Still alive

Wow, it has been two and a half weeks since I've posted last. Is anyone still out there?

So, let's see, what has happened in those past two weeks?

Oh.....

Right.....

I committed myself - at my doctor's suggestion - to a psychiatric hospital.

The good news is, it was one of the top three psych hospitals in the country with such famous alumni as Sylvia Plath, John Nash, Steven Tyler, and pretty much the entire Taylor family including James Taylor (at least according to Wikipedia).

So I spent roughly 48 hours in a locked facility that, once admitted, I wasn't allowed to leave without a doctor's approval. And if I wanted to force said approval I had to put it in writing and then they had three business days to approve my discharge or petition the court to keep me there.

Wow.

That's some serious business.

So how did I end up at McLean?

Well, it all started by chewing on the inside of my lip.

Which evolved into me biting on my tongue until it was so sore I could barely taste my food.

Which then evolved into me using a scissors to scratch - not cut - a couple dozen marks on my left arm. Some drew blood, most didn't, but it didn't matter. It looked like my arm lost a battle against 100 angry kittens.

And all that got me a round trip ticket to the Nut Hut.

Luckily I was the least nuttiest nut in the nut hut and I was released after 48 hours. I didn't spend much time with the doctors or attend a lot of therapy sessions but I think it did the trick none the less. I like to think of it as the "Scared Straight" program for crazy people. Because as much as I know I needed the help - and the adjustments they made to my meds were possibly life saving - the worst part was knowing that I could lose my freedom, my ability to see my kids whenever I wanted to, and that there were people - of all ages - that have it a lot worse off then me.

So now I'm home. I've had a really good week and I'm starting to feel like myself again. Am I cured? No. But when I start to feel overwhelmed I sit down, think about what is bothering me and why, and come up with a game plan to tackle it so that I never, ever end up back there.