Comments on: Boy Meets Pills

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 22:19:00 +0000

there’s nothing wrong with medication when it’s necessary, and frankly, jeff, i think you’re being wayyyy overdramatic about klonopin, xanax, etc. (ps, learn to spell them correctly!) it all depends on your dosage. i’m on somewhere between 1 and 2 mg a day and have been for a couple of years, and i’ve observed no ill effects and a lot of good. i think it’s extremely presumptuous for you to tell zack that he shouldn’t take drugs that have worked for many other people. that is his own personal decision, and i’m sure he’s studied up. coming from a family with mental health issues, i’m also pretty sure he’s seen firsthand what kind of drugs to avoid.

zack, go you! it’s really hard to get help in the first place, and this definitely might not be a life-long thing. but even if it is, you have nothing to be ashamed of.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 02:06:00 +0000

i've struggled with anxiety and depression my whole life. its a very personal thing.

lexapro literally saved my life and helped me dig out of a deep dangerous hole.

but klonopin put me in a much deeper one, one i didn't even see until i tried to get off it. (which was like kicking hard drugs, and i've done that too.)

i spent two years so blunted that i never learned the things i need to learn about myself to address where the anxiety and depression were coming from. nothing got better.

and you can learn things that help. therapy has helped me in that regard (2 + years).

doctors can give you tools, but some can be less than responsible in checking in on you, ever helping you get off the drugs, or into talk therapy. mine kept adding more and more.

it took a long time for me to learn how to be an advocate for my mental health. shop around a few docs. ask questions. your mind and spirit are very precious things.

and the alcohol thing, with klonopin, it was dangerous blackout-city after 2 beers. be careful, please.

By: Christopher Richmond

Christopher Richmond — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:59:00 +0000

So right on, Zack.

I’ve had similar questions. If being gay is part of my genetic make-up, and mental illness is part of my genetic predisposition, then are the two related? It’s a scary thought. It makes it harder to own up to (at least for me). I still haven’t been medically diagnosed with anxiety or depression (having no health insurance makes it more difficult to do that…) but I know that if I were, I would be in a similar boat. You’re doing the right thing.

By: Corey

Corey — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:42:00 +0000

i am very much like you in my hesitance to take pills for shit. i had to go on some stuff for depression a few years ago and i was not happy about it (then again, wasn’t happy about much of anything at that point). over the course of 10 months, however, i was able to ween myself off of it and find ways of taking care of things on my own. at this point it’s no longer even really on the radar. this is obviously different for everyone, but sometimes pills can be a gateway to not using pills, rather than the kick-off to carrying around a daily medication organizer.

i don’t know how BSG ends, but from what i can tell the message is that the cylons and humans ended up being not so different. and the cylons are pretty hot and badass. so there are worse fates.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:16:00 +0000

I also have an anxiety problem. I had a hard time with it at first, but now I just take one every day and it keeps me at a nice status quo…I also never had any of those side effects.

As funny as that comic is at the top, that is how I felt at one point. Just build taking the Rx into your schedule and remember you are not alone…or crazy.

By: Raphael

Raphael — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:10:00 +0000

I had an “episode” recently–not quite a panic attack, but a few days of feeling overwhelmingly horrible. Didn’t start taking medications, but if it lasted much longer, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.

Really, I think a lot of the anti-medication folks don’t really “get” the difference between normal emotional states and mental illness. Only a true dick would suggest you should endure mental illness when you don’t have to.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:47:00 +0000

zack, i watch “you are what you eat” on bbc america pretty religiously, and the nutritionist/host never shuts up about how strawberries boost your sex drive. i advise you to battle both the weight gain and low sex drive by eating only strawberries from here on out.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:10:00 +0000

You don’t say what you’re about to start taking, but for the love of god don’t let them get you started on long-term tranquilizers (commonly prescribed for “anxiety,” and a host of other things). The family of drugs is called benzodiazepines and is horribly physically addictive in many people. Valium, Xanex, Clonopin, and a bunch of other brand names — they will eventually make your anxiety worse, not better (in addition to weight gain, low sex drive, shakiness, depersonalization, general wigginess), and you will have to repeatedly up your dosage. They change your brain chemistry and getting off them is akin to quitting heroin. Quitting them cold turkey can actually be fatal.
Because of their addictive qualities and side effects, it is illegal in the UK to prescribe them for more than a few days, while in the U.S., doctors casually dispense them for years, while their patients “mysteriously” get worse and worse. The ignorance of the American medical industry on this issue is astonishing.
Read about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine, and stay away. I can guarantee you that whatever your problems now, they will seem insignificant compared to having your life taken over by these little devils.

By: Toby

Toby — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:10:00 +0000

Lexapro, eh? Been there, done that.

The sexual side effects were, um, frustrating, to say the least – but the medication was necessary, and after a few months, I weaned off of it. It’s not a life sentence.

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:51:00 +0000

Thanks for posting this. In addition to the drugs, cognitive therapy is also extremely beneficial.
(PS – I already have low tolerance for alcohol — cheap date — but the drugs just zap that completely. Be careful–I’ve found myself in… odd situations after imbibing very littlee)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:21:00 +0000

Zack-

You’ll learn to love those pills in no time. Trust me, they work, and can help keep your bar tab to a minimum. Nothing to be ashamed of at all!

By: Christopher Wingert

Christopher Wingert — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:31:00 +0000

Two things…First off, what you’ve written is a very open, emotionally-in-touch, self-aware piece. I wouldn’t worry about being a nut, pills or no pills. As we’ve all heard before, the purpose of the medicine is to make you feel like you, and if you don’t, keep going with that open dialogue with the doc.

Secondly, if you have any sort of stomach for musical theatre, you gotta go see Next to Normal at Arena Stage. It’s a new show, first off-Bway now here with original cast. If you want all the musical theatre nerd details, email me and I’ll rave. But it covers these topics and more. Really a sharp piece of new art.

By: clearlyhere

clearlyhere — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:40:00 +0000

We can escape our genetic heritage and you just screwed. You have lots of other things to be thankful for swimming around in the gene pool, so be grateful for that. Doctors understand the need to ejaculate, not gain weight, and not be anxious mess. Just be willing to try different medications to find the one that will work best for you.

Good Battlestar reference.

By: coach

coach — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:24:00 +0000

hey dude, don't sweat it too much. i been there / am there, and Rx are just another tool for dealing with problems–you haven't admitted defeat. Nor do you necessarily need to be on prescription for the rest of yr life. You're taking advantage of what's out there, and that in itself is proactive / counter to the sort of paralyzing rut depression and anxiety can put us in. You'll be ok / i'm ok ;)
Oh and the decreased sex drive is for reals & takes extra concerted efforts to stay on top (bottom?) of.
i think the weight gain thing comes from not freaking out and being insecure all the time, but results is a good antedote for that. <3s