I mentioned it to my sister and she immediately responded that there was probably an element of sexism in it--that he wouldn't call a man with my demeanor "bristly". She's probably right, and it doesn't help that this is a military environment...

I'm sure that's right. @@

I've been on a few ADs/anti-anxieties, and I guess they didn't work because I noticed no change in how I felt. Maybe they worked, maybe it was placebo effect, maybe it was cyclical moods. So I go off them. Then several months go by and the anxiety creeps up and I think "There has to be something that can be done about this!" I will say the generic Zoloft had me wandering around with my fists clenched all the time, so I figured that wasn't a good thing.

Hubby's on a few ADs as well, but as his doctor says "It's harder to deal with when you've got a very damned good reason to be depressed, and that reason isn't going away."

Because it turns out that my default state is "I'm FINE, you don't need to worry about me. How are YOU doing? What can I help with? No really, I'm fine, stop asking. Please stop asking" which is not as helpful as I thought.

Yes, and yes. I'm brilliant at deflecting attention from areas I do not wish to have a light shined, even though that's exactly where the light needs to go.

Consuela, I'm sure your sister is right, because I imagine "direct" and "no-nonsense" are the adjectives that would be attributed to a male counterpart, and in a positive way. And I think they are positive attributes, but they should be ascribed that way regardless of gender.

Generic Zoloft is the only thing that's worked for me, though I think changing jobs certainly helped. Abilify made me freakishly productive, and then put me to sleep (like Molly in the Runaways, kind of) and Wellbutrin gave me a 24 hr manic anxiety attack. Celexa/Lexapro didn't do shit. Vyvance didn't do shit.

My sister has been on so many ADs that my dad keeps a spreadsheet, because it got to the point that they would suggest something she'd been on and she didn't remember that she'd been on it.

In fact, I'm just going to pull out the "What Scrappy Said!" sign and wave it, because Scrappy is wise.

We so need a quick-edit for this.

Consuela, I'm sure your sister is right, because I imagine "direct" and "no-nonsense" are the adjectives that would be attributed to a male counterpart, and in a positive way. And I think they are positive attributes, but they should be ascribed that way regardless of gender.

Yeah, ::sigh:: I suspect the Nemesis has played the management here so successfully in part because she plays into the stereotype better than me. She positions herself as "helpful" rather than "authoritative", even though the reason they keep her on board is that she's got 30+ years of experience doing this. She is an authority.

Time for lunch:

And in case anyone needs a pick-me-up today, check out this adorable pygmy hedgehog: [link]

The first thing that ever helped me with anxiety was a beta blocker for HBP, and it was kind of a revelation that I was as anxious as I was; I really hadn't realized it before until I started noticing that things that would ramp up my anxiety weren't doing that anymore... I'm glad the doctor mentioned that they could affect people that way, or I might not have made the connection.

And I have really been able to get a handle on anxiety since then by noticing that difference and being attuned to it to a certain extent. Like, I used to get unbearably anxious about things I had no control over, and I've managed to work on that. I still get anxious about things I do have control over when I don't deal with them, and that's always a bad sign that I'm not dealing with something. Not that I always do, of course. Just saying.

I have been on the same AD (Celexa) for about 10 years. I am not even sure if it is working, but I really never feel the soul-crushing despair I felt before, so I am a little afraid to experiment. I tried going off of it once, and I was back to sitting in my car and crying because I could not get out and go to work.

I haven't so much lost my creativity as I have lost my drive, however. I think I was using theatre as a crutch for my depression, which really drove me. Now, not so much. Of course, I think that I don't really have much talent-- I just had drive and intelligence, and you can apply that very well to the theatre art form.

Also-

"This American Life" this weekend is kind of awesome.

Part 2. Part 2 is focused on a gay young Mormon man in Utah. I will leave it there for the description because the whole audio must be heard. I literally squealed in the car while driving at least 3 times.

Especially during the part where Ira Glass says, almost inaudibly, (I had to rewind to catch it again) "Oh my God" after a particular confession from the interview subject. I have never heard Glass say such a thing and thing is? I said the SAME thing about then too!

I just listened to this. I can't believe I made it through due to my normal inability to deal with other people's embarrassment, but I think it helped that the young man was clearly OK and in a better place now. But I gasped out lound several times.