Learning The Hard Way (real life story)

I was to meet my girlfriend in town, then on to a night club. We met as arranged. A few minutes after entering the night club I found I was having a little difficulty breathing. I had not long since gave up the smoking habit I put the feeling down to the smoky atmosphere. I tried to ignore the feeling and went on to enjoy myself. Not for long.

Within twenty minutes or so I began to feel dizzy, my mouth had gone rather dry, I had some really serious chest pains and I started to shake even though it was rather warm in the night club. Thanks to my girlfriend our friends never noticed anything was wrong and she took me outside. I remember feeling better almost instantly. At the time I put this down to the fresh air.

A week later on a crowded bus it happened again. I got off at the next stop and found myself being physically sick in a back alley. It frightened the hell out of me, I still remember the awful feelings that went with the sickness.

A trip to my doctors, and after checking for some nasty bug, found him telling me that he felt I was suffering from severe depression brought on by sustained anxiety and I needed medication. He recommended I take a short course of the all hailing no side effects wonder drug (as it was being labelled back them) valium.

I was given a course of Valium for six months. During this time I got worse, I began to feel as if people were watching and talking about me. Everything became to difficult, I got to feeling no one cared, constant tiredness and apathy hung over me, it felt as if someone had placed a large weight on my back.

I got so depressed. I lost interest in everything and everybody. It got to a point where I would not leave the house I would not even answer a knock on the door, read the mail or answer the telephone. Physically I went through some awful feelings nausea, weakness, water works problems, sleeplessness feelings of fear, panic and constipation. Each time I reported these problems to my doctor he told me it was because I was depressed and in time the tablets would calm things down for me.

What a laugh it not only calmed me down, as he put it, it also came with side effects it was and still is addictive. My treatment went from six months to ten years on a repeat prescription basis, during all this time (apart from the onset) I continued in my job as best as I could It took me another six years to finally kick what had become a habit. Even to day I still suffer from conditions that only materialized after I decided to make a start and work on reducing and finally finishing with Valium and others.

Looking back I know now how lucky I was to learn about complementary medicine, It was with the help of this kind of treatment I beat the addiction of Valium as well as Amytriptyline, Nardile, Sulpride just some of the medicine he had me on over the ten/eleven years. Using a form of alternative treatment was frowned upon by my then doctor and Looking back the first positive thing I did in the eleven years, apart from continuing to hold down a job, was to change my doctor. I have never looked back and went on to re-build my life. For the sake of health I quit my job and went back to college. I am now, after some years of study, a practising Counsellor helping others.

I admit here some people may need medication for a short period to bring their problem under control, while some others may find to live a near normal life as possible medication may need to be taken for the rest of their lives.

Other therapies can work either as a stand alone or alongside conventional medication. I often look back and think if I had been given the chance to talk over my problems with someone like the two people above, before being given antidepressants as a matter of course there would never have been a need for medication in the first place.

I still have many more concerns that can be linked to the taken of antidepressants, that will stay with me until the day I die.

Author: Philip Cox

Image: 1. Carl Rogers (1902 – 1987) believed that problems arise when people get out of touch with their true selves by being surrounded (especially in childhood) by others whose affection and approval are conditional. His methods became known as ROGERIAN THERAPY referred to here in the UK. as ‘Person Centred Counselling’ (Medibolism Team)

Image: 2. Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970) from a study of successful public figures formed a general idea of the self-fulfilled personality. He took an optimistic view of human nature, viewing people as innately sociable and cooperative and reasoning that destructive or antisocial behaviour occurs only when people can not meet their basic needs. Both men developed Humanistic Psychology. (Medibolism Team)

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