[dermald]

I was in chat recently, and the topic of medications came up. When it did, I noted that I am not on any medications.

This was when I was asked why I'm on PC, when I'm not on meds.

Sure, I am dealing with some psychological issues, such as Codependency, Social Anxiety and what Ross Rosenberg would call "Self Love Deficit Disorder." I'm just not dealing with anything that requires me to be on any medications.

Is being on meds a requirement to participate in this forum?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

No, taking meds is absolutely not a requirement to participate in this forum, and anyone who says so is just wrong.

[IrisBloom]

Being on meds is not required, neither is being in treatment or even having been diagnosed. Also, you are under no obligation to reveal more about yourself than you want to.

You'll learn who to interact with and who to avoid in time. I hope you enjoy the site and forum and chat.

[Unrigged64072835]

You don't need to be on meds. That was rather rude on the other person's part.

[eskielover]

There is actually no requirements to be on here. Many have MH issues, some have family or friends who have MH issues & want to find out more.

My issues have changed so much over my years here. I came here right in the middle of going through a trauma & a whole bunch of other stuff I was dealing with & several years here I finally left my bad marriage. During the trauma I was medicated to the point I could hardly function but I needed that then. I have horrible side effects to almost every psych med that exists so when I somewhat recovered & actually when I started living alone I stopped ALL psych meds & went eith natural omega 3 EPA to helo with depression. My MH was situational & when I got away from the bad marriage everything started to improve....then finding wonderful therapy & 2 years of intense group DBT work, I started to thrive again. I still have struggles but they arent anything meds can FIX, so I have to learn how to deal with them. One thing I learned in DBT is that anxiety & depression are normal responses to some things that happen in life & to take meds to numb our feelings keeps us from feelings thstwe really need to live.

No meds here

[bronzeowl]

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.

[Travelinglady]

I agree. No guidelines about having to be on drugs.

[healingme4me]

Not the last time I checked. If something like that comes up again, I would highly recommend mentioning to a chat leader, moderator or admin.

This place is a refuge...for anyone it helps. The common denominator here is the pain we all to some degree share.

dermald, you'll have people who are in the know answering you here. People with time and experience on PC. You are as welcome here as anyone so don't flinch one bit.

I think what happens when someone says they are unmedicated is that others jump to the conclusions the individual is not being medication compliant. I am guilty of this. Thank you for pointing this out.

[dermald]

I should confess that when I saw "Psych Central," I didn't think Psychiatric. I thought Psychology.

I have not been formally diagnosed with Codependency or Social Anxiety. I've had to work to figure these things out on my own, while trying to figure out what was wrong with me, and why I was having so many problems.

I had to figure it out on my own, after going through a few therapists who weren't understanding what was going on, and then going through almost a year of being unemployed and not being able to get a therapist because the ones in my area do not accept Obama Care.

Only recently was I able to get a therapist via Medi-Cal, after getting past that year where I technically earned too much to qualify.

The current therapist that I have does not understand things like Codependency. He was also caught off-guard when I mentioned "gaslighting," and he expressed intrigue with this concept. I printed off some materials from the "Psychology Today" website. I was surprised that I had to explain it to him.

During our last session, he said that he wanted to test my intelligence. Long story short, I got emotionally manipulated by a cancer scammer, and it ruined my life. He said that I "didn't appear to be autistic," so he wanted to test my intelligence, because he can't figure out why I'd fall for it.

I did tell him that I thought intelligence had nothing to do with it, and that emotional manipulation seemed to be at play.

I'm still going to take the intelligence test, out of pure curiosity, but I think that I might need to find another therapist.

After that experience, I decided to find a forum where I might be able to get thoughts and ideas from others. Knowing what is going on and intellectualizing it doesn't fix it. I learned this while reading up on "Learned Helplessness," when I was struggling with the idea that it doesn't matter how hard I try or what I do, that everything will fail and it's pointless.

At any rate, I came to the conclusion that my Codependency was leaving me wide open, like having a neon sign over my head inviting Pathological Narcissist and exploiters to take advantage of me. Building self-esteem has been my goal, as well as understanding why I sometimes revert to a child-like state, where I'm afraid to make decisions, because someone or something is intimidating.

I've gotten lots of help from videos and books by authors like Ross Rosenberg, who views Codependency as "Self-Love Deficit Disorder." I never really did love myself, and I'm starting to figure out why.

So, my misunderstanding of "Psych" was how I ended up here. I hope to be able to participate in conversations, in an effort to understand what's going on in my head, and how I can put in the actual work to deal with it all.

Thanks to everyone who has read this. I truly appreciate it.

I think it depends. If the person has found another way besides meds to manage their illness, that's great. But I do have a problem when someone constantly complains about their symptoms and allows their mental health to negatively affect others but refuses to consider getting treatment. It's not just with mental illness. I once had a room mate who didn't believe in western medicine yet would wake me up crying in pain every night because her stomach hurt. She finally went to the hospital and lo and behold, she had a burst appendix and less than 24 hours to live without surgery. Needless to say, she now believes in western medicine. MI MAY not have such devastating consequences, but it could.

That being said there's plenty of other reasons people are unmediated besides willful noncompliance. So I don't make that assumption when I see it here.

You're struggling dermald...therefore you own the right to belong. I hope this space can become a place of refuge, info and support for you. You deserve it as much as anyone. If you ever have questions just ask. There are usually voices and experience here willing to answer. You are doing so much to help youself...you're to be commended! Again...welcome to PC....and Cheers.

[Fuzzybear]

I'm so happy you decided to stay and not leave this wonderful community