marsden_online: (Sisters)
This

Storyline starts here
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I don't know where my aversion to medications comes from. I have enough difficultly letting myself take common painkillers but face an actual dread of mind-altering substances including anti-depressants.

Some of the superficial stuff is easy to identify but not so easy to quantify.
- anti-depressants somehow means giving up. This isn't rational but it's really deeply rooted.
- not being "me" any more. But see below about losing myself anyway.
- perhaps more specifically "not being (able to be) the me that I want to be". This is a significant part of why I don't drink. I've been accused multiple times of "being afraid that I might have fun" but actually one of the things I'm afraid of is that my concept of "fun" will shift to include the stupid and obnoxious things I see intoxicated people doing. The others are that I will be an angry hurty drunk (aspects of my nature that I constantly override to be the person I want to be) and addiction - because I am susceptible and again I work hard to restrict my addictions to harmless activities.

There is an argument to be made that alcohol is actually a -more- serious mind-affecting substance than properly prescribed a-ds and the conceptual inversion of that relationship is actually simply ... cultural for lack of better term.

~~~
Over the past 12 months I've noticed that each time I crash and recover I've stopped caring about something. It might be something related to my work ethic. It might be something about how I relate to people. That's how I got the beard - after one crash I stopped caring about shaving. Fortunately I still care enough about a tidy appearance to trim.

It feels like my psyche is cannibalising tiny bits of itself to survive. This poses a problem because sooner or latter I'm going to stop caring about things that really matter (if I haven't already). Sooner or later I'm going to stop caring about being the person I want to be and just revert to being ... something else. Something/somebody that doesn't care.

~~~
I haven't been to the counsellor for a couple of months because Xmas, and he's been away. But it feels like somewhere in those couple of months I may have stopped caring about the pills so much. Maybe this year I'll try anti-depressants even though the thought make me want to break down. After all, what do I have to lose?
~~~
~~~
As an additionally poignant note the above comic was published on the first anniversary of my brother-in-law's suicide.

Date: 2012-02-06 10:01 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] estoile.livejournal.com
Doesn't make me less interested in talking stuff through with friends. It's helpful to feel that I'm able to support other people ...

If you need an ear, call me. If I'm not up to it, I'll let you know.

[hugs]

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