Had a dream this afternoon (man, this afternoon naps are wacky!) that I woke up in the year 2006, a whole seven years ago. I was my 2006 self, but with my 2013 mind.

You know, the whole “time travel via inhabiting your previous body” schtick. Clears up that whole “what do you do if you meet yourself” issue, among others.

Anyhow, I knew I was displaced in time, and I seemed to be treating the whole thing as temporary, like I knew I would revert to my proper place in time eventually.

This, I am convinced, is due entirely to thinking in television terms. I knew, deep down, that this was just one of those “character travels into their past to learn a valuable lesson” episodes, and that if I just went with the plot, I would be back to my normal life at the end of it.

And of course, here I am, awake in 2013 in my normal life, so in that sense, the dream had it right.

Unfortunately, dream 2006 was not exactly historically accurate on either a global or biographical level, but was instead the usual confused amalgam of Vancouver, my home town of Summerside, bits and pieces of other places I have visited or lived, and of course, completely insane places that could never exist in the reality outside the zeitgeist.

Too bad. An actual trip back in time to visit my past would be pretty interesting. That is a story I would love to read.

But this story is packed with weirdness. How weird are we talking?

We’re talking Elvis weird.

Yup, Elvis was in my dreams. Me and my imaginary cohorts had to go someplace where Elvis was about to break up with the love of his life and make sure everything went right, in that annoying way that time travel plots have of assuming there is a “right” version of history that must be preserved because any alteration can only make things worse.

Bloody temporal provincialism, if you ask me.

At one point, I actually had the pleasure of telling Elvis off when he was saying crude and offensive things to this lady he was breaking up with. I told him to fucking lay off, amongst other things.

So that was pretty cool. Apparently, in this dream world, Elvis was a suspicious, jealous guy who hired spies to keep tabs on his girlfriend.

No idea if that is even vaguely accurate. I hope not. I like The King.

So we leave with this lady in tow, dressed in a pretty nice pink lace outfit.

(Her, not us. Pity. )

We lead her to this tiny graveyard behind a fancy restaurant (??) and then one of my cohorts surprised me by whacking her on the back of the head and knocking her out.

They explain that she is “supposed” to be found here with no memory of how she got there. Was still a bit of a shock, let me tell you. Not sure I approve, honestly.

There was more bits and pieces, but nothing all that noteworthy.

Outside of the dream realm, today has been unusual because I had therapy this morning. Usually, my therapy appointments are Thursday mornings, but my therapist will be out of town by then, so we had to change it.

We talked about the effects of my lower dosage of Paxil, and I told him about saying a few things that I had not intended to say out loud, which is a bit tricky. But mostly, I told him, I feel better. More solid, more real, more alive. The emotional volume levels are definitely higher, but so far, that has been mostly a good thing.

I then learned some pretty interesting new information about SSRI’s and brain chemicals. Turns out, Paxil is great at turning up the serotonin and turning down your emotions, but at a cost, and not just the cost I already knew about with the whole emotional numbness thing.

It also reduces the brain’s levels of another neurotransmitter called noradrenaline or norepinephrine, and that is considered the “motivation chemical”.

So for the decade I have been on Paxil, it has suppressing my motivation levels all this time! No wonder I have found it so hard to focus and be motivated to do things. My norephineprhine levels are wack!

The end result of all this is that once I have been at least a solid month on the new level of Paxil (30 mg), the doc and I will discuss adding a norepinephrine booster like Wellbutrin to my drug regime in an effort to get me back to normal on both fronts.

I look forward to seeing what it would be like to have both greater access to my emotions and higher levels of motivation. Who knows, I might become a dynamo of activity.

And honestly, it would be about time.

Speaking of activity, tonight I will be going to a meeting of Overeaters Anonymous with that darling of the hoi polloi and international best friend of mine Felicity, primarily as moral support.

But after agreeing to accompany her, it also occurred to me that this will also be a good exercise in stretching my boundaries and going against my social anxiety full on.

After all, it will be a group of strangers with whom I have little in common and we will all be sitting around a circular table together.

There would have been a time in my life when that would have been absolutely out of the question. Unthinkable. Not a chance in hell.

But now, I am only slightly concerned, and actually looking forward to it a little. I am not anticipating great results re: weight loss, but that is not a high priority for me right now.

Plus, admittedly, having my best friend with me makes a huge difference. If I was going there all by myself, I would be pretty scared.

But as is, I will be there with Felicity, and we can face it all together.

Plus, there’s a free potluck dinner beforehand, and that helps too.

Free potluck before OA…sure, that makes sense!