Thursday, March 24, 2011

Back from the doctor.

Well, that was fun. My grandma wanted to come in because she doesn't really understand what's going on with me or how mental disorders work at all, and the PAC was really good at giving us some topics to help open up a dialogue about it (how I feel in certain situations, what a mood swing is like, what being manic is like, etc.)

In addition to the great conversation, he ordered up a check on my thyroid levels since even though I've been battling mood disorders since I was 14, no one thought to check (whoops), and wrote me up scrips for klonopin (yum), depakote (antipsychotic), zoloft (SSRI antidepressant), and even gave me a refill for my inhaler even though I still have a good amount of it left.

I have to go back in a month to check the depakote levels and do the thyroid panel, but I'm fine with that. I have no fear of needles (hehe).

The visit also made me think a little about how people perceive mental disorders in our society. While I praised the advances we've made as far as reaching out to each other in a previous post, we haven't made much progress in accepting mental disorders in a long time. In fact, we took a few steps back when depression and ADHD first became "popular" and all the parents were riddled with SSRIs and their children with Ritalin.

The prevailing mentality is that people who have a mood disorder are weak-willed and pathetic for relying on a doctor, when the fact of the matter is (and I give credit to the PAC for putting it this way) we don't perceive the world the same way a normal person does. For example, being normally very depressed, I have a diminished reaction to things that I enjoy like writing music or playing games, but greatly overreact to negative things that happen around me. Even if I do just keep telling myself I just need to calm down and cheer up, it's a lot harder for me because the things that are supposed to cheer me up can't do it as effectively as the negative things bring me down.

Anyway, today's a good day. Probably gonna sleep like a baby tonight.

Thanks for reading, and if any of you feel you might have a mood disorder, don't hesitate to talk to your doctor about it. They're there to make sure you're happy and healthy, not to judge you.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the advice about the doc, I should really go...

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  2. I'm oddly not afraid of needles either.. its a surprise.

    I know a lot about mental problems. My little brother is diagnosed with ADHD and we all have to work together to make things work.

    hmm.. have a goodnight sleep.

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