I interviewed Susan on September 9, 2016 about the medications she takes for her mental health. Susan is a single, 45-year-old female, and has one daughter, Hannah, age 16. Susan and Hannah’s father were divorced when Hannah was three years old. Hannah currently lives with Susan during the week and visits her father, who lives about an hour away, every other weekend, some holidays, and several weeks during the summer. Susan lives in a Los Angeles suburb and works full-time, with an hour commute, to support herself and her daughter. Susan takes two psychiatric medications. The first is a 20 mg Prozac (Fluoxetine) pill which she takes once a day in the morning to help with her depression. The second is a 1 mg Ativan (Lorazepam) pill which she
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She was born in Burma, where the people didn’t have any kind of medication for mental health problems. The family was Buddhist and never talked about happiness or mental health issues. She explained that in Burma, “your life was your life and you did the best you could to survive.” There was an emphasis on the community as a whole and not the individual person. At around seven years of age, her family had her immigrate to the United States by herself and live with relatives who, unfortunately, abused her. She was unhappy and felt alone for a long time and finally found happiness when, as a teenager, she converted to Christianity. She learned that Christ loves the individual person, and, for one of the first times in her life, she felt loved. When she started taking psychiatric medications she did not have any knowledge or background about them. She worried that she would become addicted. Her friends at church reinforced this by discouraging her from taking medications. They told her that she should pray, read the scriptures, have enough faith and God would make her problems go away. This added to her guilt about taking the medications, but since they were helping her, she knew she had to continue to take them in order to survive. A few years later she discussed the situation with a friend who was a nurse. The nurse explained how many people take medications and it makes them feel better. This was comforting to her and she stopped feeling so guilty and alone. The nurse also let Susan know that the medication, in the doses was taking it, shouldn’t be addictive. Now the rest of Susan’s immediate family has immigrated to the United States and have also benefited from psychiatric medications including Susan’s mother who is now also on
She was born in Burma, where the people didn’t have any kind of medication for mental health problems. The family was Buddhist and never talked about happiness or mental health issues. She explained that in Burma, “your life was your life and you did the best you could to survive.” There was an emphasis on the community as a whole and not the individual person. At around seven years of age, her family had her immigrate to the United States by herself and live with relatives who, unfortunately, abused her. She was unhappy and felt alone for a long time and finally found happiness when, as a teenager, she converted to Christianity. She learned that Christ loves the individual person, and, for one of the first times in her life, she felt loved. When she started taking psychiatric medications she did not have any knowledge or background about them. She worried that she would become addicted. Her friends at church reinforced this by discouraging her from taking medications. They told her that she should pray, read the scriptures, have enough faith and God would make her problems go away. This added to her guilt about taking the medications, but since they were helping her, she knew she had to continue to take them in order to survive. A few years later she discussed the situation with a friend who was a nurse. The nurse explained how many people take medications and it makes them feel better. This was comforting to her and she stopped feeling so guilty and alone. The nurse also let Susan know that the medication, in the doses was taking it, shouldn’t be addictive. Now the rest of Susan’s immediate family has immigrated to the United States and have also benefited from psychiatric medications including Susan’s mother who is now also on