Medications

I was recently in a discussion with a friend, and the fact came up that I do not take medications; I don’t really believe in them. This tends to be another subject that I’m often alone on and that some people tend to feel strongly about. People will tell me that pills and such are inspiration from God and are designed to make you feel better, which is always good, as if I didn’t already know that. Most of what people say are very valid points, but the things I hold against medications are much more meaningful to me than those other points, and I won’t just stop standing for something because somebody makes a good point when I have a better one in my eyes.

Aside from the good things, here is what I think medications do. On a superficial level, some of them damage organs like kidneys and whatnot, and I would rather have nice healthy organs in ten years and pain now than the other way around. On a deeper level, I would rather let my body take care of something that is wrong with itself. I may take some sort of medication for a big problem that really needs it, and even then is not likely, but on a daily basis, my ailments and pains are best dealt with with what God gave me when He gave me this amazing body. I believe it can heal itself better than anything we have to cover up a symptom. When it comes down to it, I won’t go to a doctor most of the time because I have a whole lot more faith in the power of life and of my body than I do in any medication or any person trained on the subject. Besides, who is more trained to heal me than myself? I can feel what’s going on when I’m in pain, and I am completely convinced that there is nothing that a good dose of water cannot heal.

Pain, I always use to joke about it because I was often getting over some injury or having some random pain. I always use to say that pain is your best friend; it’s always there for you; it always does what it’s suppose to do and will never let you down, and it tells you that you’re still alive and kicking, and I still stick to that motto in ways. It’s a familiar thing to all of us - emotional, physical and other kinds if there are some. I don’t want to spend all the time I’m in pain in life running from that pain and trying to find something to hold me through the night. I stand right up to my pain and try and go on my day as best I can, and because of it, I would like to think that I have a very high tolerance for pain. I think of it as preparation, as it were. When a day comes that I’m hit with something that really hurts, I’m going to want a lot of time under my belt having dealt with pain so I can handle it so much better than if I were just to hide from hurt. Also, our ability to adapt is amazing. We get use to some big change in a month. If you have a pain for a week you get fairly use to it and it almost goes away relatively, and like a rubber band, you’ve been stretched and next time the same pain comes, it will not seem near as bad.

Pain teaches every single one of us some of the most valuable lessons we learn. The lesson begins even as children and goes till the end of our life. When kids start to experience pain and hurt, they also start to learn that it goes away and that they can go on their merry way in a short time. Robert Frost put it well when he said, “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” The lesson we need to learn is that even though life can be painful, life can be sad, sick, miserable suffering and at times almost unbearable, we need to remember and know that “this too shall pass.” All things fade away in time, but even before that happens they will most likely be replaced with something completely different, joy with sorrow and pain with laughter. As bad as life gets, it does go on, and it can always get better. Another lesson to be learned is opposition. Though there is no law or destiny that says that we have to go through both good and bad things equally, it does put things into perspective when we are called to pass through opposites. Bad only complements good and vice-versa. I have never felt so good and grateful to not have pain than after I had to suffer through some harsh agony; when it all fades away, we remember what it is to be painless. I would not give any of my pain to miss out on that feeling of relief and splendid happiness. Some things are worth it.

Dependency - there are different kinds of dependency. With medication I think it’s physical and mental. Physically, your body stops doing what it needs to do if you just replace it’s function with something external; that’s just how we as humans work; we can train our minds and bodies to do all sorts of things by the things we do to them repeatedly. Example, if you keep putting lotion on, your body expects it to come and stops producing it’s own moisture, so now your two options are to keep using lotion, or take the dry bumpy road back to producing your own moisturizer. I think this is the essence of addiction and that we only associate addiction with deadly drugs because they are just that - deadly, but I see people living on addictions every day with no problem, little knowing that if they were cut off from what they live with they would experience some sort of challenging withdrawals. People can’t function, or so they think, without coffee to get them up or can’t sleep without some sort of pills or can’t get through the day without some pill to keep a headache, migraine or stomach ache down. Having to get through the day without the various things we do to get along seems to unbearable, which brings me to the other kind of dependency, the worst kind.

It’s one thing to use a pill to help you cope with the pain of each day, but it is entirely a different thing when it comes to a point where you are no longer strong enough to make a choice for yourself and fall right into the dependency of medications. This is the main reason I do not like external help when it comes to internal problems - except water. I have felt the influence of dependency very clearly and powerfully, and with that feeling came a deep fear of it’s grasp. In my mind, it is a devil that can own your choices; it is not something to be casual about. It is so easy to take the road that is paved for you, to flow downhill toward the low valleys. It is just so welcoming and tempting to take that easy road of pain free moments. I won’t even let myself go near those decisions. It may not be a big deal to many of you reading this right now, which is a choice of yours that I completely respect. Some people make it a big deal to stop completely at a stop sign and others don’t. These are all choices that are respectfully reserved for the individual to make for himself.

In closing, confronting and living with my pain has given me yet another thing that I would not give any of it away for. When I am given this obstacle of pain, this poetical mountain to climb, and I endure it well, I come to know my Savior in a very personal, powerful and profound way. When I am in pain and I don’t let it affect my thinking, I feel closer to Jesus because of the bridge He built in Gethsemane. He felt all pain, and as I feel pain, I get the smallest taste of what He has given me and a feeling of the love that caused Him to do the things He did for me, and in yet another lesson from life, I learn that a testimony can come from anything at any time, even through times of pain and times when life is being seemingly merciless.

I’m not saying that I love pain in any way; I’m no masochist. I’m only commenting on how we deal with pain and side effecs of it. After I wrote this page, I got another witness that the secret works. I spent quite some time thinking about pain and low-and-behold, I got pain, quite a bit of it randomly. I love feeling comfortable and relaxed. I love being able to laugh and have fun with no problems. I, like anyone else, love feeling good, healthy and strong. May we all focus on what makes life worth living that it may come our way.