Why are so many people anti medication?

I will....it cost around $150. The insurance I have doesn't cover it, so it's out of pocket. The p'doc swabbed my inside of my cheeks, then sends the swabs away. I'll get the results next week some time. There was another place that offered it too, but it was over $300. Supposedly the $150 test is just as good. I don't know, so I guess I'll just have to trust what they tell me.

Yes, please let us know what your results are and what you think of the results. I've read (here on PC) that some people find the test helpful, others feel like it was a waste of money. I'm very curious as to how your test results turn out.

I cannot answer why so many people are anti-medication, but I will not take them myself. I have taken meds a couple of times, decades ago, but never for more than 24 hours and frankly, I don't even remember what they were except one - elavil. I took one dose, never again. I think there were two others.

There are a couple of reasons for me. One, the way they made me feel was horrid - like I was wrapped in plastic wrap, and my brain turned to molasses. Second, I hate the message - you don't have the tools, nor the ability to acquire the tools, to live life successfully.

I'm not trying to sell anyone on my thinking, just answering the question the only way I can - by sharing my experience and perspective.

I appreciate that you've shared your perspective. May I ask what your diagnosis is and how you cope without medication? Has therapy helped you? I've always been on meds (I mean, since I was 24, 30 years ago), but as I've gotten older I'm more curious about how people cope without meds.

In my opinion, I am very pro medication. I would not be alive today if it were not for Lexapro, Cymbalta, Ativan and Celexa. Those are the big four I have been on over the years.

I think a lot of people who are anti medication have either never been on medication before and are influenced heavily by the media and everyone elses opinion that they are convinced that meds are bad or are dangerous. I agree that any medication can be dangerous if used improperly, however, they are developed to help us. There is also a big stigma towards mental health in general. I spent most of my teenage years in a deep depression and nothing was done about it because my parents (mostly my father) did not believe in "psychiatrists" and "antidepressants" because if you were depressed, it was something you just "got over and worked through it" When I was 19-20 I had my own health insurance and I finally (after almost a year of trying to persuade myself mentally) went to my primary care doc and got on Lexapro (this is back when it was brand new and still brand name) it made a tremendous impact on my life.

I think that a lot of doctors/nurse practitioners/psychiatrists/mental health med providers etc. nowadays are very anti medication. The federal government and the FDA has gotten so strict and is heavily regulating what they can and cannot prescribe and who they can and cannot prescribe it to. They are terrified to prescribe any narcotics/benzos and will only give you enough for a few days if they do give you any. I have been in the ER for psych issues as well as been in both inpatient and outpatient therapy programs. The ER docs where I live are a joke, they will not give any Ativan or Xanax, only allowing Vistaril or Atarax to be given which is nothing but over the counter Benadryl. The inpatient program was run by a psychiatrist that actually knew what he was doing and he actually set me up on the meds that I am on today. The outpatient program at the same hospital got sued because they were taking people who had been on benzos and antipsychotics for years and years and ripping them out of them and slamming them into some stupid generics.

I have worked for years and years to get where I am today. I have been through numerous doctors and mental health clinics. I have even walked out of the middle of an appointment with an embarrassing excuse for a Nurse Practitioner because she didnt want to listen and kept making excuses and passing the buck to other doctors, blaming my symptoms on physiological things that weren't there, despite test after test from my primary care doctor. I am fortunate that I have a very good primary care doctor who I get along with very well and I have been visiting for over ten years now.

Thank you Laurie, I was a bit nervous about doing so out of concern that it would not be welcome in this thread. Not sufficiently to refrain from posting, but I was bracing myself a bit when I came back to see if there were any responses.

I did think of the name of another med that I was on since I wrote this and it brings up another personal reason for not wanting to be on meds. I was put on seroquel for a schizophrenia spectrum disorder - again, one dose and done. But here's another reason for being anti-meds for me that I didn't think of in my original post: I don't have a schizophrenia spectrum disorder - they know that now. I also don't have BPD, they know that now too - though I have been misdiagnosed with that too. In fact, I've been misdiagnosed and prescribed meds for a dozen or more psychiatric conditions that psychologists have now determined that I do not have. I can't get to the real conditions if I am medicated into a stupor - and too many of them did that to me.

We are about the same age by the way... Well, I've been more or less diagnosed with major depressive disorder for thirty years. I am a high functioning autistic, and I have dissociative identity disorder as well.

So what do I do instead of meds? Five years ago I was diagnosed with some physical conditions that don't allow me to exercise at all - literally, at all. That used to be something in my toolbox. However, I still meditate about an hour a day. I have found that for me, a vegetarian diet helps, so I am a vegetarian. I see a therapist who is the best fit I have ever had and yes, she is a big help. I write - a lot. I just shared with someone, about an hour ago, how I recently typed thirty-seven pages over a two week period on 'shame' and how it affects me and didn't stop until I had a life-changing epiphany at the bottom of page thirty-seven.

Anyway, that's about it...but it works for me.

I think it’s a bit complicated.

Based on my experiences with the mentally ill, severely disabled and elderly; the goal of doctors and Pharma is to sedate, sedate, sedate.

The scary thing is that we have been seeing atypical antipsychotics being handed out by GPs as an adjunct to an SSRI for years now. Abilify, Zyprexa. Seroquel?

Depending the doc you talk to, many will say SSRIs and SNRIs are little more than placebos. So it would make sense something else is needed. Throw in some APs and you have a nice numb soccer mom or middle management dad.

And don’t worry, there will be another set of drugs with the slogan “although we don’t know how this BS drug, that we rushed through like a 250 person test in order to get it to market this quarter, actually works...it appeared to help 37.9% of 250 depressed people. Honestly, it’s just lexapro with an extra carbon tacked on somewhere. So ask your doctor a about it and pay top tier prices cuz youre worth.”

