Compensating?

This is a very tricky thing with me: it manifests itself in a couple of ways - one of which makes my conversation partner think I may be hard of hearing. (I am - too much loud rock in the many bands I played drums in , in my younger days).

So what usually happens in the "Are you hard of hearing?" scenario is this:

1. I may really not have understood a sentence, and I will guess at what was said and respond with something completely unrelated to what was talked about, causing my conversation partner to say "Huh?" and then he or she will repeat what was said a little slower until I "get" it.

Secondly, my mind has "taken a vacation"

2. I may have shut out the whole thing (hearing but not listening) and then, when time comes for me to reply, I will again reply with something "off the wall".

Sometimes I will forget a co-worker's name - someone I see on a regular basis and when he or she speaks to me, calling me by name, and I cannot recall their name, I will reply with an innocuous sentence, thereby masking the fact that I cannot recall the name.

So this is what the shrinks call "compensating". One knows there's a problem, but manages to disguise it - sometimes cleverly - and sometimes, like me - making people think I'm deaf or that the lights are on, but I'm not home.

Some recent short-term memory lapses:

1. Putting a dinner in the microwave and forgetting about it till I put the next one in - usually the next day.

2. Opening a soda, and then noticing a bit later that there are already two sitting out - already opened.

These blog entries are helpful to me in that if I write something that I have forgotten or that I did in an inappropriate way, it may clue me to not do that thing again. I also hope that I can refer back to these posts for the purposes of participating in clinical trials.

It would be nice if this blog had a search function.

Have a wonderful Sunday and thanks.

Bill