Emotional Support Sisters

I have come across a story on the internet several times. My quick Google search says it was posted on tumblr by “andhumanslovedstories”.

I recall a similar type of experience where a therapist told me something really simple and not all that profound, but it made a profound impact.

Here we go, the life-changing piece of counsel:

You don’t have to wait to inform your medical care provider that you are experiencing a worsening of symptoms after a med change.

Some of you may be thinking, “How did you not know this Amelia?” Hear me out.

If I have some weird but generally skin thing come up–a rash or flaky skin or irritation or whatever–I do not immediately call the dermatologist. (this does not include acute or extremely suspicious things) The first thing I do is wait and see if it goes away on its own. If it doesn’t, then I do the things that I know the dermatologist will do anyway. I consider if I’ve come into contact with anything new. If I have, I avoid that thing and see if the problem goes away. If it doesn’t go away, I generally test out a few other variables to rule them out as causes. This approach saves me the hassle of going in to the doctor, having them tell me to try to cut out the new things and see if it goes away, and then go back to the doctor if it doesn’t go away. I have this mindset for every kind of medical thing, not just dermatology. I mean, really, I’m not going to go to urgent care for every cough and sniffle.

Additionally, I know that most (perhaps all) medications used in the treatment of depression and/or anxiety take at minimum two weeks to be fully effective. During those two weeks, it isn’t uncommon to just feel a bit off as the chemicals in your brain and body readjust. 

Combine these two things, and you get Amelia rarely making decisions about whether or not a medication is working for those two weeks. Actually, it’s more like three or four, because I try to give it time to make sure other things like my menstrual cycle or life circumstances aren’t acting as confounding variables. There have been rare times (like when I was given one antidepressant and it made me feel like I had influenza while simultaneously making me feel like I needed to crawl out of my skin) where I don’t wait that long before getting in touch with my doctor. Those rare times are when it is super duper obvious that this isn’t working. And yeah, they’re kind of rare.

And then here comes my therapist, telling me that my wait and see approach with dermatology really probably shouldn’t be applied to psychiatric medications. That it is my medical care provider’s job to help me. That I don’t need to know the answers before I contact them.

I just…contact them. And tell them what’s going on. And then they, the person with the medical training, gets to try to figure out what’s going on. It’s almost like that’s what they are paid to do. Like, I don’t have to do their job for them. Weird. I know.

Maybe after I contact them they determine we should try something else. Or maybe they recommend staying the course and waiting it out a bit. Guess what, regardless of which outcome, it’s not a waste of time and effort. Even if it doesn’t change the treatment plan, at least it is documented that things went wonky, at least for a little while. Even if it doesn’t change the treatment plan, at least I’m not tossing and turning, trying to figure out what to do. Even if it doesn’t change the treatment plan, I have the opportunity to ensure that my medical care provider listens to me.