"You shouldn't take medicine for mental illness"...

reply to post by AwakeANDreaming


I just checked my email and received a message from an old friend. Her daughter who recently turned 4 years old has been diagnosed with ADHD. She is one of the brightest and most beautiful little creatures I have ever had the pleasure to meet! I have not gotten a chance to talk to her mom about the situation, but I would ask what exactly they are basing this "diagnoses" off? She is only in pre school atm.. it is insane if you ask me and quite sad.

If kids are becoming bored in school (which she is not even really in yet) we should focus on reformatting the system we use to educate them.. not messing with the mind of that child. Heck if you ask me this directly has an influence on the evolution of the human race as a whole.

I explained this to the man who first gave me my diagnoses during my intake. I over heard him tell a co-worker he just had the most humbling experience. At the time my mind was not as stable as it is these days so I could not understand what he was saying. I see now easily why this had a humbling effect on him, and it should. When I say evolution, I am not strictly referring to Darwinism. I am referring to change over time, that is all.

reply to post by AwakeANDreaming


I agree. As a teacher I see parents wanting a diagnosis of ADHD and I honestly think it's bc they don't take the time to discipline their children. I've also seen teachers who are quick to cry ADHD whenever a six year old cant be still for more than ten minutes.

But it is a real diagnosis, my son has it. I was very reluctant to put him on meds so last year he had a horrible time in kindergarten. When we put him on the meds, the change was incredible. His focus improved, his constant impulsive behavior smoothed out, it was like a new child. I held him back to repeat kindergarten, and this year he's doing great.

Usually when a parent is talking to the doc about ADHD, the doc has the teacher(s) and parents fill out an observation form. Did your friend have to do this? Because I think four is rather young to diagnose ADHD.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
reply to post by AwakeANDreaming

Usually when a parent is talking to the doc about ADHD, the doc has the teacher(s) and parents fill out an observation form. Did your friend have to do this? Because I think four is rather young to diagnose ADHD.

I have not had an opportunity to speak with her yet but I would imagine you are correct.

Well I take medication for mental illness and I would not be here typing this if I didnt.

I wont go right into detail, but you may somehow be able to see posts I made in the past, would be probably 5 years ago now I posted on here that I was seeing what I thought to be a ghost/alien following me in the mirror.

Of course I got mocked etc, I left the thread alone, but it all went downhill from there. And I tell you now, there is no way I would be able to cope without my medication everyday.

reply to post by Miri08


Hi miri08.

I just read your post about psychiatry and medications and I feel morally obliged to respond. Thus I've registered an account just to be able to write this post to you you. My name is Fredrik and I'm a fella who's one year younger than you. I belive, well, actually, I know there's a psychiatry conspiracy. I don't want to scare you or frighten you, so I'll leave the conspiracy behind. Reading your post, I sense you've been frightened and scared enough for ten lifetimes already.

I just want you to know, and this might sound strange, that I love you and I want you to know that whatever you feel, whatever you experience in this lifetime, however bad it has been, before the whiteclad doctors "rescued" you, and however bad it has been since and for all the difficult times you might have ahead of you, you are NOT possessed by demons, you are NOT owned by the devil, you have NOT lost your soul and you are loved, by me, by God, by friends and loved ones and people you've never met. Love is more powerfull than any evil or wicked spirits or people who've tormented you and that what you're suffering is cureable.

The strangest thing is, right now, typing this, I get the feeling of deja vu. Like, right now! I don't know about you, but I don't believe the doctors explanation of deja vu either (like with your schizophrenia). The doctors say deja vu is a processing error in the brain, caused by some kind of brain damage, where information is stored in or sent thru the wrong channels, leading the 'sufferer' to believe errenously that he or she has experienced the situation previously. I say that's bull#! See, I've dreamt this. Typing this message, well at least up til the deja vu kicked in. I might find myself on a slightly alternative lifepath/timeline now as I've responded to the deja vu

Anyway, after the last sentence I've been writing for many minutes a post trying to tell you a little about my view of reality, yet I ended up deleting it all, because I bet I ended up scaring the # out of you, which was never my intent. I'm sorry for that. I have myself the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and I know what you're going thru. I've been there myself. Now, I do not believe in the diagnosis and I sure as hell don't believe any psychiatrist. I'm not on meds and I've recovered 99,9% from my illness. I used to hear voices from running tap water, car engines, you name it. People talking about me, evil stuff. Music on the radio singing about me, evil stuff. I saw hidden messages to me everywhere, from God or the devil. In roadsigns, car license plates, in the newspapaer, on telly, etc. It is all part of the disease and it can all be cured.

You are loved miri08, by God and by Heaven and Earth and by, at least, millions of people on this planet and quite likely by aliens in galaxies far away. You are not possessed by demons, you do not need an exorcism, you have not lost your soul, nor are you owned by Satan. You are not going to hell.

