I’m often asked why I need to take medication for my depression. Questions like, “Why can’t you just think about happy things to make your depression go away? ” or “What do pills do to your brain that diet and exercise can’t fix? ” and “Why take happy pills if you’re still unhappy? ”Granted, these are valid questions, yet my initial reaction, after rolling my eyes and taking a deep breath, is to get defensive.
My impulse is to answer with “Would you ask someone who suffers from chronic migraines why they use medication to ease their symptoms? ” I make every effort to keep my patience in check because I know it’s so difficult to understand depression if you’ve never had it.
I try to paint the ugly picture of what happens to me when I go off my meds – I become withdrawn, hypersensitive, apathetic, and plagued with suicidal ideations.
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