The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
Gayle in response to a post I made on my hp, did I not just read you saying you do not want to talk to someone who is on medication?????!!!!
"We are not doctors. We are 12 step members. I can't help someone who is on medication.....that is the doctor's job. I shouldn't even be responding to someone who is being medicated by a doctor.....but you can, if you would like. No harm taken."
I, and I am sure others would appreciate clarification on this.
So how does one know if someone is on medication? I can tell you right now, when I am NOT on meds I probably look like I am. I can't function without hrt, I HATE taking it. It is a derivative from pregnant mare urine, premarin.
I have to have meds for arthritis, migraine and bowel disease. I don't believe anyone would appreciate me not having my bowel and bladder incontinance meds, I have to stay home most all the time. But once in awhile if I plan it and my meds are all in order I can go out maybe 4 times a month.
And there are NO promises I won't have to run to a br or have a problem....
It is nice "no harm taken" for me it did sting. One thing we are very strict on, and that is not taking each others inventory. We have NO idea what each of us goes thru with our imperfect bodies.
I used to walk at least an hour daily, usually hours, skiied, road bikes, horses, hiked, back packed, bucked hay every summer, until 3 summers ago. Girl I am almost 54.
I have two horses, three llamas, four goats, 19 pot bellied pigs, 5 dogs, ? cats all spayed and neutered. A parrot, chickens and a pair of turkeys.
Lets see how many mid fifty women we know who carry fifty pound sacks of grain and 65 pound bales of hay.
You bet I was freaking out when I could barely walk straight and the pain was so bad I had to stop halfway back to get more hay to rest.
I have animals who depend on me. We just had a hurricane, I sat thru the thing alone, in the dark, hearing things breaking and hitting things. I woke up to roofs gone, my beautiful horse with a chunk out of his shoulder. You bet I was paniced and scared.
Many of us lived comfortable lives, working hard. My spouse had a brain tumor removed, relapsed after years of recovery from the pain meds he HAD to take. I don't believe he did not deserve to be talked to becuz his head was opened up and stuff was pulled out, including my husbands personality.
Wow that stung me more than I thought.
sheesh. So everyone, raise your hands if you are on meds....
Anyway, try not to let this stuff bother you. I am sure Gayle meant well, but I don't think that anyone really thinks that Alanon is THE cure for all that ails you and I am sure Alanon does not take a stance on whether or not its members take medication. That is between you and your doctor. I hope no member of Alanon, sponsor or not, will pretend to be some kind of faith healer and tell you not to take meds your doctor prescribed for you.
I know some people feel that meds for panic attacks are not helpful, and many doctors agree, including mine. Yet, my sister, who is a research scientist who is courageously and selflessly looking for a cure for AIDS (she often works overtime for no extra pay to see how a certain experiment will turn out) IS on meds for panic attacks, hers were so severe. It all depends on what your doctor says, and not on what someone in alanon says.
My doctor also said that there is a GENETIC componant to panic attacks. My sister has a "perfect" life, a husband that adores her, a mansion to live in, a great job, etc. and no addictions in her family and she is the worse affected. I have them too, and my retired healthy happy Mom does also. My mom has them the least and I am somewhere in the middle. I have learned to handle mine with no meds ever, but it was difficult.
My doctor says that panic attacks are genetic in my family, we simply release about ten times the NORMAL amount of stress hormones when we are under normal everyday stress, and that is genetic. This is nothing that alanon would cure, my Mom and sister don't even have any reason to go to Alanon.
Maybe Gayle's doctor thinks as mine does, and so she agrees with him. But, my sister's doctor says that everyone is different, and when her panic attacks got so bad she could nto drive, he medicated her.
Now, she is fine...and just about off meds. So, as you can see, sometimes a "band-aid" is needed while you heal and then you can take it off and you are fine .
She got better a lot faster than I did, with no meds, but we both got better. Now I rarely have them.
Try not to make this an issue...lets just all try to respect each others different beliefs and leave all medication questions to our own doctors who have our tests results in front of them and are in a position to make a good decision to help us have a healthy life.
Sorry this hurt you...try to let it go. Gayle is right in many ways for many people, just not for everyone...
isabella I feel you are missing the WHOLE point! She made assumptions and got my post alllll wrong. I was having panic attacks becuz I did not have my everyday to live meds. I never take anything for pattacks and rarely have them.
I don't even know if that was what it was. It was more going thru withdrawals from not having my meds!!!
Christy tried to tell her that.
Berating people for not going to meetings, to someone who said over and over they were too ill to leave home. again not reading what the post says.
Telling a newbie she would be laughed at at a face to face meeting.
I do not need a lecture on the goods and bads of taking meds for panic attacks!!!! lol lol, YOU should know what i do sis. I ask hp to HANG on to me tight....
I have no opinion one way or the other as I have never researched them. I do know though some people get them so bad they curl up in a fetal position and their hands and toes curl to.You know how i know??? lol I saw it on Paramedics on the Health channel.
I would not think to take them when I feel like that becuz they how would I solve or problem solve what obstacle was bugging me... no meds.... not driving right now, which has NOTHING to do with my truck. I have had a lot of offers of someones third car or whatever. I just don't feel I want to drive.
As it was, hp got me thru, read my literature and talked to my hp and thought about other people must have it so awful who cannot get their meds at all.
It really got to me also as I found it quite upsetting. While I am sure there is a good reason for so many rules and regulations, it does remind me a bit of my ex-A, where all the rules suited him and his habit.
You know I love ya girl ! I understand how that reply must have stung. You have every right to blow off some steam about it. Try to remember though that you know yourself, and you know what you need to make it thru this life, one of those things is alanon, one is your beautiful Eden and to most of us it doesn't matter that meds are a part of that too.
Someone told me once when I really got burnt up about a comment made to me was, "in the grand scheme of your life, this is but a paper cut -- sure it stings and hurts but it's small in comparison to what you have been thru and what you are going thru....let it go." For me this comment really brought perspective to what I was feeling.
I take meds every single morning of my life.....I have graves disease and without my synthroid I would not be healthy at all.....I could go into a coma and get very ill
I aslo, have taken a xanax for my nerves and sanity when I will living in hell....
I think you rock.....I also think whatever we have to do to get thru the hell of living with addiction is what we have to do
.