The World and General Public call it The Happy Pills.

Many in general tend to think that it’s bad to depend on medication. “You’re get addicted.” “Why are you taking Drugs?!” “Are you nuts!?” and yadda yadda yadda..

Let’s share on just what our or our love ones’ medicine is truly for, and how medicine is important in helping us or our love ones recover.

Oh.. and is it just someone i know, or do you have people who’re scared of eating their painkillers or pain reliever or muscle relaxant as prescribed by doctors, cos they fear getting addicted?

Painkillers.

Can a person get addicted to it? i have someone i know, who’ve been suffering with a knee problem for close to a decade if not more. Initially her leg still seems ok, and she can walk. Now, she limps like a penguin and her knee bone is badly crooked.

Does the general public have the notion that it’s bad to eat medicines such as painkillers prescribed by doctors regularly? I know many of the old folks in my country have lotsa warped ideas about painkillers. That you’ll get addicted to it. that too much of it can cause cancer or too much or it can cause you to turn deaf. etc. So they actually end up not eating their medicines when they are in pain. They’d be groaning and moaning and complaining, some ended up not being able to walk, another end up not being able to move her hands, but they will REFUSE to eat their medicine or see the doctor.

i say, it is possible to be dependent on painkillers, yes.. Many people with RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) have to be dependent on their medicine to help them live as normally as possible. Some have to live with RSI for years..

am curious about those who have pains for very long period (years). For example, arthritis, RSI, migraine, etc. Do you guys eat your medicine when the pain comes? or will you avoid eating it, unless it starts to disable you?

Alas, there is often a stigma attached – yet those who criticize the most are often busily ingesting cigarettes, alcohol or worse. And they are doing it for ‘pleasure’. That’s ok – it’s their business – but hardly places them in any position of judgement.

The following view is, I guess, from my perspective which is only my opinion though based on my experiences with others and some (supposedly) logical evaluation on my part. So it is hardly medical fact or anything. But it fits well with everyone I know of who has suffered with this aweful affliction.

You might consider depression as ruts in the mind. Like trenches. The mind habbitually follows these paths of negative thought. over time they are made deeper because we keep traversing them. Eventually, there is no alternative because we cannot get out.

Anti-depressant drugs are like putting on a pair of very big boots. They raise us up so that we have the ability to get out of the trenches, out of the ruts. This is the wonderful thing about them. they give us that extra height we need to escape the minds habbitual tendencies (in terms of depressive mood etc etc).

If we then take advantage of this – either consciously and deliberately by altering our thought patterns, applying different outlooks on life (the list goes on and varies from person to person) then we can escape the ruts.

If we keep tramping the same old ground though, we get a temporary improvement in view, but the boots that help us actually can make the ruts deeper, and we end up in the same or worse position.

Taking off the boots is not an answer – regardless of other people’s views, regardless of what we might imagine. In other words, the medication stops under strict supervision and advice only.

The key and critical thing is to effect changes in life WHILE the boots are still new, while we have their extra height, before they actually make the trenches deeper.

The actual changes required ALONG WITH THE MEDICATION will vary from one person to another. In some cases, a physical situation might need dealing with, while in others, a change to attitude might be required. I cannot advise anyone on the specifics, except to say that the mental shift is important and when it accompanies the medication (i.e. the boots!) it has the greatest chance of a cure.

Sometimes those changes happen automatically. Often they do not. When you go onto medication for depression, THEN is the time to re-evaluate your life, to ‘find yourself’ – to work out your priorities, to take time out to live, to experience, to deal with issues that may have lain dormant in the mind, to learn about yourself, to lay down new habbitual thoughts – e.g. looking on the bright side (though that’s a very superficial and almost insulting example but essentially it’s also true). Changing your philosophy for example. Finding religion. Losing religion! Whatever. Everyone is different, and their minds are different. BUT the time is now – when you have settled into the medication.

My opinions. I have depressive family. Depressive friends.

At the end of the day, the anti-depressants are part of the solution, YOU are the other part. When the two work together – there is no limit to what you can achieve.