I forgot to turn the stove off

[mickey]

Two nights ago I made some instant coffee, and a few minutes later a housemate pointed out to me that I had forgotten to turn the stove off.

I've had functional assessments by a social worker before, and one of the classic tests for whether someone is competent to live alone is whether they remember to turn the stove off after using it.

This might have been a one-time occurrence, but the reason I forgot to turn the stove off is that my symptoms were making me lose concenttration. Which means it _could_ happen again.

I have to face the possibility that I might never be in a position to live alone in my own private residence again. It's depressing.

 

[jaguarundi]

Sorry to hear that this is depressing you. Its hard for me to comment as my experience of forgetting to turn the stove off (and I have occasionally done this) is because I am doing several things at once as well as thinking about something completely different as well. Basically not concentrating, but due to pressure of time and a bit of carelessness.

I am guessing that your problems are mental health related and therefore, different.

But this has only happened once to you, it seems, and you are aware of how and why it happened which seems like a good thing. So don't despair. Be glad someone found it and continue to work towards independent living. Good luck!

 

[Cavey]

Seriously, this happens all the time. You'd struggle to find someone who hasn't left the stove on. I've done it literally tens of times. Once I left a pizza in the oven for 3 hours while I went to sleep, only to awaken to a house full of thick black smoke and a hockey puck in the oven...

I understand that it's to do with some pre-existing condition that you have, but the result of leaving the stove on is the same for everyone, so I wouldn't be too hard on yourself.

 

[mickey]

Someone suggested that I put sticky notes on the stove, fridge etc reminding me to turn it off. If I start to neglect other basic daily living requirements I can create sticky notes for them too. But overall I share the common areas with other people and there is usually someone there who can notice when I don't do something I should do. My housemates appear to be sympathetic and willing to help out. I'd say they feel sorry for me, but not much I can do about that.

 

[Tiina63]

I once half turned one of the gas rings off on my stove without realising. The flame went out but there was gas leaking into the house for 24 hours before I noticed. Recently I put an egg on to boil in a pan of water and forgot all about it a few minutes later. I went out to a friends for a hour, came home to am awful smell, an exploded egg and a pan boiled dry. I have often thought that I am not really safe living on my own.

 

[Blue Bob]

I use the timer on my phone to remind myself of things. It works really well for me.

 

[h3donist]

I have this - I call it "Keeping the yoghurt pot and throwing away the spoon" syndrome. I have some complications (brain haemorrhage, Dysphasia, porencephalic cyst on my brain etc) but it can happen to the healthiest of people. There's nothing to worry about but it might pay to have a CT Scan of your brain to see if there are any issues. If not, then some Cognitive Behavioural Therapy might help to keep your focus and not go into "autopilot" which leads to these kind of mishaps.

Hope things work out for you

 

[mickey]

I did have brain MRIs in 2012, and, yes, I have a very tiny "ghost" in my frontal lobe, but the doctors say the only effect it might have is seizures and I don't have seizures. My actual diagnosis is schizophrenia, which I got in 1991 (although I worked full-time until 2006).

One thing I need to work on is my tendency to yield to feelings of insecurity and jump to negative conclusions about myself and go into a panic the way I did when I made the original post in this thread. I'm too accustomed to thinking of myself as incompetent. That's exacerbated by how the people around me treat me, but, realistically, I know I'm not nearly as bad as they seem to think.

 

[jaguarundi]

One thing I need to work on is my tendency to yield to feelings of insecurity and jump to negative conclusions about myself and go into a panic ..

Good you recognise this tendency, and can calm down and think more realistically. A skill that quite a lot of people could benefit from, regardless of diagnosis or brain scans...