Well done. It tricked me into starting, by disguising itself as non-fiction, but it was so well done that I continued. I have found most contemporary American litfic so excruciatingly dull and self-indulgent that I rarely give it a chance anymore. This was pretty good.

I'm not sure why this was written and I didn't enjoy reading it. But I'm glad to live in a world that sustains the creation of experimental pieces like this made freely available to all.

Was disappointed when I realized the author was not an actual doctor.

You were preparing the perfect comment while reading the article, only to learn at the end that the doctor is not real and your comment didn't make sense anymore. All that effort, wasted.

I was relieved.

I was both.

I did enjoy reading it, yet I think you've said all that needs to be said.

I loved this, thank you. I laughed and cried in equal measure. It was a perfect break from what's normally on this website and I'm deeply grateful to you for sharing it.

This reads like someone heard about the concept of an FAQ and decided to write a parody but has no idea how to stop sounding like an MFA New Yorker editor.

Which according to the bio is exactly what it is.

The idea reminds me of Joey Comeau's Overqualified (a story told through job application letters):

https://www.amazon.com/Overqualified-Joey-Comeau/dp/15502285...

I vaguely recall it was quite good.

Author seems to understand how a certain kind or degree of grief makes people crazy -- I spent a year or two in that sort of condition after a couple of untimely deaths in the family, (as well as a couple of other personal setbacks) when I was younger. I think some of the superficially negative reactions in this thread actually describe the authentic insufferable-ness of persons in such a state. They can become bitter, nihilistic, self centered, unreliable and just bizarrely ill-behaved. The story might seem overwrought and hard to believe, but I was really like that for a while, and couldn't seem to stop even when I knew it was happening.

Made me miss fiction. That's how it's done.

Heartbreaking, but humorous. For better or worse, life will continue to march on.

Edit: it seems as though this is fiction

It’s well written, but I found the protagonist to be too pathetic to read more than half way.

You know what they say, different strokes for different folks. Some ischemic, some hemorrhagic.

Magnificent. A lead you down the garden path kind of trolling of the brain. Your brain.

Excellent. Moved me.

The way this is written doesn't resemble non-humorous writing at all, so the irony fails. It's not funny. It's painfully unfunny.

I spent a decade overseas and ran into this lazy kind of humor a lot from British drunkards in Irish pubs that never learned the language of the country they were in. Oh, you don't understand irony because you're American! No, I get it, but it's not funny. Acting like you're being funny while you're saying something absurd isn't irony. This kind of humor is embarrassingly lazy and could only come from people who are so focused on themselves that they think humor means when they're trying to get a laugh. Fucking stupid.

If this was British humor it’d know how to show restraint. You can tell it’s American because they can’t control themselves with the metaphors.

Oh, I disagree. I think this is in the vein of David Foster Wallace. There is that dry sarcasm, which you are right may or may not be funny. But behind it is this gothic horror of our strange existence. Medieval torture made mundane surrounded by the routine, punctuated with the insane.