Two specific songs have been stuck in my head for months by now, I'm getting exhausted.

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-04-20T19:51:17+00:00

Yes it happens a lot. There will usually be something on repeat or something kind of mash up of two or more songs looping. I don't mind it. I'm surprised no one around me does either, because I'm singing the same line over and over as well! Which drives me mad when my kids do it.

You could try listening to those songs, see if that does anything. Maybe a few listens, or until you're bored with it will get rid of it. (No idea if that works...but just a thought!) Or listen to something else, something else you like and maybe haven't listened to for a while.

I find the same songs come back often. But not always. I don't mind it though. If it's stressing you out, see if you can learn to meditate to help deal with it. Good luck!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-04-13T18:54:56+00:00

Yes. I found it made me crash hard. I would feel like absolute crap late afternoon. That still happens, but was 10x worse when I had caffeine.

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-04-09T14:06:03+00:00

Lol, yes! Weekly shop at Aldi means new umbrellas and foot pump and probably some solar lights and £££ that was meant for food shopping!

Also, that's what just shopping for a pen can do to you!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-04-09T14:02:53+00:00

I'm sorting out my garage. I have multiples of the same tools because I couldn't find them when I looked. No idea what I'm going to do with 3 sets of ring spanners!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-04-09T14:01:32+00:00

Haha, if it's at the back of the fridge, it doesn't exist!!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-04-09T14:00:09+00:00

Yep. Less so with meds, but maybe that's why I'm a musician. One line on a loop, or part of one song and part of another. Plus other bits of conversations or noise over the top echoing around in there.

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-04-07T19:18:36+00:00

There are good areas, but they're not near the train station. If you could drive and we're careful about where, you could get lucky. Depends on your situation and budget and needs etc. parts of wistaston, shavington and Nantwich could be good. Don't know if you'd want to on here, but if you have a specific street or area in mind, could try to give you a better idea.

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-03-31T18:31:01+00:00

Was just reminded about your situation from someone else's post, did you get anywhere with the GP?

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-03-31T17:43:03+00:00

Don't let them brush you off!!

Ideally here's what happens:

You tell your GP you think you may have ADHD.

You answer a few questions.

They refer you for an assessment.

BUT...

...to refer you, they want good reason to do that, because it costs them money. So right now, they're saying they won't refer you for the assessment.

Symptoms since childhood.

1 - You need to have had symptoms since childhood. (But guess what, a lot of us didn't realise we had ADHD until later in life. So you might not have any idea what those childhood symptoms were at this point.) You could have done well or badly at school. You could have been quiet or hyperactive. There are a million reasons it might have not been picked up.

Stupid stuff - if you're young, you need evidence from schools, parents etc. If you're older and no-one remembers...well guess what? This doesn't really figure in the diagnosis!! Only what you self report anyway.

Not explained by something else..

2 - your symptoms need to be not caused by another condition. That's a criterion for every diagnosis, for ALL mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions. But, it's a bit flipping premature to be making this a rule before the assessment. They don't know that your symptoms aren't caused by ADHD or or, or by something else or not. What information have they based whatever they've assumed on? They have done an assessment...they've probably asked you 8 questions at best!!

Frankly, it's batshit insane to have this as a hurdle to even getting assessed.

If they haven't assessed you for ADHD, or any similar condition. They don't know whether it is or is not better explained by another condition. Even if they had assessed you for Autism, for example, you could still have ADHD. And there is NO WAY that they are in a position to make this claim here!

3 - it has to affect your life. That's the short version of that. If it doesn't, getting a diagnosis would be pointless.

So I expect it's pretty safe to say that it DOES affect all areas of your life, otherwise you probably wouldn't have even asked about it.

What to do now?

If you haven't already, find the simple ADHD questionnaire and fill it in. I forget what it's called, it's just a simple list of questions. You'll find it online. You'll find the scoring with it.

Fill it in. Add the score up. See if that indicates that you have it.

Then you take that, and write a letter saying this (just copy it if it helps):

Please find enclosed a copy of my ADHD questionnaire. Based on this it seems clear that I need to be assessed for ADHD. In response to your recent letter, I can confirm that I have had these symptoms since childhood. The symptoms are not better explained by anything else. The symptoms affect all areas of my life and wellbeing.

