Thanks for your story. The thinking and behavior patterns you describe sound eerily familiar: extreme impulsively, mania, and an inability to even acknowledge a string of consequence. It sounds like you were very lucky and/or intuitive to recognize these anomalies and act accordingly. While I still kick myself each day for missing those signs I remain aware that outcomes could easily have been more dire.
Although some years have passed since your experience it is a reminder that little has progressed when it comes to accountability on behalf of the medical community and manufacturers of these drugs. Let’s hope this doesn’t continue indefinitely.
You hit on an important point: the escape hatch that the medical and pharmaceutical industries employ in response to any issues that arise. It is far too easy – and accepted – for them to simply blame the patient. It fits our intuition to assume that the individual who committed an unacceptable act is 100% responsible. Yet we, as patients, are told to put 100% confidence in our prescribing physicians.
I’m sorry to hear about your difficulties resulting from Effexor and other meds. Just be thankful that you made it to a point where you are beyond them and far more insightful as a result. It really makes you appreciate all feelings, good and bad, and emphasizes how much we rely on them to function.
It’s very hard to have spent a significant portion of your life as a person so different from yourself. But I hope you can avoid the pitfalls of regret and embrace the experience as a valuable asset that allows you to understand more deeply the meaning of uncomfortable emotions. Thanks for sharing your story.
Family certainly made all the difference for me. Unfortunately this issue is a vast systematic one that’ll require a major paradigm shift. But I’m hopeful that like so many other blunders of the past, public education and exposure through advocacy will help many see the light.
Thanks for your story. The thinking and behavior patterns you describe sound eerily familiar: extreme impulsively, mania, and an inability to even acknowledge a string of consequence. It sounds like you were very lucky and/or intuitive to recognize these anomalies and act accordingly. While I still kick myself each day for missing those signs I remain aware that outcomes could easily have been more dire.
Although some years have passed since your experience it is a reminder that little has progressed when it comes to accountability on behalf of the medical community and manufacturers of these drugs. Let’s hope this doesn’t continue indefinitely.
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You hit on an important point: the escape hatch that the medical and pharmaceutical industries employ in response to any issues that arise. It is far too easy – and accepted – for them to simply blame the patient. It fits our intuition to assume that the individual who committed an unacceptable act is 100% responsible. Yet we, as patients, are told to put 100% confidence in our prescribing physicians.
Report comment
I’m sorry to hear about your difficulties resulting from Effexor and other meds. Just be thankful that you made it to a point where you are beyond them and far more insightful as a result. It really makes you appreciate all feelings, good and bad, and emphasizes how much we rely on them to function.
It’s very hard to have spent a significant portion of your life as a person so different from yourself. But I hope you can avoid the pitfalls of regret and embrace the experience as a valuable asset that allows you to understand more deeply the meaning of uncomfortable emotions. Thanks for sharing your story.
Report comment
Family certainly made all the difference for me. Unfortunately this issue is a vast systematic one that’ll require a major paradigm shift. But I’m hopeful that like so many other blunders of the past, public education and exposure through advocacy will help many see the light.
Report comment