Meds require one to rely on a system of care that is broken and otherwise dangerous to one's mental health. That is my experience and that is why I jumped off the med train after a few unsuccessful crazy making rides.

Add to that... the prohibitive cost of meds, talk therapy, etc. The constant turnover of doctors. The lack of skills, knowledge and training re: mental illness among GP's. The long wait times for one-time-only appointments with pdocs whose sole job is to articulate a subjective diagnosis and write scripts.

Add to that.... the side effects; the lack of definitive evidence of effectiveness and or risks over time; the lack of definitive means of definitive diagnosis. The risk of mis-use and abuse.

Add to that.... the hassle, the manipulation, the power plays, the run-arounds, the mis-matches, the dangers.... etc etc etc.

There are lots of reasons people who others judge should 'take the meds' for this or that good reason, don't take the meds for this or that other good reason.

Meds are not a panacea and with or without meds the key to success still boils down to quality of sleep, diet and exercise. Improving the quality of those 3 fundamentals is key however that can be achieved. The more severely one has fallen into mental illness the more challenging the work of stabilizing the 3 fundamentals of good health. It’s a catch 22 with lots of side notes but at the end of the day the solutions are still that simple.

Meds can aid us and they can hurt us but they cannot at this point in time cure what ails us. Only changes in thoughts and behaviour can bring us close to what a cure would look or feel like. For some it will require medication to make those changes happen. For others those fundamental changes can happen without the aid of prescription medication.

The nature of mental illness makes it impossible to suggest that what is good for one will automatically be good for another. If only life were that simple.

I opt to go the journey without meds. Good, bad or indifferent. Wise, ignorant or self-injurious. I really can't manage the ins and outs of med treatment. It just doesn't work for me on so many levels.