Is medication maintenance therapy making mental ills worse ?

Ian Reynir wrote:@ Copy_Cat - you got a good point on "drug free zone" for school because a drug is a drug. Personally, I think there should be no such zone, because meds can help in a pinch. My big beef is still with the pernanant use of meds as opposed to using meds as a temporary crutch. That is a huge problem in my opinion.

I agree that medication maintenance therapy makes things worse and think number one its profit motivated with stupidity and ignorance coming in second and third.

Like how can they realy think one so called manic episode in a persons life is a logical reason to to take drugs every day for life ? That makes no sence ! "Its all about prevention" No, its all about making money by selling drugs.

Cause:

PLOS Medicine: The Latest Mania: Selling Bipolar Disorder http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030185

Effect:

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Epidemic- ... n+epidemic

Reason:

All psychiatric drugs have the potential to cause withdrawal reactions (and almost always do !) , including the antidepressants, stimulants, tranquilizers, antipsychotic drugs and 'mood stabilizers' such lithium. When the individual’s condition grows markedly worse within days or weeks of stopping the psychiatric drug, this is almost always due to a withdrawal reaction. However, misinformed doctors and misled parents, teachers and patients think that this is evidence that the individual 'needs' the drug even more, when in fact he or she needs time to recover from withdrawal effects...

Is that what you mean ?

Copy_Cat wrote:Is that what you mean ?

Yep - pretty much. The use of certain medications can help those who are in a "crisis situation", or a situation where psychosis is clearly unmanageable. Current psychiatry is not doing a super awesome job at this part, but it is not that bad in my opinion.

For people who are NOT in a crisis situation - medications are extremely bad for use as a first line of defense against undesireable symptoms of mental instability. Copy_Cat, you covered the reasons for my opinion on this part fairly well in the original post here. I agree that the industry is promoting drug/med use well beyond it's optimal use. I also agree that money has a LOT to do with this form of drug/med abuse.

Finally, I think that so-called "maintenence" phase use of medications is very harmful, not only physically but mentally too. People who take meds on regular basis feel that something is permanantly wrong with them. The actual problem is not the unchaning genetics of the mentally ill person - rather the current psychiatric/pharma greed for profits, which are highest when they drug the hell out of people for as long as possible - which they call "maintenance" treatment.

So yeah, I give a big thumbs up to Copy_Cat on clarifying this issue - keep up the good fight!

No problem.

I think this could use some work to better explain it to someone who hasnt lived it (yet).