Really Real Mental Health Post

It’s 12:03 AM and I’m currently eating 2 packs of trail mix even though I’m not actually hungry.  But, those 2 packs of trail mix equal the 350 calories I need to eat with the Latuda I take to control my depression.  I normally take it with dinner, but we just got home and I didn’t have it with me.

Latuda isn’t like some medications, it won’t just bother my stomach if I don’t eat with it.  It won’t work at all unless I have enough calories with it.  Luckily I had a doctor that explained it to me.  A lot of people are just handed prescriptions and sent on their way.  I bought these packs of trail mix knowing that sometimes I’d need something quick and easy for right before bed, if I didn’t take it with a meal earlier in the day.

I screwed up with a bunch of other medications today.  I forgot to take my morning meds when I got up, and we almost immediately left the house and have been gone since then.  I figured it out pretty quickly, but by then it was too late to turn around.

I used to carry a full days worth of meds in my purse, but at this point it’s been a year since I’ve gone more than 2 weeks without something changing and it was hard to keep the purse medications current.  I was afraid of taking the wrong meds if I ever tried to rely on them.  I’m also really good at following my routine of morning meds when I have my coffee, and night meds before I lay down.

Except I didn’t have coffee before I left the house this morning.

That meant none of my anxiety medication was in my system while we were at a very crowded public event.  None of my anti-inflammatory was in my system while I was sitting in a car for a 2 hour ride each way, or standing and walking for a good portion of the day.  By the evening I was feeling a significant amount of psych med withdraw.  I was generally grumpy, overly anxious and just felt mentally ick and physically “off” for the last half of our day.

Withdraw doesn’t just happen from narcotics or addictive substances.  A lot of psychiatric medications have some amount of withdraw effects of varying severity.  It’s a definite, quick, incentive to remember my medication each time.

I mean, if staying emotionally stable,

and alive,

wasn’t incentive enough.

❤