No doubt many people meeting/seeing S for the first time view her as someone with severe mental health problems. I've got used to our walking being constantly accompanied by her seemingly endless stream of conversation with her 'friends', much of it loud and agitated, but I can imagine that some of the people we pass find it unsettling. They would have found her behaviour even more disturbing a while ago.
On a bus, I'm even more 'on edge' about it. But it's encouraging that I can get her to reduce the volume when I feel it's getting anti-social. During the course of two bus journeys today, when she was talking - there were significant periods of silence - it was done so quietly that I doubt whether anyone noticed anything unusual. And this was without any intervention from me. So this is another thing that has improved.
Happily, it's not just me who sees improvements - I would start to doubt myself if it was. It's becoming very noticeable how everyone, including experienced professionals, who saw S back in the late autumn when she was going through the most difficult time, express surprise bordering on amazement when they see her now. People mention her calmness, her happiness, the fact that she looks so much healthier now that she regained some of the weight she lost and the fact that she clearly follows conversations much better, even though she often has difficulty making herself understood when she tries to participate.
Of course, everyone would like to know how this has been achieved. Join the club!
Naturally, I do have some ideas about this. I've mentioned some of them here. I'll try to pull all these ideas together in one post very soon.
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