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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Xanax, Anyone?

Once upon a time there was a young girl who thought she'd grow up to marry Bruce Lee and live happily ever after riding dragons through China's country over trees and into caves.
Except that little girl was me and I have no connection to Xanax, whatsoever, we're off to a good start. Now, that's out of the way, let's examine that first sentence.

That was a fantasy, not reality, of a young person. A very young person.

There are adults living day-to-day with the idea that they live in one type of reality and it causes them great anxiety because it's not real. Others are quick to remind them of this but they can do enough damage in what they tell themselves.

We live and work next to people who may be having trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality and it's causing a lot of problems. As a meme I saw recently noted, and I paraphrase, we used to take LSD to have the fantasies, now we take Xanax to have reality.

If I could get away with it, I'd never take another drug. I have many problems with the taking of prescriptions, especially those that can do more harm than good. I don't claim to say it isn't needed and they do work, only that once a prescription becomes a household name, it's efficacy and integrity is in question, in my eyes. Remember Ritalin?

The product name, Xanax, has become a joke. There are crazy, funny, and horrifying stories of those who have taken it and its effect on them from crazy dreams, to passing out, to losing control of their lives.

Sure, we can say, that their medical provider is handing it out like candy on Halloween, wasn't checking on them properly, that they took a dosage that wasn't appropriate, or that they took someone else's prescription, which also happens. However, when you read the literature on the medication, itself and it warns of everything from being forgetful or drowsy to having clay-colored stools, http://www.drugs.com/sfx/xanax-side-effects.html you gotta balance the scales.

In the old days, people medicated themselves through liquor and still do. The "bad boys" used grass, then pills, then heroin, and still do and more. Older than that in many cultures peyote or opium was used...and still are.

The scariest combination is when you have a person with a true mental illness medicating themselves. A common 'take' is that once they begin to feel good, they stop taking prescribed medications, or they don't like how it makes them feel and stop or add liquor and other drugs to the mix. They spend their lives in and out of hospitals trying to find the balance, knowing the cycle will be repeated until one of the parties gives up.

We've been seeking to bring ourselves up or down since the beginning of time. Why? Why are we not happy where we are and with who we are? What is that voice that makes us think that "right now" and "this way" aren't good enough? Must we always seek to be somewhere else or feel other than we do. If you really want that, read a good book!

If we don't feel our real feelings and, instead, try to mask them with pharmaceuticals or otherwise, what type of humans do we become? That is what makes us human, too. The ability to feel the feelings and express them in healthy ways is something we, humans, do. Or should be able to do.

If we can't be honest with our own emotional states, how do we expect to with others? Where is the shame in being 'us'?

The 'kids' call it fronting by putting on that appearance that you have the bigger, better, faster, more, than you really do and are breaking down inside or financially keeping the illusion alive. What's the worst that could happen from being 'you' and admitting you don't have it all together? That right there should eliminate a LARGE number of Xanax users.

Free yourself by being true to yourself, and to others, by being truly 'you'.

Lastly, yes, I'll say it. God loves you. YOU. Now, go forth and feel and deal!

 

2 comments:

  1. I love this post!! Truly a remarkable read!! I like to call my realest moments the Agony in the Garden moments when I sit with how I feel. Thanks for keeping it real and always being your truly wonderful and loving self!!
    Love ya!
    M.O:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Beautiful One! That makes this little blog worth it! (HUG)

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