by Normand Lepine
Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, “Where have I gone wrong?” Then a voice says to me, “This is going to take more than one night.” – Charlie Brown, Peanuts (Charles M. Schulz)
I was a young bull running with my herd when I hurt my shoulder. They gave me something strong for the pain. It helped the pain but it upset my stomach, and my stomach is so very large. So they gave me something else for the upset stomach.
Then it started. The stiffness, the tremors, the pacing and then the shuffling. Muttering and counting the minutes to the next dose and worrying I was addicted. After a week, my wife had enough so back to the clinic I went.
“Bad reaction old boy”, they said, “to the antiemetic”, they said. They told me to stop taking it and have one more thing for the side effects instead. Everything went back to normal and the pain was better so I could stop taking the pain medication too.
Only later did I find out that the antiemetic is part of a group of medicines sometimes also used for treating mental illness. That’s when I decided once and for all: Elephants never medicate.
Normand Lepine is a father to elephants and writer of dreams. By day he works as a consulting executive with more than 30 years of experience providing service to clients and mentoring to colleagues.
(Don’t forget to check out his Perfect. – Elephants Never)
The Sunday Solace series focuses on mental health and medication. We hope to provide a judgment-free space to explore and discuss our issues in a creative manner.