Needing medication is not a bad thing. Taking medication is not a weakness. Actually, knowing when you need it and continuing to take it (even when you don't want to) is actually a strength.
Of course, if the medication is not helping you, or if it is causing side effects that are not acceptable, then continnuuing to seek treatment until you find that the right solution is also a strength.
I sometimes would justify not taking medication by remembering that time in my life when I was doing well without medication. I was proud that I wasn't needing any pills.
However, comparing a time in the past with the present is not an apt comparison because people change. My brain, my life, my illness, have all changed, and it all continues to change.
Furthermore, I may remember that time in the past as a time during which I was doing well, but my memory is biased. I was probably having some difficulties, but because I want to remember that good pill-free time, my memory is selective. I can compare my current achievements to what I had achieved in my life at that point, and I can see that I've made great progress, so why would I want to go back in time, to an illusionary perfect pill-free past? It probably didn't even exist, except for in my skewed memory.
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I too have looked back on my non-medicated past with rose colored glasses. I keep a journal to keep myself straight, with tags on entries where I discuss my medications. That way, I can jump back to times where my medication has changed, or when I've made comments about my medication, and take a look at the reality of the situation. I always come back realizing that I should be on medications.
ReplyDeleteI struggle with this with my son. Right now he is not on any continual medication but he may be in the future. He's so young right now (12) I'm trying to do without until he can get a little older and his body has a chance to adjust to puberty and his hormones even out. But I guess we'll see.
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