Living with No Meds

Was just looking about the internet in search of encouraging forums dealing with mental illness. It's been hard finding support when talking about life without meds. I had to change therapists and also keep shopping about until I found a doctor who was willing to take me seriously when talking about living with mental illness without drugs.

I'm not going to tell you how to come off meds or advertise another website, but I am all for talking about living with no meds. I still have a hard time dealing with ingrain issues but for the most part I am pleased to say that in my second year off meds, I've had no police intervention.

I share this LINK - is just me doing my first V-blog then being a few months off the meds.
***mod edit*** (not selling anything and understand if you must remove - apologises if inappropriate)
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There is a follow up link in the description but was only a few months later. I think it's been more than a year now since that one. I've lost about 20kg since then. I still have manic episodes but nothing that warrants intervention and or destabilises my family relations. If anything, my wife and kids are actually supportive of me despite some residual ongoing learn behavioural patterns that can be liken to what's ingrained in me.

You know - being like the door mat when life is hard for the others. "being called retard, or told to go hang yourself" That does not happen anywhere near as much as it did before when I was actually on the meds.

Sounds Ironic. Fact is the antipsychotics brought on so many side effects that I ended up more suicidal than before I went on them. Before I went on them I was struggling with input everywhere I looked. Borderline Paranoia with public outbursts. Fact is, I ended up having fits a rage in the new town/GPs office we moved to after having been on seroquel/quetiapine for 18 months. I was in a near state of metabolic syndrome, morbidly obese, and suffering a host of related complications as a result.

I started playing with roped once more in the shed and toying with my ladder. Something had to give. The doc only wanted to up my meds and my then therapists was rather discouraging at my suggestions to wean myself off instead.
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I'll leave this little story here for now - in case I have breached some kind of rule with my revaluations of the Doctor and Therapist?

It's sad that in many places that when one speaks out against such clinical people, that I'm often told not to be so negative. The system really dragged me down and I have not been able to really talk about how I felt during that time I was trying to reach out. I know that in the end I am responsible for how I feel. I have learned quite a lot in that regard since learning more about myself. But that did not come about until I got myself off the meds and keep looking for professionals that care enough to hear me out.

This is where the story becomes a little more encouraging, but I don't like sharing when others would attempt to muzzle me for having shared only the bad. I tend to react negatively when criticized like so. It's one thing to live with self doubt and low self esteem, but to have others ignore how it is that I struggle with complacency and professionals that simple demean and pass the buck ... well that's a cop out in my book.

I'm feeling like a moderator will come out of the wood work and start using caps on me. Like I said ... it's not easy talking about the complacency, distrust, damaged repport and other likewise dynamics that can make our therapy go sour through no more than a bad mix of negative spins. It does not have to be personal - but talking about this kind of thing sets all sides off into a defensive position.
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Nice to meet yas at any rate.

I've got some hypnotherapy scripts in my head and toying with the idea of joining a gym. Think I will go put some energy into that and see how this post slides.

Don't be shy - we could do with more subsections like this.

The greatest myth ever created in medicine is that mental illness needs to be treated with psychotropics. This is pure myth for several reasons. The chemical imbalance these medications fix has yet to be proven, in the least if it holds true for everyone. Psychotropics have side effects, sometimes often more serve then the illness itself. Diseases can be misdiagnosed as most of them have symptom overlap in the DSM. Alternative treatment and management for illness is rarely considered and poorly researched. Some disorders, such as PTSD, are entirely situational having a cause purely rooted in trauma where the only real long term treatment is healing from that trauma.


Psychotropics only prevail because those who make them have billions and can buy everything from studies to the entire field of psychiatry. Classical psychiatry is nothing more then a good business venture. If it helps anyone or not is not a concern to them. The concern is profit.


I also understand how you feel. Ive had psychiatrists sic me like like an animal attacking prey for holding this knowledge. I have been bullied, slandered, talk down too, brainwashed, threatened, harassed, labelled, the list goes on by professionals. Did I get better with their deplorable attitude? I certainly did not Believe me when I say these people belong in prison. None of it surprises me however, after all big pharma needs people who are loyal to their intended way thinking.

Thank you for letting my post go through and your reply. I understand about the Links now. TY.

Yea - the stigma sure is hard to swallow, as too the truth of which you speak. It kind of adds to the imbalance and in most cases actually feeds the need. A bit like how fast food and hospitals go hand in hand.

The cycle goes deep in my family. My brother died a passive suicide not long ago. He was labelled a drug induced schizophrenic. My oldest son is running from police and whilst supposed to be on prescription meds, self medicates with ICE. Then there is my story, which really matters not. Since taking control by going off the meds I am more inclined to move on rather than focus on what's wrong.

Don't get me wrong though, I am all for identifying the obstacles. I just need to be careful of my tone as I have a tendency to short circuit despite making whatever claims of how far I have come along.

I've learned I can take control through making my own choices despite there seemingly being none. I eat much better now than when I was relying on meds. I have more desire that I am no longer so sapped. I now have more passion and although many are quick to focus on the term manic, I have instead learned to tap the source and ride with it as long as it lasts and also find space between the ups and downs.