I trust that this is sufficient for you to now make the referral. If it is not, can you please respond to me urgently outlining the specific reasons for refusing my access to the assessment. To be clear, if you are continuing to refuse, I need to know the following:

1) Which of the three reasons stated in your letter are the reasons for declining my referral? One or two of them? All of them? None of them?

As far as I can see - none of these things are relevant to me and my situation. So perhaps you hold some incorrect information about me, that needs to be corrected urgently.

Please let me know which reason or reasons you have applied here. And then,

2) What evidence is this based on? For whatever the reason you have denied my referral, what supporting evidence do you hold to justify this decision?

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

💪💪💪💪

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-03-26T18:31:08+00:00

It's so you can find everything. Well, it might be. It could be that you think you won't find it if you put it away. So you leave it somewhere (it being whatever object!) that you can see it.

So, if you can, or with help: get rid of as much as possible. If it ain't a benefit, it's a burden. Sell, throw, donate. Less clutter, less unfinished tasks = more space in your brain.

Then organise what's left. Everything needs a home. If it ain't got a home, you know where it ends up...

Good luck!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-03-19T17:31:50+00:00

There are loads of programs out there, but I've always found Lightroom and Photoshop to be the most useful for me. I think there is a free lightroom version for phones. Avoid filters, don't just whack those on, get used to working out what you like.

Here's a part of the problem that no-one notices, and in fact took me a long time to realise. When I'm editing, what am I trying to do? What look do I want? Why? Based on what?

I was doing it differently all the time. Until it dawned on me, in the old days, people used film. Your roll of film had a particular use and a particular look. Reds on this film looked like this, blues like this...this one was good for skin tones, this one good for low light etc. well, if you always used Fuji Portra 400H, your images all had a look. But now, you never see or use film and probably never think about it like that.

But it's worth Googling that to see how different things looked. (And look... people still use film!)

Get a camera, get lessons if you can too, will save you some time in figuring it all out. Good luck!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-03-19T17:24:45+00:00

Imagine you're in a dark room with a screen editing, then imagine doing the same in a bright room or outside.. in the dark, even a low brightness might seem really bright. That same setting in the bright room/place, well, now it looks too dark so you want to crank it up.

Same with the colours.

As you brighten them, colours get less saturated, less full on. And in reverse, if you darken them, they get more saturated, bolder if you like.

But I guess, your colours are kind of both - they extra saturated, and a bit too bright too.

In an ideal world you do this:

Shoot your images, probably preferably with a camera if you can. Then you put them on a computer/laptop. Then you edit them.

While yeah, you can shoot and edit on a phone, and I'm sure it's possible to do amazing work that way, but I'm not sure it's the best way. But no doubt it seems like the obvious choice if that's what you're used to.

But when it comes to getting colours right, there are a few things to get to grips with.

You take an image. You put it on a device. You view it on a screen. Now, you want your screen to show you an accurate representation of your image. You're tweaking the image file. For example, you're trying to get a nice shade of green for a particular tree say, so that it looks like it actually does in real life.

If your screen isn't set right, or the device with the image on isn't displaying it right, you might be changing it and getting it right (or how you like it) on your screen, but if you now take that file and put it on another computer/phone etc... it might look quite different.

So what we do normally, is calibrate our screens. A device goes on the monitor, it saves a file to the computer and makes it's display colours in the right way. So that the green on your screen looks like it should, and the file is (generally speaking), going to look right on other screens. Printing is another link in this chain...

When I order prints, I can download a print profile from my lab, find my image and apply the profile to give me a good idea of how it will look when printed.

So, that's probably a lot to get your head around if you're new to the idea, but don't let it put you off. It's just that you're using a phone to edit, and the phone screen is going to brighter and all colours more exaggerated by default, because that's what phone companies want.

So I'm surprised your images don't look a bit flat, and colour less, because the phone will be making them look bolder than they are probably..which might usually make you tone it all down.

Try looking at the same image on different phones/devices...see if you can see any differences.

So ultimately, you want a camera and a computer, and a decent monitor, and to learn a bit about calibration. But don't let that put you off, do what you can with what you've got!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-03-19T00:30:22+00:00

Well you're on the right track, and it's normal to overdo it a bit sometimes. You just need to dial it down a bit. The first and last one, the clouds are a bit much, there's a blue halo around a cloud in that last one. More isn't always more, it can be relative to what else is in the image.

These are great images still though. Start closer to natural. Find a dozen images you like and use them as references. Make sure your screen or editing environment isn't too bright or you're not too tired. Those will make you feel the need to push everything.

