Mental Health

Day One on Citalopram (Celexa)

~ katiebonn ~ 5 Comments

Concerned about starting meds with possible side effects when I’ve just started a new job, I asked my psychiatrist (or rather the resident who I’ll never see again because she’s graduating) if I should wait until I was a little more settled in at work just in case the effects were bad enough that I’d have to miss work. She seemed unconcerned and reassured me that we were starting at a low dosage, I should know pretty quickly if there were any unwanted effects, and that if anything the meds could help me during the transition. If I’d like, though, I could starting taking them on Friday so I’d have the weekend to give them a go.

So here we are at day one: Continue reading →

I’d Get Healthy If It Didn’t Make Me Feel So Damn Guilty

~ katiebonn ~ 1 Comment

A day after starting my new job at Yahoo! (contracting through WorkforceLogic) I got a call from Stanford Department of Psychiatry to finally schedule my appointment, which I had been told would be about two months out. Lucky for me there had been a last-minute cancellation for the next morning at 10am. Of course, I didn’t check the message until 8pm when Dave and I were out at dinner, resulting in a late night call to Stanford Psychiatry’s voicemail desperately hoping no one else had snatched up the appointment and an email to my team lead at Yahoo!, whom I had known for a little over a day at this point, to explain that I would be into work later than anticipated.
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Owning Our Burdens

~ katiebonn ~ 5 Comments

One of my favorite episodes of Scrubs is the one with Michael J. Fox in which he plays Dr. Kevin Casey who has OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). I wasn’t entirely sure why it had the affect on me that it did, but just that I felt it was extrememely well done. He was a dr. who was envied by many because he was an incredible surgeon and medical attending.

Throughout the episode, JD, Turk, and Dr. Cox all developed a bone to pick with him. JD because Dr. Casey had insulted his need for a mentor, Turk felt inadequate because Dr. Casey performed a surgery much faster than his previous record time, and dr. Cox was insecure because Dr. Casey was quicker with diagnoses and one-upped him as the best dr. at Sacred Heart.

In the end, JD looks for Dr. Casey to confront him and finds him washing his hands after surgery. As JD begins to speak with him JD realizes that he has been washing his hands for the past two hours. Then we see Turk and Dr. Cox both appear at the door in succession each to show realization without confronting Dr. Casey and then fading away or turning to leave. This is when JD has his characteristic inner monologue and realizes that as successful as some people seem, we all have our burdens and as hard as it is for him, “it’s not that daunting if you look around and see what other people have to deal with”.

Looking back now, I understand better why it spoke to me the way it did.
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Where’s a Doctor When You Need One?

~ katiebonn ~ 4 Comments

One of the assumptions when moving to a larger metropolitan area is that there will be more access to services. With so many people here, in and around the Bay Area, there is seemingly a service for everything (there’s an ice cream trolley outside my apartment right now!) and competition to keep those services affordable and hold them to a standard of quality.

Consider this assumption debunked! Continue reading →

Feeling Left Out?

~ katiebonn ~ 20 Comments

I finally replied to a comment on a post I made almost two years ago right before our wedding. Well, the comment was actually left relatively recently, which has reinforced for me the affect this particular post has had on a lot of people. As much as I felt it was a downer to write it at the time, I’m glad I did. Apparently, people can relate and it’s important, when you’re feeling down, to read an honest conveyance that other people feel the way you do sometimes.

After writing the reply, I decided that it really merited its own post not only because it was terribly long for a comment, but also because I felt it contains some useful advice that shouldn’t just be tucked away in a comment. Hopefully, Matt won’t mind me highlighting his comment in a post of its own.

“Yeah, i found this on a google search, and im only a 15 yr old boy and i also hate it when my friends blatantly make plans in front of me and leave me out. I dont feel like the people i used to hang out with are my friends anymore and its really depressing.”

Continue reading →