I hear your concerns, but let's break it down a little:

1. The pharmaceutical industry makes money off of drugs and is riddled with corruption.

2. Unscrupulous or simply poorly trained doctors can overprescribe medication to people who won't benefit from it.

3. Some people benefit from psychiatric medication.

All of these things are true.

Just because there is corruption in the pharmaceutical industry and medical field doesn't mean that psychiatric drugs should not be used. There are people who get to live relatively normal lives because of psychiatric medications. There are people who would be dead if not for these drugs.

No, psych meds are not for everybody. There are side effects. They're gosh-darned expensive and not everybody can afford them. There are other treatments that can be explored, and some illnesses are better addressed by using those treatments in addition to medication. My psychiatrist strongly steered me toward a holistic approach at the same time he reached for his prescription pad.

As to only using drugs in an emergency, some chronic illnesses like bipolar and schizophrenia require constant medication to stay stable. Going off of them, as a lot of bipolar folks can tell you, makes things far worse. Some of these drugs have to be taken for life to be effective. It's not the drug. It's the illness. It's a physical, biological chemical imbalance.

But telling me I don't need the medication that's helped me not cry myself to sleep every night, not feel so empty inside, because you read a book or a blog that says psychiatric medication is bad...I know you're speaking in general, but it boils down to actual people's lives. I'm one of those actual people. There's a lot of them on this forum.

And it makes me feel personally insulted and angry, y'know? It feels as if you are saying you know me and my needs better than I do, because you've read a book or a blog.

This is a topic that brings out a lot of emotion on all sides, and there are a lot of perspectives to consider. And this thread didn't start out as a debate over it. But I find it hard to leave such statements unchallenged.