Cocktails

 I just discovered something about my psychiatric medication regime. I take a cocktail.

Years ago, when I began attending DBSA Boston (Depression Bipolar Support Alliance) during the day, I heard about cocktails. “I take six different medications, a cocktail” someone would say. I would be grateful I wasn’t doing that.

Why was I against taking a cocktail of medication? For one thing, I’ve never really adjusted to the fact that I take any medication every day. “Better living through modern chemistry” has never been a motto of mine.

I’ve always assumed that it was somehow virtuous to take the fewest medications possible. I often wonder if I really need to take exactly what I do. The cocktail treatment is experimental, as far as I can see. I’m not aware of double-blind studies of the efficacy of any of the myriad combinations of psychotropic drugs. How could there be; there are so many possibilities.

Recently, at DBSA, I asked, “What exactly is a medication cocktail?” Several people assured me that two drugs taken together constitute a cocktail. In that case, I first took a cocktail back in 1996, when my psychiatrist added an anti-depressant to my lithium. And since 2003, I’ve been having cocktails every day: three drugs. Who knew?