okay with eye contact now, but there was a time when I found it to be too intense and would prefer to avoid it. Sometimes eye contact is interpreted as aggression, usually with insecure reactionary types. I don't know about any body else, but I find I can listen to another person talking just as well if not better while not looking at them. When my depression was its worst, I would chronically avoid eye contact as I always thought the person I was talking to would 'discover' that I was depressed just through my eyes.

Tomatoes. Hob Nob biscuits. They taste like they're made from straw.

The Office is endlessly quotable, isn't it? Here's a couple of my faves; "I'm very flattered that I was his second choice after "pass"." -- Ryan the Temp "I got them a toaster. They called off the wedding and gave the toaster back to me. I tried to return the toaster to the store, and they said they no longer sold that kind of toaster. So now my house has two toasters." -- Stanley (the Manly)

My local libraries being quiet places of enforced silence is something I remember and miss. These days, because all the local councils thought it would be progressive to turn all the libraries into all singing all dancing 'community hubs' designed to cater to a broad range of 'needs', now they're full of noisy idiots who think I want to hear their mundane chatter.

Don't get me wrong, though. More time and effort should be invested into this area. But the thing with the media is that, at its highest levels, it's predominatly run by psychopaths and narcissists. The kinds of people least qualified to tackle many of the conditions suffered here on DF.

I think the reason why we don't get very authentic portrayals of mental illness in the media is that it's something that doesn't lend itself very well to the format. Too many compatibility issues. TV and films are predominately about entertainment and there's nothing entertaining about depression. There's also the escapism aspect to these things. People mostly go to the cinema to escape the drudgery and banality of their lives, not to be reminded of them. The more frail aspects of the human condition are much better portrayed and explored in literature.

First visit to a cinema (Addams Family, but wish it had been Batman) Having a completely clean bill of health.

I think Ridley Scott was aware of the historical truth of those Germanic battles, but opted to go with the full battle array because it was more cinematic. From what I've heard Gladiator took a lot of liberties in its portrayal of ancient Rome. Apparently, Gladiators were not the rock stars and Olympic athletes of their day, but in reality were no more than glorified slaves. The lions and tigers in the colosseum more often than not didn't attack anyone as they became too freaked out by the roar of the crowds. Same here. Friends was so relentlessly bright, garish and sickly sweet that I always thought it was aimed more at children than adults.

My optimism.

"Brexit means breakfast" -- various politicians "Garbage in, garbage out" -- George Carlin

The Dumb-phone. No calls, no texts, no internet. You simply throw it at the person you want to speak to.

I looked up my sign with a quick Google search and was actually surprised how accurate it was. Apparently white is 'my colour', which is odd, since I've always favoured darker colours, and I noticed some of my strengths and weaknesses were present in other signs, but I suppose it's not an exact science.

Seems like I'm the only Cancer here...? Maybe my starsign is the reason why my life is so crap.