Sunday, March 21, 2010

Anger

I'm angry. I'm trying to wean off of an anti-depressant and it's making me angry in general. Things that might normally just irritate me now blow up into full-fledger anger. I'm particularly angry about these drugs and how many of us are on them, when a lot of us could have lived without them in the first place. But we trusted our doctors and we knew we were stressed, so we jumped on board. Now they've messed with our memories, our skin and hair, our sex lives, and God only knows what else. You turn on the TV and about all you see is drug commercials. You pick up a magazine and see drug advertisements on one page and on the next one to two pages you see all the side effects. You go to a doctor and they give you drugs. To be drug-free, we're a pretty drug-concentrated society. Maybe all we had in the first place was a vitamin deficiency or an inability to absorb certain vitamins or minerals in our bodies, but no doctor could take the time or do the testing to find that out, as the insurance companies and the doctor's schedules wouldn't like it. Just herd them in, give them drugs and move them out, repeat again and again all day long.

Then there's HRT (hormone replacement therapy). I had recently started alternating an all natural cream with my hormone pills, but decided never to put another synthetic hormone in my mouth after reading "Hormone Balance - a Matter of Life and Health" by Kristine B. Klitzke. I'm not sure what doctors learn about this stuff in med school, but I will be finding new doctors who are open to more natural remedies, if my former ones are not.

As you know by reading this far, I'm trying to take control of my health by becoming truly drug-free and healthier. It's a long slow process and I'm going to spend a lot of time and money detoxing the drugs and other toxins out of my body. I'm throwing the Tylenol and Aleve out of my medicine cabinets. I know I will feel better when it's over and maybe I won't even be angry anymore. That is, until the next time my doctor wants to prescribe drugs for some symptom without having a clue as to what's causing the symptom. Mask the symptom or the pain and hope it will go away, knowing all the time it won't unless the root cause is addressed.

I'm going to Clearsprings Health Center later this month to help further with the entire detox process. I'll be exercising, eating only healthy food, taking vitamins and doing a lot of low-temperature sauna. After three weeks there, I should be completely off of drugs, have years of toxins flushed out of my body and be ready to pursue a healthy lifestyle and maybe even lose some weight! Some folks have suggested I blog about that experience, but I think I'll wait until afterwards, although I will try to keep a journal while I'm there.

Some of my friends think I've lost it. Some of you probably do as well. However, I'm more hopeful and encouraged about being truly healthy than I have been in a long time. Watching Randy undergo his bouts with drugs and chemotherapy and knowing all he wanted was to be off of everything has made me highly aware of my own situation. Yes, drugs have a place, but also you have to be careful, as once you get started you end up on more drugs to "cure" the side effects of the first drug, and so on. Before you know it, you're caught in somewhat of a vicious cycle. So, even though I'm not a doctor and I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, my advice is to consider long and hard before starting medication for an issue that diet or exercise or something more natural might help.

Whew! I feel better just venting about this! I had a boss once tell me that she loved my passion. I think that was a nice way of saying that she didn't like what I was saying, but she admired the passion behind it. So, if you tell me you love my passion, I will not be offended in any way, and will know that I need to ease up a bit on my personal soapbox!

1 comment:

  1. Karen -- I was on Wellbutrin for much of last year and got off of it last fall. I was like you...I did not want to start taking it and I hated being on it. I know some people need to, but I was glad to finally be drug-free when I weaned off last fall. I just needed something to get me through a rough time. We are indeed an over-medicated society. I hope you are doing better now. Maybe they should start prescribing trips to Fla. with Judy Garner!

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