Have you been helped or harmed by psych meds?

[DUDale]

What is a mental health diagnosis to begin with? It's nothing that can be absolutely confirmed by an x-ray, mri, blood test or any other diagnostic test. It's an opinion. In the united states it's often a corrupt opinion and clearly not credible in many cases. I have had a shrink give me a diagnosis after speaking with me for approximately 1 minute and me not saying much of anything. How can this be credible or valid?! This happens in the united states often because the psychiatrist knows he needs to diagnose a mental illness to get paid. As for the meds they presribe, I believe absolutely do way more harm than good. I wonder if they ever do any good at all. I see no real evidence that anyone ever benefits from them. I have heard from a lot of people how they have been harmed by psych meds. SSRIs are commonly prescribed for people with suicidal ideation in spite of the fact that suicidal ideation is listed as 1 of the prominent side effects. Shrinks prescribe high powered stimulants like adderall and ritalin to children and many go on to become cocaine or meth addicts when they reach adulthood. I am interested in what others here think and have experienced. I personally have never benefited in any way from any psych meds.

 

[Irisse]

I think they are useless if your living situation is bad. If, for instance, you have to spend every day with abusive family or toxic workmates, how are antidepressants supposed to help with that? What a person with such circumstances needs is to get away and find a way to support themselves. I do believe they can help if the illness is based on chemical disregulation but most of the time doctors perscribe them because they don't know what else to do or they play by their textbooks.

 

[DUDale]

I think they are useless if your living situation is bad. If, for instance, you have to spend every day with abusive family or toxic workmates, how are antidepressants supposed to help with that? What a person with such circumstances needs is to get away and find a way to support themselves. I do believe they can help if the illness is based on chemical disregulation but most of the time doctors perscribe them because they don't know what else to do or they play by their textbooks.

Also they have pharmaceutical sales reps visit doctors and tell them how wonderful their products are and often doctors get lucrative kickbacks for prescribing them.

 

[dust-in-the-wind]

They helped me for years but eventually didn't work anymore.

 

[melonpan]

For awhile, I've had good experiences, it just seems that recently, it's been less effective even with different medications or increased dosages.
The only one that actually seems the MOST effective to me is one that makes me too drowsy to even attend classes sometimes (that my parents pay for) so I seldom take it.

I also don't have intrusive thoughts as often anymore, hardly at all and they aren't loud although I also struggle with properly forming thoughts in my brain.

 

[idiotmother]

I'm suicidal because of these meds, it's criminal what they can do and none of the professionals acknowledge the damage. It's appalling.

 

[Hollowman]

Harmed by the neurotoxins. My life's been over for years.

 

[penguinl0v3s]

I LOVE Adderall. It saved my life. Not impressed by any of the other ones.

 

[antithesis]

SSRIs are commonly prescribed for people with suicidal ideation in spite of the fact that suicidal ideation is listed as 1 of the prominent side effects.

That was so insane to me when I discovered this after months of taking high dose prescribed SSRIs for depression. I had never been informed of the side effects besides nausea. Same for benzos, was not initially informed by the tolerance & addiction.

I do believe they can help if the illness is based on chemical disregulation but most of the time doctors perscribe them because they don't know what else to do or they play by their textbooks.

I fully agree with you on this. Doctors seem just as lost as us and follow a protocol: "Let's try this for a month, then come back, if needed we will change again, and again". Some doctors can even combine multiple benzos and antidepressants in one prescription, to be taken at different times & doses. How are we supposed to know which one induces which symptom? And don't get me started on alternative practices that are illegal in many parts of the world despite proving to be effective for certain cases (low dose psychedelics, ketamine therapy)

I'm suicidal because of these meds, it's criminal what they can do and none of the professionals acknowledge the damage. It's appalling.

How come doctors inform you of side effects for antibiotics, meds for physical affections, yet seem to give out the minimum info possible on mental meds?

I LOVE Adderall. It saved my life. Not impressed by any of the other ones.

Adderall is for ADHD mainly no? What was your context?

 

[Malfunction]

I took Celexa and Seroquel. It caused many side effects and damage. Quitting reversed some of it, but I'll never get back to who I was before them.

I was never warned about the risks, and when things went bad, denial was all I received. I was left to suffer. I lost my job, my home, and sunk.

Never again.

 

[sancta-simplicitas]

Zoloft. It made me impulsive, aggressive and almost pushed me right into alcoholism. Which isn't uncommon. For some reason they have decided to prescribe it as treatment for alcohol dependency, which speaks numbers of how backwards that industry is.

 

[DUDale]

1 of the SSRIs I was on made me laugh at everything like a tourette's syndrome involuntary response to anything someone said to me or anything I saw and heard from tv. Things that weren't even slightly humorous. Despite this I was no less depressed but might have appeared that way when I was laughing at everything. My friend got angry with me because I laughed when he told me his wife overdrew their checking account. I stopped taking it after that.

 

[idiotmother]

@antithesis I'm not sure they're even aware of them a lot of the time. They prescribe them so much and probably don't see terrible side effects too often, but for those who do get them it's absolute hell. They are criminals, they deserve imprisonment for the harm they enact, for the families destroyed.

 

[MissAbyss]

Both, it has helped me through a lot of BS throughout my life but in the long run it backfired on me and created Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome. A double-edged sword.

 

[MyShadow]

Because healthcare is absurdly unaffordable in the US, and mental health care is even less affordable I ended up at a university mental health clinic. They prescribed the wrong dosage and combination of drugs and it was so bad, my vision suddenly got so blurry that I thought I was going blind. Ended up in the same university's ER because the so called doctor fucking poisoned me.

 

[DUDale]

Doctors come from all over the world to work in the u.s. We have by far the world's richest doctors. Doctors in other countries make a small fraction of what u.s. doctors make on average.