Dare to face and overcome your fears.

Rukiddingme?

Oh God, not you again?  Your last blog was long enough to last us for a while. I was standing in line at CVS yesterday and I thought my epitaph should read something like,
It’s about time you dropped dead, you mouthy bastard. Thank God for small favors. You were asking for it.  Can you spell, “Shut up?”. Go straight to hell and do not collect $200.
Sorry about that. Laughter is the best medicine, they say.  A good laugh at a meeting is one of the coolest things about AA.  Addiction is so serious a…

David Clark at wiredin.org.uk expounds on a list of 9 components of recovery from the mental health recovery movement. They are:

1. Renewing hope and commitment to one’s life
2. Being supported by others
3. Finding one’s niche in the community
4. Redefining self or changing one’s identity
5. Incorporating illness
6. Managing symptoms.
7. Assuming control
8. Fighting stigma
9. Being an empowered citizen

I went to visit my husband tonight at the psychiatric hospital. It was good to see him, and he seems ok. They are dosing him with methadone, and they insist that they can’t not. Apparently, there is a federal law that mandates a patient who is receiving methadone maintenance continue to receive his or her dose if that person is kept away from the clinic; however, this same law doesn’t protect patients who are indigent from being cut off by the methadone clinic when they can’t pay.

I am almost impressed by the elegance of the Catch 22s my husband is…

Uncle Iroh by *Purple-Twilek on deviantART

One of the highlights of my recent depressive episode was time spent watching Avatar: The Last Airbender with my daughter. Sure, it’s a kid’s show, but it’s better than 95% of the crap on the telly these days. We’re all addicted to it here at Casa del Quitter, and we whiled away more than a few rainy days watching Avatar marathons.

The man pictured above is one of my favorite characters, Uncle Iroh. Fallen from power and deprived of his birthright by a conniving brother, he is a fearsome fighter and also a wise and kind man. And from…

It happened again.

Every few months, I’m unable to contain the mass of anger inside me and I blow up at my partner. Unsuprisingly, this tends to happen about a week before I get my period. For a long time, I wrote it off as PMS, but I’ve come to realize that I actually am that angry all the time. It’s just that when my hormones are raging, I can’t stuff it away and hide it as well as I usually can.

This blow up involved me angrily and loudly verbalizing ever nasty, bitter, resentful thought I’ve had over the past few months…

ME (confused): So despite the house overwhelmingly approving this medicare reform bill…bipartisan, too…what was the vote, something like 355-59?

SENATOR (dismissively aloof): Something like that…

ME: (questioning, confused): Geeez…when does that ever happen? 355-59? Phew! Yet, despite their strong, bipartisan support, you guys couldn’t even gain enough votes to stop debating? Is that right? You needed two more votes just to actually VOTE? On the bill?

SENATOR (wavering): Yes, that sounds about right, I guess.

ME (a bit incredulous): Forgive me for beating a dead horse here, but let’s go through this once more just so I’m clear. You guys didn’t vote “yes” or…