I only trust opiates, stimulants and benzodiazepines - as well as, hallucinogens and MDMA that are being tested for public treatments.

Interesting, considering the myriad of potential risks associated with those meds.

This bears repeating:

Research, research, research. When you get to a point where you can weigh the risks and benefits of ANY treatment, do your homework. A lot of people on the interwebz are self-proclaimed experts. Please do not take anyone's opinion, bias or personal experience as gospel when it comes to treating your own illness.

Sorry, couldn't resist...

Totally agree, though - make your choices based on as much information as you can get from multiple sources.

The first step is being diagnosed correctly and I don't think psychiatrists do that. On average it takes 8 years to be diagnosed bipolar correctly. I was misdiagnosed for years and consequently took a lot of meds which had horrible side effects. I'm diagnosed correctly now and luckily found good medication (with side effects of insomnia which I've been fighting for 3 months).

Because, by far, the majority of people who post are those who have had problems. The thing is, aside from some initial side effects for a small number of patients, far less than 10% of users have effects that require stopping their medications...and most stop without professional advice from their doctors.
The other 90+% of users are too busy enjoying healthy, happy lives to be spending much time on forums...especially those sites where people scare you half to death with tales of their heads spinning in circles while they spew green vomit like the Exorcist!!

In the words of bill burr....yeah that sounded like I went to www.imright.com and wrote my post.

My point is there will always be a new ailment and a new drug. Remember when SSRIs got black boxed? I just can’t get past the “we don’t know how it works” thing.

At this point, I trust what works immediately and that has science backing up its pharmacological actions.

PS - I love the word myriad. It was the first intelligent spelling word I learned. Will never forget it.

Whilst the chemical actions of most meds are more or less understood, I'm not sure that anyone is yet fully on top of how any of the mentioned drugs known chemical effects directly translate into psychiatric effects across all patients - psych meds are used based upon empirical observation & theoretical analysis. The exact mechanics of brain function relating to mood disorder are not yet understood to the same level as say, treating a cut or a burn.

Myriad is a lovely word.

Also, because I think they refuse to accept that they have an illness...because of shame because of society's negative view of MI.

dear InfiniteSadness, it should scare you ! have you ever googled the drugs you take ? and see the class action lawsuits filed. those tell you that people have been hurt ? lives changed forever because those people like me trusted their doctors with their health and safety only to be scorned. when your brain gets messed up and injured how do you fix it then ?

I agree with Laurie.

I can't presume class action suits prove anything. I need to view what the outcome of the class action suits were. I know from my friends in the system many don't like taking eds because of side effects. Some are bothersome and some are quite serious. These included high blood sugar, akathesia , restlessness, severe anxiety and more. While some don't take medication because they don't realize they are mentally ill. Or with s omepeople with bipolar they don't want to lose their manic feeling. There are several reasons why people don't take their Rxes.

I wanted to bump this thread
i still don't understand how meds work.

i dont think anyone knows how meds "work..."

there's a general, basic understanding of what a psych drug does to the brain and body, but how that translates into changes in mood, perception, behavior, etc. is still in the realm of mystery.

so...its not just you. and the same psych drugs ("meds") are used for people in different situations. I take Abilify, for "Bipolar I." In my community, I'm labeled "Schizophrenic" (long story...), but Abilify is also used for people with that label.

When I was in my late teens, I was labeled with a "personality disorder" and treated with bunches of drugs, including "atypical" tranquilizers...to make me more "managable." They told me it was for "mental illness," etc.

I ended up with tardive dyskinesia at a young age, plus stiff gait (the "mental patient walk," basically). By some miracle, I'm now free of tardive dyskinesia and the stiff gait, even though I seem to need some kind of tranquilizer.

that's just the basics of my story. drugs can be used to create long term customers (giving patients benzodiazepines to "build good rapport"), drugs can be used to punish people (pumping involuntary patients full of Haldol, for instance, especially in state hospitals), drugs can be used to make life easier for -other- people (like giving elderly people seroquel), on and on it goes. and yet...

-if- one accepts that "Schizophrenia" and "Bipolar I" represent problems that probably require treatment...something like .9% of the population deals with "Schizophrenia" and I Think a smaller % Bipolar I. but...

most psychiatrists aren't treating 'severe mental illnesses.' they're making $$$ pushing pills on very sad people, teenage misfits, affluent people willing to pay $$$ for guidance and drugs, etc. maybe we should just go to family doctors, if we really need psych drugs? I don't know, honestly.

Hey, I just wanted to respond to this since I've been having doubts about my meds lately, too. Honestly, I can say I wouldn't have been where I am now if it weren't for taking my meds consistently. There are some things that have changed over the years, but the one thing that changed my mental health for the better was meds. I can't zoom in on any other change I made. But taking the meds consistently, committing to the hard work that getting better is, and working with doctors and therapists--those are the ways I recovered.

I just need to remember that when I have moments of doubt.

No don’t take meds, just take vitamins, krill oil supplements, and walk 30 minutes or more almost daily, which helps depression. Still often tired, irritable and cranky, but trying to hang in there!!

I guess I lean two ways with this conversation.

One is that you should determine whether you want to take meds or not based on your own experience.

And second, that meds are not either all good nor are they all bad. There's a balance between the two sides of the spectrum.

Certainly, there are potential harms that meds can cause. But it's not worth counting them out simply because of that fact. There are plenty of things that can harm you on a day-to-day basis.

I'd recommend doing some research.

why do you worry about how they work ? you wont understand unless you're a chemical biologist. are you that smart. you like me have to go by the way you feel. truly trust only yourself. ask yourself this ? is your life getting better or are you feeling better after taking your meds ? good luck to u. are u bf3 ?

I worry about brain damage from them long term.