I’m King of the Meds!

One of the thrills of being bipolar is the contest of taking more pills than other friends or people in your support group. Now that my pdoc put me on another one I take 8 pills every morning and 6 pills every night. Woo Hoo! I know some who take sixteen or more a day, but I’m at their rear and approaching fast.

My pdoc thinks my recent manic like events are actually high anxiety. I think she may be right. The new pill is P-something-or-other. It’s a long name that I can’t pronounce. So far it works reducing my anxiety but that’s because it feels like my knuckles are dragging the ground and I can barely keep my eyes open. I hope my body is just adapting. This carousel game of trying one pill then taking away another, trying another pill and taking another way is really on my nerves this week.

Speaking of nerves, I choked up and almost started crying at my pdocs this week. It was all about me going back to work. I use to think I was afraid of it because I was just lazy. Well, I am lazy, but that’s beside the point. The real fear I have is going back and having to juggle the balls like I use to. I played the game for so many years. She and I discussed how painful it was. She brought up vocational rehab again. Apparently they will only place you in a job you can mentally handle. There we go, talking about putting pegs in holes again. Sigh.

Yesterday was fun. We picked a new courthouse to go to that apparently a lot of people didn’t know was there so it was quiet compared to other locations. We had fun though and got some good press and handed out cupcakes to newlyweds regardless of whether they were gay or not. I deem the day a big success, but need to pull back a bit. Part of my anxiety is the feeling of being overwhelmed. I don’t know why she says that, I only take on about 50 things a week.

Last thing is, I’m finally going to start posting my own cartoons, like above, rather than stealing others. I’m a bit emarrassed. 20 years ago I use to cartoon for fun and was very proud of my work. I found I was much more rusty than I wanted to be. I figure with practice my skills will be back and I might as well let all of you in on it.

Final thing is that I’ve said I take a total of 14 pills each day between the morning and the evening. Bipolar, depressed, or not, I’m curious how many you folks take each day? I’m trying to figure out how out of it I am.

12 comments on I’m King of the Meds!

  1. Okay, now I have to figure out the drug is it prochlorperazine maleate? I hope your body is just adjusting to the meds and may be relaxing from not being so anxious…like detoxing the adrenaline. Not to be competitive between everything I take for medical conditions as well. I take a total of 17 pills per day and 19 twice a week. Not that many perscriptions though. I had a medication change this week and I hope it works. After that he is going to re-evaluate my antidepressents…Like you, will it ever end!!!I love the cartoon!! LOL!! Congratulations on the legal marriage!! I’m glad it was a calmer environment…you do take on too much sometimes I get exhausted just hearing about it.Take Care,Clueless

  2. I love your cartooning Brad 🙂 What a great addition to your blog. My pill count? If you count vitamins I probably take about 7 a day total.

  3. I LOVE the cartooning! And I’m glad yesterday went well. The cupcakes were a nice touch. :)I’ve narrowed my pharmacy down to 2 pills in the morning and 3 at night.

  4. 30 years or so when I was dx with manic/depression(Jimmie Hendrex made it famous). I was prescribed Lithium this should show you just how long ago it was. Not long after, a few months, I diagnosed myself unfortunately, as “normal” and I’ve been fighting the no meds fight ever since. There was a brief buspar trip when I was attacking, oops I mean, teaching kids in the inner city, junior high none the less. I’m very greatful that talk therapy and A.A. have helped me. When doctors start to prescribe I just decline. This is not to say that I recommend this to others. There obviously are different degrees of afflictions and one needs to listen to their heart and hope there illness is not so bad as to be confusing what might be excellent medical advice. I’ve signed myself out of a hospital against medical advice before so I know a little bit about the wars we fight inside our heads.Dad to four

  5. I encourage you to continue with the cartons. I enjoy your warped and demented sense of humor, it fits well with my own demented sense of humour.

  6. Wow! That’s a lot of pills! And my husband makes fun of me for my 1 pill in the morning and 7 at night….only one of all those is prescription though, the rest are vitamins and herbal. I know I should be on meds for depression and anxiety, but fear them, so my doc recommended some natural stuff…not sure if it’s working though LOL.I am thoroughly enjoying reading your blog and am glad to have found you through Entrecard. I’m a rarity in that I’m quite conservative politically, but am supportive of gay marriages(even managed to convince my even more conservative hubby that there’s nothing wrong with it 😉 ). I think everyone deserves to be happy, and if being married to the one you love makes you happy nothing else should matter, and I think what you are doing is wonderful!

  7. Hi Jolene,I’m glad you found me as well. I’m taking a lot of pills right now because we’re still playing the balancing act of what works and what doesn’t. It’s expected to go down once my pdoc and I have a better idea.Glad to hear you are a conservative who believes in marriage equality. It’s funny because I truly see this as a conservative issue. It’s all about keeping government out of our personal lives.And yes, it is all about love. Thank you.

  8. Great cartoon :)I’m lucky at the moment, I’m only on two pills a day. One to bring my mood up, and another to bring it back down again. My bipolar is fairly mild compared to a lot of people so I guess I’m really lucky in that respect!~Shiv

  9. Vitamins –I take at least 12 different ones regularly. Total of 23 or more, including those I take multiples of. (maybe more, I may have missed a couple.)Scripts, I take 9 different meds. Total of 17 pills. Some days, I have to take a few more.I’m a mess. :)But I got off my diabetic drugs by taking the vitamins, so that’s a plus.As far as working, you seem to have so many talents. Is there any way you could do something in a limited basis? I could definately see the cartooning as a part-time thing until you feel you are ready. Plus with your skills, it may be enough to turn into your job. It is said, doing something you love is not like work, or something like that. Who knows, after a while of drawing cartoons, you may have a book. Talk about a niche market. How many other bipolar cartoonists could there be?Best of luck in everything.Congrats on the marriage, too.

  10. nice cartoon dude, good stuff. I remember when my anxiety hit, and the years after, afraid to get on the train, afraid to go to work, afraid to not pack three lunches just in case I had an anxiety/low blood sugar attack… whew. It’s tough. Hang in there, it’ll all smooth itself out.How’s the weight coming along? I can’t tell if I’m up or down, but I feel better with the exercise and my arms are getting muscular, so, something is working 😉

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