Dear Classmates,
How am I doing since I moved to Buffalo in 1991?
Well, except for advancing macular degeneration and advancing emphysema caused by 52 years of cigarettes, plus enlarged prostate, and a fallen arch that makes walking more than½ a block excruciating, I'm doing great.
I'm feeling great because I am taking small doses of two antidepressants, Desyrel and Celexa. The Desyrel, which I started in 1990, stimulates the affection hormone produced by the pituitary: Oxytocin.
Oxytocin is at its highest level in the mother of new born, and at a lower level it makes the father very attentive to his children. The alpha male baboon, (Darwin's favorite primate), Mozart's father and Freud's father are examples of this effect.
Very hard mental and physical work is made easy and fun if the work is for someone you love, ie someone who raises your oxytocin level. The Darwinian playwright G. B. Shaw, and the songwriter Frank Loesser, have noted this as well.
So that is why I have never been happier than I started to be in the fall of 1990, and why I don't get depressed with all of my physical complaints.
Sincerely,
Deake
PS The reason I need the Celexa, is because elevated oxytocin makes me worry too much about the future of those I love. Celexa is a "what me worry" antidepressant.
PPS I couldn't love anybody at Amherst except Arty Martin, Marsh Karp, Jim Jordan, Benjamin DeMott and Caesar Barber. But, now I love all of you, and those wonderful years.