If you want a friend who knows what you're going thru and who's been there himself, please do drop me a line. I'm at f s b n i k o at g m a i l dot c o m. I would have written this message as a bloody PM, but it doesn't seem like this forum has such a function. So, that's why I'm cutting this message short here, hoping I've given you enough information for you to contact me if you'd like to. See, I don't want to frighten you, yet I know there's a psychiatry conspiracy and I don't want to write about it on this forum. Not now anyway.

If I don't hear from you, I just want you to KNOW this, and yes, I'm repeating myself here, but too many of us are driven to suicide and I'd hate to see that happen to you, so please KNOW
that you are loved miri08, by God and by Heaven and Earth, by friends and loved ones, by powers and authorities far greater and far more powerful than doctors, presidents, evil spirits, wicked men, demons and . The loss of feelings, the continuous frightened state, the hallucinations, and the sense of being the center of reality with hidden messages from God or satan or whatnot can all be cured and that without a brainwashing psychiatrist playing the prince in shing armor sitting on his white steed, giving you bull# out his mouth and needlepricks with poison to your cheeks. Lying for a living, only to finance his house and flashy car and buy ugly gifts for his prostitute wife, all on the backs of suffering victims he pretends to help, with medicine, bull# theories, money thru the socialworker and grouptherapy.

You are special, you are blessed, stay strong and take care,

Hugs and kisses,

Fredrik

reply to post by theukman


I'm glad you've found something that's helped you and I really feel the same way. For 9 years I was in and out of hospitals repeatedly. In fact it's mostly a blur now, I remember very few things in a concrete way and I lost many family members and friends who basically gave up on me ever living a "normal" life. Well, my life still isn't "normal" but I think if I hadn't finally got on the right meds (I have had other procedures too) I don't think I would still be here today. I'm glad you're here too.

reply to post by Miri08


It it works for you, then it works for you.

I think that all that "happiness and sunshine" could have worked for you at one point.
I was lucky enough to find the train of thought that allowed me to overcome 90% of my mental illnesses.

I don't think you, or many, have yet found that conversation that leads to the epiphany and allowed your brain to function on a normal level again.

We all have our individual paths to follow, but knowing how hard it is/was at the lowest point, makes my heart go out to you, because it never really does end. Even for those who are "cured". There will always be that lingering thought pattern and what ifs.

reply to post by Hefficide


So true. I live in Northern Canada, where we do not produce vitamin D from sunlight exposure from Ocotober to April. Sure enough, a week and a half into October, I was feeling depressed and irritable. Now I`m back on my winter supplements.

The snow is already here and all I want to do is curl up and hide away till spring

Getting right to the point, I understand your concern and empathize deeply. In my situation even my own wife cannot always comprehend the depths of my personal depression even though she has been there since I was first diagnosed several years ago, attended therapy with me, supported me, suffered the severe ups and downs and even had to wrench me from a near literal fetal position. Unfortunately, psychiatry is far from an exact science but we can hope for advances that will bring us all to our respective potential. I want to add that for those who have never experienced it on a day after day after day after day level depression and other types of mental illness can be indescribably or incomprehensibly miserable. In fact, the lack of desire to “chew through the restraints” can be so overwhelming on some days it simply can’t be done. What I wouldn’t give to be able to function as I once did.

Finally, your thread gives me cause to continue working on a project I started a few months ago that I still haven’t decided whether I would like to publish or just keep as a personal journal. Either way, it is intended to help those around me gain a better prospective and I call it “No, You Don’t Understand”.

reply to post by samstone11


Thank you very much for your reply! I'm sorry that you have depression but I'm glad that you seem hopeful. I think it's beautiful that you are writing that piece. I think anything intended to help others understand is a great thing. It may even be therapeutic for you to write it.
I also agree that psychiatry has a long way to go. I don't want people to think that I'm advocating pills as the only thing that really works, I'm just hoping people will try not to dismiss them.

Great thread, Except the title is a bit decieving though anyway just wanted to say i feel just the same about my mental illness i have done some really out of place things when not taking my meds i have been on meds since the age of 19 i am now 34 and i feel great with the help of medication i think i have it quite good to some others because my family is encouraging me and supporting me but there is allot out there that dont want to listen and do harm to themselves yuck! I am far past but hey i think i could have a relapse tommorow but i know i will be safe if i keep taking my meds. chow!

I suffer depression and mental illness and can say with utter conviction that without the mountain of meds I take that I would be dead from the effects of the depression alone. Un-medicated I am a nightmare, my mood swings are horrendous, I am awful to be around and I frequently think of suicide.

With what I take I live a better standard of life, its far from good but its one hell of a lot better than without.

Some will says its a dependency which it is I guess but no more than the dependency I have for the pain killers I have to take for the arthritic pain and the pain from my blown knee's.

No pain killers then I scream the room down...

