Using Medication to Deal With Depression or Stress

There was a period of time during one of my husband’s many military deployments when I had a lot of things going on even before you consider that I was raising two kids on my own while constantly wondering if my husband was safe. I work from home, and while I really love what I do, combine that with going to grad school part time and it was no wonder that half the time I felt like I was going to start screaming at everyone around me.

I made an effort to scale back on some of my obligations, but when I went in for my annual physical the doctor asked me how everything was going with my husband being gone. I told her that sometimes -particularly when my hormones went crazy once a month- I had a really hard time not wanting to take to bed crying.

Anti-depressants

At that point my doctor nonchalantly offered me some anti-depressants. Now don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against anti-depressants and I understand how they work because I’m studying psychopathology in school right now. I just figured that anti-depressants were supposed to be more of a compliment to therapy or some sort of last resort. Or, at the very least, I did not expect them to be offered to a patient you just met 15 minutes ago.

On the other hand, with months to go until my husband’s return, I knew that a happier me would make for happier kids, so it seemed silly to not at least give the meds a try. The type she gave me was a lower dose and -yippee!- as a side effect I might notice some weight loss.

Did the Anti-Depressants Work?

After about a week on the medication I noticed a lot less freaking out on my part. Instead of my body temperature rising whenever the kids started fighting, I was able to take a deep breath and diffuse the situation.

The really interesting thing about this is that even though I was embarrassed about taking these meds, I eventually revealed it to a friend of mine who shrugged her shoulders and said, “I’ve been on meds since my second baby was born.” She is one of the calmest friends I have and it never occurred to me that her calmness was chemically induced.

In fact, when I started talking to other moms, it became evident that a lot of moms get through their stressful days with some help from their pharmacists. A few months ago I stopped taking the meds, but I found out that some of my friends have been on medication for years…particularly since the kids came along.

The Moral of the Story

If you think that going on medication to regulate your moods is something to be embarrassed about, I’m here to tell you that there is a good chance many other moms in your social circle already have experience in this arena. I learned a lot from my experience, and although it was not a long-term solution for me it certainly helped me to get through a really stressful time.

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Posted by Tamsen Butler on Wednesday, November 17th, 2010 at 8:59 am and is filed under Parenting.
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Tags: anxiety, Depression, friends, medication, moods, stress
Posted in: Parenting

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