GAD Revisited
Bertie: “Bobby? Are you feeling OK, mate? You seem in a bit of a muddle.”
Bobby: “I think a lot of people are, Bertie, in these troubled times. Especially older people, who feel isolated while the world talks about all the things they want to reopen while we old grunters are just interested in staying safe. I wrote about it in Bobby’s Rant.”
Bertie: “It’s more than that with you, Bobby. When we were locked up, we couldn’t go to Diddley’s Bench. When we were unlocked, you went without me. You even took a lady without me the other day!”
Bobby: “We weren’t locked up. It was lockdown. I didn’t ‘take’ a lady. She met me there. Anyway. Why should I take you everywhere?”
Bertie: “You don’t say that when you need me.”
Bobby: “I always need you, Bertie. Shall we go there now?”
Bertie: “Yes please. Just you and I. I can think, ‘as some bears do‘ and you can write a story. Telling it how it is. In black and white.”
Telling it how it is. In black and white. With a little bit of grey.
Bertie: “Where did you get that ‘at, Bobby?”
Bobby: “This is my old Skomer hat, Bertie. I always wore it on Skomer Island until in recent years I went up market to Tilley hats. Mainly because they have draw cords to keep them on in a gale. And, to be honest, they are the Rolls Royce of hats. I left my Tilley at Andrew’s, so out came my Skomer one.
The old ‘at. Skomer 2006. Waiting for the boat. Mainland Pembrokeshire across the sea.
Bertie: (Thinking aloud). “I love it here, Bobby. It’s really good for thinking. But I think you are feeling a little bit ‘ow’s yer farver’. All the signs are there. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”
Bobby: “Like what…”
Bertie: “When we left Laurel Cottage just now, you locked the front door and checked it. You got to the side door and went back to make sure. When you got to the front gate you went back again. And finally, when you opened the car door, you shut it again and went back to check.”
Bobby: “Bit like Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets. True love cured him.”
“As Good As It Gets.”
Bertie: “What about the garden room? You have suddenly realised that the flat roof has been damaged by ivy.”
Bobby: “Yes, and I have a plan what to do.”
The garden room.
Bertie: “But, in the meantime, be honest. You are scared of it raining. Will it leak or not? After a few spots checking. Checking. Checking. Checking. You keep looking at those big trees, wondering if they might fall over and crush the garden room.
Big trees. Could they fall over?
Bertie: “And then I caught you reading your own blog on GAD!”
Bobby: “OK Bertie. You are right and, of course, reading what I wrote when I was really upset in the past helps me keep the demons under control. That’s partly why I wrote them – for when I feel a little bit barmy. Accepting you have GAD is halfway to taming it.”
Bertie: “You also told me and everybody else that telling the world was very cathartic. There is no shame in mental illness. It’s no different to having a bad knee. And that you thought your own experience might help others. Especially knowing that you can help yourself in some mental illnesses and it won’t always be like that. The more you believe, the better you become.”
Bobby: “Did I say all that?”
Bertie: “You actually said a lot more, as Bobby’s do, but you had a good reaction from our readers. Maybe you should remind them by reissuing the blog you were reading the other day?”
And here it is…
www.mindfullybertie.org.uk/flirting-with-gad
Lighting a Candle with Diddley
“Oi told him to relax. Have a bath. Light the candle. Play some nice music.”
Music to relax to.
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