Wordless Wednesday - Cherry Blossoms!

Okay, I'm actually going to cheat a little and not make this post 100% wordless...just so I can note this:

This was Washington, DC's weather on March 25th. Yeah. That's not supposed to happen. It's probably why the blossoms weren't yet in full bloom. Oh, well, they were still pretty. And hopefully spring is now here to stay.

Anti-Depressants

So I recently found out that a friend of a friend committed suicide while taking Paxil. It's horrible and tragic, and I feel for anyone who has to lose someone like that. My friend is rightfully up-in-arms about Paxil, and judging by the lawsuits that come up when googling the drug, she is not alone.

And I'm glad I'm not taking Paxil.

HOWEVER, I am taking another anti-depressant (Venlafaxine, the generic form of Effexor), and have been for several years. What bothers me are the articles I have seen that tend to lump all anti-depressant drugs together, to try to make the claim that because there have been horrific side-effects up to and including suicide, any and all anti-depressants should never be prescribed.

Paxil seems to be one of the worst when it comes to adverse reactions, and I am surprised that it has not been taken off the market. However, discounting Paxil, I think the problem is less the drugs themselves, or even the greedy pharmaceutical industry (severe side-effects are actually very rare), and more how often doctors just hand them out and then fail to monitor the patient.

I've had mild-to-moderate bouts of depression and anxiety since high school, but for a long time I was resistant to going on anti-depressants. Even when it worsened in college, and I was having random crying spells multiple times a week, I didn't want to go the med-route. Part of it was the stigma that says you are weak if you can't handle things without a "crutch," but a larger part was the scare stories I heard about side-effects. But I knew I needed some kind of help, and that a large part of my issues was biochemical.

First I was put on birth control pills to try to even out my premenstrual moods. When that didn't work, and seeing that my depression was not just confined to "that time of the month," the gyno put me on Zoloft. NOTE: I DO NOT think that non-psychiatrists should be prescribing psychiatric meds. This is a big part of the problem I see with the way these medicines are prescribed. For a gynecologist, since they are dealing with womanly issues like  postpartum depression that overlap with psychiatric issues, it's a different story, but general practitioners shouldn't just be able to hand out Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac, etc. But anyway, back to the Zoloft.

It gave me wicked insomnia for two nights in a row. On the third day, I decided enough and stopped taking it.

After college I started therapy, which helped me work through a lot of issues and counter-productive mindsets, but eventually the question of medication came up again. That's when I decided that feeling normal and having my brain and neurotransmitters work the way they are supposed to was worth the risk of the side effects.  I wasn't going to do Zoloft again, but I found a psychiatrist who is extremely competent and knowledgeable in addition to being personable, and eventually we found that Effexor/Venlafaxine works for me to the point where my emotions are steady and manageable and I can work through my issues.

So I hate what I see as all the scare stories out there. The ones that play up the tragedies that are actually rare occurrences. The ones that may cause people to avoid getting the help they need.

One article was talking about how anti-depressants literally rewire your brain. Actually, what they do is treat bio-chemical mis-wiring of the brain. They are not "happy pills," they won't (if working correctly) make you into a zombie, they just treat your brain so it's working as it should be.

Anti-depressants should only be carefully prescribed and monitored, and generally taken along with some type of talk therapy.  However, they are just like any other drug, because biochemical depression is just like any physical health issue.

"Natural" treatments are not always better. As Stephen Colbert pointed out in a recent interview, hemlock is natural too.

The suicides that have been committed by people on anti-depressants are tragic, but this is why careful monitoring by a clinical psychiatrist, not taking all such drugs of the market, is necessary. Because while my own mood issues have always been fairly mild, for some anti-depressants are actually a life-saver. 

They Didn't Have That When I Was a Kid...

So my friend Athena compiled a list on Facebook of things she "is grateful for that they didn't have when she was a kid." I thought it was a good idea, so I decided to steal it (the idea, not the list itself) but use it as fodder for a blog post. Athena is actually a couple decades older than me, but the way technology advances these days it will be just as easy for my almost-thirty self to come up with a good list.

I have to say the worst is when I look at all the new products for kids, and am all like, now why didn't I have that as a kid? Seriously, seeing children driving around in their little carts in grocery stores.

Anyway, back on track. This was supposed to be about gratitude for all the technologies I do enjoy today.

Starting with the obvious:

Facebook
blogging - And it's come a long way since my livejournal days in early college
gmail - again, email has come a long way
smart phone - oh the things you can do from your phone these days
the many, many options I have for listening to music - Pandora (customizable radio!), Spotify, mp3 player...
Youtube
Pinterest (We used to have to clip things out of magazines?)
Skype - face-to-face time with people in a different continent
the ability to watch full-length shows via computer
Facebook games - Words w. Friends aka digital scrabble
online shopping
texting (sorry, Athena, I still think it's one of the most convenient ways to communicate)
e-book readers, although I've never used one
compact computers like tablets and netbooks
free wifi in Starbucks, Panera, even McDonalds
the myriad ways one can incorporate technology into fitness routines
the Nintendo Wii, especially Wii fit
on the same note, Wii sports...virtual skiing!
a bajillion customizable coffee drinks at Starbucks
McDonalds having a McCafe
online college/graduate courses (although I only took one fully online and one quasi-)
my nifty little car air freshener thing from Bath and Body Works
3-D movies
the customizable frozen yogurt places that are everywhere now
direct deposit; online banking 

And a few I'm stealing from Athena's commenters:

easy availability of all kinds of ethnic foods
carryout no longer just for Chinese and pizza

Then there are the things I've never used but am still grateful for:

hybrid and electric vehicles
a whole slew of medical innovations I'm grateful I haven't needed

Finally, I feel the need to put central air conditioning on this list. Yes, I did grow up with it, but my grandparents never got air conditioning (even when they had the opportunity, my grandfather refused), and my mom didn't have AC in her college dorm. So I'm also grateful for the comparative modernity of my college dorms in 2001-2005.

What new-fanged technologies are you grateful for?

Oh The Places I Need to Go...

There's a mug in my office apparently from the "National Gallery of Caricature and Cartoon Art." Never having heard of such a place, I looked it up and got pretty confused. Apparently it was a part of the Library of Congress back in 2006? Not exactly sure the story, but disappointingly, whatever it was, it doesn't seem to exist anymore. It did get me thinking, however, that I really need to keep track of the places I want to visit or revisit.

I need to revisit the Museum of Visionary Art in Baltimore. Apparently there is also a tattoo museum somewhere in Baltimore that I would like to see.

As far as DC goes, I've been to most of the major Smithsonian museums, many multiple times, but I'm sure that there are many smaller and lesser-known museums, galleries, etc. that I need to check out.

I have yet to go to the Museum of the American Indian. I've actually heard it is kind of overrated, but honestly, I'd like to visit just for the cafeteria full of native foods.

Madame Tussaud's in DC.

Need to revisit the Newseum; I haven't been since it was in Rosslyn.

If I ever get to visit Cleveland-proper (rather than 45 minutes outside the city, where my friend moved), I need to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Not a museum, but there is a giant Bingo hall in Laurel, Maryland that I want to go to.

And that's just off the tip of my head; I'm sure this list will keep growing.

Sometimes I find it sad that, living so close to the nation's capital, I tend to forget how much there is to do in the area beyond the typical tourist sites (that I've been to a million times).

Tomorrow I may head to check out the Cherry Blossoms after work. Spring especially is a good time to be so close to DC.

And this has gotten kind of rambly...but my main point is: way too many places to go, way too little time.