I want everyone to give me their opinion on medications related to mental health.Do you think they are really needed or not.This past week my best friend told me one of his brothers friends had killed himself.The guy who killed himself refused to take any kind of medications becuase he didnt want to put chemicals in his body,he thogouht that if he took medications it would make him a legal drug addict beucase he would rely on medication to make himself happy.I take medications for bipolar.I was sucidal since the the age of 10 or 11,but in my opinion I rather be a "legal drug addict" and happy then dead.I belive if this guy had been on some kind of medication he mgiht still be alive.What do you think?
Different meds react with different people differently. In other words, if you are on meds that actually help you and you feel ok about them then you are VERY LUCKY. Meds are a crap shoot. What works for one might make another worse. And if you happen to hit a med that is NOT suitable for you, it can cause suicidal thoughts or anything else. I know someone who was perscribed something that disagreed with them and they ended up taking a sledge hammer to their car... They are ALL experimental until they happen to hit on the right ones for you. There are no guarantees about anything. These are psycoactive drugs we're talking about here. And once your body gets adjusted to it, you can't go without it without risking serious withdrawl side effects. And mental side effects can be alot scarier than physical ones... The guy who killed himself was definately not thinking clearly... So worried about hurting himself by being a drug addict that he killed himself. The sign of someone who truely needed professional help... All that being said, I do think that meds, if closely monitored, can be lifesavers. But I think even more important is being in a safe place with people who understand and who you can talk to and get support from. Experiments with meds, even done by your doctor, are very much like Russian Roulette.
I've got a fairly stable dose now, and I'm feeling okay. I have depression and anxiety, and for a long time it wasn't helping, and now it is...I would like to stop taking them eventually, but I'm dependent on them right now, and I don't want to be suicidal, or self-harming again, or even just the general feeling like shit I had before... So I think its a positive thing, if you have the right stuff, but it should be helping you get better, not something to rely on forever...
Well, I had written way too much to submit as I am slightly manic and off some meds now, and just want to state there are no chemical tests one way or another for scientists and doctors to do in order to make a really accurate diagnosis. I have been diagnosed everything from ADHD to Chronic Paranoid Schizophrenia, to Bipolar, OCD, Agoraphobia and currrently Moderate Bipolar, ADHD, OCD, PTSD, DID, and it all depends who you see and what age or schooling time era they went to and their personal beliefs one way or another in meds vs. talk therapy or if they even want to deal with you at all, so some ppl have remission and others simply try to get by while if I could go back I never woudl have even began a single of the pills and oh well forget it. It is all trial and error over years of being a damn an experiental test subject when you get to not being able to pay taxes and living off the gov. and in all they end up 'owning' you one way or another. I do not believe I would have any of the physcial aspect of chronic illness had I not doubled my weight plus after taking dozens of medication cocktails over time, now including all sorts of meds, seven of them being Scheduled drugs or Narcotics and wehn you feel unwell enough after you 2nd dose of valium, ativan, oxycodone, morphine, and methadone and still bitch, cry, complain, and moan and have no reason as to why and others look at you like you should be laughing and flying high on the pills and you feel like a damn dog and dont even care with all the chemical stuff clogging the veins in my case I ahve poor quiality of life and am just siitting around waiting to go of natural causes and a prolonged life with addiction of the daily stuff they have me taking. it is so hit and miss and minute by minute..... maybe someday its gonna be some kind of one pill and your lifes back till then month after month I will slide along the dry slip and slide of life.
Bipolar is something that, for most people (and assuredly not all, just most), medication is the right answer. I'm not saying it is for you, but for very large portion of bipolar people, medication is what helps make their lives manageable.
Now that I am on the right meds I am so happy, carefree, motivated and less moody. I used to self-medicate with on-line perscription drugs because I was not on the right medication. I have Post Traumatic Stree Disorder, Anxiety (from the ptsd) and ADHD. I'm on 300mg of Zyban (same as wellbutrin, just marketed for smoking ceasation and adhd) and 2.5 mg of kolonopin twice a day and .50 mg of xanax when I have panic attacks (down to once a month now). I also practice cognitive therapy because I do not want to have to up my dose of meds and just take more and more. Taking personal responsiblity to change my behavior and activley correcting it and talking myself down when I have anxiety is crucial to how great I feel now. My only problem on the meds is that I can't get sad and have a difficult time getting angry as well. Also, people aren't used to me being level headed and my new found mental health made a lot of people feel insecure (especially boyfriends and family members) because I was no longer 'the basket case they had to take care of'...when you have mental illness people can blame you for everything and get out of taking responsibility.
My brother was really badly depressive for some time - the good thing was that he realized and accepted he had a problem, he went to a psychiatrist - but in his state the doctor couldn't really work with him - he couldn't get through to him. The solution was a medical treatment for a few months - this treatment made psychotherapy possible - he got off his meds after and has fully recovered for about 5 years now. Meds can really make the difference - when used the right way. We shouldn't be so afraid to use meds - not without caution, of course, not if we don't really badly need them - but if we do, we shouldnt hesitate for one second. Depression is a real disease, not just a little bad mood - it can kill you - don't play with it. If we have pneumonia we take our medication, don't we? I think there are mental illnesses which are serious, just as any other "real" physical disease.
When the mind starts messing with you, voices and i assume the same with depression.... it probably, in my humble opinion, is not getting, something. we know very little about the brain and most likely if you can't discover your problem, you probably would need medication to cover ground. I didn't take anything for schizophrenia for years and twice was told to kill myself.... once, i was told to drive 60 miles out of the way and drown myself in a swimming pool at a college... i swam out and stayed there for a length of time even sort of lost control, but i didn't go through with it.... eventually, i found medication to help me. side effects is the reason i wouldn't take medicine....this stuff they give people can be pretty bad at times, give you a bad life if your looking for something other than a bed (just for some).... fortunately, there's better stuff out there now!
If you don't mind me asking. What are you taking? I have an uncle with pyschzophrenia and he is stable, used to be violent before his diagnosis and had numerous suicide attempts. One of which I walked in on at the age of 4. He could do so much more with mor treatment but he is too paranoid to see psychiatrists other than his twice yearly that mental health requires.
I take Zyprexa.....has little if no side effects It's probably the medicine that they give him for treatment that he doesn't take anything.... like i said, some of the stuff out there gives you little reason to live.... now zyprexa has a bad rep right now for affecting some people's sugar... but in small doses i haven't had a problem....
