Monthly Archives: May 2013

5 Easy (ha!) Steps to Finding a Medication

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Congratulations on your recent diagnosis of mental illness!  You’ve just won a brand-new prescription!  Here are five easy steps to claiming your prize:

1. Overcome the negative attitude of everyone around you toward taking medication!  (Oh, goodie!)

2. Vanquish the stigma-induced fear in yourself that pills are going to steal your personality or somehow make your world into a playground made of rainbows.

3. Begin an awesome trial-and-error experience that could take years and years!

4. Battle against those pesky side effects that make you sweat, tremble, gain weight/lose weight, feel lethargic, cause drymouth, make you dizzy, impair your vision, induce muscle spasms, and– in some special cases– almost kill you.

5. Persist.  Because it really is worth it.*

 

*At least it was for me.  It was worth years of failed experiments and horrendous side effects– which are over– and years of shaming from others– which are not.  I am unashamed to take Prozac and Effexor XR every single morning and Risperdal every single night.  I don’t think meds are the “right” or “only” answer, but I do think they are a valid option, one that makes a difference in my daily life.

 

prozac2

 

Sites & Services I Love, Part II

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dropbox1Dropbox | Free cloud storage and file synchronization between computers.  This is an absolutely brilliant tool for those of us who split our time between several computers!  Essentially, you download a Dropbox (which looks just like a normal computer file like, say, My Documents), and anything you save to your Dropbox saves to all your computers.  That means if I have a blog idea while I’m at work, I can quick record the idea in that document (which is now safely in my Dropbox file), and when I go home, the file is on my home laptop, updated and ready to go.  This is going to revolutionize my life.  You can get 2G of free space, but get this– you can earn extra space through referrals (brilliant marketing strategy!).  So … if you decide to download Dropbox, email me first, and I’ll refer you!  

Greenshot | This is a free capture tool which I use at work.  Instead of just using the “Print Screen” button, this tool lets you click/drag to select whatever you want to copy from your screen.  No more need for cropping!

NoiseTrade | Remember Napster?  This is better– and legal.  NoiseTrade offers free music downloads, and there is some amazing music on the site!  In exchange for your download, you give the artist your email address and zipcode, which is more-than-fair trade, in my opinion!  You can preview the music before you download it too.  I find something new on here every week!

FutureMe.org | At this site, you can send an email to yourself in the future.  I do it infrequently enough that I’m always surprised by the emails that come to my inbox from a year earlier, and it’s fascinating!  It’s so interesting to read your thoughts and goals from the past and compare them against what you’ve accomplished in the time since.  This site is especially valuable if you’re going through a learning experience that you need to remind yourself about later.  Plus, it’s so fun– and trippy!– to get an email from your past self.

a crush

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crush

I miss this.

I miss the earliest days of flirting, the butterflies, and all the awkwardness.  I miss being excited to go certain places at certain times just because you know he will be there.  I miss the stumbling, bumbling nonsense chatter just to make him stay another five minutes.  I miss missing someone the second he walks out the door.

Gosh, I’ve been single for too long.  I need a crush.

A Traitors’ Tea

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tea

“Milk, lemon, sugar?” I ask.

“Oh, I’m fine, thanks,” says Simon Peter.  “I like my tea black.”

“I’ll have a little milk,” says Edmund, holding out his cup.  “That’s good,” he adds after I splash some in.

I sigh as I seat myself at the table.  “I assume you know why I’ve asked you here today,” I say, a little resigned, a little awkwardly.  “I wanted to have a traitors’ tea.”

They both look at me, surprised but not offended.  The look on their faces is asking a curious, Why us?

Stuttering, I say, “Well, you know, I mean … Peter, you … denied that you even knew him, right?  And Edmund, umm, you … sort of betrayed your family and him, didn’t you?  I just … I thought maybe the three of us could …  I’m sorry.  This is uncomfortable.”  I stare down at my tea.

But the two of them smile.  “No, no, you’re right,” says Peter.  “You’re absolutely right.”

“It’s true,” says Edmund.  “It’s just been such a long time as I’ve thought of myself that way.”

“Me too,” agrees Simon Peter.  “A long time.”

I’m ashamed.  I am the only one who truly belongs at this traitors’ tea.  I had thought I’d be in good company, but now I realize that I’m on my own.

They know what I’m thinking.  Edmund shakes his head, just a little, just enough for me to see that he understands.  Peter reaches out and takes my hand.  “You do belong here,” he says, giving it a tiny squeeze.  “This is a gathering of the redeemed.”

Success at what cost?

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In one of the books I am reading right now, the author shares an image that a friend shared with him.

Picture a four-burner stove, he says.  Each burner represents one of the following: friends, family, health, and work.

In order to be successful, you have to turn one off.  To be wildly successful, you have to turn off two.

Discuss.

burner

My Auto-Buy Authors

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I will buy anything these writers put out, without having read a review, let alone the actual book.  In fact, I will probably pre-order it the moment I hear a rumor of something new:

pre-ordered with love six months out

pre-ordered with love
six months out

Billy Collins (heck, I have his new book pre-ordered already and it’s not due out for another six months!)

Melina Marchetta

John Green

David Sedaris (his latest Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls just arrived in the mail today … another pre-order!)

Donald Miller

Jandy Nelson

Who are your auto-buy authors?

Jeopardy

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JEOPARDY

Answer: One summer night I lay alone in a grassy field outlined in pines whose perfume stained the sky.  In the distance, a pocket of people played guitar and sang quiet songs.  The grass beneath my head was soft as a pillow, and the stars felt close enough for me to use the Big Dipper to ladle up a heaping scoop of memento constellations from this perfect night.  Then, though I couldn’t see it, a hand pressed me gently into the earth.  There, beneath that great palm, I felt eyes gazing at me with delight and charity, and I for once welcomed eternity.

Question: Do you believe in God?

fieldatnight