A public service announcement, sort of

If you or someone you like/love/know/have to interact with at all/whatever is on birth control pills of any variety, please read this. I'll make it pretty short, promise.

Here's the deal: Like anyone else, I've got issues. Overall, however, I'm a relatively well-adjusted person who, up until 9 months ago, had my shit together.

And then...Birth control pills made me NUTS. Like, literally. Within a month of starting a course of pills (in January '04), I was a complete basket case. All of a sudden I was experiencing crippling depression that resulted in a need for medication, violent mood swings (and when I say violent, I mean that literally as well), utter destruction of what had been a wonderful relationship with a man I love, etc. To say I was "not myself" is like saying Dubya "stretches the truth a little." I was outta my skull. My shrink was talking about Borderline Personality Disorder. My life was a fucking trainwreck.

About a month ago, during a Zoloft-induced period of complete freedom from all emotion (it does that sometimes), I made the connection...it wasn't me, it was the drugs. (That's been true before, but never in quite such a...legal...way...ahem...) I quit the pills and went on a detox plan (basically just detox tea and tons of water), and a month later, I'm a different person. Namely, ME. All of the huge messes created during the sustained depressive state are getting cleared up. I can DEAL again. Yee haw!

Since I started the detox, I have spoken with woman after woman (about 15 of them) who had similar experiences. Life okay...started b.c. pills...life effed up...stopped b.c. pills...life okay again!

The point here is this: Hormones can be dangerous. They don't bother some women at all...no or few physical or emotional side effects. For others, they're a disaster. NOT TO MENTION that they may be carcinogenic in high and/or protracted doses (read up about hormone replacement therapy for more info on that.) If you think your birth control pills may be screwing with you/her, STOP TAKING THEM AND GET THEM OUT OF YOUR BODY ASAP! There are so many other methods of contraception available these days...find one or two or three and use them consistently. Why fuck around with your physical and emotional well-being for the sake of (sexual) convenience?

okay, rant over.