As almost everyone with access to media of any kind knows by now, Robin Williams committed suicide yesterday morning. While he was relatively open about his battle with mental illness, a cross-section of the many, many reactions to his death on my Facebook feed—mostly sadness and shock—suggests that few people were aware that he faced … Continue reading Why It’s Important, and Will Be Important, to Think about Robin Williams’ Death
Tag: anxiety
Get Your Fingers Outta My Mouth
If that sounded dirty, it was, but only because the culprit (i.e., the well-meaning but misinformed stranger trying to help) almost definitely hadn't washed his/her fingers before using them to try to stop me from dying from the oldest of epilepsy perils: tongue-swallowing. And on the off chance you're wondering why I'm upset that this … Continue reading Get Your Fingers Outta My Mouth
Concussion: Take Two
Yep. A little over three weeks after my last concussion, I got another one. I’m kind of mad at myself. I probably could have prevented this from happening, but I instead let my stubbornness and sense of duty get in the way. Though I was still under doctor’s orders to refrain from mental work, I … Continue reading Concussion: Take Two
Concussion/Bad Patient/Anxiety
Last Saturday, Andrew found me lying on the floor by my computer. It was pretty clear when I regained consciousness that things weren’t right (I mean, more not right than usual). We’ve learned to separate “normal” postictal symptoms from those of a head injury, and many of the latter were there: a huge goose egg … Continue reading Concussion/Bad Patient/Anxiety
Wrong Side of the Bed
I woke up on the wrong side of the bed on Wednesday morning. Literally. It’s funny how disconcerting it was to have my husband snoring to my right rather than to my left, but I figured that I must’ve had a seizure then immediately fallen asleep the night before. Andrew confirmed that this was the … Continue reading Wrong Side of the Bed
Maria Bamford and Bad Ideas
WARNING: stop reading if you're offended by mental illness (in which case, please never visit my blog again) or by stale raisin bread. A few years ago, my husband and I went to see Maria Bamford at a comedy club in Toronto. For the uninitiated, Bamford is one of the best comedians in the history … Continue reading Maria Bamford and Bad Ideas
Academic Update
Just in case you were wondering, I didn't meet my self-imposed end-of-January thesis goal. Not that I'm surprised, really. I used to be the kind of person who never missed deadlines, but things are, of course, different now, and that's OK. Really. I've spent from the middle of January up to now scraping by instead of … Continue reading Academic Update
Two Steps Forward
My default emotion for the last while has been a frustrating melding of sadness and anger. Maybe I can blame it on a recent concussion, on simultaneous medication changes, on anxiety, on the major depressive episode from which I can’t seem to emerge, on the headache that almost never eases, on seizures. Maybe it’s the … Continue reading Two Steps Forward
