Our health is one of the most important things. It is crucial to eat healthy, get whole foods, get good sleep, be active, and just take care of yourself inside and out. Obviously, life is not perfect and we get sick or a health issue arises. Going to a professional can be scary. We always assume the worst, I’ve been told I’m a hypochondriac, but either way, not knowing what’s wrong with your body is unsettling. We go to the doctors expecting for them to know everything and all in all, just holding complete trust in every health care professional. Now I know they are trained, I am going to Nursing School so I have nothing against people in the field of medicine, BUT it is extremely important that we advocate for ourselves. Doctors, Nutritionists, Nurses, Dentists, anyone really, must follow protocol and if we don’t advocate for what we know we need, your needs to wont be reached. It is the most aggravating thing to go to the doctors, tell them there is something wrong with you, they take tests find nothing and ship you back home, even though you know something is wrong. Unless you go in demanding for what you want done, in order for you, the patient to feel calmer, nothing will be done.
This all leads me to my story with birth control. I was 17 when I went to the gynecologist for the first time. Within the first 10 minutes of my appointment my doctor was shoving birth control pills down my throat, not literally but you know what I mean. The way she explained birth control to me I thought it was a magic pill. She told me how my acne would clear up, it is a practice of safe sex, it would help with my hormones, and overall would help me feel better. Being the naive, uneducated young adult on this topic, I of course was all in. I explained to my doctor that I am sensitive so she decided to give me a low dosage birth control called Lo Loestrin. Two weeks later I was taking this pill every night at 8 p.m., with not a worry in the world, thinking all my issues would go away.
Months had passed and I continued to take the contraceptives. I was just beginning my spring semester of my first year of college, stress was a given, but I started to feel not myself. I didn’t think much of it at first but over time I would feel like I would wake up every morning with this dark cloud on my head and I just didn’t want to go anywhere or talk to anyone. I eventually started to gain weight, get bad acne and I had no idea why this was all happening. I am usually an extremely bubbly, positive person, to the point where I bother people with my happiness. As you can imagine this was very frustrating. Weeks would pass and nothing changed so I decided to go to the doctors. All I got out of that visit was a prescription for acne and a diagnosis of depression. I left with so many unanswered questions and feeling overwhelmed.