(no subject)

[novapsyche]

I ran across this post.

I have a lot of friends who take meds, and I work with someone who does, too. I have other friends who should take their meds, but went off of them intentionally. My sister, in fact, is bipolar, but doesn't take her meds. As someone who isn't on meds, I can't speak to what they do or how they affect you.

But I was struck by his reason: my taking medication is for the benefit of others not for myself. Do you agree with that line of reasoning?

Comments

[euziere.livejournal.com]

The benefit of others is a good reason to do a lot of things...shower, be polite, refrain from taking what you want when you immediately want it, etc. Taking meds for the benefit of others is not a bad thing in itself. They can have shitty side effects sometimes, and it sounds like his were. But if you know you're very difficult for others to deal with when you're unmedicated, a better solution is to try to find meds that work better for you, not to go off them and let others pick up the pieces.

[kali-ma.livejournal.com]

I took medication for the benefit of other people for quite some time. In fact, I had a girlfriend who used various emotional blackmail tactics to get me to take medication, often implying that I had no clue how horrible my behavior was. SSRI's are addictive. If you forget to take them for a day, you feel very emotionally distraught and off balance - then when you realize you haven't taken your meds and mention it, people around you say "Oh, see? You really need those meds!" Without realizing it is a wothdrawal effect and not the person's normal behavior.
Societally we are being conditioned to believe that anyone who behaves "oddly" is mentally ill and needs drugs. Ever hear someone joke about someone who did something they thought was odd and say "Well, THEy need medication!" or some similar sentiment? That's the first thing anyone thinks.
I think mental "illness" is very overdiagnosed. There are ads out for psychotropic drugs now, as if bad moods were some sort of headache that you can take a pill for and make go away. There are ads for expensive clinics that say things like, "Is your child unusually restless? Does he fidget a lot? Does he have an elevated mood some days and appear very moody other days?" And I think, this describes a normal growing 13 year old boy with a huge new rush of testosterone, doesn't it?
It's all very disturbing to me. I've been through a nightmare of drugs and negative effects suffered from them, drugs I never would have taken if I didn't have well-meaning "friends" urging me to go to the doctor and take "something". I've also seen healhy children be forcibly put on drugs and become little psychiatric basket cases. I've seen people who seemed basically interesting but with a few neuroses go on drugs at a freinds request and become basicly zombies who express no opinion or creativity at all, and therefore were cosidered to be doing well because they didn't bother anyone anymore (because they just sat there zoning out all the time.) So I guess I would say I agree with her.

(Sorry about the rant! This is a sore subject with me!)

[zendifferential.livejournal.com]

I think it's a cost/benefit analysis issue. If the meds are painful to one, physically or emotionally, but help modulate behaviours that bother others, that is a hard trade-off to make. Is the treatment worse than the disease, basically.

I just started meds, for myself, but also to help me keep behaviours in check that harm relationships I'm in. So while it is primarily so I can feel more stable, it's also so I can be an easier person to deal with, for those I care about.

I don't think doing anything that should be self-improving for others is a healthy outlook - it's a good way to get motivated, but if you never find the desire or benefit within and to yourself to make whatever changes are needed, there's no real benefit, in the long term.

[guttaperk.livejournal.com]

Being constantly odious to others, whether due to illness or merely to disposition, inevitably has severly negative consequences in one's own life.

As such, taking medication to allow more benign social interaction ends up being for one's own benefit as well as that of others.

[virika.livejournal.com]

yes and no
i would prefer not to be on meds, but i also know when i go manic i am not only fucking myself up, but also the lives of my friends and family.
i do it because being manic isn't healthy at all, tho sometimes the drugs i am on (including my current antipsychotics) have worse side effects then just being manic for a week or 2.

[kittenkissies.livejournal.com]

shit no

[merowme.livejournal.com]

I can understand where he is coming from. Sometimes it does feel like you are only taking the drugs for other people and not for yourself and sometimes that doesn't feel like enough. The side effects can make you feel worse than the illness does and can make you feel like it isn't worth the trouble so you stop taking them. Or you feel like you are cured and you don't need them any more so you stop taking them. And for a while, it's okay. You still have the drug in your system or have the effects for a while and then whammo. You are back where you started or worse, you go through withdrawl.

I feel like I'm taking the drugs for my husband kyril and my mom and not for myself. That's enough for me because I love them enough to not make them go through what happens when I stop taking my meds. I did that once and saw how much it hurt them. Now I know that I may have to change meds from time to time but I'll probably take them for the rest of my life no matter how bad they make me feel.

[femakita.livejournal.com]

Benefit isn't exactly the right word, but yes.