A long post about my brains.

As some of my faithful readers will recall, a few months ago I went off of Effexor, an effective if somewhat problematic antidepressant. Effexor, as I wrote, has a shockingly brief half-life, and because I was on a miniscule dosage (as I am a delicate flower and can only manage light sprinklings of medication) if I was even fifteen minutes late in taking it I headed into scary Effexor Withdrawal Land, a place no one wants to be. If you’re wondering what Effexor withdrawal feels like, rap on your temples with a meat tenderizer while spinning around in a swivel chair and sucking furniture polish through a straw. There you go!

Anyway, because the Effexor was meant to help me through post-traumatic stress, I decided that I would only go on it for a year because after a year apparently your brain forgets all about the bad things and goes back to humming little songs to itself and thinking about pudding. I conveniently forgot, when I chose to go med-free, that my brain is primed for things like PTSD. (There were many, many other people on the street that day, and not all of them spent the subsequent weeks cleaning their cabinets at 4 a.m. and shrieking STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT at their dogs). I also chose to ignore the years of depression and anxiety prior to the car-crash incident. I was all better, I decided. No more pills for me!

Can you see where this is going?

I remained drug-free for ten of the darkest weeks in recent memory. Here’s a tip: if you’re going to go off of medication, don’t do it in the winter, right smack dab in the holidays, when you’re financially strapped and trying to buy a house. (Actually, if you’re me, the lesson should probably be: don’t do it at all.) As I approached the lowest of the low moods I wrote this post, and told the world about my filthy pants and oversized shoes and in doing so sounded like a pervert clown, and yet was rewarded with many, many people’s boundless sympathy and support. Shortly after this I had what some might call a breakdown, if they were feeing melodramatic, or an attack of neurasthenia, if they were in a Victorian mood. Whatever it was, it felt neither colorful nor historically relevant. All I remember from the Worst Day Ever is that I called Scott and said, “If you knew how bad I felt, you’d come home right now.” And he did.

I felt that I was strong enough to go without drugs, but after a few days of complete misery I cried uncle and ran to my psychiatrist. I didn’t want to see this psychiatrist again. The biggest reason was that she doesn’t take insurance. When I had first seen her this wasn’t so big an issue; I was making money at the time, her rate wasn’t all that astronomical, and anyway I only saw her twice a year. But then as the years passed, and my insanity showed no signs of abating, I thought twice about seeing her. First of all she always called me Linda. I think the psychiatrist’s credo should be Know Thy Patient’s Name. Also she took notes about me into her voice recorder while I was in the room. “Linda has a long history of depression, marked with secondary anxiety. Also, Linda is wearing clown shoes. And should really have showered before leaving the house. What was Linda thinking?”

Despite my misgivings about this doctor and her new THREE-HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLAR charge for each session, I went back to her. “Why on earth!” I can hear you shrieking. I think you’re also wringing your apron with both hands, and you just dropped the freshly baked pie all over the linoleum.

I went back because I knew her, and I didn’t have the energy to find someone new and go over the whole story all over again. I went back because it was easy, and as much as I’m poor and cheap, I was also lazy and sick.

It was a mistake, though. She decided, during our (expensive) session, that in fact I was bipolar. She had been hinting at my potential bipolarity for a while. ( “My Potential Bipolarity” will be the name of my rock band. Mine mine mine. Don’t you steal it from me.) The bipolar diagnosis is a difficult one to make because the sufferer is more likely to seek help when depressed than they are when in a manic swing, so they’re diagnosed with depression. But she was smarter than that! Oh, she was so proud of herself!

Here’s why she thought I was bipolar. Are you ready? One, my grandfather might have been (according to her), and two, my heart raced at night. I don’t see anything in any of the literature on being bipolar that talks about nightly heart-racing as a symptom; I had rather thought that if I were bipolar I’d be out all night gambling or having sex with shop clerks in dressing rooms. I know I’m generalizing, but sheesh! If you’re going to call me manic-depressive, can’t I have some fun first?

And sure, my grandfather had more of the colorful madness that the rest of us boring crazy people only aspire to: all-night carousing! Writing his own biblical texts! Conversing directly with God! But I’m not my grandfather, and thank goodness for that because I don’t think Scott would want to be married to a 100-plus-year-old Italian guy who also happens to be dead.

So I disagreed, but she was insistent, and put me on a medication called Lamictal. And then I was off to Amsterdam, and didn’t think much about what this would mean, this traveling while on a brand-new drug.

