Side effects

Side effects to medication are often forgotten about when the person doing the thinking is healthy.

I'm actually, genuinely lucky - I only have one medication to take daily which has side effects. I have a depot injection of progesterone in my upper arm, but I've never had an issue with that. The anti-mental meds, on the other hand, have shown me recently just how lucky I had it before.

Long story short, I was on some anti-mental meds, and they stopped working. When they did, and they did with a vengeance, I asked the doctor if he could change me on to something else. He did, and they worked for my mental state, but the side effects were... unpleasant.

I swelled up like Violet Beauregarde (albeit didn't turn blue). I gained at least two dress sizes, and had painful gastrointestinal issues constantly. In the end, I couldn't cope with it. I felt absolutely miserable. So I went back to the doctor, and he changed my meds again.

Within a week, I'd dropped the bloating. This one, however, also has side effects of lack of appetite, so I've been pushing myself to eat when I don't want to.

Thing is, with my food issues and tendency to disordered eating, I'm going to have to be very careful not to start thinking "Hooray, I can not eat!" I'm keeping a close eye on it, and making sure I have snacks with me for when I am hungry. It's all too easy to slip into that mindset and, considering how many years it's taken me to get out of it, I don't want to go there.

HAES and all. I'm not going to let myself get ill because of side effects.
I have that capability - the side effects aren't that bad - and that is why I am lucky.