From the The Universal Household Assistant or What Every One Should Know (1884):

Things to try. — Try popcorn for nausea.    Try cranberries for malaria.    Try a sun-bath for rheumatism.    Try ginger ale for stomach cramps.    Try clam broth for a weak stomach.    Try cranberry poultice for erysipelas.    Try a wet towel to the back of the neck when sleepless.    Try swallowing saliva when troubled with sour stomach.    Try eating fresh radishes and yellow turnips for gravel.    Try eating onions and horseradish to relieve dropsical swellings.    Try buttermilk for removal of freckles, tan, and butternut stains.    Try taking your cod liver oil in tomato catsup, if you want to make it palatable.    Try hard cider -- a wine-glass three times a day -- for ague and rheumatism.    Try taking a nap in the afternoon if you are going to be out late in the evening.    Try breathing the fumes of turpentine or carbolic acid to remove whooping cough.    Try a cloth wrung out from cold water put about the neck at night for sore throat.    Try snuffing powdered borax up the nostrils for catarrhal "cold in the head."    Try walking with your hands behind you if you find yourself becoming bent forward.    Try a silk handkerchief over the face when obliged to go against a cold piercing wind.    Try planting sunflowers in your garden if compelled to live in a malarial district.

It's been 5 days since I stopped smoking pot. So far the only differences I feel is that I'm more depressed and my stomach problems are worse. It is possible that neither have anything to do with pot. What should I do?

Poll #397846
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Should I give up my drug-free experiment and smoke pot?

i haven't been posting much that i've been up to
i guess i'll make that up now
last weekend i planned to go to a party and a samhain rite
i had big fun at the party on Saturday
but i didn't make it to the rite on Sunday
i wasn't feeling up to it
i haven't been feeling up to much actually
i'm a shadow of the social butterfly i used to be
i need to get out more
but before that i need to get stable
and drinking tonight isn't helping
i feel less stable
and i feel ill as alcohol makes my stomach problems worse
but i'm drinking anyway
because bush won and we're all fucked
might as well fuck myself
i need to change direction
the direction i'm in is right into the dirt
it might not seem that i'm doing that badly
but i am
outwardly i'm doing better than i have in years
but inside i'm being torn up
for no good reason, it just feels like my mind is being ripped apart
"disordered thinking" as my therapist would say
i need to get motivated to change
i've always had a problem with motivation
stress and deadlines used to be the way i'd cope with that lack
i'd thrive on stress
now i just curl up under stress
i'm going to take another drink, lay down, and try not to vomit
ha! that's a good one
vomiting is what got me into this stomach mess in the first place
i used to make myself vomit
now i do it involunarily
fun fun
bulimia is evil
i wish i never went down that road
i've lived to regret it very much
i wish i could have a drink without feeling ill
i want to say it's not fair, but i did it to myself
it is fair
i just hate it

Went to the chocolate party tonight. My taste buds had a lot of fun. However my stomach is does not agree with my taste buds on the joyousness of the evening. I feel hot and ill. I'm only have one Prevacid left so I took some ranitidine and am waiting for it to kick in. Hopefully I'll feel better enough to get some sleep. I need to get myself to the doctor to get more Prevacid, but that involves dealing with overdue medical bills that I don't feel like dealing with at this time, so I'll probably put it off and suffer. It's too bad there's not a black market for Prevacid, because I'd definitely purchase some.

I forgot to take my Prevacid this morning. This evening it caught up with me. I took the Prevacid about an hour ago and drank some baking soda. Neither helped. What finally helped was eating a tofu pup. The bun soaked up the excess acid. I guess that counts as meal 5.

I wish I was never bulimic. That's what caused my stomach problems. When I don't take my Prevacid my stomach gets so bad sometimes that I randomly vomit. It's quite horrible. Bulimia bad. Still keeps kicking me even after I've stopped. I may have this problem the rest of my life. Bulimia very bad.

wanted to post before i went to bed
took all my goodnite meds
all kicking in
zarthon took purpleglitter and me out to rudy's today
i didn't eat that much
brought most of my dinner home
stomach wasn't feeling too good
but i'll have a nice lunch tomorrow

i'd like to post more
i'd like this to be a very long post
but i'm drifting off
so good night

I'm going to parties tonight and tomorrow. Both are going to have much alcohol. I decided 5 days ago not to drink until my birthday. Now, I'm regretting that decision. I don't think my digestive system has healed enough in this short time to allow me to get drunk without getting sick. And, getting sick at either party would be out of place. I may decide to bend the rules and allow myself one glass of champagne to sparkle in the new year, and one bloody mary tomorrow. I think my stomach and esophagus could handle that. My decision was made for no other reason than my general queasiness. It's not a resolution I need to stick to concretely. I just won't get drunk. It's been tradition for me to get completely wasted two nights a year. My birthday and New Years. Sure there are always other nights I get completely wasted. But those are the two it's usually mandatory to. But, responsible drinking is good, no? I guess I can do that, as boring as it seems from this angle.

