I have written thousands and thousands of words in this blog and elsewhere about how much I hate medication.
I hate it in the car, I hate it on a train, I hate on a boat, I hate it in the rain.
I hate it in the snow, I hate it in the sun, I hate it standing still, I hate it on the run.
I hate it before breakfast, I hate it after lunch, I hate it in the morning, I hate it during brunch.
And while I could fill an entire blog with all the ways I hate psych meds, I still, take them, everyday.
Weird you say?
(Well, yes. But no more so than the disease it treats.)
Because no matter how much I might hate psych meds, medication non-compliance kills.
It Doesn’t Matter that I Hate Meds, I Am Medication Compliant Anyway
Someone said to me that I have such conviction for a method that has been proven fruitless again and again. Well, yes, but there has been the odd pomegranate here and there. Moreover, I can’t think of anything better with which to convict, so I have to go with what has the greatest (however small) possibility of working. [push]Psych meds are backed by science and doctors and experience; not to mention my personal experience with medication where it has definitely been useful from time to time.[/push]
But I completely understand people who want off their meds. Now. Like. Now. No more medications. No more antidepressants. No more antipsychotics. No more mood stabilizers. No more tranquilizers. No more medications. Medication non-compliance. Now.
Bipolar Medication is Horrible
I get it. Psych meds are horrible. My list of psych med side effects is terrifying, even to me. Some I wouldn’t go through again no matter what. So I totally get it. Bipolar medications and side effects can all but ruin a life.
But Bipolar Medication Saves Lives
But psychiatric medication saves lives too. In fact, it may be saving your life right now, without you even knowing about it. The fact that you’re not trying to kill yourself may be thanks to the little pink pill that you take in the mornings, even though it is your least favorite part of the day.
And that’s the thing. I understand the consuming desire to excise the poison of psych meds from one’s body, but doing so can be just plain dangerous and life-threatening. All sorts of nasty things happen to people when they suddenly stop their medication. This is known as medication non-compliance and is a topic I wrote about at Breaking Bipolar.
Hey, here’s a couple of sayings my friends & I go by: “WARNING! Shrink Crossing! Approach at your own risk”, “They drug you up to fuck you up and shut you up”, or “Tell the man behind the desk you’re mental, & you’ll sign away your soul”. Think it’s not true? Look at the people drugged out of their skulls in group homes, the people who’ve had their basic human rights stripped away & are treated like the county’s guinee pigs. Connect the dots.
I’m was first diagnosed at bipolar at 50. I am very happy that medication exists for people, like me, who want and need them.
Hi Jill,
Thanks for the comment and the reminder that there are many people out there just like you :)
– Natasha Tracy
wow, that is some pretty strong reinforcement for the addiction…even though you hate the meds, you take them anyway, because you are convinced you will die without them…That is a textbook symptom of addiction.
How can you admit the dangerous and brain-damaging nature of these drugs (which you have) and still advocate their use?
This is a contradiction of the highest order.
Dear John,
In which textbook did you read about addictions and reinforcement? Was it the bible? We are talking about medicine here which is a scientific thing. I think you are confusing things. Try and be logical, it will not deny your faith because religion and science are two entirely separate things. Faith is a whole different thing altogether. Don’t use semi-scientific arguments to explain and spread your beliefs. This is insulting to both science and religion.
Psychosis causes brain damage. My brain was damaged by psychosis. Natural psychosis as part of bipolar disorder. My anti-psychotics have caused tardive dyskinesia for life. This really sucks. But it is a thousand times better than having the illness. So I took the medication. I could take a medication to control the tardive dyskinesia, but the side effects are worse than the condition in this case, so I don’t take the medication.
Mental illness is a real thing, whatever you call it. It is a terrible affliction. Nothing is worse. Medicine works to stop it. Why bash the treaters and the treatment? It is worse than bashing the victims directly. It is a cowardly attempt to devoid people with mental illness their best and only support network.
