Your Responsibility, Marriage, Antidepressants, Anxiety Disorders, and Emoting

I have always seen personal accountability as a self-empowering act and a sign of self-respect. This is often missing in many health situations, where patients too often abdicate their responsibilities or did not dare question their doctors about course of treatment. For Kilroy’s 10 point list that recognizes you as an empowered individual to question and have a proactive role in your own recovery, I am selecting this as my featured post.

JANE’S FEATURED PICK Kilroy_60 distilled a 10 point list of what he had learned “for a person who is preparing to seek treatment for a disease of the brain“: (1) Identify symptoms you are experiencing. (2) Prepare questions prior to your first appointments {with the therapist and psychiatrist} (3) Remember, never forget, you are a person with an illness. You do not BECOME the disease. (4) You will receive a diagnosis or a number of diagnoses. Again, the diagnosis is not what you are. The {or each} diagnosis is a label. (5) Do not become a victim of Sheep Syndrome. (6) Research and learn as much as possible. (7) I believe, although I very well maybe wrong, that many if not most mental illnesses are chronic. You should understand that you will feel “better”, but are likely not to be “cured”. (8) You are RESPONSIBLE. (9) Do Not ISOLATE. (10) Manage your care and stay aware.

Here are two poems that convey different tones of the same mood: Joy Soriano’s “I Will Smile Again” and Suni’s “The dark places“. My challenge to Joy: write another version of this poem in the present tense – i.e. – I AM smiling again, and see what comes up for you. My reminder to Suni: even when depression creates a feeling of darkness within you, remember: you have a bulletproof soul.

Therese Borchard’s “In Sickness and In Health” is a poignant description of the pain that depression causes within and around a person – especially for her loved ones. It makes me appreciate what my husband had gone through and how important his support and patience was in my healing process. I’ve known people who have destroyed themselves – and their families – when they refused to seek help or to stick to a regimen that is helping their condition because they “don’t like the way it feels.” We often forget that unless we live in caves by ourselves, apart from others, our self-destructive acts will have consequences for others as well. Sometimes, when we are still learning how to love ourselves, the act of loving another person can help us make that difficult decision to seek help.

isabella mori wrote a short piece on considerations when using antidepressants.” I agree! Too many people expect a quick fix and don’t realize that medications come with side effects. Taking medication is a sacrifice you decide to make, because you think the tradeoffs (side effects) are worth the potential benefits (getting better). When patients ignore that medications are not just a pill you pop, but powerful chemicals that alter your body in profound ways, they can be mindful of their medication choices, and realistic about their expectations.

Talia Mana asks if you worry too much. She described the GAD-7 questionnaire for screening generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a condition that may affect one in five people. I think the questionnaire criteria of looking at your symptoms within a 2 week period is very short and can potentially lead to misdiagnosis and overprescribing. Depending on life situation, you can have symptoms that resemble a GAD, without actually having GAD, which subsides once the stressors are removed. I think the period marking the persistence of symptoms should be longer – 4 to 6 weeks instead of 2 weeks – only because I know that in our healthcare system, when you discuss this with doctors, they may hand you a prescription to get you out the door for the next patient.

Scott Lee’s “Get It Out!” is a post on the process of emoting. This can be helpful when considering the cognitive sides of depression and mood. Many people who have mental health conditions also experience anger and rage (depression is supposed to be anger turned inward), and part of changing this condition requires reconditioning of how we deal with anger, both within ourselves and with others. How you do “get it out”, however, requires more thought. All of us have, at one time or another, seen a person who is “getting it out” in an unproductive way.

This concludes this carnival edition. To submit for the next edition, please use this link. Until next time!

Jane Chin