The way you choose to treat your problems does not make you "brave"

People tweeting under this tag are weird. Lot of them. Makes me uncomfortable at times.

And I encountered this attitude before and it a lot of times accompanined by the whole "brave" poise. I encountered it on one board that looked cool, but it was turned out just people who take pills, even if they don't help and they convince themselves the side effects are worsening and are nasty to those who want to even come of ONE med of their bloated coctail, lol.

I guess maybe they aren't just comforable with themselves, question their decisions, so they need to be overly defensive on the outside.

I don't care if people are med free. Who cares. I don't really see anyone who cares.

There are others on this board who are med free and I don't see them spewing all this hate towards people on meds or referring to them as fat and stupid zombies.

I don't hate medicated people for being medicated. I may not like them for their personalities, but it's different. I dislike plenty people free of anything. I dislike agressive vegans too.

I hate the school of thought how you absolutelly need to be on meds, that meds cannot do any harm and pushing meds on people.

Hate that too, venusss. Trust me!

Any sane person should.

So my problem is mostly with those who dismiss some people may have problems and that not every med makes them mighty.

I guess we should keep issues that are too complex to fit in a hashtag out of twitter. Maybe I am just looking too much into it.

i take meds because they were forced on me in psych wards in the 1980s. if i said or did anything wrong or what one of the nurses thought i was being bad they would all pounce on me and shoot me up with thorizine. now a days i'm glad they did that because it led me to the ones i'm on now which help greatly. what i don't quite understand although is if i didn't get those meds back then, would i still need them today? i could have gotten addicted to what im on now and can't get off, as i've tried. i have to add although i was in 3 car accidents with head injuries so maybe that's why? there is no answer so i am going to keep taking my meds even if someone thinks i don't need them anymore because i know i do now, i just wish it wasn't forced on me in the hospital.

#MedicatedAndMighty fights stigma surrounding mental health medication | Metro News This is how it started, and I absolutely think she is brave.

Well followed to the original Facebook post. Interesting discussion there.

(also, I guess the longer space of FB allows to actually make arguments instead of

MEDS HELP!
NO, THEY KILL!
NO, THEY HELP!
No, they are bad!

and in circles, round and round).

IMHO only.
I was fascinated by this thread. Very interesting sides.

I guess my question is does anyone come up to us on the street, face to face & ask us about out pharmaceutical intake? I'm guessing no. Yet personal information is aired so freely on the Internet by the push of a button. That's intriguing to me.

I know information is everywhere, but it can be limited.
On both sides of the equation.

I want to share a story with all of you. This may be triggering so I'll put it in the trigger brackets for convenience.



Anyways, point is, without medication, some of us wind up deep down in the depths of despair and depression and only the aid of medication can help pull us out. For some of us, medications are the only thing keeping us alive and sane.

So please, if you are against taking them for whatever reason, (i.e. you feel they are more harmful than helpful, you prefer the holistic approach, you're very sensitive to chemical changes) please don't try and force your viewpoints on those of us who need medications to function. We all have our own approaches to treating what ails us. We are all different and beautiful in our own unique way. If everyone did the same thing, what a boring world this would be.

Just a note:

I am not forcing my views on anybody. I know my way is not doable for everybody. It is not easy. If I haven't had a supportive mother with Buddhist leanings that taught me to meditate when I was very very young... I would probably now be reaching for something chemical too today. Maybe it could give me some life, maybe not. Seeing how I get dissocative and stoned (not in a good way) on OTC painkiller.... I am just worried it might be not so good.

When my father died when I was 10, my class teacher sent me to shrink, who wanted to medicate my mourning. Well meds and designer's clothes were her advice. Designer's clothes in early 1990s meant Addidas and Nike. Honestly, ending up thinking sweatpants are appropriate outside of the gym is even more scary thoughts that being a medicated child. (Joke). I am glad my mom stuck to her ways...

Another shrink adviced meds and dropping out of Uni. Walked out. Struggled, but got my degree, now I work qualified jobs and use my skills and use my knowledge and skils in meaningful ways.

But none of this fits in some simplistic hashtag or slogan, or blog post.

Yeah, I thought about chemical aid, decided to do more natural route and lately trying to avoid even supplements (not wanting to be dependent on anything, just in case of some scary scenario) and learning to tough out the tough times. Not that it's easy. Many people probably don't get me. That's life.

