The pros and cons of mental health medication

VIDEO: the pros and cons of mental health medication

The first time I took medication, I’d actually had to fight to get on it, which I found quite strange because what I had heard from other people was that if you went to the doctor, they would put you straight on pills.

So I actually had to fight quite hard with my psychiatrist to be put on medication. I was actually quite relieved, because I felt like this was something that might actually work, whereas therapy hadn’t at that point.

Over the years I’ve been on about fourteen or fifteen medications, so I’ve had some really mixed experiences. A lot of the side-effects, which I’m sensitive to anyway, I couldn’t function. So I’ve come off a lot of medication in the past.

But I have had some that have made me feel better, or have helped a bit along the way.

Doctors often tell you not to come off the medication suddenly, but they don’t often tell you why. I think a lot of people, me included, find out the hard way – when they take a medication, then they stop, and then they get really bad withdrawal symptoms. So that, for me, is a really big thing.

The medication I’m on now – even though I consider myself to know quite a lot about medication as I’ve been on quite a lot of them – I didn’t realize quite how bad the withdrawal effects are.

I’ve been on it for about 2 and a half years now and I feel that I’m stuck, and I can’t get off it.