Don’t miss the other 3 posts of My Health Story. You can catch up by clicking below:
First, I want to start off telling the new symptoms I had when I quit taking the antibiotic.
Not only was I still very tired and short of breath, I had panic attacks if I went anywhere! If I was driving, I felt like my car was going to be picked up and float to outer-space – off into nothingness. It was a very out-of-contro,l miserable feeling!
These weird feelings didn’t happen all of the time until after I went off the medicine. I also want to mention that during the 6 years I was on the antibiotic, I did take a break from it for 6 months – only to take a new, much stronger drug for acne called Accutane. Accutane has since been recalled and there are lawsuits from “serious injuries” that have occurred from taking it. Great! It’s hard to believe I’ve put my body through this!
So, back to the story…
The Doctors Thought I Was Crazy
I got to the point with my panic attacks and fatigue, that it would have been the easiest thing to become a hermit at home – only going somewhere if someone could take me, but I refused to live this way! I even had to get out of the church choir because the whole time I stood, I had horrible feelings of flying off into the air or fainting, and I would grasp the chairs in front of me.
Weird, huh?
In the meantime, I went to the doctor 2 or 3 more times (if I remember correctly, this was the 3rd doctor I had seen for this) and this doctor continued to give me strange looks as I described again my symptoms.
His answer?
Anti-Depressants!
What?
Seriously?
I was not depressed.
Now, it was depressing to feel and live this way, but I knew I didn’t need medicine for depression. I chose not to fill the prescription. I’m not sure why I didn’t automatically follow this advice when in the past I always did whatever any doctor’s opinion was – it must have been God. I’m so thankful I didn’t take the prescription because anti-depressants cause 40,000 deaths a year! (Source)
This particular doctor referred me to an OBGYN for my pregnancy and when I met her, she showed me a letter he had faxed her that in all caps said I was depressed, needed anti-depressants and was in a stage of denial!
Seriously?
I couldn’t believe this!
I started thinking what if I am crazy or depressed? How can I be a wife and mother? Will I have to live the rest of my life like this?
I still had no answers!
What did I do?
I kept praying!!
And God answered my prayers!
Join me for Part 3: The Answer To My Craziness!
This post was originally published on May 5, 2011.
My husband was on Acutane for a while (can’t remember how long) when he was in highschool. He said he should have known it wasn’t good because he had to keep going to the dr. for tests to make sure the drug wasn’t damaging his body! But, he was a teenager who didn’t want acne (who does want it?!) and was good about listening to his parents (I’m not knocking his parents. They are good people, just ill-informed at the time. They are much more cautious with drs. advice, now.). Now, my husband is, and has been for quite some time, very into natural living! One of the many things I love about him. =)
Acutane was one of the medications I took in those 6 years of daily meds. It caused serious skin sensitivity, random open sores, and severely damaged my liver. I do wish I had known better. 🙂