First of all, I told you all that my brother-in-law Jesse took state in wrestling this weekend. Lots of our family was there (but you all know I wasn't). My darling (she really is, absolutely adorable, just like her kids and her husband) sister-in-law, Alisa was there, and she just posted a video of his winning wrestling match. You should check it out here.
I recently read some lovely blog entries by a lovely young woman who recently placed her baby girl with a super-cute, and super-lucky adoptive couple. She posted in four parts her personal adoption experience, complete with texting back and forth with the adoptive family she chose for her baby. Except for the texting, a lot of her experience feels very familiar to me, very much like my own experience. Another testimony to me of how our Heavenly Father truly does know each one of us. I will not link to each of her posts. Go to her blog, and navigate backwards from there. Try to scroll down and start at part 1. She even links to the adoptive family's blog, and you can go check them out, too. I recommend reading about all of them, because I personally think it is a beautiful story.
And have you ever followed the link to Cafe Johnsonia on Eryka's blog? If you like to bake, you should totally check her out. She is always posting all kinds of yummy things, and I like the way she writes, even if it is all about food. Yeah, I have yet to try a recipe, but knowing that someday I might is kind of fun.
Well, from there, I linked to the article about her blog and Utah's other great food blogs. From that site, I read an article about the dangers of Paxil. Then, I got a little fired up, because it was obviously the author's opinion that people with depression, bipolar disorder and other mental conditions don't really need medication, and that it is usually treatable with therapy. This really bothers me, because I have friends who I have watched struggle with a medical condition which caused them to suffer from depression. The sadness/fatigue they were experiencing had very little to do with what was going on around them. They couldn't just try to cope with their grief, because their grief was clearly caused by a chemical imbalance which needed medication to bring back to normal. Because they felt awful, they sought reasons to explain why they were sad, when in fact, their body was malfunctioning and making them sad. It becomes a terrible cycle, and one of the worst things you can tell a depressed person is to just get over it. I wish it were that simple. I do believe that some medications don't work the same way for some as they do for others. And I do believe there are rare cases of terrible adverse side effects. I would hope anyone taking this kind of medication would be in the care of a doctor who was aware of any problems resulting from the medication. I also know medication doesn't work for everyone (like me). Exercise was the thing that made the greatest difference for me after Olivia was born. My problem with the article is the fact that some people do need medication to get control over their emotions, and there is nothing wrong with that. If simple therapy alone works for you, that is great! But in many cases, it is not enough. Recognize that, please.
Shut up already. I could go on about what a difference medication makes for my child with Asperger's and the one with ADHD, but I won't. And the people who don't think Autism is real? You know what? That would take up at least another three posts. Not going to go there. Thanks for reading.
