East vs West

I have been under the care of a psychiatrist for ten years now. I am no better than when I started. In fact, I think I may be even worse off. A wise woman pointed out to me that if my daughter was under the care of a doctor for ten years and nothing was improving, what next step would I take? Hmmm....great question.

One option that was presented to me was to go away on a retreat and go off all my meds and see where my baseline is....who I am without any medication at all...to see if I would go back to being the me I was before all this debauchery began. All of this started when I got pregnant with Miss K...I chose to not take meds while pregnant but did attend counselling on a weekly basis. Eleven days after she was born, I stopped breastfeeding and went on meds. I haven't looked back.

Over the years, I have been on a wide variety of meds. Mostly anti-depressants and anti-psychotics with a few mood stabilizers thrown in for good measure. I honestly think we are running out of options...that's how many I've tried. I have a psychiatrist appointment coming up on the 6th...I have to decide whether I'm staying on the few that I'm on and upping my counselling or going on one of two mood stabilizers (lithium or valproic acid). Each have their own unique set of side effects. I'm not keen on either one.

The other option I have is to shrug off western medication and start looking in the opposite direction....towards the east. I have an appointment on March 14th to give acupuncture a try for anxiety. We will do it once a week for the first few weeks and then space it out. I'm excited to try it. I've also always used my oils as calming agents...and they do a wonderful job. I'd be lost without my oils.

Down the road, something else I want to give a try is Reiki. My wonderful chiropractor said she has been throwing in some Reiki healing for free, without me knowing, during my chiro sessions...bonus!!

I have been using my EFT tapping (saying an affirmation while tapping on acupressure points on the body) and that has also been supremely helpful for anxiety. It's effect is as good as a clonazepam for stress release!

I have also ordered some hematite bracelets that have lava beads attached to them. I have a hematite necklace that my wonderful friend, Carmen, gave me years ago during a low point. I wore it for awhile but it got lost in the shuffle of necklaces. I dug it out, cleaned and polished it and have been wearing it faithfully this last week! I used to be quite reliant on Advil for all my little aches and pains and am trying to replace Advil with oils and magnesium spray.

And so? I've got a number of new things to try with regards to anxiety and I'm looking forward to trying each one!

And so it goes...