Rising Above Mediocrity
by Benjamin Geiger

After my rather disappointing experience at Peace River last time, I didn’t have much hope for the next visit. In a sense, that lack of hope was somewhat warranted, though this visit was much better than the first visit. After a relatively short wait (compared to last time), I got to speak to a counselor who actually listened and appeared to respect my atheism. I wasn’t able to speak to a psychiatrist, though. They’re going to call me back. Eventually.

I did, however, get a chance to see a psychiatrist, very briefly, through Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine. I had to fill out about four pages of paperwork for LVIM, then a further seven or eight for the doctor himself; the forms requested by the doctor delved into some rather personal areas of life, but I’m not really a private person (as evidenced by the very blog you’re reading).

The actual visit with the doctor lasted about two minutes, long enough for him to scan over the note sheet one of the counselors had prepared and write out the prescription. Basically, since he’s there for four hours per week (on a volunteer basis), he has to see as many people as possible in that time, and the others do most of the prep work.

But anyway, I have a renewed prescription for Lexapro (though I’ve been taking the leftovers from last time for almost a month now). I actually began noticing an effect yesterday… interesting how a drug can take weeks to build up, but once it’s built up, the effect goes from nothing to full in a matter of hours…

[Originally posted here, on the UserFriendly.org web forum.]

(In Which The Author Laments The Dichotomy Of Virtual And Physical Life.)

It’s obvious that I don’t get along well in the Real World. If all you know of me is what you see here, it may be hard to understand why.

There’s more! (click here to read)

… I came into this world, kicking and screaming.

Actually, I think my mother was doing more of the screaming. (I was a big baby. 9 pounds, 6 ounces.)