by katierearden
Picture this – it’s the night of your senior prom. You and your bestfriend have fallen out and you’re not #vibing with your competitive group at all. You can’t wait to go off to college in Vermont! People ask you if you’re going there for Bernie Sanders – you’re not, but it doesn’t matter. Anyways, you have a panic attack at the pre-prom photos in the Presbyterian Church attached to your preschool. (As loyal Readers may know, I was in fact, raised Catholic, however, my mother was active in this preschool, as it was a co-op. Not a “co-op” in the City Market way either, like in a “parents help out and have a board,” sort of way.)
But I digress. My to-this-day-closeted high school friend William^1, aka my date, was in the balcony with some other girls and upon looking around me at that moment, scanning my surroundings, I knew the only place for me was the dark stairwell a mere 20 meters away. Eventually someone in the gaggle of mothers realized I was nowhere to be found and my mother ended up descending the stairway to find tears staining my dress.
In comes my good friend Hydroxizine, an anti-anxiety medication that just so happens to also be an anti-histimine for children. After witnessing my pre-prom breakdown, my friend Sameena’s mom hooked me up. Droxxy, my good friend, can be taken up to three times daily; you feel like you’re about to lose it? Go ahead, pop one in!
I’ve been on various doses of this stuff for years now and I still can’t really describe its effects. I guess it makes me feel better? At least I’m pretty sure I don’t feel worse. Common side effects are drowsiness and dizziness, neither of which I am affected by, thank God.
You see, it’s hard for me to describe how stimuli affect me if it’s not immediately obvious. I know when I’m more tired or have no appetite, for example, but even that sort of stuff can be hard to detect; my Vibes are simply so Chill all the time that any external stimuli is inconsequential to my Homeostasis.
Per usual, I consulted the ultimate experts on anything and everything: Redditors. Yeah, that sentence was a bit cringe, but let’s move onwards and upwards, shall we? One rando on there said that Droxxy doesn’t help with their anxiety exactly, but it does reduce heartrate. That explains the slightly off effect I feel sometimes after downing 50 milligrams of my good friend. Don’t get me wrong, I can still finish a shift at my minimum wage ice cream job after indulging in one of these, but everything’s just a little bit… better?
I can’t describe why I feel better, or if I really do at all. But it definitely takes everything down a few notches, which is appreciated. My main query, however, is this; how the hell does an anti-histimine medication for children get prescribed to millions of people for anxiety? Did someone simply say, “oh hey, this allergy medicine is really chilling these kids out… maybe we could do something with that…” But I’m not the one to question big pharma or any sort of pharma at all really.
Categories: katie rearden, November 17, 2020, reflections