I feel compelled to say this. If you take meds for mental illness to help you stay alive, or just as importantly, to move from surviving to thriving, do not feel ashamed or weak.
You did not choose to have a mental illness any more than someone chooses to have epilepsy. Don’t quit your meds just because you hear that big pharma has a conspiracy to medicate everyone.
If your meds help you, take them.
If you are worse off by not taking them, then take them.
Taking meds isn’t an alternative to having a spiritual life, and having a spiritual life isn’t an alternative to taking meds. They are tools to be used in conjunction, not exclusive from one another. Just like eating well and exercise.
Meds alone sometimes are not enough to keep me well. Most often, my meds act like a ladder so I can access other tools, which I use in conjunction with medication.
Medication isn’t bad. Attitudes like that perpetuate the stigma of mental illness. Those who have mental illness often buy into the stigma just as much as those who don’t.
Stop it.
Stop shaming yourself.
Stop shaming others.
Medication isn’t something to ever be ashamed of.
And just because you feel better on meds doesn’t mean you are ready to get off them. The opposite is true. You feel better because you are on them.
I understand the desire to take as little medication as you need to be well, but that doesn’t mean that no medication is the answer. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone down that path, wanting to get off meds because I didn’t want to need them. But with age comes wisdom.
I choose to suffer as little as possible in this lifetime. I choose to thrive in this lifetime. If that requires medication to treat a condition I didn’t choose to have, I give gratitude every day that I live in a time and place where there are solid treatments that work.
This PSA is due to a dear friend who felt like he didn’t need medication for his psychosis, and we almost lost him yesterday.
If not taking meds makes you less safe, less happy, less fulfilled, then take your meds.
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© Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved. Written by MaryElizabeth and posted with her permission on Speaking of Suicide. All photos purchased from Fotolia.com.
That’s a nicely written article. However, there is a stigma attached. The courts want to lock you up in a mental institution until your medicated enough to come back to court and get sentenced. Sometimes your forgotten about. An your case never gets resolved. Court appointed attornies don’t show up don’t keep you informed don’t listen to your side. You get secretly directly indicted you show up to traffic court and they tell you go turn yourself in at the jail. Why? I wasn’t arrested. Yes you were the clerk says. I’m totally bewildered? My rights were never read. I never was served papers stating what charges were against me. Then I have no representation to guide me thru. No motion for discovery just a typed piece of paper ? Then my atty coerced me into in lieu of conviction program I said no I’m not guilty. He says you realize this is a drug case. Allegedly I say. They were legal prescriptions pills a days dosage that were over five years old all mashed and moldy mixed in with change receipts barrettes candy pretzels icing cookies chips keys you name it it was in my clutch wallet I used when I catered years ago. Not to mention excedrin. Asthma pill, allergy pill, it was a hot mess of nastiness that had been under the jack compartment along with a uniform in case I got called for a temp assignment. He didn’t explain that guilty plea. It’s a formality to enter into the program I went thru three probation officers bc of caseload. I proved they were legal with the bottles a notarized letter from my doctor and the pharmacy records. It’s been total hell. He made my case worse. Not once has he defended me. He wants to have me committed. I was found NOT GUILTY of drug charge. Then get hit with I have mental health issues? Why?
I am disabled because of mental illness. The stigma that is associated with mental illnesses is real have encountered it at every turn. I was actually arrested and then beaten and had to be hospitalized for 4 days. The police report says I am disabled and on route that the police were informed by dispatch that in their house file I was flagged as being mentally unstable. The police department has a 30 page policy on how to deal with individuals with mental illness it says that the police are supposed to do anything to deescalate the situation as far as to get a pastor or priest to talk to me because the police are supposed to deescalate the situation. Yet the police ignored it and burst in and never said I am being arrested or even say anything to me. Instead they just tackled me and beat me. The court did not care. I am disabled on SSDI the police knew this and that people like myself do not have much money so they lied and charged me with anything they could think of. On top of it I broke my back and the surgery destroyed nerves in my back so my legs don’t work and I fall down all the time I have to use a walker or a cane indoors because my walker won’t fit inside. So I got a lawyer who was a bigot about my mental health illnesses so in defense I provided him with all my medical information also at the time i was on 15 different kinds of medication. So this lawyer did nothing to defend me and then actually used my mental health illness against me to the point that I was in a constant state of panic and mania I also have a head injury and chronic pain fatigue because I can’t sleep much due to my chronic pain so to make it short I had no idea of what was even going on and meanwhile the court keeps taking about my mental illness in a severe negative manner the court demanded that my counselor check in with them regularly to see if I was a dangerous to others they did not care that my consoler was telling them that I was not fit to understand anything about what was going on in court and that my lawyer refused to let me record our meetings or even write up what we spoke about in our meetings so to make it short my lawyer destroyed me deliberately and I brought my father when ever I spoke to my lawyer and my father also noticed that my lawyer was ignoring my disabilities and the lawyer was refusing to put anything in writing he never responded to emails i even spoke to the lawyer and email him as well with my father involved with it all that I did not understand anything that was going on that I needed a representative from the state to help me with my court case by coming to every appointment with my lawyer to be included with all emails and to be present in court with me. The response to this request was my lawyer telling me he was going to quit and through the whole case my defense lawyer would threaten to quit if I said anything he did not like the lawyer destroyed evidence. So the court knew I had mental illness but was only concerned if I was a dangerous to anyone else when I have never been violent in my entire life. The court did nothing to offer me help or even to ask if I can understand the proceedings. They put me on probation when I was not even convicted of any crimes I told my probation officer i had no idea what is going on that it is due to my lawyer and that due to my head injury and my mental illness that includes PTSD PANIC ATTACKS ALONG WITH ALL THE TRAUMA I SUFFERED THROUGH MY CHILDHOOD THAT INCLUDED RAPE CONSTANT BEATINGS AND THE CONTINUOUS CHILD ABUSE THAT JUST WITH STRESS I COMPLETELY FALL APART. so to this day i do not understand what happened only that I had no money to get a better lawyer and i could not afford to go to trial and that there was a plea that even at the time I was telling my lawyer my father that I had absolutely no recollection of doing a plea over zoom but that did not matter. All that matters is that I have been found guilty for so many charges that will probably keep me from getting housing so my future is to die on the street all because I have mental illnesses and suffering from severe chronic pain. If I never had inherited the mental illnesses. I would not have a record and most likely none of this would have ever happened. But when people see mental illness and disabilities they know you can’t fight back so they abuse you and even fear you or believe what you say. I have not been outside for over 2 years because I am terrified of the police and everyone else. I will never trust anyone for the rest of my life. Unfortunately my life will not be a long life or contain any hope or happiness. None of what i want to happen this is all because of corrupt bigoted police. I do not hate the police because hate only destroys you inside. I wrote this for if it can help just one person not go through what happened to me it is worth it so be very careful my advice is to try to find a lawyer that does specialize in mental illness and is a defense attorney because people like me are targets for the police it is better to find your lawyer now before you need one
Anonymous,
It’s awful and unjust that you’ve been subjected to so much abuse. Thanks for sharing your story here in the hopes of helping someone avoid the abuses you’ve endured. If you want to talk with someone at any time, you can call the 988 Crisis and Suicide Lifeline at 988, or text 741741.
