The older we get, the less we use our imaginations. Let’s use our imaginations to play a game of “What If.”

Before we start, I want you to clench your fists as tight as you can, and I want you to keep them clenched the entire time.

Now, imagine being out of shape and running up five flights of stairs. Imagine your heart beating faster and your breathing getting heavier and more rapid. Imagine how exhausted you’d be just after sprinting those five flights of stairs. How would you feel? What if, you were sitting at your desk in history class, and out of nowhere, you felt the exact same way you’d feel after sprinting five flights of stairs…

—Are you still clenching those fists? Tighten them.

Now, let’s say your vocabulary is above average, but one day, you realize you’re hearing words you know you know the meaning of, but you can’t recall the definition. Let’s suppose this isn’t a one time occurrence, but it continues to happen more and more frequently. At this point, your vocabulary is now below average, well below average, maybe a fifth grade level. How would you feel? What if your vocabulary got so low, you had to download a dictionary app on your phone to use discreetly in the midst of conversation…

—Clench them tighter.

Think about a time that you were really sick and had a fever. Think about how cold you felt. Did you dress warmly? Sleep with extra blankets? What happened when your fever broke? Did you get hot? Start sweating? The worst is when your fever broke in the middle of the night, and you woke up drenched in sweat with damp sheets. Then, you decided to change clothes and sleep on top of the blankets, but then you woke up freezing again. Those nights were miserable. What if you experienced this all day long, switching from fever to regular temp, back to fever again, and so on… 

—Still clenching those fists?

Imagine having zero tolerance for the human population as a whole…

Imagine hearing something funny but not being able to laugh…

Imagine wearing glasses or contacts to correct your eyes but still having blurry vision…

Imagine not being able to trust your own judgment and having to rely on others to tell you whether or not you’re being rational…

Are you still clenching those fists? What if this is how all your muscles felt all day long…

If you haven’t released your fists, do so now. Did you pay attention to the sense of relief you got once you relaxed them? What if there was nothing you could do to relax them…

What if your muscles were tense all day long, and you tried everything you could do to relax them, but nothing worked…

WHAT IF YOU EXPERIENCED ALL THESE SCENARIOS EVERYDAY… HOW WOULD YOU FEEL? WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Just take a moment, and think about it. How would you feel physically? Mentally? Emotionally? Do you think it would affect you spiritually?

Can you possibly begin to imagine what it would be like if life got harder and harder to live every single day???

But don’t give up just yet… there’s good news!!! There’s a magic pill you can take that can relieve you of all these symptoms and dramatically improve your quality of life!!! Would you take it???

On the flip side, what if you’d already been taking that “magic” pill for 7 years, and life still continued to get harder and harder…

What if that “magic” pill turned out to be poison, and it slowly started deteriorating your mind and body…

What if you were told things would only continue to get worse… Would you stop taking it?

But what if this medication proved more difficult to get off of than opiates… 

What if you’d have to experience withdraw symptoms at least 10 times worse than that of opiate withdrawal…

Would you make the decision to get off the pill, even if it meant things getting a whole lot worse before they got better?

This is the crossroads where I stand.

Welcome to a day in the life of Chelsea Elizabeth Metzger. I dare you to take this treacherous journey with me, as I take on the devil itself, LYRICA.

Hugs and love 💕

12.04.16