Time to Take Your Medicine

"Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing." - Voltaire

It's hard to deny that we live in a time when modern science has a cure for everything that ails you. Just turn on the television for a few minutes, and you will find advertisements for magic pills to cure everything from heart burn and indigestion, to melancholy and malaise, anxiety, hyperactive and inattentive children, to male sexual dysfunction - usually within 24-48 hours of beginning treatment (taking your first pill). As long as you don't mind the possibility of 100 side-effects that could range from dry mouth to death, we have a cure for you.

But it's not a cure. It's temporary relief.

"Medicine can only cure curable disease, and then not always" - Chinese Proverb

Despite this proverb, we still tend to think our ailments are quickly curable. We have been taught to expect immediate relief even from diseases and disorders that have taken a life-time to cultivate.

Specifically, I'm talking about issues related to depression, anxiety, or childhood ADHD. These are areas I tend to know well, and have worked with quite a bit. Please understand this: THERE ARE TIMES WHEN MEDICATION IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY! But it has been my experience that those times are not as frequent as we might think.

I greatly appreciate the work of our modern physicians. They have an extremely difficult job of managing a large volume of patients, while fretting over ever-increasing malpractice law-suits which bring about exorbitant malpractice insurance payments (I have heard of rates of $150,000 per year). It's no wonder they are forced to see patients in brief chunks of time and have to respond with the quickest solution possible. This solution often tends to be the most recent pill they have been encouraged to prescribe by the last drug company salesman to come through their door.

It's not an easy job. I believe they do their best. Their goal is to "do no harm", and to hopefully help you, but they are often victims of a very difficult system of insurance, government mandates, and drug company profit-margins.

I encourage you to be an advocate for your own health when it comes to the aforementioned issues of depression, anxiety, and ADHD; and to work with several partners to find the best possible solution for you and your family, rather than accepting the pill that was last recommended by the last drug company. The pills are often not the best answer.

If you have been on the same medication for more than a year, it may be time to re-evaluate. If you have been on the same medication for several years, I would suggest that it is no longer effective. After prolonged use, your body builds up a tolerance; you can either increase the amount of the same substance, or move on to a stronger substance. The pattern can continue with increasing substances but diminishing returns for your anxiety, depression, or ADHD.

For me, it's been a great frustration and sadness to hear of people who have been on the same prescription anti-depressant or mood stabilizer for 10 years (no exaggeration), but can't seem to get control of their struggles.

Our physicians are brilliant and caring people. But they are people, and they are fallible. If you struggle with these issues, I encourage you to partner with other professional outside your physicians office. You may find considerable help with a counselor, psychologist, or psychiatrist. They may suggest to you a myriad of alternative solutions. Some things that may help these issues, and overall health:

Diet - medication alters our chemistry, so does food. Very often what we eat can impact our moods and concentration. Sometimes simply improving diet can have a huge impact on mental health and wellness.

Exercise - increasing physical activity improves just about every bodily process.

Stress relief - removing stress from your life, or learning to cope with it differently can greatly improve anxiety and depression.

Behavioral interventions - for children struggling with ADHD, small alterations to parenting, home life, or school life can make great improvements in attentiveness and activity.

Meditation - Several thousand years of Eastern philosophy can't be wrong. Learning to meditate for just a few minutes each day can have considerable positive impact.

Cognitive interventions - do you want to think differently about yourself or your situation? Is your thinking depressed or anxious? If you change it, you can change a lot of how you view your world - but sometimes that's a little easier said than done on your own.

These are a just a few examples of the possible interventions outside of your physician's office. Let me again say, THERE ARE TIMES WHEN MEDICATION IS NECESSARY. However, I believe we have been trained to seek the immediate, but short term solution, rather than working with our physician and other health professionals to do what is best for ourselves.

If you are taking medication for anxiety or depression, or if your child is taking medication for ADHD, and the results have been less than you hoped; or the medication use has gone on for quite a while, or if you simply want to explore alternative solutions, I encourage you to do so, and I want you to know that there are solutions available.

"In medicine, as in statecraft and propaganda, words are sometimes the most powerful drugs we can use." - Dr. Sara Murray Jordan