My recent experience...

While I'm not sure I'm totally anti-psychiatry or anything. I am sick and tired of psychiatrists who really don't give a **** about anyone. I recently had jaw surgery and to be wired shut. So gee, how was I supposed to take the butt load of pills my psychiatrist refused to help me come off of? I got them all in liquid form and I had to take some of them up to four times a day plus the pain medication and whatnot that I was on from the surgery. This made me incredibly sick to my stomach and I threw up what little food I was able to eat. My mom tried daily to call my psychiatrist and never got an answer. So I stopped taking my medications cold turkey... Not the best plan at all. So finally my psychiatrist finds out and now she's super ticked off at my therapist who fully supported my decision. My therapist told her she really sees no difference between when I'm on meds and when I'm off them. So the other day (more than three weeks after my surgery) the nurse who works with my psychiatrist calls to say my psychiatrist is highly concerned about me... Um yeah right! She couldn't even call herself.

So now I'm going through withdraws that are starting to convince these medications really are damaging to the brain. I keep getting confused. I'm very forgetful. I was a few blocks from home and looked around and didn't recognize where I was! And sometimes when people talk to me I get frustrated and don't know what they're saying as if they are speaking a different language. I'm also irritable and angry a lot and that was never the way I behaved before medicated. And I don't know what to do. I have an appointment with my psychiatrist in late December. I'm on an emergancy list but there's no garuntees I'll get in any sooner. This pisses me off so much. What am I supposed to do?

You know what else annoys me? Whenever I go to like the doctor or the dentist or oral surgeon they talk to me about my mental health and meds and whatnot and they attribute the fact that I'm doing well (or was) to the wonderful help of my psychiatrist. They think it's all her. If anyone has helped me it's been the angel I have for a therapist. I've been on basically the same meds for about two years because my psychiatrist refuses to change them (whereas my old psychiatrist gave out different pills all the time) and in the last six months I've improved greatly. People keep attributing this to my meds but clearly that's not the case. But I did get a new therapist about 8 months ago... That's what helps me! I am a firm believer in therapy. Therapy helps you work through your problems and meds just mask them.

Doesn't it tick you off when people say "I'm a whole different person without my meds." or "You would hate me if you saw me unmedicated." ? It's so sad that people rely on these pills and think they actually make them more likable. I've been on all kinds of meds over the past five years and in that time I got pregressively worse and worse until what I thought was the miracle of lithium but was just a false happiness that only lasted a few months. And finally I relized the meds just weren't going to do anything and that I absolutely had to work things out and not mask them.

Yep, at times I feel the same way as you do. It appears to me that my psychiatrist is really not doing anytrhing. Sometimes he just sits behind his desk and prescribes me medications that do not do anything. He doesn't take anytime to really find out how I have been doing lately and instead he just tries to give me some medication to make it all better. My psychologists have been much more helpful in the past years in helping me feel better. I have not even been going to my psychiatrist lately and I have been feeling great.

I have had similar dealings with psychiatrists. I was on all sorts of medication that made me feel like most of my brain was cut away. Sure, I was not nervous or talking fast; but I had no soul either. I've met people who had the same types of experiences, and I've met people who were helped greatly by meds. It depends on the person. I found much more help from self-help groups where I was with people who had gone through what I had. They understood. They cared. The methods I learned in Recovery, Inc. helped me to change my negative thinking patterns. My experiences taught me to feel depressed. I had to learn other ways of thinking. It was not quick and simple, but it has worked for years. I'm grateful that I do not have to just sit in a chari all day, every day.

For some people, meds are quick and simple--that's probably why they are so popular. Of course it is good for the economy if lots of people are consuming lots of pills.

James