2006-07-30 Long Dark Teatime of the Zoloft
I’m now on my fifth day of starting Zoloft, a medication akin to Prozac, used for fighting depression, and, in my case anxiety.
I’ve been distrustful of psychiatry for decades. Especially the decade after reading THE LOONEY BIN TRIP, in which feminist bipolar sufferer, Kate Millett, finds herself incarcerated not once, but twice, in a mental institution, against her will, by her lover.
Things have changed.
Medications now are cleaner, more targeted, more predictably helpful.
For me, the anxiety is the hectic thing. Depression I’ve coped with all my life. But anxiety. Jeeeeeez. It’s the worst.
Right now, for instance, I’m sitting drawing heavy gulps of air to try and fill my lungs.
Shouldn’t the Zoloft be helping?
Well, yeah… in a few weeks. Right now I’m still in the side-effect zone. Which translates to the feeling that I’ve drunk 40 cups of coffee. I’m jolting around the place, but unbearably tired too. But hey. Should wear off by tomorrow night.
When I got home earlier, I decided a cup of tea in darkness would be exactly the right calming thing for me to have. Hence this pic.
This painting was made using ArtRage 2.11 on a Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc with a cuppa tea to hand. Lipton, if you’re wondering.