For its 10th anniversary, Slate is republishing some old favorites, like Seth Stevenson’s Extroverted like me, the story of his experiment with Paxil to overcome his shyness:
Day 35: Drinking a lot, several nights a week. Liquor + Paxil = Wow!Pre-Paxil, I was a social drinker. Now I’m walking a mile in someone else’s brain chemistry. I can see why some of you like to drink so much, maybe even need to drink so much. It’s fun for me now, in a way it just wasn’t before. On liquor and Paxil, strangers mean novelty, not fear. Group conversations are a chance to play raconteur, not a chance to smile weakly and shut up.
And it’s so much better than sobriety. Sober for me these days means extreme detachment. Movies, once a favorite hobby, do nothing for me now. Likewise books — I just don’t connect with the plots or characters. I can’t recall laughing (while sober) in the past couple of weeks. I’m never sad, but never happy. Why wouldn’t I drink?
Day 38: I spent the first semester of my freshman year of college in a haze. During the Southern California evenings, I often played tennis, pulling bong hits between games. I distilled homemade rum in my dorm room, using Sterno cans and plastic tubing. My roommate grew six ounces of weed in our closet. It was more fun than I’d ever had in my life. The day after I got home for Christmas break, I decided to transfer.
It occurs to me that the past month has been a bit like that semester. I’m living the unexamined life. It’s fantastic. I’m about ready to transfer.