You know, if this were a valid plea, most episodes of Law & Order would only be 4 minutes long.
You bloody Australians are lucky. You can just go out to the store and buy a pack of
Tim Tams whenever you want. I have to wait for my Aussie friends to come to visit (hi Ben) or order them online. Upon consideration, this is probably a good thing- if I could buy them at Stop & Shop whenever I wanted I'd probably weigh 300 pounds.
So most people probably aren't aware of it, but I have some pretty severe anxiety issues, to the point where they were slowly but surely ruining my life. I've been in and out of therapy my whole life and finally got on a low dose of anti-anxiety medication (yay Prozac) this past April. It's helped immeasurably- these past months have been the only time I can remember where I wasn't constantly terrified for no reason. I can actually enjoy being alive now, which is definitely a nice thing to be able to do.
I only mention this now because I've been thinking about some of
Gabe's posts over on Penny Arcade about his own anxiety issues and how similar they sound to mine. While I don't believe that medication is always the right treatment for everybody (therapy is definitely a better long-term solution assuming you can find/afford a good therapist), I would like to express my solidarity with all you other folks out there who are on tha pillz. If they're helping, stay on them. If they're fucking you up worse, get off them and seek different treatment. If you're considering medication or it's been recommended to you by a professional, it's a good idea to do some research before you make your decision. Above all, keep in mind there ain't no shame in trying to stay sane.
(An aside: before anyone emails me to yell about the OMG HORRIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF PROZAC or whatever, let me just say that I've done the research and I can say from personal experience that any side effects are a fair tradeoff for the amount of relief the medication provides. If you're going to act all self-righteous or judgemental about it, I cordially invite you to go fuck a knothole.)
So yeah I guess today is TALKING ABOUT PERSONAL ISSUES day or something! Sometimes I wonder how open I should be about my personal life on this site, but I figure if you take the time to read the newsposts you probably don't mind hearing little tidbits about it occasionally. It's not like you have to read these things or anything- the comic is always there to look at!
Anyway that is all for tonight. I promise tomorrow's newspost will be appropriately brief and humorous instead of all BLAH BLAH MY PERSONAL LIFE BLAH. See you then!
