The biggest thing I can say about medication is to familiarize yourself with their side effects. This goes for more than just the psychiatric medications, but all medications, including over the counter.
All medications have side effects, but not everyone will experience them. I recently got out of a hospital after a suicide attempt that was brought on by a side effect of one of my medications. Was it a common one? That's unknown as of right now, due to it being too new to the market, but I know I'm not the only one who experienced that side effect. In turn I talked to my doctor and requested to be taken off of it, and I was placed on another.
Point is, talk to your doctor if you notice anything off, any changes to your body and mind. Also research your medications, look up their reported side effects, and pay attention to yourself. Remember that some side effects are minimal and you can live with them, they may even go away as your body gets used to the medication, but you should still report them. Others are dangerous and require immediate attention.
WebMD.com is a great site for looking up side effects, as is going to the manufacturer's website, which you can usually find just by searching the brand name of your medication. You can also ask your doctor and your pharmacist, they should be able to either give you a list of side effects, or lead you to where you can learn more about them.
And now I ask you, have you ever dealt with side effects of medications? If so, how did go about figuring it out? And, did you have any problems reporting it to your doctor?
I had one medicine I was on (very common for migraines, but with a psychiatric "benefit") that caused severe side effects. I'm still trying to get over them a year after I've been off the med.
ReplyDeleteI was experiencing hair loss, severe bruising, memory issues, focus problems, photo-sensitivity (to the point that I could drive at night) and thermo-regulation issues.
The medicine caused something called Metabolic Acidosis, which is an imbalance in the pH of your blood.
My nutritionist is the one that discovered it simply on side effects.
My doctors were clueless. It was an entire page in the prescribing info from the manufacturer, but they were baffled. Had never heard of it. I ended up taking the manufacturer's info to show them.
Apparently, I should have been getting blood tests on this med. I never received on. Which is why the problem went unnoticed for years. It wasn't until more serious side effects emerged that I even noticed myself. Because the hair loss was sudden and so were some of the other things. Usually, I am on so many medicines that I chalk any effects up to those, and leave it go for awhile in case it goes away.
The problem of the Metabolic Acidosis is a relatively easy fix, but I'm still dealing with it.
I understand how scary that sort of thing can be.
I'm glad you're feeling better.