I have thought, and I write about in my book, that taking my antipsychotic medication would be like taking a vitamin. Thinking of taking medicine as a way of taking a vitamin, since both contribute to wellness, has been very helpful. However, I just thought of a better way of thinking of it. I think I’m going to start talking about medicine as my grandmother. What do you think?
It gives it a nurturing quality.
Indeed, taking mental health medication, once one has found a regimen that works for them, is a protective measure. It also promotes safety and wholeness.
These are good things that a good grandmother also does.
It is particularly meaningful to me because my grandmother, her name was Cornelia, was very intentional in noticing when I was taking my medicine, and she looked at me a few months before she died, with deep intentionality and wisdom, and almost a supernatural quality, and said it was good that I had been taking my medicine.
She said it with an intentionality that implied that her message that it was good to take medicine should transcend time and space and apply to my life forever. I agree, and it is a relief not to have to worry about one more thing regarding decisions regarding my health. An earlier me would have felt trapped by this, but now I feel affirmed.
Erin Michael Grimm 
One response to “Medicine, aka “Grandmother””
I like it. It is nurturing. It is affirming. And it is intentional. As an older woman, she no doubt had medicine that she relied on to “fix” her broken, aged body… something as a younger person, we didn’t give thought to. I was blessed to have two grandmothers that lived in my same neighbor-hood and imparted such wisdom as I was growing up. So you were also blessed by her presence in your life.
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