I am so old now that nothing seems to amaze me. this even.

One ONE person says a stupid thing and all of us who do not have Parkinsons are berated for our stupidity and lack of finesse.

Come on now. Get it together and say what took place and what one person thought.

I know i don't belong to the superior intellect of some but I can hold my head up in the face of many who question why the xxxx I keep going here.

But today I wonder also.

Thank you all for your replies. It is very interesting that the main group of people who we have been afflicted with in regard to these 'self blame' attitudes all have careers in acupunture and shiatsu, or are people associated with them, some using therapy labels to make a career for themselves.

These are destructive attitudes that lead to a loss of support for people when they most need it - there is no evidence at all for them. It seems that pseudo science can often prevail - even the media pushes stuff like this. What really grabs me is the lack of compassion from people who purport to be healers. I can't write off acupunture, its a good therapy, it is just the new age mumbo jumbo claptrap that seems to comes along with it.

I have many wonderful friends, supportive and generous of heart, many of them are, like me, getting older, with all sorts of conditions popping out.

Rick, I love your tee shirt idea - my friend with MS would love it too, perhaps we'll get some printed up! Steffi, Lee, Paula and all, thank you for
your thoughts on this, Daffy too, for showing where we can bring things on ourselves, but wrong living in this context can be anything that can be disapproved of at all!

Lee, this sentence of yours made a real impact on me:
"I was "dropped" because I was apparently too sick to be asked to join in their various activities..." - this blame thing has been the excuse for exactly that.

Rick, another thought - ahd you noticed how realism now means 'negativity' !!!!

Thank you all for the warmth and good humour of this group, it helps keep me afloat.....

Lindy xxx

one thing i have noticed
 

is that while there are writers and speakers who pound this idea of self blame again and again, there is another larger group of decent people who are themselves sick with the syndromes of our unhealthy culture. Like the Little Engine That Could they desperately cling to the thought that they can think themselves well. It becomes a fundamentalism and like all such approaches tends to run short on mercy. And like most fundamentalisms there is a lot of fear.