Does being busy mean your brain can ignore symptoms?

[gingerj]

I have noticed that when I am at work preparing and delivering mail that I sometimes forget my next medication time and can go an hour or more longer without symptoms returning. This has been most evident with the crazy Christmas period. If on the other hand I'm out walking for leisure I can always tell when my next dose is due.

Does anyone else find that being focused on work seems to distract the brain from PD symptoms?

[Astra7]

Yes. Definitely.

[Mogul1]

Absolutely. I notice it on the golf course. I get so focused on how I’m swinging along with choosing the right tactics and strategy. Those who don’t golf will laugh, but it’s meditation in motion. I like to describe it by saying that your system gets so deeply involved in what you are doing, it preoccupies all your analytic and athletic abilities so completely, there is no “room” for the Parkinson’s symptoms. This state can strengthen if one is playing well or “in the zone” where your systems know what to do without being told. Things like, “keep your eye on the ball” or telling your self to hit the “Sweet Spot”.

I have had many days on the golf course where I didn’t have to think too much. Thinking in that situation is like giving yourself golf lessons while playing the round. It doesn’t work very well. Instead of mechanical, it becomes sensory, a “Feel Factor”. You know what the good swing feels like, you know you can repeat it, and your attention focuses on the target and good things happen!

As I walk to the car, I realize that I forgot to take my meds(Rytary) and my system switches off dramatically. I have difficulty taking my shoes off and then grab my golf bag and shuffle to the back of the car to put my clubs in the trunk.

I have had similar experience Alpine skiing. Meditation in motion.

[PalmSprings in reply to Mogul1]

Oh my, you have captured golf exactly.

[ewoki]

I have found the same thing. I ordinarily go 3 hrs between Sinemet doses but when I am really busy, I will go 4 or 5 hrs between doses.

[ion_ion]

If the focus is diverted to something else the symptoms go away.

[Cbgs]

Same!

[Phero]

Hi Ginger, Yes, I've noticed the same. Don't forget that we are social animals - being around other people at work and at social gatherings has a beneficial affect on you, your brain

Cheers

[Sapeye2020]

all the time, any time, takes just 1 question and it (the thought) is gone, even if my pills are right in front of me, the wife asks me if they are table decorations or am I going to use them?

[gingerj]

Thank all for your replies. It does make you think that the worst thing that could happen is to give up work. Even worse would be to then not have some other way to distract and occupy your mind.