Over Medicated?

Are we over medicating ourselves? And are some of the issues that we do medicate able to be solved through natural means? I’ve been inspired to making a post on this after seeing how much mental illness has risen in the U.S. over the past few years. It’s so scary to think how badly this is affecting this country and especially the children. This year has left me with a lot of questions.

A lot of people who are feeling anxiety, depression, or any other mental illness go to the doctor or a therapist. What usually happens after that? They get put on some type of medication. All they have to do is tell their symptoms. This is even seen in a normal doctors office. All you have to do is tell them your symptoms a lot of times and they will throw you some type of medication in hope that it works. As someone who has also dealt with mental health issues, I’ve some how by passed going on medications. When I say this, I’m not saying that you don’t have to talk to anyone, like a professional. And I’m definitely not saying that this applies to people with extreme mental illnesses. Just to how recklessly over prescribed we are. I’ve just come to a realization. I am unable to get through my anxiety or my depressive thoughts until I’ve resolved the issue in some way. Whether it be by talking it out with someone or realizing that a lot of my thoughts leading to it are irrational. Obviously if your thoughts are rational then other ways of resolving the issue should be taken. Sometimes I even push things into the back of my head but my subconscious or something brings it up in my feelings.

Anxiety to me always starts out as a tight feeling in my chest. Lately my goal has been to ask myself questions about how i’m feeling and why, which always somehow ends in an answer. I know I’ve got it right once the feeling has gone away. If your not good at answering these questions for yourself, you are probably someone who needs a therapist of some sort to help organize and guide your thoughts. It’s just like that. This is not only geared towards mental illness but also to pain management. There are other drugs less addictive that can be used for sure.

So what I’m really trying to say is, there is no way that taking medication will solve the problem alone, unless of course there’s some type of imbalance in the brain or body. It may help a little for many people but not for all because of the unresolved issues that caused it. Sometimes the medication even makes things worse. For me, it’s gotten to the point where I almost never feel anxious anymore and when I feel depressed it’s almost always irrational. If there’s something you need to face what is it and why does it make you feel anxious. If your feeling really down ask yourself why, don’t just accept it as easy as it can be to do that. Fight it and show yourself how strong you are! Some times all the sad stuff is much more noticeable than the good. Think of everything that happened in the day that was good.

I have many other things that I do when I get into these types of states and sometime it takes a while to pull myself out of it but I always do. I am for sure not a professional but I always like to share what I find that is helping me so maybe it will help someone else I hope. I know everyone is different and we should all strive to find our own ways too because we are all so unique. Thank you if you made it this far into my blog because this one was really long haha.