so i thought i’d start this topic because some people said that medication wasn’t a good thing, so i wanted to ask you what you think.
is antipsychotic medication a good thing or a bad thing? and why
i believe it is a good thing bc it helps people manage their symptoms from day to day but it is also a bad thing in many other ways, its like we need to weigh up the good and bad and try and work with it somehow, put up with the bad for the greater good sort of thing, it sucks but thats what i think.
Am pro medication. But only the combination of meds which works best for you along with manageable side effects. It took me about 8 years of trying meds to come up with a useful/bare able cocktail.
So in short I think AP are useful but only when the patient gets a say in their care.
I am for whatever works the best with the least amount of side effects.
I get the impression(and from experience) that anti-psychotics can prevent the brain from healing on it’s own. It suppresses certain functions, which can also be mishaps, but it’s not tackling the root issue. However, the body is an obvious circulatory system, so that if you fix one issue, it could potential fix or aid in the fix of the real problem. So in that way, it could lead to healing.
For example, I am hyper-thyroid. (non-diagnosed, but details are too long). It boils down to nodules, hyper-sensitivity, extreeeme adrenal rushes, insomnia, etc… I noticed, on anti-psychotics, the nodules in my neck shrunk somewhat, and the other things as well started to dissipate. But off of the meds, afterwards, I treated the thyroid(naturally), and the thoughts, delusions, psychotic thoughts and behavior drastically dropped. I’m now non-medicated and the best I’ve been in years. I never thought I would be here. Was it the meds? Is it the diet with supplements? The environment change? I think it’s some of all of the above in my case. But the root of the problem was an intolerance to gluten which triggered the hyper-thyroid and being in a very negative environment. The side effect of that was a very over-stimulated brain. So even if I had fixed the root of the problem, maybe, possibly, my brain still would have not regulated itself soon enough or quick enough. In that way, yes, I am a believer in meds. But I think that everyone should try every alternative first and try to find out what is really causing the problem if possible. It’s like an over-weight person taking diet pills…If not eating too much, maybe eating the wrong food? But many people don’t want to hear that. And even some people would smash your skull into the ground before hearing it. We think we can just cram chemically altered and processed foods into our body, and not have side-effects… what if I ate sawdust from treated wood…good god, dat copper taste, it’s sawdust! and a pill won’t prevent all the extensive damage. It’s the same on every level…
But say maybe in a person’s case it is a brain mis-hap, something they are born with that no diet change or natural treatment will cure. That person should be medicated.
It’s a case-by-case thing, but simply giving into meds(that don’t even work well, and have horrible side effects) is just giving up.
when i was psychotic i didn’t listen to anyone, i was just stuck in my own world i think so i don’t think i would have been able to sort it out without medication,
medication calms me down and now i am on a good med at a low dose and i can balance it a lot better, i have my mental scales in my head and the meds are like the pivot point holding everything up in balance with me trying to get the weight right between stressors and things, lol.
you know its weird bc i hate taking them and yet they are helping me, i think that might indicate that i am still in denial about my disease or i still haven’t came to terms with it even after all these years.
I think that antipsychotics are good, but only certain ones for certain people. I am not a fan of other antipsychotics than Geodon, which has been keeping me out of the deepest levels of hell. Zyprexa is good if you don’t have a full time job, it works pretty well but makes you sleep too much. Latuda was hell no never again. But that’s for my brain, we all are unique, that is the key.
But from research, a high but not the highest dose of Geodon is very beneficial without causing terrible side effects. Sure it causes tremors but whatever, I will tap my foot while otherwise seeming healthy.
Overall I think they land on the plus side but are neither ,for most people, wonder drugs or creations of evil. Some have a very good response to them and some have a very bad one.
There definitely needs to be improvements in them as recent research on atypicals indicates they are scarcely better than the first generation antipsychotics .
Without anti-psychotics most of us would be institutionalized for life or dead. You should fall to your knees and kiss the ground in praise of anti-psychotics.
Realize this much, some people afflicted with schizophrenia do not have a realistic choice - meds do become necessary- I mean I personally don’t know how well I would function long term without meds and my diagnosis is not even paranoid schizophrenia.
It seems to me that your experience with medications is extremely limited. Maybe if you were on a mood stabilizer you wouldn’t have to suffer needlessly - just saying.
Taking meds or choosing not to take meds is highly personal - just saying that the meds make my life livable
I don’t know where this idea that I have no experience with medication came from. I’ve been on seroquel, vyvanse, klonopin, bupropion, abilify and haldol.
I don’t know if medication does or doesn’t improve your life — you’re right, that’s highly personal and subjective. But studies suggest in the aggregate, medicated mental illness deteriorates in the long term (during a roughly 15-year period). Some studies suggest that medications like antidepressants and stimulants cause rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, which largely explains the rise in untreatable bipolar diagnoses.
My own first experience of psychosis was on the ADD medication vyvanse.
I agree certain meds can aggrevate a condition sometimes- this is why it is important to find a competent psychiatrist.
The wrong meds can do a lot of damage, the right meds at the right dose can improve the picture.
But to make a blanket statement that all meds are harmful- is just not correct. The wrong meds can do a lot of damage, that’s a given
There must not be too many competent psychiatrists.
Again, third world countries that are unaffected by the advent of psychiatry and medication fare better than countries that heavily medicate their populations.
How can we come to the conclusion that psychiatric medication benefits society when it causes the very mental illnesses it is meant to ameliorate?