6 Bad Patterns That You Might Have Developed During the Pandemic

I know things won't go back to normal--if ever--because of the pandemic and the ever-lasting fear of another wave or another pandemic. Failing businesses, and some that won't stay afloat at all, record unemployment and the subsequent horror of losing one's home, anxiety-driven aversion to attending a place of worship or airplane travel, not to mention the well over 500,000 deaths to date just in the U.S. alone. And those are just the ones that come to my mind first.

Have these 6 changes come to you? I won't offer advice (that's a turn-off), but the 6 things and knowledge about them should make you want to change!

1. ALCOHOL

But do people drink more during the pandemic?

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) have issued warnings to people to avoid excessive drinking, saying it may increase COVID-19 severity and even susceptibility.

Yale Medicine's website that for the week ending May 2, total alcohol sales in the U.S. were increased by more than 32% (probably more now) compared to the same week a year ago. 

When asked about any positive effects alcohol has in the pandemic, David Fiellin, MD, director of the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine, says a definite no. 

"In general, because we know that alcohol has a negative impact on the lungs and the immune system, we believe it will be associated with more severe cases of COVID-19 disease,” Dr. Fiellin says.  “Alcohol can damage the intestinal lining, which then allows bacteria to enter the body more easily. That can ‘rev up’ the inflammatory response, which is also a big part of COVID-19 disease.”  

There's that. Thus, SARS-CoV-2 virus particles could have easier access to the lungs if those cells aren’t working properly, 

2. EATING MORE COMFORT FOODS 

Aah, "high everything" comfort foods. They are emotionally soothing, but we tend to eat more of them in stress situations. They make us feel good that improves mood and well being.  

But sugar and carbs slow down the immune system, and these comfort foods lead to a combination where the brain says  "gimme more" to crave during periods of stress.  Now that you know, you're able to act and maybe resist. 

The Wall Street Journal website says, "Many shoppers have favored fresh and specialty brands over Big Food’s processed products in recent years, while others have opted for cheaper store brands. Now, the world’s largest makers of packaged foods say frozen pizza, pasta sauce, and mac and cheese are rising in favor as consumers in lockdown eat at home."

3. SOCIAL MEDIA BENDERS
Social media can be a welcome distraction if it's not about the rise in COVID. If it comes to a point where social media becomes addictive (like picking up your phone first before really, really having to pee), you need to change your course.

It's bad for your mental health, and blue light exposure emitted by your phone can disrupt sleep patterns and lower your immune function.

4. NOT EXERCISING

By now, close to 8 months later, the pandemic may ravish your energy and motivation. Moving around and physical exercise, in your own safe home can do wonders.

The idea is increase your heart rate, and this in turn will increase blood flow to your brain and muscles. 

You can do this--moving around and exercise--even while you're standing at the sink washing dishes. March in place, or move side to side, or squat lightly. Exercise doesn't have to be hard. It just needs to be consistent and added. Put on some music to get you going.

5. TOTAL STRUCTURE OF YOUR LIFE IS UPENDED

Staying at home was novel for most people in the first few weeks, but eight months? You probably want to go back to work or find another job. Either way, for millions of Americans, by now, this state of things probably makes you feel useless and  off track now that you're unemployed or cut back in hours. 

Sleeping less, skipping meals or overeating, forgetting to take medicines or supplements, seeing no plan for living or living well? There's no better time to see your personal care physician (PCP) and get help. 

6. A POST-PANDEMIC MINDSET

We're all seeking something that will get our heads on straight, but for each person, it's different.  What works for some may not apply to you. And you may disappoint yourself if you compare what you did to your pre-COVID standards. The best you can do is aim for less or more everyday. Less (or no) alcohol, comfort foods, and social media, more exercise, to make you able to do the best for yourself. 

Remember, if you mess up one day, start the next day. We all--everyone of us--fuck up sometimes. Humans are like that. And by the way? The pandemic slowed down, but it's not over! 

Visual Deficit of Any Kind or Just Fatigue from Stroke or Other Brain Injury? OrCam Read to the Rescue!

I was tired after 9 hours from multiple projects and the devastating stroke when, pre-coronavirus pandemic, I went to a famous vegetarian restaurant with a person I was going to interview, which also served vegans (of which I am one). I was told they had excellent food (first-rate grub is not at all uncommon for Portland) and we were seated when the server handed us the menus. 

