So the term “environmental dependency” has been bugging me

That’s the name of this behavior pattern Matt is demonstrating more and more

I am, if I am anything, a very literal person

My dad used to say “if I say the grass is blue and the sky is green, it is”

Even as a very young child I called bullshit on that

Maybe not to Amos’ face, but internally I definitely said it

I understood then it was his way of demanding I follow his rules while under his roof, but the literal invalidity of his words were very apparent and I full stop rejected them

So when they dubbed this behavior “environmental dependency” it never landed solidly in my brain

He isn’t dependent on his environment…..he is just doing odd things in it

So I consulted with Kathy recently (ChatGPT, we are on friendly nickname terms now)

The term comes from a very specific observation made by French neurologists in the 1980s studying patients with frontal lobe damage.

They noticed something remarkable:

Normally, your brain suppresses thousands of possible actions that your environment suggests.

For example, if you walk into a room and see:

• a pen,
• a chair,
• a sink,
• a coat,
• a drawer,

your brain does not automatically:

• pick up the pen,
• sit in the chair,
• turn on the faucet,
• put on the coat,
• open the drawer.

Why?

Because your internal goals are in charge.

You think:

“I’m here to brush my teeth.”

Everything else is ignored.

The researchers noticed that some patients had lost that internal control.

Instead, the environment became the boss.

The presence of an object itself began to trigger behavior.

That’s why they called it environmental dependency.

They weren’t saying the person depends on the environment.

They meant the person’s behavior has become dependent on environmental cues.

Ahhhhh…..so thinking of the shoe in the sink, while you and I might think: that shoe is in the middle of the hallway, I might trip on it if I don’t move it so I will move it to the closet

His brain sees a shoe, he is reacting to impulses which are not guided by a broader objective, like safety in this example

He sees the shoe, what he does next is like an unguided action, an uncontrolled impulse

The main operator at the mainframe computer terminal is out, no one is sitting in that chair, like ever anymore

In Virginia, we used to get a box of oysters from a local dock and cook them on the barbeque

Sometimes, when we opened the oyster, there would be this little crab

Granny, my Aunt Dolly, said she and my dad used to hover around Grand daddy when he shucked oysters because they loved to eat those little crabs

They are quite tasty…..

Matt used to think they were little aliens driving a space ship (the oyster being the ship)

So I think what’s really happening is one of those little oyster crabs survived, maybe a tribe of them did, and they are living in Matt’s brain

They see a shoe……and with a cousin Jerry giggle (imagine a Dusk Dynasty character and you have my cousin Jerry) the lead crab says “Matt, put the shoe in the bathroom sink”

Then the crabs all sit back and wait for my reaction…..

So the behavior should not be called “environmental dependence”

It should be called Oyster Crab Mischeviousness Gone Rabid

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