{"id":113510,"date":"2016-02-17T16:52:57","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T16:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/02\/17\/i-was-just-wondering-how-did-you-feel-when-your\/"},"modified":"2016-02-17T16:52:57","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T16:52:57","slug":"i-was-just-wondering-how-did-you-feel-when-your","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/02\/17\/i-was-just-wondering-how-did-you-feel-when-your\/","title":{"rendered":"I was just wondering, how did you feel when your doctor suggested going on anti-depressants? My therapist of several months suggested it to me today and while logically I know it’s probably a good idea, I can’t help but feel like I’m broken, you know? Like, I’m worse than I thought I was. Did you feel like this or know anyone who felt something similar?"},"content":{"rendered":"

wilwheaton<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

First of all, Depression Lies. It tells you that you\u2019re weak and unworthy and terrible and that you\u2019re never going to be able to get out from under it.<\/p>\n

Depression lies like that because it wants to protect itself and keep on controlling your life.<\/p>\n

Depression is a dick, and I want to encourage you to listen to your therapist and let him or her help you.<\/p>\n

Now I want you to imagine that you have a fever, and your whole body hurts, and you\u2019ve been coughing up all sorts of awful gunk for days. You\u2019re miserable, so you go to the doctor.<\/p>\n

The doctor says, \u201coh, you have this terrible infection in your body, so I\u2019m going to give you some medicine to help your body get better, and some other medicine to help you not suffer while your body works on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imagine that you then say, \u201cI don\u2019t want to do that, because I feel sort of broken if I take those medications. I feel like I\u2019m weak or something, and if I take those medications that you know will help me feel better, I\u2019m admitting that my body needs some help so I can stop suffering. I think I\u2019ll keep on suffering and hope it gets better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or you go to your doctor because you\u2019ve been feeling crummy and she runs some tests and she says, \u201cWell, it turns out that you have diabetes, but you\u2019re in luck! You can take some medicine, and it\u2019ll treat it. You\u2019ll probably have to take it for a long time, maybe even your whole life, but you\u2019ll get well and feel better!\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you say, \u201cNo, I think I\u2019ll just deal with it,\u201d and continue suffering?<\/p>\n

Of course not! You would treat any illness with medication if you could, and you\u2019d put a cast on a broken leg and walk with crutches if you needed to, because walking on a broken leg really really really <\/i>hurts, and you don\u2019t need to suffer through that pain!<\/p>\n

Mental illness is exactly<\/i> the same as a physical illness. Your body has something that\u2019s out of whack \u2013 in our case, it\u2019s how our brains handle neurochemicals and stuff \u2013 and there\u2019s medication that can help us help ourselves feel better.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not broken, and you\u2019re not weak, and if you\u2019re now thinking that you\u2019re worse than you thought you were? Well, that\u2019s really awesome, because it means that you recognize that your brain needs some help to get healthy, and your doctor is there to help you do that.<\/p>\n

It takes courage to take the chance on medication, and the first one you try may not work, because brains are all different and incredibly complicated, but something will work, and you will feel better, and you will be so glad that you took the step to take care of yourself.<\/p>\n

Please check in with me in a month or so, and let me know how you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

wilwheaton: First of all, Depression Lies. It tells you that you\u2019re weak and unworthy and terrible and that you\u2019re never going to be able to get out from under it. Depression lies like that because it wants to protect itself and keep on controlling your life. Depression is a dick, and I want to encourage … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “I was just wondering, how did you feel when your doctor suggested going on anti-depressants? My therapist of several months suggested it to me today and while logically I know it’s probably a good idea, I can’t help but feel like I’m broken, you know? Like, I’m worse than I thought I was. Did you feel like this or know anyone who felt something similar?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[2090,13778,1068,13776,13777,8595,401],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}