Just Say No To Legal Drugs

It's time to confess that I am detoxing from a serious drug addiction. It's been a monkey on my back for almost two years and if I go too long without it, the side effects are NOT pretty. Lest you fret that I have fallen as a casualty in America's War Against Drugs (TM), it's not pot, cocaine, or any of the other wild and wacky illegal stuff that's on the streets these days....

Nope, my particular problem is Lexapro. It's like Prozac-lite. It was prescribed by my doctor, after The Boy was born, to try and even out the homicidal tendencies I was feeling at the time. I believe they call it Post Partum Depression, but in my case it was more like Post Partum I Want To Kill You All Because I Just Passed A Baby The Size Of A Watermelon And I'm Not Feeling All That Happy About It Right Now What The Hell Are You Looking At Dammit!

Anyhoo, Lexapro was described to me as the latest breakthrough in feel-good happy-happy medicine, so I thought what the hey and started taking it. It seemed to work, in that Grandma and The Husband immediately stopped ducking and running when they saw me coming. But after a while, I felt enough is enough, I've gained 30 pounds (a side effect) and I want off this ride. So I followed the guidelines, started reducing my intake slowly over the last 6 months until I am now cold turkey. Unfortunately, cold turkey really sucks. Funny, they don't tell you how hard it is to get off of it when they prescribe it.

I am suffering from a few of the common side effects of coming off Lexapro, the worse one being the "brain zaps". Every ten minutes or so, it feels like the inside of my head is attached to an electrical outlet that's getting hit by lightning. It has a tendency to make you lose your train of thought, to say the least. I am also suffering from excessive sweating, which is just gross, and the occasional sensation of light-headedness.

Plus, my short-term memory has gone down the tubes, but that could because there are too many children and dogs in my house; I'm not really sure what to chalk that one up to. The good news is that all these side-effects should only last up to if not more than 3 weeks! That makes me feel sooooo much better about it all ...... NOT.

All in all, this is the pits! Don't ever get on one of these "legal" drugs if you can find an alternative. It can help, yes, but it' sure is hell-on-wheels to quit.

It reminded me of that old anti-drug PA they used to play during the 80's; I never ever thought, watching it at the time, how true it would turn out to be in my case .....