Skip to main content

My Lexapro Diary

 Sometimes, my shrink suggests that I ought to "up" my Lexapro dosage. This tends to come as a surprise to me.


I might be telling a story along these lines: "And then I just said to the postal carrier...Thanks for your concern. FUCK YOU."

Mildly, my shrink will say, "You advised a postal carrier to fuck off? You know, your dosage is quite low....There is no harm in an adjustment...."

More recently, I have become involved in a silent war with a mysterious neighbor. There is a steep private road next to my house, and if you turn off the main road, you may encounter another vehicle seeking egress from the private road. The road can't fit two cars, so someone needs to budge. It seems to me that there is an unwritten law: If you're leaving the private road, you just back up, you "give ground," because this is much easier to do than retreating onto the main, public road, where traffic is trying to fly by. One of my neighbors made the strange choice to disobey this rule, so I made a mature move: I gave him an intense "death stare." The showdown recurred--!--so, once again, I brought out my death stare. I am so disturbed by this violation of a (fictional) rule that I spend many minutes reviewing the scene, and I visit "Reddit" discussions to try to calm myself down.

But I'm still on the low dosage of Lexapro. Right. I know. I, too, would hesitate to take myself as a patient.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How to Host a Baby

-You have assumed responsibility for a mewling, puking ball of life, a yellow-lab pup. He will spit his half-digested kibble all over your shoes, all over your hard-cover edition of Jennifer Haigh's novel  Faith . He will eat your tables, your chairs, your "I {Heart] Montessori" magnet, placed too low on the fridge. When you try to watch Bette Davis in  Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte , on your TV, your dog will bark through the murder-prologue, for no apparent reason. He will whimper through Lena Dunham's  Girls , such that you have to rewind several times to catch every nuance of Andrew Rannells's ad-libbing--and, still, you'll have a nagging suspicion you've missed something. Your dog will poop on the kitchen floor, in the hallway, between the tiny bars of his crate. He'll announce his wakefulness at 5 AM, 2 AM, or while you and another human are mid-coitus. All this, and you get outside, and it's: "Don't let him pee on my tulips!" When...

The Death of Bergoglio

  It's frustrating for me to hear Bergoglio described as "the less awful pope"--because awful is still awful. I think I get fixated on ideas of purity, which can be juvenile, but putting that aside, here are some things that Bergoglio could have done and did not. (I'm quoting from a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of the Church.) He could levy the harshest penalty, excommunication, against a dozen or more of the most egregious abuse enabling church officials. (He's done this to no enablers, or predators for that matter.) He could insist that every diocese and religious order turn over every record they have about suspected and known abusers to law enforcement. Francis could order every prelate on the planet to post on his diocesan website the names of every proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting cleric. (Imagine how much safer children would be if police, prosecutors, parents and the public knew the identities of these potentially dangerous me...

Raymond Carver: "What's in Alaska?"

Outside, Mary held Jack's arm and walked with her head down. They moved slowly on the sidewalk. He listened to the scuffing sounds her shoes made. He heard the sharp and separate sound of a dog barking and above that a murmuring of very distant traffic.  She raised her head. "When we get home, Jack, I want to be fucked, talked to, diverted. Divert me, Jack. I need to be diverted tonight." She tightened her hold on his arm. He could feel the dampness in that shoe. He unlocked the door and flipped the light. "Come to bed," she said. "I'm coming," he said. He went to the kitchen and drank two glasses of water. He turned off the living-room light and felt his way along the wall into the bedroom. "Jack!" she yelled. "Jack!" "Jesus Christ, it's me!" he said. "I'm trying to get the light on." He found the lamp, and she sat up in bed. Her eyes were bright. He pulled the stem on the alarm and b...