This blog post will be painfully short. Mainly because it's emphasis is going to be placed on just one thing.
Adjusting to new medications when you deal with mental illness is hard. Those of you who deal with this know this.
As adults, if we have a chronic condition like IBS or Fibromyalgia or Diabetes, and we have to change medications, we say to ourselves "This is gonna suck, but I'm an adult, and I've gotta deal with it." Maybe we will have to fight with constipation, insomnia, dry mouth, or other physical annoyances. As adults, we accept that, and move forward.
People with mental illness deal with a second blow when we are adjusting to new medications. Specifically, ones that target the mental illness itself. When we make the medication change, we often have no idea how our mind is going to respond to it. Will we have vivid hallucinations? Will suicidal thoughts creep in? Will we become hyper-OCD? Will our world become a roller-coaster of highs and lows that rival the most manic of bipolar episodes? Will everything be ok again? We have no idea.
Today I am adjusting to new medication. I'm very twitchy and spazzy today. It's also making me hyper-aware of every tiny little thing around me. I startle like I've heard a gunshot every time an acorn hits our tin roof.
And there are a lot of acorns.
Here is my point: If you know someone who deals with mental illness, and they happen to share with you that they are adjusting to new medications, please, for the love of all that is decent and holy, EMPATHIZE with them. Give them an extra measure of understanding that day, or week. We need it more than you can understand.
For those who deal with mental illness, I'm also giving a shout-out to you. You know what this @#$%^& is like.
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