The Author

(INCOMPLETE)

Who is R?

R is a 21 year old military housewife (Go Army!) living in Colorado with her husband and two cats.

She spends her days cooking, cleaning, getting bossed around by cats, reading, playing video games, getting bossed around by cats, managing household expenses, couponing, using couponing as an excuse to go shopping and getting bossed around by cats. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday she also goes to the local stable to be bossed around by a horse and her trainer. She goes an extra day on Saturday just to hang out if she isn't too tired from baking and spending a few hours glued to the TV watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Littlest Pet Shop, Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot, Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures and Pound Puppies. On Sundays she goes over to her friend B's house to clip coupons, swap silly husband stories and pretend B's baby boy is hers.

Don't be fooled; that only sounds like a busy schedule.

Before R got hitched seemingly out of nowhere, R was a worker bee. When she wasn't at work, she was working on a self-assigned creative project(s) - painting! writing! drawing! plotting world domination!

R loved working! There was something very fulfilling about doing one's best to succeed and succeeding at succeeding! Until she realized the stupid managers didn't recognize her talents / felt threatened by it / passed her up for pay raises and promotions because she didn't hound them for it and gave it to a moron instead. After that she would either become bitter and snippy or look for another job. But hey, the customers always preferred talking to her because she knew what she was doing and that's what matters. (Right?)

Anyways. 

Now that R is a housewife, she finds herself with a lot of free time on her hands, and it's driving her up the walls!

Recognizing the dire need of a creative and emotional outlet, she started this blog. It was almost named "Spoiled Spouse", which quite honestly is a title that would fit her very well, but as that was taken the name "Silver Linings Housewife" was chosen instead. And the best part of that little bump in the road is that "Silver Linings Housewife" fits R even better.

Why?

Because R is on Prozac, an anti-anxiety drug. She has this thing called Generalized Anxiety Disorder caused by a chemical imbalance in her brain.

What is GAD?

GAD is characterized by persistent, excessive, and unrealistic worry about everyday things.

People with the disorder, which is also referred to as GAD, experience exaggerated worry and tension, often expecting the worst, even when there is no apparent reason for concern. They anticipate disaster and are overly concerned about money, health, family, work, or other issues. GAD is diagnosed when a person worries excessively about a variety of everyday problems for at least 6 months. 

Sometimes just the thought of getting through the day produces anxiety. They don’t know how to stop the worry cycle and feel it is beyond their control, even though they usually realize that their anxiety is more intense than the situation warrants. 

GAD affects 6.8 million adults, or 3.1% of the U.S. population, in any given year. Women are twice as likely to be affected. 

The disorder comes on gradually and can begin across the life cycle, though the risk is highest between childhood and middle age. Although the exact cause of GAD is unknown, there is evidence that biological factors, family background, and life experiences, particularly stressful ones, play a role. 

When their anxiety level is mild, people with GAD can function socially and be gainfully employed. Although they may avoid some situations because they have the disorder, some people can have difficulty carrying out the simplest daily activities when their anxiety is severe. 

--- Anxiety and Depression Association of America

How does it affect R?

Pretty much exactly what the quote says. Especially the last bolded section of the text. Even more so when R has an episode of acid reflux.

When that happens (pre-Prozac), R usually believes she's having a heart attack or is suffering from some other life-threatening thing, and promptly calls husband or a friend, regardless of the time, to help calm her down. Most of the time she even knows rationally that she isn't dying. But because of the chemical imbalance, her brain refuses to accept that. 

Here's an easy-to-understand analogy: Telling her brain she isn't dying when having an episode is akin to trying explain to a Justin Bieber fan that he isn't the coolest thing since sliced bread.

Now that she is medicated, the episodes are much more manageable. This doesn't mean she doesn't have an unmanageable one once in a while though, or more than once in a while.