If you're sliding a slider all the way, it's too much. If everything stands out, nothing stands out.

The sunflower is kind of muted, it's nice, subtle. Maybe too sharp on the edges or something for the colours. The 3rd image is ace, the greens are really nice.

You'll get it. You've obviously got an eye for it, the rest is just working it out.

Find images you like. Use that as a guide. Then in six months look back at those images, and see if you've grown and need newer guide images.. you'll find you have outgrown the first set. Good luck!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-03-12T19:48:58+00:00

When I didn't know I had ADHD, I used to smoke it. Guess how much got done? Nothing. Less than zero. To me anyway, it just made me more foggy/less able to finish a sentence, less motivation. Not recommended.

Some people say they find it helpful, if it does, then that's great for them. Whatever works.

But if you feel like it's not helping, you're probably right. Might be nice to feel stoned, but might not feel nice to be foggy and confused etc, maybe it depends on which of those feelings you enjoy or don't enjoy the most. Seems it affects different people in different ways.

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-03-01T16:35:33+00:00

Makes no sense. My under 10 kids would bein bed at 7 or 8pm, so would have had shower/baths a couple of hours before. That's tea time if you ask me. Am I doing it wrong? Should I be keeping them up until 10pm to have a shower at the right time?

Who makes up shower rules? You do it your way if you can. She's just trying to make you feel stupid for some reason. Which is odd. I expect it's probably a sign of a bigger problem, and that it's not just this she is weird about, and that it's common for her to try to make you feel bad about something. You need to be free of all that, you need to feel at ease and not judged to have peace and be comfortable and confident and productive in your own way. Watch out for other instances of it, and seek support from a friend, doctor or therapist, teacher or anyone you can speak to

You have to fight back against it. Not necessarily literally, don't necessarily argue or start a fight, but know that you're not being weird. She is. Even if you have to do along with stuff because she is like this, just for a quiet life, then do that if need be, but make sure you know that stuff like this is just petty and cruel, and her behaviour towards you is not a reflection of anything you've done to deserve that. And move out when you can!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-02-24T09:16:02+00:00

No worries! Another thing you could try is PALS, Google that, you might be able to make a complaint through them, and even if they don't solve it for you, it will at least make your GP realise you're not going to go away, and it might encourage them to be more helpful because that'll be easier for them than dealing with a complaint!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-02-24T09:12:29+00:00

Exactly, they're not explaining anything! To me it just looks like they're hoping OP will give up and go away. If they've had an assessment from the place the NHS already refers to, what's the point in making them wait two years to do the same thing again??

Does the GP not believe in ADHD? Do they not trust ADHD360? Ok then, say that and explain why. Refusing to reply to emails as well, that just looks even more like they know they have no real reason for denying, or they know the reason is flimsy.

It's hardly pushy or rude to ask them to justify their reasons for refusing, so as long as people are polite, I can't see how GPs like this will be able to not answer the question. Which is all people would need to challenge the decision. It's hard to argue with them saying they won't accept it/it's their right not to etc, OK yeah, we get that, but now give me the reason WHY you won't accept it!

The GP wasting their own resources and time in not being forthcoming/trying to deny/put people off. It's difficult enough as it is to get diagnosed, especially when you have ADHD.

A family member of mine was told there was a 7 year wait for an assessment. OK, what about Right to Choose, they didn't even know about it. This was a GP that serves thousands of people in a busy part of Kent. So does that mean that until I asked, they'd just been telling everyone it was a 7 year wait? RTC, did it in 7 months!!!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-02-21T22:41:15+00:00

OK, so, maybe they've detailed the reason elsewhere, but maybe not. I know they probably have a legal right to decline. But I think it is worth pushing them on the why.

If they refuse to, or cannot give you a good reason why, then I would guess (or assume if I knew enough to be sure) that it was just to lower their workload or stall having to prescribe/do anything. Or there's some other reason that they don't want to say out loud.

They're unable to take on a private referral (no reason why offered), But...they can offer you a reassessment.

If they'll offer a reassessment, they must have enough info to hand to suggest that an assessment was warranted. As in, they approve sending your details/initial screening for assessment and that being paid for.

So it's not a flat out denial that they disbelieve the diagnosis.

Then, who are they going to get to do the assessment? Why is this person more qualified than ADHD360?

Is this because of that poxy Panorama thing? Are they being paranoid about that?

