Tip for Grievers #27

If you are taking anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medication, don't forget to take them!

Sometimes you fall off a cliff. And then do it again. And it's all your own fault.

I haven't been posting recently because in early February I fell off a cliff of grief. The one year anniversary passed fine. We had a terrific celebration of life (or death party, as Zoe and I preferred to call it) that was so true to Tom and to our family that it took my breath away. I was doing great.

And then I wasn't. I couldn't stop crying. I couldn't stop the waves of grief from toppling me.

It turns out that in January, as we were planning the event and work was a little crazy, I just kept forgetting to take my little anti-depressant/anti-anxiety pill. And my other meds. I didn't do it on purpose, I just forgot. (And if I'm truthful, I didn't think it mattered that much because I was doing so well...)

It landed me in a program at Kaiser where I went in every morning for 2-1/2 weeks to learn coping skills, have access to a psychiatrist, and re-calibrate myself. I'm so much better, but it has taken 4+ weeks to get the meds back to barely operable levels.

So, as my brother Phil so eloquently put it, take your damn meds!!