I'm a lifelong sufferer of moderate to severe depression and mild temporal
lobe epilepsy. Things like this seem to run in my family with one or two
kids out every family getting 'The Curse'. Thankfully, it's been going into
remission for the last couple of years due to a lot of factors including
state-of-the-art medication and support from my family, freinds, wife, and
my computers and Newton! Probably the main reason that I took up using a
Newton was because I needed some kind of 'cognitive wheelchair' while I got
through this health mess. Between the illness itself and the side-effects
of the medications my thinking is, shall we say, somewhat more chaotic that
it would be otherwise and my memory has a half life of about 30 seconds.
For example, it used to be that if someone gave me a phone number I would
literally have to take it down in my newton number by number, repeat it back
to make sure it was correct and then I would dial it number by number from
the Newton because I could not remember the whole number long enough to dial
it. Paper was never fast or flexible enough to provide this and many other
kinds of cognitive support. When the 2000 came out I nearly hocked my soul
to get one. It was like a gift from God. Even the incremental improvement
of the Pix accelerator made a significant qualitative improvement in my life
because I depend on it so much. As my health improves the way I use my
Newton changes. It's been a part of the 'repatterning' and rehabilitation
program I've put my brain through and as new functions come back to life I
don't need to depend on my Newton (and other computers) so much to support
in those areas. In the process I developed skills that have turned into a
career. So now I tinker with computers for a living and make decent money
doing it - except for the damned exchange rate of the Euro to the Dollar!
I'm married and have a pretty decent life. I believe that this would not
have been possible without the Newton, or at very least it would have taken
a much, much longer time, and since I've now just turned 40, there wasn't
that much more time to get the show on the road. Anyone who's in the age
range, please don't take offense. What I mean is that 5 years ago I could
hardly read and I could barely work part time. If you can't think you can't
do even when you're physically fit from the neck down. It's hard to see
yourself through to retirement on that track. But all things considered
things are going incredibly, unbelievably well now - and they continue to
improve at a pretty good rate. Life is better than I could imagine was
possible even 2 years ago.
I'm just curious if there is anyone in the community who has had even
remotely similar experience in using their Newton. I've mostly felt like I
was the only one who might use it this way.
Jon.
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