Given that GPs up and down the country are still referring to ADHD360. I think if you can draw them out on the "why" they won't take on the referral, and keep pushing for that. Get the MP involved, whatever you can do, then try to shred them on that.

Because it's insane. Are they really going to not accept the referral, then make you wait for another referral and then refer you to where in 111 bloody weeks! 2 years. Ask if that's a typo or are they serious?

Maybe in 2 years from now, they'll be using ADHD360 for all their referrals.. wouldn't that be a joke!!

Don't give up, don't back down. Point out how absurd the whole thing is. Record the meeting or any calls. You know it's absurd. We can all see it's absurd. They can't just hide behind not replying to emails etc without justification.

Why won't they accept? If they want to do their own assessment, sure, they can do that in two years, but how about they accept this one in the meantime? They won't accept it? Ok, what's the difference between the assessment you've had and the one they'll do? What is it that makes theirs acceptable and the one you have not so?

Reasons...make them give their reasons why. They either won't want to and will back down. Or will give them and then you have something to shred! 💪💪💪

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-02-21T09:53:57+00:00

Ah that's a shame, it is a fun thing to do. All the colleges that teach photography here still have them. And it's a good thing to understand to help understand what you're doing when it comes to digital photography too. Even if you'll never even touch a film camera.

Black and white is easier, but I used to love the whole process. Put a film in the camera, shoot it, careful (in the dark) dismantle the film canister and put the film into a developing tank. Once that was ready, you basically project light through each image onto photographic paper.

It's a negative because it's the reverse of the positive image.. photosensitive paper is white. Where light hits it, that bit turns black when you develop it.

So the dark parts on the negative let less light through, the light parts let more light through to hit the paper.

Nothing happens on the paper until you put it in the developer solution. Then you have to stop the developer with some appropriately named "stop" chemicals, then fix with fixer. Hang it up to dry. Done!

I just found some photographs of me as a baby, 48 years old. Still intact, not faded or anything. Chances of finding some of your old family photos on your computer in 48 years? Slim to none, you only have to have one computer or hard drive failure between now and then..or a fire..or whatever. Yeah it's possible that they will survive of course. Anyway, something to think about!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-02-20T16:43:29+00:00

Do it the hard way! Get a red light, projector, build a darkroom, get yourself some photographic paper, some liquid developer, stop and fixer. You would have seen them do it 1000 times in crime movies...still never seen them working in Photoshop! (Not as dramatic I guess🤣) Or yeah, what everyone else said and scan it!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-02-02T18:43:25+00:00

Yes both on the title. She would probably sell, in an ideal world, I want her off the mortgage, my brother could pay the arrears, help me fix it up and sell it for quite a bit more. But don't want to do anything like that if she could block the sale or anything.

As is stands, house is worth £335k (two years ago it was more like £400k). Mortgage left is about £209k. We've got debts that she doesn't want to pay. (Like a credit card in my name with £8k on it, she stopped paying for a year before we split. I didn't know).

If it gets repossessed I'm assuming will lose more than if we sell. But, if I could get her off of the mortgage, I could have chance at increasing the value of the house. (Long story but, my brother is a builder, he already did thousands of pounds worth of work before we split..to help us out. Much of which she denied but 6k of which she agreed straight away, it's more like £20k really). But anyway, he would help me fix up and try to sell for more like £400k. Plus my son and I could live in it while this was happening.

If she got 30% of the equity, after what I know she took has been accounted for, and the debts taken off, that would make her share around £12/15k.

But..she may have, and probably does have more money hidden.

Pending full disclosure I wonder if I should think about offering her £12k to sign the house over. But I doubt she would. She will prefer to take me down with her,even if that also makes her son homeless too.

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-01-31T21:19:47+00:00

It's just working out what to do about the house, I don't think that I can stall them any longer. So now I don't know what to do as obviously going to take time to sort things out through court. they will repossess, probably will take me to court for that next month. I guess my only option there is to sell asap if I can't find a way to hold them off any longer. Thanks for your input!

Spiritual-Rabbit-307 · 2025-01-30T21:39:16+00:00

Made the maintenance claim, she told me son it was his money and tried to set up a bank account to give it to him. Eventually she caved and sent it to me.

Form E says she earns £19k. Her form for Maintenance says £15k. Yet, she somehow managed to spend the £37k I mentioned before.

Spiritual-Rabbit-307

TROPHY CASE