I have bipolar, and I cannot function normally without medication. It's not about "taking drugs to emotionally cope with the world" but about addressing biochemical issues in my brain that is structurally and functionally different from yours. Mania is not any different from diabetes.

While you are absolutely correct that thing like social connections make the world more enjoyable, you wouldn't tell a diabetic that all he needs is friends and family, forget the insulin, right? I need both my antipsychotics and my quality time with my partner to live well.

Having said that, I think that it's fair to make an argument about overprescribing to people who don't need the meds. Let's just not paint everyone who takes them with a broad brush of "medicalising emotions" because all that's doing is promoting an ableist attitude to mental health.

When you break your leg they'll reset it and plaster it while it grows back.

When you are in immense physical pain or need surgery, they'll give you painkillers/narcotics.

When you mind is off, they'll give you meds to suppress this so you can become better. There is a conversation to be had about society and if we give too much medication. But the brain is complex and when you are in a depressive spiral, where you contemplate suicide once every 5 seconds, it helps to suppress the fuck out of that so you can heal. speaking from experience there and you can heal

Then there are simply people/disorders which have a changed or disrupted brain chemistry (outside normal variation), if we have medicine to help these people function: we should use it.

The problem is without the medication, I absolutely cannot stand friends family or social connections and would prefer to put a gun in my mouth. It depends on the outlook of things, yes therapy and understanding your inner demons is a huge step in dealing with your personal issues, but the psych medication gives just that little extra boost to keep me sane.

I don't let the doctor dictate what I take, I use his advice and figure out what best works for me so that I may live a somewhat happy life knowing I'm not gonna go over the deep end. In conclusion, I agree with taking medication, as long as it is to HELP (not replace) with what you learn in therapy.

Agree with the other comments that meds are a tool to use to feel more balanced. I'll add that a good psychiatrist makes a huge difference as well - they can help find the right mix of meds and avoid the nightmare scenarios.

Also helps to be in therapy at the same time. Everything needs care and maintenance, including your state of mind.

I'd tried 3 or 4 SSRIs in the past and quit them for various reasons, mostly side effects. This year my psych prescribed me cymbalta and it made a huge positive difference for me. All those calming exercises people tell you to do to calm down and stop spiraling actually started working. I started being able to more easily differentiate catastrophizing from reasonable concerns. I started being able to make actionable plans to address my anxieties instead of doom spiraling for hours in paralysis. I started being able to try new things and do difficult things that intimidated me because I wasn't frozen by the anxiety anymore.

After a few months my therapist was telling me that I had done so much work to improve; at first I didn't feel that was true and that it was mostly the medication that made a difference, until she pointed out that it was the medication that enabled ME to do all the mental/emotional work to deal with my symptoms. It felt easier to do once I was on medication, so I assumed that meant I wasn't doing anything (or at least that I was slacking). But it was actually that the meds just made managing my emotions and triggers a reasonable task instead of an overwhelming one.

I have PTSD, so my nervous system is constantly on high alert without pharmaceutical intervention. After moving out of the abusive situation I grew up in, I had all the support in the world for over a decade and I was still severely struggling . Sometimes some people just need the medication to course correct their brain.

If someone doesn't want to be on medication that's their right, people have the right to not take any medication they don't want to take and it shouldn't affect the quality of care they have access to. But for me medication was a life changer and I wouldn't go off it if I could avoid it.

Like everything, some people need them and some don’t … and some ppl are on them who don’t need to be and some are not on their meds who REALLY need to be.

Everyone is different… treat the patient not just the disease

I have bipolar disorder and I had taken medication for years. I stopped a couple months ago due to side effects but I know that eventually I will need them again. I am “enjoying” the break though. Good and bad emotions hit harder now but my sex drive is coming back and my emotions towards other are coming back. I was a bit emotionless on the medicine.

But like I said, I am bipolar 1. I will eventually need the meds again. It’s a medical fact that I will experience these highs and lows due to my brain structure. I have been so manic before I literally saw stars. I have been so depressed that I was ready to off myself. I used to have horrible night episodes as an adult that went away after I was medicated. They haven’t come back yet even though I am not any longer medicated.

