August 12, 2011
2. Newblog2011: 08/12/11 A Bad Way To Treat People
I think that one of the reasons that it’s bad that drug therapy is now more or less forced on people as the initial and continued form of treatment rather than as a last and temporary resort is that it prevents people from figuring out what their problems are. It says that their problems are caused by a chemical imbalance and not by anything that they do or that anyone else whom they know or are affected by does that is wrong or ineffective and that would make any normal person feel bad, behave irrationally if continued over time, or upend the person’s life.
I have always felt better when I haven’t been on psychiatric medication; those drugs have never made me feel better or think more clearly. What I did find was that, when I agreed to take medication which people whom I cared about or who had power over me were constantly hassling me to take, those people stopped hassling me specifically about medication, and sometimes the cessation of the hassling made me calmer than I was when I was being hassled. Agreeing to take the medication also sometimes resulted in restrictions being lifted from me or marginally more privileges being given to me, and that sometimes caused my mood to improve and allowed me access to more situations in which I could demonstrate healthy behavior. If you are vulnerable to people who have decided that they want you to be on drugs, your repeating “I don’t want to take them” is something that those people portray as being a sign not of your health and self-awareness but of your “lack of insight about your mental illness” and, often, as an irresponsible resistance to “getting better.” It is a hellish life.
If there are people who do feel better on psychiatric medication, then what I wonder is what in their lives they are ignoring while they use pills to inure themselves to the discomfort of their healthy reactions to things in their lives that are unhealthy, immoral, or abusive, whether those are things that they do, that others do to them, or a combination.
2. Newblog2011: 08/12/11 A Bad Way To Treat People
Copyright L. Kochman August 12, 2011 @ 2:55 p.m.
2. Newblog2011: 08/12/11 A Bad Way To Treat People
I think that one of the reasons that it’s bad that drug therapy is now more or less forced on people as the initial and continued form of treatment rather than as a last and temporary resort is that it prevents people from figuring out what their problems are. It says that their problems are caused by a chemical imbalance and not by anything that they do or that anyone else whom they know or are affected by does that is wrong or ineffective and that would make any normal person feel bad, behave irrationally if continued over time, or upend the person’s life.
I have always felt better when I haven’t been on psychiatric medication; those drugs have never made me feel better or think more clearly. What I did find was that, when I agreed to take medication which people whom I cared about or who had power over me were constantly hassling me to take, those people stopped hassling me specifically about medication, and sometimes the cessation of the hassling made me calmer than I was when I was being hassled. Agreeing to take the medication also sometimes resulted in restrictions being lifted from me or marginally more privileges being given to me, and that sometimes caused my mood to improve and allowed me access to more situations in which I could demonstrate healthy behavior. If you are vulnerable to people who have decided that they want you to be on drugs, your repeating “I don’t want to take them” is something that those people portray as being a sign not of your health and self-awareness but of your “lack of insight about your mental illness” and, often, as an irresponsible resistance to “getting better.” It is a hellish life.
If there are people who do feel better on psychiatric medication, then what I wonder is what in their lives they are ignoring while they use pills to inure themselves to the discomfort of their healthy reactions to things in their lives that are unhealthy, immoral, or abusive, whether those are things that they do, that others do to them, or a combination.
2. Newblog2011: 08/12/11 A Bad Way To Treat People
Copyright L. Kochman August 12, 2011 @ 2:55 p.m.