Why not come out directly and say you hate people who are mentally ill and that we would all be better off in a gas chamber? Pick up a history textbook – this has happened. The perpertrators were actually people who suffered a huge blow to their national pride – and they took everything out on scapegoats. But it would never lead to Eutopia – there’s no such thing.
So with this behaviour of yours, I can see you have been hurt badly some time. You are lashing out at a group of vulnerable people where you can do so anonymously without fear of retribution. I’m sorry, so very sorry for your loss. But this is not acceptable. Nobody here will tolerate it.
Perhaps you should discuss your issues with a shrink.
I will tolerate it….you may not though Sarah. Not all medicines work for people, and some medications make people become psychotic, suicidal and/or symptomatic of a variety of stuff. Yes, many many many people find their medications to be highly beneficial, but not all. You wrote that you will not take a medication due to its side effects yet aren’t other people allowed to make that decision as well ? I am not talking about acute situations – more about daily medications. Some people are very happy that they have found a medication that works for them and that has improved their life. Again, not everyone (like Natasha) likes the medications available to them. Not all science is logic, and psychiatry is not the same as fixing a broken arm. I am sure you know that yet you are bashing other people who do not feel that psychiatry is an exact science or am I mistaken ? As far as brain damage, many of the newer antipsychotic medications (according to medical science) creates brain damage for some people by shrinking the frontal lobe. When you say that a person has written something you say is “unacceptable” I guess you mean to you and not everyone else as not everyone agrees with you and I will assume many people will not agree with me. I would like to insert the quote below I found online to add to the page. I am a person that feels that using the term “non-compliance” sounds like a medication recommendation is a must do with no questions asked, whereas the word concordance allows both patient and doctor to discuss options. Obviously, not everyone with a psychiatric challenge is able to think (in acute situations), and doctors will make their best guess on how the patient will benefit from medication intervention. It is sad to hear that Natasha hates her medication because many people feel that their medication has saved their life, restored them to feeling much better and are fine with taking the medications prescribed to them. My guess is that many people have not found a quality medication they feel comfortable with, and hopefully medical science will someday find other medications with less side effects that work for people who hate their medication. Some psychiatrists insist that a patient comply with ECT even when the patient routinely begs to have this treatment stopped. Some people finally get the psychiatrist to stop and their lives improve dramatically. Not every psychiatrist is a “good” psychiatrist and not all treatments are for everyone. Forcing people to do as the psychiatrist suggests when it clearly is not helping the patient and the patient is not in any acute type situation borders on medical malpractice. I want to believe that doctors mean well; however, many of them are paid large amounts of money to push medications on their patients. Which is more important ? The patient or the payoff ? It is a wonderful thing for a patient and doctor to agree on what is best for the patient. It doesn’t always work that way now does it ? See the quote below:
“An estimated half of those for whom treatment regimens are prescribed do not follow them as directed. Until recently, this was termed “non-compliance”, which was sometimes regarded as meaning that not following the directions for treatment was due to irrational behavior or willful ignoring of instructions. Today, health care professionals more commonly use the terms “adherence” to or “concordance” with a regimen rather than “compliance”, because these terms are thought to more accurately reflect the diverse reasons for patients not following treatment directions in part or in full. However, the preferred terminology remains a matter of debate. In some cases, concordance is used to refer specifically to patient adherence to a treatment regimen that is designed collaboratively by the patient and physician, to differentiate it from adherence to a physician only prescribed treatment regimen. Despite the ongoing debate, adherence is the preferred term for the World Health Organization, The American Pharmacists Association, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health Adherence Research Network.”
O.K this is alot of pasted information.
I am a zyprexa victim and a formor victim of psychiatry, What I am pasting is true from 1st hand expierience with TARDIVE PSYCHOSIS from zyprexa withdrawl !
——————————————————————————–
Robert Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic is a shocking book.
