When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, and later as a young(er) adult in the 90s, mental illness was a stigma. Most people didn’t talk about it much. If someone was seeing a therapist or psychiatrist, they kept this information to themselves.
This has changed significantly. Now, it seems like having “anxiety”, seeing a therapist and being on medication are a badge of honor. Everyone from close friends, to family members, to loose acquaintances will tell me about their depression, anxiety, ADHD and medications.
I don’t think it is because I’m a good listener. I think it’s because discussing mental illness, treatment and medication have become socially acceptable.
That’s not a bad thing. But I’m still going to complain about it today (ha).
I’m familiar with depression and OCD. I struggled with both at times in my life. When I was in my late 20s, I had reached a point where I would recheck the locks on the doors, turn the water faucet on and off repeatedly and check the window locks so many times that I couldn’t get out of the house for at least an hour! I really started to think I was crazy.
I was also quite depressed, having trouble sleeping and stressed out all the time.
Finally, at wit’s end, I called my mother and told her I wanted to see a doctor but I didn’t want to see a psychiatrist, because I feared I was crazy and would be locked up in an institution. She suggested I meet with a General Practitioner she had worked with for years.
I saw him and explained what was happening and my concerns about being locked up. He listened carefully and then smiled and said, “You’re not crazy. You don’t need to see a Psychiatrist if you don’t want to. You’re depressed. I think we should try Prozac and see if it helps you.”
I was desperate for a solution so I agreed to try it.
It helped me.
It broke my compulsive behavior patterns completely. It made my stress drop to manageable levels. For the first time in years, I was able to relax.
There were undesirable side effects for me: I was ravenously hungry all the time. I would eat a complete Biggie Size Fast Food meal for lunch and two hours later would be ready to eat another full meal. Over the course of a year, I put on 60 lbs.
I also stopped being able to fall asleep. The only way I could fall asleep was to drink wine after dinner. Then I’d wake up in the middle of the night around 2 AM and be wide awake for hours. So I was often sort of groggy and “jaggy” during the day.
After a year, I stopped taking the prozac. My appetite returned to normal levels and I was able to lose the excess weight I had gained. I started sleeping better. And the OCD never returned.
So I won’t say that medication for mental illness issues is inappropriate.
Not only would it be hypocritical, based on my personal experience it would be untrue.
Years later, I joined AA and saw a therapist because I had a drinking problem. I was getting drunk every night and felt I couldn’t stop.
AA and my therapist changed my life. It was difficult work. I had to take a thorough inventory of my actions throughout my entire life. I had to make amends for harms I had done to others. I had to forgive people who had harmed me. I had to recognize and experience feelings I had pushed down deep inside of me for decades.
That was 18 years ago. My life, my world and my mind has completely transformed since then.
I’ve become a strong advocate for therapy with behavioral modification based on my experience.
It worked for me and I’ve seen it work for others.
But I am have not seen great results from medication or therapy that is done without the hard work part.
I know many people who are on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, ADHD meds and even antipsychotic meds but who don’t look at the underlying roots of their conditions.
I understand why. It’s painful. It would be much easier to just take a pill – like I did with prozac.
So it do not feel optimistic me when people close to me increase their dosages, switch to the latest medication promoted by the drug companies or ask for a new medication without even attempting therapy.
I wish we could pop a pill and everything would be alright. Maybe it works that way for some people. It just never has for me.