Usually when people are allowed to refuse treatment for an illness based on the negative side effects, those side effects are a known entity experienced by most people receiving the treatment. For example chemotherapy in some cases has very bad side effects.someone with a terminal cancer may choose to forego it. However if you have readily treatable cancer doctors do and will argue with you if you refuse treatment based on side effects.

If you refuse treatment because you THINK there will be bad side effects but those side effects are not known to.actually occur there will usually be LOTS of pressure placed on you. For example I had a heart attack and received a cardiac stent. Those are very safe and effective. If I had refused because I believed the stent would kill.me the doctor would have argued extensively with me because I would have been WRONG.

In general, psychoactive drugs are very safe. You might BELIEVE they are dangerous but that does not make it true.My UPS guy firmly believes my yellow lab is dangerous and wont get out of his truck if the lab is around. He's WRONG even though he believes the dog is dangerous.

Similarly you may believe the drugs are dangerous but that doesn't make it TRUE. In reality people take these medications all the time and do not get sick or die from them. So people argue with you because you've got your facts wrong. The facts say the drugs will help you, not kill you.