Posted by obsidian on February 20, 2009, at 20:48:58
In reply to Do the people in your life know..., posted by Recently on February 20, 2009, at 20:17:15
I tell my closer friends that I am in therapy, and only my closest friends that I take medication (oooh scary! what will she be like off her meds!?- I'm afraid of that reaction)
I don't talk about meds/therapy with my family. It seems however, that every one of them has been on at least an antidepressant at one time or another....and rumors abound about this one and that, and what their problem is. Funny it's never really addressed or spoken about directly.
Case in point: My uncle was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia many years ago, but no one in my family every really understood what that was about. He had "episodes". He died after living for years in squalor in a house packed with hoarded items, not taking care of his most basic needs. It didn't have to be that way. Words can't describe what I discovered about his living conditions. When he died it became a bit of a mission to understand what the mystery was. I never really found out. He only lived 15 minutes away from me.His father's apparent explanation was that "the devil got him." My mother knew about the bottle of thorazine, that the radio spoke specifically to my uncle, that he thought my mother wanted to poison him and that he thought the neighbors were out to get him.
I am the most medicated member of my family by far, and the most therapized.
My sister knows that I am in therapy. She did a seven year stint herself. She said she got tired of talking about the same things. It did her a lot of good. I know it's done a lot of good for me on a kind of fundamental level.My best friend and I both take lamictal. I think it's kind of funny. I remember when she told me, and I was like 'oh yeah, I take that too!'. Two moody, intense chicks, what a combo. We talk some therapy experiences, not all.
Eh, what can I say..people are afraid of what they don't understand. I'm sorry you feel like you can't share about what you experience more with people in your life. Is there one person you can do that with?
poster:obsidian
thread:881398
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20090214/msgs/881413.html