This book explores some hard questions. Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled recently? Are the long-term health outcomes of this medication better than no medication? Once we start taking drugs for our mental illnesses, do we end up on a path that almost ensures we continue to take drugs?
***
Whitaker touches on a very interesting feedback loop discovered by two Canadians:
neuroleptics put a break on dopamine transmission, and in response the brain puts down the dopamine accelerator. If the drug is abruptly withdrawn, the brake on the dopamine is suddenly released while the accelerator is still pressed to the floor. The system is now wildly out of control, so too the dopaminergic pathways in the brain. … The severe relapse suffered by many patients withdrawn from antipsychotics was not necessarily the result of the “disease” returning, but rather was drug-related. … both psychiatrists and their patients would regularly suffer from a clinical delusion: They would see the return of psychotic symptoms upon drug withdrawal as proof that the antipsychotic was necessary and that it “worked.” The relapsed patient would then go back on the drug and often the psychosis would abate, which would be further proof that it worked. Both Dr. and patient would experience this to be true, and yet, in fact, the reason that the psychosis abated with the return of the drug was that the brake on the dopamine transmission was being reapplied, which countered the stuck dopamine accelerator.
The two Canadians explained: “The need for continued neuroleptic treatment may itself be drug-induced.” In short, initial exposure to neuroleptic intervention puts patients onto a path where they would likely require drugs for life. Over time, with prolonged exposure, the dopaminergic pathways tend to become permanently dysfunctional.
“While there is no question that, once patients are placed on medication, they are less vulnerable to relapse if maintained on neuroletpics. But what,” Whitaker asks, “if these patients had never been treated with drugs to begin with.” ? ? ?
The results were eye-opening. Over a very short period of time it appears that people placed on medication for mental disorders show improvement—medicated patients show a marginal improvement. However, over a longer period, outcomes unquestionably favor those who remain unmedicated. At about the one year mark unmedicated patients start to overtake their medicated counterparts in overall health. The data after that point is not even close as unmedicated patients continue to outperform over 2, 5, 10, and 15 years.
I am living proof of this !! –
Haha yes, the the unmedicated patients performed better than the medicated ones. Is this because the unmedicated patients who died from their illness, or became homeless and so couldn’t participate in the study, get removed from the study? And how would we know with the information you have provided?
Thanks for producing such a balanced perspective for us all to read (NOT), cowardly person who won’t identify themselves. What is the point of spamming all this scary information if you have made no analysis, no conclusion?
And yes I do believe that social interventions need to be given more funding, particularly preventative programs, but medication is a life-saver for a lot of people.
Natasha have you been spammed by a cult?
I have posted a lot of angry sarcastic comments tonight but I regret this one.
I think people who have had a hard time with medication deserve to be heard, the side effects are pretty bad.
I also have tardive dyskinesia and I have suffered extra pyramidal symptoms (like a stroke). But I prefer these side effects to the illness.
So I advocate for real recognition of mental illness as a real illness that may be helped by medical treatment. The medical treatment needs a lot of improvement and it needs to be administered with more discretion. I think the social side is underemphasised, for example if nurses learned some basic de-escalation techniques a lot of restrictive practices could be reduced. If stigma is reduced then social support will increase which will improve the symptoms, but first it does need to be accepted as a legitimate illness. We will get nowhere if we go too far with anti-psychiatry and actually increase the stigma and the likelihood of getting help. Okay I’ve said enough now off to bed for me!
Spamming without proof ? I am living proof . Psych drugs destroyed years of my life finaly after getting sick and tired of getting sick and tired I realized all the psych drugs were the problem.
Its always “the stupid mental patient lacks insight…” and page after page on things like how to coercion for complaince and down right lies like “you have a chemical imbalance in your brain…” from psychiatry.
Non-compliance kills ? The suicide scare line for that one I bet.
In March 2004 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned physicians and patients regarding INCREASED risk of suicide with antidepressant drugs.
