Look back in anxiety

Awoke this morning to a BBC article in my newsfeed. From the "Future" section, it wonders about how medications affect personality.

Apparently, statins can cause irritability, even rage. Antidepressants can reduce signs of neuroticism (at a possible cost to reasoning). A common drug for Parkinson's Disease - L-Dopa - can affect impulse control; asthma drugs can bring on hyperactivity.

Then, there's paracetomal, commonly known as acetaminophen - that's Tylenol, folks. I take acetaminophen, because ibuprofin does nuthin' for me. Apparently this common pain-killer can reduce empathy.

Now, I am over-simplifying things. I really do suggest reading the article.

However - and this is anecdotal, not scientific, I realize - years of being a home support worker, a hospice volunteer, and a daughter and granddaughter have shown me that what is frequently mistaken for "just" aging, is often the reactions to medications. My grandmother once said, near the end of her long life: "The nice me is gone. All that's left is an old bitch."

I also remember the bewilderment of being so easily hurt and enraged for the brief time that I took Clomid for fertility.

And I have to wonder: was my Double Leo Sister always as hyperactive as she can be? She's asthmatic --- and diabetic. Geez...statins....I think she's been on those.

Then there's me. I don't take acetaminophen constantly, but I've taken it enough. Do I feel less? Care less?

I've been on levothyroxine since before the advent of younger daughter. It isn't mentioned in the article, but are there emotional side-effects? I'm looking back, uneasily, on the person I was before being prescribed. Is it only the years which have shaped what I am now?