Should I Tell My Therapist I Have An Imaginary Cat?

Hi everyone.

It was T.S. Eliot who nominated April as the cruellest month but for me, it’s any month where the temperature regularly goes above 22 degrees. I realise that in many parts of the world that happens pretty much all year round but here in the UK, we’re usually only talking about June, July and August although I do remember us having a heatwave in October once.

Personally I hate being hot although I’m now of the age where that can happen even when the temperature outside is below freezing. And of course, the summer temperatures we have are nothing compared with the horrendous heights on the thermometer and their deadly effects that occur in other places.

But even in relatively “Cool Britannia”, we can still have trouble working, exercising, eating, concentrating and keeping our temper in the summer months. (Or is that just me?) Trying to sleep, in our air-conditionedless houses with little or no insulation that can feel almost as hot at night as they do in the day, is a particular problem. And don’t get me started on how light it is at 5am when the birds start singing and the sun makes its first appearance just as you’ve finally managed to nod off. 

What usually works for me is pretty simple, has no side effects and works not just for helping me to get to sleep but is also a great way of calming my overactive brain whenever things are getting a bit much.

I’m not sure if I should tell my therapist this but I have an imaginary cat. Her name is Tinkerbell and she lives with me on an imaginary boat called Fairport Clover. We sail across various seas and oceans during the day but at night, we put the imaginary anchor down in a nice, safe and secluded spot. Then I cook a tasty, imaginary meal on the imaginary stove in the imaginary galley and share some of it with Tinkerbell. She is an imaginary cat so her diet can be a bit varied.

But the best part of the night is when we both settle down on the imaginary bunk in the imaginary cabin and I play a game called Going Through The Alphabet. I think Tinkerbell would like to join in but she falls asleep much more quickly than I do.

The game involves choosing a topic such as girls’ names or items found in the kitchen and going through the alphabet naming one item in the chosen category for each letter. I started off with relatively simple things like pop song titles or footballers’ surnames but as time went on and I began to run out of categories, they’ve become much more complicated.

For instance, my recent categories have included one, two, three or four syllable boys’ names, alliterative pop songs, film titles that contain an adjective, noun or verb and words that rhyme with the previous word.

Trust me, if you’re not falling asleep even thinking about that, you soon will be!

So next time you are struggling to get some shut-eye, why not give the game a go? Tinkerbell and I can highly recommend it.

Category Suggestions

book titles

film characters

hobbies

sports stars

countries

things that are green

items found in a garage

things that fly

words with four syllables

sandwich fillings

things made with wood

board games

historical characters

song titles that contain a country

one word TV programmes