Well Spring of God's Love

No, we are not pushing meds on you. There are several ways listed to improve your mood without medication. In fact, the medication section is a small part of the entire previous article. This was used to show you the various types of chemicals in the body which influence how you feel.

It is a real relationship between chemicals and mood/behavior. If you have a chemical imbalance there must be some form of treatment which will stabilize the imbalance or at least improve it so that you may be able to do more self-healing.

Many people think you just have to “change your mind,” “pull yourself up by your boot straps” or “get over it!” It may not be this easy if you are dealing with an imbalance. People may have good intentions but have limited insight into how mood, behavior and feelings are improved. If you are depressed because you have a chemical imbalance, no amount of happy thoughts will cause you to feel better. This is a tangible concept which may be new information for you.

Even if your depression is situational (caused by specific life events) the use of medications will still help you to recover. As we said, every emotion is a chemical reaction in your brain. So, the anti-depressant will help to balance those chemicals and give you the opportunity to heal your depression in other ways. In this case, the use of medication may be temporary.

Anxiety is also common and will respond to medication. Again, if you do the work and make behavioral changes to combat anxiety or panic, this type of medication may be temporary. Anti-anxiety medications will take the edge off and allow you to pursue emotional healing through other ways. If you experience some relief you may have a better perspective on what you may need to do and why.

Outbursts or anger may also be treated so that you may adjust your impulse control, work through some emotional problems or relieve you from overwhelming stress and worry.

Some people are prescribed medications and then do not follow up with any others treatment options. They are happy to take a pill and not make any effort to deal with any underlying emotions or conflict. This is what we would advise against. We will not encourage you to rely upon medication alone. We want you to combat any emotional distress with real intervention. There are 10 suggestions in the previous post, “When Layers Attack!”

You or your family, friends or other loved ones may self-medicate with drugs, alcohol or other mood-altering substances or behavior. Many people who engage in this behavior don’t realize that this is what they are doing, even if you point it out to them. In this case the person is not dealing with any actual issues but they are compounding everything with another problem. Using substances for relief is problematic because addictions may grow worse and actually end up making your emotional problems more severe. Self-medicating may also mask your real symptoms making it difficult to get appropriate treatment.

Substance abuse also interferes with the natural maturation process. The age which you begin to abuse substances is the age that you remain emotionally. Mood altering substances stop you from gaining wisdom, perspective and objectivity. This will create another cycle in your life of upset, substance abuse, depression/anxiety and dysfunction. Any chance for real emotions or life problems will be forever clouded by self-medicating. Then, if you address the substance problem you are left with the actual issues of depression, anxiety/panic or other mental health concerns.

There are many treatment options for what causes you upset. Start anywhere as long as you start. If you are not currently abusing substances to manage emotional symptoms then please don’t start. You will be adding another layer of problems that will need to be addressed before you discover the issues at the core of your concerns.

Review the 10 suggestions listed in a previous post. If you should choose counseling or any treatment by your medical doctor, they may suggest some type of medication. This is not the cure-all. You must address the issues that are underlying your emotional symptoms. Always remember that medications may be a temporary treatment if you do the work and resolve some of your issues. If you do not work on the problems, any treatment will just be a temporary fix for any ongoing emotional turmoil.

Addressing and releasing layers requires active treatment. Choose some modalities that sound like they would be successful for you. Healing requires intent. Bringing up problem areas does cause discomfort. Once you manage some problem areas, your healing will begin and any emotional pain will have been well worth it.