Medication Therapy

Medication therapy is an opportunity for you and other clients to explore common issues and concerns about medications in an individual or group setting facilitated by one of the DOBI counselors. When beginning medication, a common problem stems from a fear of the unknown: “What if any medication changes me? I’ve been this way for so long; I don’t know who I would be if I weren’t (depressed/anxious/manic/etc.)”. It can be scary to imagine yourself living a life without your mental illness holding you back when you have struggled for so long; it can be easy to over-familiarize yourself with your symptoms because they are familiar, comfortable, and safe. However, we are not our brains (I will repeat it: we are not our brains). We are affected by our brains’ way, but we are not forever defined by what our minds do. Our medication management team at DOBI works closely with your primary care provider to assess the patient’s chart’s holistic view. Our team at DOBI reviews the patient’s medication against orders to reduce discrepancies while scrutinizing past medication history, family history, disease states, and therapeutic goals. We then provide recommendations to the primary care physician.

What if your medicine can help empower you to be more of yourself? Many people on mental health medications indeed report changes in the way they experience life. And for many people, that is a good thing. Mental health medication is designed primarily to address the physiological symptoms of the disorder. Those are the symptoms that affect parts of you beyond your control: Changes in sleep, appetite, fatigue, loss of motivation, feeling restless and on edge, racing heart, seeing, or hearing things that are not there, etc. Those symptoms having nothing to do with you are-that is just your body functioning the way it is physically designed to work. Research shows that most personality changes that arise from medication management are typically associated with the reduction of these symptoms and are usually positive (assuming the medication is correct).