I NEED to take the meds, it keeps me ticking and alive...

Hi folks,

I have to say that mental illness is not fun to live with. I've helped some friends of mine... and suffer from depression myself occasionally.

Each person's story makes it easy to discern that different people take different paths to improve their outcome. I guess it is important to search and not give up on finding the help that one needs.

I agree with one of the posters, in that some of these problems are actually a result of external "issues", and it is necessary to find a cure, by looking at the problems one faces in those situations and resolving those. Lots of people suffer from headaches, back pain etc.. as a result of mental stressors of daily life - and those need overcoming with situational intervention as opposed to popping pills.

I have personally overcome some of the effects of my depression on occasion using meditation... Not sure how long I have to go before I can no longer use this fashion to defend myself against the ill effects of depression. It is quite difficult for me lately, and extra-ordinarily time consuming.

reply to post by icepack


Erm, am i missing something or have you forgotten your medication today?

reply to post by Miri08


Yeah medicine good. I say find the one that works for you.

I got to say that for all the difficulties that you describe as yours You're quite articulate and thoughtful. I'm just wondering, and maybe I shouldn't ask, but do you every find after going off medication and reverting to you delusions. and then retuning to your medication, do you feel any, well not enlightenment, but maybe new perspective. does any benefit come from your unbalanced state?

The mind is funny thing. and tough to control. It needs feeding just like the body.

reply to post by okyouwin


Thank you for writing that I seem articulate and thoughtful. I have to admit that I'm more articulate "online" than if I were talking to someone "in real time." I think it's because when I'm writing an email or a post, I can be slow and think about what I'm trying to say. I do get what I call brain fog though, where the thoughts are there but they don't want to come out lol.

It's hard to say when it comes to going off and then going back on the medicine. I sometimes would write things that I was "told or discovered" when I was off my meds and then reading those things when back on them, none of it makes sense at all but it's apparent that my delusional mind thought that it was all some sort of breakthrough, some sort of enlightened state of being. Reading those things while medicated, it's like I didn't write that stuff at all, even though I know I did. Most of my delusions involved thinking that people had been switched with something not human, or that everyone was trying to kill me, that inanimate objects were real or that the world was not real at all and that I was actually dead. When medicated these thoughts still can creep up but I know that it's my mind and not reality. Same thing with voices, I can still hear them on occasion but I can suppress them.

I don't have multiple personality or anything but looking back it sometimes feels like I am two people, the one without meds and the one I am now. Another thing is, when I'm not on medicine I am very scared of people but when on medicine I love people, even if I still avoid a lot of them. I think I feel more enlightened when on meds than when off them.

reply to post by souljacker

you are assimilated. you are far away from the truth. you live in a bubble. you are clueless. etc.

reply to post by Miri08


The mind does have an assortment of parameters Drugs can make a world of difference, that's why we got them. I personally have no problems, but I can see from around here, that a lot of people do.

reply to post by Miri08


You are awesome Miri08. always write in such an sensitive harmonic and down to earth way that is always nice to read your posts.
Keep up the spirit! You rock

There is nothing - and I mean nothing - more dismissive and frustrating that having any sort of mental health issue (I have Asperger's and social anxiety disorder) and being told to just wish it away via discipline and positive thinking. Perhaps for some this works. But everyone is different and has different levels of mental illness, different responses to treatment, and different coping thresholds.

Mental illness can pervade every aspect of the mind, every facet of perception of self and the surrounding world, override judgment, and distort logic. Asking someone with profound mental issues to simply rationally, logically, willfully "dismiss" their condition is precisely that: dismissive.

It's also, with no offense intended, ignorant in my opinion. No one likes to be told that they can't understand something without having experienced it. But... you can't understand unless you have experienced it. That's just the reality, at least in my experience.

Now, in terms of how we quantify mental maladies, conditions, syndromes, etc. how we label them, how we shoehorn them diagnostically into neat little categories with names... okay, sure. That I do agree is up for debate and discussion. I'm not a fan of it, either. I prefer to just think of myself as myself. Who wouldn't? And I also do accept and have even directly experienced that psychiatry and psychology can often be rife with an impetus toward conformity and uniformity, sometimes grossly stepping beyond the bounds of mental illness and into the realm of sociology and social pressures and behaviors. Which in some cases is justified, because they do intersect in a variety of contexts. But sometimes it is not justified in my opinion, and this is where problems arise, especially ethical conflicts.

But even allowing all of that, mental illness in many cases ends up not being something one can simply overcome with positive energy and mental discipline. To quote the historically inaccurate but nonetheless moving film loosely based on the schizophrenic Dr. John Nash when he asked why he couldn't simply reason his way out of his problem: "Because your mind is where the problem is in the first place."

I know people have good intentions. I really believe that. But it ultimately just comes off as insensitivity and intolerance.

Peace.