Here’s another tip: don’t go on a new medication before traveling. The best I can say about the Lamictal is that it didn’t work. The worst I can say about it is it made me intensely, miserably ill. For the entire trip. Every morning I had to get up early to drink gallons of water just so that the nausea would abate enough so I could leave the room. I felt awful all day. I wanted to go out and carouse, as our sponsors were (I guess) expecting us to tell of our adventure-filled days and liquor-soaked nights, but I could barely manage one museum before a nap, and then at dinner I could manage maybe one beer. And Melissa would pat me on the head and say, “It’s okay if you're not a partier,” and I would try to say, “I'm not, it's true, but this is a little weird,” only I couldn’t get the words out because I was falling asleep. My dad wondered why I needed to nap every afternoon as much as he did. I mean, a 70-year-old getting over heart surgery, sure! Nap all you want! But a 37-year-old? That’s just sad.

Then I got home and told my psychiatrist what happened. Her response: “Oh, you can’t drink with Lamictal. I didn’t tell you that? It causes extreme alcohol intolerance. Oh, no no no no. That would make you quite sick.” She then posited that maybe, hmm, I wasn’t bipolar after all, maybe I had one of those, what do you call them, anxiety disorders. Yet somehow, instead of kicking her in the teeth, I handed her another three hundred and fifty-dollar check and got out of there.

I didn’t want to write about this on the blog for a few reasons. Sometimes I wish I had never opened up this particular can of brain-worms. The more I’ve divulged, the more I’ve felt pressured to continue this level of intimacy, and that sometimes makes me want to hide under my bed. Also, writing about mood disorders tends to bring out, well, the mood-disordered, and then they write to me and ask for advice. And I don’t give advice to people I don’t know. I don’t believe it’s helpful. I don’t want that responsibility. And I can barely manage to email my friends, much less strangers in crisis.

On the other hand, not writing about it has brought on some kind of weird blog-malaise. It’s hard to push past all the stuff I don’t want to talk about to get to anything else that’s fun or interesting. And even if I haven’t written about this directly, I’ve read my past few months of posts and I think it’s evident that I have not been at my sunniest. So I needed to get this out there.

I kept waiting to write about all this when I was on the other side, when I could look back and laugh about what a mess those few months had been. It’s still pretty messy, though. It’s not as bad as I was, but I’m not 100 percent. And I know I could go back on medication, but I don’t want to. I’ve had enough of side effects. I don’t have prescription drug coverage. And I just don’t want to.

I’m fiddling around with nutritional therapy, and I would say more about that but I’d bore you to tears. (Don't believe me? Amino acids! No more sugar! STOP CRYING!) Although nothing’s offered a dramatic, Effexor-style cure, I do feel better. And I know this is an unsatisfying post that could really use a triumphant finish. I do wish I could give you one of those.

I recover; Henry planders.

Good afternoon, concerned Finslippy readers! I am sorry that I frightened all of you, especially the Effexor users among you, with my tales of woe. By the next day I felt better than I have in months. But did I write about that? No, I just did a smug little dance and I headed out the door. How could I stay in when I felt so good? What if it didn’t last?

In other news, Henry is honing his comic technique. The ultimate in funny, right now, is to approach me and announce, “I thought you were a [made-up word here].” For instance:

“I thought you were a shnerb.” Raucous laughter ensues. He repeats the word a few times. And laughs some more.

“What’s a shnerb?” I ask. More laughter. He can’t get enough of it!

“A shnerb is a sort of funny bug. A funny bug that eats people.”

Repeat this nine or ten times in an afternoon, and it just gets funnier! No matter what the word is, it always means “funny bug that eats people.” Sometimes it’s a funny bug that eats fire people. I’m not sure where he got this idea. For once, I can’t blame it on Star Wars.

I told him I didn’t think a people-eating bug would be funny, exactly. Not because I’m concerned that he might seek out and befriend an enormous killer insect; just because I was bored and wanted to see where this would go. But nothing’s less funny than analyzing your own joke, as we all know, so he got sort of pissy with me and spat, “I don’t want to talk about that.” Which I think was sort of unfair, frankly, because didn’t he just accuse me of being one of these deadly bugs? Shouldn’t I have the right to find out more about them?

And now, my favorite neologism ever:

Henry is walking on the curb, as it is where the snow is located. He looks up and exclaims, “The snow is all plandering under my boots!”

