You know when you have a bad doctor when he prescribes diet pills to an 8 year old

I was a sickly baby, having had anemia. The pediatrician told my mom that I needed iron, so they made me take the terrible taking stuff by mouth. It was without a doubt the worst stuff. I’d spit it out, but mom made me take it. The iron finally got rid of the anemia, but also increased my appetite. So, I went from a scrawny toddler into a huge little girl, rather quickly. By age 3, I had a double chin.

By Kindergarten, it was decided I needed to go on diets. I’d come home to cottage cheese on lettuce lunch, (which of course, was good), or other adult oriented dieting foods. This also included Diet Rite Soda—full of saccharin. The dieting did not help, but the doctor, my mom’s all-knowing doctor whom she thought was right up there with the saints and God Himself said that because of an unknown, untested for heart ailment, I needed to stop taking gym class. In retrospect, gym class was exactly what I needed, along with other activities.

I eventually went back to gym class with no serious repercussions. By the third grade, this same doctor, decided I was still too fat and needed pharmaceutical help. He prescribed little blue diet pills that I was to take every morning before school. I gather that they were appetite suppressants of some sort. They didn’t help that much that I can remember. Dosages were increased and seeing those did not work, I was given another type of pill that contained amphetamines. I took off some weight with those pills.

I had slimmed down almost to the point of normalcy. ( I feel that would have been accomplished by more activity when I was younger, even though I was a fairly active kid who skated, rode my bike, etc) By Grade 5, I began to have strange experiences. Normal things would scare me. Life seemed surreal in a strange way. It got to the point that my mom was beginning to worry. She took me back to the god-doctor. He chuckled at my experiences, obviously thinking it was funny. He said that it looked like I was having something similar to a ‘bad LSD trip’. I didn’t think it was so funny. He took me off the pills and that was that. The ‘bad trips’ continued for years. I gained weight and by the time I was in 8th grade, I was over 200 pounds, but, I was a 200 pound, very flexible cheerleader!

I have led a life of roller coaster weight loss and gain. I honestly think life would have been far better with regard to health and optimum weight had this doctor never given me diet pills as a child. Do I trust doctors? Not on your life, especially male doctors.