Not everyone who has been diagnosed with mental illness uses medication in their treatment. Medication does not help everyone. There's this misconception - I think even in many people with mental illness - that medication is the only way to treat mental illness, and that without medication we're all just ticking time bombs (think about the movies where the whole plot point is that the "bad guy" forgot to take their meds *eye roll* ), but it's simply not true. Many of us instead use therapy, or other methods of coping with our mental illness. Being on medication is not a requirement at all.