My anxiety kicked in when I saw the printed menu. Though the lighting wasn't dim, the items were too small to read and my double vision went off from fatigue, both of which made for impossible reading. 

It was a small place, and I could have asked him to read the menu to me, but it was embarrassing and awkward. I closed the menu as if I read it, and so did my interviewee, motioned the waiter that we were ready to order, and asked the server instead, "I'll have that dish with tofu," upon which, being confused about which dish I meant, he rattled off several dishes with tofu, and I chose one.

Almost the actual size

Enter OrCam Read (albeit six months later), the magnificent marvel which is five inched long, less than an inch wide, who reads anything to you from the printed page. It is totally portable, and you could zero in to only part of the document, like for a newspaper or read the whole page of a book. I got one on a loan to write this blog post because my heart is with stroke and other brain injury survivors whose after-effects, except for the lucky ones, include visual deficits. 

The two founders are: Prof. Amnon Shashua holds the Sachs chair in computer science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his field of expertise is computer vision and machine learning, and Ziv Aviram who holds a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management from Ben-Gurion University. They both have a healthy history in safer ways to observe the environment, and that led to OrCam Read. 

Impressive indeed. But I wanted more. I sometimes, to this day, have double vision. 

The instructions say, "OrCam Read is a personal AI [Artificial Intelligence] -driven device for people who have mild or low vision, reading difficulties, including dyslexia and reading fatigue, and anyone who is consistently exposed to large amounts of text – at work or school, or for leisure."

Aside from the restaurant where I would have used OrCam Read, it doesn't need WiFi so no disruptions for pilots on airplanes or captains on ships. One could even use it to read books for enjoyment or serious stuff like final exams. The battery in constant use lasts about four hours.

Not only does OrCam Read have screen selection, but there's a laser pointer, too, if you want people to read a chart or bullet points during a presentation. 

OrCam Read features:

• 13-megapixel camera in front

• Built-in speaker

• Only 4 buttons

Power

Trigger

Plus – increases volume or rate of speech

Minus – decreases volume or rate of speech

• Bluetooth connectivity

Functionality:

2 reading options

Capture a block of text with a box-shaped laser beam

Choose where to start reading with an arrow-shaped laser beam

• No need to scan text or follow a line, all you have to do is hold the device in front of the text, push a button, and the text is read aloud instantly

• No internet connectivity is required and there is no connectivity to the cloud

Warranty:

1 year warranty

Oded Tsin, the Business Development Manager for OrCam, said, "Once you press the trigger button, the first button next to the +, the laser guidance will appear. You can keep holding the trigger button and aim toward the script. Once you will release it, the device will capture the image and read to you. 

"If you want to switch between the two laser options, you will double click the trigger button same way you double click a computer mouse." 

So OrCam Read couldn't be easier. I tried it a bunch of times with the loaner. I used it to read a book for an hour and it took the stress of double vision out of the mix. I used OrCam Read to read a printed newsletter from Stroke Awareness Oregon and it did a perfect job. I even used OrCam Read to read an invitation to a baby shower! It's a sure bet that it will work every time. 

Now for the cost for which you can pay it out according to your needs: $1990 and it's not covered by any type of insurance (though it ought to be). Perhaps your organization can buy OrCam Read to share among those with visual deficits.

I want to thank Oded Tsin and also Chris Braswell, Area Sales Manager with OrCam, for letting me try the OrCam Read device.

For more information about OrCam Read, please click here and enter your contact information:  

https://orcam.co/30bEOvV  

Post-note: In case you were wondering, I received no compensation for promoting OrCam Read. So why OrCam Read? I've dedicated the rest of my life to helping stroke and other brain injury survivors and, with many having visual deficits, they're among the ones that will benefit the most from this extraordinary device. Now you have the answer...in case you were wondering.  

Aphasia: 10 Insensitive Reactions to Someone Who Has It

Aphasia is not having a senior moment every once in awhile. Rather, aphasia is the loss of ability to comprehend or express speech caused by brain damage, one of negatives for winding up with a malfunctioned brain from stroke and Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). Sometimes you get better with aphasia from stroke or TBI, but few get better completely. I know because all ten happened to me.

