Cheap Therapy

I have discovered a non-narcotic treatment for the blahs.

Interested? Thought you might be ...

This astounding discovery is very simple, as most truly good things are.

No trip to the doctor's office to try to explain your need for meds without a suspicious, eye-brow-raised look from the professional care-giver in the white coat. (Who you always secretly suspect of self-medicating with copious amounts of expensive scotch and more-expensive escorts.)

No baring those nasty skeletons in your mental closet and then getting blind-sided with a referral to a "mental health" facility where the staff seems to need more counseling than the patients you are surrounded by - all of you trying to look casual and comfortable while perched on hard plastic chairs that remind you of your oh-so-comfortable high-school bleachers.

Here is Dr. Lori's recent discovery and advised treatment plan:

1) Send the kids to bed.
This is not mandatory, but it helps to focus on your recovery.

2) Send the hubby to play Pirates of the Caribbean Online.
You won't see him again for days - unless you count him walking in front of the TV on the way to the potty every so often.

3) Find your favorite four-legged member of the family to stretch out on the bed next to you. Preferably one that won't snicker at you for laughing at jokes that he or she knows you've heard a thousand times. It's an added bonus if said furry friend snores like a freight train, and periodically chases (or is chased by) rabbits in her dreams.

4) Fix yourself a cocktail, and grab a handful of snacks.

5) Tune in to TV Land, find the M*A*S*H* Marathon and then just sit back and enjoy being transported back in time. You will simultaneously experience the early 1950's (the time of the Korean War) as well as your own life from the early 70's to the early 80's.
Feel free to let your mind wander back to the nights you watched the show in prime time - and don't forget to let your taste buds remind you of the dinners you ate while watching. Mine happens to be homemade macaroni and cheese casserole and a big glass of ice-cold milk.

For a few half-hour episodes, all the worries and troubles and anxiety of the outside world with go away. You'll laugh, you'll tear up, you'll mourn for Henry and feel sympathy for Radar. You'll guffaw at Hawkeye and if you're like me you'll renew your childhood crush on B.J.

Call me sentimental if you like. Call me nostalgic. I don't mind.

It worked for me - it can work for you too.

And it's a hell of a lot cheaper than the pharmacy co-pay.