I assume (read: hope) that at least a few of you noticed I was missing. I’ll try to keep the story as short as possible: My 14 year old daughter has been struggling with clinical depression since September. Although I got her set up with a pyschiatrist as soon as I knew what was up, it was too little, too late. She took an overdose of Tylenol the night before she was to have taken her first dose of Zoloft. Fortunately, she lived and without any permanent damage to her liver. Still, things were obviously pretty grim around here for quite some time – she was in the hospital for a week and then in a pediatric mental health facility for several days. I had thought that finding her the morning of the overdose was the worst moment of my life – until I had to drop her off at that facility and leave her there! Unspeakable. To make it all even worse, my husband was deployed in South America and incommunicado for most of the crisis. My wonderful, wonderful parents hopped a cross-country plane the very first day and were by my side throughout – as they have been for every major event of my life. Mom and Dad stayed a little over a month – the overdose was 10/09 and they went home on 11/14.
Doe is MUCH better now. That Zoloft is some good shit! She says she felt like there was a blanket over her “light” and the Zoloft has pulled it off. She is also getting weekly therapy, of course.
Anyway, that’s where I’ve been. The situation has improved to the point where I can begin to do some little things for me again – like poke around on this message board. Believe it or not, this peculiar little corner of the web has become something of a touchstone for me – despite the fact that my presence here rarely causes even a ripple. This board is something just for me – even when I was in full-submersion-Mommy-mode I knew you were all here in the world where I am just Jess, not the sad scared creature I was for most of October.
Just Jess (who is happy to be back)
