Before I begin this post, I would like to add a disclaimer, so that people don't presume to jump down my throat. Therefore, I will say here and now that I am not saying that this is for everyone. My personal experience, while notable, may not be the best course of action at all for another person.
Since 2013, I have been on various medications for severe depression and severe anxiety disorder. Some names I cannot remember, but popular ones were Prozac, Wellbutrin, and recently Sertraline. Cutting to the chase, the medications never helped me. In some cases, I fell into even deeper depression and constantly felt sick and fatigued. I even had a small increase in my liver enzymes, but that cannot be directly linked to the medication even though it can factually cause such side effects. And I was always told that if I ever went off the medication abruptly, I would likely suffer a severe mental breakdown. I eventually came to believe that I was dependent on the pills, that I could not live or could not control myself without them.
However, recently in my life, I was actually forced to stop taking the medication because my old insurance collapsed. I can afford a new policy, or could at least go to urgent care to get a prescription for my old medicine, but I decided not to bother with the drugs themselves anymore. I was tired of swallowing pills, the fact that they never did anything, that I seemed to be getting worse, and that they kept me extremely fatigued and chemically neutered by destroying my sex drive. I did fear a return to the worst, but it never happened. The longer my body went without the medicine, the better I felt. I now have notably more energy, stamina, libido, and interestingly, far less depression and anxiety. I'm not going to state this as an opinion, because it's a fact that the medicine made me sicker. I found instead that regular exercise, a good diet, and a heightened spirituality did more for me than any modern drug. In short, I cannot believe how incredibly better and happier I feel.
I think that sometimes these days, we try to cure everything with a pill, through an industry whose primary interest is, let's face it, creating customers instead of cures. Perhaps there are times when modern medicine can do more harm than good, even if such cases are in small measure. I hope that the reader does not interpret me as some kind of anti-medicine loon. Quite the contrary, actually. I just think that not everyone may benefit from the same prescriptions.
In the Goodness of the Gods,
I'll see you at the next Herm down the road,
Chris Aldridge.
