The psychiatrist was uninspiring. I got me 40mg/day of shiny Prozac, although I was hoping for something more uppity with the stimulants. Probably just as well. I could see me easily getting too happy with stims. He asked me some basic questions that translated to: Are you bipolar? Obsessive-compulsive? Suicidal? Schizophrenic? Suffering from post-traumatic stress? When my answer came down to “no” for all of the above (duh), I got a nice SSRI prescription and told to try to regulate my days into standard sleep/wake cycles and exercise more. Hmph. I already know what I should be doing. He also asked whether I’d be interested in counseling/therapy services. I said “no” to that as well. Got a followup in a month to make sure my dosage is stable. Aside from lacking the medical degree, and therefore the ability to prescribe meds, I could’ve done the diagnosis on myself. In fact, I already had. I say again, hmph.
Nothing exciting to see here. Move along folks.
Writing Stuff
54-days to a kind pass from Jed at Strange Horizons with a “looking forward to seeing your next one.” I thought this story was an unlikely fit with them as it’s very high on the high fantasy front, but I don’t believe in self-rejecting. Plus, since I’ve never yet managed to fit anything with SH, I thought it was worth the try. Out it goes again.
The first draft short I completed last week is up at Critters.org. This batch is a three-weeker which is always a bit awkward. Normally by the third week, I feel pretty full-up on feedback and itching to finish the rewrite, but constrained to stick ye ole fork in until the end of the crit cycle. I like the normal one week time frame better, but since my alternative was to wait three weeks before sending up my story, I figure up is way better than waiting.
New Words: 750
On the new short story.
500/day
50
YAY!! Another Eugie story to crit! I shall have to do that this afternoon.
Just think of it as a three-week wait with crits. 😉 You’ll still get to send it off sooner than you would if you waited three weeks (with no crits), then waited another week for crits. 🙂
As a critting critter, I personally like the three-week batches; there’s usually more interesting/fixable/not-perfect-but-not-unbearable stories to be done in one of these. They’re fun. (As a submitting critter…yeah. They can be a little irritating. 🙂 )
>>I thought this story was an unlikely fit with them as it’s very high on the high fantasy front, but I don’t believe in self-rejecting.<<
Or as John W. Campbell once said to those who self-censored, “How dare you do my job for me!”
Good luck with the SSRI meds. My own adventure into anti-depressants didn’t do much more than cost me a lot of money in copays.
He also asked whether I’d be interested in counseling/therapy services. I said “no” to that as well.
As far as that goes, I think all you need is for me to come visit every now and then and make funny faces at you.
Ooo, you make funny faces? I’ll hold you to that the next time you visit.
Dumb question, but have you tried melatonin? It’s really helpful in getting the sleep cycle back on track, I’ve found. You take some every night at bedtime.
Of course, you have to *have* a bedtime and stick to it religiously, which was always a problem for me …
Good luck,
M
Actually, yes, I have tried melatonin. It knocks me out and makes me groggy, I’m afraid. I’ve got my pick of other drugs that do that if I feel the need for a sleep aid, but so far none of them have done much to set me back to my previous sleep-wake cycle.
I find myself self-censoring too often, alas. Some of the high fantasy stuff do seem pointless to submit to markets which tend to prefer contemporary fantasy. I should stop doing that.
Let me know how the Prozac works out for you. My experience with Effexor XR, while mixed, was extremely positive in the beginning. It saved my job, I think.
Will do. So far, no side-effects, which is good.
Nothing worse than an uninspired shrink. That’s one reason I keep refusing to move from where I am. I have an absolutely GREAT doctor who is interested in me as a person and a patient. He not only discusses every medication change with me, but generally leaves the final call up to me. Tough to find doctors like that.
Love & Hugs,
FahKingNut