I have also seen first hand how some teenager's life was turned upside down and might possibly never return to normal again the rest of her life after she started taking psychiatric drugs (she gets really unstable, probably more so than before, whenever she stops the drugs, but on the drugs she's so lethargic she can't do pretty much anything). As a disclaimer, that is anecdotal and not about an adult, of course.
Yeah...you really can't compare an adolescent's response to psychiatric meds to an adult's. There are well-known and well-documented differences and it's why they're a last resort for kids and why the meds (especially for ADHD) are different.
I am quite suspicious of the narrative pushed forward by big pharma that you need to spend a lifetime on their drug offers in order to "be normal".
You've clearly never dealt with the fallout from severe anxiety, Bipolar, or the dysfunctional aspects of ADHD. It can literally destroy lives.
Are you suspicious of big pharma telling Type 1 Diabetics that they need an external source of insulin for the rest of their lives, too? Because that's how you sound on this.
And let me be clear -- I do not believe that pills will or should solve all of our problems. Hell, I study herbalism and aside from bandages and similar dressings, our First Aid kit consists of plants and plant extracts.
But we also do have prescription medications, because they saved our lives and marriage. I'm not even being remotely hyperbolic. My husband was on a literal death spiral until he got his Bipolar diagnosis and was properly medicated for it and the debilitating anxiety he suffered from. I was struggling to function at all, even with other coping strategies, until my ADHD was identified and I got medication.
Some would even go as far as to say that most of what people call "ADHD" is just within the range of normal human behaviors/traits. There's apparently even a book about how a lot of successful people have ADHD: amazon.com/ADHD-Advantage-Diagnosi... No matter what, at least I certainly wouldn't see it as something to be ashamed about or not want to tell the others about. It's just a part of who I am.
I'm a strong proponent of neurodiversity, so I do agree that the underlying traits are part of the normal spectrum of human physiology.
But here's the thing: those differences can come with side effects. It's kind of like the gene mutation in some branches of Africans that makes them immune to Malaria, but makes them carriers for Sickle Cell Anemia.
Additionally, our world isn't built for people outside certain margins of "error" on this kind of thing, and our individual demands don't necessarily allow for us to operate in our ideal ways. This mismatch leads to stress on the brain and body, which causes other issues and you end up with a sort of "cascading failure" of internal systems. Yeah, it was very likely an evolutionary advantage at some point, but we're not no longer in the kinds of environments that allowed that difference to flourish.
Very often, you can't coping-skills your way out of that, and no one here is advocating for being ashamed of being neurodivergent, having mental health issues, or for taking meds to help with the more dysfunctional disconnects. The original poster didn't want to talk about it, because she was still processing what it meant for her, and that's okay.
after which we can try to control them as much as possible whenever they're prone to occur, just like how I dealt with the emotional control issue.
And part of that working to control them can be with the help of medication, because for many people, trying to control those negative aspects takes so much energy that they're left with little, if any, to actually do things.
The single biggest trait that set humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom is our ability to make highly sophisticated tools. In the 21st century, those tools include medications that help us with things that would otherwise destroy some of our individuals.
If you don't feel you need medication for anything in your life, awesome. Let others decide for themselves whether medication is the path for them at the given point in their life.
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Yeah...you really can't compare an adolescent's response to psychiatric meds to an adult's. There are well-known and well-documented differences and it's why they're a last resort for kids and why the meds (especially for ADHD) are different.
You've clearly never dealt with the fallout from severe anxiety, Bipolar, or the dysfunctional aspects of ADHD. It can literally destroy lives.
Are you suspicious of big pharma telling Type 1 Diabetics that they need an external source of insulin for the rest of their lives, too? Because that's how you sound on this.
And let me be clear -- I do not believe that pills will or should solve all of our problems. Hell, I study herbalism and aside from bandages and similar dressings, our First Aid kit consists of plants and plant extracts.
But we also do have prescription medications, because they saved our lives and marriage. I'm not even being remotely hyperbolic. My husband was on a literal death spiral until he got his Bipolar diagnosis and was properly medicated for it and the debilitating anxiety he suffered from. I was struggling to function at all, even with other coping strategies, until my ADHD was identified and I got medication.
I'm a strong proponent of neurodiversity, so I do agree that the underlying traits are part of the normal spectrum of human physiology.
But here's the thing: those differences can come with side effects. It's kind of like the gene mutation in some branches of Africans that makes them immune to Malaria, but makes them carriers for Sickle Cell Anemia.
Additionally, our world isn't built for people outside certain margins of "error" on this kind of thing, and our individual demands don't necessarily allow for us to operate in our ideal ways. This mismatch leads to stress on the brain and body, which causes other issues and you end up with a sort of "cascading failure" of internal systems. Yeah, it was very likely an evolutionary advantage at some point, but we're not no longer in the kinds of environments that allowed that difference to flourish.
Very often, you can't coping-skills your way out of that, and no one here is advocating for being ashamed of being neurodivergent, having mental health issues, or for taking meds to help with the more dysfunctional disconnects. The original poster didn't want to talk about it, because she was still processing what it meant for her, and that's okay.
And part of that working to control them can be with the help of medication, because for many people, trying to control those negative aspects takes so much energy that they're left with little, if any, to actually do things.
The single biggest trait that set humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom is our ability to make highly sophisticated tools. In the 21st century, those tools include medications that help us with things that would otherwise destroy some of our individuals.
If you don't feel you need medication for anything in your life, awesome. Let others decide for themselves whether medication is the path for them at the given point in their life.