Back in January, after weeks of pricks and pokes and many tests, I received some news that really shouldn't have been shocking: I was sick.

I had been getting sick for almost two years, but it wasn't until just a few months ago I actually received a diagnosis: Crohn's disease.

Aside from already struggling from the disease itself and other related hurdles, I had to face a very hard decision: do I take this prescribed medication, or don't I?

Within the last year and a half, I had began a journey of researching holistic living practices and alternative medicine. My whole attitude towards health changed from ambivalence to passion, ironically after my health had already began taking a turn for the worse.

I researched for countless hours, reading article upon article and medical journal upon medical journal. I spoke with different people who practiced holistic living in their profession or in their own daily lives and families. I would read health books and magazines at Barnes and Noble for fun. Suddenly, I just could not learn enough about this subject, and what I had previously had zero interest in became limitlessly fascinating to me.

During this time, I learned things I had never realized or even heard of before. Did you know something as simple as Tylenol depletes your body's levels of glutathione? Did you know without glutathione, you're more susceptible to cancer, along with a whole host of other health problems?

I used to take Tylenol for every ache, pain and mild discomfort I had before I learned the side effects of the drug. "Every drug has a side effect" is something that we say we know, but do we really know what those side effects are? Have we been informed about them? I know, personally, there have been many medications I've taken and known very little about. I never looked them up, never read their label except for the dosage, and probably couldn't even spell their name.

As it turned out, another attitude developed along with my general ambivalence towards health and medication, an attitude that was more of a misunderstanding, and a question I am now on the receiving end of far too often: why don't you just take your medication?

I had a few different friends in high school who had struggled with depression, and as many with depression, they did not like taking their medication. For the life of me, I just couldn't understand why. I would ignorantly ask, "if it helps you, why don't you just take it?" or think to myself "why wouldn't they want to feel better?"

Well, although the answer varies from person to person, after I became sick I quickly learned what is often the case for people on medication: it doesn't always make you feel better.

You see, I actually did take my medication after receiving my diagnosis. I was prescribed a drug called Prednisone, a powerful steroid with the purpose of reducing inflammation in my intestines, along with a "maintenance" drug called Pentasa. However, as many of you can guess, a steroid does not come without its side effects.

I was strongly pressured into taking this drug the night after I had received news of my diagnosis. I was already incredibly emotional and drained, and now on top of my irrational state I was being forced into making a decision that very night whether or not I would take a steroid for the next two months of which I knew nothing except its name. My parents and doctor did not explain any of the serious side effects this drug could have on me, and as is always the case, I was not able to make an informed decision in less than a day. However, I allowed my parents and doctor to essentially bully me into filling a prescription I knew nothing about, and once I began taking this steroid, I could not stop it until the prescription ran out, because I would experience withdrawal.

So for the first two months of my last semester of college, I got virtually no sleep at all, and not because of my classes. I took 16 pills daily. My appetite was out of control. My anxiety was through the roof. The drug I was on turned me into a severely depressed insomniac, and at points I became so irrational I actually wanted my life to end. And as it turned out, these were all known side effects of this drug I did little studying on before taking. Not to mention, the other more serious effects of taking steroids, such as increased risk of osteoporosis or cancer, that my doctor also neglected to tell me.

So yes, I did finish my prescription and yes, I did take my meds, and yes, it did reduce inflammation as it was designed to do. But what did it do to my overall quality of life? Who had I become while on this drug? What were the other health implications of taking this drug?

These were all questions I should have looked into before I even filled my prescription. But I didn't.

After popping pills every other hour for two months, pills that made me lose my joy, my rest, my personality, I understand how truly insensitive it is to flippantly ask why someone doesn't want to take their meds.

I'm not saying that there aren't certain medications that are needed or have their place, but what I am saying is something we all need to remember and be sensitive of: you are not the person who is sick. You are not the one taking 16 pills every day. You are not the one getting no sleep. You are not the one experiencing extreme and volatile mood swings. You are not the one who has to live with the side effects, some temporary and some permanent.

There is a serious problem with the tone in our society surrounding medication. If you want to hold off on taking a powerful drug to research alternative medicine options more, you're a quack. If you don't want to take a drug because of the side effects, you're stupid.

Frankly, this issue is not so black and white, and I am more sick of the flippant attitude towards others regarding their medications of choice than I am sick from my actual disease.

Tell me you wouldn't research alternatives if you were up all night for the tenth night in a row. Tell me you wouldn't consider not taking your medication again if you actually suffered through the side effects of it. Tell me you would want take something that could cause even more chronic health conditions.

I am not crazy for not wanting to take a drug everyday for the rest of my life anymore than I am crazy for not wanting to get zero sleep, not wanting to be depressed and anxious, not wanting my hormones to change and not wanting to lose density in my bones.

And that other person you know who "just won't take their meds" isn't crazy, either, no matter what illness they have. They are hurting. They are tired of treating their illness with no hope for a cure. They are desperate for safer options. And they are probably tired, like I am, of the side effects.

We do not need more people screaming at one another to take their meds, or shaming one another for not filling a prescription. We need a more empathetic tone when discussing the very serious, life-altering decision of whether or not to take a medication. We need more understanding of the concerns patients have when making this decision. We need more understanding of the hesitation towards drugs, and sometimes even the refusal to take drugs.

Ultimately, the patient is ruler of their own body. They decide what drugs they do or do not take. And not only is it incredibly insensitive to insist someone "take their meds," but it can even be to their long-term detriment, depending on the drug.

Stop flippantly telling others that they ought to be taking a drug. Instead, let's open the conversation and actually address the dangers of certain medications and begin demanding answers to patients' questions and safer solutions for ourselves and our loved ones. Please stop and take a moment to think before asking someone why they don't like to take their meds, and if they do tell you, you need to listen.