Or “lower life expectancy” as a side effect from all of them.
Homeless people ? What does an Rx for psych drugs cost ? less than rent or a mortage in most cases.
Non compliance kills ? PROVE IT.
Well, I’m an untreated schizophrenic & I’m not dead or homeless. There are natural ways of dealing with schizophrenia symptoms that allow someone suffering with this to lead very normal and productive lives. You should do some actual research before you come on here and ignorantly spout off a totally untrue stereotype.
I read some bad stuff that describes the damage to my body after treatment.
Average rate of gray matter loss: evidence of neuroleptic drug-induced brain damage. The more drugs you’ve been given, the more brain tissue you lose. What exactly do these drugs do? They block basal ganglia activity. The prefrontal cortex doesn’t get the input it needs and is being shut down by drugs. That reduces the psychotic symptoms. It also causes the prefrontal cortex to slowly atrophy.~ Dr. Nancy C. Andreasen, New York Times, Sept. 16, 2008 Both the older and the atypical neuroleptics shrink brain tissue during routine clinical exposure.~ Dr. Peter R. Breggin, Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry (2008)
HI Informed_consent
There is evidence that antipsychotic medication can cause grey matter loss, you are correct.
However, this is not as much of the grey matter loss as untreated schizophrenics experiences. Certainly, no amount of grey matter loss is desirable, but as in all medication, it’s a risk vs. rewards scenario.
– Natasha Tracy
It’s widely documented that psych drugs cause serious debilitating side-effects including early death. It’s also widely documented that going abruptly off these drugs can be quite dangerous and that one must taper slowly. I have a psychiatrist friend whose sole practice is about helping people slowly and safely get off psych drugs – and guess what – once they are off, they all feel better than they have in years or even decades, and they have no more psychiatric “symptoms.” If the medication is so horrible for you, you should think seriously about working to withdraw from them in a safe way!
It’s widely documented that mental illness destroys lives and causes deaths. It’s widely documented that people get mentally ill all on their own without any drugs. And it’s widely documented that most people who come off their meds will relapse sometime later, whether this is done safely or not.
Please do not exaggerate. Curing every single patient of mental illness by removing medication is simply not possible, otherwise we all would have done it long ago. I am glad your psychiatrist friend is helping people though. Many are misdiagnosed and many do not have the luxury of having their medications reviewed as often as they need.
Also please do not use ‘symptoms’ in inverted commas. Some of us are still under the delusion that our symptoms are very very real. Or perhaps you are under the much happier delusion that mental illness doesn’t really exist. I am not hallucinating the imaginary person standing next to me. I am simply under the delusion that I am hallucinating. Because hallucination isn’t a real symptom. Or actually maybe I am not ill and there’s a ghost there or something. This experience is simply a variation of normal. It’s perfectly functional to be terrified of an imaginary spider. I’ll tell myself that next time I see it crawling up my arm, should be comforting. I may be mortally terrified but at least it is a variation of normal.
I see, my mental illness is just a delusion. Oh, hang on, if delusion is a symptom of mental illness and mental illness doesn’t exist, how can I be deluded?
PS, have you done something for Mental Illness Awareness Week yet?
Hmmm…
Let me see…
I have quietly looked the other way as my wife does what she does every year, around this time:
Makes a doctor-appointment to obtain another autumn's worth of Citalopram.
It's normal, really: an indication of what time of year it is. As much an indication as leaves turning certain colours, before tumbling down, down, down…
I get my own variation of this, too.
I start going into acceptance-mode, and reminding myself that I really do like the winter.
Say anything enough times, and that's the way it is.
I love myself, is a good one.
I admire myself is even better.
I accept that who and what I have become, is the best of all.
None of us are fine.
Until we decide to make ourselves fine.
Then the world be damned.
It is no yardstick to be used as a comparison.
I’m glad you accept yourself. But can you accept your wife? Will you give her the gift of really believing her?