I rang my therapist today to set up this years first appointment. I'll be seeing her about 10 times over the next year. I like my therapy session - (just being heard) - She is a good listener and does not push me. Took me a few rounds before finding someone I could sync with, although I do not discount my own attitude in that mix affecting my view with the previous therapists. It's not just the complacency but also us as well. We all get bogged down with just how out of sync the system really is.

I also have a mentor support worker that visits me once a week. Excellent service that has help me tremendously. Personal Helper & Mentor aka PHAMS.

It's not all bad. It's not easy to find these services, but here in Australia, they do exist. Although I am not currently on meds, I am on a disability pensions for mental illness. DSP. To be on it, one must prove themselves to be stable despite an inability to hold down a job. Unfortunately the focus on being medicated leads many not willing to go off their meds for fear of loosing the security a pension brings. It was not my idea to go on the pension - it was in fact the system that led me down.

The irony is that although being a complex case - (the very definition of Societal By-product) and pensioned off as is the case, I am getting by without the mood altering meds. The system is always quick to ask "what meds are I am on" as to define my level of need. Being on Medication, the type and the dose is the standard by which the mentally affected are measured. It seems to matter little what other methods are in place. As a result, people will have outbursts in order to prove a point. Mine was a petrol can and rope in their office with the manager, as my case officer was away.

I totally get the reality with the Profit and drug companies. The fall out goes deep and its a real mess. I guess I got lucky with the push to have me pensioned off - BUT - not really. Yes & No. Stigma of being on it is very real. ... and the focus of one having to be on medication as the answer to everything ... well the medication on offer has lead me to being worse, yet the reliance on it if not bad enough from the chemical itself is as much resultant from those looking to pacify the "noise" and sweep the mess under the carpet and keep the by-product out of sight. There is more and more people (byproduct) amassing and the system is constantly renaming this and that program, handouts, methodologies and treatments, yet it's all pretty much same ol same ol. The profits keep turning, and the ideals still remain unchanged - BUT:

there is hope. - I tell those case mangers hell bent on the term meds - I tell them about my therapist and how well we get along, I tell them about my mentor friend from the employment services who does "not" push me with BS terms. I tell them about my desire not to consume poison and how I do the best with each day that comes. ...all the groups I have tried, my continued graduated exposure and so on and on. Well actually, I am yet to be reviewed - Sigh oh Sigh ... the existence we live to have to prove our worth, so that we can pay our rent and buy some food.

The thing is though - you don't have to be on meds to prove any kind of point. It's just a quick fix for the pen pushers in all facets of the system. I don't just tell people this is what I am doing, I actually do the things I profess and when done with a little bit of support ... the system can actually work.

I hate GPs - can't stand them. I find them to be the most demeaning people in the system. Of course it depends on your "view" - The lower end of the socio-economic scale still has many of us living in the past with doctors dismissing and demeaning those less educated and lower class citizens. The things what people claim that happen in the pshyc wards at ones local hospital comes as no surprise ... it's just accepted and comes back to the story of by-product.

ZZZZZZT - short circuit ... It's fact, but I have to change me outlook and take control be making the GP listen - "Hey - why you treat me like that?" "No I am not paranoid, you keep dismissing me, your not listening to me, I said the meds are not working mate!" I actually got me mentor friend (Paid worker from the system to come in and back me up. I also request a 3rd time to be refereed to another therapist until I could find one that I felt was right.

My point - is it might not be easy ... but it can still be done. Not to minimise the genuine crisis with teenage kids massing in the mental health forums these days (junk food & hospital scenario - perpetual cycle - profit Vs therapy that actually cares) If some of us more complex cases with a long standing history of family cycle of suicide, violence, incarceration, yadda yadda ... can actually make do by accessing some of these services and get by without the meds, then surely others less affected can too?

Alas - I think the services are meant for people like me and that's a good thing. It's just do damn sad to see so many people giving in so easily to the manipulation and ... sigh ... oppressive administration our systems adopts which is no doubt driven by the spinning wheel.

BLA - see what I mean about keeping optimistic. There are cracks out there that can make the difference though. Perhaps going extreme is what more people need to do. Well actually no ... don't do that ... You'll just damage more neurons in that process. I kind of stutter and forget my words when under pressure ... I can't even sign my name proper any more as I given in under the pressure of having to account just doing that.

But that's OK! - I can still smile and even though warped, I still have a sense of humour. Life is too short. Sorry for the long rave ... night time post for me. I usually do better in the morning.

It's not easy reconnecting what neurons are left and seeking out new positive experiences to build stronger bridges - but I'm doing it. Don't worry about losing your illness just because your not on meds. You can still cling to that. (smiles) - The system is rather deceitful with much of what it imprints and then makes out to be your glitch. Don't buy into it - It's up to us to keep them in the light, not the other way around.

Thanks for listening.

I never took drugs and never visited a psychiatrist. Although it's easier for me to list the symptoms that I had, than the ones I had not. I think I had no catalepsy and deployed epileptic seizures, but may be something else. That didn't stop me to live a normal life, although sometimes it was hard.
At first it seemed to me that if this ends I need to recover 2 years. Then this period was reduced to six months, then to two weeks, then to 1 minute. Now I think that if this is all over, then I'm certainly not going to die, but I will be very bad. And I think it's better than nothing.
Sorry for my English.