Greetings
I was diagnosed about five weeks ago with ADD and Bipolar one by a Psychiatrist, diagnosed with GAD and depression since 2015 by my GP. I have been having a hard time getting used to my psych meds, as I was given Adderall for the ADD and Topamax as an addition for the Lexapro I was already taking for my Depression and GAD. It seems the Adderall is causing a lot of internal pressure inside of my head especially behind my eyes. He initially increased my dose after two weeks but went down to the initial dose because it seemed to be too much for me to handle.
I have chosen to not tell my family about my diagnoses. My sister is aware of my depression, but not of the other diseases. She herself is in need of some form of psychiatric care herself, but won’t do it. This type of treatment won’t happen overnight, and well, they are baby steps, however, even baby steps do go forward.
Right now, I’m trying really hard to get my life back together piece by piece, but the judgement of others makes it really hard, as I really have no support.
For the past two years I’ve been working on getting disability, and this also takes a very long time. My psychiatrist said he will help me get this. I hope this will happen as I have been denied twice.
I do agree that medications that work best and at the proper level do improve the lives of people. I can say that I am alive because of this fact today. From a small child I have always used medications, and because of that I could breathe and my grandmother told me about the time that I was starting to turn blue due to lack of oxygen. That is because this is one of the things that Asthma does to people. I also have had ADHD since I was a child, and now days I am having a very difficult time getting proper treatment, and I am worried what am I to do when I lose everything in life that I live for because I am not able to even function well enough to file my tax returns and I for the most part sleep all day and not able to make it to any place in the morning unless I stay awake all night. I go to sleep and am not even able to hear the alarm. I know that is two seperate problems, but all three of these are a major problem for me because of concerns of stimulants with them I am functional and able to go on with my life, and without them I’m wondering if I will even have a life, or even a life worth living. I know there is a concern of abuse of drugs, and I see that there is more of a concern of that, than the fact that the limiting of them is destroying my life to the point that I can see that I will soon be better off dead. Stimulants if taken properly are never a problem as if they are taken in the morning or at the beginning of each day, then by the time they wear off then it is time for bed and then take them again in the morning the next day etc. This is using the medication to have a life, if someone is taking them to stay up for days at a time, they are abusing them and risking death. How do I find doctors that are willing to help me that do not think of me as as someone looking to abuse drugs, just this fact alone makes me wish I was never born into this world. I currently have IHEP for a heath provider, and if it did not cost thousands to get the tests that I have done already with another provider to get the medications that helped I would just pay out of pocket even though I am getting some disability.
Good Afternoon Stacey. I just saw your post and I wanted to respond to your statement. I reference my story because it serves as such a great example. At no time was my son sent to see anyone except general MD and the sleep doctor. No testing of any kind was done ever no blood nothing. Regardless of what his underlying issues was he never received the proper diagnosis instead received a Hugh abundance of Benzo’s and SSRI. When I say long term studies I am saying how can there be long term studies for products that say ” intended for short term use”. As in the case of Seroquel here is an example for seroquel. In January 2004, the FDA approved Seroquel for short term treatment of acute manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder (bipolar mania). In October 2006, the FDA approved Seroquel for bipolar depression. The United States alleges that AstraZeneca illegally marketed Seroquel for uses never approved by the FDA. Specifically, between January 2001 through December 2006, AstraZeneca promoted Seroquel to psychiatrists and other physicians for certain uses that were not approved by the FDA as safe and effective (including aggression, Alzheimer’s disease, anger management, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar maintenance, dementia, depression, mood disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and sleeplessness). Here is a link to the entire lawsuit. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/pharmaceutical-giant-astrazeneca-pay-520-million-label-drug-marketing. As in my case not knowing the under lying diagnoses of my son and the wrong medicine can have the wrong outcome. The bottom line is that education about the pros and cons of a drug along with the correct diagnose. I am not anti drug, if a care giver is truly doing what is recommended by the manufacture then the likelihood of a mistake is diminished. I am truly saddened by the cost I have paid to receive the education I now have.
[This comment was edited to abide by the Comments Policy. – SF]
Thank you for this information, Vicki. Indeed, you have paid far too big of a price for an education you probably did not want. Again, I’m very sorry for your loss.