Rules for the gracious acceptance of Lithium Lamotrigine into your life
1. Smile when people joke about how they think they “need to be on medication.”
2. Don't be too embarrassed by your lack of coordination or your inability to do well the sports you once did with ease.
3. Nod intelligently, and with conviction, when your doctor explains to you the many advantages of lithium Lamotrigine in leveling out the chaos in your life.
4. Be patient when waiting for this leveling off. Very patient. Reread War and Peace. Continue being patient. Contemplate the irony between the phrases “being patient” and “being a patient.”
5. Try not to let the fact that you can't read without effort annoy you. Be philosophical. Even if you could read, you wouldn't remember most of it anyway.
6. Accommodate to a certain lack of enthusiasm and bounce that you once had. Try not to think about all the wild nights you once had. Probably best not to have had those nights anyway.
7. Be appreciative. Don't even consider stopping your Lithium Lamotrigine.
8. When you do stop – and you do, get manic, get depressed, expect to hear two basic themes from your family, friends and healers:
* But you were doing so much better, I just don't understand it.
* I told you this would happen.
9. Restock your medicine cabinet.
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(List adapted from the original from Kay Redfield Jameson's “An unquiet mind”.)
I miss the days before being mad, and medication. And I'm annoyed that my own mind is my jailer.
