----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Wolman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 4:04 PM
Subject: Re: Sex and the Artist
> Douglas Clark wrote:
>
>> Try being on betablockers for twenty years.
>>
>> Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
>> http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
>
> Double-shiver. Twenty years? Cursed little pills. I know, they are
> supposed to save lives. They are known as the performer's friend because
> they help overcome stage fright. I took them for high blood pressure, and
> they worked. But oh, they did SO much more.
>
> I became hugely unwelcome on one musicians' list because I suggested that
> before people wade into beta blockers, they have a full psych evaluation.
> Betas may make some people saner; in my case they unearthed the
> manic-depression that has followed me to this day. Their curious effect
> on me, in the present context of "Sex and the Artist," was not to bank my
> libido (middle age took care of that:-) but to turn me into a sexual
> psychopath. No, not some "American Psycho" critter with knife, razor or
> any of that stuff, just someone who metamorphosed in six months from a
> reasonably normal human being into a goat sans conscience, morals, or the
> ability to think 10 seconds ahead. Best that can be said is I didn't care
> to eat old boots or tin cans: they tasted terrible. Once the "primary care
> physician" recognized her mistake and started withdrawing me, the damage
> was done. A psychiatrist she sent me to heard my history and said "You're
> depressive? You can't use beta blockers. Beta blockers will kill you."
> Not quite but close enough. I had one serious "suicidal ideation" but was
> able to avoid "acting out" on it.
>ken
You must remember that I have been on antipsychotic sedatives for over
twenty years but only have minor bipolarity. (They are to prevent
schizophrenia). So it is all very tangled.
And Horace Bachelor lived in an enormous bungalow at Keynsham near Bath.
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