I just hope most of people are doing the same... but it seems there is way too much of tumblr/twitter philosophy. Not only to MI, but to life style. All these silly fad diets with silly slogans, as if you can define your body needs by a motto. Paperback books that people actually think great about how to live life that are simplistic drivel. But I seen people in my life fall for it and make some questionable decisions. Seems we don't think, we prefer to join some cliques and follow group mentality. We let ourselves be defined by things that don't matter.

Sure, there are good movements thanks to social media, I myself am very active in them (not in MH sphere), but lots of the **** in general is just indulgent, decadent crap. And honestly, anything that involved selfies is likely doing more damage than good.

Maybe I am just in a different place in my life. When I tried to define myself in words in my creative journals, I end up with half a page of words in tiny letters. Some more importnat, some less. My goal is now to make a mark. Yet, I still obsess with my inner world, but only to a degree of being capable enough.

I still think that western world's treatment of mental quirks focuses too much on the label and makes the person focus too much on themselves... instead of themselves as part of something larger (on that level doesn't matter what you do to cope. Drugs, legal. illegal, religion... all can be good or bad).

But you did imply people on meds are "#deadeyesandfat". That was pretty insulting and uncalled for. I like you venuss, but that was a bit too far. You could have made your point without this kind of attack on people who take medications.

It is brave, to put your picture with your pills to out yourself to the world risking your job, friends and family when your photo is found. I wouldn't do it. It's one thing to say your bp but to post it freely with my meds risks my family distancing themselves from me, my son's friends parents finding out, co-workers finding out. It risks my teaching position. There's a lot to loose and more for more functioning people.

Yeah, so I'm not thin by any means due to the regiment of meds I take. It's something I used to struggle with greatly. Calling me "dead eyed and fat" as your hashtag insinuates isn't helping anyone, least of all people who struggle with accepting their bodies as beautiful no matter what size. Healthy doesn't mean being thin, it means being mentally and physically okay. Weight has nothing to do with it. It's just a number, IMHO. My healthy may look different than your healthy, weight wise, and right now, my healthy is being a higher number on the scale than I was when I wasn't taking the meds I am now.

Okay, maybe I'm getting redundant here. I understand you vehemently hate modern medicine, but that's by no means a reason to call me fat and dead eyed. I'm not some comatose person, I'm a living breathing human being, who has thoughts and feelings. My feelings are hurt that you think of me as fat and dead eyed. Do you really think that because I do what works for me, that I'm some fat, emotionless blob of a former human being. If so, I really feel sad that you feel this way. I sincerely hope you can abandon such notions and find love in your heart to accept me for who I am. A person who takes a medication regiment to stay healthy.

Take care.

To each his own. You can not compare your life to any other person with bipolar. So don't.

I haven't read all posts, but I like to respond to the first one.

I think we have a moral duty to work towards a life without meds. Or rather, a society where they aren't needed.

Normalcy is relative: the bell curve can become narrower. It does indeed if we start a cyclic process (which I think we have) where society becomes more normative, expectations become more specific, rules more strict and this results in people becoming unable to "function": meet expectations.

For some people this is more true than for others. Those with difficulties with (remembering) rules and details, with difficulties in "mind reading"/"theory of mind" simply because they assume others are (more) like them (something everyone does, consciously and/or subconsciously) and who are best equipped to do essentially the same as others differently, face severe problems meeting expectations. These people become unproductive or less productive members of society.

It is a relatively small group of people experiencing severe, incapacitating problems, so any changes should be equally small.

There are two solutions to this problem: changing the specificity of expectations needed to be productive in society, or changing those people who are unproductive into people that are able to meet society's standards.

For various reasons, the second option is what is done in most cases, pretty much exclusively.

The problem is that consequently, expectations will become more specific just because they can be: enough people are productive. Predictability heightens productivity. This is not a time where moral compasses are in high demand, so people should just be replaceable like parts of a machine. Human resources.

And so the cycle continues. The only solution to slow down and reverse the cycle is to have enough people not meeting expectations, a critical mass that is a large enough factor in productivity to change the rules rather than the people. Morality also helps, a lot.

Insanity has been divided in two around 1900, into manic-depressive insanity and dementia praecox (early dementia; soon after renamed schizophrenia, the term that has stuck), pretty much exclusively on the basis of prognosis/course: MD insanity (now called BP-I) having a favourable outcome and dementia praecox a deteriorating course.

Of course, those were different times and the validity of that dichotomy is questionable.

However, I think it has certainly some validity and not working towards a stable state of wellbeing without meds because now we have acquired the "insight" that BP is a lifelong illness, will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

These are the reasons I'd say meds may be a necessary evil, but an evil nonetheless. It would be never-ending and harmful not to work towards a life without meds. But it becomes easier to end it, because more and more people are on them—potentially. It's untenable in the long run in a society governed by short term interests.