I make a self-deprecating joke with aphasia when I often say, stumbling to find the exact word, "This here is aphasia in action," naming it before people think I'm slow. But naming it or not, aphasia really sucks. I've had it April, 2009, because I had a stroke.

I've come up with a list the insensitives among us say when, after a few seconds, they lose my thread and start talking about something else. I want to say, "C'mon, guys, can't you wait while I think of the word," but I never say it. Why bother? I saw that now. But early on, I wanted to change the world's thinking about aphasia. What a dud I was.

Here's the list of the top ten reactions people have for those with aphasia:

1. I have trouble understanding you

This statement cuts right into my soul. You're speaking English. I'm speaking English. "So what's the problem?" I say silently. To my ear, it sounds good enough, but to the person's ear, it sounds incomplete, which it probably is. But still....

2. Supplying the right word

Oh, no! I want to be part of the conversation, and if you'd just hang on for a sec or three, the word will come to me. Or they won't.But my aphasia is different from some, because the word that I'll come up with, though in the ballpark of correctness, a word I've rarely used before. Example, we took a ride to the coast and when we arrived, I described the houses as "ramshackle." I never know what's going to come out of my mouth because I lost the filters when I had a stroke in 2009. 

3. People finishing your thought

I can honestly say, "What the F is wrong with them?" Sheesh. Give a gal a chance. They think they're doing me a favor, but the exact opposite happens. I resent them, and fairly soon, I want to leave the room. 

4. Speaking sentences that NO ONE understands

I've improved, but early on in the first three I spoke sentences that even after I was finished, I  couldn't understand. People just stopped listening soon after. 

5. Making up words

I used words, back in the beginning, that weren't really words at all, like "clockfer," "greenac," and "withand." I know that I said them because early on (wanting to escape the aphasia which I still have not done completely), I used to tape conversations on my phone and recognize the errors. I was embarrassed but given the condition I was in, a little empathy please?

6. Inability to understand someone else's conversation

In the first year after my stroke, I went to an art lecture on Picasso, and with the visuals right there in front of me, I had severe trouble following that talk. I hadn't heard of aphasia, but I'm satisfied that other people had trouble following other lectures at first with strokes, too. But people were annoyed that I "didn't get it." Remember when I said aphasia sucks?

7. Pronunciation suffers

On the first round, even after eleven years, I still, like a little child, say "bisquetti" for spaghetti when I don't remember to slow down my speech. It is also useful to say every part of the word in isolation and put it all together, slowly at first. Thus, I had the inability to pronounce words correctly, and some words not due to muscle weakness or paralysis because I could pronounce them if I slowed the heck down. Some people laughed. It wasn't funny though.

8. Loss of reading and/or writing skills

In some patients with aphasia, reading and/or writing skills (usually both at first) are lost. This means that the patient is no longer able to comprehend written language or even express themselves through writing, all of which are necessary to communicate to emotion, language, and information using symbols, and even emojis. You can imagine what that loss does for self esteem. They have to start over. I'm extremely fortunate, as a writer, I didn't have that affliction. 

9. Spontaneous speech is rare for aphasiacs

I gave a speech to a stroke support group a year after the stroke in the Hershey Medical Canter in Pennsylvania, and though it appeared spontaneous, I simply read off the bullet points so fast, it seemed that the neural pathways were on fire for somebody in the back row who was simply listening and not watching the presentation. Spontaneous speech, also called off-the-cuff, is speech that happens without any planning having taken place, and the majority of aphasics, though they want to do it, simply are unable. 

10. The facial expressions

I saw the frowns, and sneers, when I talked to people, even now, if the minds are already made up that this is a person (me) whom they won't understand. I detest it though I can't have any control over so I don't worry about it like in the early years. I can try and talk slower and who cares what they think? If they call me slow and dimwitted, who cares? 

Alexander Hamilton said it best: "We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided." Hamilton may have been talking economics, but I'm talking stroke and TBI. Different causes; same result. You have to learn to live with it! Now I say it, but in the early years, I was totally unforgiving. Here's another famous quote: "It's so hard being a person," said by yours truly, Joyce Hoffman, in April, 2009.