I am not going to drink again until my birthday (March 22). Alcohol is just to harsh on my stomach and esophagus. My stomach and esophagus are still recovering from bulimia. It makes me extra sick. I can barely get drunk enough to enjoy it before I start feeling sick. I don't enjoy drinking now, and I'm not going to attempt it again until Spring.

I missed my pdoc appointment. I had prodded a very tired purpleglitter out of bed to drive me. I thought it was at 11:15am, but it was actually at 10:15am. I am just really bad at making appointments. To punish myself for bothering purpleglitter and still missing my appointment, I bought some chips and some hot salsa. I bought hot salsa because I know hot salsa is sucky to purge. When mixed with stomach acids, It burns the back of the mouth painfully. I wanted it to be an unpleasant purging experience, because I did it to punish myself. So I ate the chips and salsa and purged them. I really needed to do something self-destructive. I hate myself.

My tummy doesn't like this Jeremiah Weed stuff anymore. And it's already told me that it no longer likes cheap wine or cheap vodka. I guess I'm just getting older. My stomach just can't handle what it used to. I think I'm going to switch to Fireball Whiskey. It's more expensive, but I don't drink that much so I think I can handle the extra expense when I do drink. Maybe I should just smoke more pot. However, drinking occasionally is fun, too. Pot, however, does have a mind expanding aspect that alcohol lacks. I think I will try to continue to smoke more pot than I drink. And when I drink I will drink Fireball Whiskey.

I know I had some drinks earlier, but I haven't had a drink in over 4 hours and I'm feeling worse and worse. I'm definitely not drunk any longer. I'm hot and cold at once. I feel stuffed up. My stomach is nauseous. In short, I think I'm coming down with something. I don't think trudging back and forth in the snow helped much, either. I'm going to take my meds and go to bed. I have an appointment with my doctor at noon. If I still feel bad, hopefully she can give me something.

i'm twitchy
i'm going to take a day off shaving
i don't need to look perfect every day
i don't need to worry about passing today
i'm not going anywhere anyone would care
i'm just going to go to purpleglitter's
relax
write some poetry
i wish i wasn't so twitchy
i don't know what's wrong
i just can't get rid of the twitches
my stomach is not feeling good today either
i think my twitches effect it
i'm going to take some ativan
and try to relax
i'm not doing good
i'm having bad urges
but i'm containing them
purpleglitter is going to pick me up in an hour
i'm going to get merryperseis to sit with me until then
so i don't do any bad things
i don't feel good
i'm very twitchy
shakey
but i'm doing better than i was
i haven't been twitchy most of the day
just now
the last few hours
i hate the twitchies
i will be doing better later
just right now i am not good
i will try
i'm going to stay out
out of the psych ward
....
phone call
it's myenergy (my mom)
gotta go

todays a new day
we don't have much oil
it is cold in here
i have my coat on so i am warm
i feel tired from last night
everything is moving
and staying still
i ate two large bean burritos merryperseis made for me
they were yummy
but my stomach says "why me?"

-----

it's a new day
what games will we play today?
what loops will my mind go through?
it's a new day
today
how many more will there be?
with a statement like that
maybe i should consider going back into the hospital
i want to wait until i see my therapist Tuesday
i want to stay out at least for a few days
i need to get my celexa refilled

-----

i added some people to my friends list
don't know if they'll add me back
i like adding people
but lately people have been taking me off their list
because i'm getting too fucked up
but that's okay
i understand
there is only so much fucked up some people can take

-----

is this poetry
it is if i say it is
but i don't
so it probably isn't
but maybe it still is
who knows?

i took the klonopin orally
it is now mixing with the warm tomatoe soup in my stomach
yes i do eat a lot of tomatoe soup
yes i still put the "e" at the end of tomatoe
i know it does irk some of you
but i like it there and this is my journal
-----
i'm still very twitch and a bit disorientated.
the room is spinning
purpleglitter is reading a catalog
-----
i fell asleep in the bath tub last night
i went in there to feel safe
i got the idea from recoiling
i wasn't taking a bath
the tub was dry
i fell asleep for two hours
-----
i'm shaking the desk with my twitchy legs
shake shake shake
i don't feel good
it's hot in here
just have to wait for the klonopin to hit me
i should have snorted it
i'd be not twitchy by now

I've been eating way to much. Having little binges. I haven't purged, but I so want to right now. I want to purge. I have too much food in my stomach. I've gotta slow down. Gotta slow down. Too much food in my stomach. Want to purge. It's really hard not to. Have to stop myself.

