Question for those who remain on medication despite primal page

[platypus]

So like many people here I strive to live as naturally as possible. Paleo is actually how my mother always taught me to eat (grew up on kraft mac and cheese anyways) as well as the diet my step-dad recommend to me years before i found MDA. In addition to diet i'm pretty into natural skin/hair/etc care and have been for years.
I have a few mental health issues that iv'e been dealing with my whole life and have chosen not be medicated for. I am not opposed to medication when it improves someones life but in my experience most people don't need it. On top of that I have a horrible past with doctors and am generally distrustful of medical professionals.

I have a medical condition that needs to be treated. Iv'e looked into natural fixes but none really exist and it's a complicated issue. I'm not going to get too into detail because I don't think anyone here will really understand but for lack of better words we'll say it's both a physical and a mental health issue. There's no way to change the mental part but I can fix the physical part through medication. Without this treatment my quality of life would continue to decrease until I most likely killed myself. While iv'e accepted that i'm going to be on medication for the rest of my life I still have a hard time dealing with it. I love reading stories about people who have managed to get off their meds and improve their life and it feels awful that I can't do that. I certainly don't want to be on meds, I just have no choice.

I guess what i'm wondering is for those of you who have issues that can't be fixed without medical intervention how do you deal with it? Like do you just accept it and be grateful that options exist to help you or what?

[Paleobird]

I have found a combination of medications that enables me to live without epilepsy. I am gradually reducing my dosage by staying on a ketogenic diet. It's working. Meds down by 25%. But I still take pills and they are still way better than having seizures.

Not knowing the particulars of your case I can't say for sure this applies to you but many different forms of neuro-chemical disorders such as epilepsy, autism, ADHD, etc. are helped greatly and sometimes cured completely by ketogenic diets.

I know in my case it is not a "quick fix", trade in my phenobarbitol for a stick of butter and all is well. It is a process, a long and gradual one.

In many cases I do believe that doctors err on the upper end of the range in prescribing dosages leading to a lot of perhaps needed meds being taken in unneeded quantities.

Even if I never go beyond what I have done now, I'm happy I tried. 25% less medication putting a strain on the liver, and all other organs over a lifetime is significant.

[Mamame]

I waffle back and forth between acceptance and extreme frustration that my life relies on me taking medication multiple times a day. I have Addison's disease and my adrenals are non-functional, without my daily hydrocortisone I would be dead in a few days (and two other meds that greatly improve my QoL). It's a hard pill to swallow, knowing that no matter how good my diet is and how well I live my life that I can't change things...

[bloodorchid]

i take anxiety medication and pain medication. i'll likely be on pain medication for life

i deal with it and accept it

[Ingvildr]

I have autoimmune thyroid disease-hashimoto's. It means that my immune system partially destroyed my ability to make thyroid hormone and so I will always have to take a hormone replacement no matter how fit I get. The alternative is feeling like death warmed over, so I take my daily pill. I don't want to feel that bad ever again. It's a simple fix compared to being on insulin, which I have also done while I was pregnant with my last child. Not everything can be fixed by good eating and exercise, sometimes things are simply broken. I'm just glad that there are medications that can help some of those things. I won't say it doesn't suck to have to take meds, because it does. I just weigh it out with the alternatives and for me it gives me a chance to be healthy and functional. In the case of my allergies, without my epipen when needed the alternative is death-no contest there I'm afraid.

[bamabelle]

Platypus,

You definitely have my sympathy. I take anxiety meds which I am really hoping to get off of through eating paleo (I am paleo x2 weeks). I think that it is important to honor your feelings about the situation. Ultimately, if the meds will improve your quality of life as much as you say, and especially if they will keep you from becoming suicidal, then it seems as though dealing with them is the best choice. But just because you have to take them and deal with that does not mean that you have to supress your frustration. It is so important to allow yourself to feel disappointed or frustrated or whatever you feel. That is a healthy way to deal with emotions. I wish you the best in dealing with what you deal with! I hope for you fantastic health, both mentally and physically.
Amanda

[Violette_R]

I think it would help those of use in this situation if some people didn't come off like our diets just aren't pure enough - that we wouldn't need any meds if we just tried harder.

[EagleRiverDee]

I have Hashimotos Thyroiditis, an autoimmune condition that attacks the thyroid and causes hypothyroidism. I take replacement thyroid hormone to treat it. It's unlikely I can reverse it. My goal is more or less to not make it worse. I don't see a time where I won't take thyroid hormone. I feel like crap untreated. On the flip side, I have opted to use a natural desiccated porcine thyroid rather than synthetic. And I have modified my diet to be more kind to my thyroid.

[Mud Flinger]

Another way to look at it might be that food is medicine also and we don't mind taking it in each day. I am grateful that we have drugs to help us along. I avoid the man made ones as many do cause issues as they are often either wrong for us or simply a " bad drug" but that doesn't mean they all are. Man has always used what he could to make life better. If diet alone is not enough, keep searching. For some, exercise fixes stuff, for others it might be a supplement and then there are man made drugs. No shame to any of it.

[Karyn]

I have to take medication in order to function on a normal level for my mental health issues. If I try to go without it I just mess myself up. I have come to terms with the fact that I will always need medication. I am so much happier with the meds and doubt I will even try to stop them to see if the PB diet would make a difference. I don't think chemical imbalances can be changed by food alone though that would be nice.