Posted by mellow on July 8, 2011, at 14:34:05
In reply to I consider people on Psych Meds to be drug addicts, posted by Huxley on July 6, 2011, at 22:13:03
You are right to be angry. I agree with every single item you listed as far as big pharma dressing this thing up to get as many people medicated as possible, but I choose to look at myself as an individual not as part of the masses or part of some conspiracy. I have to believe that my therapist and pdoc are in the industry to help me. They are both wonderful people despite the fact that they make money at the expense of people's suffering. They are at least trying to help.
In the 1960's my grandfather would destroy the family home. He would break furniture and terrify his wife and children. He would lock himself up drinking whiskey until the doctor would come drag him to the state hospital where he would be shocked repeatedly...back when they had no clue what they were doing with ECT. They wrote him off as a schizophrenic which he clearly was not.
Now some might say we are the stage with meds where they don't know what they hell they are doing and we being experimented on. If you read all the books like "Anatomy of an Epidemic" it is almost impossible not to make make that assumption and become very angry. But I have to believe that coming from the blood line that I do that I have had and will lead a better life than my grandfathers, my father and my uncle because of how far psychiatry has come.
The atypical anitpsychotics alone are an incredible advancement if you read some pyschopharmacology textbooks and realize how close they are getting to symptom reduction in the exact areas of the brain they are aiming for. I am a recovered alcoholic and drug addict myself and I can tell you that recreation drugs were my psych meds before I was taking psych meds. There was obviously some "medicating" going on before I even stepped into the mental health game.
If anything I think working with a good hearted doc in addition to having a strong spiritual life is a much better alternative to addiction rather than an addiction in of itself. Our lives on psych meds may not be ideal, but would they have been ideal anyhow? We obviously had problems in the first place or we wouldn't have sought help.
I wish you all the luck in the world Huxley. In fact I am jealous you have gotten so far in your taper. For the sake of my sanity I don't even have a time table for being med free anymore. If that miracle is going to happen it will happen in good time. Please let us know how you do.
mellow
Bipolar II
Lamictal 150, Topamax 50, Risperdal 2, Cal/Mag, D3 1000, Fish Oil 2400, High Potency Multi"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
poster:mellow
thread:990387
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110630/msgs/990539.html