I cant disagree more about meds. First off if you are severely depressed or anxious then FIRST see a therapist and if you still are feeling bad then think about meds. But I did the wrong thing which is going for meds first without using talk therapy and myself to try to get better. The reason I dont approve of meds is the fact that I took them got worse and never went back. And when I woke up I was a completely different person, personality wise. I lost everything that made me, me.
Well first of all, I look at all these post and I came to one conclusion so far, there is no one size fits all solution. I would first of all say that anyone that subscribes to the no medication theory under any circumstances or I should say the Tom Cruise theory of psychology talks out of plain ignorance and does not know what they are talking about. When you have personally seen a family members plunge into the depths of schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder and seen the destruction they not only wreak on themselves, but their families, then you have credence when talking to me on whether to medicate or not to medicate. It depends on the person and the disorder whether to medicate or not. I am bi-polar and so is my mother. When I was growing it was a pure hell. My mother was all over the place mentally. My brother, sister, and I never knew what was going to happen. We were put in a lot of dangerous situations. My mother used bring home a lot of strange men, (lots of risky sexual behavior is a sure sign of bi-polar). The men would sometimes abuse us, my sister was molested. My mother would go on crazy spending sprees way out of our poor family’s means to afford (again another sign of bi-polar). We often found ourselves in dire straights. This would be followed with bouts of extreme depression. I have seen days on end when my mother would not get out of bed. The 3 of us would have to literally fend for ourselves day and night. When things got really bad she would down a whole bottle of Vodka and chase that with a nearly full bottle of sleeping medication, leaving me to call 911 so she wouldn’t die there right in front of us. While she was in the mental hospital we would be shipped off to a relative’s house, usually my grandmother’s. It always left us with the feeling we never belonged like being homeless. We loved our mother no matter what she did, so what she did to herself was huge in damage to our young minds. She now takes the appropriate medication and there has been a great improvement. She will always, like myself struggle with being bi-polar, but we are both doing way better then before and most importantly our families are not suffering as much, because we chose to trade in some artistic creativity, because we love our families and do not want to hurt them anymore. I have family members that are schizophrenic. They are not born with the symptoms. The initial symptoms usually do not manifest themselves until a person is in their 20’s or older. I have seen a good steady life dive into complete madness and homelessness for years. If you have ever have had conversations with and been around a schizophrenic without their medication, you know that is a world of pure craziness. I know because my uncle is such a person. I love him, but I can't handle him not on his meds. Also, never is medication without therapy a solution. In fact I find that to be even more dangerous in some cases then no medication at all. How else are you supposed to monitor the patient’s response? The medication he/she is taking could be taking them down to even a darker place then they were in the first place. Medication is meant to stabalize you. You truly get better by doing it for yourself. Once again the medications stabalize you out so you can gain a clearer path to working on yourself. There are some people that just need therapy, because their mountains are managable without medication.
