I definitely understand your concerns, and I agree that medications are over-used far too often. I don't think that it is any intentional attempt at mind control, though. Like you described, people develop distressing and painful symptoms that cause problems for them and for their families and people around them. There are many reasons for those symptoms including biological, neurological, social, environmental, behavioral, psychological, spiritual, etc. Not any one thing, but a combination of all of them. Typically, the person with the symptoms is more susceptible to situations in the environment or has needs that are not well understood and not met. It's probably pretty scary sometimes, for you, your parents, and others who are concerned. They don't know how to help you, and they have tried a lot of things that didn't work very well. And resources are always limited. There is never as much time, money, energy, ideas, etc. to be able to do everything the best that it might be, right?

So your parents take you to the professionals, who also want to help and maybe are supposed to have all the answers but since every individual person is unique, it's trial and error to find what might be effective for you.

Before we had psychiatric medications people might have tried various herbs and sometimes that helped and sometimes it didn't. Often they didn't know what else to do, so people with a lot of symptoms or problems may have just gotten locked away somewhere or worse. Now we have all of these medications, and new ones all the time, and they work (for some people, some of the time, when you get the right ones), and they make life a lot easier (if it's the right medication and amount for you). It's in everybody's best interest to find something that works. As a society, we don't want to lock people away anymore, but a lot of people still don't know how to handle someone who is different or has problems they don't understand.

Meds have made such a dramatic difference, and it is so easy to just take a pill, that I think we as a society have become overly reliant on them. We tend to overlook or disregard the side effects and adverse effects of medications, and to use too much and too many different ones without really understanding how it works and what it is doing. Medication doesn't really fix most of the problems either - it just makes the symptoms easier to deal with. We forget that there are all these other things - unmet needs, problems in the environment (meaning all the people and circumstances around you), and everything that caused the problem in the first place. There are more ways to help than just pills. To start with, how about listening to people and finding out what the problem was in the first place (easier said than done, especially after time has passed and you have had all of these things done to try to make it better and some probably made it worse instead).

There are more options. Your parents could be thinking the pills worked - why should we have to try something harder and more expensive. The doctors may be used to just writing a prescription because as a society we have gotten into this quick fix mode and now we think that's what doctors do. Hospitals are expensive and usually short-term and not very good at changing much in your life, at least not for very long, but they are useful if you need a safe place to get away from things for a little while.

Real change and healing takes time and a lot of work. Not everyone is willing to do what it takes. If you are, talk to your parents, doctor, therapist, and anyone else who is there to help you. Believe that they really do want to help. I hope that they listen to you and help you develop a plan to deal with the symptoms or problems that you have and to use less medication. There are people who do best if they keep taking some meds, and I don't know if you are one of them or if you will be able to function without any medication.

You can write out the pros and cons of taking medication, stopping medication, going into more intensive treatment, or any other options that you are considering. You need to find what works best for you so that you are free to live your life. I hope this helps.

Rapunzel