Posted by Quintal on June 7, 2007, at 13:32:21
In reply to The right to non-compliance, posted by Squiggles on June 7, 2007, at 8:13:24
Obviously this is very complicated, and in real life not something that can simply be reduced to black-and-white compliance vs. non-compliance. Often in these debates I notice you've tended to assume compliance always entails taking prescribed drugs and submitting to hospitalisation etc at the psychiatrist's discretion, and that non-compliance is a form of rebellion - refusing medication, dabbling in alternative or complementary medicine and engaging in talk therapy against the will of the psychiatrist or doctor. This is not necessarily the case.
Nobody has ever forced me (or so much as attempted to force me) to take medication against my will. Within a year of making my first appointment all of the medication trials were at my own suggestion, not the GP or psychiatrist, and on occasion they refused to make suggestions - they said I'd exhausted their expertise, particularly in the field of MAOIs. I complied with my psychiatrist's wish to try a course of talking therapy as an adjunct to medication. It's worth noting that the only time I felt ready to act on suicidal ideation was during the start-up phase of a medication trial of Effexor and Rivotril. The suicidal thoughts abated within days of stopping Effexor. So the idea that going medication free puts the 'patient' at greater risk of suicide and self-harm is far from universal (also the only time I engaged in cutting was when I was taking antidepressants and tranquillizers, and had no urges since quitting). Actually since he discharged me I guess it's the psychiatrist's recommendation that I no longer take prescribed medication?
So we're all different and luckily I'm one of those who seems to function better off medication when the crisis is over, and like Judi Chamberlin suggests I was one of those patients who was labelled as difficult and manipulative. I've often wondered why such a determined, intelligent, strong-willed and spirited person such as yourself seems so tormented by the non-compliance of other psychiatric patients?
A quote from Judi Chamberlin:
"Let us celebrate the spirit of non-compliance that is the self struggling to survivor. Let us celebrate the unbowed head, the heart that still dreams, the voice that refuses to be silent. I wish I could show you the picture that hangs on my office wall, which inspires me every day, a drawing by Tanya Temkin, a wonderful artist and psychiatric survivor activist. In a gloomy and barred room a group of women sit slumped in defeat, dresses in rags, while on the opposite wall their shadows, upright, with raised arms and wild hair and clenched fists, dance the triumphant dance of the spirit that will not die."
Q
poster:Quintal
thread:761591
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070604/msgs/761634.html