Medication Time

So I'm watching TV and this ad comes on about some medication... If you've watched TV, you've seen them. At the end of the commercial where the people are dancing around laughing and hugging their family they say: "Side effects may include..." and continue on. This particular commercial said: "Side effects may include headache, dizziness, nausea, or possibly death." I'm thinking... wait, wait, wait... something is out of place there... That's like saying: red, blue, yellow, monkey. Something doesn't quite fit in. They name all these little side effects and then death. Sheesh.

Keeping on the track of medication, I've also seen commercials from a lawyer's office about lawsuits pertaining to Zyprexa (a mood disorder type of medicine). The commercial asks for people who have been diagnosed with certain illnesses to contact them as it may be because of the medication (main illness seems to be diabetes). I used to take this medicine. I began taking it around 2001/2002 and quickly gained weight, which everyone blew off as me eating to much (and granted, I was eating too much). Anyway, once I was taken off the medicine I lost over 45 pounds within a month; it just dropped away. I'm gaining weight again, but this time slowly and it is because of the food intake.

Anyway, I believe my point is one that many people already know and agree with. We can't always trust medication. I'm on a medication that keep my "moods" under control and it apparently works (not as well as I'd like, but it still keeps me from becoming overly insane). However, I think we can rely so heavily on medicine that we miss the whole problem. My therapist is not a big believer in the medicine, and I agree. You have to treat the problem, not the symptoms. We so believe that this medication is there to help us we ignore what harm it may be doing us (as I, and apparently many others, did with Zyprexa). We trust these pills to save us, and yet, they can also kill us. I suppose it's a fine line between insanity and death. How do you decide?