This was a fantastic read. Thanks so much for sharing it. It highlights an issue I feel like I experienced in my own life as well as one I see happening here with a number of people.

First of all, I'd like to say I believe medications are important and have their place. I was first placed on meds while in the throws of a severe psychotic manic episode. I was a danger to myself and others and the medications I was given pulled me out of that state. I needed them.

That said, I feel like there is an epidemic of a waterfall type effect happening with those of us who take medications for mental illness. I'll use myself as an example. I was first placed on Depakote and Risperdal. My heart was racing at 150 beats per minute and my blood pressure was high. My doctor took me off Depakote and raised my Risperdal. The racing heart went away, but the blood pressure problem persisted, so I was given Inderal. I've never had high blood pressure, so I was given a second med to combat an effect caused by another med. Waterfall.

I was experiencing worry about relapse while I was in IOP. It was mild anxiety. Geodon was added to my medication mix to help with the worry. Waterfall 2. I became zombie like during the day and was napping all the time. My anxiety worsened and I became obsessed with passing time and how I would fill each moment. This was new for me and very strange. Same for the napping. I never needed naps before.

I discussed my symptoms with my doctor. He thought maybe I was slightly depressed and I had anxiety on top of what they were guessing was bipolar disorder. He wanted to prescribe an anti anxiety medication. That would have been waterfall 3. I got upset and pleaded with him to believe me that none of this was normal for me and that I am very sensitive to medication. I asked him to please review my meds and determine if any of these symptoms were caused by my meds. He thought about it and said the Geodon in the morning could be causing the sleepiness even though I was on a low dose. He also felt the Risperdal could be to blame for the anxiety. I was stable otherwise, so he changed gears and came up with a plan to bring me off Risperdal and move my Geodon to night. We started with tapering Risperdal and decided I could live with the sleepiness for a while. My anxiety lessened and went away completely once I was off of it. We then moved my Geodon dose to night and I haven't needed a nap since. My blood pressure has also normalized.

I had to live with some unfortuante symptoms while I was tapering off meds and working with my doctor to get it right, but it was 100 percent worth it. I know some meds are necessary, but I feel like many of us have these kinds of waterfall effects going on. We have one med causing new mental health symptoms or physical symptoms that are just being treated with additional meds. The overall effect is toxic in my humble opinion. I also agree with the article that many no longer even know what baseline feels like anymore. I know I'm ranting, but I wish doctors would read this article and spend more time with patients. They are so quick to medicate every symptom and it is killing us slowly. There has to be a better way.