How Medication Changed My Life

Four years ago I hated taking medications.

Three years ago I got serious about helping myself.

Today, I take my medications as prescribed – and as a result have been consistently more stable than ever before.

Keep in mind, that there are times I miss doses – I do NOT recommend skipping doses, this is just my personal experience and I am not a healthcare provider – but even with those times, I do my best to get back on track as soon as possible.

Medications saved my life.

More specifically, medications for mental illness saved my life.

They may not have completely stopped the hallucinations or the paranoia. I still feel bugs crawling on my skin, and still suffer from delusional thoughts. Even so, medication lessened those symptoms.

Medication helps keep me even-keeled, keeps me from dipping to the dangerous lows or extreme highs. It keeps the hallucinations and paranoia manageable.

With medication, coping skills actually work to help control my symptoms. Without medication, coping skills are about as useful as filling a pot full of holes with water.

The meds I take are a tool in my coping toolbox, now-a-days.

The days when I lay on the couch and simply exist are almost completely gone.

I can take care of myself without being pushed to do so.

Focusing is within my reach, instead of something that simply isn’t going to happen.

Most of all, I’m no longer suicidal.

I can make plans for the future and look forward to everything there is to look forward to, rather than planning the day I die.

So why am I telling you all of this?

As previously mentioned, I am not a healthcare professional. Therefore, I cannot prescribe, diagnose, or anything else in that realm. However, I can recommend you discuss medications to control your symptoms with a doctor. I can give my personal experience with medications, and how they changed (read: saved) my life.

Medications need time (and consistency!) to help – especially with invisible illnesses. We cannot see them working, and with mental illness we often cannot feel them working (at least for awhile) either. Looking back, however, we can see how far we have come.

Maybe it looks like less “non-functioning” days.

Maybe it’s being able to apply coping skills to symptoms.

It might look like not being hospitalized.

No matter how it looks for you, look back and see how far you’ve come. It might surprise you.

Love,

Nicole

Disclaimer: I am not a healthcare professional. I cannot treat, prescribe, diagnose, or anything else in that realm. This is only my personal experience with taking medications as prescribed. Please discuss taking or stopping medication with a healthcare professional.