So, umm... email

[davidgillon]

My sister emailed me last week, upset over the stuff with my dad, as did a friend upset over other stuff. 

The problem? 

I hadn't actually checked email since certainly early in September, possibly earlier in August.

I finally forced myself to open Outlook late Sunday night, as my sister potentially needed input by Monday morning, 4 and a half hours later it finally downloads their emails.... It screwed up my day, as I slept until 3PM as a result of not getting to bed until 7AM, but worth it for the stuff my sister was able to do as a result, which should both help the situation with my dad and take some of the stress off her, equally for being able to respond to my friend, who is saying it is her fault, when it was absolutely mine.

I really need to address the situation over email, it's getting slowly but steadily worse. If I can answer it every day, then I can manage, but if I'm away from home for even a few days then facing it becomes a huge issue. I'm not quite ready to take it to my GP, too many other things I need to take to her first, and I really should have been addressing some of those today but for the sleeping all day thing, but I can see it reaching the point that I have no option. I'm not even sure the problem originates with email, it may be a spillover from issues with snail mail, which having to deal with DWP made worse (and I'm not exactly alone in that).

Ugh, brains, why are they so twisty...

Comments

[davidgillon]

Forgot to mention the DW-specific link here - I hadn't noticed the 'also send to email' check-box in settings. So added to everything else needing to be downloaded was a copy of every message to me in the three months I've been on DW....

[calissa]

Since I'm still getting to know you, I just wanted to clarify something. Are your health issues impacting on your ability to answer email? I rather gather that they are, but just wanted to check.

[davidgillon]

The situation is I suspect so. It and snail mail have been an occasional issue for years, getting noticeably worse recently (and I can probably pick out the reasons why).

When I was having the pre-course assessment for the pain management course I did early this year, I realised that the psych on the pain team had suddenly switched to trying to figure out if I had Aspergers, which he confirmed when asked. His overall judgement at the end of the course was I definitely have something going on in either the Autism spectrum or general anxiety areas. He manages the local autism service, but it's not his clinical speciality so he wouldn't commit himself to a label, and he says the service's assessment capability is 10 times over subscribed, so basically they only do kids and don't bother asking for an assessment.

I said to him at the time that based on someone I knew with Aspergers, I thought I was tending that way, but not to that degree (if you see what I mean), but having met more people with Aspergers and Autism diagnoses this year, I realise the person I was using as a milestone was probably atypical, and I'm no longer sure where I fall. At some point I probably need to start talking to my GP about this, but there's other stuff I need to discuss even more urgently.

[calissa]

Thank you for explaining. I found that very helpful.

Do you find commenting and interacting on DW easier than answering email?

[davidgillon]

Yes, DW tends not to be either demanding action from me, or forcing me to address issues I find stressful. With both email and snailmail I don't have that guarantee.

Equally with DW I'm addressing people who at least count as acquaintances if not friends and where we're all equals; whereas with email/snail mail I don't have that closeness, and I loathe dealing with people I don't know or who are in theoretical positions of authority.