“What is plandering?” I ask him.

“Plandering means when it planders. When the snow is all plandery.”

That’s my boy.

One more about the drugs.

I have been completely Effexor-free for, oh, a little over a week now. My emotions are back to normal; I believe that my term as Crazy Crying Lady has ended. This would be good news were it not for the fact that I happen to be dying. I think there was a little heroin mixed in with the Effexor and no one told me. I’ve been enjoying a fascinating variety of physical sensations. Hot! Cold! Hot and cold at the same time! Queasy! Starving! Racked with stomach pain! Nauseated and starving and trembling like a damp Chihuahua! Today has been spent curled up in various locations around the apartment. Next to Henry’s train set. Abutting the Galaxy of Star Wars Guys. And, of course, on the couch.

I’m so tired that I fell asleep in mid-sentence while conversing with Henry, who did not appreciate this. He has told me, in no uncertain terms, that he is not pleased with my performance lately. The mother of yore, who would take him to the playground and/or build Jedi starfighters out of play dough, has been replaced by weird shaky mom who lifts her head from the pillow to ask him if he wouldn’t mind watching a little more TV. The answer to that question, incidentally, is “Normally I would relish the opportunity to watch television until my brain falls out through my slack mouth, but today I would rather force you to rise from your prone position and make you twirl around with me, so start twirling, queasy lady.”

On the other hand, Henry basically potty-trained himself last week. I brought up the topic, and he put his hand on my arm and all but said, “Why don’t you let me take care of that.” I wasn’t sure if I needed to provide a reward system, some stickers or M&Ms or maybe some Effexor capsules, but as it turned out, for Henry the reward was in the doing. All I had to do was rush to the toilet whenever he had done his thing and provide the appropriate accolades. Then Henry flushed and I returned to my lovely couch.

I’d like to feel better soon, but on the other hand if I keep this up he’s going to teach himself how to dress himself. And cook. And read. And start a blog called “My Deadbeat Mother.”

Buckets of fun!

As you may know, I am currently weaning off of Effexor. I am doing so because I have no more problems, and I am 100 percent sane. All you people still on drugs? Y’all are nuts. I alone perceive the world correctly.

(That is the first and last time I will ever use “y’all” in my blog. Indeed, I don’t know why I did it in the first place, but there it is, and I’m keeping it there.)

Yes! So! I am now down to 15 granulinos. (That’s a technical term. Shut up.) Fifteen! That’s, like, less than no milligrams of Effexor. Given the frighteningly brief half-life of Effexor, I don’t know how that dosage doesn’t catapult me into withdrawal within an hour of taking it. Or maybe it does, and I’m too addled to notice.

What, you may ask, is life like on fifteen sprinkles of Effexor? First of all, it’s colder. And grayer. There is no more candy, and no one is wearing costumes. The good part is that weaning down to fifteen means that your child will find the Stormtrooper he has been tearily demanding for the past week. And when he finds it, his joy is so immense that your heart will swell and your eyes immediately begin exuding liquids.

The gnome is still back there, although he’s less kicky than he’s been in the past few weeks. (A few days ago my husband raised his voice a half-decibel and I immediately burst into tears. In his clumsy attempt to be sympathetic, he asked, “Is Grumpy Buckets making an appearance?” and I was all, “His name is Sloppy Buckets and you are not allowed to talk about him.”). Overall, I am not the sopping mess of last week. I love you, number fifteen!

This morning I was complaining to my husband about the leg pain I am now suffering. It began, hmm, a few weeks ago, right about the time I began my weaning. My legs are intensely achy and crampy and sometimes they spastically jerk and flail, usually as I’m trying to sleep. (And not, luckily, when I’m walking down the street.) While I whined and carried on and he tried to pretend he was paying attention, a little voice in my head astutely pointed out, “Effexor withdrawal, you jerk. GOD, you’re such a jerk. God!” So I went online, where all the most credible medical advice can be found. I mean, yes, most of the people writing about their leg pain when they started going off Effexor seem to be unhinged, but that many crazy people can’t all be wrong, right? And many other people recommended magnesium for it, and apparently magnesium can’t hurt you overly, although it can cause unpleasant digestive troubles. And then I remembered that a nice commenter here had told me to take magnesium. Thanks! Wish I had listened to you, when you tried to help!

Okay, that’s all. Get back to work! Or, wait, it’s Saturday. Go back to whatever it is you do.