The Healer With His Magic Powers: How House Changed My Life
Hi, all. I've started this thread because after a thorough search of the board I couldn't find one that fit exactly; "What I've Learned" and "You Know You're Obsessed" were the closest, but not quite right. Mods, if you think this belongs somewhere else (e.g. the General forum), or the topic is, indeed, covered by another thread, feel free to move it. I wanted to share a story of how "House" literally changed my life. And read yours, if you have any. Mine is long. You've been warned. Five years ago this winter, when "House" was but a gleam in David Shore's eye, I met a local radio shock jock whose show I'd been a huge fan of for years. He was a brilliant, charismatic man, and I thought it would be fun to be friends with him. I introduced myself, we chatted, and he seemed to take a liking to me. (I was not interested in him romantically; at that time I'd been in a committed relationship for many years.) What I didn't know was that this man (I'll call him Toxic Jock) was a narcissist and a sociopath. We become friendly, mostly via e-mail, and next thing you know he's coming on to me big-time. Everything I say, he finds brilliant. Everything I'm interested in, he finds fascinating. Now, for 40 years, I've felt different, weird, misunderstood, even by those who love me. To be so totally accepted and understood was the biggest rush I've ever felt. I started wondering if I'd picked wrong all those years ago and Toxic could be The One. I was dangerously close to showing Mr. Hamster the door; this new guy felt so right. Then, as quickly as Toxic's love-bombing began, it ended. Suddenly I went from being on the top of his list to not being on it at all. I'm confused. Devastated. He told me I was the greatest thing ever; told me he couldn't deal with being just friends, he had to have all of me. And now he's ignoring me? Cue "Fatal Attraction" theme. OK, I didn't leave any bunnies boiling on his stove, make hang-up phone calls or drive by his house. But for the next year and a half, my world got smaller and smaller, and the only thing that mattered was trying to rekindle that affection he'd showered on me. I lost interest in everything and everyone that used to bring me joy. My work slipped, I drank too much, my finances went in the toilet. I was a mess. I snapped out of the worst of it after that year and a half, but the next three years I began to realize what had happened. "How could feelings those intense just evaporate?" "Because they weren't real to begin with, idiot. Dude was playing you like a Stradivarius." I've since learned that he was romancing *at least* two other women during the time he was sweeping me off my feet/dropping me on my you-know-what. And I spent those next three years consumed with anger, obsessed with wanting to see the karma bus run this man over, repeatedly. I went into therapy. I started medication. I wrote blog posts, bad poetry, not-quite-so-bad songs in an effort to exorcise this anger. And then ... I wrote a "House" fanfic. A very bad one, canonically unsound, lots of OOC-ness, even -- gasp! -- a self-insert (not a Mary Sue, though, more like a Scary Lou). No, you can't read it. I didn't post it to any "House" fic sites -- only to the emotional abuse survivors' board I'd been frequenting. It's since been bumped from there by later posts. Long story short, in the fic, House becomes a fan of a fictionalized version of my Toxic One. He becomes a patient at PPTH -- not House's patient, but House meets him and they hit it off. Tox pulls his charismatic act, and House feels more understood, more accepted than he's ever felt, even from Wilson or Stacy. (I think this is an issue for House just as it is with me, growing up feeling different and thinking nobody will ever totally "get" him.) Folks, he even applied to give this guy a KIDNEY. The fictional Tox's true colors are eventually revealed, thanks to Cuddy, Cameron and three obsessed fangirls of his (one of whom is my Scary Lou) and in the climactic scene, House barges into his room and crosses his own name off the top of the kidney transplant potential-donor list in front of this guy. Then he calls in the three OFs, who'd also offered their kidneys, and has them cross off their names. Then he tells the Tox off, goes and does the sulk-on-the-roof thing, is snapped out of it by Wilson, and all's well that ends well. And it did in my life, too. Once I'd written that fic, I was free of my obsession with Tox. It evaporated, just like that. Writing about House being hornswoggled by the guy was able to free me in a way that all my nonfiction writing couldn't. I don't exactly know how it happened, but it did. And I found a new hobby: MSTing other bad fanfics and writing (hopefully) good ones. So basically I've traded an obsession with a real-life Effed-Up Guy for an obsession with a fictional one. But at least I'm not crying myself to sleep every night and crying myself awake every morning wondering why Greg House fell out of love with me. So that's my story. Got one? Probably not this extreme, but has being a "House" fan been a force for good in your life? Maybe you made a new BFF via the fandom? Or seen a real-life acquaintanceship grow into friendship because you're both fans? Gotten a medical condition diagnosed and treated as a result of seeing it portrayed on the show? Do share, and thanks for reading this magnum opus. (Which just got me promoted to Resident -- how cool is that?)

Short and sweet. House changed me/my life because i was an introverted passive pessimist. Now im and extroverted realist. 'Course that could have just been the therapy I was getting at the time, but I think its due to the snarky doctor not caring what anyone thinks. Also I have been having great debates with my friends over the House/Cam House/Cuddy debate. Funny to watch actually. Question OldHamster, the MSTing you do, is it on House_MST at LJ?

That is sweet, #Thirteen. It really is. The old crank does have something to teach us about being true to ourselves and doing what we believe in despite what others may think. But therapy doesn't hurt either! Yes, the Snarky Hamster hangs out at house_mst. My LJ username is "niicelaady" and my MSTs can usually be found under an icon of Cuddy captioned "Don't feed the slashers!" If you're interested in my serious fics, I have a fic-only LJ called hamonwry. Mostly House/Cameron, but I've written some gen and may even attempt a House/Wilson one of these days. Thanks for responding to this thread. I was afraid it was going to die a lonely death when it went unresponded-to for so long.