A week ago, I found a book in my closet that I had never seen before. Printed in 1884, it is entitled The Universal Household Assistant or What Every One Should Know. It's "a cyclopedia of practical information" and has subjects listed in alphabetical order. Following are some of my favorite entries:

Cancer — cure. — Take the blossoms of red clover and make tea of them, and drink freely. It will cure cancer in the stomach as well as on the surface.    Choking — ways to relieve. — Do not lose an instant. Force the mouth open with the handle of a knife or of a long spoon; push the thumb and fingers deep down into the throat beyond the root of the tongue, and feel for the foreign body. If the obstruction cannot be grasped, a hair pin bent into a hook and guided by the left hand will often bring it out. If this fails, get someone to press against the front of the chest or support it against the edge of a table, and strike several hard, quick blows with open hand on the back between the shoulder blades. Further treatment must be applied by a physician, who should have been immediately sent for    2. To prevent choking, break an egg into a cup and give it to the person choking, to swallow. The white of the egg seems to catch around the obstacle and remove it. If one egg does not answer the purpose, try another. The white is all that is necessary.    3. A smart blow with the flat of the hand on the back just below the neck will often relieve the windpipe. If it does not, send for the doctor at once.    4. Foreign bodies lodged in the throat can be removed by forcibly blowing into the ear. The plan is so easily tried and so harmless that we suggest its use.    Dentists' Nerve Paste. — 1. Arsenic, one part; rose pink, two parts. To destroy the nerve apply this preparation on a pledget of cotton, previously moistened with creosote, to the cavity of the tooth, let it remain four hours, then wash out thoroughly with water.    2. Arsenous acid, thirty grains; acetate of morphia, twenty grains; creosote, quantity sufficient for paste. Mix.    Embalming — new method of. — Mix together five pounds dry sulphate of alumine, one quart of warm water, and one hundred grains arsenious acid. Inject three or four quarts of this mixture into all the vessels of the human body. This applies as well to all animals, birds, fishes, etc. This process supercedes the old and revolting mode, and has been introduced into the great anatomical schools of Paris.    Guano — home-made. — Save all your fowl manure from sun and rain. To prepare it for use, spread a layer of dry swamp muck (the blacker it is the better) on your barn floor, and dump on it the whole of your fowl manure; beat it into a fine powder with the back of your spade; this done, add hard wood ashes and plaster of Paris, so that the compound shall be composed of the following proportions: Dried muck, four bushels; fowl manure, two bushels; ashes, one bushel; plaster, one and one-half bushels. Mix thoroughly, and spare no labor; for, in this matter, the effort expended will be well paid for. A little before planting, moisten the heap with water, or, better still, with urine; cover well over with old mats, and let it lie till wanted for use. Apply it to beans, corn, or potatoes, at the rate of a handful to a hill; and mix with the soil before dropping the seed. This will be found the best substitute for guano ever invented, and may be depended on for bringing great crops of turnips, corn, potatoes, etc.    Hysterics — cure for. — The fit may be prevented by the administration of thirty drops of laudanum, and as many of ether. When it has taken place open the windows, loosen the tight parts of the dress, sprinkle cold water on the face, etc. A glass of wine or cold water when the patient can swallow. Avoid excitement and tight lacing.    Mites in Cheese — to destroy. — 1. These are at all times better avoided than destroyed, for when they have become very numerous they do a great deal of damage in a short time. To avoid mites the best plan seems to be to leave the cheese exposed to the air, and to brush it occasionally; some prefer wrapping the cheese in a buttered paper, but the former plan, we think is the best. When mites have become very numerous, they may be killed by suspending the cheese by a piece of wire or string, and dipping it for a moment into a pail of boiling water. The boiling water will kill all the mites, and do no harm to the cheese unless it is left in too long.    2. Cheese kept in a cool larder or cellar, with a cloth rung out of clean, cold water constantly upon it, will never have mites in it, or if it has, this will soon destroy them, and also greatly improve the cheese, keeping it always moist.    