What are your thoughts on psych drugs, such as antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilisers, etc?
Doctors love to prescribe these drugs. But they have very bad side effects, based on what I’ve read. And they can give you strong withdrawals when you try to come off them. Also, should we really be medicalising emotions and taking drugs to emotionally cope with the world? Maybe we need things like friends, family, social connections, to make the world more enjoyable.
What do you think?
I have bipolar, and I cannot function normally without medication. It’s not about “taking drugs to emotionally cope with the world” but about addressing biochemical issues in my brain that is structurally and functionally different from yours. Mania is not any different from diabetes.
While you are absolutely correct that thing like social connections make the world more enjoyable, you wouldn’t tell a diabetic that all he needs is friends and family, forget the insulin, right? I need both my antipsychotics and my quality time with my partner to live well.
Having said that, I think that it’s fair to make an argument about overprescribing to people who don’t need the meds. Let’s just not paint everyone who takes them with a broad brush of “medicalising emotions” because all that’s doing is promoting an ableist attitude to mental health.