Quit your day job. Go on. I dare you.

So says the news today. No shit. It works just fine for the particular purpose it’s designed for - it’s just that it heavily over prescribed to people who don’t need it. If you don’t need it it, it’ll do nothing. That’s the beauty of it. Unlike the old skool tricyclic antidepressants which had terrible side effects.

Don’t listen to the hype - fluoxetine and all the SRI anti depressants out there that are based on it are great drugs. Life enhancing, useful and quite frankly one of the best chemical compounds humans have developed since CnH2n+1OH. Just treat them both with respect, don’t get addicted and enjoy their life-enhancing benefits.

Whatever normal is supposed to be. That’s how I’m feeling as my second week in the smoke comes to an end. Being back in the UK was pretty stressful to begin with. The early starts, constant travelling, the people rushing around shouting into phones, busy office, the bombardment of advertising and strangely the food. British food suddenly seems much richer, bigger and just didn’t agree with me.

But I’ve adjusted now and things are going ok. The black dog’s gone completely - the change of scene and pace on top of the SRRI’s has lifted me from the rut, and I’m picking up some momentum again. I miss the mountains a lot and can’t wait to get back out there, but I’m enjoying living with my mate in Brighton and even though coming back to a London office feels tough at times, it also feels like it’s doing me a lot of good.

I don’t know if petite reads my blog, but I certainly read hers. Blogging about the black dog recently was a difficult decision for me, and hard to write. This beautifully written post by Petite Anglaise, which I think covers the same topic, is strikingly accessible even to those lucky folks who never feel the black dog snapping at their heels.

Petite is one of the few bloggers and my reading list whose every post I read to the end. Her story, getting dooced for writing a blog at work and then landing a book deal is great and I’m looking forward to reading the book when it’s published later this year.

Synopsis
Living in Paris with her partner, the workaholic Mr Frog, and their adorable toddler, Tadpole, Catherine decides to alleviate the boredom of her metro-boulot-dodo routine by starting a blog under the name of Petite Anglaise. Writing with disarming honesty about Paris life, about the confines of her hollow relationship with Mr Frog and about the wonder and pain that comes with being a mother, she finds a new purpose to her day. As Petite Anglaise, Catherine regains her confidence and makes virtual friends, including one charismatic and single Englishman who lives in Brittany, James. And after meeting James one evening in a bar, Catherine feels she has regained her ability to fall in love, too.

It’s suddenly got very cold up here. Crisp blue skies and low temperatures, autumn has arrived. People were scraping ice off their windscreens for the first time this morning. I like it. I like the fact that the summer is drawing to a close and time moves on. The seasons are so distinct up here and I love feeling them change.

I’m thinking about what it’ll be like to be in the UK for the next couple of months, walking through the cold Brighton dawn, and watching the sun come up on the train to London, blustery October days walking in the South Downs and I’m looking forward to it. I’m starting to take pleasure in life again. The black dog is finally starting to leave me. He’s only around in the mornings now, and will soon leave me alone completely.