Posted by beardedlady on May 7, 2002, at 13:20:57
In reply to They're just my personal opinions, guys..., posted by n0matter on May 2, 2002, at 10:59:41
>...I constantly struggle against the idea of having to take these for the rest of my life. It's very self-defeating. ...I do believe >>that the purpose intended in alleviating these symptoms is to allow us to root out the cause of our condition and resolve it. >>There was a time when the majority of us didn't have our depression, anxiety, OCD, etc. I was always under the impression >that the ultimate and most favorable of scenarios involved us rediscovering that time and that way of thinking. Not finding a >pill that masks our problems and being content with taking it for the rest of our lives.
--------I don't know a person on meds who doesn't struggle with this very problem. I slept well for 35 years. I had a child, and once she stopped nursing, I stopped sleeping. I haven't been able to sleep without medication for almost four years. I long for the day I can return to my old, unSerzoned, unSonataed self.
But guess what: I probably won't. Who knows why our bodies and our brains go through the changes they go through? But sometimes there are no answers. And even when there are, well, read on.
My father has asthma and diabetes. He smoked 3 packs of Kools a day for almost thirty years. When he quit, he got asthma. The inhalers he takes to relieve his symptoms aren't temporary until they find a cause and cure for his asthma. They are permanent symptom relievers. That's all he can do.
My sister has asthma, allergies, and reflux. She is on medications to relieve the symptoms of each. But they are not standbys until the causes have been discovered. There is no miracle that happens once such a cause is revealed. She is simply a person allergic to mold and dust who has an inherited digestive disorder that runs in my family, and she has to take meds to relieve her symptoms. Period.
When it comes to disorders of the brain, people think a different rule applies. Once they find the cause (a death in the family, say, or the stress of protecting sleep while nursing), they expect the disorder to just go away or expect to be able to reason it away or remove it with therapy or cognitive thinking. But it's not likely to happen.
Being healthy does not mean being medicine free! It means managing your illness AND, most important, accepting that you may never be medicine free! It may sound like a catch 22, but ridding yourself of med shackles often can't occur until you've become comfortable with the notion that you are shackled to meds.
You find benzos evil because you are dependent upon them for symptom relief. But part of getting better will require you to change your outlook and see the things that ease your pain, your brain, as gifts.
beardy : )>
poster:beardedlady
thread:104700
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020503/msgs/105447.html