Focalin XR and Armour Thyroid. They sound like Nordic gods. If I knew as a little girl, that I'd be swallowing substances with these names, I'd be curious. I swallow them every day....along with Effexor XR for depression, Klonopin for anxiety, and Ortho Tri-Cyclin (generic version) for my skin. I also (based on intuition) take a variety of herbal concoctions that I believe help.
When did it become that to function "properly", you gotta take drugs. I do believe that if I lived in the midst of nowhere, hoeing some field, I would be just fine...."normal." Somewhere along the "field of life," I hoed myself into a hole. (pardon the really bad, yet amusing to me, puns).
I've accepted taking my pills. I'm not too ashamed because if you've ever had a true panic attack, you would absolve me of all guilt. The thing I don't get is why our world presumes you should be a certain way. I hesitate to get deep, this being the first "article" I have written.
I was enlivened by an article I read on Gather about ADD. It inspired me to write this--anything. I, too, (for example) will be on my way to the copy room, say, and see a poster....I read it and stop at a computer to go to the website posted...online I check my email and that leads to ....oh, look at her shirt, it's cute, "where did you get that?...I like it," whoops...forgot to go to copy machine....whoops, forgot to bring original paper to photocopy...oh well, I'll use this time to talk to such-and-such a co-worker about XYZ I needed to take care of 2 weeks ago...and so my life goes this way, day in and day out. Does anyone else with ADD (the "spacey" kind) find it hard to start something, but can't be stopped once started? I had a problem in my yard last summer. I couldn't stop weeding dandelions. I treated them like little video game enemies---knocking them out, pulling them out, rather with my bare hands or landing with both feet on a big shovel to get them by the roots. I would see them every time I closed my eyes for at least an hour afterwards. Many days of the summer were like this. I was a Dandelion Addict.
I don't know what's "natural" anymore, but I'm tired of being the "self-improver" when it seems there are a lot of screwed-up people walking around that think they're great and fine and OK. I had a dandelion problem before, but now that it's fall, I'm safe. Besides, I made my lawn beautiful (almost) with entirely no chemicals, just callouses.


Comments: 5
Great article. I'm glad you published it. I can almost picture you laying waste to that army of invasive weeds! So, what takes the place of the dandelions in the winter?
Welcome o the Loft and remember, "You don't have to be crazy to be an artist but it helps!" You might like to create along the lines of autobiography. It worked for writers & artists such as James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and Vincent Van Gogh, "Self-Portrait(EAR)," to name just two.
I would like to congratulate you on your first article. You have communicated your thoughts in a very readable and elegant way. I don't care for writings where I have to run to my dictionary to find out what the person was writing about. I think have a pretty descent vocabulary.
You sound just like my wife of 25 years. She used to have bad panic attacks when I first met her. Once I knew it was not me causing it :) I tried to help her. I helped her get off the medication and after we had our first kid she became better. The second kid came along and she was too busy to be depressed. We live in a complex world; we are assaulted by medical advertisements. There is nothing wrong with a little Dandelion obsession at all. I personally avoid them. Living in Florida; I know a thing or two about weeds. They are very resilient, I am glad in a way that it troubles my wife more than me:)
I look at what direction our world has been heading in for the last 50 years and I question the rational behind me having to take drugs in order to fit into a very screwed up place that I really don't want to participate in. I have always said that if I had moved out to the middle of nowhere I would be as content as clam.
P.S. I am now taking Dandelion Root due to the damage the Effexor has done to my liver.