Nitrous Oxide, or Laughing Gas. — Take two or three ounces of nitrate of ammonia in crystals and put it into a retort, taking care that the heat does not exceed five hundred degrees; when the crystals begin to melt, the gas will be produced in considerable quantities. The gas may be also produced, though not so pure, by pouring nitric acid, diluted with five or six times it [sic] weight of water, on copper fillings or small pieced of tin. The gas is given out till the acid begins to turn brown; the process must then be stopped.    Opium and its Uses. — Opium is a stimulant, narcotic, and anodyne. Used externally, it acts almost as well as when taken into the stomach, and without affecting the head of causing nausea. Applied to irritable ulcers in the form of tincture, it promotes their cure and allays pain. Clothes dipped in a strong solution, and applied over painful bruises, tumors, or inflamed joints, allays pain. A small piece of solid opium stuffed into a hollow tooth relieves toothache. Two drops of the wine of opium dropped into the eye acts as an excellent stimulant in bloodshot eye, or after long-continued inflammation, it is useful in strengthening the eye. Applied as a liniment, in combination with ammonia or oil, or with camphorated spirit, it relieves muscular pain. When combined with oil of turpentine, it is useful as a liniment in spasmodic colic. Used internally, it acts as a very powerful stimulant, then as a sedative, and finally as an anodyne and narcotic, allaying pain in the most extraordinary manner, by acting directly upon the nervous system.    In acute rheumatism it is a most excellent medicine, when combined with calomel and tartarate of antimony; but its exhibition requires the judicious care of a medical man.    Doses of the various preparations. — Confection of opium, from five grains to half a dram; extract of opium, from one to five grains (this is a valuable form, as it does not produce so much after-derangement of the nervous system as solid opium); pills of soap and opium, from five to ten grains; compound ipecacuanha powder (Dover's powders), from five to twenty grains, compound kino powder, from five to twenty grains; wine of opium, from ten minim to one dram.    Caution. — Opium is a powerful poison when taken in too large a quantity, and therefore should be used with extreme caution.    Sealing-wax (Red). — Shellac (very pale), four ounces; cautiously melt in a bright copper pan over a clear charcoal fire; when fused, add Venice turpentine, one and one-fourth ounces. Mix, and further add vermilion, three ounces; remove the pan from the fire, and pour into a mold. For a black color, use ivory black, or lampblack, instead of the vermilion; for a blue color, use Prussian blue, instead of vermilion, same quantity. Each color must be well mixed with the composition; of the lampblack, use only sufficient to color.    Small-pox — cure for. — A physician writes: I am willing to risk my reputation as a public man, if the worst case of small-pox cannot be cured in three days simply by cream of tartar. This is a never-failing remedy: One ounce of cream of tartar, dissolved in one pint of boiling water, to be taken when cold. Dose, two tablespoonfuls every two hours. It is also a preventive; dose, as before, three times a day. It has cured thousands, never leaves a mark, never causes blindness, and avoids tedious lingering.    Soup for Invalids. — Raw beef, on account of its ready digestibility, is often prescribed for invalids. Of late, European physicians have found the use of what we may call raw soup of great utility when given to patients much reduced by fevers. This soup, first proposed by Liebig, is made from finely chopped beef or fowl, recently killed. Half a pound of this meet [sic] is added to a pint and a half of distilled water (pure rain water, filtered, will answer), four drops of pure muriatic acid are added, and a teaspoonful of salt, or enough to suit the taste. After standing an hour, the whole is thrown upon a hair sieve (a flannel bag will do as well) to separate the liquid. If the first liquid which passes through is muddy, it is poured back into the strainer until what runs off is quite clear. When the liquid ceases to run, half a pint of water is added, in small quantities at a time, to the flesh in the strainer. The yield will be about a pint of a reddish colored liquid, tasting like soup, which is to be given cold, a cupful at a time, or in such quantities as the patient desires. It is claimed that this soup contains the nutritive principles of the meat not changed by heat, as they are in cooking, and that they are part ready digested by the muriatic acid, and that it is suited to the weakest digestive organs. If the red color and somewhat fleshy odor are objected to, the one may be disguised by caramel (burnt sugar) and the other by a little wine. The soup spoils readily, and in warm weather must be kept on ice.    Tape Worm. — To expel this parasite, take equal parts of tincture assafoetida and tincture absinthii, in teaspoonful doses, night and morning. No fasting is necessary.