I hate it when people who don’t take a certain medication/don’t have the same disorder you do try and police how you describe how it feels when you don’t take your medication.
I take a heightened dose of a certain medication for depression. When I forget it even for a day, I notice it. My brain physically feels like jelly and every time I move my head too fast, it feels like I’m going to fall over. I’m aware of the physical space my eyes take up. It’s awful, and that’s just if I forget it in the morning- the rest of my day ends up like that.
I tried to explain it to my mom once, describing it as “I’m experiencing what feels like withdrawal symptoms from my meds because I forgot to take it this morning, it feels terrible lmao.” And then she told me that it couldn’t be that bad, that it wasn’t withdrawal, and that I shouldn’t talk about it that way (at least, that’s what it felt like she told me). Meanwhile I’m sitting there like, I’m sorry, are you taking my medication too? Are you diagnosed and being treated the exact same way I am? No? Then how can you tell what it feels like?
It’s so diminishing to me. I’m trying to talk about the struggle and I’m silenced by the whole “it can’t be that bad” sentence like??
Again, that’s how it felt. That’s probably not what she intended, but now I don’t feel like I can ever talk about it with her again