Unsurprisingly, my extended hiatus from reviewing means that I’m no longer getting a bunch of review books. This actually provides me with a very nice opportunity, which is why I’m not rushing to change that. I was getting so many before that I have a real backlog; now I can go back and review many of those older books. This does mean that you’re about to see a bunch of reviews of several-year-old books, but maybe it’ll help you find a few good ones that you missed the first time around!
As you can tell, I’m suddenly back to putting out roughly one review every one to two weekdays. Hopefully I can sustain that. It’s amazing how tiny tweaks to medications can have such huge effects. The last set of changes resulted in, well, this sudden outpouring of productivity that you see here. This is what it’s like to deal with a mental illness: your entire output can be governed by the smallest changes in treatment, and it can be a very extended process to find just the right mix (if you ever do). People often get frustrated with people like me when we aren’t getting much done; hopefully by sharing this process I can convince even a few people to cut their friends and family some slack when they’re going through this sort of thing. It truly can have a tremendous effect on our ability to get things done, and no, we usually can’t just ‘decide’ to get better or be more productive. So go hug your loved ones today, and try to support them through their treatment ups and downs.
Glad you’re back and that the medications have aligned. Your ability to speak openly and personally about mental illness is great; it helped me when my wife had to seek out some assistance, and later when insurance woes led to her leaving medication. (Very fortunately, that coincided with leaving an incredibly stressful environment, which kept it from being an overwhelming adjustment.)
I’m glad I could help even a little! So many people are in a position where they really can’t talk about it, but understanding doesn’t grow and stigma doesn’t abate unless we do talk about it. So, since I can, I do. It’s difficult sometimes, but the idea that it’s helping even one person is worth it. I hope your wife continues to do well! It’s such an unending thing, but it can have its good times.