We might have too much pathos (I agree we do), today's Western society has too little ethos: no stable idea of right or wrong, just norms, no stable, longlasting values.

Edit:
Reminds me of "" by Bob Dylan.

I was referring to what I saw on some of the photos. I am not saying every single medicated person has dead eyes, but I seen this on some MH blogs and it scares me. It's like... there is nothing there, just empty stare.

Sorry I insulted anybody... that was not even focal point of this post.

Again, I am not refering to every single of you. Or every single medicated bipolar.

I actually don't find many things "offensive" unless it's blatantly racist, homophobic, telling me what to wear (aka calling me a jihadist when I throw on a scarf on bad hair day) or insultingly stupid. Or pretty much everything coming out of my presidents and his speaker's mouth.

After being called fascists and told I should die hundreds of time (lost count by late 2014), it's hard to offend me.

Of course, I don't approve of all choices. Put name of your cellphone or the cereal or your most used brand of toiler paper in your name for all I care. Products that you use don't really define you. Or shouldn't.

< / joke >

(this was meant tongue in cheek. Whatever your user name is, it's probably not worse that name of that Icelandic volcano that shut down Europe's air traffic and that sounds like something produced by cat walking over keyboard).

We're all brave for getting up every day and taking care of ourselves in whatever way we and our doctors deem worthy. It does seem silly to post pictures of yourself with your medication. I personally try to stay quiet about all of my medications because I am a teacher and there is too much stigma with mental illness. I hope one day I can express to people what kind of CRAP I deal with on a regular basis just to function normally, and perhaps they will see how brave I am.

Yes I wanted to use that as my username, but the CAPTCHA mechanism caused me to choose this one, saying I couldn't possibly be human.

Not all people and it's satirical to the fact that people do complain about weight and feeling emotionless on medications.

She also didn't say or imply that she hates modern medicine?

Venus has a point, too. This is a highly stressful world and when living with high stress all the time does have negative side effects on the body and mind. I think I'm a victim of this "gogogogo" and "needs to be work/make money" and invisible expectations. I think a lot of mental health issues stem from this and people aren't designed to cope with the constant stress.

If you're successful, how can you be more successful? What other crap responsibilities can be added to your workload? What other expectations can we force on you before you break?

If you don't make money, how to you secure funding for home and food? How are people going to view you?? Etcetcetc.

It's not a friendly world and it's a world that makes people sick.

Just for your info, I get told a lot I have very sad eyes at times. And it's just I have "resting sad face". I do have that, but you can look beyond that. But if I am sad, I radiate that in my eyes, I cannot fake in my eyes. Fortunatelly majority of world does not look in the eyes.

Then when I am on the manic specter, people tell me how beautiful and unique my eyes are that there isn't any name for the color and ask me if they are like mood ring...

I seen once a refugee from Bangladesh, I think. In Rome, a street performer. Had the most tragic eyes I seen. I seen simmilarly tragic look at eyes of one soldier I met in Kyiv. I came to him with paper cranes and words of support and he just *looked* and all human tragedies were there.

Then... for some people there is nothing. I remember when Britney was going through her tragic period, she had this "dead eyed" stare. The sparkle was gone, it was like her brain and eyes were removed and glass eyes were stuck in their place.

If one has this look, it simply means something is not right. There is no judgement about personal character in this. It's just the person is not right. And when coupled with statements about how they are super well, sometimes accompanied by forced grin (smile is not in showing ALL of your teeth. The genuine smile is in the eyes)... it just looks even more sad. Like we cannot accept we are sometimes sad... sad for a reason, that we do have a weak moment. It doesn't look happy, it doesn't look brave or mighty.

(and I cannot believe to what lenght I go to explain why a particular thought popped into my head and spilled on my keyboard. I see why some people prefer not to think).

Oh, I agree. The world of today is hurting many... so I get mad when we call the people who cannot handle completelly unnatural conditions "sick" and make big deal of "desigmatizing" this.

And the society is highly competetive since very early age. We live in weird times when kids don't get to be kids cause they have to cram in lots of information and master lots of skills they may never use (syntax on elementary school? Really? And all that encyclopedic information of science classes? You know something is wrong when parents of 3rd grader tell you they have hard time helping their kids with their homework, because what they learn is too hard and the parents have problems understanding it....). And then on the other side lot of people never get to mature and grow up and stay somehow childish and immature to late adulthood.