Instructor Ken Strobel was confused. For the first time in his life at 53 he was suffering from a mental disorder. But he didn’t even know what he was feeling until he went to the doctors and got diagnosed with anxiety. Strobel’s experience isn’t unusual.
Millions of people, including Strobel, turn to medication to improve their mental health. Medicine is a great resource for those suffering from mental health problems, but the side effects can be dramatic. Medication helps the cause but other resources help reduce mental health issues as well.
One pill a day will not always save people from their mental challenges, but in some cases, medicine can greatly help.
“Coping skills don’t always help alleviate some of those symptoms, that’s when I start to talk to my clients about medication. So if they’re unable to calm their anxiety or depression just through the things we learned, that’s when they go talk to their primary care doctor and see if medication is an option for them. Sometimes they don’t want medication so it’s respecting those clients,” local teen counselor Brittany Bosch said. Medicine serves as a solution to these struggles. People can get to a point where their issues are not as severe. The right medication and mindset make a huge difference.
Depressive and anxiety symptoms can be really scary. Especially when a person has not experienced symptoms before and does not know how to handle them. Medicine can be a beacon of light in the darkness of these situations.
Each experience with medication is varied for every person. “I experienced anxiety for the first time in my life around five years ago. It was scary and disorienting, partly because I didn’t have any unusual stressors in my life. Doctors and everybody asked me what was causing the anxiety, money problems? Relationship problems? Stress from work? But there was nothing, which was kind of strange and frustrating,” Strobel said.
Experiences like this are grounding. One can feel utterly lost and confused. As Strobel explains his struggles, he talks about the ways medication helps him improve .
“I had a lot of doctor visits and tried two different medicines before settling on 10mg of Lexapro every day. That has done the trick. Though I still experience mild anxiety now and then, mostly it’s under control. Probably after I retire I’ll see what happens when I wean myself from it, but I’m not sure about that. Right now, I don’t know if I’d suffer from anxiety again if I am off the meds.”
Sr. Lauren Catton counts on medication to maintain her mental health. “One thing we decided on was working on finding the right ‘cocktail’ of medication for me. I have tried a plethora of doses and medicines and am still working to find the right one. I work to take my medicine each day for the valued effects and it has helped me a lot. I think with everything I have learned and dealt with on top of being on heavy medication, I have changed, my personality is different but I work to become the best version of myself every day.”
One of the side effects of the medicine is that it pushes one to admit their struggle. Which can be difficult.
Soph. Millie Jones [not her real name] said, “ People say that everyone goes through it but sometimes it doesn’t always feel like it. In my case, I went through some extreme emotions that I was scared of people knowing. I was ashamed to tell people I was struggling, especially my parents. I didn’t want people to think that I was an issue or that I was less than what I was. Dealing with these issues was hard so I was scared of people knowing. Now that I’m on medication I don’t want to tell people because I don’t want to have to explain myself. And talking about my depression and things that went wrong in my life triggers me a lot. It makes me choke up and feel suffocated like I can’t breathe. In my case, it’s easier to pretend I’m fine than to feel this way. Which I don’t recommend. The medication has helped me a lot with those types of emotions but it takes a lot of work.”
Not every student wants to talk about their mental health. It’s a very touchy topic to some, as they have gone through trauma. Some who take medication do so to try their best to become the person they want to be. They don’t want to explain to others how they’re trying to be the person they want. They’re just trying to push away those bad thoughts and be that person.
Even though medication could be a solution to people’s mental issues, it’s not always. A Google search shows 40% of people don’t have a response after two months of taking medicine. This isn’t always the most effective choice to help mental health. Taking a pill could lead to more consequences than benefits.
The side effects medication has can reveal itself through the human body. “The side effects that I notice from my medication are that when difficult topics happen there’s like a sore in my body but it doesn’t release. My body just kinda goes into neutral and makes me feel beige in moments when I can’t handle it. Overall I’m still able to control my emotions and be in my body. The medication just helps to make me feel not as much. I didn’t want to be a zombie on medication so this one was perfect for me. I can deal with daily things and I know when things are too much because I get that weird feeling,” Jones said.
Not every person who takes medicine receives outstanding results. Each person receives medicine that is supposed to help their mental problems. But some medication might just worsen it. Some could make people feel more sick or even worse, suicidal.
The most important takeaway is that going through these struggles is hard, and alleviating these symptoms requires hard work. In reality, there is no quick fix. Someone who wants to help their anxiety and depressive symptoms should be prepared to do exercises, try therapy, and other coping mechanisms, not just rely on pills.