SCHADENFREUDE
Yep. Another article about the after-effects of TGA. Hey! Tamper down that enthusiasm, will ya? You know it’s just what you have wondering about. Ha! That’s funny. There are a couple of startling discoveries that I will share.
1. People are behaving in strange ways.
2. Trusting my brain again.
Over time, I have written about all types of personalities and emotional scenarios, experienced over my career and personal journey through life. What I am experiencing now is something I did not want to believe was true. I’m not saying I had not heard of folks like this, it’s just that I had not ever seen the psychology in action, firsthand. At my age, less and less shocks me. Or, so I thought.
We have all read about my brain, ad nausea. I get it. You have experienced me baring my soul and documenting this new and frightening journey. Now, let me ask you a question. Would you expect people that you think are your friends to screw with your mind after such an experience? The carbon units with a soul, empathy, compassion will be shouting now….”NO! No Way!”
It’s too bad people don’t come with a label.
Let me preface the future accusation with the understanding that I am still learning to trust my brain. I find at the end of the day, I perform a review of sorts. “Did I really say that?” “Do I remember a particular conversation correctly?” “Am I understanding and communicating things appropriately?” Blah, blah, blah…you get where I am going with this.
On two occasions this past week and a half, I have had someone say something that was not true. When I look at them confused or attempt to contradict, they cut in immediately and said, “Oh, don’t you remember saying/doing that?” Of course, this is a loaded question now, isn’t it? If you say NO, you don’t remember. And, you can’t say YES because you do remember it didn’t happen. The problem is, people don’t trust that you really remember.
Most heinous to screw around with someone’s uncertainty.
Definition of Schadenfreude: pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune. This mild form of mental condition is not new to me. I have seen it perpetrated on others, just never to me personally. At least not to my face. So, in one of the instances from this week, schadenfreude applies. Not really hard core cruel, just kinda sick.
In what Universe would you play on the self-uncertainty of someone whose had a stroke and amnesia, who touts to be your friend? Are you banking on them not remembering? Are you tracking the results and reporting them to a group of people betting on the dates when you’re going to lose it? I can’t think of a single reason. Can you?
