Book Club Discussion
Today was our book club meeting. We had read The Soloist by Steve Lopez. It was a pretty good read but caused a lot of anguish for me and for others when we came to discuss it. If you haven’t read it, it is about a schizophrenic man with a gift for music living on the street and his friendship with a journalist who wrote about him.
We got into a discussion about whether it was better to insist that those who needed the medication were forced to take it {as was true back in the past} or whether mentally ill people should be helped only if they ask for it. The woman who leads the group broke down in tears when to told us her father was an unmedicated schizophrenic person and how it affected her and her mother. As I have mentioned before, I had a bad bout with depression a few years ago and was taking Paxil. There are lots of side effects to this and other medications like this and that was what caused me to take myself off it eventually. It is, I have decided the damned side effects that are going to get us eventually. I take Timolol drops in my eyes for glaucoma. This has the side effect of causing me to have difficulty with my breathing. So, I either go blind or have really bad asthma? Actually, it hasn’t got to this point yet and maybe never will. But I have noticed I get out of breath easily from small tasks which I used to take in stride.
I did a silly thing today. I have known for a long time that I have to eat at regular intervals and usually when I am going to be out over my lunch time, I eat something before I go. Today I didn’t and although I didn’t feel hungry when I got home, I felt very tired. I went got myself something around five but it was something that was not good for me. I had a cup of hot chocolate and a slice of coffee cake. Sugar! The way sugar affects me on an empty stomach is that I have a teeny high and a HUGE crash! So now I have been dealing with irritability, a headache and crankiness!
Total change of subject here. There is a skunk spray somewhere close outside and I know this because the smell has drifted into the room where I am sitting.
I am grateful for:
1. a new series of art classes which start on Monday. It is a continuation of the last set I took.
2. Mary Todd Beam. I just got her book The Creative Edge which is a series of creative exercises…
"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."
Marcus Aurelius
The “damned side effects” are the reason I don’t take drugs — except for the occasional Xanax — I wish there was a way to help people without poisoning them with drugs. I sometimes wonder how much of those conditions is caused by foods and things they ingest. I go into Crazy Lady Land when I eat chocolate. I wish I had answers.
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The older we get, the more life becomes a balancing act between the drugs we need and their side effects that damage living. I’m so glad to be off a drug that made me feel like a zombie, but the one replacing it causes equally negative, but entirely different problems. Le sigh
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I understand about the meds. I know that when I don’t take them, I get very loopy and just not right. So despite the side effects, I take them — I much prefer the stability that they provide.
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I know a woman who’s schizophrenic. She is on medication for it, and is a hugely gifted artist also. I’m not sure but I think that sometimes certain mental illnesses and certain kinds of brilliance (especially creative or artistic) are linked. My Celexa that I take for anxiety disorder has had the side effect of making me gain a LOT of weight…. ten pounds a year since I started taking it in2006. But my shrink said I should take it for life, and considering it gave me my life back….I would rather be heavy and happy (on the Celexa) than thin and constantly wondering if I’m losing my mind! But there are side effects worse than weight gain, too, I realize. hugs, Nicky
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I realize that the side effects of most medication can kill you. That is why I haven’t taken anything for my “depression.” Have to see if there are any art courses offered around here.
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i know just what you mean about side effects. really, sometimes the cure is worse than the illness.
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ryn: It would certainly make giving directions to your home so easy! Just look for the big milk bottle.
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There are those who believe schizophrenics are not “crazy”, merely experiencing life on a different plane of existence.
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When it comes to psychiatric illness, it’s unfortunate that the trend of shutting down facilities in the 80’s just led to mentally ill people who won’t take their meds. At least under controlled situations, regular medicating could be assured. Are they better off? I think not.
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so, the skunks are out and about? i think if you’ve got a mental illness and are dangerous to yourself or others, you really ought to take medication. forced… maybe but certaily encouraged to take it. take care,
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There were a lot of skunks in southern Ohio where we lived. They were very active at night. Sometimes we’d wake up because of the overpowering odor that was coming in the window! Of course, by then it was too late to close the window…..
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I haven’t read the book but I have seen the movie. Art and I loved the movie and we had the same discussion. It is a hard call on something like that.
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