Fortunately, I have familial support who will let me know when I need to medicate again and a strong moral sense that I never deviate from. Medicine is needed for bipolar people. Some of us can function for a time without it but it really is just a matter of time before we need it again. It’s up to the severity of the current cycle.

If hard to be mentally healthy in todays world full of despair and news constantly bashing you with negatives, some people need medicine to regulate those chemicals.

Not everyone needs medicine but becareful about search bias as you will find someone with terrible advice that has the answer you were already looking for.

I was given SSRIs and after those caused explosive reactions later rediagnosed Bipolar Type 1 and prescribed mood stabilizers. The SSRI put me in an odd haze and stunted my emotional abilities to look more naive/childlike, with rare outbursts of emotion loosely connected to anything rational, ending in me taking midnight walks in bad places sobbing and manic the whole time. When I was prescribed Lamictal as mood stabilizer, it did work bit but I started to notice a split-brain where my thoughts and external body were disconnected and I felt trapped unable to actually express what I feel in my mind. Then those made my eyes bleed and got The Rash so I quit and gave up and stopped all mental health care, then later moved. The best thing I got out of it was all the eye-opening therapy and counseling. Things have gotten better since then, unmedicated, but keeping calm and meditating inward is still sometimes tough.

I had been on citalopram many years ago and eventually went off it because I thought I could deal with my lifelong depression and anxiety by myself. Sure, I had a good multiyear run with no meds but going to therapy, then it all came creeping back. I've been on a different medication for almost 2 years now after accepting the fact that it's a condition that I can't beat by myself. If I had a heart condition that required medication I wouldn't bat an eye at that. Sure, the meds aren't perfect but at the rate I was going I have no idea whether nor not I would be here typing this out right now. Also, I wouldn't want my mom to be sad if I had offed myself.

I recommend reading The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon, he makes a really compelling argument for mental health treatment.

My meds are a tool to help make it possible for me to cope with my emotions in a healthy way. For some people, all the friends, family, and social connections in the world can't fix their mental health struggles. Some people really do NEED medication. A great support system and healthy coping strategies are absolutely vital as well, but it can't fix everything. Meds cant fix everything either. It's multifaceted

They can be useful, but they're far too over-prescribed, and their effects are hyped, and risks understated. Patients are discouraged from seeking balanced information, and often are made to feel like they have no other options. And too often medication is used as a first-line defense against mental and emotional health struggles. A lot of the science that supports their efficacy and safety has been corrupted.

One of my favorite mental health sites is Mad in America; but as far as medication-specific, the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition is a pretty decent site too.

In my experience anti depressants and anti anxiety medication don't really work, they just turn off your emotions with varying side effects.

The best way to help yourself is self care and therapy IMHO nothing else will be a permanent fix.

Although doctor prescribed medications do have their use, they should be reserved only for extremely ill patients who are detached from their ego or reality itself.

I’m bipolar, my condition and a lot of other mental illnesses are physical in nature, as in our brains are literally different. Without medication I would have probably committed suicide.

They save livesBut

Eh, it's pretty nuanced. I went off of Zoloft last summer for American health insurance industry reasons and it sucked, but I've also heard some horror stories, especially about anti-psychotics.

I have Bipolar Type 1 and I was diagnosed in 2013 after the worst mania of my life. I've been going to therapy and taking different combinations of mood stabilizers, anti-depressants and anti-psychotics for almost a decade. I've tried tons of them. I'm usually given divalproex as a mood stabilizer but when I get suicidal ideation, I'm given something else. Last year, I was too depressed and I was given an anti-depressant, sertraline, but the problem was that I was losing sleep and going manic after two months of taking it so it was removed. After just three months, I had a relapse and was given it again. Sometimes I get delusional too hence the need for anti-psychotics. Right now, the clozapine I'm taking is being gradually replaced by aripriprazole. Since the dosage has been lessen, I've been having a hard time sleeping. I had to take aripriprazole because even with clozapine, I still began to experience delusion of reference.

It's not easy having this disorder. The past ten years had been rough. If I had a choice, I won't take the medication. It's too expensive especially where I'm from. There'd be times when I would think that they don't really work but when things start to go bad, they're all I have. Without them, I probably won't be around anymore. If one thinks taking psychiatric medication is not for them, then I don't have a problem with that. There are people like me however that won't function properly without them.