Category: adulting
Sixteen Months
GAD and the art of refusing to remain positive
The first mental health diagnosis I ever received was “Generalized Anxiety Disorder,” or GAD. Oh my GAD, I’m so anxious I can barely function! I was diagnosed at 21 by my then-therapist: a thin, bespectacled man named Bill. I was on government assistance, and he was assigned to me through the county’s mental health agency, which …
Tastes Like Ashes
There’s this scene from the movie Melancholia where chronically-depressed character Justine (Kiersten Dunst) tries to sit down to a nice dinner with her sister’s family. She’s as optimistic as she can manage, given that she’s been in bed depressed, unable to bathe or function. She smilingly takes a bite and begins chewing, but her face changes almost …
The inebriation indoctrination
return of the mad
When I was little, I screamed a lot. In fairness, life since my conception had been difficult. I was a restless and unhappy baby from the get-go, not only because of intrinsic issues I faced, but also because my home life was a hot mess. My parents were drinking and fighting, splitting up and getting …
So we’re having a baby
So we’re buying a house
So we’re buying a house. It happened on accident, really. After we got back together a few months ago, Em and I were aflutter with possibilities and excitement and we were drunk with a sense of urgency about not wasting another moment of our shared life. So we decided we would look at a “fixer-upper” …