Out of Control Anxiety

Question: I'm in Denver away from my psychiatrist! Having very bad anxiety my psychiatrist put me on klonopin .05mg 3x daily not working was a crying mess so my psychiatrist told me to go to the emergency room where they gave me thru an i.v twice didn't work then they gave me valium it helped take the edge off but I still feel very manic can't see doctor for one 1/2 weeks what to do demand he see me when i get back home?

 Click on comments to read Laura's advice.

I Like Your Bus Mr. President!

How about that bus the President is riding around in?  He's like a rock star in that stealth-looking-star-wars-meets-the-terminator-omnipotent-bus-of-political-righteousness! His message is to tell us all he will announce some big job creation dream in September.  He could have just sent us a message on twitter for crying out loud!

I'm so confused. He's touring the Midwest to announce that he's going to announce a plan.

"The bus tour, which included the states of Minnesota and Iowa that Obama won in 2008, has had a distinctive campaign appearance though the White House has described the three-day event as a listening tour" -Chicago Tribune.

Even the Chicago Tribune, President Obama's hometown rag, is having trouble explaining what this tour is all about! I think the President is having the stereo-typical-proverbial-mid-life-crisis. Yup...his wife wouldn't let him buy a Harley for his 50th birthday so he had to settle for this bus! And, in order to explain why he's riding around in this rock star bus pretending to be a cool guy...he decided to say he's on a "listening tour." Not very creative and not very convincing!

Do you think he has an xbox on that bus? I wonder what his xbox username is? Or a mini-bar his wife stuffed with carrot sticks and healthy snacks? I think he's on that bus right now dancing in his undies like Tom Cruise in Risky Business. It's ok...tinted windows prevent the public from seeing what's really going on.

Visit Eleventh Hour, LLC for more interesting social commentary and psychiatric advice.

Do We Care About Rick Perry's College Transcript?

The Huffington Post has a cute article about Rick Perry's bad grades in college!  How totally embarrassing. But you know what...even the last of the class graduates right? Someone has to be valedictorian and someone has to be...well, what's the word for the kid whose grades put him/her last in the class?  I searched and searched and there is no word for the last in the class. I even looked up the antonym for valedictorian and there isn't one!  I did find something on Yahoo answers. It said that other countries call the last in the class a dunce!

Well this dunce theory can apply to many fields other than politics. Let's see...how about the doctor who graduated last in their class? Of course! There are doctors out there taking care of your loved ones who got Cs and Ds in school!  Yikes! Are they competent?

Maybe we should start asking to see every one's transcripts. I got a D in Law in Communication at BU. I had to take the class twice and I got a D both times! I totally sucked at that class! So I did the right thing...I did not pursue a career in Law Of Communication!

In the end do the grades matter? I don't know. What I do know is there are people out there who are great at their careers and there are people out there who suck at their careers. As we say in health care when we come across an incompetent doctor..."Even the last in the class has an MD after their name!"

So we should all frame our college transcripts and hang them next to our diplomas! How cool would that be when you walk into a lawyer or doctor office and there is an official transcript for all to see! I love it!

Let's face it...if you saw a doctor's transcript with As in science and math and Ds in woodworking and cartooning...you'd probably think they are stellar doctors and not very good artists...and that's ok! But if you saw a doctor's transcript and they got a C in Anatomy class...maybe you would leave the office! I know I would!

So where does that leave poor Rick Perry? Do you really need good grades to be a politician?  The Huffington Post has a lovely slide show of all the politicians who cheated on their wives! The slide show was created two years ago and it had 18 male politicians! There are even more now! And how about the class of "scandals?" Take a look at this super long list of political scandals. Well, If you get a D in ethics class, a D in morals and values class, and an A in ego class...then you should definitely go into politics!

Alcohol Issues In The ER

Every day I see several intoxicated people in the emergency room. Many of them drive themselves to the ER and ask for help. Some come in handcuffed and angry. Some are dropped off by family members who have had enough. Some are on probation or on parole and if they get caught drinking or using drugs, it would be a violation of their probation.

And what do I do with these people? I help them. I protect their privacy. I feed them and house them in the ER. I give them medications. I make sure they are comfortable and cared for. Alcohol withdrawal is life-threatening. It's a medical issue that most times warrants an inpatient admission.

25% of all emergency room admissions, 33% of all suicides, and more than 50% of all homicides and incidents of domestic violence are alcohol-related.  According to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, there are 105,000 annual alcohol-related deaths due to drunk drivers and related injuries or diseases.

Somehow I feel that I am contributing to those statistics. You know why? Because I am ethically bound to protect my patients privacy. I can not call probation officers, I can not call the police and report that someone was driving under the influence. Some patients really want help. But some come to hide in the ER because they know we can't rat them out. And your tax dollars pay for us to harbor criminals in the ER.

It's a dirty little secret. I look through the newspapers all the time to see if a person I had in the ER has driven drunk and hurt people, or beat their spouses in a drunken rage.  Am I responsible in some way? 

My hospital legal team would say I'm not. But my heart and soul says maybe I am.

Maybe alcohol should be illegal like other drugs. It's certainly equally as lethal as heroine, cocaine, and meth. And it costs the health care system and the tax payers a great deal.  Not to mention the heart ache, physical suffering, and death that inevitably comes.

 O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by,  let us call thee devil.  William Shakespeare: