The Brave New World of Medication
21 Jul 2011 1 Comment
in Medication, The Mental Health System Tags: medication, mindyourmind.ca, psychiatry
I’m not going to lie: I’m swamped in getting ready for my craft show this weekend and have not written a new post. While I hope to be a Speedy Gonzales-esque writer one of these days and write ten posts ahead of schedule, it hasn’t happened yet. Don’t be disappointed, however! Tonight you get to step into the shoes of a MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL. WOOO!!! No university degree required.
mindyourmindpro.ca aims at helping health care professionals help youth. They have a kick-ass blog that I’m sampling from here, a post I wrote in February on educating youth on medication. It was amazing to be able to talk to professionals in an arena where they would be open to my opinions on health care. While the post is aimed at professionals, it has a lot of good advice for people new to antidepressants. I wish I could have read such an article when I first went on medication. Click the “more” arrow below to read the article.
Meds, Part Two: Bad Emotional Reactions
14 Jul 2011 1 Comment
in Medication, Symptoms and Side-Effects Tags: antidepressants, depression, medication, tips
It was basically my worst nightmare to become suicidal from medication because after all, I was taking it to feel better, not worse. Thankfully, I didn’t have any really bad emotional effects from medication until I was well into treatment and could recognize when I was going downhill. Otherwise, it could have been fatal.
As I write this I question whether a) this will scare my new readers away or b) that this will dissuade people from trying medication at all, but this story has a happy ending so I hope you will trust me. Obviously, I urge anyone that is considering ending their life to go to the hospital. Please see my Help Section if you are feeling like hurting yourself. Also, before I go on I want to add that everyone reacts differently to medications, so even though I had bad reactions to these drugs, they could work wonders for you. I am no doctor, just a writer with her story, so work with your own doctor when figuring out meds for yourself.
So, out of the different medications I have tried, two drugs made me feel emotionally worse. The first was a complete shock to both me and my doctor because it wasn’t a new medication at all, just a different form of the same drug. I had previously been taking the generic Wellbutrin twice a day, but when I switched psychiatrists my new doctor told me that the name brand pill came in a once-a-day dosage. It was inconvenient to take it twice a day so I switched from two purple pills to one white pill and thought little of it.
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Meds, Part One: An Overview
11 Jul 2011 1 Comment
in Medication, Symptoms and Side-Effects Tags: anxiety, depression, headache, medication, psychiatry
I am a walking cocktail of medication and have been since I was diagnosed with depression. One by one pills have been added and subtracted to balance out my brain, some making me physically sick, some making me sleepy, some making me suicidal. Why put myself though all that? I do it because the alternative is worse. After years and years of trying medications that did not help, I’ve finally found pills that help me enough to function. It would be safe to say that without my medication this blog would not exist. Neither would my apartment or my art or the fact that I can function in day-to-day life.
I take seven pills at breakfast, three pills at dinner, and four pills at bedtime. Cymbalta and Wellbutrin are antidepressants to treat depression, Seroquel is an anti-psychotic I take to help me sleep, and Xanax is a PRN (Pro Re Nata – Latin for as needed) I take once in a while for anxiety. Those are the straightforward medications and why I take them.
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