Friday, August 15, 2014

The Balancing Act of Pills

I was inspired to write this post after reading another awful article off of Natural News my mom sent me about how SSRI antidepressants decreased feelings of love in patients.



It is impossible for me to take that website seriously after its many "anti-vax" articles that gave little to no real evidence that vaccinating your children is dangerous (seriously people, vaccinate your kids). Even though I completely disregarded this article as being legit (it listed Fox News and some other "natural" sites as its resources) it got me thinking about my own experience with prescription pills during this brain injury.

I would like to point out how easy it is to become a pill-popping drug addict after getting a brain injury. My doctor and neurologist were not only prescribing me pills I probably didn't need, they were also oddly willing to give me just about anything.

During my first visit with my doctor, we were talking about the nerve damage in my neck and the horrible migraines I got all day long. We barely even talked about it and he looked at me and said:

"What kind of pills do you want? I can give you any kind of pain killer you want."

He then looked at me as if I had already had a preference. When I didn't say anything, he started listing off some names of painkillers that I only knew because I had heard a lot of college kids being addicted to them.

Eventually, we settled on a non-addictive migraine pill only because I would get migraines so awful that I would actually start crying from the pain. I did without the pain killers because I honestly did not need them that badly.

Besides this experience, I also had my neurologist prescribe me sleeping pills (I never took them) and anti-seizure medication (I never took those either). I am shocked on how willing they were just to hand pills to me like candy, especially when most of them were a controlled substance.

Look, I understand that many people with traumatic brain injuries need pills, but it is worth the risk of addiction?

Now I did begin taking 10 mg of Lexapro about 5 months after my brain injury because I was so goddamn depressed - blame it on the lack of neurotransmitters in my brain or how much my situation sucked, but the Lexapro sure has helped me a lot.

However, it did come as a shock to me how willing doctors were just to give me whatever the heck I wanted just because I was injured. At college, my doctor was unsure about giving me codeine for laryngitis (even though I couldn't swallow my own spit because it hurt so badly) because of the risk of abusing it.

Let's be honest here, too. A whole lot of college kids abuse prescription medications, so what was it about me that made my doctors think I was any different?

They don't know. They have no clue if I am one of those college kids who snorts Xanax like it's my job (to anyone who does this...WHY).

It's also very frustrating to me that none of my doctors recommended changing my diet or to exercise lightly, even though these two things alone have helped me tremendously. Instead, they just tell me to "rest" and take a handful of pills.

My doctors never even told me to stop drinking coffee or taking my Adderall - in fact, they recommended that I continue taking my Adderall. I found out later that all stimulants can irritate the hell out of your injured brain. I gave up caffeine and within weeks my awful migraines disappeared.

Are doctors just not listening or do they not care? Why are natural remedies not talked about?

As someone with ADD and Bipolar Disorder, I am well aware medication is definitely needed in some situations. However, eating right and exercising are equally as important to healing a brain injury.

After these experiences, this definitely makes me nervous about the current state of our country. Researchers have found that nearly 70% of Americans are on at least one prescription pill. 70 PERCENT!

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-shows-70-percent-of-americans-take-prescription-drugs/

I am one of these people too. But am I the only one who worries about all the people who are on pills they might not even need?