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Hey everyone! This is Mariah, and I thought I would write a blog post about medication side effects. I am not a doctor but I have been through so many medications and have had so many negative side effects that I thought I’d talk about it. Medication is a very important component to proper treatment when it comes to mental illness. However, you may be reluctant to take it when it is causing you minor or major side effects. It is always important to speak with your doctor when this becomes the issue. Some side effects are permanent and dangerous so if you speak with your doctor they can provide answers or prescribe a new medication. I’d like to point out that you should always stay on your medication until you talk to your doctor as abruptly stopping it can be detrimental. Not everyone is the same so your experience on a drug might be different from others. I just want to say that if you are struggling with a side effect, you are not alone. Keeping a journal to note down your experience can greatly help you and your doctor identify what is wrong and how to deal with it. There is also an issue of interactions. Some medications interact badly with others so it’s especially important to tell all of your doctors what drugs you are on. It’s even more important to mention what recreational drugs you take as they can severely interact with your prescribed medication. Another tip for managing your medication is letting your support system know that you’ve changed medications and they can even help you identify side effects that you don’t notice yourself. If you would like to do the research yourself, you can check drug interactions online. Below this post I will add a link to a website that checks interactions. I would love to hear your experiences with medication side effects down below. I hope this helps!
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Really important information. Keeping a journal of side effects sounds like a really good idea!
Hey Mariah! I really relate to this as I have had to go through quite a few medications to find the one that best fit my needs. Negative side effects from medication can be scary and frustrating but it’s important to talk about how normal it is to have that experience when trying new medication. Keeping a journal is a great way to figure out which medication is not ideal for yourself and a good guide to finding out which seems to be working.
Thank you so much for this post! I can totally relate to the subject of medications having side effects, especially negative ones. I like the idea of telling significant others the fact that you may be going through changes with your medication so that they may be on the look out with these things with you or may even notice things before you do. Thanks again for sharing 🙂