Taking medication for psychosis

Side effects, positives and what I learnt - the benefits of a holistic approach

For me it felt like quite a confusing time being prescribed medication – it was really difficult, because I was experiencing some really severe psychotic symptoms at the time, meaning that it was hard for me to understand the information I was being given.

I think there’s a big difference between being given information, and someone actually making sure that you are understanding that information.

I think there are quite a lot of negative experiences. I mean I don’t want to put people off taking medication, and I wouldn’t say that there weren’t any positives... but I remember someone saying to me recently (since I’ve come off medication): ‘Oh, I’ve been prescribed anti-depressants, did they work?’. To be honest, no, they didn’t for me.

But I didn’t really change the medication I was prescribed – I stuck with it, thinking it was more a problem with me. So I didn’t really try any different medications.

But I think it can be a problem as well if you keep being prescribed lots of different medications just because the last one didn’t work.

For me, I think that medication could be a bit of a crutch. It might help in the short-term, but realistically you need to think about other aspects in your life, and take a more holistic approach.

It may be a good idea to think about counseling and maybe other things that could help – either as well as medication, or as an alternative to it. Medication isn’t right for everybody.

It is important to have the ability to make informed choices - maybe someone to sit down with a talk about medication. I wanted someone to talk with me about my options on my level, making sure I understood it as a young person.