Wellbutrin, the Breakfast of Champions!

This morning I wrote a really heated post.  I was mad about an article in the paper.  Then an e-mail I read sparked my anger.  Everything was irritating me so much I began to wonder why.  In the old days, before therapy, I would have yelled at one of my kids and/or went out to the garage to break something with my baseball bat.  But now that I have some behavior management skills, something I highly recommend if your close friends or family members flinch when you move too quickly, I was able to assess my predicament.  I decided my current environment would not normally cause such irritation, and asked myself why I was so angry.  I felt like I feel when I don't take my medication.  And that's when it hit me.  I went to the cupboard and checked my pill box.  I had NOT taken my medication last night.  No wonder I'm so mad!  Luckily I didn't post my blog.  It wasn't that terrible, but it was a little edgy, like the e-mail I wrote to my friends, which unfortunately, I sent.  My e-mail wasn't the worst thing I've sent by e-mail (that's another good story), I just wouldn't have said it so bluntly had I taken my medication. 

Does medication really work that fast and that well?  Am I different person because I'm on medication?  Do you ever plan to wean yourself off your medication?  I've heard a lot of negative things about medication over the years, like "it'll take two months to take affect."  The difference when I take my medication feels almost immediate.  I've also heard, "I wouldn't want to take medication because I don't want to turn into someone I'm not." If you lived with me when I was not on medication, you would have wanted me to be someone else.  Obviously, I haven't lost my personality or you wouldn't enjoy reading my blog so much.  I'm glad I'm not the mean, irritable, raging wife and mother that I was without medication.  Behavior therapy only goes so far.  I've tried to wean myself off medication after I felt better, but I learned that the reason I felt better was because I was ON the MEDICATION!  I will probably take medication for the rest of my life.  My family is not complaining. 

The last comment I want to address is, "our society is overmedicating our kids."  Maybe.  I don't know.  But if medication helps an incapacitating problem, why not use it.  I don't see it being much different than a growing number of people taking vitamins for their health or Lipitor for their heart or Viagra for their...  If it works, use it.  Medication isn't just saving lives, it's also saving self-worth and peace of mind and proactively helping curb emotional and physical damage done to people around the medicated person.   Now that I think of it, the only people I've heard complain about overmedication are those who don't take any or are unaffected by an individual who is on medication.  In other words, they have no idea what they're talking about.  As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  And I think I serve Him much better when I'm taking my Wellbutrin!