I got up shortly after the ass-crack of dawn, skipped breakfast (ugh) and made my way back up to 168th Street/Haven Avenue. I was greeted by...well, let me put it this way:
Dear Anxiety Clinic,
Please do not send me to see the woman who looks like Liv Tyler & Audrey Tatou had a love child with long dark tresses, a subdued fashion sense, thick rimmed glasses and a light French accent. I don't know how much more of it I can bear.
But I'm willing to find out.
Anyway, we talked about my dad, Eric, and more recent events. I started to break down when it came to Eric, and she quietly apologized.
That lasted about a half hour. Then came the fun stuff.
I was led to another room by another woman for a short medical exam. Blood pressure (126/70-something), pulse (68 bpm, would be lower if I wasn't conscious of it), three vials of blood taken, EKG, and please pee in this cup, the bathroom's around the corner.
The results of the bodily fluids & EKG will be in by Monday. I go back next Tuesday for a three hour examination. The first hour is spent with another shrink, who can prescribe meds on the spot. The other one I saw on Friday, the one I was comfortable with, isn't able to do so. We also go over the release forms and make sure I understand all the risks & benefits. They keep telling me "next time" I'll get this stuff done. I wonder if that's part of the experiment.
Then I go see the Tyler/Tatou hybrid for more evaluation of my state of mind, I guess.
And then I spend an hour on the computer for some sort of test. I'm told it shouldn't take more than a half hour, but you never know.
After all of that, I have half-hour sessions weekly (or biweekly) to see how I'm responding to the treatment. If I'm not doing well, they may put me on another drug.
One thing I like about all this (aside from the amazingly beautiful bespectacled brunette) is a couple of the questions they keep asking me.
Do you see or hear things that others don't?
Look, I know I'm not right in the head, but I'm not crazy.
1 comment:
Red tape is red tape, no matter how you slice it, right? The process of just getting help is a royal pain in the ass sometimes. But I'm glad you're so open to the whole process, hon.
Me, I'm on Lexapro for a couple of weeks now. . . haven't seen any real improvement. . . am still depressed but possibly slightly less so. . . who the hell can tell. I'm tired and all the time and sleeping as much as possible, so it's clear I'm still pretty depressed. Since this isn't my natural state by a long shot, I have hopes that this, too, shall pass given time.
Hang in there Jeff!
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