Thanks for the recommendation. I read nearly the entirety of his dad's opus decades ago, and anticipate some nostalgic rereads coming. I'd never even been aware Kurt even had a son though so this is news to me. So it goes.

Right? I'm getting a great musical education here.

Another superb piece of psychiatric literature is "The Eden Express" by Mark Vonnegut, Kurt's son. Mark had undiagnosed schizophrenia as a young man right out of college, which hit just as he and his friends beat it out of Nixon's America to form a commune in British Columbia. Mark was successfully treated and went on to a long career as a pediatrician, but this book is as tender, insightful, and terrifying as you can imagine. So maybe wait to read it until you've come back down out of the jet stream.

Friend. Loving the writing and musical accompaniment. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

I love that! I read a bit of Bertie decades ago when I thought I was a philosopher but I haven't thought about that part of myself for a long time.

Writing it down really does change everything. Being in this strange state is opening doors and windows constantly - isn't there a Hitchcock film where Gregory Peck looks down a long hallway in an asylum and all the way down an endless hall the windows are all flushing open?

And behind each one is some piece of my life I haven't thought of for many years. It feels like overnight I'm rediscovering the lost years of my past. I'm very excited about it, but then us maniacs do tend toward excitability.

I love that! I read a bit of Bertie decades ago when I thought I was a philosopher but I haven't thought about that part of myself for a long time.

Writing it down really does change everything. Being in this strange state is opening doors and windows constantly - isn't there a Hitchcock film where Gregory Peck looks down a long hallway in an asylum and all the way down an endless hall the windows are all flushing open?

And behind each one is some piece of my life I haven't thought of for many years. It feels like overnight I'm rediscovering the lost years of my past. I'm very excited about it, but then us maniacs do tend toward excitability.

I've been enjoying your prednisone-influenced journal so far. Some of it brings to mind a famous quote:

“William James describes a man who got the experience from laughing-gas; whenever he was under its influence, he knew the secret of the universe, but when he came to, he had forgotten it. At last, with immense effort, he wrote down the secret before the vision had faded. When completely recovered, he rushed to see what he had written. It was: "A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.”
― Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy

I was sad too, but have seen it coming. It's been gradually evolving over the last decade or so, its role in the city more or less migrated to the Harvard Exit. Say - do you remember the name of the place the four of us would walk to after the show for coffee, a chocolate mousse better than any I remember having since, and a chat? I love that memory but can never quite get it back.

Oh no! So sorry to hear of the Guild’s demise. But over 100 years in such a dense city area of Seattle is probably better than average.

True enough, but it's not the drug I'm on and they are trying to taper me off of. Might as well call it by its correct name. Just a mental brain fart, the sort of thing that happens all the time with people in the throes of a psychotic episode. I'm sure there's much more fun yet to be had yet because tapering will be done cautiously since we know now that they can't go too far without reawakening the slumbering dragon.

And, cortisone isn't used for conditions like this because it's not strong enough - prednisone is 4 or 5 times more potent than cortisone, which gets the wimpy jobs like my knees.

According to the Mayo Clinic "Corticosteroid medicines include cortisone, hydrocortisone and prednisone", so we are talking about all the same family. -Steve

Pretty funny! The entire journal was even misnamed, that's mania for you. Better day by day though. Thanks for noticing.

Thanks for the proofing. Correct on both points.

Well probably June 28 not May 28 which just reminds me that we, as readers will have our own reality through this rabbit hole.
Question: you keep saying Cortisone. Wasn’t Prednisone in there at some point early on?

So, I, too, have a long list of things I need to do, things I need to talk about, things I need to write about. Can I just move my list onto yours? That would allow me to start a new list and forget about the old one that only seems to grow.

I'm glad they let you out! Thank you for telling us what has been going on. Few people would have the wherewithal to document such thoughts. With time, as doctors figure out the balance of drugs, and especially the delicate switchover, you will be fine.